Greetings From Florida

 

 

 

 

 

This post is coming to you from Florida and I couldn't be happier. Of course, I miss Michigan, my daughters, all my friends and everything familiar and I will always be a Midwestern girl at heart, but there is something about Florida that is stealing my heart too.

We have been busy, but have made time for some fun too. We tried the dog beach and my puppy hated it with a burning passion, but will try again when the surf is a little calmer. We have enjoyed lunch sitting outside as much as possible and in spite of the heat, with shade and ceiling fans going, it really quite comfortable. Today we went to a beachside restaurant and with a strong gulf wind blowing and the waves crashing, it was really a wonderful and relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Yesterday was spent furniture shopping and we found some great things. We will have a neutral base with added color; turquoise, greens and blues. It was a bold choice for this northern girl, but my kitchen bar stools are a pretty blue-green shade and I love everything about them in my all white kitchen. We close on Friday and new furniture deliveries start coming that same day. Unfortunately, the moving compsny gave us a delivery date later than we hoped and since we need to move out of our rental, we will be camping out in the new house one or two nights. We could move into a hotel, but frankly, just want to be finally at home. Luckily, a new king size bed is one of the things we purchased here.

I'll keep you posted when I can.

 

Life Lately

 

 

 

Mother's Day was just lovely. I very much missed Megan, but got a sweet phone call and it was enough for now, to hear her voice across the miles. Melissa and my husband went out of their way to make me feel special with gifts and a delicious brunch in one of my favorite metro Detroit cities, Birmingham. My Bloody Mary was perfect (not too spicy) and on the buffet was the most delicious apple, blueberry baked French Toast, served with whipped cream. After brunch, Melissa and I had pedicures and I loved spending precious time with her.

 

 

Our sweet friends that we will miss dearly, hosted a going away party for us on Saturday night and it was just perfect. So many people we love were there and the hosts went out of their way with incredible food and decor. They served two of my favorite desserts, with both cheesecake and key lime pie on the pretty dessert table. It was so hard to say goodbye, but we know the distance will not matter in the least.

 

 

This is the latest photo of my new kitchen in Florida and as you can see everything is pretty much ready to go. We will be driving there at the end of the week and doing a walk through on Monday. My next post will be from sunny Florida! (Are you following me on Instagram? I will try to post a bit as we travel to Florida.)

Finally, we are very much in the midst of wedding planning and the texts, emails and phone calls are coming fast and furious between Megan in Pittsburgh, the wedding location and her fiance's parents in Grand Rapids and my husband and I here. We have a date, a venue, the priest that Megan grew up with and is so special to us and we are working on finalizing the church. We are all so excited and I love all Megan and Adam's choices so far.

Happy Wednesday!

 

Some Favorites

 

 

As I reside in this in between time, there is really not a lot that I need to do, besides a few errands here and there. I am basically recharging after the busyness of moving out of our house and reserving my energy for the Florida move in. I have been catching up on favorite television shows, discovering new shows and reading some good books. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

Home Fires (PBS)

Unfortunately this is the final season, but I highly recommend this quiet little show about life in a small English village during World War II.

 

Call The Midwife (PBS)

This is another great season of this touching series that in my opinion, keeps getting better every year. They are now deep in the 1960's and the cultural references are so interesting.

 

Southern Charm (Bravo)

I definitely have Real Housewife fatigue and only watch a couple of the shows anymore, but I do love Southern Charm and its peek into the Charleston social scene.

 

Beauty and The Beast

I was pleased to finally see this movie and actually be pretty happy with how it was adapted. Was it only me or were others (Downton Abbey fans) wishing we could see more of Dan Steven's handsome face :-)

 

The Second Mrs Hockaday

I stumbled across this Civil War historical novel on Amazon and it became one of my favorites this year. It is written in a series of letters and it's one where you know something bad happened, but don't discover until the end what that is. I found it to be a real page turner.

Happy Wednesday!

 

Fashion Friday - Finds for Florida

 

 

My wardrobe right now consists of one half winter clothes like wool skirts, boots and dark colors. I am positive that will change one I get used to living in Florida. I will end up keeping a few things for when we travel back to Michigan in the winter for the holidays, but the majority of my closet will change to sundresses, sandals and bright, fun colors. The goal will be to be as cool as possible on those hot, muggy days and I love throwing on a sundress and some cute sandals or flip flops. To me, it's comfortable and and easy to put together a polished look. I think that the Lilly Pulitizer store will become my favorite spot.

Here are some Florida finds I have been saving to my favorites list.

 

Barbara Gerwit

 

Barbara Gerwit

 

Nordstrom

 

Tory Burch - Nordstrom

 

Lilly Pulitzer

 

Lilly Pulitizer

 

Cover Up - Modcloth

 

J Crew

 

Lilly Pulitizer

 

Kendra Scott - Nordstrom

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

In Between

 

 

 

It is a very strange time in my life right now. I am in between two things and I feel unsettled to say the least. We are living in a small rental condo and while it is very nice and even has private outdoor space (and a blooming lilac tree), it feels temporary and it isn't home. I am counting the days until we get to Florida and finally move into our new house, but am also dreading saying goodbye to everything here. I know everything will be fine in the end, but getting there is bringing up emotions I would like to get past.

This is the time of year when I would be thinking about planting flowers at the end of the month and watching my established flower gardens coming alive after the long winter. But, in this in between time, there is no need to wander the aisles of my neighborhood greenhouse and I will miss that. The bright side of my Florida house and gardening there is that I will be able to have year round flowers; not just in the summer and many new more tropical varieties to try.

These last few weeks will be busy with final arrangements, appointments and goodbye dinners and even a party. There is a lot to keep me busy and I'm concentrating on moving forward rather than looking back. The beach and a new life is so close. Yet, it feels so far when you are waiting.

Happy Tuesday!