Pink or Blue?

My two favorite houses on Rainbow Row in Charleston - I love them both

 
We find out what we're having today!  It's such an exciting day, like Christmas morning.  The old cliche holds true - I don't care what it is as long as it's healthy.  But I really, 100% mean that.  I figure, I'll get the child I'm supposed to have.  This whole process is such a big miracle if you really think about it, and I have too much respect for that to think I could ever know which kind of baby would be better for our family. 

On a totally superficial decorating front, this will help determine what I do next in my house.  I have some ideas for the guest room, but I want to make sure I can do what I want in the nursery first.  I'm going to try to go easy on the nursery this time around regardless of what we are having (Kip just did a happy dance), but obviously, if it's a girl I'll want to make a few more changes than I would for a boy. 

When I found out Edward was going to be a boy, I literally headed straight from the doctor's office to the paint store.  His nursery was bright and fun and exactly what I wanted at the time.  You can see all the pictures of it here. 

Ok, off to go pick out my "find out what kind of baby we are having" outfit, which most likely will consist of yoga pants and some sort of shirt. 

Stay tuned ...

The Sword Gate House in Charleston

I need this house.  Actually, not really.  I prefer something a little smaller and cozier, but, I mean, say I inherited it from a rich southern aunt I didn't know I had, I wouldn't turn around and sell it.  Instead I would move in, buy lots of pretty dresses to wear in the house (it feels like a dressier, no jorts kind of house) and invite lots of people to come stay with me and play antebellum tea party. 

Anyway, when I stumbled upon the listing for the historic Sword Gate House in Downtown Charleston, I felt it my duty to share some of it with y'all.  It's a lot of house(s) that has been beautifully restored by it's current owners who bought the property in separate pieces to bring it back to one estate.  It's real fancy y'all.

 

 

That's really only just a small part of this pretty magnificent estate.  The bedrooms alone are so gorgeous.  This is the kind of thing I hope to see when I peek in the windows of people's houses. You can see so much more of this house on the Sotheby's web site here. 

Charleston Trip

Morning y'all!  I just got off the scale to find I have gained 3 lbs in 3 days.  Nice.  Charleston was wonderful despite the fact that it was unseasonably cold there.  It's just such a fabulous city, you can't help but be inspired everywhere you go.  I'm just going to share a few of the highlights since I know some of y'all are heading there in the next few months.  It's a long post, but it's not going to be all "hey look at my vacation photos, see how funny I look imitating this statue." (I did post a photo like that on Instagram so if you're really interested follow me here).

We basically ate our way through Charleston.  Kip and I met up with my two besties and roommates from college.  While we left a lot of our bad habits back in Columbia, MO many years ago, eating massive quantities of good food is one that has withstood the test of time.  

So here we go.

Thursday
Thursday night, we stayed at the John Rutledge House Inn.  Gorgeous place, really nice accommodations and great location.  I'm not a huge bed and breakfast person, but I'm glad we stayed here a night. 

John Rutledge House Inn

This is the room we stayed in - very pretty

If I came back for a longer trip, I'd love to try the Francis Marion Hotel or Charleston Place.  

Francis Marion Hotel

Charleston Place

Thursday night dinner was at the most amazing steakhouse in the world, Halls Chophouse.  I'm not even kidding.  The boys all got steak and said it was one of the best steaks they've ever had.  I ordered scallops and literally ate my entire plate.  I can easily say they were the best scallops I've ever had.  We all left almost giddy at how great our meal was.  Also, I have to give props to the staff for great service.  Just a really great dining experience to kick off our first night in Charleston.

Friday
Friday morning, Kip and I woke up and ate breakfast in our room and then headed out to explore before we met up with our friends.

We stopped in a couple art galleries including this cute one on Broad Street, Spencer Art Gallery.

I found some pieces that I really wish we had time to go back and get.  

Kip and I decided we want to come back to Charleston just to buy art.  There's so many great galleries and none of it is super expensive.

We also walked around the neighborhoods, where I tried to peek into people's windows like a total creepster.  Here is someone's back yard, obviously meant for me to gaze into. 

Love the blue and white pots.

We met up with our friends and had lunch at another great restaurant, Eli's Table.  Supercute.

We also walked around the Charleston City Market and The Battery, obvious must-dos.

I enjoyed documenting the abundance of pink houses.

Friday night, we headed to my friend's boyfriend's beach house in Georgetown, which is about an hour outside of Charleston.  We ate at another really delicious restaurant in Georgetown called Rice Paddy.  It was too cold for beach time, but just being by the water and hearing the sound of the ocean was enough for me.  I had the best night's sleep. 

Our view at the beach

Saturday
Saturday ended up being kind of a crazy day after we got a notification that our Southwest flight on Sunday could be canceled due to the completely inappropriate winter storm that was happening across the country.  We thought we were going to have to cut the vacation short, but long story short, we ended up staying the extra night and having time to eat at two more amazing restaurants (yeah!)

Lunch at Husk.  And then dinner at Poogan's Porch, which is literally right next to Husk.  Both were equally wonderful dining experiences and I honestly can't say one is better than the other.

Husk (Bon Appetit)

Husk is kind of famous and a cool place to say you've dined, but for good reason.  Bon Appetit rated it one of the 10 Best New Restaurants in America.  I'm not going to attempt a fancy review here. 

Instead, I'll just show you a picture of my sandwich.

Kip and moi at Husk

Four hours after Husk, we arrived at Poogan's Porch still full and all of us trying to bail on dinner.  After talking about how we were only going to order appetizers, we all got entrees and ate everything on our plates even though none of us were hungry.  It was, once again, some major tummy lovin'.

Poogan's Porch

The gang at Poogan's Porch - soo full

Sunday, we rolled our round little bodies to the airport and headed home, stuffed and happy. 

So that pretty much sums up our trip! It was so great to see my friends and get away with Kip just the two of us.  It's good to miss your children every once in awhile and I missed Edward like crazy. 

And now I'm going to go online and pre-order Gwyneth Paltrow's new book It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great and eat celery and lettuce with lemons for the next few weeks.*

* Just kidding.  Last night, I made this recipe for Salmon with Sriracha Sauce and Lime from her book and it was so good and did not taste like air and communion wafers.