i am not ready

school supply list:  purchased and labeled.

back to school clothes:  purchased, laundered and put away.

summer days:  not enough left!

we are having such a great summer. 

 it is africa hot here in the midwest, but we're making the best of it.

i am going to drag out these lazy summer days as long as i can.

school starts way too soon!

can we please have just one more MONTH of summer please?!



my bucket list

i love coffee.

i could seriously drink it all day.

but i don't.

one of the items, on my bucket list, is to own my own coffee shop.

i think about it almost daily, owning my own coffee shop.

i also think about how i will make it successful since i am not a morning person.

we're talking opening at 6:30am.  i haven't seen 6:30am in a loooong time.  

i am more of a night owl.  guess first things first is to change my ways. 

so in the meantime i am forever inspired by these photos:

all of these photos speak to me.

and in my head i have a design, for my own shop, that pulls all of these together.

my place would no doubt be small, chic, bohemian and of course comfy.

but do i really want a coffee shop of my own?

or do i just want to decorate one?

mr. traybella says "maybe you should work in one before you own one".

so rational he is.  but probably right!

what are you dreaming about today?

{all photos found via the web}

boys and baseball

to me summer is not summer unless there is baseball.

and i love nothing more than spending some hot evenings watching MY boys play!

maguire had a great season and it was so fun watching him play first base.

and i don't know who had a bigger smile on his face when he got a home run this year,

but i bet it was his oh so proud mom!

cooper got in on the action this year too.

he is thrilled to have his own team after watching his brother play for so long.

maguire wrapped up his season last month.  cooper still has a couple of games left.

i find myself anxious for next spring to roll around so we can

PLAY BALL! some more.



mockingbird cottage on tybee island

our summer vacation to tybee island was just perfect.

i knew i wanted to rent a small cottage, instead of a condo in a high rise.

one day i googled "cottage for rent tybee island"

and i was thrilled with what popped up.

mockingbird cottage: 2 bedroom cottage in a quiet neighborhood close to the beach.

all of the pictures made it look adorable. 

but i have been steered otherwise in what you see is not always what you get.

excited and nervous i book it.

the photo of this porch had me at hello,

this dining room with it's drum shade light drew me in.

and can i just say that once we checked in . . .

it was better than any of the photographs!

filled with lovely antiques, such a homey feel to it.

decorated so well that i kept saying to myself  "i wouldn't change a thing if i would have decorated it myself".  it was totally us.  and now i want to meet the owners, because i think we could be best friends! 

mockingbird cottage oozes with charm and is updated and beautiful. 

white coffee mugs and a french press coffee maker...i knew i was "home".

most of our time, at the cottage, was spent on the screen porch. 

it was a test run to see how much we would use it, after all i have the plans drawn out for ours at home.  just waiting to pull the plug and get started.  and don't call me crazy, but i even measured the porch at the cottage.  it's the same size that ours will be, so it was a perfect test run!

 we ate breakfast and lunch everyday on the porch.

we relaxed on the porch after a day at the beach and after taking showers in the outdoor shower.

the boys loved the outdoor shower, it was a new experience for them.

mr. traybella and i would play card games on the porch each evening.

we used that porch a ton! 

the boys liked sharing a room.  with two comfy twin beds and space in the middle to play, they were often found in here enjoying a game together.

the cottage also had a bookshelf filled with books and a cabinet filled with games.

mockingbird cottage is also close to the beach.  the boys loved playing in the larger

 waves of the atlantic ocean.

so happy that we found mockingbird cottage and were able to spend a week there. 

adorable place, so comfortable and lives larger than it actually is.

my boys loved it.

so much that they want to move to mockingbird cottage and take up surf lessons.

is that not the dream of every midwestern boy who gets a holiday on the beach?

i highly recommend a stay at mockingbird cottage.  tybee island is a great little place.  3 miles long by 1 mile wide it has an old beach town feel to it.  almost key west like.  savannah is just a 20 minute drive away.

i hope we get to return next year,

and the year after,

and the year after...