Asheville, North Carolina

Dear friends,
You might have noticed that I was MIA over the weekend. My family took me to Asheville, North Carolina for the weekend to help me celebrate my birthday. Since moving to NC in April we really want to explore this amazing state. We LOVED Asheville and the surrounding areas and I wanted to share some of our adventures with you. We took our kids (Bryce- 5 and Brayden- 3) with us to explore. Honestly, there were a couple of moments where my husband and I looked at each other and said, "Why did we bring the kids?" but overall it was a great family weekend!

Asheville, NC:

Asheville has a population of about 84,000. It is probably most famous for the Biltmore Estate (which at over $60 a pop for a tour was crazy for us because our kids would have probably lasted about 5 minutes on the tour so we'll save that tour for a kid-free trip in the future). The Biltmore Estate was built by George Washington Vanderbilt between 1889 and 1895. It is the largest privately owned home in the United States and features 250 rooms. It is still owned by the Vanderbilt descendants and stands today as an example of the Glided Age.



We arrived Friday afternoon and played in the Courtyard Marriott's pool for a while (needed to let the kids burn off some energy after sitting in the car for 4 hours) before heading downtown for dinner:

Bad call for the night: we neglected to look at the menu of the restaurant we chose before sitting down. Nothing for kids. So we had three meals that night: an appetizer here at the cool downtown restaurant, McDonalds drive-through for the kids (yes, I am ashamed of this!), and then take out Italian for us back at the hotel once the kids were asleep. Expensive meal night!

Tiger balloon made from street guy (Bryce loves Tigress from Kung Fu Panda):

Buddy loves Marty the zebra from Madagascar (maybe we watch too much tv!):

My 5 year daughter loves to be twins with me right now. I wonder how long that will last?

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, that IS a man dressed as a nun riding a rather large bike:

All in all, we had a great first night in Asheville (minus the hysteria on the streets of downtown when Tigress the balloon popped)! I'll post more of our adventures tomorrow.

Happy decorating & living-
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Update on Bedroom Make-Over

Hi friends! Here's a peek at my bedroom make-over transformation that has begun....

A few new linens have been purchased (some are on back order and should arrive in the next month or so):

Paint color swatches have been added to the walls in various locations to check for how different light looks with the paint:

Do you remember my Plain Jane all white bedroom? Here's a refresher:

Here was my Room Make-Over Design Plan:

Well, I wanted to share a little bit of progress that we've made. Some from the design plan and some off of the plan.


We purchased Valspar's 'Shark Loop' and tried it on several spots in the room to see how the light hits it, I think it's a hit with us!




I came up with a new idea for the small bookshelf in my bedroom which had to do with painting. I got the idea with some of these inspiration photos:

So I took this:

And with a small quart of Valspar's 'Surrender' paint came up with this:

Here's what's left to do:

1. Steve, my husband and painter, assures me that the room will be painted within the month.

2. New bedding will be purchased shortly.


3. Still working on ideas for the inspiration wall behind our bed.


4. Also, considering purchasing a rattan piece to place in the corner to hold towels for the bathroom (we don't need a tv in it). We have a major shortage of towel bars in the bathroom. Something like this piece that I might consider painting a fun color- found this one on Craig's List:

Happy decorating & living-
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com