How Paperless Post & I Became Fast Friends This Holiday Season

This time of year I lick more envelopes and address more cards than any other time of year. 

For the last 3 years, Christmas + Croix's Birthday (December 27th) has given me a workout all on it's own, but this year the correspondence game was inflated even more because we hosted a Christmas Dinner. As much as I love good ol' fashion snail mail I just didn't have it in me to order, address and send out one more clump of invites so I was THRILLED when Paperless Post approached me about trying out their site.

For those of you unfamiliar Paperless Post is an online card company where every invitation, greeting card, holiday card, etc. is sent online via email. I'm sure most of us have received an "evite" of some kind before but Paperless Post definitely takes it up a notch. There are several things I really liked about my experience...

Let's start with the pretty factor, which was a really big factor for me. Again, I really like cards and correspondence so I was NOT all about some corny email invitation, I wanted something pretty and elegant that I would choose if I was ordering, stuffing and hand addressing.  Luckily the selection of cards is great - so many options, most of which can be customized with fonts, colors, etc. I had fun not only picking out the card but playing around with the wording to make it exactly what I had in mind. 

                                   

Another feature I really liked was the tracking feature. Once you have selected and customized your card you enter the individual email addresses for each person or family and the number of individuals invited. Once the cards are sent out you can see not only who has RSVP'ed yes or no, but you can see who has opened the invite. It tracks total numbers in this area as well so you can keep a running tab of your head count as your event nears. 

I'm so glad I had such a good first experience with Paperless Post because I ended up needing a quick invite. I had originally had these adorable 3rd birthday invitations made on Etsy. 

We mailed them out and all was set for a big jump jump party on the 29th until.......baby BROTHER decided to join the world a week and a half early. I'll have more on that soon - but needless to say Croix's birthday party needed to be postponed so I quickly created a new invite using Paperless Post, letting everyone know the party would be rescheduled for January 5th. 

All of my email addresses were already saved and now, 24 hours after sending I have a good idea of the final headcount because most of us are more likely to RSVP with the click of a button vs. emailing or texting the host to let them know. I mean...am I right or am I right? 

Needless to say I've given Paperless Post a good workout over the last few weeks and I'm happy to say it's a site I plan to use again and again. If you have any events or notes to send out in the new year you should definitely give them a try - highly recommend!

Merry Christmas, xoxo - The Shearers

Happy Christmas Eve's Eve's Eve! This has truly been one of the most magical Christmas seasons I can remember and it all got kicked off in mid-November with a visit to Santa. 

Croix was not a fan of Santa last year, but this year, he was all about it. 

We booked our session with Sara D. Harper Photography and could not be happier with the photos. A festive atmosphere while we waited (hot cocoa, treats, holiday music), a pretty backdrop, a beautiful/authentic Santa and the best part.....natural light. Haha - just kidding, the best part was of course the happiest, most curious and slightly timid Croix Boy, who as you can see  really hammed it up with good ol' Saint Nick. 

It was hard to narrow down just one photo for our Christmas card, 

Family has already started to trickle into town, the house is all decorated, cooking has started and our shopping/wrapping are all done. Can't wait to take the next few days to soak it all in and remember the reason for the season with so many of the people we love. 

From our family to yours......Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Friends!!

Xoxo, The Shearers

All photos are Sara D. Harper Photography. 

All I Want for Christmas is... a New Toothbrush

A few weeks ago Smile Brilliant sent me an electric toothbrush to try out and boy did it come at a good time. You see,  I've used an electric toothbrush for awhile now, but about a year ago I left the stick at a hotel on one of my travels. I had big plans to purchase a new one, but those things are pricey, so much to Brent's dismay he and I shared a stick, not the toothbrush head, I'm not a total savage, but the stick. I was forever "in trouble" for not putting the stick back on Brent's side after using it, griping at him when he took the stick with him on his travels, leaving me to brush my teeth by holding the tiny head....it wasn't pretty. Sharing is caring, but apparently that does NOT apply to toothbrush sticks.

So, as you can imagine when Smile Brilliant reached out, both Brent and I were all about me trying out this electric toothbrush!

The toothbrush is a the cariPRO Electric Toothbrush and the game plan was for me to try it out for 2 weeks and then report back on my thoughts. As soon as it came in the mail I got her all charged up and I've been using it twice a day, every day since.

Photo from Smile Brilliant Website.

As a person that has used an electric toothbrush before I was interested to see how this one could possibly be "special enough" to dedicate a whole blog post to; I mean how different can a toothbrush be? Well, I'm happy to report  this one has quite a few praises I'm happy to sing.

First up....the brush modes... all 5 of them! 

                                                                     

Each and every time you brush your teeth you can choose between the following modes:

1. Clean
2. Whiten
3. Massage
4. Gum Care
5. Sensitive

It's cool because the modes are designed to function for 2 minutes around the 4 sections of your mouth (top left, top right, bottom, left and bottom right). After 30 seconds the brush vibrates letting you know to move it to a different section of the mouth. In general the main pro to using an electric toothbrush as opposed to a standard one is the fact that you are less likely to wear down your enamel by brushing too hard, but this tooth brush takes it to the next level by ensuring all of your teeth get equal attention. This is definitely not a feature any other electric toothbrush I've ever used has had and truly do find myself utilizing the various settings, especially the "Clean" and "Whiten".

The Battery Life is another feature I've been really impressed with. There is nothing I hate more than  phone/computer updates, empty gas tanks or dead batteries, I mean who has time for any of that!? Well, this toothbrush is different, it's very low maintenance and holds it's charge for so long! According to the manual, once charged for a full 24 hours, the toothbrush stays charged for 30 pre-timed brush cycles!! Per the instructions I let my toothbrush live on it's stand when not in use, so I've never run into wanting to use it but not being able to because it's dead. For someone who craves efficiency, this is HUGE to me. 

The price is another pro for this product. If you've ever shopped electric toothbrushes you know they can be quite the investment. Not only are the toothbrush systems themselves expensive but the toothbrush heads can be pricey as well. Well, this toothbrush is different, for all that it offers in terms of features it is extremely affordable as are the accessories that come with it. If you go to the site and shop the packages you will see that their prices are at least 50% less than other options on the market.  Plus, they back up their product with a 60 day guarantee where they will do a complete refund if you are not 100% satisfied. All of that in addition to the fact that they offer free shipping make this about as close to a no-brainer as it gets if you re in the market for a new toothbrush. 

After spending a few weeks with my cariPro, I'm overall a fan, but in the name of being truly transparent and real I do want to  speak to the fact that If there had to be a con I would say it would be the look. Don't get me wrong, it's a good looking tooth brush, but there are prettier versions on the market - matte black, gold, etc. HOWEVER, for me personally, I care less about aesthetics and more about dental care, so this is not a deal breaker for me. I'm very thankful to have this toothbrush and would definitely recommend it!

Before any of you go and purchase your own I'm excited to say I get to give one away!! To enter the giveaway follow this link and enter! And if you are not the lucky winner, fear not I have a 20% discount code for all of you! thecowspot20

Unless otherwise noted all photos are my own. 

Croix's Custom Closet

Well, it's official - our two year old is living a more luxurious life then us. His bathroom has heated floors, there is a slide to catapult him from his bed to the toilet and now....now he has a custom closet.

Meanwhile I have to stand on my tub to get a full glimpse of my whole outfit in the mirror. A site for sure, at my now 8 month pregnant state. OY! In all seriousness, we are well aware of the lavishness of a custom closet for a kid, a toddler kid at that, but this room needed the functionality to serve us and our kid(S) for the long haul. For anyone just tuning in we are turning our upstairs guest bedroom into Croix's Big Boy Room. In late summer we DIY'ed bunkbeds that take up a large chunk of the space. We are super happy with how those turned out but the scale of the built-ins really don't leave us with much wall space for furniture. Luckily, this big room also came with a big closet. But big is only helpful, if there is organization around it. And with two wire shelves and a window in the middle, we needed some help.

The Before:

The company I work for - Bell Cabinetry & Design has a closet division called Inspired Closets Atlanta, so I knew just who to contact for my closet needs. Interior design is such an interesting business...there are so many sectors you can specialize in and closets is definitely one of them. Interestingly, I know very little about closet design so I was VERY grateful when designer Ashley Fricton agreed to help me navigate the best solutions for this space. I took some dimensions and sent them her way and in a flash I had the first round of designs in my inbox!

We went through a few iterations where little things were tweaked, but the above designs were the final version that I signed off on. I knew early on we wanted to go with black for the material color. Not only is it a little different but I felt like it would be more forgiving as Croix + sibling use (and likely abuse) the space. We also made the decision to take the closet all the way to the ceiling. Because this is where most, if not all of the clothes storage will be we wanted to maximize every square inch. 

We've had a lot of fun getting all of his clothes transferred upstairs and all organized. As you can see we still have so much space, but we love that we can use the tip top to store misc. items, toys and even clothes he outgrows but we want to save for siblings/cousins/friends. 

Ashley was so helpful in giving advice about must-haves. I love how we have 3 levels of hanging + so many open shelves. Also, really love the drawers. The one thing I decided kind of last minute was to forgo the built-in hampers in favor of just purchasing something to fit into the space and I'm really glad that's the direction I went. I love the texture and interest these baskets bring to the space + these hampers can be moved down to the laundry room and back again when it's time to wash clothes. 

Once all designs were approved the lead time was about 4-6 weeks. The whole process went so smoothly and I couldn't of asked for a better install experience. 

At this point the only thing the space is lacking is a curtain, which my favorite curtain-making-machine has already said she would knock out for us; and maybe a rug and some baskets. All in all it was a great experience with an outcome that surprised my expectations. It's a shame really, because now I want to re-do every closet in my house. THANKS A LOT ASHLEY! :) Maybe one day but for now we are happy relishing in the fact that Croix is THIS close to move-in. In fact...it may actually happen this weekend. Stay tuned on that! 

Sources:

Hardware | Hampers | Light Fixture | Closet System

Cabinet Hardware - GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

How about a fun giveaway to kick-start the Holiday Season! 

This is totally spontaneous and was inspired by an email I got this morning from a past client. Her son recently purchased a new home and she wants to gift him the gift of HARDWARE for Christmas. How cool is that? I thought it was genius and it got me to thinking that I bet a bunch of you guys would like a similar gift under the tree for you as well! 

So, just call me Santa Courtney because I'm here to deliver, and I want to do it early in case you want to do a quick spruce up of your kitchen, bath, piece of furniture, etc before your guests arrive for the holidays! So, here are the details. 

Giveaway is for $50 AND a little free advice from me to help you pick out the perfect pieces for your desired space! To enter:

1. Head over to Instagram and be sure you are following me @_CourtneyShearer
2. Leave a comment letting know where you would put the hardware if you won.
           3. Tag a friend who might want to win too!  

Each comment counts as an entry and every person you tag that starts following me counts as TWO entries. Winner will be selected tomorrow at 8pm, so you can take advantage of any Cyber Monday sales the sites may have to accompany your $50! Good Luck and Ho Ho Ho!

All photos are my own. 

Slide + Final Selections - Croix's Big Boy Room

It is officially crunch time over here at the Shearer Household. We are less than 8 weeks away from my due date and we currently have like 10 projects in limbo. We are working hard to get as many as possible buttoned up and the one at the tip top of that list is Croix's big boy room!

Last we talked (back in August...sigh!!) the bunks had been DIY'ed and since then we have dabbled up there, sanding, painting, getting the mattresses installed, the bed linens on and the lights hooked up. We even settled on a stain color for the rail. There has been progress, but it has been sporadic.

Over the past few weeks we have been trying to nail down the finishing pieces for things like lighting, the rug, furniture, art, curtains and the closet. We've pulled the trigger on several items and actually feel like we have traction again. One very exciting detail that was added was a slide. This was a vision of Brent's from the beginning and we finally ordered one and got it installed last weekend.

The slide fits perfectly against the remaining part of the wall and literally catapults him right outside the bathroom. Talk about convenience! If you watch my instastories you may remember we found a slide in someones front yard, out for trash and seriously considered taking it home. Actually, we tried. It was to big to fit into my car, but once home Brent found this slide, ordered it and BOOM, the coolest room ever was born. Well, as far as a 2 year old is concerned anyways!

As you can see we purchased the rug and finally pulled the trigger on the light fixtures ( 2 of them come this week),  I'm trying to narrow down drapes and THIS TUESDAY Croix's custom closet is getting installed (whole post on that coming soon)! So...yeah, we are getting so close and really hope to have him moved in and settled soon! Fingers crossed I can be decisive and just finish this space because I'm pretty sure it's frowned upon for toddlers and newborns to share a bed....

All photos are my own. 

Pool Update + Living & Learning Confession

I'm popping in on this Sunday with a quick update on our patio progress + a little confession about some stresses we've faced with this project...

The landscapers FINALLY started last weekend and have been moving full speed ahead since then. As exciting as it has been in theory to watch the work progress each day, it's also been a little nerve racking because we really don't know what we are doing. Well, let me rephrase, we aren't physically doing anything, but throughout this process we have realized we are kind of just going forward and hoping that the decisions we have made are the right ones. We clearly have great craftsman around us, but no real leader. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this because I play the role of this leader for so many of my clients when it comes to their homes, but for us and this big, expensive project we are kind of flying solo and it's scary!!

Here is a shot looking at the pizza oven. They still have to finish the stack stone up the wall by the hot-tub and they will be adding plaster on the face of the fireplace (covering the brick) to match the plaster already added to the body of the pizza oven. Still trying to decide what we will do with the chimney...leave brick or plaster? 

I'm admittedly on one far end of the spectrum when it comes to details and consideration. It's a great trait to have when it comes to ensuring all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed for my clients, but for me and my house, it can actually be somewhat paralyzing. For most projects we tackle, I'm far too aware of the abundance of choices and have a hard time nailing down a direction for fear of something more exciting or creative coming to me later. But with this pool, I know nothing. I know what I want it to look like at the end of the day, but I have no real frame of reference when it comes to materials, pricing, combinations, pros and cons of this vs. that. I'm completely at the mercy of the people around me and like I said, those people are not big picture thinkers. They are focused on their specific task at hand - stone, fence, concrete, demo, whatever. There is no person with a beautiful rendering of our future back yard that has spent months talking us through our decisions that is leading the charge. Nay, it's just me and Brent, Pinterest and our imagination.  I'm constantly haunted by the "what ifs" ....What if we spend all of this money and it doesn't end up looking like what we had thought? What if we go to work one day and come home and find that the work they did that day did not align with our contract or vision (this has happened). It feels so vulnerable and frustrating!

This is the progress on the side steps! Do you guys remember this area? It used to have that weird "hut structure?" Well, that was removed and the new steps are going in. Already looking so much better!

Could we have gotten a landscape architect? Yes and maybe we should have, but you know, money doesn't grow on trees.  At a point we honestly just didn't know what we didn't know. Thankfully, I truly do think it's all going to come together, but I thought it might be helpful to others out there to know of some of the struggles we have faced. Whether you are doing a pool, a bathroom, building a house or renovating a coat closet - I have a new found respect and sense of compassion for any of you out there going through that on your own. And let this post serve as a reminder to you and ME that there are professionals out there for a reason. To think that just because you are good at one thing makes you a good enough expert on another is a recipe for disaster. All the respect for those out there owning their corner of expertise, may we all be wise enough to find those people and lean on their experience and knowledge when it comes time to tackle our dreams.

And this is the shot of the progress for the steps coming from the house. We have a new awning coming (woo!) and the rest of the landscaping (grassy area) will hopefully be starting this week. 

All photos are my own.

Halloween Scene 2018

Ahhh, this is one of my favorite weeks of the year! Halloween on Wednesday, my birthday on Friday and what I personally deem the start of the holiday season!

Oh yeah, oh yeah...so exciting! 

To kick off this fun week I thought I'd show you guys the Halloween Scene we have going on around here. 

With every holiday we like to build on the decor we already have to keep things fresh (and to keep from spending a zillion dollars) so this year we added a life-size skeleton to the front porch. 

We also added these cute black and white speckled pumpkins (Target!!) + this marble pumpkin I picked up last year to the mix. 

My Mom joked the skulls on and around my fireplace were dinner guests who experienced my cooking. Ha! 

The rat is a new add this year. Picked him up at the Pumpkin Patch. Love him.

Tonight we officially carved our jack-o-lantern and this is Croix's fake smile he gave so he could get through this whole picture thing and run across the street and see the ghost hanging from our neighbors tree. Ha!

Croix has really loved the Halloween season this year! He notices the decor everywhere we go...."Look, look...Halloween!". We can't wait to get him all dressed up in a few nights. He's going to be so excited to go around the neighborhood with his buddies! 

All photos are my own. 

Arnold Estates - Model Home Styling Gig

If you follow me on Instagram you know I had the opportunity to stage a model home a few weeks ago for a local home builder - Heatherland Homes. This was my first time tackling this type of job and I have to say it was really fun!

If you've ever bought or sold a house you know how important styling can be. A new house, while fresh and clean can come across cold and honestly overwhelming for a lot people, so styling out a few rooms is a great way to help people visualize what the house could look and feel like if lived in. Obviously, staging a whole house would be a bit overkill, so the game plan here was to focus on the main areas - Foyer, Dining Room, Kitchen/Butler's Pantry/Breakfast Room, Living Room and Master Bedroom and Bathroom. We had a budget to work within and we pretty much knocked out the majority of the selections/ordering/buying in one weekend. It was a whirlwind, but I love how everything turned out.

Let me show you around.....

Foyer:

The foyer is two story, so we wanted to create a dramatic moment with a center table and big centerpiece as you enter the home. It's a big space so we added a cute little bench we found on Craigslist at the end of the wall by the garage entry. A few hooks + baskets later and this space felt welcoming and happy.

Dining Room:

As you continue on through the house the dining room is on the right, with the Butler's Pantry beyond, separating the Kitchen from the Dining Room. We wanted the Dining Room to feel a bit more formal and the natural light that floods in is the icing on the cake. 

Kitchen, Breakfast Room and Living Room:

It's an open floor plan so you can see right into the living room/breakfast room from the kitchen. For anyone with kids you know how ideal this is! 

The Living Room feels so cozy and happy - one of my favorites for sure! I love the vertical planking the builder incorporated on the fireplace wall. It adds a nice layer of interest and the perfect background to build around with furnishings and decor. 

The natural light is so great in this space, I had to show all the angles. I think the layered rug look really works for this big room. I love the additional interest and texture it adds. Instant warmth!

The breakfast space is the perfect size for a small table and chairs. 

The kitchen has good bones - light colored cabinets are always a great palette to start with. We added some pretty bar stools and accessories to give the space a bit more personality. 

Master Bedroom:

Love that the master bedroom has it's own fireplace!

Master Bathroom:

The master bath is another space that has nice coloring and good light. We added some fuzzy rugs and this cute little bench moment by the tub. 

 The planning, buying, staging and photographing was a lot of work and you better believe my side-kicks Brent and Croix were along for the whole ride. Not sure why Croix is shirtless here, but by the end of the weekend I'm pretty sure he thought this was his new house, haha! 

The house is in McDonough, GA and worth a tour if you are in the market! This was a fun opportunity and one that I hope to get the chance to do again!

All photos are my own. 

Pool Update - The Selections

How appropriate, that as summer slips farther and farther away our pool gets closer and closer to the finish line? Good thing that sucker is going to be heated! Ha! Oh, well such is life and in all seriousness we are just excited to  have a beautiful, finished back-yard, no matter the season.

Things have come a long way since the big hole you saw last post. The guys finished up the plumbing/electrical and then the shockcrete was installed which really made things start feeling real.

The shockcrete made it easy to see the all of the details come to life that we had envisioned - things like the tanning deck, the stairs, the bench across the back of the pool, the little columns at the entry to the pool and even the slots where the waterfalls would come through into the pool were easy to spot once this layer was installed.

A few weeks ago the stone work began and it was literally like Christmas morning every time we came home from work to see all of the progress that was made!

As for the selections we went with a gray flagstone, some of which is installed "on face" where you can see the whole rock and some is stacked. For the tile that lines the pool at the water-line we went with a dark gray slate to blend in as seamlessly as possible with the flagstone and the pool. The big decision we had to make was the specific color we wanted for our Pebbletec - which is the surface for the interior walls of the pool aka liner. There are a ton of options for the Pebbletec and it's a pretty important decisions because it determines the color of the water.

Categorize this under the things you don't even know you care about, but once we knew there were options we realized we had opinions on the matter! In the intro post I mentioned we wanted our backyard to have an English garden lagoon vibe, so we knew we wanted to the water to have more green undertones as opposed to aqua. So, we decided to go with Emerald Bay:

Photo from PebbleTec Website

Pebbletec has an app where you can see what color your water will be at specific depths.  Our pool will be 3 1/2'  all the way across (with the exception of the tanning deck) so it was great to see the color we would be seeing.

Photo from Pebbletec Website. 

The Pebbletec hasn't been installed yet, but we are excited to see it all come together! Still on the agenda to figure out...the fence. At this point trying to figure out what will look best with a Christmas wreath hanging on it. :)

All photos are my own. 

GIVEAWAY - BEADS!

I am on vacation this week!! We are in Florida with my parents and sister + family! I'm so excited for some R&R and maybe a little tan on this baby bump of mine. While I'm gone I thought it could be fun to do another giveaway - this time up for grabs....BEADS!!

Three strands of blue beads to be exact! I hand selected these beads at Scotts Antique a few months ago. Each strand varies in size, shape and color. They look beautiful grouped as I have done in these pictures or you could spread them around your house individually. 

I've long been a sucker for beads and have them layered all over my personal house and Bell showroom! So, you want some beads too? I thought so......

To enter to win these beads all you have to do is:

1. Follow me on Instagram: _courtneyshearer
2. Leave me a comment letting me know where you would put the beads in your house
3. If you tag a friend it's a bonus entry. 

I will pick a winner Sunday night and ship out the goods on Monday morning! 

All photos are my own.

Breakfast Room Updates

We finally hung some art in our Breakfast Room!

This space has been a slow-moving work in progress since we moved in. Last we talked about this room, we had just had planks added to the walls. And like that it sat, unchanged for about 8 months, until.....we happened upon some beautiful rough-edged black and white prints in Highlands, NC over 4th of July weekend. Brent and I both loved the collection immediately and actually had a hard time narrowing our selections down to just 3.

Anyone else like to spread out and take over a store when trying to visualize and make a decision? We finally made our selection and then headed to Michael's once we got home to get the pieces framed. I like using Michael's for framing because they almost always have a sale going on which is awesome because framing can get pricey, especially if you are framing more than one thing at a time. We wanted to go  with simple black frames to accentuate the black in the prints. We also wanted to do a "floating" look so you could see the frayed edges. To give the frayed edges something to pop against we selected a neutral colored linen for the prints to float on.

The framing process took about two weeks. Once home Brent got the prints hung. They were looking good, but my eyes were craving another layer, so I dug around and found some small, gold sunbursts I've had forever and Brent installed one, centered above each frame.

It's like the room came alive! 

I love the scale, color and interest the art brings to the space. Our breakfast room is one of many spaces in our house with big, long walls. They can be hard/frustrating/intimidating to fill, but we knew if we waited long enough the right pieces would pop up and I'm happy to say these prints + those sunbursts on that planked wall were worth the wait.

All photos are my own.