style & beauty: Beautycounter Party

            Hi Everyone! I hope you are enjoying your week! Over the weekend, I hosted a Beautycounter party at my mother's house in Indiana and had such a great time with a great group of women :) Thank you to my mother for your wonderful hospitality and baking. I thought it would be fun to share some photos of the party.

          For those of you who don't know about the brand, Beauycounter's mission is to get safe ingredients and products into the hands of everyone. In a world full of toxic chemicals from our laundry detergent, cosmetics, household cleaners, kids body wash, and so much more; it is so important that we pay attention to what is in our products that we use every day.

         Now, more than ever toxic chemicals are making their way into our bloodstream causing numerous cancers and health problems. It only takes 26 seconds for lotion or any product that is used on our bodies to be absorbed into our bloodstream. Last summer when a friend introduced me to Beautycounter, I was blown away by the quality and performance of Beauycounter's products and the fact that the ingredients were safe was the most important part. Today, I enjoy sharing with others Beautycounter's mission to get safe products into the hands of everyone that are safe and clean for their families. I hope you enjoy these photos and if you ever want to know more please visit  My Website

       Ask any questions if you are ever curious, I would love to help :) Thank you to my mother for hosting the party and for everyone that attended! Have a great day! xo

Travel: Our trip to Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas

              Howdy folks! This post is straight from Texas! Waco, Texas to be exact. You already know I am a Chip & Jo fan, but the grounds of Magnolia in Waco is truly a sight to see.  Reed and I went to Texas last weekend for a long weekend as we have both been wanting to visit Waco to see Magnolia Market and visit friends in Ft. Worth. We spent an entire day in Waco driving around, visiting Magnolia Market, shopping, eating, seeing Baylor University and enjoying the beautiful but "hot" day in Texas.

            We rented a car and flew in to Dallas Love, this way we were able to see several places at once. We love doing this for trips because we are able to knock out so much in either a short or long amount of time. We spent the day in Waco and also saw Harp's design studio from the Fixer Upper show as well, which was pretty neat.  We are big fans of Chip & Jo, their lifestyle, design work, and how they raise their kids and family. We were very excited to see Waco, as it was only a one hour and thirty minute drive from Dallas to Waco. I absolutely loved the store, the grounds, and the bakery so much! I actually got emotional when we first walked up (haha) cheesy I know but when you are a "fan girl" of something its hard not to get overly excited.

          It was such an inspiring trip all around and loved every minute of being able to see Magnolia. The rest of our time in Texas we spent several days in Ft. Worth visiting friends and going to the stockyards. Then, we spent a full day in Dallas enjoying the JFK museum and memorial and eating great food. More to come on the rest of our Texas trip but this post is dedicated to Magnolia! Here are some pictures of our visit :) I bought way too much but then again it is a bucket list trip, I had to haha! But Reed got lucky since we were on a plane instead of driving from Nashville. I could have added a lot more :)  Enjoy our pics! xo

recipe: semi-homemade summer berry cake

           Hi everyone! Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. Reed and I had a great weekend with my family in town and spending some down time on Sunday catching up on the house, relaxing, and enjoying a Sunday drive. It was nice and cool on Saturday and it made me excited for fall and cooler temps to come. Hopefully that will be here sooner than later :)

           I have been wanting to make a nice berry cake for summer and I just got around to it this past weekend. This is totally semi-homemade and not much of a recipe but it was delicious and made for a pretty cake; therefore, I wanted to share. I purchased an angel food cake at the grocery store and whipped up some icing and decided to make it look good by adding berries on top. A nice fresh and fluffy cake for Summer. For the icing I used powdered sugar and cream cheese and whipped it together to put on top of the angel food cake. Then, I dressed the cake with fresh cut strawberries and blueberries. I decided to add a little sweet and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

        This made for a quick and super easy dessert after dinner. This would be a great dessert to take to a get together or dinner anytime during the Summer. This would also look great for the 4th of July holiday. I hope you are all having a great week and enjoying the last few weeks of August. Have a great week  :) xoxo

decor: how to decorate with old books

             Hey Everyone! Happy Tuesday! I can't believe its already the end of July, I literally just said this about June. It has been a busy last few weeks for us with traveling for work, personal travel, and staying busy with everyday life. I thought it would be fun to share a few how to's coming up in the next month or so and the first one I wanted to start with "how to" decorate with old books.

             The last time I posted a picture on my social media using old books, someone sent me a message and asked where I find my old books. The truth is I find a lot at antique stores and thrift shops. They are cheap and I am always looking for a good cover to any old book. I normally choose them but the title and especially by the color, after all thats how you decorate with old books :)

1. Stacking: Use old books to stack on a coffee table, book shelf, or night stand. By stacking books you will be able to give an object some height but also show off your book titles as well. 

2. Exposing your book pages: If you don't like the titles or colors of the books you have another stylish way is to expose your book pages. I love the neutral colors of the book pages! Add a decorative book end or even objects like my next picture to keep your books together. 

 

-In this image below I used a glass milk jar and a distressed white candlestick as the objects to hold the books together. You can see it definitely gives a different feel/look but this will give you more options for your everyday objects instead of investing in bookends. 

3. Creating book displays: If you don't want to style your books in the traditional way with book ends, you can create book displays by showing off different angles of the books. Below I added several books in the middle as my base and then worked my way out. I placed one book face down and placed glass jars on top to secure the other books in the middle in place but also gave the display dimension. By creating displays, you can get creative in the way you place your books. This is the best technique you can use for a book shelf as well! 

-Here is another image below of my client's book shelf that I created for her. I used the exposed book pages to keep that neutral look and added more books on one end and placed a mini plater as well as a white vase on the other end. Again, creating that display to give it a unique look and added detail. 

Stay tuned for the next "How To" :) Have a great week and thank you for stopping by! XO Tesla 

Travel: Asheville, Pigeon Forge, & Knoxville

Hi friends! I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and 4th of July! Reed and I made a road trip with my family to Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, & Asheville during the long weekend and we had the best time. We took some time to visit and sight see in Knoxville and have a bite to eat and then spent several days in Pigeon Forge where we went white water rafting and enjoyed the area and then made our way to Asheville, NC.

We spent time downtown and in small suburbs eating and shopping our way through Asheville. We also made a trip to see the Biltmore which was a lot of fun. Reed and I went last summer with his parents and had a great time and now was able to go with my parents and brother as well. We had such a fun trip! Here are a few pictures from our time!  Enjoy xo