Road Trip to Birmingham!

Yesterday, I had to drive an hour outside of Birmingham to show St. Claire County proof of my driving school completion. Yay, sounds like a blast, am I right??! St. Claire County is actually two hours away from my home and I am not one for car rides over about 45 minutes (especially while pregnant.) BUT, all of my old college sorority sister besties live in or around the Birmingham area, so it was the perfect excuse to meet up with them for a quick lunch before I had to head back home!


I got out of court super fast, surprisingly. We weren't doing lunch until later in the day, so I decided I would go check out some flea markets to pass the time away. My mom is re-doing an extra room in her house. She is actually making it into a bar/lounge area; Her theme is kind of a classic old timey saloon. Well, I found these super cool Jack Daniels barrels that would literally be so perfect to pull off the look she is going for! Oh my gosh, check these babies out! I lighter one is my favorite!

I was thinking she could use them as side tables (that could double as a storage container), flip it over and make a DIY coffee table, orrrrr this super cool bar I found on Pinterest!! Whattt, this is literally the coolest idea ever!!

They also had this barrel topper that just hangs on the wall, which was pretty cool too, especially if you're limited on space.

The barrels were at a very reasonable price (somewhere around $150, I didn't write down the exact asking price.) But for bargain shoppers like us, we will probably keep looking for decor that is more affordable. There is always something out there that is priced how you want it, you just may be waiting to find it for a few months. Or who knows, we may go see if we can haggle with these booth owners- a lot of the time they are willing to cut the price some!

Decorating my entertainment center

In our little two bedroom, one bath home we are a tad limited on space. Being broke newlyweds, still in college, with a baby boy on the way, it is safe to say we are also a tad (a lot) limited on our home improvement budget. But you've got to make a house a home somehow right? I mean, we do plan on living here until A) we pop out another baby or B) Jud gets a job that requires us to hop towns. Fingers crossed for plan A!! Our entertainment center was really lacking the love for weeks and weeks. I knew I needed to spice it up, and for cheap, but my brain was completely dry idea wise. I originally made a chalk board (the gigantic green one in the picture below) which I was going to get vinyl personalized sticker that read "The Morgans Est. 2015" to stick on it. Once I hung the chalk board above the T.V, Jud and I took it right back down and placed it in the corner of the room lol (it was a no-go.) I had went to Pickers recently (about two months ago actually) and found a set of two beautiful shutter doors for $20. The coolest part about these shutters were the fact that they were 70% off. I proudly walked out of that big brown building with those shutter doors that I had traded a grand total of $6 for. What a steal, I thought. So I take them to my in-laws shop, where I could paint them while my DH was worked on his antique car. Wellll, he hated them and told me they would make our house look trashy and that there was noooo way he was letting me use them to decorate our house. A little piece of my heart broke off, because come on, I knew these shutters had the potential to give our entertainment center the fact lift it needed. Sarah (my lifelong friend) came over to help me paint them. The painted shutters sat in that shop for 8 weeks (the amount of time it took me to convince Jud to bring them to our home.) I purchased a reef from another one of my favorite flea markets, Memories, for $2. Inside that reef, I placed a wooden "M" that was given to us as part of a wedding present. So for a whopping total of $8 and some left over paint, I created a cute little backdrop behind our T.V, which my husband actually loves now.

Oh! & the flag is from dolla tree, y'all. I figured I'd throw in some Merica' decor, since the 4th is coming up! I still have yet to find a use for the green chalk board. I may just throw it in storage until i can accumulate enough stuff to convince myself that I need to open up a flea market booth!! (Yay, my very own booth would be a dream come true!)


In my future posts, I am going to upload before and after pictures.. I just took these before I knew that I wanted to create a blog.

God's Love

I don't know about you, but I am a complete sucker for anything lovey-dovey. I mean I just REALLY love mushy old love stories. Anything sweet/romantic just takes my heart and melts it into a big ole warm puddle of love. Like Nicholas Sparks is seriously the coolest.. The Notebook, Safe Haven, The Last Song, True Believer, The Longest Ride, HE IS A MASTERMIND. He is an expert at snatching up hopeless romantics just like me and getting us addicted! & here I am with a husband who only lets me watch cowboy and war movies.. Caaahmonnn Jud, Don't you understand that I am female here? Unless you, yourself, write me 365 letters, take me out on a canoe with so many swans present that i can barley see the water, wait for me for over a decade while simultaneously building me the house of my dreams you promised me years before on that late summer night.. you are GOING to let me watch this movie.. especially after I just sat through two hours of blood, guts, tears, and peeing in my pants. Anyway, let's get to the point. So I mentioned to you that I am a hopeless romantic. Well, there is this guy. & he is soooo in love with me. He thinks about me all day, every day. I take him for granted and I fail him every day.. he never makes me feel bad about myself, once I realize my mistakes and talk to him about them, he forgives me. He is SO forgiving. That's not it either.. This guy thinks I am so beautiful, to him I am perfect even with every flaw. He owns everything, I mean that literally. He owns everything that I imagine is 10 billion times more beautiful than I. The stars, the seas, pastures, waterfalls, mountains, sunsets… but he wants me?! & guess what? He wants you too. How passionate is that? He is always faithful. His love is unfailing and unlimited. He puts THE Nicholas Sparks out of business, folks. His name is Jesus Christ. Chose him. Be with him. Let him love you and you love him back. He is your 24 hour 7 days a week BFF that will never let you down.

 "He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession."

Vintage botanical print window

This beauty of mine was %100 inspired by my favorite blogger, Liz Marie. I have been following (stalking) her posts of her home and her flea market booth for some time now. I LOVE her style. I have always had an eye for anything shabby chic.. her decor is shabby chic, just much more put together and clean than mine; it is what I have been aiming more towards. Once she posted her botanical print window, I fell in love so hard I HAD to make one of my own. So what did I do? I found me some free botanical print outs on Pinterest, visited one of my favorite local flea markets where I found a $5 window and got to taping. Cheap, fast, and easy- my favorite type of craft! I hope you enjoy and find as much beauty in it as I do.

Here is the link for the free prints http://thepaintedhive.net/2014/05/free-fern-printables/

Window: Prattville Pickers (you can find old windows at most flea markets and there are SO many different ways to decorate with them- a chalk board, jewelry holder, flower planter, picture frame. Seriously, stop by Pinterest and type in "old window" for never ending window uses!)

Bear with me- I'm new here

 Alex Morgan. Five feet and six inches of a million different things that have molded me into who I am over my years on this earth. Jesus lover, wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, & now blogger.