3.31.2014

Monogram Monday

Today's Monogram Monday post features a brand new item to the Sweet Tea Monograms shop and of course a new addition to my own monogram collection! :)



These tanks are made from comfortable French Terry cotton and available in mango, raspberry, blue ice, and mint for $23.50.



3.28.2014

Five on Friday


Happy Friday!!! I don't know about you but I'm so glad the weekend is almost here! One of my best friends and her fiance are coming down this weekend to have some engagement photos taken so I'm crossing my fingers that the weather turns out to be nice on Saturday. I rounded up a few things from this week (and last week since I missed my Friday Five) to share with y'all!

1. More blue & white

I've been loving just about everything and anything blue and white lately for my apartment, and especially in the kitchen. When I saw these fun blue & white Jardin Des Plantes dinnerware sets at Anthropologie I fell in love but at the time I was shopping for my mom's birthday and ended up buying one of the large plates for her. I keep thinking about those plates and bowls from the collection and finally went back yesterday to see what they had. Turns out they only had one of the smaller side plates and bowls left so I scooped them up while I could!



2. Faux floral arrangements

I love having fresh flowers around the house but I realized that I can't realistically always have bouquets in every room. I've seen some great faux floral arrangements lately that look so real and decided that would be the perfect thing for me. I scoured Etsy for some different shops that had just what I was looking for- white hydrangeas for my living room and pink peonies for my bedroom and found Flovery. My flowers shipped quick and were wrapped up really well so I was so pleased when I opened the box! These pink peonies add some great color to my bedside table and are just what I was looking for!




3. C. Wonder chevron

I popped into C.Wonder this week and found two items that I kept thinking about after leaving the store, and both were chevron. Though I feel like chevron clothing may be a little "trendy" now I was loving the way the chevron was done with these items!

How great are these shoes?! They're sold out online in my size, but I may go back this week and see if they have them in stock in the store... navy heels could go with so much!

I love the colors in these chevron nesting bowls! I've been trying to tie together the blue and white in my kitchen with the green and turquoise in my living room and these were perfect (the middle one is a little off my color scheme but I'm sure I'll find a good use for it!)


4. Nautical flag initials

While browsing Coastal Living this weekend, I spotted these personalized nautical flag totes from Skipper Bags. These bags are so cute for the beach/boat and if I hadn't just ordered my Hayden Reis flamingo tote, I would definitely consider getting one! (P.S. They have these wristlets too that I love!)




I love the idea of using nautical flags with your initials because it's kind of like a puzzle to figure out the letters. When I moved to Charleston, I often noticed cars with nautical flag on the front license plates and realized they represented initials- and there an idea was born for Sweet Tea Monograms shirts







I give customers the option to use either the traditional colors for the flags (it's great because this is something that the guys actually like too!) or to switch it up and mix up their own colors! Now these may not actually make them true nautical signals, but they sure look cute!

5. Lilly 5x5 book

I have been loving my Lilly Pulitzer 5x5 book lately- it makes such a fun coffee table book and has some great color inspiration! I sat down the other night and browsed through and it definitely put me in a warm weather state of mind!




Hope y'all have a great weekend!

xo, Heather

3.27.2014

I'm back!

Hi friends! This month has been a bit crazy and moving threw me off my schedule a little more than I had hoped. Moving my apartment was one thing but packing up and relocating my whole office and inventory was a lot trickier than I had expected. I was stuck in a weird rut for the first week or so (the cold, rainy weather did not help) and all the creative juices that had been flowing when I first started my blog were totally gone, not to mention I was way behind on my orders and needed to totally focus on work. It was weird and I didn't like it one bit, I need that creative outlet in my life! Luckily, after spending a few weekends unpacking, organizing, and decorating (my favorite part of course!) I'm finally back to my normal self and can't wait to share my favorite adventures from the last month and all the great new things to come!

The first real weekend in my new place, I hosted one of my best friends, Michelle, and her boyfriend that traveled down from Charlottesville, VA. It was great motivation to try and get things organized and unpacked that first week before they came down. This turned out to be such a great weekend, with so many of my favorite Charleston activities that I wanted to share!

The pineapple is a symbol for Southern hospitality - perfect welcoming sign for my guests!

Friday night Robbie I ran some errands and made another homemade pizza before our company arrived. This was one a teriyaki chicken creation that I whipped together with a few things I had either had left over or could easily pick up at Trader Joe's. I threw together the pizza with: pizza crust, leftover Rao's pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, chopped fresh pineapple, TJ's Teriyaki chicken strips, and drizzled some TJ's Island Soyaki over it all- it all surprisingly turned out pretty good (although it's pretty hard to mess up pizza in my opinion!)

My new creation: Chicken Soyaki Pizza
Our friends arrived later that night and we got to spend some quality time catching up. One of my favorite things about old best friends (since 5th grade!) like Michelle, is that even though we don't get to see each other for a few months, we can always just pick right back up where we left off! Everyone needs a friend like that! :)

Saturday morning we laid around for a bit while we (Robbie) cooked omelets and planned the day. Since it was finally sunny and beautiful out, we wanted to be outside as much as possible so we threw on some workout clothes and headed out for a run/walk along the Ravenel Bridge.

After days and days of rain and clouds, these clear blue skies and sunshine were very much welcomed!

It was great to sneak a nice workout in while the weather was so nice. Of course after all of that exercising we were starving so it was time to head downtown for some lunch!


We were lucky enough to score a table out on the deck at Fleet Landing and were right on the water getting free entertainment from the cruise ship that was boarding and heading out to sea. I posted about Fleet Landing before (from our day after Valentine's day date) but it's great that a place like this can be a totally different atmosphere during the day. We loved eating right on the water since there really aren't too many restaurants downtown that you can do this! And of course, I always love the nautical flags- I just realized that these are F (the red and white) & L (black and yellow) flags for Fleet Landing!


After lunch, we walked around to the Waterfront Park got a typical Pineapple Fountain photo with the four of us! 

Love these people!

We explored a little more down to the Battery, up Meeting Street to see some of the gorgeous South of Broad houses and their secret little gardens behind the ivy grown gates.


Before we knew it, it was time for another meal (weekends in Charleston always seem to revolve around food) and we headed to Upper King Street for our dinner reservation at Stars!


I was a little hesitant about bringing guests to a restaurant I had never tried but Stars did not disappoint! Though our waiter was a little goofy, it was a really great atmosphere and when you have great food and great friends- not much else matters! 

Robbie's Appalachian Trout which was served whole- cool presentation in my opinion!

I was craving oysters so I ordered the Oyster's Bull Bay. I probably wouldn't get this again because it was so rich but it was very good!

My favorite part about Stars was their rooftop bar that served wine on tap (the restaurant downstairs does as well.) If you know me, you know I love a good rooftop bar and I love wine so this was definitely a win win! I can't believe I hadn't tried Stars before this!

After a fun, full day of activities on Saturday (and daylight savings!) we were ready to take it easy on Sunday and started strolling down King Street just as the Second Sunday activities were starting and they were closing the street down to traffic. Apparently everyone else had the same idea that we did and the restaurants were packed on King Street for brunch so we tried Leaf, on Beaufain Street right off of King. This ended up being a great choice because we were able to walk right in and get a table on their patio and soak in a little more sun. Everything on their brunch menu sounded delicious but I decided on their Leaf Frittata which did not disappoint!

All brunch items were served with fruit, hash browns, and either a mimosa or Bloody Mary!

After brunch we strolled down King Street a bit before it was time for our guests to pack up and head back home. We had gotten so lucky with some great meals (like I said, in Charleston our weekend is all about the food) and great weather and I was so sad to see the weekend end. 

Recap of some of my old/new favorites from the weekend:

walk/run the Ravenel Bridge
lunch on the water at Fleet Landing
Waterfront Park, the Battery, and South of Broad neighborhood
dinner and rooftop bar at Stars
Second Sunday on King Street
brunch at Leaf

I always love having friends in town to try some new places, as well as show them around some of my old favorites and this had been a perfect weekend to do all of the above! This weekend, I'm looking forward to another best friend's visit and hoping for some of the same great weather we had earlier this month! 

3.11.2014

Sweet Tea Monograms

I'm finally getting back into my usual working groove and the Sweet Tea Monograms shop is back open after unpacking the monogram studio and setting up shop again. Soon enough, I will hopefully be back into my regular blogging routine- I have some fun ideas for the next couple weeks!


Here are two are my favorite shirts- the Sweet Tea Monograms Logo Tee and "The Charleston" shirt with coordinates that are pinned right to one of my favorite spots in the city- the Waterfront Park. These shirts are two original Sweet Tea Monograms designs and ones you can only find on our Etsy site! 

3.07.2014

Five on Friday


This past week has been super busy with all of the moving and unpacking that as much as I wanted to write a post, I knew I had some other priorities. One of my best friends since elementary school and her boyfriend are coming to Charleston this weekend! It's been a great reason for me to get everything unpacked and I'm almost there. The best thing about my new place is all of the storage and finally finding a place for everything!

Here are some highlights from the past week:

1. One year ago, flashback to St. Martin


This week last year my family was in the Caribbean enjoying an amazing week in St. Martin. With all of this cold weather, clouds, and rain I can't help but dream about the clear blue water, palm trees swaying in the breeze and bright sunshine that we had there! Ah take me back! :)

2. Blue & White Chinoiserie

I have been loving blue and white even more so than usual and would love to try to incorporate it more into my kitchen & living room decor.

{via}

Inspired by the abundance of ginger jars like the ones in this photo, I was so excited to find this Ralph Lauren jar at Home Goods!


Debating on whether or not I should go back and try to snag the smaller version of this ginger jar to pair with this one. Hmm... what do y'all think?

3. Southern Weddings Mason Dixon Madness - Southern Food Tournament

So I'll admit, I'm not the biggest college basketball fan but this is a March Madness I can definitely get on board with! Southern Weddings has put together a huge bracket of some of our favorite Southern foods and you can vote on which ones you think deserves to be the Southern food champion! Some of them were a little tough to choose from (how can you choose between fried okra and pimento cheese?!) but most of them just made me really hungry for a good Southern meal. 


4. Hayden Reis Flamingo Ditty Tote


I have recently been seriously crushing on this Flamingo Tote from Hayden Reis that would be a perfect summer tote for the boat or beach (and everything in between!) The totes are made from sailcloth so they are very durable (again, perfect for the beach!) and anyone who knows me, knows how much I love flamingos! The mint & neon pink color combo is also a favorite of mine- they're the same colors I picked when I made my first flamingo monogram shirt for Sweet Tea Monograms!


And speaking of monograms, the Hayden Reis bags can be monogrammed- just another reason I think I need one! :)


5. Charleston Sunrise

Monday morning I was up nice and early and wanted to take advantage of it (since it doesn't happen too often that up when it's still dark out.) I also knew it was going to be rainy all week so since it was still clear, I drove downtown to the Waterfront Park and snapped some shots of the sun rising over the Cooper River. It was SO gorgeous and I seriously regret not bringing my real camera to capture the beauty! I guess iPhone photos will have to do for now, until the next time I'm up before the sun!



Have a great weekend y'all!