Home Away From Home

How often have you heard the saying "home is where the heart is"? It might be somewhat sappy, and even overused, but it is entirely true. This past weekend Kyle and I were on vacation with Dablet and several of our family members; I think we had 19 people there at one point! I've talked about the importance of vacation, and the significance of Bald Head Island to our family before, but this trip was a turnaround for me on so many levels. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to divulge some of the inner realizations just yet, but I can share the eye candy from the trip with you!!!

This is Laurie's Loft, and it was our home for the week! I've stayed in larger houses on the island, but when they say that great things come in small(er) packages, they were talking about this house! Its upside down floor plan was perfect for our dogs, and as we spent most of our time on the beach and around the island easy access to our bedrooms for naps was fabulous!
A prior house we have stayed in (and the other half of my family rented this week) is Chirico pictured here:

 Yes, that's me, Kyle, and Dablet "walking off into the sunset". This house will always hold a special place in my heart because I stayed there when I got married, and we were married on the beach in front of it.
OK, so I suppose I can't hide the eye candy any longer (as you can clearly see we had a professional photographer come play with us!) Matt McGraw  was our wedding photographer and I love when I have a chance to work with him! We asked Matt to come "play with us" and get some family photos, as well as some "we've been married for two years and still like each other" photos! Photography is an ESSENTIAL part of my style, always lean to photo journalistic, and it is my favorite element for decorating my walls! Given all of that, I think showing you some photos of my family will help open the door to my "at home style"! Here we go!

This is some of my family! My sister-in-law, my brother, my younger nephew, aunt, dad, me, Dablet, and Kyle! These people are the ones who make vacations worth taking no matter where we may go!

 Can you say happy baby? Dablet is a total ham and loves to be photographed!

I have always been amazed by how Matt silhouettes people against amazing skies! This is a wall piece to be sure!

I LOVE BABY FEET!!! I will put them up on my wall any time, any way, and I will make them work in ANY room!

This is the kind of photo I would put above my dresser in my bedroom so that every morning when I'm getting ready I can remember this amazing moment that will always make me smile!

OK, so you've seen the family, the second half of the shoot was just me and Kyle. We took our golf cart around the island at night and got some fun shots!

This next one is a little more PG-13 but I LOVE the European style phone booth and this was the only teaser shot Matt has shown me so far, so I had to share!

The lighting on the tree behind us was provided by Matt's fabulous lighting "assistant" for the evening (who also happens to be his fiance and an amazing photographer in her own right! You can find her at Bella Rose Photography) Other than that, it was pitch black out. Matt is a lighting master, and I can attest that this is what it looked like in his camera when he took it. 

I cannot wait to see the rest of the pictures and share with all of you where they end up in my house!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend, and I am so excited to be back to the blog after some time full of inspiration!!

Until next time!

Dabble