What's Your Decor Style?

This past weekend my mom was in town and we had plans on Sunday to go furniture shopping. CB and I moved in to our house back in July 2015, and haven't exactly done THAT much as far as decorating goes. We combined both my apartment and his old house, but weren't exactly left with a whole lot of "chic" furniture. Unless you consider dog paw stained Ikea white couches chic, which I most certainly do. 

On the bright side, CB and I finally have a plan for what we'd like to do to the living room. We got a new, almost chambray colored couch cover that isn't (yet) dog stained, and finally got a cabinet to go under the TV that looks perfect. Now we're on the hunt for two matching arm chairs, but are only looking to spend around $200 per chair max. Hey, these aren't our forever chairs, these are our "I'm 29 years old and need seating for when our friends come over to watch Football" chairs. At the moment, I'm leaning toward these recliners from Joss and Main. The reviews are excellent and the price point is spot on. 

Example of decor I love...

via a Studio McGee Remodel

Anyway though, so we're planning on spending the day shopping and our first stop is my favorite vintage shop here in Dallas, Lula B's. The way Lula B's works, like most vintage shops, there are many individual booths that vendors can sell from. We're walking past one lady's booth and she full on sprints at me, insisting that I come in her booth and look at the dresses she has for sale. 

I'm no good at telling people no, so I follow her in. I essentially just pitter patter around touching dresses for as long as I can stand it, and then I wave at her and thank her and slink out of her booth space. 

She follows me. 

"What are you shopping for today?!?!" she asks me. 

"Oh, mostly just furniture." I tell her, thinking she'll leave me alone now since her booth was all just clothing. 

"What kind of furniture? What is your style?" she asks. 

"I'm really just browsing. I don't really know what my style is." I tell her

"You need a style. You have to start with a style. At least you have a color scheme, right?" she continues to grill me. 

"Oh, um, I'm just really slow at decorating. I'm not sure what I want. " I tell her. 

"What colors do you have in there now?" she asks. This lady is ANNOYING AF. I understand she is trying to help me but I am a quiet shopper. I'm a slow shopper. I'm usually a solo shopper, and I have my own way of doing things. 

I'm what I call a Forever 21 shopper, I want to touch and look at literally everything on the rack, even if there are a billion items on said rack, I'll look and touch each one. This is tedious to many people, but it's my style and a big reason I'm always down to shop alone, in peace. 

"Well I pretty much just have a chambray colored, light blue couch." I told her, simultaneously thinking of an exit strategy.

She then proceeded to peg my style as BEACHY SHABBY CHIC FRENCH COUNTRY meets bamboo furniture. I have zero idea how we got to that style, but she then proceeded to escort me all around this giant store showing me all of the bamboo pieces that each booth had to offer. 

I kid you not, this lady treated me as her pet project and built me an all bamboo home littered with baby blue and beach shells sprinkled with sand.  

I hate bamboo unless a panda is holding it. French Country is not my style, and beachy is most certainly not my style. 

Why must I have a defined style? 

Why can't my style be, "However much crap can I buy from Ikea for under $500"?

Why do I have to have a specific color? 

As I see it, it's our house. If CB likes it, and I like it, and we walk in and it puts a smile on our face, who cares if it's a total hodgepodge of styles and colors? I don't exactly have The Every Girl knocking down my door to photograph my, "Chic Dallas Bungalow".

So who cares?!?!!

Perhaps she owns stock in bamboo and I'm missing the whole point of her style aggression. 

P.S. What style is that in my photo up there? That's my style, so what's it called for the next time this lady tries to maul me at Lula B's? 

Hard Work and Determination || The Brandon Burlsworth Story

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and GREATER Productions but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #GREATERMovie #GreaterTheMovie http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

I don't know about you, but I have been a total Olympic junkie so far for the Rio Olympics. I am not sure why, but I don't remember watching much of the London Olympics, but I've been all in on Rio. I don't discriminate on sports, I've watched literally everything from volleyball to ping pong. On that note, you gotta watch some ping pong before it's all over, those guys are wacko x100 and I love it. 

I'm especially a sucker for the stories that pull at your heartstrings... which is pretty much all of them. The adversity that many of these athlete's have faced is astounding, and their perseverance is exceptional. Like the 41 year old gymnast, Oksana Chusovitina, competing in her SEVENTH Summer Olympic Games and has a child the same age as the girls she was competing against on vault, or Simone Manuel (from Texas!) who became the first African American woman to ever win an Olympic Gold Medal in swimming!  

I grew up as a die hard athlete, playing any and all sports, as long as it didn't involve kicking a ball with my feet (read: soccer wasn't for me). Basketball was my drink of choice, and I worked year-round at honing my skills. As the daughter of a great collegiate basketball player who never quit until he accomplished his goals, it was instilled in me from the second I picked a basketball up that I had to work hard if I wanted to be great. I was a gym rat all year long, I knew there was really no such thing as an offseason. 

The one thing that every successful athlete has in common is their constant desire to be the first in the gym, the last to leave and the one who always gives 110%. This is true for the Olympians setting records, this is true for the Olympians who are defying the odds of age and race and gender and this is true for a young man named Brandon Burlsworth.  

Brandon inspired a new movie, GREATER, which comes out in theaters August 26th. I was lucky enough to be one of the few able to pre-screen this movie, and it couldn't have been better timing with the motivational olympics currently happening, and my mom, my number one fan and support system, in town from Virginia. 

Now, I am obsessed with football movies that were inspired by true stories. I've seen Remember the Titans approximately 456 times, and The Blind Side 237 times. I'd probably have watched the Blind Side more, but I have a hard time dealing with Lee Anne Tyohy's intense dislike of my beloved alma mater, The University of Tennessee! Totally kidding, kinda. GO VOLS! 

Well Brandon's story, also set around the greatest conference in the world, the SEC (just my opinion, of course) is about the hard work and perseverance it took for Brandon to become the greatest walk on in the history of college football. Brandon's high school coaches told him, quite frankly, he wasn't very good at football. He was uncoordinated and gangly, but he had a desire and work ethic that paralleled no one. His brother, who was 16 years older acted as a father figure to Brandon, supporting him every step of the way, and his mother was his number one fan and motivator. 

To be a great athlete, it honestly takes so much more than skill. It takes passion and an incredible support system. My mom and dad were just that, they were there for me every shot, every loss, every let down, every accomplishment, every win, ever setback... they were there for me. Just like Brandon's mom and brother who were his rock and his constant support system. 

I don't want to ruin the movie for you, but Brandon, who was told he'd never play a down at the University of Arkansas took that as motivation to be the best. He was the first on the field, and the last to leave. Brandon eventually earned first team All-American honors. Amazing, huh?

This movie is so much more than a football movie though. It will make you feel like you can do absolutely anything you set your mind to. It'll make you want to support the ones you love, and it will make them want to lift you up in return. The move is about football, family and having faith in yourself and your abilities, whether you were born with those abilities or not. 

Brandon will make you want to take on the world. Whether you are an athlete, a blogger on a mission to make a living by being your own boss, or whatever your passion is, you need to do yourself a favor and go see GREATER when it comes out in theaters a week from Friday, August 26th. 

Here is a sneak peak, I promise you'll dig it.