A Special Jacket in a Special Place

Spring is finally here and we’re having typical spring weather - hot and then cold again, but everything is getting so green, the hydrangeas are coming out and it’s really just so beautiful! One of my favorite things to do before the weather gets too warm is to bring a charcuterie board out to our little gazebo and nibble on the cheese and have a glass of wine! The gazebo is original to the house and both will be 100 years old in 1933! It truly is one of my favorite things about the house…but, we’re going to do a big kitchen renovation and it’s going to have to be torn down. I’m a little nostalgic because the gazebo. has been such a part of our family celebrations from weddings to baby showers to birthday parties! There have been so many beautiful memories made under that little roof!

I’ve been talking about our renovation for a while now and it’s finally coming together! We got plans back from our architect on Tuesday and I’m very excited. The plans include a major master bath/closet renovation as well as making the kitchen much larger and opening it up into our den so we have a big family space! The upstairs bathroom/closet renovation will be first and is estimated to be finished in September and then in January of 2025, we’ll start the kitchen! It’s crazy how long these things take but I don’t want the kitchen to be torn apart during the holidays…they are chaotic enough!

I’m planning to document the whole journey of our renovation on YouTube with snippets on Instagram and of course, here so I hope you’ll follow along!

That was a longwinded way to start this post, but when I look at the gazebo, it makes me a little sad! I’ve mentioned trying to reconstruct another one if we have room so we’ll see…it just seems like such a big part of the original house!

This fabulous jacket is from Sezane and oh my do I ever love it! I think it’s seasonless and more and more, I look for pieces that can be worn often in more than one season and that are timeless! This jacket is definitely in that category! It’s made from goat suede and in my opinion, well priced and very classic! I styled it over a white blouse from Brochu Walker, another classic piece and my favorite white blouse…along with distressed straight leg jeans from Mother (mine are old - similar here) and suede booties from Veronica beard. It also looks great with a v-neck white tee (my favorite brand is Perfect White Tee) and would also obviously be great with black! I haven’t had a chance to play around with other styling options yet, but I’m sure it’ll be one of my most worn pieces!

I get lots of questions about the strand of pearls I’m wearing here. They are from a local boutique and I’ve had them forever! They’re made with an old strand of pearls with a chunky chain attached and I love the contrast! I wear them often because they’re so unusual and seem to go with everything! I found a few necklaces on Etsy that I like…they’re not really similar, just fun pearls! As you probably know, getting on Etsy is like going down a rabbit whole and there is so much more there so be sure to take a look for yourself!

We have a somewhat new cheese shop in Carroboro NC which is just down the road from us and they have the most amazing cheese selection! It’s called…wait for it…The Cheese Shop!

Even though the name isn’t the most original, the cheese is spectacular and they have packed an amazing selection of delicious cheeses into a small space! I ran over to Carrboro the other day and took some pictures and of course, bought some cheese to enjoy in the gazebo! I’m working on a blog post and I think you’ll love it! I’ve been doing a series mostly on TikToc called Build-a-Bite where I build an interesting cheese bite with a combination of flavors using condiments, pickles, fruit and more! I’ll be sharing some of those combinations that’ll be great for your spring and summer charcuterie boards! You can look for that post on Monday!

I hope your weekend is off to a good start! We are actually having a very relaxing weekend and getting some things done around the house!

Thanks so much for reading today and as always…your comments are so appreciated!