House Reveal!

Hi everyone!  Jimmy and I are going to Phish in Atlantic City this afternoon...

I wish we could get this POSTER.  It would look so good in my house.  Speaking of, I never showed you guys these pictures of my house.  They were taken right before Jimmy's parents came to visit.  I think it looks pretty amazing.

What do you think?  I love it when my house is ready for a party!  I also love that picture of Jimmy and me (Taken Here) in the above photo. He gave it to me for my birthday last year.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Check out the Beacham & Co Pinterest board for fab bedrooms.

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Jimmy and I are ENGAGED!!!

JIMMY AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!

I could not possibly be more excited.  I am so in love with him and cannot believe I am lucky enough to spend every single day with him for the rest of my life.  I know you guys don't know Jimmy as well as you know me, so I wanted to tell you a little bit about him...

Jimmy is the happiest person I've ever known.  Every single little thing I do is better when he is around.  He has the best attitude, and he just makes things more joyful.  He has this laugh that is my favorite sound.  It's so loud and infectious.  He makes me FUNNIER because I want to hear it.  He makes this really loud hoot and then doubles over and just starts laughing so much.  Sometimes, if it's really funny, he cries.  That's when I know he is happiest.  He once laughed so hard that he fell on the floor crying.  It's a trait he shares with the rest of his family.  I love being with all of them.  They are all just as happy as Jimmy, and when I am with them I laugh so hard that I cry too!

That's the main reasons I got to all the Phish shows with him.  I clearly LOVE Phish... but I was really more of a "go when they are near Atlanta" type girl.  Then I met Jimmy.  He travels to see them all the time.  This Summer will be his 100th show.  We have been to tons of shows together.  All my family and friends say, "you've heard them so many times, how can you possibly want to go anymore?"  I want to go to see Jimmy's face.  It just lights up...  He gets so excited and dances around and just loves it...  and that is my favorite time.  I love seeing him happy more than I love anything else.  I would gladly go to a hundred more shows if I got to see him that happy.

My other favorite thing about Jimmy is that he loves me the most in the world.  Sometimes when he looks at me it just makes my heart want to explode because I know how much he loves me without him even having to tell me... and I love him that much too... and now I get to be with him for the rest of my life.  He is the answer to all of my prayers.  I am the luckiest girl in the entire world... AND I KNOW IT!

Would you like to know how Jimmy proposed to me?

We went on a walk with our dog Charlotte.  We were on the trail at Westminster (where I went to high school) and Jimmy stopped at a bench.  I had no idea why he was stopping...  then he pulled this huge box out of his pocket.  He got down on one knee and said "I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.  Will you marry me?"  Then he opened the box and showed me the most amazing ring I've ever seen.

I said, "yes," and then I just looked at the ring and said, "is the for me?"  I think I was in shock! :)  The ring is so much bigger and so much more than anything I've ever dreamed of getting.  But you know the best part about it?  It's Jimmy's great great grandmother's ring.  I feel so honored that the Macauleys would trust me with something so important.  I will take such good care of it.  It is such a honor to be able to wear it.  A huge thank you to Jimmy's sisters and parents for helping him make such a great decision.

Jimmy and I went over to Murphy's after the proposal, and so many people we love came.  It was sort of an impromptu celebration, and it was perfect!  We had champagne  and toasts.  Then we went over to Atkins Park to meet up with some of our other friends.  Everyone was so happy for us, and we were so happy too!!  I felt like my face was going to fall off from smiling so much!

On Saturday we did the most appropriate thing EVER to celebrate: Jimmy Buffett!  It was such an amazing treat to have everyone with us.  We had members of my family and Jimmy's family, and Mac (basically Jimmy's brother) and some of his family there.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.

On Sunday we went to tell Ya.  Ya has worked for my family for 28 years (since I was born).  When we told her the good news her exact words were, "Praise Jesus," and "When are you having a baby?"  Some things never change.

After we saw Ya we went over to Jimmy's house.  We had dinner with Mac (who we love so much)... took the three remaining Jello shots from Jimmy Buffett...

... and watched Kenny Rogers on stage with Phish at Bonnaroo.  It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.  Thank you so much to everyone who made it so special!  Thank you to our wonderful families and friends.  We loved getting all the Facebook posts and notes of love and encouragement.  This will be the most fun year of our lives, and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

-Blayne

P.S. One of the first things I did was change the name of my pinterest board.  DUH.

Serenbe is Cool, So is Valentine's Day

I can hear it now...  "oh, your Valentine's Day was just so great because it was your first one.  Wait until you get older, Valentine's Day is the worst." Well... whatever.

It was my first Valentine's Day with Jimmy, and it was perfect.  Couldn't have been better...  so sorry to all you guys who hate Valentines Day.  You can stop reading now.

If you Love Love (Ginny Branch), you can read on...

We started our weekend by going to see Trey Anastasio (lead singer of Jimmy's number one love, PHISH) perform with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.  It was a great show.  Trey preformed many classic Phish tunes such as YEM and Divided Sky.  He also preformed some songs by the Trey Anastasio Band.  It was interesting hearing all the songs changed form their traditional arrangements into orchestral pieces.  I liked Water in the Sky best.  It was such a beautiful song.

Another highlight of the evening was this violinist's sweet Prada shoes.  I was captivated...

A couple in the back got engaged dring the show, which was such a special moment.  Trey congratulated them and dedicated YEM to them, where he teased "Here Comes the Bride."  I am into romantic stuff, so I thought was was really special.

Speaking of romantic things, Friday Jimmy sent me these beautiful flowers...

Didn't he do a great job?  Along with the flowers came tickets to Willie Nelson.  NO WAY!!!???!!!

Seeing Willie Nelson was on my bucket list.  Did you know he is 79 years old?  Can you believe it?  I had never seen him live and was dying to see him when he was at the Tabernacle.  Jimmy surprised me with tickets, and we went Sunday night.

Since seeing Willie Nelson was such a huge deal for me, I was fairly panicked about what I could do for Jimmy that could even come close to matching that.  Luckily I had the stroke of genius to call Nan Haverty, one of our agents here at Beacham & Company.  Nan and I do a lot of work together with me photographing her listings.  Her husband helped develop Serenbe, which is a sustainable community in Palmetto, GA.  There is a great town square with wonderful food and shops.  There is also a wide spectrum of real estate and a horse barn with ample acreage.  I asked her a for a HUGE FAVOR.  I asked if it would be ok for Jimmy and me to stay in her house at Serenbe for Valentines Day.

9015 Selborne Lane is currently for sale and is absolutely breathtaking.  I was so thankful when she said Jimmy and I could stay there!

That just left one more thing I needed to figure out, a Valentine's present for Jimmy.  I thought and thought about it, and solicited help from all of his friends (sorry-- I am very annoying).

I was so excited about Jimmy's present I almost couldn't stand the ride to Serenbe...  As soon as we walked in, I put in on the breakfast table and made him open it.

A record player?  WHAT?!?  I know!!!  Isn't that an awesome present?  I know what you're thinking, "How could someone who loves music that much not own a record player?"  I was confused myself.  After exhaustive research I settled on this Hype record player from Urban Outfitters.   Pros: it's portable, it has built in speakers, it has an AUX out so it can be plugged into surround sound, it looks cool.  Cons: It's fairly cheap and can break easily.  It was the best choice for me at the time, and Jimmy thinks it was the right one, SO YEA BLAYNE.  In addition to this record player I gave him my entire collection of records, which has taken a lifetime to build.  It includes classic albums by artists such as: The Beatles, Grateful Dead, Pure Prairie Legue, The Marshall Tucker Band, and Jimmy Buffett.  Yea, I know, I am an amazing girlfriend.

It seems Jimmy thinks so as well...

See how happy he is?  I know.  It's pretty cute.

After present opening time we went to The Hil Restaurant, which was amazing.

Yea for Valentine's dinner!

These were homemade potato chips with Vidalia onion dip!  yum.

After dinner we went back to Nan's house where I got excited about how beautiful it looked at night, so I took a few pictures.  You can see Jimmy walking on the porch in that picture if you look closely.

Isn't that breathtaking?

This is a view of the pool house from the house at night.

This was the view this morning outside my room to the pool house.  Doesn't that look peaceful?

While Jimmy packed the car, I walked around to the front of the house and took this picture.

And then walked up to the front porch to see this view.  I could have stayed forever, but alas, we both had to get back to work.

I made Jimmy stop the car to get this shot.  Photographers say that the best time to take pictures are at dawn and dusk.  Since I make it a rule to only be awake for one of those times, I was taking full advantage of the light this morning...

We waved good bye to these guys as we pulled away...

and caught our last glimpse of the country as we made our way back to the highway.

Cheers to an amazing first Valentines Day Jimmy.  I'm so in love with you.

-Blayne

P.S. Nan, thank you so much for making this little trip possible.  Your home is so beautiful, and we were so lucky to get to stay there!  You're the best!

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Phish... and a restoration???

Well, here we are in the new year!  Hi!  Are you loving 2012?

I had the nicest Christmas/New Years break with Jimmy.  (yea, I know... I talk about Jimmy all the time.  What are you gonna do?  I'm going to show you guys a house, so I get to talk about Jimmy as much as I want.  A deal's a deal! -- see the results.)

We started out our visit in North Carolina where his mom's family lives.  We went to his aunt's house for lunch.  You may remember her from the kitchen she designed in Jimmy's grandma's house.  She has a great eye for design, and I was really looking forward to seeing her house.  Her home used to belong to Jimmy's grandmother's sister (great aunt?).  She lovingly restored/renovated it and did an amazing job!  There were so many unique things about the house I had to take pictures so I could share them with you.  I found out later my camera was actually on the brink of death, so forgive me if these pictures are not my best.  One more side note...  Jimmy's aunt had an awesome lunch for us.  It was so great that I got distracted and forgot to take a picture of the kitchen.  #totalfail  Don't blame me though, I was on vacation and didn't have my head totally in the game.  Ha.

This is the foyer, which I love.  Why?  I love a glass front door.  It's nice to be able to open the wood door and see out to the front yard.  I also like the wood floors.  The man in the picture is Jimmy's grandfather.  Unfortunately he died before I got to meet him, but everyone in the family raves about how kind he was.

This is the other side of the foyer.  I was really drawn to the bronze wallpaper.  I tried to get a close up of it...

Aren't those pretty imperfections?

This is the formal living room.  I love those bay windows.  They looked like iron to be, but I am not positive.  You may notice Jimmy's sisters in this photo :)

This is the fireplace in the living room.  I loved the carvings on the mantel!

I really like the dining room a lot!  The China Cabinets probably had the most space of any I have ever seen.

See?

Here is the solarium.  Loving the oversized windows and brick floors.  You guys know I am a sucker for brick floors.  Duh.

His aunt told me that she chose these Christmas decorations to echo the bronze in the foyer.  How clever is that?  I would never have thought of it and really admire the fact that she did.  The decorations look amazing.  Let's walk outside.

This is the other side of the window we were just looking through...

and here is the back patio.  Is that flagstone?  Or maybe bluestone?  It looks great.  I love the size of the stone.

Here is a view of the home from the pond in the back yard.  They put in a lot of landscaping that all looks so natural and lush (even in December!).

More landscape and the pond :)

Lets head back in show I can show you my favorite room!

We are heading up the stairs.  I put in this picture of the window seat because that's Jimmy's favorite place in the house.  He said he would hang out there a lot when he was a little boy.... awww.

We end in my favorite room.  She vaulted this ceiling and added the beams, which really opened up the space.  The recessed lighting is such a nice touch because it really lightens up the room.  We had such a nice time sitting and talking in this room, and before we left we even got to have a fire in that great fireplace!  Jimmy's sisters hung out on that bench seat in the corner.  I love it now, but wouldn't that have been such a cool nook as a kid?  Jimmy's family has been visiting this house for their whole lives and were kind enough to share all their childhood memories with me.  I can imagine this would have been quite the place to explore as a child.

Here is a closer look at the craftsmanship on the ceiling.  They even had a stained glass window made and put up in the corner.  If my camera had not been failing every other shot I would have had a picture of it for you.  Sorry!  Just believe me that it was beautiful.

Here is the other side of the room, which had great buil-ins!  If I were in high school/college I would have done all my studying here... it just makes me feel studious.

A close up of the fireplace where we had the fire...

This is the coolest balcony off the room.  It was warm enough to open the doors and go out there for a little while, which was so pleasant!

Finally we have Jimmy just doing a little hanging out in the room.  Can't you imagine him there as a child?  No?  Let me see if I can help you out a little...

How's that?  I KNOW, RIGHT!!!  CUTEST BABY EVER!  Thanks for letting me use that picture :)  And thank you to Jimmy's aunt for having us over for a wonderful holiday lunch!  I love your house!

Moving along...  What did we do the rest of the break?

Phish MSG night 1...

Phish MSG night 2...

Phish MSG night 3...

Phish NYE and MSG...

And my new years dress!!!  Success! And see how I am trying to make my arm look skinny?  Success.

Did I have fun?  Yes.  Am I glad it's over?  No.  What was my favorite song they played?  46 days.  What song got stuck in my head the most?  Quinn the Eskimo.  What was my favorite set?  NYE set 3.  "How were you able to make it through four nights?  Didn't you get tired?"  Yes...  but it was totally worth it!   Am I glad Jimmy took me?  Absolutely.  Thank you so much honey.  I had a wonderful time.

HAPPY 2012 everybody!!!

Let's sell some houses this year!

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Flocking to the Gorge...

The Gorge rocked.  It was better than I could have ever expected!  Camping?  Great!  Phish?  Awesome!  New friends?  Sweet! The Gorge?  Amazing!

We flew into Seattle and met up with our friends Dani, Ryan and Graham.  We rented a car and started the trip to George, Washington (where the Gorge is located.)

We stopped for a casual grocery store run on the way.  Dani (that's her on the right with her phone) and I thought we had the car packed pretty well, right?

Clearly the boys didn't think so....

Ha ha ha.  After they got it all fixed back the way they wanted we were back on the road.

We passed this beautiful windfarm on the way.  I have never seen one this close before, and it was beautiful...

I took this photo on the way into the Gorge on my phone.  I've never seen anything like this in my life.  It was so cool to look out and see all the boats (not in this picture).  I spend most of my time on Lake Lanier and Lake Blackshear, so this was very different :)

On the way in we stopped at this amazing hotel/winery.  It was called Cave B and was breathtaking.  It was about a mile and a half from our campsite.  I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the winery to the campsite.

This is a picture of the main building as we walked in from the parking lot.  I was immediately drawn to the roof line.  I did some research and found out that the hotel was designed by Olson Kundig Architects. Huge props to them.  The hotel had a very modern yet organic feel to it.... as if it belonged in the side of the mountain, but was still cutting-edge.

I grabbed this image of the view walking in through the vineyard from their website.  Do you love?

There were these very cool cliffside houses.

We of course walked up to the hotel to check it out.

I saw this very cool chandelier inside, which I would describe as industrial organic.  Sorry for the terrible picture.  I did not want to take all my camera equipment, but was impressed by how well my Canon Powershot preformed.  This being the one exception.

Then we walked over to the winery for a wine tasting.  Doesn't everyone do this before a Phish concert?  Ha ha.  I thought so.  It was such a great deal... we got 10 tastes for $6.  It was a great way to spend an hour.

Before we head over to the campsite I want to take a moment to tell you about Dani (as I always say... it's my blog so I can do that if I want.  You thought you were coming here to look at houses?  he he)

Dani is the girl on the right.  She came with her awesome boyfriend Ryan, and we had a blast hanging out with them.

Dani has the best style ever!  I was totally obsessed with the necklace she had on at the tasting.  She owns an hip boutique in Boston called Flock. I really want to go to Boston just to shop there, but I am afraid I would come home with no money.  I love her website and her style.

If you know about my bird obsession you may be able to figure out why I like her style and the name of her boutique. :)  So if any of you guys are from Boston please go check out her store.... and then report back and make me jealous!

Back to the story of the Gorge :)

We went over and picked out our campsite, which was toward the back and fairly quiet (luckily)....

This was the view in front of us.  Not bad, huh?

After we set up camp it was time to walk to the Gorge...  which was actually a pretty far walk....  and after you just didn't want to walk anymore you crested this hill and saw this...

Can you believe the view?  I have never seen anything like it.  Ever.  It's hard to get a sense of the scale because the stage is at the bottom of a huge hill, but the stage is massive.

This shows the perspective a little bit better.  :)

I love this picture.  For those of you who suffered with me through what to pack, what do you think?  Good choice?  It was a fairly painful packing process, but I was pretty happy with what I chose.  I even rocked those feather earrings, which is a fairly bold choice for me, but I thought it was appropriate.  :)

Saturday afternoon we hung out at the Cave B pool and just relaxed before the show Saturday night.

Both shows were absolutely amazing.  If you are into Phish at all I highly recommend downloading the shows.  Some of the best I've ever seen.

Thank you guys so much for putting up with my totally personal posts :)  You won't regret it!  I'll be back with an amazing house later this week.  Until then you can occupy your time on the Flock website...

Phish- The Gorge- Help me Pack!

Hi guys!  Guess what time it is?  It's time for another personal post.  Yippie!

So about a month ago I wrote about going to see Phish in Charlotte and Raleigh...  remember when I discovered the perfect kitchen?  Well... I am going again, but this time I am flying across the country to Washington.  I'm so excited.... so excited.

I'm going with my boyfriend, Jimmy.  (I know... he's so cute!)  I was telling my mom the other day that I don't think I have ever been this excited for a trip in my life, which is saying something because I LOVE going on trips.

I am excited about this trip for so many reasons.  First, the venue is supposed to be amazing.  There is really nothing behind the band... it just sort of drops off into the gorge.  I've seen Phish at a lot of different venues but never anywhere like this.  I might go to see it even if Phish wasn't playing!  I've also never seen anything like this period. I've never been to the Grand Canyon or even spent much time on the West Coast... so all very exciting.

Second, we are camping.  If you know me at all you can go ahead and stop laughing.  I know.  It's funny.  I am very much an inside girl.  About 6 months ago I decided I wanted to get into camping.  I haven't really camped since Discovery at Westminster, and that was kind of a disaster.  I enjoy things like washing my hair and sleeping in a bed.  I decided I wanted to get into it as a challenge to myself.  It's always good to do things that make you uncomfortable in order to grow as a person.  Well, camping makes me a little uncomfortable.  I have been talking such a big game though that I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  (plus the phish aspect.  duh)

Apparently what I am going to do is less camping in the tradition sense (see the serene picture I used at first) and more like a big party.  When I was searching for pictures of camping at The Gorge I came across these amazing photos by Matthew J. Van Deventer on his blog.  What a talented photographer, and I think the pictures really tell the story.  I thought I would include a few so you can get an idea and just because they are so pretty!

I included this picture not so much because of the feeling, but more because it's just so beautiful!  Isn't it?  Can you believe the feeling portrayed in that shot?

I love this picture too... just hanging out before the show.  I am very intrigued by this photographic process.  It looks like HDR to me, but how could it be?  In HDR you combine 3 images, but if he did that the jumprope would be moving.  I wish I could figure it out because I think it would be ver cool to use on some of our listing photos.

I love this picture of this girl brushing her teeth with the bottle of water!  1. it's AWESOME, and 2. it seems to give a pretty good idea of what it will be like.

I don't know if you guys do this too, but before I go on a trip I spend so much time in my head trying to figure out what it will be like.  Especially this, since it is so far out of my comfort zone and so far beyond anything I've ever done.  I think these pictures give a great idea of what it will be like, but at the end of the day I am still having trouble imagining it.

Allow me, if you will, to be totally self-indulgent for a minute.  Well, I guess it's my blog, so I can do what I want....  but I am having this problem with packing.  There is so much going into the decision.  First, there is the thing about us actually being outside the whole time (not to mention is should be 90 in the daytime and 60 at night), so you would think fashion was not a priority... but then there is the whole "first trip with a new boyfriend have to look super-cute thing."  Stressful!  ha ha.  (I know, what a life, right?)

I really want to bring this necklace.  You know I like birds a lot, plus it's durable... so that's good, right?  You never know what kind of dancing I might be doing :)

I am going to bring this one too.  Birds.  I know.  I have a problem.  What about clothes?

I love this dress so much.  I got it on my trip to Venice when I was 17.  It is so lightweight that it would be perfect in 90 degree heat.  The only problem is that it is white.  Do you think it will get too dirty?  I guess it can always be bleached.  (do you love my mirrors?)

I love this dress.  I got it from Rachel Farmer after she daughter ordered the wrong size for prom.  Lucky me!  It is orange (brand=T-Bags), and I was thinking it would be great to wear on the plane with a cute sweater (you know it gets cold on those planes!).  What are your thoughts?

This shirt is awesome.  It is silk and the straps are braided.   I wore it to the Furthur show the other night and was impressed with how roomy and breezy it was.  I got it on sale at Anthropologie if you're interested :)

And finally I want to bring this awesome shirt!  This is the back.

And here is the front.  I literally cannot say enough nice things about this shirt!  It is from my friend Dana Spinola's store Fab'rik. If you have not been to this store, GO!  I love it.  Amazing finds that won't break the bank.  It is definitely my new favorite boutique in Atlanta.  I have gotten so many of my favorite summer outfits there... including this shirt.  I wore it hiking the other day and it was so great.  Of course it was about 100 degreese, but the open back was so nice and kept me cool.  I am looking forward to breaking it out in Washington (plus, who doesn't love an american flag shirt at a concert... duh.).  Again, go to Fab'rik.  You won't be sorry. :)

So... that's all I have so far.  What do you guys think?  To much?  What should I leave behind and what else should I bring?

I leave on Thursday and I am so excited!  To see the play by play you can always friend me on facebook (Blayne Beacham).  I will upload pictures throughout the trip, but I will also write a post about it when I get back home :)

Wish me luck! :)

And remember to enter to win Wicked tickets!