For those who don’t know, I grew up in Germany.  My dad was in the Army and was stationed over there during the glory years of my childhood.  The first two years were spent in Garmisch, in the Bavarian Alps. After that, we moved to Stuttgart, which wasn’t quite as picturesque, but we took plenty of trips around Germany, Austria and Switzerland, staying in quaint, family-run “Gasthaus”es.  It’s the equivalent to a bed & breakfast in the US.  Many of them were half-timber homes with shutters at the windows, large balconies with overflowing window boxes and small cafes set up outside for dining. I remember the pine beds, “feather deckers”, sheer, lacy curtains at the windows and Bavarian accents like Cuckoo Clocks and stag antlers. To me, this look feels like “home.”   I carried some of these elements into my own guestroom… These strong memories of my childhood were the

What an overwhelming trip to Alabama I just had!  (In a good way.) To set the stage a bit, I got a text a few months ago from Layla of The Lettered Cottage, asking if I’d be interested in coming to Alabama for a “little” antique market. Tempting…but it’s a long way.  860 miles to be exact.  I sort of tucked the idea on the shelf of things that I would like to do, but probably won’t out of practicality.  I knew the answer would be no, but I thought I would ask my husband, anyway.  So, I did.  And, after some discussion and weighing everything out, he said yes!  Really?!  I texted Layla right away to let her know we were in. Fast forward to last Thursday…our van and trailer were packed with furniture, lavender, boxwood wreaths, scales, typewriters, ironstone and all kinds of goodness.  We left at 4:00

Soooo… I was at a wedding yesterday and then we drove home into the wee hours of the night.  I woke up this morning to check on my blog and I see that quite a conversation had been going on about bloggers (me specifically) and sponsored posts.  I have been sitting here for a while, trying to figure out if and how I was going to address it.  I think in this case, I just need to be a big girl and recognize that putting myself out there means that sometimes I’m going to receive some constructive criticism and that’s okay. So, instead of making a case for sponsored content, which many of you did already, I thought I would make promises to my readers about how I will approach sponsored posts. I know I have gained your trust as a blogger and I take that seriously.  I don’t ever