Recently...

The past few weeks have been busy with thing like the premier of the latest Harry Potter movie, a pool party, praise and worship nights, a blood drive, a bachelor party, and studying the book of Mark with our Community Group.


While waiting in line for Harry Potter, Kyle ate the largest rice krispy treat I've ever seen! On the right is our latest project. We bought a chair on Craigslist with the idea that it would be recovered. I pulled some affordable fabric options, and we decided on the red ikat fabric at the top right - except in green. I can't wait to see the result, and I'll be sure to post pictures when it's finished! It is quite funny to me though - several of our friends are against us recovering it. The chair isn't in bad shape at all, but it's just not quite my style. :) I knew it would be a great piece because it is by Hickory Chair, a company I use a lot at work. I've been to their manufacturing facilities, and I know this chair will last as long as we would like to keep it!

It's really hard to believe that our one year anniversary is coming up this weekend! We are heading to Charlotte to stay at the Ballantyne Hotel, where we stayed on our wedding night. Looking back to a year ago, I was miserable - I had a tear in my esophagus in the week before the wedding! It was very painful, but Kyle was great - he helped me pack up all of my stuff and moved it to our apartment! I'm so thankful for an amazing husband, and I look forward to many more years to come!

And - we got a universal remote! Now there is only one remote to lose!

The 4th of July

Kyle and I took a "staycation" over the 4th. Instead of going away for the weekend, we enjoyed spending time at home.


The Joel Lane House is literally across the street from where we live. They were having an open house on the 4th, so we took the opportunity to check it out and learn a little bit about the history of our city and state. Joel Lane was instrumental in making Raleigh the capital city. It's crazy to think that this house was around before anything else; now it is crowded by businesses and town homes.


It wouldn't be the 4th without hamburgers and hotdogs! We ventured just a bit further to get some food from Chargrill. I like the new designs that Coke has out for the summer!

Also on Saturday, the 13th

My friend Sean (who I've known since middle school) got married about a month ago to his lovely bride Jamie! They met the same summer that Kyle and I did - and in a similar way - through a Summer Beach Project with Campus Outreach. I remember talking to Sean that summer, telling him about getting to know Kyle and hearing about the beginning of his relationship with Jamie. I hated that we were unable to go to their wedding since it was a destination wedding in the Bahamas, but we saw the newly-weds last weekend at their reception in Shelby. They used the same wedding photographer that we did - I can't wait to see more shots from their big day!


Haha... I like this picture because it is such a Sean face, and Jamie looks beautiful! What a gorgeous setting!

Kyle and I with Mr. and Mrs. Collins at their tropical-themed reception. Kyle had fun with the decor. Congratulations Sean & Jamie!!

Lake Trip Awesomeness

This past weekend, we headed to Lake Norman to stay at my grandparent's house and spend the weekend with members of our Community Group. The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time growing deeper in community! We started off Saturday morning with a time of prayer and praise. I think you can see from the pictures what we did during the rest of the trip:




Jumbo tried (unsuccessfully) to catch the ball in his mouth. Katie enjoys a very delicious slice of watermelon.




Kyle jumped off the double-decker dock... several times.

The whole group! What a fun weekend! (You may recognize some of the crowd from the latest Harry Potter poster featured below.)

Movie Night

Kyle created this for our first movie night, taking place in a few weeks after our usual Monday Community Group gathering. Any guesses to what we are watching? ;)

Kyle's New Toys

Now let's see if I know what all of these remotes are for: the tv, blu-ray player, ipod dock, speakers, ceiling fan, dvr box, receiver, and the dvd player. Whew! (And that doesn't even include our Wiimotes!) Half of these arrived in the last week, and Kyle and I just finished watching our second movie in blu-ray (and the first movie with the new speakers - the new 007 movie was intense!) Kyle did an amazing job researching what he wanted - and finding great deals on all of it!

Consider this your invitation to come over for a movie! We certainly don't have all this to keep it to ourselves - it is our hope that our home would facilitate fun times with good friends.

Recent projects at work!

After five years of college and three internships, I absolutely love working on real projects and getting to see my designs come to life! Here are some recent shots I took on the job.


Not your typical client meeting: Brittany meets with a client to select paint colors on the side walk outside of our office. And to the left, wallpaper I selected for a laundry room - I love how it looks installed!


An all-cream master bathroom with an onyx tile floor. On the right, I love the corner chairs that flank the entrance to this room, the paint color, and the cornices!


On the left, a lovely chair from Hickory Chair, one of my favorite companies based out of Hickory, NC. The fireplace on the right was one of the first things I designed when I was an intern, and I got to see the result a few weeks ago! (The screened doors to the left allow remote signals to pass through, without all the electronics being seen.)

Saturday, the 13th

This past Saturday, our good friends Ashleigh and Justin tied the knot after dating for five years. We traveled to the other side of the state for their big day, and it was such a fun wedding! So fun that I didn't take very many pictures, so some of these I stole from Facebook.

Wedding colors - marigold and navy.

To the left is Rachel, myself, and Sara. We were all in Community Group together, along with Ashleigh. This was actually Rachel's last day in North Carolina - she went straight from the wedding, with her car packed, to Orlando. We'll miss you!

Ashleigh's beautiful bridal portraits by Blend Photography.

Dancing! I loved the bridesmaid dresses (from J. Crew), modeled by Holly. At one point, the groomsmen surrounded Ashleigh on the dance floor - she had fun with it!

One fun fact: Ashleigh's maiden name is Bishop, as is mine! And her sister's name is Lauren. It was the first time I'd ever met another Lauren Bishop!

Ashleigh and Justin: Congratulations! What a beautiful day to get married! As Taylor said, 50% of marriages end in divorce today, but not this one! And not because of anything that you do, but because of what God has done for you. We love you both!

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Graphics by Brittany, Hilaire, and yours truly.

Living in Community

Kyle and I have been going to Vintage 21 Church for over two and a half years now. We got involved in a Community Group not too long after that, and then after we got married we were asked to consider leading a group. We certainly didn't feel ready - for one thing, we'd just bought our first place and had hardly any furniture! Where would everyone sit? How were we going to eat together each week?

We were still figuring things out as a couple, and we knew there were many areas in our lives that we wanted to improve. But we felt God calling us to trust him, and since February, we've seen him bring our group together to grow closer to him. We've had an incredible crowd - people of different ages and in different stages of life, with different backgrounds and interests. But we share one thing in common: we enjoy getting together every week! We look at the Bible, ask questions when we have doubts, pray for and encourage each other constantly, and look for ways we can love others just as Christ loves us.


It has been such a blessing in our lives! Our group gets together outside of our Monday night meetings - we go out together, we have a praise and worship night once a month, we have a women's prayer night, and our group volunteers at the church in many different areas - everything from the kid's ministry to the design team to cleaning the building, and we have a lot of fun when we're around each other! I pray that God would continue to spiritually grow our group, and I look forward to seeing what He does.

Want to join us? We meet on Mondays at 7pm.