Lilly Pulitzer Hostess Bar Cart

With summer coming, I have been dreaming of long summer nights out on our deck. We pretty much live out there during summer. Last year I posted about getting some new outdoor Ashley furniture, which held up great! This year we added a hanging egg/basket swing to our outdoor collection (I will have to share the adventure in getting that thing home!) and we plan to add a nice fire pit and one more little side table. I WOULD like a hot tub. Maybe someday!

When I purchased the Lilly Pulitzer Painted Palm tray from Poshmark (That site is dangerous!) I had planned to just set it on our outdoor table to serve drinks or appetizers. Then the idea of making my bar cart 'Lilly' themed popped in my head.. and when I get an idea, I obsess over it, especially if the idea requires me to go shopping! So, after I sold a kidney, I started hunting down cute Lilly Pulitzer stuff to add to my bar cart. I am only about a year into Lilly, so I didn't really know WHAT I was looking for.. honestly, it was rather recently I discovered there were Lilly Pulitzer cups.

So with that said, I ended up with a pile of stuff I didn't really have a plan for. I just bought ALL the things! I picked out my favorites and stuck with a pink, green, and gold theme.

Before I got started setting up the cart, I decided to paint it. It was originally a muted gold, but I picked up some metallic champagne spray paint and changed up the color. I absolutely LOVE how it came out. 

Also, don't spray paint in your garage with the door closed. I might know a gal who was dumb enough to do that. But introvert Tamara knew her neighbors were outside and didn't want to talk to them. So.. yeah. Lost a few brain cells in the process, but as you see by that paint job, it was worth it.

Brain cells are over-rated anyways.

So.. here it is. In all it's bright and beautiful Lilly glory!

Yes.. For a 'bar' cart, it's surely lacking alcohol. Kinda need that! I don't really plan to store alcohol on the cart as we have 107 kids running around this place and don't need alcohol just sitting around looking like fruit juice. Plus, there wouldn't be room for all my Lilly goodies or that cheap looking fake plant.

I was able to find several pieces for my cart, since they are older, at TJmaxx or Marshalls. Love a good deal! Seth thinks a better deal is not buying it at all.. but he's silly.

What life does he live where you do NOT haaaave to buy gold seahorse wine bottle stopper? Do you see that cuteness!?

The appetizer picks (AKA: mini swords for my children to grab and stab each other with) are a recent GWP (gift with purchase) item. I ended up buying these off a member in one of the Lilly Pulitzer BST Facebook groups.. another dangerous place for the (husband's) wallet.

If you follow me on my Instagram @tamaralately ya know one of my favorite cups is this plastic Gumbo Limbo wine glass. Wine glass? Girl, please.. This is a cocktail glass with a lid so ya don't spill the good stuff and a skinny handle so ya don't get a cramp in your hand. Truth.. I have old lady hands and my fingers like to cramp up and go numb. When I have had a few I can grip that mo-fo around the stem and dance around. Not sure if that's a good thing or not?

I just love the Painted Palm pattern and was super happy to find the cups!

The wine glasses (Sea Life) and hi-ball (Costa Verde) were more TJmaxx finds.

I hunted down this Sea Life ice bucket on Mercari. I do know this is currently being seen in Marshalls and TJmaxx stores.. but I was tired of hunting for one so I spent a little more and just grabbed it from Mercari. This was my 'final' piece for the cart and I was getting impatient.

The Sea Life cocktail shaker is fabulous! Probably my favorite piece besides the tray. It's heavy glass and just beautiful! I'll probably never use it as I'll be scared to shake a bit too hard and fling it outta my butter-fingers and send it flying around the house and break it. This piece is also being found at TJmaxx!

Clearly, TJmaxx has been my jam recently.

Let's talk a minute about these flippin cute straws. Dollar Tree you guys! One dolla, make ya holla.. like a flamingo! 

That was kinda lame, but for whatever reason, I'm not deleting that line.

I'm not even sure if flamingos holler.

The Dollar Tree also had pineapple fan straws. #lillyvibes

I'm kinda loving the towel! I found this Kate Spade towel in a two pack at Home Goods. I die cut an iron on vinyl decal and plopped it on there to make it a little more fun. Also.. I will lose my brains if someone DARE uses this towel to actually clean up a spill. What kind of monster uses a cute towel for it's intended purpose anyways?

The garland was a little finishing touch I added last minute. I made it with a mix of felt balls and gold hand painted wood beads. I really think it came out so cute!

Last, but not least! The most spectacular basket, ever! Found at Target. I was going to put a little bag inside it and use it as a waste basket, but I am worried it'll get damaged. So it'll probably just sit there.. all useless.. but looking cute. Kinda like me most days. 

So, what do you think? Do you think I got enough pictures of it? Ha! Who's joining me for cocktails this summer?!

Back at it.. with some news

Hello, friends!

Wow, it's been awhile! Creeping up on a year since I last blogged. I kept promising to get back at blogging.. to blog our honeymoon to Moorea and Bora Bora, etc. but time kept slipping away and then my computer started acting like a fool. I always got so frustrated and just left my posts in draft and stepped away thinking I'd get back to them. Lies.

A lot.. loooot has happened the past several months... and I'm not just talking about the 20lbs I gained. Life is busy with the seven kiddos here. Seems ridiculous, right? I should have tons of down time.. why can't they just take care of themselves? So rude.

One of the biggest things to happen this past year... and I still can't wrap my mind around it.. my husband getting the call for him to deploy. For a year.

A damn year. He leaves in July.

I might be crying.. I literally have cried daily since he told us. It's so random. I'll literally fold his underwear and start tearing up because it's something that'll be missing from my life soon. Ladies, don't take being able to fold your man's chonies for granted!!

OK, seriously though. The thought of him leaving the kids and I for a year is just.. like I really can't think about it or imagine it. I have never done this before and I keep asking him, "How can you just go for a year?" It seems so crazy to me. How do they just take our people from us for so long?! UGH!

The kicker is he was so close to retirement from the Navy. Soooo close. We were both holding out hope he could just lay low until he could retire.. nope. I am sad and just...angry. I have been going through a mix of emotions from sadness to anger. I need to stop being angry though. I am not mad at him.. I am mad at the situation. I am sad because.. well.. we will miss him so damn much. He is my person.

I am very dependent on my husband. It's just who I am. I enjoy his company so much and he is such a 'calm' for me. I like to be taken care of and loved and he is so good at loving me. He does so much around the house to help me. Usually on weekends that he is home I basically just get to sit. He takes care of dinners, etc. He let's me unwind. Yes, I kinda sound like a spoiled brat right now *pouts*, but whatever! We are very close. He is literally my best friend. I don't know how I will do any of this without him. I knew he was still in the Navy when we got together.. he has told me many times this could happen *plugs ears* "Lalalaaa, I can't hear you!". Nothing really prepares you for 'the call'. The last time I felt actual heartbreak like this was when my dad died.

This is all so different for me. I barely get through him being away for a week or two for his regular work travel. All the military spouses I have talked to say you just take one day at a time. But like.. dude.. there's a lot of friggin' days!

Anyhow, I can go on and on about this right now.. but the whole reason I am back at this blog thing is because I told him, if he is leaving, I NEED things to do. Like.. now. I have to keep my mind busy. We have been talking about getting me a new computer for awhile. Finally bit the bullet last week so I can keep my mind busy with blogging again. Even if nobody is reading, it's good to 'talk'.

SO.. hello, again. I will do a post soon kinda updating on where we are and what all has been going on. I did get a little doggy in January.. A yorkie named Winnie.. I mentioned that now because she is currently protecting me from the painted lady butterflies that are all over. They are migrating through here and love our lilac bushes.. but.. they are apparently killers and my 6lb dog is all about the protection on her mama! Fact: Butterflies are scared of barking rats.

Mr. and Mrs.

We did it! We tied the knot! It was one of the most amazing days of my life! I can't believe I get to call this guy my husband.

Yessss.. It has been over a month since I have updated. School got out for summer and well, we have just been so busy! Wedding planning, travel, kids, family.. It's been awesome!

I am finally getting around to sharing our WEDDING! I know I shared some pictures on my Facebook and a few on Instagram, but I wanted to share more details of our awesome day. This post will get long so if you're ready, get comfy and read on.

Some of my blog readers might have came across THIS POST about wedding planning. I had everything figured out.. clothes picked.. simple.. getting married on the beach, etc. Lies. All lies.

I was sitting on the whole 'married on the beach' thing and it just didn't feel like 'us'. I was procrastinating so bad with ordering things we needed like an arch, flowers, etc. I just wasn't really excited to get to planning. I started whining to Seth about not feeling the whole beach wedding thing. We went back and forth about it many times. I think I was getting obnoxious about it..

OK.. I know I was.

Seth's mom mentioned renting a pontoon boat and going that route. At this point I think I was just starting to be difficult for fun because nothing sounded 'good'. At least for five minutes... Then the boat idea sounded good (This is why I let Seth pick all the places we go out to eat and what we do. I can not keep a straight thought for 2 seconds). I kept the boat wedding idea in the back of my head for a bit and then one day I was just like, "I wanna get married on a boat!" and that was that.. We basically planned a boat wedding in about 2.5 weeks. 

*straightens my professional procrastinator hat*

It was kinda... crazy. I know, right? Who would think planning a wedding in a little over two weeks would be crazy? 

For the budget we wanted to stay in, a small catamaran boat was perfect! The issue we hit immediately was the amount of people. The modern Brady bunch here with our pile of children hit a road block. With our guests (Seth's parents, sister and brother in law) plus our kids and ourselves, we had ONE person over what was allowed on the boats we found. 

So I kept an awful close eye on the kids that week to see who acted up the most because they'd be left on the dock with an iPad and fruit snacks.

Kidding.. of course.

One of the companies I came across was Yachtcations in Kemah, TX. I loved their boat, the Brie, so I reached out to them double crossing my fingers. I spoke with Tina who worked there and she said she would get back to me after talking to the captain about the number of people we had. I heard back the next day.. It was bad news. I was so, so sad as there really wasn't anything else and I already had my heart set on getting married on a boat. We ended our call and I started crying. Like a big baby. I sent texts to my soon-to-be- mother in law and Seth and just whined (In case y'all haven't caught on yet, I whine a lot.. and I am good at it) 

Right before I headed out the door to go run some errands that morning, Tina called me back with a glimmer of hope! Because Seth's mom was actually the one marrying us they MIGHT be able to get her on the boat as a crew member. She'd need to fill out some paperwork and such, but they were gonna try. 

And they did it. This company quickly became my favorite people. I couldn't thank them enough for working it all out for us! Excitement set in and our catamaran boat wedding was ON!

The week before we left we got most the clothes, shoes, decorations, ordered a cake, food, etc. It was insane but sure made time go by so fast! I am so thankful for Seth's family in helping pull things together while I was in California stressing about getting my dress in time!

Yes. We were about to leave and everyone had their clothes except for the dang BRIDE. My dress ended up being delivered and it was way too long and too big in the chest. I reached out to my fairy godmother (lady who does my alterations) and asked her if she could help me out. She got it done in just a couple days. I literally got my dress back like 12 hours before we were leaving. 

*Procrastination hat still on and looking good!*

We woke up early the next morning, loaded up and headed out to Texas! It was kinda cool leaving and knowing the next time we'd be home we would be husband and whiner.. I mean wife. 

(Texas Arrival)

I won't get into too many details on our summer vacation trip to Texas just yet, I'll save that for another post. But I just have to say that as soon as I walked in the door at the beach house I was greeted by Seth's sister squeezing us some margaritas. Brides.. hear me... this is the real deal... if your soon-to-be sister in law isn't squeezing you a fresh margarita when you walk in the door after a two day road trip.. She's not the one. I don't care how great your fiancé is! 

When we got to Texas we had a few days to go before our big day. We just kinda hung out. It was nice to have a few days to unwind after traveling before we had the stress of the wedding. The kids were SO excited to be on the beach. I get it.. but I begged them all to make sure they put sunblock on and kept it on! I didn't want lobster kids in my wedding photos. Guess who got a lobster kid? 

*raises hand*

And it was Autumn! My oldest! The actual day of our wedding her skin was so patchy, she was sore, and it was already blistering and peeling. I laugh now but man.. I was ticked. I felt bad for her, but c'mon kid! 

(July 3rd - Our Wedding)

Can I just say that if you've never glued on false eyelashes before, your wedding day is not the day to try and learn. Who did I think I was? Some sort of makeup artist? Whiner by day, makeup artist by night? No. Just no. I had two hours to get ready and I spent 30 minutes of that fighting with lashes and glue.

Time to head to pick up our cake and then to the marina! Then reality set in. It was HOT. I already knew this was going to be.. uh.. interesting. I had my extensions in so that made my hair heavy and even more hot. I was a sweaty disaster before we even got to the boat. 

Upon arrival the photographer and crew were already there. We started setting up a bit and I was already going into a panic about the sun and humidity. Harsh bright sun was making the kids complain, we were all sweating, my pretty loose curls already fell out, and I just imagined all wedding photos showing pools of sweat and squinting kids. I hoped for the best and started getting ready. We were going to do a little dress reveal on the dock before we set sail. 

What I learned within 10 minutes of getting in my dress.

• Body shape wear is very hard to pull up on a sweaty body after going to the restroom. I pretty much held it the rest of the time because I wasn't doing that again! It was like wrestling a crocodile. No, I've never done that. But I have wiped a toddler's butt while they try to flip over and run away from me, so it's basically the same thing. 
• Those sticky bras that practically rip your nipples off when you remove them.. they fall right off when you sweat. I was completely without 'support' for most of our cruise. Nip-slip was not in my plan for wedding day fun so I had to be extra careful. Trying to keep this show PG, ya know?
• The court house would've most definitely been much cooler. Much cooler. 
• I was fo'sho going to lose a set of lashes.

Then it was time to show my future husband what a bunch of makeup, fake lashes, fake tan, extensions, a sticky push up bra and a good body shaper can do. Ta-Da! You're fiancé that looks nothing like herself! 

We have several pics from the 'first look' but the photos of me showing off my shoes are my favorite. He bought me California Navy Tieks for the wedding and wrote a sweet note on the bottom of them. Tieks are my favorite shoes!

We took a few more photos around the dock before setting sail. Still sweating but played it off well.

We loaded up and were ready to get going. And then out came the life vests for the kids. The WHAT?! I had no idea. I mean.. it makes sense, obviously.. but I just wasn't planning for that. They were in their nice wedding clothes and then having to put a life vest over them just made for some cranky kids at first. They didn't have to wear them if they were in the cabin, so that made for a whole 20 minutes of kids pouting in the cabin about not coming out the entire time because they didn't want to wear life vests. Oh, HELL NO. We did not pay this money for you crazies to sit in a cabin and complain. It didn't last long and they realized that it wasn't so bad after all.

These poor children. Life must be so hard cruising around with our own private charter for 8 hours, right? Don't you feel sorry for them? I mean look at them sitting there in those awful life vests.

I am so glad they cheered up.. because they really did start having fun, despite the heat! 

In the above photo it shows Seth and three of the girls looking over the water.. you guys.. there were dolphins swimming along with us for awhile! Magical! Alannah was so excited! 

So as we were sailing I started getting antsy. People were getting hungry (We had some Texas BBQ from Leons that was making our mouths water) and we needed to get the ceremony going.. but one thing I didn't think would exist in the middle of the summer was the sun! -- eye roll -- Go figure, right? Texas.. summer.. sun?! WHAAAA? I didn't want to do the ceremony in the full sun as it would be hot, REALLY bad for photos, the kids would be squinting, etc. There were little patches of clouds around us so I asked the captain to hunt them down. Like dude.. screw where YOU thought you were taking us. I'm the captain now!

Yes. I was asking the captain to chase the clouds that everyone kept telling me were actually over land and very far away.

CHASE *clap* THE *clap* DAMN *clap* CLOUDS. *stomps foot*

I was a bride on a mission. You couldn't sell me air for a cent if I couldn't breathe at this point. 

The poor, poor captain. I really hope at some point Seth whispered to him, "I promise she's really not this crazy. She's a great girl.. I swear.." before I got tossed overboard. The captain even tried turning the boat to get the sail to block the sun. I am pretty sure he wanted to call the all mighty creator himself and beg for clouds to get me to shut.up. 

In between cloud chasing we just relaxed. I think. I think everyone else relaxed at least! 

Not sure if the above photo was before or after Seth spilled a margarita all over me.. in my wedding dress... before our ceremony. Thank goodness it was just a lime margarita because strawberry or some other color could've been real bad. Seth felt so bad but I just laughed. Of course I would smell like a margarita while getting married! It dried really quick though and you couldn't even tell. 

I love that photo of us. My hubby is so handsome! I'm gonna keep him! And that uniform. I just can't handle it. *drool* <--- Or that might be sweat. Do we even really know at this point?

I wish I knew what he was thinking here. 'Give her another drink, she'll forget about clouds'.. or.. 'Let's take bets on how big the splash will be when I push her of the boat!'.. The latter. For sure.

The boat had three rooms which was GREAT! There was a 'master' and two smaller rooms. The kids really enjoyed chilling out in their spaces.

Amelia was so obsessed with being out on the water. When we got really far out she was asking me "Where did the sand go?" lol.

Hayden is gonna be a heartbreaker in a few years. Mamas.. keep your girls away.

Go get them clouds, Austin! (Probably my thoughts in that moment)

And I am 102% sure Autumn knew the photographer was doing her thing because this whole series of photos she looks 'posed'. Girl. Stop it with your lobster self and look natural please. Y'all see that in the photo above? Are we modeling foundation now? Facial moisturizer? #topmodel

Teenagers are weird.

My sweet boy. He was wondering why it wasn't going faster.

The cabin was air conditioned so there were a few times we snuck back inside to cool off.

Back to the clouds.. or lack thereof. We didn't get clouds really. Maybe like 2 little ones. I gave up. Married in full sun it was. We all went to freshen up before we got started.

And you know what?... It was beautiful. It was the most incredible wedding ever. When I was in the moment exchanging vows with Seth there could've been a unicorn holding an ice cold margarita and every shade of Tieks available next to me and I wouldn't have even noticed. My heart was racing so bad. I am lucky I didn't pass out!

Instead of 'flower girls' I had BUBBLE GIRLS. I had visions of them slowly walking and blowing bubbles as they floated away over the boat before I walked out. Magical.

Negative.

All sorts of nopes. Like 72 nopes.

Boat is moving.. lots of wind. No bubbles. They dripped soap though that I am thankful I didn't slip in. After the wedding Amelia told me her bubbles were broken. Sorry, honey. She was trying so hard. She would blow REALLY hard each time the bubbles didn't come out.

She's probably singing to herself, "This sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S." (Thank, you, Gwen Stefani for this gem).

And then my son Austin walked me out. When I first saw this picture I got so teary eyed. He looks so proud.. and he WAS proud. It was great. He gave his mama away.

We got married standing in the catamaran nets. This was so challenging and funny. I will never, ever forget standing there with my legs burning from using muscles that I didn't even know were there to keep balance. The water would splash up a bit under my dress.. it was just so funny. I was laughing, crying, sweating.. it was perfection.

My mother in law did a wonderful job with our ceremony. It was her first time and it was so special. So special. Made me laugh and cry. 

His vows were so perfect. He's amazing with words (and feeding me). I am so proud to be his wife. It was a complete honor to take him as my husband.

The above photo is one of my favorites from our ceremony. The emotion I show and the way he is looking at me. I just love it. I have pulled it up on my phone and looked at it several times. A few of those times being when he is being a PITA. But being taken back to this day and this moment brings me all the feels. 

I also became a mess. A crying mess. 

I kept looking away crying, saying "Oh my God", "We're getting married" and so on. And Seth.. typical Seth... just looking chill and relaxed. 

There's a whole lot of love (and laundry) here. Our family.

If ya haven't gotten married on a boat. You should. If you haven't found the most perfectly imperfect person for you that loves you for exactly who you are. You should. It's incredible.

(After The Ceremony)

After our vows and stuffing our faces we took a few more fun photos.

My bedroom will be wallpapered in the last photo. That's my husband! *sigh*

Taking selfies for the co-workers. (yes, people.. he's really getting married and not just ditching work!)

Laying in those nets with my new husband was so relaxing. 

So.. this was a lot of fun.. When the boat was at the half way point the captain turned around. The wind and the waves were creating HUGE splashes of water due to the change of direction. The kids were getting soaked. I can still hear their laughter. My heart felt so incredibly full seeing them all out there just enjoying life. 

I have tons of photos of this splash-fest. They just make me laugh. They were literally dripping with water! I was sipping my margarita and laughing my butt off at them. 

Alannah's face! HA! 

Another of my honey... I'm a lucky girl.

We had cake. It was simple vanilla cake from Patty Cakes in Galveston, TX and it was SO delicious. I love bakery cake something fierce, people!

I came across these forks back in December on our trip to Solvang, CA. I told Seth if we EVER got married we needed these forks. Little did I know he would be proposing days later! These have meaning for us (as well as some inside jokes). Way back when when this all first started for us, I sat him down and told him how I was feeling and instead of him basically telling me to go away for being a crazy friend.. he said, "Me, too". Him saying "Me, too" was the start of what we are now. 

And then we started the toasts. Lovely words were said from his family. Made me so happy! I love them all so much!

After the toasts we had an hour left to sail before heading back. It was looking scary outside though. DARK clouds and the wind picked up. I literally just ran off, ripped out my extensions, changed out of my dress and sausage casing (spanx), tied my hair up and stepped out on the boat to RELAX and sip champagne.. Sounds perfect, right?

Lightning. Bad crazy lightning. A storm was headed right our way. Our cruise was cut short and we had to go back right away and got back JUST in time. It got so bad. I don't think I have EVER seen lightning and rain that bad. We had to load up the van and clean up in a crazy downpour. Seth was SOAKED after going to the van to pack up. The drive home was kinda crazy. There were times it was so flooded we couldn't see the road.

So.. uh.. THERE'S my clouds!

*hangs head in shame*

We made it back to the beach house safely.. as a new family. As husband and wife.

I am so incredibly thankful for him and everything he has brought to mine and my children's lives. I love him with all my heart and will for as long as I live. We did it! We came so far and I can not wait to see where we go. Together. Always.

Also. The eyelashes did not survive. Ripped them off 2.3 seconds after the ceremony as one was barely hanging on.

And I wish I had some cake leftover. 

All images on this blog by Cheyenne Sprouse