circa1910: Life Behind the Jewels: Emerald Dream with a Hurricane Twist

My oh my, has it been a long week. Last Tuesday we found out we would be evacuating so instead of hitting hours of traffic the next day, we decided to drive through that night to my parents a few hours away from the coast. I threw everything I own (that's an exaggeration) into a suitcase and loaded down my car with every sentimental item I could think of in my time of panic (old family photos, my great-great-grandmother's sewing scissors, antique jewelry given to me by sweet friends, and of course these gorgeous Frye boots and many other pairs). I also brought with me nearly 20 pounds of jewelry!

The hardest part was the waiting. I knew the hurricane would hit early Saturday morning so I was beside myself trying to enjoy our 'hurrication' while also trying to push the thought of what we might come back to into the dusty, cobweb ridden corner of my mind of things I never thought would happen to me. We tried to stay in antique stores as much as possible so my mind would be busy focusing on buying trinkets to make pretty jewelry for you guys. That strategy worked about 50% of the time ;)

Thankfully, our house only managed to take on debris, fallen branches and lost power. Our back yard did flood about 2 feet but we had prepared and anything that may have gotten damaged was put up high on shelves in the garage before we left.

One of my biggest concerns was losing Melvin the Mini Bus, but I am so happy to say that he weathered the storm and was a champ! No water damage, no fallen trees, no broken windows. What a trooper :)

We traveled back to Beaufort as soon as we were allowed to, exactly a week after we evacuated, and I cried when I pulled into the driveway. We had left our house 95% sure that we'd lose everything based on the predictions of Hurricane Matthew, and much to our surprise we were extremely fortunate to only have to clean up the yard. Many of our neighbors are dealing with massive amounts of damage to their homes and we are working diligently to help as many people as we can. (Sorry for the delay in answering emails/messages and shipping out orders...we have no power and limited internet and our post offices are still closed.)

I can't help but feel guilty when people ask how our house fared...we didn't experience any damage that we can find. I know it's so terrible to go through a thing like this, but seeing strangers help and donate and feed one another in a time of crisis really puts the 'feel goods' back into my heart. I am so blessed to live in this sweet community that I call home.

I am thankful I got to spend so much time with my family and in my hometown of Augusta, GA. The downtown area there is filled with history and beautiful old buildings. I found this romper for under $30 so that made me a little happier. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't think rompers are very flattering on anyone but this one fits like a dress and doesn't give me the dreaded 'granny booty' (as I so nicely like to call it.) I paired it with the Frye boots I got on a killer flash sale from freepeople.com, a vintage leather belt that was my grandmother's, and layers of circa1910, of course. Links to all outfit pieces are listed below.

Thanks for reading and following along with my crazy life! We are the only house in our big neighborhood without power (and extremely limited internet) so I'm off to wash my hair with freezing cold water and a flash light! ;) (Gotta find the humor in it- always!)

xoxo,

Kayla