Dear Pennsylvania: I love you.

Last weekend I fell in love with the woodlands of the late Mr. William Penn (a.k.a. "Pennsylvania"). 

It was love at first sight, I tell you. I didn't see it coming and all of a sudden BAM! I got smacked in between the eyes. How romantic.

Pennsylvania, "you had me at 'hello.'"

Earlier in the spring, I decided that I wanted to take a summer road trip out to Philadelphia to see one of my BFFs, Kelly. Being that Philadelphia is 10.5 hours away from me, it had been well over a year since I had seen Kelly. It so happened that Kelly would be co-hosting a party that weekend, along with our other, mutual BFF Margaret (who also lives in Pennsylvania, though in Pittsburgh). I decided to invite myself to the party (and thus Kelly's home since I clearly was not going to drive ten hours, party it up, and drive ten hours back). Good thing Kelly was more than happy to oblige me. Whatta gal, that girl!

Kelly, me, Margaret (looking fiiine on Sunday morning, post-party)

The drive was totally worth it. I am Midwestern born and raised. I am most familiar and comfortable with long drives that consist of farm fields and the occasional rolling hill. Once you pass over the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line the landscape changes dramatically!!

 

Hills. Hills. And more hills, I tell you! There was a nasty rainstorm at one point; the hilly landscape looked reallly cool against the clouds.

The rain passed just in time for us to catch the most exquisite sunset...

I found the views so breath-taking that the drive itself was very enjoyable and passed quite quickly (it helped that I stopped in Pittsburgh to pick up Margaret's sister, Emily, who accompanied me for the second-half of the drive...and assisted in taking pictures for me!). After such a wonderful drive, the City of Brotherly Love did NOT disappoint!

Kelly knows how much I love design and architecture. She was awesome at indulging my oogling eyes, craning neck, and oohs-n-aahs as we drove around the city.

City Hall: topped off by Ben Franklin...who, at certain angles, looks like he is peeing. This snapshot is not of that angle, btw

                               

 

More shots of City Hall, as reflected off a nearby building

the Masonic Temple...classy Philly.

This next shot is of Philly's ship-building yards. Not terribly exciting, but I thought the picture looked neat. I took it as we zoomed by on the express way, which was lined with metal gates.

This is "Smashy's." It's where you send your car when it doesn't work any more.

And they do this to it:

No. I'm not kidding.
Another aspect of Philly that I totally loved was their practice of incorporating mini-parks through out the downtown area. This was the best shot I could get of one such green space. Trust me, it was tres charming.

More pictures of downtown:

Philly also had a nice dose of "weird" in the form of artistic murals such as this. It was kind of cool looking. I can't really tell you much us about it though...

After cruising around downtown, Kelly and I went to her parent's house in the suburbs. Oh my gosh, guys, I felt as if I were in the English country side!!

Sunday morning, we hit up the Traditional Latin Mass with Kelly's family, a large, predominantly-daughters family. All together, we were ten women sitting in our pew.

The church was 'okay.'

The church was located within walking distance of the city's Italian Market. We ambled over after Mass (actually, it was more like trotting, since it was raining). Kelly insisted that I try a FOR REAL Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. I am so glad I did. Those things are divine. 

I found the Italian market to be incredibly neat. Such ethnic/cultural hubs do not exist in my town. 

While waiting for the (fresh) sandwiches, Kelly's mother very kindly treated us to some delicious Italian coffee. 

I told you there were a lot of us! 

I spotted this classy-sassy joint across the way. Yup, folks. That is an alcohol-serving bar.

 After inhaling the Philly Cheese Steaks in the ever-most ladylike fashion, we zipped back to the family abode for some more quality time before hitting the road. But not before enjoying an impromptu tea party. It was absolutely delightful.

total failed attempt at an artistic shot of said tea party

After some long good-byes, I climbed back in the car with Margaret and Emily, who were driving with me to Pittsburgh, the city they call home.

Pittsburgh: The city of bridges 

Pittsburgh, another favorite city of mine, is also the home of yet another BFFL, Kathleen. Kathleen too is friends with Kelly and Margaret, but was not able to make it to Philadelphia for the weekend. Nevertheless, I was able to extend my weekend a little bit by staying with Kathleen that night.

a picture of the four of us from Kathleen's 2012 wedding

Kathleen, who is currently working in Cleveland, and I were up suuuper early the next morning to start our respective drives.

The last 100 miles of the 1250+mile trip were a little rough. A sighting of the Oscar Meyer wienie mobile gave me a hearty laugh, providing enough endorphins to hold me over until I got home.

#borntobun, indeed

It was a fantastic weekend. I am so grateful that I could visit with my girl-friends. Being with them enriches my life, replenishes my soul, and gladdens my heart. The 21 hours of driving was more than worth it! Not only is Pennsylvania an awesome state, it also is the home of three of my closest friends. It has so much going for it that I can't help falling in love with the "virtuous commonwealth," as some are inclined to call it. (though it's not as if I was trying not to!)

The wedding that Jesus was invited to (and other adventures) {pretty, happy, funny, real}

~Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.~

With the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Some say, "when it rains, it pours." Well, it has been literally and figuratively been pouring in my life lately. On the literal side, we've gotten a fair bit of rain lately. On the figurative side, I've had so much going on in the last week that I think that this might be my most-jammed-packed {pretty, happy, funny, real} yet.  While I've spoken a lot about the drama of moving (it really hasn't been that dramatic, but everything is more dramatic when you blog, isn't it?), life hasn't stopped. Indeed it has been bustling me right along.

 {pretty}

As I talked about last month in this PHFR post, May 25th was the day of weddings! In the morning, my dear roommate of two years married her favorite person in the whole wide world, Johnny.

Holly and I before the wedding Mass (her mom made her wedding dress--gorgeous!)

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

It's moving day!! I'll be back with some updates tomorrow. Until then, here is some {pretty, happy, funny, real} for ya!

~Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.~

With the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty} 

I went home for Mother's day. I was so happy to see the skyline. Feeling a little nostalgic, I snapped a picture.

The 502

 {happy}

House Crashing in the Bluegrass State (part one)

Hello-hello there, Sports fans! Welcome to the newest series here at MKDesign & Decor...House Crashing!

A lot of other home/D.I.Y. bloggers will have the occasional house crashing post. Seeing that I am a somewhat-dilettantish blogger, I am taking a whack at house crashing. What better way to start such a series than to show case the house "where the magic began"? That's right, folks, I am house-crashing the house where I grew up!

My love for interior design and all things homey can be definitely traced to my origins. Growing up, I always held the spot as faithful sidekick to my mom in most of the home improvement projects she took on. I just couldn't get enough of it!

Last week, I took a few days off work to visit my family. When ever I go home, I love to wander around and see what new changes or additions my dear mother has added to the family home since I was last around. You could say it is one of my (many) quirks. It's just something that I do! Although there were not any major changes discovered on this last visit, it still struck me that I wanted to share with you this bit of myself. So, sit back and enjoy a mini tour of my family's home.

As you know from my last post, the bathroom is a highly esteemed room in my book. So let's start there on this little home tour.

Now, I realized after the fact (as in, when I was upload the pictures to my computer after I returned from my visit home) that it would have been waaay classier if I had closed the toilet before taking this picture. As well as folding/hiding the hand towel that is so delicately draped over the drawer. But, alas, such a thought didn't even cross my mind. #comfortsofhomegonewrong Sorry, Mom!

Anyways, in the last six months, my mother re-painted and re-styled this bathroom, which is on the first floor of our house and the recipient of a lot of traffic. My mom painted that wall free-hand. You should be impressed. I am. You might notice in this picture and the following pictures that the patter doesn't show up on all of the walls. This was on purpose. This is a small room and Mom thought that the pattern would become very overwhelming, perhaps even dizzy-ing, if painted on all of the walls. She opted to reserve painting the fun pattern on only the opposing walls of the room. I couldn't agree more with this decision (especially considering the large mirror over the vanity).

I lack "before" pictures. But, trust me, this makeover is an improvement of divine proportions. Not that I necessarily hated the "before." It never really occurred to me to make a bathroom so darling and cute. I am in love with this new look!

Moving on from the bathroom, here is a shot (from the doorway of the previously shown bathroom no less) of the family room. Excuse me for bragging, but I crafted that gallery wall. Though I didn't plan on this being the only picture from this room, it turned out I didn't document this room from any other angle. But you can see that a similar color scheme is continued through the first floor of the house. I am pretty sure that my mom would describe her decorating style and preferences to be in the are of "English Country".

Here is the living room. Again, you will observe a consistency in Mom's decor choices. The look of Mom's style definitely has evolved over time, but I would say she has been pretty consistent in the vein of English Country/English Cottage. Trust me, I am in no way complaining. I love home! In fact, the living room is one of my favorite rooms in the house. It is so cozy. Oh, and the piano is also in the room. I spent many-an-hour at the piano in my youth. (But I failed to get a good picture of the beautiful instrument. Sorry! Better luck next time, I suppose).

The living room is right off of the foyer/front entry. I think this area was a bit of a thorn in my mother's side for some time. You don't see it here, but there is a very boring chandelier above. After living in this house for almost 15 years, I think things are looking quite nice. It helps that the living room is right off of the entry, so our guests have a loverly view as they are walking in.

View from the front door

Next up is the basement. We re-finished the basement about four years ago. It was a big to-do. Although the basement was technically "finished" when we moved in, it was nothing special to say the least. Mother schemed (in the most positive sense of the word) for years about how she would re-style the area once the majority of her eight kids were out of the destructive ages. Her patient, loving waiting paid off for sure. Don't'ya think?

I really like that lamp and table combo in the foreground

 This area previously was a (very) large, double closet. With the makeover, my mom had one side converted to a reading nook slash extra guest bed (i.e. when a lot of guests come one of us kids forfeits our bed to the guest and we get to sleep in the basement book nook). The other half of the monstrous closet became a sitting booth, as you can see. It is great for family movie nights. (We call them "picnics" even though it has been a long time since we spread out a picnic set-up in front of the T.V.).

It was fairly difficult to get a good shot of the basement in such a way that did it justice. Here is the best-of-a-bad-lot of attempts to capture the book nook plus sitting booth relative to the couch area.

There are many more beautiful rooms to share with you from my family's home. However, as you might imagine, time with family is so precious that I got distracted after photographing the above rooms. Thus I didn't finish capturing the rest of the house during my stay. Thank goodness I don't live an egregious distance away, so I am able to travel back with relative frequency. Next time I spoil myself with a visit home, I promise to get the rest of the house and share it with you after the fact. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this house crashing adventure!