Friday Five

Hello everyone!  I'm writing in from Birmingham this Friday.  I made a trip up to see my best friend's new baby and attend another best friend's birthday party.  Lots to celebrate!  But I did want to drop in a share a few favorite things on this Friday.

Cork tiles inside a kitchen cabinet.  Clear the counter clutter (say that three times fast) and make recipes and shopping lists easily accessible.  Genius.

Candlesticks in sand.  Simple and beautiful.

My sweet girl on her first Easter morning.  Special thanks to her cousin Colson for sharing his bed :)

Proof that antiques don't have to equal grandma's house (no offense to grandma or her house).  But seriously, look how chic and glamorous this space looks.

The beginning of May always reminds me of my wedding.  I actually got married in April but three of my bridesmaids and my groom celebrate their birthdays May 1st-4th (1-Meredith, 2-Bekah, 3-Adrienne, 4-Jon).  How crazy is that?  Anyway, it always reminds me of them, and the special day they all celebrated with me!  Happy birthday guys!

Have a great weekend everyone!  And stay tuned to our Facebook page for the big giveaway (up to $450) announcement!

Our beloved Pensacola

As we all have seen the images of devastation caused by the historic flood Tuesday, I find myself very fortunate that we did not receive any damage. Sadly though, my Facebook feed is a constant reminder that so many have lost so much.

Here on the Gulf Coast, we are quite familiar with natural disasters (hurricanes). Our community is resilient. The rebuilding process has already begun and many grass root organizations have formed to lend a helping hand.  

If you would like to help, please check out the Help Flood Victims in Pensacola Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/helpfloodvictimsinpensacola.

Instead of a design post today, I would like to share with you a photo essay of the place we call home. Featuring some of our beautiful neighborhoods and beloved landmarks.

The neighborhood of Aragon Court

Stately homes of North Hill

 Diverse neighborhood of East Hill

Bayview Park

City Grocery- some of the best sandwiches in town 

12th Ave Tree tunnel- beautiful oaks line the 12th Ave entrance to East Hill 

17th Ave train trestle "Graffiti Bridge" popular landmark where graffiti is allowed and the facade is changed daily.

Downtown Pensacola

TT Wentworth Museum

Seville Quarter- If you have gone clubbing in Pensacola then chances are you have been here before.

Tree sculptures of Seville Park

Old Christ Church

Barkley House

The Fish House for the world famous Grits a Ya-Ya

Joe Patti's Seafood- a destination place for many tourists

Pensacola Beach

The iconic Pensacola Beach sign

Our beloved Blue Angels

The Island Cross which has survived many hurricanes.

Pensacola Beach Pier

The catacombs of Ft. Pickens

And of course the people of Pensacola and the many annual events that take place.

McGuire's Run, bringing in approximately 10,000 runners, is one of the biggest parties in town.

Mardi Gras!

All images via

What is one of your favorite Pensacola landmarks that I didn't list?

students doing cool things

Greetings from a frazzled sleep-deprived mother! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! I spent the tail end of mine with a teething toddler who also, evidently, has thrush. The perfect storm in toddler world. It's a good thing we're all family friendly over here at 3A because I've been a hot mess all day. But we'll make it out alive :)

So I bring you a brief not-so-hot mess (the very opposite, in fact) of a desert home for you to "ooh" and "ahh" over. 

Hopefully you've all heard of Frank Lloyd Wright. If not, google him right now and then return back to keep reading like "um, who hasn't? Of course I know ol' Frank." Well, two of his popular homes, Taliesin and Taliesin West gained a hip new sidekick (if you will) in 2009. 

A group of students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture got to take part in what I'm sure made every other graduating class extremely jealous. They took part in building a modular, prefabricated passive home as a showcase of how to live simply and "off the grid." 

Passive homes, net-zero homes, LEED-certified homes--all are part of a growing trend in the architecture and design industry that puts focus on having a small carbon footprint, that is, using as little energy as possible. 

This is Taliesin Mod.Fab. 

My husband and I came across it in a book he pulled off the shelf of his architecture library at work. In an effort to become more familiar with the passive home design process (for our future home), this house provided a ton of great examples. It is, after all, a showcase home. I can't believe it was built 5 years ago. But then again, it takes trends a while to trickle down to the ol' set-in-our-ways South.

You can read more about it and see more photos of it here. It's currently open for daily tours.

Many houses like this one have very low energy bills, and in some cases, get money back from the power company at the end of the month. Even now that we live in a more energy-efficient home than our 1920s drafty cottage (where our energy bills were outrageous), I still can't imagine the freedom that must come from creating your own energy from the earth in ways that doesn't deplete it's resources. 

Why aren't we all doing this?!?

As residents of the South, wouldn't you love to come home to a naturally cooled and humidity-free home? My hair would sure like it! Until, of course, I went back outside. Then it's a different story. 

See ya back here next week (hopefully more awake)! 

A Dream

Pardon me while I channel my inner public speaker.  I'm just kidding, but I am going to get a little sappy on you guys.  I don't have any profound decorating tips or a mood board to share with you today, only a heartfelt "thank you."

When we started our business, we knew we couldn't do it alone.  We knew we needed you.  So let us to say "thank you." Thank you for allowing us to live our dreams.  Thank you for reading our blog.  Thank you for letting us into your homes.  Thank you for following us, for believing in us.   We aren't yet where we hope to be in this business venture (I assume no one ever is), but we are still dreaming and still hustling.

Each of us was a slave to the 9-5 work world just trying to bring home a paycheck from a job---whether we liked said job or not.  We worked and worked until we realized that in order to do what we really wanted to do, we had to take a leap.  In order to put our lifelong passions and gifts to work, we had to just jump.

What started as a "what if?" conversation on a cold, rainy afternoon at Panera Bread Company, has become our beloved 3A Design Studio.  A dream we are getting to live every day.

Download this free printable here.

Thank you for coming along for the ride and letting us do what we love by helping you love where you live.  We're excited about what the future holds and thankful to gain new friends and design new spaces along the way.

If we can be of service to you, please let us know!  Our E-Design services are just a click away! :)

Outdoor privacy screens

As I have blogged about before here, my backyard is a huge work in progress. Originally there were a ton of trees planted randomly, which let in little light and was a breeding ground for mosquitoes. We have since cut down a few trees and fixed the irrigation system. Another issue we have, our patio looks out into the neighbor's bathroom and bedroom windows. The plan is to add some privacy by building a large fireplace wall. But before we can do that, we have to regrade the backyard, cut down a mammoth of a tree that is starting to lean towards the house, and re-lay the patio.

Recently, the neighbors behind us put up cafe curtains in their bathroom. They keep the curtains parted open and I have disturbingly seen the mister standing at his toilet more times than I care too. This brings us to our topic of the day, Outdoor Privacy Screens. We need to put one up ASAP. Something that won't be too expensive to put up since eventually it will be replaced with a fireplace wall.

After combing the web for some ideas, here are a few of my favorites.

I really like the look of these laser cut panels. It would be a cool way to add some design interest to the backyard.

OUTDECO is a company that specializes in outdoor screens and many of their designs can be purchased online at Home Depot here. Home Depot also has these privacy screens.

I also like the idea of using plants/hedges as a privacy screen. In our case, it may take too long for the plants to get tall enough.

All images via

Have you built an outdoor privacy screen? If so, please share with us.

some stencils i've been eyeing

I have a teeny hallway in my house leading to two bedrooms and a bathroom. It is dull, ordinary, and lackluster. My first thought was to paint it a bright, bold color. But then I thought, hey let's get really crazy. Let's do wallpaper.

Nope. Too crazy. I once had to remove wallpaper in several rooms of the house I spent most my life in. And let me tell you something--you better love that wallpaper when you put it up. 

So then I thought, ok I'll just hand-paint something on it. And then I remembered all of the half-projects I've started throughout my house and thought, let's not add another. 

But, heyyyy....stencils! Stencils are where it's at. Stencils lend themselves to a higher probability of completion.

So I've been looking, and here's some I like a lot from Cutting Edge Stencils.

I live on the Gulf Coast so this rope stencil has just enough nautical flare to be "coastal" without being "beachy" if you catch my drift (pun intended).

I think this one is my most favorite because the hallway leads to my daughter's room and the guest room, both of which have an organic vintage feel that honors nature. 

Can you tell I'm into scallops these days? 

So that's my top 6. I wanted to stick with something organic or a geometric pattern with rounded shapes. In tight spaces, avoiding structured patterns with a lot of angles can help you not to have that "closing in" feeling that small spaces can have. 

Or. You know. I could just do a hallway of wiener dogs (!!!!). I saw this one from The Stencil Studio. I come from a long line of dachshund-lovers. But maybe not everyone loves them as much as I do, so I'll probably tone down the obsession and stick to my dachshund thank-you notes for now :)

Have any of you used wall stencils for a wallpaper-effect and been pleased with the outcome?