Grand Harbour Island.

Three weeks ago I attended a bachelorette party in the Bahamas, specifically Grand Harbor Island. My pictures will be inadequate because they cannot capture how much FUN we had.

It started with a private plane ride over to the island:

For the design oriented folks that read my blog, I'll start with pictures from a hotel worth making another trip for, The Landing. We ate dinner here one night. One of the hotel owners was also our host for the weekend. We stayed at his private home and I have never met a more hospitable person in my life. He gave us a tour of the hotel room and then took us to see the area of the hotel that was designed by THE Ralph Lauren and India Hicks.

Most rooms were painted white and given a very simple, clean palette so you could enjoy the views.

Now for some beauty from the island:

There were a lot of activities involving golf carts, games, dancing, fireworks and laughter. At times I left like I was on an episode of the Bachelor.

Santo Domingo.

I am a little behind on posting. Over Thanksgiving, my family went to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to celebrate my grandmother's (Nanu) 85th birthday. She probably wouldn't like me publicizing her age, but she doesn't use the computer, so I'm safe.
Here are some highlights of the trip:

The hotel set up a surprise party for her and got her age wrong.

I quickly corrected it and shimmied some flower petals off to reflect 85.







One afternoon we took an excursion from the hotel to the historic part of the city. Historic parts are always my favorite.


I felt like I was back in Italy with this church




I told my husband if we ever get really rich, I wanted that Land Rover. He assured me if we ever get rich, we will never buy that car and we will always find better things to do with our money. He keeps me humble folks.

Celebrations and Road Trips.

I'm afraid my blog posts on Smitten Design may be misleading. As I look back, it seems the majority of my posts have been vacation and party pictures. I do work, but I don't think anyone wants to hear about excel spreadsheets or gift proposals.
A few weeks ago, we took a little road trip to celebrate our 4 yr anniversary, our friends 50th birthday and a visit to see my grandmother, Nanu.

We started at St. Simons Island in Georgia. This is low country at it's finest. It feels very much like South Carolina.

We stayed at the Village Inn and Suites. This hotel has been featured in Southern Living and Coastal Living a few times. It was completely charming and I highly recommend it.

We then went to Waynesboro, GA to celebrate our friend Merv's 50th birthday.


We then headed to the mountains in Highlands, NC. Tony tells me I am too young to turn into a snow bird, but every summer I try to convince him we need to take different jobs where we can live in Chicago or NC for 4 months instead of Florida. Nanu, has a place in a picturesque golf community. As a kid, I spent many summers with my grandparents here. I love returning and wish we could have stayed longer.

We did some hiking as well.

We ate at a new rooftop terrace at Old Edwards Inn:

We had a blast and I was so thankful for the brief trip to celebrate.
Have you taken a vacation this summer?