Are you all planning to watch the new HGTV series Home Town tonight? It’s at 10 EST, right after Fixer Upper – and if you love Fixer Upper, you probably will love Home Town! They both have a sweet, talented, smart, very-much-in-love couple at the center; small town coziness; fun house transformations; and a Southern heartbeat. Plus, Erin from Home Town wrote my favorite Southern Newlywed interview ever, and has been one of my favorite blogs to read for a few years. (She writes a short note sharing the best thing that happened that day, every day – admirable!) It has been so fun to see the show develop on her blog, from the first covert mentions (before they could even talk about what was going on but it was obvious something was up), to the pilot’s debut last year, to the past few weeks building up to the premier. They are an easy couple to root for and it has been so fun to do so!

We also have some of Erin’s original art hanging in our home! Before she became an HGTV star, she was a wedding and social stationer. Though she’s now using her drawing and watercolor skills to help Laurel-ites imagine home renovation possibilities, she used to create house portraits for people like me! She drew both of our family cottages (that’s one of them under her pen, up there), and they hang proudly in our main room. Since we live far away from Maine, I love walking by their sweet facades every day. I’ll always be grateful for her talent in bringing them to life!

Join me in supporting this sweet Southern couple tonight, friends? 10pm EST – I’ll see you there!

P.S. I am going to Laurel next month – counting down the days!!

My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and though I have a full wish list, one item has moved to the very top — and I’d be thrilled if it was all I received! That item? A painting from my new favorite artist, Erin Gregory.

After much debate, I settled on “Birthday Party II,” above, but it was a tough call between it and my second favorite, “Efflorescence 8,” below.

And here’s a look at my painting of choice in a gorgeous room (that wallpaper!):

Photo by Kate Osborne via Style Me Pretty

I can’t believe how well it fits with our house’s colors. If I’m lucky enough to land this beauty, I’m planning to hang it above our fireplace. For a long time I wanted Michelle Armas’ famous canvas for that spot, and while I still love it, I think Erin’s flowers make me even happier (and are less expensive, to boot!).

Here are a few of my other favorites from her:

Finally, I have to give credit where credit is due – I discovered Erin via Morgan Trinker’s home tour on A Beautiful Mess. Here’s an Erin painting in Morgan’s gorgeous home!

The full tour is worth a look – super inspiring!

P.S. More of my favorite artists.

Even though I recently shared our home tour for this year (upstairs + downstairs), I already have an update! Knowing that our house photos with Anna were around the bend, I finally bit the bullet and framed two special pieces of art… but they arrived the day after our photos were taken!! I still wanted to share them with you, because I love them, and hopefully this story will also serve as encouragement!

Though we’ve made some progress since moving in with getting things on the walls, there were still two pieces that remained tucked away. They were both non-standard sizes, which meant I couldn’t just go out and buy a frame at Target or Michael’s. I knew custom framing was in my future if I was ever going to display them properly, but having gone that route before, I was already cringing at the expense. A few months ago, though, my ears perked up when I started to hear about a few online custom framing companies, including Framed & Matted and Framebridge. I looked into them both, and ended up going with Framed & Matted – I thought their frame options were prettier, and their prices slightly more reasonable. Want to see what I ended up with?

First, I framed a “You are my sunshine” print from (the now-defunct) Yeehaw Studios. For this one, I chose the Landon frame and a white mat. It took me six years to frame this little gem (!!!), but it was worth it – I love seeing it in our kitchen every day! This one was $67, including shipping.

Second, I framed our wedding invitation! Y’all, I can’t tell you HOW HAPPY it makes me to have this project completed. From the minute I laid eyes on our beauty, I knew I wanted it hanging on the walls of our home. I’m still in awe of the work Magpie Paper Works and MM Ink did to bring it to life, and I love having this reminder of our wedding in front of me every day. For this one, we chose the Blair frame in gold, also with a white mat, and it was about $100. The invite is now hanging in our living room gallery wall, but the glare made it impossible to take a good photo – so here’s a detail shot!

Yay!! Lots of happy developments with our walls lately, from these two new pieces to the travel quartet I talked about in our tour. I think they’ve emboldened me, as I now have big plans to add art to our downstairs hallway, our upstairs hallway, and the loft. I’m thinking my November goals will be heavy on art projects, as baby girl’s due date ticks ever closer!

California posts will resume tomorrow, but I had to take a small break to tell you about something time-sensitive! Southern Weddings is currently hosting a giveaway for a custom home watercolor by Lucky Luxe, and if you adore Erin’s work as much as I do, you must drop everything and enter immediately!!

Erin’s watercolors are very much in the style of Rebekka Seale, which I love, because I was fairly obsessed with Rebekka’s house illustrations. Erin loved them, too, and when Rebekka stopped doing them, Erin asked her if she’d mind if she picked up where she left off – and Rebekka gave her blessing, thankfully for all of us!

The giveaway is open until Friday – go here for all the details, then post your photo on instagram to win! Seriously, I don’t know why there aren’t 1,000 entries already.

In the meantime, you should take a look at all of the posts in the Southern Newlywed series — I have been loving them! Just a few of my favorite moments:

I had to restrain myself from re-posting every photo of Erin and Ben’s home tour. It is that good, and the interview is even better. Go read it now, please.

I also loved Caroline and Aaron’s apartment, and their thoughts on small space living are inspiring!

I pinned many a photo from Landon and Jordan’s tour – and you must go see their adorable chicken coop!!

Lots of inspiration to be had!