Military Spouse Appreciation Day

{photo source via Flikr creative commons license}

You left behind family, friends, and your hometown to join your spouse on this journey.


You understand that your education, your career, and your preferences will always come second to your spouse's career.

You learned all the acronyms just so you can communicate in this esoteric world. 

You know that plans can always change and that most of the time they do change, at least once, so you've learned not to hold any plans too tightly.


You experience heart-wrenching anxiety when you see a strange car drive slowly past your house.

You are a single parent for months on end, all the while assuring your children of things you're not even sure of yourself.

You watch your loved one get on the plane because you have no choice.  And instead you focus all of your energy on counting down the days until homecoming.

You compact your life into dozens of little boxes and watch it all pull away on a truck only to unpack it a few weeks later in a new house, in a new city, in a new state.

You are a military spouse.  And today I'd like to say thank you for the sacrifices you have made.

bedroom redo AND an interview with Brittany from Honeytree Home Decor

This month we finally upgraded our bedroom.  For the first year of marriage, we had a mattress and a box spring on the floor.  That was IT!  No dressers or nightstands, for us.  :)  I used a metal folding chair for my nightstand.  Then we bought a bed frame so that we were at least a few inches off the floor.  The bed frame was nice, but we still didn't have dressers and our room was bare.  Thanks to an early tax return, we decided that the time was finally right to buy a bedroom set.  We took awhile decided because we needed to find one that we both liked AND find one in our price range.  But we finally found the right one and had it delivered a couple weeks ago.  Here are a couple pictures:

My favorite part is my nightstand, where I'm sure I'll collect a pile of books in no time.  There's another dresser that I don't have a picture of, but it's much larger and has a mirror attached.

Now that we have actual furniture in our room, I started thinking about decorating it as well.  We have wedding pictures that I want to hang once I can find some cheap frames.  I scoured Pinterest for ideas that I could do myself even though I'm not really a DIY kinda girl.  Somewhere on Pinterest I saw a line from the chorus to Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros:

Home is Wherever I'm With You

I knew the moment I saw it that that was what I wanted in our bedroom!  Since we're an Air Force family, our house changes.  But I loved the idea of taking the print with us, hanging it on the wall, and being reminded that home really is wherever I'm with him.  I still needed to find a sign or a print.  Eventually I found my way to Etsy and to a shop called Honeytree Home Decor.  I fell in love with her chalkboard print of these lyrics.  I love the look of chalkboards, but I can't stand the feeling or sound of writing on them.  So this a great way to get the look (and the lyrics) without having to actually use a chalkboard myself.

I had a question for the owner, Brittany, so I messaged her and soon she messaged back.  It turns out that she is also a military spouse and our sons are pretty close in age!  My husband and I like to support the businesses of military spouses because we know how hard it is to have a steady job with military life.  So today I want to share a little about Honeytree Home Decor through an interview with Brittany, starting with this picture of her adorable family.

1. Tell me a little about yourself and your family!

Hi! I'm Brittany, and I live & grew up in Northern Virginia. I met my husband, Justin, when he was stationed here with the US Coast Guard. A few years later, we were married and our sweet boy Grayson came along. He is now 1 1/2, and most days acts like a little sour patch kid. Ya know, first they're sour and then they're sweet?? Yep. That's him. Good thing he's cute! We recently learned that we will be packing up our lives and moving all the way to Southern California. I honestly couldn't be more excited for the adventure that lays before us!

2. What's the story of your Etsy shop? Why did you start it and how did you choose the name?

I have always loved covering my home in things created by people, rather than by a factory. Those details make a home feel so much more warm and inviting, in my opinion! After receiving compliments from friends on some prints I created for my own home, the thought popped up to maybe give Etsy a try. When we learned that we would be PCSing, and I would be transitioning into stay at home mom territory for a while, I decided to take the plunge! A while back I thought about selling some wooden paintings, and asked a close friend for tree-related suggestions for the name. Thus, Honeytree was born! Even though the name was thought up for a different product, it makes me feel all giddy so I kept it.

3. Do you have any favorite prints or any that hold special meaning to you?

The print that reads "I love you to the moon and back." definitely tugs at my heart strings. It's a piece that I originally created for my son's nursery. Every night, I tell Grayson that I love him to the moon and back. Sometimes, he'll give me a big ole' open mouth baby-kiss, and I know that he loves me too.

Thanks, Brittany, for the interview and sharing about your life!  I'm so thrilled that we were able to work together on this and that I was able to write about Honeytree Home Decor!

Additionally, Brittany has graciously offered a 15% discount off anything in her shop!  So cool!  Click over to her shop to see all that she has to offer and then use the coupon code: "GLORIOUS15" when you check out! 

  

**In exchange for this post, I received a complementary print from Honeytree Home Decor.  Here's another link to the one I picked! :)