Hello! It's been such a long time since I've posted! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying these last few weeks of summer!
This summer my little family traveled once again to Destin, Florida. I absolutely adore it there! The ocean in that area is indescribable! The colors of the ocean are so gorgeous its literally like heaven on Earth.
One of my favorite parts of traveling to Florida is thrifting on our way down and back! Destin actually has an amazing selection of anitque stores, which sell authentic French furnitures that are handpicked and shipped into the area.
This year I was able to purchase a few large french pieces for our home.
The first item that I purchased was this pretty French Bombay chest with inlaid wood.
The top is a green marble. Would you believe that I found this at a thrift store in Destin?
I love the character that this little chest brings to my stairwell.
The bust that sits upon the Bombay chest is actually from the same thirft store in Destin! I purchased her last year.
I did acquire another large piece at this thrift store for our home. I will be showing it in a later post, but its amazing and from the 1800's. This Bombay chest could be vintage or fairly new, I have no idea, but its lovely all the same!
My stairwell has needed some love since I moved here nine years ago. I just couldn't figure this space out.... how to make it look nice. I brought home a stunning piece of jewelry for this space! It couldn't be more perfect!
This is an authentic antique french Trumeau mirror. I found it at an antique store in Destin.
I was lucky enough to be able to speak with the previous owner and she did confirm that it was imported from France.
This mirror is about 7ft tall and will not fit above any of my mantels, so we decided to hang it in the stairwell. It literally changed the whole space! I feel like I live in a castle!
This mirror is so special to me and brings me so much joy each day as I make my way down the stairs. The carvings are so intricate and delicate. The painting has the softest colors which work so nicely with my wall color.
My trumeau mirror reminds me of heaven.
This space will now be getting French moldings for the walls and when I find the perfect one...a Large chandelier to hang down in front of the leaded glass windows. I am thrilled with my stairwell's progress! Beautiful homes don't happen overnight, it takes time, inspiration, money, and hard work but in the end its so worth it! I cannot believe its been 9 years for me to finally feel like I'm headed in the right direction for this space.
I also wanted to share with you a beautiful Florentine desk that I found on Facebook marketplace this summer. I adore Florentine! I have acquired a few trays and lots of wall plaques but never an actual piece of furniture! This piece cost me $45 and I think that was a bargain. A few weeks later I found another smaller table on Marketplace for the same price, I bought that one as well.
My garden is filling up with David Austen roses. Here is a sweet bouquet that I picked earlier in the season.
TRIGGER WARNING
Below I will be sharing my story of miscarriage and being diagnosed with a pituitary tumor. I will be showing MRI images of my brain, so if this makes you uncomfortable please stop reading now.🙏🏻
These sweet pale pinkish white roses are called "Earth Angel". I planted these in honor of my sweet angel baby that I lost in 2020. I have never been so devastated in my life. I think I cried just about everyday for one year, I couldn't feel any joy. I had tried to conceive for about 6 years and no luck, and then finally I conceived! My pregnancy wasn't feeling right to me at all. I was bleeding so I went in for a sonogram expecting my angel to be gone, but sure enough a healthy baby was on the screen with a healthy heartbeat. I was so relieved. The next day I had a miscarriage. I still cry but not as often. I am grateful that I was able to see my angel on the sonogram and have a picture of them forever.
HEALTH UPDATE
I know many of you have messaged me over the years asking me for more consistent blog posts, I wish I could have done better but my health had not be good for years. After I lost my baby, my body was not working correctly. Something was off and had been off for years! My period never came back after my miscarriage and I started lactating a lot. My prolactin was checked and I had slightly elevated levels, which when I went back through my charts, before I even conceived, my prolactin was elevated! Thats not normal and should have been looked into. My thyroid was at a 5 when it should be at a 1 to conceive and sustain a pregnancy. My doctor knew all of this and still proceeded to help me get pregnant with fertility medicine. My baby never had a chance. I blame myself for not checking those charts and blindly believing what I was told, that everything was in a normal range, I could have saved my baby's life. I will never do that again. I will always advocate for myself even when doctor's brush me off.
Finally with the more intense elevated prolactin levels I had to have a MRI which showed a huge tumor on my pituitary gland. I circled it below. The white blob is the tumor. Your pituitary gland is about 8mm, so extremely small...my tumor measured at 1.6cm x 2.2cm x 1.7cm. I had what is called stalk effect. My tumor was non functioning but pushing against my pituitary gland causing elevated prolactin levels and lactation. Our pituitary gland is our Master Gland! It controls absolutely everything. My head would hurt so bad for weeks at a time, nothing would relieve it. My face would feel like it was drooping on one side, my legs, face, and neck would swell daily. My body was in so much pain, I didn't leave my bed very often. It was hell. I couldn't remember words, my face even looked different. I would cry a lot.
Last August I had Endoscopic trans nasal transphenoidal surgery. My surgeon had to go up through my nose and remove a piece of my skull to remove the tumor. I was in the operating room for 6 hours. The goal was not to remove all of it because they didn't want to damage my pituitary gland as I still plan to have children. My doctor told my that if my pregnancy would have continued I would have gone blind. Do you see the horizontal line above the tumor? Thats my optical nerve, once the tumor grew large enough to hit it, I would have lost my eye sight.
Surgery was the scariest thing I have ever been through. I was in ICU for several days. My family could only be with me for a few hours of the day because of Covid. It was intense but I am still here! The biopsy came back non cancerous. The majority of pituitary tumors are non cancerous.
This is my newest MRI. You can see it is much smaller! I speak wellness and health over myself everyday. Recently I have been feeling much much better! I am grateful for the the little things, like doing laundry, washing dishes, walking up the stairs, making meals for my family, going to my son's school events! I am grateful that the headaches are gone, my periods are back! I am grateful for my life. These past two years have been some of the most difficult years of my life. I am much different, I am stronger, I am more independent, I am more thankful. Losing my baby really changed me, I'm still soft inside, but yet i feel a hardness inisde too, there is a huge hole in my heart that can not be filled.
I wanted to update you all and kind of explain what has been going on with my health for many years now. I hope to be more consistent and get back to doing things that I love.
I really want to get back into sharing more on social media. I am most active on my IG account.
I appreciate how patient you all have been with me on here! I love you all!
Photo of my husband and I on vacation a few weeks ago. Im feeling much better!
My other angel! Look at my sweet boy all grown up! 9 years old! He is my miracle!
Thank you all again for always being so sweet to me! It means the world to me!
