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Simply Stated 37

Happy October!

As you read this, AnnMarie and I are probably somewhere on Broadway in Nashville.

Unless it’s really early.

Because neither of us is a morning kinda person…

This weekend is our fifth annual couples trip with two other couples we love.

So far we’ve visited Charleston, SC, Nashville, New Orleans, and Las Vegas.

Sadly last year’s trip to Denver was canceled, so we’re even more excited for this one!

We have plans to visit the Grand Ol’ Opry and the country music hall of fame, listen to lots of great music, tour a distillery, eat some hot chicken, and generally enjoy our time together.

Obviously, we love our vacations with the kids, but this one has become a highlight of the year too!

Next year when all four couples are empty nesters we’re hoping to take a full week to somewhere tropical…

Our Adventure Decorating a Store for Christmas

This past week brought AnnMarie and me a brand new opportunity that was an amazing experience!

A friend we met on Instagram owns a home decor shop in Asheville, NC called Rod Works.

She contacted us a few weeks ago to see if we’d be interested in helping her transition her store from fall to Christmas.

We both love decorating our homes for Christmas so we jumped at the opportunity!

When we arrived at the shop Sunday morning, we realized we were a little over our heads…

There were so many boxes that needed to be unloaded, and more were coming the next day!

Setting up a store is VERY different from decorating a home.

Jackie was so kind and patient with us and she taught us so much.

Anne and AnnMarie from Simply2Moms with Jackie the owner of the Rodworks Asheville store.

It was so fun to actually meet her in person!

That may be one of our favorite things about what we do: getting to meet women who share our interests and helping each other out.

Stay tuned next week when we share all the after pictures and everything we learned!

More Ideas and Inspiration

We also participated in a fall home tour with 29 other bloggers this week.

If you’re looking for fall decorating inspiration, you’ll find so much if you check out everyone’s posts!

We also found some more ideas you’re going to enjoy:

This soup recipe.

This pretty garland.

This pretty house.

These slow cooker recipes.

This autumn salsa.

This delicious sweet potato recipe.

This front porch.

This easy DIY.

And that’s it for this week!

Be sure to watch our stories on Instagram this weekend to see all our adventures in Nashville!

We hope your weekend is beautiful.

Signature for AnnMarie and Anne with headshot photo