Frolicing in Florida

Can you imagine a better welcome than this? I got to spend the day with Kim of Daisy Cottage! A big Welcome, Rhoda waiting for me in Kim's diningroom AND a precious pup that I could not resist holding like a baby. Girls, I have to tell you that Kim is all you would expect her to be AND more. You know how warm, genuine, and sweet she is on her blog? Well, multiply that by 10 and you've got it. Kim and I clicked immediately and it truly was like we had known each other forever. We really have known each other online for probably 5 years now and have gotten to know a lot about each other's personal lives and meeting in person just solidifies all of that. What an absolutely wonderful day I had with Kim. If you have never visited Kim's blog (which I can't imagine that you have not), you have to...now!

Me and Maggie hit it off just fine right from the start too. I knew we would. Kim is a little camera shy so Maggie stood in for her.

Kim surprised me with a big note on her chalkboard and that was so fun to walk in and see! Miss Kim makes you feel right at home in Daisy Cottage. And oh my word....Daisy Cottage is beautiful in her pics and on her blog, but in person it is just amazing. All the light coming in the windows, the wonderful architectural details of her cottage home, and the way she has artfully decorated it with vintage finds is just amazing. It was surreal walking in and taking it all in. Kim gave me the grand tour and I was ooohing and ahhhing the whole time. It's so much prettier than the pics even show because you can get the whole scope at once and how all the rooms connect to each other.

Kim's diningroom.

And the livingroom when you walk in from the amazing front porch. I sat right there in that chair on the right. See my red coffee cup?! We sat here and talked and talked and talked and then Kim had to go and work in a cute shop called Vintage.

I had to take a pic of me sitting on the front porch of Daisy Cottage. Kim lives in the prettiest part of Lakeland, in my opinion, right in the middle of two gorgeous lakes. So many beautiful historical homes everywhere you look in her neighborhood. In fact, on Friday I went walking in her neighborhood around the lake and it was beautiful, so I'll do another post about all that later next week.
Kim so graciously gave me a precious coffee cup. She didn't even know that I had secretly wished for one of these ever since I saw it on her blog. Thank you, Kim! I'll think of you everytime I have my coffee.

So off to Vintage we went. It's a really cute shop and I kept Kim company while she opened up and minded the store.

I took some pics inside so you could get a feel for it. Lots of neat things in here.

Just the sort of place a girl likes to browse.

Fun!

I was just going to hang out for a little while because she thought she'd have to stay all day, but when Angie, the shop owner came in, she took over and we were free to leave. We were so excited! Now we had time for lunch and shopping. So, we stopped at a fun place for salads. Sat outside and talked some more. I'm not kidding, we never ran out of things to talk about.

Then, Kim took me to her favorite Goodwill, where of course, we scored on some things. All of this is mine except the large round white metal bowl, which Kim took home. I spent $12 on all my haul and had to empty out my carryon bag just to get it all home in one piece. In honor of my friend Debra, from The Bunnies' Bungalow, I picked up a duplicate Martha Stewart pitcher which she graciously sent to me last year for my creamware collection and it got broken in shipping. So, Debra...I found another one! That funny looking coffee cup is a cappucino maker that I can't wait to try out. The little handle is for making frothy milk, I think.

You can see we had a ball! I'm going back down with my hubby in a couple of weeks and we are going to really make some plans then. I can't wait, Kim! I also saw several of my relatives and visited my old college and have LOTS more pics to share, so you'll see those next week. Wish we could all get together and go shopping, but I hope you enjoyed going with me and Kim on our outing!