Sassy Southern Blonde

A Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kelsie Bynum

GIFT GUIDE FOR THE HOME

How is Christmas 2022 less than three months away? This is my favorite time of the year, and I’m so excited to start making special memories with Baker! He won’t remember them, but luckily I’ll have all the photos to show him down the road! Lol. My goal is to make my gift guides more personal this year, so the first one is all about amazing home products! I love including items I already own that I can really vouch for!

From the $48 12 piece dinnerware set to the famous Always Pan, I use these home products on the daily! The Estelle wine glasses are still on my own wishlist, though. Haha! I’ll also make sure to continue having various price points in all my guides. You can always follow my profile @kelsiebynum in the LTK app for even more gift inspiration! Let me know which ones you want to see next! 🙂

XO

Kels

FALL HOME DECOR

OUR ENGAGEMENT STORY

I know I’ve already answered questions about our engagement, but I always love going into more details on Sassy Southern Blonde! 🙂 I thought I would start from the beginning about how Bo and I met and summarize everything that’s happened between then and now! Grab your coffee or pour a glass of wine because it might be lengthy! Lol.

Bo and I connected at probably the lowest time in my life in June 2020! I really didn’t share much here about that period, but I was so miserable with constant anxiety and sadness. I actually started therapy a few weeks before we met, and it was the best decision ever! One night, I was scrolling Facebook and Bo’s cousin shared a photo of them with Bo holding his baby! (Ironic I know) I thought he looked SO cute with the baby, and I decided to shoot my shot. I literally had nothing left to lose, and I messaged his cousin on Snapchat of all places to find out if Bo was single!

He offered to give me Bo’s number, but I told him to just let Bo know I was interested and to text me if he was too! I still get butterflies thinking about it because I truly had no clue if this would work or not. Haha! Surprise surprise, Bo did text me 2 hours later. We ended up going on a date that weekend, and we have been together ever since! Bo told me from the beginning he was too tired (not old lol) to play games, and that was fine by me!

We were only together a few months before I got pregnant with Baker as I’m sure some of you have done the math, but I really wouldn’t change anything. It obviously didn’t happen in the correct order, but you truly know someone after having a baby and living together! I am glad that I could confidently say yes when Bo proposed knowing exactly what I’m getting into! Lol. He’s not perfect, but he’s perfect for me! 🙂

Now for the actual proposal + engagement details! I wish I could tell y’all that I was totally surprised, but I wasn’t! My family and Bo tried, though. Bo had given me a budget for a ring months ago! Between running a business and juggling a baby, I just never stopped long enough to look. After a little pressure from him, I finally went and found a ring I loved! I seriously have never been a huge wedding girlie, so I referred back to my old wedding Pinterest board from college for ring inspo! Hahaha.

My mom told me she wanted to take family photos on the beach Saturday night, and that’s when I really knew it was happening! I played along and put on my favorite white dress for the “family” pictures! We walked down to the beach, and my mom pretended to take a photo of me and Bo when Bo got down on one knee. I don’t even remember what he said exactly, but I did say YES! Of course my mom didn’t hit record, so we don’t have the actual moment on video. Typical!

Bo booked reservations at my favorite Orange Beach restaurants, Louisiana Lagniappe for afterwards! (It was so delicious, and I had to order the chocolate cake!) I’m just so happy it’s finally happened! I want to enjoy our engagement before I really nail down wedding plans. We want to elope to Hawaii, but I have no clue when! I’m just taking it one day at a time. I promise I will keep y’all updated on everything when I do start researching and booking, though! 🙂

XOXO

Kels

Our Weekend in Nashville

I know everyone says this, but I just love visiting Nashville! It never gets old. I probably went 5 or 6 times in 2019 alone but hadn’t been back since before the pandemic! It was so fun to return to one of my favorite cities even for a few days. The trip was somewhat last minute, but Bo’s dad got an Airbnb for the weekend and luckily my mom could watch Baker! 🙂

Since it opened, I have been dying to stay at The Graduate in Nashville! It’s everything I love: sparkly, girly, and PINK! I talked Bo into driving up a day early, so we could spend Thursday night there. That ended up being my favorite part of the getaway! We got drinks at the White Limozeen on the rooftop (which is an absolute MUST), ate dinner at Bartaco, and came back to White Limozeen before we crashed! It wasn’t that crowded, so we got to sit at a table and just hang out for a little while!

Of course I wanted to shoot some content at The Graduate before we left, so I got late checkout and we took pictures around the lobby after brunch! We had eaten at Liberty Common because it came highly recommended, but I was disappointed in my food. The chicken tasted weird! Lol. I’d be willing to give it another chance, though!

We decided to do some afternoon shopping in Green Hills, and I talked Bo into a late lunch at Restoration Hardware. Honestly, that was probably my favorite meal! Hahah. The prime rib sandwich is SO delicious! We checked into our Airbnb afterwards and headed to Broadway that night. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was! Like NYE level on a random July weekend! No surprise here, but we didn’t make it out long!

Bo and I woke up early on Saturday and grabbed coffee at Frothy Monkey and donuts from Five Daughters Bakery! Bo’s dad is obsessed with riding scooters, so we literally rode them for hours around Nashville that afternoon! We covered a lot of ground, and it was pretty fun to see everything that way. We stopped at Church & Union for brunch, and it was great! I ordered the Nashville Hot Chicken Biscuit, which was much better than the Liberty Common one.

We ended the weekend trip back on Broadway that night and visited the Twelve Thirty Club! My new favorite spot. It’s just much more elevated than the other bars on Broadway, and the vibe was IT! The bartender actually followed me on Instagram, which made it even better! Shoutout to Paige! 🙂 They also had some of the best Frozè I’ve ever had! All around 10/10.

PS: HERE is my previous Nashville travel guide for more suggestions + recommendations!

XOXO

Kels

2022 BOOK REVIEW (So Far…)

I’m really bad about being consistent with my reading because I hit a lull after I finished Daisy Jones & The Six in January! Luckily, I picked it back up in April and now I’ve knocked out quite a few books. It’s hard to even choose a favorite because they’re all so different! Let me know your thoughts on this lineup because I know we all have different opinions! 🙂

The Last Thing He Told Me

I chose this book because it was a top read of 2021, but I think it was somewhat overhyped! The storyline got better as I read, but it just wasn’t on the same level as others to me. I do occasionally have a hard time reading books that are very unrelated to my life, so maybe that played a factor too!

Daisy Jones & The Six

I have seen mixed reviews about Daisy Jones, but I LOVED this book! A lot of people recommended the audiobook since the story is told in multiple viewpoints, but I didn’t mind it. This is the kind of book that I was sad about finishing! I’m pretty sure it’s loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. There’s also a movie (or tv show?) being filmed! I can’t wait!!!

People We Meet On Vacation

If you’re looking for a cute and easy vacation read, obviously the People We Meet On Vacation is a safe bet! The plot wasn’t too deep, and I honestly wished I would have saved it for the actual beach. It has a very obvious ending, but I still enjoyed the journey to it! Lol.

The Paris Apartment

I’m still on the fence about The Paris Apartment months later! I really had to force myself to push through to the “shocking moment” when a book starts to click for me. Even then, I struggled to like it! Without revealing any spoilers, it was pretty obvious everyone in the story was connected. I wish the author would have made it more conspicuous!

November 9

Although I enjoy Colleen Hoover books, I’m not her #1 biggest fan! I definitely liked November 9 more than It Ends With Us. It also has spoilers from Ugly Love, so you need to read it first! I do think the character’s connection in the book was less obvious than her others which I appreciated! Haha.

The Golden Couple

Thrillers that have a bizarre twist you never saw coming are just the best! Especially if you’re in the mood for that type of book. I knew I would enjoy The Golden Couple if it was half as good as The Wife Between Us. As always, Greer Hendricks and Sara Pekkanen deliver the anxiety I crave in a great read!

The Hunting Wives

Oh my gosh. This book was recommended by one of the girls on my favorite podcast, and it was SO good. I think I read it within 48 hours? That’s saying something for me. I couldn’t put it down! You really have no clue what’s going to happen because the ending shocked me! I also just enjoy reading about the mysterious lives of rich southern women! 😉

What’s Next…

Meant To Be, The Idea of You, It Happened One Summer, Lessons in Chemistry

XOXO

Kels