{T.I.L. #24}

Happy melted ice day! It was icy earlier this morning, I promise. 

Again, I kinda did nothing all day and it was glorious. We have a chance of ONE.more.day off as it is supposed to snow in the early morning. *fingers crossed* I'm obviously praying for safe-but-impacted travel because I'm a 1st grade teacher and that's just what we do. Plus, it is a nice nudge for parents to keep buying teachers' Starbucks. You think 3 kids snowed-in with a whole house & yard is bad? Add in 17 more kids, reduce it to one room and very limited outside time...that's our school day in winter.

Why yes, I WOULD like a Grande drink instead of a Tall, thankyouverymuch.

On to the Things I Love post for today. I briefly mentioned this love in this post when I posted this picture:

I grew up in Mississippi and they may not have top-notch education or lots of money for the masses, but they have one thing really right: exposed brick.

Growing up in the deep South, I thought exposed brick or full-on tumbled brick exterior was the norm. Then I moved to Texas and all this new brick and stone popped up...not really a fan.

I realized that though I love a great brick wall, what I really love is aged, tumbled brick.

Tumbled brick has the edges that are a little worn and ragged, with the mortar looking thick and imperfect. The orderly, perfect brick is just not my cup of tea {which is strange for a perfectionist.}

Here is some beautiful brickwork I captured in Savannah and Charleston:

Most of those are exteriors I love, but I want to bring the tumbled brick with messy, white grout look INTO my home.

Here are some examples of great interior brick walls from this site:

That bedroom! I'd honestly have trouble leaving in the morning (even more than I do now!)

I especially love bricks in the kitchen like the above photo, or as a backsplash:

Unsure about source of this pic

Pic from Here

After talking with Ashley and her husband Grant, it looks as though having a brick backsplash in my cottage may not work out with the layout of the kitchen. So, I have other cuteness planned for that area. They suggested that I move the exposed brick wall over to the area behind where my fridge will be (pics to come). I want to have a built-in next to the fridge so I didn't think of that spot at first. But now I see how that could still look great if I leave the built-in backless or change it to some semi-floating shelves. I dunno, we'll see once the brick wall is up. 

Speaking of brick walls, modern technology has made things soooo much easier on the exposed brick front. You can use tumbled brick pavers that weigh a whole lot less and go up like tile. Easy peasy. {Well, we'll see how easy it is once I install it!} I ordered these Boston style tumbled pavers and I chose the Brickweb option where they all come on a 12-brick sheet to make things even easier. Yes, please!

More on installation later but until then, gaze upon the beauty of this coffee shop in Savannah, GA. Too bad it closed down because I could've seriously lived there!

Carpe Vas in Savannah, GA