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Valentine's Day Top 5

1/26/2018

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Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching! You know we love a list here at The Southern Mercantile, and we love Pinterest for great ideas and inspiration! So, here’s our Top 5 list for Valentine’s Day ideas, sparked by our latest Pinterest board, “Bless Your HEART!” On this board we’ve gathered some of the cutest suggestions on Pinterest to celebrate Valentine’s Day with all your loved ones!
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​1. Who wouldn’t love these Strawberry Pie Hearts from lovelylittlekitchen.com? And, using pre-made pie crust and a jar of preserves makes this recipe so easy!

You can use whatever filling you like, but may we suggest a jar of Southern Mercantile’s Strawberry Jam? Hand-crafted in small batches, just like Grandma used to make, the flavor from locally-grown strawberries can't be beat!​
2. Looking for Valentine’s treats to send to your child’s class? How about this adorable printable from bloomdesignsonline.com? “You are a GEM of a friend!” attached to a ring pop will make any of their friends feel special! If you’re looking for something other than candy, what about Legos? It would be so much fun for their friends to receive a bag of colorful Legos with a tag stating, “We were BUILT to be friends!” Find this printable at simplyrealmoms.com.


​3. Here’s an easy and cute Valentine’s dinner idea: Mini Heart-Shaped Pizzas! Who doesn’t love pizza? It would be a fun idea to have lots of toppings ready for everyone to choose their own and have a make-your-own pizza night to celebrate the holiday. Adorable and low-stress? Thanks, sarahhearts.com!
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​4. Of course, you can’t have Valentine’s Day without chocolate! This decadent Chocolate Martini is perfect for sharing with your significant other. Have it as a cocktail or serve it for dessert, or enjoy it twice! Get the recipe at oliviascuisine.com.

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​5. Maybe you already have all your Valentine’s gifts and just want a little finishing touch? These printable Valentine’s Day gift tags from liagriffith.com are just what you need! Pretty and easy to personalize, there’s one for everyone on your list.

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Look for all these ideas and more on The Southern Mercantile’s Pinterest board, “Bless Your HEART.” Be sure to follow us on Pinterest - maybe you’ll find a new tradition or two to celebrate the day dedicated to LOVE!
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New Year's Non-resolutions

1/18/2018

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Confession: New Year’s is always a struggle for me.
For years, I felt the need to make resolutions, pressured to do more and better all in the name of self-improvement. I vowed to exercise every day, eat veggies and lean protein for every meal and snack, and swore off breads and sweets, so I could lose weight and be healthier. I promised to read more books, study my Bible and pray more consistently, journal more, send cards and food to those who were hurting, spend more time with my kids and other loved ones, all in an effort to improve my relationships with God and others.

When I first started making resolutions, I worked hard to accomplish them, at least at the beginning of the year. Slowly, but surely, real life would creep in or an unexpected event would pull me off track, and I would lose my resolve to continue, then guilt and feelings of not being “good enough” would overtake me. I read blogs about how to better keep resolutions and sought advice from those I saw as successful and disciplined enough to do so. Mostly, it boiled down to making short-term specific goals in order to reach long-term goals and having someone to hold you accountable to your goals.
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This is a pretty accurate image that captures what my life feels like! Right now, I could replace the baby with car keys or steering wheel since I spend quite a lot of time chauffeuring my older boys around. Soon, though, there will be another baby in my arms!
Seems like wise advice, right? I would try to apply such goal-setting principles, with some success, but I never felt like I was really accomplishing my resolutions. I always ended up feeling like I was failing because I never completely met my goals. For several years, I made resolutions, knowing I would not keep them, just to be able to say I at least made them. Last year, I basically resolved to keep doing what I was already doing! ​
This year, I’ve decided not to make specific resolutions. I just want to try to be better each day than I was the day before. And, when I have a bad day, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. So much grief and loss in 2017 (and really, in the last few years) revealed something to me, something I already knew but didn’t really appreciate before: Life is short. We all say it, and we mean it, we really do, but we don’t always live it. My intention this year is to live like life is short and try to make the most of each day, rather than try to cram more into it.
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My sister-in-law delivered twins a bit early, so we were unable to have our traditional Christmas Eve party with Chris's family. We made the most of it by visiting through the nursery window, followed by dinner at Waffle House!
Now, before my friends and family begin to freak out, please know that I’m not just throwing all discipline to the wind! I am still going to take care of myself, strive to be healthy, make plans, pray, and read my Bible. This is more about taking care of myself rather than not making resolutions. I’m not giving up; I’m just trying to give up feeling bad about myself. I’ve learned God loves me in all my beautiful mess, and you know what? So do the people I truly care about! 
I'm currently reading a devotional on my Bible app called "Breathing Room" by Sandra Stanley, and on day 3, she says, "Knowing that your time is limited forces you to limit what you do with your time." ​I want to enjoy the time I have with my children, and I realize my parents won't be around forever, so I want to give them time together, too. And, that's true about all my family! I enjoy the work that I do, even on busy, frazzled days,  but it's the reminders that the work I do matters to others that I really appreciate. It's the little moments that mean the most in each day, and I am going to try to cultivate more of those moments. I'm trying to cut out the things that suck up my time and zap my energy. 
Of course, I’m still struggling. I’m still battling those old feelings of not being good enough or doing enough. God has already given me the gift of grace; I just have to learn to give myself grace every day. I feel pretty certain that I’m not the only person who struggles like I do. Surely there’s someone else out there?! So, if anyone has any advice or suggestions on how to give grace to myself, please share! I’ll take all the help I can get!
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Here's to making the best out of a snow day in south Georgia! If only life would always be this peaceful!
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Nesting in the New Year

1/12/2018

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Happy New Year from the Beech Street Bungalow!  This holiday season has been a busy one for us, but we are finally settling in nicely.  In case you didn't know, we now have a porch!  It is far from being completed, but it sure does make this house start to look like a home!  Look how pretty it was in the snow!

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Lately I have been feeling this strange sense of urgency to "nest".  We are getting to a place where things are starting to come together and I am more than ready to clean, organize, and decorate!

​Phillip and I decided to work really hard over the Christmas holidays to finish the interior of our home.  Our thinking was that if we did indeed finish the inside, we might be able to relax a little and enjoy the coming year!  This dark cloud of to-dos has hung over our head long enough, and we were ready to conquer the list!  A week goes by really fast--especially when you make time for duck hunting and last minute shopping trips.

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We managed to complete a majority of our list, with only a few minor projects left to accomplish.  Some of the things left to do are important, some are not.  Either way, I'm feeling good about our progress!  One of the most helpful things we were able to do was to finish the closet in the "boy" and "girl" room. ​

The closet in the girl room was a simple project.  The old closet in this room jutted out into the main hallway.  We knew we wanted to remove this obstruction to improve the flow. We were lucky enough to have a convenient place to add another closet --where a small hallway lead from the bedroom to the guest bathroom.  It is simple, but I think it turned out nice!  
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The closet in the boy room turned out to be quite a project.  We turned what use to be a bathroom into a walk-in closet.  We decided to do this because the old bathroom connected the bedroom to the enclosed porch.  Since we were opening up the porch again, we thought it would make more sense for us to turn this into a closet.  Not only did we have to tear out these exterior walls, but we also had to rip the bathroom down to the studs, frame a wall, patch the concrete floor, and sheetrock the walls and ceiling.  Whew!  This project was definitely a work in progress.
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The closet ended up being so large that we decided to utilize the space for extra storage.  Phillip and I designed a layout that would allow us to build shelves to hold 5 large plastic storage containers. This is huge! It is such a help when trying to find places to store seasonal items.
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Phillip put shelves in the guest bathroom "pantry" as well as in the little nook on the other side of that bathroom.  I was so excited!  They ended up fitting beautifully in the space and I can't wait to decorate them!
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I can't explain the feeling I had when the closets were finished.  I know it seems like a silly thing to be so giddy about, but I like to be organized and I like for everything to have its place.  For the 11 months that we have been living in our house I have had stacks of storage containers and boxes in our hallway, with no final destination for these things in sight.  But now, it was finally time to finish unpacking and find a place for everything!  I am one happy girl.
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​Nesting feels good, nesting feels right, especially in the start of a new year!  Though you may not be in a similar situation as me, maybe you should nest (or re-nest) a little!  Pick a closet or cabinet and go through it--donate or throw away what you don't need, refold or reorganize it!  There is just something refreshing about starting the new year in a clean and tidy home.  Home is such a special place to be, we should enjoy every minute of it.  I am finally getting to a place where I walk in and feel at home--not at a construction site.  It is my happy place.  I hope your home is your happy place, and if there is anything that you can do to make it happier, then do it!  I'll just be over here nesting away.
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​Check out more Beech Street Bungalow renovation stories here!
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2017 Is In The Books!

1/5/2018

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I have been sitting at the computer this afternoon, trying to prepare a blog post for this week.  We’ve got a great blog schedule prepped for this year full of new recipes, gardening tips and more home renovation stories, but we didn’t have anything that seemed just right to kick the year off.  After typing and deleting several starts to several different topics, I decided just to take a look back at 2017 and what an incredible journey it was for our little company and all that are a part of it!

​2017 was a year full of travel, meeting new folks and learning a new side to our business, all while running our brick and mortar store in our little home town of Ocilla.  The Southern Merc girls hit the road this year, managing to travel to ten markets across the southeast.  We had so much fun meeting new people and spreading the love of the south!

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​The time we put in to planning and preparing for these shows was a little more than I bargained for, but the end results were so worth it!  
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​It has been exciting to watch our little movement grow, and we are so thankful to all of you that have supported us this past year! We’ve also continued to learn more and more about the online side of our business and have become busier with photoshoots, keeping up with social media, and making improvements to our website and online store.  None of this would have happened without the help of my awesome team and their willingness to step outside of their comfort zones and continue to learn and grow with me in this crazy business!
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​In July we opened another retail location in Nashville, GA.  Our mini Southern Mercantile is located inside a new store called Shoppes on Davis.  It has been so fun to have a presence in another small, southern town and we are looking forward to growing with them in 2018!  
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​We have been blessed to continue to be very involved with our community at home through our retail efforts and our continuing work with Called to Care.  Our downtown shop, The Shoppes at Fourth and Cherry, continues to be a gathering place and safe haven for our community members.  We never get tired of celebrating birthdays, new marriages and new babies, or grieving with those who have lost loved ones, are fighting illness, or just listening to those who are struggling with life’s difficulties.  My husband, Matt was re-elected this past fall as our Mayor, and I couldn’t be more proud.  He has been such an asset to our little town and is working so hard to make improvements both in infrastructure and in business and economic development.  We are both so proud to call Ocilla our home and hope to see it grow in a mighty way over the next four years!  
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We celebrated a very special wedding in 2017 as our sweet Katelyn married her sweetheart, Jake in June. This special couple has been a blessing to our community and we have been thrilled to add them to our family!  For those of you that don't know, Katelyn has been working with us behind the scenes this year with content management and design, and we are excited for her to be even more involved in 2018. 
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In other big and exciting news, Katelyn AND Jorjanne are expecting!! We can’t wait to add two Southern Merc babies to the fold and are looking forward to celebrating the arrival of baby girl Jenkins and baby boy Paulk.  Don’t worry, we’ll be sharing pictures!
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​While 2017 was a great year, it was a challenging year for me.  I don’t remember a time in my life when I felt more exhausted, more unorganized and more out of my element.  I’ve spent most of the last 14 years running my retail shop and becoming pretty good at it.  I thrive on creating beautiful displays for my shop windows and for my merchandise.  We host events like no other stores around us.  I love knowing my customers and keeping up with what’s going on in their lives.  I am really good at running my shop.  I hope that doesn’t sound too arrogant, but it is about the only thing I can brag on with confidence!  With that being said, starting this online business has been a huge challenge for me because I am not good at it, and I don’t like not being good at things.  I have struggled to learn the online shopping world as I, myself, am not an online shopper.  Tara and I have struggled with learning the ins and outs of building and maintaining a website as neither of us is very techno-savvy.  We have struggled to figure out a good system for inventory management.  We’ve pushed ourselves to stay on top of social media and engagement. But, the hardest thing for me this year has been being away from my shop.  I miss my team members when I am gone, I miss my customers, and I don’t have as much time and creative energy to put in to making my shop the best it can be.  While I have loved every minute of meeting all of you and making new friends, I sometimes failed at the balancing act of splitting my time and creative resources between two things.  Because of all of these things, I am feeling pretty good about moving on to a new year.  
​I am looking forward to 2018.  Looking forward to having two years of The Southern Mercantile under my belt.  Looking forward to being a little more organized and having the time to get back to my creative roots.  Looking forward to feeling a little more confident as I navigate this online world! There has been a steep learning curve and a lot of frustration in figuring this all out, but I am looking forward to moving on and to sharing even more of our Southern lives and traditions with all of you.  I love new beginnings and a fresh start.  2018 is sure to bring more travel, more new friends, more learning, and hopefully more growth for our business. I am ready to meet new challenges and new victories head on! So, here’s to 2018, may it be filled with lots of fun, happiness and prosperity for us all!
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