travel : charleston suggestions

my husband and i are traveling to charleston soon for a wedding (and a much needed getaway) and i would love any travel suggestions. i am so excited to visit; i have never been somehow. any can’t miss restaurants or sights to see while we are there? we plan to explore the city and some of the islands nearby like folly and kiawah. we’re driving down, renting a beautiful townhouse, and planning to rent bikes.

images 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

a few places we plan to go…

-husk – butcher and bee – angel oak tree – gin joint – the ordinary – sugar bakeshop –

xoxo madeline

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travel : seaside, fl

this weekend, josh and i travelled with the dogs to seaside, florida for a development conference. i tagged along to enjoy the sun and sand. seaside is a new urbanism community that was beautifully master planned in the 80’s and is the location of the filming for the truman show (love that movie!) growing up, my family visited the neighboring seagrove beach every year in august. in the offseason, seaside is shockingly quiet and calm. some evenings were chilly, but the weather was beautiful during the day. we ate great seafood, lots of snow cones, and walked for hours.

{seaside square’s quaint post office}

{their first time on the beach at sunset}

{lobster rolls at the shrimp shack}

{all houses are painted in pastel shades, like this tiny pale pink one}

{hot pink dream house}

{breakfast tacos and mimosas at cowgirl kitchen}

{sundog books at seaside square. we stayed at the bookstore owner’s rental home!}

{playtime at the beach}

{colorful walks through seaside side streets}

{pastel shutters}

{the best juice food truck}

{family walks with my guys}

{red tolix chairs at the artist’s colony}

{seaside chapel in the community}

bye seaside! we miss you already.

madeline

2015 in review

happy 2016! we are getting busy back into work over the past two weeks after a long holiday. 2015 was, in a word, transformative. 2014 was a tough personal year for me, so 2015 came as a surprise. i am two weeks late to the ‘2015 best nine’ game, but i thought i would share my highlights. sometimes it’s hard for me to absorb all that has happened, but i am so very thankful for everything.

1. made the decision to freelance and left job in a large firm.
2. started my own interior design business.
3. my beautiful nephew august was born.
4. travelled to d.c. for the cherry blossom festival with wonderful friends.
5. finished my licensure exams and became ncidq certified.
6. celebrated my husband josh’s 30th birthday with a staycation.
7. travelled to our home in montana with siblings.
8. we bought our house!
9. had the opportunity to work on so many amazing projects with the best clients.

also, my husband started his own architecture and development business!

how was your year?

follow along this year on instagram.

big sky montana

in july, we visited our family’s cabin in dillon, montana about an hour outside of bozeman near yellowstone national park. we met my husband’s siblings there and spent the weekend relaxing in the quiet, cooking together, playing card games, flyfishing, and racing around on the polaris. it was perfect. the house, near where lewis and clark camped, was dropped off the union pacific railroad line that ran through the town and was built from a kit! here are some photos from our trip if you’d like to see.

{the bunkhouse}

{historied buildings on property}

{polaris adventures}

{valley view}

{big sky}

{nights by the fire}

we visited a nearby ‘ghost town’ bannack state park, which reminded me of a movie set.

{the saloon}

{the old schoolhouse}

and of course the sunsets were incredible…

one of our favorite parts of the week was wade-in flyfishing, so relaxing. you will have to take my word for it – we took lots of fun pictures of flyfishing, but lost our gopro during a fun, crazy adventure in tubing the beaverhead river (oops). we miss you already montana!

madeline

a summer of news

i feel like i have so much to update…it has been a summer of new things:

a new nephew august! (now 5 months old and perfect)

a new license (finally)

a new 30 year old (my husband)

new fun projects

a new business – madeline johnson interior design, pllc (officially!)

new branding for mjid by arboreal creative

a trip to our cabin in montana, moose trail (a post coming soon)

and soon a new website(!)…i will be moving my blog to my business website and posting more hopefully.

so much has happened this year and i am so thankful for all the wonderful changes. i am the busiest i have ever been owning my own business now, but it feels great.

i have updated my instagram to username mjinteriordesign…follow me for updates!

much love,

madeline

travel : road to hana, maui

i have been sharing about our trip to maui, hawaii this week, i shared about paia town already and today – the road to hana! before we left paia, we downloaded an app called gypsy guide, that came highly recommended to us. i wish this app existed for every city; it is a gps guided tour that tells you when to stop and prioritizes sites for you while driving. the road to hana is a famously treacherous, 42 mile drive along the northeastern coast with 600 hairpin turns. have i sold you? this drive took us about six hours because we took our time and stopped every chance we could. this is truly about the journey, not the destination.

we stopped first at the ho’okipa lookout to see the windsurfers and surfers. the next stop was the rainbow eucalyptus trees off the road in a grove – their bark looks like watercolor. love at first sight. next was the garden of eden arboretum, a small nature preserve with peacocks and local flora where parts of jurassic park were filmed. next was the black sand beach at waianapanapa state park; there are beautiful sea caves and you can go for a swim at the beach. there are many waterfalls (upper waikani, wailua) along the way, we stopped in at a few and swam in the icy water. we drove along the keanae peninsula and stopped at a stand for warm banana bread and shaved ice.

along the route, we stopped at the nakihu mile marker for the most amazing fish tacos and famous ‘coconut candy.’ the last stop was in our little town in hana at hamoa beach where we would stay for a few days. the beach at hamoa is beautiful (one of maui’s best) and there are a few restaurants for dinner if you plan to head back. we saved the south coast for the drive back to wailea.

{the first stop – ho’okipa lookout and windsurfers}

{our jeep for the week}

{rainbow eucalyptus grove – my favorite stop of the whole trip}

{rainbow eucalyptus grove}

{rainbow eucalyptus grove}

{winding roads and lookouts on road to hana}

{‘garden of eden’ arboretum black rock from jurassic park}

{banana bread on keanae peninsula}

{waianapanapa state park – black sand beach}

{waianapanapa state park – black sand beach}

{perfect black sand beach at waianapanapa state park}

{sea caves at waianapanapa state park}

tips:

• download guide before you leave when you have wifi
• take snacks and water with you, not stops till later in the drive
• plan for this to take a full day (early morning) if going there and back (or stay in hana)
• rent your own car if you can so you can stop at your own pace (and fill up your tank)
• convertibles and jeeps are most fun for this drive, be prepared to close to top for passing showers
• bring hiking shoes, towels, and swimming clothes!
• leave enough time to return and don’t drive back in the dark (we rented a place and stayed a few days)

{white plumeria everywhere in hawaii}

{last stop at hamoa beach in hana town, pastoral, and beautiful}

xoxo

madeline

travel : guide to paia, maui, hawaii

this week i want to share some of my travel photos from our trip to hawaii in november. with the ice and snow around the country, we are all needing to mentally be somewhere else today, somewhere warm! to celebrate finishing my husband’s architectural exams and our third wedding anniversary, we booked a trip to maui in november. november is considered ‘off season’ on the islands; prices are lower, but the weather is perfect year round. we did a lot of research before leaving on where to stay on the island, the best beaches, and what to see. i would love to share.

upon landing, we could see the cloud shrouded peak of maui’s volcano, haleakala. we planned to take our entire second day to travel the road to hana, a scenic road trip along the east coast of maui, popular for it’s winding hairpin roads. we decided to stay in paia town, a small bohemian village near the maui airport (north coast) so we could start the next day bright and early for hana. we did not spend very much time in paia, but it charmed us with it’s quaint character and friendly locals. i loved chatting with a girl on the beach who fell in love paia and bought a one way ticket; she moved there and never looked back! i only wish we could have had more time to explore.

STAY:

paia inn – we stayed here, and this boutique hotel won our hearts. paia town is a small, walkable downtown and this inn is right in the center. it was comfortable, small, and beautiful.

airbnb – there are great options for vacations rentals on the island. it is addicting to browse the homes for rent.

DO:

paia bay – this beach was right outside of the paia inn and we spent the morning watching the turtles and surfers. the turtles wash up on shore and they are bigger than i could have ever imagined!

car rental – we rented a jeep wrangler and it was the best decision we made! we chose a location close to the airport for easy pickup before hana.

SHOP:

mana foods – there are no large grocery stores once you get to the east coast, and there are also not many dining options in hana. it is a great idea to stop in to mana foods to get groceries if you plan to stay on the eastern side of the island. so glad we knew to do this. it is like the nicest whole foods you’ve ever been in; we bought hawaiian coffee, fresh local fruit and produce.

boutiques + art galleries – paia is full of artists and handmade crafts, which makes it a great place to walk around at night and window shop.

EAT+DRINK: 

charley’s – we stopped in for breakfast to prepare for the long road trip to hana. there was an incredible bloody mary bar and we had to order the famous macadamia nut pancakes with coconut milk syrup. amazing!

mama’s fish house – this restaurant is a must while you are there. although very popular and touristy, the service, dinner and drinks were perfect. it is a beautiful setting on the beach and we sipped mai tais and ate local ono fish while feeling jetlagged.

{surfers on paia bay}

{ginger plant flower}

{passionfruit etching}

{exploring at paia inn}

{colorful outdoor dining at paia inn}

{macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup at charley’s}

{exotic fruits at mana foods grocery, rambutan?!}

{mai tais at mama’s fish house}

i will be posting guides on hana and wailea this week. i hope you enjoyed the paia guide, and please post any questions you may have about your travels!

xoxo

madeline

travel : hawaii planning

i am so excited….we finally planned our much-needed vacation this year and our destination is…HAWAII!  we plan to go to maui and spend most of our time there. we want to experience both the western ‘desert’ side in wailea and eastern ‘tropical’ side of the island in hana.  my parents often tell me about how they visited maui when my mom was pregnant with me and now i will be returning again. it is hard for me not to plan a lot of things to do and see, but i know we both need time to recharge; so i will do my best not to type out an itinerary….

 

do you have any hawaii recommendations? i would love to hear what islands you recommend, where you stayed, beaches to visit, or any other tips you might have!

 

images kauai 1 / lanai 2 / maui 3

 

MADELINE