Wades of 108

U is for Up

2012-02-16T14:58:00.002-05:00

A different perspective of the Lucky Strike tower.

V is for Valentine's Dessert

2012-02-15T16:44:00.000-05:00

Lee and I decided to keep Valentine's low key and do dinner at home. I came home to homemade spinach & artichoke dip and shrimp & grits, plus a sweet card and beautiful orchid plant. It was perfect.

My contribution? This teeny cheesecake from a local cafe. I was too full to eat it after dinner, but Lee said it was delish. I can't wait to eat my portion tonight.

This photo? It could definitely be better. I took it at my desk at work because I knew it would be dark by the time I got home. The windows provide some awesome light (not to mention the view), but I could probably have spent some more time getting it just so -- but I was in a hurry to get home to my Valentine!

H is for Humiliation

2012-02-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

She loves going on walks, but hates her muzzle lead (it looks bad but it's the only thing we've tried that keeps her from pulling so badly, which makes for a happier walk for us and her).

I think the real issue though is when we see other dogs on our walk, and she looks up at me like "Really with the muzzle? This is so embarrassing. I have zero street cred now."

P is for Personal Pizzas

2012-02-13T13:40:00.002-05:00

Lunch on Saturday. Yum.

W is for Willy Wonka

2012-02-13T13:39:00.000-05:00

Catching up from my SFS pics over the weekend.

This was taken at 9:00 on Friday night, as I scrambled to try and get a picture in before the deadline. Pictures in the dark = no bueno. Trying to be more mindful from now on about planning my pictures out ahead of time.

Y is for Yellow

2012-02-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

I had to take this in the morning before work (on the side of the road, no less) so I didn't spend the time to get it right. I'm not happy with this one, but at least I got it done. On to the next letter...

F is for Fungus

2012-02-09T17:05:00.000-05:00

So, it's obvious that I've completely abandoned my theme of "love." Instead the theme is "whatever semi-interesting thing I can find to take a picture of every day before the sun goes down."

But still, this tree fungus is somewhat pretty, don't you think? I could probably grow to love it if I had to.

C is for Cookies and Milk

2012-02-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

Redo of my cookies and milk shot. The white background was causing me all sorts of trouble, so I decided to use the farm table instead.

I'm happy with it, although I think we can all agree the version with the puppy was much better.

T is for Torture

2012-02-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

I was determined yesterday to take a "milk and cookies" shot for my SFS picture. I even baked cookies from scratch and had my milk bottle styled just so. But it was cloudy all day and I had basically no indoor light. I had to move my setup right next to the back door and poor Sugar was tormented. This actually turned out to be my favorite shot of the day. And judging from the reactions from my classmates (and teacher) it's the happy accidents that often turn out the best, right?

Hopefully I'll get to try the milk and cookies shot again when the sun cooperates (and sans puppy).

D is for Droplets

2012-02-05T20:58:00.000-05:00

It was such a dreary day yesterday, but I was determined to get outside for my SFS shot, even in the rain. Green pine needles and water droplets made for a nice subject.

N is for Newel Posts, New and Old

2012-02-05T20:57:00.000-05:00

On Friday I toured the historic home of a coworker that he's renovating in downtown Durham. It was very impressive and inspiring and I'm hoping to share more pictures with you this week. I fell in love with these newel posts (the original and two replicas) and decided to use this shot for my Souvenir Foto School Day 3 picture.

L is for Lucky Strike

2012-02-03T11:54:00.000-05:00

I walk by this tower every single day on the way to and from work and have never once stopped to take a picture. This was taken from the top of the parking deck at sunset.

While it doesn't exactly fit my self-imposed "love" theme (I definitely do not love Lucky Strikes), I do love where I work and am lucky to have this view every day.

S is for Sugar

2012-02-02T17:19:00.000-05:00

There are few things in this world I love more than this dog, and few things she loves more than attention from her Daddy and playing fetch with her ball (both of which she's eyeing longingly in this photo).

P.S. - I was so nervous to share this with the class, but I got tons of positive feedback which was so encouraging. Or maybe it's just my dog is so darn cute?

Souvenir Foto School

2012-02-01T21:21:00.000-05:00

So I've done terrible on my resolution to blog more. But today is February 1st and that changes today! Why? Because I HAVE been doing well on my resolution to try and improve my photography.

First, I took an intermediate photography workshop in downtown Raleigh this weekend. It was short and sweet (just 2 hours) and honestly wasn't life-changing. But I did learn a thing or two I didn't know before (or had forgotten) and I did take this pretty cool picture of the instructor.

Second, I bit the bullet and signed up for Miss B's Souvenir Foto School. This session of Foto School is centered around the theme A-Z, and you commit to taking one photo a day for 30 days, each relating to a letter of the alphabet. You upload you photo each day to a private Flickr group and get feedback from the instructors and the class.

I've been thinking about signing up for the past year or so, but could never get the nerve. I just now submitted my first picture and even though some participants are solely shooting with iPhones or point-and-shoot cameras, I'm already feeling out of my league! There are some seriously creative people in the group! (And one of my blog idols, Jules from Pancakes and French Fries, is even in the class. Yikes!)

But I signed up because I want to practice and improve, and that's what I intend to do. And if we're being honest, I also signed up because I knew this would provide blog content for the entire month!

We were encouraged to pick a theme for our alphabet series, to narrow down our subjects and give us some guidance. Since it's February, I decided to choose Love. It could be things I love, photography techniques I love (wide aperture!) or straight up Valentine's candy.

So tomorrow I'll show you day 1. We have until midnight each day to post our pictures, so I'll post my photo here the following day. And I'll still be popping in with regular blog content here and there.

Here goes nothing!

Impulse Buy

2012-01-20T16:16:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that last weekend we stumbled upon our local Restoration Hardware going out of business. While I'm not a fan of the dark, depressing look they've got going on in their stores these days, I still really like their bedding and furnishings.

Everything was 60% off original prices and we ended up walking out with a new king bedding set.

Now, you might be thinking "but you don't have a king bed!" And you would be right. But allow me to explain.

When we did our bedroom makeover two years ago, we decided to stick with the furniture we already had. Namely, the queen bed and mattress I had bought for my first "grown up" apartment. "We don't need a king bed!" we said. "We sleep fine in a queen bed, and it's more cozy!" we said. Plus, we didn't want to spend the money.

Fast forward two years. I'm not sure what has changed, but we just don't sleep as good in our bed any more. Elbows are knocking and every toss and turn wakes the other person up. And then there was that one time that Lee smacked me in the face in the middle of the night -- so hard that I cried -- because he said he was dreaming he was catching a baseball.

So we've been scheming on a king bed for a while now. But the main thing holding me back? I invested a lot of money in our queen bedding (also from Restoration Hardware) and couldn't stomach the thought of doing that again.

Cue the going out of business sale! Sucks for them, good for us.

We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to score a king duvet and shams at 60% off. WAY less than we'd paid for our queen bedding, and probably even less than what we'd pay for a lesser-quality, don't-love-it-as-much set from Bed Bath & Beyond or a department store. Plus, we got the coverlet as well, which I'd always wanted for our current bed but couldn't justify the price. At 60% off, I could!

The bedding is not the exact same as what we have now, but it's similar. I'm good with that because a.) I love our current bedding (it's good quality and I love how it looks in our room) and b.) I'm just looking to upgrade the bed, not have to redecorate the room (the current paint and curtains will work nicely, as well as the bathroom).

Our plan is to tuck our finds away for now and slowly build up all the other items we still need (king sheets, comforter to go in the duvet, king pillows, etc.). And eventually pull the trigger on a mattress set and bed.

The one thing that's always bothered me about our bedroom is that the furniture is so matchy-matchy. So I definitely want to take this opportunity to go a different route with the bed. I've fallen in love with this headboard from Pottery Barn:

It's even named the Raleigh and is made in NC! But with a mattress purchase coming up, I doubt I can justify the price. There are lots of upholstered headboard DIYs floating around out there, so we might try our hand at that.

I'll be sure to keep you updated as things progress!

Random Thoughts at Week's End

2012-01-13T17:35:00.000-05:00

Lee gave me Apple TV for Christmas. I didn't know that I wanted it, but we've been enjoying it so far. Paired with Netflix Streaming (can you believe we've never had Netflix before?), he's been watching obscure documentaries to his heart's content.
Downton Abbey was another motivation to sign up for Netflix. I've watched an episode a night from the first season every night this week and I'm hooked. I'm devastated now that I've run out and I have to watch Season 2 one episode a week along with everyone else.
Up next on Netflix? The Tudors. This could be dangerous.
I suck at keeping resolutions. But at least you got one post out of me this week!
Maybe the TV is the reason I can't get motivated to accomplish anything around the house lately? Or blog?
I need to read a book.
I smashed my Kindle over Christmas and had to pay "a small replacement fee of $65" to get it replaced. I need to get back to reading to justify that decision.
My excuse is that I'm waiting for the ebooks I have on hold through the library to become available. Seems like I've been "patron #3 out of 100+" forever.
My sister is coming to see me this weekend! We're going to shop and eat good food and watch Hannah Hardy Dawson's best friend (Miss North Carolina Hailey Best) in Miss America Saturday night. Go Hailey!
I hope you enjoy the long weekend! (I hope you get a long weekend.) See you here next week (if I can resist the powers of the television, that is.)

Holiday Dinner Party

2012-01-06T14:45:00.001-05:00

We had a few friends over for our annual Christmas dinner party (this year it was an after-Christmas dinner party). We waited until the last minute to come up with our menu but I loved how everything turned out.

My favorite part was putting the "Cheers" bar to good use.

We filled Lee's decanter with bourbon, set out some other bottles we had on hand and chilled a bottle of champagne (I improvised and repurposed a decorative flower pot as an ice bucket). I also made this winter white sangria (subbing pomegranate seeds for cranberries).

We snacked on a beautiful cheese plate thanks to the new "W" monogrammed cutting board/cheese tray my mom gave us for Christmas.

For our salad course, I made wedge salads with iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes, crumbled bacon, gorgonzola cheese and ranch dressing. I can tell you this: it did not suck. Wedge salads are totally underrated (or maybe just forgotten?).

Main course was twice baked potatoes, stuffed mushrooms and chicken cordon bleu. This picture doesn't really do it justice but yum-to-the-um.

After lots of chatting, some gift-opening and a little board game action, we served up a chocolate chip cookie skillet topped with ice cream. It was devoured before I could even think to take a picture.

It was a fun night and we can't wait for our next get-together. (Although Cammi probably can.)

A Few Christmas Photos

2012-01-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

I cut myself some slack when it came to taking pictures over Christmas. Partly because it felt nice not to be tied to the camera, and partly because our Christmas was really laid back, so who needs tons of pics of me and my sister watching movies in our PJs all day?

I did take a few to share with you though.

To kick off Christmas break we roasted oysters at the dairy barn on our family farm.

Heith roasting the oysters on the wood-burning stove:

The oyster-eaters chowing down (you won't find me eating any oysters!):

Sugar relaxing:

Our Christmas Eve with the Wades involved shooting down mistletoe:

And a big plate of fried chicken (and ham and chicken pastry and 47 sides):

Sugar immediately sniffed out which stocking was hers at Granny's. She took the items out one by one and examined them, because she thinks she's a human.

We wrapped things up with a pig pickin' on New Year's Eve Eve.

Our Christmas also involved lots of eating, baking, relaxing, time with family, good meals, napping and more eating. And we must have been on the Nice list this year, because Santa was very good to us and brought us nearly everything on our wish lists (and then some!).

I hope your Christmas was amazing as well. Was Santa good to you too?

Tomorrow I'll be back to share pictures from the Christmas dinner party we hosted.

Hiya 2012

2012-01-03T17:20:00.000-05:00

We had a fabulous Christmas (I hope you did too). I had 16 straight days off work and it was heavenly, but that makes getting back into the swing of things all the more difficult. My body (and mind) still isn't used to not being able to eat and nap every two hours.

I'll be back later this week with a few Christmas wrap-up posts, but first I wanted to wish you a happy new year and talk a bit about resolutions.

Last year I laid out my goals for 2011 at the beginning of the year and then did a check-in halfway through. Sadly, I don't have much more to report since my check-in in August (but I'm chalking that up to having made so much progress in the first 7 months of the year!).

I did continue my movie streak (if you're interested -- Aug: The Help, Sept: Contagion, Oct: Moneyball, Nov: Breaking Dawn Part 1) but didn't make it to the movies in December (which is ironic because that's usually the time of year we go at least once or twice). I did watch Love Actually, Clueless, Bridesmaids and Super 8 from the comfort of my sister's couch though, so that works.

I continued on my quest to recycle more and squeezed in our third vacation of the year. I didn't take any more classes but I DID sign up for an Intermediate Photography class at the end of January, so that counts right?

The big fat fail for the year? Running a 5k. I didn't get close, and didn't even really try. And you know what? I'm ok with that. I'm just not a fan of running and as long as there's a zumba, spinning or kickboxing class available to me, I'll choose it over running any day.

So now that there's a bright shiny new year staring us in the face, what are my new goals? The truth is, I don't really know yet. I'm thinking this is going to be a make-and-achieve-goals-as-we-go kind of year. The two that I do know so far:

1. Continue to grow my photography and Photoshop skills. It's a hobby that I love and I've just started to scratch the surface on all there is to learn.

2. Be a better blogger. I'm not trying to be the next Dooce or Pioneer Woman or make a living blogging. But I do enjoy it and I want to be more consistent about posting. My 12 Days of Christmas series was so challenging to me since I wasn't used to posting every day, but I loved the feedback I received and in the end it was worth it. I'm not under any illusion that I'll be posting everyday, but at least 3 times a week is what I'm thinking of shooting for. And if I'm going to be taking the time to post, I might as well try to grow my audience so there are more of you out there following along.

So, have you made any resolutions or set any goals for 2012? If so I'd love to hear them.

2011 was overall a great year for us. Although there were definitely low points, we really can't complain. But I'm so excited to see what 2012 is going to bring.

Day 12: Christmas Cookies

2011-12-23T13:04:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is our annual girls' cookie decorating extravaganza with the cousins.

We roll out the dough (store bought), color the icing (made from scratch) and go to town with our piping bags.

This year we had a new little one that was able to get in on the action.

The next few days will hopefully be spent relaxing, eating more delicious food and hanging out with family.

Thanks for following along the past two weeks (12 consecutive days of posting turned out to be a lot more than I thought!). I'm taking a little break but will be back after Christmas to get the new year started off right.

So I hope you have the happiest of holidays and an amazing new year! See you soon!

Day 11: Christmas Lights Bokeh

2011-12-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

I knew I wanted to capture some fun bokeh shots with the Christmas tree this year. (Bokeh = the blurry, out-of-focus area of an image)

You don't have to have Christmas lights to have bokeh, but Christmas lights make really nice bokeh.

I used this tutorial as a guide and coaxed Sugar to be my subject.

I still think my favorite bokeh shot yet though is this one from yesterday's Oreo post:

What shots are you dying to capture this year? Be sure to share once you get them!

Day 10: Chocolate Dipped Oreos

2011-12-21T09:26:00.000-05:00

Need a last minute holiday treat idea? Or something that packages up nicely as a gift? It doesn't get any easier than chocolate covered Oreos.

You'll need:

White chocolate morsels
Oreos (I don't need to tell you that I use Double Stuf, that should be a given)
Crisco
Sprinkles (optional)

Melt your white chocolate in a double boiler.

I don't have a double boiler so I took a cue from Kim and used a glass bowl with my regular saucepan. You can also melt the chips in the microwave, but I think it's easier to scorch them that way, and once that happens your chocolate is ruined.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate. That's true for the most part, except when it comes to these Oreos.

Also, I found (from reading the back of the morsels bag) that if you add a tablespoon of vegetable shortening (I love the Crisco sticks) to your chocolate, it helps make it a bit thinner and therefore better for dipping.

Once your chocolate is just melted (be sure not to cook it too long!) remove the bowl from the water/heat and throw in your Oreos.

Get them nice and covered, and then fish them out with a fork and shake off the excess.

I transferred them to my Silpat, but you could also use wax paper.

Hit them with a shot of sprinkles and voila!

If you have leftover chocolate, you can cover all sorts of other stuff: pretzels, graham crackers, my mom used to even make little Ritz cracker and peanut butter sandwiches and cover those. Yum!

Day 9: Wrap It Up

2011-12-20T20:01:00.000-05:00

I stuck with my silver/white/blue color scheme for wrapping this year, but relied on craft paper a lot more than last year. I'm kind of obsessed. I used to think it was boring, but now I think it just emphasizes the ribbon/bow/embellishments more.

This silver glitter ribbon? I die. Seriously, it completes me. And unlike every other glitter item in my arsenal it does NOT make a mess. If you need to be completed too, you can get you some here.

If you're on Pinterest, you've seen this tutorial for tying the perfect bow. I've been tying bows a long time, but I like the added touch of folding the tails back in and gluing them to the package (I used double-sided tape). I didn't use this trick with my wired ribbon, but it worked perfectly with the satin ribbon.

So what about you? Do you stick with a scheme when it comes to wrapping? Are you a fan of craft paper, or not so much?

Day 8: Mailbox Treasures

2011-12-19T14:23:00.000-05:00

Checking the mailbox in December to find it full of Christmas cards is one of my very favorite things.

And looking at my collection of cards and seeing three with pictures that I took is even better.

If you sent me a non-photo card this year, don't worry, they have a special place of their own in a basket on the counter. I just ran out of room in my card holder really quickly.

We've done a photo card the last two years, but opted out this year. But seeing all the awesome cards this year makes me sad we didn't do one. I'm sure we'll be back on the bandwagon next year!

Did you do a card this year? Have you been getting lots of great ones in the mail like me?

Day 7: Pottery Barn Inspired Hallway Decor

2011-12-18T23:13:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year we bought a console table for our hallway. I used it at a baby shower this spring to display favors and had fun sprucing it up for fall.

Once I took my fall picture frame wreath down, of course I knew I wanted to do something for Christmas as well. So I turned to one of the 18 Pottery Barn catalogs that showed up in my mailbox this month for inspiration.

I was able to talk Lee into replicating this setup by convincing him that this area would make a perfect bar area for our Christmas dinner party with friends. And he doesn't say no where bourbon is involved.

I bought a long mirror to go over the table (just 30 bucks at HomeGoods) that will stay up all year long (the wall was looking a bit blank before and in desperate need of a mirror or some artwork).

Then I got to work creating my "cheers" letters, which I cut out of the top of a white gift box (I didn't have any poster board on hand) and glittered both the front and the back, since the backs are reflected in the mirror.

I've been watching too much Martha Stewart Show lately, so I was sadly excited about finally having an excuse to glitter something. However after randomly finding glitter all over my clothes, skin and house for four days now, it's safe to say the excitement has worn off (but not the sparkle).

I finished the project off with fresh pine and cedar garland from Home Depot and some red satin ribbon.

Lee's contribution? His crystal decanter and glasses set.

Can't wait to be pouring some hot toddies here next week!

Day 6: Holiday Eats

2011-12-17T19:45:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we whipped up three holiday recipes to munch on.

First was sausage balls. It's just not Christmas without sausage balls.

We don't have a specific recipe, we just kind of eyeball the three ingredients: sausage (we mix 1lb. mild with 1lb. hot), shredded cheddar cheese and Bisquick.

Lee rolled the dough into logs and froze a few of them, so we'll have dough on hand throughout the holidays that we can quickly thaw out, roll into balls and bake.

Then I made a batch of pimiento cheese that we've been munching on all week. Pimiento cheese isn't solely a Christmas food, but it's nice to have some on hand during the holidays.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 jar diced pimientos
Mayo (I just eyeballed it)

You MUST grate the cheese yourself. Pre-packaged shredded cheese is just not going to cut it.

I used the shredder plate on my food processor to grate the cheese and then used the regular blade to combine all the ingredients.

This pimiento cheese is super sharp, which is just the way I like it. If you don't like it as sharp, you can use sharp cheese or mix sharp and extra sharp.

Please PLEASE buy yourself some crusty sourdough bread, slather it with the pimiento cheese and pop it in your toaster oven so it gets nice and runny. YUM. Extra points if you also add bacon and tomato.

And of course we had to have a sweet treat. My mom makes these bars at Christmas, and I'm not sure they have a name (they probably do but I just don't know it), so Lee took to calling them sniggedy snacks.

You'll need:

1 c graham cracker crumbs
1 stick of butter
1 pkg butterscotch morsels
1 pkg chocolate chips (I've taken to using milk chocolate morsels instead of semi-sweet lately, but you do what you want)
1 can sweetened condensed milk

You can buy graham cracker crumbs already made, or make them yourself. I used one sleeve of crackers (1/3 of the box).

Get to pulsin'.

The butter gets popped into the microwave.

Until it's melted.

Pour the melted butter over your crumbs and spread into your pan to make a crust.

These next steps are pretty complicated, so pay attention. Top the crust with the package of butterscotch morsels.

And then CAREFULLY add the chocolate chips. (Just kidding about the carefully part. Just throw them on there.)

And now an action shot!

Pour on the can of sweetened condensed milk. Whatever you do, don't sneak a taste of the condensed milk. (Kidding again. You should definitely do that.)

Now pop it in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes.

I'm not quite sure what was going on with this batch of sniggedy snacks, but they didn't cut up into nice bars like they usually do. They were a bit gooey and runny (let me tell you, NOT a bad thing), so we just enjoyed them straight out of the pan.

These are pretty sweet, so if you don't have a sweet tooth (and for that I envy you) then these probably aren't for you. I think the original recipe also calls for a package of white chocolate chips, but I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate (and it already has enough going on) so I leave them out.

So what are you baking up this holiday season? If you try any of these out, let me know what you think!

Day 5: Making My List, Checking It Twice

2011-12-16T10:17:00.000-05:00

In no way do we expect to get everything on our lists, but we HAVE been extra good this year. Here are some ideas for Santa to peruse:

Kate Spade Ailey sunglasses

600 Thread Count Sheets

Lenox Eternal Frost place setting

Navy Longchamp large tote

Casual sneakers

Sewing machine and good fabric scissors

Riding boots

Amazon gift card (for Kindle books)

Costa Del Mar Howler sunglasses

Apple iPhone 4S

Hard-soled slippers

North Face Men's Apex Bionic jacket

North Face Men's Powerstretch gloves

Guy Harvey dog collar

Milkbones

Rawhide chips

A day at the Petsmart doggie spa

What's on your list this year??

Day 4: The Stars Were Brightly Shining

2011-12-15T10:27:00.001-05:00

I had a different post planned for today, but instead I want to tell you about a bit of Christmas magic that happened last night.

Lee was outside with Sugar (she somehow got loose and was chasing a rabbit in the woods) and said he saw two shooting stars within a matter of minutes. I threw on some shoes and went in the backyard with them.

Lee wrapped me in his arms and we waited patiently in the cold, quiet night, eyes on the sky.

"Did you make a wish?" I asked. "Yes, I wished that Sugar would come back. And she did."

A few minutes later, a huge, bright star streaked across the sky, right above our house. We've done lots of shooting-star gazing out on the pier at the river, but had never seen one so big and bright (and with street lights around and a nearly-full moon, no less).

I grabbed a blanket and my camera and put on some thicker socks. It was cold, but not unbearable. And surprisingly calm and quiet to be in the middle of a neighborhood.

Some Googling later showed that what we were seeing was the Geminid meteor shower, which could produce up to one shooting star a minute in clear areas.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, 4 more shooting stars. All beautiful, all evoking a quick gasp, but none as bright as the first.

Seven stars in all. Seven tiny wishes. Each of them feeling like an early Christmas present from somewhere up above.

[Image via Holly Mathis]

Day 3: O Tannenbaum

2011-12-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

This fabulous Christmas tree picture has been all over Pinterest:

Her simple instructions for how she got the photo? Turn your ISO all the way up, and your shutter speed all the way down (using a tripod).

My results weren't as great (I think the keys to the original pic are the reflective hardwood floors and, let's face it, the kid) but definitely better than Christmas tree pics of years past.

I wanted to replicate the dark, nighttime feel of the original photo, but they didn't turn out as dark as I thought they would so now I'm thinking it might be fun to try it with some daylight too.

Next week I hope to have some fun bokeh shots to share as well, that is if my subject (the dog) will cooperate!

Day 2: "That's My Jam" Christmas Playlist

2011-12-13T10:33:00.000-05:00

I used to be big into the Christmas music. I couldn't wait for the random station that you'd never listen to any other time of year to start playing it 24/7. Now? Not so much. I think it's because the radio only plays the same 10 outdated songs over and over again.

But when I'm wrapping gifts or baking, I have to crank the Christmas tunes. (Oddly enough, I don't listen to Christmas music when I'm decorating, instead I watch holiday episodes of Friends. I do have all 10 seasons on DVD after all.) Enter, my 2011 Christmas Jams Playlist.

The tracks fall into a variety of categories, from Pop, to Classics, to Weird Techno, to Is This Really A Christmas Song? The key is to intersperse them evenly throughout the playlist, so you never know what you're gonna get.

For your listening pleasure, I've linked to each of the songs on YouTube so you can give any of them a test drive to see if you want to download.

1. Baby It's Cold Outside, by Lady Antebellum
A classic, and I love Lady A's version.

2. Last Christmas, by Taylor Swift

3. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), by U2

4. Tiny Christmas Tree, by Guster
Target put out a free album of holiday songs last year (some of them featured in their commercials) and this was one of the keepers.

5. Run Rudolph Run, by Chuck Berry
I'm not sure why, but this song reminds me of my days scanning groceries at the Piggly Wiggly. I knew the 50-song Muzak Christmas playlist so well I could tell you which song was going to play next. My customers were so impressed.

6. Let it Be Christmas, by Alan Jackson

7. Christmas Tonight, by Dave Barnes (with Hillary Scott)

8. Where Are You Christmas?, by Faith Hill

9. The Christmas Waltz, by She & Him

10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, by She & Him
My very favorite Christmas song in general. And who doesn't love Zooey?

11. Step into Christmas, by Elton John

12. Toy Jackpot, by Blackalicious
Another Target tune. I can't not dance to this song.

13. Last Christmas, by the cast of Glee
Yes, another version of Last Christmas. I don't think you can ever have too many.

14. A Christmas Song, by Dave Matthews Band

15. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, by *NSYNC
There are two *NSYNC songs on my playlist. I ain't ashamed.

16. I Don't Wanna Spend One More Christmas Without You, by *NSYNC
This song reminds me of putting up our Tarheel Christmas tree at 713 N. Heritage Circle. Miss those girls. But not all the exam studying that surely followed.

17. Christmas Tree, by Lady Gaga
This falls into the Weird Techno category. And possibly the Vulgar category?

18. Hard Candy Christmas, by Dolly Parton
This falls into the Is This Really a Christmas Song? category. It's about a breakup. And it's pretty depressing. But I guess they can't really play it at any other time of year so it's become a Christmas song.

19. New Again, by Sara Evans & Brad Paisley
Again, this seems more like an Easter song than a Christmas one to me, but it's on Sara's Christmas album, so I'll go with it.

20. Do They Know It's Christmas, by the cast of Glee

I've also discovered that Pandora has some nice holiday stations. My favorites are R&B and Pop Holiday, and Country Christmas.

So, what's on your Christmas playlist this year that I should know about?

P.S. - When I'm not in the mood for Christmas tunes, you can currently find me jamming to Shake it Out by Florence + the Machine and Tongue Tied by Grouplove. If you haven't discovered either of these yet, you're welcome.

P.P.S. - You know what's not on my list? The Little Drummer Boy. In any shape, form or fashion.

Day 1: Holiday Tablescape

2011-12-12T10:49:00.000-05:00

Since our holiday decorations haven't changed much from last year (you can take a look at them here) I won't bore you with the full tour. But over the 12 Days I will show you a few things that have been switched up or are new this year. First up: our dining table decor.

This switch up came out of necessity. I usually do alternating cylinder vases with pillar candles and pinecones. When I sent Lee out to the backyard to gather the pinecones this year (we live in NC, and the pine is our official state tree, so it seems silly to buy pinecones), he came back in with about a fourth of the amount of pinecones I needed. Now whether there really were less pinecones this year or he just got tired of looking, I'm not sure.

But I put on my thinking cap and decided to supplement the pinecones with some bright red and silver ornaments I had left over from years past.

I really like how it turned out. And I'm excited to be able to play around with the red when I set the table for our annual Christmas dinner party, instead of sticking to an all white and silver color scheme.

So what is your table looking like this year? Have you done a color scheme switch up, or are thinking about one? I've decided I want to change up my all-white-and-silver living room with some red next year, so fingers crossed that I score some good after-Christmas deals!

A New Look

2011-12-11T01:09:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't checked in with you this week. That's because I've been busy giving the blog a (much needed) makeover! I know you're excited, right??

In addition to updating the design (tired of the gray, much?) I've also got lots of new features for you.

Over in the sidebar, you can sign up to receive notifications when a new post is added (so you'll always be in the loop). There are fancy new links so you can check out my Twitter feed, see what I've been pinning on Pinterest or email me in a jiffy. You can also easily find content by using the Search feature or clicking on one of the category blocks to see all posts related to that topic.

As for the main section, you'll now see some related "you might also like" posts at the bottom of each post. And don't forget, commenting should be easier than ever now (you don't have to have a Google or any other account) and I can reply back directly to your comment. So be a doll and leave me a note, mmkay?!

If you have any issues with the site or see anything that looks funky, holler at your girl. Because how can I remove the spinach from my teeth if I don't know it's there, right?

But that's not all folks! To celebrate my brand new look, I'm going to be bringing you my very own 12 Days of Christmas.

Don't get too excited, I'm not going to be giving anything away. But I WILL be showering you with a new holiday-related post each day, starting Monday and running through Christmas Eve-Eve. It might be a recipe, a peek at our holiday decor, or just a cute picture of Sugar wrapped in Christmas lights. And that's WAY better than Ellen giving you an iPad or a Caribbean cruise, right??

Ok, maybe not. But committing myself to 12 straight days of posting is a lot for me, so it'll have to do for now. So be sure to stop back by next week for all the Crimmus goodness, won't you?

Seth's Senior Pictures

2011-12-02T11:41:00.004-05:00

Some pictures from one of my Thanksgiving photo shoots to take you into the weekend.

On the rare occasion we had Seth dressed up and (somewhat) willing, Ann also wanted to get a brother/sister shot.

And then of course we had to do a few of Katie as well.

And by the way, unlike most taken-in-the-middle-of-a-field or let's-pose-in-a-rustic-barn portraits, these guys actually live here. As in, get to wake up and go to bed looking at these views every day. Pretty lucky, huh?

Thanks for being good subjects guys!

Thanksgiving Highlights

2011-11-28T16:37:00.004-05:00

We had a perfectly lovely Thanksgiving weekend. Some highlights include:

1. Fellowshipping over shrimp stew at the Dawsons' on Wednesday night.

2. Wiley Dawson. He is a highlight in and of himself. First, he's showing Kristen how he can "textes". And then he's schooling Lee on his special blended bourbon.

3. Thanksgiving morning: Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, delicious turkey lunch, dog show, look through sales papers. It's the same routine every year, and that makes it perfect.

4. Annual picking out of the Christmas trees.

5. This after-lunch conversation:

Ann: "You know, Christmas sweaters are back in style this year."
My mom, indignant: "They were never out of style!"
Everyone: Pause. Followed by lots of laughter.

6. Kinston making national news for pepper spraying crazies at Wal-mart on Black ~~Friday~~ Thursday.

7. Four photoshoots including senior pictures, cheerleading pictures and two family Christmas card shoots.

8. Dinner and Black Friday evening shopping (it's the way to go, after the loonies have cleared out) with my favorite 20-month old and her not-my-favorite squeaky shoes.

9. Beautiful farm sunsets.

10. Spending quality time with our Tampa pals, even Sugar. These are two tired pups after spending all night catching up.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Ambrose the Turkey

2011-11-24T22:53:00.003-05:00

Our cousins have a pet turkey (for now, let's just pretend that's a normal statement).

And apparently, he only responds to a strong, authoritative tone.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sugar's Favorite Ornament

2011-11-22T16:35:00.003-05:00

So we put up our tree this weekend. Let me just say that I'm normally opposed to decorating before Thanksgiving weekend but Lee forced me. So we currently have a fall pumpkins out and our Christmas tree up. Whatever.

Anyway, we have this fluffy feather ornament we hang on our tree and Sugar's always been a bit obsessed with it. When I pulled it out of the box this year she went nuts. By the time I pulled my phone out, she was more interested in the phone at first than the ornament but you get the drift:

I made sure to hang it low on the tree where she can get to it. She likes to go up and nuzzle it every now and then. I think she wants it to be her friend.

Either that, or she wants to pluck it and eat it.

Tampa Birthday Surprise

2011-11-08T13:29:00.004-05:00

Chrissy and Mike moved to Tampa this summer and we've been talking about getting down there to visit them ever since.

It started with a conversation between Sara and I on when we could visit and turned into "would it be crazy if we flew down for Chrissy's birthday and tried to surprise her?" Mike loved the idea and we convinced Steph to join us as well (with her flying in from Charlotte).

Mike managed to keep our secret (it was easy for Sara, Steph and I since we only talk to Chrissy every few weeks, but Mike had to live with the secret for two months!) and although she knew Mike had something up his sleeve I think she was truly surprised.

We flew in Friday morning and Mike picked us up at the airport while Chrissy was at work. We hit up the grocery store for some snacks, birthday cake ingredients and booze and then set to work making their living room a bit festive.

(Notice Ali in her banana Halloween costume):

Steph preparing the cake:

When Chrissy walked in, Sara greeted her as Steph and I hid in the kitchen. Lots of screaming and hugging ensued.

I came out next and stood behind Chrissy while she was talking to Sara and overcoming her shock. I finally had to tap her on the shoulder, and she whirled around and the screaming started all over again.

We all chatted a bit and then took her over to look at her cake, where Steph was hiding behind the counter. It's safe to say she officially lost it at this point. It took us all a good 10 minutes to stop shaking, we were so wound up. I've never done anything quite like that before and it was so exciting! The anticipation, the planning and then actually pulling it off -- pure awesomeness.

We popped some bubbly, devoured some homemade guac and cheese and crackers and spent the afternoon catching up.

Then we got ready for dinner and hit up Ella's, an awesome restaurant Chrissy and Mike have found that was absolutely delicious and had a really fun atmosphere.

Before dinner:

And a silly shot:

Saturday was spent exploring Tampa, seeing Chrissy's hospital and the beautiful Davis Islands:

Then mimosas and yummy salads at Cafe Dufrain on the waterfront:

Followed by wings and nachos at PJ Dolan's while watching the UNC/NSCU football game.

The game didn't go our way but birthday shots made it better!

And finally, grilling out at Chrissy and Mike's (yes, we ate about ten different times on Saturday), a rousing game of Cranium and birthday cake.

It was an awesome weekend full of talking, eating, drinking, exploring, more talking and enjoying the gorgeous weather of the Sunshine State. I so enjoyed being able to spend the weekend gabbing with my girls and can't wait to do it again.

Thanks Mike for helping us pull it off (and for being a devoted blog reader!) and Chrissy for being such a good host and allowing us to crash your birthday. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

P.S. - I've changed the commenting system on the blog, so hopefully it will be easier for you to leave me some bloggy love. I know it was a bit confusing before if you didn't have a Google account, but now you should be able to sign in using Twitter, Facebook or just put in your email address and name. Try it out and let me know what you think. If it still sucks, I'll change it up again. Because y'all, comments really make my skirt fly up.

Maia & Kelli

2011-11-06T20:20:00.002-05:00

Wendy wanted to get a picture of her girls for their Christmas cards this year, so we did some quick shots after church last Sunday.

It was chilly and windy but the girls were troopers and I think we got some good shots. I'm not going to post the winning picture so I don't spoil it for those receiving a card but here are some other pics from our shoot.

Keiley

2011-11-01T22:51:00.001-04:00

She might not have any front teeth, but girlfriend knows how to strike a pose.

Something I've Been Thinking About...

2011-10-25T12:11:00.002-04:00

The posts that I most enjoy sharing with you are the ones where I've photographed people. Like Brevyn, or Leah, or Brevyn again.

I love taking the pictures, I love editing them (because let's face it, you need good photography but it's the Photoshop love that takes a picture across the finish line) and I love sharing them with you guys on here and on Facebook and getting feedback.

I'd love to get more practice with portrait photography, so if you'd be a willing subject, let me know. Free of charge, no obligations on either part. In the end, hopefully I get some good practice with shooting and editing and you get a few nice pictures for free. A win-win for both parties.

I'd love to do children, senior pics, families (maybe you need a good Christmas card picture?), but if you have other ideas I'd be open to that too. I'm not trying to make a career out of this, and I do have a full-time job, so if for some reason there's a ton of interest I may not be able to get around to everyone.

Obviously anything in the Holly Springs/Raleigh/Durham area is game, but if you live in La Grange or Kinston I'm there about twice a month (even more around the holidays) so that would work as well.

If you're interested, leave me a comment here or email me at megancdawson {at} gmail {dot} com.

Fall Decorating

2011-10-24T15:21:00.002-04:00

I had way too much fun this weekend getting our house spruced up for fall.

For me, it's always a little hard to know when exactly to decorate for fall. The end of September seems fall-ish but if you buy pumpkins then, they'll barely make it to Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving. Case in point -- my mom bought me a mum for my birthday and by the beginning of October it was dead as a doornail. (Ok, that might have more to do with my lack of gardening skills than the plant being purchased too early, but whatever.)

I had scoped out the pumpkin options at WalMart but decided to wait until after our Mexico trip to make my purchases. But instead of WalMart, we found a cute little pop-up pumpkin patch in the parking lot of our local Harris Teeter. It wasn't exactly a trip to the country, but I still felt better about buying locally and supporting this family-run business (the teenager manning the stand was super friendly and helpful). And even though I expected the prices to be a bit higher than WalMart, they were actually matched pretty much dollar-for-dollar.

Plus, I got the deal of the century on a new mum. I wasn't planning on buying another mum, seeing as I'd already killed one. But as we were leaving the guy said "oh and all of our mums are on sale for $5." I said "all of them?" He said yep. "Even this huge one on display out front (that's twice as big as all of the other ones and is actually probably worth more like $20)?" I had him then. He said yeah sure, why not. I told Lee to pay the man before he changed his mind and he said "yeah you really are getting a good deal on that mum."

So here's what our front porch looks like these days:

And our dining room centerpiece:

I also decided to get my craft on after some inspiration from Pinterest. I came up with this fall picture frame wreath (and bucket-o-twigs) for our hallway:

The frame is a cheap $5 WalMart frame (ideally I would have had one lying around to reuse, but I didn't). It was black, so I primed it with white spray paint primer before painting it orange (with cheap craft paint and a paintbrush).

I scavenged pinecones from the backyard (Sugar chewed up the first round of pinecones I had found and carelessly laid on the patio table, so I was NOT a happy camper to have to go back into the woods again. Lee did find it amusing though that I was actually out-of-doors.) The pumpkins are real ones. And the W is a wooden letter from AC Moore painted with craft paint and hot-glued onto the frame.

This was easy-peasy but I so enjoyed getting to flex my crafting muscle a little bit and finding a way to make it all come together nicely. And we never got around to hanging anything above this hallway table after we bought it so I like that that area has a little more going on now. Now I'll have to figure out something to put there for Christmas and then something permanent for the rest of the year.

So what do you think? And when IS the right time to decorate for fall? (I saw whenever you feel like it!)

Adventures in Babysitting

2011-10-20T15:31:00.003-04:00

My sister and I got to babysit this little turkey nugget this weekend:

We had tons of fun going to dinner, shoe shopping at Target, applying lots of Chap-Stick, reading books and naming all of our body parts. You know, all of the things that cousins do when they hang out.

And I like to call this series "what Brevyn does as Megan tries to get ready for church":

Can't wait until the next time I get to snuggle her!

Excellence Playa Mujeres

2011-10-17T21:08:00.002-04:00

We celebrated our three year anniversary last week in Playa Mujeres, Mexico.

We spent our honeymoon at Excellence Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico (about 30 minutes south of Cancun) and absolutely loved it. As soon as we left, we knew we wanted to get back one day. So we planned our three-year anniversary trip at another Excellence resort. This time we decided to try out their Playa Mujeres location, which is about 30 minutes north of Cancun.

Although we didn't think it was possible, we loved Excellence even more this time around. The two resorts were remarkably similar (same restaurants, bars, and general setup) but this location was just a bit newer and nicer.

Excellence is an all-inclusive resort, so the only thing we had to worry about was what drink we were ordering next and what restaurant we were eating at that night. We couldn't even be bothered to leave the resort, because we were too busy sunning by the pool, swimming in the ocean, lounging on our outdoor bed and eating and drinking obscene amounts.

Oh, and did I mention that we got upgraded to a "swim-up" room for free? (Meaning you can actually walk out your door and into the pool.) And as return guests, we were gifted with some Excellence swag (polo shirt, hat and beach bag).

But by far the best thing about Excellence is the service. You are literally waited on hand and foot. Maria, our poolside waitress, knew our drink orders by heart. We didn't go to a single restaurant without being greeted as Mr. and Mrs. Wade and having our chair pulled out for us and our napkins placed in our laps. Our room was cleaned twice a day, including turndown service and restocking the free minibar daily. Needless to say, it was not an easy transition back into the real world.

So let's dive into the pictures shall we? But first, a little tour of our room:

If only every day could be started with mimosas:

My favorite drink is the "Excellence martini." I had waited three years for this drink and was so excited to finally have it in my hands:

Lee's ceviche at Agave, the Mexican restaurant:

Best nap spot ever:

These iguanas decided to oversee our nap:

One night, we stumbled upon the "1001 Nights" themed dinner on the beach. Middle Eastern food served right on the beach, complete with hookah lounge and fire show.

Chef at the beach grill showing off for Lee:

Anniversary dinner at Spice, the Asian restaurant, on our last night:

We LOVE the Excellence toiletries, so we may have hoarded them a bit. Our loot all lined up when we got back home:

We were sad to see our trip end, but glad to see Sugar and get somewhat back to normal. Hopefully we'll be able to make it back to Excellence for a third time someday.

(If you're looking for a fabulous vacation, be sure to check Excellence out. And no, they are not paying or perking me to say all these nice things about them. I just love them that much.)

ECU vs. UNC Football Game

2011-10-04T22:45:00.002-04:00

Lee's brother-in-law had three extra tickets to the UNC/ECU game in Greenville on Saturday night, so we were more than happy to put them to use.

We had a delicious tailgating spread, it was a night game which is always fun, the weather was perfect football weather AND Carolina won, so it was a perfect night (for me at least!).

The men manning the grill:

Jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and sausage:

Sausage dogs, pasta salad, chicken wings and baked beans. Yum!

Yes, this is two Double Stuf Oreos and peanut butter stuffed inside a brownie. Ridiculousness.

ECU's "stripper pirate" mascot:

Even though I was one of about 3 Carolina fans in a sea of Pirates, everyone was civil for the most part and we had a great time. Thanks for being such a great "tour guide" Greg!

His & Hers Weekend Projects

2011-09-27T21:20:00.002-04:00

His project -- turning this:

Into this:

I can't give you step by step instructions, I just know this involved disassembling, sanding, spray painting, some cursing, clear coating, some more sanding, waxing, reassembling and lots of tuning.

His favorite part of the project? Going to the auto parts store to pick a paint color and finding the exact same "Toyota green" that his old (first) beloved truck used to be.

Her project -- a fall burlap wreath (inspired by Pinterest of course):

We had some old tobacco sacks laying around, so I was able to cut those up instead of buying burlap. They still smell a bit like cured tobacco, which I love (the smell of tobacco curing is nothing like the smell of cigarettes being smoked, which I hate).

I spread everything out on the driveway and worked right there, because I'm redneck like that. Of course, Sugar supervised.

First I wrapped a straw wreath form with the strips of burlap.

Then I made ruffles with the burlap strips, pinning as I went along.

Then I rotated the wreath around and tried to convince Lee that it looked good just like this and there was no need to keep ruffling all the way around.

He was not buying it. So I pressed on.

Orange and brown satin ribbon makes her complete.

Lee still thinks it needs something else. Maybe leaves or something. But what does he know?

We'll see if the mood strikes me to change it up or if I decide to just leave it be.

Another weekend project? Making some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup for my sick husband.

Can you see it steaming?

And in proof of the theory that 'no good deed goes unpunished' I got sick the very next day. Yuck.

It was still a good weekend though. How was yours?

Why I Love Him

2011-09-26T21:12:00.002-04:00

Exhibit A:

He made me a homemade birthday cake from scratch (no box cake mix and tub frosting in sight).

Even if it wasn't the most beautiful cake in the world. And even if he just wrote "Happy Birthday!" and I had to remind him that it would be nice if my name was on it. And even if I did have to clean up the kitchen afterwards. It was the thought that counted. And, it was delicious!

Exhibit B:

He snuggles my dog.

I rest my case.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T17:38:00.002-04:00

We had plans to go to the river for Labor Day, but obviously Irene didn't like those plans. So we ended up at the beach instead (and yes, we do know how lucky we are to have vacation homes on both my side and Lee's side).

We were also lucky to be able to extend our long weekend by taking Friday off as well, giving us plenty of time to beat the traffic on Thursday night and have the island all to ourselves on Friday.

I was totally lazy when it came to taking pictures, but it was pretty much a normal beach weekend filled with fun, relaxation and the usual shenanigans, so you can fill in the blanks.

There were a few signs of Irene still left, but for the most part Radio Island was back to normal.

Sugar had a blast and was a total attention hog as usual.

She even had a friend to play with on Saturday.

Not a sight you see every day -- rowers on the water:

I did break my camera out to take some pics of Leah before dinner on Saturday. She was hoping to get a good Facebook profile pic (because isn't that what picture taking is all about these days??). I think we got some good ones.

We capped off the weekend with a night in La Grange, complete with a steak dinner with my folks and a low-key hangout with friends.

All in all, a good weekend to unofficially wrap up the summer. We still have some fun (and I'm sure warm) weekends coming up, but I'm already starting to look forward to fall and all of the crisp, cool goodness it brings.

This Picture Says it All

2011-08-31T09:57:00.001-04:00

Jarvis Landing

2011-08-29T17:55:00.002-04:00

Jarvis Landing is a community of about 35 vacation homes on the Pamlico River near Aurora, NC (although a few residents do live here permanently). Every home on the street suffered a fate similar to ours.

From what we can tell, the river flooded its banks as a 6 to 7 foot storm surge swept through the community.

Here's the video I shot as we were first arriving at Jarvis Landing:

Nothing can prepare you for a sight like that.

As we assessed the damage it was clear what we had lost: everything. And what was salvageable: nothing.

The only thing we really could do was try to take it all in, remarking at the items left scattered in the yard, and the things that we had no idea where they might have gone.

This was a brand new queen-size mattress:

Can you image how powerful that water must have been to reduce it to this?

Where the pump house used to sit:

And the sun room:

Flat-screen TV anyone?

This tree that's laying down in the yard is not ours (we actually didn't lose any trees). Our theory is that it floated into the yard from Indian Island across the river.

Some festive 4th of July leftovers:

And of course pictures:

Snapshots scattered all up and down the road.

A few lighthouses left somewhat intact and a jar of pickles:

The amount of stuff that we can't locate at all is unbelievable. The refrigerator? Gone. The entire barn? No clue. The oversized picnic table where we've shared so many wonderful meals? Vanished.

We did spot some of our furniture in the marsh and woods across the street.

Can you make out the plaid in the middle? That's our couch.

We've lost our pier in hurricanes past, so when we rebuilt it, we built it in sections that could be taken up in the event of a storm. Dad went down last week and removed the sections and tied them up in the yard. The pieces are nowhere to be found now.

Here's a short tour of the property (sorry that I get loud at the end!):

But all of these things are just "stuff" that can be replaced. But there were some things that are irreplaceable:

Dad's "river journals" -- where every weekend he meticulously documented who was down there that weekend, the activities and events of the weekend and how and where the fish were biting.
His pride and joy 8+ lb trout , stuffed and mounted on the wall.
Two paintings by my great-grandmother, recently framed and hung in the dining room.

The trout and paintings might still be hanging on the walls, if only we knew where the walls were. But they are nowhere to be found.

All up and down the street the scene was the same:

But again, everyone is safe at that is what matters.

We had insurance and we will rebuild.

It will take time but we'll be back. Slowly but surely Jarvis Landing will clean up, dust off and get to the hard work of rebuilding this community from the ground up.

And we will forever be stronger because of it.

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T22:12:00.003-04:00

This is all that's left of my family's vacation home on the Pamlico River in Aurora, NC.

After all of the good times we've shared here as a family, nothing is left but a shell of a house and its contents scattered as far as the eye can see. Twelve years we've owned this property, and after 12 years of furnishing, decorating, repairing and upgrading, we hauled everything that was salvageable (and some stuff that wasn't) out in a few trash bags.

It's a total loss, but we still have all of the memories. No storm can take those away from us.

We know that we're fortunate to have a vacation home in the first place, and we're counting our blessings that everyone is healthy and safe, and the damage to my family's primary homes is minimal.

Once I can wrap my head around everything, I'll be back to share more details and pictures tomorrow.

Although all the pictures in the world can never truly capture the devastation, both physical and emotional, that this community is facing right now.

Friday Thoughts

2011-08-26T12:56:00.002-04:00

Some of this and that heading into the weekend:

A coworker of mine started a blog called I Was the Coolest Kid Ever. You might recognize today's coolest kid.
You should probably NOT talk to me about Big Brother today. I'm totally over it. No one left in the house at this point deserves to win and the show is not worth watching without Jeff. I'll follow along just to see what happens to my girl Jordan and then I'm out.
As for real life (because let's face it, that's a bit more important than reality TV) -- we were planning on going to the beach this weekend but of course that's not happening. Preparations have been made at the beach and the river and we're crossing our fingers that Irene takes it easy on us and praying that everyone stays safe.
And just because I need a little pick-me-up this afternoon, a gorgeous bouquet from the farmer's market a few weekends back (only $5!):

Have a good weekend (well, as good as possible with Irene bearing down) and stay safe!

Office Wrap-Up

2011-08-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

I'm officially ready to declare my office done. And I'm in L-O-V-E. Couldn't be happier with how everything turned out (well, taking my budget and resources into account).

As a refresher, here are some "before" shots:

And here's how she turned out:

You can visit previous posts to find out more about what I wanted out of this space, how I brought the old farm table back to life, my leaning bookcase storage, my DIY pinboard frames and how I turned Ikea duvets into curtains.

And now for some more details of what's going on up in here.

A big piece of the puzzle in this room was storage. Storage for office supplies, party supplies, wrapping supplies and crafting/scrapbooking supplies. And for all of that, I turned to Ikea.

Up first, a traditional Expedit bookcase.

The baskets house miscellaneous scrapbooking, stamping and party supplies and the open shelves hold finished scrapbooks, camera gear and my market totes.

This is also the site of my "wrapping station" with a basket for rolls of paper, a ribbon box and a vintage metal locker basket for tissue paper and gift tags.

Up next is another bookcase, this one housing actual books.

(I didn't say they were intellectual books.)

Lee bought me this bookcase for my birthday one year and stained it himself.

A fan is a must because it gets hot up here in the summer (we don't use the upstairs much so we intentionally set the thermostat high), and I love this little brushed nickel Hunter number from Target.

Beside the fan is my little stationery area, filled with a variety of cards and my address and bookplate stampers.

Beside my desk is another Ikea storage unit for all of my office-type supplies. It's not the prettiest thing ever but it serves its purpose.

Comparmentalized inserts for the top drawer are perfect for little doo-dads.

On my worktable, a 3-drawer box holds even more supplies and an empty paint can corrals various writing utensils.

And finally, a peek into the closet. This loft has a nice walk-in closet, but since clothes and shoes weren't what I was storing, I needed to add some vertical shelving. Ikea fit the bill yet again.

From top to bottom: tubs, trays and tablecloths for entertaining; acrylic trays of ribbon and crafting embellishments; more party trays/buckets and tins for fabric and hardware; and two shelves of candles, vases and frames.

I store extra gift bags on a hanger in the closet as well.

And here's a better peek into the acrylic trays, just because they're pretty (if you haven't seen a pattern forming yet, I kind of have a thing for ribbon).

Finally, I added some additional seating (chair and throw are from Ikea) and a new light fixture (barn light from Lowe's).

I'm super happy with how it turned out and ready to get up there and be inspired!

2011 Goals Check-in

2011-08-16T14:16:00.002-04:00

Back in January, I told you about my "for fun" goals for 2011. Now that the year is over halfway gone, I thought I'd check in and let you know how I'm doing so far.

If you need a little refresher, here's my list:

1. Movies.

I'm doing pretty good on this so far. I haven't made it to the theater every single month, but I went twice last month and watched a movie at home when I didn't make it to the theater. In case you're interested, here's what I've seen:

January -- Black Swan
February -- No Strings Attached
March -- Love & Other Drugs (at home)
April -- Water for Elephants
May -- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
June -- Life As We Know It (at home)
July -- Friends with Benefits and Crazy, Stupid, Love

After writing these out, I feel quite ashamed to have paid $8 (plus popcorn) to see both No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits, which share pretty much the exact same plot line. I saw them both with my sister though, so I'm not totally alone in my lameness. My favorite pick by far? Crazy, Stupid, Love. If you haven't seen it, you should remedy that.

I've already got plans for my August movie to be The Help. I adored the book but am preparing myself that the movie will never be able to fully live up, although I've only heard good things about it so far. (And it goes without saying that November will no doubt be my yearly dose of Edward and Jacob.)

2. Being green.

Doing good here as well. I'm recycling more and more each month. I started with just the obvious bottles and cans, but am quickly learning about all the different things that can be recycled. And I really like that our trash can fills up less quickly since half of what would normally have gone in there is now in the recycling bin.

3. Vacations.

Done and done and almost done! Cruise in the spring was a success, beach trip to Topsail in the summer was a success and we've booked a trip to Mexico for the fall. We're going back to the resort we went to on our honeymoon (also known as heaven on earth) and we couldn't be more excited. Counting down the days.

4. Run a 5k.

And here's where things fall apart. I've done absolutely nothing to prepare for a 5k, sign up for a 5k, research 5ks, or even do much running/walking period. It's been way to hot this summer to get outside and when I'm in the gym I've been having way to much fun with Zumba and other classes to face the monotony of the treadmill. I'm optimistic though that the cooler fall weather is going to get me motivated and maybe I can still make this happen in 2011.

5. Classes.

I did take tennis lessons from the Holly Springs rec department in the Spring. I played tennis in high school, so I know the basics and can hold my own for the most part. This class was a little basic for me, but it at least provided the opportunity to get on the court once a week and hit some balls, which was my goal.

And guess what else, y'all? I also signed up for this awesome cake decorating class! Ok, so we know how that turned out. A hilariously frustrating adventure it was. A "class" it was not.

And I still really want to take an intermediate photography class this year, so I'm working on making that happen. We'll see.

Ok, so there's my progress. Think I can keep it up until the end of the year? And make #4 happen? I'll be sure to update you in December.

How are you doing on your resolutions for the year? Any goals you've accomplished lately, either serious or more fun, like these?

Family Reunioning

2011-08-15T14:55:00.002-04:00

Last weekend we had a family reunion with my mom's family. My great-grandmother, Swain Harrison, had 4 children, 11 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, and 10 great-great-grandchildren (and counting!). So whenever we all get together, it is quite the undertaking.

My mom headed up the event and spent countless hours this summer putting everything together and I think it turned out really nicely.

Activities included but were not limited to: minute-to-win-it type games, a family slideshow, a family trivia game, and a dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, plenty of sides and homemade ice cream for dessert.

My mom even made name tags for everyone and color coded them according to generation. (So that she could easily say "Everyone with a blue name tag, gather now for a picture!") And being the teacher/librarian that she is, the family trivia game couldn't be handled with paper and pencil. Instead, everyone got their own game-show style clicker to input all of their answers.

She is such a nut. And the sad (or wonderful?) thing is, I see myself becoming more and more like her every day.

She put me in charge of the slideshow. Everyone sent me old family pics and I put them together into a montage. It was a LOT of work, but I had fun doing it and was happy with how it turned out. (If you're really interested, you can view it here on Vimeo, although 16 minutes of someone else's old family photos will probably bore you to tears.)

And here are some snapshots of the day.

The young (above) and young-at-heart (below) playing the penne-pasta-on-a-spaghetti-noodle game.

(Our family has no shortage of adorable little girls.)

Rivers has mad cup-stacking skills.

Wouldn't be a gathering of our family without plenty of good eats.

2nd generation (Swain's children)

3rd generation (Swain's grandchildren)

4th generation (Swain's great-grandchildren)

5th generation (Swain's great-great-grandchildren) -- I love how Ellie is straight chillin' in this pic

Trivia time!

The competition got fierce (ok, maybe not for Heith)!

There's never a dull moment when our clan gets together and this weekend was no exception. It was great to catch up with everyone and spend some quality time with our VA and SC cousins. Can't wait until next time!

Topsail Island Beach Vacation

2011-07-26T16:29:00.002-04:00

We're getting back into the swing of things after our family beach vacay at Topsail Island last week.

My mom rented this ocean-front townhouse -- it was the perfect size for the five of us (Mom, Dad, me, Lee & Erin) and the ocean views were amazing. We've never stayed in an actual "ocean front" house before, and I think we might be forever spoiled now.

To say we took it easy would be an understatement. In fact, I couldn't be bothered to even take out my camera the first half of the week. Every day we went out on the beach and swam, read, and caught some rays.

Of course, Lee and Dad did some fishing.

And we also did LOTS of cooking, and even more eating.

One fun thing about Topsail is the turtles. They are SERIOUS about their turtles around there. The beach is dotted with nests and we had fun researching and learning about them (from the sea turtle hospital website).

One night Lee and I were walking on the beach and happened upon a group of people standing around a nest. They said the turtles had hatched (the sea turtle hospital lady said you could tell by the way the sand looked) and they were waiting for them to come out. Thinking that we were in for a long night of standing around waiting for the turtles, I went back to try and find mom and dad.

By the time I got almost back to the nest, Lee called to say they had already hatched and the show was over.

WHAT?? I thought once it started they would trickle out one by one? No. Apparently all 100 of the little turtles made a beeline for the ocean in under 2 minutes.

Lee said it was one of the coolest things he's ever seen. I'm still bitter that I missed it, but at least he got to see it.

This is the nest that hatched (taken on the following day). See the little path they created for the turtles so they wouldn't go astray?

On Wednesday, Katie and Ann drove from Emerald Isle to come and hang with us for the day. We did some kite-flying and of course had to get an italian ice from the Bada Bing italian ice cart that was wheeled up and down the beach each day (it was always Dad's favorite part of the day).

We had more visitors on Thursday and Friday, including this little tater tot:

There is nothing like seeing the beach from the eyes of a one-year-old.

And of course I had to try out my new lens by taking 8 million pictures of my adorable subject.

Britt wanted to get some 15-month pictures of Brevyn so we did a little photo shoot on the beach.

All in all it was a fabulous, relaxing trip with some great quality time with the fam.

Too bad it's back to the real world (and diet!) for now. It was good while it lasted.

Office Project Numero Quatro: Pinboard Frames

2011-07-13T16:38:00.002-04:00

Read about my office here, and parts 1, 2 and 3 of the makeover here, here and here.

Next on my list for the office was something to go on the wall above my worktable. I knew I wanted some sort of pinboard solution so I could tack up mementos, pictures and inspirations like craft and decor ideas, paint chips, fabric swatches, etc. So I hopped on the picture-frame-turned-pinboard bandwagon.

I started by scouting the Raleigh flea market for large frames that I could spray paint. I think I probably paid around $20 for all four.

(Isn't the black and gold one nice?!)

After spray painting them white, I cut pieces of foam core to fit each frame and then covered the foam core with a thin layer of bulletin board material (using spray mount to adhere the bulletin board to the foam core).

I thought they looked pretty good at this point, but went one step further and covered the foam core/bulletin board with linen fabric (using good ol' hot glue).

And now for the finished product:

After playing around with the layout several times, I finally decided on two frames hung horizontally and two hung vertically.

And those light fixtures on either side? They're actually outdoor lights from Lowe's. (I can't find them on the site anymore but the stores may still have them.) I think they were around $20 each. And I L-O-V-E them.

Another secret? They're not hooked up to anything. They don't work. (Since they're meant to be outdoor lights they have to be hard-wired; they don't have a convenient little cord that you plug into an outlet). If I had begged hard enough I probably could have gotten Lee to work some magic and make it happen. But when we considered that we'd have to run wiring through the wall and cut out holes behind the lights and install another light switch (that probably wouldn't make any sense to future owners), I decided I was perfectly ok with them just being pretty and not functional.

I haven't done much yet in the way of pinning things up, but so far I've got some mementos from our Australia trip on the left, some random pics on the bottom, our "places we've traveled" maps on the right and a pretty quote from Pinterest on the top.

The maps are something I've been wanting to do for a while. I'm using yellow pins for places I've been, blue pins for places Lee has been, and green pins for places we've been together (get it? yellow and blue make green? awwww). Now we just need to get some more pins up there! Methinks the northwest is looking very neglected...

And now for some more pretty pictures.

Completing the worktable area are my two stools. I originally wanted the real-deal Tolix barstools, but at $200 a pop it was not happening. Overstock saved the day with this lookalike set of two for under $100. I actually bought the stools as soon as I finished the table, and they were part of the reason I fell in love with the industrial light fixtures and knew they'd be perfect.

So what do you think? I have a few last details I still want to finish up and then I'll give you a final wrap-up of the room.

July 4th Escapades

2011-07-07T14:45:00.006-04:00

McKinney was kind enough to give us both Friday AND Monday off.

Erin, Katie and I kicked off the long weekend with a trip to Greensboro to see our girl Tay Tay.

I like using Katie as my "excuse" for going to a Taylor Swift concert.

A nice dinner at Lonestar beforehand.

As always, she put on an amazing show.

If she was about to come down with bronchitis and cancel her next 4 shows (she was) you'd never know it.

We got up Friday and headed to the river, but not before a quick stop at Crabtree at Gap (shorts for me), Abercrombie (two shirts for Katie) and Cheesecake Factory (lunch for all). Then we jammed to new tunes for 3 hours all the way to Aurora.

The outside fridge was stocked (Miller Lite anyone?).

The golf cart was decked out in her patriotic best.

Lee's PVC birds were installed.

The crab pot was emptied as the sun set.

And a bit of pier fishing as well.

Saturday was spent crabbing, because it's not Fourth of July unless you've dangled a raw chicken leg tied to string in a swampy marsh.

You shall be dinner.

Spotted on the boat ride home.

It's also not Fourth of July without a ridiculous amount of food.

And flag cake.

I got Seth to smile for a picture!

This is cute.

And this too.

All this sunscreen (arranged in order of SPF) and I still managed to get burnt.

Sunday was our annual trip to the sandbar, also a Fourth of July tradition.

Dad doesn't obey signs.

And I don't either, so I can get pretty pictures like this.

Kate lounging at the sandbar.

Some tubing action.

And being a little brave.

Sugar overseeing.

More food? Who us??

It's not the 4th without our hamburgershotdogsandhomemeadeicecream meal. Lee and I have almost perfected our ice cream recipe.

And then it was time for the big show.

Every year, it's tradition that our Canady Landing neighbors drive over and put on a patriotic parade for Jarvis Landing. (We were at the sandbar when they came through this year and missed it.) But we got together and decided to return the favor on Monday before heading home. So I present to you the inaugural Jarvis Landing July 4th parade.

And this is sure to make it into next year's family calendar. (Sugar is such a poser.)

Other items of note:

By the end of the weekend, Erin had us all sucked into the Casey Anthony trial.
Katie, reading from a Loaded Questions card, "If you had an enormous yak, what would you name it?" (The word was yacht.)
Badminton. Lots of it.
One night, we watched New Moon and Eclipse, back-to-back on Showtime. That's a lot of shirtless Jacob for one night. #notcomplaining
I made these again. They got devoured again.
Miraculously, no one got stung by a jellyfish, sprained their ankle or fell off a ladder this year.

Hope you and yours had a happy 4th!

Office Project Numero Tres: Curtains

2011-06-29T23:09:00.002-04:00

Read about my office here, and parts 1 and 2 of the makeover here and here.

I always underestimate the impact curtains can have on a room. Then once I finally get them hung I think "why didn't I do this months ago?" The answer to this is probably that curtains aren't easy and they aren't cheap.

Except for my office curtains. Here is their story.

I knew I wanted the curtains in this room to be bright and fun with some sort of graphic pattern. The likes of Bed Bath & Beyond / Target / Pier 1 were just not cutting it in this department.

So I started researching fabric. But I knew I would need about 10 yards of fabric for four panels, and even with fabric that was $10-15 per yard (never mind the fancy designer fabrics I was drawn to), it was still more than I wanted to spend.

Enter my friend Ikea.

On one of my sacred trips there (the closest Ikea to us is over two hours away), I browsed the fabric section but wasn't able to find anything I liked. The bedding department though? Just the ticket. I found a twin duvet cover in a fabric that I liked (with a small circle pattern in the olive-y/lime green I was looking for).

The length of the duvet was exactly the length I needed, and I figured out that I could cut the width of the duvet in half to create two panels, so I'd only need one duvet for each window. The best part? The $9.99 price tag. So for under 20 bucks, I was on my way to four glorious curtain panels.

Except I got them home and they sat in a closet for four months. And THEN I was on my way.

I sliced each duvet in two and used no-sew iron-on hemming tape to make a nice seam on the one side of each panel that had been cut.

Some inexpensive brushed nickel curtain rods and ring clips from Target later, I was in business.

And as a bonus? Each twin duvet cover also came with a pillowcase, so I DIY'ed a custom mousepad to match the curtains (and I still have another pillowcase left over).

I just bought a cheap mousepad from Walmart and used spray adhesive and hot glue to cover it with the fabric.

So there's my cheap and easy curtain story. Tune in next week for some wall art action!

Backyard Updates

2011-06-28T17:50:00.002-04:00

Our backyard has been feeling the love lately. Even though the grass back there is already dead as a doornail (due to the end-of-spring drought and 90+ degree days) we've got a lot going on back there.

Up first, the garden.

(Itty bitty cucumber)

What we've already been enjoying: basil, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, jalapenos, bell peppers, cucumbers, roma tomatoes

What's getting very close: squash, better boy tomatoes, grape tomatoes, peas

Who knows if it'll ever be ready: zucchini, beans, watermelon (very ambitious considering our space)

I already showed you the rose bushes and grapevines we planted next to our neighbor's fence (just looking back at that picture shows me how much they've grown already!), but we decided to put in a little mulch bed around the area.

As you can see, we've found it impossible to grow grass up on the berm, so Lee thought creating a mulch bed up there might alleviate a little bit of the dead-grass ugliness.

He also snuck in a birdhouse on the grapevine post (even though he's well aware of my bird phobia).

Up next is the outdoor sink Lee built.

(Please ignore the dirty house and rain barrel. Someone has a date with the pressure washer.)

I'm not really sure what it's for (planting, washing out dirty things, cleaning fish?) but I'm thankful for whatever yuckiness it keeps out of my kitchen sink.

I asked Lee to do a guest post on how he built it but he declined. All I know is that he scored the sink for free at Habitat ReStore -- on the day he went there looking for a sink, there was a sink outside in the "free" pile (and as he says "there's never anything good in the free pile!"). He already had some leftover decking that he used for the top of the sink, so the only expense was the 2x4s for the legs. And as you can see, it's just a water hose that provides the water, nothing fancy.

Finally, we replaced the random stepping stones we had leading from the patio to Sugar's kennel (that I have to traverse every morning), with a walkway to match the patio.

We realize this path to nowhere might not make much sense for future buyers, so we might one day extend it to wrap around to the sink or continue it so that it's a second level/extension of the patio.

So that's what we've been busy with outside -- and by we, I mean 90% Lee, 10% me (it's just too darn hot out there).

Some of This and That

2011-06-26T22:27:00.004-04:00

1. I made these pepperoni pizza cups for a party last weekend. They were super easy and we all scarfed them down.

2. Another bird has nested on our porch, almost identical to last year. Except note the plastic netting in this one. I said it was kind of sad but Lee said, "are you kidding me? that is excellent building material, she was tickled to find that."

3. Even though summer TV is sparse, I'm getting my fix via: So You Think You Can Dance, Toddlers & Tiaras, The Challenge: Rivals, and Friday Night Lights (and soon, Big Brother). I'm so happy SYTYCD is back and I think it's going to be GOOD this season.

4. In case you're curious, you can see my all-time favorite (so far) SYTYCD dance here. It wasn't super memorable or lauded, but for some reason I love it (there's something about Mark that does it for me in this dance).

5. Lee made homemade wheat bread today. Beautiful AND delicious.

6. Are you on Pinterest yet? If you like cooking, photography, interior design, fashion, crafts or just pretty things, you should be. If you join (or have already joined) be sure to follow my boards. You'll see me pin things like Dreamy Kitchens, Party Pretties, and Farmhouse Fantasies. But mostly I just pin delicious-looking food. Pinterest is dangerous when you're hungry.

7. Speaking of farmhouse fantasies, Lee and I for-real considered buying this house for about 3.8 seconds.

We're not looking for a new house but this one kind of fell into our laps so we decided to go check it out. We ultimately decided that we're too chicken to take on the risk of renovating an almost 100 year old house. But we're having a hard time getting it off our minds.

8. And finally, some funnies to start your week off right:

Office Project Numero Dos: Leaning Bookshelf Storage

2011-06-22T14:52:00.006-04:00

It's been over a year since I introduced you to my office (or lack thereof) and told you about the plans I had for the space. I shared Office Project Numbero Uno: Worktable with you, and while progress in this room has been slow but steady, I'm finally getting around to finishing up the series (and the room) and sharing the rest of my projects with you.

S0, up next -- a bit of storage.

Using a leaning bookshelf from my old apartment (originally bought at Target), I added some Stockholm containers from the Container Store in navy and white. I ordered magazine files, a few different document and photo boxes, and the desktop file box. Then I added some color with two lime photo boxes from Target.

In the magazine files I store -- you guessed it! -- magazines. I just can't stand to throw them out, thinking I might need to go back and reference an old article or issue. (I do force myself to only keep as many issues as will fit in these files, so that means I have about a year's worth of each magazine and throw older ones out.) I also keep some Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs on hand for inspiration as well.

The document boxes hold various mementos I'm not ready to part with, including lots of wedding stuff.

I also have a box that stores greeting cards, invitations, Christmas cards, souvenirs and hard copies of photos (like old school pictures of the niece and nephew). When I get invites/cards/pics, they go up on the fridge and when it's time to make room for new ones, they get transferred to this box. Since I'm not really scrapbooking anymore, it's nice to have an organized place to keep this stuff, and it's always fun to go back through the box.

I have a filing cabinet that matches my computer desk where I file away all of our important paperwork (bills, bank statements, insurance info, tax info), but one file in that drawer was getting out of hand -- the file of instruction manuals. So I used the desktop file box to create a separate filing system for the manuals to all of our "stuff." So far, it's working like a charm.

For a little decoration, I added the white plant pots from Ikea, a Table Topics game that I got as a gift, and the framed quote print that I got free from a blogger (she had created them for a shower and had some left over, so she mailed me one, how nice!). The colors just happened to match and I love the quote:

"We've grown to be one soul, two parts; our lives so intertwined, that when some passion stirs your heart, I feel the quake in mine." -- Gloria Gaither

So there you have it -- the bookshelf that suits my storage needs and is pretty to boot.

Maybe next time I won't wait 15 months to show you the next project.

In fact, I'm going to try and post an office project every Wednesday until I'm done (but don't hold me to it!).

The Worst Birthday Present I've Ever Given

2011-06-21T11:57:00.002-04:00

A few months ago I spotted a Groupon for an "all-day cake-design workshop." This was the description:

Before cakes, the only vehicle for frosting consumption was the bare hand, and the only place to load frosting onto that vehicle was the neighborhood frosting bucket. Eat frosting the evolved way with today's Groupon: for $110, you get a spot in an all-day cake-decorating workshop from Cafe Liardi (a $250 value). The workshop will be held at Marbles Kids Museum on Saturday, June 11 from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Cafe Liardi’s cake-decorating workshops fulfill frosting fantasies with explicit instructions for turning humdrum baked goods into towering masterpieces. Throughout the six-hour Saturday session, owner and Chef Gailyn Gagliardi walks students through the basics of design, such as forging fondant adornments, gum-paste flowers, and icing subliminal messages, as they design their own three-tier cake. After production, each student leaves with a recipe booklet crammed full of Chef Gagliardi’s confectionary secrets, as well as their completed cake in a complimentary carrying case. In addition to a wealth of sweet knowledge, Cafe Liardi supplies a continental breakfast, gourmet lunch buffet, and in-between snacks to keep charges' energy up and ensure steady-handed misspelling of frosting-scrawled congratulations. Call or email Cafe Liardi to confirm dates and reserve a spot.

(By the way, while some people love them, Groupon's descriptions infuriate me. No need for all of the fancy copywriting, just tell me what I'm getting.)

Anyway, I thought this sounded awesome. Something fun that my mom and I could do together. I ran it by her and she was in. Her birthday was right around the date of the class, so I purchased one for each of us.

The day of the workshop rolled around and we arrived at Marbles Kid's Museum ready to get our cake on.

There were early warning signs that this might not be the magical cake decorating experience we were hoping for:

We were crammed in 6 to a round table -- how are we going to roll out our fondant with no work space?! (yeah, no rolling of fondant was going to be happening)
There were over 100 people in attendance -- how can you get the instruction and interaction you need to learn a new skill with this many people? (answer: you can't)
The "supplies" we were provided with to cut, stack and frost our sheet cake? Styrofoam plates, a huge tub of buttercream icing from Sam's Club and a plastic picnic knife. (I kid you not.)

We trudged through the morning session, cutting, stacking and "dirty icing" our cakes. Some people were already starting to complain that this wasn't what they were expecting out of the class. I tried to be optimistic and give the instructor the benefit of the doubt.

Then lunchtime came around. I was looking forward to the "gourmet lunch buffet" we had been promised -- it was one of the reasons I was willing to pay $110 each for this workshop, because we'd be getting a yummy breakfast and lunch out of it (the workshop was put on by a catering company after all). But this lunch was "gourmet" only if you consider mixed greens with store-bought bottled salad dressing (Wish Bone brand, if you're wondering), bland flavorless pasta salad, and chicken with an unidentifiable sauce to be gourmet. I, my friends, do not.

We had been promised that after lunch we'd be able to go back over our cakes with another layer of frosting that would clean them up and make them look great. Yeah, not so much. As everyone tried to slather on more icing with a serrated plastic picnic knife in an attempt to salvage the cakes, the instructor moved on to fondant and gum paste decorations.

We were given packages of white pre-made fondant and gum paste. We were to use food coloring to color the fondant and gum paste -- except they provided writing icing (the tubes you buy in the grocery store) to "color" our fondant and gum paste instead of actual food coloring.

And the gum paste bow that the instructor demonstrated for us? It looked like this:

I'm pretty sure I could have done better at seven years old.

By this point there is a room of 120 creative, crafty, pissed off women who have paid $110 to make a cake that they could have done a much better job on at home with the proper tools and absolutely no instruction. Women are yelling at the instructor, the instructor and her assistants are getting flustered, and the conference room is a mess of powdered sugar and frosting.

All of the attendees are complaining amongst themselves and discussing how to get their money back. People start leaving, trying to salvage what's left of their wasted Saturday. There are abandoned cakes lying around everywhere:

There were some very talented women at this workshop (some who decorate cakes for a living and just came for fun) and NO ONE was able to leave with a presentable cake. The resources were just not there.

My "finished" product:

The "recipe booklet crammed full of Chef Gagliardi's confectionary secrets" were these pitiful cards:

And the "complimentary carrying case" was a cardboard box:

The workshop was meant to last until 4:30. We only made it to 1:30.

So, you live and you learn. If you ever hear the name Chef Gailyn Gagliardi or Cafe Liardi in Burgaw, NC, run as far as possible in the opposite direction. I think she meant well, but she was totally unprepared and in over her head.

However, I have to give Groupon props. I emailed them at 5:00 that Saturday afternoon and had a response within 20 minutes saying "no problem" and that my money would be refunded in full.

Mom, I am sorry your birthday present was such a bust. But at least we have a good story to tell now and we got some cake out of it (the cake actually was pretty delicious).

To My Dad

2011-06-19T09:18:00.003-04:00

Dad, on this Father's Day, here are a few of the reasons I'm thankful for you:

For responding to every question, every favor, big or small with your signature "sure!" reply.
For Saturday morning breakfasts of Mt. Dew and a Ring Pop from the Hasty Mart, followed by a driving lesson on the farm (where you had to work the pedals, since I couldn't reach).
For reading me The House That Had Enough so many times that you knew the words by heart, and I did too.
For weekend wakeup calls of the "I Cain't Get 'Em Up" song and flickering our light switches.
For teaching us all of your silly sayings and songs, but replacing the cuss words.
For giving up your dream of farming when I came along, because you just couldn't make it work now that I was in the picture.
And for working your way in road construction from the man who turns the Stop/Slow sign all the way up to where you are now.
Yet always encouraging us to do good in school and get a good degree so we wouldn't have to work as hard and overcome as many obstacles as you did.
For being my #1 blog reader.
For walking me down the aisle, giving the most perfect wedding speech and lifting me up on your shoulders before the night was through.
For loving my husband, and accepting him as the son you never had.

For all of these reasons and about 8,000 more, I love you. You are truly the best. Happy Father's Day.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-06-03T10:50:00.003-04:00

Our Memorial Day weekend involved:

Lazy days on the island
Lots of visitors (Missy, Tammy & Rachel on Saturday, the Fussell clan on Sunday)
Lots of beverages
A steak dinner, a low country boil and the best homemade ice cream ever (cookies 'n cream, made in our new old-fashioned ice cream maker)
Lunch with girlfriends at Beaufort Grocery (including the BEST ham and pimiento cheese sandwich, mimosas and, of course, lots of gossip)
A sprained ankle (Lee) and early morning trip to Walgreens to procure crutches and an ankle brace
Drinks in Morehead with friends at Chefs 105 and the swanky Arendell Room
Fun times lounging on (and then destroying) the Funstation (this now makes two that we've destroyed)
A shiny new Jarrett Bay collar for Sugar

Taylor and Macy rocking out with the boat paddles:

A pregnant crab:

Hope you had a great Memorial Day like we did!

Pinwheel Baby Shower

2011-05-27T14:13:00.003-04:00

I'm finally getting around to telling you about the baby shower I hosted last month for my coworker Melissa.

She's having a girl, but we (we being my coworker Carmen and I, who helped plan the shower) wanted to go with bright gender-neutral colors, instead of a baby pink affair. I started with a simple orange invitation, and we settled on a color scheme of orange, yellow, blue and green.

(Invite from etsy seller mink cards)

Inspired by a baby shower on Hostess with the Mostess, I went with a pinwheel theme, and also added in some tissue paper pom poms. I made the pinwheels myself -- about 16 large and 20 small -- using these instructions. The tissue poms were made using Martha's tried and true method.

For the mantle, I DIY'ed a pennant banner and a bed of wheatgrass with pinwheels.

Growing wheatgrass in galvanized containers is still my go-to party trick. As long as you time the planting right (about 7 days ahead of your party), it's super easy. I buy my wheatgrass seeds from Whole Foods (located with the other herb/flower seed packets).

The food table included more wheatgrass and pinwheels. I also hung poms from the ceiling above the table but forgot to get a picture (gah!!).

Carmen took charge of the food and we had delicious tomato bruschetta, homemade parmesan and thyme crackers, pinwheel (get it?!) sandwiches, vegetable crudite, fruit salad and cupcakes. Being the anal retentive person that I am, I made little labels for each item.

Would you have ever guessed that these cupcakes came from Wal-Mart? No, they are not $2 a piece cupcakes from a fancy bakery. They are $6/dozen cupcakes from Wal-Mart with plain yellow cake and white icing that I fancied up with cupcake liners and pinwheels. (I did specify when I ordered them that I wanted them iced with a round icing tip and not a star tip, because I thought they'd look less grocery-store-esque that way. Again with the anal retentiveness.) And by the way, they tasted delicious!

As for beverages, we served "Melissa's favorite Chic-fil-A lemonade," Izze bottled sodas and cucumber-mint water.

Fun striped straws made for pretty beverages.

The table in the hallway held the "activities packet," pencils and the shower favors, decorated with pinwheels in a Ball jar and a onesie clothesline.

A nod to the mother and father-to-be's techie backgrounds:

I made homemade sugar scrub for favors, just because I loved the "from our shower to yours" line so much.

Here's the recipe I ended up using: regular granulated sugar, safflower oil (there are lots of different types of carrier oils you can use, like avocado oil, sweet almond oil and vegetable glycerin, but the cheapest solution I found was safflower oil from Whole Foods, found with the cooking oils), and a few drops of essentials oils to make it smell good (I used Sweet Orange and Lemon essential oils, also found at Whole Foods). The canisters were from Michael's. Definitely a nice alternative to the $20 tub of sugar scrub I used to buy from Bath & Body Works in my college days.

For our activities, I DIY'ed a little packet of games. There were 3 games, each just sort of cobbled together from ideas around the Internets. The first was a celebrity baby name game, where you had to match the baby name with the celebrity parents.

The second was Baby Price is Right. I had gone to Wal-Mart and researched prices of some common baby items, like diapers, formula and baby food. Everyone wrote down what they thought each item cost and totaled up their numbers. Whoever was closest to the total (without going over of course) won.

And game number three was the baby animal game, with a list of adult animals where everyone wrote down the corresponding baby name (cow=calf, kangaroo=joey, for example). It gets pretty hard when you get down to things like swan (cygnet) and turkey (poult).

I think everyone had fun working away on their packets.

Prizes were kits for growing basil and daisies (from Target), wrapped in strips of tobacco sack.

Finally, it was present time.

Isn't she just glowing?!

Baby showers are always fun, and I loved having an excuse to throw a party and have all my coworkers over.

Best wishes Melissa!

Living Room Reveal

2011-05-23T12:04:00.005-04:00

I'm finally ready to declare our living room "finished" (even though we all know it never really will be, as I'll constantly be making changes here and there).

Our living room is huge, both in square feet and height. It's one of the things we liked most about our house when buying it. We knew that one big living room was much more in line with our lifestyle than two smaller living spaces (a formal living room and smaller den/family room that some houses have). And it's a two-story room which makes it feel really open and connected to the loft upstairs.

But I had no idea what a challenge it would be to furnish and decorate a room this big. I know, I know, talk about first world problems, huh? Complaining that a room is too big? Anyway, let me show you some befores.

View of the living room looking down from the stairs/loft:

View from the kitchen/hallway:

View from our bedroom:

As you can see, our main furniture is already in place in the befores. One of the first things we did after moving in was order the couch (the TV and stand came from Lee's apartment). We knew we needed a sectional to fill the space, but ended up spending hours and hours deciding on the perfect configuration. I fought hard for the chaise lounge on the left side (you can't see it that well in this picture) and it's ended up being the spot on the couch we use 99% of the time (so of course, I was right).

However, going with the chaise option created another challenge -- the coffee table. Because the chaise created a small square area we weren't able to use a regular rectangular coffee table, and most square ones were too big. We finally found a suitable dark wood and glass round one on Target.com and ordered the end tables to match.

For the first 9 months, we had an old Target chair and ottoman in the room, but were finally able to upgrade it. We decided to order the matching chair and ottoman from the same set our sectional came from. Looking back on it now, I wish we'd gone with something different, since it's too matchy-matchy for me now. Ideally, we'd get the Manhattan leather recliner from Pottery Barn, but we've got a lot invested in the current chair and ottoman, so I can't justify making the switch right now.

So as you can see, we had a lot of nice furniture but the room was totally B-O-R-I-N-G with a capital B. And talk about beige. Builder beige walls (with the high ceiling and the room being open to the upstairs and loft, painting was NOT a possibility), beige carpet, beige furniture. It all sort of melted together. Bleh.

But our main source of frustration? This monster of a wall:

This baby is two stories high (I wasn't even able to get a picture of the WHOLE wall) and utterly, completely BLANK. The other three walls of the room all have some sort of architectural interest. Windows, fireplace and door on one, stairs and door to our bedroom on the other, and hallway and cutout window to the kitchen on the third (not to mention these weird little recessed boxes at the top of the wall -- you can sort of see them in the pic above).

But this wall? Nary a visual interruption in sight. What were we going to to with such a big blank canvas? Buying even the biggest piece of art, slapping it on the wall and calling it a day was not going to cut it.

We thought about buying a big tall bookcase to break up the space a bit (and then we could add art/pictures just over the couch portion of the wall). But we couldn't find anything we loved that wouldn't still look dwarfed on that wall. We also thought about buying a big entertainment center to go on the wall and repositioning the couch and chair, but we just couldn't make that configuration work.

We finally ended up going with a short bookcase to fill the gap between the couch and TV and a gallery wall of frames that stretches across the wall. I also decided on a nautical/beach inspired feel with a navy and gray color palette.

So, now for some afters.

One of the first things I did was add the bamboo shades. Another challenge of this room is that it's not conducive to curtains. On the fireplace wall there are four windows (two wayyy up high and two down low) and the door to the back porch. Because of one of the windows is right next to the door, curtains weren't really an option.

But because we're in the corner lot of a cul-de-sac and our lot backs up to woods, privacy isn't really an issue. No one can see into our living room windows unless they're in OUR yard, which they shouldn't be. So blinds weren't really necessary here but I wanted to add the roman shades to make the room look more homey and finished. I only added them to the ground floor windows, because blinds on windows that high are just weird, right? (Not to mention, how in the world I would have gotten them hung up there?)

Next up was adding the navy and gray pillows and throws to the couch and adding some accessories to the coffee table, end tables and mantle.

Then I took a year-long break while we hemmed and hawed over what to do with that wall. We finally bit the bullet and made a marathon excursion to Ikea for the bookcase and frames.

Cut to another year later for me to actually get pictures in all of the frames and accumulate enough accessories to "style" the bookcase. And that's how we ended up with where we're at today.

As for the frames, the two large pictures (sand dunes and pond) and the small clam pictures were prints from Ikea. The rest of the images were Sugar-on-the-beach pictures and pics from our Australia trip. Then I matted the square shadow box frames with linen fabric and framed the starfish (from our wedding) and sea fan (purchased on eBay). I knew I wanted to do something with the definition of our last name, since "wade" is an actual word found in the dictionary. So I typed up the definition, printed it straight onto the linen fabric and paired it with stencil letters spelling out Wade.

As always, there's still a list of things I'm not totally happy with:

The sad plant in the niche above the fireplace. Obviously that niche was a poor design choice on the part of the builder given the size and shape of TVs these days. WHY are they still putting those things in houses? Anyway, maybe I'll get clever and do something cool there. For now, a plant to fill the space (and pretty poinsettias at Christmas).
The bookcase. Some of the "cubbies" are empty. I'm not totally happy with how it's stylized. But it's the type of thing that will evolve and take time. You can't really set your mind to go out and buy something to fill the space. You need to come across the items and add them over time.
I already told you my thoughts on the chair. And my longing for this one.

But for the most part, we love our living room. It's pretty. It's functional. It's us.

Finally, here's a list of sources, if you're interested:

Couch, chair and ottoman: Haverty's
Coffee and end tables: Target.com
Pillows: Pottery Barn, Target and Ikea
Throws: Pottery Barn and Ikea
Bamboo shades: Overstock.com
Vases on mantle: Ikea
Candlesticks on mantle: AC Moore
Bookcase: Ikea
Rustic wood lantern: Homegoods
Hurricane vase and pebbles: Ikea
Rope knot doorstop: WhateverWorks.com
Small silver lantern: Pottery Barn
Silver pocketwatch clock: Pottery Barn
Books: already owned and used book store (I was looking for navy and gray-bound books and was able to find some nautical themed ones as a bonus)
Driftwood: Homegoods
Baskets: Ikea
Glass fisherman's floats: Pottery Barn
Frames and shelves: Ikea
Vintage glass medicine bottles: flea market
Cast metal "W": Restoration Hardware

Chi-town

2011-05-15T21:19:00.002-04:00

Last week I made a quick trip up to Chicago to attend a conference for work.

It was my first time in the Windy City and I was all on my own.

In an effort to pack light, I decided to leave my camera at home and rely on my iPhone. So here's a little bit of my trip in pictures.

View from my room:

A little sightseeing at the "bean statue" in Millennium Park:

The conference I attended was the "School of Word of Mouth" put on by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. It was all about spreading your brand via word of mouth, both offline and online (via social media). Since a social media presence (Facebook or Twitter or both) is a must for almost all of our clients, it was a great conference that I'm glad I got to attend. Lots of great case studies, best practices and helpful takeaways.

One of the sponsors of the conference was Crayola, so there was no shortage of doodling:

The second day of the conference wrapped up around 4, so I was able to get out and do a little sightseeing and shopping.

View from the Michigan Avenue bridge:

Michigan Avenue / Magnificent Mile:

I did some ~~shopping~~ looking on Michigan Ave (Kate Spade, Tory Burch and Bloomingdale's, anyone?) and then stopped for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Due.

And of course, I had to pick up some Sprinkles cupcakes for the road:

(Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate Marshmallow, Peanut Butter Chip, Red Velvet)

They didn't look this pretty by the time I got them back to NC, but they definitely still tasted good.

Speaking of getting back to NC, what.an.ordeal. My flight was originally delayed 30 minutes, so I passed some of the time with a nice dinner at the airport Macaroni Grill:

Then my flight was delayed an hour and a half, and finally two full hours. We finally board two hours late and passengers and flight attendants spend 30 minutes wrangling carry-ons into the overhead bins (the flight is full). Just as they're cramming the last suitcases in and checking the ones that won't fit, the bottom falls out of the sky. The pilot says we now can't leave until there's no lightning within five miles.

Finally, the storm has passed and we're able to get on our way. Except not. The pilot now says the flight attendants who've been working all day have now reached their limit of 15 hours and are not legally allowed to continue working. We must all deboard the plane and wait for them to find another crew.

By this time I'm about to lose my shit. I've officially been at the airport for six hours now. I check my phone and see that the 8:45 flight to RDU is on time (it's now 8:35). Can I make it? I decide to make a run for it, except of course this flight is on a whole other concourse. I didn't think I was EVER going to get there. The blisters on my feet from walking around Chicago for two days weren't helping me. My sandals are slapping the airport floor as I'm getting shin splints and trying to speed walk and everyone is staring at my as a loudly make my way to the new gate.

I get there and the flight is already boarded. I beg the person at the counter to PLEASE get me on that flight. He starts furiously typing away and I'm telling him how badly I need to get on that flight and he screams "just let me think!" Deep breath Megan. Within seconds he's got my boarding pass printed and I get on the flight just as they're closing the doors.

The flight is only half full and I settle into a row of my own and thank the good Lord that I'm finally on my way back to NC. I pat myself on the back for taking the chance and making it work. That's probably the closest to the Amazing Race I'll ever get, and I'm quite okay with that.

Chicago, it was nice to meet you, but how about just letting me go home next time without all the drama, okay? Thanks.

Weekend Recap

2011-05-01T22:33:00.004-04:00

We had a nice weekend at home this weekend.

It started out with a trip to Home Depot for gardening supplies and dinner at Moe's (our typical Friday night date -- a trip to Lowe's/Home Depot/Walmart/etc).

I stopped at Trader Joe's for some staples for the weekend while Lee went home to unload our Home Depot purchases. When I got home, he had an excited look on his face and said "I have something to show you."

That something was this:

He had found this little baby bunny in the yard and scooped him up. We had fun introducing the bunny to Sugar to see her reaction. Her reaction basically was: I want to eat him!

Of course, we didn't let her eat the bunny, and Lee safely transported him back into the woods.

Saturday was spent working in the yard -- Lee building a trellis for his grapevines and me planting two rose bushes. The fruits of our labor:

Not much now but when the roses are blooming and the grapevines begin to grow this should be a nice little section of the yard.

Today we had reservations to go zip lining at ZipQuest in Fayetteville. I had been hearing good things about ZipQuest last year but was not excited about the $79 per person price. Even though there are 8 zip lines, 3 suspension bridges, and the full tour lasts 2.5 hours, I wasn't sure it was worth $158.

So when a Groupon came along just before Christmas with a deal for two for the price of one (2 people for $79), I snatched it up and stuck it in Lee's stocking. We decided to wait until the weather got warm, and finally made our reservation this week.

We got there and suited up:

(These are all iPhone pics/videos, since taking a big honkin' camera on the course was not happening.)

Our guides ran us through some quick training and then it was time to zip:

One of the suspension bridges:

One of our guides with Carver Falls in the background:

Lee setting off on the last zip of the day:

I gotta admit, I was pretty skeert jumping off on some of zips as they got faster and we got higher and higher, but it was definitely fun and we had perfect weather. Nice to be out in the treetops on such a beautiful day.

And the perfect way to cap off a nice weekend? This:

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Photo Editing

2011-04-22T12:18:00.004-04:00

I use Photoshop to edit my pictures, and use The Pioneer Woman's free action sets for most of my editing.

My favorite action by far? Boost. For 95% of my pictures, I simply run the Boost action and call it a day.

This is a SOOC (straight out of camera) shot from Brevyn's birthday:

And here it is with Boost (and a bit of cropping):

The pictures I took of Britt holding Brevyn were back lit, and therefore dark. For these, I ran the "Slight Lighten" action two times, followed by Boost.

SOOC:

After:

This shot was really, really dark, but I loved it, so I did my best to brighten it up a bit.

It turned out a little grainy and the background is blown out, but I still like the moment it captures.

The one picture I really wanted to get was Brevyn with her parents and birthday cake. I managed to snap two shots. The first was great of Brev and Britt, but Heith? Not so much.

Heith managed to keep his eyes open in the second shot, but by this point Brevyn was distracted and I liked her better in the first shot.

So I used some Lasso tool magic and swapped Heith's head from the second shot in to the first shot. After cropping and running Boost, I ended up with this:

Pretty cool, huh? This was my first successful head-swapping experience, so I just had to share.

My other go-to in Photoshop is the spot healing tool. It works wonders on blemishes, moles, flyaway hairs and, coincidentally enough, stains on high chairs.

So there's a peek at a few of my befores and afters. Any by the way, I have no idea what I'm doing so don't listen to anything I say. I'm sure there are 50 things I should have done differently to make these pics even better. But that's what practice is for, right?

Brevyn Turns One

2011-04-20T16:43:00.002-04:00

My cousin's sweet baby girl turned one last weekend. Here are some of my favorite pics from her party.

Happy Birthday Brevyn!

P.S. -- I'm learning more and more about editing photos, and I especially had fun playing around with these. I'm by no means an expert, but I thought it might be fun to show you some of the "befores" of these shots and what I did to get to the "afters." I'll do that tomorrow, so swing by if you're interested.

Cruise

2011-03-17T16:40:00.001-04:00

We're back from our cruise, and I've finally stopped sulking about it being over long enough to tell you about it.

Back in November (and just days after getting back from our Australia trip), we booked a 4-night cruise to Key West and the Bahamas with Lee's sister and brother-in-law and his cousin and her husband. And we've been counting down the days ever since. Teresa and Greg and Missy and Charles have 6 kids between them, but this would be a trip sans kids, so we were almost more excited for them to get to have some "me" time than for ourselves.

We flew out of RDU bright and early Monday morning, headed to Miami. We got to the port much earlier than the boarding time, but were pleased to find that the ship was ready and waiting for us to board early at 11am.

We set up camp on deck and wasted no time acquainting ourselves with the buffet, the bar and the pool.

As more people boarded the ship throughout the day and the pool deck got more and more crowded, we quickly realized that this is a "spring break" cruise. We knew when we booked the cruise for the second week in March that it would be spring break. In fact, we planned it that way since Missy takes classes and Lee teaches some online community college classes, so that our trip would coincide with their spring breaks.

However, the last time I went on a cruise was during spring break (back in senior year when I was an actual "spring breaker") and I don't remember it being dominated by spring breakers. I remember there being a lot of old people and little kids, and a few other spring break groups.

Well, our cruise was probably 90% spring breakers. At first we were worried about what we had gotten ourselves into. But it actually worked out fine because the atmosphere was awesome, they were super entertaining to watch, and they provided some serious eye candy.

I don't remember girls OR guys looking like that when I was in college (and mind you we're only talking about 4 years ago). Most of these kids were from Florida though, so maybe that's why?

Anyway, we set sail and said hasta la vista to Miami.

Our first stop on Day 1 was Key West. We weren't there for very long, so we walked around a bit, did some shopping, had a bite to eat at Margaritaville, and enjoyed being able to enjoy some cold beverages on the street.

I didn't get any pictures of it, but one of my favorite stops in Key West was the Kino sandal factory.

Kinos are leather sandals made right there on Key West, and the locals swear by them. At $12 a pair, they're super affordable. You go in, see a style you like and ask to try them on in your size. If they don't have your size? They'll say "hang on a second" and go in the back and whip them up for you. All the ladies bought a pair (and some for the folks back home) and we kept seeing girls on the cruise wearing them throughout the rest of the trip.

Then it was time to get back on board and set sail for Nassau. Our entertainment for the afternoon was the belly flop contest. This picture does a good job of showing what the pool deck looked like for the majority of the cruise:

BELLY FLOP:

That night was formal night, so we all got dolled up:

Day 2 and we arrived in Nassau around lunchtime.

Our first stop was the straw market, where we navigated narrow aisles filled with trinkets and fake purses and haggled with the aggressive saleswomen.

Next it was a harrowing bus ride to "Da Fish Fry" -- a strip of restaurants and outdoor booths. We had conch fritters, fried shrimp, beers and margaritas at this little gem:

Then we wandered around watching the guys making conch salad.

(I just love this picture. Doesn't this girl look so ditzy? Believe me, she was. That, or she'd already had one too many margaritas.)

After Da Fish Fry, we strolled back down to the port along the beach.

The guys had to have their picture taken with every cool grill they saw.

Along the way, we stopped for rum punch at this little beach hut and watched some volleyball.

Things started going downhill (or uphill depending on how you look at it) at this point.

Rum in the Bahamas is strong. And we were feeling good.

Lee and Teresa stopped to get another drink at this little hut.

Unfortunately, they told us that because of the spring break crowd, the Bahamian police weren't allowing them to sell alcohol on the beach that week. Fortunately, they ran across the street to the liquor store to buy rum for our drinks anyway. It was all very sketchy and wonderful.

By the time we got to Senor Frogs, we were in a great frame of mind.

So was this guy, who had a 5 minute conversation with Charles but was never able to fully open his eyes the whole time:

That concludes picture time from Senor Frogs, in order to protect the ~~innocent~~ old.

I'm not saying that there wasn't any dancing on bars or an appearance on the main stage, but I'm not saying there was.

There is a picture of Lee and this guy though:

And one of our ship at night:

We got back onboard, had a (mostly) civilized dinner, and then turned in early as responsible old people do.

Next up was a relaxing final day on CocoCay, which is a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. It was absolutely beautiful.

And before we knew it we were on our way back to Miami.

It was an awesome trip, with some awesome people. The weather couldn't have been better and we didn't run into a single glitch on the whole trip.

Now, if only we hadn't been victims of the "the average person gains one pound per day on a cruise" statistic. But what's a cruise without pizza at 1am, 5-course dinners and buffets morning noon and night, huh?

The Ideal Weekend

2011-02-21T21:23:00.002-05:00

We headed east this weekend to celebrate my sister's birthday. Here's what made it perfect:

1. A moonlight golf cart ride around the farm, chasing birds and looking for critters.

2. Sunny and 60s.

3. Surprising my sis with a custom golf cart stereo installation. And then putting it to good use.

4. Just Dance on the Wii. Followed by Super Mario Brothers.

5. Lunch, shopping and gossip with mother and daughters.

6. Booking our beach house for summer vacation.

7. Quality time with Baby Brevyn, who has a new trick every time a I see her. This time it was pointing and the word "da" -- for everything from dog to dada to whatever she's pointing at.

8. Grilling out and bonfire time with friends. (Funfetti cupcakes were involved.)

9. Sunday lunch with my family, followed by Sunday dinner with Lee's.

10. A Sunday afternoon filled with NASCAR, naps and golf cart rides.

11. A trip down to the creek, and seeing this dog as happy as she could ever be.

12. And racing her with the golf cart.

13. And those ears flopping.

13. Lots of quality time with my Kindle and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the way there and back.

12. And finally, a day off today, thanks to our Presidents. I spent it mostly doing boring errands, but it sure was nice to have a day to catch up on life.

Hope your weekend was as good as ours!

Laundry Room Makeover

2011-01-26T21:34:00.002-05:00

One of my least favorite parts of our house is the laundry room, or lack thereof. It's more of a laundry closet.

The laundry closet, coupled with a 14-year-old hand-me-down washer and dryer did not make for a happy Megan on laundry day (which seems to be every other day around here).

Here are the befores:

I knew I wanted a new washer and dryer, and wanted to give the room an upgrade in the process.

In an ideal world, I would've knocked down some walls to create my perfect laundry room -- big and spacious with a utility sink and lots of cabinet. But in the space we were dealing with? Yeah, not really happening.

So instead we decided to just remove the closet doors that were concealing the washer and dryer. This area is a tiny room full of doors -- a door from the hallway, a door to the garage, two closet doors, and a door to the powder room. WAY too many doors that were constantly banging into each other. Removing the closet doors would give us easier access to the washer and dryer, but since we still have a hallway door that separates the room from the inside of the house, we could close out the noise when necessary.

I'd had my eye on a nice shiny pair of front loaders for a while, and after we came back from Australia we decided to make the plunge. Of course, one thing led to another as it always does with a "simple makeover" and we ended up painting, adding cabinets, and upgrading the fixtures in the powder room. Here's what we ended up with:

We painted over the builder beige with a gray to complement the stainless steel washer and dryer. And the bronze light fixture was replaced with a stainless pendant from Ikea for a more industrial look.

Because we were removing the doors and the area would now be open, we wanted to replace the ho-hum wire shelving with cabinets to conceal laundry and cleaning supplies. These came from Home Depot.

Now, about the washer and dryer:

After shopping around, we decided on this LG set and found the best deal at HHGregg.

After lots of hemming and hawing we decided to get the pedestals as well. I knew I wanted them, because I didn't want to be bending down, but they are crazy expensive, to essentially be nothing more than an empty drawer. We thought about DIY'ing a platform like some other savvy bloggers have done, but the manufacturer pedestals are specially built to hold 10 ton washers that spin at 200 miles an hour. Lee was not confident that he'd be able to build something that wouldn't let our pretty new washer and dryer down (literally).

Although the best deal was at HHGregg, we were able to talk them down another $100 on the washer and dryer (from $999 each to $900 each) and from $229 each on the pedestals to $200 each. (Did you know you could negotiate at HHGregg?! That's why I love that place.)

Fast forward to a week later: the washer and dryer have been delivered and installed and I'm in love.

Then Lee is in Best Buy and sees the SAME SET, for $645 each.

Oh no they DIDN'T.

We checked HHGregg and Home Depot, and the set had been lowered everywhere, across the board. Fortunately, HHGregg has a 30 day price guarantee. If the price of an item drops within 30 days, you can get a refund for the difference.

So, we quickly marched ourselves back down to HHGregg. By this time, it's getting close to Thanksgiving and Black Friday ads are out, but it's still a few days away. Their Black Friday ad was advertising all pedestals as buy one, get one free. I found a very nice manager, who was able to refund us the difference on the washer and dryer AND give us the Black Friday pedestal deal.

We saved so much money (over $700) that I didn't feel one bit guilty about picking this bad boy up, which we'd had our eye on for months:

(Of course, I also negotiated the Black Friday price on this as well, so we got our beloved Dyson for Black Friday-cheap, without all the getting-up-at-4am nonsense.)

Have I always thought that spending that kind of money on a vacuum cleaner was ridiculous? Yes.

Then we got a dog.

One who sheds. A lot. And has her daddy wrapped around her paw so tight that she pretty much lives in the house full time now.

So we invested in the Dyson Animal, and it has not disappointed. This vacuum cleaner is one bad mama-jama. You would be disgusted with the amount of dirt and dog hair it picks up. Me? I am in LOVE.

So there's the epic tale of our laundry room makeover. Sorry it took me so long to finally show it to you. But I had to get everything just right -- you know, like the canisters filled with laundry detergent and clothespins that I'll never use.

Well Hello 2011

2011-01-10T22:22:00.002-05:00

January is always a good time to take a moment and think about what you want out of the year.

Of course, I have my normal weight-loss and financial related resolutions. Will there EVER be a year when I don't have to resolve to lose weight? Maybe one day...

But that's not what this post is about. I wanted to share some of my more "fun" goals for the year. Will I beat myself up if I don't achieve them? No. Because they're not that serious. But they are a fun starting point for the year.

1. I decided to make this a goal after seeing Black Swan. Was it because I loved the movie so much? Not really (it was good but not life altering). Was it because I loved the movie-going experience so much? Again, not really (the theater was packed, and I went by myself). But I do enjoy going to the movies, and I'd rather watch one good movie a month in the theater (because usually if I'm going to the theater it's a movie I really want to see or have heard good things about) than 5 so-so movies at home.

Next up is Blue Valentine, or maybe No Strings Attached. And I'm counting down the days until April and Water for Elephants.

2. I bought a recycling bin, so that our recyclables will go in there instead of the trash. It makes me happy. And I bought some pretty reusable grocery bags. They make me even happier.

3. Of course 2010 will always be the year of Australia. 2011 won't hold any trips like that, but I'm hoping for several smaller ones. We've got a cruise already booked for the spring. Then maybe a beach trip in the summer and Mexico in the fall?! As long as we're sans-kids, I plan on vacationing as often as our money and PTO days will allow.

4. This is on my life list. And I need to do it before I get any older and more decrepit.

5. Not a smarty-pants class, but something fun. Like floral arranging, or photography, or Photoshop skillz. Maybe even cake decorating? Time and money are always an issue, but life's too short not to get really good at something that has nothing to do with furthering you in life or your career.

So, what are YOUR fun goals for 2011?

Christmas Gifts

2011-01-09T21:30:00.005-05:00

1. Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. I've referred to it twice already -- how to fold a fitted sheet and how to properly put a comforter in a duvet cover. It's THICK (like an encyclopedia), and I can't wait to read it cover to cover.

2. Sheets. These are nice and thick. Vera Wang. High thread count. Santa knows what's up.

3. More towels. So we'll have extras on hand.

4. Ice cream maker. Will summer ever get here so we can use it?

5. A clock. For decorative purposes, of course.

6. The Pioneer Woman's cookbook.

7. North Face Denali jacket.

8. North Face toboggan. And again.

9. Michael Kors watch.

10. Golf cart.

So basically, Santa rocked it out again this year.

But we all know the best part of Christmas is the giving. And the time spent with family.

But the nice gifts don't hurt though.

Wordless Wednesday: These Two Have Their Priorities Straight

2011-01-05T17:01:00.002-05:00

Let It Snow

2011-01-04T21:55:00.002-05:00

It snowed. We put the golf cart to WORK. Sugar had a blast chasing the golf cart. We went sledding at the overpass. And I took a million pictures of the farm.

These pics were taken the next day, from the back of a golf cart going 50 miles an hour. That takes skillz people:

Christmas Break

2011-01-04T21:37:00.003-05:00

Is anyone else having as hard of a time as I am getting back into the swing of things?

Maybe that's why it's January 4th and I'm just now telling you about our Christmas Break.

It contained our annual afternoon of cookie baking:

Plus lots of lazy afternoons watching random movies (Now & Then, This Is It, and She's All That anyone?)

And several naps.

And of course lots of good food.

Santa brought my sister and I a golf cart, 15 years too late.

It'll live at Erin's during the winter so we can enjoy it on the farm and at the river during the summer so we can enjoy it there.

We got lots of other nice gifts as well (maybe I'll tell you about those later).

And Mother Nature dumped 8 inches of snow (pictures to come soon).

And we bought Lee a new truck (more on that later too).

We got hit big time with the stomach bug and cold/flu, and the snow prevented our Virginia folks from getting here, but we made the best of it.

And we wrapped it all up with the perfect New Year's Eve -- a bonfire on the farm complete with hotdogs and brats, s'mores, lots of beverage and most importantly, great company.

Happiness List

2010-12-21T11:03:00.002-05:00

Things that are making me happy this morning:

New shampoo! From Aveda. I just can't get enough of the smell.
The lunar eclipse. We got up last night just in time to see it at its peak. Did you see it?
Yesterday was the longest night/shortest day of the year. It's all uphill from here folks!
The cookies I made for my neighbor and hairdresser. I wanted to stick some in the mailbox for the mailman, but Lee said that was weird. (He's probably right.)
My Kindle, and time over the next two weeks to get sucked into it.
My sister has Now & Then recorded and waiting for us to watch when I get to her house (talk about a blast from the past).
Also waiting for me when I get to her house? An afternoon of baking and decorating cookies with some of my favorite little people.
My shopping and wrapping is officially DONE.
Date night tonight! We're stuffing ourselves with Italian and then coming back to open our gifts to each other. (And give Sugar her gifts too!) Can't wait!

Isn't this just the best time of the year?

2010-12-20T21:37:00.002-05:00

Last night we hosted Lee's family's annual Christmas party. We were happy to finally be able to have the party at our house this year and thankful that everyone was willing to drive to Raleigh so that we could host. (I think the promise of shopping at Crabtree helped.)

We had a great time and, of course, some great food (everyone brought a variety of appetizers, dips and desserts).

I did not do a good job of taking pictures (the host never does, right?) but finally managed to break my camera out when we wrangled the cousins on the steps for a photo op.

And of course Sugar had to steal the show.

I love these next shots, because they do a great job of capturing the chaos of the night overall.

Our house is usually pretty quiet, with just the ~~two~~ three of us, so it was nice to have a house full of hustle and bustle for a change.

Ok, I'm off again to bake cookies and finish wrapping the last of the presents!

Deck the Halls

2010-12-20T11:19:00.002-05:00

Our Christmas decor hasn't changed much since last year. I did a silver, white and light blue color scheme in the living room and bright red and green in the kitchen.

We had to put our tree in a different spot this year since we have a new bookcase where the tree used to go (I promise I'll show you our living room progress someday), but we found a spot for it and I had fun decorating the bookcase as well.

Let's start with the outside.

One of my favorite things is making our front door wreath with live greenery every year. My grandma taught me how to do it and it's one of my favorite parts of our decor. We don't have a live tree anymore, so I love still being able to smell that wonderful Christmas tree smell as we walk in the door.

And now the living room.

Now on to the dining room.

And the red and green kitchen.

This card holder was my DIY project this year. I've been wanting a Christmas card holder since they won't all fit on our fridge (since our fridge is true stainless steel, the front of it isn't magnetic, so we only have a little square on the side where we can hang stuff). I couldn't find a card holder I liked so I decided to make one.

We had this old barnwood frame laying around, so I tacked on some ribbon and used mini clothespins to hang the cards. I originally wanted a regular white frame, but the barnwood really grew on me. (Plus it was f-r-e-e free.)

The card holder is packed to the max now, so I might have to go even bigger next year! I'm not complaining though because one of the things I love most about December is checking the mailbox to find Christmas cards waiting for me.

So that's a peek inside at our Christmas decorations. I have ONE LAST Christmas present to buy and a few more to wrap and then I'm DONE! It'll be here before we know it!

New Chandy

2010-12-15T15:16:00.005-05:00

Remember when I showed you our dining room, but said it wouldn't quite be complete until I replaced the non-matching chandelier?

Well we finally got around to it.

I was really coveting the Restoration Hardware chandelier, and it did eventually go really really on sale, but it was still over $300, and once I saw it in person I wasn't sure that the crystal arms were really what I was looking for.

We settled on this guy from Lowe's:

Even though it was a special order item, it was REALLY affordable. As in $130. I was able to sell our old chandelier (which is still selling at Lowe's for $175) for $90 on Craigslist, so I basically upgraded our chandelier for 40 bucks. Not bad at all.

Lee absolutely hates this chandelier. Not sure why, but I'm really happy with it. And we all know that's all that matters.

A Few Christmas Notes

2010-12-13T20:23:00.004-05:00

1. How awesome are Target's holiday ads? The music makes me stop what I'm doing and watch the commercials every time. Did you know you can download all of the songs for free? My favorite song (and commercial) is Toy Jackpot.

2. Christmas had me really stressed out this year. Even before Thanksgiving I was starting to feel all kinds of anxiety, like I was behind on Christmas and it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet. Now that cards are mailed, my house is decorated and my shopping is 80% done I'm feeling better and am actually looking forward to what's left on my to do list. Maybe that's because my to do list is now down to: attending two holiday parties and hosting one, baking cookies, some last-minute shopping, and wrapping presents -- all things I (somewhat) enjoy.

3. Speaking of stress though, you know the line in the song Home for the Holidays that goes 'From Atlantic to Pacific, Gee, the traffic is terrific!' What the hell are they talking about? Are they being sarcastic? I sure hope so.

4. We debated long and hard about sending out a Christmas card this year. Is it lame for a married couple to send a card? Should we just wait until we have a kid? Lee and my sister had almost talked me out of it. But then I realized that it's something I enjoy doing, and I LOVE receiving cards, so I wanted to return that happiness. The cards printed much darker than the proof, which I was a bummed about, but I still like them. Here's how they were intended to look:

5. My new addiction is Starbucks' salted caramel hot chocolate. I can't go in Target or Barnes & Noble now without ordering one.

6. I always try to save up a chunk of my vacation days for December, so I can have a nice long stretch off at Christmas and a few days here and there to get stuff done (I have to use up my PTO by the end of the year). Including time that the agency is closed, I have a full two weeks off at the end of the month. I'm very excited about that. Even though my to do list is a mile long, it's mostly filled with fun things like books I want to read and movies I want to watch.

7. Friday was one of my random extra days off. I don't think I took a second to rest all day long. My day = cycle bootcamp at the gym, shower, vacuuming up pine needles and glitter, pick up dry cleaning, post office, Panera for lunch, Target (with a salted caramel hot chocolate of course), pharmacy, wrapping presents, about 5 loads of laundry and packing for Charlotte.

8. Speaking of Charlotte, we headed there this weekend for Steph and Tyler's wedding, staying downtown at the Omni. We had an amazing time dancing and singing the night away at the after party, and at the after AFTER party. Again though, we're not cut out for that kind of shenanigans anymore, as we found out on Sunday morning.

9. What is up with this weather? It is NOT supposed to be this cold this early. I should've asked for more gloves and scarves for Christmas.

10. I'll be back later this week to show you our Christmas decor, along with a little DIY project I concocted last night.

'Tis the Season

2010-12-08T22:23:00.003-05:00

Have you seen the Acura "Season of Reason" commercials this year? Most of them are over-the-top, but when Lee and I saw this one the other night we just stopped and looked at each other. Lee said, "That is totally you." So, I give you...stocking lady:

One example of my OCD-ness: our entire mantel and fireplace is decorated in white and silver -- white poinsettias, white quilted stockings, silver stocking holders and candlesticks, white and silver ball ornaments. Mine and Lee's stockings have our name embroidered on them (in silver thread). I bought Sugar a stocking to match ours but instead of getting her name embroidered I bought a silver ornament from Pottery Barn that's shaped like a dog house that has her picture in it and her name engraved on it. I hung it on her stocking.

The problem? It came with red ribbon. I hung it with the red ribbon as it came but for three days it kept bugging the crap out of me. One shock of red in all of that white and silver. It just stuck out like a sore thumb (to me). So I did what any OCD-Martha-worshipper would have done: I dug through my craft box and found some silver ribbon and replaced the red with silver. It made me feel much better. I showed it to Lee saying "Now doesn't that look better?!" Of course he had no idea what the difference was and when I explained it he threatened to commit me. Oh well. That silver ribbon sure makes me happy.

After all, those stockings aren't for the kids, they're for the holidays.

Let's Play Catch-up

2010-12-01T17:30:00.004-05:00

So what have we been up to in the month since getting back from our trip? Here's a rundown:

1. Halloween was a dud, again. I was all prepared with my candy (still holding out hope) and we got two trick-or-treaters, both of which were our next door neighbor's kids. Our neighborhood is always bustling on Halloween, but people never seem to make it down to our cul-de-sac.

2. We bought a new washer and dryer, which morphed into a laundry and powder room makeover. Maybe I'll get my act together enough one day to take pictures and blog about it.

3. I helped celebrate Stephanie's last days of bachelorettedom with a long weekend in Charlotte, lots of girl talk, some shopping, lots of dancing at Whiskey River, and a pole dancing lesson.

4. We celebrated Brandon and Caitie's nuptials with two back-to-back nights of drinking and dancing. (November was pretty much a blur of drinking and dancing for me. I'm clearly not cut out for that anymore.)

5. We had a great Thanksgiving, as usual. Of course we ate too much, but loved every minute of it.

How's that for a whole month in 5 bullet points?