potholes 2 pavement

315.

2011-12-15T21:54:00.004-05:00

It's where we live, ya'll.

But we have folks complain when they're trying to find our place the first time that they can't see our house number. We're not all about turning on outside lights much, especially in the summer (read: BUGS.).

Oops.

Well, my husband had another brilliant idea to remedy that:

Mo betta, yes?

Home EC Class: Project 10

2011-12-03T14:43:00.001-05:00

Hemming Jeans

Lessons learned:
   determining correct length
   working with heavy materials
   determining your machine's limits

I am so impressed with how my jeans came out! And how EASY this tutorial was to follow. "Too long" jeans is something I frequently have a problem with but I'm always hesitant to try hemming them -- I don't want them to LOOK hemmed. I want them to look like I bought them that way.

I was so excited when I saw that this was one of the tutorials in my Home EC class because it specifically said they were going to teach us how to hem jeans in a way that you would keep the original (factory) hem. Yay!

I found these jeans at a consignment store for $10 so I figured there really wasn't too much of a risk if I totally screwed them up. But I didn't! And I didn't really have that much trouble with my machine through some of the really thick parts of the jeans. I did have to hand-wheel around the side seams on both legs, but to be informative, these jeans ARE a little lighter-weight than normal denim. That was probably a smart move on my part, starting with something like that for my first attempt at hemming jeans.

So excited to be able to take these jeans out of my "to-be-hemmed" pile and add them to my wardrobe! Thank you to my husband for snapping my photos for me!

kitchen sink remodel...

2011-09-17T09:50:00.000-04:00

I have another home project post for you today. When we moved in this house over 4 years ago (geez, has it been that long already?), the sink in the kitchen was a beautiful, pristine, spotless, stainless steel, double-basin sink.

As you can imagine, it has seen A LOT of washing, soaking, staining, etc. in the last 4 years. For a long while, after trying to clean it and not seeing great results, I just turned a blind eye to it. I HATED the way it looked but I just got over it.

Well, the time approached when I could no longer turn a blind eye and I quickly became beyond embarrassed by how it looked, and pretty much done with it. I told my husband that and within 2 seconds (true story.), he was asking me what I wanted (what kind, what color, how big/deep, single or double basin, etc., etc., etc.).

My husband? He's a problem-solver. :)

I had a problem with my current sink, so he was going to fix it.

So over the course of the next few months we saved our pennies and began thinking, researching and looking for a new kitchen sink. And faucet. Of course we'd have to have a new faucet because the current faucet was also part of the ghastly sink.

Jeff found an AWESOME set that included, along with the main faucet, a hot water faucet, a purified water faucet and a soap pump (which I'm not sure I'll use much but whatever -- it came with it) on clearance.

Love that word: clearance.

We ended up with a really pretty brown colored, deep-set, composite granite, double-basin sink. I didn't even know they made sinks in a brown color but it goes perfectly with the color of our countertops in the kitchen.

Again, the before shot is always SO embarrassing, but to really appreciate the end result you gotta show it:

Like night and day, huh? I love the new deep basins because I can put dirty dishes in there and you can't even see them! :) And the new faucet is fabulous because 1) it has the stream or spray option with the push of that black button you see on the nozzle, 2) the nozzle pulls off from the faucet to be able to use as a sprayer and 3) it swivels SO much easier and nicer than the other faucet.

I am so happy with my new sink. This project was a success due in very large part to our good friend, Matthew, who has mad skills in the plumbing department. He and his wife and little girl live in Wake Forest but they came down for the day so we could put him to work installing our new sink. Sweethearts, those Seerings. :)

Oh! I also got an outside shower out of the deal! That was my brilliant husband's doing. He decided that if we, er, I mean, Matthew was going to be down there messing with the plumbing due to the sink install, we might as well get an outside shower put in, too. Something he's been wanting and that just makes sense around these (beach) parts. :)

Jeff pretty much took care of this project, except for the plumbing part of it, of course. But the design of the shower is his:

entertain in style...

2011-08-08T20:46:00.001-04:00

Wow, this blog is turning pretty random, huh? I'm posting about all kinds of things on this one, but not very frequently, sad to say.

Sorry 'bout that.

Here's another random thing to post about -- our brand new entertainment center!

THAT.MY.HUSBAND.MADE.

Beautiful, huh? That's the only kind of work my husband does. :)

I kinda of don't even want to show you what kind of set up we had before he got this built. It.was.ghetto, ya'll. GHE -- TOE.

But to appreciate the beauty of what we have now, I have to show you.

Ugh. Yes, that is 4 TV trays with various and sundry equipment, and I attempted to cover all the wiring by throwing some fabric over 2 of the trays. That pretty much just served to ghetto-fy it even more, and collect dust.

The entertainment center we had before we got this nice TV (from my oh-so-generous parents) wasn't going to work so we had to quickly get rid of it and kind of "make-do" with something else until Jeff could get one built.

That was us, making do.

But look at us now!

a gardening progression...

2011-06-18T10:18:00.001-04:00

Nothing to post on the sewing front right now, but I do have something house-related to post: my husband has decided to grow a garden this year! Not a topsy-turvy garden, but a full-grown (no pun intended, ha!), raised-bed, in-the-yard garden.

He did a lot of research on the front end, about dimensions, irrigation options, seeds, etc. Then he got to work in April putting his plan into action. I'm pretty proud of him...

[the board he used to measure his beds out, then he spray-painted around the corners and edges to mark]

He decided he wanted 3 raised beds and then decided how much room between each bed, how far back in the yard, which side of the backyard, all that kind of stuff. He really thought of everything, taking into account that eventually Deacon will be old enough to play catch so Jeff didn't want the garden to hinder throwing across the full length of the backyard...plus, we'll eventually have a shed out in the backyard, so he decided which side the shed would be on and left room for that.

I'm telling you, everyone says I'm the planner -- maybe I've rubbed off on him in a few areas. :)

He got a strapping young man looking for some extra cash to come out and dig the sod out around the whole area so he could put mulch down around the beds -- he'd already thought of the issues with mowing around each bed and decided to just make one big rectangle. Such a smarty-pants.

The next thing Jeff thought of was how to efficiently water the garden once he got his seeds planted. His brother, Tim, and his wife, Leslie, were down the weekend of Easter and they helped Jeff put in his irrigation system. He'd already had a line brought out to the garden from the spiget (sp?) on the back of the house so all he had to do was put in each line (4 lines per bed) and connect it all. Each line has holes that drip water once the water is turned on...

See how the soil is dark in spots? That's the underground irrigation system after it's been on for a little while.

I'm telling you, the man is BRILLIANT.

So now we wait. And wait. And wait.

About a month later (the beginning of June), this is what we have:

The very early stages of banana peppers, watermelons, sweet corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, green peppers, yellow squash and zuccini. Oh, and we bought a tomato plant to put out there. The banana peppers are in the hanging basket. Also, he started some of the watermelons, green peppers and banana peppers inside in pods and then transplanted them after about a month.

And this is what we currently have, as of this very morning, June 18:

Look at that! The first fruits of his labor! It's crazy but there is a tiny little watermelon out there, about the size of a large marble. But it looks exactly like a watermelon, with the stripes and everything. Jeff says it will likely get to the size of a small basketball so we have a while before we can pick it. :)

We're excited about the garden, but we're trying not to have expectations that are too high with this being our first year attempt. We'll see how it goes and make adjustments as we need to for next year. If there is a next year. :)

I'm sure I'll post here and there as we get more growth and veggies popping up...

Home EC Class: Project 19

2011-04-02T15:52:00.000-04:00

Full Apron

**Yep, I skipped another one -- project 18 was a laptop case and I do plan to do that one, but I need to get my materials for it.**

Lessons learned:
   creating a rounded pocket
   creating binding
   customizing to fit your body

I really like how this project turned out! The only thing I kind of messed up on was the measurements across -- the next one I make will be wider to come around my body more, but for my first apron and semi-piece of clothing type of sewing project, I'd say it was a success!

I think the color scheme is really cute, too. The body of the apron is a fitted sheet (that was tagged as a flat sheet) and the tie and pocket details came from a pillow sham (I already had the green fabric I used for the sash). I found both pieces in a local thrift store. :)

Home EC Class: Project 17

2011-04-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

Fabric Storage Cubby

**Yes, I skipped project 16, which was a ruffled duvet cover, for now. I'm thrilled to be able to learn how to do something like that but I'm not quite ready to tackle something that large right now...**

Lessons Learned
constructing a cube
working with interfacing

Okay, so the plan originally was to build three of these little deals and use them for toys, etc. in Deacon's room. I was going to have my husband build a simple 3-opening structure to house them and that would go underneath the window in the nursery.

However, I got all the panels built for ONE box and then I had the baby. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech. No more sewing going on for quite.some.time. I finally got tired of looking at the panels and got a hankering to move on to the next projects so I finished up the one and decided to use it as photographed above. It works. For now.

I think what delayed me in finishing this up (besides the obvious task of caring for a newborn that takes.a.lot.of.time. :) was that I didn't exactly follow directions in one particular section. We were supposed to leave room on the edges to be able to just sew right up the sides and connect all the panels together. I, um, didn't do that. So I had to figure out a way to connect mine a different way.

I basically just tacked them together with thread at the corners and then tied a ribbon around the perimeter to minimize the gaps. Obviously, there are still gaps (hence the reason we're not throwing toys in there), but they are minimized so my mission was accomplished there.

I was kinda bummed at how this one turned out but really, that's my own fault. In the future, when I get around to using up the rest of the materials I purchased to make three of these, I will do things a little bit differently.

Christmas 2010...

2010-12-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

Just as I took a break from posting house-related things to post sewing-related things, I'm taking a break from sewing-related things and going back to house-related things for a minute.

If you read one of my other blogs, Our World = Rocked, then you know that I've had our baby. Deacon Josiah was born October 26, 2010, so we've had him for 8 weeks already! Hard to believe. Since he's been here, I've come to a screeching halt on the sewing thing. I plan to get back to it at some point but it's not real high on the priority list right now. :)

That being the case, I thought I'd post photos of what Christmas looks like at our house this year --

This year will be very different for us since we have our little one. My mom & dad are exorbitantly excited to have another grandchild to lavish love on this Christmas. It's been 6 weeks since they've seen Deacon, so they are ready for Christmas to get here already so they can get their hands on him. :) My brother, sister-in-law, niece and grandparents have yet to meet him and Christmas will finally allow that meeting so that will be an exciting time in the life of our family, too.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a blessed-beyond-measure new year!

Home EC Class: Project 15

2010-10-02T11:31:00.000-04:00

Pillow Case with Piping

**You will notice that I've skipped a few more projects -- 12 & 13 were some type of clothing and as I said in my last post, I will not be attempting anything like that until after this baby arrives. Project 14 was for a "plushie toy" and while that IS something I could do right now, I've not come across a pattern, etc. of something I'd like to make for Deacon yet. Hopefully, I'll find something soon and be able to get that project done before he gets here.**

Lessons learned:
adding piping to a pillow
*adding straps to a pillow with piping

my straps...kinda proud of these :)

the rocking chair for which I made the pillow/cushion

see how well the fabric on the pillow matches the nursery decor?

I made this pillow case with piping with the idea of making it into a seat cushion for the rocking chair we have in the baby's room. The beautiful chair is the one that my parents had in MY room when I was little.

*Since I didn't want the cushion to slide out every time we sat in the chair, I had to figure out how to add straps since that wasn't part of the tutorial. I was pretty pleased with how they came out. And how simple that idea was to incorporate.

I couldn't be happier with this project -- it was easier than I thought it would be considering we used piping, and the end result is just perfect!

Home EC Class: Project 11

2010-09-12T20:58:00.001-04:00

Zippered Pencil Case

**If you noticed that I skipped project 10, I commend you on your keen observation! :) Project 10 was for hemming jeans and while I'm still in the present state of pregnancy (not to mention 7 weeks away from delivery!), I will be avoiding those projects that have anything to do with clothing until after the baby comes.**

Lessons learned:
installing a zipper
lining a pouch

closed...

open...

I was really looking forward to this project -- I think knowing how to sew in a zipper will come in quite handy. I enjoyed this project, though, I did get a little frustrated about how my particular pouch wasn't quite so square (or rectangular, in this case) when I got finished, and also in trying to sew the other side of the zipper (with the particular instructions we were given), but everything turned out relatively okay in the end.

I think the old saying, "Practice makes perfect." will apply tremendously here. :)

Home EC Class: Project 9

2010-09-09T21:02:00.000-04:00

Reversible Bib

Lessons learned:
   piecing fabric
   using (or making) a template
   using double fold bias tape to finish edges

the front...

the back...

You would think that I'd be really excited about this project for the simple fact that I'm going to have a baby in 2 months, right? Well, I was. Until I got into it.

This project has actually turned out to be my least favorite so far. Hard to believe I know, but there are several different reasons why that is:

1) I made my own template from a bib we already had in our baby's closet and though that wasn't so bad, I think it may have turned out a little small (and I know he IS going to start out pretty small, but I'm just sayin'.)

2) I made the straps too short -- they're supposed to be long enough to tie in a bow behind the baby's head. As it is, I'm going to have to put some velcro on the very ends of the straps and even THAT may cause minor suffocation after a time.

3) The quilting didn't turn out near as well on this project as it did on the potholders. Not sure if it's the fact that I used felt instead of batting for the padding, that I had striped material that wasn't all that even, that it wasn't a square piece of fabric that I was sewing on or that I sewed my quilting lines a little closer together this go-round so there were more of them, but whatever it was had me rushing through just to be DONE with this project.

4) The bias tape didn't go around my bib quite as smoothly has I thought it would or should and I don't know if that was because my bib was more squared than the bib in the instructions but I did my best with it. It doesn't look too bad in the photos, but there a couple of quirky places if you look closely.

I really don't want to finish this post on a negative note so I will say that, though I'm glad to be past this project and not sure I'll attempt another bib, I did learn how to piece fabrics together and that wasn't too bad and also, even if the bib turns out too small for him, I can always turn it into a sign to hang on his doorknob or something.

Home EC Class: Project 8

2010-09-05T20:57:00.001-04:00

Curtains (Grommeted)

Lessons learned:
   lining up a pattern
   double hemming
   spacing & installing large grommets

one panel, for our kitchen window...

I am SO EXCITED about how this project came out! The grommets were so easy to put in (just snap in place after cutting out the circle -- no tools required). I sewed just one long panel (instead of 2 like the instructions suggested) just because I was only doing a valance and I saw no reason to do 2 panels. And I.am.in.love. with this fabric that I picked up at Hancock Fabrics! It's a little pricey (but I did purchase it at 40% off :) but matches my dishes perfectly and I'm so pleased with how it looks. It surprises me every time I walk into the kitchen. In a fabulous way. :)

I have a patio door to the right of these photos that I'm already calculating yardage for...

Home EC Class: Project 7

2010-09-04T12:42:00.000-04:00

Quilted Potholders

Lessons learned:
   batting
   closing in a double-sided square
   blanket stitch

The tutorial for this project only instructed us to sew the parallel lines (shown on the printed side), called "quilting", I think. And that was okay. However, I saw another classmated do the square "spiral" design on theirs (in the collection of flickr photos we have access to) and I thought it was pretty neat-looking so I decided to give it a try on my 2nd one.

I like the look of the parallel lines and it was easier than I thought it would be to get them relatively straight but my beginning and ending w/backstitching turned out kind of messy (you can kind of see that in the 2nd photo above). But I really like how the spiral turned out and it was much faster than the parallel lines because I didn't have to remove my needle until I got to the center/end. The only thing that didn't turn out was that when I got to the center, on the backside (the printed side of that one)...oh, my stitching was horrendous. I'm wondering if it was because the batting inside was just really thick there at the end. Not sure, but I've decided to just use the orange side of that one, and the printed side of the other one. :)

These potholders match the napkins that I made for Project 1 and just on a side note, we had dinner guests last night and I busted out my napkins for them. First time in use -- I was so proud! :)

Home EC Class: Project 6

2010-08-31T15:27:00.000-04:00

Ironing Board Cover

Lessons learned:
   using old cover (or board) to create a cover for the new
   edge-finishing options
   elasticizing an edge
   calculating fabric required

close-up of my fabric...love it! :)

This project came at just the right time. Some of you know that my husband and I are getting ready for a baby due the end of October so we're having to change what used to be the guest room into what will be the nursery, and in the process, keep the full-size bed that was in the guest room so we'll still have a place to house guests who come to visit (the baby or the beach. Or both. :).

To do that, my handy husband is building a murphy bed to encase the bed which will go in our other bedroom which is currently known as the "craft/computer/catchall room". But not only is he building the murphy bed cabinet itself, he's adding shelving, etc. on either side to create a "wall" structure. It's absolutely amazing (and nearly done, hooray!). Anyway, one of the features he's building is a fold-out ironing board for me.

I have a full size ironing board right now that we store in the laundry room. I hate ironing in the first place and it's so difficult to get out. And it has this really ugly gray cover on it. :) This new fold-out ironing board will be so nice because it will be easily accessible and it has a beautiful, though not perfect, cover on it! That I made!

I chose this fabric because it matches some other countertops in the room itself and when everything is complete, I'll post photos of it all and you can see for yourself. I'm so excited about how this is all turning out. :)

The cover was a good challenge -- we took the board that Jeff built and laid it on some thin kraft paper to make the pattern. We went out about 3 inches from the board itself to allow for overhang, etc. and drew around and then cut it out. Voila -- my first pattern! :) Then I pinned the pattern to my fabric and cut.

As I said, the cover isn't perfect and I do need ironing board clips (like everyone else in the class has said) to create a more tight effect, but it's functional for now. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Home EC Class: Project 5

2010-08-28T18:24:00.000-04:00

Supplies Roll-up

Lessons learned:
   creating sections (albeit uneven :)
   working with thicker material and heavier needle
   installing an adjustable strap

open with the flap closed...

open with the flap open...

open & filled with my sewing supplies...

closed (rolled) up...

closer detail of the ribbon closure...

It's cute, right?

I made a few modifications to this project:

1) I couldn't get my hands on oilcloth specifically (which is what the project called for though they said we could use a few other materials) without ordering some and I wasn't patient enough to wait for it so my (wonderful) husband picked up some vinyl for me at Hancock Fabrics. It worked just fine.

2) I couldn't find O-rings very easily so I chose some (too large) D-rings that worked.

3) I didn't have any matching ribbon that was 1" thick but I had this really cute ribbon "that matched and everything" so I decided to use 2 strands of it. THAT was a challenge.

As was sewing the straight lines to form the sections inside.

Home EC Class: Project 4

2010-08-23T20:33:00.000-04:00

Round Bunting

Lessons learned:
creating fabric circles
machine applique

my sewing area...

This project took a really long time but I'm so happy with the way it turned out! The circles aren't perfect by any means, but I think for my first time ever doing something like this, I did good. :)

I used the font "Impact" and typed it out in the appropriate sizes (I made the "t" a bit smaller than the other letters) using Photoshop 7. I printed them, cut them out and traced them backwards onto my felt to cut out.

I did use individual ribbon strips in between the circles since I didn't have enough ribbon to use continuously. I was worried about the drape of the letters, even as I sewed everything* together but it seemed to work out fine.

*The tutorial said that if you were using individual ribbon strips, that you should sew your circles and then hand-sew your ribbon to the back (meaning that that would be seen if you hung it where both sides could be seen). Well, we all know how I feel about that hand-sewing business, so I just pinned them into place and sewed everything together so the ribbon strips are sandwiched in between the felt backing and the fabric, just as if it were a continuous piece of ribbon.

Home EC Class: Project 3

2010-08-22T19:31:00.004-04:00

Reusable Grocery (Tote) Bag

Lessons learned:

making a larger bag

straps

strong "x-joint"

corner technique

I used an old pillowcase for this project...

a close-up of my x-joints...

I LOVE the x-joint technique! It's relatively easy and it looks really great. I thought I might get this monogrammed with a fun color...

Home EC Class: Project 2

2010-08-21T13:55:00.001-04:00

Drawstring Gift Pouch

Lessons learned:

making a bag

joining 2 fabrics

drawstring casing

square corners

strong slit

*the fact that I will probably NOT make another one of these in the same way again...

open (i.e. not tied up)...

closed (hypothetically w/gift inside)...

I have a couple of notes about this one:

The main fabric is hawaiian fabric that Jeff picked up for me on one of his business trips over there (so I've had it for awhile) so when I say "hawaiian", I mean authentic. :)

The top band is actually fabric from a bed skirt we have no need of anymore so I ripped out seams, squared it up and used it for this project. I think the colors match perfectly. :)

There was a part in this project that we had to hand-sew and if I learned nothing else from this project, it's that I'm not into that. At all. I did what I needed to but not without a few tears of frustration, some impatient outbursts and a vow to NEVER make one of these bags again. Not unless I can make it without that hand-sewing business.

It's a good thing the fabric is cute.

Home EC Class: Project 1

2010-08-20T19:35:00.002-04:00

Single & Double Layer Napkins

Lessons learned:

squaring up fabric*

simple hemming

adding ric-rac

*it's questionable that I've learned this yet...

starting out...

my single layer napkins...

my double layer napkins...

really proud of these... :)

the double layer napkins on my kitchen table...

I'm sew excited!

2010-08-13T17:08:00.011-04:00

Look what I'm participating in!

I discovered this class through another blog that I read (she's a sewer) and clicked on the link to see what it was all about.

I've been wanting to get into sewing for awhile now -- maybe the last 3 months or so. I think that skill could come in pretty handy with all kinds of things. So I sent Jeff the link to see what he thought of it and he was all for it, saying, "If you really want to get into sewing, this looks like an excellent opportunity."

My sentiments exactly.

So for $60 (+ my materials since it IS an online class), I registered to take this class and learn how to make 26 projects -- each project teaching a new technique and building on each other to take us "from beginner to confident"!

The class started this past Tuesday and while they post a new project each day on the blog, there are no deadlines and they will have the information up for a full year online so we can take it at our own pace. Thank the Lord for that because it has crossed my mind a time or two that maybe I've stepped outside my mind to try to take this on at this very moment in my life.

With that being said, however, I couldn't WAIT for this class to get started! Jeff got our sewing machine out last Thursday and set it up in my craft room on its own separate table with a lamp and everything. Friday night, I didn't have any plans and the machine was calling me so I went online to just see what kind of simple projects with tutorials I could find.

I ended up sewing my very first thing that night! A cute little drawstring bag made from a heavy green/brown/cream striped material (we had some material and other notions from when we got the machine in the first place) with a wide brown ribbon for the "drawstrings". I can't even TELL you how tickled I was that I made it! I just kept looking at it and giggling. Jeff was proud of me, too.

The next day, Saturday, I found a tutorial for a weighted pin cushion -- how convenient since everyone who sews needs a pincushion! :) So I made that, too, out of that same striped material plus some other green & yellow fabric & felt. It came out pretty well, too. So I had 2 projects under my belt already!

Well, as it turns out, I've not been able to even start the first project for this Home EC class due to other obligations each night this week. But that all changes TONIGHT! I'm going to sew tonight, if it's the last thing I do. :)

Being the organized person that I am, I got a spiral notepad that I can use to keep track of things I learn, supplies I need, etc. Being the crafty person that I am, I decorated the front of it. :)

I am ready! Bring on the fabric & thread!

Now you may be wondering why I would post this information (and any subsequent info/photos) on this blog and the MAIN reason is so that I don't have to start a FOURTH blog, hello. But the other reason is because I think it can kind of be related to the home -- a lot of the things we're learning to make will be for our home so I plan to make them useful.

So you may or may not care about how it goes with this class, but this is where I'll be posting my progress for the class for awhile. I know it's been QUITE a while since I've posted anything here and I'm thinking I'd probably be pretty lucky if I still had any readers who check this blog of mine, but whatev.

Okay, wish me luck!

harvest...

2010-05-29T09:54:00.000-04:00

My husband has a "garden".

He is growing peppers, all kinds, and strawberries. We found these hanging baskets at Bed Bath & Beyond and Jeff decided he wanted to try his hand at it. As you can see, the plants are flourishing! And do you see my husband's brilliant mind come to life? The way he waters the plants -- because they are to be watered slowly -- is to freeze a cottage cheese container filled with water and sit the ice block on top of the baskets each morning. Then through out the day, they melt slowly and water down into the baskets. Ingenius.

Here is a close up of the strawberry plant:

We actually have harvested just a couple off this plant but we ate them before I took a photo. Well, we were curious about how they tasted! They were okay -- not too flavorful, but boy, were they a pretty red!

Here's a closer look at the pepper plant:

He's planted about 6 different kinds of peppers out there (in the one basket). He harvested a couple this morning:

This is a jalapeno pepper and a banana pepper. Funny thing is, he planted both sweet banana peppers and hot banana peppers. He's not sure which this is so I'll guess it'll be a surprise! :)

So proud of him. I would've killed the things in the first week. No green thumb here.

exposed!

2010-04-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

I feel exposed. Lots of things are happening around our neighborhood -- trees coming down, dirt being moved here and there, houses going up at an alarming speed. They're clearing everything behind our house now, all up and down that street over there.

THIS is what it looked like just a couple of months ago when we had snow in February...

And NOW?

I'm thinking maybe we need a fence now. What do you think?

do you have the time?

2010-04-17T16:29:00.001-04:00

Ya'll, my husband has got some mad skills. I'm just sayin'. Look what he's done now:

Is that not the coolest clock you've ever seen?? Jeff decided he wanted to build a rather sizable clock for this wall in our living room -- the one that the entertainment center sits on. He had an idea in his head but it wasn't really what I pictured so we got online and began to look at different clock styles. I found one very similar to this style and said, "Oooh! That one! I LOVE that!". I'm a fan of funkiness. :)

So, of course, that's all my fabulous husband needs -- a picture and some materials with which to work. Here's a link to more information about how the clock came into fruition. Some of you might want to know, and some may not care -- like me, you're only concerned with the final product. :) However, it is a pretty neat story about the materials he used and how everything came together so I would encourage you to take a look. There are also more detailed photos of the clock there.

Here's a closer look at the clock:

wall 'o' verbs...

2010-04-05T10:45:00.001-04:00

We've been in our house for almost 3 years (this August) and we have a total of 3 things hanging on the wall. In our living room, we have a picture that Jeff framed hanging over our couch. We also have a mirror hanging on the small wall that you see when you walk in the front door. We just recently hung that but I didn't take any photos because it's not real spectacular -- it was just the mirror we took down in the master bathroom to put up a mirror with cabinets. I wanted to do something with it, so that's where we put it. For now. The only other thing we have hanging is the canvas photo of us that Jeff got me for my birthday last year -- that's hanging above our bed.

Until now.

Look what we just hung in the kitchen on our long accent wall:

Pretty cool, huh? I found it at Bed, Bath & Beyond and though it was a pain.in.the.butt. to hang (just due to the nature of the thing -- you know, a collage), I LOVE the finished product! I thought it would be the perfect thing to hang right there since 1) I love photos and 2) it's a long/landscape style thing.

snow in our neck of the woods...

2010-03-05T22:33:00.001-05:00

Well, we got snow this winter, just as we did last winter. But this time it was a pretty good amount! We have had several winter storms hitting northern parts, and even the southern most parts, of the coast this winter -- enough to really incapacitate certain parts of the country.

I wondered if we'd see any and we finally did get a good dose. 4 inches! It started on a Friday night around 9pm and continued through the night to reveal 4 inches by 7:45am the next morning. It was so beautiful! And it was cold. So as opposed to the photos from my last post on snow, I didn't bundle up enough to leave the house to take photos -- I only took them from the comfort of my back door or porch.

Take a look!

Thought this was a cool shoot...don't know that I could've done that with my point-n-shoot... :)

laundry room...revised!

2010-01-23T17:32:00.004-05:00

Since we've moved in (29 months ago), Jeff has been wanting to utilize all the space above our washer & dryer in the laundry room. If you will recall, we started out with one single wire rack relatively high above the washer/dryer -- that's what the builders included for us. Well, there's a lot more space along that wall and even on one of the side walls that Jeff had a "vision" for.

So today, while I was out (he knows how I love surprises :), his vision came to life! When I got home, he was just screwing in the last screw...perfect timing! And boy, was THIS project perfect timing...

Here's what we had before:

And here's what we have now:

See the difference?? So much more storage space! I am so very excited about this because I can use part of this as a pantry for some of our larger things. People. The amount of room I have to store food items is really just pathetic. Really. So this is just absolutely awesome to me! Things will probably get rearranged a little from what this photo looks like because Jeff said he just basically threw stuff in there but you get the idea.

I do want to point out one other difference here...do you see the difference in the photos themselves? The top one, the before shot, was taken with my Kodak point-&-shoot. The second photo? Well, I took THAT with my brand new (5-day-old brand new!) camera! Yes, I FINALLY got a new camera after seriously saving and considering for about a year. I've had my Kodak for about 4 or 5 years and it's been a great camera but I was ready for an upgrade.

**If you'd like to hear the story of how I came to have this camera and see more photos, check out my other blog here.**

Merry Christmas to ME!

2009-12-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

I had a fantastic Christmas, ya'll! I mean, really. REALLY. My husband is always so good to me but especially at Christmastime. :) He loves surprising me with stuff and this year was no exception.

The main thing was my gorgeous handmade jewelry box. For about the last month and a half or so, I've not been allowed in the workshop. Well, I haven't been allowed to look in the workshop, for that matter. Top-secret stuff and all that.

THIS is why...

Is this not absolutely beautiful?? My.husband.made.this. For.me. He never ceases to amaze me with his skills and talents. I can't tell you how many times I've told him how proud I am of him.

He got a few photos of me with it on Christmas morning...

But that's not all! Well, that was PLENTY for me but THIS is what I found when we got home from Lexington Saturday...

A brand new kitchen table and chairs! I TOTALLY didn't see this coming. No, Jeff didn't make this himself (although he COULD). We saw this set at Sam's when we were there recently and it was severely marked down, peeps. I mean, it was a steal. But we were there for something else and decided not to get it. But I SO wanted it! I mean, I really, really wanted it. Jeff did, too. This style is exactly what I've been wanting. And it was so cheap. But we didn't get it.

Little did I know that my husband had other plans. God love him. :) While we were out of town, he had one of his friends come in and set it up so it would be set when we got back into town. I was SO surprised! REALLY surprised. And so happy!

I hope that your Christmas was just as blessed and full of fun times and love from family & friends as mine was. My prayer is that your new year, 2010, will be just as full of blessings and love.

'tis the season!

2009-12-13T21:45:00.010-05:00

It's time once again for my annual Christmas decorations post. As is usually the case, I've had my decorations up for awhile and have taken photos here & there of different things. And I'm just now getting around to posting them. Better late than never, I guess.

I have a couple of *new* things this year so I really only took a few photos of those things to share. This photo shows a paper craft that I picked up here for only $5 -- I thought it would be a fun thing to create myself to put out for Christmas. I think it's really cute and I had really hoped that it would last through Christmas and maybe for a few years at least. However, I've been observing it slowly come "unraveled" -- by that I mean, every day there are a few more ornaments that have fallen off the slowly lowering "branches" and the ornaments themselves are slowly separating (they are just 2 stickers stuck back to back). I just keep *fixing* things here and there but I can't imagine how I'm going to store the thing until next year. We'll see.

My tree is not new however the beautiful tree skirt underneath certainly is. I have been looking for a few years now for just the right tree skirt -- something that fits me and my style and more importantly, my tree's style.

Yes, my tree has style, peeps. As if you couldn't tell, duh. :)

So when my mom & I were out shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year, we came across this tree skirt that is SO me, and it very nearly screamed to be chosen to go home with me. And so it did. Go home with me. It's hard to see in the photo but the lime-ish green has small "scrollies" all over it and the red & white parts are kind of like Santa's hat -- velvety and all that. Isn't it perfect?

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't point out the BEAUTIFUL bow that tops my tree this year. I typically have a gold star on top but this year my mom made this bow for me with ribbon we found on our shopping spree the day after Thanksgiving. Is it not the prettiest thing? She's so talented. :)

The other thing I acquired this year was this sweet little wire tree that my mom picked up for me "because it's your colors and it was just, well, you". My mom is just the best. :) Cute, huh?

I hope you guys are getting everything all ready for your Christmas gatherings without all the stress that inevitably comes with the season. I, for one, have been trying to really keep my focus on what Christmas is all about and what Christ really did when He came as a baby in the manger all those many years ago. May you be blessed this Christmas season!

happy (really, really late) birthday to me!

2009-11-29T15:32:00.002-05:00

Yeah, so my birthday was 2 months ago and I'm just now getting this posted. But to my credit, I only just GOT my birthday gift from Jeff about a month ago. Here's the story:

Since we had photos made last summer with this amazing lady, I've been wanting to have a canvas made with one of the photos to hang over the bed in our bedroom. When my birthday rolled around this year, Jeff asked me what I wanted. Since I'd already given a list to my family for gift ideas, I didn't want to tell him anything on that list, in case one of my family members was going to get it. So I thought & thought, and then I remembered about the canvas. Perfect! So I mentioned that to him and he was all about it. Now to choose the photo...

Therein lies the problem. :)

Choosing a photo from the hundreds of photos that Julie took is really hard (that's part of the reason I got the canvas a month after my birthday). But I finally chose one and we got the canvas back shortly thereafter.

I took a photo of the wall *before & after* so you can see the difference. I love it!

I heart fall.

2009-11-07T11:43:00.008-05:00

I love fall, ya'll. I really do. I think I did a post last year on my fall decorations...and maybe the first year we were here. Can you believe this is our 3rd fall in this house? Time passes so quickly these days...

Every year I seem to collect something new in the way of fall decorations and I end up moving my current decorations around a little bit so even though I've done past posts on my fall decorations, I wanted to share what THIS fall looks like at our house:

You can see here there is a new addition to our kitchen, too -- a bamboo rug that we got from my brother & his wife who weren't using it and offered it to us when they saw my bamboo placemat on the table. It works well, doesn't it?

I hope you are looking forward to the coming holidays, Thanksgiving & Christmas, with great expectation, grateful for all God has done for you and your loved ones. I know I have much to be thankful for...

W.

2009-09-13T16:22:00.003-04:00

What do you think of the flag currently on our house? Remember, in this post, how I said that my good friend, Bekah, had gotten me some flags for taking photos at her daughter's first birthday party? Well, this is one of the ones she got me and I just love it!

I did have another one out for the summer months but never got around to taking any photos of it. I didn't get to have it out as much as I would've liked anyway because of the daily threats of rain/storms around these parts in the summer. Though the flags are weather-proof, I prefer not to have them flying in the rain if I can control it. :) That flag has "Welcome" and a pair of flip flops on it. Very cute and very appropriate for the summer! :)

I have one more flag that Bekah got me that I will put out for fall probably at the beginning of October. Hopefully I'll remember to take a photo or 2 of that one to show you.

the value of a good lamp...

2009-07-29T19:04:00.004-04:00

We have a new addition in the living room -- a table lamp! To some, it may seem a little weird that I'm so excited about a table lamp, but I have been looking for one for awhile now. I've been saving for one for awhile, too -- some lamps are so stinkin' expensive! All the ones that I seemed to be looking at were, anyway.

But one day recently, Jeff and I were at Lowe's having some keys made and Jeff told me to go look at the lamps while we were there. So I did and I found this lampstand on clearance and the shade that I chose to go with it really wasn't overly expensive either (though it was more pricey than the stand). The shade is actually a pretty similar color, though lighter, to our accent wall color in the living room now, so I wasn't sure how it would look once we got it home but we both like it a lot. I like the height of the stand, too, because it's up high enough for my frames to still sit on the side table and for good reading light, etc.

Yay for my find! Now I can save for something else...Lord knows, there are tons of other things I want to do/buy for our house! :)

rock corner -- part III

2009-07-15T21:48:00.010-04:00

It's done! Our "rock corner" is complete! Jeff took some time the end of last week to go get the rock and finish up the rock corner while I was at work. I am so happy with how it turned out and I think Jeff is, too. We've already had our first somewhat heavy rain since it's been done and it worked out great. We had a little "ponding", but I'd rather have it on the rock than on our grass.

Once Jefff got it done, he took photos of it empty first, but then also took a photo (with his phone) after he made a few adjustments. He moved our grill over to the rock from the patio and we have a steel table that was sitting on the patio, too -- it's now up against the house on the rock. We have the trash can sitting on the rock, too, although that cramps things just a bit when we want to grill. An easy fix, of course, but I like having the trash can right there by the door when I need to throw something out. We can always move it when we get ready to grill.

The only thing on our patio now is a couple of (sorry-looking) chairs and it just makes everything looks so much bigger and more open out there! I really like it. What do you think?

Voila!

rock corner -- part II

2009-07-04T17:40:00.005-04:00

The temperatures have been a tad bit cooler recently and this morning was actually pretty cool compared to the breath-taking heat we've had, even at 6 or 7 in the morning...

So we decided that we should tackle "phase II" of the rock corner in our backyard. After gathering our tools (wheelbarrow, shovels, rake & hoe) and working for about 2 1/2 hours, here's what part II of the rock corner looks like:

house decoration...

2009-06-22T18:10:00.006-04:00

My good friend, Bekah, asked me to take photos at her daughter's first birthday party this past Saturday and she wanted to pay me, but I told her, "No way!" Instead, she got me this super-nice flag for our house, along with 3 others and the flag pole & attachment, too! It was WAY TOO MUCH but I was so excited to get this hung on the house! I thought the american flag one would be appropriate since we're only a couple weeks away from Independence Day.

Bekah & her husband, Adam, own a decorative flag company, FlagAddict.com, and they have so many really nice flags. They come in 2 different sizes and are really reasonably priced for how nice they are. Bekah had asked me to make a wish list (you should, too!) and from that, she picked out the 4 flags for me.

It was a pleasure to take photos for Addison's party and I didn't expect anything in return but I LOVE my flags! Thanks, Bekah!

rock corner -- part I

2009-06-07T20:28:00.005-04:00

Jeff began a project in the backyard last weekend. He decided that we needed a solution for the corner beside the patio where the rain just pours down onto the grass. We don't have gutters on the back of the house so in this one area when it rains, the grass and yard in general just looks bad.

He decided that he would spray and kill all the grass in an arched area, dig it up and put down river rock. We're thinking that maybe we can move the grill off the patio then and perhaps free up some space for sitting furniture, etc. At least that's what I'M thinking... :)

Here is what part I looks like of what we're calling the "rock corner":

what a difference!

2009-05-13T16:43:00.004-04:00

Talk about feeling like you're in an episode of "While You Were Out"! Look what my husband had done while I was at work on Monday...

Is that not PERFECT?! I'm not going to say I had no idea that this was going to happen because he did ask me, in a nonchalant sort of way, what color I'd like to have on an accent wall in the living room, IF we were to say, you know, do that. I told him that I thought if we picked up "that orangey-gold color" in the fabric on the chair/ottoman (same fabric that's on the pillows on the couch & loveseat, too) that it would look really good. Of course, "orangey-gold" is kind of a risk no matter what kind of fabric you're talking about. But Jeff went and picked out this color, Homestead Ballroom Gold (do you not LOVE that?), all by himself at Lowe's.

We've both commented on how different the room looks now...how it kinda doesn't even look like our house anymore. But we both love it more and more each time we see it. It goes perfectly with that fabric and even the coffee table!

My husband is just the greatest.

grillin' season!

2009-05-08T11:47:00.007-04:00

Okay, this is kind of a strrreeeetch to say that this post falls into the "house" category, but other than this, I got nothin'. Nothing new going on with the house right now so this is all I have.

So this is what you get. A few nights ago, I was trying to decide what to do for dinner and I knew I had some squash/broccoli/mushrooms that I needed to use up. So we decided to grill (a lot of) chicken (some for salads later in the week) and have these veggies. But I found a recipe for "Sensational Grilled Veggies" in one of my cooking magazines that looked easy and scrumptious...looks can be deceiving. But I'll get to that later.

The recipe was easy. I will say that. All I had to do was cut up the veggies...

toss them with Italian salad dressing...

and wrap them up in heavy duty foil...

They went on the grill for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the cook time for the chicken...

and then were sprinkled with parmesan cheese afterward. Dinner is served!

While the veggies were okay and definitely something different, neither me or Jeff really cared for them. It was the dressing. Jeff is not a big fan of Italian dressing to begin with and I think I just prefer my veggies salty, not sweet. With that said, if you like Itialian dressing, you would probably really enjoy these veggies. Try it next time you have something to grill!

IKEA purchase...

2009-04-07T10:26:00.004-04:00

Some of you may know that I recently made a trip to Charlotte with my friend, Elizabeth (and my parents). The purpose of the trip was to check out the brand new IKEA store there. I previously had never been into an IKEA before but had seen certain items they sell and had heard lots of different things about it. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with their first baby (yay!), mentioned in an email to me awhile back that she would like to get to the IKEA in Charlotte before the baby comes. From there, the wheels began to turn and the plans began to be made. It was decided that we'd head up on a Friday to Lexington to my parents' home to stay overnight, and then make a day of it Saturday in Charlotte, inside this massive store. And we did just that!

It took us almost 4 hours to get through this store, folks. Unbelievable! But I had such a great time looking at all the really innovative things they had and the prices they were selling these things for were even sweeter to look at! Most things are priced so low you just can't hardly pass it up! They had this one bookshelf thingy that was just so reasonably priced and set up in a "pretend" bedroom so nice that I just had to get it. I thought it would be the perfect thing to put beside the bed in our guest room (which, as you know, is a room that I haven't done much with yet -- been looking for "just the right thing(s)"...check.).

Saturday, I set to work putting it together, with a little help from Jeff (it was just awkward to hold and try to drill the screws in at the same time). It went together pretty easily and then we set it up in the guest room. I just think it's cool. And Jeff likes it, too (ding, ding, ding!). Watcha think?

rose-colored glasses...

2009-03-29T17:52:00.005-04:00

I've had a sheer curtain up on the back patio door for awhile now but wasn't ever really okay with that because it doesn't make me feel..."unwatched" at night. :) Some of you know how my imagination is and that sheer thing just wasn't cuttin' it -- I always felt like someone could still see in and see everything, especially at night with lights on and such. It's not like we even have anything behind us -- just a bunch of trees and semi-developed land (I think the plan is to put something back there eventually so they've been out there with big equipment from time to time, but nothing is being built so far), but it is what it is. I can't help how my mind runs away sometimes.

So, I've been keeping an eye out for a different curtain/window treatment to go on the back patio door. I've not been diligently searching but when I find myself in the "curtains section" of any store, I usually will browse to see what I can see. I've been looking for something in the sheer "family" but with color so that I don't feel so...um, exposed at night.

Well, I finally found a really fun, printed, somewhat sheer curtain that had some of the colors I'd been wanting to use in the kitchen/dining area, but something that wouldn't look bad from the front door with our furniture, etc.

The photos really don't show the real look/colors of the fabric; I took the photos about 4:30pm-ish today so the sun is at the back of house shining in. The main color is brown with olive green, mauve and reddish-pink dots all over. It's fun. I think it will work for now.

new "outlook" on life...

2009-03-21T12:34:00.005-04:00

Oh.my.word. Exactly 2 months since my last post...I didn't really have any idea it has been THAT long. I'm sorry, peeps. Those of you who still check the blog, anyway. God bless you for being faithful to check, even if I'm not faithful to post.

In my defense, though, there really hasn't been much going on with the house lately. We did make one small change, however, in our master bathroom. I haven't really shown any photos of that room of the house since we moved in, primarily because I really didn't know how I wanted to decorate it. We're just using a shower curtain we already had and "making do". I think I have an idea of how I want to decorate it now, but I haven't gone to see what's out there that will fit my decor idea. I promise I'll post photos when it's complete.

The recent small change that we made was to replace the mirror in there with another that has a cabinet built in. The mirror that came with the house was massive and really nice, but just flat on the wall. With the extreme lack of storage space in that bathroom (we don't have a nice closet like in the guest bathroom), Jeff decided that we needed to create some space ourselves by hanging a mirrored cabinet up in place of the flat mirror.

I would like to preface the photos by saying that he took care of this during the day one day while I was at work. So he's the one that took the before and after photos. The before photo is horrendous with all the stuff out on the counter, etc. (something I would've cleaned up before taking the photo) but Jeff says, "I was proving a point. We needed the cabinet." Point taken.

snow!

2009-01-20T16:44:00.010-05:00

Let the records show that we have snow at the coast! Actually, we've had snow one other time that I can remember in the 7 years that we've been here. It was relatively soon after we moved here, I think, and we were really surprised then. Just as I am now. It's just not something you see when you live as close to the beach as we do. But I'm seeing it now, and I.am.loving.it.

I've always loved the sight of falling snow and maybe it's because I don't live somewhere like IL where they've had enough snow this season to last them until Jesus comes back, probably. Growing up in the piedmont of NC, getting snow was a treat and usually meant being out of school and getting to enjoy it from the comfort of my own home with my family. I know that's not the way it is up north...and I'm sure that has something to do with my attitude toward snow. But it is what it is. And I'm totally digging the fact that this all started about 10am today and has.not.stopped. It's now almost 5pm and it's still coming down. We had a few pockets where it eased up a little or trickled down to almost nothing briefly, but for the most part, it has dumped about 2.5 to 3 inches in our "neck of the woods". And counting!

It amazes me how different a town or neighborhood can look after snow has fallen. On the way home from work today around 2:30pm, I was noticing that. Things that ordinarily are dark and maybe not so noticeable suddenly catch your eye. That patch of woods that doesn't really look that big? The snow reveals just how far back it goes! And everything seems so quiet...the neighborhood is just tucked in tight by this clean, fresh blanket of snow. I took a short video of our backyard as the snow was falling...so quiet...

Of course, I took some pictures, too, because, after all, this is a "first" for our "new" house (that's not as new as before, but new nonetheless) and it has to be documented! :) Beautiful...

more progress!

2009-01-15T13:13:00.010-05:00

I have more progress to report on my craft room! Jeff's been working here and there as he has time to get the corner unit ready to install on what I'm now calling "the lower level" of cabinets. On Tuesday, he got it all glued up before dinner so that it could dry while we ate. We actually had our friends, Joey & Amy, over for dinner Tuesday, so Joey was able to help Jeff get the corner unit in and then they went ahead and installed my L-shaped desktop! It.is.so.cool. See for yourself!

"crafty" countertop...

2009-01-03T16:05:00.007-05:00

We're in the midst of a four-day holiday weekend (Jeff's actually had the whole week, the stinker) and as is usually the case, Jeff has been working out in his shop with this fairly big block of time to get stuff done. He's making progress on my craft room workspace and I thought I'd show you what's been happening.

As of now, the L-shaped desktop/workspace is cut and laminated with my cool "crafty"-looking countertop that I chose. Jeff's had a couple guys out here helping with different things (and I've even helped a few times). His buddy, Kenny, came out and helped him cut the countertops and get them all ready for the laminate.

Then his buddy, Grayson, has been here today helping him put the laminate down and getting the countertops fully ready for installation. Of course, he can't install the countertops until he has the corner-unit in and they're actually still out there right now, working on that. Things are coming along!

2008 Christmas decos...

2008-12-14T19:30:00.002-05:00

I have been remiss in blogging lately...been a little bit busy with lots of things of the Christmas persuasion...

But I do have my Christmas decorations up (have had them up for about a week) and I wanted to show you a couple of photos I took. I didn't change things too much from last year, but I did do something different with the entertainment center:

After Christmas last year, I acquired these cool trees from Pier One -- my sister-in-law calls them my "Whoville trees"...I kinda like that! :)

measure twice, cut once...

2008-12-08T18:06:00.001-05:00

Or in Jeff's case, go ahead and just draw out the plans...we've finally begun work on my cabinets for my craft room! Yay! This has been a long time coming and when I say that, I mean this all started back before we even moved into this new house almost a year and a half ago.

We took measurements of the room before it was even done and I began to (very roughly) sketch out what kind of layout I'd like to have in terms of workspace, drawers, cabinets, etc. We've tweaked it umpteen times since then and Jeff's gotten some "practice" building his own workspace, drawers, cabinets, etc. out in the shop (as you well know) and now it's begun -- the work that is the "wall 'o' cabinets" for my craft room.

I'm super-excited about this project and plan to help Jeff some as needed but I'm under no illusion that this will come to fruition very quickly. And you shouldn't be either. However, I will keep you updated as we make progress.

As I said, this will be a slow process...so here's what I've got so far:

I know it's hard to see what we've got here, but it's the left drawer and the right drawer on the lower part of the wall. I'm going to have an L-shaped desktop/workspace and these drawer shells are on the ends of the desktop/workspace as support (and storage, of course).

Stay tuned!

busy bee...

2008-11-12T17:45:00.002-05:00

My husband was a busy bee over the long weekend (he took Monday off and had Tuesday off due to Veterans Day). My parents were here and while me and my mom worked on her first (ever) scrapbook, Daddy & Jeff hung out in the shop for the better part of the weekend "building stuff".

In this post from last October (2007), Jeff began a "wall 'o' cabinets" in his shop and gradually over the last year, he's piddled and puttered on them, getting it done little by little. This post from January (2008) showed a photo of another aspect to the "wall"; they were beginning to take shape. Well, he finished up the "wall" this weekend! That last thing to be done was to put the 3 long doors on the bigger cabinets and that's the last thing he did before going to bed last night.

I'm so proud of him! He's worked hard (pacing himself, of course :) and it's paid off. The cabinets really go a long way to organizing his shop and the way he designed them is really ingenius.

What I'm really excited about is that maybe he can get to the part of his "honey-do" list that has MY STUFF on it...I think his plan is to begin work on my craft room cabinets & desk area. Woo-hoo!

getting the word out...

2008-11-11T21:44:00.002-05:00

This is just a shameless plug for my new blog that has been a long time coming...

http://www.cameralinz.blogspot.com/

And just so you're in the know, I am continuing this blog for most things dealing with the house...whenever we get around to doing more with the house...

weekend of sweetness...

2008-10-27T19:34:00.001-04:00

Yes, I got a suh-weet dose of Cora Beth this weekend! I went to Lexington Friday mid-morning and tore myself away Sunday afternoon about 4pm.

She has changed so much in the last 2 months since I've seen her! She was 3 months old on Friday (Oct 25) and her little personality is starting to show. She's smiling a lot now, especially when you talk to her. Daniel (my brother) says she recognizes a smile on someone's face and usually will smile at you if you smile at her. I tested that theory. :) And that will absolutely melt your heart when they smile at you! What a connection you feel! At least I did.

I have to admit I was such a "hog" with her but I tried to give everyone a chance to hold her -- my family is so great about letting me have her to myself when I'm there because they know they can see her whenever. I know my mom & dad don't get to see her as much as they'd like and they're still so good about letting me have her. And that's not to mention how great my brother & sister-in-law are about being around whenever I'm in town so I can see her just as much as I can before I have to head back. They're absolutely wonderful.

I've been kind of undecided as to who she looked more like, my brother or Brandi. I was sort of leaning more toward my brother's features until I saw baby pictures of Brandi -- spitting.image. Looking at Brandi's baby pictures, and even her toddler pictures, is like looking at a photo of Cora Beth. I never would've guessed. But she's too stinkin' cute no matter who she looks like! :)

Our next trip will be in a month for Thanksgiving and I'm sure she will have changed even more by then. Counting the days...

little sweetheart...

2008-10-23T17:15:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a road trip to Lexington (aka L-town) to see my little sweetheart of a niece, Cora Beth, this weekend! Leaving tomorrow between 10am and 11am with my good friend and former coworker, Cheryl (aka my mom's heart sister -- they really could BE sisters...) and I.can't.wait.

I've been one other time to see her since she was born and that was for Labor Day weekend at the beginning of September so it's been 2 months since I've seen her. But my dad & brother, God bless'em, have been pretty good about sending photos. This is one my dad took a couple weeks ago when he & my mom (aka Grandpa & Grammy) kept the little munchkin on Columbus Day. You know they loved that! :)

Do you know that this child will be 3 months in 2 days (10/25)?? That just blows me away...

Hope you guys have a great weekend...I KNOW I WILL! :D

new pinestraw...

2008-10-06T20:55:00.001-04:00

This weekend we had absolutely beautiful weather -- sunny skies, a nice breeze, mid-70s for the high...it was a great time to work out in the yard. We weren't planning to work in the yard but it seemed like a good idea. I was sitting out on the porch with my bible study when Jeff got home from mentoring and the men's breakfast at church and we just got to talking and looking around at our neighbors' houses/yards (and feeling the gorgeous weather). Our neighbors to our left had just gotten brand new pinestraw laid down which made ours look really (REALLY) bad...

Pinestraw is not the ultimate goal in our yard (we'd like some sort of wood mulch or stone), but it's cheap and that works for now. We picked up 6 bales at a local hardware store and got to work. First, we had to weed and spray the weeds we couldn't pull. That wasn't too bad. Then we pulled the bales out of the back of the truck and started spreading. It actually went down pretty quickly. It still took us a few hours and we were bushed afterward, but the end result was very satisfying -- it makes my tight back & sore legs worth it! :)

Before & afters:

the big 3-0...

2008-10-01T18:04:00.002-04:00

So I've lived for 3 decades...so what? I don't FEEL like I've lived that long. It's hard to believe I'm actually to this point in my life (I used to think 30 was so.far.away.). But your 30th birthday should really be celebrated in a big way...and celebrate, I did! Jeff and our sweet friends threw me a surprise party this past Saturday night in the youth building of our church, the Cross Point Center. I had no idea but was so pleased when I found out!

Jeff told me we were going to have dinner at a friend's house so that's where I thought we were headed. But we had to make a "pit stop" on the way at the Cross Point Center so Jeff could "help Adam lift something" before we went on to their house. Uh, huh. We get to the CPC and I ask Jeff, "Do I need to come in?" Ever so nonchalantly he says, "Yeah, why don't you come in?".

SURPRISE!!! Almost 50 people were there to wish me a happy birthday and help me celebrate. It was awesome -- the best birthday party I've had so far! And the CPC was a great place to throw a party. As you'll see in the photos, the kids were pretty well taken care of with video games, arcade games, air hockey, pool tables, a basketball court. And of course, we ate good! Jeff stepped outside his mind when he went to buy hot dogs & hamburgers (& buns) for this party -- we brought TONS of food home with us. But we had enough for everyone to eat hearty and that's the important thing. Our friends helped with setup and also brought side dishes like mac & cheese & scalloped potatoes, chips & condiments for the burgers & dogs, as well as brownies & such.

Then Jeff brought out this beautiful cake in my absolute favorite colors -- I bet he didn't even try to do that (I don't think he even knows what my favorite colors are! :). And it was sooo good! We took lots of that home, too. That's okay -- it just spreads the birthday celebration out a little longer (not so good for the diet, but waddya gonna do??).

It was a wonderful night of celebration and I'd like to thank everyone who was able to make it to my party to help me celebrate this milestone in my life. I love you all and call myself blessed to have you as my friends. I especially want to thank my heaven-sent husband who I'm so proud to call mine! You done good, babe! :)

good times & photoshop discoveries...

2008-09-25T19:55:00.001-04:00

I don't typically title my posts in such "cryptic" fashion, but I just couldn't come up with anything clever for this one. But this post does serve 2 purposes: 1) to post photos of our short road trip to Wake Forest to see our friends, Matthew & Elizabeth and 2) to show you what I've been discovering in Photoshop...

We had a great time with Matthew & Elizabeth. They took us to a great pizza place downtown and we all shared a yummy crab dip appetizer and a scrumptious half-n-half pizza (girls side, boys side :). Saturday, we went to grab some lunch at a "hole in the wall" place called Shorty's -- fabulous hot dogs & cheese fries! Then Elizabeth and I walked around downtown to some really cute shops while the guys went off to TigerDirect or some such store as that. :) Elizabeth and I walked back to the Seerings house from downtown and were able to walk through the seminary campus where I got those great shots above. It was a gorgeous day! Good times with good friends...aren't they lovely?

fall is my fave...

2008-09-23T19:46:00.000-04:00

And we're finally to fall -- it seems like summer lasted for.e.ver since it was so stinkin' hot. But it's begun to cool off rather quickly around here. We're enjoying highs in the mid to upper 70s with gusty winds (thought we'd somehow gotten into March today), sunshine...what could be better?! I love fall...

In honor of the first day of fall yesterday, I got my fall "tub" down from the attic and put out all my stuff last night. Aaahhh, much better.

road trip to Wake Forest...

2008-09-18T19:25:00.002-04:00

We get to go see our sweet friends, the Seerings, tomorrow night! Matthew & Elizabeth used to be in our SS class at church until God called Matthew into ministry -- he's now at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. We miss them a lot but I'm able to keep up with them pretty well through Elizabeth's blog -- she's actually the one that inspired me to start this blog. And she keeps me in stitches reading hers...

She began blogging shortly after we found and started progress on our house. I realized that maybe blogging would be a really great way to keep our friends & family informed on how the house was coming along. Bingo! That's exactly what happened. My mom was thrilled to have the blog to "watch the house go up" -- she said she felt like she was here with us by being able to read the blog on a daily basis.

Anyway, we're heading to Wake Forest after work tomorrow and will stay overnight with 'WMD' & 'Lizzy' Friday. We'll head back sometime late Saturday afternoon. So looking forward to seeing them!

dining on the "veranda"...

2008-09-16T18:44:00.005-04:00

Yeah, not really the "veranda"... just the porch. We don't have a "veranda" (I'm not sure I really even know what a "veranda" is). But the porch is good enough for me right now! Jeff had the good idea to eat dinner out on the porch tonight as it has cooled considerably since our highs-in-the-high-90s temps the last few days. It was cloudy all day & the breeze blew the humidity right way. Our new furniture worked really great for dining!

Just for the record, I baked some cajun salmon, steamed some asian stir-fry vegetables and we had that with some seasoned rice...not bad for not knowing what I was going to make tonight until about 5 min before I started it! That's usually the way it goes...

centerpiece...

2008-09-06T18:21:00.000-04:00

I found something that I thought would look good on our kitchen table as a centerpiece. I think it will be versatile enough to stay on the table no matter what types of tables Jeff builds for us --er, I mean, no matter what types of tables we go through in our lifetime -- dark, light, big, small, etc. We don't use our table too often (to eat on, anyway) since we have the nice coffee table with the lift mechanism that Jeff built me a few years ago (this post has a photo of it), but it will be easy enough to move the centerpiece when we do use it (for guests & such).

It's my kinda thing, too...candles and all that. What do you think?

**Note: we fared just fine through Tropical Storm Hanna -- it woke us up quite a few times through the night with serious wind gusts and constant wind in general but after getting up & looking around this morning, the only "damage" we had was an overturned hammock. Jeff fixed that easy enough. :)

glued to The Weather Channel...

2008-09-05T17:31:00.002-04:00

Okay, so this is technically our 2nd hurricane season on Rose Bud Lane but it only feels like the 1st because we didn't have any activity our way last year. This year will be a little bit different, it looks like:

This was the image about 16 min ago...see where my arrow is pointing, folks? That's where we live. Right there in the middle of all that junk from Hanna. Now, we're not too concerned at this point. It is, after all, a pretty unorganized tropical storm but there's potential so we're not being stupid about it. I'm pretty much glued to The Weather Channel to see the latest. Right now, we've just got some wind accompanied by clear skies. Yeah, I said clear skies. That will change the closer we get to midnight which is when they predict landfall around the SC/NC border. We did have some rain earlier this morning around 10am, and then another rain band came through about 2pm.

Personally, I like storms. Now, I try to be smart about them, but I rather enjoy the whole process of watching these tropical storms/hurricanes approach, all the maps they show us on TWC to show us how the storms are being guided and what causes them to form, etc. I think I would've enjoyed a life as a meteorologist...for a little while at least. :)

But now tornadoes are a whole 'nother ballgame that I am not a cheerleader for IN THE LEAST. Tornadoes are completely unpredictable and something you can't watch "approach" and know, for the most part, what they will do. Tornadoes, though, are a possible "side effect", if you will, of hurricanes and as a matter of fact, that radar map above has a red box around our area...that red box means we're under a tornado watch until 5am tomorrow morning. I don't like that. But that's why I'm glued to TWC.

new porch furniture...

2008-08-23T12:04:00.001-04:00

Oh, it pains me to see the date of my last post, but it is what it is. I've had the best of intentions to get this post up before now. But well...ya'll know by now how my posting patterns run -- those that read this blog regularly (God bless ya!). So here it is, 20 days later.

My post today comes so late because I find myself in a different job for the first time in 6 1/2 years. For those last 6 1/2 years, I've been in the accounting industry, working in 2 accounting firms (first with PP&C and then with RSM McGladrey when they bought the Wilmington PP&C group out), doing primarily bookkeeping and payroll and some tax preparation (just in this last tax season). But in the last few months, God has been moving my heart toward more creative venues: working with photos and video software, web design, blogging, etc. (i.e. lots of projects!) and I found myself becoming frustrated with the lack of creative outlet that my job allowed. This was all unbeknownst to me at this point: it just came across to me as an unsettled, kind of "burned out" feeling toward my job. I was still enjoying what I did, but just not as satisfied as I once was.

I won't go into a lot of detail here (because there are A LOT of details which just go to show how amazing my God is and how He works everything to the good of those who love Him), but I was approached by one of my pastors at my church in Wilmington to consider & pray about becoming the new Worship Assistant, working with our Worship (aka Music) Pastor in the worship ministry. Over the course of the next month, meetings were held, things were discussed, there was a lot of prayer going up and at the end of the month, I found myself hired as the new Worship Assistant and resigning from my position at RSM McGladrey.

It's been 3 weeks since I began my new job and I.am.loving.it. I actually kinda feel like I'm on "vacation" just in comparison with my other job but don't get me wrong: David keeps me incredibly busy! He has such a vision for the worship ministry at SHBC and has been looking for someone with the skills & capabilities (and the TIME) to help him get to that place. We get along great and the other ladies (& men) in the church office are absolutely wonderful to work with. God has me right where He wants me...and that's where I want to be. :)

So that is the reason I really haven't gotten around to this post yet. But here I am. I wanted to show you the new furniture Jeff got me (us) for our front porch. When we moved in, we had some plastic gray adirondack chairs out on the front porch and that was sufficient for awhile. We both have been observing what everyone else had on their porches, just gathering ideas for what we wanted. I came home a few weeks ago and there was a brand new set of 2 chairs and a table on our porch! It was dark by the time I had gotten home so I flipped on the light to see them. They were really pretty. But then the next day when I saw them in the daylight, they were even prettier!

I just love how the burnt orange-ish red color looks against the blue of our house and I really have been gravitating toward dark colors for furniture lately (that used to not be the case -- I was natural wood all the way). The table is great & even has a little basket underneath to store some things. And if all that wasn't enough, the chairs are really comfortable to sit in! I love it when you don't have to sacrifice comfort for style. Jeff did really good picking these out -- he didn't run it by me or have me look at it at all before he made his purchase. Aaaaand, he got this set on clearance. I've said it before and I'll say it again: he's a keeper! :D

bookcases...

2008-08-03T15:51:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm giving you guys a first glimpse into the master bedroom. For a long time, our bedroom was a sort of "catchall" and I'm not saying it's changed a whole lot, but it's starting to slowly evolve. Jeff picked up some bookcases (for free!) after I mentioned that the one bookcase in the guest bedroom wasn't gonna cut it for all the books I have (and will be purchasing in the future...). Of course, I really want him to BUILD me some bookcases (or at least one, for pete's sake!), but I don't know when that will be. I wanted to get these boxes of books unpacked to 1) see what kind of shape the books were in after being in the storage unit for awhile, and 2) to get the boxes out of the house and tidy up the guest bedroom. Mission accomplished on both accounts!

Jeff got these 2 bookcases of varying heights at Staples, I believe, when they were remodeling their print shop in the store. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time! They're not perfect but they were free and are a nice color for our bedroom. I was able to unload all of the books I had between the 3 bookcases and I still have "room to grow". I love to read and have about 4 favorite authors -- I'm planning to own most every book they write. Then I have other authors that I've read specific books by that I might want to read again some day so I keep those. I'm planning to have a pretty extensive library so I will need lots of space to store those books. I love nothing more than loaning out books to friends/family who are looking for something good to read. Jeff is a good sport about it. :)

she's finally here!

2008-07-28T19:20:00.000-04:00

My niece, Cora Beth McAfee, made her way into this world Friday, July 25, at 2:36am. She weighed 6 lbs. 5 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. She brought with her the most delicate features and the sweetest face you've ever seen... she is the first child of my brother & his wife, the first grandchild to my mom & dad. And she has stolen every last one of our hearts!

Here's the story in a "nutshell":

Brandi's water broke around 5pm Thursday evening, July 24. Daniel called me shortly after that and we were able to get on the road to Thomasville around 8:30pm. We got to the Thomasville Medical Center about 12:20am. Longest drive of my life!

Brandi was such a trooper, going through about 8 hours of labor before her doctor decided that it would be best to perform a c-section due to the baby's dropping heartrate during Brandi's contractions. She wasn't dialating very quickly and the doctor didn't want to take any chances. What was so neat is that he wanted to pray with Brandi (and the family) before he took her into surgery. Praise God for Christian doctors!

So as they prepped Brandi for surgery, we all headed down to the waiting room to pray & wait for the miracle that was taking place just down the hall. About an hour later, the proud Daddy, my brother, Daniel, came to tell us we could come see Cora Beth in the nursery. It was there that we all instantly fell in love with her...and my level of pride in my brother shot up. I was so proud of both him & Brandi -- they made this child-birthing thing look so easy...Daniel was just as "cool as a cucumber" every time I saw him...just going with the flow of things, doing what needed to be done. Huh.

We came back to the hospital later that day (Friday) and the next, each time falling deeper in love with that precious baby girl. Daniel & Brandi had lots of family come to visit during that time and each of them were just in wonder of little Cora Beth. We all begrudgingly took turns holding her; no one willingly let her go -- you had to ASK! :) Sunday, they released them all to go home around lunchtime and we headed over to their house after church. We hung out there until it was time for Jeff and I to head back to the coast. I gotta tell ya, that was pretty tough to do!

Cora Beth has already claimed a big place in my heart -- I.am.in.love.with.this.child. And counting the days until I can see her again...

attic shelves...

2008-07-22T18:31:00.000-04:00

We got another home project done this morning. We've been wanting to put some sort of shelving up in the attic to organize our "junk" somewhat -- nothing really fancy; just something to get the stuff up off the floor so we can actually move around up there.

We've been just throwing stuff up there and gradually decreasing our floor space. We have things like fall/Christmas decorations up there; suitcases, coolers, golf clubs, Jeff's airplane hobby stuff, etc...lots of miscellaneous stuff. Thank goodness Jeff enlisted Henry to help put down flooring up there so we could actually use a little of the storage we have up there! Now we're trying to put some kind of order in place...

It's really hard to see in the photo, but the shelving sits in between the trusses and goes almost the length of the area up there. This should work pretty well.

"makeshift" craft room...

2008-07-12T18:51:00.000-04:00

I am really loathed to show you guys my "makeshift" craft room at this point...this has been the bane of my existence since we moved in. I understand everyone usually has a "catchall" room when they first move in -- a room they throw all the "boxes we don't know what to do with yet", all the "items we don't have a place for yet". Well, this room most definitely qualifies as that room. I'm always extremely embarassed to show this room on "the tour" when anyone comes to see the house for the first time, and usually everyone understands and doesn't care at all (they'll usually tell me all about their "catchall" room at that point), but still. If you know me, you know I care. :)

Recently I've been thinking that I might not get so frustrated with how things are right now in there if I could find a way to rearrange some things and maybe even fit another table in there somehow. I figured that might make me a little more productive (with my crafts) in the process, too. Couldn't hurt, right?

So I got to rearranging this morning. And cleaning out. Surprisingly, I like to clean out. It's a time to find old stuff and to reminisce...and then to be brutally honest with yourself -- how long has it been since you've even seen this thing? And when would you ever use it again, if you've gone this long without it? Yeah. Had to be pretty honest with myself at times...

But I was able to consolidate some things and move some things around and I think I'm going to like this setup. For awhile, at least. Until my wonderful, woodworking husband comes through with my own set of cabinets (like his in the shop) for this room! Until then, I'll try to be content with this... :)

**Note: Make sure you go back & look at the before photo...what a difference!

a nice day off...

2008-07-05T09:24:00.004-04:00

Happy (belated) 4th of July! I was so busy enjoying my day off yesterday, I didn't have a chance to blog. But I did think about it and planned on blogging today since I know it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I blogged last. My day yesterday was filled with a variety of things -- some I wanted to do, some just needed to be done.

One thing I wanted to do:
I did some scrapbooking yesterday and got a little bit farther in the house album. Truth be told, I only have about 4 or 5 more days left to scrapbook before the album is complete. In this post, I mentioned that I would probably continue the album, even after the house had been built and we had moved in, but I have since changed my mind. There are other things to scrapbook now (not the least of which is my CRUISE!) and I just need to cut the house album off somewhere so I can move on. So I've decided that "moving day" will be my last page(s) in that album. That's a good place to end it, right?

One thing I wanted/needed to do:
I got another box unpacked (that's a big deal). It was a box of mostly magazines (Jeff's & mine) and some cookbooks. I mostly use my Simple & Delicious magazines when I cook so I did get rid of some of the cookbooks I don't use (or have never used). Jeff had a lot of woodworking magazines as well as some Model Aviation magazines so we got those organized and into magazine racks, and now they're up in his new cabinet in his shop. A very practical place for them to be! :)

One thing that needed to be done:
Jeff and I mowed the lawn yesterday evening. This is my 2nd time helping with the yard and let me just tell you: you don't really think your yard is that big until you have to mow that joker! I did the mowing with the self-propelled (ha! that's a joke right there) mower and Jeff did the weed-eating. Man, that is a workout! But the wind was blowing (the grass all over me) and we didn't start cutting until around 6:30pm so it was pretty comfortable by then. It looks great, if I do say so myself! :)

We had a nice meal after that -- grilled pork chops with a new Carribean Jerk marinade (yum!), grilled asparagus (Jeff makes some mean grilled asparagus now...), steamed broccoli and some garlic pasta. A good end to our day off. At 9pm, Holly Ridge shot some fireworks from their park which is right down the road from the house so we were able to see most of them from our driveway. I took a few photos...

a true milestone...

2008-06-20T23:10:00.004-04:00

all of my life

i have dreamed

that somehow love would find me

now i can't believe you're standing here

if beauty is all

in the eye

of the beholder then i

wish you could see

the love for you that lives in me

and you would know you have my heart

if you could see, what i see

that a treasure's what you are

if you could see, what i see

created to be

the only one for me

if you could see, what i see

you're created to be

the perfect one for me

if you could see

what i see

if beauty is all

in the eye

of the beholder then i

am beholding...

true beauty

--sung at our wedding 10 years ago, June 1998

Happy anniversary, babe! These last 10 years have been the absolute best -- I wouldn't change a thing. I'm so proud to call you my husband, my lover, my best friend. And I love you with all that my heart can hold...

enjoy our cruise with us!

2008-06-16T04:50:00.000-04:00

Make sure your sound is turned up before you start it...you need it to get the whole "experience"! It IS just over 8 min long, too, so make sure you have enough time to see it all. Enjoy!

we're back! [but we don't wanna be...]

2008-06-12T20:35:00.004-04:00

Okay, okay, okay. I know you all have been waiting (some patiently, some maybe not so patiently) to see photos from our fabulous cruise. I have chosen just a scant few from our trip, out of the myriads & gazillions of photos we took, to share here. I do want to say that I'm putting together a slideshow of sorts to "showcase" our trip and you three or four that check this blog will definitely get a link to that when I get it put together. :)

To whet your appetite in the meantime...

Our first port, Cozumel, Mexico:

Our second port, Grand Cayman:

Our third & final port, Ocho Rios, Jamaica:

We really enjoyed each place that we visited and had great weather the entire trip. We had a great time on all the excursions we chose. Of the three ports, surprisingly, Jamaica was the most beautiful to me. The water was such a beautiful aquamarine and the vegetation was absolutely lush. We got to experience both as you can see from my photos. Grand Cayman was also very beautiful; very clean with beautiful waters and scenery. The people there were very nice & friendly, too. Cozumel was probably my least favorite stop, although we still had a good time there. I had my first snorkeling experience there and it was a lot of fun.

The cruise ship was incredible and there will be lots of photos of that in my "showcase" when I finish with it. Jeff and I had a really great time hanging out and making lots of memories, going to places we've never been, experiencing things we've never done before. It was a wonderful trip, one I won't ever forget, and the perfect way to celebrate a decade of marriage with the one my heart will love forever...

do we have everything?

2008-05-31T15:25:00.001-04:00

Finally, I think we're all packed and ready to go on our cruise. I spent all day doing laundry, making sure everything was clean for our trip, and packing everything. I'm a pretty good packer (I get that from my Daddy) so I usually pack for any trips we go on. Jeff lays his stuff out and I pack it all up. We had A LOT of stuff to pack for this trip because we'll be gone for 7 days and we probably won't wash anything while we're gone (I'm pretty sure they'd charge us for that...). We had lots of sunscreen & bug spray to pack (smart, huh?), we had beach towels to pack, and lots of clothes -- casual clothes, bathing suits, formal dress clothes (I actually talked Jeff into that!). We got it all into 4 bags so I think we're good. We weighed them and they're under the limit, so we're good there. Whew! :)

WE ARE READY! Leaving on a jet plane tomorrow morning...

guest bathroom addition...

2008-05-25T16:07:00.000-04:00

Ha! I know you all were thinking I'd only be posting "cruise stuff" from here on out until we go, but we do have 7 more days (!) until we leave, people. I mean, come on...do you think that's ALL that's on my mind these days?? (Yes...you are correct in your assumption...)

I got an itch Friday night to start really going through the boxes we have still kicking around here and either do something with the stuff, or get rid of it. A lot of the stuff in the boxes is decorative stuff that I haven't decided where to put yet or am waiting on a piece of furniture to be built first (ahem, Jeff...) -- that sort of thing. But it occurred to me that we're less than 3 months away from our 1-year anniversary being in this house and I personally, think it's silly to have this many boxes sitting around with stuff still in them. I mean, really, how much can I actually need the "stuff" if I've been without it for almost a year?? So my goal this long weekend is to at least condense things down into less boxes (or even one box).

Having said that, another thing that's been kicking around here is the cabinet Jeff made me for the master bathroom at our other place. He did a fantastic job on it -- all I did was find a photo of what I wanted (with a few "tweaks" that he took note of) and he built it. He's really very handy with wood... :) Anyway, because we had it hanging in our bathroom in our other place, I naturally assumed we'd do the same in this house. Plus, we need all the storage we can get in our bathroom here since all we have is a couple drawers and the cabinet under the sink (I don't know why one has to have so much "bathroom stuff" to function, but we do...). However, there really isn't a place in our bathroom to hang this cabinet.

I finally came to that realization Friday and decided that we should hang it in the guest bathroom. I don't really need an extra cabinet in there since I do have the cabinet under the sink and a linen closet but I'd rather hang it in there (and let people admire --er, I mean, see my husband's handiwork) than not use it at all. So we did. Saturday afternoon. And I must say, I really like it. It makes the bathroom look more finished or something...more lived in? I don't know why -- no one really uses it unless we have guests. But that's okay. I really like the cabinet in there. And that's enough. What do you think?

first time for everything...

2008-05-15T18:56:00.002-04:00

There IS a first time for everything...and this is a big year for us. If you remember this post, I mentioned something about a trip to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary...

And celebrate we will! WE'RE GOING ON A CRUISE! Our first (and hopefully not our last) cruise. We sail June 1 to the Western Carribean on the Carnival Triumph and I can't even begin to explain how excited I am. 7 glorious, fun-filled days aboard this massive ship with everything in the world to do. We'll visit Cozumel, Mexico, the Grand Cayman Islands and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I'm starting to sound like an advertisement, right?

I've been told by all of our friends who've been on cruises that it really is a spectacular vacation, the only way to travel, really. Well, it would be the only way to travel if we didn't have anything else to do with our money! But this is a momentous occassion and one I didn't want to get by us without doing something really grand to celebrate. This qualifies.

I spent countless hours online researching cruises, deals, places to go -- I must've exhausted at least 10-12 different websites that boasted of "the best cruise deals", "rock-bottom cruises", etc. In the end, we enlisted the help of a travel agent that we trust and she found us a great, all-inclusive deal. When we leave ILM (Wilmington, NC airport) on June 1, we will be carted to-&-fro by air, land & sea for 7 days. No worries. Our airfare, ground transport to the ship from the airport and back, as well as the cruise fare all included. Done.

The next thing to think about was shore excursions. Oh, my heavens! So many options in each port. I spent several more countless hours online researching these & comparing and calculating the best deals for our hard-earned cash. I'm happy to say we booked our excursions last night, one on each island, and I feel sooo much better with that done. We got the ones we wanted (they weren't full yet) and we kept the cost relatively low. We won't have to get up really early on any particular day and we'll have "down-time" each day, even in port, to do our own thing.

I'm compiling basically a notebook of "stuff" to read through or to have on hand to make the experience smoother. I have our travel documents and "FunPass" printed out; I have emails in which I've gotten feedback from friends who've been on this exact same cruise and those who've been on other cruises. I found out what shore excursions they went on & what they thought of them (I used those emails heavily to help me make my decisions about our excursions). I've asked general questions about the cruise itself and they've all been just so sweet to pass on whatever information they learned from their experiences.

So now we wait. But not for too long...17 days (and counting)!

exciting times...

2008-05-13T19:35:00.001-04:00

These are exciting times...for the very first time, I am going to be an aunt. I know you're thinking I'm already an aunt, and you're right. I have a niece & nephew on Jeff's side of the family, Brittany & Brandon, and I love them dearly. BUT -- this is completely different.

My "little" brother, Daniel, (he's only 2 years younger, but it seems like so much more than that to me...) and his sweet wife, Brandi, are going to welcome a darling addition to their family in about 2 1/2 months. And this will change lives, people.

It will change their lives -- they will no longer be a couple; they will be called a family. They will not only be "husband & wife", they will become "mommy & daddy" to a precious child. A child who will watch their every move, listen to their every word.

It will change the lives of my parents -- they will not only be parents, they will (finally) be called "grandparents". They will experience the joys of grandparenting which I've heard is so much different than parenting...they are absolutely beside themselves with excitement.

So Brandi's due date is July 23, a mere 6 days before they celebrate their 2nd anniversary. So she is just about 2 1/2 months away...has it really already been 6 1/2 months? That's crazy. And she's just the cutest little pregnant woman -- you'd never guess she was pregnant if you were looking anywhere but her stomach (it kinda makes me sick...). And guess what they're having? Oh, I just can't wait!

We had a baby shower for them a couple weekends ago in my hometown, Lexington (NC). All of Brandi's family is around the area and they have a great support group at their church so we had good attendance that Sunday afternoon. I made little corsages (out of socks & such) for both of them to wear, the mommy- and daddy-to-be. And then the unveiling of "THE PINK" began! Yes, they got loads of girlie, pink stuff, much to my brother's chagrin. But, they are having a girl. That is the natural tendency. They did get a lot of nice things that were NOT pink and he was thankful for that. Let me just say, the child will NEVER be naked for lack of clothes! But how can one resist those little dresses, onesies & jeans that are only 7 inches long?! Oh, and don't even get me started on the shoes!

Tell me...do you think he looks ready? :)

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

--Proverbs 22:6

hurricane season already?

2008-05-05T19:27:00.000-04:00

Not quite, but close. However, we have had some serious downpours here & there, including this one today that kept me sitting in my car in the driveway after I got home from work for about 5 min, waiting for any kind of letup so I could dash to the porch. I got a semi-letup, but still got drenched.

Our yards definitely need the rain, and Jeff was really excited to see it -- he's been fertilizing the yard & such. Well, I think our yard got a little more than it bargained for today! There were some serious puddles in the backyard before it was all over.

We finally got gutters put on the house so the front yard did fairly well through the downpour. We haven't done any kind of landscaping yet so I wasn't terribly upset with all the water gushing into what's there.

I did notice the "flood 'o' mud" running down our street, almost flooding it all the way across. It's lovely, isn't it? They are (blessedly) almost finished with every home on Rose Bud (our street) so hopefully we won't be seeing too much more of that.

**note: I'm seriously embarrassed by how long it has been since I last posted. I have had a lack of time on the one hand and a lack of activity around the house on the other hand. Both have served to give me absolutely nothing to blog about in terms of the house. I'm having to resort to blogging about the rain? For pete's sake! I plan to blog about some things that may not necessarily have to do with the house but are things happening right now in our lives, but I don't want to get too far off "the beaten path" of what I want this blog to be about. So stick with me, folks. I appreciate everyone who still checks the blog from time to time. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I plan to continue this blog for a while.

weekend warriors!

2008-03-23T18:45:00.001-04:00

Jeff and I endeavored on a project together this weekend...we were the "weekend warriors"! We redid the inside of the guest closet. We had decided that we wanted to take down the one wire shelf that came with the house and put in a different wood shelf with another shelving unit to give us options. Jeff said we pretty much had everything we needed (with the exception of the hanging rod -- it was a "one-tripper"**) to complete the project so we got to work about 11am on Saturday.

Jeff had drawn out the plan with measurements and everything the night before so the first thing we did was take down the wire rack that was in the closet. We then had to putty the holes. Jeff brought out this hot pink/purple stuff and started putting it on the wall and I. freaked. out. He assured me it dried white...and thank goodness, for his sake, he was right. :) So we eventually would apply 3 coats of putty with sanding in between each coat. And then paint.

While we waited for the putty to dry, we went to work cutting our pieces of wood to create our shelving unit. I got to use a circular saw for the first time...not quite sure if I like that so much, but I did fine with it. My daddy would be proud -- I'm pretty sure Jeff was. :)

I have to say, it was a lot of fun to work with Jeff on this project. We got along great and he mentioned that night after all was complete that he'd had fun with me that day. It was such a great feeling to have knocked this project out in one day. We both went in one more time before bed to just look at it...our creation. Kinda funny. :) See what you think...

Before...

...After

I might post before & after photos of the "stuff" in the closet later...

**"one-tripper" means only one trip to Lowe's was required

daylight savings time...

2008-03-10T20:43:00.001-04:00

We're taking advantage of this time of year where we lose an hour of sleep, but gain lots of light at the end of the day. It was so nice to come home tonight after working until 6pm (it's tax season, people), getting home around 7pm and STILL being able to go out and take a walk with my husband. Ah, yes. Even at 7:30pm, when we got back to the house, there was still plenty of daylight left.

And now, they've made so many roads throughout our neighborhood -- some are paved, some are not. We just went exploring tonight. They're building some different styled houses in another section of the neighborhood (Phase 3, no doubt), so we walked down that road to see how those were coming along. Houses are just "poppin' up all over" around here! Even our own street looks so much different than when we first moved in, with upwards of 10 houses now lining the road to our left (only the house to our left was there when we moved in and there were only a couple of lots being graded). Crazy.

Anyway, we're enjoying the daylight, some "together-time" and getting in shape, too. Our ten-year anniversary looms in the not-too-distant future and I suspect exciting things are coming...a trip, perhaps...

"kitty kloset"...

2008-02-24T19:49:00.005-05:00

We love our cat...but we love our house being clean more. :)

For awhile now, it has really bothered me that we had Kassie's litter box sitting, in plain sight, in the kitchen. That, to me, is just rude when we have guests come for dinner. And it's just gross.

So my handy husband installed what we're personally calling the "kitty kloset" (spelled with k's in keeping with the whole trend there...Kassie, kitty...). He cut *gasp* a hole in the wall of the hallway where the linen closet in the guest bathroom is and attached a frame that has a clear plastic flap that swings in or out (the same kind of concept as a "doggie door"). We put Kassie's litter box in the closet. Now she has a "doorway" into her "bathroom" and we don't have to see the litter box. It's out of the way and not grossing anyone out anymore. :)

It was a test to figure out how to get Kassie to use it. Jeff put it in Friday (he worked from home, lucky thing) and every 20 min or so he would put Kassie in the closet and close the door so the only way out was through the "doorway". It took her a few times to figure out that it opens if she pushes on it from the bottom. She would figure it out and then forget the next time Jeff put her in the closet. So she finally got used to getting out...now how to teach her how to GO IN to the closet?

We enticed her by putting a few bits of food on the ledge and then another small container of food inside the closet. She was pretty hesitant and actually only ate the food on the ledge; she didn't even try to go inside the closet to get the other container. So we decided we would open the closet door and keep the bathroom door to the hallway closed, and we'd put her whole food bowl in there (we have an automatic feeder that drops food twice a day). If she wanted to eat, she was going to have to get in there somehow! And the only way in was through the "doorway".

She's such a smart cat...she figured that out a lot quicker than the coming out part. What a relief! I'm so glad to have that litter box out of the kitchen! And the "doorway" in the hallway doesn't look near as bad as I thought it would when Jeff first posed the idea to me back before we even moved into the house.

So the plan is to somehow block off the bottom portion of the closet so that when a guest opens the closet door to grab a towel or washcloth, they don't see the litter box. The challenge is to make it accessible enough for us to be able to get to it to clean out, etc.

We're still working that plan out in our minds...

a "heart"-full of love...

2008-02-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

Found this cute door hanger for our door at AC Moore (I LOVE that store!)...

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
--1 John 4:7-12

Hope you all are surrounded by those your heart loves this week and for Valentine's Day...

so sweet...

2008-01-26T15:30:00.000-05:00

I just had to show you these sweet towels I found in Target on Thursday...aren't they darling?? I'm not one to really get into "decorating" for Valentine's day (I save that for Thanksgiving/fall & Christmas) but when I saw these towels, I thought maybe I'd change my mind about that... :)

Now I'm thinking I'd like to get some kind of "heart thing" to hang on my front door (since I have such a nice front door now). I could definitely have something "lovey" sitting on my coffee table, should I see (or make) something that would be "just perfect".

After all...what the world needs now is love...sweet love...

shop drawers...

2008-01-16T20:15:00.000-05:00

Forgive me. I hope you guys haven't given up on me posting any more to this blog... Those of you who know what "line of work" I'm in, you know it's already getting busy for me. That's the true reason I haven't posted in awhile (that and the fact that there hasn't been much going on around the house in the way of projects). I work in a CPA office so I'm up to my eyeballs in quarterly payroll reports, W-2s and 1099s. And it's only going to get worse, so just be aware that my posts will probably be few & far between...don't give up on me!

With that being said, there is one project that's being worked on more frequently than all the rest and that's the setup in Jeff's shop (a.k.a. the garage - where my car should be parked...). You've seen the cabinet structure he's put in place in this post; well, now he's working on drawers to put in for all his "stuff". They're turning out pretty fast because he cut all the pieces first:

Then, he worked on putting them all together, one right after the other:

When you do that, they go together pretty quickly and you end up with this:

Nice, huh? I got him a drawer jig for his birthday in October and it has come in pretty handy with all these drawers he's installing. The drawers give him options and are a nice way to store things since he can pull them out to see what's stashed in the back...you can't always do that with a cabinet.

I'm really proud of how often he's been going out there to work on this project. I know he'll be so glad to have drawers & cabinets in place to put his stuff. He'll have a better handle on where everything is and he'll be able to work much more efficiently on his woodworking projects. What woodworking projects, you ask? Oh, believe me...he has quite a "list" of things...he'll got LOTS of practice on LOTS of different things... :D

drawer pulls...

2007-12-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

We accomplished another (very) small project last night...we attached drawer pulls to the 2 drawers we have in the kitchen. Up to now, we've just been pulling on the bottom of the drawer (there's a notch cut out) to open them, but I really wanted to get drawer pulls for them at some point.

Well, we were in Lowe's the other night and Jeff was looking at hinges for some of his cabinets, etc. in his shop. The drawer pulls and knobs were on the same aisle so I just browsed to "see what I could see". I was originally going to go with brushed pewter/nickel because I really like that look, but I found these brushed copper-colored pulls that I thought would look really nice with the mocha color of our cabinets. We got them home and they were perfect!

So last night we put them on and don't they look nice? I'd really like to have knobs (in the same brushed copper) for the cabinets but some of the doors, if you don't keep a hold on them, they bang into some of the other cabinets and the last thing I want is dents in our cabinets from the knobs! Guess we'll hold off on that for now.

I do love those pulls, though!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T22:57:00.000-05:00

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

--Luke 2:1-7 (esv)

...she gave birth to our Savior, our Redeemer...Jesus, the Christ...the Son of God.

I pray your Christmas was full of blessings, surrounded by loved ones and friends...and may we carry this Spirit all through the new year. God bless each of you!

in the Spirit...

2007-12-19T21:33:00.000-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I've had my decorations up for awhile (since the beginning of December, actually), but I haven't been able to get many decent photos of them for the blog. Lord knows, I've been trying! Sometimes my camera really frustrates me...

But here are a few photos to give you an idea of what the new house looks like with our "old" decorations:

Christmas goodies...

2007-12-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well, this is a far-cry from anything to do with the house, but I want to post it nonetheless. I've decided to do some baking this Christmas season for various activities and for gifts. We have a few parties we attend every Christmas season and we have lots of friends.

Well, now we have new neighbors! So I thought that some homemade goodies would be a nice way to wish them a blessed Christmas. Here's what I've been up to:

Chocolate Crinkles

(these are Jeff's fave!)

1 cup cocoa

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Combine ingredients, mixing well, and refrigerate overnight. Form balls and roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Yield = 3 1/2 dozen

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1 1/2 cups self rising flour

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup plus 2 tsp sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix flour and salt together in small bowl. Mix butter, brown sugar and sugar in a separate larger mixing bowl. Add egg, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour to mixture and beat until it resembles batter. Fill greased mini muffin tin wells with batter almost to the top. Bake at 375 for 8-9 minutes until almost done. Take out and press one mini reese's peanut butter cup into center of batter in each well. Put back in the oven for another minute. Yield = 3 1/2 dozen

I actually made one other recipe, M&M Cookies (with the red & green M&Ms), but I didn't think to take a photo of those before I put them into these bags...

Aren't they cute? I hope they like them.

I found it!

2007-12-01T13:38:00.000-05:00

Finally! I found a long lost box in the storage facility today! For awhile now, I knew there were some dishes that I hadn't unpacked and I couldn't imagine where they were since (I thought) I'd gotten all the kitchen boxes out of storage & unpacked them. I even checked with my mom (more than once) to see if I'd brought this one corningware dish/lid I was missing to her house and left it. She said no (more than once).

I was also missing a small pottery piece that I use to hold my splenda packets for my coffee...couldn't find it in any boxes I'd already unpacked. I just had no idea where these things could be...

I went to the storage facility today to get my Christmas "tub" and the tree so I can decorate the house and while I was there, I thought I'd check through the boxes to see what was still left. It was mostly boxes of books (3 to be exact - geez!), but there was a box underneath one of those boxes that wasn't labeled on the side like the rest; only on the top. So I had to lift the box on top up to see what that box said and the label said "Glass Bakeware & Cookware - Breakable!" (pretty much every box was labeled "breakable" cuz you just never know...). A-ha! And when I opened it - ta da! There was my "lost" stuff! Hooray! All is well once more...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, All! I sincerely pray you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, as I & my family did. We headed to Lexington (NC) on Wednesday afternoon to see my family. My mom & dad, my brother & his wife AND my mom's parents (Gram & Buppa to me!) all live there so we were able to spend some time with all of them.

One thing we got to do that was really neat for me was to take a ride in my Daddy's truck. Most of you know that he has become a truck driver, driving big semis, tractor-trailers, whatever you want to call them...the big mamma-jammas! Anyway, I just think that's the coolest thing and he was able to take me out in the truck while we were home. He has a really nice truck with US Xpress and I was able to get up in it and see where he stores his stuff, where he sleeps, where his TV and everything is...it was just a really cool thing. I enjoyed riding in that tall thing and I really got an education because Daddy told me tidbits about the truck and how different driving it is while we were out.

We usually have our Thanksgiving meal as dinner on Thursday since my brother & his wife have Thanksgiving lunch with her family. I kinda like it that way because we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to have everything ready by lunch. We can take our time and not spend all day in the kitchen (although it always ends up feeling like that...). Our meal was wonderful. We had a lot of traditional dishes, like green bean casserole and mashed potatoes/gravy, but we also had a couple dishes we don't normally have, like sweet potato casserole and pineapple cheese casserole. We had tons of desserts including 3 pies and a new recipe I tried, Butterscotch Apple Crisp. Everything was very tasty and we all ate WAY TOO MUCH.

Friday, the 3 of us (me, Momma & Gram) headed off to Seagrove in keeping with what has become one of my favorite traditions. I don't get into all that is "Black Friday", but I do enjoy shopping the day after Thanksgiving in the "pottery capital of the world". We had a great time just being together and finding the neatest things. I was able to get some Christmas gifts, as well as a little something for me. :) The fall foliage was absolutely GORGEOUS and I loved every minute of the drive around Seagrove. We actually were able to watch a potter creating what they call a brie baker (you can see for yourself here), so that was really neat for us.

We came back on Saturday night so we were able to be with our friends today in church & Sunday School. That was important to us because we are so very thankful for our friends here, who are really our family since both Jeff & I live so far from our families. We are truly blessed in every aspect of our lives, and we pray the Lord would help us to remember that and keep us content with all that He has given us.

God bless you all throughout the rest of this holiday season!

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom...with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

--Colossians 3:15-17

documenting the milestones...

2007-11-12T19:55:00.000-05:00

Most of you know that I'm a scrapbooker. Well, I finally started the house scrapbook this past weekend (part of the reason I haven't posted in a while). My Creative Memories consultant, Jill, held her 2nd scrapbooking retreat this weekend in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I was able to go to the first one in April and had an all-out blast so I was really looking forward to this one. We had a larger house this time which means we had more room to spread out. It was so much fun! There were about 14 of us total and we all got a lot done. We ate tons of food, had lots of conversation, scrapbooked gobs of pages/events...and we managed to squeeze a few hours of sleep in there. :)

I got about 13 pages done in the house scrapbook which is not NEARLY as many as some, but I'm very pleased with how all the pages turned out. I took my time deciding on color schemes and how I wanted to showcase each day of progress. That's usually how I scrapbook anyway, but I think I took extra time just because I could (no where to go for 2 1/2 days!). I really enjoyed myself this weekend. I'm up through June 13 in the album; needless to say, I have a ways to go to complete it, but I have a feeling I'll be continuing on with the scrapbook after the house is built, similar to how I've done with this blog.

Happy Birthday, Babe!

2007-10-31T21:11:00.000-04:00

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday (yes, on Halloween). He's turning a young 32 and every year, I think he just gets better & better.

This morning, I got up early & made him blueberry muffins (his favorite) for breakfast. Today he was able to take off early from work and do some things that HE wanted to do. Then tonight we went to Outback Steakhouse, his favorite restaurant, for dinner to celebrate. They sang to him & gave him a free sundae (which we were both too full to finish).

I asked him on the way home tonight if he'd had an enjoyable birthday...he said yes. Happy birthday, babe! I love you bunches and am so proud of what God is doing in and through you. I see more evidence of it every day...

"shop"-ing around...

2007-10-24T18:33:00.000-04:00

I want you to see what my husband has been doing...the garage has become the "shop" - we knew it would. At our other place, Jeff had a nice shed in the backyard where he could go to "play". He did all his woodworking out there, had all his tools out there, his radio-controlled airplanes were out there, etc. We don't have a shed here. So he's been working on organizing his stuff and building this or that to house it all.

He put up these nice shelving brackets so that he would have a place, out of the way, to store his wood boards for future projects. He likes to purchase his wood from a place in Wilmington called Anchor Hardwoods. They generally have a pretty good selection of wood to choose from and Jeff can usually find what he needs at a decent price. On his shelves, he has a little bit of everything from pine & walnut to cherry & maple. These "shelves" are on the left side of the garage if you're looking inside from the driveway and they sit above the water heater there in the corner.

He's also put up some of the wire shelving, that you can see here, for some of his "tubs". My husband is actually pretty organized when it comes to his stuff. He organizes things in tubs like these so that it's all together in one place. He has different tubs for different things: a tub for all things electrical, a tub with things he might need when he paints (brushes, rollers, etc.), a tub just for caulks & silicones...you get the picture. All he has to do is remember where he put the tub that has the stuff he needs in it! So these shelves kinda help with that. And these he put up right to the left of the door leading into the house from the garage.

The biggest project is the "wall 'o' cabinets". Jeff is building all different sizes of cabinets/shelves, some with doors, some with pegboard, some open to house his stuff. He's building "shells" to fit shelves in and then he'll enclose those with different door fronts. The photo at the top gives you and idea of what I'm talking about. He's also including a desktop area where he can set things to work on or put his computer on for some tunes or woodworking ideas. Underneath the desktop will be some cabinets with drawers, etc. for more of his stuff. It's really coming together. You can see the start of the desktop in this photo.

It's a work-in-progress right now. I hope to show you more photos in the future as it becomes more complete. Once he finishes this project, he'll have a lot more room in the shop to work, which means he'll be a lot less frustrated and be able to just crank those woodworking projects out! And maybe there will be room in there somewhere for my (little bitty) car. Maybe. :)

attic floor...

2007-10-19T18:22:00.000-04:00

I know what you're thinking: I suppose you could say I'm about as slack as a blogger could be, huh? SIXTEEN days since my last post??! That's pathetic.

But in my defense (because I don't think anyone else will come to my defense), I have been super-busy lately. Work has been pretty involved. I've had lots going on in recent weekends. And my nights haven't been my own with Jeff's softball games and cards needing to be made (of course I enjoy that but you know...). So here we are at the 19th of October. Jeff's last softball game (other than the rain-out and the tourney) was Tuesday and no one's coming to visit this weekend. So there you go. Time to post to the blog. :)

I do want to say that I did have house guests last weekend; my mom (finally) and her parents, my grandparents (affectionately nicknamed "the grands"). They all loved the house and we had a wonderful time together. Mom & Gram went to my bible study with me on Saturday morning while Jeff and Buppa hung out (in the shop for a brief time, but mostly at Harbor Freight since Buppa doesn't have one close by). We mostly chilled the rest of the weekend and just enjoyed being together. It really meant a lot to me & Jeff to have Gram & Buppa make the trip because it was a big deal for them to come all that way. They're not "spring chickens" anymore (and I say that in the most loving way!) and for them to make the trip to see us and the house tells a lot. Thanks, Grands! We loved having you! And you, too, Momma. Always!

Now, just a brief part about the house (since that is mostly the point of this blog). We've had the attic flooring down for a while, but it's such a boring thing, I only now decided that I'd post about it. There's not much to say about it except that Jeff's buddy, Henry Olds came out to help cut & put it down and they both worked their butts off one Saturday (thanks, dude!). We don't have much space up there, but it's nice to have flooring down to store things like fall/Christmas decorations, clothes, spare a/c units (?), closet shelving that we took down at the other place, etc. It's helped us clean up the living part of the house so we don't have so much clutter. It's not climate-controlled, obviously, but it does have light. Jeff helped ME install a motion-detection light up there. It pretty much comes on as we start going up the ladder to the attic, which is nice.

Stay tuned for more...and hopefully, it won't be another 16 days before I post again.

my fave season...

2007-10-03T22:26:00.000-04:00

Can you smell it? The scent of fall? That glorious season God created? Fall, or autumn as some call it, is my favorite time of year. It's the time when things in creation start to change - the temperatures become cooler, the daylight gets shorter, the colors of the leaves turn...ah, fall. I love it!

It also reminds me of the time when families gather together to reminisce on all of God's blessings and what they're personally thankful for in their lives. We usually spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my family in Lexington since they're so close (and I still don't have any desire to attempt to cook a turkey!). My mom provides the house and the kitchen and I usually put together the menu. Then we work together to get the meal cooked and on the table. It can be a little hectic, trying to get everything to be done all at the same time and stay hot until we eat it with only one stove and one microwave, but I enjoy it all the same.

It's become a tradition the last several years for the girls to head to Seagrove, NC the day after Thanksgiving to do some shopping. Seagrove, for those who don't know, is the pottery capital of the "world" (as far as I'm concerned). I love the atmosphere around that area at this time of year. There's a slight chill & crispness in the air and everyone has their studios/work areas decorated for the holidays. Most of the potters usually have some celtic music playing in the background...oh, I just love being there. It seems like a different era when I'm there. And, of course, I don't get to go shopping with my mom very often so that's always a bonus!

Anyway, I didn't mean to get off on a tangent, but I do so love this season. I really just wanted to post a photo or 2 of some of the fall decorations that I've put up around the house. I have almost as much decoration for fall as I do for Christmas! I have a wreath hanging on our front door which I'm so excited about (we couldn't do that on our other front door). I also have some fall scented candles here & there. I have a fall colored table runner on our kitchen table and a matching table cloth on the "steel table" in the kitchen (that won't be staying in the kitchen...). In the center of the kitchen table is a basket arrangement of fall leaves, pinecones & ribbon. On the entertainment center, I have some ceramic punkins and a fall basket arrangement with some "sprigs" of fall "stuff" (that's the best I can do - you can see a little of the "stuff" in the photo above). I would've normally put that "ensemble" on the fireplace mantel but since we don't have that now... I also have a garland of fall leaves above the cabinets in the kitchen...very festive.

Take the fall season of 2007 to really think about all that God has blessed you with. And be thankful. There are so many who have nothing...we are TRULY blessed. Happy Fall, Ya'll!

first house guests...

2007-09-30T21:28:00.000-04:00

My brother, Daniel, and his wife, Brandi, came for the weekend - our first house guests in the new house!

My brother and I share the same birthday, September 28, so we celebrated this weekend. He was celebrating year 27 and I was celebrating year 29 (ouch). It was nice to be together for our birthdays (but not the same as sharing a birthday party - we used to do that when we were young enough to not like each others' friends). They got to the house around 3pm on Friday and left tonight around 8pm.

Friday night we opened gifts and then grilled out pork chops for dinner. We watched a movie later. Saturday, Daniel went to Jeff's bible study with him and Brandi went to my bible study with me. Then Daniel & Jeff got to work putting in surround sound speakers in the living room. We used to have that in our apartment in Wilmington when we first moved to the area...I'd forgotten how nice that is! We took a break and went to the beach for a brief time (until we couldn't stand the black flies anymore - ugh!). Then we came back & grilled out burgers for dinner. We drove into town to get ice cream at ColdStone Creamery (did you know you can sign up to get a coupon for a free "love it" on your birthday? click here to check it out) and then went back to the house to watch a movie (with our new surround sound). Today, we went to Sunday School & church and then out to lunch at Two Guys Grille (yum!). We came back to the house & lazed around (after all, it IS the day of rest!).

It was an enjoyable weekend with family. So glad to have you in our new home, Daniel & Brandi!

our (new) living room furniture...

2007-09-20T18:51:00.000-04:00

At long last, I'm posting our new living room furniture. This is the major purchase we made in the process of moving (aside from the house itself, obviously) and we're pretty happy with it. Most of you know we had a sectional sofa before, with 2 recliners and a pull-out sofa bed. Well, there was NO WAY that was going to fit in our new living room. Believe me, I measured & measured, this way & that! I loved that sectional and was really sorry to see it go but our new living room area is more square than the area we had at the old place so it just wasn't going to work. So we set about looking at several furniture places, including Rooms To Go which is where we found our purchase. It's called "Thorne" and we got the sofa, loveseat, chair/ottoman & rug in the set. It's pretty dramatic, but you know me...

I'm a big fan of having lots of seating for our guests on those rare occasions when folks make the "trek" out to our place [ :) ]. We also opted for the sleeper sofa so that we'd have a 2nd bed for guests/family if we had that many at one time (it's been known to happen). And Jeff wanted the chair & ottoman. I kinda dig it myself...

As you can see, it's a dark green color with a khaki piping around the cushions, which I think really cleans it up - makes it look crisp. The chair & ottoman are a geometric design with (lots of) accent pillows on the sofa & loveseat in the same fabric. It's a good color that doesn't show Kassie's hair too much; we had that to consider when looking at the fabric/material it was made of, too.

I'm pleased with how the furniture fits into the room. We thought it was going to be a push to fit it all in with out it looking like it was just crammed into the room, but it worked out pretty well and every time I come in the front door, it looks better & better.

You should come try it out...see how comfy it is! ;)

something a little different, part 2

2007-09-15T18:23:00.001-04:00

Doesn't our yard look nice? This photo was taken today in our front yard, facing the house (obviously). Jeff put out some fertilizer and it got watered quite a bit this week with all the rain we've been having so the yard is looking really nice. Thought I'd share that with you...

Alright, here's part 2 of the Q&A I started on Wednesday:

32. Is your microwave clean or dirty? Oh, it’s clean now, but give it time…give me time…

33. Is there anything under your bed? Nope
34. Chore you hate doing the most? Oh, my heavens…where to begin?! I don’t like cleaning the bathroom or dusting and I really don’t like ironing…

35. What retro items are in your home? Hmmm…retro…that has a lot of different meanings to different people…I’m not sure if any of my stuff qualifies…

36. Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? No, we have a craft/computer room (that is a DISASTER right now…).

37. If you have a yard, who mows it? Jeffy

38. Is there anything on your kitchen floor right now? Ha! I’m sure there’s crumbs & dust, grass, etc.

39. How many mirrors are in your home? Well, there’s 1 each in the bathrooms and then there’s one by the front door that our keys hang on and that’s all that’s UP right now…there’s another that’s leaning against a wall somewhere…so I guess the answer would be 4 (can’t just answer the question – gotta have details!).

40. Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? Uh, no. We have a “hot date fund” jar that’s full of change, but that’s it.

41. What color are your walls? Bone (medium white)

42. Which rooms in your house have wallpaper? NONE! And we’d like to keep it that way…

43. Do you have a peephole in your front door? No
44. Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? No…just steak knives (hey, those could probably do some pretty good damage!).

45. What does your home smell like right now? The living room smells like “Hawaiian” something (it’s an air freshener – I love it!) and the garage smells like sawdust. Other than that, there’s no other smells, which is good, I guess.

46. Fave candle scent? Oh, geez…I never can pick just one…let’s see…anything that smells like cotton/linen, autumn/fall or coffee.

47. What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now? I think we have some of those whole sweet pickles (ew, Jeff likes the sweet ones).

48. Who are in the pictures you displayed? Haven’t unpacked that box yet…I don’t have a single photo frame out right now.

49. What color is your favorite cup? I have a favorite coffee mug that’s pottery-style, brown & dark brown. Don’t really have a favorite cup.

50. Do you have plenty of cabinet space in your kitchen? I wouldn’t say I have plenty; I would say there’s enough. Would I like more? Yes.

51. Ever been on your roof? Nope

52. Do you own a stereo? Yes

53. How many TVs do you have? One in the living room, one in the garage/shop.

54. How many house phones? None; we only use cell phones.

55. Do you have a housekeeper? Are you applying for the job??

56. What style do you decorate in? My own; not really sure what you would call it. Just whatever works & looks nice.

57. Do you like solid colors on furniture or prints? It depends on what piece of furniture it is. We have a solid color loveseat & couch and a print chair & ottoman. It looks nice, I think.

58. Is there a smoke detector in your home? Yes. Brand new ones!

59. In case of fire, what are the items you would grab if you only could make one quick trip? I have thought about this so many times…and I still have a hard time with it…we’d get the cat, of course, and our cell phones to call 911, and then I’d REALLY like to get my scrapbooks but it would be tough (they’re all in a box right now so it’d be pretty easy!). I’d probably get my camera, too. The rest, although I would be DEVASTATED, could be replaced.

60. Do you know how to work your electrical box? Pretty much

61. What temperature in your home is most comfortable to you? between 72 & 74

Well, do you feel like you know a little more about our (new) home? Hope it was a pleasure for you to read through. I enjoyed answering the questions and am glad I could share them with you!

something a little different...

2007-09-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

First of all, I wanted to post a photo of me & Jeff at my cousin's wedding in Maryland a couple of weekends ago...don't we look spiffy??

Now to the point of this post... We all know those questionnaires that go around in our emails. You know, the ones that ask you all these questions about yourself that 1) you really have to think about and 2) your friends probably didn't want to know about you in the first place. Well, I got one from my friend, Jen (who is notorious for sending these things around), but it's a little different. It's questions about your home! Well, since I have a brand new one, I thought it might be kind of fun to post the Q&A here:

1. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Dial Antibacterial (green)
2. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? No
3. Is there anything moldy in your refrigerator? Well, not right now, but that’s not out of the question in OUR fridge! Ew, I know.
4. Are there any dirty dishes in your sink? Nope, I just put them in my (awesome) dishwasher!
5. What would you change about your living room? I still love it cuz it’s brand new but there are some unpacked boxes of stuff sitting in there...like to get rid of those...
6. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? Dirty – see question 4
7. Do you have a can of mushrooms in your pantry? Uh, no, I think I used them in a recipe recently.
8. White or wheat bread? Nature’s Own Butterbread…it’s so soft!
9. What is on top of your refrigerator? Actually nothing!
10. What color is your sofa? Dark green with khaki “piping” around the edges...it's new.
11. What color or design is on your shower curtain? Master bath is yellow/blue/green plaid; guest bath is brown, olive & dark aqua flowers (but not girly or Jeff wouldn’t let me get it…).
12. How many plants are in your home? ha, ha…that’s a joke, right? Are we talking live ones?
13. How many candles are in your home? Let’s not even go there…
14. Is your bed made right now? Uh, no.
15. If you have a coffee pot, what color is it? Ahem, we have a KEURIG coffee machine and it’s black.
16. Electric or standard can opener? Pampered Chef (standard)
17. Comet or Soft Scrub? Neither (aren’t those both totally 80’s??); I use Clorox sanitizing wipes in Fresh Scent & Fantastik (Herbal Scent) in the toilet/tub.
18. Is your closet organized? As much as it can be for having used it for only a month; I can tell you, not everything's in there yet...
19. What color is the flashlight that you use the most? A flashlight? Hmmm…I think we have a yellow one somewhere?
20. What kinds of things are in your junk drawer? Oh, how I WISH we had a junk drawer…right now, we have a junk “box” (the box we packed the junk drawer in) & it has things like pliers, batteries, playing cards, caulk (?), old drivers’ licenses…pretty junky.
21. Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? It depends on what I’m drinking…it’s probably half & half.
22. Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? Sadly, no.
23. If you have a garage, is it cluttered? You have NO idea…
24. Curtains or blinds? We have those faux wood blinds in all the rooms except the kitchen, craft/computer room and our bathroom (I LOVE them!). Eventually, we'll have window treatments but that's not real high on "the list" right now...
25. How many pillows do you sleep with? 2 for me, 2 for him, although we just got new pillows so maybe we’ll be down to 1 apiece (if they work).
26. Do you sleep with any lights on at night? No, but our alarm clocks have bright enough light…
27. How many ceiling fans are in your home? Every room except the kitchen; there are 4 total.
28. How often do you vacuum? Uh…well, the carpet’s new…I think I’ve vacuumed it once or twice…
29. What color is your toothbrush? Lavender
30. Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Yes, I do! It doesn’t say “welcome” but it’s a mat…does that count then?
31. What is in your oven right now? Nothing now, but just tonight, I made (veggie) lasagna for the first time in my life! It turned out great; I'm very excited!

So that's the first 31 questions...there will be a "part 2" to this because there were 62 questions in that questionnaire! Did you learn anything?

guest bathroom...

2007-09-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

Okay, sorry for the delay in posting. I haven't had time to really do much with the house, much less get a post done on the blog. I do have a good reason, though! We were out of town for Labor Day weekend - up in Maryland for my cousin, Melinda's wedding. It was beautiful, by the way, and it was really nice to see that part of my family that I don't get to see very often.

So I'm posting about the guest bathroom tonight. I really enjoyed putting this room together. I'm not saying it's completely finished but at the moment, I don't have any other plans for it. It's usable as far as guests go and even decorated a little bit. :)

I found the shower curtain at Bed Bath & Beyond. I just couldn't resist it; it's my colors, for pete's sake! I then went over to the towel section and found towels that were the perfect color to match - lemon grass and dark chocolate. You can't see in the photos but I found a small bath mat at Linens 'N' Things to put in front of the tub that's the same dark brown/chocolate color. It's soft... We put a curved shower curtain rod in there which we thought would help to open up the space in the shower stall (it does!). It's very "hotel-like"... :)

The bowl that's sitting on the sink is one I already had from Pier One. I was psyched when I unpacked that & realized it matched perfectly!! And, of course, I have antibacterial foaming handsoap from Bath & Body Works (love that store!) in Tropical Passionfruit scent (mainly cuz it's green & it matches).

So that's pretty much it. I do have a photo in a dark brown frame that I'm thinking of hanging in there, but I'm still undecided about that. It's a photo of a couple of palm trees that I took in Hawaii and it matches pretty well, but I feel like if I put that up, then I have to go with the palm tree "theme"...is that silly? For now, it's just being stored under the sink in there...

What do you think???

laundry room...

2007-08-27T21:05:00.000-04:00

This post may not be as exciting as some of my other posts (...have any of my posts really been exciting???), but there are those (like my momma) who will be just as thrilled to read this one as my other ones. The reason? She wants to SEE the house sooo bad, and this is the only way she can for now. One day, Momma. You'll get here one day! :)

Anyway, the laundry room is by far the least exciting room in the house, but it's one of the few that's pretty much done, and the fact that you can call it a "room" is exciting in itself to me, since I've never really had a laundry "room" - just a laundry area, really.

I had the multi-colored baskets in our bathroom cabinet at the old house and I thought they would add some "excitement" to the laundry room here, so I decided to put them on the shelves there. One is holding all the huge ziploc bags we used to move clothes, pillows & such, one is holding miscellaneous canisters of air freshener or pre-wash and one is holding all of Kassie's "stuff". I do have room to the right of the dryer to put my ironing board, broom & (new) Swiffer WetJet (that thing is "on-time", as Henry would say!), as well as a small trash can.

I think Jeff's plan is to add one more long shelf above the one that is there to hold items that need to be kept but that we don't necessarily need to get to very often. Thankfully, I can close the bi-fold doors to any "clutter"! :)

not just any garage...

2007-08-25T20:03:00.000-04:00

One of the main projects Jeff had in mind for our new home was to put down an epoxy on the garage floor. There are some really good advantages to putting down an epoxy including covering up any cracks in the floor and making it a little easier to sweep out. That's not to mention it just looks great (and all your buddies think it's cool)!

So Jeff set about doing some research on the different brands/types out there and finally decided on Shield Crete from Sherwin Williams. He chose one of the 4 colors they offer and put it down late Saturday night after we moved in (a week ago).

He needed 2 kits to do our double-stall garage and I think it took him between 3 & 4 hours to finish it. I've included some photos in the different stages so you can see how it went on. You roll the paint on in sections (and we all know Jeff is an expert "roller of paint"!) and you sprinkle the decorative flakes in those sections. As the epoxy dries, the flakes sink down & embed into the epoxy. It's really a nice touch without being to "un-manly"... :)

It takes a while for it to dry and then for it to be dry enough to have foot traffic or items (such as heavy power tools) sitting on it, so he put it down late Saturday night so it would have all night and all day Sunday to dry. We were able to walk on it Monday. He gradually began moving his shed at the old place over to the garage this week while he was off from work.

I think he did a fantastic job on it and I know he's glad to have it done. It changes the whole look of the room, to the point of making it look more like just another room of the house instead of a garage (that is until he gets all his "stuff" in it!). And I think it will give our garage floor a lot more life in the long run.

potholes 2 pavement

315.

Home EC Class: Project 10

kitchen sink remodel...

entertain in style...

a gardening progression...

Home EC Class: Project 19

Home EC Class: Project 17

Christmas 2010...

Home EC Class: Project 15

Home EC Class: Project 11

Home EC Class: Project 9

Home EC Class: Project 8

Home EC Class: Project 7

Home EC Class: Project 6

Home EC Class: Project 5

Home EC Class: Project 4

Home EC Class: Project 3

Home EC Class: Project 2

Home EC Class: Project 1

I'm sew excited!

harvest...

exposed!

do you have the time?

wall 'o' verbs...

snow in our neck of the woods...

laundry room...revised!

Merry Christmas to ME!

'tis the season!

happy (really, really late) birthday to me!

I *heart* fall.

W.

the value of a good lamp...

rock corner -- part III

rock corner -- part II

house decoration...

rock corner -- part I

what a difference!

grillin' season!

IKEA purchase...

rose-colored glasses...

new "outlook" on life...

snow!

more progress!

"crafty" countertop...

2008 Christmas decos...

measure twice, cut once...

busy bee...

getting the word out...

weekend of sweetness...

little sweetheart...

new pinestraw...

the big 3-0...

good times & photoshop discoveries...

fall is my fave...

road trip to Wake Forest...

dining on the "veranda"...

centerpiece...

glued to The Weather Channel...

new porch furniture...

bookcases...

she's finally here!

attic shelves...

"makeshift" craft room...

a nice day off...

a true milestone...

enjoy our cruise with us!

we're back! [but we don't wanna be...]

do we have everything?

guest bathroom addition...

first time for everything...

exciting times...

hurricane season already?

weekend warriors!

daylight savings time...

"kitty kloset"...

a "heart"-full of love...

so sweet...

shop drawers...

drawer pulls...

I heart fall.