Grrr

I wrote a big fat post tonight and blogger is not letting me upload my pictures to it. It's too late and I've been at it getting more and more frustrated so hopefully tomorrow I will be able to put up our fun Disney post!

Night Night!

Sunday Eve

Well, we are back from a whirlwind trip to Disney! I'll write a big post tomorrow, but for now I'll leave you with a quick pic:)

Hope you had a great weekend!

Tomorrow, tomorrow!

My Cricut should finally be here tomorrow! I am so dadgum excited! I ordered it the Monday before Thanksgiving and it has been taking its lovely time getting here. I won’t be able to use it until Christmas but just knowing that it’s not yet “in my hands” and is floating around in Fedexland has been killing me!
I asked for vinyl for Christmas (never thought I’d be saying that!) and I am just itching to get started crafting! I have never actually used the machine before, but I have been watching YouTube tutorials on all things Cricut like it’s my job. YouTube is uh-mazing in case ya didn’t know. I can watch everything from dogs sayin’ “Mama” to how to cut in a room when painting. So nifty! I just don’t know how people lived before there was technology. I wouldn’t have been able to make it.

Anywho, I’ve got some ideas on what I want to make, but my first project will be address door numbers! I LOVE this and can’t wait to make some for our humble abode :)
I also want to make a personalized sticker for my car, but I dunno what yet. I really like the monogrammed initials but we’ll see!

That’s all for now.

Oh and there’s something else I’m really excited about that’s happening tomorrow, but I can’t tell yet!

Happy early weekend:)

O' Christmas Tree

I posted about our other Christmas decorations, but I didn't do a blog about our Christmas tree and our outside lights! After the tree sat nakey for a full week, it finally got decorated! I am loving the finished product:)


Sunday we finally finished the lights on the outside of the house. As I've said before, David becomes Clark W. Griswold at Christmas time and this year was no exception! Gosh I love this movie...


We made a mid-decorating run to Espositos, the local garden center, to buy some light globes for the pergola. We would have loved to have bought several but @ $20 a pop we only got two. We plan to hit up the after christmas sale to see if we can get some more!



On another note, we bought Eclipse last weekend and have not yet watched it *gasp*! So that's what we're about to do...yippee!

DIY Starburst Mirror

I recently came across this mirror while blog stalking Isabella and Max Rooms.



This woman has the coolest and very affordable DIY ideas. Not to mention her house is stunning and she’s done nearly every bit of decorating on her own by making things; or at least by making existing things better.

So anywho, saw it, had to make it.

There are a lot of variations to it and it can be personalized in nearly any way. You can choose your own color, stick width, pattern, mirror, etc…

I knew I wanted mine to end up white because it would POP against our toasty milk chocolate master bedroom walls. Plus our bed was in dire need of some décor above it but with the curved headboard, I didn’t know what to do. A flat picture or something would have been okay but wouldn’t have a great flow.

Wanna know how I did it?

Supplies:
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks (Duh)
Ruler
Marker
{Four} $.99 packs of 12" Dowel Rods (Got mine at Joann’s – 20/pack)
-Mine are probably medium width…not sure though
{One} 8" Round Mirror (Joann’s – approx. $5…can’t remember now)
1 can of Spray Paint of your choice (I used Krylon Satin in Bright White)
LARGE work surface (this thing gets pretty wide)
{One} picture hook thing-a-ma-bob (Came in a pack of 6 or so for cheap cheap)
Paper/Ripped out pages of a magazine (to cover the mirror while painting)


I started by marking off in even increments on the back of the mirror where I wanted my dowel rods to be glued. Then I would lay each little 1/8 section out one at a time and put the rods where I wanted and glue them one at a time to be sure I was liking the design. It would be MUCH easier to do a solid round starburst but I liked the jagged/pointed look so I staggered them. No rocket science here, just eyeballing.



After everything was glued in place, I covered the mirror to protect it from the paint. Some tutorials for this mirror say to paint the rods before, but this way I only had to paint one side and they were “in place” so they wouldn’t roll around while I was trying to spray them.



I let dry and then hot glued the picture-hook-thing-a-ma-bob onto the back. After I did it, I remembered I had recently purchased some gorilla glue and thought that might hold better. So I tried with all my might to get off the hot glued thingy and it wouldn’t come off, so I was confident it wouldn’t fall off the wall and just left it.

Because of the thickness of the rods, I bent the hanger outward some so it would be flush with the rods so the nail could catch it.



I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!! I think it is the perfect addition to the wall and to me it looks very chic.

I am debating making another one for above the foyer table but I’m not sure yet…so many ideas I tell you!

Disney! :/

We love Disney. It’s no secret. We have been annual pass holders for two years now and every time we go it’s just as exciting as the first time we went.

A friend of my Dad’s knew we were Disney lovers, so he was gracious enough to gift us (two) 1 day park hoppers. He and his wife will not be able to use them by their expiration date (coming up in a few weeks) so he figured maybe we could. Well, we don’t need them because we have our passes, so we wanted to take someone else with us! We shared the fun news with Mom & Cole, picked out a weekend, went to book a resort, and guess what, no rooms left that don’t require an arm, leg, or your first born :( Say whaaaa?

I have called for the past 3 days straight trying to see if there have been any vacancies come up and no such luck:( We are about to look into booking an off site hotel but it’s really just not the same experience. We have been spoiled by the Disney resorts so we are having a hard time “settling” on a non-Disney resort.

Fingers & toes crossed that something becomes available. Christmas is the most beautiful time of the year in my opinion at Disney. There are gazillions of lights that never cease to amaze me and I really hope my Mom gets to see it all. Cole too of course but I know he doesn’t care as much!

That would just really stink if we can’t use the free tickets because we couldn’t find a place to stay:/ Oh well, we’ll see what happens!

Here's some pics from our trip last December.

I'm Waiting!

…Anxiously awaiting...my Cricut! It’s been a week since I ordered it, and I cannot WAIT for it to get here! I know it’s for Christmas, but knowing that it’s not in my possession yet is killing me…it’s literally all I can think about I’m so dadgum excited to play with it!

…Anxiously awaiting…the Christmas Decorations to be completed at our house! Yesterday we got our tree up, but while I was supposed to be working on the tree, I got caught up helping David on the outside lights. Can I say what a pain?! Our house is the only one in the neighborhood with a pergola…meaning, we can’t get to the peaks on the roof without getting ON the roof because the pergola is in front of the house and you can’t get to the front peaks. No ladder access made for a very difficult time with the blasted icicle lights! We ended up having to make an equipment run because our (David’s) roof method only worked for a small part of it before it was too steep for one to safely venture out on…after an unsuccessful stop at Wal-Mart, we headed to Lowe’s. Bring in, a Christmas light hanging pole! Although we were able to complete the hanging with the use of this, BOY was it a double pain!
This is David doing the Clark Griswold thing…light hanging, hanging onto the roof for dear life.

Look at the top peak in the next picture... do ya see him?

So, by the time we finished fighting the lights, it was time to get ready for our Christmas card pics so we wrapped it up for the day. They aren’t plugged in yet because we have a lot left to do and it’s going to take some intense planning to run all those extension cords. So as of now we have an unlit/undecorated tree, and half decorated house. Anxious to get it done & be able to enjoy it!

Here's some pics from our trip to Lowe's to get the tree! My fam got theirs too so we all went together:)




Oh and since I don’t know when I’ll get around to doing an entire holiday décor post, for now, here’s what the house is looking like in it’s Christmas glory! :)




Picked up this pristine version of "A Christmas Carol" at Goodwill for 5 bucks. Score!

This is how someone feels about more pictures being taken of him:


Haha, poor Rem!

…Anxiously awaiting…our Christmas cards! Yesterday we met up with Brett & Lynn so Brett could snap a few pics for us. (I hope y’alls turned out great too!) Brett has a fancy dancy camera and also did our Wedding & Engagement pictures. He pretty much rocks! Look him up at his website Svenson Images. So we went to Lake Monkey business in Killearn (which I never knew was there) and it was so pretty! Pretty place, funny name! It was a lake with a peninsula in the middle. The sun was starting to go down in the sky, the water was as smooth as glass and we saw quite the herd of deer! Then of course there was the James’ disturbing the peace with our wheezing-choking-himself-to-death-dog trying to get into the water and explore. Thanks guys for putting up with our antics! Gah! Our pictures turned out GREAT and I can’t wait to share our finished card :) I ordered them last night (thanks to the shutterfly promo) and can’t wait for them to come in. Here’s some of our other favorite shots from the day.



Trying to wrestle Remi into a sitting. He was over pictures by now. The water was calling him!
Much better!

I’ll withhold our final choice so those that we send them to get to at least see a different picture and the design we chose:)

…Anxiously awaiting…the Jingle Bell Run & Market Days! Both are happening this weekend and I am SO excited. The Jingle Bell Run starts off the Winter Parade and my Mom, Dad and I are going to be participating this year. I’ve never done it before but I have been equipped (thanks to the registration fee) with a long sleeve jingle bell run t-shirt (love it), santa hat, glow necklace, and a bell for my shoes. David used to work for the city so he still sometimes helps out when the big events roll around. Well he was going to work until he found out the Noles are going to the ACC Championship! He is now not working it and is trying to find a way to Charlotte this weekend. Oh my! Cole will be working it though as he currently works for the city. It should be fun!!

Market Days happens every year at the Fair Grounds. It’s a huge event full of vendors selling all kinds of goodies. My Mom and I go every year usually with my Aunt & Grandma and I can’t wait to see what I can find this year!

Turkey Day 2010

Turkey day this year consisted of Family, Food, Fun & Football! I helped Mom bake all morning- she made (I just assisted) a Pecan Pie, Apple Pie, Cheesecake, and Dirt Cake (Cole assisted). We watched National Lampoon's Christmas vacation on the small tv in the kitchen and kept going to the living room to check on the Macy's Parade.

We went to my Aunt's house for dinner which was around 2:00. I was not loving the warm humid weather. It was plain hot and the clouds kept hinting at rain but it never did. Dinner was delicious and dessert was too:) I ate wayyy too much of course, but that's the rule on Thanksgiving...you're supposed to "gobble til you wobble", right Linds? And I was definitely wobbling =D



After dinner the ladies got to scouring the ads and planning for Black Friday.


The menfolk did what the men do-watch football and talk about the ladies' problems with wanting to get up so early and do all that unnecessary spending!

It was a great dinner and thanks again Aunt Sandra & Uncle Roger for hosting!


I was in bed by 9 on Thursday because I knew 4:00 was going to come very early Friday morning. Then the alarm rang and off we went! David joined us this year - he and I drove separate from Mom because we both had different first "must stops" but we met up after that. We got some great stuff, I had problems with buying more for myself than gifts for people on my lists (oops) but David was being a very very generous Hubby so I went a little overboard (oops again). Thanks babe!!

We had a great day and had a car full o'goodies at the end of the day. Some highlight items for me were black suede flat boots, new rain boots, coat rack from Kirkland's, and a jewelry case! More stuff too but those were things I was really excited about:)

I'll share a picture of a coat rack in the house, but that'll just wait til my Christmas decor post:) For now, here it is-
Love that store!

Oh and we got our tree today! Pics to come once it's decorated.

Happy Saturday!

(No Subject)

I would just like to say…

That when I sat down today to get my daily dose of YoungHouseLove, I was slightly giddy.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I get tons of inspiration from YHL and copy many of their DIY projects. They are selling their house and are thus starting to think of paint colors for their new (old) home. And wouldntchaknow, they are considering several colors that we have in our house! Okay now I wouldn’t dare think they have seen pictures of our house and are drawing inspiration from there, but it does make me feel like I have a smidge of taste if the DIY/interior decorators that I look up to are considering similar décor.

This is the palette they put together.
We've got a gray room, a desert-ish yellow living room, a chocolate brown master bedroom, and a khaki bathroom.

Cool!

In other news, we had a fun-filled weekend while my SIL Kimbo, her hubby Josh, and their pooch Bailey were in town. Friday was Kim’s birthday dinner @ Chili’s. We had tickets to the 8:10 showing of the new Harry Potter movie so we had to hurry to try and get seats. Cole & Valerie (brother & his gf) were there before us but couldn’t save seats because there was a line to even get into the theater and seat-saving was not an option. SO, even getting there with plenty of time to spare, we were in row #2. NOT FUN. I will never do that again. Not to mention HP is a pretty long movie, so it’s not the best one to choose to sit where you have to crane your neck. The movie was great, but I could not get comfortable…lean forward, lean back, lean sideways, use David’s knee as a leg rest, try and face straight forward but crane eyeballs upward and use peripheral vision while trying not to have a double chin…sheesh. Not enjoyable. But we had a good time and thanks again to Valerie for giving David and I two of her free tickets that were a gift from her school…you rock!

Saturday Kim, Lindsay, Ashley (Linds’ sis) and I went to Bradley’s Country Store. It’s basically a small craft convention held once a year where people come out and sell homemade things. There’s a lot of corny stuff but there’s also some goodies too. It got pretty warm on Saturday which I was not loving since it’s November and all, but it was still a great day. Saturday evening me & Remi hung out with Kim, Josh & Bailey & watched the game. Thanks for the pizza Big Dawg! Well technically Kim and I hung out with the pooches and looked up Cricut stuff online…which I am super duper excited about because I will be ordering one TONIGHT!! Yay, the Hubster said I could go ahead and get it (thanks to my friend Chelsy’s finding, it was on sale online!) so I can’t wait to get home and order it. Of course I have to wait til Christmas though to use it…boo!

Oh and while we were watching Cricut Dan on YouTube…I noticed Remi was being rather quiet. He’s like a small child, if he’s quiet, he’s up to no good. I look over to see him “nom nomming” on Kim’s BRAND NEW iPhone!! AHH!! Oh my gosh there went my cricut (the money for it anyway)…well at least it would have if not for her removable screen protector and hard case…the protector was toast but the phone was undamaged. Hallelujah!! ‘Bout had a heart attack. I am thinking I need to invest in some of those protectors ASAP, seeing this is the THIRD phone Remington has somehow thought had his name on it for a snack. 1st was my Samsung Blackjack = toast. 2nd was Mom’s phone= still workable but no longer pretty. 3rd was a near miss of the most expensive yet…sorry again Kimbo, it’s cause your Whemi just loves you so much he wanted to give you something to remember him by!

Ladies(& Gents) Get Ready to Start Your Engines!!

This time next week, I will be hurting. I already know it. I’ll have had 3-4 servings of every food imaginable. I’ll be fighting off the effects of tryptophan and slipping into turkey-overdose oblivion. Ahhh. Why would I do this to myself? I can’t help it, I’m addicted to food (true story) but you see it’s also necessary, and part of my training. What training you may ask? Training for this:

Yes, these people are running into a store. That lady in the pink is WAY excited!

It takes some immense eating to gain enough fuel and energy to face it. BLACK FRIDAY.

Only bargain shopping professionals and skilled kick boxers should dare to venture out into what’s deemed the biggest shopping day of the year. But have no fear, my mother and I are highly qualified for this task.

Me
Mom

That’s right, we are amongst the crazy, borderline-psychos who are up at the ladder half of midnight, ready to start our engines. The engine to the car (it’s usually freezing) and the engines to our legs, getting ready to do some running and trampling. Okay maybe not the trampling, but definitely a little power walking. Didn’t you know they found the Power Walker athletes from the Olympics on Black Friday? (Don’t research that, take my word for it)

Last year we were at Wal-Mart by 5:00 and I barely found a parking spot. So this year we might have to step it up. I think our plan is to get up at 4 (ish). Although Old Navy opens at 3 am so we’ll have to see. ;)

After gorging ourselves with food, we’ll also have to prepare our P.O.A. (Plan of Action). Nobody said it was easy, but somebody’s gotta do it. Scour the pages and pages of ads for the best deals, and plan the attack. Whatcha-need-from-here, when-ya-gotta-be-there, and so on. A man (wo-man) without a plan shall be left in the dust paying full prices. Not us. We’ll be prepared. For battle.

Wish us luck and may the force be with us!

PS- If you’re brave enough, check out the 2010 Black Friday Deals ahead of time.