My Birthday!

Yesterday, December 30th, was my 25th birthday. For those of you who have a birthday around Christmastime, you know how it is. You have to fit your birthday in around all of the holiday celebrations and find a way to keep it somewhat separate.

My mom was always great about separating my birthday from Christmas celebrations. Our decorations were always taken down before my birthday, there was always separate wrapping paper for Christmas and birthday, and don't even get me started about combo presents. I know she always went out of her way to make my birthday special for me in a time when so much else was going on.

This year, being back in Greenville, we decided to do a family lunch, and Will and I wanted to go out for a special dinner. In a way, you get spoiled having your birthday at a time when you never have school. It just makes it that much harder when you have to work on your birthday. Luckily, Will and I both had the day off, and my company is awesome enough that you get your birthday off as a holiday. So, basically, I plan to never again work on my birthday.

Anyways, after a wonderful morning complete with Will's homemade chocolate chip pancakes and lounging around, we headed to lunch. I picked Bellacino's for lunch, and invited a bunch of people to join me. I have been told that my blog isn't scandalous enough to keep some people's interest, so I decided to post the most scandalous picture from my birthday celebrations. 

That's right, two of my favorite people in the world, my sister and my best friend Kristi (still in a bad habit of calling her my roomie, even though we haven't roomed together in almost 3 years)

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Me and my Sammy! (side note: I have called my sister Sammy for years, even though she goes by Sam or Samantha to everyone else. Sometimes, when other people refer to her as Sammy, I catch myself thinking "That is not her name, it's Sam or Samantha. Only I can call her Sammy" - weird double standard, I know)

My two favorite girls!

The hubs and I! 

After a fun lunch, we headed back to the house, where I proceeded to try on any and all clothes I got for my birthday or Christmas in order to map out my big shopping day the next day. Kristi came over and checked out the progress on the house, and then Will and I got ready for dinner. 

Will made reservations for us at Saskatoon's, one of our favorite restaurants in Greenville. They specialize in wild game, but have some pretty killer steak and fish entrees as well. We always try to get something new when we go there, because their specials change depending on what comes in fresh that time of year. 

This time, we split an alligator appetizer, Will ordered the buffalo ribeye special, and I was craving some pecan crusted salmon. The food is always wonderful and different and we would highly recommend checking it out if you have never been. 

All in all, it was a pretty great day to ring in my quarter-century. Thanks for everyone that made it that way!

Clemson Cornhole!

Most everyone in my family, and several others, know that Will and I embarked on a new challenge this Christmas - making a crafty gift. On my mom's side of the family, we draw names for our gift exchange. Will and I ended up with my aunt and uncle, and we were wondering what to get them. We know they are big Clemson fans, and they love games. Will came up with the idea of making a Clemson themed cornhole set. After a quick check of prices to buy an already made set, we reconfirmed that this was something we wanted to make.

We followed the instructions on this website and it wasn't too bad. First, Will and his dad worked on the frame for the boards.

After the frames were built, we sanded and primed the boards, and got them ready for paint. We knew we wanted to paint them in a Clemson color scheme, so we headed down to our new favorite store, Home Depot! I was looking for a great orange and purple that would be close to Clemson's colors, but what do you know, Home Depot has the officially licensed Clemson orange, purple, and even white. We loaded up on our official colors and headed home.

Our first step was to paint a white stripe diagonally from the bottom corner of each board up past the hole. After that dried, we taped down what need to remain white. Then, we painted white over the edges of the tape in order to seal it. That should prevent any orange or purple paint from seeping into our nice white line. 

After this step, it was three coats of high gloss paint in each color. We wanted the colors to be rich, and the website suggested high gloss for durability. 

Side note: the sunroom/art studio/random room between the garage and our living room has been the perfect place for some of these projects!

Once the top coat was almost dry, Will and I very carefully pulled up the tape. I was so nervous at this point because I really wanted them to be perfect. Luckily, the tape held great and there were very few imperfections. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them once the tape was off. 

I was too busy heading to make the bean bags, or corn bags. Actually, all I did was pay for the stuff. My mom helped me pick out some orange and white canvas, as well as some purple dye. I picked up some feed corn from the local gardening store, and headed to Nana's after Mom and Sammy dyed the white canvas purple. 

My Nana sewed three sides of the bags, we flipped them right side out and filled them to the brim with corn. Supposedly the corn breaks down after being thrown a lot, so you are supposed to start with very full bags. Then, Mom sewed the remaining side up. 

Finally it was time to give our gift! Since we couldn't really wrap up the set, we decided that once Allen and Carey were settled in their seats, Will and I would slip out and set everything up in the garage. We would let them go out after everyone had opened presents. Since the adults only get one present here, as they were handing them out, it became more and more obvious that Allen and Carey had nothing to open. Apparently it was pretty funny to watch, but I was paying more attention to the little ones!

After everyone was done, we told Allen and Carey to head to the garage for their present, but told them it wasn't a car. They exchanged a very confused look and went out to look at their present. They instantly knew what it was, but the icing on the cake was when Carey said "Wait, you MADE this?!". We explained the rules to Campbell and headed outside. 

I was so hoping for a nice day so we could play outside, and the weather delivered! First, Will beat Allen, then Will and I beat Allen and my Papa. Finally, Allen and Campbell defeated Carey and Keith. 

It was a ton of fun to be able to make these for my aunt and uncle, even if it took a bit more time and effort than we initially thought. The joy really is all in the giving! Thanks to everyone that helped us on this project!

Now, on to make one for Will and I!

Cute Little Girls

With so many gatherings over this holiday, it seemed like Will and I were always surrounded by some cute little girls!

First, there were Will's sweet cousins, Grace and Claire at his Mimi's house. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them, but we were treated to Claire singing "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas" and Grace's obsession with her new horse necklace. These girls always surprise me by how quick they warm up to us, even when we go months or years between visits.

Next, we met up with some dear friends in Atlanta, and got to see Tyler and Shea's girls Jae and Colleen. These girls might just be my favorite non-related kiddos! Jae is growing into such a personality and Colleen is as sweet as ever. Plus, look how cute they are!

It wasn't long before Jae figured out that she could make faces and I would take her picture!

That same night, we went to Will's uncle's house for a big family dinner. There are tons of cousins on that side of the family, but we are all mostly older. Lexi is the last little girl there, and she sure loved having that many people around. She wore her beautiful princess dress the whole time. 

Lexi was even sweet enough to show me her princess room, which is super pink and girly! It's the perfect room for her. 

She was very excited about all of her gifts, and she was in her own little world opening presents. 

Of course, no discussion about cute little girls would be complete without my precious little Campbell. For those of you who don't know, Campbell is my cousin, and up until a few weeks ago, she was the only first cousin I had. I love Christmas with her and watching her open presents. This year was no exception. 

And, after we were treated to some Campbell karaoke with her new noisemaker....I mean, microphone, we headed outside to play with my aunt and uncle's present, a Clemson cornhole set (more on that later!)

We let Campbell play from closer (that patch of clover was her line) and her team won! I hope my aunt and uncle and Campbell have lots of fun with this in the future. 

And, just because it was a Christmas season full of cute little girls, that doesn't mean there weren't any cute little boys around!

Gatlin and I were playing the ever popular "stick your tongue out at each other" game.

He is so cute! I love my new baby cousin!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Hello!

I hope you and your family had an amazing Christmas. Our first Christmas in our house was certainly very dear to me. Will challenged me to make a big southern breakfast on Christmas morning, and I think I delivered. Homemade buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy, bacon, and cheese grits...yumm!! I think it will have to be added to our list of traditions.

We were extremely blessed this Christmas to be able to spend so much time with each of our families, as well as blessed to have received so many wonderful gifts.

One of the cool gifts we got for the house was a beautiful mirror for our dining room. Will actually found a large mirror leaning against the wall in our garage, and we turned it over and cleaned it. Upon looking closer, it actually didn't have many blemishes, but we desperately needed a great frame.

Luckily, my uncle works for a frame shop, and I called him up with a great Christmas idea for Will and I! He came and looked at the room, let me pick from several molding samples, shaved down some of the imperfections in the glass, and brought it over the day before Christmas Eve. Then, he helped Will hang in up in about five minutes.

I think it looks so great, and really adds a lot to the room. Now we have our curtains and some beautiful sconces to add to the room. Plus that furniture we still have in our garage...I'm sure we will get working on that later. 

So Many Christmases!

Any newly married couple will tell you that the first few Christmases together can be a little tricky. Between balancing two families traditions, and trying to create some for your new family, time can become a premium around the holidays.

Will and I have spend several holiday seasons together by now, and we have some idea of the time we will spend with each family. However, for some reason, this year seems to be even busier! Perhaps because we are back in Greenville and we also are planning on our own Christmas as well. Since everything lined up well, we decided to pretty much do everything this year! That means 8-10 Christmases for us this year!


Last weekend we had our first taste with a big family lunch at Will's Mimi's house, which was awesome. It was the first time in forever that that entire side of the family had been together. Then, we finished up the day in Elberton with a chili dinner with some of Will's mom's family.

Tomorrow, we head to Atlanta for lunch with our sweet friends Tyler & Shea and their babies Jae & Colleen, and Ryan & Jen with brand new little Reed. We are so so so looking forward to seeing these friends! After that, its off to dinner with the rest of Will's mom's family.

Christmas Eve brings brunch at Nana's and dinner at Dan & Terri's. And then comes Santa!

Christmas morning will be our first Christmas in our house. When we first started the search, my only timeline was that I wanted to be in our house before the holidays. There is something so special about this Christmas to me, the first of many in this house. To start our own new tradition, I am making a big Christmas breakfast with sausage, biscuits and gravy, bacon, and cheese grits. I can't wait!

After our celebration in the morning, we are off to my parents house and then to my Grandparents house. Then, the day after Christmas, our friends Hunter and Leah are coming over for dinner!

While it may be a lot of shuffling to get everywhere and see everyone, I am looking forward to our first Christmas back in Greenville. Here's to many more!

These Ornaments

Everyone has something. Some kind of decoration that as soon as it is up, it means Christmas to you. Without it, things just aren't the same. When I was growing up, I had a few things like that. First was my mom's homemade stockings. I watched her cross-stitch each one for months before they were done, but now that they are, I think she has pretty much subjected herself to having to give us stockings forever, because they are too pretty not to put up. (Not that I am complaining about that!)


I also loved these little gold ornaments that we used to string up between our living room and our dining room turned office. 

I remember one year when mom didn't want to put them up, and I was so disappointed I put them up myself. Plus, I don't know if you know this about me, but I have a slight touch of OCD (Will can easily confirm this for you) and I felt that there was a very specific way that they should be ordered and hung up. Of course this quickly became my job every year.  


Anyways, this year, my mom and dad decided to give the ornaments to Will and I for a house-warming/early Christmas present, and I put them up the other day. While I still think they look better at my parents house, just for sentimental reasons, I am glad to start having things in my own home that really make it Christmas for us. 

My Favorite Part

A lot of times when people ask us about the house, they want to know what 'sold it' for us. What was the one reason that we decided on this house versus all the others that we looked at?


Will and I might give different answers, but I know what mine is. 


The kitchen. Oh my, this kitchen. 

I love practically everything about this kitchen, from the appliances to the countertops to the lighting. However, my favorite thing is the island. Oh counter space, how I love you! This is the kind of workspace that I dreamed of in our tiny apartment. This is a cookie baking, dinner making kind of kitchen. 

We did have to do a few things in here and we have a few mini projects left. We had to find some counter height bar stools to go with our island, and we had to do some work in the pantry, which I'll tell you about later. 

All that is left is to find some art for the walls. Will feels like this room is a little too mono-chromatic, so we want to bring in a pop of color on the wall and through our kitchen towels. This is the one room that is the closest to being "done", so I like to spend a lot of time in here. We will keep you updated on the progress!

Things I miss about Atlanta

When Will and I got the opportunity to come back to Greenville, we were ecstatic. We would be closer to our families and lots of friends, and we knew that is where we wanted to be ultimately.

But, as time passes, I start to realize there are more and more little things I miss about Atlanta.

Shocking, I know.

At first, I thought that all I was going to miss would be our wonderful small group. These guys were such a blessing when we moved to Atlanta and basically knew no one. I miss each one of these couples dearly and I wish we still lived closer (although ‘close’ in Atlanta is a relative term). I can’t wait to see them at our Winter Retreat coming up in January! I am sure we will have a blast being back together again.

As Will and I were talking last night, we kept coming back to other little things we missed about Atlanta.

First off, the restaurants. Good gracious, just the amount of choices alone was nice!

·         Los Loros – the standby Mexican joint we frequented almost once a week. In the ice storm last January, we even walked there for dinner.

·         Galla’s – Pizza joint with great atmosphere that was Will’s bachelor pad standby for the year he was there himself

·         Chow Baby – Ok, this is all me, not Will. But an endless stir fry buffet with the most awesome peanut sauce ever? Sign me up

·         Front Page News – awesome atmosphere, good food, plus the entertaining drive through Little Five Points

·         La Fonda – OMG such good salsa. Too bad they give it to you in such tiny bowls. Great Mexican food, always enough for leftovers

·         Athens Pizza – Will loved their Greek salad, I loved that we could walk across the street to get a great pizza

·         Atlanta Fish Market – I only got to go there once, but once was enough because that was the best fish I have ever had

And, ya know, even though we have our house that I love, there is a small part of me that misses our old apartment. I remember the day we found it, after looking at 10 or so apartment complexes with rising prices and shrinking square footage, we were exhausted and frustrated. When we saw the apartment, we just knew it was right. The perfect size, a nice open floor plan, not to mention double vanities, a garden tub and a walk in closet. Will and I could talk to each other from just about any two spots in the apartment and still hear each other, which was nice. But, with all those pluses came a few negatives, like rent that was more than our current mortgage and the constant hum of traffic on Clairmont.

In addition to our small group friends, we also really miss a number of friends we made while working in Atlanta. We met some awesome people through Turner and RMA. Tyler and Shea (who have two of the cutest and most well behaved little girls I know), Tommy and Hannah (two of the nicest people you would ever hope to meet), Megan (one of the best co-workers ever), Ryan and Jen (who just welcomed an adorable little boy) and Stephen and Meghan (Stephen was practically family during the first few months of our marriage) and many more. 

And I know that Will will miss being so close to the Braves. He got to go several times with friends and I even bought him nice tickets for his birthday. 

And, I don't want to say I will ever miss Atlanta traffic, but there was something strange about how quiet it was when driving back from Fountain Inn last night at 8:30. It's not the traffic I miss, but I guess I miss restaurants being open past 9 and then sense of life that Atlanta has at all hours. 

I love Greenville, and it will always be my home, but a little part of me will always miss Atlanta and the fun memories we had there. 

Dining Room Part 2

So, after painting the dining room, we went about accumulating some furniture for this room. I knew I had a set of dining room furniture that had been passed down through my family over at my Nana's house. Will and I went over there the weekend after Thanksgiving to pick it up.

Since it had been a few years since I had seen the furniture, I didn't really remember how it looked. Let's just say that it was quite a bit uglier than I had thought.

So, instead of going out a buying something new, or putting this ugly furniture in our beautifully painted room, we decided we would sand it down and paint it black. The lines of the furniture aren't bad, but the color was pretty hideous.

A couple of before shots. All in all the set includes a table with two inserts, a china cabinet and hutch, a cart, and 6 or 8 chairs. (We don't know if it has 6 or 8 because we haven't picked up the chairs from my parents house and they don't remember)

A few weeks ago we started the sanding project. So far we have sanded the table, both inserts, the china cabinet and hutch.

I am sure we will be jumping back on this project as soon as this crazy Christmas season is over and we have a "free" weekend again.

"To Do" Lists

Anyone that knows me knows I love a good To-Do list. Practically nothing makes me happier than crossing things off my list. And I don't just cross through them, I use a methodical squiggly line to obliterate the completed task from my list. It's awesome.

Having a new house means that my to-do lists have been off-the-charts lately. From painting to unpacking to hanging pictures to cleaning, we have been BUSY!

Add the Christmas season on top of that, and we are exhausted!

I am trying to keep in mind that what really matters this season is to spend quality time with my hubby and my family. It really doesn't matter if everything on my list doesn't get done.

Plus, that's what the new year is for, right?

Right?!

Dining Room...In Progress

When we bought the house, I knew one of the first things I wanted to do before we got a lot of furniture in was paint a few rooms. After several years of dorm and apartment living, I have had quite enough of "landlord beige".  Will, being the sensible one, asked me to pick just the ones that HAD to be painted. So, I narrowed it down to the master bedroom and the dining room. I mean, come on, those walls are begging to be painted.

We already had a color for the master bedroom, so we had to come up with something for the dining room. We found some beautiful curtains at World Market (which I am sure Santa is bringing me for Christmas)

(Image from World Market)

At first, we thought we would go with a mocha type color, but a last minute suggestion from Will for a brick red led us down an unexpected path, and these were our choices. 

We decided on the red, and went to patching and painting. (Side note: Previous owners had kids. This was the room where they ate. Kids throw a lot of food. The don't discriminate between walls, floors, baseboards, blinds, etc.)

So, after everything was cleaned and patched, we went about the task of painting a deep red on a basically white wall. In order for it to not end up pink, we knew we needed to start with a grey primer. 

The next day, Will and I started on the red. 

Oh yea, did I mention that one of the walls in the dining room was covered with grasscloth wallpaper? While we loved the texture it would give the wall in the long run, painting it was not fun. It took twice as long as the rest of the room put together, and I went cross-eyed the next day doing touch-ups. However, now that it is done, we are loving the color. Check out our work!

Now, we just need the aforementioned curtains, some stuff on the walls...oh yea, and furniture. That is another work in progress that I'll be sure to update on later. :)

Our New Home!

Through an amazing set of circumstances that have played out over the last several months (which I am sure I will spell out later), Will and I were able to move to our beloved Greenville, get new jobs, and purchase our very first home. 

After weeks of searching, lots of negotiations, two offers, one home inspection, a simple walk-through, and signing a whole lot of paperwork, we got the keys to our first place! A place where we can grow together, laugh together, and have a whole lifetime of fun together. 

Although the projects keep piling up, and I am never sure if I am going to be able to find the articles of clothes I need any given day, it sure has been a whirlwind of fun so far. 

I'll be posting pictures of our progress, as well as the rest of our crazy lives.And while I can't wait to have the home "done", I know that it will never be truly finished. There is always more to upgrade, paint, decorate, rearrange, etc. I guess what really matters is who I share the home with. :)