End of an Era

For as long as I've been around, my Dad has been a basketball coach. In fact, my Dad was prepared to accept a college assistant coach position at a small college when my parents found out they were having me. And, since I was in 4th grade, my Dad has worked at Wade Hampton High School. He has been the basketball coach there seemingly forever.

I grew up going to Dad's games for as far back as I can remember. In the early days, that meant sitting in the opposite side so I couldn't hear what my Dad was screaming at the refs (and mostly reading a book or something equally nerdy during the game). As Dad mellowed and I grew older, I got to sit behind the bench, then in the student section during high school, then back to my trusty place two rows up behind Dad.

However, things are about to change in the Nance household. My Dad is going to transition from the A.D. and basketball coach at WHHS, to the Greenville County Athletic Director. It's undoubtedly going to be a big change, but it's a great opportunity for Dad and I am so happy for him. 

I know Dad (and the rest of the family) is going to seriously miss this.

Miss the boys on the team.
Miss the atmosphere in the gym.
Miss the hugs I run down to get from Dad after the teams shake hands.
Miss the horrible things Sammy says to the refs.
Miss the fact that my mom has to wear a black and white striped shirt to keep the books and hates looking like a ref.
Miss hanging out in the gym/Dad's office until everyone has left the school.
Miss the late night meals after a win.
Miss the routine of the Tuesday and Friday nights
Miss having an excuse to go back to our high school.
But mostly, miss the entire package of basketball season and Wade Hampton.

However, I know this is the right move for Dad and the family. It's bittersweet, but it's the right time. So, I put together some of my favorite pictures from this season, including several from our last home game at WHHS.

Sammy and I with Lewis, the security guard for the basketball games for as long as I can remember.

Mom and Dad at center court :)

The Nance ladies

This family has a ton of great memories in this gym. :)

I am so proud of you Dad. I love you and am so excited for your next adventure!

So. Many. Projects.

Friends, we are T-minus 3 weeks away from me being done with a major work project that has basically consumed my life for the last 8 months. So, I guess I am starting to prematurely celebrate by planning a hundred projects around the house. Here are a few quick sneak peaks to the fun new projects coming to the Blackmon home. 

Giant crack in our front door...

Suburb paint job :)

The coolest barn door around...

Old barn wood and my partner in crime (and craft)

On the Backburner

So, as of November, we have been in the Blackmon abode for 3 years! That seems crazy to me! One of the first major projects we took on was the dining room. This was the very first room we painted, just a day or two after we moved in. Then, we sanded and painted all the dining room furniture and moved it in (total pain). You can see the progress here, here and here. And yes, I realize the last post was from 2012 and I am just now finalizing what to put in my hutch. What can I say, I put it on the backburner? 

Here was my clean slate quite a while back. 

I started with some plates my mother in law gave me to see if they would work in the space. I love them! 

Add in some cookbooks, some Mason jars, some TJ Maxx finds, some 'oldie but goodie' decorations, and some new presents, and its finally done!

My MIL just gave me this for my birthday. It says "And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord". I love this sweet reminder in our dining room. 

This is one of my favorite little decor pieces because of the story behind it. My dad gave this to me before Will and I got married. He thought that this verse captured what we were going through and how we felt about each other. 

A recent birthday present from Aunt Marcia! "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6 

And this awesome frame that my sweet boss Abby gave me for Christmas. I thought surely I had a spare 5x7 of Will and I to put in that, but apparently not. So...off to shutterfly I go to get one ordered! :)

Much better!

It feels so good to finally have this project completed! (minus the picture haha!)

Christmas Recap!

Christmas is always busy around the Blackmon house. This year, we had 8 separate Christmas family events we attended! One of my favorite times around Christmas (and maybe the only one that I remembered my camera for this year...) is spending time with my cousins at Nana and Papa's house. We typically do a Christmas Eve brunch and then open presents and play!

First, Papa always reads the Christmas story. 

Then, the present opening begins!

Dad watching the kiddos.

Mom with her annual cousin Christmas calendar that Carey makes us each year. 

Macrae with the keyboard. 

Sweet Macrae opening presents with "un-ca daw-wa"

G putting on a concert for us with his new drums and microphone. 

Unknowingly, almost everyone gave Gatlin or Macrae some sort of musical instrument for Christmas. They got drums, a microphone, a keyboard, a tambourine, and a recorder. It was quite a musical Christmas!

I was shocked that Gatlin knew exactly what to do with the drums. He would even start off his song by hitting his drumsticks together and kept tapping his foot like he was using a foot pedal. 

Macrae rocking out!

And Campbell getting in a set on the drums!

Then come the concerts!

Love this little man!

Of course Campbell knows how to really get into a performance :)

It's always so fun to see these kiddos, and even more fun during Christmas where we can spoil them just a little and see Christmas through their eyes. 

2015 Goals

Yup, the beginning of the year is the perfect time for goal setting, and I love a good list :) Like I said, 2014 was just a crazy crazy year in my life, and a lot of aspects of my life have been on the back burner, so I look at 2015 as a 'getting back on track' kinda year. So, here we go!

Projects in the Blackmon Home

• Get new attic stairs and new front door. Let's not even talk about how feeble our current attic stairs are. I feel like I'm rolling the dice every time I need to store something in the attic.
• Paint shutters (oh my goodness even I am tired of seeing this goal year after year...I have to do this in 2015)
• Keep on keeping on with painting the trim. I have two bedrooms and 1 bathroom done....and seemingly a million more square inches of stupid trim in my house.
• Paint and (finally) finish the 3rd bedroom.  This will require selecting a paint color,  so it's likely to take forever.
• Finish off our master bed. We got a king sized bed at the end of last year, and we have sheets, a comforter, and a lot of pillows. We even got some new euro pillows and shams for Christmas this year that are a perfect match with the other decor. We do not, however, have things like a bed skirt or a headboard.
• Finish some super cute crafts I have planned with some awesome old windows I got from one of my co-workers

Life Stuff

• Continue to be more engaged in our local church. We still host small group at our house weekly, so I want to continue doing that and being involved at TCC.  
• Read more! I only read like 5-6 books last year, which is horrible for me! I'm looking to get back to the 40-50 that I was at in previous years. 
• Better work-life balance. This is such a struggle for me. I love my job, and I love my co-workers, and I honestly have fun at work, so it is difficult to set that aside after work time, but I have to.
• Cook more! I do love cooking, just not the cleaning up part. We have eaten out entirely too much this year, and I need to get back in the kitchen more and try some new recipes. 
• Spend more time with this guy. He's pretty awesome if you didn't know. :)

What about you friends?  

2014

So....absolutely no blogging in 2014. Not exactly what I had planned, but it ended up working out. For a variety of reasons (mostly work related, but some computer issues as well), I just needed to simplify, so I didn't do it.

Now, that's not to say that 2014 didn't have its highlights. It was a great year!

I had TONS of fun with my co-workers

The winning team at the Professional retreat!

A look my boss probably gives Daniel a lot :) 

My sweet best friend Kristi got married in May! :)

College roomies!

All the roomies and all their husbands!

And, the whole Blackmon clan took a vacation to the Pacific Northwest. It was a one of a kind trip to a beautiful part of the country!

The family at Mt. Hood

Will and I at Hurricane Ridge :)

One of my many goals for 2015 is to do a better job documenting it. So, back to blogging I go! 

Christmas Cousins

This year, I will admit, I did a pretty poor job remembering my camera for most of the Christmas functions. But, one of the places I remembered was at my Nana's house, because the cousins were there! I have 3 sweet little cousins that I love so so much and this year was so fun!



Since Campbell is obsessed with my sister, and Gatlin loves me and Uncle Keith, my mom has 'claimed' Macrae for herself. So they hang out a lot :)



Campbell was ready for the gifts!!



Me, Sammy, and Macrae were trying to recreate a photo we took with Campbell when she was a baby. Someone told Campbell to get in the picture and she was not having it! hahaha! :)



Macrae cuddling with Nana



Campbell feeding Macrae



Being with them this year was even sweeter than normal because my middle cousin, Gatlin, came straight to Christmas from the hospital. (He was battling a nasty infection that seems to have turned the corner). At first, he was still a little shy and sleepy, but that boy sure did turn it on by the end of the day!



I mean, who can resist that face?!?



Hanging out with mom



And, since we just got out of the hospital, now is a perfect time to get a scooter! Stitches anyone?



Luckily, for now, he just thinks you are supposed to jump off of it...



...and onto a nearby chair.



Campbell playing with her new puppy toy



Us with her new puppy!



But the best moment of all was with this little guy. Will and I were leaving and I asked him for a hug. He turned around and hugged me and then I went to leave. He ran over to me and said "kiss? kiss?" with this puppy dog look on his face. It felt like my heart exploded with rainbows and sunshine. I went over and kissed this sweetheart, and we went to leave. Then, he looked at Will and went "kiss? kiss?", so Will kissed him, and then he said "hug? hug?" and Will had to hug him. I mean, seriously?? That's like the sweetest thing ever!



What a precious child. We are so lucky to have these three kiddos in our family :)

Bed Swap

A few posts back, I mentioned that Will and I got a king sized bed (!). But, that did mean some switching around had to happen. 

I was so excited for the bed rails to get here, it finally started to feel real!

Our third bedroom before. It still felt like a dumping ground for stuff. Sometimes it still feels like that, but I have a plan in place to make it more home-y and a more like a comfy 'hang out' type room. 

All the stuff moved around in the 2nd bedroom to make way for our old bed. 

I love this setup in the 3rd bedroom. I have already used it to lay around and read for a few random nights. 

Obviously much much more work to go in this bedroom. Step 1: Paint Trim, Step 2: Arrange shelves, Step 3: Hang something over the closet doors, Step 4: Decide on a wall color, Step 5: Paint ridged wood paneled walls (any volunteers? haha!)

New bed frame all set up!

It's finally here!!

Unfortunately, since we haven't bought proper bedding yet, we just had to take the comforters off the other two beds and sleep with separate blankets. But, armed with gift cards, and on the lookout for a good January linen sale, I am sure that will be fixed soon!

Better Late Than Never

So, my posts have been few and far between lately. Partly due to sheer laziness, partly due to working on fun Christmas gift projects that couldn't be shared yet, and partly because our computer seems to be on the way out (I got a blue screen of death while uploading these pics...keep your fingers crossed this thing makes it a couple more years :))

Anyways, a few weeks back, myself and a few other coworkers threw a baby shower for my work BFF Kristin. I was super excited when Kristin told me she was pregnant (except for the whole she-wouldn't-be-at-work-for-months-while-on-maternity-leave thing), but I was FLOORED when she told me it was TWINS! A few weeks later, she found out it was a boy and a girl, which is awesome!

Boy and girl decorations

Diaper cake I made for little Tucker Matthew. 

And another diaper cake for sweet Lillian Margaret. 

And, even though we don't typically do this with work showers, we did a game. People had to hold a 'crying' baby while changing another babies diaper. This match up between two moms was pretty even. 

However, when Kristin took on a non-mom...

The results were pretty decisive. :) At least if someone is good at that game, it better be her!

But, it was most fun watching the boys attempt this. Bahahaha!

Loved our fun time celebrating these already loved little ones. Now, cook just a little bit longer, I am sure your momma can handle it! :)

I'm telling you, these kiddos are already part of the HTI family. And awkward pregnancy photos. 

Back to a Braves Game!

Well, if you read regularly, you know that Will was out of town for a while for work. We only got to see each other every other weekend or so during that time period. But, that's all over!! And of course, the first weekend he was back for good, we went back out of town!

We had the first in a series of weddings that weekend and it happened to be in the Atlanta area, our old stomping grounds. So, we decided to make a long weekend out of it, hit some of our favorite spots, see some old friends, and catch a Braves playoff game!

When we lived in Atlanta, Will was so spoiled by being able to go to 10+ Braves game a season. However, since moving back to Greenville, he just doesn't get to go nearly as much as he wants. So, when it was a playoff game, and the first 10,000 people got a tomahawk, we got there EARLY, folks. 

We had great seats, and, even better for me, two of the couples in our old small group happened to be at the game! We got to meet up with Jason & Bess and finally meet their sweet boy Skipper, and see Tyler & Ann, who just announced they are expecting as well! It was so nice to catch up with old friends that I didn't even think to get pictures while we were together. Of all the things we miss about Atlanta, our small group is definitely one of the biggest!

Watching some warm up. Again, we were here early!

First pitch thrown out by Bobby Cox!

Luckily, the Braves pulled out a win, however they did lose the series and got knocked out of the postseason. Hey, there's always next year, right? :)

Needtobreathe Concert!

A few weekends ago, Will and I made a special trip down to Columbia to go to the State Fair to see one of our favorite bands, Needtobreathe! We met Will's sister Mindy and a friend for dinner near the fairgrounds and headed down to the concert. We ended up getting there halfway into the first song and rushed into our seats. And our seats were AWESOME! 8 rows back almost in the middle. 

 

"Washed by the Water" in the rain :)

NTB is an awesome live show if you ever get a chance, go see them!

We were so close! One of my best friends Kristi and her fiance also had tickets with us, but traffic and parking problems met that they got there with 1.5 songs left in their show. That would be my only complaint, I wished the show was longer!!

Generally, Will and I aren't concert people. In fact, I think this was one of the first concerts we have been to during our marriage. However, this concert was great! It helps that we love the band and know all of their songs, but they were also really good live. Different enough from the records that you know they are really signing, full of passion, and they just seem like nice people! :)

Kristi & I!

The four of us!

'

7 months from today, they will be married! :)

Doing a Little Dreaming

So, the Blackmon home is in for a little upgrade. And by little, I mean king sized! That's right ladies and gentlemen, Will has finally caved and we are getting a king sized bed!! I have wanted one forever, and our bedroom is plenty big enough, so we figured we would finally upgrade!

Of course, with upgrading to a bigger bed, that means I have to figure out new bedding. Which is a total nightmare. Married ladies can probably understand my struggle. We ladies want beautiful, luxurious fluffy bedding. Boys want something that's "not girly". Hmmmm.... So the search begins!

Love this bedding look from Pottery Barn (who am I kidding, I love almost everything about Pottery Barn but their prices!)

More PB neutral bedding love :)

Or maybe a little darker look for the bedroom. 

Well, I have lots of things to think about. Hopefully I can come up with some "non-girly" options before our new bed arrives :)

Worst.Project.Ever

So, a few weeks back, I started another project. And maybe this was a stupid project. But I started painting the trim in our guest room. The trim in our home is old, stained and not in great shape in several places.

I knew it would make a big difference, but here was the first place I started. And you can see what a huge difference it makes. The new trim is bright white, semi-gloss, and looks awesome!

Here are the closet doors before I started. 

Halfway done with the closet door!

New, bright shiny white doors!

I know that painting the trim is a huge undertaking, and quite honestly, while I love the finished look, I have way too much trim in this house. So far, the guest bedroom and master bedroom and bathroom are done. I'm telling you, before long, I will have painted every single surface in this home. :)

New Collage in the Kitchen

For a while now, I have wanted to hang some stuff on our blank kitchen wall, I just had to find the right arrangement of stuff. And we finally made some decisions!

Ta-da! The layout!

This wall was looking a little bland, and needed something...or a few things :)

The 'Blackmon' print that Will's parents got us for Christmas.

Plus a corkboard for hanging fun notes and invitations!

The first three invites for upcoming weddings!

Plus a canvas print from our Jackson Hole trip

The last piece of the puzzle is an original piece of art I bought at Artisphere, an art festival in downtown Greenville.

I love the new look in the kitchen! It definitely adds something to the room and I am so glad I finally got around to getting this done (and props to Will for doing the measuring for me :))

Getting Crafty

The other weekend, after staining the deck on Saturday morning, I decided I was done with house projects for a while. I had been doing stuff here and there for several weekends when Will was working out of town, and I was done! It was time for this girl to watch some football. 

Then, I got to thinking about what I could do while I was watching football. And I remembered all that scrapbooking stuff I bought to do a scrapbook of our awesome Grand Tetons/Yellowstone trip this summer. I already had everything I needed, so I grabbed our folding table and set up this sweet work station. 

Football and crafting. That makes a Southern girl happy right there. 

I starting putting together spreads, like of our time in Salt Lake City and at Antelope Island State Park. 

Or our time in Yellowstone! 

Sure, the living room looked like a bomb went off....

But a few days later I had this awesome scrapbook. I surprised Will with it when he got home last weekend and it was great to sit around and reflect on that trip, although it just made us want to go back that much more!

(Not So) Covert Ops

Things have been busy here at the Blackmon house! 

Two weekends ago, I decided it was time for another (not so) covert mission. Will and I had been talking about staining the deck at the end of summer/beginning of fall, and we (I) decided to go for it! When he was home, Will helped me get all the supplies ready to go for the next weekend. 

This was the deck before...

The beginning of the staining. The color was a ceder type color from Thompson's Water Seal. It turned out to be a little more red than we were thinking, but overall it turned out great!

Even though the hubby couldn't be there to help me, I did have two awesome helpers...his parents! I was so thankful for their help because otherwise, I would still be outside working on that deck!

Finished product! It turned out to be a great weekend to do it. Not too hot, not too cool, not too many leaves falling from the massive trees in our backyard to ruin the stain, and no rain!

Even though the color is a little different than we thought, I like it!

Finished product. Done just in time for a welcome home party for Will, right? :)

Covert Ops Part 3

While Will was gone on his most recent business trip, I dusted off the paint brushes and got to work on a project I have been wanting to do for a while...paint the side tables in the guest room!

Before, they were these crappy little bachelor pad tables. Will used them in his college rooms forever and they needed some love. 

So, I moved them out to the sun room and got to work!

I decided to paint them white and distress them in order to match the white iron bed in the guest bedroom. 

I used white Annie Sloan chalk paint so I didn't have to sand or prep the surface at all. 

After two coats, I was ready to wax the furniture. My mother-in-law came over to help to help with this step

First, a coat of clear wax, then some dark wax to distress the surface. It was super simple!

Finished product!

I love it! Now, for some different lamps and curtains. Almost there with this room!

Lazy Lake Days

Unfortunately, this summer, we really haven't been at the lake for much time at all. Our work schedules have been crazy, and there just hasn't been the time! 

However, if you know anything about what has been happening with our weather lately, you know it has rained a lot!!

And, with a lot of rain, it filled up our empty lakes! It just filled them up quicker than we could pull in the dock. So, the other week, this is what we saw!

What we had to traverse to get to Marty and Rose's dock. 

 

The water got up to about mid-thigh, and the dock was super slippery, but the weekend was not lost! Lots of sun made for a great lake weekend. 

Throw in some grilling up at the house and you can't go wrong!