June Goals: How'd I Do?

June was a great month!! I feel like I accomplished a lot!

Fun:
Finish reading the Chronicles of Narnia series - COMPLETE

Recap our Memorial Day trip - COMPLETE part 1, part 2, part 3
Bonnie and Ben's wedding!! - COMPLETE
Ashley and Mike's wedding!! - COMPLETE
Go to Riverbend - COMPLETE

DIY/Crafting:
Reach 400 posts by the end of June(!!) - COMPLETE!!!
Play with my camera settings in preparation for my work trip in July and our big vacation in August
 - FAIL

Home:
Paint kitchen cabinets - almost complete... :)
Patio garden progress report - COMPLETE

Cooking:
Menu plan for 2 weeks/stop eating out so much - FAIL (it's hard not to eat out when your kitchen is unusable...)

Wellness:
Workout on my lunch break every Tuesday and Thursday in June - success but I won't call it complete; definitely planning to keep this up!

I can't believe it's already JULY!!!!

400 Posts? Oh Snap!

Whoo hoo!!! I can't believe I've written 400 posts! And I can't believe you've read even some of them!

It cracks me up every time I run into someone who casually mentions something that I know I haven't told them personally and they say "I read it on your blog!" I'm like FOR REAL? You read my blog?! It just makes my day. :)

So for my 400th post, I would love to be posting the reveal of our kitchen remodel, but alas - all projects take approximately 2x longer than you expect. HOWEVER, we are very close to being as finished as we're going to be for now (we're waiting to do floors and a couple other small things). Here's a super fun list of all the things that have been accomplished since the 2nd weekend in June:

• removed, sanded, and painted cabinets white
• added trim to make the cabinets "shaker style"
• added "satin nickel" hardware
• painted shelves in dining room area
• painted walls "Herb Garden" green
• removed old oven
• installed new (stainless) oven and 3 new base cabinets
• purchased new (stainless) microwave
• installed new (granite!) countertops
• new under-the-counter sink and beautiful faucet (with a sprayer and soap pump!!) I am easy to please.
• inherited a gorgeous dark wood armoire that we're using as a pantry
• still waiting on: curtains (can't decide on fabric), glass to be installed in two upper cabinets (to display our china), backsplash (we're working on deciding tonight), "accessorizing" (any takers on coming to help accessorize before the "big reveal"??)

So instead of showing my "afters", I will leave you (here on this 400th post) with the ancient photos of what our kitchen once was...

Dude, it just makes it that much better to compare these to how different it looks now!!

I. Hate. Socks.

  Dear everyone,

I hate socks. I hate wearing them, but I really hate matching them.

When I do laundry, I refuse to fold underwear or match socks. So.... this is what the unmatched socks pile looks like right now:

Yikes! Well, after I took this picture and laughed to myself about how goofy it is that I don't just take five minutes to match them, I came back in the bedroom to find the whole pile of socks sprinkled over MY side of the bed.

Haha. Reeeeal funny, bub. So we took the five minutes to match the socks.

The end.

For now.

Until a new sock pile appears.

Dash - June 2010

My Progress Stinks

My last garden progress report was at the beginning of June (the 8th, to be exact), and everything was peachy keen! I felt like the plants were growing steadily and that their growth was about where I expected it to be at that time.

Now, journey with me, if you will, to the present day. Where things have all gone downhill. :(

*Please note the BROWN disgusting strawberries that were once beautiful and bright green.

*Please note that you can't even tell that I planted squash in the bottom left hand of this picture; it is also brown and either dead or dying.

*Please note that the peas now have brown vines weaving through the green.

Please note that only one plant (zucchini) has survived.

I have to say I am slightly very depressed about this.

I'm going to go cry now.

It's Pippi's House!

When we were on our vacation to Amelia Island, we were in this really cute bookstore on the main strip and there was a small piece of paper pinned to a bulletin board that caught my eye.

It said that the movie Pippi Longstocking was filmed on Amelia Island!!

 

And that Pippi's house was in the historic district nearby! WHAT?!?! I looooove Pippi!

So I start freaking out and saying "Can we PLEASE go find Pippi's house?! Pleeeease, pretty please?!" and to my delight, my sweet hubby said, "Of course we can!"

So using our trusty GPS enabled phones, we searched for the address and eventually found it. It was starting to get dark when I took the picture below.

But here's she is in all her glory. The beautiful Villa Villekulla!!!

image source

Of course the day after we got home, we borrowed the movie from Jessica and watched it! It was so wild because there's a little driveway/path to the left that goes down towards the water and WE WERE ON IT!!! I would have totally gotten out and taken 100 more pictures, but it's now a private residence... and I didn't wanted to get arrested.

IT WAS SO AWESOME THOUGH!!!

Casa de Brannan

On Sunday night we went to Cindy and Bob's house for Father's Day / Wes' birthday.

We all gathered round to watch Bonnie and Ben's wedding video!

Their dog Clyde was huuuuuuuge. I didn't get a great picture of him, though - but seriously - his head is the size of Dash's entire body. No joke.

And this little doll is Patti Grace, Bonnie's cousin - she was the flower girl for their wedding. Isn't she adorable!?

We really enjoyed spending time with everyone!

Mike and Ashley's Wedding

On Saturday we went to Johnson City for Mike and Ashley's wedding!

Mike (left, below) is Brandon's (middle) cousin and one of Jason's really good friends (and a groomsman in our wedding). He and Ashley were absolutely made for each other - we LOVE being around them!

The ceremony was beautiful!

You may now kiss the bride!

The happy couple!!

We had a blast at the reception too! They asked all moms and sons to come dance with Mike and his mom - it was precious. :)

The food was yummy, the dancing was fun, and company was wonderful.

Congratulations Mike and Ashley! We love you!!

The Prodigal Cheese Grater Returns

I don't know how many people I have told this to, but when talking about post-wedding events, such as opening, sorting, and relocating wedding gifts, I always bring up "the cheese grater."

I registered for this awesome Oxo Cheese Grater at BB&B that has a measured cup in the bottom so you can grate exactly how much you need. Super cool, right? And the Hilliards got it for us at the Red Bank shower! (I even got a picture with it!!!)

Anyway, somehow in the hustle and bustle of putting things away at the new house, it got lost. Or thrown away. Or stolen by aliens. Either way, it was gone. For-ev-er.

And I would talk about it all the time! "Man, where in the WORLD is that dadgum cheese grater?!" I would tell people, "Make sure you keep track of where you put things after the wedding!

But alas, we never found it.

UNTIL LAST NIGHT!!!

The prodigal cheese grater returns!!!

Jason found it in the back of the top cabinet in the kitchen last night. I almost cried.

Daddy Love

Happy Father's Day to my dad, Tim:

And my father-in-law, Ben:

We love our dads!!!

Happy Friday!

 Happy Friday!

We decided to take the night off from the kitchen last night, and eat out and watch a movie instead. We went to Taco Mamacita and then Clumpies, then watched Edge of Darkness. It was pretty good and didn't follow the plot line that I expected it to. (By the way, last weekend we watched Shutter Island, and it was AWESOME! I really liked it a lot and definitely didn't expect to. It wasn't as "horror movie" as I thought it was going to be, but was really suspenseful and made you think. Rent it!)

Anyway... we're going to try to get some more stuff done in the kitchen tonight and then on Saturday, Mike and Ashley are getting married!!!!! We can't wait! :)

Have a fabulous Friday!

P.S. Congrats to my future sister-in-law, Elizabeth, for getting her first full time teaching job!! We are so proud of you!!!

Kitchen Progress: Day 3

Yesterday was Day 3 of the remodel and we are moving right along! Last night we sanded the cabinet bases and began the first coat of beautfiul white.

Sorry for all the phone pictures but it's so much easier to snap one and email it to myself knowing there's nothing I can do about the quality, than taking a picture with my fancy camera and spending 25 minutes in Photoshop trying to make it look better. :)

Plans for tonight include:

*finishing coat 1 on the bases

*sanding the cabinet doors now that they have trim on the front

*painting the doors after they're sanded

I love the way the white is looking, but I still keep getting paint all over myself!!

Kitchen Progress: Day 2

Our kitchen and dining room area has looked like this for a week or so now...

Yeesh! But fear not - progress is being made!

Goodbye too-small-oven and ugly stovetop!

Hello, gorgeous.