Heads Carolina, Tails California...

Ok, to be honest, California was not a contender in the first place. With all the "stuff" in my personal life going on, a thoughtful friend sent me gas money for my birthday with orders to go visit my other friend, LeAnn, in SC. Talk about an offer you can't refuse!

My actual birthday was not nearly as bad as I anticipated - so many folks made me feel special and loved!

The day after (the 27th), around noon, I started my trek to SC. The drive was not bad at all until I hit Atlanta at rush hour. Not that there is ever a good time to drive in Atlanta. Mercy.

Finally, I arrived safe and sound at LeAnn's apartment! I was so happy to just walk in there and plop all my stuff down. I was exhausted, not just from the drive, but from not getting enough sleep the night before. We just chilled on the couch and chit chatted for hours. It was so nice to catch up. Aside from a brief interval when she had a layover in Nashville on her way to Wisconsin, I had not seen her face to face in almost two years! But it's so wonderful to have those friendships where you can just pick up where you left off, you know?

She had made me a birthday cake, and that might have made me a little bit teary. As cheesy as it is, Josh always made sure I had my favorite birthday cake for my birthday... I really thought this year would pass without any cake at all, and what is a birthday without cake?!



It was lemon, and it was goooood.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to head to a nearby Farmer's Market so I could meet her friend Kim. Kim and I have been FB friends for quite some time, and I had been dying to try some of the delicious food she is always making. Imagine my surprise when we got there and she had a little birthday gift bag of goodies for me! I almost cried. It was such a sweet (and very delicious) gesture.

Look at all this good stuff!



Of course I had to buy more, for backup. ;)

After that LeAnn and I went to Sonic so I could induldge in my obsession of the moment (Wholly Guacamole Hot Dogs). I have since quit cold turkey, with only one slip. I was up to three a day at one point. It's a shameful place to be.

LeAnn had gotten me an Ulta gift card for my birthday, and we headed there next... I had never been to an Ulta, and I was SO EXCITED!!!



I ran into the Beibs there...



And here is my first Ulta Purchase!!!



After that we made a few more stops, including Michaels and the Mall.

We went back to LeAnn's and I said I was going to "rest my eyes" for a second. Next thing I knew, she was waking me up and it was time to go out and meet up with more of her friends (including Amanda and Travis, who I had met earlier at the Farmer's Market) for dinner at a local mexican spot.

Heading out (wearing my new makeup, of course!):





All of her friends were so great, and I felt like I had known them forever. There was no awkwardness at all! And best of all, I got to wear a large somebrero and have whipped cream smashed in my face!





After dinner, we headed to Dazzler's, a nearby bar. Or, as LeAnn calls it, "The Dazzle." I have to admit, I go to bed pretty early, but they convinced me we'd only be there an hour. Yeah, right. Once I got started, I didn't want to leave. I was singing and dancing and making a fool out of myself... and I loved every second of it. I have not cut loose in... way too long. I should try to do it at least once a year.



The next morning we were going to Jennifer's for brunch. Jennifer is another one who has been my fb friend for a very long time, but I had never met in person.

Here's a picture of me being emo on the couch while waiting for LeAnn to get ready.



Brunch at Jennifer's was GLORIOUS. GLORIOUS. Crab quiche. Need I say more? And cucumber sandwiches, and ham and potato soup and mimosas and salad with fruit and gouda and more fruit, and blueberry cake... oh my. I still think about it daily.

Here is Jennifer, me, and LeAnn before we left.



Jennifer has since moved to TX (boo), but we will be seeing her in November and I can't wait. I'll also be making another trip to SC in late October... can't wait for that, either!

After that long and relaxing brunch, we then met LeAnn's momma for dinner. It was so good to see her, she is EVERYONE'S momma, and she truly loves all of her "children". I am so glad to have Momma B in my life!!

We then headed back to LeAnn's and watched the Olympics, "Bridesmaids", did our nails and were just lazy. It was wonderful.

I was to leave the next morning, but first we decided to end our visit with a spray tan (courtesy of LeAnn's groupons). I am a pale, freckled chick who burns... I thought it would be great to try something new. I went for medium, with a boost.

Right away, we had a lovely glow.



Six hours later, when I got home, I looked like this:



HOLY COW, right? Haha.

After documenting it with photo evidence, I took a bath and washed off all the excess. I came out looking far more normal and just had a regular tan. I loved it. I would definitely do it again!But of course I had to joke about it first, and let everyone know this was the working title and cover of my new book...



But, like I said, it faded to a "normal" tan in no time.




I miss you, LeAnn. Every day!!! Thanks to you and Julz for giving me a wonderful birthday weekend!

Playing catch up!

I'm going to post about this past (most recent) weekend first and then hopefully I'll have time later to post about the one previous. Exciting things (well, exciting to ME) going on in my little world.

Friday I took the day off from work. Went to the dentist and got bad news. Yuck. Going to get a second opinion from another dentist next week and hopefully an affordable payment plan (we're talking $3500 worth of work, folks). Well, in any case, that was depressing. And it made my mouth sore so I came home and took a nap and then got ready to go meet my MIL and SIL for dinner and then the Jason Aldean/Luke Bryan concert. I will be the first person to tell ya, I don't generally like "new" country music. I seriously love the stuff that came out in the 90's, or I prefer old country - George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers - the classics. But Jason and Luke put on a heck of a show!! It was a lot of fun. Live music is so good for the soul, and living in Nashville.... sometimes you've just gotta embrace the country!





Me and my sis in law wearing our new shirts. I had to get the Dirt Road Anthem shirt for two reasons: #1 The beginning of the video was shot right around/in my neighborhood, and #2 the song references George Jones. So that was a no-brainer.


Having fun at the show!


This was my SIL's drink at dinner. A Blackberry Volcano. So cool, and tasty, too!

Saturday Morning, Josh and I went to a local coffee shop just a mile or so away. They will be moving INTO our neighborhood soon, pretty much right up the street and around the corner from us!



Then we stopped at an Estate Sale in our hood, where we got a box full of vintage goodies for $9.50.



After that I had an appointment, and after the appointment, picked up my friend Kristina because she wanted to go to the Estate Sale, too. We kind of rushed through it the first time so I didn't get to see everything, so I was excited to get to go again. Spent another $13, will show you my total haul in a second.

We had a little more time to kill, so Kristina suggested we go to The Beehive, which is a little local store that sells fun things for the home and garden. We had never been there before, so why the heck not?

Well, I had bought a little vintage orange bowl at the estate sale that I wanted to plant succulents in, and sure enough, the Beehive had some succulents. I went out to my car to get my bowl and see what would fit. The lady that worked there looked that bottom of the bowl and said "This is a vintage McCoy! You only paid $5 for it?" (price tag was still on it) I told her everything there was half priced, so I actually only paid $2.50. She said the flower frog that was in it (search image here https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1603&bih=750&q=flower+frog&gbv=2&oq=flower+fro&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=1&gs_upl=1255l4209l0l7048l12l12l1l1l1l0l162l718l8.2l10l0) was worth $5 alone. I had no use for the flower frog, so I gave it to her and she seemed happy about that. Meanwhile, I got my succulents and a McCoy for $2.50 and I was happy about THAT!



Here is everything I got at the estate sale:



So many fun vintage books, I can never resist those!







Also started my first batch of vanilla vodka - we'll see how it turns out. Should be ready today or tomorrow:



Decided to display some of my vintage pieces of Fiesta that never get used and put them in the hutch. I rearranged it a million times, but I think I am finally happy with this:



My shelves are still a work in progress, though. They will be the death of me!

Ladies' Lunch

A few weeks ago, I selected a small handful of neighborhood ladies that I don't know very well to come over for lunch. A couple of them cancelled at the last minute and there ended up just being four of us. It turned out better than I hoped... The smaller group was really fun and we were able to dig deep and have real conversations instead of surface chit-chat, which probably would have happened otherwise. It was a great afternoon and we had a good time eating, drinking, being merry and moving from  dining table to porch to enjoy the day.

Speaking of dining tables, mine is functioning as a desk for a certain nursing student/husband these days, so this was the last time I got to see it look pretty. Let me bask in it for just a moment.



I put a jar of peach and ginger jam at everyone's seat:



And here are the lovely ladies... you can tell how sweet and fun they are just by looking at them, I think.



I was so grateful to get to know them a little better and I look forward to getting to know even more of my neighborhood gals on a more-than-surface level soon!

On the menu was:
Pineapple/strawberry/limeade punch with strawberry vodka
salad with blue cheese, cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette
vegetable pizza (croissaint crust with cream cheese/ranch spread a topped with cheese and veggies, served cold)
Penne with  roasted butternut squash and goat cheese
roasted veggies
sausage balls (brought by one of the guests, who is the perfect gracious southern lady from her sausage balls to her thank-you notes... She's one of a kind! Love it!)
And two desserts: Chocolate chip pie and Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cakes.

It's safe to say no one left hungry!

What's going on...

I've been a very bad blogger as of late. Not much to report, just a couple of little things, but here goes.

We'll start with the big thing. Big to me, anyway. I got a camera!

It's a Lumix FZ40 and I am in love with it. I have only had two digital cameras in my life. The first was a 2 megapixel point and shoot that I got around 2004. It finally died in 2009. Josh bought me another point and shoot in 2009 and it died within about 6-8 months. So I've been without a camera for a year and a half. I do love all the things I can do with my iphone, but I really needed a REAL camera. Granted, this is still a point and shoot, but it's stellar. There's a lot of manual modes I can use, too, but it is going to take me a while to master them. The lens is fantastic and so is the zoom... It is great in low-light, too, which is good because I am not a big fan of using flash unless I have to!

Here are two photos I have taken with it.





I did edit those in picnik for my own personal jollies, but you get the idea. Here is another one, but it's not good quality, because I snapped a pic with my iphone of the back camera display and then edited it through instagram (on my phone). It's just such a cute picture, though.



In other news, I tried to copy an idea I saw on pinterest, and I don't know if I am exactly thrilled with the results.



Could be worse, though, I guess.

Ooh, I created a facebook group to get to know my neighborhood ladies better. I added about 10 or 11 people to it and by the end of the first day we had over 50. One of my neighborhood friends graciously offered to host our first "official" gathering at her house. We had a potluck brunch and a total of about 22-25 ladies! I even got to meet a fellow neighbor-blogger, Jane! Just adore her and I am so grateful to have such great folks in my neighborhood. This is just a fraction of the food we had.



Getting to try one of everything was impossible, of course because there was so much! I look forward to our future gatherings.

Speaking of food, this has been our weekend breakfast for the last couple of weeks.



Butter a muffin pan, melt butter and syrup together and brush on both sides of flattened bread and put into muffin cup. Add some (mostly) cooked bacon (it will continue to cook when it bakes), crack an egg in it, top with cheese if you want, and bake it for about 20-25 minutes. Yum!

Time to catch up on blog reading - hope everyone is well!

Weekend!!

My dearest bro-in-law arrived in town on Saturday from CO and stayed with us for the night. He is doing some training for his job in KY, but we were lucky enough to have him in TN for a couple of days.

Several of us went out to eat Saturday night at Battered and Fried. I had a fried scallop sushi roll. My heavens, it was so good I wish I had never tasted it, because now I just want to eat it again!



(here's our group minus me and two others)

After dinner, everyone came back to our house to hang on the porch and drink beer and tell stories. Which means our fridge looked like this:



We have tons leftover, too bad I don't like beer.

And speaking of our porch, we finally got the glider put together... I love sitting in it and watching the hoodlums go by.

Here's a shot of it the evening we put it together:



And here is how it looks in the daytime:



Love it! The pillows are made of napkins from World Market. I got two different patterns for the big pillows so they are reversible, and one of each pattern for the bolsters. Now we just need a porch swing (and a couple more pillows) for the other side of the porch.

Sunday was a very lazy day...





I can't resist sharing this picture... Julio stole Pablo's "chewie", and when I went to take a picture, Pablo came up next to me and Julio bared his little teeth because he didn't want Pablo to take it back.



Josh took Bo, the neighbor dog, to the vet to get fixed this morning. Here is a picture of him and Pablo (BFF's!) from Friday:



I think his new home is going to work out. He's adjusting.

Luncheon for my work ladies? Nope, SURPRISE BABY SHOWER!

My friend and co-worker Daeon is pregnant with her second baby. Some time ago, she mentioned how it was kind of sad that the first baby gets all the fanfare and showers and all that, and the second babies usually don't. That got me thinking... I am just as excited to meet Baby Alayna as I was to meet her big sister Kaelyn. This new baby deserved a bit of celebration before she arrived, and that's all there was to it!

After consulting with my other co-workers and Daeon's husband, we settled on a date and opted to try to keep the shower a surprise. Quickly everyone jumped in with ideas and offers of what they'd contribute. We had this in the works for a couple of weeks before I sent the "fake-out" email, saying that I was really feeling the bite of the entertaining bug and that I wanted to host a little luncheon for all of my work ladies. I even took it a step further and said the colors of the party were going to be blue and orange, and could they please dress in one or both of those colors. I am sure Daeon thought I was completely off of my rocker, but everyone else knew what was really going on.

I decided on blue and orange for the party colors because I already had these banners in those colors that said "Hip Hip Hooray" and "You Rock"... plus, my walls are blue, I wanted to be sure everything would look nice and not cobbled together. And just because Daeon is expecting a baby girl doesn't mean everything needs to be pink, right?

Miriam and Julie came a little early to help me with the last minute touches. Julie also got to meet her favorite dog in the world, Julio! He really enjoyed the attention.





I really was stressed out over the whole event, because I wanted it to be perfect. I had a vision in my head and I wanted this to live up to it! All the prep was going smoothly until I got a call from my co-worker Jenny (who was in charge of cupcakes and onesie-decorating supplies) that the flu had hit her house and she was sick and couldn't make it. I felt myself wigging out a little, because we weren't going to have an "official" cake/dessert without the cupcakes. But then she mentioned they were already made (I thought she hadn't made them because she was sick, but it turns out she made them beforehand - praise the Lord!!),  and I asked if it would be ok if someone came to get them. She said that was fine, and off my husband went to save the day. The cupcakes were beautiful, made to look like hydrangeas with butterflies on them, and were the perfect centerpiece! I can never thank her enough for making them, and also for being gracious enough to let Josh pick them up even though she was ill and probably didn't feel like dealing with any of my perfection anxiety!

Megan opted to drive Daeon to ensure that Daeon wouldn't show up too early. It was funny, because Daeon came bearing beautiful sunflowers in a enamelware pitcher for me... It cracks me up that she brought something to her own party. But hey, I love the flowers and the pitcher, so I'm not complaining!



Other than the momentary cupcake panic and a couple of people not being able to make it, everything went off without a hitch... the food was good, the company was great and it was a relaxed and fun time!

I took a ton of pictures, but I've tried to condense them somewhat by putting them in collage form. Have a look!



Megan made the fabulous tissue paper poufs, and came up with the idea for the candy bar as take home favors... she also provided the containers and the candy for them. Thanks, Megan!



I ordered the clear bags and twine for the candy and bought the little tags that I stamped with an "A" for Alayna in the party colors.



Drink and candy station. I couldn't find white cranberry juice ANYWHERE for the punch recipe I wanted to make. I improvised with blue Hawaiian Punch, Sprite and ice cream! This picture actually makes me nuts because the napkins aren't centered (which is where I had them, I think I just moved them out of the way while we filled the tub with sodas and ice) and the lid on the ice bucket is crooked. Oh, well!

However, the biggest hit of the party may have been the retro striped paper straws I ordered for the sodas (http://www.thinkgarnish.com/ - great website and really inexpensive!)... I think everyone took some home!



The amazing cupcakes...











My melamine summer plates happen to be blue and orange, so they were perfect to use! We had some great food... Aside from the incredible cupcakes, Miriam brought brownies and Megan made this chocolate chesecake type spread that we put on 'Nilla wafers. It tasted like a chocolate chip cheesecake! I made vegetable pizza (tube of crescent rolls rolled out into a sheet and baked, then topped with a mixture of cream cheese, mayo and hidden valley ranch mix and veggies and cheese), cucumber and goat cheese finger sandwiches, crackers with chorizo and manchego cheese, and bacon and brown sugar wrapped crackers. I'll try to link to all of those recipes later!

Opening gifts:


This isn't the prettiest photo evidence, but for onesie painting, I had the onesies arranged on a cake plate sitting in the hutch, and all the paints/stencils/brushes on a second cake plate.










All I know is I had a great time, and I think our guest(s) of honor did, too! Thanks, everyone,  for humoring me and wearing the party colors (my dress is a dark peacock blue, though it kind of looks black in the photos).