what's up?

I have been relieved to have the past 3 weekends at home with not really any plans! I've gotten a lot of things done around the house, but I haven't had anything too exciting going on that deserved it's own post.  2 weekends ago we went up to my parents' land an hour North of here to look at the incredible new house they are building (see my sister's post about the house here and I know it will become a big part of our weekends and on the blog in the fall) and it was awesome.  I've watched a lot of movies lately and this past weekend Ben & I caught up on all the Harry Potter movies and enjoyed seeing the final movie in 3D at the theater.   

I have now started a more regular schedule with my new job and I really love it.  In the end, I know that despite all the months of unemployment, everything happened for a reason and I am grateful to be where I am now.  It's a feeling of relief and I am so happy.  I have also started my placement with Junior League for the year and went last week to play with kids on the cancer floor for Camp Rap-A-Hope.  It was an awesome experience and I'm looking forward to going again!

I've been attempting to try to use coupons more, since the new coupon clipping craze.... but I'm not so good at it yet.  My trip to Publix on Saturday was $265, I saved $18.  Hmmmm, doesn't sound anything like the saving-less-than-you-spend stories everyone else has!  I need to find more coupons!

Then this past Sunday, I helped host a Baby Shower for my sweet friend Erin!  A little over a year ago I was in her wedding and now she is waiting for baby Olivia to be born!  It was a wonderful afternoon celebrating her baby girl.  

 I made a Diaper Cake for the decorations and realized that they are a bit more difficult to make than I imagined.  But it still turned out simple & cute!  

 One of the gifts I gave Olivia were some monogrammed bloomers (almost exactly like these), one of my favorite little southern baby gifts to give people!  This piggy bank from a friend was so precious.  

 The hosts and other friends at the shower

I also made an appetizer for the shower.  This dip was a hit and everyone was asking me for the recipe.  I got it from another friend a couple of years ago and everyone seems to enjoy it!  I thought I would share it with you too!  (I promise it's a lot more delicious than this picture makes it look):

Cheesy Spinach Salsa Dip

1 TBS olive oil

1 cup chopped white onion

1 jar chunky medium salsa

1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 cup fat free half & half

1 8oz block cream cheese, softened

2 blocks grated pepperjack cheese

1.  Heat olive oil in pan over medium heat.  Add onions & saute until clear.

2.  Add jar of salsa & cook for 3 minutes.

3.  Add thawed spinach & cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly.

4.  Turn off heat and mix in half & half and cream cheese.  

5.  Move mixture to greased casserole dish and top with pepperjack cheese.

6.  Cook at 350 for 20 minutes uncovered & 15 additional minutes uncovered.  

7.  Serve with chips & ENJOY! 

a NEW house!

I alluded to some major home redecorating in the post about Rachel & Hollis' Engagement Party.  It was stressful, almost didn't come together in time, fun to pick out, and so worth it in the end.  Ben & I were still working with a whole bunch of college furniture so it was about time to update!  Here is the finished product in the den!

I am almost embarrassed to show this, but here are the BEFORE pictures for comparison purposes!  OMG, HUGE difference.  

Ok, so I'll start with the rug.  Green dark rug is out and a beautiful piece of bound carpet is IN.  It's soft & doesn't show dirt like you (or at least I did) may think it would... 

Our old TV cabinet was from Ben's college apartment and it felt like it was about half the width of our actual TV.  I had been eyeing this piece of furniture for a few years and FINALLY ordered it.  Oh how I love it so!  

Ben's chair was one of the biggest and MOST needed changes (yeah just scroll back up and take one more look at it).  Blue jean fabric chair & ottoman with rips in it and stains galore.  It made it through college & should have stayed there.  We went to 12 furniture stores and FINALLY found this beauty.  It's big, great quality leather, it reclines, and passed Ben's seal of comfort approval and my seal of style approval.  I even got that little pillow made for him too! 

The artwork over the couch (5 frames) just always felt too small an insubstantial for such a large wall space.  SO I went with the same concept, just bigger and better.  All of these are 8x10 black & white pictures that I have taken on different trips we have been on together.  They are matted and framed much bigger and in prettier frames.  Clockwise from top Left: London, Beaver Creek Engagement, Cabo Mexico Honeymoon, Napa Valley California, Boca Grande Florida, Spain, Charleston South Carolina, & Hawaii.  

The couch was basically the only thing we had bought since we got married and was definitely going to stay.  Although I was OK with the pillows we had before (red & black ones), I wanted to go much lighter and brighter direction with a new color pallet (green and blues).  I found a lady who made all the pillows for me the week before the party.  

I LOVE the floral fabric, the colors, the flower pillow, and the solids I found to match. 

Once we got the new chair, it seemed like a better idea to have a round table between the chair and couch.  I absolutely love this fabric over a 30" round table and a piece of cut glass over it.  The lamps were a Christmas gift! 

The 96" ivory linen drapes also made a big impact with allowing more light to come through.  I also used to say that I actually did NOT like how tall our ceilings were because it made it difficult to decorate and everything looked so small in the room.  But now that the drapes are taller, I think it adds a lot of height to the room and fills the space better.  

Other changes around the house were a new mirror, table skirt, and lamp shades in the entry way/foyer:

 Sitting area chairs were recovered (they were free & used to be red) with this gorgeous neutral leopard chenille.  Don't tell Ben it's leopard though because he doesn't like animal print & couldn't tell that it was! hehe

 We put the same drapes in the dining room and used the green pillow fabric that's in the den to recover the dining room chairs (I had a small issue with the staple gun but finally finished them 2am the day of the party).  Flowers from my sweet hubby this week finish off the table for this picture.  

Finally, the floral pillow fabric was brought into the kitchen with this gorgeous valence that my momma made!  I love the fold details and the fun bottom fringe.  

Ben texted me the day that everything was being finished and said "it looks like a magazine" to which I said "so does that mean you like it?" and he said "YES!".  So I got the seal of approval and now we can't believe we didn't do some of these changes sooner.  I made an agreement with Ben that now we don't need to spend any more money on the house! :) 

Hope y'all enjoyed the tour of our "new" house.  It's been for sale by owner for over 2 years and apparently isn't going anywhere with this housing market so we may as well enjoy it!  Special thanks to my 3 designing sisters (Amy, Natalie, & Rachel) for helping me pick everything out and make it all come together and my momma & mother in law for helping with last minute needs and implementation while I was working!  

bragging

...on my husband

I don't know how he does it, but sometimes he's a WAY better cook than I ever imagined being.  

He just gets an idea in his head and then "throws something together"...

I had a migraine, and he served me this beauty (notice the presentation with limes & cilantro too!):

I wish I could give you a complete recipe for this dinner last night, but Ben "doesn't do" amounts and had a hard time even remembering the ingredients! 

Ben's Black Bean Soup

black beans

chicken broth

olive oil

tomatoes

green onions

garlic & onion salt

chili powder

curry powder (that one shocked me)

shredded rotisserie chicken

avocado/tomato/cilantro/onion/red bell pepper/jalapeno salsa/relish on top

I LOVE MY HUSBAND :) 

Fabulous Fourth

How could you go anywhere other than the beach for the 4th of July?!  We pack it all in to this one weekend: fantastic food, sun, swimming, time with family and friends, & showing thankfulness for our troops & all the freedoms we have in this great country.  

I swam with Bennett for about 2 hours on Friday and Saturday.  Lots of fun times had in this pool.  

Harper was trying to stay cool because boy was it HOT! 

We caught the annual 4th of July parade on ONO Island.  Loved the pink fire truck honoring breast cancer survivors.  

Bennett LOVED all the candy, necklaces, and toys thrown to him in the parade.  

On Saturday, we had a cookout all day and Ben's family came over and Natalie's in-laws did as well.  We had a delicious spread of food and swam with the babies all afternoon.  I made a few appetizers and desserts over the weekend but most of them were gone before I could take a picture to give y'all a recipe!  I guess I'll just have to make them again to give you the recipes!  

Here was the one that I loved the most though.  I have had these little bruschetta things from catering at weddings and other parties and every time I eat more than I'd like to admit.  They are so fresh tasting and addicting.  So I just kinda guessed what the ingredients were and think it was a success!  

Bruschetta Rounds

~ French bread baguette rounds (either pre-made to make it easy or you can slice french bread & toast them yourself)

~ Mayonnaise

~ Precooked bacon chopped up (or bacon bits)

~ Roma or Grape tomatoes, sliced

~ Fresh Basil

~ Sweet Onion, chopped

~ Olive Oil

~ Salt & Pepper

1.  Put sliced tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, chopped onion, salt & pepper, and olive oil in a bowl and marinate for an hour or so.  

2.  Lay out baguette rounds on a platter

3.  Mix Mayonnaise & bacon together & spread atop the rounds (that's the really healthy step ;) haha )

4.  Top each one with a marinated tomato or several small tomatoes with the marinade mixture

5.  Top with a little extra chopped basil if you'd like! :)  

6.  Watch them get eaten in no time and try to snag a few for yourself!  

I am now officially craving these things again and so sad that there weren't any leftover!  After being at my new job and so busy lately, Ben & I have really enjoyed spending Monday at home with absolutely nothing to do!  We have seen several movies, made a big trip to Publix for groceries, and now we're about to grill hamburgers for dinner!  What a wonderful country we live in and we are so blessed to have such incredible and brave people fighting for our freedoms every day.  

Happy Independence Day!!!! 

Celebrating Rachel + Hollis

soooo, I know I said that I was busy with my new job, but there was also something else that has been making me a little more stressed and busy.  Before I got my new job, my sister Natalie and I (and Hollis' brother Reynolds & wife Melanie) with our husbands decided to host an engagement party for our younger sister Rachel and her fiance Hollis.  The only snag here was that it was planned for Saturday, June 25th.... which just so happened to be the biggest night of my job for the whole year.  Somehow, we made it all work out, but I decided to make things a little more stressful for myself.  Since the party was going to be held at MY house, I decided to redecorate.... as in, redo my entire den.  Ben (and probably even myself) had doubts about whether or not everything would come together at the last minute, but by some miracle, it did!  Furniture deliveries came the day before the party, fabric was being stapled on the last chair bottoms at 2am the day of the party, the last pillow arrived at 9am the morning of the party, etc etc etc... Also, the Alumnae Reunion (that I mentioned in my last post) was from 4-6 and the engagement party started at 6.  Somehow, it was a perfect day and all worked out.  

Here are many pictures from Rachel + Hollis' Engagement Party

Appetizer & Dessert world

 We had seating for over 30 people inside & outside (and you can see a sneak peek of the finished product in the den!)

 Atop my new TV Cabinet were pictures of the cute couple from over the years!

 We had delicious BBQ and Natalie decorated the tables with fun big sunflowers!

Our yard looked better than it ever has... Ben joked that he's putting Mr. Lowe's kids through college with all the trips he made to Lowe's to plant bushes, flowers, etc etc.  I hung white paper lanterns in the tree & we had tiki torches lit around the patio (with our new patio furniture).  

Rachel, Hollis' dad Charles, My Mom, & Hollis

The sunset was beautiful and it finally cooled off a little bit when the sun went down

 Our Distinguished Young Women Finals was live cast on the Internet Saturday night, so even though I couldn't be there, I was able to watch a few bits & pieces of it online and caught the very end & saw them announce the winner.  

I love my sister and am so glad we are within 3 months of her wedding! Time has flown by and I am so excited for them.  We had a such a fun time and love the incredible group of friends they have surrounded themselves with.

Rachel + Hollis

September 24, 2011