Long time no talk.

Well, well the world must be ending because after a year and a half (I cannot believe it's been that long!) of this blog collecting dust I've gotten the itch to write again. I'm in the process of combining this little blog with the new one, but in the meantime you can find me in my new little cranny here. I hope to see you there!

Determined

The current state of our dining room table. Eating is overrated, right?! If you can't tell, I've got a one track mind these days; to finish decorating our home.

If you haven't seen the new Golden Days collection at Target go check it out. Lots of aqua, gold and blush pink home goodies.

Weekend Recap

We took full advantage of the holiday weekend with a a jam packed schedule full of fun. And I even managed to sleep in until noon on Saturday.

Friday night we met our old, and favorite, neighbors and their babe Luc at Cava for dinner. They’re expecting TWINS in June which we are SO excited about. We noshed on our favorite Greek foods of zucchini fritters, FRIED cheese, tzatziki, lamb chops, scallops risotto and grilled octopus. Yum! Hubs and I are late dinner eaters so we didn’t know what to do with ourselves when we were home by 8. We usually haven’t eaten by then. So we watched Moneyball. I’m not a sports girl but it was a great movie and perfect to watch with your beau.

Saturday we went furniture shopping. Again. But this time we finally found chairs for our living room and got them ordered – success! I can’t wait until they arrive in 4 weeks. We then rushed into DC for the Sixers/Wizards game. Hubs is from Philly and is a diehard sports fan. His cousin’s husband works for the Sixers and was able to get us tickets to the game. Without being completely contradictory to my statement above, can I just say how much fun basketball games are? There’s always a contest, free t-shirts or Chipotle being tossed to fans during the timeouts. SO much better than NFL games. It was an added bonus that the Sixers won and we scored free Chik-fil-a.

Sunday afternoon we went with a group of friends to a 1k Wine Walk. It was SO much fun, a must if you’re a wino like me. The walk was a 1k course, complete with a start and finish line, through an indoor mall with 10 wine stations scattered along the way. We even got bibs like it was a real deal race, without the running! The wines varied from local VA wines to wines from South Africa, CA, Italy, etc. We tasted over 20 wines so by the end everyone was a bit crazy. I will most definitely be on the lookout for more wine walks, if you’re in the DC Metro area be on the lookout for this event next year.

Monday night we had friends over for a little impromptu dinner that was planned towards the end of the wine walk, ha! Hubs grilled filet mignon, which was delicious. While dinner was grilling we munched on oysters on the half shell and bacon wrapped scallops. It was such a fun night with good food and friends and it was fun to host our first dinner in our new home.

Did anyone else have a fun-filled weekend?! I’m looking forward to a short work week!

Deal Alert

If you live you in Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church or any other DC neighborhood make sure you check out today's Living Social deal. It's for my favorite wine & cheese store, Arrowine, and this little mouse just bought 3!


http://share.livingsocial.com/deals/229166?ref=iphone-conf-jp&rui=2343757

Happy Wednesday!

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The Month of Organization: Planners

Ahh January, the month of organization. I'm busy getting our house back on the straight and narrow, purging clutter and getting back to some normalcy of life. The Fall threw us some unexpected curve balls and a few big changes including a move, a new business venture for my husband and way too many holiday events to even think straight. The craziness, good and bad, had us eating out 4 to 5 nights/week, laundry accumulations the size of a small country and general organization being non-existent. So I'm more than excited to welcome in not only a new year but also a much more lax month that will allow me to catch up, get back to being organized and even give me time to do some things I enjoy like cooking, baking and craftiness.

With that being said, I've been on a cleaning, organizing and reorganizing spree since we took our tree and Christmas decor down this weekend. Can I just say that with a yummy Starbucks drink all things are possible!

Anywho, the time came to fully transition from my old planner to the new one. No more using both depending on the need. This got me thinking, what should I do with the old planner? Planners contain a lot of personal info and even personal info about others; friends, family, careers. This means addresses, email addresses, and sometimes even medical info. So should I just throw it out? Rip the pages out and shred them?

So I'm curious, what do y'all do with your outdated planners?

And for a quick update: I transitioned from the My Agenda Planner I've been accustomed to for the past 5 years or so to the much hyped and coveted Erin Condren Life Planner for 2012. If you follow me on Twitter you know I was quite skeptical and even critical when it first arrived. But after using it for a couple months, I got mine in November, I will eat my words and admit that I was wrong in my first impressions and I do love it now! I'm pretty sure that this loyal My Agenda girl has been converted and will not be returning to My Agenda anytime soon -- unless of course they add the Ziploc-like folder to their agendas!

Hello 2012!

Happy New Year! Our Christmas/trip to Colorado was quite eventful, which I'll recap later this week, but for now I want to get my 2012 goals down before 1. I forget them and 2. so I can hold myself accountable.


But first, a quick recap of our New Years -- I don't think I've ever been so excited to welcome in a fresh start and a new year.  We had a great, low-key night welcoming in 2012. This was the first New Years in two years that we weren't traveling and were at home (2010 - Wintergreen, 2011 - beloved Nashville). We enjoyed a romantic night, just the two of us, that started with a delicious dinner at a favorite, neighborhood restaurant, Circa. I chowed down on the new years special, surf and turf and the hubs chose salmon. We splurged and ordered the most amazing dessert, key lime creme brûlée. It.was.to.die.for. Totally worth every last calorie! Since our wedding cake was key lime flavored we're partial to anything key lime. And hubs' favorite dessert is creme brûlée so this was a double whammy of goodness.


I digress. After dinner we grabbed after dinner drinks before heading home with about an hour to spare. We flipped back and forth between Carson Daly's new years celebration and the country music new years special, which was awful! Earlier in the day we hit up one of our favorite local wine store for some cheese and charcuterie to snack on while waiting for the ball to drop and enjoying the last bottle of our favorite wine.

The night ended in a dance party and hashing out our resolutions as a couple before calling it a night around 2:30 and sleeping for 14 hours!  Yes, 14 hours!

Okay, goals.
1. Continue working out and eating clean/healthy.  Hubs and I have done pretty good with working out 4-5 times a week.  The struggle I have is when life gets busy, the gym is the first thing that gets dropped from my schedule.  I hope to find the balance and make time, regardless of how busy I am, to work out.
2. Finally sit down and put together our home management notebook.  I bought this cute binder this past summer and have yet to do anything with it.

3. Make a list and pull coupons before going to the grocery store.  I am a chronic grocery shopper.  I make lists, off the top of my head, but my lack/failure to plan meals results in visiting HT and T. Joe's multiple times a week to pick up the forgotten items. Such a time suck.  I also fail to grab coupons for my shopping trip, when I'm in a hurry, even though they're already clipped!
4. Buying lunch no more than once a week while in the office.  This should be fail-proof since I telecommute two days/week and am only in the office 3 days.  We did pretty good with this the first half of 2010 but then lack of planning/laziness resulted in many bought lunches.
5. Get back to blogging regularly.
6. Remember the resusable totes for grocery shopping!  Again, something I did for half of 2010 but failed to make a habit. I'm guilty of bringing groceries home in reusable bags but then for some reason the bags never make it back to my car for the next trip!
7. Get back to sending my grandmother a weekly card or note.  I love getting mail and sending mail/cards/notes and I get at least one card or letter from her each week -- which I love reading.  I know she is equally excited when she receives my notes/letters and this year I slacked on this, bad.
8. Volunteer more.  Since 2006, I've volunteered a lot with St. Jude. It's definitely a charity that is near and dear to my heart.  I hope to continue giving back to St. Jude and find one or two other organizations to get involved with this year.   

Favorite goal for us as a couple: make dinner together one night each week. The recipe has to be a new recipe that we've never made.   This is two-fold since it will allow us to spend quality time together and will mean saving money by not dining out.

Here's to an amazing 2012!

Christmas Card

Merry {early} Christmas from our family to yours!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 25th Birthday to the most amazing sister in the entire world!!

I am so incredibly blessed to have a sister and the special bond that only sisters have!  Although, growing up we may have had our moments of fighting over clothes and the phone, I wouldn't trade those moments for anything. 

I love you so and cannot wait to see you next week!

Happy Birthday ALB!!

Love,

Your {proud} big sis

Wordless Wednesday: Favorite Ornaments

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Friday Favorites

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I hope you did too!  We headed to Central VA Wednesday afternoon to spend Thursday morning/early afternoon with my parents. We started the morning off with a delicious, home cooked, southern breakfast and followed it up with a hike along Skyline Drive.  It was  beautiful morning, sunny and in the 50s, and the perfect activity before pigging out.  Late afternoon we headed to my in-laws for the Thanksgiving meal with hub's family and our niece and two nephews.

Saturday we ventured to the mall just before midnight for about a half hour.  Just long enough to see all the crazies lined up around the buildings waiting to be let in.  I swear that's the best part, forget shopping, seeing all the crazies was a hoot.  That's not to say I didn't take full advantage of the Cyber Monday, or Cyber Week, deals.  As of today I am more than half way done with my Christmas shopping -- yay!

I plan to tackle Christmas cards and wrapping the gifts this week and then I'll be done(!) and able to fully enjoy the Christmas season. 

Here's a few of my favorites of the week.

Douglas arrived!

We have become OBsessed with this lately.

My Thursday morning working from home.

Thursday = a GREAT mail day for Christmas gifts

Skinny Taste's Sante Fe Chicken - a favorite in our house

Weekend Inspiration.  Decking the halls and decorating our week-old tree that is still undecorated.

Happy weekend!

Cute {Cheap} Loot

Just a few cute things I picked up in the dollar spot section at Target on a recent shopping trip. 

(For the niece)

Happpy Shopping!

cBv

Weekend Recap

The weekend kicked off with hubs walking through the door Friday night with a beautiful bouquet of pink tulips {my favorite} for me.  It was a total surprise, but a welcomed one!

I made my mom's crabcake recipe for dinner.  It was the first time I'd made them, not sure why because they're super easy and quick to make. They were delish -- no filler!  And it was an addded bonus that hubs was able to eat them since he can't chew anything for a few more weeks.  They will definitely be added into our regualr dinner rotation.

Saturday was a lazy day full of cleaning the house, laundry, a few errands followed by a date night in.  I indulged in some long, overdue vino and a cheese plate and hubs chowed down on peach cobbler while watching Horrible Bosses.  Have you seen it? It was one of those stupid, funny movies but man is Jennifer Anniston's character vulgar!  I'm pretty sure I need to go to church all week after watching it!

Oh but the best part of Saturday?!  Learning our good friends, actually our old neighbors, spilled the beans that they're pregnant....with TWINS!!  They have a little guy, Luc, who is 15 months.  Needless to say we were SHOCKED by the news and SO incredibly excited for them.  I can't wait, twins are so much fun!

Sunday was filled with a morning of church, much needed after missing the last 3 Sundays, followed by an afternoon of shopping at the outlets. 

We did a little damage! : )

We were excited to find out the outlets now have a Vineyard Vines -- with amazing prices!

It was a nice, lazy weekend.  One of the lasts for quite a while until all the holiday craziness is over. 

Happy Monday and yay for a short week!

cBv

Trash to Treasure - Living Room Ottoman

When we moved and gained more space I knew right off the bat that I wanted a round ottoman for our living room to use in place a traditional coffee table. We shopped around at a few home décor/furniture stores such as Arhaus, Ethan Allen, etc. but I refused to spend $1,000 on a coffee table that wasn’t e.x.a.c.t.l.y what I wanted. So I started watching trusty old Craigslist and after a couple weeks I found this eyesore.

Although the fabric was hideous, it had great bones and was from a smoke-free environment and was in excellent condition, structurally. It was listed for $60 but I low balled the seller since they were moving {and I assumed eager to get rid of things} and snagged it for $40. I knew there was endless potential to reupholster.

I started searching for a fabric and scoured the interwebs for local upholstery shops, reading reviews and getting estimates. I stumbled upon a super nice, older man with a little shop that offered free pick-up and delivery AND was a third of the price as the other two estimates I received. Even better, the few reviews I was able to find online claimed he did great work and the clients were thrilled with the outcome.

I decided to take a chance. Mr. Upholstery Man picked up the ottoman and two weeks later delivered what looked like a brand spanking new ottoman.

I am more than thrilled with the quality of work and the way it turned out overall. So pleased, in fact, that I’m considering buying two used accent chairs and having them reupholstered instead of buying brand new in order to achieve exactly what I want. I’ve been giddy like a kid on Christmas morning every time I walk into our living room and see it. It is by far my favorite piece in our house.

If you live in the DC Metro area and are looking for a great upholstery shop please email me and I’ll be more than happy to share the info with you. 

In the end we ended up saving about $600 and ended up with a custom piece.

Total Cost: $450

Breakdown:

Ottoman $40

Reupholster $290

Robert Allen Fabric (5 yards) $120

I'm thinking a cute tray is the perfect finishing touch.

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Review: Target Frye Look Alike Boots by Merona

Lately there just aren't enough hours in the day and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get back to blogging, regularly.  I've been busy playing nurse to my wonderful, amazing and hero husband who underwent some unplanned surgery last week.

Anyways, the Target Frye wannabe boots by Merona arrived last week and I finally got around to trying them on this weekend.

The verdict? 

Meh. 

They had lots of potential but both pairs, cognac and brown, ended up being returned to Target. 

Ignore the jeans, they went back, too.  I'm striking out lately w. fashion.

Although they were extremely comfortable on my feet, they just looked cheap to me. The other thing I wasn't crazy about was they were a bit tight on my upper calves, I wasn't blessed with chicken legs, and they slouched (already) on my ankles.  I don't want to be walking around with cankles. And I totally forgot to take a picture of the brown ones but you can see a smidgen of the color in the corner of the pic.

And while we're talking footwear, does anyone else have this problem?

No matter what brand or type of footies/liners I buy to wear with (any pair of) flats they always show.  So then I end up just wearing flats barefoot, which I hate because I don't want them smelling funky. 

Do y'all wear footies with flats? If so, where/what brands do you buy?  And do they show?

Driving.me.crazy.

Hope everyone is having a good week. 

CVB

DIY Halloween Treat Bucket

For the past five years we’ve lived in a condo building which meant no trick or treaters at Halloween. Boo! Which in my opinion is the best part of Halloween! So you can imagine my excitement when we moved to a townhouse in the middle of a great neighborhood. I’m so excited to have an actual real Halloween this year complete with trick or treaters. I hope we see lots of kiddos, Lord knows I bought about 15 bags of candy so I hope they don’t disappoint and force the hubs and I to eat all the candy ourselves.

Anyways, I started searching back in August for the perfect treat bucket to use to pass out Halloween goodies. I came across this one but then I saw the $32 price tag I did a double take.

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Any other year I’d pay that in a heartbeat, but this year we have way too many furniture/home decor purchases to justify that price for a bucket I’ll use once a year. So I headed over to Pinterest confident I could find something just as cute that I could make for half the price.

Of course, Pinterest had no problem providing me with more than enough inspiration.

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I ended up using this picture to recreate my own.

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And came up with this.

Quick, easy and best of all cheap. The entire project cost $16 and was completed, start to finish in under 30 minutes. If you have a Cricut and can make your own decal, you'll save a few extra dineros.

Here’s what you need:

Ribbon – I bought one 3-yard spool from JoAnn’s at 50% for $2.00

Bucket – I found the perfect sized plastic one in the Halloween section at Target for $6.00

Decal – Ordered a custom decal from an Etsy shop for $8 (two parts: pumpkin & text)

Drill – borrowed the hubs’

The only real effort was drilling the holes in the bucket for the ribbon. This actually took real muscles so I had the hubs drill the holes with the biggest bit (about a 1/2 inch) that he had.

Choose how far or close apart to drill the holes; I drilled mine about 2 inches apart. Weave the ribbon through the holes and then tie a big ‘ole bow. Place the decal on the bucket.

And voila! Fill with candy and you’re ready to greet trick or treaters.

So far I haven't given in to the chocolately goodness, but the hubs has!

CVB

 

P.S. - I ordered the boots I mentioned here in both Cognac and Brown so I'll be sure to give you a full report when they arrive later this week.