Bye Bye Front Yard Tree

Hey everyone! My first blog post in a while comes to update everyone on the storm that came through early Tuesday morning. We woke up around 4:30ish to my weather app on my phone alerting us to a severe thunderstorm warning. I didn't think much of it and tried to go back to sleep. That didn't really work because then a SUPER LOUD and scary sounding storm came through. After I felt the entire house shake, we decided to go downstairs until the storm passed. I'm not normally affected too much by storms but while hearing this powerful storm go through our neighbhorhood, I was truly frightened. When we went back upstairs to try to go back to sleep after the storm, we noticed that a few branches were down on our tree out front, but didn't seem like a big deal. Apparently it kept storming after that, because when we fully surveyed the damage when the sun came out, we couldn't see Chris' car anymore because of how much of the tree that had fallen. Thank goodness that it fell towards the street instead of on our house! The tree guys that removed it said the rest of the tree should come down for safety since the remaining branches are leaning towards the house.

Several of our neighbors came over to check out the damage and many remarked on how that tree had been one of their faves on the street. Apparently it was really beautiful during fall. I told Chris, well at least you'll have less leaves to rake up this year! Why not try to put a positive spin on it? =)

Also, we're waiting to hear it the insurance company is going to deem his car totaled or not. If they do decide it's a bust, at least it's good timing...Chris is definitely due for a new ride.  And above all else, thank goodness we are safe!!

Love to you all =)

Our tree blocking the street as well as another one 2 houses down

Chris' car after the tree company removed all the fallen branches

Blocking the street

Another view

Up close

We woke up to find Chris' car buried under our  front yard tree

You can sort of see the car

Pottery Barn Moss Letters

My awesome new "W" moss letter

I got the newest Pottery Barn catalog yesterday and fell in love with the moss letters. Anyone that knows me is aware that I LOVE all things monogrammed. When I saw the price, $79, I was totally shocked. Who would spend that much?! Not me, so I thought I'd figure out a way to craft it myself. I think it turned out pretty well, see what you think...

Here's a picture I took from the catalog yesterday, I can't figure out how to rotate it. but anyway, $79!!!!!! craziness

Started with a wooden "W" which cost $3.99 at JoAnn Fabrics

Moss

Hot glue

Close up


Feeling pretty excellent about my intense savings that went on here by  crafting it up.

2 months later, hi again!

We're still hard at work on decorating and settling into the new house. I'll post some new pictures soon.

I just hosted our first official party at the new house! I decided to throw a "Cookie Exchange" party. I had read about these types of parties on a few different blogs. It seems like it is typically something that is done around the holiday season. BUT I didn't want to have to wait 10 months to have this party. i thought that Valentine's Day would be a good reason to get some girl friends together and enjoy hanging out.

I think the party was a big success, we certainly all parted ways on a big sugar high! I had a few savory snacks on hand to try to balance out the sweetness but I think sugar won the battle. We voted on the best cookie, our winner was Lianne and she got to take home a fun prize. I forgot to take any pictures which is a shame because the table was full of beautiful desserts!!

After we tasted and voted on best cookie we went around the table and took a couple of cookies from each tray until all the cookies were gone. Everyone got to go home with about 1 dozen cookies of their choice. 

Chris is excited to get to try everything. He and some of the guys went to the bar to play Golden Tee while us girls were hanging out.

We celebrated Valentine's Day a bit early, last night at Watermark. it was amazing!!!!!!!!! Go there!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Our 1st Before and After

So it's not a HUGE transformation but I still think it's pretty cool....Above a few of the doors downstairs are these glass windows

I saw these vinyl applications online at Wonderfully Wordy and found "pantry" to go over our pantry door. Check it out...

Chris put them up for me and afterwards he said, "I gotta hand it to you, this looks pretty cool." What do y'all think?

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have had so much fun in Virginia. Arrived on Wednesday night around 5 after a seven hour drive. We didn’t hit any traffic so it was a painless roadtrip. This was my first time experiencing a Weinman/Shelton Thanksgiving and Chris’ first time back in a while. First tradition that I got to participate in was the seafood dinner at Harbor Inn. Fried catfish, oysters and hush puppies were awesome. Side note, I LOVE hush puppies!!!!
The next day, Thursday, we woke up early for the Drumstick Dash 5K. I think it’s a perfect way to start Thanksgiving by burning some calories before the big meal later in the day. After the race we got to meet up with Chris’ friend from high school, his wife and their new baby. It was fun to see them, I wish we lived closer because they would be great to hang out with more regularly!
After a fun visit we headed back to the house for some delicious turkey! Ellen got the 28 pound turkey from her CSA, which I thought was cool. It was delicious as were all of the other dishes! I think my favorite side dish was the brussel sprout and artichoke heart casserole. A big shout out to Ellen for all of her hard work  After we let all the food digest we headed out for family bowling. Chris bowled a 201 in his 3rd game. He didn’t even have the bumpers on his lane! 
Today we have been vegging out, watching football and watching the Wii being played. Now we’re winding down for the night getting ready to head back to Nashville tomorrow. All in all it was a wonderful trip! Happy holidays to everyone. Love to you all =

Unpacking and Organizing

quick update- Our new house is starting to feel more like home each time we unpack a box. And now all the boxes are unpacked!!
Still lots of work to do but it's coming along.

New House!

I know what you’re thinking. No posts the past 2 Sundays, what happened? Well, we moved!!!! So I’ll make up for it this week with some extra posts. If you click on the picture below it will take you to an album of pics of the new place!



All of our neighbors have been so friendly and welcoming. They all seem about our age which is a change from our old neighborhood where we were the youngest. We are so happy to be in our new place, it’s almost hard to believe it has actually happened!