Wordless Wednesday - Follow Me

 I Figured I'd give you guys the progression shots as we traveled through the yard....
Of course she had to bring along her Cinderella purse.
















Notice that in the first two pics the coat is still on....I think she has daddy's warm blooded nature cause mommy was definately wearing a sweatshirt!
















By the time we got to mommy and Hailey's play/garden area the coat was ancient history!

Ahhh…to have unlimited money

One can dream…right? LOL, one of the prompts for this month was: If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I actually love living in Georgia, we have moderate temperatures for most of the year and get the occasional snow in the winter.

It’s great this time of year with the fall leaves changing and the cooler temperatures at night. We live in metro Atlanta so anything you can think of to do is here somewhere… Yet we live in the burbs so it’s still like living in a small town. I'd say that was the best of both worlds. The only downside to being in Atlanta is our horrible traffic. Granted, you do figure out how to avoid it and the best times to venture out.

Anywho…back to the question. If I had an unlimited money option where I could have multiple properties well that would be the life and I definitely would have to add a beach house. The hard part would be to choose which beach. It seems that every beach has a personality and are good at different times!

Our unlimited money awesome beach house would have to have a pool as well (I did say the unlimited money option J) We like to mix it up between the pool and the ocean. Why not do both if you can, right?

 

If you had unlimited money then that means you could travel a lot as well….then I wouldn’t technically have to pick just one location. Can ya tell I get wishy washy with too many options?? Where would you guys pick to live if you had the unlimited money option?

*The pics of Hailey are from our last trip to the beach at the end of September.

 

 

The big reveal!

Woo hoo the day is here to show ya’ll our new downstairs bathroom. I’m sitting here wondering as I write this post…is it sad how many times a day I stop to admire my new bathroom? That’s totally what it is…it doesn’t even remotely look anything like it did before. It amazes me how much bigger it seems…

I’ll quit blathering on and get to the nitty gritty. As ya’ll saw from an earlier post I had a plethora of colors to choose from in the Benjamin Moore Aura paint series (if you didn’t see that post you can look here…if you’re new and have NO idea what I’m even talking about you can also find the before pics here).

I had so many mini projects to put into this one small bathroom I don’t even know where to start….I’m sure my pics aren’t even doing it justice either! First and foremost I want to thank the Academy…no, no the Buzz Agent people and Benjamin Moore people who got my booty shakin’ to get this project started and completed (not to mention the free paint)!

Before I started anything I had to pick a color…this was no easy feat with the thousands of colors to pick from ( I finally chose a yellowy green color called Anjou pear)…once I started narrowing the colors down I was able to find my beautiful new valance (by Waverly from Lowes) and start looking for accessories.  I knew I didn’t want to spend a fortune on decorating but wanted a Pottery Barn/ cottagey/ shabby chic type look.

I found all kinds of stuff at home that I wasn’t using or in other rooms of the house…not to mention repurposing stuff I bought. The new shelf is actually a Pottery Barn shelf that I refinished with homemade chalk paint. The light fixture was one we had from one of the rental properties that I painted (with Rustoleum in oiled bronze).

 

 




I had to take my time to do this room…the walls were in horrible shape. This was the very first room when we initially got this house that I bandaged up a bit for us to get by. Needless to say it got put to the wayside. I pretty much had to skim coat the whole room…did I tell ya’ll that I had to do the ceiling as well….joy, joy!



 

This paint was amazing with low smell and great coverage. Like I said in my sneak peak the other day…I was beyond concerned after the first coat that a) the color wasn’t what I picked out and b) it wasn’t going to cover that dark green (they guarantee 2 coat coverage). I was SUPER relieved to say the least! I do have to say I balked at the price of the paint initially, but when you consider how well it does and that it includes the primer…it’s not too far off base. The company also guarantees that the color will match the paint chip.  

I hope you guys like it….I know I love it! If anyone has any questions about any of the mini projects…just let me know! What’s your current project that you’re working on or wanting to get started?

Below are some before/after comparisons.

 

Pork…it’s what we had for dinner!

Yes I know…I’ve had a slew of food posts on here lately. Can ya blame me…it IS that time of year where you eat all kinds of food and try not to suffer the consequences! I will be spending all kinds of hours at the gym over the next couple weeks so I can continue to ENJOY and not feel guilty about it too (YES, I did stick out my tongue...)!

I work out so I can eat what I want, well and so I can get rid of the rest of the baby weight. Thank goodness it’s almost all gone! But I digress…ya’ll I’m sure are wondering what my lovely title is referring to.

As one of my buzz campaigns I received a package with coupons for pork, directions and recipes on cooking it and a lovely digital meat thermometer. Who ever thought I’d be excited about a meat thermometer? Not I, but I was. I love getting stuff in the mail and over the last couple weeks I’ve been invited to all kinds of buzz campaigns. How can a girl say no….this leads me to having to play catch up which I’m not too fond of.

One of things I loved about the package is the descriptions it had on the different cuts and cooking times. For me, it’s always hard to remember these things off the top of my head or to find a quick reference.

 

On to the meal!  I decided to do pork tenderloin that I seasoned and cooked in the oven at 425 degrees for 28 minutes.  While I was cooking that I also put in the homemade macaroni and cheese and cooked some rice. Towards the end of the cooking time I stuck the bread in to crisp and steamed some fresh veggies.

 

It was obviously a hit around here…there were NO LEFTOVERS! That’s always a good sign.

 

 

Sneak Peak

We finished up the bathroom today and I thought I’d give you guys a sneak peak of how it turned out….but you’re gonna have to come back on Monday to see the full reveal! Bwa ha ha <evil laugh>

I know, I know as if I could draw this out any further. I 100% promise the full reveal on Monday.

See…Hailey thought it was funny too.

 

I just LOVE how the color turned out…I was a little (ok maybe a lot concerned) after the first coat of paint went on. The original color was REALLY dark and I know this has primer in it....but still...if you didn't see the before go here and take a peak.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend before Turkey day….

 

Good Day

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Hailey and I had a lazy yet productive day today. The lazy part is that we stayed in our pjs till lunch… while the productive part would be that mommy has the bathroom for the bathroom makeover almost done….woot, woot! Can we say I am down to the wire on this one (I have to post it on Monday)…yikes!

Us girls didn’t even leave the house till tonight when we met daddy after work to have dinner. Yum, yum…we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I actually hadn’t been there before…it was delicious! I had this melt in your mouth filet, but I think the scallops may have been even better. They give you so much food that we definately have enough for lunch tomorrow too.

I can’t believe Hailey wasn’t starving though…she ate a couple fries and that was it…poor little bug is teething AGAIN! Those darn teeth. Thankfully she’s almost got them all for a while cause I think we’re both about over it. BTW, the diagram source leads you to a great article by Philips on toddler/baby teething and when to generally expect those pearly whites.

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Anywho…hope ya’ll are having a great night and a great start to the weekend!

 

 

Tea Nirvana

Teavana is definitely a good name for the place. Once you get in there you never leave…or want to! Hailey just LOVES their Pineapple Kona Pop & Blueberry Bliss Rooibos Iced Tea…they have this blend in the stores right now. Needless to say EVERY time we go to the mall we have to stop there and have some. This stuff tastes like juice instead of tea and its waaaayyy healthier.

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Mommy broke down and bought this mix today in addition to the green tea one I bought the other day. I’m not big on hot drinks, but I do make sure we have iced tea in the fridge at all times. I had already been mixing bagged teas at home for different flavors and variety.  I probably should have known better than to stop in the store. I don’t know about you, but I was clueless to the loose leaf tea. All of them smell awesome! It is so hard to pick just one and I’m sure that’s what they’re counting on.

I don’t know if I could back to just plain ole tea again…yikes! BTW…this is a totally free endorsement for those evil (but really nice) folks at Teavana.

How to make the perfect iced tea:

Tea has all kinds of health benefits…it just depends on which kinds of tea you use. To reap the most benefits you need to use the least processed version, which is loose leaf tea. The normal tea you think of is made from tea bags that contain “tea dust” rather than whole leaves. This kind of tea drastically reduces the health benefits and flavor.

Making homemade iced tea is very similar to making hot tea, but there are a few differences. Follow these steps on how to make great tasting gourmet iced tea:

1.      Double the amount of loose tea that you would use for hot tea (I made a half gallon with the perfect tea maker and used 1 C)
* As an added note, you can leave the leaves in the container and reuse them 1 more time.

Perfect tea maker from Teavana

     2.      If you prefer sweet tea, add sugar with the leaves while the water is hot (the sugar melts and is better incorporated into the tea)

3.     Immediately after the hot tea is brewed, pour it into a glass or pitcher filled almost to the top with ice. The sudden cooling keeps the flavor and scent of the tea intact (I had never heard this before, but it makes sense).

If you guys try the tea at one of the stores…this is the process that they used to make it. I used all my investigative powers to get the dirt on this out of them! It's ok...I won't blame you when you want to say explatives in my direction when you get addicted to it!

 

 

Cute tins we bought at the store for our tea!

Wordless Wednesday - TV

 

She was like....moooommmmm I'm eating and watching tv here (a princess movie of course)....and then grinned at me.