Mid-Week Fun

Yesterday we were graced with the presence of Jon and Spencer Hueshdash - Spencer is one of my blog readers. Hi Spencer! Jon is one of Jimmy's best friends and also a former wrestler at JMU.

Jimmy spent the day with our friends at Fort Fisher fishing for the flounder we were going to have for dinner. Lucky for all, I prepped for chicken piccata just in case they came back empty handed. Maybe next time! We finished out the night with a strawberry crumble. It was so nice to catch up with these guys. I have my heart set on a Foo Fighters concert in September up in Pittsburgh, so we can visit again sooner.

I've driven by this new ice cream place in town too many times to not stop and give it a try, so that's just what I did today after work. It's my duty to support local business! The owner of the Velvet Freeze is also the chef at a great new wine bar downtown called the Fortunate Glass. I had cherry brandy and it was delicious. I also tried their lemon verbena. It was very good as well.

Outdoor Living

After weeks of painting and sewing, the porch is finally complete!! Drumroll please...................

Before:

 

After:

Show you all the elements up close, you say? No problemo...

Before - Barney chair

After - with a pillow my mom made

Before - Rainbow chairs

After - Behr "lemongrass" with thift store table

 

 

Wicker/Striped Cushions Before (behind my sweetheart - I couldn't help myself!)

After - Dark gray with white cushions my mom recovered

Am I boring you yet?

My Nanny's table Before

After - White with Walmart green glass lamp

Rod iron table from college before

After

 

 

Lastly, my handmade (by my mom) Trina Turk inspired pillows, the jute rug for under the dining table, the table runner made from scraps (by, you guessed it, my momma) and the vintage surfboard Jimmy snagged off Craigslist shown with mason jar votives.

Very long post, I know, but this has been a long time coming. I'm so excited to have it finished and be able to share it with friends and family. Oh and I can't wait to do some outdoor reading with my outdoor table lamp. Now time to enjoy...

Visitors & Jake Ties the Knot

It's been a busy, fun-filled couple days in CB. Unfortunately, I was slack on the pics, so I'm missing proof of some happenings and I had to borrow some shots from Jake's sister to fill in the rest of the holes. First things first, we had Jimmy's friend Chris and Chris' wife, Jackie, over for drinks on Thursday night. They're in town from MD staying with Jackie's parents in Wrightsville. Jackie gladly accepted a bottle of water because she's pregnant! Woo hoo! So excited for them both and their little baby-to-be.

(Enter the four of us at dinner at Freddies in Kure Beach)

Friday it was a half day at work and then running around trying to get ready for Jake and Martine's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that afternoon and evening. Funny story - Jake regretted to tell ol' Jimmy and I that we were readers in his wedding until Friday morning, the day before the wedding. The rehearsal dinner was great fun - at a cool courtyard called the Atrium in downtown - and the food was really good - island themed because they got engaged in the Dominican Republic.

Perhaps most exciting about the whole weekend is all the friends we got to see - starting with Ben, Amie and Lucy in from Venice Beach, CA. They flew in at 9:30pm, so we left the rehearsal dinner to meet them at our house. Lucy was on PT, so she was a firecracker until about 11 or so. Such fun!

Saturday we got a few hours in at the beach and then it was time for the wedding. The ceremony setting was the courtyard outside the Brooklyn Arts Center. The reading we did was "I Love You" by Roy Croft. Another funny story - we only learned this was what we were reading a few minutes before we were called before friends and family on Saturday because Martine, the absolutely dashing bride, told us we were reading something else at the rehearsal on Friday. Good stuff.  Not surprisingly, everything turned out beautifully...

The reception setting was the old St. Andrews Church, also part of the Brooklyn Arts Center, and the decor and "old world, spanish" theme was just awesome.

Come on, Amie, I really hope you have some better pics of our weekend together. The only one of you is your torso - with baby boy in the womb - and none of Ben!

Ben and Amie took Lucy home while us crazy kids went out for a night on the town. They left a little before noon on Sunday to visit with friends in Wrightsville. Jimmy and I ended up hosting some friends at the beach later in the day and then had dinner with my mom, Mike Booth and Mike's fiance, Carly.  Seriously so happy we got to see so many friends we hadn't seen in years. Nothing like a fun wedding to bring people together.

In other news, we finally got our refrigerator  - just in time for summer visitors! We've finally entered the 21st century with our first stainless steel appliance.

Love of Cooking

Believe it or not, we're still with out a refrigerator. Tomorrow will be 4 weeks. Everyone knows the healthiest way to grocery shop is to stick to the perimeter - the refrigerated areas. I am going nuts! I miss my overnight oats, Brita water, cheese, salads, fresh meat - the list of things I love that I've been living without goes on and on. Most of all though, I miss cooking. This recipe for the NY Times proclaimed best chocolate chip cookie EVER made me think of the cookbook I got Colin for Christmas.

Hesser, a food columnist for the New York Times, offers a superb compilation of the most noteworthy recipes published by the paper since it started covering food in the 1850s. What she has produced is no less a chronicle of American culinary history--an evolutionary progression that marks the notable and sometimes regrettable changes in our approach to food--than a cookbook. Recipe originators are a hodgepodge of talent, including noted chefs and the kitchens of famed restaurants such as Le Bernardin as well as Times writers, most notably Craig Claiborne, whose culinary mastery is evidenced throughout. Every category of food is covered, and each recipe is accompanied by serving suggestions for complementary dishes within the book. From 1877's tomato soup and 1907's roast quail with sage dressing to Eisenhower's steak in the fire and 1968's sour cream coffee cake, Hesser showcases the best of the best. Each recipe is dated, and many include cooking notes. Hesser, whose witty bent permeates every page, does a more than admirable job with this stellar collection of more than 1,400 recipes, which should grace the shelves of every food-lover.


Colin loves it and uses it all the time - score! If he were a good brother, he'd get his favorite sister a copy of her own...

Happy Monday all! I continue to be busy, busy. Thursday I babysat for a sweet couple we met through Jake. Their daughter, Bella, was seriously adorable. We pushed her baby stroller, watched Shrek and then she went to bed without a fuss. Easy peasy lemon squeezey. Nothing like having a bambino of my own I'm sure...

Friday it was a bike ride into town for dinner. Saturday my mom and I scoured local fabric stores looking for some outdoor fabric to cover some pillows for the porch. I didn't find anything for the pillows yet, but we did end up finding the white we were looking for for the cushions. Bye, bye stripes. Hopefully, hello clean white.

 

Sunday we didn't get very far, so my little seamstress will be hard at work this week. I'll post pictures when we are (she is) done. Can't wait to learn to sew on the easier pillow covers we're making this coming weekend.

I'll leave you with this. Just taking in the scenery on the North End.

Porch Progress

Hope everyone is having a good week thus far! I've been a very busy girl - both day and night. We had a great weekend - drinks with the Atkinsons on Friday night, a little window shopping on Saturday, a little painting and priming on Saturday evening. On Sunday - no joke - I spent the better part of the day shopping online for an outdoor rug. All those mouse clicks paid off because I found THE rug - it arrived in the mail today from Overstock!

It's gray/brown with turquoise "sailor knots".

I'm super impressed with the indoor rug look & feel, but the outdoor rug plastic construction durability.

Here are some other sneak peeks of the porch components. My "cube mate" never fails to point out the paint residue on arms and legs...

Thanks for donating this great rocker, Mom, but the Barney purple had to go!

(Pre-priming}

What's with all the colors, people? Could these chairs be going to an outdoor table???

{Pre-priming}

It's easy to decorate when you can just spend money out the wazoo. I give myself props for breathing new life into these free and thrift store finds.

So looking forward to sharing our porch with our pending June visitors - Chris & Jackie Hastings, Amie, Ben, Lucy & baby #2 Lucas and John and Spencer Huesdash.