My Landscaper

Look at our new rock landscaping!

I think Chris did a great job, and although there was lots of sweating and dirt, it looks better and was much cheaper than having a "professional" do it. 

That said, if you want someone to work on your landscaping, Chris is available. He offers good rates ;)

We own a home...and things break

When we got up Wednesday, our kitchen sink faucet had only a little drip to it. Uh, oo.

After work, my hubby got us a new faucet and went to work. 

And he did it!

It's definitely an upgrade from our other one, and I'm really excited about some of its features.

Look at that cute soap dispenser. 

Look how it has the pull-out sprayer. 

And, I love the big arch because all my pots and pans fit easily under it. 

Sometimes things break, but sometimes you get nicer things to replace it with. 

Good installation job, Chris!

They're Here!

After much ado, about nothing, they are here. And we are very happy. We (I) searched and searched for bedside tables, as illustrated here and here. I had an idea that I wanted mirrored pieces; however, I don't know if I ever convinced Chris.

Yesterday we went shopping for him to look at some I had found. We bought the first ones! We were so fortunate that my grandparents had given us some spending money as a housewarming present, and we ear-marked it for bedside tables.

When we decided to buy the first ones I showed him, it happened that we were driving my car...whoops! AND, the Pier 1 we went to only had one of them. The Pier 1 about 20 miles away had another one. Whoops!

So after Chris maneuvering some boxes, removing some packaging and a few grunts, we (he) managed to get two bedsides tables into to Big V.  I did help him get them up the stairs.

And here they are! The photos are not the best because the room doesn't allow me to get far enough for a straight-on shot. But you can get the feeling. 

What's nice is that although they look shiny in this next photo, they actually have an antiqued finish so they don't look that shiny.

This is Chris' side, and yes, I promise that little bitty gold lamp is TEMPORARY. Because of course, now we needs lamps! It's never ending ;)

 

This is the view from the hallway. I think another reason the mirrored finish works is because you never really see both side tables at the same time, so it's not overwhelming.

We are very happy, and I have some place to put my glass of water, phone and magazines...and now on to the lamps!!

Porter got a little jealous I wasn't taking pictures of him, and he stretched up on my leg to say hello.

Hello!

Christmas decorating

So Chris and I got back from the Arkansas Thanksgiving festivities on Sunday morning, and we began decorating for Christmas.

First, we unpacked the tree--we're not ones for real trees although we appreciate their beauty.

We knew we wanted the tree in front of the French doors so that everyone could see it from the street.

We then unpacked our ornaments. We are so fortunate that we have lots of family ornaments, ornaments that we've purchased over the past years and a few ornaments from each of our childhoods. Once we got it all out of the attic, we realized we had lots of boxes to sort through.

And the boxes piled up.

When Chris and I first began dating, we, or I more so, discovered these Cannon Falls S'Mores ornaments. I love them because they are s'mores, and I want to squeeze them! We've purchased several overall the years, and I always love the cute little characters.

This is me fighting the lights. Not too dramatic, but just checking everything and making sure I like where everything is strung.

Porter really loved the lights, and he thought that he needed to lay on them to really welcome Christmas.

Here I am still working on the lights, and making sure they were strung right all the way up to the top.

Look how good our tree looks! I love the gold fabric on the bottom, and Chris added the fabric ribbon from Jenny, and you can see how nice all the ornaments look!

Here is a cute shot of some of the s'mores ornaments that we like. This is one for the year we got married. It's a cute little groom with a bride in a veil.

We have lots of cool ornaments from my family, including lots of ornaments from my grandmother Jenny. Some of the really cool ones include ornaments like this one that actually fits over a light. This Santa Clause glass ornament fits over a light and then looks like it is a built-in light piece. Very cool. 

Here you can see a little bit of our mantel, including our personalized stockings, which my grandmother made, and you can see the little ceramic "people" that tell me Christmas is here.

These ceramic Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus have always been in my grandmother's window, and now that Chris and I have upgraded our Christmas displays, we're fortunate that they have joined our collection.

For some reason, I just loved them to death, and they mean Christmas to me. So now their new house is on our mantel.

Tonight, we had our neighbors Sean and Nicole and friends Matt and Laura over for our official house lighting party, complete with homemade apple cider and cheese straws. Chris did a great job on the house's exterior.

 

Happy holidays to everyone!

2 equals 2

I know a garage is not the most exciting topic for a blog, but I just have to share that our house has a two-car garage AND two cars fit into.

There's even room to open the doors and actually get inside each car!

You'll also notice there is a canoe hanging from the ceiling...

A very nice cabinet for boy-related accessories...

A place to hang man stuff... 

And, even a man nook for tools, man crafts, etc.

Basically, the garage is the perfect Man Cave, and I love it because it keeps all of Chris' accouterments outside of our house.Yeah!!

Our balcony celebration

Saturday afternoon we struck out on a bike ride. It was very eventful. The first event was that I was able to easily access by bike onto the street. In our apartment, Chris would have to carry my bike down two flights of stairs to the parking lot. My bike is the best bike ever, and incredibly heavy.

The other event was that on our ride, two blocks from our house, a neighbor had a sign for Muddy Water Seafood, fresh gulf shrimp. Yes, of course we stopped. This guy is actually a new vendor at the Memphis Farmers' Market where I volunteer, and he had extra shrimp that they didn't sell at the market. We picked up two pounds of fresh shrimp for dinner. Here I am touting our find. What a neighborhood!

After our bike ride, we decided to have a celebratory snack on our balcony. Our real estate agent, Myra, our saviour, had given us a bottle of champagne after we purchased the house. We paired it with bread from Miss Cordelia's, fresh grapes, goat cheese from a local farm, Bonnie Blue Farm, and smoked salami from West Wind Farms. Oh my, what a feast!

Here you can see us enjoying our treats and surroundings.

Cheers to our new balcony, and we said a special thank for Myra!

The best Saturday yet!

Upstairs!

This is the office. Which is still a little in progress.

We do have our diplomas hung, and I'm currently looking for organizational supplies for the closet. I'm also thinking about getting a daybed in here later down the road to have another guest room.

The guest room with Chris' family's antique bed.

The guest bathroom. Doesn't really photograph very well ;)

This is our magical new bed. The mattress is wonderful and new and I love the bed. The Sferra sheets are great and have a little bit of detail.

The color in these pics are a little off, but you get the idea. You can also see that my side of the bed is undone. I can't decide on a bedside table and accessories. I kind of like that it's in the works. Gives me something to shop for!

I have more to share, but this is just a tasting. As you can tell, we are loving our house!