I'm moving...

I made the switch over to Wordpress.  I know this will be inconvenient for my millions of fans (read as my mom and husband), but I think I will like it better over there.

So...follow me over there at the NEW French Fries and Fairy Tales!

The Newest Member of our Family

I mentioned in my year-end wrap up that my cousin (the youngest) Blair got married the week before Christmas.  He married a sweetheart named Lindsey.  Lindsey and Blair have been together even longer than me and Day (and we have been married for four years!), and the entire family adores her.

picture from Blair's college graduation celebration

Lindsey loves my two nieces as much as I do, and they are smitten with her as well.  In fact, the night we got back Blair and Lindsey's wedding reception, Raylin and I were getting ready to go to sleep.  (Raylin insists that she and I have a sleepover when we visit Dillon, so she and I sleep in her double bed while Day gets bumped to the couch or the single bed in Brylee's room.)  After the wedding, Raylin and I are lying in the dark and she reaches over and throws her little arms around my neck.  She breathes in deep and says, "You smell just like Lindsey; that's why I love you sooo much."  Isn't that precious?

Pic of Raylin and me from their rehearsal dinner, dressed like twins (unplanned)

So, welcome to the family, Lindsey!  We may be dysfunctional, but we make up for it in love!

last Christmas post this year...I promise...until Christmas.

 My homemade gifts.....

Sports coasters.  My family is full of sports fans so I made these out of scrapbook paper and porcelain tiles. I learned how to make them from this girl:

 Who happens to be sporting another one of my DIY Christmas gifts...a t-shirt scarf...while making her typical awkward picture face, which I adore.  Tutorial (for how to make the scarf, not the awkward picture face) found here.

First Christmas Wedding Invitation Ornaments for my newlywed cousin and his beautiful bride...Inspiration found here.  Wish I would have taken a before pic of the invitation...I adored the navy and yellow color combo.

My mom and I also made fabric beaded necklaces a la here, and sadly, I seem to have forgotten to snap a photo.

I spruced up the plain white and brown paper gift bags from the dollar store with my Hobby Lobby (half off) stamp.

During our visit to Dillon,we danced via my nieces' Kinect.  Isn't that the most precious picture?  My three loves.  I took about ten pics and someone was blurry in each of them.  Mostly, Brylee just ran around in circles while Dora the Explorer politely told her to stay in view.  Sidenote: Isn't my cousin's mantle absolutely beautiful?

Every year, my church does a live nativity scene outside before and after the Christmas eve candlelight service, so people can observe as they enter and leave.  This deceptively sweet-looking rascal took the baby Jesus (a baby doll) out of the manger while the rest of the nativity actors (actual humans) were inside listening to the sermon.  When they came out to resume the nativity scene as the churchgoers were leaving the service, it took a while to find and recover the baby Jesus from my niece.  Don't let her within 20 feet of a baby doll unless you don't plan on getting it back.

And with that, I'm officially closing out the 2011 chapter and opening a new one for 2012.  I've got big plans, y'all!

more Christmas loot

My last post was a little premature.  We finished the last of our Christmas festivities this weekend in Greensboro with my in-laws.  It was lovely and low-key.  Day's mom and dad surprised me with a Kindle Fire for my Christmas/birthday present.


(image via Amazon)

I was completely shocked and in love.  I'm still playing around on it, and I'm hoping I'll use it more for good (reading) than for evil (angry birds).  Of course, they also bought me a half dozen real life books to borrow, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, so it's more likely that I'll continue reading the old fashioned way for a bit longer and keep playing games on the Kindle.  I did buy a cute Clemson orange case for it that should be here in a couple of days.

We decided not to exchange with Day's sister and bro-in-law this year, which was kind of nice because I'm sooo over missing out on really enjoying the holidays because of all the time I spend shopping and stressing about what to get for everyone.  Instead of a gift, they gave me a card with a poem. It read:

Jerri Jerri
She was so merry
She married a man who was not hairy
Upon his face or upon his chest
But she knew this choice, it was the best
And with this choice, a family we became
We're loving, we're caring,
But our jokes are lame!

Haha, tis true that my husband cannot grow a beard, but strangely he has abnormally hairy hands and legs.

 Anyway, the moral of the story is, who's got better in-laws than me?  :)

Christmas loot

So I wanted to share two of my favorite gifts that I racked up at Christmas.

First, my buddy Lynne found two vintage owls for sale at a craft show and gave them a makeover with some gold spray paint.

Aren't they absolutely delightful?

And second, my husband absolutely knocked my socks off with a print by Casey O'Connell.  I totally have a crush on every piece of art this woman produces.  And I'm not the only one, because her paintings sell for like 2 gees flat ("no need to worry, my accountant handles that'---Biggie, anyone?  anyone??).  Anyway, my sweet lovin got on her email list and when a limited edition print came up in April, he hurried up and bought it.  It was more than he should have spent on me, cause we are pretty cheap with gifts around here, but he did it anyway and hid it until Christmas.  I was totally surprised and madly in love--with the print and my wonderful soulmate.

Here it is on my dining room wall, which does not do it justice.

 Here it is on Casey's website.

Since she doesn't sell all of her prints at the same time, I don't know which ones will be available next, but I definitely have my eyes on this one, this one, this one, and this one.

My new gifts have got me really itchin to paint the dining room.  More on that to come.  :)

Year End Recap and What's in Store for 2012

I want this blog to be a way to track progress on projects and to keep me motivated/hold me accountable, but I think I will truly value this blog many years down the road if I can use it to look back at memories.  Therefore, I want to do a recap of 2011. And I want to start including more moments on here.  (Resolution alert!)  I have been trying to force this to be a craft blog, when the truth is that I work a full-time job and when I'm home I like to rest and spend time with my hunk o love, so I can't work on house/craft projects as often as I would like.  So instead I'm going to try to post more frequently, even if it's short and sweet to keep track of memories that I don't want to lose.

We started 2011 off right with a New Year's party at our house.  It was delightful.

Then we got our biggest snow (as a couple) and played around for a bit.

Turned 30...

Went ice skating for the first time together...

Visited a new city...

Dressed up in 70s attire...

Was a bridesmaid in my baby cousin's wedding..

worked on a dozen or so house projects...

participated in my first craft fair (still working on that post)...

hosted Thanksgiving for the first time...

And created many more memories for which I'm so very thankful.  This year I want to be more deliberate about trying new things (restaurants, cities, house projects) and to make more memorable memories.  My goal for 2012 is "to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." (Thoreau)

Now I'm going to go get started!  I'll keep you updated.

More of the man-cave...

I've already shown you the fireplace makeover, but how has the rest of the man-cave changed since we moved in?  Here are some shots of how the place looked on the day of our inspection, with the previous owner's decor:

This is what you see when you first come down the stairs:

This is the view if you are standing at the fireplace.  It's a VERY long room.  As you can see, the previous owners were using it as a place to watch TV, an office with desk and computer, and a kid's play and homework area, plus a piano!  And I can't blame them--that's a lot of space!

You might not be able to tell but the room has beautiful dentil molding.  In my opinion, because the wall color was so light, the molding wasn't really noticeable.  We wanted to go darker and wanted to make the room feel more cozy and masculine.  Also, we thought it would be neat to show our team spirit.  It was bold, but hey it's just paint, so we went ORANGE! 

I had already shown you the fireplace.  We also put up some bamboo shades.  In the corner (I call it a reading nook, although it's not really nook-esque.), There's a hand-me-down end table that is pretty badly damaged and needs a facelift.  I just cover it up with pottery barn magazines and a globe for now. The recliner is also a hand-me-down.

The couch, loveseat, and coffee table are furniture we brought from our old apartment.  The two end tables were cheapos off of craigslist but they were in such bad shape that no amount of sanding and paint can revive them.  But they are going to stay put for now because we have bigger fish to fry.  The two lamps are ikea, and the painting is from World Market.  It's a jazz scene and I gave it to my baby on our first Christmas together.

 Here's the man cave electronic setup because man caves are apparently all about technology.  Hubs has his beloved TV, surround sound, Xbox, and Wii.  I added the mirrors from IKEA.

Remember those wood paneling built-ins above?  I'll refresh your memory:

They had to go.  My FIL and hubs took out the fluorescent light and changed out the black outlet for a white one.  Hubs and I painted away.  Wood paneling is not that fun to paint either.  Better than brick though.  I also spray painted the brass handles with some ORB paint.  Right now, it's a bunch of random knick-knacks, but hopefully it will start looking more cohesive soon.

We bought the brown futon because we frequently have multiple out of town guests and wanted more than one bed for guests to sleep.  I hate the pillows, but I'm looking forward to making covers in some fun patterns!  As you can see, we kept the trusty piano.  We asked that it be included with the house.  I hope to paint it black, but hubs isn't so sure.  I know he'll love it though.  As you can see, he added his drums and guitar.  One of the main things we were looking for in a house was a place where hubs could play his drums and not bother the neighbors...that was not possible in an apartment.  You may be able to tell we have a music theme going on.  Most of the art is musical in nature, plus we have some musician figurines on the built ins. 

I'll show some more of the details of this room later, but I wanted to give you a peek. Continuing with my accountability list, here is what I'd eventually like to do this room.

Short term:
1.  Get new end tables that are more interesting (still must be practical according to hubby's rules).
2.  Make new pillows for futon and maybe even get/make a futon cover--I'm not that big of a fan of microfiber.
3. paint piano black.
4. makeover entry way table (not pictured) or buy something new.
5. makeover table in nook
6. recover chair
7.  Find something to put on the wall over the entry way table.

Long term:
Eventually, I'd like to get more neutral furniture and tone down the paint color (medium gray?) in the man cave.  I also definitely want to tear up the carpet, but I haven't figured out what kind of floors I want.....something masculine yet still kid-friendly.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the man cave!  Usually, you can hear my hunk-o'-love playing piano or drums, or people playing rock band or rapping, or things exploding when hubs is on the xbox.