Our Weekend

We were bad this past weekend and went out both Friday and Saturday nights.  I'm sure the boys were mad at us.  

I was so excited to see Chocolate Chess Pie on the Menu at Alivia's ....but it just tasted like a glorified brownie.  Bummer. 

What I managed to accomplish this weekend:

Straightening up the Spare Room.  This has been the junk room and I couldn't take it any longer, there isn't any excuse on why it had became the junk room except for the fact that this is where all the boxes landed when we moved in over a year ago.  

Before

Before

Before

 I spent a good hour going through stuff, straightening, tossing, organizing.  There are still some things that need to find homes but I am hoping that we can built another shelf or two int he closet to allow us to better use the closet.  And speaking of the closet, we have a problem.  The rug that is in the room was from my first apartment, it's a nice thick 5x8 from Pier1.  In our apartment and our townhouse it was in the "man" cave so it hasn't been abused and still looks new with the exception of one sharpie stain (that is very small).  I haven't decided if I want to save it to switch out rooms sometimes or if I want to sell it for another improvement?  The issue is that you cannot open the closet door because the rug is so thick so any time we need to get into the closet we have to do this...

Closet/Rug problm

Ain't clearing that rug

In case you are wondering why we don't pull it down.... there is an air vent that we don't' want to cover up.

This brings me to our adventures on Sunday.  We went to Homegoods and it just so happened that they had a great selection of printed rugs that were very affordable.  Check out that guy below.... only cost $30.  It is so nice since now we can open the closet without having to pull the rug back and it adds some color to the room.  Now I will just have to run with these colors and tie in some of the yellow, orange, teal, and grey from the rest of the house.  

Look.... there is a floor and it is cleared out! 

Door opens!!  Yay!  This makes me happy (yes, it's the little things)

 While the floor/rug/closet situation is taken care of we still need to address some things that aren't working.  We need two narrow side tables (I'm thinking about 8-15" wide) with some sort of storage (maybe a shelf or cabinet) to go in this room.  Right now we have a bin that stores all the dog toys and bones (we rotate them out every few weeks so they don't get tired of the same ones).  There is also the issue of pictures and paintings - I need to decide where I want them.  I don't want to put anything in the kitchen yet until we get that wallpaper down which is where 2-3 will go (yes, it's on the list, just not priority now).

Problem one now. 

 There is also the desk wall of the room.  There are a few things that I could put away int he closet or possibly craigslist.  I would like some kind of wall organization here to put smaller pieces on and even frames.... T will tell you he wants another tv on the wall.

So what else did we do this weekend?

Grilled BBQ Chicken

T's actual Sample size of his June June Birchbox arrived and it is a good size.  He actually decided to try it for another month.  I think he likes getting stuff in the mail just like I do! 

Watched the season premiere of True Blood.  I even had both dogs on the couch with me.  And yes, I have piles of magazines, pages ripped out, and mail on the coffee table right now... it's real life. 

Oddly enough, I didn't dread Monday morning as much as I usually do!  Have a great Monday!

Our Weekend

This weekend felt like it flew by WAY too quickly.  Anytime we travel I feel like the weekend is over before it really begins because I feel like I never have time to relax and do the things we usually catch up on the weekends (laundry, tv, organizing, etc).

Friday wasn't the nicest of days here, it was overcast and started to rain right about closing time.  I called in Noodles take-out and we stayed in catching up on some tv that was over two weeks old.

Saturday we managed to go for a walk before heading over to a new breakfast place we tried out, The Cary Cafe.  We both fell in love with the place and plan to go back again soon!

Pumpkin pancakes and T's French Toast (I even liked his french toast)

Later that day we went over to a friend's pool.... this was the result.

Irish girl problems.  

While we were grilling out later that night my friend spotted a dog that looked like a Miniature Australian Shepherd so of course I walk over to see the little guy.  It's a small world, the dog is actually from the same breeder my MIL got her Mini Aussie from....  how ironic?

Jasper was a cutie... didn't listen too well though, lol. 

Sunday we ventured to MHC to have lunch with my dad and visit with my Meme a little while... Slade wasn't too happy about leaving his precious couch and remodeled the backseat (several times) before he settled on a flipped over bed (apparently the fluffy lining was too much for him).

And to think he tried to make us feel bad because he is stuck in the backseat... 

That was our weekend in a nutshell.  How was yours?

Our Weekend

Please excuse my lack of Monday posting... I have no real excuse.

Our weekend was nice and I feel like we did quite a bit and have nowhere near enough pictures to show for it.

Friday: we had a little date night - The Big Easy Cary and watched The Descendants.

The boys were happy they found some hooves at the bottom of their toy basket 

Saturday:  Waited for a certain glass company to call/come by until 10am ...which they never showed.  Went to The Handmade Market downtown in Cobblestone Hall, this was a really neat craft market with everything being sold ... yup, you guessed it, handmade.  We stopped by our favorite furniture store, Green Front, and dreamed.  Picked up our leftover paint from the furniture we had refinished at Revival Antiques.  Had an amazing salad for lunch from Ruckus.  We ended the day with having some friends over for dinner.

You received a bag to put all your purchases in as you walked in the door.

We purchased these signed prints (and then went to Michael's to purchase the frames)

We found this print at Amplified Art while we were on our way back to the car. 

Chopped Salad. LOVE.

 Sunday:  After having our coffee, paper, and watching house we ran our errands in the morning and quickly came home to get out of all the Mother's Day traffic.  I was surprised at how many moms or families were out in Target, Ulta, and Michael's at 11am.  I know from experience working in the restaurant business that Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year - com'n we know men don't cook!  I sprayed about three coats on gold on the sunburst mirror that has been laying int he corner of the DR for almost two months (it now has the mirror being glued to it).  I worked on the bathroom wallpaper for a little over an hour with little progress.

One step closer - spray painted (check)

It was raining and Fenway wanted to lay out in the rain instead of being under the umbrella where T was grilling - he was banned from outside.  

Again - I'll work on my laziness with Monday posting.  I think it's just that I have the mentality that Monday are so dreadful and the last thing I want to do is think about something else that needs to be done.

Our Weekend

Sorry about yesterday - I was having an off day.  I haven't felt so sluggish and tired in a good long while.  I seriously think I could've taken a short nap on my desk at work but I didn't.... I was good.  Enough about Monday (it's over with).

Mission Accomplished.  Relaxing weekend in the hole.

We came home Friday afternoon after the (long) work week, vacuumed the house while having a beverage, grilled hot wings on the grill, and enjoyed a night with some friends.

Saturday morning we slept in (thank goodness), walked the dogs around the neighborhood, and officially switched over to iced coffee for the summer.  Meme arrived a little after 10:30am right on schedule - I was glad that she was able to get here without getting lost, I feared that we would get the phone call "I'm at this shopping center and I have no idea what wrong turn I made..." but she didn't even call!!

After venturing to the mall, dealership, furniture stores, we finally made it to dinner at Rockwell's American Grill.  This is a new Rocky Top Hospitality Restaurant with a Southern Diner Atmosphere.  I splurged with this meal - I got their trio combo that consisted of their Southwest salad on special, New Englas Clam Chowda, and the Vintage Van Gogh Gouda grilled cheese sandwich.  It was like a little three course piece of heaven in your mouth.  The portions were huge,  T ate half my salad and I still took food home for the next day.  T had the meatloaf, potatoes, and smoked mac-n-cheese.  The mac-n-cheese is AMAZING there.... T and I decided it was probably our favorite mac-n-cheese to date.  I was tempted to order it - but I only had a couple bites instead of gorging myself in calories from the massive portion.

I should mention that Meme has never stayed the night at our house before (which is why it was such a big deal that she was coming AND staying the night).  We considered making her breakfast the next morning, but decided that with her being so picky we would just go over to Dorry's Downtown (one of our favorites) that is walkable (but we drove since Meme was with us).  We usually go there about once a month on the weekends to get breakfast - they remember us and even which table we like to sit at each time (I like that).  She ordered exactly what she wanted and was happy (she is old school and likes things cooked certain ways).
***We're excited about Dorry's since they just added a covered patio and are supposed to be getting their ABC license so walking over and having lunch and a beer is something we cannot wait to do this summer.

Meme left around lunchtime to go ahead and get on the road since the weather was starting to look ugly and she didn't want to leave Raleigh in traffic and rain.  After she left T and I put our big boy/girl panties on and straightened up/re organized our closets.  Sometimes I wonder why we fold T's clothes because they seem to unfold themselves before they get into the drawers/shelves.  As of Sunday afternoon I think his closet and drawers look the best they ever have looked, let's see how long they stay like that now!  We also finally lined the furniture with liners and moved stuff to our new furniture in the DR. (Yay something checked off our list).  With that being done we are one step closer to getting the upper kitchen cabinets gone in the kitchen!

Look - empty!   

Right side - Silver serve ware

Top drawer - linens

Bottom drawer - pieces that are only used on occasions

Left side - recipes

Smaller cabinet

After removing the platters we have plenty of extra room here

Next - organize this hot mess and make room for a microwave

Meme brought the boys a bag of treats - Slade almost knocked her down when she walked in the door with the bag.

Our colorful new addition, ceramic berry trays  $5 each at World Market.

So that was our weekend.  Did anyone else try a new restaurant?  Have family come visit?

This coming weekend we have no plans and I'm excited about that!!  I have new recipes I want to try out and we need to pay our yard some attention.

Our Weekend

Want to know what I hate most about weekends? That they are not long enough.  Just when we have a free weekend, it feels like it is over before it even begins!

Friday was just what T and I both needed, relaxing.  We had another couple over and we ordered Indian take-out so there was no stress of cooking/cleaning in the picture after the long week (I refer to it as the long week since the previous three weeks were all 4-day work weeks for us so this one felt super long).

Saturday we slept in until 8:30, which wasn't in my plans but sleeping the extra 3 hours was amazing.  Too often I don't sleep in because my natural clock wakes me up only 20 minutes later than the alarm is usually set for on weekdays.  Since we slept later than we planned we figured we would grab breakfast or something or that nature at the Cary Lazy Daze Art Festival.  About 15 minutes into walking around T and I both realized neither of us had any cash, lol, there went our food plans.  Later that day we ventured to Carolina Brewing Company's beer tour with some of T's friends.

I'm not sure why I was put here, shouldn't I be beside T?!

Sunday we ran some errands and then enjoyed the beautiful day outside on our deck.  Minus the mosquitos, we had a great time.  Slade thinks that the picnic table is part of the deck - since it is wood like the deck he acts like it is fair game to lay on the table.

King of the Castle

Later that night after watching "Horrible Bosses" I decided since I didn't see going to the Angus Barn in my near future that i would make my own Chocolate Chess Pie.  It looked just like their pie, but it doesn't have as rich of flavor.  I guess I'll have to try out another recipe next time.

The top crisped up just like it was supposed to... 

I even got some "cracking" action like in the pictures I saw. 

We were not productive this weekend.  We did straighten up a little bit, but this week will be one busy week in the case since we have my Meme coming this weekend!

What to do...

It's gorgeous here in the Triangle and other than wishing it was 5pm already my only problem is that there is WAY too much to do this weekend!!!  Usually there is always stuff going on but rarely so much that I actually care to go... here are my options:
THIS WEEKEND

• Lazy Daze Arts and Crafts Festival
• Durham Art Walk 
• Carolina Brewing Company Beer Tour
• Brewgaloo Festival - beer, food trucks, and live music

I should say that there are two other pretty big events this weekend, but due to personal experience I decided we would skip these...

• Triangle Beach Music Festival

We went to this event last year - it was insane!  INSANE I tell you!  It's basically thousands of twenty-something year olds half naked getting drunk.  Now, I do partake in alcoholic beverages but there is a difference between being stupid and having fun.  On more than one occasion throughout the day I saw people fight, pass out, and get arrested.  One of the biggest disappointments is that each Beach Music band would only play 3-4 songs and then they would blare rap music for the next 45 minutes or so before the next band came on... I understand they have to switch out equipment but at an event such as this one would think that one side of the stage would be where the first band would be and the other side the next band would be sitting up?  I guess I'm just genius, lol.  The worst part is that it is a one lane road getting out of the farm and they had a checkpoint getting out, luckily we were responsible and arranged for a friend to pick us up, only he couldn't get in to pick us up!  We waited there over three hours after the event was over before our ride could get in!  Shew.  

• Southern Women's Show

I work four home shows a year - the last thing I want to go is go pay to be harassed when walking through a show.  Sorry - I'm sure there is some cute stuff and great ideas.  (I'm allowed to hate them right?)

Now... let me tell you the things we need to do this weekend... (I know I have gotten myself into trouble before by making a list for the weekend - you know sitting yourself up for failure)

• Remember I started removing wallpaper in the master bathroom?  Yeah.... it's still not all the way done yet
• Pick up extra paint from Revival
• Purchase cabinet/drawer liners for the new furniture and put that storage to use!
• Yard work (mow, weed eat, clean up the pot that the squirrel knocked over, repaint mailbox post)
• Make it to the gym so I don't gain weight over the weekend, lol
• Work on reorganizing the third bedroom so Meme (my grandmother) doesn't have a heart attack when she comes to stay next week
• Oh... since I mentioned Meme coming... I need to deep clean the entire house... she will notice a dog hair on the floor for crying out loud! 

Wish me us luck!  Don't worry, we still plan to enjoy ourselves!  We have a nice relaxing night planned with friends tonight...complete with Indian take out!  I'm sure I'll have one a few of these...

Our Weekend

Our Vacation!!  (Sorry I'm two days late this week.... but it was good to get away)

Over the long Easter weekend, T and I snuck away to Asheville, NC for some time to ourselves to celebrate our one year anniversary.  We can't believe that it has already been a year (literally we feel like we should still be in the DR laying on the beach).  So while everyone else was packing their bags to heads to the beach, we were packing to head to the mountains.  I have to say - going to the beach for Easter has never made sense to me - its still cold?

Anyhow.  I'll share some pictures so y'all can have a glimpse of of weekend.

Nothing beats a porch, rocking chair, wine, and a view

The Chestnut Street Inn

We had the pleasure of walking downtown each day

What person in their right mind does this to their toilet paper?

Lobster Trap

I enjoyed sitting at the bar - something which I don't usually like

French Board Chocolates... amazing

My new favorite artist

Most amazing life-like painting EVER. 

Margarita Caliente and Maya Margarita, Limones (fav margs)

There were quote a few hula-hoopers

I had full intentions of going running/walking in the morning... but I didn't even make it to breakfast, lol. 

Huevos Racheros at Over Easy...BEST breakfast EVER

Breakfast Burrito

LAB (Lexington Avenue Brewery) pretzels were delish.... with the white sauce. 

A great open air restaurant

 Amazing that my Sangria latest over an hour

 

I want Raleigh to have pretty paintings like this on the side of buildings

And sculptures

Sazerac rooftop - neat little two story bar with a great atmosphere

Asheville Brewing Co. - breweries around here need a space like this!!

They used kegs as planters

Asheville Brewing Co's flights come out on a  pizza paddle like tray

Whats that you ask?  Just T walking downtown with a six-pack at hand

We forgot to bring the cooler - so we made one.  Glad were using something we learned something in college :) 

Vino Solo - single serving wine that the top doubles as a glass.  Great idea, wine is just so-so though

Lazoon tour - comedy tour where you can BYOB.  "Augusta Wind"

Sister Sin

A cockroach on the side of the road

We had a good time.  Highly recommend going if venturing to Asheville. 

The Grove Park Inn - built from granite boulders 1913

Love

How often can you dine on the side of a mountain?!

Fruit Tart, Greenlife (aka. Whole Foods)

Our last night - we opted to stay in get desert/wine and watch a movie

OTW Home we made a pit stop in Winston Salem to have lunch at Foothills Brewery.  I was pleasantly surprised how clean the place was!!

We fell in LOVE with Asheville.  Seriously we both are tempted to quit our day jobs, sell our house, and move to Asheville.  Everyone was so nice...I don't think we have came across nicer people than the people we met and talked with in Asheville.  It was so nice to see dogs sitting outside of almost EVERY restaurant (this made me miss our boys even more) and they were all so well behaved!   The problem with visiting is there isn't enough time to eat at all the great restaurants that were recommended to us in one weekend.  We definitely plan to come back sometime soon.  

What we would do different?  

• I think we would like to go Thursday-Sunday or more weekdays.  So many restaurants had great specials during the week which we wished we could've taken advantage of... and I mean we could've saved some $$. 
• Stay at a loft right in the heart of downtown. 
• Buy Biltmore tickets in the off season so we could take advantage of everything on the estate at cheaper rates (This past weekend it was $64 a ticket to get your foot on the property - we didn't go)
• Go on a brewery tour
• Go antiquing
• Go hiking
• Try vegetarian food - we were recommended SO many vegetarian or vegan restaurants and while we aren't either, if the food is good I'll try it (at least once)
• Go with friends - it's always nice to share experiences with others. 

So that was our Anniversary Weekend.  How was everyone else's weekend??