An eventful week-

• Dinner at The Raleigh Times.  Food was delish- I turned a chinese chicken salad into a wrap, Dan had a PBLTJ (pork belly, lettuce, tomato and bacon jam sandwich) on crusty house-made bread, and Willis had a gigantic burrito.  Throw in a basket of fried pickles to start + sides of homemade chips with the entrees...I'm ready to go back now!  And the gorgeous weather made our rooftop view just about as good as the meal.

• MSL Freebies and recipes.  Martha has been my right hand (wo)man lately providing me with enough free clip art and printables to make my mind go into crafting overload.  I stumbled upon these little gems and quickly printed out several different letter designs.  Just what I need for a seasonal project as the holiday's approach.

As far as recipes go, I'll link you to the latest bites to come out of our kitchen this week...

-Chickpea, Sausage, and Kale Pasta- YUM!  And bonus-  it's full of kale; a "super-food" in case you haven't heard.

-Quick Turkey Bolognese with Spaghetti Squash-  Haven't tried spaghetti squash?  Do it!  This type of meaty (and healthier) sauce pairs perfectly.

-Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies-  My new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I've made a lot of chocolate chip cookies and these are the best by far.

-Corn and Butternut Squash Chowder- Our homegrown butternut squash helped, but this soup was hearty + tastefully seasonal.

• Bye-Bye Blue Room,  Hello Gobi Desert!  That's right- a paint color has been selected and we are ready to bid farewell to the eye sore that is our upstairs guest room.  The former playroom for the previous homeowner's son, now leaves much to be desired...

But soon, after primer (I learned my lesson- no way can we cover these electric walls without primer first) and a coat of Gobi Desert (bottom color on the sample below), the desire for neutral tranquility will be attained.  I cannot wait!

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  There's nothing like a house guest to help get a few things checked off the old to-do list.  We have a friend in town for the night while he passes through on business...a perfect time to replace the light fixture in the guest room that I halfway removed a few weeks ago.  He may not even notice the exposed bulbs and insulation but nonetheless, I am not going to allow it.  Luckily, my husband loves me-  last night when I asked if we needed to just replace the old globe for ease or if we could go ahead and hang our basket light (formerly above our dining room table) he said we could go with the basket!  YES!

This is what was originally over the bed.  There's nothing terribly wrong with it, it's just boring.  Your standard run-of-the-mill + no frills overhead light.

Where's the fun in run-of-the-mill, I ask?  Enter basket light + Edison bulb.  I think it adds just the right amount of frills to this guest space.  And because we have become expert electricians, it was a piece of cake!

Next assignment: Give our apple-picking ladder a purpose.  FINALLY.  We purchased it a while back at our beloved Queen of Hearts Antiques and Interiors (oh how I miss you QOH).  It briefly stood out of the way in the townhouse, and upon moving to Raleigh, took up residence in the entryway-  the only space with a tall enough ceiling.  Just because we had a spot for it, doesn't mean it fit in.  That is until I topped it with my new burlap wreath and subsequently used two more strips of burlap to hang a pair of picture frames (bridesmaids and groomsmen, respectively).

Style + Function = Perfection

And while I don't think our visitor will care, you will be pleased to see the progression of the garden in just over a month's time...come on cucumbers!

  

Let me catch you up to speed on the fire pit patio so I can reveal the inaugural burning of the new fire pit!

When I left off, Dan was laying the bricks for the patio.  See here if you need a refresher.  

Then, he added the sand and swept off the excess-

 Next, he hosed it down to add more sand where needed-

 And ta-da--  Patio!

Now, assembled and ready to go- here she is...

And in action!  Abbey wasn't phased-  as you can see her focus remains on the frisbee...

Dan and I on the other hand were excited and toasty as we enjoyed a quick weeknight fire.  More importantly, marshmallows have been added to the grocery list for next time.

Abbey and I also had an exciting field trip earlier in the week-  We decided to brave the woods of our very own backyard and navigate our way to Shelley Lake Park.  Just around the corner and down an old wooden staircase, we walked along the creek for about a 1/4 mile until we came upon a paved trail and some pretty fabulous views on our 3 mile loop.

In addition to the water, bridges + pathways, and other walkers/runners/bikers, we caught a glimpse of some deer and watched a large group of ducks playing by the shoreline.  Abbey was on sensory overload, that's for sure.  But I think she enjoyed herself!

And on this rainy Friday, I leave you with a little sibling love.  Shhh...don't tell Dan I let Mickey in for a brief reprieve from all the drizzle.

    

  

Burlap.  It seems to be THE thing these days.  So you can imagine my delight when I discovered that Dan has "free" access to unlimited burlap sacks through the fab shop at work.  What a revelation!  And I thought free pallets were a big deal!?  It's hard to tell from this picture how big the sack is, but trust me-  it's LARGE.

Overflowing with inspiration at the exciting news, I proceeded to tackle and accomplish three burlap crafts yesterday thanks to this fellow!

 

1. Recover a boring white lamp shade for this cute little glass bottom lamp given to me by none other than Mrs. Schneeberger (my trash-to-treasure hero).  For a quick tutorial on how to revamp your lamp shades for less, click here.

2. A monogrammed sign for our front porch.  Just copy/paste/print the design of your choosing from a site like this.  After I printed the monogram, I ran a coated paintbrush over the design quickly, turned it over, and stamped it to the burlap.  It left enough paint for me to free hand the rest of the design.  Next, cut around the monogram to the size you want, hot glue twine to the top, fold the edge and tie the desired length at the top.

3. An indoor wreath.  All you need is strips of burlap + wire coat hanger (I didn't even hot glue).  Thread them on, shown in more detail here.  As you can see, the decorating options are endless once you've made the wreath.

A successful day indeed!   Plus, look what else finally arrived...

The fire pit!  Dan looks thrilled to put it together-  doesn't he?  Or perhaps it's my incessant picture taking?    Either way, look how great the weather will be tonight...could be perfect timing to break in the new toy!

Things are moving right along over here in terms of the backyard transformation.  Much faster than we anticipated when we first laid the pathway about 2 weeks ago.  Earlier in the week we jumped to the end of the to-do list, completing Phase 5 (give or take) of the renovation with the hanging of our outdoor lighting.  When we found these perfect + classic + little cafe lights on clearance at Target, we knew we couldn't pass them up.  Even without the rest of our plans completed, these glowing beauties add such an inviting + intimate touch to our outdoor space-  I even spied our neighbor peaking out her backdoor the other night when Dan plugged them in for the first time; no doubt thinking how cute our yard is becoming:)

And thanks to another sale at our local Plow and Hearth (who helped us furnish our tractor seat barstools), we were able to seal the deal on Phase 4 of the reno. and order a fire pit.  Fall can't come soon enough!  It should be delivered early next week-  stay tuned for the reveal.

Naturally, an incoming fire pit means we need the perfect place to put it.  So, Dan got to work this afternoon on a little patio to house the new addition.  Again, we owe a big Thank You to the previous homeowners-  although we are only halfway there, this will be a free of charge project with the exception of the sand we had to pick up to even the ground and fill in the spaces.  Just beyond the fence we found the bricks and blocks needed to make the fire pit patio.

Here you see Dan digging the outline, deciding how to lay the bricks, settling on a design, and getting to work with the sand.  

Here's a little perspective on where all of this groundbreaking activity is taking place- see those bricks to the left of the swing... (Don't mind those leaves on our pathway- our trees have been unsure of the season for some time now)

Abbey and I helped of course, but we also enjoyed other aspects of being outside...  

Like frisbee and the new swing!  

Plus, I snapped a picture of our garden-  looking good huh?  Hope we see some actual cucumbers sprouting out soon...

And finally, after some vacillating, our state art is at home in the powder room.  What an excellent coincidence that these colors work so well with our existing knick-knacks!  

Happy Saturday to you-  and GO Dawgs!!

Between throwing the frisbee for Abbey (who has gotten extremely spoiled with my being home so often) and beginning my weekly cleaning ritual, I managed to knock out a pretty spectacular craft project in about 45 minutes this afternoon.

State Art.  Ever heard of it?  I hadn't...until Pinterest OF COURSE!  All you have to do is Google it to get an idea of what it is all about.  Here are just a few examples I've pulled from Google Images to get you in the know-

Since we've left our home state of Georgia and are settling into our new state of North Carolina, I have been wanting an artsy way to document our journey.  A simple DIY State Art project was calling my name.

I found this great site where I was able to easily download and print these state maps for FREE (which is a big deal because a lot of state art printables cost $$) + they were just the right size for what I had imagined up.

The rest of this project was just as easy: Cut out the states, trace onto old fabric scraps from the bottom of my craft bin, cut out the fabric, adhere to background.

Because I wanted to mount my art to a larger neutral background, I trimmed the colored paper evenly around the state cut-outs then glued them each into the middle of an 8x10 piece of paper I cut from a sketch notebook.  Now they are ready for framing.

Clearly the Crafting Gods were on my side-  Michael's was doing a buy-one-get-one-free frame sale so I snagged these babies for a total of twenty bucks.  Pretty fabulous!  Cannot wait to get them on the wall!

What an exciting few days we've had.  It started with Miss Abbey making a cameo in our local newspaper, The Midtown Raleigh News, on Wednesday!  Over a month ago I submitted a picture from our trip to the Duke Gardens to a section of the paper titled "Your Best Shot."  I'd practically forgotten about my submission so how fun to open the paper and spy a familiar site!  Check out the on-line version here.  We've of course taken to calling Abbey our celebrity.  And you know I made her pose for a photo opp next to her claim to fame!!

And just because I can't get enough-  here is one more view of August 28th's Your Best Shot-

Now, onto more exciting news-  Backyard Renovation Phase 2 is complete!  First, the swing got several coats of outdoor spray paint in a color called Jellyfish.

Next, Dan screwed an eye bolt into each corner of the swing seat.  We also had to purchase larger eye bolts for the swing frame, placed further apart than the existing ones.

After that we were ready to add the chains and hang her up...

Dan carefully sat down to test our handiwork-  safe and sound!

I also scored cushions on clearance at Lowe's.  Although I was excited to make my own, these were a steal.  And you can't beat the outdoor + water resistant fabric!  

Now to see if it will hold us both...just in time to relax and enjoy Labor Day weekend:)