Weekend Round Up

Yay, for a fun weekend!  It kicked off with my cousin Jason (who is like an older brother) flying down for a visit.

Here he is walking my mom down during our wedding

It's always fun to catch up and bring back memories of when we were younger.  This also happened to be the big weekend when we finally got to meet my brother's new girlfriend!  Unlike me, who had Chris meeting my family after only one month of dating (in all fairness it was really because it happened to be the only time my dad would be in town from Atlanta where he was working on assignment for a couple of years), Dennis normally takes a while to feel out the situation before bringing anyone to meet us.  Danielle was really great and I'm so hoping this works out!  She got to see us all in our best form - cracking jokes and enjoying some Rudy's BBQ.

While searching the web I found out who the maker of our vessel sink is!  

It's a RonBow tempered 2 layer glass sink that could be found online for $369.  This put a huge smile on my face since we got it for a deal at $99.

Speaking of deals, mom was on it again, this time with a new light for their kitchen.  Making our rounds Saturday morning, mom found a light that she really liked but learned that that location did not have any in stock.  We had to head up the road so I could pick up Chris' birthday gift (the location we were at didn't have any of that in stock either), and she struck up another deal.  This location had the same light, for $79 instead of the original price of $99.  They didn't have any in stock, but would sell her the floor model for $69.  Not too shabby!

We made time to catch the Dark Knight and get some yogurt in between clearing out the kitchen and laundry room in preparation for the team to come today and start working on the new floor. 

Gotta love the fridge in the living room

And to round it out I finished a painting for the half bath.  After seeing our little tribute to the Philly statue for our gallery wall, mom wanted a little love in her house.  I told her it would be easy to paint, if she picked up the supplies.

How was your weekend?  Any fun projects or deals?

Sink Or Swim

I'm in love with a sink!

This past weekend mom & I headed out for some retail therapy while the guys were away.  Mom has decided to really change up the powder room beyond just the painting, and is going with a remodel including new flooring and a new vanity to go with the new fixtures, light and mirror.  She has made a couple of window shopping trips, but wanted another opinion so I volunteered to go with.  We hit up Floor and Decor and Builders Surplus and both came away with some thing nice.

While I was walking around checking out backsplash tile...

...mom was checking out flooring.

The other item on her agenda was a new vanity.  Right now they have a pedestal sink and she's was looking for a vanity with some extra storage space.

So many vanities 

She really wanted a white square sink with a darker cabinet, but wasn't in love with the shades of cabinet that were available.  After much deliberation she decided on an all white vanity with the idea of painting the  base.

Forgot to take a pic in the warehouse, but here's the side of the box.

While mom was busy making her decision, I was wondering around just to see what all was out there.  You may remember way back in the day I wrote about our love for the vessel sinks that we used on our honeymoon.  Chris and I were both on board for adding one into the half bath, so I thought I would check out the selection.

There was such a large variety at both stores, which include beautiful painted sinks that reminded me of Mexico...

...glass bowls with a texture look...

... and square sinks in white and marble.

But I stopped in my tracks when I saw this beauty sitting at the end of the counter.

LOVE it! I quickly sent some picture texts to Chris while he was at work to see what he thought.  He liked the square sinks, but thought that the blue and green would really stand out.  Chris usually goes for items with a little extra sumpin' sumpin'.  I had no plans on buying anything while we were out, but Chris said that it was a good price and too cool to leave behind (it was the only one left in the store).

Of course once I got it home and wiped it down, I had to take additional pictures.

I can't wait to see how our half bath comes together with this as it's centerpiece.

Have you made any fun purchases lately that you were in love with?

35 Years

Happy 35th Anniversary to my parents!!

Dad has been cleaning up during his retirement and found old documents from their wedding including directions to the New Jersey church for their Pennsylvania guests and the tux store options.  Amazing the amount of different colored tuxes that were offered in the 70s!

Love you two!

Morning Me Time

Over the past 4 weeks I have altered my morning routine to include a little bit of me time.  Normally I would just let Gypsy out in the back yard and then log into my work computer and start working sometime between 6 and 6:30 in the morning.  Early, I know, but I am a morning person so it works out for me.

Now I get myself dressed, grab some earphones, strap on Gypsy' harness and we go for an early morning walk/jog. I try to change up the path we travel every now and then, making sure not to stay out too long because it heats up pretty quickly.

This is a perfect opportunity for me to get outside of the house every morning which has been harder since I started to work remote.  When you don't have to leave the house, it's easy to just get into a routine of staying inside.  I love using this time to listen to my music and just think about life, goals and plans for the future.

A lone bench we pass

I love that we normally pass the same people every morning with a friendly wave or "hello".  This time has become one of my favorite parts of the day and I like to think Gypsy enjoys herself as well.

Do you have any "me time" during your days?

A Nautical 1st Birthday

Our real reason for heading south the weekend we stopped by College Station was to celebrate the first birthday of our friends' son.  C & C planned a beautiful red, white and blue nautical theme party for their son who was born just days before the 4th of July.  C utilized Etsy, DIY projects and some ideas from Pinterest to put together a great outdoor pool party at their house.

C's mother in law made a beautiful boat cake for all of the guests to enjoy while the birthday boy enjoyed his own smash cake made by his mother.

One of the projects that I helped with were the utensil packages.  C saw an idea on Pinterest that was perfect for this nautical party!  The silverware was wrapped in red, white and blue napkins and then tied together with a lifesaver.

So cute!  And I enjoyed having the lifesaver to pop in my mouth after eating from the delicious food spread.

Another project that Chris and I were tasked to put together were the red, white and blue fruit kebabs.  We used strawberries, blueberries and marshmellows to keep with the color theme.

Such a fun party and of course added a little bit more to the baby fever!

Have you used any ideas from the web when hosting a party?

30 Before 30: College Station

Another one off the list!  This past weekend we headed to Houston to celebrate the first birthday of our friends' son.  Since Chris and I both have vacation time to burn we decided to take off on Friday and head out early to make a quick stop over to my old stomping grounds, College Station home of Texas A&M.

The last time we were there was in 2009 when we went to a couple of weddings in CS, but I haven't been on campus since 2005 and Chris has never had the chance to actually walk around.  Wow, what a difference a couple of years make!  Our first stop was the Memorial Student Center, or MSC, and that place sure has changed! It looks so nice on the inside, and I'm glad to see that they still kept the student living room and my favorite part - the wood carvings of A&M's history.

We made a quick stop into the bookstore, which is now a Barnes and Noble.

Loved seeing t-shirts that incorporated the Aggies' new home in the SEC.  On the other hand seeing shirts for the class of 2016 made me feel really old!

After the MSC, we checked out Kyle Field home of Aggie football and then walked over to the new Blue Bell park for baseball.

With the heat beating down on us, I decided to skip walking over to Mays Business school which is where I spent the majority of my junior and senior years.  After making our way through all of the construction (both on campus and down University), we enjoyed an early lunch at Freebirds on Northgate.

I really wanted to add my name to the bricks, but I didn't have a marker or pen with me.

On the way out of town we made one last side trip to taste some wine at Messina Hof.

 I haven't been to the winery since my graduation weekend and was happy to learn that they have opened another location down in Fredericksburg.  

It was a short trip, but I'm so glad I was able to see some of the changes to campus and share some of my college memories with Chris.

Pinterest Challenge: Chalkboard Menu

I've been wanting to make something with chalkboard paint for some time now and thanks to Young House Love and Bower Power, I finally got that last little push to tackle another pinterest project.

I've found several inspiration pictures out there utilizing chalkboard paint and decided on a menu for the kitchen in hopes of getting back into meal planning.

From Heather at WhipperBerry

After a trip to Michael's, I was ready to go with my project supplies: frame, paint, roller and chalk.  The letters were left over from my map project (that I also used for some gallery wall art).

I kicked it off with a little spray paint action on the black frame to turn it white and then tested out the two shades of chalkboard paint that I picked up.

Chris and I love blue, so I was really hoping I would like the blue paint but it was a little too light against the white frame.  Black it is!  I rolled on the first coat and let it dry for an hour before adding on another layer.

I'm not sure if it was the roller or the early morning outdoor conditions, but I opted to add the next couple of layers with a sponge brush instead.

After layer 2 or 3

While I waited for those coats to dry (I ended up doing 4 coats on the glass), I started on the letters.

The original plan was to paint the wood letters white and then attach them to the actual chalkboard painted glass, but after some thought I decided to change it. Gotta love a mid project switch!  I wanted as much area as possible to write on the chalkboard and the letters would be taking up some prime real estate.  I played around with putting the letters on the actual frame instead and loved it.  Of course, the white letters on a white frame were a little hard to read so I added two coats of blue paint from the craft bag (can't wait to have my supplies organized!).  A little tacky glue later and the letters were good to go.

The bottle says to allow the chalkboard paint to cure for at least 24 hours before conditioning it, so it was time to play the waiting game. I really wanted to finish the project before we headed out of town, but I decided it was better to be safe than sorry so the paint sat there for 3 days while we partied it up in Houston for our friends' son's first birthday.

Sunday afternoon was time to condition the paint, but I probably could have done a few more passes before writing on it.

And one shot in the kitchen.

All in all I really like how it turned out and can't wait to hang it in our kitchen!

Have you completed any pinterest projects lately?