Thanksgiving in pictures and a few words...

It has been so amazing to have family here this Thanksgiving.  Our home was filled with ten people for the Holiday and we baked our first ever turkey.  My mother was key in this operation.  And helping me bake the pies.  I had all the ingredients, the recipes, and the willpower, but nothing makes up for experience and knowing how to time things just right....or the support of your family cheering you on!

The Thanksgiving spread including Turkey, Cranberry Jelly, Aunt Karen's Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, and Green Beans and Shallots.  Oh, and gravy.  Lots of gravy!



Checking on the pies in the oven!



The table looked great, and was a combination of family heir looms.  My aunts plates, my grandmother's napkins, and the table was Charlie's great grandmother's.  Here's how it looked...

 

And here we are right before chowing down...

The whole crew!

This trip was not for the faint of heart or the tired.  We visited the property the my in-laws are in the process of closing on.  We went out to dinner and we also visited Discovery Place and saw a Mummy exhibit.  We snuck in the some relaxing and watching movies, but we did a lot!!

By the (almost) new house!

The "kids" having fun downtown in a London-style phone booth!

Turkey Trot Participants!

Talking and Relaxing in Downtown Charlotte

There are so many blessings and things I am thankful for this year.

• My husband and wonderful family
• Our friends
• Our health
• Our church
• Our home
• Our jobs
• Our dog

We are more than blessed.  Happy belated Thanksgiving! 

Painting the entryway.

So, as I said in a previous post, I have been brainstorming paint ideas, and we got around to picking up some samples during this long weekend.  I got Behr's Toasted Wheat and Burnt Almond because they were my favorites on the online painter.

I almost immediately ruled out Burnt Almond.  I looks like baby poop to me.  And I think it's too dark.

Of the two, I really liked the Toasted Wheat, but I was still concerned it was too light and too fleshy colored.  So, just for kicks, I decided to bring out some paint samples from when we painted our bonus room to see if those colors might be better suited.  I slapped them up on the wall (Gallery Taupe and Cup of Cocoa)...and I really liked Cup of Cocoa.  It is a nice mix between baby poop Burnt Almond and flesh colored Toasted Wheat for the perfect warm brown. 

Here are the colors closer up...

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

Our bonus room.. has SEATING! :) :D

This was our adventure this Veteran's Day.  Since I had the day off and all! :)  We got up bright and early and rented a truck from Home Depot, which only turned out to be $35 or so (with gas and everything) and we headed to Ikea.

We got there at 9:50, and they open at 10:00.  But we noticed that some other people were getting in early, so we did, too!  We knew exactly what we wanted so we b-lined for them.  I don't know if you know anything about Ikea, but it is extremely hard to get out of there.  Extremely.  And since time was money with the truck we planned on moving FAST. 

And the entire trip took us...20 minutes.  Yeah, 20 minutes.  If you've ever been to Ikea you know this is nothing short of miraculous.  We bought a 300 lb. sofa, 4 white frames, and two Venetian blinds.  The sofa came in four boxes, so we loaded it with the help of an employee, and we were the first people in the entire store to check out.  Because nobody arrives at Ikea when it opens and checks out 20 minutes later.  LOL.  It was great.

Everyone was surprisingly nice, too.  It helps to be the only customers in the store!  When it's busy, forget finding help!

Here is a video I put together of us assembling a sofa.  And no, you won't get these 5 minutes of your life back. 

Enjoy.  We're marginally entertaining.

Inspired to paint...again!!?!?

So there are some new home happenings around our household that I haven't really shared, yet.  I've been holding out on your guys!!!

J/k.  I've just been really busy ;)

The first thing in the new and bold department it painting.  Yes, painting.  My favorite.  Although we will probably hire it out because a) we've found painters who work at a very good rate and b)  I don't want to hurt ourselves painting on vaulted ceiling staircases.  That's just a bad idea.     

In terms of color, want to warm up the entryway and upstairs hallway.  It feels kind of cold to me.  Here is a recent picture of the space decked out for fall.

Then I was on Pintrest, my new addiction, and I saw this picture:

I fell in love with the warmer color and I knew I wanted to do something similar.  But knew It had to match the connecting rooms and their paint colors.  And then I came across Toasted Wheat while playing online at Behr Paint.com.  And then I put this color board together to make sure it would all work.

Looking at it like this, I didn't realize how earthy our house colors where.  But they really are.  They aren't to scale or in the order they appear in the house, but I wanted to show how the back color, Toasted Wheat, would connect all the rooms seamlessly.  I'll have to buy a paint tester and try it out.  That's always the key.

In addition to painting, Charlie and I have also been researching couches for the redone bonus roombly:

After a failed purchase (a great deal on a couch that wouldn't fit up the stairs of the bonus room) we decided that we would have to assemble a couch up there.  The requirements are...

• It has to be around $600 or under.  Yeah, we're cheap.
• It has to be able to be converted into at least a double bed
• It has to be comfortable and kid friendly
• It has to fit the space.

The goal is to use this room as a play area for future kids/hang out.  Charlie's old office TV from back in the day will eventually go up there when there is a sweet sale on a better one.  But I digress... enter Ikea's Manstad...

I have been eyeing it for a few months now.  It's pretty much the perfect couch for the space.  And, as luck would have it, it's currently on sale at Ikea because we are part of the Ikea "Family".  Saving us about $100.  We are going to look at it tomorrow and see if we like it..and then rent a truck and buy the sucker.  And assemble it.  Joy.

Remember my red rug from the "old" living room along with the throw pillows?  They will be perfect up there.  Because they are just sitting in storage.  I'm thinking I might also put that red Ikea print up on the staircase right when you walk up... we'll see :)

So that's pretty much it around here....

Murder Mystery Party

We hosted our Murder Mystery Party this past weekend. 

It was...killer. 

For real, though.  It was really fun, and everyone really got into their characters.  The name of the party was Totally Tubular 80s Murder Mystery Bash.  I love the 80s.  Who doesn't love the 80s?

I played Polly Pingmold, a selfish, Rubik's cube obsessed, wannabe 80s prom queen who was never popular in high school, but thanks to my $50,000 lawsuit against Bo Pontana, an arrogant, stuttering quarterback, I'm not-so happily married, but very, very rich.  Charlie was my husband, Ivan Pingmold, CEO of a Ghostcatching business with a flatulence problem.  (He even found a fart app for his phone.  Awesome.)  Here we are in all our 80s glory....(yes I crimped my hair!)

Here I am playing with my Rubik's cube in the kitchen while I finished cooking...it was actually the murder weapon!

The entire gang looked totally tubular...

The most fun part of the evening was the murder.  Other parties I've been to the murder already happened and the guest's job is to figure out who the killer was throughout the night.  For this party it happens during the evening.  Bo Pontana (Ben) was *killed*.  I hid face paint under the sink, as instructed to do so in the host manual, and during the night, the murderers clues and information instruct him/her to go "die"...which he did.  Very well. 


Ben and Erika...who later on that evening told us they are expecting.  YAY!  Better save this pic for the kids ;)

 If you remember from this post, I was trying to think of decor on the cheap-o for the event.  I ended up going to the Dollar Store and the Goodwill and the table looked like this in the end...

 

Here's what I ended up getting for the party:  Ring Pops, Candy Bracelets, Pop Rocks, Fun Straws, Records as Chargers, Fun, sparkly centerpieces, Confetti, Streamers, Ugly, 80s red dress, Prom tiara $1
Charlie's 80s rocker wig ($2 at Walmart after Halloween Sale).  I spent just around $20 for everything.


Everyone got ring pops and pop rocks as favors...and way cool straws!

If you want to host your own party...you can find them here.  Gag me with a spoon!

Lawn update

The lawn is the bane of my existence.  And it embarrasses me.   Daily.  It's a sore spot for us, but we are working on it... slowly but surely.  And FYI, growing grass in the south is difficult.  Especially growing grass that looks halfway decent.  Southern lawns were meant to be filled with weeds, I think. 

We got out lawn powerseeded for the first time this fall.  And no, we didn't do it.  We hired a company.  Good thing, too because we would have done it all wrong.  We didn't realize the scope of the problem.  The worst of it was that we had to kill a bunch of Dallisgrass before we could begin the process.  It's an perennial weed that overpowers laws, and grows tall, fast, and ugly.  Really ugly.

So, now that you've had your southern grass lesson... I'll show you the pictures of our lawn after the power-seeding.  We had to "strip" it down really short and then the company came through and ripped it up further to bury the seeds.  You can just lay the seed down on top (overseeding), but on slopey areas, it doesn't hold up as well, plus covering the lawn with straw to keep the seeds protected introduces new weeds/seed into your lawn.  The downside is that it makes your lawn look worse than when you started.

 

See what I mean about looking worse?  And then, miracle of all miracles...

Grass sprouted a few days ago...  real live GRASS.

Not perfect...but it's a start :)

Here's how it went down around here...

We are so happy.  So very happy.