Making Moves.

So I think I owe y'all a bit of a house tour! We moved into our new house two months ago. In those two months I've dreamed up plans for every ounce of space - I know what walls colors I'd like, I know what light fixtures need to be replaced, I can just see the table and vase that will eventually sit in the front entry way. It's all in my head and sketched out in a notebook just waiting to happen.

We're taking things slowly but I do finally have one room painted. It's not quite complete but the point of progress we reached this weekend has brought it to a functional level, and darn it, it's making me happy to just look at it.

It's the smallest of the bedrooms so we're going to use it as my office. My very own space! I can decorate and clutter and work in it as I chose! I can hardly believe it.

Here's how it looked on inspection with the previous owners belongings. What you can't see here are the amazing vertical blinds and the super cool sheer rosette thing in the half-circle window. It's really something special.





This is what it looked like right after moving day.

Instead of using a real desk I decided to bring in an old kitchen table that has been hanging out in the basement. My uses for an office span from computer work to all sorts of DIY projects so I wanted something big and also something that I'm not scared of getting a little dirty.

I love bright rooms and have grand visions of a giant gallery wall full of all my favorite photos. With that in mind I decided to paint the room a bright white complimented by a charcoal underneath the chair rail. The white makes all that natural light even better and is the perfect canvas for the upcoming gallery wall.

For the table I debated between a few colors but finally settled on my favorite color - dark purple. It brings a fun factor to the room and is a nice pop of color.

Every year at Christmas TC and I spend an afternoon wandering through a few of our favorite auction houses. We just go to check out the cars and bikes but this year we walked in and saw this great Georgia sign made from scrap metal. Expecting it to be way out of our price range I about died when it was most definitely in our budget.





Behind the desk will be the gallery wall. I've got a good collection of prints and photos ready to go but I have a bit more planning to do before I start putting the nails in the wall. Fingers crossed, we should be in business in another week or two.

And, hey! No more vertical blinds or rosettes!

The only other piece in the room right now is my treasured lingerie chest that I inherited from my grandparents. I'm constantly debating whether to paint it or not. It definitely will need some new drawer pulls. Feel free to offer your opinion!

The closet also got a fresh coat of white and, just for practice, I threw in a few stripes as an experiment. I'm so glad I did because I learned a few tricks along the way. The plan is to add some square cubbies underneath the shelf for added storage also.

I'm feeling really good about this progress. Finally a room that isn't brown! Once the gallery wall is up, I'll get a new desk chair and start hunting for a great rug. I'm thinking shag!

Sledding {Finally!}

This week has been a bit of a wake up call after having two glorious weeks of holiday vacation time. The time off was just what the doctor ordered and I did my absolute best to have a good time, be slightly productive with projects and sleep in as much as humanly possible.

Mission accomplished.





On our way back from Atlanta we purposely scheduled our flight to drop us right in our favorite New England city - Portland, Maine. That way we would break up our trip a bit and tag on a few days with several friends from camp.





We spent two nights curled up in the cutest house I ever did see, complete with a barn out back and a wood burning stove that kept us toasty for the New Years celebration.





We were only in town for one full day and we obviously chose to bundle up in all of our snow gear and head over to camp for a little exploration. Between the five of us, we've logged an astonishing number of summers at camp so it only seemed appropriate that we finally get to see it under a blanket of snow and, more importantly, finally walk on the lake.





Looking at all the snow was cool, and the lake was most certainly frozen but the main attraction was (drum roll please) sledding!

Y'all. It's been on my winter bucket list ever since I moved to Canada. Every year our friends discuss how we're all going to go sledding THIS weekend. Every year we talk about it and every year sledding gets but on the back burner.





But not last weekend. We bundled up in full snow gear, dug a sled out of the shed, filled the thermos with hot cocoa and set off for camp.

Of the few hills that we suspected would be good for sledding, we settled on the water ski beach first and then moved over to the baseball field. I'm not going to lie, a very small part of me was a little nervous. I mean, I haven't been on a sled since I was about six years old.

Let me tell you, it was awesome. We each took turns blazing a trail down the hill so that the next person in line got an even faster ride.

Our blue L.L.Bean kids sled was impressively fast and even managed to dump a few of us over on occasion.





We kept sliding (as the Canadians call it) until the sun set on our little party. I had long forgotten my frozen toes at that point and our sledding had progressed to the point of shoveling small hills to catch air on and trying to avoid hitting the camp theater. Most of us were out of breath from climbing up the hill a million times and TC had long since thrown off his gloves and jacket.





After almost a decade of working at camp it was definitely a career highlight to see it in the winter and go sledding down the very beach that I usually walk barefoot on while wearing my bathing suit and board shorts.

Now that real life is back in full effect, I'm even more glad that TC and I added on the extra few hours to our trip in order to make time for New Years at camp. It was definitely the perfect way to finish out 2013.

{Yes, walking on icy snow is tough. Kasey demonstrated that several times.}

Hello There.

Good news! I'm am not stranded in an apple orchard. No, in fact I left the apple orchard that day and simply hung up my blogger hat. As it turns out, blogging takes up a good bit of time and life was picking up the pace. Something needed to give. Family, work, sleep, and home all take precedence. And if I'm being honest, it was really work that was suffering. I realized one day that what I really needed was more sleep - and guess what keeps me up past a normal bed time? Writing.

So, I'm back. But only on a self-imposed probationary period. We'll see how well I can stick to a reasonable bed time.

Now, where to begin?





Back before the snow, I suppose. TC and I moved! We bought a house that is perfect for us. It's just across town and has marvelous features like no neighbors living directly above and below us! A garbage disposal! A GARAGE! More than one tiny bathroom and a linen closet that actually holds all my towels! It's a miracle, I tell ya. Oh, and get this - we no longer have to keep my dresser in another room. Our bedroom can actually hold both dressers. Crazy, right?

Every single wall needs to be painted and there is definitely some furniture to be bought but for now I'm just enjoying the new space. Actually, even though I promised I wouldn't touch a paintbrush for a few months, I caved over the weekend and painted my office. I'll be sure to show you the before and afters soon.

We've had an unbelievable amount of snow this winter so it was extra nice to catch a plane to Atlanta for the holidays and escape the constant blizzards. I spend most of my fall getting excited for our holiday trip and this year was just as wonderful as always.





We spent an amazing Christmas with my family. Gift were opened, mimosas were consumed and a lot of time was spent sitting around the kitchen just hanging out and talking about a whole lot of nothing. There is definitely no place like home.

In Atlanta we also got too see all of my friends - we went out to breakfast, we had dinner, we went to a home inspection, we went on a Ferris Wheel, we sat on living room floors to play super heros with the kids, and we ate lunch at the Food Truck Park.





A little bit of everything as we spent time with all my girls. Perfection, really. And let's be real - you know how much I love ferris wheels.





After leaving Atlanta we spent a few nights with friends in Maine for New Years Eve. It was a mini reunion of sorts and was the perfect way to spend the last day of our holiday break. For some reason the snow looks prettier down in Maine than it does here at home. But that's probably because there was a lot less of it there.

I've got a few projects in the works, a few new recipes, a discovery or two and a couple of adventures that I'll fill you in on in the near future.

It's good to be back :) Thanks for being patient with me.