the exterior

We have been enjoying our summer in Memphis, and thankfully it hasn't been TOO hot until this past week.  There have been quite a few nights that we have enjoyed sitting on the patio and there was a light breeze!  We know the humid summer is coming, so we definitely enjoyed those nights while we had them.

So far it has been quite eventful at our house... The roof project finally took place and our house looks like a brand new house.  So thankful that project is finally behind us.  Here she was before (with the roof color samples up)....

And here she is now.  The final phase of the exterior updates.

We are so pleased.  Feels like a brand new house!

Just for fun... Here's the house when we bought it.  We have come a LONG way!

This place has been a labor of love for T and I, and we have enjoyed every minute of it.  It really feels like home and I can't wait to start our family here and share it with this little peanut.  We are so blessed.

A few other projects have taken place this spring summer... I'll be back with those!

the egg

Well we finally pulled the trigger (and stained the table) and got our little [big] green egg!  We had no idea what we were doing, but everyone said "it's so easy and heats up in like 10 minutes."  So here we go.... 2 nights in a row and they were both a big SUCCESS!

Night 1: Hamburgers and Apple Crisp

 burgs...

 apple crisp...

After much research (and youtube video watching) T found that you should start the egg off by cooking things that require lower temperatures.  So we started with burgers.  I'm not a huge burger eater really, but I will say this one was perfectly cooked.  So even. So juicy.  My favorite part though was the apple crisp.  What can I say, I'm a dessert kind of girl.  Remember when I made apple crisp for 2?  Well, we were celebrating Ross' bday on Monday night and I wanted to do a dessert on the ol' egg and thought this might just be the thing.  It was SOOOO good.  I mean I can't explain why, but it was much better than the oven version.  Thank you, green egg, for living up to my dreams of making desserts on you.  MMMM good.  We topped it with blue bell, just for Ross.

Night 2: Pork Tenderloin and Biscuits

We threw out the idea of doing a pizza our second night, but T read those require higher temps so he found this pork tenderloin recipe instead.  He made his own rub, which is now called the "fiesta rub" and it was the best most perfectly cooked pork I've ever had in my life.  No joke.  No part of it was chewy.  I'm telling you, perfectly cooked pork tenderloin.  We put our homemade biscuits on there to cook, too, and they were just as amazing (if not better) as baking them in the oven.

 fiesta rub

The Green Egg has lived up to the hype so far, and I know it'll only continue to be so fun for us!  Like T said on Monday, if you need us this summer, we will be here...

we have trees!

When we bought this house we had zero trees on our property.  That's right zero.  We didn't count the off-shoot magnolia in the backyard as a tree because it just always looked weird/awkward....

When we bought the house we knew the backyard had potential, but needed lots of TLC.  First step was demo-ing the rotten cover thingy that was over the patio.  T and his dad and uncle knocked that out one of the first weekends we were here... oh back in 2009.  The next step was getting rid of the azaleas along the back fence (they were overgrown with bamboo.. eeks!), and then our last step would be trees, plants, beds, flowers, grill etc.

Last summer we did full on front yard re-do.  Thanks to Adsit Landscape and our landscape designer (happy to share his name with you!), we got a full design drawn up for the future backyard and would do it in phases.

We completed phase 1 on Monday and it is already looking like a backyard!  We love to do yard work and be outside, but we wanted Adsit to plant our trees because they get awesome plants (come see our grass if you need proof).

Here's the backyard... the clean slate... No trees... No plants... No more bamboo...

Trees arrived Monday morning!

"Hey, what are you guys doing in my backyard??"

 

And here it is with all the new trees (and a ghost-doggie thanks to auto-stitch)!

 

Some crepe myrtles, magnolias, hollies, an oak and a beautiful cherry!  Eventually there will be a barrier/block/privacy line of trees along the fence.  Oh, and back in the right corner, a nice little pocket among the hollies for T's bow target to sit.

Oh and check out that trough.  That was the purchase over the weekend that we were excited about finding...at the tractor supply store!  Can't wait to put some flowers in there very soon.  It's already spring here and we are loving every second of it.

birthday month

In our house it's birthday month!  Both our bdays fall in March so it's fun to have celebrations throughout the month.  I always hang our cute bday banner in the kitchen window...

(see our million buttercups in the backyard? there are even more along the wall under that window)

And enjoy sweets a little too much and justify it because "my birthday is in a week" or "t's birthday is next week." I would rather eat sweets for a meal any way.

T and I have been busy with building the table for the green egg grill we plan on purchasing.  We can't wait to get this thing.  You can cook/grill/bake anything on it.  You have to have some sort of stand, table, nest before you buy because you literally buy just the egg.  We wanted to save some moolah, so we (t-man) decided to build it ourselves.  Well it's just a beaut, but we have to let the wood "cure" before we can stain and seal it.... Patience.

See how great of a job he did?!

The egg will sit down in that hole.  A perfectly cut hole.


I was contemplating on whether or not to do a monthly desktop background.  Are you reader out there still enjoying it?  Please tell me if you are because I'll continue doing them if so.  In honor of March birthday month, check out March desktop here.

Happy Birthday month to the Carters!  :)

opening day

October 1 brought opening day for a few things around our house...

Most importantly fall and fall weather!  We woke up on Saturday morning to low temps, and then enjoyed a beautiful sunny fall afternoon.

Secondly it was opening day of bow season for T.  He washed his gear in no scent detergent and loaded up his pack with the necessities.  I didn't venture down to Oxford with him this time as Gibson had a morning at the "spa" and I was going to frame our Italian prints at the frame corner.  I did receive a few photos of T in his element.

He his a "real hunter" and using face paint this year for the first time... eye black included.  Watch out deer, he's hiding from y'all!

When he returned from his weekend in the woods, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins this year.  Twas a fun time.  We did have to find a new pumpkin patch this year because our usual one at Schnucks (now Kroger) was no longer.  We found this patch at an Ike's (thanks Audrey for the affirmative here).  I grabbed up an awesome green one for our mantel plus some others for elsewhere.

I put out some fall decoration around the house and made a new wreath for the front door this year.  The inspiration is via pinterest.

While working on October desktop today, I received a little message from the cutest baby on the block. Look at this smiley little owl... She's ready for fall, too!

Juliette (my perfect and precious niece) is growing so much and she is smiling all the time.  I love snuggling her and usually can't go a day without visiting.

(remember, just click this to open in a new window.. then right click to set as desktop background)

Has everyone decorated for fall?  Have you gotten a pumpkin spiced latte yet? 

busy season projects: done

During busy season this year, I came up with a few projects to keep me occupied while T crunched away at all hours of the night.  The projects were as follows....

1. New duvet cover and pillows -- see below
2. Cafe curtains -- check!
3. Change all doorknobs in the house -- see below

All are now complete!  Here is how the duvet cover turned out.  Someone named T. Dudley REALLY likes it. Seriously.

I sewed the top together, and then my good friend Amy, whom I met at BSF, helped me put it all together with button holes and the whole deal.

The doorknob project was including changing the hinges, but that's a two person job.  New doorknobs make things feel so fresh and clean (well maybe if you'd experienced the old ones).  They all look like this:

Even the guest bath looks so much cleaner (with our beautiful yellow tile).

The sliding closet doors were a little more tricky because they don't make the exact size of the old ones...

[nice, eh?]

But my dad's dremel tool came in handy, and I proved to T that these new handles wouldn't be rigged (right, buddy?).

[sorry for all iPhone photos.. one day I'll try to use a real camera again]

3rd busy season down.  Now time to veg out with the man and pup and enjoy each other!

hello there october

I have already been able to do a few of the things on the list below, which makes me very excited.  Pumpkin cookies are on the list for this week.  T and I found the perfect pumpkin that is sitting on our stoop, and we accomplished something awesome that we've been wanting to do for over a year, and I got some beautiful yellow mums for the front urns.  I don't want to sound all braggy, but I reveal phase 1 of our front landscaping!  That's right, we actually did it.

Feels pretty nice to drive up to a home with some bushes in the front beds.  Thanks for the help, Pam and Steve, we wouldn't have made the jump without a little push from the two of you!

Oh, and here is the perfect pumpkin I was telling you about.  The cute couple selling them called them harry potter pumpkins.

And thanks to the Commercial Appeal blog for the shout out about my fall post! And as usual the beginning of every month, I give you all a nice monthly desktop wallpaper, hope y'all are all still enjoying them!  This was an easy one for me, as I love pumpkins and fall.

Now time for another pumpkin spice latte.

October 1024 x 768

October 1600 x 1200

October 1680 x 1050

garage sale-o-2010

Well we actually did it. We had a garage sale. I don't think I'll ever have another for the next 10-15 years. It was a success, but we wish more people had come. We had so much shtuff to sell and it was good shtuff.

Dad cleaned out his storage building, here are just 2 of the loads in his and T's trucks... Hillbillies.

My parents cleaned out their entire attic, storage, house, etc, and as we were pricing everything on Saturday night my mom said, "this is my whole house/life. Ahh!" I guess she couldn't believe that they were actually selling all their shtuff, but she was so ready to get rid of it. Don't worry, we made her keep sentimental things, such as our cabbage patch dolls, Scottie's first teddy bear, my 101 dalmation stuffed dog - Patch, Cabbage Patch cradle, ya know, things of that nature. Here is what everything looked like on Friday night. It really was insane, things kept coming from every direction... luggage, satellite dish, tivo boxes, clothes (and more clothes), stuffed animals, pots, pans, crystal vases, poker game, TVs, furniture, rugs, and so on and so on.....

Friday night we set as much as we could up on tables in the back yard, so on Saturday morning all we had to do was carry the tables to the front. Here is what it all looked like on Friday night...

Looking into our garage storage building in our backyard...

Looking out of the garage into the backyard...

 [sorry for all the phone photos... we've gotten bad at actually getting out a real camera...]

Shtuff, shtuff, shtuff everywhere... We wanted to protect all the shtuff from the dew, so my genius dad had a big ole tarp, and I mean big ole. HUGE [just like our garage sale].

It worked just perfectly. It actually covered every table (all 6) we had set up in the back. Dad, you're a genius.

(Is this really happening?)

Now here are some real camera photos. The whole spread before 7am with the earlybird customers... One of them scavenging for "costume jewelry."

Gibson found a new best buddy amongst the stuffed animal bag. He hung out with him while the sale was going on...

It was a huge success, but next time we will put up more street signs to get more people from different areas to buy the shtuff. Garage sales are long and exhausting and lots of work, even for this little pooch.

See Leslie's post for some other good fun from our sale!

Note: I forgot to add... We got so lucky with "getting rid of the leftovers." Our neighbor told us about a girl who is raising money to go on a mission trip to Uganda this summer. She is having a yard sale next weekend and taking all donations, and she and her parents came and picked up 4 truckloads and took it from our house. It was awesome! So, if you missed out on our stuff and really wanted to see it, you have a second chance to hit up her sale [and it's for a good cause]. It's this coming weekend and they live on Quince close to Estate.