Charleston Weekend cont'd

Saturday we took a tour on the horse- drawn carriage thru Charleston- This is the Chisholm house.

This is the city jail dating WAY back- they do a ghost tour there. ( No thank you!) There is also a house located next to the jail- the ghost hunters from Tv were just there and found a trap door in the house with bones inside of it.

Jail sign- all old and weathered.

First Moon Pie store was in Charleston- didnt know that before!

Havent seen a Cigarrette vending machine since i was 6!! In a restraunt we ate at in between the bathrooms.

After our tour we drove thru Rainbow Row where all of the multi- million dollar homes are. They are spectacular and full of color. Pictures cant capture the enormity of them and the details each house has.

Some random bride having her portraits taken-

Charleston is GORGEOUS! If you EVER have a chance to visit there, you need to go. The seafood is out of this world! Lots of fun shopping, a straw market, farmers market, and lots of people to watch!

Weekend Charleston Girl Trip!

A Few weekends ago, some girlfriends and i took an overnight trip to Charleston. I've NEVER been there before, but have heard so many raves about it. With one of my girlfriends aunts here from Pa, we wanted to go somewhere that was historic- Boone Hall Plantation was on our list for Friday.

Little did we know it would be so hot- with a heat index of 115, people! That's not dry heat, that's HUMID heat. We spent 3 hours at this place- Now when i say the name of this place, for most of you that means nothing.. However, when i say: remember that summer house of the girl's parents in the movie, the Notebook ?! That rings a HUGe bell i'm sure ;)

THIS was that place!!

I am in love with the moss that hangs from trees- did you know that its actually a fungas, but will grow with the tree and they dont take from each other, so they live in harmony and make weird girls like me giddy when i see them!

Here's that infamous house! Of course the white pergolas on either side weren't in the movie- up close, those are actually covering benches for people that wait to tour the inside of the house. I did tour, however, we werent allowed to take any pictures, but i will say its gorgeous inside- the library with all of the old, musty antique books was my favorite- TALL bookcases, with hinged, see thru doors made out of chicken wire and framed with wood. the details were endless!

these are the slave houses which are in front of the house- there were about 6 of them if i recall, with one of them being the slaves place of worship. In each of these houses, they had facts on the slaves, what they did, how they lived, etc. VERY intriguing!

Another "Notebook" moment.. when her boyfriends driving down to her parents house and you see the LONG stretch of trees. Pictures CANNOT express how gorgeous it was!
( A little fun fact about that movie- remember when he crashes into the big iron fence ? that was NOT suppose to happen in the movie- the gates were suppose to open and failed, but the director like it so much, he kept it in the movie!)

Another shot of the slaves quarters

This is a view of the back-side of the huge house- on this property they have a full farm that runs all year long ( watermelons, pumpkins, grapes). Their biggest crop is Pecans, although with many storms, the trees were uprooted and died-

Many tv movies and shows have been filmed on this property
- Army Wives just finished filming a few weeks ago. This house may look familiar to some. It was built for a set on the movie starring Halle Berry, called Queen.

I saw this tree and went coo coo.. no lie.. my FAVE tree, a Crepe Myrtle, which you will see ALL OVER the place out here, WITH the moss in it.. ahhh.. cant get much better than that!

I am SO glad we all went- it was totally worth the money and an eye opening experience. I will be taking the fam back !!! Its not only educational, but so beautiful.. its heaven on earth, really!!

More Charleston pics to come-

Projects GALORE!

When the minis went with the Mr, i was able to do MANY projects. When i'm doing crafts, i'm one happy girl!

One thing you have to know is i STEW on projects for weeks, sometimes MONTHS trying to figure out where or what i should make. Sometimes, project ideas just happen right away-

This first project has been a LONG one. i forgot to take before and afters of everything, i'm a loser- but.. under this pic you'll see a pink canvas. My best friend in Sc was going to throw this away. i knew i could use it for something- i tried spray painting and that didnt work-

I hand painted black acrylic paint on the entire front and sides.

One dried, i sprayed each of the pieces of scrapbook paper with spray adhesive and layed on the canvas. i simply used the "Q" that i already had ( once again, another fun thing from Corky's daughter) that i've literally had for 3 yrs and didnt use. i sprayed it a tiffany blue-

had a 5x7 pic printed of lil muffin and used a vinyl rub on i've also been stashing for over 2 years. How cute is this simple piece of art?! i'm in love!

Monograms- i love them. I used to not "get it" because in Oregon, you dont do monograms. Well, things have changed and i look for ANY reason to have a monogram! I was burnt out on wreaths on my front door- while in hobby lobby ( my second home) i came up with this idea- a GIANT monogram ( joanne fabrics), a yard of fabric and modge podge. i literally layed the H
on top of the fabric and kept 2-3 inches around it and cut. i then cut every 2 inches all around so that i had small pieces to glue on the H and wouldnt get bubbles. you literally get your fingers messy and use them as your paint brush. This is a TIME CONSUMING project, people! we're talking 2 plus hours WITHOUT interruptions! once glued onto the H, i glued on TOP of the fabric to seal it, once again to not have bubbling. I then thought of a random do dad to match the fabric- on my neighbors i glued a mini owl on .
This idea has TAKEN OFF and we now have neighbors making their own spin offs-

these were those old 80's pantry doors with horrible gold hardware on them. i literally took tons of pieces and screws out. i spray painted them and then sanded to look shabby. I bought picture wire so that they could hang on the wall and had the Mr. screw screws into each side of the back of the shutters with the wire hanger, and then put square chair pads on ALL four corners of each so they wouldnt scratch the wall. i literally paid 6 dollars for the shutters and maybe 8 for the spray paint!

(ps the wicker trunk i also got at the garage sale for only 15 bucks and holds clean sheets)

i made this wreath using a round wreath form from the dolla store- i also bought my shells there and literally hot glued them on - super easy, super inexpensive!

While blog stalking, i came across a tutorial from a blog called Little apartment on the prairie that gave a tutorial on how to make your own beach glass with MODGE PODGE and food coloring! AGain, so easy- i went to our goodwill and got many bottles, however you can use what you have- the tall one is actually an old liquor bottle and the small square one was a reed oil diffuser at one time!

And that my friends is what i got done to show for.. there was more made

and many good trips to goodwill -
I think the best thing in all of this,is you dont have to fork out boatloads of money to do a project! The key is patience! Get an idea, and wait for the right thing to come along! its taken nearly over a year to get my room together and i'm still not done, but all the waiting and time pays off i promise you!

NC Beach Trip With Daddy

The last few weeks of summer have wrapped, and i've wondered what happened to my idea of updating my blog on a consistant basis! I blog stalk almost daily and then am too lazy to update mine ;)

The girls went on a week vaca with their daddy to the Beaches of NC and had a BLAST - ( i'm pretty sure my week was more fun kidless with no responsibilities, but i wont tell them that!!)

I left the Mr. with the task of taking pictures of the trip so i could have them captured for the blog- as you would guess, the picture task was done, but not obsessively as a mom would've done. Hey, i'll take what i can get!

* Little Muffin buried in the sand by her sissy and cousins- poor little victim

*Mini me went boogie boarding *

I literally got caught up on crafts and things i wanted to do with girlfriends- my neighbor swore i was never home... however if she would've seen my living room she would know i was. Craft supplies EVERYWHERE- thank you cards, homemade monograms for me and my neighbors door, a wall hanging in lil muffins room, a goodwill run that produced MANY finds to make beach glass for my room, and many other things-

I'm game for having a daddy/ daughter week EVERY year!

Lil Muffin turned 3!!

Her actual birthday was during the week, but we decided to have her party on Saturday- we had our usual dinner as a family with our close friends- those pictures will be posted later. Here are some snipits from saturday- Princess and the frog was the theme we decorated for. its hard decorating at a pool!!! Not my ideal location, and not how i envisioned it, but she loved it and that's ALL that mattered!

Green punch to stick with the purple, lavendar and green theme- i'm pretty sure i made enough punch for all of the city! I used : green kool-a*d, sugar, water, sprite, and some lime sherbert.. fun punch with a kick

I made her tutu with glitter tulle and had her tank top made to match by a friend. Our neighbor just bought a new dog, so of course SHE needed a tutu to match as well! - the picture would have turned out perfect if the toddler would've cooperated, but we ALL know how that one goes.. its doesnt and you roll with the punches, take 50 pictures and pic the ONE that will work ;)

Lil muffins friends from the neighborhood- and her sissy

The end of the table- i usually go all out with food and decided to make it simple with hot dogs, chips and watermelon. NEVER have i gone this simple.

I had gone to a bridal shower a few months back- there were these mini cakes that were gorgeous. i decided to ask the girl that made them to make lil muffins birthday cake. Well, you know how you envision something to look?! this wasnt it.. i imagined glitter, lavendar, and a mini frog with a huge crown on his head. Long story short, this cake didnt have any lavendar on it, so i doctored it up as m uch as i could.. being a control freak, that's what happens. Next year, i'll just make the cake. Lil muffin LOVED the cake and once again, in the grand scheme of things, that's all that mattered!!

i chose to make frog cupcakes to accent the cake- i had visioned them on my gorgeous square cake plates and the cake on the top. but it was so blasted hot out and i was nervous toting all 3 cake stands down to the pool with the kids there. i'm pyschotic about my stuff and if one was broken by a child, i might stroke out. so.. i let my crazy perfectionism slide and put the cupcakes on a COOKIE SHEET--- gasp.. i know.( on a side note, did you know that they now make NEON food coloring?! um.. so you know that bright color of frosting you can never get?! you can now, baby.. neon is my new FAVE!)

"Make a wish!!!"

My fave part of her opening presents!! this bag was about as big as her and she literally crawled into the sucker to get her present out!

After a full day of swimming and all of her friends gone, girlfriend went back for some more cake- girl after my own heart loving her sweeets! she DEVOURED it

We were all wore slap out from being at the pool all day and decided to hit up one of those restraunts that cooks your food in front of you- notice in this picture, mini me is

MISSING?! she's in between blondie and chick with the camera UNDER THE TABLE because she hates the fire.. honestly.. LOOK @ lil muffins face.. hilarious!!!

3 rd time in a week she had people sing happy birthday to her- she owned it this year and is STILL saying its her birthday!

i cannot believe ANOTHER year has passed us by with her- she literally was DAYS shy of her 1st brithday when we moved here- look at all the great times and friends we've made since! we're so blessed!

**Happy Birthday, Lil Muffin!**

The much anticipated concert!

For Valentines Day, i bought the Mr. tickets to his Favorite artist. After months of waiting, the concert finally arrived. Guess what night it was on? my math final night. No lie- couldnt have been worse timing. But, i managed to squeeze in a final, zip back home, pick up the husband and jet back to the concert. It was a blast and i'm pretty sure the Mr. sang along to EVERY song!