It's not the beach....but the next best thing

Since we did not make it to the beach this week, I decided to have my dad over for dinner and make a beach inspired meal. I just used things around my house to decorate: mason jars with twine tied around for glasses, starfish and kraft paper for the center of the table and pages torn out of an old atlas for place mats (from beach states of course!). I made Barefoot Contessa's shrimp scampi, a nice salad and corn on the cob. We also had a yummy baguette. For dessert I made mini individual mixed berry pies with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!!

Almost Finished...

Here is the current state of the former "Man Den". I painted the walls a light lime green and the beams hot pink!! Joe installed some leftover wainscoting on the back wall. I have a lot of little projects that I am working on and will also be getting a new desk at IKEA when I got to Atlanta in July....it's all happening!! I will post updated pictures as I get them

Here is the bathroom as of today. It's still not done yet...but we are almost there. This whole process has been such a headache. Joe and I have been working on it about 10 hours a day! We still need to add more paint, seal the floor tile, and we are getting the tub refinished next week. Then we can put up the shower curtain :) What do you think so far?

Happy Father's Day!

I was so happy to be able to spend Father's day with my dear ole' dad and sweet hubby (who is a dad to Hank). We went to 10:00 a.m. service at church and then came back to our house for a brunch. I made yummy thick cut bacon, cut up some fresh watermelon and used Barefoot Contessa's sticky bun recipe to make some yummy num-nums!! We also had pineapple juice (my fav). Later, we took my dad to see UP! which was so cute. If you haven't seen it yet, get yourself to the movies now! For dinner, we went to my dad's fav. place, Red Lobster, a.k.a "Red Rooster". Fun was had by all :)

The Process Continues...

Joe and Darren laid the floor...yay!! This process has been so annoying. I want my house back!! Hopefully we will be done soon :)

Free Stuff......Save Money...My favorites!!

If you go to http://www.energyright.com/audit_kit.htm and fill out a quick form, they will mail you this kit. Joe and I got ours last week. Inside there are free light bulbs, filters, etc. It's free and will help you save money!! It's GRRRRRREAT!!!

Being Fabulous in The Hamptons!!

Joe and I took a weekend trip to visit our friend, Craig in the Hamptons. We rode the Hampton Jitney to get out there. The whole trip took about 2 hours. We had a lot of fun. Craig drove us all around the island showing us East Hampton, Sag Harbor, etc. We saw some really pretty lighthouses, drank some good wine, played on the beach, and ate yummy food!

Look!! We saw Martha Stewart's house!!

Joe and I on the beach!!

Minnesota

Look who I ran into at the Mall of America...ESTHER!!

Peggy and I had a great time shopping in downtown Stillwater. They had the cutest paper and cooking stores!! I could have stayed there all day, but we had to go and get Joe from the airport.

Joe and his high school buddies at Eric and Becky's wedding in St. Paul.

Downtown St. Paul.....pretty!

Jaimee's Wedding

Jaimee and Aaron at the rehearsal



A few weekends ago we were able to be present for the marriage of our friends Jaimee and Aaron. I was the day of wedding coordinator and even though there were a few snags...WEATHER!!!, the day turned out to be beautiful and the wedding was soooo much fun!! We danced all night long!

The bathroom now.....

After busting all of the tile off of the ways and creating a disaster area, Joe finally got it all cleaned up and here is what we are left with.

A trip to Lowe's was in order...good thing I had a 10% off coupon!! I will post pics soon of the finished bathroom.

Demolition Night

Here is my "pink bathroom".....although its cute and vintage, Joe and I have been wanting to update it for a few years. After getting some expensive quotes, Joe decided that he could do the demo himself. We had my dad and brother over for dinner one night and the boys decided that they wanted to bust all of the tile up. What a MESS!!

The Big Day!!

Lindsey and Nick had a beautiful wedding. The day was a little stressful for me, but it all worked out great in the end. The food was yummy, we had fun dancing and the flowers looked great. Lindsey was a beautiful bride and was "glowing" the whole day. The candy buffet that I helped Lindsey with was a huge hit!! Congrats to the new "Mr. and Mrs. May"....have fun in Hawaii!!

Rehearsal Dinner...yum yum!

Ok...I know it has been a while since my last post....life has been super busy (in a good way)! I'm going to go back and update ya'll on what we have been doing for the last MONTH. On Friday, May 8 we had Lindsey and Nick's wedding rehearsal and dinner. It was at Owen Brennan's and very yummy! I especially enjoyed seeing all of the funny pictures on the slide show.