"You Can't Do That On Television" strikes again

Three: the number of times this week I've said "Honey, don't encourage the children" in reference to Mark meowing at the kittens in the morning when they want to be brushed.

The painting on the wall

For my birthday all I wanted was art. One Mandy Johnson painting to be specific. So my parents and grandparents gave me money to get what I wanted. Then bright and early on the big day, my lovely husband gave me this awesome painting, which he bought for me at Azalea fest. He did good. Real good.

Which just made me want more really awesome art. So I bought these two. One from Etsy and the other from Mandy Johnson. My house looks so damn good now all I want to do is walk from room to room looking at all of my beautiful art!

Stick in bloom

Spring has sprung

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

So the weatherman said it would snow. But when is the weatherman ever right, right? Well he was today. It actually snowed in Wilmington. Not much. But enough to coat the ground in a whispy layer of white. And it was beautiful.

A work of art

From my very first interview at Talk, I've coveted two metal wire seahorse sculptures on the boss' wall. They are whimsical and intricate and utterly stunning. After multiple discussions with Michael Van Hout, the artist and one of Deb's very close friends, I finally have a pair to call my own. The house is quickly turning into a modern art gallery. And I love it.

Stress:the ultimate buzz kill

For the first time in nine years, Mark and I did not carve pumpkins this Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and we did not even decorate this year. What's wrong with us?

Pool Table Fiasco pt. 2

After six months of no one knowing how to make the table and slate fit together, the one thing Mark had been asking all long was what eventually worked — why not just drill new holes in the rails to accomodate the new slate holes? Simple enough. At least it's done now and Mark can releive some stress up there while I watch my shows.

And the first one to use it was Chaucer.

All It Takes Is A Little Recovering

Our dining room table was my grandparents from when they lived on Signal Mountain, and maybe even before that. After they moved to the lake it went into storage until Mark and I moved into the condo in Wilmington and were in need of a table.

So this table has been around a while. And it was showing its age by the time we moved into the new house. As a housewarming gift, Susan and Dad offered to have the chairs recovered. So while they were visiting in October, we selected a coral print fabric for the chairs and for the two wicker chairs that we use if we have more than four for dinner.

After a few mishaps with the upholsterer, all that was left was to sand and repaint the frames, which Mark did in the garage with the help of a refrigerator box we took from one of the trash piles from a house in the neighborhood. And voila! They are gorgeous.

Enough Description. Here Are Some Visuals.

Home Sweet Home

Living Room

Kitchen

Pool Table Fiasco pt. 1

Even before we moved Mark has called the FROG the "Pool Room". The plan was to buy a pool table once we could afford it. But plans change. Our good friend Jeff just so happened to have a pool table in pieces in a closet because it didn't fit in his apartment. So he sold it to us for $1.00.

But there was a catch. The slate was chipped so we would have to replace. No big deal, right?

Wrong. The slate that Mark bought does not fit the table. The holes are not in the right place to screw into the rails. And no one — not Mark or the guy he bought it from who owns a billiards store — can seem to make it work. So for now we have a really nice pool table in pieces on the floor with no set up date in sight.

Not For Another Ten Years

The move is finally upon us and luckily we have cool parents who are coming in our time of need. Dad and Susan came on Monday to help pack, clean and physically move us into the new house. I took the week off of work so that I could spend time with them and get things in order. We had most things packed and organized so that unpacking would be easy.

Each box was labeled with the cointents and in which room it would go in the new house so that whoever carried it inside would know where to put it. The system was almost fool proof. The closing however wasn't.

A few headaches, like the water being turned off a day early and having to go down to the county office and complain and trying to work out how to close on Morley and have the money transfered from one lawyer to the other so that we had the downpayment on Sweet Bay, made it all a little stressful, but we survived.

Now were in and quickly unpacking because Mark's family is coming and we need to have furtniture put together so they have beds to sleep in and locate towels so that they can bathe. Too bad it can't all put itself away. Tonks knew how to do that.

1011 Sweet Bay Circle

Somehow our house is the first in the development to be worked on. We've been checking every few weeks on the progress and when we went down on Wednesday, we had a house!

We weren't expecting it, but there it was framed and standing in the middle of lot 12, well actually closer to the back of the lot but what we won't get into that. So we walked around inside looking at what will be our new home in a few months.

And then the reality of the situation hit. We have to finish working on our current house. We have to have a yard sale. We have to put more stuff in storage. We have to get our house on the market. We have to sell our house with a good dozen or so in the neighborhood already on the market.

Hello, stress.