Olympic Party

Day In.

We Days had a very busy weekend. We kicked off Friday night with an Olympic Opening Ceremonies Party. We invited friends over to watch the Brits do their thing.

Stuart (the party planner) thought it would be fun to assign everyone a country to bring a drink from...i.e. the girls bring wine and the boys bring beer. At a recent trip to Kroger, Stuart and I browsed the aisles to see what countries were available. We came across Australia, Japan, Spain, Germany, New Zealand, etc. Fun idea!

We had to have the Olympic rings!

I set up a drink table. Everyone labeled their bottle, and we sampled what we wanted.

It was potluck so everyone brought a side to go with the Hosts's very healthy (and very American) main dish of fried chicken. We had some awesome dishes!

And of course, there were games.

Stuart's favorite new game...all you need is a PVC pipe, a beer can and a frisbee. 

Heath is competitive, even risking grass stains.

Stuart must have won.

Soaking in the Ceremonies. 

We even gave out gold medals to the favorite wine and favorite beer. 

Jason's acceptance speech for his gold medal.

Overall, it was a blast. We are hooked each night watching the events. Thanks Bob Costas!

Day Out.

AC

Beach

Day In.

The other week, Stuart spoke at an ITE conference in Saint Simons. I told him I guess I would go with him (sarcasm) and hang out at the beach!

We stayed at the King and Prince resort. It was lovely.

This is pretty much what my days consisted of...

Poolside.

Beachin'

Lovely beach...just not a lot of it.

Baby crab.

Refreshing citrus and raspberry water.

Stuart played in a volleyball tournament (see gray shirt and red shorts)

Overall, it was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. I am proud of Stuart for giving a presentation on a road diet/bike box project he worked on. He was nervous and from what I heard, he did a great job.

Day Out.

AC

Sneak Peak - Kitchen Makeover

Day In.

Stuart and I have been working on painting our kitchen finally. It's not a terrible color...it just has needed to be repainted since he moved in.

I, of course, have chosen a light gray for the walls and a POP of color on the backs of the bookshelves.

SNEAK PEAK! (Please note, the shelves are not in, and I am doing one more coat of yellow)

more to come.

Day Out.

I spy...

...a tomato! We are excited about new "fruit" in our garden. (I used quotes because I recently learned from my brother-in-law that the term vegetable is only a culinary term. Interesting.)

Our giant tomato vine. 

Baby tomato.

Also, our basil is coming in nicely.

Thankful for the rain this week too!

AC

mexican chicken salad

Day In.

Today Stuart rode in a 60 mile bike race. He is pretty exhausted. So I knew I wanted to make an easy yet filling dinner for him.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and knew that it was something we would like.

I made some tweaks (of course), and we really enjoyed it. It's always the ultimate test for me if Stu says that he would eat a meal again sometime (which he did).

Success!!

Here's a picture of mine...looks like a mess but oh-so-yummy.

I couldn't add the lettuce in the bowl...it wouldn't fit!
But I think the leftovers will keep better without the lettuce getting soggy.

Tweaks

I took out the green bell pepper and green onion.

I used 2 ears of fresh corn (vs. canned).

I added:

-medium red onion, diced

-medium jicama, diced

-juice from one lime (I might add another next time)

This would be perfect for a party. I think the next time, I will cut the recipe in half.

Yum yum!

Enjoy.

Day Out.

AC

Chalkboard Painted Mirror

Day In.

Remember how Stu made me a sweet gift? I decided to make one for him too. We had on old mirror left over at our house that no one really ever claimed. I've always wanted to try out chalkboard paint, and I heard you can paint over mirrors with it. I had also seen some sweet chalkboards hung over beds with love notes, Bible verses, etc. written on them. I think the written word is very powerful so I wanted to try something.

Here's what I did.

Before.

Some of my weapons...Krylon spray-on chalk paint.

Note: I needed something to scratch the mirror so that the paint would stick. I purchased a very fine grit sandpaper at Ace Hardware that did the trick.

I loosened the back of the mirror....

....and separated the glass.

I used the fine grit sandpaper to scrap the surface just a bit.

Coat one.
(make sure you wear a mask when spray-painting)

Coat three.

I also sanded the wooden frame.

My secret weapon! Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for the frame...amazing! Many more projects using this will come, I'm sure.

After.

I wrote a part from my favorite Dierks Bentley song. It reads "Draw me a map that leads me back to you".

I love the color of the Duck Egg paint. It goes with our bedding/neutral palette we have going on.

(Also, I used a liquid chalk pen which I also found amazing. Normal chalk did not work at all on the chalk paint. I ordered my pen from Amazon.)

I wonder if Stuart will notice it when he gets home from work...:)

Day Out. 

AC

New wreath

Day In.

Thanks to my mom, I had a new wreath to put on our door. The pink wreath was a little clash-y with the American flag. And, the wreath is green which obviously matches the house!

But I do think the pink wreath will makes its appearance again soon...no worries :)

Day Out.

AC