Anniversary Trip - Asheville

Day In. This is a long one...

Two weekends ago, we went to Asheville, NC for our one year anniversary trip. It's hard to believe that we have already been married a year! We went up on a Thursday night and stayed through Sunday. We stayed at Hotel Indigo, which was really close to downtown and made the weekend vary walk-able. While we were there, we did a lot of exploring and had a really good time.  We had a few things we knew we wanted to do while we were there, but we were also open to suggestions.

Rebecca, Anna's sister, saw an article in Martha Stewart Living (October issue) about Asheville with a list of things to do.  We took it along in case we needed ideas...

The first thing on our list of things to do was to see the Biltmore House.  We got tickets and went early Friday morning and toured the house and explored the grounds.  It was amazing.  And to think all of it was constructed before modern construction techniques were available. We started off by touring the house. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside, so here are some pictures of the outside.  Obviously, this was in the Martha Stewart magazine.

The Front Yard

The House

As we toured the house, I'm pretty sure Anna got annoyed with me reading the description and facts about each room.  I think some of the other guests sort of enjoyed having me as a free tour guide.

Me on the back porch

Anna on the porch with the view behind her

Then we started the tour of the gardens.  We started in the "Shrub Garden", then moved to the "Walled Garden" and finished with the "Azalea Garden"

In the "Shrub Garden"

Shrubs

More shrubs

The "Walled Garden"

Stopping to smell the roses

More rose smelling

Their zucchini was only a little bigger than our garden...

Amazing.

The Azalea Garden path is not all ADA accessible,

But it is beautiful.

Anna enjoying the perfect weather.

At the "Bass Pond".  A couple on their 25th Anniversary trip took our picture.

"Bass Pond" waterfall

Arched Bridge from "The Last of the Mohicans"

After we did the gardens, we did the wine tasting. We purchased three bottles, and I'm actually enjoying a glass as I write this.

Whenever we told someone we were going to Asheville, everyone told us to eat at Tupelo Honey.  So we did. This was also in Martha Stewart's article.

It was delicious.

The wait took forever though, so if you go, just know the wait will be over an hour. Luckily for us, we weren't super hungry and it was Friday night, which apparently means the drugged out hippies have a drum circle across the street at the park.

It's blurry to simulate drug use.

Saturday, we walked around and took in all of the interesting architecture. It is such a cool, unique city.

Anna just loves ironing...

Just kidding! This is near the "Flat Iron Building"

Flat Iron Building

Methodist Church

Methodist Church

S&W Cafeteria Building

Looks like my office.

Saturday, we tried to eat at "12 Bones".  This was recommended by our server at Tupelo Honey and Martha Stewart. I also heard that President Obama ate there once.  I don't know if that's true.  One thing I do know, is that it's closed on Saturday and Sunday.  Strange.  Since it's in the "River Arts District", we looked for a place that was close to eat. Luckily for us, Martha also recommended "The White Duck Taco Company".  So we headed that way.

It was packed! It must be good.

It went fast and was wonderful.

Cool menu board!

The rest of the day we went antiquing (sp?).  It was fun.  We went to three places, two places recommended by Martha. All were neat.

This one wasn't recommended by Martha. But it was "voted #1 antique mall in western North Carolina".

Inside the "Tobacco Barn". Overwhelming.

ScreenDoor.  This place had very cool stuff.

ScreenDoor inside.

Oddfellows.  Also Martha recommended.  This one was okay.

Inside Oddfellows

Inside Oddfellows

We also tried the French Broad Chocolate Lounge.  Anna got a liquid truffle that was really good, but a little rich for my tastes.

Saturday night we ate at Mayfel's.  It was not recommended by Martha, but was still good...not great.

Sunday morning we ate at the Early Girl Eatery.  Recommended by Martha and now Stuart.

Yum.

That basically concludes our trip. But the nerd roadway engineer in me wants to show some neat things they have incorporated in their streets...

This green striping means that the cyclist should merge into traffic to make a left turn.

The landscape zone slopes back towards the sidewalk , and the sidewalk slopes toward the furniture zone...therefore, trench drain is the solution.

A woonerf! You don't see these often. A woonerf is a Dutch term for a street with no curbs.  It makes the car feel out of place and gives the pedestrian the power.

Look, Ma! No curbs!

Even our drive home was lovely.

Tallulah Gorge

Asheville was the perfect trip for a long weekend. I think we would both recommend this trip to anyone. Thanks for reading this long post - and wait for the next one - Cotton.

Day out.

Stuart

Beach Trip 2012

 Day In.

This is way overdue. We spent a week in Pawleys Island with Stuart's side of the family. It was lovely. This was in September so the weather was perfect, and the beach wasn't too crowded!

Here are some photos.

Our view from the top porch.

Hee haw! :)

H loved the blocks we got him for him birthday!

Of course, Uncle Stuart got in on the action too.

Aunt Anna reading a little story.

Reading in the water.

Hi!

We also went crabbing...and I actually LOVED it! It was a lot of fun.

The "expert".

I'm pretty sure I caught these! :)

Sorry...I guess I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the fam! Oops! They were there, I promise :)

It was a lovely trip.

Day Out.

AC

Live Event Painting - DeAnn Hebert

Day In.

Remember the painting from our wedding reception? (scroll down)

Well, we are famous! :) Ok sort of...we are featured on the artist's website.

Check us out!

http://www.deanndesigns.com/live-event-paintings/

She is amazing! Amazing, amazing.


My parents also had her paint at my sister's wedding last weekend. Theirs turned out amazing as well!

DeAnn in action. 

Stunning. Love the neutral colors.

With the bride and groom!

Day Out.
AC

Homemade Art - Georgia Cut Out

Day In.

I (Stuart) am dedicating this blog post to my good buddy, Bob.  He mentioned to me this weekend, at Jay and Rebecca's wedding (congrats to y'all!), that he really loved the blog.  So how can I not show love for a fan?!? This one is for you, Bob!

A few weeks ago, Anna brought home some pallets from her work.  Apparently they get a couple of pallets a month, and need to get rid of them.  Because of Pinterest, I thought I could surely make something cool out of one.  My cousin, Lindsay, gave me an idea that I want to do at some point (maybe next Forth of July) from her cool blog, You're Welcome Savannah.  In order to call it art (and not plagiarism), I feel like it has to be original. So the following is my attempt at Pallet Art.

I started with just a plain old pallet...

(This is not actually the pallet I used, but I wasn't smart enough to take pictures before. You get the idea)

I took off all the boards, which was a surprisingly, incredibly difficult task. Some of the boards cracked as I pried them off and rendered useless.  I think it was also 145 degrees at the time, so I sweated about 3 gallons.

Next, I got a state map of Georgia and meticulously cut out only the state.

I then placed the cut out on the boards and traced the state.

Once the entire state was traced, I took each board individually and cut along the lines I traced.

Then I laid all the boards out and realized I had no real way to attach them to each other...

I got an 1/8" sheet of particle board (the same cheap board that backs all the book cases you see at Target) and traced the state cut out onto it.  Then I cut it out, about an inch or two inside the lines I traced.

I then placed all the boards onto the cut out to make sure the backing wouldn't show.

Then I used wood glue to hold all the boards in place.

Once the glue dried, I used 1/2" screws  to make sure the boards were attached to backing.

I then added picture hanging wire to the back so we could hang this creation I made.

Then we put it up...

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Here's a closer up picture of it.

Anna likes it too, which makes me feel good about it.  She also thinks I could sell them on Etsy.  I could make them for any state, so if you have one in mind, let me know.

Thanks for reading this, especially Bob.

Day Out.
Stuart

Pinterest for dinner

Day In.

I wanted to try some of the zillions of recipes that I pin on Pinterest. We were having people over to watch football last Saturday night...so I thought it was the perfect time to try out some unhealthy recipes! :)

I made this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread. It was tasty and similar to a calzone. I definitely didn't follow the recipe...I almost doubled the stuffing part. It was huge! Oh well...it was a hit, and I could see myself making it again.

I also wanted to try a super easy dessert...and it WAS super easy! I made this Butterfinger Pie. Yummy! Four ingredients and you have an easy dessert. It gets even better the more it sits in the fridge. Next time, I might try to use ice cream in place of the Cool Whip...just to make it denser.

Overall, both were hits! And, like I said, super healthy, right? ;)

Day Out.
Anna