Our Adventures

Two new parents and a toddler

Engagement photos


On Monday we were planning to drive to Tampa to watch the Rays baseball game, but after Amanda called and invited us to come to Orlando in August, we decided to stay home. Little did we know we were missing the Rays first no-hitter in their history and we could have been there!

Anyway, instead we decided to go down to Estero to eat a late lunch, swim in Scott's parents' pool and take some engagement photos at the Koreshan State Historic Site. It's one of the only places around that has old buildings. It's beautiful, but even at 7 p.m. it was boiling hot. We were sweating profusely, but I think we got something usable for the "Save the Dates."


I'm not sure about the writing yet? I probably don't need it.




But I think it works below. I used the address number 3 in the date.



Not bad for the self-timer and 98-degree heat, huh?


Just a little test

Wouldn't you love an entire alphabet made from these letters?





Check out this blog.....so cool. A letter a day. Note...This looks cooler on the white background....

Book shelf makeover

We decided to paint the bookshelves white to create a little more depth on the living room wall. I'm still trying to dig up some before pics. Of course we forgot before we started.....but here's the after shots.








I used a rock shaped like a boat I found in Maine as a bookend.




These rocks are from our trip to the mountains earlier this month. They make good bookends, too.

Back to Maine


I'm back in Maine! I got here yesterday to do a story on Jackson Labs. They are trying to open a branch outside of Naples, so we're here to see what they do. Pretty interesting stuff, but you can't ignore the scenery and the weather here.

Today it was 80 degrees and sunny in Bar Harbor -- a far cry from the 65 and foggy days we had here last summer. So I was itching to get out of the lab and out into nature this afternoon. So after work, the reporter and I headed straight for the top of Cadillac Mountain. Last summer Scott and I could barely see each other on top of the 1500-foot mountain, but today you could see for miles. I just wish Scott had been here to share it with me. By the way, he is finally on the road back to Florida after waiting since Thursday for it to be fixed.

Here's the view from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Absolutely breathtaking......










And this is sunset on the beach near our motel. It was so peaceful.

The Inn at Crestwood


Well I think it's a go. I emailed the lady last night and told her to save the date. So here are some photos of the lawn and patio. We'd also get the library to hang in and to have the wedding if it rains. I forgot to get pics of that.




The lawn and gazebo.....







Here's the cottages. The larger villas look similar.




Here's the view from Thunder Hill overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Inn. It's also just a couple of minutes from Blowing Rock.

Zaloo's Canoes

Today we meandered through Valle Crucis, then over to Todd to Jefferson. We decided to head over toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. On the way we spotted Zaloo's Canoes. A perfect stop for a hot day. So we decided to set off for a three hour cruise on the New River. Perfection.......





Here's the first edit of the video.

Wedding location found!

We fell in love with The Inn at Crestwood today after a long day and finding out that Scott's car is seriously messed up. But I think we'll be able to limp on home as long as we don't use the turbo. Apparently the turbo is causing oil leaks so we lost our turbo. But oh well. That Inn is beautiful! Pics to come tomorrow.......and tomorrow we can have some fun. New River-- here we come!

We're here!

Well we made it to Boone on Friday evening after stopping in Mountville, SC to see grandma and the rest of the family for lunch. Here's my cousin Gray's little boy Hamilton. He's so cute!
Anyway we're staying at a pretty sweet place on the Watauga River in Foscoe outside of Boone. Yesterday we went out riding around to see a few wedding possibilities. After riding to Banner Elk and discovering a parade in the morning, we rode up to "A Balance With Nature" to check it out. Unfortunately the steep mountain roads did not agree with Scott's car so we barely made it up. And then on the way down, a STOP light come on on the dash with the CHECK ENGINE light. Yeah, it sucked. So we're on the side of the road 5 miles from anything and all I can do it call the lady we were supposed to meet next to ask if she has any motor oil at her house to help us get off the mountain and into Boone. Luckily she did and brought it to us, and we made it back to the house!
So tomorrow we're going to rent a car and get down to business. Little Laurel B&B in the morning and Taylor House Inn and maybe Mast Farm Inn in the afternoon.



Here's the yard at A Balance with Nature. It's definitely at party house on the mountain.























Here's our creek at the house.

Can't wait for vacation

Well another vacation is upon us. We leave Thursday after work. This year, while I am excited, we are not going to somewhere new like usual. Thanks to a beach house snafu, we're going to Boone to look at places for the wedding. Luckily we have a free place to stay in Boone, then we're going to see the Stinnetts in Myrtle Beach.

So I've been checking the event calendars and paying attention to what's going on in NC next week. Well I just found out that through the month of July, Krispy Kreme is offering a Cheerwine-filled donut at its North Carolina stores! Krispy Kreme--here we come!

love this

I found this blog post telling how to "paint" mason jars blue to look like antique jars that are really expensive.
I'm thinking of doing this for the wedding maybe for the centerpieces to hold flowers and candles or to make lanterns. I saw it on iDiY. The instructions are here. Awesome!

This is how you get dumped by a wedding planner.

I contacted a wedding planner to possibly help with the day-of and to help recommend vendors. She was super nice, but I must say, I felt like a total tight-wad after filling out her questionnaire. I subtracted the cost of the dress, photographer and decorations from the total budget and gave her a figure of $3500. Here's the response:

"From your first email you had said $5000 and now on the check list I see $3500 on your budget. I am not sure that my services will be feasible within that number now since it has changed. I want you to have a great wedding and I do not want my service fee to take away from and other areas of budget.
The best rate we can offer is $800 which covers the two week prior,vendor review and time line preparation and some set up can also be incorporated within reason like we discussed on the phone."

It hurt a little, but she's right. I can get a lot of other stuff for $800. Oh well. Kylie and Amanda--I hope you will help keep me sane and pull this shindig together. love ya'll!

The excitement is building....

I'm getting pretty excited for our trip to the mountains to find a place for our wedding. I'm starting to make calls and hoping we find everything we need quickly. We still want to have a little fun, too. I've called several places to find we could not afford them, but I think we can find a good, fun and beautiful location. (Trying to stay positive.)

On the positive side, I found several awesome blogs with links to FREE printable invitations! Score! I have fallen hard for these blogs and sites with tons of diy ideas for the wedding. I love iDiY, Bridal Buzz, 100 Layer Cake, Lovely Clusters (Amanda, you'll love this one), Domestifluff, Nonpareil magazine, Intimate Weddings, The Inspired Bride, The Broke-A** Bride, and Three Potato Four for cool vintagey stuff.

Also, our watermelons are ripe and so very tasty! Some are babies just larger than a softball. ummmm......good!

MMMM...butternut squash

Tonight I cooked the one butternut squash that we were able to harvest, and I must say it was sooooo good. I wish there were more, but hey, there's always next year.

In the meantime, we now have about 5 watermelons growing away every day.......


I've also made a list of places we're going to visit when we go to Boone this summer to scout wedding locations. Besides the houses we're looking into, we may visit The Mast Farm Inn, McRae Meadow by Grandfather Mountain, the Moses Cone Estate and Blue Ridge Parkway, Julian Price Park and Shady Grove Gardens -- an organic flower farm with a wedding site for rent. Pretty exciting....

Watermelons have arrived!


Our little garden-that-could finally allowed us to harvest a butternut squash this week after waiting since October when the seeds first sprouted. After curing for a week, we should be able to eat it! We also have several small watermelons growing on the vines that have overtaken the garden.




The second round of carrots are almost mature, and I'm hoping the second round of lettuce won't taste bad because of the heat. I haven't bought lettuce in almost 6 months. The flowers in the yard seem to be thriving. I've never seen our confederate jasmine bloom like this and some amaryllis flowers I've never seen before appeared suddenly under the mango tree.


Let me just say the heat has been especially brutal this spring. One day it was 70 degrees and then all of a sudden it was 92 every day and no rain. ugh. I know I always complain about the heat. I'm sorry, it's HOT.


Because of the sudden onset of heat, I figured I should probably hit the beach for a day before it gets downright miserable here. I knew the water would still feel refreshing in the low 80s. Later in the summer the water can be in the 90s and really uncomfortable. So yesterday I went to Fort Myers Beach with my books and magazine, found a spot in the shade (yes! unbelievable luck), and enjoyed a great day on the beach for the first time in a year.








Daytona

My second time trying on dresses was not as successful as I'd hoped. I went to Daytona to visit Amanda and Evan hoping to try on dresses with one of my BFFs. We forgot that Evan is only 21 months old and that bridal shops don't have carts for children to ride in. He wasn't having it. I got to try on one dress after Amanda took him out to the car when he melted down the minute we walked into the shop. I texted her to come back in when I had the dress on and then we gave up and went to Target and Marshalls, where Evan was much more content. Oh well.

We did get to look through all of my wedding stuff --magazine clippings, etc. She helped me tentatively decide on Carolina blue, Navy blue and fuchsia for my colors. It was fun to veg out and talk about weddings.

Amanda and I also had a little college fun and has a Charlie's Angels photo session with some super-fly one-piece numbers. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. And the best part was that I tried it on for Scott when I got home and he laughed hysterically too. God, I love him.

I miss them already. Amanda, Robert and Evan are moving soon to South Carolina. It was hard enough when she moved to Daytona. Now I won't be able to drive up for the weekend anymore. Boo!

Dresses and Trashwhite

Last Saturday I was so excited to go try on wedding dresses with my mom. I got to my appointment at D****'s Bridal at little early, which is not usual for me. I like to be right on time. It was CHAOS inside. There were brides picking up dresses, prom shoppers and several others trying dresses on. I realized mom and I were not going to be in a private room, like "Say Yes to the Dress," but I'm not modest, so whatever.

But then as I was trying on the third dress, a pale red-headed girl comes out of the room beside me all tatted up wearing a red dress (which we later heard that she was trying on for her sister's wedding THAT day). I noticed her other sister from the corner of my eye wearing a shower cap with rollers under it. She couldn't have been more than 22 so age was not a factor and she had rotten teeth. Both of the trashwhite sisters then began critiquing my dresses. I looked at mom and we made a beeline for the tiny dressing room laughing hysterically and plotting our escape. I wish now that I had my camera.

After recovering over lunch at Panera, we tried Alfred Angelo bridal, which was much more private and slightly more classy. We found some we liked but nothing I couldn't live without. This weekend, I'm going to Daytona to see Amanda and we're going to bravely try D****'s Bridal in Port Orange. We'll see how it goes......