Welcome to the OLD club!

Happy Birthday to my best friend Miss D!  She is turning 30 today.  Who else would take you to a State Park and walk you through a cross country course so you could photograph it since it would be the site of the state meet?  She will meet you at a cross country race that you aren't even running since you coach.  It will take her about 2 hours of trains and traffic but it's worth getting the chance to catch up for just a bit.

And who else can provide hours of entertainment and spout out random Law and Order information? We met in college and probably have the only blind 800 meter relay handoff in the history of the relay. We even re-enacted the event on my wedding day--that's a true friend, bringing her running shoes for less than 25 meters (well, we planned to do the airport 5k that day but I was defeated in my attempt to convince others that it was a good idea wedding morning).

Happy 30th Dani!  Wishing you all the best in the years to come! 

My Dress... well the idea

sorry it's blurry

Part of my birthday gift from my parents is a custom made Disney Dumbo dress!  So excited about this.  I found this picture in January and tried to convince my mom that I needed one but with Dumbo to run the Tinkerbell race in about a week.  As you may have figured out the dress didn't exactly happen.  My mom made a phone call to Roseanne and e-mailed her the picture.  She thinks it is a fun project.  We met with her the other day and she sketched out the dress and took measurements.

Mom and I went to pick out the fabric.  Dumbo will be on purple, yellow and green panels with all of the in between panels black/white dots.  At the bottom we will have a wide yellow rick rack (squiggly ribbon) and then small black/white dots.  I am going to just wear a wide strap tank top with the skirt part and create cap sleeves with red/yellow fabric to look like Dumbo's collar.

Holy Cow I'm OLD

It's official, I'm old.  I turned 30.  Eating breakfast Luke said, "how does it feel to be old?"  I quickly replied that I still had a few hours left until I "officially" turned 30 so I'm not old yet.  We didn't do anything fancy for my birthday.  My mom called and asked if Papa Bear and her could take us out to dinner at Olive Garden.  So we went to dinner. They brought over a cake sang to me.

Dinner was good and when we got home I quickly busted out the materials for a Dole-Whip.  The mix arrived and I couldn't wait to try it.   Mom and I started that project while Papa Bear and Luke put in my new clothesline.  Very excited about having sheets hung on the line to dry--they always smell so good.

Dad holding a shovel over Luke

Back to the food.  The mix came from Hawaii, direct from the Dole plantation.  It smelled so good.  This is what one bag of mix looks like.  I ordered 2 and have a feeling that by the time September rolls around I'll be ordering another 2.  So yummy.

Part of the mix added to water and what the mix looks like in the measuring cup.  I was too excited for detailed photos of the process.  Maybe another time if anyone really cares.  The mix comes with directions.  Below it is starting to get slushy looking.  It smelled delightful the entire time.  Unfortunately it didn't get past the extreme slush phase.  I blame it on the house being close to 80 degrees.  It was Dole-whip goodness anyways though.  

 I didn't want to waste any of the yummy goodness so I was licking it off the mixing spatula thing.  I put on the Tiki Room song from Disney and enjoyed my special treat.  Looking forward to meeting with someone to discuss a very special dress I am having made as part of my birthday gift from my parents.  It involves my favorite character :)

 

4th of July

We went to the cottage for the fourth.  Little Thunder Paws joined us.  She is such a good kitty and sat curled in my lap the whole way there, just fidgeting a little bit but I think she wanted to not have the ac blowing in her face.  My dad has a hummingbird feeder there and very often you will see three hummingbirds attacking each other and flitting all over.  A woodpecker decided he liked the sugar water and has been regularly visiting.  He lands almost upside down on the feeder and pulls himself up.  

Woodpecker feeder?

Thunder enjoys the view

My mom found these lantern things and my dad and Luke were very excited.  My dad had seen a few the year before and thought they were really cool.  They lit it and we watched it float away and across the bay.

Of course we had the ring of fire and then fireworks.  My mom was eaten by bugs and complained the fireworks were boring.  Luke agreed with her--well, we all kind of did and I said it was cause they aren't Disney Fireworks set to music.

At the cottage Cinder is my extreme cuddle bug.  I was saying goodnight to people and when I went to go to be (I'd already pulled back the covers before brushing my teeth) look what I found waiting.  She had been under the bed hiding from the fireworks when the bedtime routine started.  So I climbed into bed and she curled up right next to me.

Throughout the nights at the cottage she would come up to my face and sniff at me, rub her face on me and then curl back up--like she was checking to make sure it was really me and I hadn't abandoned her in some new place.  We had a relaxing long weekend.

ice cream...nope, Dole-Whips!

I was super excited to find out that I could make a pineapple Dole Whip at home.  The problem was I needed an ice cream maker (preferably one that made soft serve) and some special mix.  I found a place that sells the mix and ordered two packages.  Next mission, finding an ice cream maker.  I did no research for this.  I checked Target online and found they sell some (I found a Kitchen-Aide mixer attachment one for about $75...).  I hoped in the car and drove over to find this little beauty marked half-off.  I figured for $15 it was worth a try.  So cute with my dishes too!

For those of you who don't know what a Dole Whip is it is yummy goodness.  You get these little sunshine filled treats of happiness at Disney and very, very few other locations.  You crave them and think of the Enchanted Tiki-Room.

at Disney with my Dole-Whip

We have a "real" dining room...

Wow, our house has really changed a lot in the just over 3 years we've been here.  Some of the rooms more than others with furniture arrangements, and such.  The dining room is one of those examples.
Take a look at it when we first moved in.  Orange/red shag carpet and mustard yellow drapes.

when we first moved in

The carpet was one of those first things that had to go in almost all the rooms that had carpet.  We were lucky that there were hardwood floors that had never seen the light of day under the carpet.

after carpet removal and paint

We painted the walls a soft pink color and we had this little rug in there for a bit but it was too small.  It got moved to a bedroom.  I don't have photo with the other area rug we had for a while in there.  All I know is it was Jen's from college and it wasn't even close to matching or looking good in there.  The cat liked to claw at it though. My mom and I made drapes for the room.  They are gray with touch of pink/white that picks up the wall color perfectly.

with our new carpeting

Mom won an auction for a remnant piece of carpet and it happened to just fit perfect in our dining room.  I didn't mind the table so much or the chairs, but they just weren't "wow-ing" me... ever.  Then we bought this lovely set without any hesitation.  Prior to the cabinet we had a behind the toilet shelving unit to hold a few serving dishes.

I love the dining room now and will have to have some family over for dinner so we can show it off.  Cinder Ella approves of it too since she now sleeps on the one chair with her tail just barely visible.  She used to never go in the dining room. There are two more chairs that are in the corners of the room and a leaf that we can add so the table gets bigger.  It fits the space perfect and is exactly what we were looking for.  With the brownish color carpet and warm wood color the light fixture doesn't look as icky.  Still have to decide if and when I am going to get that painted or if I should convince Luke I would like a new one.  Thoughts on the light?

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

Earlier this month my mom decided to have a garage sale.  I cleaned out and brought some things over, aunts brought things over and they had it all piled in Ginny's garage.  I had a few more things to add for the sale and hadn't seen any of the items my aunts brought over yet.  Aunt Kendra was coming over and we were going to hang up the signs for the sale.  While we waited I looked around at all the stuff.  Immediately I noticed a mirror near the door.  I really liked it but didn't say anything.  I knew Luke would say we didn't need anything more in our house.  My aunt Kendra came over so we could go hang up signs.  Before we did that I grabbed the mirror and went to hand her the money to pay for the mirror (it was hers).

She refused to take the money and said she was glad I wanted it because it  was my Great-Grandma's.  When I told Luke I got the mirror he was like, we don't need more stuff.  After I said there was something about the mirror that just had my attention and then I found out it was my Great-Grandma's he was ok with the mirror.

I hung the mirror on the wall in our front entrance.  I love it and it fits perfectly there.  I love the little designs on the glass mirror and the details in the age worn frame.  The old coat rack my dad fixed up for us and the small antique-y table near the mirror really pull the space together.