Summer, summmer, summertime!

The last week of school is kind of like an overly long, overhyped New Year's Eve.

I always think it's going to be like 3.... 2.... 1... SUMMER!

Really, it's more like 3...2...1...

wake up to blaring alarm... press snooze...finish grades...box up room... shred important documents...skip workout to go to last meetings...8th grade "graduation"...sign a hundred yearbooks.... say goodbye...

crash.

I slept in until noon the morning after the last day of school. And Dan and I haven't stopped sleeping since then. Hence the two + break from blogging.

But now? I'm feeling like this:

3 ...

2 ...


1...


SUMMER!! IS!!! HERE!!!!!

Dan and I just returned from our mid-week trip to Ocracoke Island.

A nice way to spend a Tuesday :)

We stayed at this no-frills motel, which had signs posted with things like, "Please do not use bed linens for cleaning fish. We have towels in front office for that purpose." I shudder to think of what necessitated that sign. Seriously? There are people out there who need to be told not to gut fish on their beds??

At least the place rented bikes for $2 an hour. And it had a pool. :)

We biked to our favorite beer and gourmet store for happy hour both nights. (Side note: See the lights hanging on the ceiling of the porch? That's what I want to add them to our backyard soon!)




We knocked another new restaurant off our "12 restaurants in 12 months resolution", the Back Porch, aptly named for its huge screened-in dining area.

One gratuitous food shot: bacon wrapped scallops. I didn't try scallops for twenty-five years because I thought I was allergic. Turns out, I'm not, and I'm making up for lost time now.

Basically our trip was composed of swimming, sunbathing, taking walks, reading, listening to the same Beatles coverband two nights in a row (Dan couldn't stop smiling and rambling about the Abbey Road medley the band ended with both nights.)

Oh and, of course, we took cheesy photos.

This island has a serious pirate obsession.

My pirate face kicks the sh*t out of whatever Dan was doing.

Not that it was a competition, but if it was, I would have totally won:



Yeah, yeah, my face is not near the hole, but the pirate attitude is there, no?

I have several blog posts I finally have the time to write (yay for time) that will be coming soon. For now, I'm off to sleep without setting the wretched alarm. What up, summer?

Kicking it old school

It's ridiculous how much I love chalkboard paint. But you already knew that, as seen when I painted this mirror for our bedroom and a pumpkin on Halloween.

What's not to love? It covers easily, let's you write funny messages, and has that old school charm. Literally: old school.

See our boring kitchen door:


Then, when I saw this door on Pininterest, I decided to get painting:


It's too easy of a project to even give a play by play of the directions, but I will anyway. Wipe the door with a cloth, tape off the edges, roll on three coats, touch up the edges with a brush= instant chalkboard!






I liked it so much, I painted the back of the door too in order to have a place to write our menu for the week:


Ignore the messy edge at the top. I have some retouching to do still. Oh, and can you tell we love enchiladas? It's a weekly (sometimes twice weekly) meal.

Update on my spring to do list: 4 out of 5 so far.

X Paint a chalkboard in my kitchen = DONE!

I'll share another picture I took for a contest to win a freezer full of Ciao Bella icecream, since said photo includes my new chalkboard door. Spoiler alert: I didn't win. But did I really need a freezer full of gelato anyway??

(Ciao Bella's blood orange sorbet is my new obsession. 60 calories, no fat, absolutely unbelievable. If you haven't tried it already, go to Target and pick up a pint. For realsie.)

* Tidy up landscaping in front yard = still a total sh*t show

This may not happen before summer.

X Find perfect burger recipe that doesn't fall apart = DONE!

"Perfect" may be stretching it, but we were pretty pleased with above Bobby Flay oh-so-simple burgers, which you can't even call a recipe. They came out really juicy at our BBQ. I topped mine with guacomole and mango salsa.

X Have a cook-out for friends or family= DONE!

X Make our backyard somewhere we could hang occasionally= DONE!

Summer list coming soon!

Backyard Progress

Turns out, there was a reason Dan and I've slacked on landscaping the past five years...

Landscaping is no joke.

In the past, we've settled on just using our backyard as a pass-thru to get to the alley to take out the trash. We've eaten out there exactly once, 4th of July with friends the first year we bought it.

After that, we somehow decided that it wasn't worth dealing with all the issues: the mis-matched fence, the monkey grass, the mountains of magnolia leaves, the hazardous patio with jagged slates, the poison ivy hidden in said monkey grass, the leaning tree, the unpruned bushes, and the influx of mosquitoes attracted, no doubt, by the effing monkey grass.

This spring, though, we finally decided that the monkey grass was done ruining our lives and that it was time to work on the backyard. While it doesn't look like much of a change, believe me, it was a ton of work. Here's our progress so far...

Before, when everything was overgrown:

After Dan and I spent hours pick-axing the monkey grass, planting six hostas, and mulching:

Before of bush/tree:

After we pruned the tree, axed up more monkey grass, put down stones, and planted three shade-happy plants in colorful pots:

Before, our patio without furniture:

Progress, now that we've purchased a table and chair set and filled up two trash cans of magnolia leaves:






We decided to make good on our spring resolution to actually use our backyard, so we made dinner for friends on Memorial Day. I couldn't resist picking up some bright accents, like lanterns to drape over the back fence


and cheap-o Target plates to go with the throw pillows:

I spray painted these terra cotta pots (Rustoleum's Lagoon and Key Lime, in case anyone else is interested) and potted a few other plants for some color near the patio:


Lastly, we bought corn hole to play (horrible name, great game). I'm all about the outdoor games lately, and am planning on investing in a bocce set soon.

Ignore the leaves in the below pic. We were completely spent after the rest of the backyard. And honestly, trying to keep them picked up is a losing battle.





So that's our progress so far. I know it doesn't look like much, but it felt like a huge difference from the disaster we started with.

And I have to say that hanging out in our backyard finally was pretty damn rewarding!

Spring To Do List

Something about spring makes me want to actually get stuff done, especially with my recent discovery of Pininterest, a site that has tons of inspiration pictures. It's basically the online version of the dorky binders I keep for hoarding inspiration photos from magazines. In short, I've been obsessed with it... and it's made me want to start on my own spring to do list:

Here are a few that caught my interest:

I love the chalkboard door (althought the scarily organized apothecary closet is definitely something that would only exist in Catalog Living- ha ha!):



And this photo made me want to have a better backyard:


I love the idea of using mason jars to create lighting outside:

Sigh.

Yep, the only issue I have with going on Pininterest is that it makes me want to start too many projects at once.

My Spring To Do List

* Paint a chalkboard in my kitchen (a la closet at top of post)

* Tidy up landscaping in front yard

* Find perfect burger recipe (ours always fall apart)

* Have a cook-out for friends or family

* Make our backyard somewhere we could hang occasionally

The last one is my biggest. Why? We've only eaten out there ONCE in FIVE YEARS. In case you are wondering why that may be, let me give a virtual tour.

Here's our patio now, smothered in magnolia leaves:




The rest of the yard is equally a disaster, with overgrown shrubs:

TONS of monkey grass:

Trees in need of pruning:

More monkey grass (with poison ivy hidden inside):



Monkey grass, monkey grass, monkey grass:

I'll let you know if we actually finish any of the above items. We've started all of them, guns blazing!

Any excuse to wear those oh-so-sexy goggles, right? :)