Birthday Week! Part-y 1

Get it?  Part-y 1!  Cheese humor I knowww... but I also know that @thecaitlyndawn is grinning and possibly giggling at me right now!

But yes, the point of this post is to announce (a few days late) that this is my birthday WEEK.  While most people have Birthdays that last 24 hours, mine is pretty intense and typically lasts for an entire week.  When I was a kid the week typically revolved around field day, end of school parties, girl scout parties, dance recitals, and then we had to squeeze in a birthday celebration too.  Now that I am older, I am pretty hopeful for the tradition of a week long celebration to continue.

Let me catch you up on my birthday week so far!  I guess since I am making up the Birthday Week Rules, I am going to go ahead and throw in the details of my awesome weekend as well!  Sit back and read on!

Friday!  Mike and I went to see the Brad Paisley show!  My friend Brian and his girl met us there, and I also had the 5 second chance to see a great friend Kristi!  The show was wonderful, the weather was perfect, and the beer was $13!  THIRTEEN!!  Yes, you read that right.  (I decided my calories and my money would be better spent somewhere else!) :)

Saturday was a busy busy day!  Mike and I were invited to the wedding of his roomies Justin and Taylor.  I was so excited to play with my camera and take some photographs for them!  I will show you a preview here, but might have to post a few of my faves in the days to come!

After the wedding we rushed to NC for the Original Rhondel Show at The Carriage House!  Mike and I were the bartenders and brought in over $100 in tips!  Yep, we pretty much know how to work it! ;)

Sunday was a relaxing, dreary day.  Our plan was to go see Hootie at the Oceanfront, but in the end I spent a lazy day with my love going to an art store and an armory.  (Believe it or not, both were his request! I know the Armory isn't shocking.  What was shocking was that we weren't looking for a new toy for him!  I held a bunch of different guns and decided I need some more time at the range before I can commit to one or another.)

Monday!  Monday was the first work day of the week.  But, my "work" for the day was to head out to hampton, drink beer and watch some of my realtors play softball!

Tuesday!  After a couple meetings my mom promised to take me to Skinny Dip for some birthday week frozen yogurt!  Mmmm!  It has been a while since I have had ice cream or FroYo.  Before this week I have been doing so well with eating healthy, but I think I have convinced myself that calories don't count this week! :D

As we were checking out my mom said "Happy Birthday!" as she handed her credit card to the guy.  I think she was being a bit sarcastic with that "Happy Birthday" because my bowl was quite full, which means quite pricey!  Anyway, the dude heard what she said and he gave me the whole bowl of frozen yogurt for FREE!  He explained that typically they only do the small bowls for birthdays but since we were beyond the point of return he let me have this one!  (Don't judge!  Remember!  Calories don't count for me this week!)  Oh - and they had my favorite flavors!  Peanut Butter and Cheesecake!  Guess which two I blended together?!

Even though the delicious dessert was a great surprise, there was an even better surprise that happened later that day.  I got a text on Monday from a high school friend - J.Vaughan - who I had not seen in well over a year and a half.  She was in town so we planned for a dinner and a movie date!  We got to catch up over dinner and then I finally got to see the hilarious movie "Bridesmaids." 

Wednesday!  Today!  It was a nice little lunch surprise when I texted my sister to ask if she wanted to grab a bite at Jason's Deli.  She called me back and said that she was meeting her friends there and that I was welcome to join them.  It was so great seeing some of her friends that are all home for the summer.  Of course though, there was a birthday surprise from Jason's!  Lunch only cost me $1.70 after they sent me a $5 off birthday coupon!  SCORE!  

There ya have it!  Three more days to go!  June 11 is right around the corner.  I can't wait to see what the rest of the week had in store for me!  Stay tuned! :)

A week late...

I totally realize I am a week-ish late with this, but I accidentally published the wrong blog post yesterday.  I didn't want to mess anything up so I just figured I would post this one today, which is quite late in the world of blogging.

I heart Memorial Day Weekend.  It is the kick off of summer, especially when it is sunny and I am at the River!  For the past 3 years I have spent the weekend working weddings.  This year I lucked out and got to spend it in the sunshine!  Sadly, I did not get to take too many photographs.  I was too busy trying to stay cool in the water.  But here are a few snapshots for you to enjoy!

Welcome to the RIVAH!  The Perquimans River is one of my favorite places...

 I was surrounded by this pup, as well as five others!

 I hung out with this hottie who doesn't like to smile in photographs...

We all enjoyed time on boats!  Row Boats.  Pontoon Boats.  Jetskis.  No kayaks though this weekend.

 It was Memorial Weekend!  Don't forget about all those troops who are serving our country for our freedoms!


          Pretty Flowers by our driveway!

Snapshot of a crab pot to represent the delicious crab, seafood medley we ate! :)

I hope ya'll enjoyed last weekend as much as I did!  TGIF again!  It is going to be a busy one for me again!  Tonight I am heading to the Brad Paisley concert!  Tomorrow Michael and I are going to a wedding and then heading back to NC to work the Original Rhondel's show at The Carriage House!  And then Sunday we might try squeezing in the Hootie minus the Blowfish Concert at the Oceanfront!

Happy Weekend everyone! :)

I Heart Yardsale Projects!

Knowing that it was drill weekend and that my boyfriend would be working and MIA for a couple days, I woke up with a goal and a huge need for a new crafting project.  I have seen on numerous blogs that I follow how some folks will head to yard sales or thrift stores with a mission and a vision, while others just kind of wing it and hope they find something awesome.  I was pretty much in the middle... I had a mission of finding a project (or two) but had no idea of what/where/when/who/why or how I was going to accomplish that mission.

The weekend before Memorial Weekend just so happens to be one of the busiest weekends for yard sales!  It was like I hit the yard sale jackpot!  Every corner had a sale of some sort!  Luckily a friend had posted something on facebook that her street was having a multi-family charity "jackpot" yard sale.  So I headed that way.  I was in luck!  Right when I walked up they made the announcement that everything was half off whatever (already low) price that was on it.  SCORE!  

I got myself a few things (read "a few projects.")  First I found a pair of ugly shoes for a dollar.  I think I can make them pretty... Stay tuned for that project.  I got a pair of large, wooden lamps for $6.  I was highly disappointed to get home and realize that one of them is broken... I really wanted to paint them and make a set.  I might try to fiddle with it in the future, who knows.  But my favorite steal of the day was the small table and mirror set.  $10 for the set.  It sounds so much better though to say $5 for a table and $5 of a larger mirror.  

The table has already been crafted and hopefully when I have a couple hours the mirror will be ready to match it.  Here's what I did... let me know what you think!

:(  My computer LOST the before photo of the table... stupid computer.  It was a crappy, cheap looking finish, so just pretend you saw it! 

After sanding off the old finish!

I got a sample paint from home depot and borrowed the stain from my dad's garage.

First I painted the bottom part - it was actually a little lighter than I expected it would be.

Then I stained the surface.

It's not the most fancy table, but for $5 and some paint, what do you expect?!  I think it turned out quite cute!  Right now it is sitting in my kitchen near the bay windows until I take it to my boyfriends house.  Sadly, I am pretty much out of space for projects... good thing he just bought a new house that needs decor!! :)