A Productive Lunch

Adam came and had lunch with me today.  He does this whenever he isn’t working during the day-which has been more frequent lately. We try to take whatever time we have together when we can.  It makes for a nice day.

Today at lunch we talked shop. We designed a new piece of furniture…yep at lunch…and we didn’t get into one argument!  You see we have some changes going on a our house-furniture changes that is.  But there will be a post dedicated to the specific piece of furniture in our switcharoo.

In the mean time here is a peek at our new end tables. Yes there will be two. 

The top will be made of scrap walnut that Adam has at work.

The sides & drawer will be painted white with a walnut divider.

The shelves will be glass.

I’m excited and hope that this project won’t take as long as our table has (which he IS working on! We have a thanksgiving deadline!!)  And I’m sure you can guess where these are going…but if you can’t I’m not going to tell you quite yet…just cause I can

Happy Monday! Was your lunch this productive? Have you designed anything lately?

Bridal Shower Success

Wow! What a weekend. Talk about a lot of work!  I started off on Friday with Krista picking up folding chairs and then we hit up Total Wine and more where we selected 10 different bottles of Champagne. 

Saturday I met Tara for a pedicure (which took forever!) then I headed on my way to south to buy smoked salmon-where I had to wait for some old guy to drop off his mackerel.  Finally I was able to head North to Kristas house where we began our laying out a plan for the party.

After we had lists in hand we headed to Publix to get all the food.  Then it was all over looking for a few last minuet thing.  At last we were back at Krista’s ready to begin our prep.

Sunday was an early morning-I woke on my own at 6:30, anxious to get going. We still had three quiches to make and a back yard to set up along with a few more errands.  You see the night before I had made chocolate covered strawberries. And for some reason I put them in the freezer.  It wasn’t until we were at a friends house watching the football game that I realized that was a BAD idea. As soon as we got home I took them out and put them into the refrigerator…where they slowly started to thaw…and turn to mush. So you see, I had to make another batch of chocolate covered strawberries on top of everything else!

We worked all morning…

And even opened the first bottle of champagne at 10am (official Brunch time). 

The first guest arrived 10 minutes early and since we were still setting things up she was handed a loaf of bread and instructed to cut.

Once 1 o’clock came are around we were ready to go and the rest of the guests arrived.

They were told to find their glass and start having fun.

Doug’s mother and sister with Tara

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day.  There was a nice breeze and the sun was out.  We did end up moving the tables into the shade, but only after a few complaints about the sun from some of the ladies.  picky picky.

By the end of the day I was exhausted. 

I was told that it was the best bridal shower some had ever been to and that I should give up architecture and do party planning.  But there is no way I could do that all the time.  

After most of the women had left we quickly cleaned up and packed up all my dishes and I headed home at 6:30 ready to crawl into bed. The party was a success.

Bye Bye Lump!

I finally heard from my Dr. regarding my breast biopsy after waiting two weeks.  The results were…they’re confused.  St. Joe’s (the hospital that performed the biopsy) was recommending another sample or to excise the entire lump.  My dr. seeing the results (that were Benign) wanted me to get a second opinion.

Yesterday I met with a breast specialist (I know dad…you picked the wrong profession!) Dr. Lynn.  She was very nice and explained my results to me very clearly.  Basically the gist of it is: The mammogram and sonogram showed a “banana” and the pathology reports said the lump was an “apple”. Now I’m using fruit because the real terms don’t make any sense, and this is the best way to explain it.  With said after examining the spot the Dr. Lynn recommended that I just take it out.  She said if they did another biopsy they could get another bad sample and we’d be right back where we are now.  By taking it out-it’s gone and they can get as much samples as they want and figure out if everything is ok.

Seeing as I don’t want to have to go through this anymore I’m all for taking it out. (plus I’ve already paid my deductible so it’s FREE!) It will be out patient surgery and should have some bruising for a few weeks. But she assured me I wouldn’t look deformed and only have a small scar.  I also told her that we had been trying to get pregnant so she was very nice in scheduling the surgery around my “schedule” in the off chance it does happen for us.  (If I’m pregnant I can’t have the surgery and then my breasts will get all wacky causing more confusion)

I’m scheduled for 1 o’clock on November 2nd-so if you happen to look up at the clock at that time on that day say a little prayer for me and my left boobie Thanks!

Sweating it out!

Back in May I bought a Groupon for 1 month of unlimited yoga classes at a local studio.  I put off starting it all summer.

Then a few weeks ago the same studio offered the Groupon again and Adam asked if it was indeed the same place. So he got one two and last week we went to our first Warm Yoga class.

Yep, I said Warm. We are too chicken to try the HOT class.  Warm is the studio at 85 degrees.  You would think that living in Florida that would be nothing…but it is. After a good 15 minutes of the Bikram series we are sweating. Adam a whole lot more than me.

I give him a lot of credit for doing this with me-I never thought I’d find a guy who’d be so gun ho about trying new different things.  But he is! (I do have yet to get him to a ballroom class…)

After our first class we realized that I had free drink coupons at a restaurant down the street so dripping is sweat we found a table on the patio and enjoyed nice cold beers and some very fattening sandwich's. Isn’t that why you work out?? so you can eat and drink what you want??   ha ha. While we enjoyed our dinner we discussed the challenges of the class and laughed at ourselves over certain poses that caused us trouble. 

Adam stated that it was very difficult to do Eagle Pose due to some male parts that seemed to get in the way and I thought it was difficult due to a couple of lady parts that got in the way! (fyi if you can’t figure it out….they both come in pair) I guess ideally for Yoga you should be built like a skipper doll! Oh well.  

After our second class we felt a lot better and more comfortable with the positions, except Rabbit-we don’t like that one.

But we’re looking forward to continuing twice a week and hopefully will improve our flexibility, state of mind and overall well being-that is as long as we don’t keep going for beers afterwards!  The best part is that we’re doing it together.  Happy Wife-Happy Life!

The makings of a bridal shower

While Adam was off at Regionals I was busy all weekend preparing for the Bridal Shower I’m throwing next weekend for Tara.  Actually I’ve been working on and planning this shower for the last 4 weeks.  This is the 2nd time this year I am maid of honor…and I think this (fingers crossed!) will be the last time! It’s a lot of friggen work!!
I scored some invited super duper on sale from Michael's last month and they set the color scheme.
 
I did some photo hunting and added the bride to the plane invite which had a brown ribbon tied atop it and fit nicely in a green sleeve with the word Pleas Join Us visible through a window. (Jeeze Steph a photo would be nice )
After batting around “themes” with the other bridesmaids we decided on a Champagne Shower. Tara loves champagne…and who wouldn’t want to spend a Sunday afternoon in the back yard drinking champagne??
So right away I looked up “foods that go with Champagne” on Google and came up with a great site that listed a bunch of different options.  Krista and I went over the menu and came up with this:

We'll be cooking away on Saturday to get everything ready.. yes-we’re making it all!! 
With the menu set I began the fun part. The favors and the prizes for the games! When we were in North Carolina we were at a Dollar store and they had martini glasses for $1. Glass martini glasses. Do you know how hard I looked for inexpensive martini glasses for my wedding with no luck??? Anyway I thought Champagne flutes would be a nice favor.  So begun my research.  And it quickly ended at IKEA. $5 for 6 glass flutes!  Score!!  Krista and I knocked around ways to personalize them or mark them, but it was when we went into Pier one that we got the answer. Chalk board paint!
It was perfect. Tara’s wedding is at the shuffle board club and they use chalk boards and she’s been trying to incorporate them into the wedding stuff…so it was perfect.   And the best part I found Brown (with the color scheme of course!) chalk board paint. 
I had every intention of doing a nice pattern for the “board” but quickly realized my best bet would be to use painters tape and make a rectangle…so I did.

Enter in some colored chalk and we’ve got a fun favor!
We’re going to put some sweet wrapped up in the glasses as well for the ladies to take home.
Now what would a Bridal shower be without silly games?  We’re going to have 4 games! One will be just for Tara-How well do you know Doug?
We’re also going to play how well do you know Tara?
Famous Couples-Name her other half.
And Which one is Tara? 
This will be a surprise for Tara because her aunt, who can’t make the shower, contacted me wanting to send some baby photos of Tara to incorporate into the shower.  So I thought it would be fun to pass them around, matched with another baby photo, and have the guests guess which is Tara, A or B.

For the prizes I decided to use my handy skills.  I found a free pattern online for a jewelry roll and thought it would be a perfect prize and a way for me to learn how to sew a zipper !
My first attempt wasn’t what I had hoped, but it wasn’t bad…Adam thought it looked fine.  So I made two more, one being for Tara. The best part was I used the upholstery fabric from my work! (free!)

I also made an apron (with no pattern) using left over material I had around the house.

The last prize will be 3 more champagne glasses so that one guest will have a set of 4 chalk board glasses to take home.

Finally the last thing I thought to do was to make an apron for Tara…using the bridesmaid dress material.  I did tell you that she’s have us have our dresses made from silk she ordered from New York, right? I am attempting to make my own bridesmaid dress…

Anyway she gave me 2 yards too much so I have enough extra to play with.  I think I used under a yard to make her apron.  But it turned out really good considering I didn’t have a pattern for this also.  Tara likes pin tucking and pleating and hand made details…so I did what I could and pleated the top of the apron.

Then I attached the waist band

And then the ties…and I was all set!

It turned out super cute and only took me about an hour to do.  I’m so excited to give it to her-I know she’ll love it!

I just hope she doesn’t mind it’s Dry Clean only! ha ha ha
So there you have it! This is what has been taking up all my time lately and what I did while Adam was away.  I’m looking forward to next weekend and throwing Tara a wonderful shower.  I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to share…so stay tuned.