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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

a seriously long post about a seriously busy trip to south carolina...

so....nicole, sean, mason and i flew out to south carolina for the wedding of our good friend katie. we (minus sean) have been friends for a really long time... we've had so many adventures together and we wouldn't have missed this wedding for the world.


we flew out to charlotte, north carolina early thanksgiving morning... we got there in the evening (none of us got a thanksgiving meal... sad face), but we did get to go straight into the bachelorette party with the bride and bridesmaids. ps... mason was a bridesman... he got to be there for all the girly silliness too, poor kid. haha. if you see him.... ask him how he won the miss queeny pageant ;) 


the next day we worked our bums off till midnight doing all sorts of prep stuff for the wedding... including ironing table clothes, runners, working on centerpieces, music, and all sorts of in between stuff. we hardly had time to breathe... but everything turned out beautiful.

saturday was the wedding. it was so chock full of anything and everything i didn't even have time to get out my camera and take any pictures. the wedding was at sunset on katie's parent's property (in the woods). it was such beautiful weather... plus the trees were still dropping their leaves and everything just looked like a postcard. after the wedding ceremony was over we had some hors d'oeuvres and then headed over to a dinner of apple & pecan salads followed by shrimp and grits and a flank steak... the tables were set up in the woods with tons of mason jars filled with candles. after that there were the first dances, cake cutting, flower and garter toss, and dancing. it was a perfect wedding. 





the next day we finished taking down all the decorations, had brunch with the family, opened presents (might have snuck a nap in there), and then headed to charleston. we ate a lot of yummy food sunday and monday as we walked around and looked at all the cool shops. i loved all of the old southern homes and the cobblestone streets. it was beautiful. then we drove back to charlotte to fly out at the butt crack of the freaking night... and we got back home today. 


this market is where they used to sell slaves back in the day... now they have it set up as a tourist attraction- and people set up little stalls and sell goods, like homemade baskets, jewelry, wood carvings, etc.




that tiny little island in the background is fort sumter... 
where the first shots were fired beginning the civil war. interesting, eh? 





a huge majority of the streets were cobblestone or brick... positively fantastic!



i have a strange fascination for cemeteries... and these were fantastic! 
they had headstones from the 1700's. amazing.


 i loved all of the spanish moss... it was so pretty!


i dont usually do the whole seafood thing, but i was expanding my horizons this trip... i had shrimp and grits, a grouper sandwich, fish tacos, and even tried an oyster... be proud of me. lol.

we definitely lacked sleep the whole entire trip, but it was so worth it! 

i could definitely move to the south.... i would definitely want to learn the accent though :) that might be my favorite part of all of it! 

Monday, November 21, 2011

an abundance of love...

i positively adore my niece.

i love the way she loves playing with beach balls.
i love the way she says, "hmm?" when you ask her a question that she 
doesn't know the answer to... or knows the answer to, but doesn't want to say.
i love the way she always loves jumping.... off laps, rocks, fire places, beds, chairs, stairs- basically anything that is three inches or more off the ground she will jump off of.
i love the way she says "aunt kendle."
i love her hugs and kisses.
i love how much she loves "stuff in her milk."
i love that she loves chowder... and gets excited to come see him.
i love that she knows where his treats are kept and always wants to give him more.
i love how she says prayers.
i love that she asks me to polish her nails.
i love that she eats as much dough as i do while we make cookies.
i love that she prefers to play with hot wheel cars instead of dolls and barbies.




         
gosh... this list could get really long. basically... she's the coolest almost three year old ever. 

and i love babysitting her. 

today was one of those babysitting kind of days. i woke up much earlier than i normally do and spent the day with this awesome little kid. welp... we came back up to nana's house and i was helping my grandpa with some stuff when i heard hayley walk down the hall behind me. and i just knew where she was going. she was going to my room to feed my fish, edwin. she knows where i keep my food and how to get a little pinch of food out for him. welp... apparently he was really hungry today. little miss hayley dumped the whole bottle of food in the bowl. haha... so i told hayley thank you for helping and immediately scooped edwin out, took some pictures and cleaned his bowl. it was positively hilarious! 

now i need to add "i love how she loves to feed my fish" to the list. what a funny girl <3






Monday, November 7, 2011

tastes like fall...

i have an awesome pumpkin bread recipe that i got from a friend... and i usually make 4 small loaves out of it. well... yesterday i tried little mini pumpkin muffins instead. and they turned out ever so adorable! 




i baked these for 12 minutes in the mini muffin pans and then just used my 1m frosting tip to put a little star of cream cheese frosting on top. mmm... it really was one bite of fall. 

and it's cold enough out here today that it makes pumpkin bread all the more delicious!


... 

also... can i just tell you how funny i find caving in jack-o-lanterns? they make me laugh... especially this one.... hahahah....


...

and because i haven't blogged any pics of the chowder lately, y'all get one today!


:)

Friday, November 4, 2011

what a deal...

as we are all aware... i enjoy thrift store shopping. i've been on the lookout for a desk recently. i found one a few days ago. it's a little ikea desk originally marked at $40 then down to $20... and then when the kid who was working there wrote my ticket up he marked it as $15! a similar one at ikea right now is $140. holy winner. 

anyway... it looked like someone sure abused loved this thing. and that "anna was the best" haha... so i gave it a removal of a tower holder and keyboard drawer (with the little brother's help), a quick sanding, and a very yellow paint job.

it's perfect :)


before....






























after....