Repaired & Repainted

So for the last month Robert and I have been hard at work-hence the lack of blogs.  We've had a few areas in the condo that previously had leaks and had essentially ruined the plaster and paint around them.  We'd been putting it off for far too long to actually fix the plaster and since we own our unit it was our problem to fix.

Robert picking off the large pieces of plaster and paint, area 1 hallway

So after a weekend of just chiseling the areas to get the bad plaster down, we started to see some process...

Side note-this was the worst spot, and the area that took the longest to repair

After a few more weeks (yes weeks) of plaster, dry, and repeat it started to look like we had walls again...

God bless the person who thought to make white stuff go on pink and dry white

Then began the sanding process.  That was a good thing and a bad thing.  Good that we were getting closer to no longer living in a disaster area, but bad because dust. was. EVERYWHERE.  And I mean everywhere.  I tried to tidy up in between sanding and pastering, but it didn't work.  The floors were covered, the sofa,  the TV, the china cabinet, the counters...you get the picture.  On top of it all (literally) Robert accidentally spilled some liquid on the dust, so that was a task cleaning the floor (plaster dust+liquid=plaster).

In the middle of this we decided that since we were going to have repaint the repaired areas we would paint our kitchen dark blue...

pardon the mess-

 

Thankfully we had made a lot of food and just lived off of leftovers while the kitchen was disheveled for the better part of a week.  But we like the refresher of the kitchen and hallway a lot!  I'll take more pictures once we are done with everything.  We still have 2 areas in the bedroom that we're working on...

Sunset

This picture makes me want to go back to Jamaica...

One Year Later

(So I'm a tad late on this post, but I promise to post again soon as to why)


It's hard to believe that just barely over a year ago...

I was loading a trolley with some of my favorite people...

Robert was sticking a $20 bill in my dress after saying my name incorrectly (after the ceremony)...

And we were walking in together to all the people we care about most...

We had an absolutely fabulous night, and when we got in the limo at the end of the night I look at Robert and said "That was so much fun, can we do it again?"  Some great memories were made that day, but even more in the past year.

To celebrate our one year anniversary, we decided to visit 2 of our favorite restaurants that are a tad more pricey than our current budget.  Friday night we headed over to Decatur to The Brick Store Pub.  They have a unique variety of beers on draft, amazing pub food, and spectacular people watching.  We thoroughly enjoy spending time here, and it often is a few hours at a time.  We started off with a few beers and a raclette (seen below) and then I got the fingers and chips and Robert had the fish and chips.  I must say, they have the best chicken fingers ever, hands down.  I'm a fan, I couldn't even let Robert take a picture before I had to chow down.  Here is a photo recap of that visit...

Saturday afternoon we headed over to West Atlanta to go to our favorite Mexican Restaurant (yes, there is one that tops Taxco-I know some of your are shocked right now), Nuevo Laredo.  We started off with chips and salsa and a pitcher of margarita's and then I had the chicken mole and Robert had the chicken diablo. The food is so good there, but of course we were stuffed after we left.  We drove around to look at houses for little bit after dinner, and then headed home.

Sunday morning Robert had a basketball game-I guess I did too since I "played" in it.  And for dinner we decided to make a fancy dinner at home.  Robert made steaks, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, and then I made the croissants and whipped horseradish.  Clearly I am not the cook in our family. 

And then we dove into the year old wedding cake that has been sitting in our freezer.  Robert thought it is a strange tradition, but I convinced him that we were doing it.  We were actually pleasantly surprised on how good it was.  The icing was tad freezer burnt, but the cake and filling was almost as good as a year ago.  It most certainly didn't look as nice as it did a year ago. 

Although it wasn't the weekend full of the most healthy eating, we did have a great time (and I managed to slip running 9.3 miles in on Saturday around Chastain Park).

This isn't the best looking picture, but our camera died shortly after this was taken

Marathon

It's official!  I signed up for my first 1/2 marathon today!! Be thinking of me the morning of March 20th!

I've been training for this since December 26th but have put off signing up just in case I hurt myself somewhere along the way.  I did a 9 mile run this past weekend and felt great doing it-and could have easily done 4 more miles.  I'm not going to set a time goal for myself for this one, I just want to run the entire time.  Maybe my next one I'll set a time...or as it comes closer I set a time.  We'll see!!

Kroger-ed

I recently discovered a great secret that Kroger is hiding.  You can register your Kroger card and load coupons onto your card.  No cutting, no remembering to grab them they are there an hour after you load them on.  They do have an iphone app that you can also do this from too, as well as view them to see what you actually loaded and when they are expiring.  Now, I haven't actually tried it out at the store yet, but I did register my card today and will test it out the next time I go. 


Yes, I've been MIA again.  If I knew where the month of January went, I would report in on all the fun we've been having.  But I'm really not sure where it went.  I did finish this month on an impromptu road trip to DC for work.  A 20 hour trip in 48 hours-fun times. 

Rearrange

My sister Marybeth and I shared a room a majority of the time while growing up.  I knew at an early age Marybeth would be an engineer-she created a floor plan (to scale) of our room and all the furniture we had.  The reason she did this?  We had a habit of rearranging our room on a monthly basis.  We didn't have a large room, but we did have bunk beds which left the possibilities of the layouts endless.  I don't think my parents really cared that we did it because we had a tendency of "surprising" them (not asking for their help) and it meant that our room was cleaned pretty frequently.  You're probably wondering where I'm going with this...

It's been a little over a year that I moved in with Robert.  In that time, we've rearranged 1 time and I'm getting antsy.  I wish I would have taken before and after pictures, but I didn't.  So the next best thing is me doing a floor plan of our main room (NOT drawn to scale).    

Robert's original TV stand was actually a coffee table from IKEA.  It was probably 6ft long, white, low to the ground and on 4in wheels.  Shortly before the wedding we noticed it was starting to bow in the middle due to all of the entertainment items on the thing!  (I swear I didn't sabotage it).  We decided to use some of our wedding money to get something new.  We found this great piece from IKEA; dark wood, lots of storage space, and the option to add cabinet doors if we so choose. 

Because of the height of this piece, we decided to rearrange the floor plan (yes!!).  We have a 6ft window with a great view of midtown, and the new shelves with the tv on top were blocking a majority of the window.  So, we decided to float the sofa in the middle of the room.  I must tell say I'm a big fan of doing this.  It's amazing how much more livable space the new arrangement added to the room.  

We also needed something to store all of our liquor and some stemware (limited counter space also means limited cabinets...really just limited space in general in the kitchen).  So we headed to a few junk stores.  Robert was thinking something short, probably small.  I was thinking a china cabinet-which he thought I was crazy because it would never fit.  We found this beauty, for a great deal.  The best part is that the original paperwork was still in one of the drawers and the price tag.  Let's just say the original purchaser paid $1,000 more than we paid.

We did all of this in April.  I'm still very pleased with it and I don't want to rearrange the main room just yet (other than minor adjustments I did last weekend).  However, the bedroom and bathroom, that is another story.

I've recently been introduced to this blog.  We're a tad limited on space right now, but when we have a house this couple is my inspiration.  They feature one project that I've been considering for awhile, raising your shower curtain.  It's a small adjustment to make to the bathroom, but it really helps to give the small space a new look.  Now I just have to find a shower curtain, and then convenience the hubby that we need to paint the bathroom.

Decorated

This past Sunday I spent a good bit of the day decorating the condo for Christmas.  We were throwing around the idea of having people over for the SEC Championship game Saturday, so we decided it would be best to hold off on putting the tree up since we are a tad limited on space.  

For the 4th time in 5 years I decided to do an Auburn tree.  I didn't go all out this year with the toilet paper "garland" but I like it.  One day we won't have such a fake tree, but in the meantime I don't mind our current tree.  You can't really tell what the tree looks like with all the lights (I decided to put extra lights in addition to the ones already built in).  Christmas lights make me happy (when I was younger we used to say "ooh ahh, Christmas lights you're terrific" any time we saw a house with lights on it).  Every year Robert and I have been together we go out on an adventure to look at Christmas lights-hopefully this year I'll remember to take some pictures!

I also did my first attempt at a "flower arrangement."  I say it like that only because I don't do well with live plants or flowers.  I love them, and really would love to dabble in flower arranging.  However I don't have a green thumb the patience to put up with live plants and flowers.  So I did the next best thing...fake flowers from Michael's.  I think it turned out quite nicely though!

 

(Jenntern, do you recognize the pictures behind the table?)  Basically I love anything shinny/glittery- Robert says I'm a pigeon because I like sparkle so much.  You can't tell in the pictures (iPhone quality), but the vase sparkles, as do the flowers, greenery, and berries.  (I also have silver candles with glitter on the bottom in hurricane vases on our coffee table.)

I love my festive napkin holders.  My sister, Marybeth made Santa Claus belt napkin holders for our Christmas presents last year.  I've been waiting a year to put them out on the table!  I didn't take a close up picture, but they are in the one above.

Sidenotes: 

• Yes, our living room has 2ft stripes in dark blue and light blue.  I wish I could take credit, but Robert already had it that way when I moved in.  I can take credit for it looking less like a bachelor pad and more like home :) 
• No, that Auburn flag that you see in the tree picture is not up all the time...it was a decoration for the SECCG and we're keeping it up until the BCS Championship game in January.