centerpiece switch

happy monday!

i am recovering from my illness (which turned out to be a nasty mix of bacterial and viral infections) thanks to a long weekend full of family time, food, and about 5 different prescriptions. thank you codeine for 3 nights of wonderful sleep!

i took the day off from work friday to take a trip to urgent care and get the sickness situation under control. while i waited on my prescriptions to be filled, i figured i may as well make a pitstop at target (aka my favorite place to waste time).

while there, i thought i would see if i could find some inspiration for our dining room table centerpiece. the table used to hold a big fruit basket full of napkins, but i recently started actually using it for fruit, so it was bare for a couple of days. i eventually replaced the bowl with a blue and white vase from my china cabinet, but it looks so tiny and sad compared to the huge table.

see? tiny and sad.

target came through for me as usual and i found an assortment of mercury glass votive and candleholders that i figured i could arrange in a pretty way on the table. i mean, maybe we'll have a candlelit dinner sometime (our anniversary is coming up soon)!

on the way out i spotted this pretty blue patterned serving tray which i thought would be a perfect way to hold the candles so they 1-dont look like they're just randomly thrown on the table and 2-don't make a mess on the table runner.

here's the after! it's a much more size-appropriate centerpiece for the table, and it would work for any season. i really only decorate seasonally for halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas, so i wanted something that would work from new year's until late summer.

[excuse the weird lighting...this was clearly not the best time of day to take these pictures]

thank you target for brightening up my sick day!

will it please rain already?!

happy thursday!

i've been mia for a few days, mostly thanks to the seasonal allergies that have invaded my life recently. i had allergy issues as a kid but seasonal allergies have never affected me...til now. :) i guess that's what happens when you're over the hill from 25?

thankfully i have a sweet husband who takes care of me and forces me to take medicine when i don't want to. last night was full of chugging water, sneezing, and watching hgtv. proof:

one exciting thing that happened yesterday was receiving our first delivery of local, organic produce from backyard produce! we just signed up for the service last week and yesterday we had a box full of goodies on our front porch when we got home. we chose zucchini, apples, bananas, oranges, kale, sweet potatoes, and pineapple for this week's box. i can't wait to try it all!

hope everyone has a good weekend, and please pray for rain on my behalf. we'll be hanging out in good ol brunswick county with my parents for the weekend so i'm hoping for lots of good food and relaxing.

back next week once i've (hopefully) come out of this fog!

broccoli & cheese bites

happy friday everybody!

it's an ongoing battle in my kitchen trying to find new ways to use veggies in side dishes. after awhile, sauteeing everything in olive oil and seasoning gets a little old.

i found a recipe on staceysnacksonline.com for broccoli bites. her website says they're for kids...i say they're for adults too. :)

i used to hate broccoli growing up, mostly because of the way it smells. my mom loves it and would cook it all the time, and i thought it made the whole house smell weird. i would eat it but only if i could put cheese all over it (and hold my nose...even though i couldn't get away with that at the dinner table very often).

even though it's still not my favorite vegetable, i like it a lot more now. i still don't love eating it plain, so i thought this recipe would be great for incorporating broccoli into our diet but also giving it some flavor.

broccoli & cheese bites (or patties, if yours turn out as big as mine!)
16 oz bag of frozen chopped broccoli (i only had whole broccoli florets, so i chopped them after they thawed)
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese (i only used about 1 cup)
3 eggs
salt & pepper
1 cup seasoned italian breadcrumbs

step 1: thaw out your broccoli. check out this sweet action shot! (and like i said before, chop it if needed. it's really better if the broccoli pieces are fairly small)

step 2: dump all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until combined. line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 375.

step 3: form mixture into patties and lay on lined baking sheet. mine turned out a little large, so if you want an actual "bite" you should use about half of what i did.

step 4: bake at 375 for 25 minutes, turning patties after 15 minutes. *note: i was cooking chicken at 350 at the same time as i made these, so i baked them at 350 for about 35 minutes. still turned out well!

so good and so easy! give these a try the next time you're looking for a new veggie side!

april birchbox

the april birchbox arrived last night!

this month's theme is "tiny tweaks, big results", and birchbox paired up with women's health magazine to put together a box of little things that can make a big difference.

[ps-excuse my weirdly lit pictures...i was sitting outside at the picnic table with our sole outside light in the backyard]

just so happens that my box was on top of hubby's jump rope...
see, we're already trying to get big results! :)

here's the breakdown of the products:

• malin + goetz peppermint shampoo: i used this stuff this morning and it smells amazing! it feels like you're at the spa...if you close your eyes and dream a little
• ruby wing color changing nail polish in peony: i can't wait to see how this polish works. apparently it's pink normally but when you go out in the sun it turns red. could be awesome or could be weird...we'll see!
• supergoop advanced anti-aging eye cream: i love anything that says "anti-aging". i may be only 26 but i'm in full-on preventative mode. wrinkles beware!
• whish shave crave shaving cream: i used this shave cream last night and it made my skin so soft! it's a little weird at first because it doesn't foam, so i wondered if it was going to work well, but it was great! it also smells like blueberries...cant go wrong there.
• mighty leaf tea pouches: i'm not a huge hot tea drinker, but i can't wait to try these! they're hand-picked and some in really pretty biodegradable packs. 

last but not least, the box included a free one-year subscription to women's health! i LOVE getting magazines, and women's health is one of my favorites, even though i haven't subscribed in a few years. i always try to read through it as fast as i can in the grocery store line.

as usual, getting my box in the mail was so exciting! keep a subscription in mind as a gift to someone you love (or yourself)!

weekend update - socialites

we had such a great weekend and i hope that all of you did too!

we usually find a couple of things to do out of the house every weekend, but a major part of most of our days off involves laying on the couch and watching tv (if i'm in charge) or movies (if michael is). this weekend we were busy catching up with friends and it was a nice change from our usual lazy weekend schedule!

friday night we met up with zack (my brother) and a few of our friends in noda, the neighborhood in charlotte where zack lives. as usual we ended up at the blind pig, where i showed off my awful pool skills and broke the jukebox. all in a day's work. we also got to see dale! [ps-happy birthday daley!]

saturday we spent some time at home before getting ready to go out that night. our company sponsored the lincoln county 20th anniversary gala/auction and we were able to go be a part of it. it was a good excuse to get dressed up and turned out to be really fun! there was lots of good food and beach music. added bonus - michael won $5,000! there was a drawing for 3 prizes, and he won first place! it was such a shock, and we are so excited! plans are already taking shape for a euro trip next summer! [on that note-does anyone have any must-see cities in europe (other than paris or london)]?

yesterday we went to church, then michael mowed the yard while i walked loki and cooked lunch. we relaxed for awhile, then went to birkdale to do a little shopping and meet up with some friends for awhile. after that we went down to gastonia to visit my brother-in-law who just moved into his first apartment! we delivered a care package full of new-apartment goodies and took him out to a great dinner at tavern 24.

overall, it was a perfect weekend with lots of time spent with people we love (and a little relaxing time too).

have a great week!!

front door problems

we have been living with our minor front door problem for several months now, but it's finally warm weather and time to fix it!

when we first moved in to our house, we changed the door handles/locks and the new handle we decided on for our front door was shaped differently than the old one. when we (and by we i mean michael) changed them out, there was a weird-shaped area of not-painted wood showing where the old handle used to be and the new one wasn't.

we got a sample of paint that was close to the existing color to try to touch it up, which held us over til spring...now it's time to decide on a color and paint!

here's the front of our house (back at Christmastime when we brought our tree home!):

you can see the actual color a little better here:

i think the blue color works well considering the grayish tones that the brick has (which isnt showing up well here due to instagram filters) and the gray vinyl at the top of the house. we will probably stick with some shade of blue...but which one?! here are some fun ones:

huffington post

southern living

huffington post

any votes?? does anyone have experience painting front doors over existing (fairly dark) paint? we'll take all the advice we can get!

the harlem shake video

in my post about courtney's wedding i mentioned that we made a harlem shake video. here's the link to it on youtube for your viewing pleasure:

the best link of your life

my comments:

1. my husband is standing in the very back on top of a 4-foot wall with nothing holding him back from falling to the ground 2 stories below. dancing with a bamboo pole.

2. i almost dropped my half of the wedding cake about 9 times.

3. check out the resort employees on the left holding dinner plates. ballin!

4. courtney's dad wins the most enthusiastic award. that chair didnt stand a chance.

5. everything is better in slow motion.

enjoy!

the loki post

it had to happen...a whole post dedicated to the cuteness of my first child. michael will no doubt give me a hard time for this, but i just want to take this opportunity to point out that it was michael's decision to get loki in the first place, so i can always blame it on him. :)

anyway, for those of you who are entertained by cute dog pictures, here you go! these are some of my favs

he likes to sit on the console of the car like it's his assigned seat

right after we picked up him from the grandparents after mexico! 

his crossed feet never cease to make me laugh

our bed = his bed

of course he has to sleep on a pillow

michael took this one and i think it's SO funny! his head looks 200
times bigger than his body

pouting

terrified of drive-thru window speakers. he will run to the passengers' side
and whine to try to get away from the voice

it's the little things

saturday i spent some time (way too much time) at homegoods shopping for a few decor updates for the house. sometimes i feel like the smallest changes go a long way in making a house look fresher, especially during the transition from winter into spring.

our house was feeling a little heavy with a few winter items still laying around so i made a few updates that made everything feel lighter and brighter! it was also a fairly cheap makeover...the glories of homegoods, yall.

---

i finally got a picture of my bouquet framed! i've been wanting to do this
for awhile and it matches our yellow guest bedroom perfectly!

frame: already had; poster print: $5.99 [walgreens]

replaced a few dark tea light holders with this bright turqouise patterned one. this is the accent color in our bedroom so i was really excited to find it!

candle holder: $2.99 [homegoods]

we've had the candleholder on the right for awhile in our other guest bedroom but i found the glass on the left to go with it. i love mixing blues!

glass: $3.99 [homegoods]

the silver frame is new and holds one of my recent favorite pictures of michael, loki and me at Christmas (thanks mama!). we've had the vase and flowers, but the arrangement used to be really busy with several types of flowers in it. i pared it down to only one kind and i'm liking how it looks a little more modern in the traditional hobnail milk glass vase. 

frame: $4.99 [homegoods]

sadly, until saturday, i still had a dark red and brown flower arrangement in our kitchen. so much better now!

leaves/branches: $8.99 [homegoods]

before & after...the power of a picture frame change in the bathroom

frame: $6.99 [homegoods]

i love this cute little pot! it's sitting in the corner of our downstairs half bath. loki still can't figure it out and wants to fight it

pot: $4.99, faux grass sphere: $10.99 [homegoods]

this yellow beauty is still on the shelf at home goods but as soon as i find a place for it, i will be back! they also have an orange one...be still my heart.

priceless. [but really, $25.99 at homegoods]