HAPPY HALLOWEEN

BOO!

Happy Halloween to all my bloggy friends! Please share pics of all the wonderful costumes!

It's time for Vacation Friday!

This Friday we are venturing outside of the backyard. Back to our adventuresome side!

I have been craving a trip to the Northeast. My family visited Martha's Vineyard about 5 years ago and fell in love. We have wanted to get back since the day we left the Vineyard. We plan to go next summer and expand the trip to Rhode Island, Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard this time! There is so much to explore and enjoy. I will be looking to you all for suggestions once we start planning.

Here are a few things I loved about the Vineyard...

The beautiful flowers that fill the island with so much life and beauty!

The GORGEOUS homes that exude the beautiful New England coastal look 

and picturesque, peaceful settings on the water.

One of the most fun things we did on the island was sailing. It was a beautiful day where we learned a lot, met wonderful people and saw unbelievable scenery. It was an amazing experience!

Captain Moore (aka my dad!)

 Last, but DEFINITELY not least...we ate a ton of lobster! 

In fact, we were scrounging to find a hamburger one night for dinner!

The Northeast coast is undeniably beautiful with it's gorgeous grounds, gorgeous water, and it's laid-back, yet upscale, yet rustic feel. I know...it sounds confusing...you have to see it to believe it! I can't wait to get back and explore so much more!

Happy Happy Friday!!

Organization to the max

Organized is not what you have called us if you had seen our old kitchen. I guess when you start over and renovate, it opens doors to things you never thought possible. Like this..

Yep, this is our new and improved fancy silverware drawer. We have a utensil drawer:

And a miscellaneous drawer:

You think we organize our kitchen "things" this well? Think again...It was all Custom Inserts. This place can make you a custom organizer for any space in your kitchen or your closet! Oh, if I could only get my closet this organized. It has a long way to go!

If we get more utensils, we can just move the grooves and make more space...

Amazing, right?!

Cheers to keeping life organized...at least the kitchen part of my life :)

Puppas behind closed doors

Ever wonder what your puppas (dogs) are doing while you are away at work or running errands. Well, I found out what our Gracie girl does...breaks the rules!

I stopped by our house this afternoon and this is where I found Miss Gracie! Is she allowed on the couch? NO! In fact, we intentionally lay pillows all over our couches when we leave to keep the dogs from jumping on the furniture. Well, now we know that doesn't stop Miss Gracie (aka Queen B). I don't think  y'all have met Gracie yet. She is my step-dog :). B got Gracie before I knew him. Gracie did NOT like me at all when we first met and I can't say that I loved her. I was taking her man away and she let me know it! As the years have gone by, my step-dog and I are slowly beginning to love each other and get along. However, Queen B enjoys pulling little tricks like this every now and then to remind me that this was her house before it was mine.

Sweet Penny Lane would never do such a thing!

I don't play favorites or anything... ;)

Marathon envy

I've been training for my 2nd half marathon and the 12 miles I was ignoring on Friday was tough. It was okay until the last 2 miles. I was shuffle running (aka moving, but not very fast). The good news is the recovery was fairly easy and I think we are ready for the half!

I must say, running 13.1 miles does not come easy for me. I enjoy running, but I really have to work at it, so when I experienced marathon envy today, I was quite stunned. Could I really envy people running 13.1 or 26.2 miles?! Turns out I can...when the marathon is in Kiawah! I was looking at Kiawah Island's blog today and officially have marathon envy. I fell in love with Kiawah Island this past summer and had no idea they had a marathon! I really wish I had known this and was training to run 13.1 beautiful miles in Kiawah rather than running in San Antonio, TX. I think I could run the full marathon in Kiawah's beautiful setting

...well, I take that back, I would just do the half marathon and then head back to the Sanctuary to enjoy the view of the ocean from this porch:

and sit back and relax and enjoy the sunset...

I think the Kiawah marathon is a great excuse to get back to Kiawah next year. B, get ready to train ;)! I'm really missing Kiawah today. Craving the quiet, laid back, beachy environment it offers. Kiawah, I'll be back soon, I promise.

Backyard-cation

Vacation Friday is a BACKYARD-CATION! Ever heard of a Backyard-cation? Or, a vacation in your backyard? I'm sure you are asking..."who considers their backyard a vacation?!" Well, this weekend, me and Mr. B do! It has been a LONG time since we have not had plans, a football game (at least there is no Texas game this weekend and in my mind...that means there is no football game this weekend), and we finally have time to relax and enjoy our humble abode! Ok, so I might be ignoring the fact that I have to get up and run 12 miles in the morning. I've been training with my best friend, Hilary, for the San Antonio Rock n' Roll half marathon and our longest run is in the morning. But...I'll keep ignoring that for now and move on to my backyard-cation fun.

We are so excited about our backyard-cation that we started it last night. So, you might be asking yourself...what does a backyard-cation consist of? Well, let me give you a little glimpse of what our weekend will look like.

We began with some appetizers...grapes and Zucchini Wheels! I found out about Zucchini Wheels from my friend, Kathryn Robinson, who has a great blog where you can find the recipe for delicious Zucchini Wheels. Ok, so she might make these for her son, but adults can love them too. They are delicious...thank you for the recipe Kathryn!!

Then, I take it all outside to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and light some candles! This Tommy Bahama candle is our favorite. It makes the whole house smell wonderful!

Our backyard-cation will ALWAYS involve the grill. While we get the grill ready to go and enjoy our appetizers, we pop open a couple beers. October beers are some of the best!

We love to spend time outside and grill. Last night, B had some dove that he wanted to grill. Yes, B is a hunter and a fisherman. I assure you we eat everything he brings home. He really surprised me last night. I'm not sure I would say yes if someone asked me if I like dove, but I definitely like the way B cooks it! He took the dove and wrapped them in jalapeno, cream cheese and turkey bacon. YUM YUM!

Our dogs really wanted a piece! :)

Then, we whipped up a quick salad...

And enjoyed a wonderful meal on our porch!

To top off the start of our backyard-cation, we received the new issue of Coastal Living. Always a great day for us when we get this in the mail!

HELLO backyard-cation weekend! What does your backyard-cation look like?

Happy Vacation Friday!

One dish ties it together

Sadly, in my last post about our new kitchen I did not post a picture of our beautiful blue tile. My sweet hubby came home that day and said, "why did you not post a picture of the tile? It's my favorite part about our kitchen." Sooo sad...I failed. So, this picture is for Mr. B!

The perfect touch for our "wanna-be living on the coast" kitchen. We don't have a ton of blue in the house and I thought we needed to tie this color in somewhere. We have beautiful glass cabinets to showcase our Vietri green dishes we received for our wedding.

I've shown you the Vietri Organica platter we found.

You can't see it in this picture, but it ties in the blue tile and green dishes perfectly! So, today we added 4 small bowls in the Vietri Organica.

Aren't they beautiful? I love the jagged edges. We obviously need more...but that will have to wait for now. The pictures of these cabinets just don't do them justice. I apologize...once again...for my LAME photography! So now we have dishes that tie in our blue and green, as well as a beautiful blue and green window seat.

It's all in the small things!

October Cheer!

Enjoy some coastal October cheer! I would love to decorate my imaginary beach house with some of these festive pumpkins...

Happy Fall!

Too many picture walls?

How many picture walls in one house is too many?

This weekend, we finally finished putting everything away in our kitchen and living room. We have newly painted walls, so I wanted to really think about what we wanted on them. I am border-line obsessed with picture walls. They bring so much life to a space and you can update them with a quick change of picture. Also, I love how a picture wall is never finished. We just have the beginning of ours...we have so much room to grow. My favorite thing about picture walls...they aren't perfectly in line. They can be random designs and look their best! So after a lot of thought, we decided on 3 picture walls.

Unlike me, my sister is a perfectionist and has a lot of patience for projects and kindly offered up her perfection and patience to help us put up the pictures. There is no telling how many holes there would be in the wall if I had done this myself. With her help, we had only one hole per picture...just how it should be.

Sooo, after a few hours...this is what we have to look at day end and day out!

A picture wall in our hallway.

A picture wall in our foyer with all black and white photos.

A picture wall in our living room that we can see from our kitchen and breakfast table.

Too many? Maybe so....but we are pretty happy with the outcome and will be adding to the picture walls for years to come!

It's all in the details

I told you yesterday about my mother-in-law's amazing kitchen design skills. Now I have pictures to prove it! Check out how organized our kitchen is thanks to the brilliant mind that designed it...

Drawers in cabinets. You can pull them all the way out and see EVERYTHING!

Slots for all our platters and bake pans

Drawers in our pantry!

Amazing, right??!

Other small details that I love in our kitchen...

Our blue and green window seat...

The platter on our breakfast table. We have green Vietri dishes that we got when we were married. I wanted to bring in the blue and my sister found this beautiful Vietri Organica design. I absolutely LOVE it and it looks like a shell! I'm getting a little more coastal:)

 Lights under the cabinets. I had no idea how much I would love this.

Those are just some details I love in our kitchen. It's the small things that make the biggest difference!