Built In Shelves

I am super excited about this post, because it is about a project we have been working on for awhile. When James first moved into our house, there was a random office area on the way to the master bedroom that had some pretty hideous looking retro glass shelves along with a half brick wall. I know it is pretty heard to envision, but luckily we have pictures of the house from when James first moved in. So, instead of trying to describe this area of the house, here is a picture:

Our plans for this area were to take out the glass shelves, knock out the brick wall and enclose the area just on the other side of the shelves as a walk in closet, connected to the master (which is on the other side of the solid wall in the picture).

Once the area was all demo-ed, James and my Dad built a wall where the glass shelves used to be to enclose the walk in closet, and started building the built in shelves. The back wall of the shelves is wainscoting. We also had the idea to incorporate a thicker, more decorative column than what was there before.

All of the labor was done by my wonderful husband. Thank goodness he enjoys making things and is good at measuring and using power tools, because I know I never could have completed a project like this. I probably would have hired someone to do it. The one piece James did not build himself were the cabinet doors. We ended up ordering them from Barker Door. You customize your doors on their website by choosing the style and then putting in the dimensions and they make them and ship them to you. James had to get a special drill bit to install the hinges, but all in all the installation of the doors probably took 15 minutes. Here is the finished product!

I'm really pleased with the way they turned out... now I just need to figure out what all I want to put on them/how I want to arrange things. We are also trying to figure out if we want to put hardware on the cabinet doors or just leave them as is. What do y'all think?

Parsons Chair Slipcovers

When James first moved into his house, he was in dire need of furniture. I'm pretty sure all he had when he moved in was a box spring, mattress and bed side table... It was a true bachelor pad! Since he had just made one of the biggest purchases of his life (the next one was a few months later when he bought my engagement ring) he was also on a tight budget. After a good bit of internet shopping, he ended up finding a dining room table and four parsons chairs on craigslist for $200. I really like parsons chairs but these ones looked like this:

Aside from the stains, two of the chairs were one shade of green, while the other two were a darker green. Not the greatest look.

I ended up finding off-white canvas slipcovers at Cost Plus World Market for $30 a piece. Much cheaper than buying four more chairs for at least $100 per chair. Not to mention, they are machine washable, so if anyone has a problem keeping their drink in their cup (like the previous chair owners) we can just take them off and put them through the washing machine. I'm pleased with the way they turned out:

Whats for dinner?

Ever since James and I got married, I have struggled a bit with what to cook for dinner. I wouldn't say I was a terrible cook before we got married, I just never really had a lot of time to practice. I mean, lets face it, dinner before marriage was a salad or a lean pocket on the couch while watching E News with my roomies. While a big salad would definitely constitute a meal for myself, James on the other hand needs something more substantial to fill up. So the first few weeks of marriage went a little like this: 4:00 strikes at work and I suddenly realize I have absolutely no idea what I am making for dinner--so I spend the next hour looking for menus online---finally decide on one that looks easy enough--stop by the grocery store on my way home--spend $35 on all of the ingredients--we eat the dinner and its good, but the remainder of the carton of whipping cream or bunch of parsley we needed for that specific recipe goes bad and we end up throwing it out. Not super efficient, a waste of money and food.

A few months ago, some of our friends told us about a website called E Mealz, which plans out your meals. They have family meal plans, as well as meal plans "for two". We thought it sounded interesting, so we checked it out. Basically, you pay $15 for three months, which comes out to $1.25 per week, to give you access to their meal menus. The best thing about the E Mealz menus is that they plan the menu around what is on sale for the week and they incorporate the ingredients into a few different meals (ex. This week sweet corn was on sale for $1.19 for 4 ears of corn, so you buy 4, and use it for two meals).

They have grocery lists centered around Publix, Kroger, Aldi, Walmart, and they also have non-grocery-store-specific menus. We found out about E Mealz right around the time our swanky new Publix opened up around the corner in Town Brookhaven. I am seriously obsessed with the new Publix, its huge, so neat and organized, and the people are extremely helpful (but that's a blog post for another day). So, naturally we decided on the Publix For Two meal plan. James was a bit skeptical about shopping at Publix at first. He has always been a Kroger shopper because he thinks Publix is too expensive-- gotta love him, always trying to save a dime :) Each meal plan, which provides dinner for five nights averages out to $35-$45 per week. Thanks to E Mealz I won the Publix vs Kroger debate.

We honestly think the $1.25 per week is a great investment because we have been saving so much money. We generally go to the gorcery store once a week and leave spending under $100 every time, which includes dinners, lunches, breakfast and any snacky foods, cleaning products etc. I went to my happy place today... I mean Publix... and spent $86.50. We are definitely going to keep using E Mealz just because it makes our life so much easier, we may try switching to a low-carb or low-fat meal option next.

Happy Birthday to James and America!

Fourth of July weekend was crazy busy. We kicked off the weekend with James' 26th birthday on Thursday, June 30th. For a few weeks leading up to James' special day, I kept asking what he wanted to do to celebrate. He insisted that he "just wanted to get some steaks and grill out with the two of us". Easy enough, so that we did! I did have a little surprise for him-- my parents and I went in on a really nice pressure washer as his birthday gift. Yes, when you get old and married, you get really fun things like pressure washers for birthdays. No, but with all seriousness, James had been saying for a few months how he wanted/needed one. Here's a picture of James playing with his new toy:

We ended our yummy steak dinner with birthday cupcakes from The Sugar Shack. One chocholate pretzel and one lemon zinger. I let the birthday boy choose which one he wanted, and he chose the chocolate pretzel.

Friday evening my brother, his girlfriend, Jinna Anne, and some of their friends came in town from Birmingham. We headed up to Lake Lanier on Saturday afternoon for a fun day on the lake. It was a full day of relaxing out on the water, tubing and delicious barbecue.

Jinna Anne and I in the boat

We love America, or "Americuh" as James would say. Gotta love the bandana.

My brother,Aidan, jumping off the dock. Sweet swim trunks.

In years past, my family has always gone to the Capital City Country Club fireworks on the 3rd of July, and this 3rd of July was no different. We decided to have a cookout at our house beforehand. We ended up having 11 people at our house and it was a successful cookout. We all headed over to Capital City around 8 to get a good spot on the green. The fireworks were great! Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures at the cookout, but here's one of my lovely centerpiece.

Martha Stewart, eat your heart out

We couldn't have too much fun on the 3rd of July, because James and I had to get up early on the 4th to run the Peachtree Road Race. James ran the Peachtree a few years back with his brother, but this was my first time running it, and my first 10K. It was definitely hot and exhausting, but we are so glad we ran it. Who knows, maybe we'll make this a 4th of July tradition? Here's a sweaty, post race picture of us, with our shirts

After the race we had a pretty lazy afternoon. We ended up going grilling out with some friends on Monday evening, then headed over to the Lenox fireworks. One of the girls in our group works in the building where Bluepointe is in Buckhead, so we were able to use her parking pass to park in the parking deck there. We had the perfect spot, on the second to the top level of the parking deck (protected from the rain). We actually weren't even positive if the fireworks were going to happen because of the rain, but after a slight rain delay, the fireworks started and they were awesome.

As you can tell, we had a fun-filled, busy weekend. This weekend, we are enjoying having absolutely nothing on our social calendar and just relaxing.