We adopted a dog!

James and I recently made the decision to expand our family and adopt a dog.  We thought this would be an easy process, especially considering how many dogs there are out there that need a home. Little did we know, the dog adoption process is pretty intense.  We actually attempted to adopt two different dogs before we had success.  With the first dog we got flat out denied (apparently we were not fit parents because we planned to crate the dog while at work) and with the second dog, when we showed up to the shelter and the dog we were interested had been adopted 45 minutes before we got there. We did get a little discouraged, but now that we have our sweet pup, we know that this he was definitely the dog for us.

After we made up our mind to get a dog, I stalked pet adoption websites like it was my job. Early last week, I found a two year old cavalier king charles/cocker spaniel mix named Royce on the Atlanta Pet Rescue website.  He wasn't available for adoption until Saturday (yesterday), so James and I decided we would show up right when the shelter opened so that we could meet him.  On the way to the shelter we made sure we were on the same page that we wouldn't try to force it with the dog. We really just wanted to check him out, see what his demeanor was and then make a decision on whether he would be a good fit for us or not.  Afterall, this dog wil be a part of our family for the next ten years or so.

When we walked in, he was in a pen with about five other dogs.  We walked over to the pen and all of the other dogs started going crazy, jumping up and barking at us.  He just calmly looked up at us with his sweet eyes and let us pet him.  We decided right away that he was the dog for us.  We started filling out our application and then learned that there was someone else there who was interested in the same dog.  We sat down in a separate room and were interviewed to get a feel for why we wanted a dog and te type of environment the dog would be living in .  The staff at Atlanta Pet Rescue told us that whoever was going to be the best fit for the dog would end up going home with him. It was kind of nerve racking, but apparently they thought we would be the best fit and told us that if we wanted to take him home, he was all ours.  After filling out all of the paperwork and asking a million questions (we've never had a dog before), we got to walk out with our little guy. We ended up changing his name from the name the shelter had given him.

Introducing Buford Beauregard Ostenson: 

Trying to get a good picture at the shelter before we took him home

Finally! Our little family of three

Before we got Buford home we had to make a few pitstops at Petsmart and City Dog Market.  And after spending our life savings waaay too much money we finally got him home.  

At Petsmart

Riding in the car

First walk around the neighborhood

He's not supposed to be on the furniture, but how can you resist that sweet face?

Y'all, he is such a sweet dog.  He doesn't bark, he doesn't jump up on you when you come in the door, he is house trained, he walks pretty well on a leash, he slept through the night in his crate and he doesn't require much attention. He just kind of follows you around the house and will nuzzle up against your leg when he wants you to pet him. James and I keep looking at each other and being like, "we have a dog". We love our little Buford and he is the perfect addition to our family!

Couples Retreat | Kiawah Island, SC

Most of my recent posts have started out with "a few weekends ago". Time is precious nowadays, but I still want to make a point to blog about these fun trips, experiences, and projects, even if they do come a few weeks after the fact. So here I go again...

A few weekends ago, James and I headed east to Kiawah Island, SC with my best friend Sara and her boyfriend Nick.  Sara's parents have a house on Kiawah and they were so sweet to allow us to visit for a long weekend couples retreat, if you will.   We each had a bike while we were there, so we took advantage of the many bike paths on the island.  We even packed up our baskets with our sunscreen, towels, and reading materials, strapped our backpack chairs on and biked to the beach one day.

James all packed up and ready to go

We had two full days on the beach and had great weather both days.  While we were there, we wanted to spend as much time on the beach as possible. We got out there around 11am each day and stayed until about 5pm in the evening. In the evenings we went out to eat and enjoyed fresh seafood.  Sara's parents treated us to dinner at The Beach Club on Friday night.

The boys waiting on Sara and I to get ready

Sara and I before heading to dinner

At The Beach Club

Beautiful sunset before dinner

 On the second night, we headed to Bohicket Marina for dinner and drinks at Reds.  There was a Billfish competition that evening, so there were a ton of yachts docked and a live band.

Sara and Nick at dinner

James and I at dinner

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. We enjoyed relaxing and spending time with good friends.  I am already looking forward to the next Kiawah trip.  We will be heading back for a girls trip over Labor Day weekend. 

1 Year (and 1.5 months)

On April 30th James and I celebrated our one year anniversary.  I can't believe it has already been a whole year (and one and a half months) since we said "I do"! This last year has just flown by, we have been keeping busy and enjoying married life.  We are reading a book in our small group that keeps talking about what a disaster many peoples first year of marriage is.  But luckily, year one has been smooth sailing for us. Yes marriage is an adjustment and huge commitment, but it's also an awesome adventure and we have enjoyed every moment thus far.  To kick off our anniversary, we celebrated with dinner at Horseradish Grill with our parents.  It was great for the six of us to catch up and the food was delicious.  I had been dying to eat at the Horseradish Grill and this was certainly a great occasion to do so.

My parents on the left and James' on the right

We also planned a little weekend getaway for our anniversary  We both took a Friday off work and headed east of Atlanta to Madison, GA.  We have always heard good things about the city of Madison, but neither James nor I had ever been there.  It is an adorable little town with lots of antebellum homes. Madison, GA was one of the few towns Sherman spared during his March to the Sea. We stayed at The James Madison Inn which was within walking distance of downtown.  I literally did not want to leave our room at the inn it was so nice and beautiful decorated. I kept asking James if we could just transplant the room into our house.  

After James was able to convince me to leave our room we enjoyed a couples massage, some delicious meals, antiquing, and strolls around the city.  Here's to year two!

Twilight Weekend

A couple of weekends ago, James and I and our friends Sara and Nick headed up to Athens for one of our favorite weekends: Twilight.  The Twilight Criterium is an evening bike race through the streets of downtown Athens. We have great memories of Twilight weekend from our college days at Georgia.

As soon as we parked and got checked into our hotel, we made a bee line for Last Resort, our favorite restaurant in Athens in the world. Crab Cakes and mimosas definitely made me a happy girl.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon in downtown Athens.  It was fun catching up with friends who were also in town for the weekend. After dinner at Speakeasy, a tapas restaurant, we headed out to get a good spot to watch the race. The total race is 80 km (almost 50 miles) so it lasted a few hours. This was the first year we actually watched the majority of the race.  

All in all, it was a fun weekend of good friends, good food and pretending like we were in college again.

Monogrammed Beverage Buckets

Awhile ago we purchased these white buckets from Lowe's to hold ice and drinks when we have company over.  

I decided that I wanted to add a monogram to the buckets... just because that's what I do.  Basically, my motto is, when in doubt, add a monogram.  I'm not kidding, James is worried that if I buy a monogramming machine, he will come home to every single pair of his socks and boxers monogrammed.  I feel like that is a little excessive, but you never know...

I ended up finding a website that offers 3 large custom acrylic monograms for $24. The great thing about the website is that you don't have to order 3 of the same monogram-- so you could purchase one for yourself and the other two you could give away as gifts.  The process of transferring the monograms to the buckets was pretty simple.  The acrylic stickers come with instructions and you just have to be careful to center the sticker and transfer the it to the bucket slowly to avoid bubbles.  

So just to recap, the buckets are from Lowe's and cost $10 each, the monogrammed stickers were $8 a piece, and the project literally took 5 minutes to complete.  I think that's pretty good for a customized look that we will be able to use for all kinds of entertaining.

Lamp Revamp

I was feeling crafty this morning, so I decided to give the lamps in our bedroom a revamp.  Here they are before:

Nothing special, just basic white lamp shades.  I was never a fan of the yellow light they cast. So I headed down to the fabric store this morning in search of fabric and jute trim.  On my way back, I stopped at Michael's to pick up spray adhesive and fabric glue. 

First I traced the lamp shade onto the fabric using a pencil. I started at the seam, and slowly rolled the lampshade, tracing as I went. Shout out to James who was trying to work while I was doing this little project and had to put up with me nagging him to take pictures for the blog.  I mean obviously, documentation for the blog is much more important than tying out a financial statement for a multi-million dollar company.

Once I cut the two pieces of fabric out, I moved the project outside for James' sanity to avoid getting fumes inside the house.  Starting at the seam, I sprayed the lampshade with the spray adhesive and attached the fabric making sure to smooth out as I went to avoid bubbles.  

After the lampshades were dry, I cut off the excess fabric and glued the jute trim onto the top and bottom of the shades using the fabric glue.  

Finished Product:

I'm happy with the way the lampshades turned out.  It's funny how small details can make all the difference.

Curtains

In the back of our house we have three sets of french doors that open out onto our back deck.  I have been wanting to find curtains for these french doors for awhile now.  I went back and forth whether I wanted a fun bold fabric, a solid or a smaller more subtle print.  After seeing these curtains at Ikea, I decided to go with the solid white curtains.  Yes, I realize white will probably get dirty easily, but at the end of the day a pair of curtains was 25 bucks, so if I decide I want something different a year from now I won't feel the least bit guilty about changing them out.  The only downside of the ikea curtains is that there is a bit of labor involved.  All of the curtains come 98" long, and unless you live in a super fancy loft in downtown, it's highly likely that you will be hemming them.  The hemming process honestly wasn't too bad.  Each pair of curtains comes with no-sew iron-on hemming tape and you simply measure the length, hem the bottoms by ironing them and then cut off the excess fabric. We looked around for hardware at Ikea, but it was all a bit too modern for my taste, so we ended up purchasing our hardware from Lowes.  Here is the finished product:

Hardware purchased from Lowes

  

Eventually it would be fun to find a patterned fabric that I absolutely love and won't get sick of, but for now, I am loving these.