Our Little Model

Recently Harper was asked to model some outfits for the adorable Cutesie Whootsie Boutique on ETSY. The shop owner is a coworker and friend of mine. Of course, being in love with everything she makes, I was totally up for the opportunity. I knew I wanted a Valentine's outfit for Harper. We perused numerous appliques and being a lover of all things elephants, it was super easy to come up with a design. Jennifer did an amazing job with Harper's outfit incorporating all the colors and prints that I had wanted. We had a mini Valentine's Day photo shoot to show off all the pieces. The photos turned out so well that I'll be giving them as post Valentine's day gifts. If you're in need of an outfit for a special occasion or an upcoming birthday, Jennifer is your girl!

Life Lately

Well ladies, yet again I took a temporary leave of absence from my blog without intending to. I start out each day with the intention of posting but life just gets in the way. So here I am three weeks from my last post and I have so much to fill you ladies in on. So what better way to do that than to do a life lately post. So here goes...

My Nannie

My grandmother passed away on February 1st. When asked if it was expected, I'd have to say yes and no. My grandmother was 99 years old and would have turned a 100 years old on Valentine's Day. Of course with her age, we knew her time was limited. However, she had just been to the doctor the week of her death and was in fantastic condition so her death came as a bit of a shock. But thankfully she passed away peacefully in her sleep and woke up in Heaven. We celebrated her life two days later. Despite the circumstances, it was really nice to see all of our family and spend a few days together. Our family is spread out among the United States so it's an opportunity we only get around holidays. So it was a nice change to see them before Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

Harper's Birthday 

Harper turned nine months old on February 8th. I keep thinking where did the last 8 months go? The fact that my child is babbling up a storm and crawling all over the place really makes me sad. I just wish I could freeze her and keep her little. :(  But since that isn't possible I've had to surround myself with the positive side of her getting older and that means party planning. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't started planning her birthday party months ago! Back before Christmas, I gave Kevin two themes to choose from for Harper's big day. With her birthday being right at the time it starts warming up here in NC, Kevin thought what better way to kick off warmer weather than to do it with a nautical theme party. So that's the plan. Imagine chevron and polka dot patterns in navy, white and pink and anchors everywhere. Her cake, decorations, and outfit have all been picked out and planned. I'm getting more and more excited as the plans come together. Here's a sneak peek of some of my inspiration thanks to Pinterest. And who knew the nautical theme would be such a big thing this year?! I'm seeing nautical stuff in every store I go in!

Home Projects

When Kevin and I got married, we made a pact to not exchange gifts at Christmas. It may sound strange to some but we figured that since we shared a joint bank account, it just wasn't much point of exchanging gifts. If there was something we wanted, we could just buy it ourselves. So instead we came up with another idea that was much more practical for us. We decided that every Christmas we would set aside money to do a big project around the house. With that said, this Christmas Kevin and I made a list of projects we hoped to accomplish around our home this year and set a budget for each. Our list consists of the following:

- Convert the bonus room/man cave to a play room for Harper

- Purchase new patio furniture and decor for the back porch 

- Redecorate the living room 

- Replace the carpet in the house for hardwood flooring

- Repaint the master and guest bedroom 

I'm super excited to report that as of yesterday afternoon, our first house project of 2014 is underway. We purchased the prettiest hardwood flooring to put down in our bedrooms, hallways, and bonus room. The color is called berkchire cherry. It will be delivered sometime next week and hopefully the installation process will start sometime in the next few weeks! 

Recipes

If you live in the south, you're aware NC was shut down last week due to the massive snow storm we got. Since we were stuck at home for the better part of the week, I decided to try out some new recipes. Since we couldn't get out to go to the grocery store, I was pretty much stuck with the ingredients I already had which to be quite honest, wasn't much. haha But I did have just the right ingredients to throw together some bacon cheddar potato chips and they were amazing. Trust me, they were as good as they look and they were super easy to make. I just sliced up some red potatoes and boiled them for about five minutes. When they were done boiling, I drained them and laid them out on a baking sheet. I brushed on a little vegetable oil, sprinkled some seasoned salt on them, and then spread out some shredded cheese and some bacon on top. I cooked them in the oven for 15 minutes on 350 and then placed them on broil for about 3 minutes. When they finished cooking they were the perfect combination of soft and crispy. I served them with homemade ranch dressing and within about 20 minutes, they were all gone :P So I may or may not have fixed a second batch. We'll let me waistline do the talking (;