Weekending

Hey y'all and happy Monday! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend - ours was packed but also relaxing which is just what we needed. Friday I literally hung out with Miss Andi, finished season one of Mad Men with the hubs because he was home at a decent time and then crashed. Saturday we started #DemoDay numero uno on the new house and I am so over the moon excited about this one y'all. I cannot wait to share all of the photos so come back here on Wednesday for the big before reveal. After we demolished some existing cabinets and counters in the kitchen space, Hubs headed to work and Andi and I enjoyed a play date and dinner with some girlfriends. (Wine + girl time = Mexican = the best play date ever) They played so hard that Miss A slept until 10 am y'all - like had to wake the child up to get her ready for church the next day. Bless her heart - love her. I also finished our outdoor space, minus hanging the bulb lights, and we fired up the grill for the first time! I couldn't have asked for better weather this weekend.

That cart is so hard to push around but she insisted....

After church on Sunday we picked up some things from Lowes (our second home) and then headed out to my parents house to wait for them to get home from the bay. It was my Dad's 61st birthday so we brought all sorts of goodies and sweets to celebrate once they got there. Andi and I played outside on the property, gathered up eggs from the chicken houses (thanks to my parents I haven't had to buy eggs in like 2 years) and we also snatched up the last of the daffodils. It was such a gorgeous day and I just love being out there. Dad loved his presents and we finally headed home to get ready for the week ahead. All and all it was an absolutely fabulous and relaxing weekend. Stay tuned for the new house pics on What's Hap-'Pinning' Wednesday's post!

Linking up with Biana for Weekending

WHW: Before & After

Hey y'all and welcome to another What's Hap-pinning Wednesday. Link up with Jenn (or me!) below and share what's currently going on with YOU! With our next closing (3rd one in a year) scheduled within the next 24 hours, it made me realize that I haven't shared our current home tour and its before and after photos. I definitely have to give this home its spotlight hour before we dive head first into this new renovation. Just to recap, when we bought this home back in October, it was the most move-in ready home we'd ever looked at. However, there always has to be some sort of project for us or we get a bit antsy. 

We decided to overhaul the kitchen, paint every single room (the ceilings were all yellow y'all..) re-do the screened-in porch, replace boards on the back porch and overhaul the outdoor living area. Overall it took about 3 months to complete and the space is better than ever. We love our little home and we're so thankful that this house brought us back to the town we wanted to be in. I apologize for the lack of good photos but I was rushing to get this post together and of course it has been raining for 2 days and the natural light is terrible. So despite all of that, here is a glimpse into the before and after of our current home and its best updated spaces (and I repeat: these photos are awful and last minute. We'll do professional ones when we're ready to list I promise!)


Living Room Before:

Living Room After:

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

Master Bedroom Before:

Master Bedroom After:

Playroom Before:

Playroom After:

Andi's Room Before:

Andi's Room After:

Laundry/Office Before:

Laundry/Office After:

WHW: Spring Favorites

Hey y'all and welcome to another What's Hap-'pinning' Wednesday post. Remember to link up with Jenn and I below to share what's going on with you! Today I'm sharing my top style and beauty favs for Spring. I finally went ahead and pulled the trigger on switching out my closet from Winter to Spring/Summer and of course it was freezing this morning - like 40 degrees freezing! (thank goodness I left some long sleeve favorites in there) Anyway, there's so many Spring sales going on at all of my favs and I want to share what I've currently added to my Spring must-have list. I've also ordered some new beauty products to try along with my tried and true go-tos so I'll share those as well!

J. Crew Factory, Tuckernuck, Lilly Pulitzer and screen shots from LiketoKnow.it that almost always lead to Nordstrom are usually my favs but I do love a good Ebay score as well (#EbayQueen) AND - did y'all hear? Julia from Gal Meets Glam is releasing a dress collection and it launches THIS Friday! I'm pretty sure I haven't been this excited since Reese Witherspoon announced her launch of Draper James y'all!

1.Lord & Taylor

2. Lilly Pulitzer Harper

3. Steve Madden Carrson Sandal

4. Lisi Lerch Ginger Earrings in Lavender

5. Tropical Print Dress

6. Tory Burch Miller Sandal 

1. Tuckernuck

2. Ruffle Dress 

3. Tuckernuck

1. Super Line Preventor Extreme Serum 

2. Lancome Brow Pencil in Natural Blonde

3. Olay night cream

Tried & True Favorites:

1. Trish McEvoy Lipsticks (I love vibrant pink)

2. Tarte Paaarty Blush 12-hour

3. Buxom Mascara 

4. Bareminerals - but I need liquid foundation recommendations! Help!

Her new collection launches THIS Friday! Click here

WHW: Yum!

Hey y'all and welcome to another What's Hap-'pinning' Wednesday. I mentioned a few back that I would share the recipe for this delicious new asparagus and ricotta cheese tart I made and I completely forgot about it! I made this for a family gathering on Easter Sunday and it was a hit y'all! I seriously cannot believe I didn't share an after photo because the puff pastry made it look so fluffy and pretty once it came out of the oven. This recipe was super simple as well and looks so pretty presentation wise. (notice my wine in the first photo - best way to cook am I right?) Anyway, enjoy! 

Ingredients: Roasted Asparagus & Ricotta Tart

Yields: 8

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1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed

1 large egg

1 c. ricotta cheese

Kosher salt

pepper

1 lemon

2 scallions, chopped

1/4 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 tbsp. fresh tarragon, chopped

12 oz. asparagus, trimmed, halved

1/2 tbsp. olive oil

Directions

Total Time: 0:30

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1. Heat oven to 425°F; place oven rack in lower third of oven. Unfold pastry onto piece of parchment paper and roll ½ in. bigger on all sides. Slide parchment and pastry onto baking sheet. In medium bowl, beat egg. Lightly brush 1/2-inch border of egg around pastry.
2. Add ricotta and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper to bowl with remaining egg. Finely grate zest of lemon into bowl, then fold in scallions and herbs. Spread onto pastry, leaving border uncovered.
3. Top filling with asparagus; drizzle with oil. Bake until crust is golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

Nutritional information (per serving): About 205 calories, 14 g fat (5 g saturated), 7 g protein, 250 mg sodium, 13 g carb, 1 g fiber

Weekending: Paaarty!

Hey y'all and happy Monday! I'm coming at ya while watching it snow outside...yes snow in April! However, after today, the rest of the week is above 65 and hitting a big ole 85 degrees by Friday. Crazy weather but I'm open to the idea of switching out my closet by the end of the week. Anyway, this weekend was a super eventful one. We celebrated Miss A's 3rd birthday by throwing her a princess party and it was absolutely fabulous. The weather was awful so we did a last minute venue change that ended up working out perfectly. The best money I've ever spent goes to the Belle princess we 'hired' to attend her party. She was amazing, beautiful and so talented and the kids were literally over the moon. It was so neat to see how amazed they were and they literally did anything she said (haha) I'm pretty sure I even teared up when she started singing to them. (it also gave me time to mingle because the kids were in great hands!) Even though her birthday isn't until this Thursday, she had the best time and still hasn't stopped talking about!

Saturday night after her party we had a covered dish meal at church to meet the new pastor candidate and his family. It was delicious and I can't believe how well Andi did since she had literally been going ALL day long. On Sunday we listened to the new pastor candidate preach and directly afterwards had a church member vote on whether or not he would be called to be our new pastor. The vote was over 90% and I'm thrilled to say that our church will now have a new pastor! He has a wife and 3 great kiddos and we've prayed for this for a long time. I'm excited to see how this goes for our church. Afterwards we got some stuff done around the house and everyone pretty much went to bed early. It was a very eventful weekend for sure - Linking up with Biana today for weekending

WHW: Animal House

Hey y'all! Welcome to What's Hap-'Pinning' Wednesday - a fun linkup hosted by Jenn and little ole' me - join us below and tell us what's happening in your life! Ok so we don't really have an animal house but lately we've been filled with new additions and little pets. Last week my Dad decided to surprise Miss A with her first fish. Now I'm an animal lover through and through but I was not on board with this at first. She was so excited though so of course I said it was fine. (while they were picking out pink accessories for the bowl I was literally about to pay the adoption fee to take home a sweet cat...see? How could I say no to a fish?) Well the fish (Gil - from the Bubble Guppies is his name) is still alive and loving his all pink tank. Andi loves to feed him each evening and says goodnight to him and has added him to her nightly prayers. I must say it really matches the room. Prayers that Gil has a long and happy life in the land of all things pink!

On the larger animal scale, we also introduced her to her first horse. The neighbors beside my parents have one and just fenced in a huge space for him. He's super gentle and we were close to getting Andi to sit on him but she wasn't quite ready. We're going to try again but I didn't want to push it. I loved being around the horse and just smelling that 'horse smell' y'all - if you're a horse person then you know what I'm talking about! It made me really miss riding! So with that said, do any of y'all have little ones that ride? What's a good age to maybe do a 4H camp or riding lessons? Let me know your thoughts!

Happy hump day!

Weekending + Easter

Hey y'all and happy Monday! We had the busiest (but fun) weekend so I'm coming in hot with a big ole' photo dump. On top of Andi's preK open house (which went so well!) AND adding a new addition to our family in the form of a fish named Gil (Thanks Afa -- my Dad haha) we squeezed in our first baseball game of the season and the weather was absolutely perfect. We had some friends join us with their kiddos and afterwards went back to our house to test out the new patio furniture. They snagged chips and salsa from a local restaurant and we picked up some beer and while the kiddos ran around in the yard, we all did some porch sittin' - seriously nothing better! 

please don't look at my nails!

Easter Sunday was fabulous as well. We had a packed church and wonderful service and afterwards we headed to my aunt's house for Easter lunch. I made an asparagus and ricotta cheese tart with a strawberry cake and I'll share recipe on Wednesday! (yum!) A few hours later we headed to my in-laws for Easter dinner so we definitely ate our fair share of good food. We got home around 7:30 and although we were exhausted, we managed to watch a couple shows before jumping in bed. All and all the weather, company, family time and weekend was just what we needed!

Linking up with Biana for Weekending!