deck the halls.. in hyperdrive

 Sometimes, in my excitement.. I don't think things through.

For example, the time I decided to host a Holiday dinner for my team (18 people) the first Thursday in December.

A week after Thanksgiving.

I was so excited about being able to cook dinner for my team that works so hard.. and to have the house all festive and Christmas-y.  I didn't think about the fact that I had only left myself a weekend to get the whole house flipped from Fall to Festive.. and get all the dishes washed, cook a huge meal (again), and in the meantime host our first house guest, AND it's the Iron Bowl.

Yeahhhh... 

Next time, I'll try to keep that in mind. Still -  I think everyone had a lovely time, and it made me get the house decorated in super speed..which means more time to enjoy it.  Right?

We actually rested and digested (and did some online shopping) on Black Friday.  But bright and early Saturday morning.. it was time to decorate!

Twas a month before Christmas and strewn all over the house..
This was only three bins of decorations, and it covered the whole dining room table..

It only took about 7 hours.. I had to find my groove.. but the first tree is finished!

This is a 7.5 foot tree, but for my short-self, a stepladder was still involved.  We placed it in the foyer and I love that it's the first thing people see when they come into the house.

For our main tree, I kept it classic with our sentimental ornaments, and lots of red, green, silver, and gold. I just love how the lights glow and everything twinkles!

The next day, Sunday, I tackled trees number two and three:

Our second tree is in the bedroom, and I love all the sparkly ornaments.  I used ornaments in blue, white, gold, silver, and clear.. with lots of glitter to catch the light.

It's hard to get the lighting right, but a fuzzy sequined tree skirt and white velvet ribbon made it feel a little more glam.  This is where our breakable ornaments go -  since the kitties aren't allowed in this room.

This one has some serious twinkle-power at night.. I couldn't resist and left it on a few nights when I went to bed.  It's just so pretty!!

One of our favorite Mickey ornaments tucked in the branches..

In the center, a blown glass ornament we picked up from the Germany pavilion in Epcot on our last WDW trip.

 And our last tree, little number three in the kitchen:

This tree has all my Hallmark baking and cupcake ornaments that my MIL gets for me every year.  It's just a small tabletop tree for now, but I've got my eyes on a bigger one for the future.

Add one big red bow and some garland to the mailbox, and we were set!

As for the team dinner, I think everyone enjoyed themselves.. I forgot to take pictures until after the fact, but this was the aftermath:

Lots of dishes, but worth every wash... and what a way to kick off the Christmas Season!

hosting our first thanksgiving

The past two months have been a whirlwind.  I've loved a lot of it... we've had some great times in the new house and really celebrated with friends and family.  

This was our first year hosting Thanksgiving.. and boy was it a wild one.  We had about 13 people over, and cooked enough for a small army.  This was also my first time making a few dishes from scratch.  Overall I would say it was a success!  And I didn't burn anything!

I started with fresh cranberry sauce the weekend before, 11/21/15

Knocked out two pecan pies that weekend as well...

And then the Wednesday before, I started on my Oreo turkeys.. a little creepy at this point.

The Man got the turkey ready for the smoker.. lots of butter, brine, and seasoning happening here.

Our oreo turkeys were a-dor-able! I loved my little flock.  These were so easy to make and were a perfect break from all the cooking I had going on that required concentration.

Like my first ever from scratch cheesecake!  

We had the buffet setup and ready for everyone to dig in!

It's just not a Southern Holiday table without deviled eggs and pear salad.

Our menu included:  two turkeys, fresh cranberry sauce, two styles of dressing (my MIL and my grandma's recipe), gravy, fresh creamed corn, green beans, two sweet potato souffles (one with pecans, one with marshmallows), rolls, a cheese ball, a multitude of desserts, watergate salad, and the previously pictured deviled eggs and pear salad.

We had both smoked and fried turkey.. it was so good!

A few hours later, I finally had room for some cheesecake.  I'm so glad it turned out as well as it did!

 We had bought a bean bag toss game on a whim when we moved into the new house, and though I don't have the photos to document it -  it turned out to be a HIT!  We set it up on the front lawn and there were some serious competitions going on. It worked out well since the day was sunny and warm (we are in the South) and I think it gave everyone a break from their food coma. 

I hope everyone had a good time.  It definitely made me feel like we've got a good chance at hosting again in the future.  I mean, could you turn down this little cutie?

I didn't think so!

fall-ing more in love..

We've been in our new home for a few months now, and I can say I'm seriously loving it!  It seems like I blinked and fall has flown by.  I thought I might need to do a quick recap of one of my favorite seasons before I start posting "first Christmas in the new house" pictures.  We're currently prepping for our first time hosting the big family Thanksgiving. More on that to come, for now -  here is how our September, October, and a dash of November have been around our new home.

 

I went a little pumpkin crazy at the farmers market, and finally got the mum I'd been daydreaming about since I first saw them on display at Lowe's.

Since we don't have a fireplace in the new house, I've been displaying my "mantle wreaths" using a wreath holder set on my buffet by the door. 

A little more fall decorations on the dining table.  Thank goodness for non-breakables.  Somehow the felt pumpkins end up all over the house, even though house rules state "No kitties on the table!"

I did a little baking for a dinner party or two.  This is hummingbird cake, a bit of a Southern tradition.

I even pulled out my super tall cake cover for this one.  It makes the bundt look so TINY!

We've kept the kitchen pretty busy, and Adam's learned his way around the smoker.  I'm getting spoiled to him handling the protein preparation for our big gatherings.. it's working out well!

We spent a day in the woods, carving pumpkins...

Adam really enjoyed this version of carving.  

I finally got our bedroom unpacked, as well as most of the rooms put together.

The craft room is quick becoming a kitten favorite.. it gets amazing sunlight in the morning.

But they still love my #workfromhome Wednesdays, because it means they can play in the office while I work.  I love having their cat tower in my office -  it means they spend more time in there on my work from home days.

We had a few trick-or-treaters, but not nearly as many as at our last house.  That's fine with us though.. more chocolate for the homeowners.  

My pumpkin/mum obsession continued and I managed to capture this pretty butterfly/moth? one day while watering the plants.

We had an adventure one night when the power cut out.  We were in the guest bedroom, discussing where the bed should go -  when we heard a loud boom and the house went black.  It was a Friday night and Adam had to work all weekend, so we thankfully had our phones in hand ready to tuck in for an early night.  Our plans changed quickly.  Other than our phones, there was no light in the house.  Flashlights still had not been unpacked, and if they had been.. I'm not sure where the batteries would be.  We ended up sitting on the back porch listening to the emergency vehicles through the trees. Someone had run off the road and hit a power pole behind the house.  

Thankfully the next morning we had power, but not without this inventive solution from our local power company. (Can you see the power pole in pieces?)

We still had more unpacking to do.. with help from the kittens.

But thankfully, it's feeling more like home every day.

It was a journey, but I love coming home to our house.  Sometimes I just walk around in awe of where we started.  I'm glad I took pictures along the way.  It's crazy to think that this time a year ago.. we hadn't even found this neighborhood.  We were looking at house plans, but our home wasn't on the market.  It all happened..

in less than one year.

Wow.

Here's to many more fun adventures!!

heart of the home..

I knew from the very beginning of deciding to build that having a kitchen I loved was a driving force.  I knew once we started seeing everything come together in our home, that the kitchen was becoming one of my favorite rooms.  It's a space where we really worked to bring in our love of all things shiny and merge that with a level of comfort and function that any heart of the home deserves.

So please indulge me as I share the glamour shots of one of my favorite spaces in our home:

At night, when we're settled in, the glow from the under cabinet lighting is perfection.

I had to have a little Disney sprinkled in there somewhere.

Curious about what's in our kitchen?  I've included a source list below because I always like to know where people found things for their homes.

Appliances:

Cooktop -  GE 36" Ceramic Electric with 5 burners

Hood -  Zephyr 36" Savona in Stainless

Dishwasher -  Bosch 800 Plus Series

Refrigerator -  Samsung Counter-depth 4-door with Cool Select Plus

Ice Maker - Scotsman residential nugget ice machine SCN60

Ovens - KitchenAid double electric with convection on top

Other fun stuff:

Cutting board -  Real Simple, Bed Bath & Beyond

Knife block -  Kohl's (Black Friday last year!)

Crock - Bed, Bath, & Beyond

Utensils -  Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Pampered Chef

Spoon Rest -  Disney World!

Salt Pig - olive wood from Amazon (.com, not the river)

Salt and Pepper grinders -  Target

Oil and Vinegar carafes -  Target

So far, I'm loving the kitchen.. and just wish I had more free time to bake!

cardboard, packing tape, and caffeine...

It's been quiet on the blog lately for one BIG reason...

We moved!

We closed on the house on Friday, August 28th... a mere 223 days from the day we started our build.

I'm sure I'll eventually recap more in depth what the last few days of the process were like, but for now.. just know it was down to the wire.

As in, we were leaving Friday to meet with the lawyers at 11am.. and at 10:45am the flooring guys were ripping out our hardwoods in the kitchen.  No lie.  I walked by and saw subfloor.  The floors had been scratched horribly during the install of our dishwasher and had to be replaced.  Still, it was terrifying to see our beautiful floors (not to brag) being bashed with prybars and hammers as we were on our way to sign for the place.

I still cringe.

At least the cats were chill about moving.. or at least, about the boxes.

Here's the breakdown of how the last few days of building went.

Monday, August 24th  -  both our Realtor and banker were concerned we'd have to move closing.  Alternate arrangements start being discussed, but our builder insists it will be done.

Tuesday, August 25th -  I took off work in the morning for our appliances to be delivered.  We love our appliance guy, but this had me a nervous WRECK!  And understandbly so... since 3 hours after they were supposed to arrive -  they still weren't there.  The reason, our cooktop (that I so carefully chose) had been cracked during shipping and had been sitting in their warehouse for almost a month without being discovered as broken.  Oh, and it's discontinued.  And a special order.

In the meantime, they go on and deliver the rest of the appliances (after a stern conversation with me) and at the house we have insulation being blown in, gutters installed, painters working on touch ups, and flurry of other activity.

Wednesday, August 26th - More concerned conversations about time lines, and we meet with the home inspector.  No huge issues are found, but there are a few that need to be handled.

Emails are sent back and forth and we have to bring even more paperwork to the bank.  They are serious about their paperwork!

Thursday, August 27th - We are a go for the punch list meeting and our builder has called in a 2nd project manager to help get us to closing.  It's fairly quiet at the house, but we give a pretty comprehensive list and discuss keeping an amount from the upgrade payment until everything on the punch list is completed.

After the walk through, Adam and I utility-hopped all afternoon trying to get our water, power, and internet swapped over and setup.  There were also quite a few "is this real" moments and "OMG I'm freaking out" moments.. and lots of caffeine.  We've been burning the midnight oil between prepping for inspections (doing our own walk through's), packing, and spending time with family.

Friday, August 28th -  We met over at the house early to check on the progress of the punch list and things are hopping!  Lots of workers there and things are looking much better than the day before.  At this point, my focus went away from perfection and was moving towards the "this is home" end of the scale.  Still, as I mentioned above, seeing floors ripped out right before signing was pretty scary.

We closed and spent the afternoon and evening packing, running errands, and all those other fun pre-moving things.

Saturday was a surprise day of family and visitors at the house.  It was a loong day and I knew the weekend was going to be an exhausting one.

We moved in on Monday, August 31st, and spent our first night in our home sweet home.

Moving was crazy, unpacking even crazier.. but we made it.  Thank goodness for the kindness of our neighbors, the support of our family and friends, the willingness to pay movers to do the heavy lifting, and the wonder that is Krispy Kreme, Coca-Cola, and sweet tea.  Without that... and the love and patience of my darling husband... I don't think we would have ever made it.

But we did!

We're moved in! - Day 226 of our build