November/December marks the one year anniversary of our blog! What started out as a need for a little distraction from the day-to-day stressors has turned into a full-fledged fun hobby of mine. I’m still a newbie at this, but I’m having a ball learning how to do things on the blog and adding new gadgets etc. I’m hoping to be able to expand my repertoire of skills so I can make it the best it can be. There are so many great blogs out there and they have inspired me to really work at this.
One thing I’m hoping to finally add is more information on what Larry and I have planned for the house in terms of projects, as well as more recipes etc. I think I was actually putting it off because I want to add pictures etc with those topics and I’m just slow – I’ll admit it.
What I learned this year is that all of this blog-learning business definitely had a steep learning curve! I was originally thinking I’d be able to knock out posts after posts on a daily/weekly basis, but life (work/home) tends to get in the way. :) So I’ve learned to pace myself and in doing so I think I was able to pick up the pace a bit, plus I’m getting a little more techy and maybe just more comfortable in general with learning new things. It’s funny, as a kid, I’d be all over this, but learning new things as an adult, you realize your limitations and sometimes that can be frustrating. But I suppose when you just throw caution to the wind and just relax and have fun with these little projects/hobbies…well it all falls into place.
So I hope you continue to enjoy what we are sharing. We love to have comments and suggested on our projects etc, so please keep the comments coming!
Thanks & Happy Holidays!
1st Anniversary of A Farmhouse Revisited
Non-Surprise Party for Larry - October 3rd
Larry turned 50 on September 29th and after celebrating 10 years of bliss with my wonderful hubbie, I KNOW he doesn’t like surprises. I’m a surprise kind of gal, but you just can’t push a surprisephobe. So for Larry’s 50th I needed to go straight to the source and get the lowdown on what he wanted. First thing was “no surprise party.” I of course took this very seriously because, again I know my sweetie – wouldn’t want him foaming at the mouth or passing out if I sprung a party on him. So the birthday boy wanted to go out to dinner with no fanfare etc.
Well even though I had the above parameters to work with, I did manage to sneak in a surprise.
Larry knew we were going to dinner with Mom and Dad V. and Brett and Carol at Enzo and Lucia Ristorante (www.enzoandlucia.com) in Long Grove. We had been to this yummy Italian place before with Mom and Dad and this was Larry’s pick – I of course wasn’t going to object because I love this place.
So we met everyone there and had a wonderful evening – great food, wine and company - this seems to be a consistent trend with us. :)
The surprise was the cake. Larry actually isn’t much of a sweets guy, but you can’t have a big birthday and not have a cake – so he would just have to deal with it!
One of Larry’s favorite things is Rolling Rock Beer, so when I went to this great bakery in Algonquin ( ), I had them decorate the cake with a graphic of the Rolling Rock bottle – turned out great don’t you think? What I didn’t tell Larry until later, and I think he would actually say that what I did was “sacrilegious”, I needed a Rolling Rock bottle as a template for the bakery, and since I don’t drink beer and needed to act quickly since he was home at the time, I poured out the contents of the bottle – wasteful I know, but I was desperate!
So even though Larry hates surprises, I think he was pleasantly surprised that he enjoyed the non-surprise party.
10th Wedding Anniversary! – May 22nd
Note: For some reason this post was never published, so it’s a little out of order.
On May 22nd Larry and I celebrated our 10th anniversary! I don’t know where the 10 years went – they just flew by.
To celebrate we went to our favorite weekend getaway…Madison, Wisconsin. Here are a few photos of our weekend – which included our typical standbys of “fun”: Dinner at Sardines, hanging out on the Square going to Larry’s favorite bar Genna’s and a pedicure for me (yay!)
Summer BBQ - July 11th
During the beginning of 2009 Larry and I decided that we needed to have a big family and friend BBQ this summer. We were always "threatening" to have one, but never did - so this was the year when we finally pulled the trigger and entertained!
The nice thing was that Scott and Gwen were going to be able to come to the party and planned on staying the whole weekend, which was great because we'd get to see them not too long after our South Carolina vacation.
Well after several months of planning, we had our BBQ on July 11th. It was great to get the Mays (Larry's Family), the Vassallos and Ellmans(my family and Carol's family), and our friends together. When it was all said and done, I think we had around 40 people.
I had so much fun planning and coordinating how I wanted the back yard to look and planning the menu. I love to entertain and other than the fact that I never sat down during the party, I think everyone had a great time.
Most people left at dusk, but Scott, Gwen, Vern, Joann, Joe and Caroline stayed late, which was nice because they were able to see the beautiful party lights Larry strung up along the fence, gazebo and tree - it looked great - very cozy.
I will tell you that although the party was wonderful, it knocked me out - best to do these shindigs not too close together, lest one has a nervous breakdown!
Everything went off without a hitch. We might do it again at some point - always good to get family and friends, food and drink together!
Atlanta & A Visit with Meg - May 3rd
Pretty much right after our wonderful vacation, I had a week long trade show in Atlanta that the association I work for puts on - so much for maintaining a zen-like bliss after vacation!
My friend Meg, whom I have known since high school, lives NE of the Cobb Galleria where the trade show was, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to visit with Meg, have her meet Larry (he was able to come and enjoy Atlanta while I was at the show), I could meet her husband and 2 kids and we could catch up - perfect plan!
Thankfully, Larry and I were able to get to Atlanta several days before I needed to be on-site and set up for the show and we were able to stay at Meg and Sam's house.
What can I tell you...it was like Meg and I had just seen each other yesterday - we were able to catch up immediately. We talk on the phone, but actually having "face time" really was great. It was so much fun because I kind of felt like I was at a sleepover at her house like we did in high school.
Meg and Sam have two beautiful daughters - Riley and Mackenzie - too cute!
Unfortunately, we were only able to stay 1 night, but we had a blast! We definitely need to visit more often - the last time we saw each other was about 13 years ago in Chicago. But again, we talk often, so at least we keep each other in the loop with each other. Hopefully we'll see each other soon - Meg...you "owe" us a visit to Chicago!
Port Royal, Bateaux & What a Sunset! - April 17th
After dinner we walked around Port Royal a bit - we wished we discovered it earlier in the trip - just a lovely and sleepy town on the water.
We then headed to Bateaux(www.bateauxrestaurant.net)for drinks and to watch the sunset, which no one was on, so we thought it would be nice and quiet.
We went inside and asked the maitre d' if we could sit on the porch for drinks - he just kind of "sniffed" yes, which kind of threw us. Bateaux really is a lovely place and based on the reviews the food is apparently phenomenal...but the attitude on this man! Manners, or lack thereof, is a huge pet-peeve of mine...particularly in the service industry.
We went upstairs, which had a good number of people, and sat on the porch - just 4 of us - all to ourselves.
Our server took our drink order and I swear he had the same personality as the maitre d' - with lock-jaw voice to boot! Well, when he was bringing out our drinks he couldn't get the door open, so I see that he is struggling and get up to help him and he very curtly said "no!" to me and very sternly told another server to open the door. We were all kind of in shock. I was just being polite and quite frankly, whether it's appropriate of not for a guest to offer help, the man needed help...so I tried to help!
He finally warmed up to us and we figured out that the cranky maitre d' seemed to have everyone on pins and needles, so no wonder our server was acting so stiff and panicked.
So we relaxed on the porch, sipped our drinks, sampled strawberries and enjoyed the beautiful sunset - truly a great last night on vacation! I definitely would have dinner at Bateaux if we were in the area again - the menu did look quite delicious.
Back at the house it was a packing fest! But of course, we left enough time for some last night games and wine!
On Saturday, we packed up and dropped Scott and Gwen off at the Charleston Airport before Larry and I continued on to IL - however, not before we stopped in Knoxville at our new-favorite Cuban restaurant, Little Havana (www.lhknox.com).
This was a fabulous vacation - it's always a blast when we travel with Scott & Gwen!
Now back to reality and on to Atlanta for a business trip in May - I definitely will need a nap somewhere - I feel that I will be running on empty shortly.
MoonDoggies & Boo II - April 17th
When we reached Port Royal we decided to get a quick bite to eat to tide us over until dinner, which we decided would be a BBQ place that looked pretty good.
So we went to MoodDoggies Cafe, which was a sandwich shop. There were hardly any people inside which was a shame because the owners could not have nicer - although we were there at an "off" time, so I'm hoping it was just the time.
The wife/owner is apparently is related to someone who provides the peppers to the Tabasco Company and she made her own homemade hot sauce from these peppers - she gave us a sample and Larry and Scott said it was phenomenal. The "boys" then decided to order fried pickles, which I have to tell you, turned my stomach at the thought of it - and I like pickles!
Fried pickles...tasty!
But you know what? Oh my gosh...were they spectacular! I only took 2 because I can see how'd they'd be addictive and one could eat a basket before you know it - and where would that get me? Chubby!
The owners cat was hanging around the porch, so animal person that I am, I went to pet it. But as I was going towards it it went outside on the porch and saddled up to the skinniest raccoon I have ever seen!
Boo II (yes, apparently there was a Boo I) was a raccoon that showed up on the restaurant porch one day as a baby and the owners fed it and it kept on coming back.
Honestly, if I could have hugged this thing, I would have because it was that cute.
Boo II actually takes food out of his "owners" hands (I think he actually lives in a tree or something on their property and comes in for food), so I guess he/she is pretty domesticated. And I guess since Boo II lives in their back yard, they weren't really concerned with him/her getting sick with rabies - so they felt pretty comfortable. But I still wasn't going to go there.
Anyway, as you can see, Boo II is quite cute!
Flippin' Fripp Island - April 17th
Friday was our last full day of vacation and we wanted to make the most of it.
When we rented the house the owners mentioned they had another house on Fripp Island and if we would like, they would leave us guest passes at the gate (it's a private island) so we could go to the beach - that's all the instructions they provided us.
We were planning on going to the beach earlier in the week but it was never really warm enough - quality "beach weather." But Friday was looking pretty good, so we thought we'd go for it. Fripp Island is one of the islands located near Beaufort. Honestly, I thought it was right around the corner, but I guess circumventing all the water and the particular road we were on - it took a good 45 minutes to an hour to get there.
As we were driving along the only road that would take you to Fripp Island, I kept thinking "where would people do their food shopping???" I think the closest store was near beaufort - what a pain!
We were passing the time by stopping at a couple of shops - it seemed we'd never get to Fripp Island.
So when we finally arrived at Flippin' Fripp Island (it's new name christened by us, since we were now a little punch drunk in the car and annoyed) - we got to the gate and gave the guard the owner of the rental home's name. Unfortunately the guard said that they had no record of us coming from the owner and therefore we couldn't enter. Apparently if we did have a pass they only last one day - which we didn't know, but again, they never told us anything.
So we were miffed because the owner never said when we had to visit on a particular day and we were upset because this was another thing they did not follow through on. Again, the house was wonderful, but you tend to get a little cranky when things fall through the cracks: unclean house, no bikes, filthy grill, Flippin' Fripp Island - need I go on?!? So we turned around and left Flippin' Fripp Island.
Just over the bridge was a state park that Larry and I had been to a few years ago with Vern and Joann, so we thought since we drove all the way down this rediculously long road...we should at least do something!
We walked out on the pier to see the water and to mock Flippin' Fripp Island (do I sound bitter???) - it was just beautiful; we then visited the on-site museum.
The park had some trails, so we thought we'd get a little exercise before lunch.
As you can see, the scenery was just beautiful.
Things NOT to Do on Vacation…And the Spa to the Rescue! – April 16th
I like to think of myself as somewhat of an intelligent woman, but I’ve decided that I have this uncontrollable (and perhaps not so smart) urge to alter my hair while I’m on vacation or away for the weekend.
Without fail, if I’m away somewhere, anywhere, I will decide that I need a bang trim/hair cut/color treatment etc. And almost always without fail, the end result is not a pretty picture. Again, not sure why I subject myself to this torture…maybe I am some sort of hair-masochist?
Anyway, I decided while on this vacation I was going to highlight my hair and I was going to talk Gwen into doing it for me. Now, I should point out that I have very dark hair, which should be a GIANT WARNING SIGN to NOT do on your own hilights and instead head right to a salon. And I knew Gwen was very nervous that I was doing this and on top of that talking her into being my partner in crime on this little adventure was probably NOT the thing to do to my wonderful friend.
For some odd reason, despite the fact that I have had several hair disasters with my spur-of-the-moment-out-of-state-hair experiments, I always believe that if it turns out bad, I can always fix it – unless of course, it was fried off or shaved – that might be “harder” to fix!
I guess I had it in my head that after having my hair highlighted several times at a salon and “carefully” observing the stylist, I of course would expertly know how to foil my hair or anyone else’s for that matter! AND…the model on the highlighting kit box looked great…so why on earth would I not look just as great?!?
So on Thursday before our previously scheduled day at the spa (massages and pedis), I thought now is a good time as ever to try this foil-experiment-thing.
So I sat in a chair in the bathroom as Gwen was a foiling-wiz around my head – it actually looked quite professional and I was having fun, so I/we threw caution to the wind and continued with the process.
Well…I/we learned several things that day: 1) You will NEVER look like the model on the box and 2) It takes you so long to finish the foils that by the time the first set of foils are ready to come off, apparently the later ones are still processing and they are not ready to be taken off at the same time.
So when it was “go time” I removed the foils – I was by myself so I didn’t stress out Gwen – and completely started to laugh in hysterics. My hair was literally dark brown, yellow and orange! When Gwen came upstairs I think she was in a panic, but I said this was all my doing and I made her help me. Honestly, I really was OK with it because I could slap on some dye over it and fix it.
So I called the spa we were going to later in the afternoon and begged them to fix my little experiment – thankfully they could fit me in after the spa treatments.
So we walked over to the spa – with me looking like some 30-something punk chick and laughing about my hair disaster!
For our spa treatments we went to an Aveda salon (love Aveda!). It was really cute – a quaint house turned into a spa. My massage was fabulous and my pedicure was even better. And I learned a great trick from Gwen – keep your fingernails and toes a light color and they’ll go with everything and any chips will go relatively unnoticed! I always have dark polish on my toes and getting the light color made all the difference – great tip Gwen!
After the spa treatments I had my hair color corrected by this fabulous stylist, who used a dark brown/chocolate permanent color to correct my rainbow look. It looked great and even picked up some of the highlight color only this time they actually looked like real highlights…not a crayon box!
So I think I finally learned my lesson with experimenting with my hair on vacation – fortunately I walked away this time with a great new color…albeit with a slightly lighter wallet.
Stepford, Hilton Head & Buttah! - April 13th
I thought today's trip would be an excellent way to finagle a trip to Habersham (www.habershamsc.com), which a planned community in Beaufort that I had read about in Southern Living and always wanted to visit. The houses are cottage-style and they revolve around a downtown. So I figured, since I had Larry, Scott and Gwen captive in the car, I could talk them into a quick pit-stop before heading to Hilton Head.
I had originally thought that Habersham would have been built right near downtown Beaufort, but it's actually situated on the outskirts of town, a bit out of the way, but I suppose with good reason because the development is huge! The nice this is that there is more land than houses, so you really feel like your plopped down in some land preserve with lakes, walking trails and shops and restaurants - pretty much ideal if you ask me.
We first went to the "downtown" of Habersham, which had a few stores and restaurants, however, the odd thing was - and this was consistent with all that we saw while driving through Habersham - we couldn't find any people. Granted it was duirng the week, but no people. OK, maybe 1 or 2.
As my travelmates pointed out, it was a bit Stepfordish. I, of course, refused to accept this because the houses were so beautiful. I mean, if Larry and I suddenly won the lottery, I would love to have a house here or by one of the plans and build it in Crystal Lake.
We drove around for awhile and headed for Hilton Head.
When we arrived in Hilton Head, I was struck with how developed it was since the last time I was there. Yes it was golf course after golf course, which is what I expected, but the odd thing was it seemed like one strip mall after another! I guess I thought there would be a downtown Hilton Head or something for us to walk around - nothing...nada...zip. To each his own. but I think we were all happy that we didn't pick Hilton Head to be our vacation house spot.
First we went to the Tanger Outlets, which is pretty much a given with Gwen and I - who can turn down an opportunity to shop?!? I managed to get a few things - mostly at the cosmetic outlet which had some great deals on Bobbi Brown - love her stuff, but even at the outlet, she's pretty pricey.
It was already a bit late when we found the winery, Island Winery (www.islandwinery.com). I think we were a somewhat disappointed at first because 1) it started to pour, 2) the winery was closing in 10 minutes and 3) it was just a big metal building. I guess after visiting wine country in California I was expecting to see grapes growing in a field etc., not a building in a business park with a small store. On the plus side, we were able to do some quick tastings and Scott and Gwen bought some delicious wine.
So now it was about 6ish and we had a problem: although I found lots of restaurants on the Web for Hilton Head, they were all spread out and in god-knows where strip malls, so we had no idea where to go for dinner. Thankfully, one of the winery staff did point us in the right direction on some good options. So we hopped in the car and checked out a couple.
As it continued to downpour we decided it was ridiculous to search aimlessly for a place to eat, so we decided on The Old Oyster Factory (www.oldoysterfactory.com).
Easter - April 12th
Apparently the Easter Bunny likes to vacation in Beaufort, because when we came downstairs on Easter Sunday all the eggs we had decorated the night before had "mysteriously" disappeared and there was an Easter basket on the dining room table! No one would own up to it...but we eventually discovered that Gwen hid the eggs and Scott, unbeknownst to all of us, had purchased Easter goodies at the Walgreens we had stopped at the night before. Scott was very "sneaky" because somehow he pulled this off right in front of the 3 off us without anyone realizing it!
We managed to get ourselves ready for church relatively quickly and went searching for a church for Easter Mass - I didn't look up local churches because I thought the Catholic church a block down the street was going to have Sunday mass - later I found out that they built a larger church on the outskirts of Beaufort - unfortunately after the fact.
So we hopped in the car for when we thought would be when churches would be having service (10ish) and went searching for a church. We tried to go to several Catholic churches (all the churches seemed to be on one road) but each one we went to either was completely full or already in service. We were able to find a Lutheran church, which I felt good about because Scott is Lutheran.
I had never been to a Lutheran service and it was just lovely - very welcoming with fabulous bell ringers (not sure of the proper name) who played beautiful music throughout the service - it was just all around a nice thing to be able to experience a different church's service. You realize, of course, that if you are a person of faith, that regardless of what religion you may follow, we really are very similar and we all are a part of something larger - and that's pretty amazing.
After church we headed to downtown Beaufort and ate at what would be our "regular" breakfast place - the name escapes me now - but it was very good.
The rest of Sunday was spent just puttering, and checking out the neighborhood - of course, we also managed to go to Walmart again because we kept either running out of things or forgetting we needed something - pretty much what we did for the whole week - Walmart was a regular jaunt!
Heading to Beaufort & Sleeping at the Aquarium - April 11th
The day was beautiful as we headed to Beaufort. We took the back roads (actually we didn't have a choice) which we love, but unfortunately we might have overwhelmed Gwen with the long drive, but Gwen was a trooper!
The "problem" with the area is that it's not that the distance from Charleston to Beaufort is long, but because you are dealing with inter coastal areas, you are weaving in and out of waterways and can't go in a straight line to your destination.
But I did get in another one of my "fixes" - there's a roadside stand/store that we've been to before that sells homemade pies, spices and peach cider (yum!) - I just love anything "foodie." So when I walked in I did my typical once-around and grabbed what I could, especially the peach cider. I wish I could buy the cider in IL because it is so good - it makes you think of summer!
Sometime later we arrived in Beaufort, which is a small "city" on the inter coastal - just beautiful. I wouldn't necessarily plug it as a full-fledged destination area even though it has certain aspects - restaurants, nearby beaches etc. It's just a quiet and beautiful area that we picked that was near Charleston and Savannah. However, it was where they filmed The Big Chill, Forest Gump and The Great Santani, so if you remember the scenery, you'll remember how beautiful the area is.
The house we rented is a historic house - apparently Beaufort's 1st aquarium, which we couldn't figure out because it's a house, but I suppose in 18-something that's where you'd have a 1st aquarium.
So we parked and started lugging all our luggage to the front door. Unfortunately when we walked inside we very quickly realized that the house wasn't clean - full of dust, the bathrooms had toothpaste spray on the mirrors - it was just gross. Which was very odd since before we went to the house we did a drive by and saw that the cleaning service was there to clean because the house was rented the week before.
Now I can be messy at times, but I'm pretty neat in general - when I clean...I clean! And hey, if it's your mess, it's not as off-putting as someone else's!
We were just annoyed because you pay a lot of money for a vacation rental and you expect it to be clean.
Well unfortunately I went into some sort of ocd-mode because I just couldn't get it out of my head that it wasn't clean - poor Larry, Gwen and Scott had to see me running around the house muttering "I can't believe they didn't clean...we need to clean."
We called the owner of the house and they were apologetic and said they'd send out the cleaning service again. Unfortunately we didn't realize there was only one key to the house, so when we left to buy stuff (including cleaning supplies, natch) at Walmart the cleaning service couldn't get into the house! So basically when we returned we discovered the house wasn't clean except for the filthy outside table.
After running around an hour or so cleaning, we were all calm because the house was clean and we could relax - and I became "normal" again and no longer was flipping out about cleaning - OK I'll fully admit that I got a little scary...but come on...the house should have been clean. Hopefully Larry, Gwen and Scott forgave me for my goofiness - I'm usually more relaxed about things, honest :).
Adding insult to injury we then discovered that the bikes that were promised for the house weren't there and the grill I do believe had never been clean - not really off to a good start!
