Because Paul is awesome!

We now have some very nice shade in the backyard. First, he found an awesome deal on a 'gazebo' at Lowe's a few weeks ago (it was about 75% off)! He then was able to figure out a way to fit the new gazebo, which is amazingly larger than it seemed, onto our patio. That required a few trips to Lowe's and Home Depot to purchase bricks (150, 6lbs each), timbers (3, 8ft each) and other miscellaneous items. Then after redoing the brick because of a surprise in the size and a need to be able to open the backdoor, he was able to put it all together despite the very silly and near useless directions. Because I am so proud of our amazing work I had to post pictures (and it gave me another reason to be outside on this amazing spring day!)

From the back of the yard:


From the bridge


Another angle


One last look....


Now I want to add a window box for flowers at the kitchen window (far right) and get a new light for the patio (to replace the jelly jar light from the builder). It was a lot of fun to work outside, although it did give me my first sunburn of the season. I wore sunscreen on my face but not on my arms, so I'm working on a good t-shirt tan again this year!

Martha Stewart in NC

From WRAL:

Martha Stewart Makes A Stop In The Triangle
CARY, N.C. -- Martha Stewart visited the Triangle today. The first Martha Stewart-inspired community is going up in Cary. The domestic diva is discussing the project with local leaders and giving private tours of the model homes. About 1,800 of the homes are planned for Cary. The project is set to go nationwide next year.



Built by KB Homes, more info on their website

Looking forward to the weekend!

It's only Thursday morning and I am absolutely giddy about the upcoming weekend. The only plans I have are things to do around the house... or outside the house! The weather is shaping up to be perfect for working outside... but we have a bit of a project that I also want to wrap up inside.

Last weekend, while shopping at Target (for groceries, mind you), we happened (or was that I?) a GREAT DEAL on a mirrored, off the wall, medicine cabinet. I had casually looked at them at Home Depot and found myself quite disappointed in their higher cost and overall design. We need 2 for our masterbath to replace the massive plate glass mirror that was put in by the builder (and the UGLY 'hollywood' style vanity lights). So for just $49.99 each, we bought 2 of these to put up in our slowly evolving masterbath:



I also want to replace the lights with some that has a classic look to go with our chrome and white theme (which all the bathroom acessories look similar to this):



Looking for a classic light fixture to look something like this - to put over/between each cabinet (but in shiny chrome, not the nickel finish shown here):



It will require a little more wiring to be done... thankfully this comes naturally to Paul :) I also want to paint (maybe a light blue or calming spa green) and maybe one day add tie to surrond the bathtub. Oh the ideas!

French roast coffee to save the day!

Thanks to my wonderful husband who purchased a nice little single coffee maker for my office and to Harris Teeter for having a buy one-get one sale, a single cup of French roast coffee has saved my morning. I've been toiling away since 7am and not making much progress, but with just a few sips of the deep, dark aromatic coffee, I am on my way to being quite productive!



My goal is to plow my way through the insanely long "to do today" list and then reward myself with a taco from Moe's. The hitch: I've got to get TO Moe's by 11:30 am in order to beat the ravenous lunch crowd (including my 0.5 mile walk, I need to leave by 11:15am... darn crosswalks really eat up time on my walk to Cameron Village). The renovations are nearly done for Cameron... just a few more storefronts and a resturant and finally all the work will be done! This is the corner of the building where Moe's is located (artists' rendering):


It's a great place to walk around... except for crossing A LOT of streets, despite the crosswalks, you're taking quite a risk when not driving from one part of the shopping center to the other... This is what it used to look like (back in my high school days) Lots of cars and crosswalks...