As If I Needed Another Project...

After living here for a little over two years, I finally thought I'd show the outside of the house some TLC, starting with the flower boxes which were gross!  I thought they'd be a nice touch for this weekend's birthday party festivities!!  That's right, Troy's 30th Birthday Celebration is this weekend!!

After I finished the second box it began to rain, so hope to finish tomorrow as well as spray the windows and clean it up a little.  Updated pictures to come! 

Green Thumb Grant,

SG

Weekendings

This weekend we finally completed all of our London shopping!!  I plan to do at least three  detailed blog entries about all of our preparations, recommendations, etc... and of course plenty of pictures once we return, so stay tuned for that!

A few other projects are underway that I/we worked on this weekend. 

Troy's 30th Birthday Party! 

I went shopping this weekend to find napkins to spark some creativity on the color scheme for Troy's upcoming 30th birthday party! I tend to start with fun napkins when coming up with a color scheme for a party.  Random, I know. But so far it's worked every time! 

Of course I'll have a full and detailed entry after his party at the end of the month.

Storm Door.  We went shopping to price storm doors. I really want one for our front door and hopefully we'll have decided on one and purchased/installed it prior to Troy's birthday party!

I'm at it again...

I'm working on a frame project (which I also hope to have completed before Troy's birthday party).  I've purchased all of the frames (thanks to an excellent BOGO 1/2 off home sale at Target a few weeks ago), and now that I have my mock up to live with for a few days, we'll be ready to start hanging the frames in no time!!  Then I'll have to FINALLY print out some wedding pictures of family and friends to go in the frames.  Only took me four years... aw well!  I'm really excited to show you all how it turns out!  The wall gallery in our room is done, as far as the frames being up, but I am waiting until we get back from Europe to finish that wall so that I can add a good bit of our London and Paris pictures to the wall gallery in our room.  I'm sure we'll add at least one to the living room gallery also. Updates on both galleries to come!

Welp folks, those are just a few ways that I/we spent my/our weekend.  Shopping, cutting up newspapers to do a mock up on the wall and now a little bit of work.  I'm posting this blog as a work break, but now it's time to get back to billing some hours!! 

More to come!, 
SG 

I Am Alive...

I promise. And I am still a blogger.  I have fun post ideas dancing in my head and they are on the way.  I just have to make it through this week and I will be somewhat back to a normal schedule and can get back to writing!!!

Forgive me?
SG

Music To My Ears!...

Gretel's First Spin!! 

I love her!,

SG

I've Been Ghost...

and I've been busy.  But I'm working on getting better at making time for the blog.  Forgive me. And look at my beautiful niece while you bear with me! :-)

9.15.11 the day she was born

Day 2 being on the outside

She's growing so much

 pictures from the weekend

Isn't she PRECIOUS?!!! I'll upload some non-iPhone pictures as soon as I catch up with camera uploads, etc...

Forgive me,
SG

It's Like the First Day of School!!

BUT SO MUCH BETTER!!!  Yesterday was my first court appearance all by myself!!! I had a short bench trial in Fort Mill, South Carolina and it was so much fun I must say!  And, just like on the first day of school when your mom takes your picture with the lunch box in hand, Troy took my picture with my fancy case in hand!   Because Fort Mill is about 2 hours away I left so early in the morning it was still dark outside hence the darkness outside the front door.

 

It was pretty much the most exciting day of my career thus far and I've had some pretty exciting days!  Now I'm waiting to find out the judge's ruling.  But, if I do say so myself, I think I ROCKED it!!  I'll update the post once I find out the result!!

Loving Litigating & Lawyering,
SG

UPDATE: GOOD NEWS!!! A victory for me and the client!! We won!! 

Things to Come....

It's been a fun week.  Vacation from work, trip to Virginia with Troy, I finally baked a cake from scratch for the first time this year (it's been too long!!), and we finally got the curtain rods hanging so I can start my curtain project.  I plan to post on all of those things, but I tell ya' I really need a TWO week vacation so I can use the second week to tell you all about the first week!  

What's more, to add to the excitement, I am sitting by my phone waiting for my mom or sister to call to say "the eagle has landed!" My sister is due on September 15th (Thursday!!) and I've been hoping that my niece, Miyah, would come this weekend.  Well, that didn't happen so now I'm just waiting for the bat signal and hopefully it will all work well so that I can leave the moment she goes into labor and head to Atlanta. 

So, yeah, lots of exciting things going on this way.  I just need to find time to put together the video clips and pictures from Virginia, upload the pictures from baking/curtains, etc... so that I can sit and write a post. 

Oh, I'll also add that I read The Help, all 530 pages, on vacation and it was so good!!  Definitely a great vacation read!  It was the first fiction book I've read since college!  I read another short book also on child birth and it, too, was an excellent vacation read! 

Okay, enough babbling on things to come. Just know there are good posts headed your way!  I'm currently waiting for these painted curtains to dry so I can see if I should hashtag #winning or #epicfail as a result.

Alrighty, that's it!! Oh, and, if by chance, I have any readers who live in Dallas, TX.  Please check out my girl Desiree's house which is now listed for sale!! It's GORGEOUS and you know you want to live there!!!

Okay, I'm done for real now. I have to go check on these curtains!

Enjoying the last 24 hours of vacay,
SG

p.s. for those who read this post, good news!! REGINA PASSED THE NC BAR!!!!!

A Few Things...

1. So much has happened since I last blogged, celebrated 3 years of marriage, went to D.C. for work for 9 days (the longest I've ever been away from home since Troy and I got married), went to Myrtle Beach, saw Regina graduate from law school, visited Morgan in Atlanta for her birthday, quick trip to Charleston, and a few other things I'm just not remembering at the moment.  Blog entries to come to cover at least some of those things!
2. I have a new toy--Pinterest!! You can collect all kinds of things in one place.  I think it's genius!!
3. I haven't baked in so long it's not funny.  So, I've taken a stance and made myself bake something this past Saturday (which I found on pinterest).  Details on that later.  
4. I've started yoga!! And I'm loving it!!
5. Starting next month (July) I'm beginning a food related challenge.  I'm going to go "vegetarian" 2 days a week in July, 3 days a week in August, and 4 days a week in September.  The goal is not to give up meat, but to make myself eat more vegetables and just be more aware of the food that I intake each day.  I am also hoping to practice substituting no-so-healthy snacks with things like fruit, cheese, etc...  I'm looking forward to it and I'll be blogging about how it goes.  I've started saving meals on my pinterest!!
6. We're getting a grill!! And I've been youtubing how to grill things! I'm pretty excited about it! And, one final pinterest mention, I've started collecting grilling recipes/ideas on pinterest!
7. It's baby central over my way!! No, not me. But practically everyone else I know!!!  It's a super exciting time!   
8. Oh, I'm going to see WICKED in Atlanta in September!!! YES!!!!  So excited to see it again!! 

Okay, that's a quick update on what's going on over my way.  What's going on over your way?

Did I mention I'm loving pinterest,
SG

Mr. Postman Look and See!...

SEE WHAT YOU STUCK IN MY MAILBOX!!!  Why did the post man (let's be real, a woman did not do this) think putting this box from Amazon in our mailbox was a good idea?  I tried twice to pull it out.  Troy was finally able to get it out with the use of a hammer.  I didn't ask any questions about how the hammer was used...!

Is there a box in your bag for me?,
SG

Skirt!

How fun, I'm in this month's Skirt Magazine (Greenville edition) online and in the actual magazine!!  This month's issue highlights a few local women's guilty pleasures!!  Check it out!

And leave a comment letting me know what your guilty pleasures are!!

Hope to hear from you!,
SG

Will Drool For Shoes!...

So, I admitted my slight liking of shoes a few weeks ago.  Well, last week I saw this picture which made me drool--look at that lovely shoe storage/display!

(wipes drool off keyboard AGAIN!)  Anywho, as promised, here are some of my favorite fall shoes from my closet.  Starting with Round Toes!  There's something about fall that makes me want to wear round toes way more often than any other season of the year.  Here are my current favorite round toes!

 Macy's Find!

Absolutely Enjoy these!! Wear them with black tights!

 Classic Black Round Toe a la Jessica Simpson!

Yet Another Macy's Find

 Rampage Shoe That is SOOOO Fall!

You Guessed It...From Macys! 

Next up, my "witch shoes" as Troy calls them.  He thinks they look like shoes witches wear! LOL! But I think they are fabulous!! Especially the black shoes!! I can wear them with like 55% or more of my fall skirts! 

 

Ann Marino oxford pumps! 

LOVE wearing these with black tights, pattern pencil skirt, & black turtleneck!

TJ Maxx find (I am such a maxinista)

And guess what...

Paid LESS for the same shoe in gray at DSW!

GASP!

These are suede, the black shoes are not.

Anywho, these are some of my most worn fall shoes!! Share some of your favorite fall shoes!!!

Yay for shoes,

SG

So I Think I Can Dance...

Remember the last time I stopped by Johnny Rockets when my family visited?  Well, I happened to go back again a few weeks ago and the staff let me dance with them yet again!! And yes, this time I knew ALL the choreography!!

Did you catch the TV show reference in the title?,

SG

5 Years Already!?!

Last weekend was Homecoming time again at good ol' FU (Furman University)! Last year was my first year back on campus in a while and it was good to get back again!  Particularly because this year was my five year reunion.  I can't believe it's only been five years since I graduated from college.  It seems like it's been 10!  Got to see lots of people including those super smart students...

 Charity, working on her PhD in something hard that I don't fully understand (MATH!)

 

Christina who is getting her Masters from Princeton!

...and I showed Troy the Class of 2005's senior class gift (designed by the lovely Anna Winter, my junior year roomie!)--the September 11th memorial wall where I am quoted!!  You see, my first day of college was September 11, 2001.  Date ring a bell?

 

the memorial sits outside of Furman Hall and selected members of our senior class are quoted, reflecting on our first day of class--September 11, 2001.

 that's my quote! and me pointing to it with Furman bags in my other hand! (the bookstore had a great sale! )

 so cool, one day we can show our children where mommy was quoted! With a slightly different name!

 The Grants in front of Furman Hall!

Oh, one more thing! I was super sad to see that Furman now has a Moe's on campus!! So unfair!  I needed that when I was there!! 

Fun times at F-U yet again,

SG

Like A Child In A Toy Store....

I purchased a fun new toy today!! A baking toy!  My first bundt cake pan!  I went into Macys with hopes to purchase this one made by Calphalon since all of our bakeware is made by Calphalon, but then I saw this beauty...

Meet Annie!  She has really cool silicon handles that will make removing the cake from the pan super easy!!  I'm pretty excited!! In fact, Troy had to eventually shoo me out of the bakeware section of Macys because it really is like a toy store for me!!  So many fun things that I want!  But, for today, one of the many items from my "baking wish list" can be scratched off!!  

And why did I purchase this lovely cake pan today you ask?  Well, this week I plan to venture into the unknown--making a cake from scratch!!  The plan is to make a lemon cake with lemon glaze!  I finalized my recipe this afternoon after weeks of looking at other recipes and talking to other bakers.  So stay tuned for the adventures of Annie and I! 

Also, anyone out there know much about Anolon compared to Calphalon? I played around with some of the Anolon bakeware and found it to be better quality than Calphalon.  This is my first venture with Anolon, so wondering if anyone out there knows more?  Holler at me! :-D

Way too excited over here (like, really!),

SG

Around Our House...

So I was changing the linens on the guest bed and Troy decided to "help."  Yes, that is my foot under there.  He was supposed to be holding the mattress while I straightened out the bed skirt!  Instead, he made a Shunta sandwich and took a picture! 

 

Pardon the many sheets on the floor.  It was a lot going on in there!

Never a dull moment in our home! (for real, ask our friends!),

SG

Things That Make Ya Go Hmm....

I see some pretty interesting things on an almost daily basis!  So I've decided to share them with you all every now and then.... here we go!...

• who in the world is buying these butt pads?  (aka "butters" so appropriately named by Allison) YES, this a real picture taken in a store!
  

• I saw this man in the DMV and had to sneak a picture! Head to toe camo!
  

• Why is the person in this picture (he'll remain unnamed for anonymity purposes, but anyone who knows me knows who this is) trying to warm up a honey bun with the car's heater!! LOL!!
  
  

• WHY?! WHO?!! So many places to begin here.  I saw these tennis shoes sitting neatly beside a parking space outside of Dillards!! WHO!?! WHY!? And there was NO car around!
  
  

sorry for blurry

• These gentlemen were next to me on Laurens Road. 

Which is your favorite? LOL!

Hmm...,

SG

Friends & Family--I Love It!

I've spent most of my May, June and July surrounded by friends and family! On May 15th, Whitney graduated from UGA Law!!; the next weekend Troy's cousin, Andrew, graduated from High School in St.Mary's, Georgia; weekend after that was our wedding anniversary trip to Hilton Head.  The first weekend in June, my parents visited us in our new home for the first time, the following weekend I visited Regina in Charlotte, weekend after that Jenn visited me in Greenville to do some final shower prep and then Troy and I headed to Charleston for Father's Day.  Weekend after that, Allison's bridal shower!  First weekend in July, we had friends over for food, fun & fellowship! Weekend after that (which was last weekend), my sister-in-law, niece, and nephews visited Troy & I all the way from Miami!  I hadn't seen them since May 24, 2008--yup, our wedding day!! So, yeah, that's every single weekend since May 15th folks!

As ABSOLUTELY TIRED as I am, I am so grateful to have been surrounded by friends and/or family every single weekend since mid-May!  Here are a few pics from the last two weekends...

Pretty Paper

I ordered some fun stationary last week and it has arrived!!  Initially, I was a little hesitant because I never really understood the cards with the sender's name on the front, but I always think they are just so cute, so I'm giving it a shot! I'll use them to send sweet notes to friends. 

What is your take on personalized cards/stationary? I think the blue/green card & thank you card are my absolute favorite!! super cute!!

Ready to write,

SG