Christmas Signage

After the Oakwood tour Amy and I stopped in an awesome little shop in downtown and I fell in love with these Holly Raleigh Christmas ornaments and signs. The problem was the price tag. A little ornament was $22 and a 10 inch square sign was $42.

Forty-Two dollars!! I decided I could probably make one myself for a fraction of the cost so when Derrick was off with friends last night I got to crafting. This entire project cost $2.49 because I already had everything I needed except a green paint pen. Derrick was impressed. He has no idea what I have up in that craft room...it's a bottomless pit up there!

Here is my version:

The inspiration was a wood plaque but I had a large canvas so I went with that. I used this method for making the letters and then I just filled them in with paint pens. I already had red and silver but not green. I just eyeballed everything as far as centering and spacing and I realized there was a pretty big gap in between Raleigh and Christmas so I threw in some holly...hence the $2.39 cost of this project. I had to go pick up that green paint pen. 

It was looking a little bland and stark on the white canvas so I made a mixture of brown paint, water, modpodge, and glitter and then wiped it all over the canvas to darken it up and age it a little bit. The mixture was totally a guessing game and I think the modpodge was completely unnecessary. It turned out pretty well though!

Now it's sitting with my glitter tree forest and is the first thing you see when you come in the front door!

Have a holly Raleigh Christmas Y'all!

Oakwood Christmas Tour

Last weekend a client turned friend and I went on the historic Oakwood house tour. We went last year and she is the perfect person to go with. Oakwood is a historic neighborhood in downtown Raleigh. Every year the neighborhood puts on a tour of some of the historic homes decorated for Christmas. Most of the houses are from the early 1900's and a lot of their owners have restored them.

I'm not going to lie, we both liked the houses on tour last year better then this year. This year there were a lot of homes that were decorated like they would have been when they were built. I'm more of a fan of the homes that have been updated and brought into 2015 while still maintaining it's period charm.

I don't have a lot of great pictures of the fronts of the houses because there were always lines out the door but I did manage to catch a few of my favorite details. This house was my favorite. I think it was built in the 1930's and it was a classic bungalow with a very industrial and modern addition off the back.

I should have gotten a better picture of this wallpaper. It has brightly colored birds all over it but if you look closely you can see the birds are all toys! You can see the springs, hinges, and knobs on them.

This outdoor space was great and that fence was hand built by the owner!

This is apparently a very expensive tree that was shipped in from California. Kind of a little Charlie Brownish if you ask me.

This courtyard had me questioning which part of my house I could blow out to make one of my own. It was awesome! The whole house wrapped around it and made an outside room inside!

Finally, one of the last houses we visited was one of the fanciest most ornate houses we went in. Definitely not my style, I would be so uncomfortable living in that house, but still pretty neat to tour. I didn't get any pictures inside but here are a couple outside. 

Hopefully Amy and I can make a tradition out of this. It definitely gets me inspired to make my house pretty for Christmas and it puts us right in the Christmas spirit!

Climbing Update

Raise your hands if you think we have too many hobbies!

I'd keep both of mine raised but then I couldn't write this post.

This year marked two years since we started rock climbing! It's hard to believe that was two years ago. We're still going pretty regularly. During the frisbee season we drop down to one or two times a week and recently with coaching we've been pretty busy but we still manage at least a few times a week.

The best part about being members at the gym has been our two free guest passes we get every month. We've been able to take tons of family and friends climbing for free so that's been pretty cool.

And we have gotten significantly better. We're climbing 5-10s pretty consistently with a few 5-11s thrown in there if they are our styles. I'm much better at balancy ones and Derrick excels at the strength ones. And in bouldering we can do most V2s and Derrick has tackled a few V3s.

Climbing so fast the picture is blurry:

I wouldn't say we're superstar climbers but we're passable and it's definitely been fun and a good way to build some muscle!

Christmas Around the House

Christmas has come to the Marcey house! Every year after Christmas I raid target and stock up on decorations that are 75% off. Then I forget about them all year until I pull them out the following Christmas. It's like Christmas has come early!

One thing about our house that I would change is the lack of wall space. I guess that's what you get with an open floorplan but I really do find it difficult to work with sometimes because there aren't walls to hang things on or set furniture against. In the living room/kitchen we have three usable walls....one is the wall over the fireplace, the 2nd is the wall with the TV mounted on it, and the third has a large mirror on it. So, it's just motivation to get the dining room done! I've been mulling paint colors recently so hopefully soon!

Anyways, here's how I've merried our house!

In person our tree doesn't look as bare as this picture makes it look. Slowly but surely we're adding to our collection. Also, how do we have so many presents under the tree already?? That pile has almost doubled as of today. We're going to have a full car heading to Hickory in a couple weeks

This Merry Christmas banner was purchased new this year. I can't resist that copper color right now!

Goodwill during this past year for about 50 cents a pop!

I love my estate sale ceramic tree! I bought a few extra lights to fill in the bare spots and it's one of my favorite new additions this year. Also, that is a picture of Santa and Crosby.

These were on super clearance last year at Target. They are stupid simple to assemble and I think they are pretty fun! I'd like about 10 more to make a whole forest!

Those wreaths on the right are now hanging at half mast. The curtains fell a couple weeks ago and they haven't quite made it fully back up yet.

Grandpa's winter paintings are out! And may stay out year round!

It's just enough to be festive and hopefully won't be a huge project to take down. Otherwise we may be celebrating Christmas all year!

Call Us Coach

Derrick and I have taken on a new challenge because we have so much extra time on our hands :) A few months ago the area frisbee organization sent out a list of high schools that were seeking coaches for this upcoming season. There just happened to be a high school men's team that was just a few minutes down the road from us seeking a coach. Rather impulsively we emailed to inquire about it and here we are! About 8 practices in and loving every minute of it!

We had discussed finding a volunteer opportunity or doing something to give back so when this popped up it seemed like a pretty natural fit for us. We obviously love the game, Derrick coached the NCSU team for year, and we have both been playing on the same team for the past 6+ years so we're pretty much on the same page when it comes to drills, practices, and playing ultimate in general. Our friend Somer heard we were coaching and was eager to help as well which has been awesome! It's much easier to wrangle 21 high school boys with 3 people then with 2.

So far we have loved it! I remember feeling really intimidated in high school. I was not very confident in myself. I had my close friends and the barn and I didn't  stray much from there. So the thought of high school has never inspired overly happy and joyful feelings in general. I think this is changing that for me. These guys are great! They are so respectful and nice and encouraging! We always get a "Hey Coach!" when we arrive and a "Thanks Coach" when practice is over. I've learned about their other hobbies, where they hope to go to college, who they root for in football, where they are volunteering, what part time jobs they have or are trying to get, what instrument they play in band. We have one guy who is a great singer! Another guy who wants to do medical research when he grows up. It's just been so cool to get to know them and this is just 3 weeks in!

Derrick's work is of course amazing. Microsoft is completely pro-volunteering so they have no problem with him leaving two times a week at 3:15 to coach. We have three practices a week and have had great attendance so far.

It's certainly been challenging and it takes me back to my NCSU fall semesters because we are focusing so much on the basics of ultimate right now. It can be overwhelming to think about all of the things we haven't even begun to teach yet and to watch the scrimmages go a little wild! It's hard to rein them in and get them to focus. That being said there is a huge moment of pride when we see our lone freshman with his hand in the air yelling for his team to set the stack. Or when we see our new track convert finally getting his flick to fly straight. Or even when we see a player show up with cleats for the first time after we've been suggesting them all season!

The high school season goes from January through May with practices starting in November. We have a long way to go but we're so excited to see how we do this year! Wish us luck and we'll keep you posted!

Christmas Tree!

You thought I was kidding yesterday didn't you. This is what my living room looks like now that I've cleaned up a little bit!

So many blogs only post pretty pictures. Not here, this is real life people!

Typically my family drives up into the mountains the friday after Thanksgiving. We go to the same tree lot, take a hayride up the mountain, pick our tree, then have lunch at the same diner on the way back down the mountain. This year things were a bit different since we were in Morrisville for Thanksgiving.  This year we loaded up the car and drove 3 minutes down the road to a tree lot. All of the trees were strung up from the ceiling making the whole search a little ominous. It lasted about 10 minutes and then we headed back home for nap time! We still managed to land the prettiest tree in the whole lot so tradition wasn't completely blown.

They had a tree shaker! This thing vibrated the tree for a good 30 seconds so all of the dead needles would fall out. It was great! This was the first year we didn't have a trail of needles from the front door to the tree stand!

The tree is currently up and decorated and we've even set it on a timer so it comes on in the evenings when we get home. Once the house is back in order I'll post some pictures of the house all decorated. For now, I'll leave you with another picture of real life. Mom bought us a Moravian star and I LOVE it. Derrick and I hung it right above the front porch stairs and lit it up! 10 minutes later we heard a massive crash.

Don't worry Mom! The only casualty was the light bulb which I've already replaced and we've re-hung it. We altered our hanging method and it's been up for almost 24 hours without falling so I think we're out of the woods.

I'm just glad no one was underneath it when it fell. Those points are sharp! And clearly very strong!

Thanksgiving 2015

Right now I'm sitting in my disaster of a living room. Seriously, I'm kind of a Monica when it comes to cleaning but it's such a disaster right now that I don't really even care. That's how crazy our entire downstairs looks. It's a mix of Thanksgiving leftovers, christmas gifts that have been delivered, Christmas decorations that have been halfway put up, and tools. The table is still set for Thanksgiving dinner. BUT the tree is decorated and my inbox is currently empty so I'm taking a quick second to blog. 

Thanksgiving was different this year. Typically we have Thanksgiving with one side of the family and then race to the next side of the family for another feast. We hosted Derrick's family again this year (not sure why they decided it was a good idea after 4 fires last year!) and instead of making a mad dash for Hickory on Friday we invited my family up for a joint Thanksgiving feast. It meant we had 17 people around the table and it was definitely something new but I think it went well!

The pies were completed the day before and it was clear I don't own enough pie dishes!

 

I gave Jay the star helper award! He prepared the entire turkey under the supervision and direction of Derrick's mom. He cleaned it, stuffed it, basted it, and pulled it out of the oven. It was awesome!

See? Careful supervision.

 

Derrick's mom made Ellie this adorable Thanksgiving outfit. Pringles were not on the menu but clearly they will be when Ellie hosts Thanksgiving.

Man of the house carving the turkey.

 
I think this was when both moms were looking for serving utensils. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting some more serveware for Christmas this year. I have plenty until 18 people come over for dinner!

I did the same table setting as I did last year with brown paper and crayons. It is SO easy and the brown works for Thanksgiving.

I guess I didn't get a shot of the other table. You all know what you look like. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving unless we played with fire! This tradition started when Jay, Jack, and I were repeatedly seated at the kids table at my aunt's house. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's still where we sit. The trick is to blow the candle as low as possible without the flame going out. We shared the love and now all of Derrick's cousins can be entertained for many Thanksgivings to come!

After dinner we played a charades game called Fishbowl.

Derrick's side of the family left Thursday evening and my family stayed until Saturday. On Friday morning I went golfing with the guys to show off my new skills. I played terribly! I think I was nervous in front of my family. Derrick doesn't make me nervous but they sure do! I whiffed it 4 times on my first hole! Despite my poor performance it was a fun way to spend the morning and the weather was amazing!

The real fun was had on Saturday. Derrick and I have been doing escape rooms since we got back from London and have now completed all of the available escape rooms in the triangle. We've gone with various friend groups and with Jay and Jack when they have been in town. We saved the last one for Saturday after Thanksgiving so Mom and Dad could go with us!

We CRUSHED it! The record in this room was getting out 14 minutes to spare using all 3 hints. We escaped with 11 minutes to spare but only used 1 hint! I think that's better. In full disclosure we had two random people in our group too so there were 8 of us in the room. Dad was awarded MVP by the game master and Dad had a clutch save just when we were about to use hint 2.

Overall it was a great holiday! The holidays are nice because all of my clients are also busy so it really is like having true days off from work which is rare in this business. Now, bring on Christmas!

But first, clean Laurie...You are literally sitting on stuff sitting on your couch....CLEAN!