La Petite Chic

Babymoon Photos

As promised, here are a few photos from our babymoon:

Our gorgeous resort (The Grand Palladium in Lucea, Jamaica)

 

Right after a gorgeous sunset

 

Of course we visited the Margaritaville in Negril! (For what it's worth, I had a frozen lemonade. Sniff sniff.)

 

A bump on the high seas!

 

View from lunch at Margaritaville

 

I'm a firm believer that pregancy can be sexy! Work it!

 

Our last night in paradise

 

Have I ever mentioned that Jamaica is my favorite Caribbean locale? This was my third trip there and I love it more every time. Le sigh.

Smitten

Allow me to introduce you to my new nephew, Jake Andrew.

He made his Auntie Kate and Uncle Jon fall instantly in love.

He's absolutely perfect, right down to his teeny tiny pinky nail, and even his big brother, Jack, thinks so.

 

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This was a weekend of babies for us, as we headed straight to a baby shower for our friends after meeting Jake. For anyone who's never been to an Indian baby shower, let me be the first to tell you that you're missing out. It was like a wedding reception, but better because there was the beer chugging from baby bottles! (Not to mention choreographed dancing and delicious Indian food).

The parents-to-be, Nehal and Nick

Blurry dancing, but it will give you an idea of how beautiful their saris were.

Right before I cleaned my plate. YUM.

Dark photo of me and Allison, but you can see my new favorite belt!

 

Kitchen Demolition - Round Two

First things first, I'm Auntie Kate for the second time! Jake Andrew was born to my sister-in-law, Janelle, late last night, coming into the world at 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches! Mama and baby are doing well and we can't wait to meet him on Saturday. He was almost born on the birthday of two of my favorite girls, my big sis, Kacey, and good friend, Jess. Happy birthday, you two!!

Life has been quite exhausting this week, so I apologize for the lack of posting. I've been trying to set time aside to write but I'm just so darn tired all the time! I think I'm in winter hibernation mode. We spent all of last weekend in our kitchen, demolishing the soffits and existing coat closet structure, in addition to tearing out two layers of equally ugly linoleum and the sub-floor. I also tore out all of the ceramic tiles in the foyer all by myself, which, thankfully, was quite easy.

As you can imagine, we were quite sore by Sunday night. The kitchen floor demo took some major muscles so I let Jon take that on while I focused my attention on demolishing the coat closet. It didn't take quite as much strength but it was dusty and backbreaking work as I did a lot of sledgehammer and crowbar swinging above my head and on a ladder. In these few short weeks I think we've already learned quicker and smarter ways to get things done which will hopefully make this renovation a lot easier on our bodies and our time.

Jon has been in training all week in Virginia Beach so it was up to me to meet our HVAC guy to get a quote on upgrading our heating and cooling systems. The house currently has baseboard heating which we wanted to replace purely for aesthetics. Well, that and it's a bit noisy when it kicks on. We already had a quote from our general contractor (who will also be doing our plumbing and electrical) but we figured it would be prudent to get a second opinion. I'm so glad we did because this guy told me that baseboard heating is the "Cadillac" of heating systems and advised against replacing it with forced air.

I've only ever know forced air as that's typically what is used in newer homes, but apparently baseboard heating is a lot more efficient and actually much warmer. So I think we've changed our minds about tearing it out. We'll probably look into replacing the existing covers with the newer slim design ones. We do have to replace our 20+ year old AC unit, but at least overall we should save a bit of the budget we set aside for HVAC costs. (Are any of you still following me here? This was all Greek to me as of last week!)

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of the latest kitchen demo. Take note of all that drywall dust flying around...then think about breathing that stuff in...COUGH COUGH!

Jon cutting into the flooring (and the coat closet right before I took it out!)

Me getting my crowbar on

The closet and soffits almost completely demolished (notice all the dust particles?)

The foyer before (and apparently I forgot to take an after picture) Also, there are amazing hardwoods stairs under all that carpet!

Bonus: Look at the bunny tracks I found in our backyard!

 
 

Kitchen Demolition

As you may or may not already know from reading my blog, patience is a virtue of which I'm severely lacking. Jonathan is usually the responsible ying to my impulsive yang, but not when it comes to this house.

No, when it comes to this house, Jon is just as anxious as I am to get the renovations started and move in already. Living with your parents (or in-laws) for nine months will do that to you. That's not to say that living with them has been completely terrible, because it hasn't. On the contrary, my parents have been gracious hosts, respectful of our privacy, and we couldn't be more appreciative of them sacrificing their empty nest to help us out.

Still. It's not easy to come home again after living independently for the past ten years and Jon and I are more than ready to have our own home again. That's what found us at our house on Saturday, just three days after closing, demolishing our outdated kitchen. We just couldn't help ourselves!

As promised, here are the "before" pictures and a bonus (embarrassing) video of me with a sledgehammer. Watch out, HGTV, here I come!

View from the Living Room

View from the Kitchen Door

View from the Sink 

Eww! Also, check out the original flat cooktop!

Jon knocking out tiles

 
 
  Me wielding a sledgehammer
(Note to self: Stop being a woo-girl.)

The kitchen has a lot of great space and will have even more usable space once we knock out the coat closet that the refrigerator is currently backing up to. It was originally an eat-in kitchen (in front of the double window under the hideous light) but we're going to extend the cabinets and counters to make the kitchen a larger L-shape with a huge center island. I can't wait to get cooking in there!

Offer Is In

After much deliberation, we've made an offer on the colonial! We love the space, the neighborhood, it does have somewhat of a backyard (not just as big as the rancher) and most importantly, it has a lot of potential for us to make it our own. Our initial offer was bounced back with a counter offer which we countered and now we're waiting to hear back. Keep your fingers and toes crossed!*

Also, my new cousin just sent a big conglomeration of the photos from wedding guests and I found this gem of me and Jon. I think it captures us perfectly...me laughing with my ridiculously oversized-for-my-face mouth and Jon laughing at me. That's usually the way it works! :) Happy Friday...hopefully I'll have good news to share soon.

UPDATED: BOOOO. They have countered again and it's not the price we want to be at. It took us a long time to come up with our bottom line and we're sticking to it! If there's one lesson we've learned, it's knowing when to walk away and thus, we're walking away and we know it's the right decision.

Our Florida Adventure - Part One

In typical fashion, we packed as much as possible into our Florida anniversarymoon/road trip/wedding weekend. We are crazy and fully embrace that, but we also know that we might not be taking any vacations quite like that once a kiddo comes around so we wanted to make the most of it.

The Departure

The week actually started out on a sour note when we learned that we were bumped from our flight to Ft. Lauderdale...the flight we booked nine months ago and checked in 1½ hours early for! To say that I was pissed off would be a major understatement. However, Air Tran (yes, I'm naming names) quickly rectified the situation by offering Jon and I each two free round trip tickets to any of their destinations in the US and Caribbean. Umm, hello, 2010 cruise leaving out of Puerto Rico! Also, hello, Texas girls whom I've been wanting to visit since forever ago! 

They were able to book us on a flight into Ft. Myers leaving a ½ hour later which was not a bad compromise to make except for the fact that they overbooked that flight too and guess who got bumped again? Yes, that would be us. Then they offered us another round trip ticket, plus an upgrade to Business Class (free alcoholic beverages!) on the next flight to Ft. Lauderdale which was four hours later. We got to Florida a bit later than expected, but hey, I'll take three round trip tickets (each!). 

Key West

As you might have guessed from my tweets, I spent most of our time here drinking margaritas. When in Rome and all, you know?  I really love that town, though.  Gorgeous sunsets, friendly people and a clothing optional bar!  Yes, you read that right.  On our first night in town, Jon and I stopped into a bar called The Bull.  It has three levels, including the top level which is on the rooftop.  It was a beautiful night so we decided to head up to the third floor.  When I rounded the corner to walk into the doorway, I noticed a bare-assed naked man standing at the bar. Saggy butt, gray hair...not the sight I was expecting to see.

I turned to tug on Jon's shirt as I whispered to him, "Jon!  There's a naked man at the bar!". I never got a response from him because he was staring in complete shock at the dance floor where there was a nude dance party going on! Insane. The bouncer saw our gaping mouths so he laughed and told us it was clothing optional.  Oh, and the name of that bar?  The Garden of Eden. Appropriate, yes?

My parents joined us in Key West our last night there and we made it a point to take them there, though we didn't mention it was clothing optional. That was a hoot!  My mom had quite the same reaction I did, but my dad was pretty calm about it.  He just sat down at the bar (next to a naked man!) and ordered a drink. So hilarious!

We did a booze cruise one day (Danger Charters, thanks for the recommendation, Jess!) and had a wonderful time snorkeling, kayaking and, yes, drinking, in the beautiful and extremely warm water. We didn't see any sharks or other scary marine life, but we saw a lot of really cool birds.  Another day, Jon humored me and took me to Ernest Hemingway's house where we just about passed out from the heat, but I'm so glad we saw it. I'm a nerd for stuff like that. We also met another young couple while watching the sunset from Mallory Square one night and had a fun-filled and crazy night bar-hopping with them. We always manage to make friends while on vacation!

On that same night, we ended up in a bar where they had an old man playing guitar who could sing and play just about anything. I had him play our song, "Can't Help Falling in Love", and enjoyed a romantic slow dance with Jon.  I did a lot of dancing that night.  An old man grabbed me to dance as soon as we walked into the place, but he was totally harmless and I ended up dancing with him to several more songs throughout the night. There was a big group from Maryland in the same bar and they kept sending us shots. Miraculously, neither of us had a hangover the next morning! 

I think the thing I loved most about Key West is that everyone you meet is laid-back and happy and just there to have a good time.  It's my kind of town.  Also, amazingly enough, Jon and I both met people from our relatively small hometowns while there.  It's such a small, beautiful world!

Me in front of the Hemingway House

Kayaking

Delicious conch fritters

And Key Lime oysters

Beautiful (albeit, sweaty) sunset

 My margarita (and Jon's dirty banana) at the original Margaritaville

The Mile Marker (blurred camera from the humidity!)

Perfection
 
 

And one more sunset for good measure!

Coming next, my recap of Orlando and my cousin's wedding! 

A Spider Wedding

I had a very good excuse for missing BlogHer this year...it happened to fall on the same weekend as one of my best college friend's wedding!  Of course I wouldn't have missed it for the world because it's not every day that one of your best girls gets married.  Sherry and I were cross country/track teammates at the University of Richmond (Go Spiders!), neighbors our freshman year and apartment-mates our senior year.  Naturally, we spent a lot of time together and even more so because we specialized in the same event in track (3000 meter steeplechase).  She's one of those friends that you just know you'll have for the rest of your life.

The best thing about Sherry's wedding is that she married our fellow teammate, Matt.  It's been so awesome to know them from their first months of flirting in our junior year to now as husband and wife.  What an incredible journey!  They had absolutely perfect weather for their garden ceremony (albeit HOT!) and such a fun-filled reception.  I gorged myself on all of the amazing desserts they had (mini ice cream cones, a fondue station and delicious wedding cake) and was so happy to spend some time with them and my other Spider teammates. 

Here are a few pictures from the wedding...

The beautiful garden where they said their vows

Richmond teammates minus the bride and groom

 I had to take a picture with this sign on the bar..."A pregnant woman never drinks alone!"

 We've been doing this pose ever since we all dressed up as Mary Katherine Gallagher our freshman year.  Supastah!

Me and my handsome husband (who claims to be drinking for three!)

The gang's all together!

 Beautiful bride and groom cutting the cake

 It's kind of funny because I have always said that I would be pregnant by the time the rest of my girls got married...I guess it turned out to be true!  Girls, it's time for the rest of you to get on board because I love Spider weddings!  For the rest of the photos, see my Flickr link to the left.

Honfest 2009

Finally!!  The photos I've been promising from Honfest way back in June.  My parents were born and raised in Baltimore and I was born and raised in Baltimore until I was three so I would say that's enough to make me an honorary hon!  I absolutely adore this festival.

A hon sitting patiently for her beehive.

Two lovely hons hamming it up for my camera.

 

There were a few guy hons too!

 

This crabcake won the record for the world's largest crabcake.  After the record was won, they sold pieces of it to the crowd.  I love my crabcakes, but you couldn't have paid me to eat that thing!

 

Even the little ones get dressed up!  (Funny true story: My mom used to put pink foam curlers in our wet hair before bedtime when my sister and I were little girls.  To keep the curlers from falling out, she would stick a pair of our clean underwear on our heads!  We used to giggle so hard over that.)

 

Those were some serious beehives!

 

Yes, that is a dog with a beehive and no, Lola would never allow such a thing on her head.  You can't deny the cuteness though!

 

I think she likes it.  Look at that smile!

Some Beach, Somewhere....

I must admit that recovering from oral surgery at the beach is the way to go.  Sunshine, cold beer, yummy (soft) seafood, salt water...what more could you need? 

We stopped by Seacrets before dinner one night and saw the cutest little family of ducks swim by the pub tables in the water.  

I love going there because the atmosphere reminds me so much of Sandals resorts.  You know, drinking in the water, island music, people hanging out in swimsuits...my kind of place!  Jon brought our son, Pleepleus, along to join in the fun.

On a recommendation from my uncle, we discovered a new hangout, Fish Tales, that we absolutely fell in love with.  Like Seacrets, it also faces the bay side and has colorful adirondock chairs lining the docks.  The crowd was a little more mature, not really in age, but in behavior, so it was a nice place to grab drinks and dinner after a long day at the beach.  Apparently I was so enamored with it that I forgot to take pictures, but here's one I grabbed from their website.

Pretty, huh?  As I mentioned in my last post, my parents were in Ocean City for the annual Ravens Roost Convention.  They held a big parade on Saturday and each Roost entered floats with a tiki bar theme.  My dad's Roost didn't win, but I thought their float was pretty amazing, regardless.

They even had a moving shark swimming after a Raven!

My favorite float was one made entirely from soda cans, mostly Welch's to be exact.

Can you imagine how much soda they had to drink?  Mind you, this float was huge; it was being towed by a tractor trailer!

Like most beach vacations, ours ended much too soon, but it was so nice to get away for a long weekend.  We'll be back in July for a whole week with Jon's family.  I'm already counting down the days!

Fabulous Find Friday - Garage Sale Edition

I'm a true Virgo in every way except when it comes to practicality.  Rather, I find myself to be fanciful and frivolous and, honestly, a wee bit ridiculous when it comes to some things.  My longing for red toe shoes is the perfect example. Do I dance en pointe?  No.  Hell, I barely know the basic positions and my ass certainly isn't that flexible.  Jon is afraid I'll hurt myself so I don't think I'll ever find those under the Christmas tree.

Then there's the ice luge mold, which I can't take full responsibility for because Jon totally encouraged me to buy it.  We may not have our own freezer, but we have an ice luge mold, folks!  And if you come to Jon's graduation party (which I have yet to plan or invite anyone to), it will be making an appearance!

But I'm not here to talk about pretty toe shoes or ways to simultaneously freeze your tongue and get drunk.  I'm here to talk about beach cruisers.  I've longed for one ever since watching that scene in Wedding Crashers where Rachel McAdams' and Owen Wilson's characters go on a bike ride to the beach.  My family used to rent them during our beach vacations to Ocean City, MD and ride them on the boardwalk amidst some of my favorite smells in the world: warm sand and cold ocean, cocoa butter and coconut, Thrasher's fries with vinegar, Candy Kitchen salt water taffy and fudge...I could go on and on.

Beach cruisers are so feminine and charming and darling, much like I aspire to be.  Never mind that they're not practical; I certainly don't have aspirations to be the next Lance Armstrong.  I just want a lovely little bike to take riding on beautiful days.  So Jon and I made a deal many months ago that a beach cruiser would be my "Yay, we have a house!" present.  Jon would get a new grill and I would get a pretty, little beach cruiser.  Good deal, if you ask me.

That is until I found a vintage beach cruiser at a garage sale last Saturday.  For $15.  Fifteen whole dollars.  And it's pink!  We bought it from a cute retired Air Force couple and the lady said she hadn't rode it in years.  From some quick Googling, I figure it's from the seventies or eighties. I took it right in to the bike shop for a tune-up which ended up costing more than the bike itself, but that's okay because it's in perfect condition and I adore it! 

I named her Pinky Flaminky.

She even has sweet fenders!

 

I bought her a shiny chrome bell so that I can tring-a-ling-ding to my heart's content.

 

P.S.  Since so many of you have inquired, I'll be sharing the instructions on how to make your very own magical omelettes in my next post. :)