Orlando

Last week, I went to Orlando for 3 days/2 nights to visit my good friend Cathy, who lives in Alaska and was in Orlando to visit her parents and sister. Since it's tough to get up to Alaska, it worked out great to be able to see Cathy and her family- especially her awesome kids Blue and Berkeley. We made it to Disney two afternoons- Animal Kingdom and Universal studios, but it rained pretty much the whole time so it made for short trips. It was still so great to spend time with all of them and to love on the kids. Cathy and I made it out alone two times- for a movie (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past- I don't recommend it!) and to get pedicures as an early birthday present for Cathy.

Berkeley is starting to walk and I captured some good video of her doing so. Here is just one, but I'll post more soon. Cathy and Blue are in the background. You can see how attached Berkeley is to her mommy- she is going through some separation anxiety and pretty much wants to be as close to Cathy as possible at every minute! Luckily, I still got some hugs and kisses in:)

Home stuff

For those of you that haven't been to visit our house lately, we've been slowly but surely pulling some of the decorating together. So, I thought I'd share some photos I took if you aren't going to be visiting us anytime soon.....

We recently bought 2 rugs at Target (both on sale- there are good deals out there!) for our study/office and the dining room. We also had a sign made by a local artist (she makes them for many of the different neighborhoods in Atlanta) for our 'hood, Ormewood Park. A few weeks ago, we went to the nearby Inman Park Festival where we fell in love with a really cool table made out of reclaimed wood. All of this local artist's work is using old pieces or reclaimed wood and we really hope to be able to buy more of this furniture. We put the table in our TV room and it inspired us to bring a little blue into the brown and green room, so we got these cool pillows and window treatments from Target. I have to say that I am constantly impressed with Matt's taste (although he'll kill me for saying that) and he really had the 'vision' for the room:)

When we bought this house with no window treatments I never thought that getting those would be such a pain...but it is! When we went back to get more of the roller shades we got from Home Depot for the bedroom and bathroom the week we moved in, we found they were discontinued. Because our windows are all random sizes, there's no easy (maybe the word I'm thinking of is inexpensive) solution and most pre-made window treatments are not right. But, we've finally added some cafe curtains in a couple of rooms that we are happy with.

I took these photos when I was taking photos of the front and back yard to apply for a show on HGTV...Yes, I am determined to get some free professional help for these overwhelming outdoor tasks! The yard is really a whole blog in itself, but I have to give Matt credit for putting in so much more of the time and energy into trying to whip the yard into shape. We'd like to have some sort of patio in the back so that we can sit and grill, but we're still trying to figure out how to do this. I sent in the application a week ago, so cross your fingers we get some help and we're on TV!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

....To all the moms out there and especially my mom, mom-in-law, and grandmothers. Sorry this is a day late- our internet is out at home until Thursday (and has been since last Friday). Not fun for someone so used to using it any time they wish.

Love you all!