It's a Birthday Party... County Fair Style!

We hosted Merritt's class and close friends this weekend at her County Fair themed birthday party! There was a "photo op" booth, sack races, tin can knock down, a pie eating contest, a serve-yourself candy bar station, homemade caramel apples and gorgeous weather, to boot! I'll let the pictures tell the story!

This was the first of several legs of the sack race. We divided the groups out by height and I was amazed at how athletic (and competitive) some of those dainty little girls were! And yes, the burlap sacks are being converted into cute home decor items!

The tin can knock down was a hit as it was easy for any age group to set up and knock down with little grown up assistance (which was key at certain points of the day).

We had about 14 pie eaters (cherry and apple) and they did a great job! This was definitely the favorite activity of the day. The kids had about 3 minutes to see how much they could eat, which (at the most) ended up being the equivalent of about 2 big slices. A few of the kids even wanted to save their pies for later!

We had cupcakes for days (I'm looking at about 8 in my kitchen right now) and it was a sweet way to end a super fun day! Happy 11th birthday, my big girl!

I Love Ornamental Cabbage and Kale!

There. I said it! It's just so versatile... it lasts so long, it's cold-hardy and it comes in so many different colors and textures! This may by my most random and useless blog entry, but it needed to be said.

How to Destroy a Perfectly Nice Manicure (or Giving a New Life to an Old Turkey... and I'm not talking about Jason)

As many of you know, I lost a dear ceramic family member in the last move. My beautiful majolica turkey was shattered and while my mom replaced it with a gorgeous one (totally obsessed with my new one), I couldn't help but to still feel super sad about the damage. When I got out my Thanksgiving decor a few weeks ago (let's be honest... it was October 31st), I found the shards of my majolica turkey in a box. Who keeps a broken turkey? I thought that since I still had the pieces, I'd take a stab at reviving it (and I had lots of spackle left over from my mirror project). Here goes!

I used super glue to put the bird back together, although it was NOT a perfect outcome. Jason said that I should've taken pictures of the broken bird, because he couldn't believe that I could get it all back together. I felt proud, since he seemed so totally impressed with my skills. Looking back on it, he may have just been glad that the broken pieces were no longer strewn all over the kitchen island. I'm going with the idea that he was totally impressed with me...

Secondly, I filled the gaps with lots of hot glue and smoothed the varying surfaces from the shotty glueing job.

Next, I used the spackling to give the bird a little texture. I especially masked the areas where the hot glue looked a little sloppy. I also accentuated the feathers and tufts, trying to give it a "hand built" sort of quality. My final goal is to make the bird look like an old terra cotta creation with maybe even a little moss growth here and there. I love the old French pottery that I have and think he'll look fine nestled next to some of those pieces.
 

I sprayed the bird with some Krylon Stone spray paint. It comes in several colors, but I chose the light color, as I'm going to paint it a terra cotta color later...

Here is a close up of the texture that the stone spray is adding. Next coat in an hour or so!

After the stone spray, I added two coats of primer, which really helped seal everything and make it look more solid (less chalky).

I added the terra cotta color, using 3 different paint colors (orange, brown and an ocre tone).

Lastly, I added a light dry brushing of a cream color and hit the high spots, then a mossy green color in some of the areas that might have had contact with the ground (to add authenticity of the "old" terra cotta pot look) and a few flicks of the same green. I noticed that my older pots have these unique color and texture patterns and I tried to mimic that look.

The finished product! I'm so glad that I never threw all those shards away! Who knew?!?!

Pope St. Gregory the Great (played by Kohl Woodham)!

We had a great Halloween (still coming off a teeny sugar high) and spent the morning of All Saints Day at SGGCS learning about 27 Saints, presented by 2nd grade. Kohl was none other than St. Gregory himself (no pressure) and he did a fantastic job!

A Homecoming...

We spent the last few days in middle Tennessee and I had a blast introducing "the gang" to Franklin and Leiper's Fork, my hometown. The weather was absolutely ideal, I was able to see some of my favorite Tennesseans (both current and former) and we even had time to do a little early birthday celebrating. Jason had been working for weeks, along with my old friends Tiffany and Patty, to surprise me with a little early 40th birthday party and it was amazing! We also attended my friend Niki's wedding to wrap up a perfect weekend. 

Gramma and Grandad Beaty's house in pristine shape, although the garden in the back is now a manicured lawn.

Jewel's Market was around the corner from Gramma's house looked exactly the same, including the sign.

The gals at my surprise birthday in The Fork. Jennifer (Brown) Hacker, Kelly (Garrett) Hancock, me,
 Heather (McCandless) Ryan, Tiffany (Ciullo) Taylor and Patty (Lee) Cannon.

Kohl decided to take a shot at the mechanical bull while
we sampled the food at the Leiper's Fork Chili Cook Off.

Our old barn, still in great shape, in Leiper's Fork.

An infamous tree in our household (that was involved in a sledding accident). 
The old yard was in immaculate shape, as was all of Leiper's Fork. 
I was glad to see everything had been so well cared for without much change. 

Our old house, though not too recognizable. The front room had been revised, but the big windows
 still spanned across the front. The deck, garage, smokehouse, chicken house and many of the trees
 had been taken out, but the metal roof and paved driveway (complete with a iron gate and keypad...
yes, I was tresspassing) were nice additions.

The 5th graders (Merritt Woodham, Lauren Taylor and Skylar Hacker) became fast friends!

The 2nd graders (Bryce Cannon, Alex Cannon and Kohl Woodham) along with Porter Taylor 
(my sweet red-headed godson) had a miraculous marathon playdate with no quarrels!

The wedding was at a beautiful venue in the "Cool Springs area" 
(that didn't exist when we lived there) on a historic farm. 

My sweet friend Niki on her happy day! Mason jars were filled with fruit tea or beer 
and bottles of soda pop (we call it "coke" regardless of what it was) were enjoyed by
all the little ones. The tables were topped with milkglass vases and wildflowers that 
the little girls had Niki put in their hair at the end of the reception. Such a great day!

"You Just Got S'mored"

That's the caption that Kohl wanted me to use... We've played in the Atlantic, gathered shells, showered, cooked dinner, ate and cleaned up. Now it's s'more time, and maybe a quick game of flashlight freeze tag (Kohl's request). The weather is absolutely amazing, by the way!

Headed to Hunting Island!

We're taking the kids (and the dog) to nearby Hunting Island for a night of camping on the beach. This trip is going to be a test run for a longer camping trip planned for cooler weather (it's 86 degrees right now with a low of 67 for tonight). I'm certain we'll use this as a big learning opportunity, but for now, we have the essentials: tent, water, hot dogs and s'more fixings.

Pictures to follow...

How to Destroy a Perfectly Nice Piece of Furniture (or "My New Bathroom Mirror")

It usually starts out with a vision in my mind for a piece of furniture or home decor item (that usually doesn't exist). After weeks of searching or refusal to pay exorbitant amounts if money for the item, I usually give up the idea... until...

I've been known to (more so than not) buy something with the full intention of destroying it to get what I want. I have to give massive thanks to my dear husband who has walked into a room catching me ripping off fabric from a chair or covering something in spackling and just sigh. My response is always the same- "Just love me for who I am!" His is also the same- "I DO!" (in an exhausted, frustrated and somewhat helpless voice).

This is my latest victim/project (Jason loved the outcome by the way...)

1) Start with a perfectly nice mirror.

2) Add spackling at random.

3) Cover with base coat (Kilz). When dry, paint solid color (mine was a beautiful grey).

4) Once the base coat of color was painted, I sanded and scraped the high spots on the frame, exposing the white spackling and base coat. I used a Ralph Lauren Aging Medium in a Tobacco color (love that stuff) to paint in the recesses of the frame. It dries a little shinier than I like (the grey is an eggshell finish) so I used a dry brush with a scant amount of grey to knock down the shine and the darkness of the glaze. I wanted an aged and "chalky" finish (hmmm... do I have any more black chalkboard paint in the garage? Would Jason absolutely cringe if he found me painting the mirror now that it's hanging on the wall?)

5) The finished product, though not a very good picture. I LOVE it!
I can only imagine how much better my makeup will look now that I have a mirror to look in!

A Good Line...

I occasionally find humor in some of Kohl's essay test answers. This week, it was his Religion test.

Weee're baaaack!

So, I've taken a couple of months away from my blog to unpack, arrange, rearrange, do, redo, purchase completely decent furnishings and spackle, paint and recover them, etc. With two loads of clean laundry waiting for me to fold, I thought that this might be the perfect time to pick it back up again!

The following are just a few snapshots from the last two months!

Merritt and Jason have been feeding the fish (catfish, bream and a few little bass, oh and an alligator every now and again) protein pellets. We recently had an amazing fish fry with the freshest possible catfish available!

Our Fagan friends came for a very brief, but fun-filled few days! It was so great to see them and share our low country home with them, including taking them riding and learning about Dressage. We were short a helmet and Kohl was (obviously) less than happy. He ended up going on a guided trail ride with Mrs. Gini and having a blast!

We took a trip to Blue Ridge, GA to meet up with the Woodham clan (Uncle Hunter included). It was beautiful weather and the river was nice and cool. The kids loved tubing and even did a little gem mining (below) which was really super cool! They both have the gems that they "mined" on display in their rooms!

We stopped by to see Uncle Andy in Helen, GA at the winery. It was a really great visit, good pizza and a little good clean fun in the keg room (is that what it's called, Unc?)... Needless to say, I should've gotten two cases of Scarlett. We average about a case a month here (maybe two during football season).

We had a great start to school at St. Gregory! The kids both have new teachers and they've really enjoyed their classes. The first quarter is almost halfway over (can't even believe it) and the kids have their sights set on Principal's list (okay, so maybe that's more me than the kids...).

Jason has been perfecting his shrimping skills and I have to say,  it's been a real treat! He's gotten really good at throwing the cast net, culling out the small ones, etc. Now if we could just figure out a way to head, tail and peel the shrimp quicker, it would be a miracle (and our beer supply wouldn't be hit so hard).

Merritt has decided to take golf back up again. She's signed up for the St. Gregory golf team and has started practicing on Friday afternoons. Kohl is also taking lessons, although I think his favorite part is playing with all "the guys" afterwards. Pictures to come, for sure!

Outer Banks, Part 2

We came back to Hatteras Island yesterday and have had a great time! The weather has been amazing so we decided to go clamming today! We spent about an hour and raked up 122 clams for an amazing dinner tonight (it's all about the next meal)...