Hitched! McKee Wedding

Damon and I had a blast on memorial day weekend. We stayed in Morro Bay, CA because our cousin Courtney was getting married in Cambria, CA. Her wedding theme was happily ever after princesses. It turned out so beautiful. Love you Courtney! You made such a beautiful bride! Congratulations!

 

The room we stayed in at Morro Bay was beautiful. We have a fireplace in our room with ocean and Morro Bay rock view.  

 

(We were watching the movie Ted)

  Since we were leaving on Memorial Day. I wanted to stop by my papa's cemetery to put flowers on his grave and tell him thank you and how much I miss him. He is buried at Bakersfield Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the Tehachapi hills. It is so beautiful. Every time I go there I can feel him next to me.

 

Michele's Graduation

Congratulation to my best friend Michele on her graduation from California State University of Fresno! I am so proud of you! You did it!  

 

   

Patio Dreaming Ideas

As you all know, Damon and I want to cement in our front patio. Today is our Home Owners Association meeting. Today is when we get the okay to get rid of the giant litter box in front of our house and make it into something we can lounge and enjoy the outside weather. That is if its not to hot. It can get up to 115 degree in the summer time. I put together some items together to show you how I would love to decoration our front patio.

 

Let's start with furniture. Since it's a smaller area I chose these two comfortable lounge chairs with an end table. I found these at Kohls.

 

 

Then there are the smaller items that add big character to a room/area. I would like to put a solar candle vase on the end table along with a smaller plant. The bakers rack is going to go in the corner of our patio with flowers on it. I will be placing flower planter boxes around the whole patio. I found the green patio rug on Amazon and the outdoor pillows at Target. Shanty 2 Chic my favorite DIY blog shows you how to make the mason jar chandelier pictured below. She has a lot of good ideas. Go check her out.

 

 

I'm head over heels with the image I have in my head for our front patio. Wish us good luck with our  meeting.

 

Can't wait to show you the process and the end results to our front patio.

Unit next time! Enjoy!

 



Vacation/Event Overload

I've mention before that Damon and I plan on going somewhere once a month Well that changed to every weekend. So here our schedule..... out of town. We are on vacation and event overload.   April 12, 2014 Courtney's Bridal Shower   April 13, 2014 Melissa's Baby Shower   April 19, 2014 Feed to Homeless in town   May 10, 2014 McKee Bachelor/Bachelorette Bush in town   May 11, 2014 Mother's Day/Eli Young Band Concert in town   May 17, 2014 Michele's Graduation in Fresno, CA   May 25, 2014 McKee Wedding in Cambria, CA   May 30, 2014 Stevie's Welcome Home Party in Covina, CA   May 31, 2014 Michele's Birthday   June 8, 2014 Our First Anniversary in Pismo, CA   June 14, 2014 Caitlyn's Graduation in town   June 27-30, 2014 Damon's Trip to Mammoth, CA   July 3-6, 2014 4th of July Trip to South Lake Tahoe, CA  

Patio Dreaming

 One of our next projects is to lay concrete in our garden section in the front of the house. Since we had a crazy cat lady that feed all the strays. Our garden has been nothing but a stinky outdoor litter box for the strays. Damon and I have decided to lay cement and buy a small set of patio furniture or a bench.   Once we get the approval from the association. It is time to get our hands dirty. Next time I blog about the front patio it will look completely different.

 

It's the ... Catalina Wine Mixer

Sorry it has been almost three months from my last post and only my first post of the year. Damon and I have been so busy and tired with work. We really haven't done anything other than that. I was talking to Damon about how we need to relax. We decided that every month we deserve a weekend getaway. So in March.... (which is also our five year anniversary of dating and two year anniversary of our engagement) that this month needed to be something special.

I surprised Damon with the location of Catalina Island.

Most people know about Catalina by a quote in the movie Step Brothers. Hints the name of the blog. Yes I edited the f-word out of my blog title. And yes Damon found a hat that had that quote.

We left our town after work on Friday and drove to Newport Beach. We stayed at the Hilton and got a bite to eat. I couldn't sleep at all I was so anxious to go to Catalina in the morning. We boarded the Catalina Flyer. It took about two hours to get to the island.

Once we arrived I was breath taken by the beauty of the island.

The water was so clear you could see the orange fish below.

  

We grabbed a taxi because walking half a mile up a hill to our hotel is very difficult with luggage. We stayed at Catalina Canyon Resort & Spa. Once we got our room keys and dropped off our luggage. We walked back down to the shops, pier, and all the attractions. As we were walking down the marathon runners were finishing. The fastest time was 3 hours 04 seconds. Holy cow..... 26.2 miles in 3 hours and 04 seconds on an up and down hill and mountain island. WAY TO GO MARATHON RUNNERS! The marathon started at the other end of the island which is called Two Harbors.

I had the best long island ice tea and fish and chips at Bluewater Avalon. The restaurant has it own pier and overlooked the water. I highly recommend it if you ever go. After we ate we walked around explored all the shops, and got ready for a semi-submarine tour called the Nautilus. It was a yellow submarine. Like The Beatles song.

We all live in a yellow submarine. Yellow Submarine. Yellow Submarine. We all live in a yellow submarine. Yellow Submarine. Yellow Submarine. 

The submarine was the coolest thing I have ever done. You could buy torpedo shots. And it shot out food to the fish. I felt like the fish knew that we were going to be feed because they would follow the submarine.

Here fishy fishy fishy

After a long day of walking around, enjoying the beautiful atmosphere, and relaxing. We ate dinner at Cantina Catalina a Mexican restaurant that looks out to the pier. Then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we check out of the hotel and paid for a luggage service since our boat didn't leave  to Newport Beach until 4:30 P.M. and we didn't want to carry our luggage around all day.

We went on a tour that took you around the island and dropped you off at the casino. (It's not a gabbling casino just a building that is called the casino. It is a ballroom and an event center. It is now a museum and a theatre.)

Some of the views from our tour were so beautiful!

I was so fascinated by the tour and learning all of the history of Catalina. In 1919, William Wrigley (founder of Wrigley Bubble Gum) bought Catalina Island for 10 million. He also owned the Chicago Cubs which is why the Chicago Cubs used to hold there summer training in Catalina Island. The golf course is where the baseball field used to be.

During World War II Catalina Island was strictly a United State Military Base. The only people allow onto the island was military. The tour showed us a street of houses were the military base was. Some of the old world war II quanza huts were turned into houses.

I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did.

 

Happy 2013, Cheers!

I can't believe we are saying goodbye to 2013, the year was so wonderful. Damon and I bought our first place and got married. So many moments and memories I am thankful to have had...

We hope that 2014 holds many more blessings and beautiful memories for everyone!  



  Thank you for sharing 2013 with us, have a safe and happy New Year's Eve! Cheers!    

Holiday Blues

This Saturday we took down all of our Christmas decoration. Including the tree and the lights outside. Everyone kept telling me. Why so early? Aren't you supposed to wait until New Years? Not to sound super scrooge-like or depressed. The weird thing is that I enjoy the Christmas season, heck I look forward to it! I love the holiday get togethers, time with family, gift exchanges, food, theme attire including ugly Christmas sweaters, greeting cards, And the Christmas decor!  But it always feels like you go through all that excitement and get to Christmas Day and it just feels like any other day... which leads to feeling a little let down or sad because you know that tomorrow it is over.  I'm the type of person that starts counting down days for Christmas. 359 day until Christmas 2014! Gosh, that just sounds so depressing right? I guess it's the truth though, so now that I spilled my guts I'd love to know if anyone else experiences the same and if you do, what gets you out of feeling blue?  

Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Christmas Tree

Today Damon and I got our very first Christmas tree. We got it at home depot. You can't beat the price. Only 45.99! If you go to another Christmas tree lot they are going to charge you an arm and a leg. Once we got to home depot I decided I wanted a big tree. It's our first Christmas as a married couple. My motto is Go Big or Go Home. Once we got to the 6ft.-7ft. Noble Fur section I told Damon that the one. It was still wrapped up. Damon's told me you don't even know if that one has wholes/spaces in between the branches. Once we opened it up. It was the one!   We had a hard time getting it through the front door because of the staircase. It turned out so beautiful!  

      And of course the cats enjoy it!

Pumpkin Carving Tips

  It is totally pumpkin carving season and I have been brainstorming some designs for our pumpkins. Since this is our first holiday as being a married couple. I wanted our pumpkin to represent our first holiday. I love pumpkin carving. It's so much fun and lucky for me. It doesn't require too much skill. Whether you're carving out a word or a design. Let's face it, you know you're favorite part of pumpking carving is pulling out all the pumpkin guts and roasting the seeds! I wanted to share some awesome pumpking carving tips with you all:

•Know what design you want to carve before buying your pumpkin so that you have a mental picture of what shape and size would work best.

•When picking a pumpkin, make sure the color is even throughout and there are minimal scratches and bruises as they can shorten the lifespan of the pumpkin.

•Never carry the pumpkin by its stem.

•The whole cut around the stem should be approximately 2/3 the circumference of the pumpkin and cut at an inward angle to keep the lid from falling through.

•Poke small holes to mark your design before carving.

•A votive candle placed in a glass holder is safer and will last longer than a candle without a holder. White candles give off the most light.

•Carved pumpkins can last up to a week if left untreated. There are pumpkin preservers you can buy at the store.

HAVE FUN!