Welcome to the jungle

Apparently I live in the rainforest.  Why, you ask?  I'll tell you.  My yard has become a raging river, that's why.  I can't even walk out to get my mail because my goulashes aren't high enough for the water.  So I'm stranded in my house.  Not a bad place to be actually since I had off today and filled the hours watching GIRLS and Bill Maher and looking at everything I can't afford from Anthropologie.  (I totally should have been reading Anna Karenina since I'm still 600 pages short of finishing, but a girl can only take so much russian literature!).

So, during my hours of peaceful television bliss, my yard is slowly saturating, to the point of looking like a bloated sponge.  In fact, we have a nice little swimming hole where our septic tank lies.  I won't be walking back there anytime soon.

I took this video for you.

Creamy Cheesy Potatoes

I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided that I needed to try it out (Click here for the original site).  I love potatoes au gratin, especially more than just a plain baked potato or mashed potatoes.  You just can't beat cheesy, creamy deliciousness.  And this recipe was so easy to make--I even made it for Thanksgiving!!

Now, this recipe differs from regular, joe-schmoe  potatoes au gratin; instead of slicing the pots, you cut them up french fry style.  I don't know why, but I think they taste better this way (my theory is the cheese and cream get to each fry).  And they are less messy to eat...no prying the slices apart or trying to politely stuff a hot slice in your mouth. 

All you need are 5-6 medium sized potatoes, 9-13 Pyrex dish, 2 cups whipping cream (not ideal for the calorie counter...), 2 cups sharp chedder cheese, sprinkle of parmesan, and S&P.  I also add a little ham, but you don't have to.  That's it!

Skin and cut potatoes french fry style and place in dish.  Pour cream and evenly sprinkle cheeses and add small amount of S&P (you can add more after it's done to taste).  Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 1 hour--you can lower the rack for the last bit to let the bottom get a little crispier. 

And done!  It's unbelievably delicious and I always save a bit for leftovers the next day (if I can wait that long)!

Our house. For the holidays :)

Sorry, I'm lazy.  I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures of our mostly finished home until now.  And it's only the bottom floor.  I'll get around to top at some point.

 

 

 

Lucy is a couch potato (hog).

Merry Christmas!!!

New Year!!

This past holiday season was extra special; We had so much family to celebrate with!  And of course, you can't have this much family together without doing some pretty awesome things.  Like paintball.  And downtown New Years Eve festivities.  Like I said before, awesome.

 

Somebody was tuckered out by the end of the night!  He didn't even wake up to get his food from McDs!

 

Probably the best I've seen yet!

I don't know if you can read this, but here is the link to see this up close--it's a MUST READ if you have doggies!!

I fell through a vent.

That's right.  I fell through a vent.  Nasty little buggers.  The floors in our house were covered in paper (the walls were being painted), and I, never thinking about disaster, stepped through the paper and clear into an air vent hole.  All the way.  Did I cry??  No.  Would I have cried had Handsome Taylor not been there?  Most definitely.  But he lifted me out of my vent hell and we surveyed the damage.

At first, I thought I had broken my leg.  It probably would've been better that way--I had a horrible limp and nobody understands when you tell them you've fallen in an air vent.  It's been three weeks and I still don't wear shorts...mostly because it looks like someone took a bat and beat me, but we're getting there.  Anyway, here are the first pictures of my leg about an hour after the embarrassing trauma.

Contrary to popular belief, that is not my gigantic quad muscle sticking out.

Stupid air vent.

Our House

An update on our house!!  Painting outside is COMPLETE!!

Olympics!!!!!

Home is closer than you think :)

Look what I just bought!!

I like to write letters.  It must be a habit I acquired from my mom--she writes all the time.  And I like getting letters...so I've come to the conclusion that the more letters I write, the more I will get back. 

But I'm also slightly lazy.  If I can get around doing something repetitively, I will find a way to do it.  So I decided that I really wanted needed to purchase this stamp.  It's very cute, stylish, and cuts down on repetitive motions significantly. 

 

The stamp will actually read:

taylor (heart) randi

7 bethel dr.

asheville, nc 28803

Isn't it just fantastic??!!

Lucy

And here is a cute picture of Lucy, who is very cute...and chunky.  Our wonderful, lazy Lucy.  :)

Handsome Tay

Handsome T is actually very handy.  It's nice to have someone around who can put pretty much anything together.  (This really translates to I do not have to worry about it because Taylor will fix it).  Although sometimes I do worry...

Anyway, Tay decided to purchase speakers for the house.  Not just a couple speakers for the living area.  No.  That would be so very un-Tay to not go above and beyond what is reasonable for technology in our house.  There are 4 speakers in our living room, and a subwoofer (did I spell that right??  It looks wrong.).  And there are 4 speakers and a subwoofer in our bedroom.  And there are speakers on our porch..and in our garage...you know, for all the times I will be rocking out in the garage.  Please.

So here's a picture of Handsome T putting up one of the speakers in our bedroom (and don't worry, it will be covered up like the one on the right when it's all finished).  Psh.

Our house is starting to get painted!!!

Seeeeee???  The top part is a greyish-greenish color.  The bottom will be a sage green, but for now it's just primed.  :)

Tutu and bow-tie

This weekend was spent watching two of the cutest kids I could get my hands on.  Naturally, their cuteness made me want to make something.  Soooo, Pinterest DIY called and I looked up how to make a tutu for Aubrey, and a little bow-tie for Trey.

I got some UNC fabric for the bow-tie--all you really need is about a square foot for both the bow-tie and the piece that holds it together.

I cut the bow-tie to about 6.25" x 5.25" and turned it inside-out and began to sew it by hand...you know, because I'm suddenly Susie home-maker.  Well, it looked horrible and I could tell it wouldn't hold up...

 

See..??  Yuck.  So I turned to my trusty sewing machine--Taylor used it last with a heavy duty leather needle for making a cover for his golf-cart (he's much better at sewing than me..go figure).  The bow-tie literally took just a minute to sew up (make sure you leave space at the end to turn it inside-out again)!  Yay, technology!!  

The bow-tie should look like a  little square patch about 6"x5".  Sorry, no picture.  For the next part, you want to make a piece of fabric about 1"x3" to tie around the middle.  I hand-sewed this part (which you can see in the picture..and I know it looks horrible, but it's the thought that counts!!).  Then I put a snap on and the other part of the snap on the little one-sie.  What is nice about this is that as Trey grows, I can always place another snap on a T-shirt or whatever he wants to snap the bow-tie to!

 

Next, the tutu!!  I bought about 9 yards of light blue tulle white tulle--you know, Carolina's colors.  :)  I folded it in half, then in half again so it would be easier to cut.  

I measured 16" and cut at the end so that the tutu, when wrapped around the piece of elastic (oh yeah, I sewed a piece of elastic in a ring about 16" in circumference) so that when the tulle stuck out, it was about 7" long.  You can also tie the tulle in a knot around the elastic.  Either way, the best part is that you don't have to sew!!  (Sorry, no pics--turns out it's really difficult to take a picture putting it all together..maybe next time).  Oh, and I alternated colors so that it would look decent.

Ta-Da!! 

And the best part...

Our new bathtub!!

Just got our new bathtub and had to try it out :) It's like a little sake cup!

Turns out it was very easy to carry.  We thought it would weigh a ton, though!

Perfect for an after-work "stew"!

Lucy, waiting for her much needed bath.

It's a wee-bit tight for Handsome Taylor, but I'm sure he won't mind.

Things I need on Etsy...

So I've decided to compile a list of things that I want need on Etsy.  It will probably be a growing list, but I'll start out low for right now :). 

How flippin cute is this?!  Yes, I think this will look disgustingly cute in our new house.  I haven't decided on the color, but I'm leaning towards buttermilk or sage (see below)...

Siding!

Siding is COMPLETE!!!  Porch and paint is soon to come!

More house pics :)

Ta-Da!!!  The top portion on the right is our bedroom (complete with porch on the far right :) ), and to the left is our bathroom.  The front door is underneath the bathroom with, yes, tree posts!!

Part of our bedroom.

Old Man Oak--thanks Angela!!

Walter.  He doesn't come with the house, but he was excited to help out!

Our front yard and a quite large cumulus cloud coming over the mountain.

Our house and address

WE HAVE OUR ADDRESS!!!  WOOHOO!!!

7 Bethel Dr.
Asheville, NC 28803

Our beautiful guest room complete with HUGE dormer window!!!

Handsome T and John Sanke working on roof...can't complain about the more-than-perfect weather!

Our House!!

Handsome Taylor and I are building a house (yay!!)!  We looked for places around Asheville, but we couldn't find anything that fit both our price range, as well as location.  We found the cutest little house in a cute little neighborhood (see previous blog post), but that was bought within the weekend that we found it!

Anyway, in high school, I was able to take an interior design class that I absolutely LOVED.  (I think it's my secret passion, besides biology).  Well, I designed my dream house in that class, as well as picked out all of my furnishings by scoping out Pottary Barn catalogs.

Taylor's family gave some beautiful pasture land in south Asheville that we decided to build on, and obviously we couldn't build out exact dream house, but a mini version of the design with some minor changes (sans Pottery Barn).  And since I couldn't figure out how to put the plans on the blog so you could see the final product, here are some pictures.  Enjoy!

The foundation on Valentines Day!

The kitchen, and one of our builders, Greg.

This is a "pop-out" office, modeled after some of the old Victorian style homes in Asheville, along with the bathroom (which hasn't been walled off yet).

Bottom floor--garage is on the right (it will have several windows), the kitchen in the middle, and the living/dining area on the left.

Left to right: living room (modeled after craftsman style), dining area with bay window, and kitchen.

Window seat in the living room.

Pop-out office and garage on left.

We have stairs!!

The second story is up!  Our bedroom is the one with the partial roof over it right now.

Looking at our bedroom above the living room--pop-out office is to the left beside the garage.

Yay for roofs!!

Framing for second guest bedroom.

Framing the dormer over the garage (hi Greg!).

I'll be sure to post more pictures as we're moving along.  By the way, we have AWESOME builders!  John Sanke, Greg, and David (sorry, I don't know their last names), are by far the most amazing people to have for this job.  We have been building since February and already they're done with framing!!  This house will be done by May!  More pics to come!