Birthday Camping.

As promised, a few photos from my birthday camping trip. We went to the Shenandoah Mountains. Since they are only 2 hours away, we don't take advantage of their proximity nearly enough. We took enough gear for a week and a tent large enough to hold a kindergarten class. Too bad we didn't have sherpas to move it around for us. We stayed at the Lewis Mountain Campgrounds...the smallest and most isolated of the campgrounds in the park.


A family of deer has taken up residence in the campgrounds. They have no fear and would walk within 6 feet of us.

C enjoying our tasty steak dinner on our first night. Unfortunately, it is too dark for anyone to witness our massive castle of a tent in the background.

We started out on a short 2 mile hike on Monday. Butterflies danced about us.

2 miles turned into 8 miles round trip. Our legs were about to fall off. The highlight of our trip was this great waterfall.

They are here!

Our wedding pictures are done. Now, we need to pick out which ones to order. If you feel like looking and/or ordering as well, feel free. The link is here. Please email me for the password. I don't need random internet loonies leering at our happy day.

Happy Birthday to meeeee!

C made me a great homemade German Chocolate Cake for my birthday. It's deeelicious! We also took a short camping trip to the Shenandoah Mountains. Pictures on that to be up soon.

Yummy!

Thanks to Astrid at The Lopsided House for the recipe for a delicious tomato tart. We loved it. I, however, cannot stop tweaking things and already have plans to carmelize the onions and add garlic the next time we make it.

Updated wedding site

Janet, our photographer, has been updating her website. Our preview pictures can be seen at www.jhsweddings.com. Click on portfolio, then Real Weddings 1 and then Amy and Chip. She has added some new ones that are very very pretty!

All the details

In case anyone really wants to know the details of our kitchen renovation:

Cabinets are maple with a hazelnut finish and no glaze.
Paint is Behr's Awning Red.
Granite is called Ivory Fantasy
Flooring is Brazilian Cherry in 3" wide planks.
Tile backsplash is Crema Marfil marble in both polished and brushed finishes.
Droplight is made of white onyx.
Venthood is Arietta, an Italian brand carried by Home Depot
Sliding glass door is by Anderson and the grilles are between the glass. (Yay for easier cleaning)
We have a Bosch dishwasher, apparently the quietest thing on the planet.
The range is a GE 30" Monogram Dual Fuel.
This whole renovation was triggered by the purchase of a Kenmore Elite Trio refrigerator.

We did hire a kitchen designer. He planned the layout of the kitchen, which was a bit limited by the space and the design of the house. After that, we were on our own picking out colors and materials, although he did point us in the direction of a really good granite place and a really good tile place. He also took care of the contractor. I really wanted to someone to do all the picking and choosing for me because: 1) I am lazy, 2) I was planning a wedding at the time, and 3) I was working a lot of extra shifts so I could have that wedding. In the end, I'm really happy with how the place looks so I guess I don't mind having done the legwork in picking out colors and such.

Guilted into updating

Lovely Astrid has finally prodded me into updating here. I had the day off, so I swabbed the kitchen and polished it into prettiness. Here are the results of the prewedding kitchen renovation chaos. Click on any picture for a larger view.



A dark view of the kitchen sink. We put in faux wood blinds, much nicer than the mini blinds that were there before.


Our bar area. I'm still bring liquor bottles upstairs. I love the deep red color of the walls. It brings out the red in the Brazilian cherry flooring.


Our breakfast area.


A pretty good view of most of the kitchen. That is the quietest vent hood I've ever been around.


C's coffee corner that is slowly taking over the entire kitchen.


Zoe helping with the coffee.


A closer view of all the fancy coffee gear. We have no more need for Starbucks.

What you are not seeing is that the ceiling still needs to be repainted. After recently going through all the old paint buckets the previous owners left behind and having to repaint the entire dining room because I couldn't find the correct color, I may just hire this out.