Thursday, June 28, 2012

Redo...

I was excited for my modge podge craft project that I did a few weeks ago that was inspired by Pinterest.  (See http://benworleyfamily.blogspot.com/2012/06/projects.html )  I remembered reading that I had to make sure all of the air bubbles were out from under the picture.  I skimmed over this because the photo looked pretty flat on the boards.  Well, one day after hanging them up, they started bulging and just looked "too homemade" and I was not pleased with how they looked.  I decided to keep them up until we found something else to put there.

A few weeks later, I came across these adorable frames at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and I just couldn't turn that down.  I LOVED the colors and knew they would work great in that spot.  They look drastically better than my modge podge project....


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Empty room no more!

Since we have moved in, we have had 1 empty room - the office.  This room was used in the past as a dining room, but at this time in our lives, a "formal dining room" is just not necessary for us.  We decided to turn the space into an office - or as Ben likes to call it "his office". 

Ben's grandfather had this old oak desk that had been at his parents house for years.  Ben was able to sand it down, restain it, and take the old wood knobs off and add updated hardware.  I LOVE how it turned out!!  I wish we had a "before" picture to see the drastic change. 

I also purchased these fabulous curtains from Target over the weekend and I am mildy obsessed with them.  They add a little "fun" into the area. 

We still have alot of "accessorizing" and finishing touches to do to this room, but it is no longer bare!  Ben has been working in it the past two days and besides getting "high" off the stain fumes from the desk, he is enjoying the area. 
This was my wedding present to Ben.  It's a dark room photo of Ellijay, where he's from, inside a custom frame.  It's now hanging above the desk. 

Monday, June 25, 2012

Like Totally Rad...

On Saturday night, our friend Jessica hosted her 2nd Annual 80s party that was a fundraiser for Lighthouse Family Retreat.  I love a good dress up party (reminds me of the good ole days in Sigma Kappa-land)!  I was out of town the majority of last week, so when I got home on Saturday, Ben was sporting a full on man beard and was strangely excited to shave it off and rock the Tom Selleck mustache at the party- which he did.  We had a great time supporting Jessica on Saturday night! 
*Note - I made Ben shave that dirty mustache off before we got in the bed on Saturday night!  I would have been frightened waking up to that....

Yes, the mustache is real.  He kept saying that if Don Johnson and Tom Selleck were to have had a baby, he is what it would have looked like.

Amanda from the Daily Sweatpants will be happy to know that Ben's yellow shirt, blue pants, and loafers (that are super glued together) all came from Goodwill.  He also bought a vest and between me and the check-out lady, we couldn't convince him it was a woman's vest....and then he tried it on....

My sweet friend Betsy is going to be a real bride in November so she ROCKED this awesome 80s wedding gown!

Ben and Zach...no words! 

Monday, June 18, 2012

Kandy-land

This weekend we were infused into "Kandy-land".  We got to celebrate my sweet friend Kandy and her new husband Adam as they tied the knot!  For those that know me, you will know that I have lost count over how many times I've been a bridesmaid, but it's well over 13 times.  This was the first time that I was a "married" bridesmaid :)  I got to share the bridesmaid duties with 4 other Sigma Kappa consultant friends as we all traveled the same year with Kandy. 

There were 12 bridesmaids, so it was fun getting to know the other girls that have been apart of Kandy's life throughout the years.  The wedding was very "Kandy-like".  Our bouquets were red, white, and black with red and white polka-dotted ribbon.  There was also a butterfly in all of our bouquets representing her mother who was beaming & orchestrating from heaven. 

We had so much fun watching these two become the Westbrooks' and then were able to put our dancing shoes on for the Swingin' Medallions.  They were an AWESOME band!  We have heard about this band since we met Kandy back in 2004 and now we understand the hype!  They were so much fun! 
Kandy and Adam are in Jamaica now relaxing and having a great time.  Very honored to have been apart of their very special day!


Friday, June 8, 2012

Projects...

I think everyone's home will always have "projects", but we have been slowly getting projects accomplished so we can actually enjoy our home instead of doing "projects" all the time.  I've had these two projects in my brain and the supplies bought for a few weeks, but finally got around to finish them last night. 

I had a wall frame in my old apartment that had a cute girly print in it.  The print obviously didn't make it to our new house and I was going to give it to Goodwill, then a lightbulb went off....
I'll spray paint the glass with chalkboard paint and hang it near our kitchen and VOILA!  I asked Ben to hang it and when I went to see it he had written a sweet message :) 

We have one large blank wall in our dining/fireplace area.  We want a wine tower type piece against the wall, but that will come when the money tree regrows, but the wall still needed something on the other half so it wasn't so bare.  I saw a litte project on Pinterest about buying wooden plaques from Hobby Lobby for a $1 (they were not a $1 when I looked for them) and Mod Podge pictures on them.  I found the right size of plaque boards at Michaels, painted them with left over paint from the house, had Ben put hanging brackets on the back, and then I Mod Podged a few wedding pics to them.  They look cute and fill a section of the large wall, which is what I wanted.  We've laughed because there are literally "Courtney & Ben pictures" all over our house.  It's pretty hilarious, but we paid good money for those things!!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Millions of Peaches...

Ben and I both LOVE us a good peach.  Rather it's eating it whole or adding it to something, we love fresh peaches!  Ben's parents live near several peach orchards in North Georgia.  We asked them to bring some to us when we were with them last week.  We have enjoyed them so much!  I made some yummy homemade peach ice cream, peach waffles, and last night I made Fiery Grilled Peach and Habanero Salsa to go on top of a pork that Ben grilled.  It was DELICIOUS!! 


Many know that we have random palm trees and Christmas trees in our yard (thankfully Ben has gotten rid of most of them), but now we have discovered a PEACH TREE!!!!!  Not kidding!  Right now there are large pits and we are hoping they will bloom into massive peaches that we can eat!! 

Monday, June 4, 2012

The Streets of Sandy Springs...

For the "non-Atlantians", Sandy Springs is an area of Atlanta that is partially "inside the Perimeter" and partially "outside the Perimeter".  It has grown over the past several years and this is where our home is located (inside the Perimeter).  Our address is still "Atlanta", therefore we are technically not in the suburbs quite yet ;) 

This is the same view that I see while training for
the Peachtree Road Race.  Not too bad of a view ;)

When we bought the house, we noticed a new development a 1/2 mile from the house and were not sure what all would be in there.  The first food establishment that opened in there was Blue Moon Pizza (our favorite spot in Sandy Springs).  Slowly but surely several other food places started opening up.  From Firehouse Subs, to sushi, we now have several choices to choose from.  When we were renovating, we kept saying how great it would be to "walk" to lunch/dinner from our house when the weather was nice.  Lets just say we have always drove the 1/2 mile to get food. 
On Saturday, all of the restaurants (Sushi Nami, Firehouse Subs, Qdoba, Tazikis, and Blue Moon Pizza) had a little "side walk" free food fest.  The Worley's decided to WALK the 1/2 mile to get the free food.  We ate sushi, subs, nachos, wraps, and pizza then walked the 1/2 mile back to our house.  It was so nice to get out and walk to lunch.  We do heart Sandy Springs. 


On Sunday, we had a get together at Taco Mac with my group of friends that I have known since I moved here.  There were 12 of us that were able to go.  We hung out for about 3 hours catching up and having a great time.  Ben and I live 2 minutes from where we were at, so spontaneously, we moved the gathering to our place, but first, the gals made a pit stop for pizza, drinks, and other yummies.  The gang stayed over for a few hours and after they left Ben said "you are in heaven right now, aren't you?".  It's so true!  I love for my dear friends to hang out and now to be at OUR house that I have room for everyone is icing on top of the cake!  As some said "Club Worley" was hopping last night with good friends, frozen pizza, and LOTS of laughs!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Take Me Out To the Ballgame....

Last night was our first adventure to see the Gwinnett Braves.  The G-Braves are the AAA minor league team located about 30 miles north of Atlanta.  A few weeks ago, Ben's parents invited us to a game with them so we were excited to check it out.  Ben grew up going to the Rome Braves (Single A minor league team for the Atlanta Braves).  I, on the other hand, grew up at the Sterlington Recreation park (I seriously don't even know if it had a name).  I did go to my fair share of college baseball games and since being in Atlanta do enjoy going to the Atlanta Braves games, so I was ready to check out the minor leagues. 

I believe the stadium was built in 2009 so it still has that new/clean feel.  We arrived right before the national anthem, then headed to our seats for the first pitch.  Ben and I made it through one inning before we wanted that good ole ball park food.  Hotdogs, corndogs, cheeseburgers, and french fries were our choice of yumminess for the night.  As you can see, we weren't leaving a crumb! 

There are a few things that I learned about a minor league game:
  • You can park 7 minutes before the game starts and still hear the National Anthem and be in your seats by the first pitch. 
  • The people working in the concession stand are extremely comical, but friendly.
  • 90% of the players are left handed or they are at least switch hitters and constantly bat on their left side. 
  • Many minor league players have names that you can not pronounce.  The reason they are not in the majors is because the announcers can't pronounce their names.
  • If you want to be respected by the people that send you to the majors, don't have Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" playing as your "come out" music.
  • If we had children and lived close to a minor league stadium, we would probably have season tickets because it's a fun family atmosphere.  (We currently live 25 miles from the Gwinnett Braves Stadium, but in Atlanta traffic, that equates to a 1 hour trip - not close!)
All in all, our first experience to the G-Braves was a success!  Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Worley for taking us out to the ballgame!