punta cana - part 1

Holy cow, I've got a lot of blog catching up to do!

 

First off, my keyboard is giving me fits - a new one has been ordered, but until it arrives you may notice a more-than-usual number of typos :/

 

I still have pictures from my sister's wedding to share, vacation pictures, a trip to the botanical gardens, Owen's first birthday party, a few delicious recipes... the good thing is I've been busy and having lots of fun, but apparently that means no spare time to write and edit... that and Kevin decided it would be a good idea to start watcing Dollhouse on Nextflix... so this post is really me just killing time until he gets home from volleyball so we can start season 2 :)

 

 

Vacation to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic was Ahhhhhmazing!!!!!

 

Seriously, I'd be happy going back there every year. It was hard to take too many pictures, because we were really just doing a lot of chillin by the ocean and the pool, but I made sure to take a few to share!

 

Here's a view of our building

Our room was the top floor second from the left 

 

 

 

 

The inside of our room was spotless - which is a big deal for a germ-hater like me!

 

 

 

Here's the view of the fabulous pool from our balcony

 

 

 

 

This is the path we took took to breakfast every morning, isn't it so calm & beautiful?!

 

 

 

 

And our morning yoga instructor

(though he would end class petty early if you bribed him with bread ;)

 

 

 

 

Finally, a very important view... the beach!!!

 

(looking toward the resort)

 

 

 

 

(looking toward the ocean)

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, we were pretty happy with the place and all the great views & amenities

 

 

 

 

We couldn't stop smiling!

 

 

 

And if you know me, happy means I start making faces for the camera and now there are a whole bunch of pictures I can't post bacause they are completely ridiculous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



shower curtains you say? not i!

The start of this story goes back more than three years... back to when we first bought our house. We have not had curtains in our upstairs living and dining room since we moved in (except for the blue sheet we ocassionaly had to hang to reduce tv glare :). Well, maybe I should have said the story starts about 27 year ago becase it really just boils down to me: I am picky! I have actually been on the look-out for curtains, either already made or just the material, this whole three years, but until this summer was not able to find exactly what I wanted. It is a litle more than possble that I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted, but I'm poud that I didn't jump the gun and get something I'd be unhappy with!

 

Well, we were running into Lowe's for a quick pick up and low and behold I spied these shower curtains. I liked them right away and took one home to lay out in the living room for a week to see if they really were want I wanted for "the curtains".

 

Of course, you know where this is going... I did/do love them and bought 11 shower curtains to turn into regular curtains for the living room, dining room & kitchen!

 

 

 

 

I had to use the shower curtains just as matrial becase they were nether the correct length nor width. I also added curtain lining to help block out more light. Then I hemmed and added curtain rings to fnish them off.

 

Here's the room after we got our windows done this summer and before the new curtains:

 

 

 

 

And here we are now:

 

 

 

 

 

This picture is a pretty good representation of the curtain color in real life:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who doesn't love some before and after shots??

 

Here's before at the beginning of the summer:

 

 

 

 

and here's after!

 

 

 

 

Before:

 

 

 

After:

 

 

 

 

I love them enough that I find myself staring at them for long periods of time, they are so much prettier to stare at than just the wall!

 

 

 

 

let's be serious...

You remember my sister, Sarah???

She just got married!!

(see about her bridal shower, here)

Her bachelorette party was a very formal, serious event

...

NOT

!!!!!!!!!!!

In about 85% of the pictures someone (or everyone) is making a funny face. But why try to describe this when I can just show you?!?

The night started in our hotel room where everyone (except Sarah) came wearing black... and then we accessorized!

At first the girls were a little dubious about all the feathers, color & bling

but pretty soon everyone was loving it!

Our first stop was for appetizers... well, basically wine and cheese :)

Sarah was pretty excited about the cheese fondue

I guess I kinda was too

Sarah x 2

As the old ladies older girls in the group my even older sister and I tried to act mature...

...it didn't work, naturally. :)

Stop #1 was voted a success!

Our next stop was for pizza!

Because Bonnie believes a deep dish pizza filled with cheese could always use a little more cheese!

Angie & April

That's all the pizza pictures. I might have been a little focused on eating and forgot to take many pics ;)

But don't worry - next up: ice cream!

Everything started off well

but then this happened:

which of course resulted in more awesome pictures

So as you can see we had a fun silly awesome evening!

We did make one more stop

but it was past my bedtime so I took zero pictures and it was also past Marsha's bedtime because there was quite of few pictures of this candle and not much else :)

haha! Sarah, I hope you had as much fun as I did!



july holiday - fireworks

Kevin loves to play with fire and make things explode...

his brothers are all the exact same!

Every year they pool their "fun" money and put on a big fireworks show for friends, family & neighbors. I love to take pics of fireworks and I got some fun ones this year!

Enjoy: