How Does Your Garden Grow?

Happy Easter Everyone! We hope you have enjoyed a nice day with your friends and family.
This weekend we planted some things and I am very excited! I wanted to document my veggies to see how far they go...as in, how long it takes them to die! Just kidding...hopefully. I tend to have a lethal green thumb so plants are somewhat daunting. With produce prices sky high and urban gardens being all the rage, I decided to do a couple of container "gardens". We also wanted to start out small before building a raised bed in the backyard. Think of it as a test! In one container I planted tomatoes with some Creeping Jenny in front. The other has bell peppers, a cuc and some Creeping Jenny. We are going to give the Topsy Turvy another go with a cucumber plant. This time Ashley is not allowed to pour Miracle Grow in! Pretty sure that is what killed the little cuke we had going last year. Fingers crossed!

Tomatoes and Creeping Jenny

Our lovely snapdragons in front of our house.

The awesome landscaping that came with the house! John has kept it up nicely.

Creeping Jenny and spot for unknown flower.

Snapdragon

Rosemary

Bell Peppers and Cucumber with some Creeping Jenny

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone we love! May it be a day to reflect on the one's you love and the one's that love you...

I have loved AND hated Valentine's Day along the years. This year I love it and as long as John loves me, I will continue to enjoy it. We don't do anything too crazy but enjoy dinner (usually at home) and some semi-cheap champagne. It really doesnt differ much from our date nights and that is why I love it. We do not need a day to make things "special" because everyday is special :)

Good Week!

This has been a great week so far! Sunday, we booked our trip to St. Lucia! We are so excited and ready for a trip of this caliber. Neither of us have ever been on an all-inclusive vacay and cannot wait to milk it for all its worth! We will be staying at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian resort located in between the Carribean Sea and Rodney Bay of St. Lucia. There are two other Sandals located nearby that we will be allowed to visit (3-in-1 deal). We would love any advice or ideas for our trip, so please share :)

This Saturday (Jan 22) Down by Five will be playing at Deep South in downtown Raleigh. They will be playing with the very talented Beggars Caravan of Raleigh, NC. We love BC and bought their CD "Take Me With You" at one of their shows. I am no music critic but their music makes me happy and that is all I ask for! The show starts at 9:00 pm and will last until they kick us out! Grab your friends and head on out!

Let it Snow!

Merry Day After Christmas! We hope you and your family had a very Merry day! We spent the morning with my mom's family and had a great time. The food was excellent and there were plenty of laughs. The kids actually all sat at the "grown up table" this year while all the adults sat at the card tables that are normally the kids tables. The tables had turned so to speak haha.

The three sisters and my sweet grandmother.

She is excited about the spread!

After we all sat around for a bit and digested, John, my sister, her boyfriend and myself went back to Raleigh to spend the evening with his family. His mother came in from Charlotte and the snow didn't stop her!
Speaking of snow, we are sitting around the fireplace watching it through our windows at this very moment. It is beautiful! This is the first big snow my little sister has seen in awhile (she lives in Myrtle Beach). We are so blessed to have them here this weekend.

My sis and her handsome man friend!

The awesome airbrushed drum head John got from my sis and her boyfriend.

The weather report is calling for more snow this afternoon and we are elated. I know it is a bummer for some people who have to travel or go into work today and for this I am sorry. But nothing beats the still of the day after a good snow. Nothing beats the taste of homemade snow cream. Nothing beats sledding down a hill at full speed. Even getting that little bit of snow on your wrist (where your glove and jacket arm have seperated). It stinks at the time but it all adds to the memories :) So if you got snow this weekend, please go outside and enjoy it!

WOW!

DB5 in the QC

So John and I are totally drained from a very fun time in Charlotte. We left yesterday morning (after I caught our bacon plate paper towel on fire..don't ask) and made our way to Charlotte. John's band, Down by Five, played at the Double Door Inn (a Charlotte landmark).

We hit some snow on the way down but nothing too serious. It made it feel like Christmas! Once we got there John, Josh (John's older bro) and myself went to his friends Oyster Roast. I don't think I have ever seen so many oysters in one place! It was a great way to jump start the day. They had a keg of Starhill Brewery's "The Gift" beer and it was phenomenal. Afterwards we met his dad for dinner and drinks. Later on in the evening, John's madre and I zipped on down to the venue. The guys had to get there early to set up. This show was so exciting and it had a great turn out! Being from Charlotte, John had quite a group of people make it out! We were even lucky enough to hear Andy play some old Big Chief stuff and Ronnie tear apart "Bulls on Parade".

One thing made this show even more exciting and that was due to it being streamed LIVE from the venue. The guys used this website (http://www.ustream.tv/) to do it and had 37 people log in to view the two set show! It amazes me what technology allows us to do. My mom was able to watch the show from Raleigh! I hope they make this a regular addition to the shows.

We would like to thank everyone that made it out last night! From family to friends to complete strangers (strangers no more after being doused with some friendly tunes), thank you for supporting these guys and bringing your friends. The good people at The Double Door were so good to us and we look forward to going back (we as in they...haha).

Hello Friends and Family!

Hello Party Peoples! If you are looking at this than hopefully your Christmas card made it over the river and through the woods. We are starting this blog to update friends and family on the following:

- Down By Five band updates (John is the drummer in case you did not know)
- house renovations and diy projects
- doggie news (for now we have an invisible one)
- random ideas
- status of ashley's civic and if it is still alive (thought we almost lost her today! dead battery...whew!)
- new recipes and beers we try and recommend
- belated honeymoon trip planning
- any other things that come about while we rummage through our lives....

We have all kinds of projects and ideas in mind for our lovely home (the previous owners already did a baller job but we have a few ideas of our own :)). Today is the first day of the rest of our lives!! How refreshing!