My first 5ks!

On September 27th, I ran my first 5k with Jenny. We both did really well for our first 5k! Here is a before picture:

I will spare you of the after picture!

On October 4, 2008, I ran my first Race for the Cure with my co-workers. I had a great time at this race running with Melissa, who helped me improve my time from the previous race by about 6.5 minutes. She is awesome! Side note, she was also 11 weeks pregnant on race day, so I have to give it to her!

Here is a picture of my co-workers:

Thank you to everyone that donated to myself and my team. Together we raised over $3,600!!

Next up - the Jingle Bell Runs!

Baby Shower Invitation

I am hosting a baby shower for Nina and Carolyn at the end of October. They have decided to not find out what the gender is, so I picked up these cute make your own gender neutral invitations. Here is a picture of the invitation we sent out:Now it is on to deciding on the menu!

New Carpet

So after living here for 2 and a half years, we finally got our new carpet!!

Here is the before of our Master:

Here is the after:

Close up of before:

Close up after:

It makes the house look so much brighter :)

Our New Camera!

Travis and I have been wanting a new smaller camera for everyday photos.

After reading 100 million reviews, we decided on the Lumix DMC-TZ5 and ordered it from Amazon! It arrived two days later and we love it!

Labor Day Weekend

What was supposed to be a weekend of camping and relaxation, turned into a crazy running around shopping weekend. On Thursday, the weather channel was calling for rain all three days, so we decided that we are fair weather camping people and we should stay home. Instead, we shopped for furniture and carpet for the upstairs in our house.

I found a man on craigslist that builds custom furniture based off of Pottery Barn designs. On our drive down to his house, I snapped a picture of Travis and one of the most annoying car habits he has:

Tapping the tape deck door thingy. Mostly I think he does it just to annoy me.

Then I snapped one of me!

Ok - Back to the furniture!

So this is the copy of what he has in his house:

He will be building us one of these, as well as a night stand (which I didn't get a picture of). The gaps that are on the side of the furniture will not be there on the one he makes for us. The daybed in the picture was the first one he made. I can't wait for us to get it and put it in one of the guest rooms!

Then we went carpet shopping. We went back and forth between Berber and Twist - and ended on twist.

This is a picture of the carpet that our friends Courtney and Matt have in their house:

We will be ordering something similar this week.

New Curtains!

Travis bought me a sewing machine for christmas last year that I hadn't quite taken out of the box. We needed some curtains in our kitchen to block any peeping toms that may live behind us, so I thought there was no time like the present!

This is the window before:

And this is the window with the curtains I sewed out of ones we used to have in our first apartment:

Not bad for my first sewing project in over 10 years!

MG's Bridal Shower Brunch

This past Saturday, Melissa and I threw a bridal shower brunch for MG! We had such a blast planning the party, and just as much throwing it!

The beautiful bride and her recipe book!

The most delicious cake from Edible Art

Here are some pictures and recipes of the good food we made:

Strawberry Romanoff (stolen from La Medaline):

½ cup sour cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon brandy or vanilla
½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
4 cups fresh strawberries

Mix sour cream, brown sugar and Brandy in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, whip cream until starts to thicken and add sugar--whip until thick.
Fold cream into sour cream mixture and blend well. Serve with fresh strawberries.

I'll be making this for the upcoming sleepover!!

Lemon Poppy Muffins - so yummy! I received this recipe from Jennifer and I don't want to post the recipe, so if you would like it, I can email it to you.

Last, but definitely not least:

The Belinni Bar!!

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 (16-ounce) bag frozen peaches, thawed

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1 (16-ounce) bag frozen strawberries, thawed

1 (16-ounce) bag frozen blueberries or blackberries, thawed

4 to 6 (750-ml) bottles Prosecco, chilled

Stir the sugar and water in a large saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Cool completely.
Puree the peaches and orange peel in a blender with 1/2 cup of the sugar syrup until smooth. Strain through a fine-meshed strainer and into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate. In a clean blender puree the strawberries with 1/3 cup of the sugar syrup until smooth. Strain through a clean fine-meshed strainer and into another bowl. Discard the seeds. Puree the blueberries in a clean blender with 1/3 cup of the sugar syrup until smooth. Strain through a clean fine-meshed strainer and into a third bowl. Discard the seeds and solids. Pour each of the purees into clear glass bowls or small pitchers.
For each serving, pour 2 to 4 tablespoons of the desired fruit puree into a Champagne flute. Slowly pour enough Prosecco into the flute to fill. Gently stir to blend. Garnish with the whole berries, as desired, and serve.

Wedding Album

So we will be married for two years on October 6, 2008, and we finally ordered and received a wedding album!






Go to this 33:9383-tq>2">link at mypublisher and enter the following ID and Password:



Your Order ID # is: M760371


Your password is: 1246619

sarah, a trend setter?

So, Jenny told me this week that I should start a blog because I am quite the trend setter among the NC Nesties, and need a blog to showcase my finds. I had set up this blog account for Travis and I a few weeks ago, but have been so busy with work that I hadn't gotten a chance to create any blogs yet.
So here we go, find number one: The most AMAZING brush in the world (or maybe North Carolina)!
This brush is amazing, and does wonders for thick and curly/wavy hair! You can find it here at Ulta. Make sure you order the brush that has natural boar bristles on one side and ionic bristles on the other side. Honestly, I think I should be in sales for this brush!

And find number two: Florentine Meatballs!

Now this is a RR recipe, and usually, I find her dishes tasteless and fatty. This one, stands out for me though. In her original recipe, RR serves the meatballs in a cheese sauce. I adjusted the recipe and serve the meatballs in Trader Joes marinara sauce.

Florentine Meatballs

1 box frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave
1 1/3 pound (1 package) ground turkey breast
1 medium onion, finely chopped, divided 3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs, 3 handfuls
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, 2 palm fulls
Coarse salt and black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1/4 cup parsley leaves, chopped


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Wring defrosted spinach dry in a clean kitchen towel. Place turkey in a bowl and make a well in the middle of it. Add the spinach, onion, garlic, 1 large egg, about 1/4 cup milk, bread crumbs, grated Parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form into 12 large balls and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Arrange on a nonstick cookie sheet and roast 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

Place 3 balls on dinner plates and top with sauce, garnish with parsley.

Next time I make these for Travis and I, I'll post a picture!

our new half bath!

So after living in our house for 2 and a half years, we decided to finally completely finish one of the many rooms in our house. We made it easy on ourselves and started with the smallest room first - the half bathroom downstairs.

This is what the bathroom looked like when we bought the house:





We are not really sure what she was thinking with the color.





Now this is what we did to update and complete the very first room in the house:







Bernadette gave us this picture as an engagement present, it works perfectly!





The "newly" repurposed bathroom vanity!



So that is it! Next room up is the master bathroom (only a year in the making)!