Lovely Spring Wardrobe

I have been thinking I need to buy some new clothes for summer. No, I know I really need to buy some things for summer. I saw these lovely things on pinterest.com yesterday and I love them. (all photos via pinterest.com)

I would love to have this linen dress. It gets extremely hot here in the Summer and a linen dress would be just the thing to wear on these days.

Wouldn't this dress be great for the beach!!

I love this dress in toile fabric! I really think I'm in love-LOL!!!

Everyone needs a hat to keep away the sun and this straw hat is gorgeous! I love the black ribbon and bow.

I could wear these sandals with almost everything I own for summer! They are so great and look like they would be so comfortable. I am not a shopping kind of person unless it is for beads, yarn, crafty things and books, but if I could find these items I would definitely have to seriously think about buying them!

Lovely New Decorating Ideas

John and I were talking about how we want the new house to look, you know painting choices, decorating style, etc., etc. I decided to look on pinterest.com at what lovely ideas they had on there and boy were there alot of choices. I have pinned them all and have started a folder so I don't forget any of these lovely ideas. Here are a few things I came up with: (all photos via pinterest.com)

This pale blue bedroom really caught my eye. It looks so serene and calm. I just love everything about it!

I have always loved gray and white together. You can always use an accent color to add some pop with it or just keep it simple with the gray and white.

Aqua and turquoise are one of my favorite colors. This photo shows alot of different shades and I will be using some of the palette in my decorating :)!

I saw this idea and I know I will just have to use it somewhere in one of the bathrooms. I also love the paint color on the wall with the white towel rack-just gorgeous!

Last but not least is this comfy corner as I call it. I would love to recreate this somewhere in the new house. I can see myself reading or knitting there. Well that is it for decorating ideas for the moment. I hope everyone has a lovely day! ENJOY!!

My new haircut.

Here is the pictures I promised you:

Again these aren't the greatest pictures of me. The haircut is so much better than having the longer hair all one length.

Last night I got my hair chopped off!

Over the weekend and during the day yesterday I just decided my hair has gotten way too long for me. I started to feel weighed down. I have very thick hair. Where I had been going to get my hair done kept telling me I definitely could wear my hair in one layer. No way! My hair just gets so weighed down and has no body when I let it grow that way. At first it seemed to be working and then all of a sudden it got almost to my shoulders and I realized no way is this working!! Yesterday I had just had it, so I called the salon I used to go to (Harmony Salon in Blakeney), made an appt. for 6:00 and bit the bullet! I love what Heather (my stylist) did to my hair!!! She listened to everything I told her I thought was happening to my hair and thoughts I had about what should be done. Funny thing that happened when I was there, she asked me where I was originally from. I told her and she said she was born in Vernon, NJ. OMG, that is about 2 towns away from where I lived and grew up! Jenny, my youngest daughter used to do downhill ski racing at the ski area in Vernon!! Small world isn't it! She was so nice and did a fabulous job! I am so glad I had this done, I feel so much better and the best thing is this salon is right up the road from where we will be moving in April!! I guess Owen will have to find something else to pull on while Nana is holding him-LOL!!

In all the rush last night I forgot to take a picture. John took one this a.m. I'll post it after I get home from knitting tonight.

Everyone have a great day!!

We found an apartment!

John and I decided we better not waste any time finding an apartment to move into the middle of next month. We went to look at an apartment where our girls had rented. It was very nice and they had an apartment available with a garage but we decided to look at some more. We went to another group of apartments that are done in the Craftsman Style (like our house will be). We were pleasantly surprised that the apartment cost less, they gave us money off for an incentive and the garage was included, they also would give us our application fee back off our first months rent. So we are set for the next 6 months!! We will be moving into the apartment on April 14th!

Here is a picture of the outside of the apartment:

We will be on the ground floor apartment. There is a dog park for Teddy (our Golden), a pool, pergola areas, grill areas and some people even have rented Community Gardens! It is a really great place to rent and all the tenants we met while looking at the apartments seem very nice. They are really dog friendly there too!

I am so glad the search is over with! Now I must get packing!!

Lovely afternoon spent with family and friends!

Today Jenny, my youngest daughter was hosting the knitting group at her house. She did a great job at making food for us. She made cucumber sandwiches, deviled eggs, pasta salad, chips and dip and lemon cupcakes with little red poppies on the top. Everything was so good! There were 8 of us all together and we knitted, chatted, played with Owen and just plain enjoyed being with each other. Megan, my oldest daughter joined us too! It was really good to see her. She was making her Spring wreath for her front door while we knitted away. She found the wreath on pinterest.com. It is made out of eyelash yarn that is bright green and there are little daisies on it. It looks really cute!!

Here is what the wreath looks like (photo via pinterest.com)

My friend, Julie rode up to Jenny's with me and after we left Jenny's we rode by my new neighborhood and saw where we will be building our new house. She really liked it alot.

After I got home, I cooked John and I some dinner and then I packed up all my Christmas dishes in the Dining Room cupboard and all of John's grandmother's china. That was no small fete let me tell you!

We will be moving into an apartment until October when our house will be complete. We need to be out of here by 5/1! YIKES, I better get sorting and packing!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Floor Plans for the New House

A few of you have asked me to post the floor plans for the new house. Here you go!

First Floor

There is a change in the kitchen. Instead of the counter on an angle we will have an island there. I love island and I liked that plan better. We added a fireplace in the Great Room also but we did not do the tray ceiling in the Dining Room or the Coffered Ceiling in the Office.

Second Floor

The only 2 changes on the second floor is Bedroom #2. We are going to take the hallway wall out and make it a loft/bonus room. We will leave the walk-in closet in that room for storage. We don't need 4 bedrooms and I saw something similar in another house and it looked awesome and lets in alot of light. The other change is in the Master Bath. The toilet will be in its own closet and our walk-in closet will have a door into the bedroom. We did not do the tray ceiling in the Master Bedroom either.

We are really excited about this house! I can't wait until October. I promise I won't gush about the house all the time until then though-LOL!! I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

New House Choices all picked out Today!

Today I took off from work. John and I had an appointment with the Design Center to make all the choices for our new house! We were so excited! The appt. was for 12:30 and was suppose to take 2-2.5 hrs. Well we got there at 12:30 and we left the design center 5:30!!! Everything has been picked out!!! We are so happy with all our choices. There was only 1 light fixture that I know will be changed out after we move in. I thought that was pretty awesome due to all the choices we had to make!

Here is the elevation we picked out:

I have to apologize for the picture, that was the best I could do tonight. I'll explain what is on there. The bottom half of the house will be Buck's County Stacked Stone, the horizontal lines are hardi-plank siding and the peaks will be hardi-plank shakes. We love the Craftsman style of this elevation. We are really happy we will have a full front porch too. The garage doors won't be in the front either-we will have a side-load garage. So where the garage doors are on the photo there will be 2 windows instead.

We picked a color for the hardi-plank siding (Duron Quiver Tan). It is a gray like tan. Where the shakes are it will be a few shades darker with white trim. Shutters are another color gray too. I love all the colors.

We picked so many things out carpet, kitchen cabinets, granite, cabinet knobs, faucets, stove, trim, lighting, etc., etc.! I loved every minute of it!! I love looking at all the choices and seeing what is out there.

Megan came to the design center with John and I. With her interior design degree and things we like we all agreed on all the choices made! It was tiring but enjoyable.

Now I can't wait to see everything put in place! Thank you all for indulging me in my excitement about the new house!!

What a Wonderful Visit from a Dear Friend!!

This weekend Angie, my friend from Fayetteville came for a visit. She arrived Friday night and we chatted and chatted. Saturday we chatted some more and then we headed to Skillets for brunch. Next we went to a bead shop in the Midwood Plaza section of Charlotte for some wire I needed. Then we headed over to where John and I will be having our house built. We went through the model home and drove passed the lot where our home will be built. After that we stopped by Megan and Ken's so Jenny, Megan, Ken and Owen could meet Angie. Then we headed over to our house where I proceeded to cook Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner for us. In the mean time John came home and he had Owen with him! Owen and Angie formed a great bond!! Here are some pictures of the two of them!

Angie and Owen were playing in this picture. Angie would do "raspberries" on Owen cheeks and neck and he would laugh and laugh at her!

Angie had shiny buttons on her shirt and Owen loved them!!

I love this picture of the two of them. They are great friends!!

Saturday night Angie and I were talking downstairs. Angie on the couch and me in my one in a half chair. Angie hear Owen crying. I went upstairs to calm him down thinking he lost his pacifier or something like that. No that was not the case. He was crying and crying like he was in pain. I brought him downstairs and he would not stop crying. He seemed like something was really hurting. John came downstairs too. I changed him and he cried even more. John finally called Jenny and she came to see what the problem was. In the meantime we had put an Orajel like cream on his gums (he is teething) and he burped and burped. He stopped crying right before Jenny got here! Mind you he had a very long day-St. Patrick's Day Parade, no nap, he is teething, Mommy wasn't there to sooth him (he has become very clingy to Jenny) and our neighbors decided to have this huge, very loud party which I think woke Owen up. The poor little guy seemed comforted that Jenny was there and he proceeded to fall asleep on my chest. By that time it was around 1:30ish and we were all tired. Jenny went to the back guest room, Angie went to the Guest Room by our room, Owen was in his crib and John and I went to our room. Everyone then slept all night!!

Today Jenny took Owen home, Angie, John and I chatted some more. Then Angie, John and I went to Dean and DeLuca, Orvis and Renovators Supply. We came back to the house and chatted some more and then Angie headed home.

The house seems empty without her here! We always have a great time when we get together and I hope we can visit with each more frequently!! As I type this I am sipping iced tea and I just had a the most delicious piece of chocolate that Angie brought as a gift!! It is awesome-life is good!!

Safe trip home Angie!!

Ready or Not Here I am in my new Spring Scarf!

Well I didn't like this picture either, but I thought I would post it anyway. I can't believe how chubby my face is in this picture. I think I need a haircut too! I did just have one and wanted to have my haircut shorter for summer and my hairdresser talked me out of it! Please just look at the scarf. I am really proud with the way it turned out and I did get alot of compliments on it! Thanks for putting up with my picture hating syndrome-LOL!!!

Picture Taking

For the most part all of my photos that I've taken come out pretty good (if I can say so myself!). But when someone takes a picture of me, it looks horrible!! It doesn't matter who takes it, I just look terrible! I made my scarf, showed everyone the yarn and said I would post a picture of me wearing it. That was really silly of me because I forgot how horrible I look in photos! I look at the photo and I say to John, "do I really look like that"! The good husband that he is says, "no sweetie you don't look like that". I don't remember when I was little not taking great photos. Actually I thought I looked pretty cute when I was little. I went to the photo album and looked at photos and realized that around the time that I had my neck surgery I just don't look that great in photos! What is up with that!!! Maybe because I hold me head different, maybe because they cut threw muscle and my neck looks different now, I just don't know. Yesterday morning John took 3 pictures of me with the scarf on and I deleted all of them! This morning he took some more and after dinner I'm going to load them on the computer and see. Keep your fingers crossed everyone!!

Megan, our oldest daughter always takes a great photo! She could have 105 fever, been sick for 3 days and look fabulous in her photos! Jenny, our youngest daughter always looks great in all her photos too. Owen, of course, looks so cute in all his photos too! I really hope I find out what the issue is.

Have any of you had problems with photos being taken of you?

Bird Nest Necklaces!

Tonight I completed the orders I had for 4 bird nest necklaces. I make them out of non-tarnishing sterling silver wire and regular sterling silver wire I will be making some more and putting them on my etsy site in the next few days Here is what I created:

This necklace is for my friend's sister. She wanted to have 2 blue eggs in this nest because her Mom (who has passed away) took a picture of an egret with 2 blue eggs in her nest. Last year for Julie's birthday I gave her a bird nest necklace with 2 blue eggs in it and now she ordered something similar for her sister.

My friend, Hope ordered this for one of her family members.

This is another shot of Hope's necklace.

My other knitting friend, Pam ordered this necklace. The 3 eggs represent her grandchildren and herself! I love this idea!

Hope ordered another necklace that has 2 blue eggs and a clear aurora borealis Swarovski crystal in the nest The 2 blue eggs represent her grandchildren and the crystal is the Mom's of the grandchildren's birthstone-Diamond. I love this idea also.

Hope you like the nests. If you would like to order one with a specific amount of eggs in them, you can e-mail me. My e-mail address is: cmcdermitt1 at carolina dot rr dot com. I would make them and put them on my etsy site as special order so you could pay for your order through PayPal.

Great Weekend!

I had a great weekend! Saturday was spent with Owen and Jenny! That is always a fun time. Sunday morning I made a nice breakfast for John and I. In the afternoon I met up with my knitting girls at Dillworth Coffee in Mint Hill. We spent the afternoon gabbing and knitting (and drinking coffee or chai tea). We talked about our kids, our jobs, new patterns and yarns. We had a really great time!! I came home and made a nice meatloaf dinner for John and I. After dinner I made 2 bird nest necklaces that were ordered by one of my knitting friends. I love creating those nests!! My friend wanted one with 3 cream pearl "eggs" and the second one had 2 blue pearl "eggs" with a clear aurora borealis round crystal in it! I have 2 more to make tonight. The one has 3 white pearl "eggs" in it and the other one has 2 blue pearl "eggs" in it. They never come out the same, which I love! I'm working with a new wire now that is non-tarnishing from Germany. It is really easy to bend and shape and makes the greatest curliques-just like a real nest!!

I'm at work now and I have tons to do, guess I better get to it!! Everyone have a lovely day!!!

Today was a cleaning and visiting day!

(as you can see Jenny got her haircut short! I think she looks wonderful with that cut)

This morning John and I knew Kevin would be dropping Owen off for a visit with us. Jenny had a meeting at the restaurant and Kevin was going to the shooting range for a little while. Owen was wide awake when he arrived. I made pancakes and he loved those for sure!! After Jenny's meeting was done she came down to spend the day with John and I. We had lunch together. We shared some of our lunch with Owen and he had his own food too! He is a little chow hound! Then Jenny and I went to 2 Goodwill stores. I scored a really pretty turquoise shell top for summer and a Perry Ellis America Collection leather handbag for only $2.99 and in excellent condition! When I came home I got out the leather cleaner and polish and spiffed that baby up and it looks brand new! Jenny and I played with Owen for a little bit and then we packed up the books on the bookshelf in the Guest Room. Jenny and Owen went home around 4:30 and then John and I continued to go through our other 2 bookshelves in the office. I am donating alot of books to Goodwill and the Library in the next week or so. Then John and I proceeded out to the garage where we went through 4 huge boxes of books and clean out an old wood filing cabinet. Everything is already for Goodwill now! We then went upstairs to Owen's Room where there were 5 more boxes of things that needed to be gone through. We now have 3 boxes of things! All in all I think we did a wonderful job today of mixing pleasure with work! I do have to say I am exhausted right now and I'm just going to chill out for the rest of the night!

It was a wonderful day with Jenny and Owen though. I love when they visit. Owen didn't want to sleep though while he was here, but I'm sure he slept on the way over to his Auntie Megs house where he and his parents were having dinner tonight!

It was a near perfect day!!

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

Todays book review is Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult. Here is a review from Goodreads.com:

A life hanging in the balance…a family torn apart. The #1 internationally bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells an unforgettable story about family, love, and letting go.

Edward Warren, twenty-four, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: His dad lies comatose, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara.

With her father’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?

Lone Wolf explores the notion of family, and the love, protection and strength it’s meant to offer. But what if the hope that should sustain it, is the very thing that pulls it apart? Another tour de force from Jodi Picoult, Lone Wolf examines the wild and lonely terrain upon which love battles reason.

My take on the book is I thought is was really fabulous!! This dysfunctional, torn apart family experienced so many highs, lows and everything in between. I love the way Jodi Picoult wrote each chapter from a different persons perspective. You got the feel of what that person was going through at that time. I felt so bad for Edward, the son and Cara, the daughter. The were put through so many emotions with regard to each other and whether they should terminate life support for their father, Luke. I loved reading about how a wolf thinks and reacts to certain things. There were some interesting facts in this book about wolves, things I never was aware of. I had a hard time putting this book down, I always wanted to find out more and how the family was coping with such a heartbreaking situation and decision that had to be made. I really wouldn't change a thing about this book or criticize a thing! I think Jodi Picoult has another winner on her hands and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this book.

I was not paid by the publisher, author or anyone else for writing this review. This review is my opinion of this book.

St. Patrick's Day is Next Weekend!

St. Patrick's Day is next Saturday! Boy times flies when you are having fun (or super duper busy!!). I was looking on pinterest.com for some St. Patrick's Day items for the upcoming holiday. Here are some things I thought I would share:

(photos via pinterest.com)

Isn't this a glorious picture of Ireland!! I love it!

This cake looks yummy! You can find the recipe and how to at this link: http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/03/05/green-velvet-cheesecake-cake/

These Shamrock Shakes look so good!! Go to this link to find the recipe: http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/952069/shamrock-shake-recipe

Here is the link for these delectable cookies: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/chocolate-mint-thumbprints/84c09832-5f0e-4590-8416-83aea0e4e972?itemId=ca017e04-41d8-4ec2-988b-6fa5a5d7bb30

Love this St. Patrick's Day wreath that you could actually use all Spring!

I made this St. Patrick's Day Bookmark and had it in my etsy shop. I will be putting a few more Irish Bookmarks on my site again soon.

Another great St. Patrick's Day Wreath for your front or back door.

I love, love, love this idea!! Take a cabbage head and core out the center, fill with potting soil and place a "clover" plant in cabbage head! What a great St. Patrick's Day centerpiece!!

Hope this post put you in the mood for St. Patrick's Day!! Have a great weekend everyone!

African Violet Stand Idea!!

(photo via pinterest.com)

The other day I was looking at pinterest.com and I saw this wonderful idea. You take 2 cake plates (each a different size) and you stack one on top of the other. Then take little African Violets and plant them in all different kinds of mugs or teacups and put them around the cake plate. Presto, you have a lovely arrangement!! I'm going to try this!

Sweet Peas!

When I was a little girl around 5, I could not wait for Spring to arrive! I love robins and sweet peas!!! We lived in Kinnelon, NJ then and my Dad had built our house at the end of a cul-de-sac. My cousins, Karen and John lived on a diagonal from us. It was an extremely quiet street so I was allowed to ride my bike around the end of the cul-de-sac while my Mom was taking care of my middle sister, Sue, cleaning the house and doing laundry. There was 1 lot on the cul-de-sac that no one built on because it sloped down to a stream and it wasn't a prime buildable lot (today there is a house on it!!). One day I was looking down the hill because I saw pink amongst the green on the slope. Guess what it was, sweet peas growing there in all their loveliness!! They were like a magnet to me. The smelled so good and looked so pretty. Well guess what I did! I climbed carefully down the hill and picked a big bouquet for my Mom. Of course, when I brought them to her, I got yelled at for climbing down the hill. She said, " you could have killed yourself"! Secretly I think my Mom was glad I brought them to her (and she was glad I didn't tumble down that steep hill). She did say later on that they smelled so good.

I haven't grown any sweet peas in my adult life but I think our new house would be just the perfect place to plant some next Spring! Every time I see sweet peas I think of that slope with all those lovely sweet peas just waiting for me to pick them!! Hope you enjoyed my story! Everyone have a lovely day!

Spring Scarf I'm Knitting Now

I have been knitting a new Spring Scarf lately for myself. It is made from Katia yarn. The specific kind is called Degrade. The colors are gradient shades of coral. I have always loved those colors and when I saw this yarn at Yarnhouse in the NoDa section of Charlotte, I just had to have it!!

Here are some shots of the new scarf:

When I complete it, I'll have John take a picture of me with it on!

Some Beach Glass Necklaces and other New Items on my Etsy site!!

I was busy creating away last night! I made 5 new necklaces for my site and I had so much fun designing and creating! I have missed working on necklaces and other pieces of jewelry. There will be more added to my site in the next few days. Here is what I made so far:

Atlantis Beach Glass Necklace

Oceanic Necklace

Sea Foam Beach Glass Necklace

Waves Necklace

Terrapin Necklace

If you see something you like, go to my right side bar and click on my etsy site and it will take you right there!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Those of you in storm areas, like we were last night and this a.m. please be safe and sound. John and I and our entire family is fine but some people were less fortunate!! Prayers for those who have been affected by the storms and tornadoes!

Do More of What Makes You Happy!

I saw this poster on pinterest and I really liked it! I'm going to paint one someday soon and put it in our new house! This poster got me thinking of what makes me happy. I came up with the ideas:

One of my greatest joys is laughing with Owen. This was taken last weekend and we had such a grand time!!

Having tea with friends-this is one of my favorite past times (don't get to do this often enough though!)

This little squirrel and chick are hugging each other and I do love to hug!

This little boy looks like he is singing his heart out playing that old accordian. I love to sing, even though I'm not very good at it! I think everyone should sing regardless of their voice, just like this little boy!!

I think feeling free enough to twirl around like this little girl would make anyone happy! Wouldn't it make you happy!

Reading books are one of my favorite past times. You can get lost in a book like nothing else!

Knitting is also something that makes me really happy! It is like my yoga-relaxing, good for you and wonderful!

I hope this post makes you think about what makes you happy and I hope you do more that make you happy! Enjoy your weekend everyone!