Haven't had much to talk about lately......

Jeremy was out of town all last week helping his brother.... so I was a lazy bum. Nothing fun to report. We did have an awesome date night on Saturday at Qdoba :-) We sat, laughed and walked around Birkdale for a bit. I got some new magazines at Barns & Noble.... Coastal Living was one. I really need to just subscribe to this magazine.... with what I've spent on 2 I could have subscribed for the whole year..... I also picked up Charlotte Weddings.... which I forgot I already had a (free) copy of.... bleh..... and then Real Simple Weddings. This magazine came with a free subscription for a year with purchase... so $13 for a year isn't too shabby.... however, the magazine was great, nice, high quality.... but the content was more like a how-to guide for brides... not like a traditional wedding magazine. Hopefully their future issues will be a little more traditional.

I spent Saturday night reading my magazines while Jeremy watched football..... I feel like we lucked out because the Coastal Living had a really nice article on spending a weekend in Miami, and what to see, do, and where to eat.... and a month from now, we will be spending a weekend ini Miami, before heading off on our cruise! It was a great article, and gave us lots of ideas!

House Update.... Rugs!

I took a little video of our house now that it's somewhat back in order....



The plan is to work on the stairs on Saturday and/or Sunday. Then work on the master bedroom on Monday and/or Tuesday!!

Jeremy told me he didn't want to do the flooring in our bedroom till we had a rug... well, CHECK! I stopped in TJMaxx/Homegoods at Concord Mills on Saturday to return that lamp I had on my desk. I thought I'd peek at their rug selection... there it was an 8x10 for $149! I had $32 in store credit, and $41 on a gift card, so it only cost me $88 with tax!

I also found a 6'6" x 6'6" gray rug for our dining room on ebay- from a local dealer here in Charlotte. I am still waiting to hear if I can just go get it, instead of waiting for it to be shipped.

Am I Crazy?

We won't call it crazy, we'll call it planning ahead.

I spotted this fabric yesterday. Feel in love (only I wanted it in yellow, navy or gray). I emailed them. They emailed me back. It comes in yellow.

I am buying 5 yards of it.

Why? Because my last name is Horton (Dr. Seuss anyone?)and when we have a baby, the poor thing will be surrounded by elephants.

So yes- I am buying fabric for a nursery I don't have, for a child I don't have.

No, I'm not pregnant.

I couldn't resist.

And if you're wondering- our nursery will be yellow, navy, gray and white. Gender neutral.

Necklace Storage....

So, I mentioned in my last post I would be getting some hooks for my necklaces.... Check! Stopped by CVS on the way home :-)

I have a VERY nice jewelry box that Jeremy gave me for my birthday? or Christmas? last year.... not sure which.... (it's Lenox!) but it's not quite big enough for all my dangly necklaces... I also have an old jewelry box that I got when I was about 10ish, that's also nice, but tiny!

Solution.....

Bedroom Updates!

So if you saw this video.... you noticed our "dresser" in our bedroom has changed. We switched out this dresser:

for my computer cabinet. The finish matches all our furniture in our room, whereas our other one didn't.

We'd just folded all of Jeremy's clothes neatly- until yesterday, when all our nice new storage boxes came from Crate & Barrel!

Old cabinet:


New cabinet:


I am going to get some 3M hooks to stick on the inside of the doors to hold all my chunky necklaces!

You also see all our DVDs in the first photo.... we bought this from Crate & Barrel too, to store them in under our guest bed!



Here are all the boxes I bought:

1. Black Plastic (for undies, socks, and random things)- from the Target $1 section at the front of the store for $2.50 each. (I bought several more to put in our bathroom cabinet)
2. White square boxes.
3. Set of 4 storage boxes

If you follow me on twitter, you know I had an adventure with trying to make a pillow with piping on Tuesday night. Here's the finished product:



Closeup:



This chair I bought a while back from Ikea, in their clearance section for $99 I think.It's been in our junk room/old office with a blue and white stripe cover. I went by Ikea this weekend, and picked up the solid white cover for $29.

On a Roll!

I've been entirely too productive this week at work.... it's a deadline week.... so I've taken a few extra blogging moments today to even out my stress level :-)

More beachy inspiration!

We will have outdoor spaces like these.... remember all that furniture we've already bought.... riiiiiight :-)

 This furniture is too fussy for me... but the layout is what I am thinking!!!






















In all seriousness- this is exactly how I picture the beach house kitchen. Open shelves, the colors, the simplicity. Everything.

Via MFAMB

Today's Lunch....

I've been trying to be better about bringing my lunch to work.... today is a success in that department!

Here's what's in my lunchbox:

1. Whole grain sandwich rounds with Stans Pimento Cheese
2. Mott's Natural Apple Sauce
3. Yoplait Greek Yogurt (had a coupon, and thought I'd try it) I'll let you know how it taste... I've had chobani and didn't like it.
3. Strawberries cut up for the yogurt
4. Back to Nature cranberry pecan granola for the yogurt (found this in the 50% off bin at Lowe's Food... and it's yummy!)
5. Coke.... it's my weakness... I love it!

Jeremy & I aren't the only Newlyweds on the block!

If you follow me on twitter.... you probably already know the news....

My Dad got married yesterday!!!!

They took a trip to Asheville, and are staying at the Grove Park Inn. They got married somewhere at or near the Grove Park Inn....

"found out for $20 we could get married, so we found 2 winos for witnesses"

Gah, I love my dad, he cracks me up!

Here they are at our wedding last October! She caught the bouquet :-)

(sorry for the crappy pics- they're screen shots)

Target Deals!

Yesterday I stopped off at Target on my way home to return a couple of throw pillows I'd bought for our bedroom. I remembered that I'd printed some clothing coupons ($2 off a men's Merona shirt, $3 off any women's denim & $2 off any Merona pants/skirt/shorts)

Jeans were both 75% off- marked down to $6.24 each, and the shirt was $9.98. 

I got 2 pair of jeans & a dress shirt for Jeremy for $15!!!!

EXTRA EXTRA!!!

Don't you just love the State Fair???

I do.... here & here.....

We've decided to offer a special "fair photo shoot" price :-)

Head over to our photo blog for details!!!

Boring Thursday....

Not much to report today. I did get a mini haircut yesterday.... since getting bangs cut in January I've had a funky do- that really only looks decent when I "fix" it. Let's face it.... lately, I've been a wash, dry and run out of the house girl. I have decided to start letting my hair grow out a bit.... I've been keeping it super short, till these last 6 months when I've neglected my hair.... so the growing out of the hair wasn't a conscious decision- but instead something that just happened.

Well, Tuesday I had a meeting across the state- making it easy to hit up my wonderful hairdresser, Anna at Lux Salon. (Yes, I drive 2.5 hours to get a haircut... I worked at a salon in Durham before moving, and was driving back there.... then I decided to try out a "nice" place here... sucked ass... got the worst haircut ever... so Jeremy booked me with a girl where he was going... been there ever since!)

I asked her just to make my "bangs" not so random.... so she left the length like I wanted, and added a few layers in to blend the bangs in with... It's SO much better!

Of course I got up as late as posssible today, and didn't fix it, so I won't be showing you a photo... but just know it looks a lot better :-)

In other news- We have a super fun baby photo shoot tonight, and I can't wait! Happy Thursday!

More Flooring!

They got our "old office" floored last night! Yay! I think they are planning to do our bedroom on Thursday- then all that will be left are the steps!




You can see the disaster that is our bedroom here.... They also emptied out the computer cabinet and moved it into our bedroom. We are using it as Jeremy's dresser now :-)

The old short dresser with mirror(detached and put in the attic) will go in the old office.... and either wait to be moved-(more on that later) or will become our dresser/changing table when we have a baby and that room becomes the nursery.

I also plan to paint the 2 matching dressers, night stand, and my old desk all white and put new hardware on them.... I hope Jeremy's parents don't have a cow (it's their old stuff!)

Beach Lot Photos!

..... now on to the photos :-)

The mosquitoes were eating us alive, so we didn't stay long......

random goodness around our lot.

Random bricks that are getting cleaned up today!

What happens when the self timer is 5 secs, not 10.

That's better :-)

Us.

Walking through the lot.

Beach Lot Survey....

I'm posting the survey so you get a better idea of the video where we're walking through the lot.... of where ours is......

OUR LOT!!!

So we are officially beach lot owners!!! It really seems so surreal to be 26 years old and own property to build our own vacation home! After we signed the paperwork it seemed like this is one of those things that we would have always regretted not doing if we'd decided not to buy the lot.


I took videos and photos!







I'll be back later to talk more about the weekend!

My First Vlog!

So I thought with all the chaos going around my house, I should video it! I happen to have my day job DSLR at home and it takes video- so I grabbed it and got to filming.

Don't judge the messy house. I plan to clean it up very well, and giving you all a video tour soon :-)


Untitled from Jessica Horton on Vimeo.

Fall Finds!

With lasts weekends cool weather, it had me longing for sweaters & boots :-)

Here's a few of my favorite new fall items!

J Crew $165 .... I'll likely be stalking this to go on sale!

Anthropologie $298 .... will likely be stalking these too!

J Crew $258

Anthropologie $98 If I hadn't just bought 2 gray sweaters at the J Crew sale, I'd be all over this!

Target.com $87.99 They actually have one in store I like better- but it's not online.

Giving Away.....

With all of my recent clothing purchases, it was time again to go through my closet and drawers and do a serious purge. I have quite a few pair of dress pants that no longer fit around my hips.... (size 6ish) if anyone wants them..... I know off the top of my head, there are black, brown, black and white stripe, teal, and linen pairs.... some are Express, and Banana Republic.... all in great condition. If you want them let me know.... I can box them up and send them. If you don't want them, then you can take them to goodwill.

Pants:

Here's my massive pile waiting to go.....  (and blogger keeps uploading it upside down... UGH!)

Directions to J Crew....

Since Julie asked in the comments on my last post- and I know others are wondering..... Here are directions on getting to the J Crew distribution center:

Take I40 west to Asheville
Take I26 south towards Hendersonville (you'll exit left)
Take the first exit (exit 33)
Take a left off the exit
Drive 5 miles (you'll drive under the Blue Ridge Parkway, and next to a river)
Turn right on Commerce Way (it's at a stoplight)
J Crew is on the left.

You don't have to wait till the once a month yard sale- they have a small clearance store on the end of the warehouse that's open everyday! I've gotten some amazing deals in there too! And- at the counter in the clearance store they have a sign up sheet to get emails on when the yard sales are!

Weekend Edition II

Now.... on to Saturday :-)

Got up early, Mel met me at my house with Starbucks and we hit the road for the J Crew yard sale! It started at 10, so we wanted to get there by then. We arrived, and the line was out the door into the parking lot.... to make a long story short- we waited 3 HOURS!!!! I've never waited more than a half hour to get in the sale.... but after driving 2 hours to get there, we weren't giving up!

We got in the door about 1:15ish and shopped till about 3..... digging in boxes for treasures. Of course, I always end up buying more for Jeremy than I do me.... probably because their are way more women there rifling through the women's boxes, and the mens boxes go a lot less touched. I went on a mission to find Jeremy some gray dress pants.... and kept an open mind about anything else....

Here's the rundown of what I got:

For Me:
Gray & Yellow polka dot bathing suit- one piece
2 Gray cardigans (one of which I discovered a hole in when I got home... ugh!)
2 solid talk tops, one gray, one navy
One white tank with roses
Gray, silk, sleeveless, ruffley top... my favorite purchase!
Gray and white headband
AND- this dress! (only paid $20 for it!!!) -mine is navy like the photo!

From Julie's blog- it was her bridesmaids dress!

For Jeremy:
3 pairs of dress pants- one black, one navy w/gray pin stripes, and one black
1 pair of khakis (which were a fail!)
a tan sweater vest (which he isn't sure about.... but I think it's damn cute!)
A white button down shirt
A white and gray stripe polo
Navy and white stripe shorts
Red shorts
Black and white striped tie



Total Spent: $175 ...... what ONE of the pairs of dress pants I bought Jeremy retails for ... verdict.... success!

I'll try and take photos of all the stuff I bought that isn't online anymore..... (I also got 2 really great dresses last Sunday... I need to photograph them too!)

Weekend Edition.

I normally don't do much weekend posting.... I'm guilty of always blogging from my desk at work. But I'll make an exception today :-)

I wanted to share all the Friday & Saturday goodness I've had!

Friday....  I made a Super Target stop on my way home from my office to scope out the storage container section. Why you ask? Well on Thursday we did a little rearranging of our "office area". I had decided on Sunday, the shelf that hung above my desk was just too intrusive and bulky- so I bought one of those picture ledge thingies from Ikea. So Wednesday night we Jeremy removed the shelf and started patching the massive holes it left in our wall. On Thursday he sanded down the holes and hung the picture ledge, and put the shelf under the desk for storage.

So..... not having the shelf, meant no where to store my orange & white & black Ikea storage boxes of work stuff (ribbon, cds, dvds, cd sleeves, notecards, stamps, ink, ect). Well, right next to my desk is our pantry, which is full, messy and needed a serious overhaul. Hence, why I went to Target for storage containers. We have ample space, we just haven't been using it efficiently. The wire shelving was making storing things a challenge. Nothing would stay level, and stacking items was near impossible..... solution? Colorful crates from Target. I bought one not knowing if I'd like it enough, but I did, so I went back, got 2 more and 3 more smaller containers.

I began pulling things out shelf by shelf, and organizing everything into categories. Crate #1 got all our canned good items, and other random things like dried cranberries and croutons. Crate #2 got the baking items- oil, extra flower, brown sugar, cake mixes, ect.  Crate #3 got pasta, cereal, crackers, ect.  Then the little containers got stuff like, popcorn, salt (which I discovered we own FOUR containers of salt.... OMG!).

I then tackled the little shelving unit and the junk box..... I tossed more open bags of corn chips than I care to disclose. I also discovered the 90 some odd Nature Valley Bars that the in-laws brought us a while back.... and no, I am not kidding- they now take up TWO gallon size storage bags....

All this.... to make an empty shelf for those boxes of photo stuff..... now they are neatly housed on the bottom shelf :-)

I also got this frame to hang some prints in above the picture ledge (horizontally).

We then had date night at Cheesecake Factory for National Cheesecake Day! We ordered so. much. food. It was all so yummy.... but we had to save room for dessert, duh!

We came home with SIX boxes of food.... how is that for ridiculous?!?!?! We then laid in bed, stuffed to the brim and watched Friday. It was really nice to have some downtime with the hubs, we hadn't had a nice night, alone in a long time.

Stay tuned for my Saturday adventure in Asheville!