Vegetable Garden Completed

The first time that I saw our house, I was really excited about the fact that there was a separate vegetable garden. At the same time, I knew that it would take a TON of work to get it into plant-able condition.

I don't actually have a before picture which shows the complete disaster that the garden was before we started working on it. The previous owners of our house had installed raised beds along the outside border of the garden, but they were only 12 inches wide. The fenced in area is 15 x 15 and less than a quarter of the space was used for planting beds. They had planted mint and blackberries directly into the planting beds- both of which are really invasive. If you want either in your garden, most experts recommend that you plant them in pots, not directly in the garden.

Last year, we attempted to work with what was already there since by the time we had a chance to get started on the garden it was already a little late in the spring. However, this year, I was determined to completely overhaul the garden.

We started by pulling out all of the beds that the previous owner had installed. Then we leveled out the ground and covered everything with landscape fabric. Next we installed three 4 x 4 cedar raised beds that I purchased from Home Depot for $29 each on sale. I filled the beds with a mix of garden soil, compost and peet moss.

Then I purchased 6 resin whiskey barrels to place around the garden with Tarragon, Oregano, Chives, Thyme, Sage and Mint. I filled these with the same mix of soil, compost and peet moss.

Next, we addressed the fence, which was in particularly rough shape. Just like everything else at our house, the previous owners had not done the necessary basic maintenance to keep the fence in peak shape. We decided that since we had stained the deck railings white, it might be nice to have the vegetable garden fence coordinate by staining it a solid white. First we needed to clean off years of dirt and mildew. We used Olympic Deck Cleaner that we purchased at Lowe's. It was super easy. All we did was spray it on and rinse it off with the hose. We used Behr Premium Solid Exterior Stain in Ultra Pure White on the fence since we still had some left over from the deck project.

We're really happy with how crisp the fence looks and how well it coordinates with the back deck. The back yard is really starting to look almost finished. 

After we finished with staining the fence, we filled the garden with 1 1/2 yards of pea gravel which we ordered from a local stone yard, Cason Building Supply. It ran us $180 including delivery charges, but it really completes the look of the garden. 

It's so nice to have another item checked off of the To  Do List.!! Luckily, the weather in South Carolina is so mild that we are able to grow veggie and herbs for most of the year. I've just planted seeds of mesclun lettuce, spinach, arugula and beets. 

I still have lots of room in my beds for winter veggies, so I'd love to hear your ideas for winter crops.  

FINALLY Organized!!

I need to make a confession...I am obsessed with being organized. I NEED to know EXACTLY where everything in my house is.

The one thing that I really dislike about our house is it's lack of a mud room. I wish that there was a place to put all of the forms that come home from school and where we could have a family calendar and grocery lists, but where they would not be seen by every guest coming into our house.

Our kitchen pantry is set back in a tiny hall through a doorway off of our kitchen. Tiny is an understatement...the space is only 50 inches wide x 40 inches deep. The kitchen pantry is to the right and to the left was a blank wall. (On a side note- the other side of the door that you see in this picture is our laundry room/ hallway to the garage.)

The previous owners of our house had hung a coat rack very low on the wall to the left of the pantry hallway. It was a great height for kids to hang their coats, and for me to hang my purse, but otherwise it was really kind of useless. That being said, we didn't do anything about changing the pantry hallway until the coat rack fell (probably because my purse was too heavy, but I will never admit that to Mike!) .

Once the rack fell, I needed to decide if I wanted to continue to leave that hallway as a waste of space or try to find a way to utilize it better. I'm not one to waste space- I like to actually USE every room that we have instead of leaving dedicated spaces that get used once or twice a year.

I started by filling the holes in the wall that were left by the falling coat rack and some other random nail holes that were in the wall.

I apologize for the poor quality pictures, but let's remember that this space is only 50 inches wide. I was literally standing in my pantry as I took this shot!

As you can see, I outlined the wall with painters tape. I knew that I wanted to paint the wall with Magnetic Primer so that I could move all of Emma's pictures and school notices off of the refrigerator and onto my new "Command Center". I still had some left over from a previous project so I only needed to purchase one small can of Rustoleum Magnetic Primer at Home Depot for $20.99.

Here's my advice for Magnetic Primer... do thin coats, but do a lot of them. I used 5 coats of the Rustoleum Magnetic Primer for my wall. I also recommend testing the magnetic-ness of the primer once its dry with the magnets that you plan to use to be sure that it is strong enough.

After the Magnetic Primer was thoroughly dry ( at least 24 hours), I coated the wall with 4 coats of Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint in Black. which I also got at HD for $24.99.

Again- Sorry for the not so great pics, but it has to be the most difficult thing in the house to photograph.

I am using the top of the wall to hold all of those random things that usually wind up on the fridge doors- like Emma's artwork and my measurement conversion magnet. Seriously, who wants to convert ounces to cups in their head- its just way too much work.

I have a row of days of the week magnets so that I can see at a glance what is going on that week. Otherwise, I inevitably remember that Emma has ballet lessons 10 minutes before we are supposed to be there. There's also a generous amount of space for a grocery list.

The entire bottom of the wall belongs to Emma. She already knows where in our miscellaneous kitchen drawer the chalk and eraser are kept and feels free to help herself. Its a great way to keep her occupied while I am trying to cook dinner.

I have to say- out of all of the improvements that we have made in the house lately- this is one of my favorites. It's been finished almost a week and has already been a big help.

Up next...the new vegetable garden!

Pictures, Please and The Front Yard

We've been working out in front of the house every weekend for over a month. Things are FINALLY beginning to take shape! There has been a lot of digging, moving bushes and splitting of day lilies and liriope. The first owners of our house were great gardeners. We even have a separate fenced-in vegetable garden! We can tell from the things that they planted, trees from Ann Magnolias to kousa dogwoods, azaleas, and TONS of lilies and liriope. All of our neighbors have told us that our property used to be perfectly manicured and maintained.

Unfortunately, we purchased it from a second owner who basically did no yard maintenance or gardening for four years. Everything was badly overgrown and root bound. When you don't prune your bushes for 4 years, eventually your windows become covered and they start to crowd your house. The plants also don't thrive when they are so crowded because there is no space for air movement. Last spring, my ornamental trees and azaleas were packed so tightly together that they all had powdery mildew- a plant disease.

Some things have had to be sacrificed; others we are reusing elsewhere. We dug out the hedges that had been planted in front of the house. I need to be able to see outside my windows more than I wanted to try to save them. The azaleas in our side yard were planted back to back. We pulled out the second row of bushes and created a new planting bed on the other side of the house. We pulled up all of the lilies and liriope on the property and divided them. We wound up with enough lilies and liriope to create neat perennial borders throughout the front yard.

We also dug out all of our beds and increased their depth. I may need to spend more on mulch every year, but at least I won't have as much grass to mow or water. Or maybe I should say, my husband won't! (c: I think a small amount of lawn is a necessary evil when you have kids, but I really think it is a colossal waste of water.

Did I mention that we are doing all of the work ourselves? It has been a lot of work, but we really work pretty well together. Emma is always trying to help us with the most difficult task of the day. She's such a go getter! Never scared to lend a hand!

So, without further ado.... here's our yard. We still have quite a bit of work ahead of us- but I think its a a BIG improvement!

Shasta Daisies 

Day lilies and Variegated Liriope in front of azaleas moved from other side of house. The azaleas will need a couple of years to fill in. 

Ann Magnolia Tree with Day lilies and Variegated Liriope behind and around the tree. In front are some annuals (begonias). 

View from the driveway. Shasta Daisies, a Crete Myrtle tree and about a million Day lilies that have already bloomed. 

On the right side you can see my small gardenia bush which we just planted. It will take a few years, but it will eventually be balanced with the Ann Magnolia on the other side of the door. 

Home Again

We spent the better part of the summer not in South Carolina. When we were home, I was pretty busy trying to keep Emma occupied while it was over 100 degrees out every day. Schools here run August - May because by Memorial Day weekend its already swimming weather. Now that Emma is settled into school , I thought I would give you a quick run down on what we have been up to since I last checked in.

We turned the July 4th long weekend into a mini-vacation and drove up to New York to visit our families. While we were there, Mike, Emma, my mom and I went to The Bronx Zoo for an afternoon. We usually get so caught up with visiting friends and family when we are in New York that we don't  take the time to do anything that Emma would consider really fun. We also thought it would be nice to do something that we can't do as a family in South Carolina. We have a zoo here, but its pretty tiny, so we figured The Bronx Zoo was an easy "must see". 

 

Even my mom got in on the excitement at the Zoo! 

Two weeks later my mom flew down to South Carolina to have some special time with Emma while Mike and I went on a MUCH NEEDED vacation. Before we left on our trip, my mom and I went fabric shopping for our living room and dining room. And while we were in LA soaking up the sun, my mom (have I told you how amazing she is!) had window seat cushions made for me out of the fabric that she and I had chosen AND had my coffee table professionally upholstered for me as an ottoman! I can't even explain to you how exciting it was to come home and see our living room finally starting  to take shape!

The window seats are from the Expedit line from  Ikea. We also purchased the doors and the baskets from Ikea. The baskets are available in a natural wood tone, but I painted them chocolate brown with spray paint    so they would better coordinate with our brown leather couch. The fabric was purchased from Tony's Fabrics which is off of Interstate 85 and SC Rte 101 in Greer, SC.  It's a giant fabric warehouse of upholstery  fabrics. This one was $6 a yard because they were having a sale. All in all we spent less than $200 per window seat (there is another one on the other side of the fireplace.) 

This coffee table was "inherited" from my parents when we moved. It's mission style and not really the look that we were going for, so I had plans to paint it the accent color of the room (sort of a pale gray blue) and upholster it myself. This was SO much easier. I am having to be much more careful with the sanding, priming and painting steps though so I don't do any damage to the upholstery. It's worth it! This fabric was also $6 a yard at Tony's. It's a tapestry sort of a fabric with lots of variation of color and texture so that it won't show any eventual stains. I did purchase plenty of extra fabric though- just in case. I've also generously coated the window seat cushions and the ottoman in Scotchguard. After all, I have a 4 year old- something is bound to get spilled!

Two weeks after we returned from LA, Emma and I tagged along on a business trip of Mike's to Charleston, SC. Mike only needed to work the mornings and Emma and I got to stay at The Charleston Place Hotel. It's to South's version of the Waldorf Astoria and, let me tell you, it did not disappoint. In a word ... WOW!

The day after we returned home from Charleston, Emma started school and we have been off and running since. 

I've already started on sanding the ottoman. We're having guests next weekend and I am determined to have it done before they arrive!

We Have a Dining Room!!!

When we moved to South Carolina, we had really bad movers who, in essence, destroyed or damaged almost every piece of furniture that we owned. Our kitchen table top was damaged beyond repair and our dining room table  (a hand-me-down from my grandmother) was literally split in two. So for the past year and a half our living room has looked something like this... 

That's right... a folding table and folding chairs... pretty pathetic. Everything in the house that was random and didn't really have a "home" yet was shoved in there so it was a big hodge podge.I used it more for Emma and I to do craft projects than anything else. 

Mike and I always assumed that down the line we would do something with the dining room, and we didn't really mind that it was a catch all... Except when people came to visit. When friends came by it was pretty darn embarrassing that the dining room looked more like a play room than anything else. Heck, our garage is more organized than the dining room was. The truth is neither of us could really justify spending a lot of money to deck out the dining room when it probably isn't going to get used but a few times a year. So it stayed empty... 

Until last week, when I found a gorgeous buffet piece on Craigslist for $50. That's right $50!!  I couldn't believe it and really I still don't. I told Mike that it was too good of a deal to pass up even if we didn't wind up doing the dining room for another year and a half. It's solid wood and in pristine condition except for one of the drawer knobs being a little loose. I plan to replace the knobs anyway. After Mike saw the buffet, we got to thinking- what if we could find some more amazing deals like that? So we spent the weekend scouring Craigslist and furnishing our dining room. 

We drove almost an hour into farm country to pick up a solid wood dining table with beautiful curve details and 6 Queen Anne chairs for $100. The chairs need to be recovered but that's nothing that a few yards of fabric can't fix. With the exception of some surface scratches on the table, the set is in excellent condition. Another amazing find! Oh, and the wood tones coordinate with the tones in the buffet, but not in a matchy- matchy sort of a way. 

But by far, the best deal of the weekend was the Thomasville china cabinet in PRISTINE condition for $200. We drove an hour and a half and into a National Forest to buy it from the nicest little old lady ever. She pointed out a scratch on the inside of one of the doors that I still can't find and I know where to look. 

We still need to paint the room, buy fabric and recover the chairs, make and hang window treatments, replace or alter rehab the chandelier and add a rug, but we are definitely moving in the right direction that's for sure! I think I'm most excited about finally having a place to put my china away. I love it when everything has a place!

Here's the best part... we've only spent $350!!! So, of course, now we are want to see how inexpensively we can finish the rest of the room. I'm shooting for $500 or under. Mike doesn't think we can do it- so, of course, I'm determined to prove him wrong. Wish me luck!

(BTW- You can see our in progress hallway update in these pics... I promise to tell you more about that as soon as its done!)

An Update on Cleaning House

I realized that I never updated you guys on my personal challenge to clear out all of the clutter in our house. I am happy to say that while I definitely did not come anywhere near meeting my three week goal; I did make a pretty huge dent.

First and foremost, Mike and I went through all of our clothes and donated 14 garbage bags of stuff to Goodwill. We have both lost quite a bit of weight since moving down here. I think the nice weather makes you want to look nicer in less clothing. (c: We also both had stuff that was just old and no longer our style so off to Goodwill it went. It was liberating. We also both took shopping bags worth of clothes to our local tailor for alterations. Some stuff, like Mike's suits, would just be prohibitively expensive to replace.

I did the same with Emma's closet and playroom, but her stuff went into plastic bins in the attic for our next kid.

I think I have done all that I am going to be able to do with selling  my parents old records and cameras. If anyone has an idea of someplace to donate them/ sell them, please let me know. I am all out of ideas.

We've been busy!

I know... I know... It's been a while since my last post (2 1/2 months!!!) but I have an excuse. We have been incredibly busy. So busy in fact that its too much to fit into one post.

I will begin at the beginning...

This is what our back deck looked like when we bought our house. Actually, when we bought the house it was even worse. The pergola was covered in a REALLY ugly vine and there was lattice up the front of the deck completely obscuring the view so the vine had something to grow on. It was gross. I think there was something living in the vine. I hated to walk out the back door.

Even more upsetting though was the overall state of the deck. According to our neighbors, the people that we purchased the house from did no maintenance anywhere on the house for the four years that they owned it...and that definitely included the deck. It hadn't been cleaned and it definitely had not been sealed or stained. The pergola was in such bad shape that the cross beams were no longer sitting square on the ledger board. We lived with it for a year and basically had resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to rip the entire thing off and start over. Afterall, we were beginning to get tired of constantly removing splinters from our daughter's feet (She refuses to wear shoes out there). Why did we wait so long if it was so bad? Because replacing the deck was not in the budget when there was so much else that really needed to be done. So, it got placed on the back burner.

And then we went to Home Depot one day to get spray paint for another project. Mike and I walked past a display for Deck ReStore, a product which swears that it will seal up any cracks in the old wood on your deck and make your old deck like new. We thought it was too good to be true, but asked the Paint Guy in H.D. anyway. He was amazing and basically walked us through all the steps of what we needed to do to rehab our deck. He even gave us hints on how to apply the ReStore in a slightly different way than what the directions said. Armed with the info we got from the Paint Guy, we decided to give it a shot.

First and foremost, the pergola needed to go. We removed it and cut the support posts down to the ground. Then we replaced the hand rails around the entire deck. They were in really bad condition and one of them had cut outs for the pergola support posts so that one definitely would have had to go.

We also added a few new 2 x 4s to beef up the main posts of the railings so that everything was completely safe.

Then,  we scrubbed the deck clean. Our H.D. Rock Star recommended that we use the Behr Premium Plus 2 in 1 Wood Prep. It took us 2 days and 2 containers of the Wood Prep to get the deck clean, but the difference was amazing. It looked like a completely new deck.

Next, we were on to staining. We decided to stain the railings of the deck white and the floor of the deck and the tops of the hand rails chocolate brown. We used Behr Premium Plus Solid Stain in Ultra Pure White for the hand rails and the lattice on the bottom of the deck. It took two coats to get nice even coverage.

 The next weekend, we moved on to staining the floor of the deck. Now, the package instructions for the ReStore product had mentioned that we shouldn't apply it when the temperature is over 90 degrees. Unfortunately, this is South Carolina so that would have meant staining it in the dark or waiting until October. Neither of those seemed like an option to us so we took a shot. We started to apply one coat with the roller (as the package instructs) and then planned to wait three hours (again- as instructed) to apply the second coat.

In hind sight, we probably should have set our alarm for the crack of dawn (which we did do when putting on the second coat) and maybe chosen a day that was not 100 degrees. It went on okay but it wasn't as smooth of a finish as what we were hoping for so we went to the pool and hoped it would look better once dry. Luckily for us about 5 hours of 100 degree heat later- the skies opened up and we had a MAJOR rain storm. I think that it helped to smooth out some of the rougher spots.

We had to wait until the next weekend to complete the second coat of the ReStore because it rained nearly every night that week. (I wasn't crazy enough to attempt to do this myself with a 4 year old trying to "help". Before we did the second coat, I went back to my local Home Depot (a/k/a Second Home) and picked up two 3 inch brushes. The paint guy had told us that the first coat is basically like a primer and that the second coat is what is really important. He recommended using the brushes but cautioned us to make sure that we applied a very thick coat.

Thank goodness we listened to him! The deck looks amazing! The bottom boards are completely sealed. We definitely are not going to get any more splinters! It looks like Trex (which is the composite decking stuff) except for 3 packages of the Deck ReStore we spent $117 instead of like $500 to replace the deck with Trex.

I still have to take better after pictures but we need to finish the touch ups and stain the top rails. ReStore carries its own line of solid stains which are available through their website in colors to match the product that goes on the deck.




Just as a disclaimer- I have not received anything from Home Depot, Behr or the people who make Deck ReStore. I did, however, get a free paint stirrer from Ron, the AMAZING paint guy at the Home Depot in Greenville, SC- but I kinda think he was just being nice. (c:

Cleaning House

I hate clutter. I know that HATE is a very strong word, but in this case- it fits.

Our first apartment was maybe 600 square feet. That's pretty large by New York standards. The entire old apartment would fit in our master suite in South Carolina.  So, when we moved here we took everything that we could from our old apartment and whatever friends and family were offering. In addition, my parents are in the process of retiring to Florida so we also took many of their belongings that they were looking for me to sell.

Unfortunately, now that we are here and settled in there is quite a bit that we don't want or need.  Between the excess stuff that we moved with us and my parents belongings that I am helping them to downsize, I am beginning to make E-Bay and Craigslist selling into a full time job. Only with two major differences, I am still a full time mom and getting in and out of the post office with huge loads of boxes while trying to hold the hand of a 4 year old is tough to say the least. It just doesn't seem worth it. The task is particularly daunting when it is spread out over several months...it just seems like its a never ending stream of junk to move.

And that brings me to my three week challenge. Three weeks from today we will be leaving on a mini vacation. By the time that we leave EVERYTHING that I don't want in my house needs to be gone. When we return, I want to come home to a house that might be quite a bit emptier, but that will only be filled with things that we want, use or intend to use. Everything else needs to get sold, dropped off at a consignment store or donated to a charity. I figure I will have a crazy busy few weeks but at least by May 1st my husband will be able to park his car in the garage.

On a side note, Project Nicer Jen for Lent has been going pretty well.  My next door neighbor's lawn is now over 12 inches of weeds. All of which are now spreading their ugly weed seeds over my freshly fertilized and weed free lawn. If I need to spend another Saturday pulling weeds out of my lawn and overseeding the patches with my husband I am going to be very unhappy. Hopefully, if this happens it can be after Lent is over so I can be just as cranky as I wanna be!  The "Not So Nice" version of me would have been knocking on their door asking if they wanted to borrow our lawn mower last weekend. Instead, I called the management company for our H.O.A. and politely asked the property manager for our development to please send them a letter about their lawn maintenance. It seems a little passive aggressive to me, but my husband said it was the nicer way to handle it.

Yes, I was complaining about their lawn. It's already well into spring here in South Carolina. I love wearing t-shirts in March!

My 34th Year

Its my birthday. I'm not too proud to say that I am turning 34.

A few days ago I found myself checking out Josh's FB page and found the following quote from Mark Twain...

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

In the past, I tended to allow fear to direct me toward certain decisions.   As my birthday present to myself I'm going to try to "Sail away from the safe harbor."

I should expand on that to say, I don't put much stock in regrets. Your actions were your actions- beating yourself up over them doesn't really make a difference. Learn from your mistakes, apologize to anyone you may have hurt and move on.  It appears that Twain also promoted moving forward without regret so maybe I'll give the rest of what he says a shot. I am sure that there is plenty to "Explore [and] Discover" in G'Ville.

Lent...

Yesterday, while we were in the car driving home, I realized that Lent started on Wednesday. I think it was because someone mentioned Mardi Gras, which really makes me sound like a bad Catholic. I anticipate that the man upstairs will give me a pass since last Wednesday we were pretty consumed with the news of Josh's death.

Every year at this time, like millions of other Catholics, I give up something but in the light of recent events I am seriously considering shirking tradition. Don't get me wrong; I completely believe that it is important to use the 40 day period of Lent for introspection and contemplation. I am just questioning how giving up something seemingly meaningless like chocolate would be substantive.

And, here's the thing, I just don't want to do it. I would much rather find a way to make a positive impact over the course of the next 30 something days than to waste time with a futile exercise. Instead, I propose to do something positive everyday. Whether it is biting my tongue and not yelling at the pharmacist who made a mistake with filling E's asthma prescription (if you know me then you know that this is a MUCH bigger effort than giving up chocolate!) or finally sorting through my closet to donate clothes to Goodwill. I suspect that positive actions like these will be a more meritorious use of my time.

I promise to let you know how it goes...

Can I Have a Do Over?

Ok, so not an excellent start to my 365 promise... its been two weeks since my last post. I think I have a pretty decent excuse. I have been very busy. In an effort to "put myself out there" I decided to Chair my daughter's preschool book fair. There are two pretty remarkable things that you need to know in order to put this in perspective. First and foremost, I have never seen a book fair. I don't ever remember my grammar school doing a book fair as a child. Since this is E's first real school experience, we have never attended anything like this before. Second, since  I don't have as many friends here yet, I did not have as many resources to draw upon for help with the Fair. It made things an interesting challenge.

I was very nervous and started out the week questioning whether or not I had enough volunteers. However, at the end of the week, when I had to leave South Carolina for an emergency, everyone jumped at the chance to be able to help. I had volunteers coming out of the woodwork and rushing to help in any way that they could. It really was a testament to how wonderful of a community we have moved into. I still don't know the outcome of the Book Fair and won't know our totals until I return to South Carolina. In light of everything else, it seems really inconsequential.

In order to explain, I think you need a little bit of background information. My husband doesn't have an abundance of family. Don't get me wrong; the family that he does have is wonderful and loving. It's just that because I come from a large family its very different to me. I guess somewhat in response to his lack of an extensive family, when he was in college, Mike made his own family. He is lucky enough to have a pretty amazing group of friends who I am proud that we can consider our other family. We have spent several holidays in the company of one or more of his brothers and their families. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries together. Its a bond that they have held for somewhere around 15 years which makes it even more uncommon.

Unfortunately, earlier this week we received the devastating news that one of his brothers had passed on. There was no question, no hesitation, we immediately made the arrangements to drive 12 hours from Greenville, SC to Jamestown, NY...in the middle of a snow storm...through the mountains...with a 4 year old. ( I have to say-James and Sandy had it double rough- they made the same drive, but with a 1 year old and a 3 year old. Talk about troupers!)  I am not going to lie. It was a yucky drive, but that's what you do for your family.

I don't have the words to describe how sad this week has been. Josh was a brilliant man with a huge heart of gold. He will be very sorely missed. I can't even begin to imagine how distraught his twin brother, Jason, must feel. I do know that the rest of his brothers will do everything possible to be sure they help to ease his burden in any way that they can. The bond between this group of guys is completely amazing and hasn't waned no matter how far apart or close together we all live or how frequently or infrequently they speak. It's a bond that they have passed along to their spouses. Several of us have become very close friends.

I can only hope that our daughter will fondly remember her Uncle Josh and, through the stories she hears and the pictures she sees, will know what a wonderful addition he was to our family.

Rest in Peace, Josh.

XO

A Brief Introduction and Beginning

Allow me to take this opportunity to introduce myself...I'm Jennifer, a wife and a stay-at-home mom to a 4 year old princess. Before I had those titles, I was a New Yorker- a title I always thought would apply to me. But like most things, when you think you have things figured out- life throws you a curve ball. 

A year ago, the company that my husband works for relocated our family from New York City to Greenville, South Carolina. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret that I never thought I would say...I LOVE it here. It is a more laid back way of life. People are kind and friendly. More importantly, we have more time together as a family to...well, be a family. That makes it a much better way of life for my little girl. And don't get me started on the weather...it was 65 and sunny today! Not exactly typical weather for NY in February. 

I have spent that past year getting to know the area and trying to start our life down here, but part of me has really just acted like we were "visiting". Don't get me wrong- we are completely unpacked and have been since two weeks after the move. But, I have only just started to make new friends and to actively pursue things which I think reflect permanency- like outside of the home activities and interests and finally getting our house organized and decorated so that it feels like home. 

And that brings me to this blog. There are quite a few blogs that I subscribe to and read on a daily (almost daily) basis...MaxxSilly is one of them. In reading MaxxSilly, I was introduced to reading New Dress a Day which was started by a young lady out in Cali. This girl decided that she was going to make a new outfit for herself everyday without spending more than $365...That's a dollar a day! It was pretty fun to check in to see what she was coming up with. I am not really great with a sewing machine, but I liked her concept of working 365 days toward a goal. And I figured, hey, I can do that. So I'll be spending the next 365 turning Greenville from somewhere I act like I am visiting to where I am proud to live. 

I hope you'll keep me company.