Photo ideas

Even though Pinterest seems to be the new place to stash all your ideas, I still prefer my little ol' blog. I know it will be here when I go searching, and I won't feel like I'm digging through so much of a junk drawer.

Here is a cool idea for doing canvas photos at home...

Photo light tent

Jeni likes taking pictures of the food she cooks. She was posting it all on her food blog before she started at the theatre and her time disappeared. But we've often talked about making a photo light tent/box. This DYI looks so easy and practical. I think this is something we can actually do fairly easily, with a lot of items we already have. Now ... just to find some time.

Back from Ocean Isle

Jeni and I had a great week at Ocean Isle with my parents and Doug's family. We can't thank my parents enough for all they did to make this week at the beach happen. They created this chance for Jeni and I to take Amy and Evan into the ocean (their very first time in the salt water -- Amy: "There's an awful lot of salt in this water" after taking in a mouthful), and we got to spend an entire week with our nieces and nephews, which was such a rare opportunity for us, and one we will always treasure.


You can see in the picture that everyone was out having fun on the beach, soaking in the sun, Jeni of course with the best tan.


We celebrated Jeni's birthday while we were there, too. What better way to spend her birthday than sitting on the beach, then coming in for cake and presents? She got a really cool crab picture from my parents and some great craft items from Doug and Cathy and the kids. Kelly also sent some good souvenirs from her trip to Greece for us.


I got her a string of pearls for her birthday. Now I just need to take her out so she can wear them.

I have a funny story about the "Flying Umbrella of Death" but when I typed it out it wasn't quite as funny as it was when I was thinking about what I would type while sitting on the beach. So maybe I'll retell it tomorrow...

[More pictures are up on Flickr]

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is my brother's 40th birthday, so I thought I would put a mini-photo tour of his last forty years.

Chris - 3 months old

Chris 5 1/2 yrs and Jeni 3 days
(This was one of our mom's favorite pictures. Check out the bottoms of Chris' feet.)
Chris 5 1/2 years old
Chris 7 yrs and Jeni 2 yrs

Chris' senior portrait --AKA Studly

Chris (20 yrs) with Baby Andrew

Chris (22 yrs) with baby Aaron
Chris (24 yrs) with baby Brittany
(And yes, he's still smitten with his little girl.)

Thanksgiving 1994
(Andrew and Aaron made us all Thanksgiving day hats)

Jackie and Chris (29 yrs old) Thanksgiving 1997

Chris (38 yrs) with Andrew at his high school graduationChris, Jeni, and Dad at Andrew's graduationJackie and Chris (39 yrs) -Christmas at Gulfshores

Chris - I wish you the happiest birthday. I love you!
And remember you will always be older than me!
All my love,
your little sister

Someday your children will look through all your photos

We're going through a bunch of old pictures looking for a few particular ones, but you know how photos are ... you have to flip through every single one to find the few you really want. The occasional picture of the parents/friends in questionable clothing, beer and cigarettes in hand, looking as goofy as we have looked in some of our own pictures, it really makes you think ... one day our kids will be looking at our pictures and ask themselves, "What the hell were our parents doing in this picture and why were they dressed like that?"

Here's Branden!

Welcome sweet little Branden! We can't wait hold you, squeeze you, kiss your little face, and love on you. You have the most awesome big sister and big brother in the world. We love you!!
Congratulations Nikki, Todd, Morgan and Evan!

A Point of View....

The Family
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

....was the name of the cabin we stayed in last weekend with Dean's parents, sister, and Sue and Larry (family friends). The weather was perfect, the cabin was cute, the view was beautiful, and the football was exciting and nerve racking. Overall we had a really good weekend.

Here are two recipes that I made over the weekend.
Nutty Orange Coffee Cake - and Sue assured me it was just as good reheated later that night as it was for breakfast.
Brown Sugar and Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Maple - Espresso Glaze - Yummy!!

Happy Halloween!!

To see the other pumpkins, go to our flickr page.

Angel Trumpet - Brugmansia 'Dr. Seuss'

Angel Trumpet - Brugmansia 'Dr. Seuss'
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

Remember way back in the spring, when Dean and I gutted the yard and planted about 400 plants.... Well the one plant I was most excited about finally bloomed. Brugmansia 'Dr.Seuss' This plant stands about 7' tall and its blooms are about 12" long. They are absolutely beautiful. When we took this picture there were about 8 blooms on it. Over the next couple of days Dr. Seuss kept blooming and blooming. We ended up with about 25 blooms. I was really disappointed because I thought it was not going to bloom due to being replanted - to tell you the truth, I had actually given up on it blooming. What a nice surprise!

With this late bloomer, it has already gotten me excited about next spring to see what some of the flowers do that got planted after their blooming period.

Gracie and her uncle Deano

Happy Birthday Dean
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

Here is the picture of Gracie and Dean from his birthday, as promised many moons ago. Gracie was such a big helper at Dean's birthday. She helped Dean blow out his candles; she was the official icing taster (someone had to do it); she helped with the presents. What more can you ask for in a big helper!!!

We loved have Gracie and Clara Ann at our house. They are so stinkin' cute I just want to squeeze them all over and kiss their little faces all day long.

Just click on the picture to head over to our Flickr to see more super cute pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes.

So what's Chris been up to in the last year....

As many of you know, our friend Chris Rourke has been in Ethiopia for almost a year. He will send us updates periodically and send pictures. We received an email this week saying that he will be back home in October. He also sent along links to two articles that have been written about the work they are doing over there. Here's the first. Chris is quoted in this article. (sidenote: Chris said "There are a couple of things wrong with the article, but it does talk a lot about what we are doing here.") And here's the second. In the photo, Chris is the solider on the right.

Here are just a couple of pictures he has sent us over the last year. The last one is from the trip he and Amy took to New Zealand.



Dean and I can't wait to have Chris home safe and sound and to hear all about his adventures in Ethiopia. Safe travels Chris!!

Bonus room stripe

This is a picture of the bonus room over the garage after the final coat of paint and all the tape had been removed, but the furniture is still in the middle of the room. The stripe is "batter bowl green," a Martha Stewart color the Jeni fell in love with years ago and hung on to waiting for the right spot. We went with the brown to pull from the hallway color, but several shades darker, keeping a flow through the house.


To do the stripe, we used the same taping technique we used in the dining room (forgot a step, bled brown paint into the stripe and had to retape...) but it turned out very good. The stripe is 12 inches wide and goes around the entire room. We're thinking of using the green in the laundry room (that you can't see, but the washer and dryer are behind two doors behind me).


To determine the height of the stripe Jeni decided to go from the angle of the ceiling. Since this is a room over the garage, one side has a slight angled ceiling from the roof line. You can also barely see an access door to the storage off this room. We painted that the same wall color so it is less of an eye-sore.

Nikki's baby shower

Nikki with the cute cake
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

A couple of weekends ago we went to Atlanta for Nikki's baby shower. We always have such a great time when we go down there. Suzanne did an awesome job with the shower and Nikki just glowed. Her little belly is so cute!

In addition to the shower we also helped get Brandon's nursery ready for his arrival. It looks so cute! I can't wait for Nikki to send us some pictures with bedding on the crib and the new dresser.

One Year House Anniversary

Today is our one year anniversary of owning our house. We have worked all year to try and make it "ours." We both had visions of what we wanted and I think it has really turned out nicely. There are still lots of projects that need finishing, and lots that need starting. We have loved having our friends and families here, and we hope they have loved being here just as much. And for those of you who haven't been able to visit, remember our door is always open and there is always sweet tea in the fridge. Thanks to everyone who has helped us make this house our home!

Here are a few pictures of some of the projects we have finished....


The front yard landscaping. If you want to see the whole thing, go here.



This was our first project - Jeni's kitchen. I love my kitchen. I have always wanted a red kitchen. (red=passion and cooking is one of my passions, go figure.) The first thing to go was the linoleum floor tiles that they put up as a back splash. UGH! They were ugly and made a mess of the walls as we pulled them down. But it all worked out, as it always does.

Thanks to red-headed Kelli from bringing me my "Indulge" sign. It's one of my favorite things in my kitchen. Actually in those two pictures you can see a lot my favorite things - my pot rack that is very well traveled, my All-Clad, my Gail Pittman pottery, my lady corkscrew from our German friends, Urs and Kirsi, the lights under the cabinets, and my little flip down TV.



Then came the living room...We wanted all of the rooms on the first floor to flow together. The kitchen and the living room share two adjoining walls so we tried to use colors from the same family. I wish I had a better picture of the living room, but we let a friend use our camera this weekend, so I'm stuck with what I have saved.


And the dining room, our labor of love. As many of you know it took us five days to complete this project. The results make it worth every minute. I have wanted to do this technique for years and finally got the chance. I love it!


To be honest the only room in the house that I didn't want to change when we first moved in was the master bedroom. Unfortunately they didn't leave us any extra paint, and I really couldn't find a comforter that I liked to match. I did however find this one, and we took the colors from it to paint the walls, ceiling and bathroom (and the closet as soon as it starts to cool down). I'm still working on trying to find a fabric for the curtains. And bedroom furniture, well that's a long story.


Master bathroom. The Charleston themed border had to go. (Once again I wish I had a better "after" picture...)


Guest Bathroom. After the kitchen this was the room that I most wanted changed. And what a pain the butt it was -- the clouds painted with high gloss paint, the coat after coat of primer, and finally the finished project. Now I want to change the color to something lighter...you would think I would just be happy that it's not a lighthouse room anymore.


And finally our deck....I love it. One of my favorite parts is the smell of fresh herbs - rosemary, basil, chives--yum. I do have a post with all the changes we made to the back yard, but I haven't finished all the labels. I hope to have that up next week.

Once again, thanks to everyone who has came, visited, celebrated birthdays, holidays, or just sat on the deck, had a cold beer and a good laugh.