Thursday, January 6, 2011

Cash & Cari = New Show = Dream Job

Cari:

via HGTV.com

HGTV has a new show on Wednesday nights called Cash & Cari.  Here is the show description off the website:

With her razor sharp business sense and an eye for spotting diamonds in the rough, estate sale guru Cari Cucksey combs through her clients' basements, attics and garages in search of hidden treasure. And once she and her team have organized and priced the entire contents of the home, they hold an estate sale right on the premises. From antique furniture and vintage toys to retro electronics and rare cars, there's something for everyone, and everything must go!

Here are some of the things she finds during the first episode:

via HGTV.com

via HGTV.com

It doesn't mention that Cari sometimes buys out the estates herself.  She then takes the salvageable pieces and paints/fixes them up for her store called Repurpose.

Ok, confession time.  This is my dream job.  I would love to dig through junk/treasure hunt all day!  In fact, I do this a lot, well not a lot, but I've bought stuff I think would be amazing and had it reupholstered or painted or just cleaned up.  In my mind, there are two types of antique shops - First type: they've already found the great pieces, researched them, had them repaired, and then displayed them beautifully.  Second type:  a complete junk pile, dust everywhere, you feel like you may get a disease from rummaging to deep, but then low and behold, you find a gem (that you LOVE) and it doesn't have a price tag (literally) and you take and ask how much and they say, "uh, how bout 5 dollars?"  SOLD!  I much prefer that latter.  Maybe its because I can't usually afford the ones at the nice antique store, or maybe it is because I like when people come to my house and they admire a piece and I get to tell them the story of how I found it - I just realized I hope I'm not boring my house guest to death?!  

Like these two pieces (sorry I don't have a better picture, but these are from my old house - these babies are currently in storage because we don't have the room here in Savannah, but ONE day (hopefully) we will)!

The dining room table and chairs were pretty busted up, so I painted them white and reupholstered with lime green fabric.

The side table ( you can barely see it in this shot) is one of my FAVORITE re-dos.  I bought it at a flea market for 5 dollars and the old man who sold it to me said "gone use it for fire wood?"  I about died.  I said NO(!) and explained that I was going to fix it up.  He looked at me like I had. lost. my mind.  But I did, and I LOVE it!  It has great legs!


And many furniture items I have I didn't have to buy.  My grandmother had so many great pieces of furniture!  She was a great treasure hunter herself!  I have so MANY pieces of hers that I've had reupholstered or painted or refinished - like these:

This is a table she owned that was in her laundry room for a while.  I initially used it for a party in college, but in law school I had it in my kitchen.  It need a serious paint job, but I decided it was pretty shabby chic, I guess, so I kept it as is.


Bookcase, or china cabinet in our case - had refinished.  It is TALL!  My favorite piece ever!


Chair, had reupholstered...Love it.


Anyway, check out the show if your interested - its pretty fun!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Christmas Vacation: FEELS LIKE HOME!

After Utah we ventured HOME (well, my parent's home)!  Utah and skiing and fancy houses are nice, but isn't it nice to go home.  Yes, it is.  To hug your parents, play with your pets, annoy your brother - yes, I still have this power!


One of my FAVORITE movies of all time is It's a Wonderful Life!  I make, er, we watch it every Christmas Eve night.  One of the best traditions of Christmas!


Poor little Bill/Checkers was all tuckered out after the movie and ready for Santa!


And guess what...we had a white Christmas...in GEORGIA!  First time since like the 1800s or something like that...

T's car...


Mattie is an excellent snow ball catcher/eater...



The next morning!





Backyard


This is my Dad's farm truck - isn't it awful!?  Ha!  He was at the dumpster the other day and someone told him he might as well the truck in the dump!  Isn't a great little truck - I learned how to drive a stick shift on this truck when I was 14!



We had such a great Christmas with both families!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas Vacation: UTAH!

WARNING!  This is a LLOONNGGG POST!  Hope you can make it through it all!

Well our Christmas vacation really started with a quick trip to Troy, Alabama - well, I say quick, 5 hours there, 3 hours at the wedding/reception, then 3 MORE hours to Atlanta - all in 1 day!  The wedding was BEAUTIFUL and well worth the agonizing drive.  I love a Christmas wedding - My friend had a beautiful string quartet that played lots of Christmas carols and we had a great seat (I got VIP seating with the family :)  I think some of the cousins were thinking, "Who are they?"

Another great thing about going to the wedding was getting to go by one of the BEST restaurants in Alabama, a little place called Nancy Patterson's Bistro.  The strawberry cake there is. to. die. for!  T's Dad's birthday was the day after we left, and he loves Nancy's strawberry cake sooo....we bought one to take with us to Utah.

Yes, we are insane.  

I figure traveling with a cake a couple of thousand miles is just a warm up for traveling with a child!  So me, T and the cake all arrived in Atlanta in the wee hours of the morning...we all went through security...then we all boarded the plane together.  I thought, "this is a breeze", until... we had to connect.  Our plane was late arriving to Atlanta, so when we connected in Denver we had 15 minutes to make our connection.  So me, T, and the cake literally "Home Alone" ran through the airport and guess what(!) we MADE it!  The cake however did not fair so well - it sorted a shifted and the bottom layer collapsed.  Well we arrived and the "shifting" didn't effect the taste at all...  

See the poor bottom layer...


We all sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to T's Dad and enjoyed a slice (or two)...


The house we stayed in Utah was amazing - We were so blessed to spend the days before Christmas in such a beautiful place.  This is a view from the outside...How awesome is the snow covered tree!?


Kitchen


Living Room



Kids room - how awesome are these bunk beds!  Since T and I married now, we have upgraded and no longer have to stay in  the kid's room - REJOICE!  However, if I'd gotten a bottom bunk, this wouldn't have been too shabby of a place to stay in!


Hot tub - We need one of these in Savannah!


So as you can see the house was awesome, I felt like a peasant getting to visit the Queen while staying there!  

We had spaghetti for dinner and ate strawberry cake and called it an early night!  The next morning we woke up to SNOW!!!

How crazy are these heated driveways!?!





My niece and T's Mom admiring the all the snow!


 In Georgia, an inch is ALOT!  I mean, we close down schools, roads, and everyone goes to the store and stocks up on milk and bread and Reese's cups!  But by alot, I mean, Park City had about 5 feet total during the four days we were there!

So that meant, it was time to SKI!


We skied ALL day!  I stay on the bunny slopes, but even that is a workout!  "Pizza-ing" all the way down is a REAL workout!  At the top of the mountain it was like a blizzard - the wind would knock you down - and it did!

Skiing all day can do a number on all of your ski gear...


Eleven people need lots of coats, mittens, and hats!!!



After a long day of skiing, we went out on to the back porch to enjoy the view!

GORGEOUS!






T's sister, brother-in-law, and niece


T's parents


After a long day on the slopes...and a few naps...


and lounging...


We all gathered together for a sleigh ride that took us up to the top of a mountain for dinner!  It was super fun and everyone LOVED it!  It was so Christmasy!




The restaurant was super fun and delicious!  They played live music ( a lot of beach music, which was weird)!


Major hat hair alert!


The day before we left, there was so much snow the kid's made snowmen and a snowcat!

And just played and played in the snow!

Our other niece, Chandler, my ski partner :)




We had such an amazing time and we couldn't say thank you enough for T's parents for taking us on such an awesome trip!  His parent's years of hard work made such a wonderful trip possible.  T's family is so lovely and I thank GOD everyday he blessed me with my family and then again with T's.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

2011 is Here!

Here are 11 things I'd like to see happen in 2011 :

1.  Read the Bible more.
2.  Join a Bible Study Group
3.  Learn to be more patient
4.  Cook healthier
5.  Adopt-a-Grandparent
6.  Travel Less
7.  Go to the library and stop buying books
8.  Find a hobby T and I can enjoy together
9.  Try to recycle - my mother will enjoy this one!  She has been "green" for years!
10.  Go to more classes at the gym
11.  Be a more faithful Christian and glorify GOD more - He is so GOOD!

I hope that everyone had a great New Year's Eve and Day!
 
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