2013, Let's Do This!

Why, hello! I didn't anticipate or plan on not blogging for two weeks, but it just happened. I'm sorry!

Matt and I were in COLD Wisconsin for Christmas. My brother is doing his residency there and had to work on Christmas Day, so we all flew in to spend it with him.

We ate at tons of great little hole in the wall places (and I ate my weight in cheese!!)

It was a great time and the snow was so beautiful, but we were really happy to see the sun and grass when we got back home :)

We took Charlotte with us to WI (you can see her in the first picture) and our friend/neighbor fed Henry. While we were gone, he took to sitting in the black chair and looking out the window (for us? awww). It's now his favorite thing to do, and it cracks us up!

All he needs is a cigar and a scotch.

After all the traveling, it's so good to be home! And although I'm not the biggest fan of New Years Eve, I always love to fresh start aspect to a new year. 2012 has been so awesome, and I'm really excited for what's to come in 2013!

Here are some of my favorite inspirational quotes from Pinterest to help inspire you for the new year :)

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

This morning it's back to work and back to reality! We've had a great time with Matt's family here in Charlotte. For Thanksgiving his parents and brother joined us (his other brother and wife were not able to make it).

Here are some snapshots of our family time during the past week!

The Dunns cooking Thanksgiving Dinner

My brother in law Greg came down from his high stress job in NYC and enjoyed relaxing.

Matt and I in the afternoon light (and of course Football was on TV)

Our Thanksgiving Table right before we ate.

The Main Attraction

This past weekend we went up to Asheville. My in-laws have never seen the Biltmore so we went and visited it with them.

Biltmore Wine Tasting

This year I did a small (real) tree with all of our special ornaments on it. You know, the ones that aren't really that good looking, but have really great memories associated with them.



Here are our 2012 "memories" ornaments that I picked up in Asheville:

A Biltmore ornament - a must have for 2012 since we spent our Anniversary there (and just went there with the in-laws)

A wine glass for our Biltmore wine tastings

MIL got me this one.. she always sees cardinals in our backyard when she visits.

I'm sure you all recognize this one... a Henry ornament for our Henry cat who showed up on our doorstep in 2012.

Do you guys buy cheesy ornaments to remember things that happened each year? They are pretty much the only "themed" items I'll ever buy ;)

Back On The East Coast

I'm back to the East coast and back to work this week after a great vacation/wedding in San Diego. As I mentioned, Matt's brother got married and it was a beautiful wedding!! Don't you love weddings??

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

 

We HAD to stop at In N Out on the way home from the wedding!

Also, since I know you guys may find this interesting, I went to 'The Dry Bar" in San Diego to get my hair blown out before the wedding. It was AWESOME!!! Oh, how I wish they had one in Charlotte. For those of you who aren't familiar, they only wash and dry hair there for a flat rate of $35.

I asked them for the "Kate Middleton" style and they nailed it! (And they did a great job with my crazy curly hair.. I was a little worried for them, it's hard to blow out).

We had a great time!!!! Congrats to my brother and (new) sister in law!!

As always, it's good to be home, and now it's back to work for this girl. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I have to admit this day is pretty uneventful for us since we don't have kids.. but for those of you who do I wish you lots of fun tonight!

This past weekend felt more like Thanksgiving than Halloween... the weather was crisp and cool, the fire was roaring and we had a house full of my family. It was awesome!



Vegetarians... beware.





I really need to get going on my gallery wall......



The best part of the night was teaching Grandma how to spice up a photo.


I'm sad this one came out blurry... Matt, me and my parents!


I'm glad to see Halloween come and go because I am so excited for the upcoming Holidays.... it's my favorite time of the year and I can't wait to see my family even more in these next two months.

The Painting

Growing up, my parents always had an ocean painting hanging in our house. It moved from house to house, from room to room, but I always admired and loved it so much. For as long as I can remember, I've told them how I would LOVE to have it someday (little stinker).

Now that our living room plan is slowly but surely evolving (with the black doors, etc), I have flat out asked if I could have it. I know, bad kid right? At first they said no... but I sweetly begged (haha) and they said YES!

(I may be jinxing things because I don't actually have the painting yet, but we're working out how to get it to me in NC from Texas.)

I grew up thinking the painting was done by my great-grandmother but I was surprise to hear it was not because 90% of the paintings around me growing up were done by her (or my grandmother).

My great-grandma Sykes was a great painter and my parents have been giving me some of my favorite paintings of hers on milestones. I recently was given this painting for my birthday, it now hangs in my office:



This ballerina painting was given to me on our wedding day. I have always loved her and it was an awesome surprise! My great-grandmother Sykes painted a lot of still life and landscapes but also painted a lot of women, and those are my favorite.

(This is the ballet painting hung in our CA home. It now is in our master bedroom.)

Anyway, back to the original painting I was telling you about. Here is a picture of it:



It's so beautiful! The blues and grays and hints of greens, and the little birds. You just get lost in it. I love it so much. My grandmother purchase this painting in the 60's and I'm interested to hear more about it.

As you saw in the mock up, it will hang above the two black chairs in our living room.



I'll see it and admire it every single day, just like I did growing up. THANK YOU Mom & Dad, I will treasure it forever!!