Red Velvet Strawberry layer Cake

i am baker: red velvet strawberry layer cake
pros: boxed cake mixes, whipped cream (easy!), strawberries
cons: eh. not crazy about it. How moist would this cake be as frosted w/ whipped cream?

Pina Colada Cake

Smitten Kitchen: Pina Colada Cake
pros: seasonable ingredients, exotic ingredients, unusual combination, easter-ey?
cons: boring looking. like whoa. could I make it into a layer cake? cream cheese frosting or something? eh…?

Rich & Ruffled Cake

Sweetapolita: Rich Ruffled Chocolate Celebration Cake
pros: what a fantastic and somewhat springy color combination, I’ve never made a chocolate cake! LOOK AT ALL THAT ICING
cons: LOOK AT ALL THAT ICING, my husband isn’t crazy about chocolate cake – but then if I think about it he’ll eat anything I bake with a (forced) smile so whatever that’s a moot point.

Tres Leches Cake

Pioneer Woman: Tres Leches Cake
pros: looks delicious and unusual, love moist cake!
cons: calories WHOA have you seen this recipe? appearance wise, pretty boring. can’t make a milk-saturated cake into a layer cake :(

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Pioneer Woman: Strawberry Shortcake Cake
pros: I’ve made it before and I know it’s a winner, strawberries are in season!, everyone loves cream cheese icing
cons: I’ve made it before (I like to try new things!), it’s a bit labor intensive as I remember it, must be kept refrigerated due to cream cheese.

Desk Doodle Cakes

Stickyheels desk doodle inspiration
pros: will use box cake but home made frosting (thats the key to an easy, delicious cake people). Possibly fill it with macerated strawberries? Use swiss merangue buttercream for not-too-sweet stability. Trying to decide between a “ruffle” effect with the butter cream like seen on the Rich & Ruffled Cake or if I should try to use those little round micro sprinkles or jimmies and encrust the cake with them (similar to what you see here).
cons: in the end I feel it will just be a little boring & I trust other peoples pretty blog pictures to help me end up with a worthwhile cake.

Any opinions on the above? Or other suggestions?

Friday night I met some girlfriends out for sushi and wine, leaving T at home to play Call of Duty to his heart’s content. T, his brother, my brother, and our brother in law all play online so it’s hard to be annoyed with all the machine gunning in our house right now because it feels like it’s some sort of futuristic family bonding. Either way, Friday night was very “to each his own”, which kicked off the rest of a weekend full of hanging out together.

Saturday we were getting ready to go enjoy the UNC v NCSU game. Trying to decide how best to display my “BEAT NCSU!” pin that I’ve carefully preserved for about 7 years now, while T was sporting his red polo with the block S emblazoned on it’s front. We were heading to a bar for the game, in an attempt to keep the negativity of this rivalry out of our happy little home. One foot out the door and we received a call from my brother, who had a friend with 2 extra tickets! Off we go…straight to Chapel Hill to watch UNC play NCSU in the Dean Dome! These games are hard for me, since as much as I want my team to win (and win they did!), I have to watch T be almost distraught over the poor performance of the Wolfpack. I spent what felt like the majority of the game discussing with T the pitfalls of NCSU’s defense and trying to bolster him to cheer because “You don’t know what could happen! The game isn’t over yet!”. He wasn’t really buying it though…

That night we went to Jujube for a little Triangle Restaurant Week dinner and drinks. Headed next door to Bin 54 for some of the most creative cocktails I’ve had in a while. The night ended in my terrible, no-good attempts to master Spades. My team (SIL + I) lost fairly miserably but what a lo-fi way to spend a great evening.

T waiting patiently while I got a latte & some candies from the counter at Parker & Otis.

Sunday kicked off with brunch at Parker & Otis with my sister and her boyfriend, and then…NO FOOTBALL! The all-star/pro-game thing was on so T had no desire to watch that.I asked very sweetly if we could please not go home just yet and maybe spend some time walking outside and enjoying the sunshiney, warm day. He  decided we should make our first trip to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. And what a fantastic idea that was. We found a field of yellow grass, with 4 or so other couples sprawled out in the sunshine and without conversation or hesitation I laid my jacket in the sun and we flopped down for a 30 minute nap in the 70 degree sunshine. In January. I kicked my shoes off and tried to soak in as much Vitamin D as possible.

Home again, home again where I mopped and cleaned while T played more of his video game. We grew restless around 4 pm and decided we needed to get back out there. Cut to Tyler’s Taphouse in the American Tobacco Campus where I pulled a pack of cards from my purse and we played Gin Rummy and Egyptian Rathskeller until we’d had enough liquid courage to go see Black Swan.

In a quiet moment, sitting at the bar by ourselves at 6:00 pm on a Sunday I realized that these are days and weekends we should try to remember and document. To look back on with happy memories of the quiet times and inside jokes we get to share between the two of us. Slow weekends with no agendas. We still have a good deal of time ahead of us before these sorts of days are long gone, but there is a feeling that our time existing as 2 people without much responsibility is fleeting, and should be appreciated more than just in passing.

…also local art, including (the newly?) Mr. & Mrs. Barrel Monster:

Also, the YESTERYEAR tent which I really REALLY did not want to go into but T begged and pulled me inside and OMG IT’S FULL OF CRAFTS. It’s like Etsybut everyone is old and wears leather aprons or something. I really wanted that hand carved wooden spoon (why? I have no idea).  I bought “icicles” from an old man who was cutting tin with a pair of garden shears. We paid $6.00 for 12 pieces of twisted metal (aluminum foil?) but I don’t care because the old guy told me I was charming, he liked my glasses, and he laughed at my jokes. Yes sir I will take those twisted metal Christmas ornaments please AND thank you.

Oh and, you guys, deep fried Oreos.

I do love UNC and Chapel Hill and the Tar Heels with all my heart (YES EVEN WHEN THEY’RE BEING SO DUMB aka NOW) but the Wolfpack fans do know how to throw a good tailgate! We’ll be heading out as early as we can…Carter Finley rules state we can go only 5 hours prior to the kickoff, but “work” rules state that we have to, well, work. So we’ll hopefully get off a little early, pick up some noms, and head to our SWEET tailgating spot to drink beers and throw the football and hopefully have some friends meet up with us.

BEST part of all of this? It’s supposed to be around 86 degrees so YAY football weather. I may even wear ::gasp:: boots!

This will be us, minus the tent...and (sadly) the snuggies.

Yum Yuminess

…and then I had a few requests for the recipe. I also had a request by my husband, T, to “remember this one”. Which means he was SO smitten with the meal that YES he would like it again sometime. So here’s the breakdown for both items on the menu…

Zucchini, Corn, & Tomato Salad [adapted from epicurious.com]

1 enormous zucchini (or I guess 2 normal sized ones)
1 bowl cherry tomatos, sliced in half (1 1-2 to 2 cups?)
2 ears fresh, sweet corn (uncooked), sliced off of the cob
juice of one small lime
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
hand full of chiffonaded (thinly sliced) basil

1. Wash zucchini and then, using a vegetable peeler or a mandolin, slice it into long, thin ribbons. Be sure to use the peel, and once you start seeing the seeds peek through, you’ve gone far enough. Throw away/compost the core. Toss the zucchini ribbons with a teaspoon of salt and set the whole bunch in a colander over the sink or a bowl. Let it sit until just before serving.

2. With a little EVOO in the pan, toss the corn until it’s evenly coated and cook on medium until some pieces start to char a little. 7-10 minutes.

3. Combine sugar, black pepper, other 1/4 tsp salt lime in a container and whisk in evoo until emulsified. Or you can dump it all in a mason jar and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. Either way works.

4. Press the salted zucchini into the colander/sieve. Squeeze it and move it around until you think you’ve gotten all the water out. Toss the zucchini ribbons in a bowl with the corn and tomatoes. Add the basil and toss. Drizzle in some of the dressing you just made and toss a little more. Serve with the dressing alongside in case someone wants more.

Pecan-crusted chicken [adapted from my Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals book]

*note: When I get chicken breasts at the store, I slice them in 1/2 (so they are the same size, but thinner) and then freeze them in pairs so there is a perfectly portioned meal for T and I. Thus, an un-tampered with chicken breast might take longer to fry/bake than these do. Just don’t eat any raw chicken, OK?

2 chicken breasts, salted and peppered
1 egg, beaten with 2 tbsp water
1 c AP flour
1 c pecan pieces, chopped to a meal-like consistency – you can see in the photo how small they were chopped – I used my cuisenart mini-prep.
1/4 tsp nutmeg
extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan

1. Turn your oven on to 350°. Swirl a tablespoon of EVOO in your pan (I used the same one from the previous recipe). Prepare 3 shallow bowls, one for egg/water, one for flour, and one for pecans and nutmeg.

2. Put one chicken breast in flour, get it well dusted in flour. Dip chicken breast in egg mixture. Drop chicken breast in pecans/nutmeg. Get it nice and well-coated in pecans. Set aside and repeat with other chicken breast.

3. Place both chicken breasts in pan with oil, let sit 5 minutes, flip them over to brown the other side…5 minutes. Then pop the whole pan in the oven (or put them on a small baking sheet and put them in the oven as the EVOO might smoke a little bit) for 10 minutes to be sure the chicken breasts are cooked all the way through.

Plate and serve! – And let me know what you think!

Zucchini, Corn, & Tomato Salad [adapted from epicurious.com]

1 enormous zucchini (or I guess 2 normal sized ones)
1 bowl cherry tomatos, sliced in half (1 1-2 to 2 cups?)
2 ears fresh, sweet corn (uncooked), sliced off of the cob
juice of one small lime
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
hand full of chiffonaded (thinly sliced) basil

1. Wash zucchini and then, using a vegetable peeler or a mandolin, slice it into long, thin ribbons. Be sure to use the peel, and once you start seeing the seeds peek through, you’ve gone far enough. Throw away/compost the core. Toss the zucchini ribbons with a teaspoon of salt and set the whole bunch in a colander over the sink or a bowl. Let it sit until just before serving.

2. With a little EVOO in the pan, toss the corn until it’s evenly coated and cook on medium until some pieces start to char a little. 7-10 minutes.

3. Combine sugar, black pepper, other 1/4 tsp salt lime in a container and whisk in evoo until emulsified. Or you can dump it all in a mason jar and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. Either way works.

4. Press the salted zucchini into the colander/sieve. Squeeze it and move it around until you think you’ve gotten all the water out. Toss the zucchini ribbons in a bowl with the corn and tomatoes. Add the basil and toss. Drizzle in some of the dressing you just made and toss a little more. Serve with the dressing alongside in case someone wants more.

Pecan-crusted chicken [adapted from my Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals book]

*note: When I get chicken breasts at the store, I slice them in 1/2 (so they are the same size, but thinner) and then freeze them in pairs so there is a perfectly portioned meal for T and I. Thus, an un-tampered with chicken breast might take longer to fry/bake than these do. Just don’t eat any raw chicken, OK?

2 chicken breasts, salted and peppered
1 egg, beaten with 2 tbsp water
1 c AP flour
1 c pecan pieces, chopped to a meal-like consistency – you can see in the photo how small they were chopped – I used my cuisenart mini-prep.
1/4 tsp nutmeg
extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan

1. Turn your oven on to 350°. Swirl a tablespoon of EVOO in your pan (I used the same one from the previous recipe). Prepare 3 shallow bowls, one for egg/water, one for flour, and one for pecans and nutmeg.

2. Put one chicken breast in flour, get it well dusted in flour. Dip chicken breast in egg mixture. Drop chicken breast in pecans/nutmeg. Get it nice and well-coated in pecans. Set aside and repeat with other chicken breast.

3. Place both chicken breasts in pan with oil, let sit 5 minutes, flip them over to brown the other side…5 minutes. Then pop the whole pan in the oven (or put them on a small baking sheet and put them in the oven as the EVOO might smoke a little bit) for 10 minutes to be sure the chicken breasts are cooked all the way through.

Plate and serve! – And let me know what you think!

Zucchini, Corn, & Tomato Salad [adapted from epicurious.com]

1 enormous zucchini (or I guess 2 normal sized ones)
1 bowl cherry tomatos, sliced in half (1 1-2 to 2 cups?)
2 ears fresh, sweet corn (uncooked), sliced off of the cob
juice of one small lime
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
hand full of chiffonaded (thinly sliced) basil

1. Wash zucchini and then, using a vegetable peeler or a mandolin, slice it into long, thin ribbons. Be sure to use the peel, and once you start seeing the seeds peek through, you’ve gone far enough. Throw away/compost the core. Toss the zucchini ribbons with a teaspoon of salt and set the whole bunch in a colander over the sink or a bowl. Let it sit until just before serving.

2. With a little EVOO in the pan, toss the corn until it’s evenly coated and cook on medium until some pieces start to char a little. 7-10 minutes.

3. Combine sugar, black pepper, other 1/4 tsp salt lime in a container and whisk in evoo until emulsified. Or you can dump it all in a mason jar and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. Either way works.

4. Press the salted zucchini into the colander/sieve. Squeeze it and move it around until you think you’ve gotten all the water out. Toss the zucchini ribbons in a bowl with the corn and tomatoes. Add the basil and toss. Drizzle in some of the dressing you just made and toss a little more. Serve with the dressing alongside in case someone wants more.

Pecan-crusted chicken [adapted from my Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals book]

*note: When I get chicken breasts at the store, I slice them in 1/2 (so they are the same size, but thinner) and then freeze them in pairs so there is a perfectly portioned meal for T and I. Thus, an un-tampered with chicken breast might take longer to fry/bake than these do. Just don’t eat any raw chicken, OK?

2 chicken breasts, salted and peppered
1 egg, beaten with 2 tbsp water
1 c AP flour
1 c pecan pieces, chopped to a meal-like consistency – you can see in the photo how small they were chopped – I used my cuisenart mini-prep.
1/4 tsp nutmeg
extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan

1. Turn your oven on to 350°. Swirl a tablespoon of EVOO in your pan (I used the same one from the previous recipe). Prepare 3 shallow bowls, one for egg/water, one for flour, and one for pecans and nutmeg.

2. Put one chicken breast in flour, get it well dusted in flour. Dip chicken breast in egg mixture. Drop chicken breast in pecans/nutmeg. Get it nice and well-coated in pecans. Set aside and repeat with other chicken breast.

3. Place both chicken breasts in pan with oil, let sit 5 minutes, flip them over to brown the other side…5 minutes. Then pop the whole pan in the oven (or put them on a small baking sheet and put them in the oven as the EVOO might smoke a little bit) for 10 minutes to be sure the chicken breasts are cooked all the way through.

Plate and serve! – And let me know what you think!

Sunday rolled around and it was 75°. I’m sorry, did you hear me clearly enough? IT WAS 75°. I don’t know where you live, but here in North Carolina it hasn’t dropped below 95° in a month. So 75° was like “oh snap it’s winter outside”. And I got to wear JEANS to Carowinds – more specifically I got to wear my new, on sale, gorgeous and comfortable distressed jeans which just about made me the happiest girl in the WORLD because ew ew ew who knows who sat there and who touched that and people get SICK at amusement parks and everyone is sweaty so HOORAY for being able to be delightfully covered up and not sweaty.  OK, ok less about my outfits and more about the photos and roller coasters…

The Intimidator

So this is what I saw as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. This is the Intimidator. This is the tallest (232′ – 23 stories), fastest (75+ MPH), and LONGEST (5,316′) roller coaster in the southeast. This takes some serious guts to climb aboard. You sit down in your Dale Earnhardt-styled race car seat and then it’s chug-chug-chug-oh look now we’re going up a hill for our initial descent and then all of a sudden you’re lying on your BACK because “up the hill” is like a 75° angle (there’s that number again…) and then you squeeeeze your eyes shut because WHOA was it a good idea to get on this one right after that BBQ sandwich (and french fries sent straight from heaven, apparently WELL DONE CAROWINDS ON THE FRENCH FRIES)? Ya’ll. If you are roller coaster people then you MUST make the pilgrimage to ride this one. It’s all ZOOM ZOOM WHIPPING you around corners and its so fast you think “are my eyelids open against my will?”. And that initial drop is HORRIBLE (and by that, I mean AWESOME).

Also, going to Carowinds on an overcast, cool day? Best idea ever (as if I can actually take credit for that…). Here’s an example of the line for EVERY SINGLE RIDE:

Really long lines.

And this was the line for the aforementioned Intimidator. This is a brand new $23M roller coaster and all you had to do was wait for the next train of cars to pull up. This trip was like a personal challenge of how many roller coasters can you handle in an hour. The answer is 6, by the way. We did 6 in the first hour (10 am – 11 am) and then we all had to sit down for a while to gather ourselves – I’m sorry, where’s the fainting couch when I need it?

The Hurler - minus any references to "hurling".

And here we are waiting to board The Hurler – the awesome wooden rollercoaster in the Wayne’s World section of Carowinds except NO because Carowinds is no longer owned by Paramount, so any movie-related rollercoasters were all rebranded. So now The Hurler (the only movie-coaster to retain its original name, probably because it’s so obscure) has lost much of it’s charm. We are no longer welcomed by Wayne & Garth and “Party Time! Excellent!”. The style of the coaster’s boarding area was once a sound-stage…or a behind-the-curtain look at an arena. Now it is sort of creepy and warehouse-esque. See T’s sad face above? We wanted to see Wayne & Garth. Also, we had to explain to our companions who Wayne & Garth were. This was mega-sad and made me feel very old as I head-banged and tried to explain the old SNL skit. Then we reminisced about how Mike Myers went from Wayne to Austin Powers to Shreck and WOW he’s come a long way.

Frozen lemonade & french fry break.

So to expand on what I mentioned above, Drop Zone is now Drop Tower and Top Gun is now “After Burn”. We defiantly referred to the renamed roller coasters by their INTENDED names all day. Take THAT new people who own Carowinds! We even sang “Highway to the danger zone” very loudly (too loudly?) while we were strapped into TOP GUN waiting for it to roll out of the station.

You’re welcome for that little ear-worm because you’ll be singing it all day long. Just like we were.

Drop Zone was just as scary at 26 as it was at 15. Top Gun was still AWESOME because you can ride barefoot (if you play your cards right) and you’re all suspended from the track and they WOOSH you under the ground into this mist-filled tunnel and for a split second you think you might hit the ground. LOVE IT. This was the only ride that we dared to double-dip on. As in we rode it – wheee! – and then were walking off the platform when T grabs my arm, points to 2 empty seats on a car near the back and says “wanna do it again?”. I didn’t even hesitate. That second time though, yeah that required some time-on-a-bench afterwards.

Carowinds was awesome. The Intimidator was awesome. The cool weather was awesome. The company was awesome. The french fries were awesome. My husband was awesome. This cold that I now have due to the cool, damp weather on Sunday is not so awesome but I can deal.

The only picture of the two of us taken in the last 6 months. Thank goodness you can't really see my hair.

* Things were purchased AT TARGET while they were ON SALE. Just so we’re clear.

** They were old and too tight and too long and too big of a flare and they are cute as jorts so I’m ok with it.

Me, myself, and my magazines.

Then I ran to meet and have some dinner with wine and much-needed girl talk. A lovely husband picked me up and drove my had-too-much-fun self home. He also then drove my whoops-i-left-my-car self BACK over there for automobile retrieval the next morning, where we all went on a very sweaty and chatty walk. We might have broken into a run once or twice, but if my memory serves correctly I believe it was only to get across a road.

We moved from our excercise event to a local coffee spot, 3 cups where we inexplicibly drank an enormous french press of coffee.  Well, not inexplicibly, exactly…I know why we did it, but still. It seems silly now considering what a warm day it was. But either way, it was delicious and much enjoyed. We even stopped in next door at the Great Harvest Bread Company to grab one of their cinnamon rolls they were touting so highly with a giant banner outside.

Too bad they were a little slow taking their banner down and there were OUT OF CINNAMON ROLLS. This feels like a small peanuts to you, maybe, but to Kelley and I it was a bit devistating. I begged for a cinnamon roll (as politely as possible, obviously) and between the two of us (the man in the apron and I, that is) we decided to slather the icing left over from the cinnamon rolls onto the top of a “cinnamon chip” loaf. And he let me buy the 1/2 eaten “sample” loaf. And he only charged $3.50 for it. Anyway, long story…but the end result is coffee and a lovely chat and a GIANT loaf of cinnamonrollbreadthingy. T was more than happy to accept the leftover of the cinnamon loaf as my penance for making him get up early that morning.

Cinnamon roll coffee cake-ish thing & an enormous french press

The girls got on the road, and I popped into the sale at A Southern Season and bought a LOT OF WINE because the sale extended into the wine-and-beer and lets be honest people, we don’t spend more than $9 a bottle usually so I was very happy to scoop up a few $11-13 bottles for $6-7 each. I also bought a glug-glug-fishy-jug (that T apparently hates but WHATEV I love it) and a small selection of awesome artisan cheeses that I intended for us to nibble on with our wine while waiting for our outdoor movie that evening. Unfortunately the outdoor movie got canceled due to rain. *boooo* So I guess I’ll just have to come up with some other excuse to eat cheese. Oh I got it, it’s Tuesday. Done.

We went swimming in the rain that afternoon, the inner lifeguard in me remembered that swimming in the rain (in a big storm with no thunder/lightning) was the best part of being a lifeguard. The kids were all gone home and the water was so warm from the whole day spent in the sun. When it rains that hard you can never quite tell if you’re in or out of the water.

cheese & tomatos, an afternoon pool snack

We eventually pulled ourselves out of our lazy afternoon and had sushi for dinner at our local spot. We ate hot & sour soup and too much sushi, but that’s what happens when it’s all buy-one-get-one. I made sure to make room for TCBY though, duh. The rest of the evening was filled with True Blood, which we are one season behind on since we watch via Netflix NO SPOILERS PLEASE.

Sunday we wandered around the house, decided to hit the pool again (!), played silly pool games that involve lots of splashing and jumping and breath-holding, and then met the previously mentioned friends on their way back through for a little Sunday Funday downtown at the Raleigh Times. 4 hours spent sitting in the sun, drinking belgian beers, sweating through my dress, and then periodically getting rained on (just enough rain to make the sweat spots less noticeable). A lovely afternoon. A lovely weekend.

the girls and my T

Photo courtesy of Morgan’s Facebook.

…which was grape flavored, and happened approximately 6 times this weekend.  I emphasized that I was not playing this malt-liquor game, and I stood by and took photos of the icings as they happened. Unfortunately none of T’s friends had heard of this game but were quick to adapt and after a brief run-down of the rules they were keen to play.

We also spent a few hours of Saturday on Wrightsville beach, where the parking is nightmarish. We eventually paid a hefty price for premium parking because were were too lazy and impatient to keep looking, and also sans-quarters which put us out of the running for snagging one of the many $2.00/hr parking meters. I left the beach with the boys at 1:30 pm to head to a dark and damp beach bar to watch the USA v ENG World Cup match, which was a fantastic event. A group of a dozen or so British fellows sitting at the tables behind us made for some entertaining eavesdropping as well.  Once we headed back to the beach we only had an hour before we had to retrieve our car from the lot so naturally the boys  spent their time doing this:

T auditioning for the World Cup of fedora-wearers

We made it to downtown Wilmington but didn’t last long there. The next morning I managed to lure T out of bed and onto the road at 10:30 am with a wakeup call of “there’s a Krispy Kreme on the way out of Wilmington“. He popped up pretty fast when he heard that. Glazed doughnuts apparently cure all ailments.

2 hot’n'nows for the boy, a chocolate-covered-cream-filled for moi.

Can’t save/publish this post until I share the quote/drawing from the bathroom stall of the beach bar where we watched the soccer/football match. Made me smile.

EDIT: I forgot to add this lovely photo of T & I taken by one of our travel companions who apparently prefers everyone in a nice, soft, glowey, orange light. I promise we are neither that tan, nor do I exude my own radiance as I appear to here.

at Front Street Brewery

Slowly but surely attempting a sort of salon-style wall in our dining area*. I’m anxious to paint the wall a sort of dandelion yellow, but I’m afraid of how that might turn out and the subsequent repainting. Ugh. Repainting. Either way, I’m quite proud of my attempt so far!

Anyway, so far I’ve been able to feature some of my own black & white photography, a few wedding photos, a childhood photo of T & his little brother all snuggled up being cute little boys, printing press block letters (Fs, duh) that I begged for and my mother purchased for me even though she didn’t see the potential that I saw (far left, shadowboxed w/ some pretty paper), some pretty plates that I’ve taken to collecting this past year (don’t ask) as well as a piece of our “good” china that I inherited from my Aunt Becky. T was beside himself that I would consider hanging this extremely expensive plate on the wall with my trusty 3M picture-hanger strip thingies** but he got over it when I explained that using 2 strips would be sufficient since 2 hooks is designated to hold 3+ lbs. And this plate was roughly 8 oz.

I know alot of people design these walls really carefully and lay everything out before they hang anything up but I don’t have the patience to collect everything and I really want pictures on our walls. We have so many great photos squirreled away on our computer and…I feel like it makes a house a home, as cheesy as that sounds. So here we go with the organic thing…lets see where this takes us!

*We don’t have a “dining room” in our house because we decided we’d rather have a smaller dining area and the ability to also have our computer upstairs. It’s all sort of a kitchen/dining/office area and we love it. Eventually T’s going to build a corner-banquette that I am super amped about. Woooo home-improvement.

**These things (so far) are fantastic. No holes in the walls! That means I can stick it up, and if I change my mind…no one has to get out spackle and paint. Fantastic for the afraid-of-making-decisions person that I am and our brand-new walls.

Ocean Isle Beach, at it's finest.

For those unfamiliar, OIB is about 2 hours and 45 minutes from the triangle, and is a south-facing island off of the coast of North Carolina.

Our condo is on the far end of the island and, as typical with NC beaches, the stretch of sand is fairly wide and in our area is not terribly busy, even in season (out of season, you’re likely to be the only one on the beach in shouting distance). There are no lifeguards, but they do patrol occasionally and will write you a ticket if you’re drinking out of glass bottles (alcohol is permitted, but just no glass).

The condo itself has a front and back balcony, and is small but cozy. It can sleep 8 at full capacity with a king, a queen, 2 twins, and a pull-out queen and has 2 full bathrooms. The kitchen is well equipped and is open to the living area that has a TV with cable as well as a wireless router for complementary wireless internet. Sliding glass doors open up to the back balcony with lines to hang wet towels and bathing suits. There is a stacked W/D in the 3^rd bedroom. Towels and sheets are not provided.

The distance from front door to beach is maybe 150 feet – a distance I usually run barefoot because I’m too lazy to bother with sandy shoes for that small of a distance –  and there is a pool on-site. The island features a few decent restaurants to grab dinner and drinks: Sharky’s, the Giggling Mackerel, and the small sandwich shop off the pier, as well as a local bar called Salty McDoogle’s (I am not making this up) that has live music on the weekends. There’s a put-in for boats just under the island’s only access point, a large bridge, for anyone who wants to bring their boat down to run up and down the waterway a bit.

Here is the calendar of availability.

And here are 360 degree views of the unit.

Weekly pricing is as follows:
In Season: $975
Value Season:  $735 the weeks of 6/5, 6/12, 8/14, 8/21
Off Season:  $625 3/15 to 6/5 and 8/28 to 12/15.

Please, if you’re a friend, let me know before you contact the rental company to book any reservations  – and if you have any further questions you’d want answered, I’m a world of knowledge about the place!