Once the house sold in September Albie and I decided we could start “peaking” at what’s out there. I found a Realtor and met with her on my own. I got a “portal” set up and I started saving my favorites. One by one though they were selling. So right after the new year when we decided we wouldn’t be bothering people’s holidays anymore we started visiting houses.

First I’d start with a big list of houses and one day during the week while he’s gone I drive around go through the neighborhoods and to knock off any based on appearances. This step has been crucial. As of today we have DRIVEN BY over 60 houses.

The drive-bys have helped me figure out what was important in a neighborhood. I have discovered I can be very superficial about the way a house looks and how the neighborhood feels. What do the neighbors have in their yard? What kinds of cars in the other drive ways, are people parked in the street? Are their street lights? How is traffic getting in and out? I’m telling you, before I wasted my agent’s time I wasted mine and it has been well worth it.

After lists get knocked down to a manageable number we set our visits up. Visiting day we show up to our agent’s office with a fresh Dr. Pepper, notebook, pen and camera. Our agent brings the MLS reports and she drives. After about 5 different days like this we have a pretty good routine and it works for us.

Here’s a few we’ve seen so far:

Some of these have been my favorites before I even stepped foot in side and then have been crushed with the awkward layouts or upgrades needed. I swear if I see another kitchen that has full on oak cabinets I’ll cry.

Some of these have had the smallest bedrooms I have ever seen and some have been GORGEOUS. Some of have been short sales, some have been foreclosures. Most have been empty and luckily all have been in a good price range.

We did offer on one of these houses this week and lost it  because another offer was on the table. I knew that other offer was out there and told my self not to get excited but I did anyway and spent most of Wednesday night feeling crushed.

It gets to a point with a lot of these houses where you start to picture where your couch goes and what color that 3rd bedroom could be. If you’re like me then you drive by every chance you get just to pretend you already live there too ;)

I don’t have a few on here because they aren’t knocked off just yet  and since it’s almost the weekend I think we’ll be making some more rounds. Wish us luck!

Anyone else have any house hunting tips?

I hate that I’ve been away from the blog for so long but I’ve been busy/ relaxed/ hanging out with the husband. It’s the best kind of busy that you don’t even miss the computer isn’t it?

Since I’ve been away I have had lots o’ wine, watched the entire Downton Abbey series and oh yeah,  a little bit of house hunting :)

Don’t gt all excited, nothing has changed in the long-distance front but we decided to slowly start looking for houses here in town a few weeks ago and are cruising through every neighborhood we see. Every listing email that we’ve seen has had our interest peaked.

We’ve looked at new, big, small, beach, city, good school districts, questionable upgrades, landscape needed, foreclosed, and short sale properties.  It feels endless but I think we’re narrowing down on what we like and don’t like.

After each full day of walking through other people’s houses I can’t  help but hit my Pinterest boards in search of remodel inspiration an easy DIY projects. After sleeping on it I wonder what’s really possible… can I really re floor the ENTIRE house? Can I really mix and pour concrete for a fence?

Anyway, I’m sorry for the blog absence – I can’t wait to show you some of the terrible properties we’ve walked through and the project’s we’ve passed over in search of the perfect house.

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I’m having one of those weeks…. months… um years I guess, where I am constantly feeling like what I want is unattainable. And mostly because of the cost involved in getting it.

My friend at work nailed it when she asked me “Why do we have champagne tastes on a beer budget?” She stumped me. But it made sense.

The trips I want. The houses I love. The furniture I covet. The clothes I try on. The cars I drive by. The menu items I drool over. The hobbies I have time for. The puppies that need rescuing. The bills that must get paid.

We’re closing in on the year mark of when we realized we’d live apart for a while and while I’ve actually gotten used to out routine and understand we’re living in two towns and two houses to do what’s best for us it certainly doesn’t help change my wants and desires.

As I browse houses that I thought would be “next” after our town home I am needing some reminding that while I want a mortgage here at the beach, we have rent in the Piedmont. I also need reminding sometimes that just because I feel like it’s time to do things, go places and buy things – it’s not.

Sometimes I think my issue could be a “keeping up the Jones’ ” attitude brought on by too much time on facebook, pinterest and blogs. Anyone feel this way? Anyone else totally have “champagne taste on a beer budget”?

Kate Spade has this year’s goals down to a T. If I could do all of these things I’d consider 2012 a banner year, and after my interesting 2011 I’d love a great year to look forward to:

• THINK:  I may not take another class this semester because of the time commitment and how much it takes out my work day but I want to continue to learn French. I want to find another way to get more engaged in learning the language better. Everyone who speaks fluently has told me classes are not going to help me so I need to just speak it to get a better grasp on it. So I think this is one of my more “out there” ideas for what I’d like to do this year – but I want to learn this language to the point where I know it, finally.
• TRAVEL: This year I know we have a few weddings on the horizon (3!) and one is in Vegas in October so that’s our big trip for the year. Neither Albie or I have ever been to Nevada so we’ll see the Grand Canyon and spend some time in Las Vegas before the wedding.

  I’d also love to have this be the year I start saving and planning for a trip to Europe in 2013.

• CELEBRATE: This year we celebrate My 27th birthday in February, Finley’s 5th in March, our 3rd wedding anniversary and Albie’s 28th in May. In addition to the normal dates on the calendar I’d love to celebrate Albie getting a job here in town with me and being able to live together again.
• CHARM: I’m going to look at charm as a personality trait here. Maybe I’ll continue to win over my new friends with my “charming” personality?  Just in case I don’t come across with the charm I need to have to keep friends I’ll just plan on making it up by bringing the wine :)
• DECORATE: I want 2012 to be the “Year of the New House.”  (Last year was “Year of Living Apart”, Next year will be the “Year for Europe”). I want to decorate and make a new house a home. I want to get my belongings out of storage and spread out into a bigger and better house. I want to decorate and finally buy some good furniture.
• DRESS: I have already kicked off a tiny buying spree with some gift cards from Christmas and I’m super excited about some of the sales I’ve found. This year is going to be the year where I do quality over quantity. I want some nicer pieces that will last me longer then some recent outfits I’ve purchased. I want to take better care of my clothes and be a little bolder in what I wear. I even bought some patterned pieces – woah!
• LIVE: The most exciting thing about 2012 is that is brings the possibility of living with Albie again. I want this one so bad I can’t even explain it.

Here’s to 2012!

Haha, ok that’s a joke. She more or less sends it to me so I don’t complain about it when they come in the mail and go to everyone we’ve ever met.

Either way I got this year’s and of course had opinions but after looking everywhere I couldn’t find any better options. So just to be super helpful I made some joke cards:

Hahaha, I can’t stop laughing.

I know these are most likely for businesses but I just picture someone actually sending them out with a family picture on it. Picture the cleaning one “Can’t wait to host the whole family dinner this year! Happy Holidays!” or the wine one “From one lush to another: Eat, DRINK, and have a Merry Christmas!”

Luckily for our family my mom vetoed all my pretty options and came up with a card that features us all pretty well.

(In case you’re curious: The cards above were all made at VistaPrint. Her actual card came from them as well and is very pretty as well as great quality.

My card came from Snapfish and is also a really nice quality, thanks to my coupon code was also super reasonably priced – only bone to pick was that the envelopes were too thin.)

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I mean really? Those all look like PERFECTION.  And while I am aware these are professionally photographed and there probably aren’t even real gifts inside those boxes I know I’ve seen on regualr people’s blogs that y’all are doing this too! Twitter is even worse, I can see just exactly how cute and how much time people are spending on their gift wrapping! Not to hate too much but can we address a few things?

• When did we decide to stop using dollar store/ Target wrapping paper? Are the mismatched cartoon Santas and Christmas trees not good enough anymore? Mine is more of a pattern this year to stay kind of cute but if I run out it’s Santa Mickeys all the way.
• Real ribbon? Maybe I am too cheep but IF a gift gets a bow then it’s a fancy curled ribbon one that I made. No real ribbon my gifts unless it’s actually part of the gift.
• What’s up with the boxes? Am I the only one who struggles to wrap candles and bottles every year?
• Double sided tape? NO thanks – I’ll use my multi-pack of scotch tape that I keep on hand. I don’t care if you can see my tape or if I use too much!

I do want to send my kudos out to all of you who have these cute themes and expensive labels. Your gifts are literally too pretty to open sometimes. But mine? Mine looks like I wrapped them with a dog in my lap and a glass of wine in one hand with my dollar store supplies:

haha, oh wait ….. that is how I wrap my gifts. No one minds a funky shaped gift where the paper doesn’t quite touch and has dog hair in the tape right? It’s the thought that counts right?!

The Front

The Back

This site is so easy and smart – just by shopping on line on sites you already use it tracks your spending and gives you cash back.I know a lot of other bloggers have posted about how great Ebates is but I felt my self telling people that still didn’t know and if you like to save money then this is an easy way to pay your self back while you shop!

To start accumulating your cash is super simple too:

• Sign up on their website, HERE.
• Click through their website onto the sites you want to shop from. They have Old Navy, Wal-Mart, Crate & Barrel, Barnes & Nobel, J Crew, Disney, Sephora etc… Literally a TON of stores that you already shop at.
• Once you click through it makes a “tracking ticket” that it checks back on in a few days to see if you ended up ordering or if you just shopped around.
• Make your purchase like normal – through the site you are familiar with.
• Once your purchase is confirmed with Ebates they keep track of it on their website.  (Normally takes about 2-3 days to confirm on their end.)
• Wait for your check :) (They send the money 4 times a year so you have a big window to shop.)

How simple is that? I signed up the Monday after Thanksgiving and have already accumulated s nice little bundle that should be coming my way in February!

Let me know if y’all have questions or want me to send a personal invite!

I finished the French course I was taking this semester and even though I went back a few levels to refresh what I knew I feel like I learned more this time along. Maybe it was because there was no grade hanging over my head and because I took it to LEARN. Either way I really enjoyed it!

(ok, I did not enjoy studying for tests or seeing “Homework Due” on my planner but enjoyed the actual French for sure!)

I took 4 years of French in High School and 2 in College. If you add this one then I have taken French for 7 years and I’m most certain that if asked “Parlez-vous Français?” my answer would still be “Je parle un peu.” It’s kind of heart breaking. I’m forging on anyway and thinking of continuing up another level this Spring. (Auditing again obviously.)

Since no trip to France is even planned in the near future I think I’ll just stick to my French courses and subtitled movies until we can fit it in.

{Image found via HERE }

I mean really? Could they look any more delicious? Doubtful.

These have been at a couple work functions and I finally asked for the recipe from a co-worker. The recipe she sent had about 4 ingredients and about just as many steps. THIS is a recipe I can handle.

You’ll need:

• 1 lb spicy sausage
• 1lb regular sausage
• 3 Jars of Old English Cheese
• English Muffins

Since we take these out to tailgate we do this in a couple of steps so we can be prepared but still grill and enjoy our selves. We have made these outside and at home. Both are yummy!

First steps don’t change. You can do this part in advance and stick it in the fridge or you can move right on to the final steps:

• Cook both pounds of sausages together in a big pan. We cooked them until they had mostly no pink but weren’t scared if we saw some since they continue to cook a little.
• Drain the sausage. (We skipped this one of the attempts and I see why it’s a needed step.)
• Add all 3 jars of the Old English Cheese to the sausage and mix really well.

We have prepared the “mix” in advance every time since we are going between 2 kitchens trying to minimize how much uncooked food we travel with. So we put it in the Tupperware and just keep it cold.

The next steps all involve the actually assembly:

• Fork your English muffins. These will be like open face sandwiches so you’ll use the halves separately.

• When grilling at the tailgate we put the english muffins face down on the grill to toast them up a bit and make sure they are warm.
• Pour the mixture of sausage and cheese onto some tin foil. We use the super thick stuff and albie basically makes a little oven/ plate/ boat contraption that keeps it all inside and warms it up on the grill:

• Don’t over cook anything in these steps – this is just to bring everything to life before you combine.
• The final assembly step is to load the English muffins as full as they’ll get. Don’t be stingy. (If you make them for work, you can be stingy to make it go further but for tailgeting – don’t even think about it. These help soak up all that early morning acholol you’ve been drinking.)

• Forgot to take a picture of this step but you just need to put the assembled open faced English muffins back on the grill. I think our little travel grill holds 6 at one time because you don’t want to put them directly over the heat/ flame.
• Remember everything has already been cooked all these steps just help the melting and warming it. Once you feel like they’re warmed pretty thoroughly you should take some and hoard them on your plate.  You will want to eat all of them but it’s nicer to share. So eat yours then grab another drink and wait for more to come off the grill.

Quantity Note: The entire mixture with the full list of ingredients makes about 20 open faced yummies. I’m sure you could use less or more on each muffin to get varying numbers but it’s supposed to make 20.

Baking Note: Obviously not everyone is going to eat these off the grill and that makes me a little sad but I understand. So to bake them just pre-heat your over to 350 and bake them for 15-20 minutes.When I tried them this way they were just as good but I thought this took a little longer then grilling – probably because I wasn’t enjoying a tasty beverage outside on a gorgeous Saturday morning.

Ingredient Note: Finding Old English Cheese makes me want to stomp on pretty flowers. It’s not with the cheese and it’s in these teeny tiny jars. It’s not super cheap (about $3 a jar) and not at every grocery store. I think it’s like a chedder-y spreadable cheese but I can’t really put my finger on it… it resembles Velveeta but is different… anyway, if you have any suggestions to a good substitute PLEASE tell me. I’d love to find a way to make this a little cheaper or with ingredients I have on hand already.  Either way it’s really good, I’d just love to have a back up substitute.

Let me know if y’all make these! (so I can come over and eat them with you!)