Our Desk Chair Got Fancy

I purchased a nice Parsons chair from TJ Maxx on Clearance for $69.99.  It was the perfect color and the perfect shape but I wanted it to be a little more "fancy" so I purchased several packs of silver nail head trim from Amazon.

 R helped me so much, it is tedious work so he would work for a while and then I would take over.  The task itself is simple enough, place the nailhead where you want it and press lightly, then take your hammer and hit straight down.  If you angle the hammer at all you will bend it, we ruined a whole pack of trim because not every hit was perfectly straight.

Here is a close up shot - I'm impressed with how straight we were able to get the line.  We used the natural seam of the fabric as our guide.  We placed the trim all along the seat of the chair as well.  I'm hoping to debut the finished product when we redo our desk in a few weeks.

This project is easy - but if you are thinking of decorating with nail heads buy more trim than you think you will need (and then buy more than that) and set aside a good amount of time to work on it.  We finished our project quickly because we took turns.  And don't get too frustrated, once you are in the groove the process is much better.

In the Kitchen: Zucchini Boats

This is my favorite version!
4 zucchini cut lengthwise
6-7 extra large shrimp, chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 cup onion minced
Fresh Salsa or pico de gallo
Fresh shredded mozzarella
Pam Spray
salt and pepper

Spray a medium pan with Pam spray and add onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes.  Scoop the inside of the zucchini out to make a hollow "boat".  Take the inside "pulp" of the zucchini and chop, add to the onion mixture to saute.  Add shrimp last and cook until pink, salt and pepper as desired. Spoon the mixture into the zucchini and top with salsa and cheese.  Line the boats in a foil covered casserole dish for easy clean up.  Bake in the oven at 350* for about 25 minutes.

These are quick and healthy for a weeknight dinner.  It's a perfect light meal for summer alone or it can be served as a side dish.

Greek is Greek....I'm a KD!

I wanted to link up with Carolina Fireflies today to share my Greek experience.  

Photos from back in the day...

Bid Day

Shooting Pool with Starr on Spring Break.

Preference Social.

Sisterhood Scavenger Hunt.

Bounce-a-thon for Prevent Child Abuse America.

My 21st Birthday Party.

Getting ready for Rush.

Christmas Break Party.

I'm a Kappa Delta, Gamma Sigma chapter from East Carolina and I rushed in fall 2002.  Woo - a long time ago now.

I have many friends from my time in the sorority but these ladies became my family.

Clearly I'm on top of this family tree.  My little sister, Courtney, affectionately known as "lil" even to this day is the blonde pictured on my left.  Beside her on my right is my best friend and MOH at my wedding, Katie.  Katie isn't technically my "little" but her "big" dropped out of the sorority so I claimed her.  And the bottom of our diamond is Katie's little sister Starr.  I don't have a single "great" memory of college without at least one of these three girls.  Our chats have changed in the past few years from parties, vacations, and dates to  engagements, work, marriage, and children.  I'm lucky that Katie lives close by but Starr and Courtney have moved out of North Carolina and seeing them is a real treat.  I would have never met them if I hadn't pledged.  College would not have been the same but my life since would have been less fulfilling as well.  There have been many friendships since graduation but no one yet has even come close.

~AOT~

Under Construction

Pardon my mess...Carolinabelle is under construction. I'm still trying to figure out my new font and find the time to work on my toolbar links. Isn't my new layout adorable? I worked with Jenn from The Cutest Blog on the Block and she hit a home run with it. I can't wait until everything is sorted out with it! Blogging will resume tomorrow, but meanwhile

haha, who comes up with these?!?

The Weekend Review.

Thursday I hosted a lunch for a friend at work who is leaving to go back to school.  I brought some delicious chicken salad using this recipe...my pictures could not do the Pioneer Woman justice.

I took Friday off to spend some quality time with my husband so we kicked off our weekend on Thursday afternoon with beer and baseball at a nearby sports bar.  The Red Sox won which put R in a very good mood so we popped by another local spot for social hour.

Friday was productive - we opened a joint bank account for our household expenses and tried a new place in Raleigh for dinner.  Earlier in the week I bought tickets for an outdoor movie at the NC Museum of Art so we decided to go early and have dinner at the restaurant in the museum and then enjoy some exhibits.  R is much more into art than I am but I thoroughly enjoyed the older furniture pieces.

The meal at Iris was amazing!

We saw Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan - it was fantastic!  The weather was beautiful too, nice a cool and I was surprised that the bugs left us alone.

 So sorry for the grainy, late afternoon iphone pictures.

Saturday we attended R's sister's engagement party - it was a solid fiesta theme with a pinata for the kids and margaritas for adults.  The hostesses did a beautiful job with the decoration and I enjoyed myself so much I failed to take a lot of photos - this little pinata pic was the only one that made it to my phone.  We didn't even get a picture of ourselves in our festive best.

Sunday was low key - R washed our car and we made some excellent Shrimp and Grits for dinner. I love three day weekends and I'm hoping that we can have a few more now that R will have Friday off for a few months.

Giving it a try, my Friday Five.

There are 8 bloggers on my reading list that contribute to the Friday Five link up and I like to give into this kind of peer pressure.  Thank you ladies for consistently week after week encourage other bloggers to link up, I love any girl that welcomes a new face at her table.  Here are five things that I'm loving now.

One - The Little Bra Company.  I'm petite and sometimes the fit of traditional bras is just "off", I never realized that it's because the cups are placed too far apart for someone with a small rib cage.  I ordered four new bras from this company on a whim and I love the fit!  I still wear my normal size but I get much better shape and minimal padding.  I also found a strapless bra that doesn't slide down during the day!

I'm a lady so I will spare you pictures of my new underthings but they are packaged "burrito" style in bright pink paper with the sweetest little label "Good things come in Small packages".

Two - the Belk Bridal Registry Completion Event.  I purchased some fun goodies remaining on my registry at 20% during the month of July.  My mother also bought a few items that I will probably receive as Christmas gifts.  I think I've completed my informal china wish list, Portmeirion by Sophie Conran. I splurged on a couple of formal dining sets as well with some leftover wedding gift cards.

Three - L'Oreal Sublime Sun Sheer Protect Sunscreen Oil.  It can be messy to use but I love the beautiful shine, especially on my legs.  I use the Kiss my Face body lotion all over and mist this on my legs every 45 minutes while I'm outside.  It's moisturizing which I love because chlorine can be hard on my skin.

 Four - Chloe's Kitchen.  I am not vegan.  R is defo not vegan.  In our attempts to get more creative with our meals I purchased this cookbook based on Amazon ratings and reviews.  I LOVE IT!  We have dogeared several recipes that we want to try immediately.  I can't wait to try the dessert section, I bake more in the fall so I'm already thinking about all the new yummies I can make - Mocha cake tops the list along with Chloe's award winning cupcakes.

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Five - Bigelow green tea.  R and I have been making a big pitcher of green tea every couple of days sweetened with agave. It's healthy, refreshing, and perfect for summer!

Updated Dining Room Chairs

I was going to post this last night but R and I had too much fun watching the Red Sox game at a local sports bar.  He now has Fridays off and I have some PTO to take so I decided to today off and spend some time with him.  I'm going to try to follow a blog "schedule" with a theme for each day of the week. Thursday is my "home" related day so I wanted to share a small project that R and I completed that made such a big difference in how much I enjoy our dining room.  We reupholstered our dining room chairs.   I couldn't find a before picture of a chair (without someone sitting in it) but think plain tan tweed.  It was a basic "go with anything" look but I really wanted some color.  We are still in a rental house and our walls are mostly white, except in the dining room where there is odd, red dragon fly print wallpaper underneath the chair rail.

Here is the Waverly fabric I chose:

It's a faded coral color, red enough that it looks okay with the wallpaper in the room but much softer.

R and I used this tutorial.  I consider this a two man job, one of us held the fabric in place and the other controlled the staple gun.  We reattached black canvas fabric to the bottom of the seat so you can't see the coral edges.  And here is the finished product:

I finished the project with two complete coats of scotch guard fabric protectant.  I purchased too much fabric so I'm going to use the rest to make some cafe curtains for my kitchen - I love this pattern and I think the color could brighten up that room as well.