Friends

Some Ups & Some Downs

by KT on August 29, 2012

August was a long month for me.  I thought about blogging about all that was going on, but something just stopped me.  Maybe it was laziness, maybe because some of the things were too personal, maybe just a combination of everything. I decided this morning I would do a quick overview.

  • R & I spent some time at the beach with his whole family.  We were able to celebrate R’s birthday with his family & catch up with everyone.  It was a short trip, but it was nice to be there.
  • The week after the beach (and really I suspect at the beach some) I had a terrible sinus infection.  I worked through it, but by the time I got home from the office I was ready to crash.  Summer colds are no fun!
  • A childhood friend of mine lost his mother to cancer.  I cannot express in words how upset I am for his family.  R was great & came to the visitation, funeral, graveside, and reception after with me.  Her service was beautiful, but incredibly sad.  
  •  We attended The Panther’s first pre-season game with our good friends, Jennifer & Ryan.  They came all the way down from Greensboro to be with us.  It was so nice to see them.
  • My whole family had an amazing trip to Ohio to visit with my dad’s family!  We went to Cincinnati, where my dad grew up.  

 

  • He toured us around his old stomping grounds, took us to the Reds’ Hall of Fame & a Friday night Reds game complete with a WIN for the Reds & fireworks!

  • After Cincinnati we headed up to Columbus where several other family members live.  We had a big family picnic with my aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins’ kids.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with everyone & to meet some of my cousins’ babies.
  • Another childhood friend lost her dad to cancer.  It was incredibly sad to see another family hurting so much.  It was even harder as the two families are best friends & neighbors.  I have felt so helpless & not known what to say to say, as nothing I say can make it better.
  • At the beginning of the summer I was given some added responsibilities at the office.  I was finally able to get the approval from the powers that be to move ahead with a project I’ve been working on.  It was such a relief to have the go ahead on that.
  • I met up with some really fun blog friends who have become like just regular friends for lunch.  It was nice to catch up with them & have a big of girl time.

  • R & I had a really big moment when we were able to finally let our family & our close friends know that come March we were going to be parents & Winston was going to be a big brother.
  • I’m really ready for fall to be here & all that it has to offer to offer like cooler temperatures, football, pretty leaves, etc.

How was your August? 



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Sweet Summer Time

by KT on July 12, 2012

We’ve been enjoying our summer a bunch so far.  We haven’t had too many obligations & we’ve found ourselves just staying close to home on the weekends.  I’ve tried to disconnect from social media little bit & that’s been nice, but I feel like I’ve really neglected the blog.  I’m going to attempt to update things a bit.

 

  • We got R’s niece off to Camp Cheerio for her first week as a Cheerio camper.  She didn’t go with a friend & I was really nervous she wouldn’t love Cheerio as much as I do.  Luckily, she had the best week & is definitely going back next summer.  We received this letter from her & I think it is just the cutest thing. 

  •  We had a great time in Birmingham visiting with my mom’s side of the family.  It was the first time I had ever gone on a trip with a toddler (is an 8th month old a toddler?).  Let me just tell you that he was seriously an angel, but I have a totally new respect for moms who drive long distances with their children.  We hit crazy Atlanta traffic, then construction traffic when we got into Alabama.  

This picture is from about hour 3 of our car ride with Charlie & his 5th hour in the car.  I feel like his expression is saying “Are we there yet?”.

The ladies & Charlie did a day at the Birmingham Zoo while the guys golfed.  

We also had a great time swimming in my grandparents’ pool.  Charlie really liked the water!

  • Just like everyone else in the country we’ve had some really hot weather.  REF & I have been continuing with our workout routines despite the heat.  I got this awesome text a few Saturdays ago.

  • Speaking of working out.  REF’s lost 11 pounds & I’ve lost 6 pounds.  More importantly for me is that I’ve lost 4% BMI.  I was pretty proud of that.  I’ve definitely seen the the difference in REF, but not necessarily in myself.  My clothes fit better so I know that something is happening.  I’ve been trying to cut grains & dairy out.  So my meals look a lot like the picture below. 

  • We met up with some of our friends including Allie from Key Ingredients for the Pops in the Park annual 4th of July celebration.  This year it was on the 3rd of July.  It sure was HOT, but it was a really nice night!

  • On the actual 4th we were invited to a handful of BBQs.  We felt so blessed to be invited to so many fun parties, but we were definitely tired come the 5th.  The 4th is my favorite holiday & so this year R & I went all out with decorating our house.

The past few years we met up with my parents at their country club to watch the fireworks.  We did it again this year with their friends, their friends’ kids & grand-kids.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with everyone again.

 

So far it’s been a really nice summer.  I’m going to attempt to do a better job of blogging in the future, too.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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What’s on my Phone?

by KT on June 13, 2012

Also titled: I’m at a loss for content

I still haven’t found my camera battery charger, but if we’re being honest I’ve not really looked too hard for it.  In the meantime how about a little phone photo post?  

Also,  are you following me on Instagram?  You should, my username is KTBFerg.

My girlfriend’s driveway is lined by the most beautiful hydrangeas you’ve ever seen.  She was out of town while they were in full bloom & I begged asked if I could cut a few to have.  I ended up coming home with a HUGE basket of flowers.  I just threw the last of them away this Sunday.  They ended up lasting 3 weeks! 

Prior to the personal trainer cracking the whip on our diet REF & I tried out a pizza on the grill recipe his sister had told us about.  All I have to say about this is – amazing.   

So by now most of the blog/twitter world is well versed in the amazing world of Bridier Baubles, but since a fair number of people who read my blog are NOT bloggers themselves I’ll let you in on a little secret: this jewelry is addictive.  In the picture above I’m modeling wearing the Britta Beads.  Today I’m wearing the Luxe Link in tortoise & yesterday I was wearing The Coco Necklace in snow.  The absolute best thing about this stuff is that the price point makes it a perfect gift choice!  

One week after I stole picked the blue hydrangeas from my girlfriend’s house my neighbor knocked on the door with this GIANT bucket of pink & purple hydrangeas!  She asked if I wanted any, because her bushes were making too many to keep for just her!  Have I told you how much I love my neighbors?!  They are STILL holding up quite well going on week number 3!

So, since we’ve committed to this fitness thing I’ve also made sure I’ve committed to the nutrition side of it too.  This is a pretty accurate picture of my breakfast daily.  I do eat plain or vanilla Greek yogurt too for the protein.  It’s been awesome to just stock up on a bunch of this stuff at the Farmer’s Market each weekend.

I bet my mom readers will recognize what this is!  I found my nephew’s baby shoe under the backseat of car.  His poor mom’s been looking around for the missing mate for a couple weeks.

Last Saturday morning I woke up to find this Bee dead on my patio table.  I mentioned the Bee Apocalypse to REF & he had no idea what I was talking about.  Am I the only nerd that keeps up with this kind of thing?  Also, I’ve always called this type of Bee a Wood Bee (per my dad).  I recently learned that the correct term would be a Carpenter Bee.  

We were outside on the deck when we found the victim of the Bee Apocalypse to do our daily workout.  I had just laid out my yoga mat and was grabbing my phone to use as a timer when someone took over my mat to practice his downward facing dog.  Honestly, my dog could not get any cuter!

That’s it folks!



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What’s Been Going on?

by KT on June 7, 2012

We’ve been busy in the Ferg house the last few weeks.  We haven’t been out of town or entertaining all that much, but I feel like we’ve been on the go.  I can’t find my camera battery (REF, do you know where it is?!) so I don’t have many pictures, but I thought I’d do a little run down of what we’ve been up to & what I’m looking forward to for the summer.

  • R & I finally broke down & signed up with a personal trainer.  I was sick of not following through with plans to get fit.  I hate spending money so I knew if I paid for something I would do it 100%.  I was also sick of the way I felt about myself.  The only way to change that was going to be through hard work.  We are going twice a week to meet with the trainer.  We’ve now seen him 3x & honestly I already see a difference in my strength.  We have an online system where we follow a workout routine on the days that we aren’t with Jon (trainer).  We also have to keep a food journal.  I think for me this is going to be what keeps me going.  It was pretty hard to explain why I needed 3 pieces of pizza & 4 beers last weekend. Ha!
  • Last Saturday I was able to go on a super long walk with Baby J & his mom, MK.  I absolutely love LONG brisk walks.  Since MK used to live in NYC being able to go on a walk with her still feels like a treat even though they’ve been living in Charlotte for over a year!
  • This summer we have TWO separate family reunions with both sides of my family.  I know most people might think of this as a HAVE to, but I love my extended family.  We don’t get to see them too much since everyone is spread out across the US so I’m really looking forward to catching up with everyone.  Some of my cousins have children that I’ve never met before!
  • This weekend I’m celebrating one of my old college roommate’s 30th birthdays & I get to meet another college roommate’s new boyfriend.  I cannot explain how excited I am for both of these things!
  • Also right around the corner is my camp best friend’s 30th birthday party!  I’m so glad that we’re going to be able to celebrate it together…as it was touch and go there for a bit with scheduling conflicts.  She and her husband also met at camp so I know there will be lots of folks at the party that R & I haven’t seen in a long time!
  • The 4th of July is my absolute favorite holiday (Go AMERICA!) and right now we don’t have any plans.  This is causing me a bit of anxiety, but maybe it would be nice to just be at home?!
  • Speaking of America…who’s excited for the Olympics?!  REF & I absolutely LOVE the Olympics.  4 years ago when we got home from our honeymoon the Olympics were there to soften the blow of being back to reality! 

I hope you all have some fun plans for summer months, too!

xoxo



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A Big Ol’ Random Update

by KT on May 24, 2012

I feel like I’m always trying to catch up here on the blog, but that just is what it is…

Warning: All Iphone pictures…

We had a nice mother’s day weekend.  REF & I drove 40 minutes north to celebrate with his mother, grandmother and sister.  I gave everyone a tin of candy from The Shops at Target.  Later that evening REF and I cooked dinner for my parents.  My sister and I gave our mom the same tin of candy, but also got her this lovely arrangement that I found at my local Harris Teeter.  I don’t love the vase, but I thought the flowers were beautiful!  

Speaking of flowers… REF and I also worked for about 6 hours Mother’s Day weekend in the yard.  I planted all white and pink flowers this year.  I need to do a full post about on all of that, but I want stuff to “fill in” a little more before I photograph everything.  I did snap a picture of these black urns, because for about a year April and I have been talking about black urns.  I’m not even sure we had met in person yet, but we had chatted about our garden wants.  I have wanted to pull the trigger on some urns SO many times, but they were either too expensive or too big.  I finally found these that Saturday at Home Depot for $25.00 + 20% off.  I snagged up two of them and promptly tweeted April!  

I’m not a big baker & I don’t really have a sweet tooth, but I had an abundance of strawberries on hand a few weeks ago and I had just seen this recipe on Pinterest  for a Strawberry Lemon cake that I decided to give it a try.   Let me tell you…this is HANDS DOWN the best cake I’ve ever made.  It was delicious.  REF loved it, my mom & dad loved it, and three coworkers asked for the recipe.  It was SO good.  I’m definitely making it again & next time I think I’ll throw in some blueberries too!

It was my sister’s birthday last Monday so I went up to visit with her & Charlie for the weekend.  When I got there this was drying on their table.  How precious is that?!  I told her she needed to make one of his hand too.  My mom has hand prints from both of us from when we were little in shadow boxes.  They hang right below our college diplomas.

While visiting with my sister we decided to do a little shopping.  I had brought up the extra car seat base that my parents have so that I could drive everyone around & give my sister a break.  However, I had no idea on how to install said car seat base so Charlie & I chilled in the trunk of my car while my sister wrestled with the installation.

 

 On Sunday morning I grabbed Charlie to give my sister and brother in law a little break.  We played in my bed for a few minutes & I snapped this picture.  He looks SO much like my dad here…as in my dad makes that face! 

This memorial day weekend REF & I are going to work in the yard, head to the farmer’s market & just chill.  We’ve made plans to make no plans.  I got a little sad about that this morning when I realized that my sister and brother in law had a fun adventure planned, my mom was meeting old friends for a spa weekend, my dad was playing in a golf tournament with old friends, and bestie was heading out of town to Chicago.  Oh well…hopefully, I’ll be well rested after the 3 day weekend!

xoxo

 



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The Wedding Day

by KT on May 11, 2012

The ceremony took place on the golf course at Cassique.  We were so lucky to have amazing weather the whole weekend & Saturday was no exception.   We had the ladies locker room from noon until the ceremony started at 6pm.  

This was the view the guests had during the ceremony.  I was able to take a few pictures on the second story porch of the ladies locker room.  This picture definitely does not do justice to how pretty this site is.  The bride & groom received a really special gift on Friday night at the rehearsal dinner of a framed one of a kind painting of this view.  It was given to them by friends of the groom’s parents and will be such a special keepsake for them.

The ladies locker room was beautiful.  It had a long table with mirrors & chairs on each side of the table.  We all had our own little station to get ready.  

Naturally there was a lot of this going on…   And then my camera battery died!!!!!  I still don’t know why I didn’t just run over to the house to get my charger, but I didn’t.  So, the rest of the photos are iphone pics or borrowed from friends.  :(

These were the bride’s shoes.  I should probably mention that the on paper it would seem like the bride &  I shouldn’t be friends as we are total opposites.  She grew up in the pageant world – she had won 3 cars by the time she was in high school!!!  The opposites attract theory worked for us!  So, needless to say her wedding was quite blingy! 

Photo by Friend of Bride

Isn’t she beautiful!!

  

Photo by Fia Forever

We had the best time with the photographers, a husband and wife team.  They were amazing…the perfect balance of calm & assertive.  I loved them.  If you’re thinking of getting married in the Charleston area you should definitely look Fia Forever Photography up. 

Photo by Friend of Bride

This is the bride & her dad walking down the aisle.  It was so special & may people had to wipe their eyes. Notice the bouquet…it was antique broaches from the bride’s grandmothers & mother.  Super sparkly. 

Photo by Friend of Bride

 I love this picture of the bride & groom.  Having known both of them for 11 years it was that much more special to see them tie the knot.

Photo by Friend of Bride

The reception was in a tent at Cassique.  The entire tent was draped in white lines & had up-lights in shades of pink.  The dance floor was flanked by white leather couches & the chiavari chairs were wrapped in pink & silver.  As you can see, the flowers were amazing.  Seriously, every detail was perfection.

This is a terrible iphone picture, but after dinner the bride changed into a super sparkly, super tiny reception dress.  It was AMAZING & she looked KILLER in it.  I’m not looking too hot here as this was after LOTS of dancing & several ‘really awesome cocktails’.

Photo by Fia Forever Photography

Here’s the whole wedding party.  I’m the the 3rd bridesmaid from the left.  I can’t wait to see the rest of the pictures from Fia Forever.  I know they are going to be perfection! 

 Congratulations my friends.  REF & I love you so much & wish you a lifetime of happiness.  

xoxo

 

 

 



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Luncheon

by KT on May 11, 2012

Sorry for the little hiatus, but life has been crazy the past two weeks.  I’ll post about that sooner then later too, but now onto the rest of the wedding weekend.

Saturday the bride’s mother hosted a lovely lunch for the bridesmaids at the beach club.  We were set up to be outside overlooking the ocean, but it happened to be VERY windy & therefore very cold so the staff scrambled & moved us inside.  We had an awesome lunch complete with drinks.  

SIDE NOTE: If you had asked me if I wanted Champagne about four years ago I would have turned my nose up to it.  However, after a trip to NYC to visit my bestie & a four hour lunch at Pastis  I realized that I do like it.  In fact, I love it.  Add some raspberries to it & I’ll drink my weight in champagne. 

The bride with her mom & future mother in law.

Here’s the whole group.  I absolutely hate this angle, but it was the best picture that we got of the whole group during this day.  The bride gave us beautiful engraved jewelry boxes, a “diamond” bracelet & earrings, AND free gifts from the cosmetic line that she represents.  It was WAY too generous & over the top, but that’s the bride!

The groom has three sisters, so I had to get a picture of the bride with her new sisters in law! 

 

 

 



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The Bedrooms

by KT on May 2, 2012

The cottage this past weekend had 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms + a powder room.  There were two master suites, 1 upstairs & 1 down.  They all had flat screens, dressers, walk in closets & beautiful bathrooms.  There was a golf motif throughout the house, but it was done nicely.

This was our room.  We were in the downstairs master & had a view of the putting green & pond from our window.  The bed was amazing.

This was our bathroom.

All of the bathrooms had beautiful marble counter tops, rain showers with benches, and paneled walls.  I loved our bathroom.

The upstairs master had a beautiful bay window.  This picture has a great view of the ceilings throughout the house.  They gave the house a warm, cozy feelings.

This is a great view of beautiful marble.  Side note: If there was ANYTHING to complain about this it would be that the bathrooms only had 1 sink in them & there were NO full length mirrors in the whole joint. 

The “non” master bedrooms had two queens.  They were about double the size of the master bedrooms & were equally beautiful.  This one had a dark wood dress & the other had a beautiful painted wood dresser.

All of the closets were awesome too.  I love having a nice closet on vacation so that you don’t have to clutter up your bedroom.  I desperately wanted to take one of those robes home with me.

This window was beautiful.  It was really dramatic from outside the house at night time.  

Oh did I mention that we had daily maid service too?

 

 



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Cassique Club Cottages

by KT on May 1, 2012

We had the most amazing time this past weekend celebrating our friends, Jennifer & Ian.   I’ve decided that I need to break up the posts for their wedding weekend.   Warning…picture overload! 

Accommodations for the Weekend

A year ago the groom told a handful of the wedding party that he had reserved a cottage for us to stay in during the weekend of their wedding.  He couldn’t offer any pictures, but it was supposed to be steps away from the reception site, The Cassique Club.  So, when REF & I pulled up on to this house on Thursday early afternoon we weren’t sure we in the right spot.

It wasn’t until I walked in & saw this that I was truly convinced we were in the right spot!  This cottage was no cottage.  It was in fact a mansion.  

Every detail of this house was both elegant & comfortable. 

I loved the couch in the bay window to the right.  Do you see the drapes?  Those can be drawn for an afternoon catnap. 

This is the view into the kitchen.  Those glass panels could be pushed back into the wall.  I thought they were beautiful.

This kitchen was a dream.  It literally had everything you could want including tonic, soda water, lemonade, tomato juice, a fruit/cheese platter, a wine cooler and ice maker.  I was in heaven.

Here’s another shot of those beautiful panels.  I absolutely loved them.  I also loved the open shelving & lighting too.

Our patio was beautiful.  It had a huge gas grill & our very own private putting green.  Yes, I’m serious.  That was JUST FOR US!

Someone made himself VERY comfortable.

This is a view of the front garden.  Down this path about 10 steps was the Cassique Golf Club, the reception site.

Finally a view of the front of the house.

Tomorrow I’ll give you a tour of the bedrooms.  

 



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Wednesday Winesday Blogger Meet up

by KT on March 22, 2012

Wednesday night April organized a Charlotte ladies blogger meet up at Arooji’s wine room.  They run a special for a tasting of 3 wines & an appetizer for $14.95.  The appetizer was HUGE & definitely sufficed for a meal.  The folks at the restaurant were definitely accommodating to deal with loud girls!

I had met a handful of these girls in person, but not everyone.  It was was such a fun night & I was so glad that I decided to go!  After every one of these meet ups I’m more and more glad that I do this whole blogging deal.  

It’s amazing how quickly I’ve found conversation to be with other bloggers.  We were a little nerdy & went around the table to introduce ourselves, tell folks our blog name, twitter handle, home town, job, our favorite blogs that weren’t represented that evening, etc.  Christina even took notes to send out to the group which had me cracking up.  

I imagine that a lot of these meet ups could be awkward or weird, but I have yet to have that experience with any of my meet ups!

Once again Charlotte ended up being a small town & I realized I had some mutual friends with some of these girls.  I LOVE that about the blog community.  It definitely makes the 6 degrees of separation seem real.

The whole group

Back Row – Left to Right: Me, April, Annie, Kate, Sara, Jordan, Maren, Lulu

Front Row – Left to Right: Michelle, Christina, Sarah and Dee

I cannot thank April enough for putting this night together.  It was a great mid-week break!  If you’re in Charlotte, a blogger, and want to come next time let me know, because we plan on doing these more frequently!  

 

 

 



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