Time For Some Gardening!

Since we found out we were going to be in the house, I have been super excited to redo the garden. I remember as a little girl playing in the garden in the backyard, & how beautiful Monie’s gardens always were. I can’t wait to restore them to their former glory.

However, since we aren’t totally unpacked that will have to wait a bit. I did go out & buy some adorable plastic butterflies to stick in the garden. We were wandering around Big Lots & I found these cute garden decorations – for only $4 each! (:

Blue! (:

Yellow!

I’m lacking in what to write. I’ll try to update some more later!

Dress & Shoes! My Favorite Combination!

So, my baby brother graduates high school on May 21. My mom either wanted me to wear something different, or she just wanted to take me shopping. I’ll say it’s a little bit of both. This is how I ended up with a cute new sundress & awesome pair of shoes.

Macy’s has a good bit of sundresses on sale right now. I tried on about four or five, narrowed it down to two. My mom & I both liked one that was red, white, & black , but I also liked one that was white with an aqua pattern. We decided on the red, white & black one.

Next step was shoes, and neither of our Macy’s stores had a good selection of sale shoes. They did have a BEAUTIFUL pair of Coach wedges, but my mom wanted me to have red shoes. I already have black, the Coach wedges were black. Not to mention $126 (on sale), and the only coupon my mom had left was the $25 off. I am in no place to be spending, so I said goodbye to those shoes. We wound up going to Shoe Dept Encore, where I found some nice shoes that had red cloth & a cork heel/platform.

Here’s my outfit:

Dress was $99.99 marked down to $69.99. My mom had a 20% off coupon so she even saved a bit more. (:

The shoes were $19.99, regular price, at Shoe Dept. Encore. Cheapest shoes I've bought in years, other than flip flops.

I miss shopping for clothes, but at the same time shopping for stuff for our house is fun too! (:

Teleflora

I decided Monday morning, quite randomly,  that I was going to have some flowers delivered to my mom. She did a lot for us with the move, like renting the U-Haul & helping us load the furniture & helping me paint my bedroom. I wanted to send her a nice little thank you.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to go to a local florist & pick out some flowers. Also, even if I HAD ordered them over the phone, I have no experiences with the florists in the area. I didn’t want to send her something that looked terrible. I DID have a Teleflora coupon from the Sunday newspaper, to get $10. So I decided to go with them.

They had a TON of options, and once you chose you get to choose either a Standard, Deluxe, or Premium bouquet. I went with the Standard bouquet called “Perfectly Pastel”. The original price is $39.95. I got $10 off thanks to my coupon code, so that dropped it to $29.95. Delivery was $14.00. So my total was $43 & some odd change.

Here’s the bouquet I ordered:

Teleflora's Perfectly Pastel Website Sample

And here is the bouquet my mom received:

It's so pretty! My mommy loved it!

I will definitely be using them anytime I send flowers! They came out beautifully, and when I was worried they wouldn’t get there on time (I was sending them to her office) the customer service rep put in a note to have them delivered by 5PM & they were there shortly after. (:

Now, if you want $10 off your own bouquet order here’s the coupon code from the newspaper: PNKMOM. Just enter it in during the checkout process!

Busy Bee Week.

Busy Bee Week is how I refer to Moving Week. It’s like the busiest week of my life, EVER, because I had no paid time off so I had to work + move at the same time. This resulted in us eating a lot of fast food.

Bud's Broiler makes the BEST burgers with the BEST smoked sauce. The fries are frozen, but they're pretty awesome too. I'll move anytime if it gets me Bud's.

While we’re talking food, I got the most amazing mango salsa I’ve ever tasted. I bought it from a local grocer, Rouse’s Supermarket, where they make it fresh on site. Best part? It was only $1.50 for the package, & I could probably buy a few to bring to work for lunch with some Back to Nature Crispy Wheat crackers. I was kind of wondering where the mango’s came from, because they didn’t have any for sale. That kind of sucks, because I LOVE mangos.

Fresh mango salsa. This will def. be on my shopping list all the time from now on. Don't laugh at my ugly counter tops.

My mom, dad, & mother-in-law came over today to help us with the house. My mother-in-law lined my cabinets with contact paper, my mom helped me finish painting the molding in the bedroom, and my daddy boiled crawfish after he & Donald patched a hole in our fence.

For our cabinets, I chose white contact paper with blue/brown polka dots. Previously it had green gingham contact paper. Ew. Anyway, I tried to line them myself a few nights ago & failed miserably. I had bubbles EVERYWHERE. Luckily, my mother-in-law is, like, trained in the art of lining cabinets with contact papers. Her lining is so much better than mine was.

Before: Ugly green gingham contact paper lining.

After: Polka dot contact paper. Some green gingham is still showing, because we ran out. I need to buy some more.

So, my dad decided he wanted to boil crawfish today. SO SPICY AND SO GOOD. Donald took a day off from his diet & took some of his medication so he could eat some. Yummmmmmy.

He's just chillin' in a lemon.

I know you're jealous. At least, if you're from the part of the world that knows what a crawfish boil is then you're jealous.

So, in the end we got a lot done this week. We finally finished moving from the town house, finished painting the bedroom, lined most of my shelves, & daddy/hubby patched a hole in the fence. Oh, AND, I went through all of the bills I hadn’t filed & well, filed them. I’m kind of proud of myself.

Donald & I also went and bought a curtain rod for the living room (my parents also have us two small ones to use in the spare room), a shower head that actually attaches to the wall (Monie used to sit on a chair and rinse herself, so there was no need for one attached to it), & a stopper in case I want to take an actual bath. And he attached it.

Tomorrow my dad is coming over to hand the curtain rods in the living room & spare room, & I’m going to ask him to hand my pretty wall quote.

This is what our house looks like right now. It's driving me crazy, so I can only imagine how my poor neat freak husband feels.

This is where we are with the bedroom. It's painted, and we have the bed moved in.

Honestly, after this week we are all pooped. Even Jasper is pooped. He won’t leave D’s lap.

Idea Board + Progress = (:

So, I’m the type of person who needs an idea board. Otherwise, I will totally lose track of what I want the room to look like. So here’s what I have in mind:

Master Bedroom Idea Board

Also, after having my painting progress put to a halt by a sinus infection & nasty GI virus, I finally have it *almost* completed. I say almost because I have had a horrible headache for a week & could only finish wall #3. So today, on Easter, I will be going over to the new house to finish wall #4. Luckily, it’s the wall with the closet so there isn’t much to be done. But here are before &  after photos of the paint once it’s dried:

Before: Ugly white. I hate white walls. Ew.

After: Purple walls. So pretty!

Here’s what we have for the room so far:

• Wall decoration that is a framed quote. It’s something about the heart and beautiful memories, but I forget the exact way it’s put.
• 2 small gold frames to hang on the wall.
• 1 white wooden frame to hang on the wall.
• The comforter set pictured above.
• Gold curtains

What we need for the room:

• More white wooden & gold photo frames – both for the wall & dresser.
• The white dresser.
• The sheets that match my comforter. Likely to be my next purchase.
• The “Always kiss me goodnight” quote, which will go above our bed.
• Gold framed mirror. Since the room is only big enough for one dresser, I’m thinking two of these – one for each side. White wood photo frame in the middle of the two with a picture from our wedding day?
• Lamp for the dresser.
• Interesting jewelry holder (mostly for necklaces) that I can place on the dresser, that won’t take up too much room. I’m probably going to look at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s for this.

And with that I am done for today! It’s time to go enjoy some grilled steaks & baked mac & cheese with my parents! YUMMY! Also, visiting Paw Paw. (:

Have a lovely day!

Friday Five: NOLA Places I Love.

Audubon Park

Deanie’s Deafood

Audubon Zoo

 

French Market

Storyland @ City Park

 

 

 

Another Reason I Am Not a Skinny Bitch: Chez Pierre Will Keep Me Thick.

Chez Pierre: The Authentic French Bakery

Location: 2211 Veteran’s Memorial Blvd., Kenner, Louisiana 70062

Contact: (504) 467-3176

Our yummy deliciousness!

Chez Pierre is a small hole-in-the-wall bakery in Kenner, near William’s Blvd.  If you’re not looking for it, you’re likely to pass it up. Which would be a shame as they are one of the most delish bakeries I have been to in a while.

For over a year I have been hearing how AMAZING they are, a co-worker of mine (let’s call her A) raves about them constantly. Well, A bought Dr. DT a delish cake for his birthday from Chez Pierre. We were all impressed. It was HUGE, moist, and had fresh fruit on the top.

Now, for those of you who don’t know – D works for Sam’s Club in Kenner. There is a tiny Vietnamese woman who comes in constantly to buy fresh fruits for her bakery. Imagine my surprise when he comes home yesterday & says he wants to go to Chez Pierre and visit this little lady. So we wander on into Kenner & visit.

D orders two things: a miniature white chocolate Chantilly cake (with loadssss of fruit on the top) & a fruit tart. I order the cheesecake topped with a yummy cherry. The three cost us $11. Not too shabby for a random dessert out, if I do say so myself. D gobbled his up in less than 5 minutes, & was immediately begging for more. And my cheesecake? Dream like. Totally melt in your mouth amazing, creamy deliciousness.

So as we’re dragging our sad butts out of there, D sees the owner & waves to her. She says “Oh hi! I didn’t recognize you. WAIT.” She then turns to the girl manning the counter and says “Give them a free box!” So we got those yummy goodies pictured above. We each got to choose two, so I chose a Cannoli & another slice of cheesecake. D decided to get two miniature white Chantilly cakes, they were just so good – he couldn’t possibly resist!

Of course I had to text A and tell her of our treats, even if it was just to rub it in her face that I got free Chez Pierre pastries.

I would DEFINITELY recommend this shop to anyone looking for fresh fruit pastries. They’re the freshest you will find. It has been confided to me, by a legitimate good source, that the owner only buys her fruits if they are fresh from the truck that brings them in. Good deal!

Now, I demand you all go try the cheesecake! It is the best!