Happy Mother's Day!

To every mother out there...Happy Mother's Day!

Today we celebrated my fabulous mother and g-ma because they are incredibly fantastic women.  I am a lucky girl to have them so close AND to finally have my sister home from Spain so we were able to spend the day together...of course my dad tagged along too:)!

We went to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences which just recently opened in Downtown Raleigh.  In the pic above we are standing outside of the museum by the giant globe.  Good job Raleigh for putting in this new museum because it is fantastic.

Show Off. Fish in Aquarium.
I should have thought to bring snacks to the museum because everyone started getting really hangry (hungry-angry) so I knew after like an hour and half at the museum that it was time to go start cooking!  

I had already set the table before my fam (yes, I like to abbrev) arrived.  I really don't have a lot of matching items because everything was handed down but I believe it all comes together...Mason jar glasses, blue wine glasses from a coworker, grandma Barber's old plates and silverware (how hip), an African table runner from my mom, director chairs from the Barber garage :), my mom's old sheepskin rug (on an antique church bench to the left..can't see the church bench), and a gold spray painted chair that my dad snagged from a garage sale.  This sweet little space is in my hide away sunroom area which you may remember I blogged about earlier after I'd finished my picnic inspired table.  

Sary bought these beautiful hydrangeas from the store and they sat on my tea cart for some extra color in the corner of the room!  Love this flower and love the colors.  For some extra decoration, I went and bought little daisies and repotted them in my chalkboard paint covered pots so then I could put a cutesy reminder of what we were celebrating:)

After a day at the museum, too much lasagna, a french baguette, an Olive Garden inspired salad, strawberry shortcake and lots of wine, we were all tuckered out.  It was a wonderful day spent together in Downtown Raleigh celebrating the most important woman in my life, Mom!

.Happy Mother's Day.

   

Hola Espana!

So obviously I have been on hiatus from our precious blog.  I visited my sister in Spain at the beginning of April and just have NOT been able to get myself back to writing.  Since I feel like passing on the title of laziest blogger ever, I wanted to share some of my Spain photos.  We obviously had some super cheesy awesome family photos but what I really enjoyed seeing throughout many different parts of Spain was the history in rich colors and patterns that exist. 

Family Photo....future Christmas card?

Soooo excited to be in Spain!....Retiro Park. Madrid.

To give a little background, we arrived in Madrid and then rented a car to drive to Cordoba, Sevilla, Rhonda and Marbella.  Every city had some amazing historical sites to share and I captured too many not enough photos of the entire trip!  Look at my dad workin it in front of our sweet ride (Spain's version of a mini van?)!

.Cordoba. & .a really awesome garage door.

.love the walkway designs made from pebbles.

Cordoba was a pit stop on the way to Sevilla and we didn't stay long because the weather was terrible - POURING down rain and freezing.  Once we finally get to the  main attraction of the city (the Mosque) we quickly realized it was closed for the holidays.  Semana Santa was occurring while we were traveling through Spain so it did mess up a lot of our little trips.  The holiday is very interesting in itself, it seemed like a huge celebration with floats, food, parties and parades - ya can't hate that!  Check out more about the holiday here.

.Sevilla. city view.

.Semana Santa procession about to begin. 

.My parents. Lovebirds.

.Sister love.

Look at all of the fabulous natural chevron patterns that I found on the sides of buildings, the brick walkways, ancient tiles and cathedrals flooring.  Love the ombre shading...courtesy of Sevilla.

We stayed in Sevilla for a couple of days so we really were able to explore what the city is known for.  To name a few, we went to Plaza de Espana, El Real Alcazar, and La Catedral.  Everything was so gorgeous and so different from anything we have in the States.

.Plaza de Espana. Did you know that this site was in a Star
Wars movie?.  Check is out!

.Plaza de Espana. up close.

Love the colors. flowers. design.

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Super cool tile mosaic.

---------------------------->.tree eats fence. !?!

After Sevilla we drove through several winding mountain roads to arrive in Rhonda.  A beautiful city that sits on a canyon and overlooks surrounding farmland from high up above.  It is crazy to see how this city was built and these houses/apartments have some breathtaking/really scary views with no backyard!

 

.Rhonda. insane. can you see the white winding stair case? sleep walkers shouldn't be allowed to live here.
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.help a sister out. stealing street oranges.
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Our last little adventure through a winding road lead us to Marbella.  It was a quiet little beach town where we were able to relax and walk around.  It was still quite chilly so we didn't do much swimming but there definitely were some brave Europeans taking in the sun by the pool!  When we were in town, I saw this old window and fell in love with it.  I know it is falling apart, but who cares?!

.colors. iron work. vintage.

Well that's about it!  I hope you enjoyed the few pictures I've decided to include from Spain.  It was an amazing trip and I most definitely hope to return.  Hasta luego!

'Spare' Some Birthday Fun

Pun intended.  Completely.
My big bro just recently turned the Big 3-2 and my sister-in-law threw him an adult themed bowling party at Sparians here in Raleigh.  It was great fun and the perfect place for a fun birthday party.

My contribution to the night was the dessert.  I wanted to go for a bowling theme so I opted for rice krispie treats in the shape of bowling pins.  They were so simple to do - I just picked up some of the old school plastic bowling pins from Toys R Us and cut them in half with a serrated knife and scissors.

I made the rice krispies according to the box directions and used the bowling pins as my mold (use lots of PAM cooking spray!).  Once they had cooled, I popped these babies out and wrapped the necks with twizzler pieces for the red stripes.  I think they were a success - super yummy!!!