Airlie Lights

We went to see Airlie Lights at Airlie Gardens last night.  Airlie Gardens is a garden that consists of all southern plant life and even has a 467 year old oak tree.  Each Christmas they decorate the gardens with themes of Christmas lights.  They also seem to include some type of lego set.  I believe that it broke some type of record.  We had fun and the weather really wasn't that bad.

Another Rooster

I realized that I haven't done an update on the chicken situation in a while.  Well, we ended up with another rooster.  Our little Annie is now called Andy.  Once we found out that we had another rooster we didn't know what to do.  We went back and forth about keeping him or getting rid of him.  In the end, we decided to give Andy back to his original owner.  All seems to be well and our girls are much quieter, as well as our mornings.

Christmas Tree and decorations

We ended up getting our Christmas Tree really early this year.  We thought we were just going to look at the tree lots the Saturday after Thanksgiving, to get a sense of prices this year.  In the end, we ended up getting a tree and a wreath at the last place.  It was too good of a deal to pass up.

Since we got the tree really early, it took us a couple of weeks to get the house fully decorated.  Brian did get the lights up but I think next year we are going to try and find warm led icicle lights.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was done at our house and I cooked dinner.  This is my first thanksgiving doing everything myself, with the help of Brian.  We got a fresh natural/organic turkey and I had all the fixin's.  Green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade dressing, cranberries, noodles.  You name it it was there.  For dessert, I decided to not make a pumpkin pie, but a pumpkin bread pudding.  It was Bobby Flay's recipe.  A lot of work went into it, but was worth it. Sadly I do not have any pictures of the fest.  I'll have to work on that for next year.


Since I liked the halloween pumpkin centerpiece, I also made one for thanksgiving.  

Halloween

Halloween this year we didn't feel like dressing up.  But we did decorate the house and pass out candy.  I know I say this every year, but this is really the last year that we will pass out candy.  Nobody in our cul-de-sac really passes out candy and the kids just pass us by.


I did get a bit crafty with a couple of things this year.  I re-did the halloween wreath and I created a pumpkin centerpiece.

Two Eggs

We got two eggs today.  Since this one is brown as well, this means that Gertie is the one who is giving us the second egg.  All we have to wait on now is Bertie.

Leonard Family Pictures

We had been talking about getting family pictures taken and I received an email from our wedding photographer saying that she has started her own business and that she was offering discounts.  Needless to say since we liked her so much that this was a no brainer.  We decided to have the family pictures taken out at the plantation house.  The same place that we had our engagement pictures taken.  The day ended up beautiful and we ended up with some pretty good pictures.  If you are ever interested in a photographer please see Erin McCoy Photography.  I've posted her website below.  When you go to the site, you'll see some of the pictures from the wedding.

 

http://www.emccoy.com/Erin_McCoy_Photography/Welcome.html

Beer Fest 2011

Beer Fest this year was moved again.  Last year it was at Greenfield Lake.  This year it was in a field with very little tree cover.  The one great thing about this location was the size.  I didn't feel like I was crowded when I went to a beer tent.  The beer tents this year were also set up a bit different than the last time that we went.  The tents had about 4 to 5 beer vendors instead of two rectangle tents with 20 vendors.  We ended up with a couple of souvenir glasses, I bought a tee shirt and several stickers for the beer fridge in the garage.  Overall we had a good time, but we aren't really sure if we'll go back.  The vendors seem to be the same, with the same beers.  We'll see for next year.

2nd Sewing Project

My second sewing project was to make my mom her own hipster bag.  This one proved to be a bit more difficult than making mine.  The material wasn't as stiff, therefore, when sewing I had to make sure that everything was lined up correctly.  I also was able to use my grandmother's sewing machine.  That I think was the best part.  Using the same machine that my grandmother used when she made Cabbage Patch Kid doll clothes for me and my sister.

Our First Egg

We got our first egg today.  We have a feeling that Ester is the one who laid this one.  She has been the one to be the first to do anything.  

Chicken Update

Here are some new pictures of the chickens.  They are getting big.

Maggie doesn't care about the chickens

Gertie

Birdie

Ester

Annie

My Birthday

To celebrate my birthday this year we did a Low Country Boil.  This basically consists of shrimp, potatoes, sausage, corn and for me we added crab legs.  Dinner was delicious.  I'm even thinking about having this again for my birthday dinner next year.


For dessert, Brian ordered me a birthday cake from Apple Annies.  It was chocolate cake with strawberries.  So so good!  It was so pretty I kind of didn't want to eat it.

New Chicken

The woman we got our chickens from said that she felt bad that we ended up with a rooster that she gave us one of her hens.  This hen was getting attacked by her other hens and was basically by itself all the time.  So we said why not.  Her name is Annie and she is a Bantam Mille Fleur Cochin chicken.  She is much smaller than our other chickens.  And they don't seem to like her so much either.  Right now she is living in Maggie's dog crate next to the chicken coop.  Lets hope it gets better.

Sewing Class

I took my first real sewing class today.  I made a hipster bag.  I liked it so much I want to try and take some more classes.  I would like to be able to make clothes, quilts, pillows.  You name it.  I want to learn.  Who knows, if I get good at it I might be able to sale something.

Robertson Family Vacation

This year instead of going to Ohio for vacation, my family came down here.  Since they were here for the week we were able to go to the beach almost every day.  We would start the mornings off at the beach and then the afternoons were spent site seeing.


Lukie seem to like the beach.  He even liked being out in the waves.

One afternoon we went to the train museum.  Lukie and Da Da love trains, so we thought it would be a good time for grandpa and grandson to spend together.  Ironically I didn't get a picture of either of them together.