My Year in Review

January to April

Started this blog on January 7th

My first blog post was "Nautical Bedroom", it is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since I started this blog. I have learned so much since January.

February

Took a great trip to New Orleans during Mardi Gras with A, lots of fun!!

 March and April

For St. Patrick's Day and Easter I created beaded wreaths out of the beads from the Mardi Gras parades.

May to August

May was a bittersweet month, my great-aunt Louise passed away at 89 years old, we still miss her.

At the end of the month we learned that she had left her house to my parents. We decided to buy the house from my parents, our first house.

June

The big move! It took about a month to get completely moved into the house. By the end of the month we were thoroughly exhausted.

July

Not much happened in July; I worked on the blog, planned out our home improvement projects, and had fun in the sun.
We also started updating our bathroom

August

The month when we started many reno projects!

We finished the bathroom (to this date the only room that is officially finished in our house)

Before

After

We knocked down the wall between the dining room and living room.

Before

During

After

September to December

September

More home improvement!
Took out the old picture window and replaced it with two double hung energy star windows.

Before

After

October

October was another sad month for us at the end of the month our great dog Jax died suddenly from either a heart or brain problem. This put a hold on the reno projects. We still miss him, he was taken young at the age of 6, but he will live forever in our hearts.

November

Thanksgiving and family and friends, we learned how to live without Jax and started to have things get back to normal.

December

More fun with family and friends, Christmas and now New Years!!

2010

More reno projects to come!! Can't wait to see what 2010 will bring!

Getting ready to host a Mardi Gras Party, here are some tips to make your gathering as fun as possible.

Drinks - Serve one of New Orleans signature drinks such as the Hurricane.

Food - Serve fun Cajun recipes such as jambalaya, crawfish, and shrimp.

Dessert - One must during Mardi Gras are the traditional King Cakes, check out this recipe from Emeril's restaurant 'Nola' at NolaCuisine.com

Decorate your place with beads and masks ( make sure you have enough to hand out to your guests as well)

Another interesting idea that is great for kids is to have everyone create their own mini parade floats from shoes boxes, decorating them with toys, glitter and beads. Thanks, www.holidays.net