Let There Be Light

The Earnest household is shaking a little right now… so distraction is proving to be the best thing for the moment.

This e-card from Christy and Ava helps:

 

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Whenever my mother comes into town, she comments on how dark our house is… and I was starting to agree.  I feel like we had to turn on all the lights all the time just to get some decent lighting.  Therefore, I decided to change the lights to a brighter, whiter light when I painted the office.

These lights are CFLs, so they give you the power of 60W while just using 13W.  The prices aren’t bad either… a 4-pack for ~$8.  The biggest different is that these are deemed “Bright White” instead of “Soft White,” so they have a 3500K warmth as opposed to 2700K.  Chris thought it was a little less intense than the “Daylights” at 5000K and I agreed with him, since the space isn’t incredibly large.

And…. we loved it.  And, by “we” I mean “me.”  Chris says he likes the yellow lights more.  But it makes me so happy to see white light… so I responded, “I hear you and I understand, but I am going to change ALL the lights now.. mmk?”  Chris (shakes head): “Okay. Whatever you say.”

So I bought 3 more backs, the only difference being they were 900 lumens vs. 800 lumens as above.  According to the packaging, I shouldn’t have to worry about these lights again until after we should be moved out of here.

And for a (blurry) side-by-side, while ignoring the in-progress blah bathroom:

I love the brighter, whiter lights and am so happy to have gotten rid of them all.

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And, for the life lesson of the moment:  this brush does not work for my hair:

Confirmed it.

Your Average Thursday… NOT

So, I got to experience this:

some serious cheesing on my end

That’s right…. Mind. BLOWN!  After working all day, an alumni happy hour event for Emory, and an hour and half wait in line…. I got to meet John & Sherry from Young House Love!  You may have noticed their names pop up throughout my posts because they, along with Katie from Bower Power, were the reasons I wanted to keep track of things I did around the house.  They both write as if they are speaking directly to you, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised at how welcoming they were in person.  They were so amazing and so kind!

I have to admit, I was kinda nervous right before going up to meet them, so there may have been random words thrown around and my mind was a complete flurry of mess.  When Sherry learned my name, she asked if I was a twin… I let them know that I had the next best thing – a best friend named Nina!  I thought it was a hilarious question as John kindly explained that Sherry believes all Nina’s are twins.  Ha!  Sherry also complimented me on my outfit, which, coming from the queen of color-pops…. MADE. MY. WEEK!

But the cherry on top?  Katie and Jeremy were in another corner, with their own line, and with new baby Weston.  When I got up to Katie, the event was nearly over and I don’t know if it was the free wine that Flor provided for us, or the sheer joy of it all giving me helium-brain, but it was almost surreal to have Katie Bower (!!!) joking with me.  We talked about my pants (again!) and then how Chris and her brother in law both work at Case Mate.  We laughed, we joked, we complimented each other and I cannot tell you how hilarious she was.  I even had to apologize to Sherry for holding Katie up because YHL had finished while a group of girls were still waiting their turn to have a picture and autograph with Katie.

Yes, I realize that the pictures are blurry, but the memory is still there!  The picture on the right is right after she shoved my butt up in front trying to hide everything but her face, so we made up for it by diva’ing it up.

Thank you guys for everything!  Meeting you all in person makes me adore you more… and I can’t wait to see what all you guys do in the future! 

Other fun things to note: 

Loved this girl taking pictures for everyone…. and yes, I made sure to tell her that not everyone can pull off a one-piece like that.

Creepin’ a little

Shout out to some new girls I met while waiting in line.  These two had just met that night too, believe it or not:

A Bit Windy….

 

Latest Hit: Crunchwrap Supreme

We’ve had a very popular dish at our house lately… not healthy, but popular.

And when I posted a picture to my Instagram (ninasquared) ~3 months ago:

By popular demand, I am writing up a quick tutorial how-to!  (All of this is based on this link from Pinterest; and the original is from Busy Mama Bird)

1. Lay out your supplies.  Other than cooking the ground beef, it’s a DIY food project for everyone.  You can put on whatever you’d like, so I just lay out all the toppings that you’d normally like on a taco.  The only extra added ingredients are (1) nacho cheese sauce, (2) largest tortillas you can find, and (3) flat taco shells a.k.a. tostadas.

I had Chris play hand model to show how he likes to make his, going left to right:

With a house full of boys, it’s important to note that these crunchwrap supremes get pretty fat.  And I am the designated tortilla folder.  Just start on one side and fold up as you go around the tortilla.  In addition, you can do what we normally do and have an extra tortilla martyr to take pieces off of to help enclose the crunchwrap supreme.

You can tell in the top right picture below that if we didn’t lay down the small piece of tortilla, the edges of the large tortilla would not have closed the crunchwrap supreme enough, making it much more difficult to eat.

And finally, always start cooking with folded edges down FIRST.  If you heat the pan up as people begin their creations, you can minimize the cooking time.  Cooking on the pan is crucial to melting the nacho cheese and shredded cheese, but most importantly, gives the crunch in crunchwrap supreme.

And voilà!

Let me know if you guys try it out and how you like it… hope it’s a hit in your house like it is in ours!

Wedding Anniversary- Nina&James Edition

Wow! I cannot believe that it has already been a full year since James and I got married! It is a funny thing because even though so many things have happened in between the time we got married and now, it feels as if it were only yesterday that we exchanged our vows. I guess time flies when you’re having fun?

Looking back, I am so grateful because I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Although the weather forecast had signs of rain all week, on our wedding day the rain held off until the tail end of the night and we enjoy a warm and rain free day!  Our vendors were amazing, on time, and so gracious in helping make sure everything went on without a hitch. In addition, we were so blessed to have our supportive family and friends (some from out of town) by our side which made it all that more touching and unforgettable.

However, looking back I realize that I cherish most the small details that made everything so memorable, special, and beautiful to me. Here are a couple that comes to my mind, but also not in any particular order:

•  The letter James wrote to me before our wedding letting me know how excited he was to marry me set me to tears but also calmed my nerves. (also, Jaime one of my bridesmaids did her dance, which made me laugh)
• The fun and relaxing time I had with my bridesmaids and maid of honor getting ready before the wedding. I love all those girls.
• The first sight.
• The white fragrant freesias my florist added to my bouquet reminded me of my late mother who’s favorite flowers were freesias. (Her wedding whole bouquet were white freesias!)
• The daddy-daughter small talk I had with my dad at the top of the staircase waiting to walk down the aisle. Also a tear jerker.
• The thoughtfully written vow James read to me during the ceremony which brought so many people (including myself) to tears.
• The 10 mins James and I got to share in between ceremony and reception where we got to soak in our newly- married-ness, if you will.
• The MoH speech so beautifully written by Nina Earnest.
• The photobooth pictures with my friends, family, and guests were such a blast!
• The first dance.

And because pictures are worth a thousand words…

Pictures: Laura Leslie Photography (www.lauralesliephotography.com)

With the very special Nina C. Earnest and MoH who inspires me to blog! We love you guys!

Link Party: THRIFT SHOP Awesomeness

In case you haven’t heard/seen it yet….

Yours truly (Nina^2) decided to join this party, hosted by my favorite bloggers at Young House Love – to see what we could scrounge up.

Update: Here’s the link for the original creators of this challenge!

We first attempted Psycho Sisters in Sandy Springs. And I say attempted because this is what happened:

All Thumbs DOWN

Apparently, many thrift stores close early on the weekdays.  And for those who get off a little later than usual (like the ONE time I had to stay behind….), no bueno.

No matter.  Goodwill never fails!

Hence….. the THRIFT SHOP CHALLENGE put on Young House Love!

Basically, up to $20 to spend on whatever you can find.

Though I wish we could have had a longer amount of time for this, our brains must have been fried because we didn’t find many items we really wanted.  Maybe our hearts were crushed because of the Psycho Sister letdown, but I did manage to get away with some toys that I wanted to add to my office stash (plus there’s my #3 item of an image with *multiple* broken keyboards):

And Nina walked away with a pretty nice tennis racket for like $3.50…. and her #3 item was footie pajamas:

Though we probably could have had more fun if we were able to plan ahead a little more, but it was still so much fun to spend the evening together in the middle of a work week.  Plus, Nina finally found a chair just for her size:

I kid, I kid.  Happy Friday, everyone!