Demolition Derby

Remember how nice and fall-y our house looked? Well a few days after those photos were taken our house looked like this...

Yup, Jon and I tackled our floors in November. When I say November I mean all of November. Every single weekend. In case you guys haven't noticed my blog posts have been pretty infrequent. At first it was the jet lag and getting back into the swing of things after such a long vacation (hard life, I know). I kinda got back into the groove but then we decided to redo our floors and temporarily turned our home (and lives) upside down. 

Its no secret I hated our tile floors. I'm pretty sure I've told everyone I know how much I loathe tile. Thanks to my annual bonus and some back pay from my promotion way back in July we had some extra cash. Normally that would be my Black Friday money (don't judge me, I love a deal) but this year I told Jon I wanted to put that money towards new floors. Luckily he agreed (he's the best husband... truly) and thus we went floor shopping.

If this was our forever home I think we would have saved up a bit more for hardwood but after doing some research we decided on laminate flooring. It looks just as pretty as hardwood (I think so anyway), can handle Poseidon's nails, is easy to install and it was in our price range. I chose a darker, reddish tone color that I got on super sale at Lumber Liquidators and while I went to pick it up Jonathan got started on tearing up the tile.

Check out a messy before.

And once the demolition derby started.

Jonathan (and a friend) used a chisel and hammer to tear up most of it. Tile and grout make a HUGE mess. There was dust everywhere. All of the furniture was placed in our garage and we taped off the kitchen was plastic tarps.

They had to wear masks over our nose and mouths because we're pretty sure it is not a good idea to breathe in all that dust. Jonathan also opened all the windows and we placed fans around the room to try to push out the dust.

You can tell but the lighting that this process took all day. Since we didn't have any heavy duty trash bags we just left the mess downstairs. Out of sight, out of mind... until the next morning.

Dublin

It's been two months since I first mentioned Jonathan and I were going on a European vacation and one month since we got back! Sadly it almost seems like we never went since life has settled back into normalcy. That's still not an excuse for posting photos! I barely managed to post some from New York and finally sharing a recap of our visit to Dublin.

We left New York late Saturday night and had no trouble getting through getting security. Usually I'm pretty stressed in the airport because I'm thinking about all the things that could go wrong but this time was a breeze. We got to our gate no problem and boarded the plane. Only to sit there for TWO hours. The captain finally got on the intercom to say it was for mechanical reasons! Isn't that what everyone wants to here right before takeoff. Sheesh. 

Once we landed in Dublin, gathered our luggage and found a bus that was going into town. One of the employees even showed us where our hotel was on the map. We got off at our stop and had a short walk to our hotel. After we dropped our stuff off and showered we head straight over to the Guinness Storehouse.

The Storehouse contains a walking tour that showcases the history of Guinness and each step of the brewing process.

At this point we were pretty hungry so we had lunch. Irish food is heavy and it was perfect for the chilly afternoon. We figured it was also a good idea to eat before drinking!

Then came Jon's favorite part. FREE GUINNESS! Each person will get a free pint and we chose to drink ours in the 360 bar. The bar is circular and has windows all around so you get a view of the city from there. Guinness is not my favorite but it certainly is one of Jon's. I tried a tiny bit of mine and then gave him the rest. A couple of tourists also gave Jon their beers. They had ordered half pints but Jon couldn't bear to see that Guinness go to waste.

Once we were through we tried to visit St Patrick's Cathedral but it was already closed. Instead we took a nap (we took a red eye but neither of us slept well). Feeling refreshed we headed over to the Temple Bar area for drinks. Temple Bar is popular amongst tourist for its nightlife. I love that it (unlike the rest of Dublin) still has small and narrow cobbled streets that feel very European. We were too busy having fun to take photos but we did try some delicious drinks. Jonathan and I both laughed when the bartender tried to sell us on a craft beer by asking us if we had tried a Sierra Nevada! Jon politely replied that we were from there and had them all the time.

The day we woke up determined to jam pack our day full of sightseeing. We started the day by touring Kilmainham Gaol. Built in 1796 it was originally supposed to replace the old jail (which located right across the street). Its famous not only for the horrible living conditions the inmates were forced to endure but also because it housed a lot of political prisoners during the Irish fight for independence. Kilmainham is seen as a symbol of British oppression and is now considered to be an important site because some many Irish Nationalist leaders were incarcerated there. We took the tour offered and it proved to incredibly interesting and really gave us a crash course in Irish history. Both of us say it was our favorite part of our entire trip.

After the tour we walked over to the Old Jameson Distillery. You take a guided tour throughout the building which used to be the old distillery (hence the name). They save the best of last- free Jameson! You can try it straight (the traditional Irish way) or with ginger ale and lime. Jon chose to emulate the Irish and I opted to try it with ginger ale.

Once we were done we started to walk back to our house but decided to stop at Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle is has been around in some way since the 1200's. Now its a government center and houses the state rooms. The Irish President is inaugurated there and underneath the building you can see ruins of the old turrets. Our tour guide was also really knowledgeable about Irish history and their path to independence. It was sort of the reoccurring theme of the day.

At this point we were a little tired and hungry but as we made our back to our hotel we decided to stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral since we arrived too late the night prior. The location of the church was determined by the well where St. Patrick is thought to have baptized the Irish a looooong time ago.

Now were were really tired and hungry so we went to our hotel to rest. After a quick nap we were STARVING. Our concierge recommend the The Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub. We felt much better after a hearty dinner and some drinks.

After a long day of sightseeing we were pretty wiped out. We went back to our hotel to rest and slept through the night. We had plans to get up bright and early to do some more sightseeing but we didn't. We were on vacation and vacation means sleeping in! We lounged around in the morning and grabbed lunch at Leo Burdock's which is the oldest fish and chip shop in Dublin.

And then it was airport time. It was busy couple of days but we felt like we did a ton! As sad as we were to have leave Dublin (and have part of trip be over) we were SUPER excited to go to Munich!

Fall Finds

I LOVE decorating for the holidays! Seriously. I get it from my mother who usually puts up THREE Christmas trees (last year she only did two since I took one of the trees with me when I got married). What I can I say? It runs in the family! Normally I'd be pulling out the Christmas stuff from the garage but since Jonathan and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year (which I am super excited for) I wanted to have a fall-y feel to our home.

It all started with Target. I went in for my biweekly visit while Poseidon was at the groomers. Yes, I schedule my Target visits and no, I don't think that's weird. I prowl the the clearance sections waiting for stuff to go on sale. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyways... I found a metallic gold pumpkin that was originally intended as a outdoor candle holder on sale for half off. You know I put that straight into the cart. I also found a pumpkin scented candle shaped like a pumpkin and a leaf decorative plate.

Since Poseidon still wasn't done I head over to HomeGoods. All of the Halloween stuff was deep discounted and I found large glass pumpkins on sale for $3.50 and $2.50!!!!! I befriended another shopper and between the two of us we took home all of the clearance pumpkins. Obviously I didn't buy all the pumpkins for myself. I shared with my mom and cousin. Duh.

Once I got home I started decorating. The dining table was the easiest place to start. I pulled out a red runner that I got on super sale from Kirkland over the summer and added three pumpkins in the middle. I made the twine wine bottles by glueing some twine (from Hobby Lobby) around them. I already had the wine bottles and the twine cost me around $6 total thanks to a coupon. I wanted to spell out fall on the bottle but never did... maybe next year. I'm thinking about adding some faux fall flowers or leaves into the wine bottles to add some height and visual interest but we'll see if I ever get around to it.

The leaf platter went on the coffee table with some natural wood looking balls. I placed a few faux leaves underneath so there would be some color.  I moved the candlesticks from the dining table to the coffee table. Inspired by Pinterest I used twine to secure leaves to the candles. To keep it from being too monochromatic I placed my new shiny orange pumpkin in the middle.

My mom gave me a ton of faux fall leaves and since we were about to have guests arrive I stuffed them into a red vase on the side table. They're right next to a wedding photo frame that I have yet to fill.

Our console table is a little less decorated. But it did have a beautiful bouquet of flowers sent to me by Jonathan's mom and her fur baby.

The fireplace mantel also received a mini makeover. Since our TV is mounted over it I can't really do too much but I relish any opportunity to use some wire mesh to hide our cable boxes. The banner is my favorite (after all the pumpkins). I wish I could take credit for it but it was made by a couple of my student employees. They cut out the circles and made a font template to add the letters. So pretty.

And that's step one of many on my Thanksgiving To Do List. The only other thing for Thanksgiving I wish I had was a turkey costume for Poseidon. But I don't think he'd ever forgive me!

A Witch, Bat & Walter White

Check out the Stubblefields on Halloween 2013!

I was a witch (with Minnie Mouse ears), Poseidon was a bat and Jonathan was Walter White from Breaking Bad. Obviously Jonathan's costume was the best. He came in second place at his office costume contest and even grew out his mustache. Way to commit babe!

I may have gone overboard with Poseidon's Halloween attire. He was rocking his pumpkin shirt leading up to the holiday (you know,  just to get into the spooky spirit). He also had his costume. They were a pair of bat wings attached to a harness. They moved up and down as he ran around. And of course he had his post Halloween shirt. 

My cousin and her husband had a Halloween dinner for the family. We had terrifying tacos for dinner and for dessert we had peach schnapps jello that came in the form of a brain. 

Since Halloween is my cousin's favorite holiday her and her husband go allll out making a haunted house. We were just on hand to help give out candy and to admire their hard work! They hung body parts on the porch, added some red lights and a fog machine. 

They had a crazy skeleton driving a car. This was actually very popular amongst the Trick-or-Treaters and some people even posed with the skeleton. 

There was also a huge spider web with a gigantic spider but I didn't get a photo. Obviously its my cousin's favorite holiday and I'm really excited to see what she'll do next year since Halloween falls on a Friday! Poseidon just asks that I chose a less embarrassing costume. 

Our First Anniversary

Jonathan and I recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary! This is us a year ago.

Don't we look happy? BEST. DAY. EVER.

We decided not to do anything fancy since we just got back from our trip (Jonathan still bought me a beautiful bouquet of roses). So to celebrate in a low key we decided to open our wedding wine box and watch our wedding video. Please ignore the mess that was our dining table.

What is a wedding wine box? Its a box that a bride and groom place a bottle of wine, two glasses and letters to each other. The letters are secret and we wrote about why we had decided to get married and the qualities we love in each other. At the wedding ceremony the box and its purpose. The idea is that a couple puts it together before the wedding and open it on a certain anniversary. However if they ever find that the marriage is in trouble they are supposed to open the box, pour the wine and separate to read the letters.

Last year we decided to open the box on our first anniversary and then on every fifth. So a couple of weeks ago we pulled out the top tier of our wedding cake from the depths of our fridge and sat down with our wedding wine box. We bought a fancy bottle of wine on our mini honeymoon in Napa and placed that into our box.

We opened the wine, grabbed some defrosted cake and sat on the couch to read our letters. I won't say what they contained (that's between Jon and I) but they were very sweet. I, of course, cried. Then we settled in to watch our wedding video.

Originally I was a little apprehensive about eating cake that's been sitting in a freezer for year so I called the baker who did our wedding cake. Luckily she gave us a whole new cake for free! Since I called at the last minute we had to wait until the following week to pick it up. We ate the defrosted one on our actual anniversary to keep with tradition and the new one the following Sunday. Cake two weekends in a row? Yes please!

It was a perfect way to remember our first year of marriage and six years together. Check out our first photo together (way back in 2007!). Just for fun.