1. We finished our brick patio! Isn’t it so pretty?! I love looking out our window and seeing all that pretty red brick instead of a dirt lot. I love it so much, I can barely remember how much I hated digging up the backyard in 102 degree heat that one weekend so there would be room for the bricks. We had a rare free weekend with no wedding, so it was the perfect time to lay the brick. My family came over to help, and we had a big assembly line going passing bricks from the truck to the dirt where my sister and Shawn laid them in place. It was actually really fun! So listen to this steal of a deal. My dad’s friend has a demolition company, and had a ton of used brick we could have…for free! If we were to buy the bricks from Home Depot, they would have been $0.50 each. I did the math, and the bricks alone should have cost us over $1500! Instead, this whole project cost us a measly $40 to buy the sand to pour over the top and sweep in between the cracks to fill it up and make them tight. Now that’s a bargain!

dinner

2. Last night, we got together with my Aunt Susan and Nana and had a progressive dinner party. So fun! We got to go to everyone’s house, and each of us were in charge of a different part of the menu. We started out at my sisters for wine and appetizers, then we headed to my house for moscow mules and dinner of peach & burrata arugula salad with grilled bread (outside on our new brick patio!), and then headed to my mom’s house for dessert and coffee. We had the best time!

HomeGoods loot

3. There’s nothing like hosting a dinner party to really motivate you to get some decorations for your house! Ever since we moved in, our house has been very…bare. As in, not 1 thing hanging on the walls. We didn’t have any art that would work in our little rustic house on the ranch, and wasn’t too masculine or too feminine. I have been keeping my eye out for stuff, but never really saw anything I thought would work. But this week I headed to HomeGoods, and found 2 amazing canvas paintings, and some decorative throw pillows to go with them. I texted this picture to Shawn, and he said he liked them too. Win! I later found 2 plain light blue throw pillows to pair with the decorative pillows. It really ties everything together. Our living room is looking mighty cute! Feels much more like a home.

Broken hammer

4. After getting all this new decorative stuff, I had Shawn hang everything up on the walls for me. Apparently Shawn is the hulk, and breaks hammers when hanging cute things I find at antique stores. I heard some banging in the kitchen, then Shawn say, “Dammit! (pause) Nat…come here.” I walk in and see him holding the hammer in 2 pieces, and just staring at the nail he had been hammering in. How does that even happen?! I haven’t laughed that hard in a while!

In ear walkie talkies

5. We’re filming AND photographing a wedding this Saturday, and it is my first wedding where I am the sole photographer. I have been mighty nervous, but I think I am very prepared. I have been practicing, researching and preparing like a pro. (Sorry to all my blogging friends, I’m quite behind on commenting on blogs since all my free time has gone to preparing for this wedding! But I’ll be back soon!) I am very excited that I will be in constant contact with Shawn now that we got these life changing in-ear walkie talkies! There’s a little button I press, and I’m talking right in to Shawn’s ear. This is a much better method than me trying to mouth things to him from across the venue. The fact that we look like Secret Service agents is just a nice bonus, *wink*.

Have a great 3 day weekend friends!