A very Remi Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends!! We love and miss all of you and wish we were together today. We are very grateful for the time we had in Ca a few weeks ago to celebrate Christmas a little early. We saw our families, ate delicious dinners, watched the kids tear through their presents, walked down Candy Cane Lane and were able to celebrate with my best friend on the night of her engagement!

JD is off work Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and we could not be happier about it. Last Christmas he was still in the academy and we spent Christmas across the country from each other. This year we are keeping it low key and making red velvet pancakes for breakfast, then relaxing in our pajamas all day.

We have a new member in our household this Christmas, a very handsome 8 week old chocolate lab puppy named Remi (Remington). Remi was an early Christmas present from JD, he surprised me with him about a week ago! He is so much fun, has lots of energy, loves to snuggle and is a crack up to watch. So far he has kept me on my toes, the only time I trust him is when he’s sound asleep. Remi has already proven to be the most popular in the Poplin house, and I'm sure he will be for a very long time!

This will definitely be a Christmas to remember, our first Christmas in AZ, in our own home, with a new puppy! Thank you so much to my in-laws and the Antonio's who helped JD surprise me with Remi, I know a lot of work went into making it happen and I feel so special! Congratulations to Kayleigh and Mark on their engagement, we are so happy for the two of you! From our home to yours we wish everyone a very merry love filled Christmas and we hope all of you have a happy new year!!

     xoxo,

              Rachele

Wreath making machine

Each evening for about 2 weeks I was making wreaths like a machine. I had my own assembly line going and hot glue guns spread out over our living room floor.

We celebrated Christmas with our families pretty early this year, in the beginning of December, because of JD’s work schedule. I wanted to have a small gift for everyone so I decided to make wreaths! I tried to make each wreath as different as I could, and use a lot of materials I already had. Most all of the wreaths have bits and pieces from events or things in our lives; our wedding, family baby showers, yarn from my grandma’s sweater knitting supply, paint from house projects, and our own Christmas décor. I like that they have personal touches from things that were meaningful to us at one point or another.

I made 13 wreaths and it wasn’t until we got home from our California Christmas trip that I realized I hadn’t made a wreath for our own home. I hung a few stockings on our door for some holiday cheer, but I need to get a wreath made for next year! Any input on the style I should make from looking at the pictures below?

 

     xoxo,

              Rachele

 

The Hunt

One thing that has always been popular with the Poplin men has been hunting, and I am proud to say JD has officially joined the buck club. Every year the guys in the family go on their hunting trip and JD has always missed it because of baseball or work, so this year he got the time off and headed out to Missouri.

JD was in Missouri with family and friends for about a week, and on their third day of hunting he got the buck he was hoping for; a 4x4 white tail. I cannot tell you how proud he is, he’s already addicted to the sport and is planning his next trip out there.

I am really happy for him and so glad he had a great time and spent a week with his dad, papa and one of his best friends. I'll admit that even though we weren't apart for long I am happy having my mountain man back home! I am also really grateful that a family friend took pictures of all the guys, they are awesome pictures and I’m excited to share them!

     xoxo,

              Rachele

My creative and crafty Cousin

To say my cousin, Katie, is creative and crafty is an understatement, this girl is proving she can do it all. As my cousin she was one of my first friends, I have looked up to her my whole life, and now that we are older she is still teaching me things! I am so grateful for the time we recently spent together; we did a lot of catching up and a lot of projects!

About a month ago I ordered a ton of fabric (from Fabric.com) and had plans on using it for curtains in our master bedroom and to recover some pillows; trouble is I don’t have a sewing machine. So, last week Katie came to my rescue and we used her machine to sew, actually, she did the sewing, I cut, ironed and pinned. The outcome of our 2 evenings worth of work was: long drapery curtains for our room, 10 recovered decorative pillows and a bonus bathroom curtain made from left over fabric!

The curtains are simple panels, and I kept it basic with clips at the top. They may be simple in design, but they have had a major affect on the space, they have brought warmth, coziness, height and finish to the room! For the pillows we followed a tutorial Katie found on Design Sponge, it showed us how to make a pillow form with a zipper, instead of making an envelope type case. We both prefer the zipper, it keeps the pillow looking taunt and fitted.

As if coming home with new curtains and pillows wasn’t enough she spoiled me and hand built JD and I a table to go beside our couch in the family room. Let me just say I am in awe of what Katie can do… she works all week, takes care of her hubby and two sweet little boys, and sews, crafts, paints, designs and builds everything in their home. I wish I could show you all of the things she has made; shelving, side tables, a dinning room table, bench seating, wall décor, curtains, a sunburst mirror and the list goes on. I brought the table home and spent yesterday afternoon painting it white, after a few coats of paint and a top coat of Polycrylic Protective Finish the table is in its place and fitting perfectly!

Below are pics of the curtains, pillows and table, and the two of us in action, of course! Thank you, Katie, for all of your help; I can’t wait until we get to work on our next round of ideas! Have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone, JD and I hope all of you enjoy time with family; we are certainly grateful for each of you and wish we were in Ca to join in the festivities!

     xoxo,

              Rachele

 

 

What happens in Vegas... goes on the blog

Vegas was awesome! The hubs and I took advantage of a long weekend and turned ‘date night’ into three days and nights of dates together in Vegas! We took a few hour detour on our way and stopped to check out the Hoover Dam, wow,  it is huge and pretty cool to walk over and marvel at how they built it.

 Neither of us had been to Vegas since we were kids so we did the normal site seeing and touristy things. We checked out all of the hotels and the cool unique things they had, saw some animals from the shows, went on roller coasters, and did some serious people watching. We made our way down to Freemont Street one of the nights to check things out and stopped to take some pictures at the pawn store from the TV show Pawn Stars! We also found an awesome shooting range that lets people shoot machine guns and things, so JD shot the SCAR (I’m not even sure what it is, haha, but it looked cool).

My favorite parts of the trip were by far the restaurants we ate at, yum yum yum! We ate some of the most delicious food while we were there, including lunch at Buddy V’s (The Cake Boss’ new restaurant), dinner at Maggiano’s and dessert at Serendipity. Our first night we had dinner at BurGR which is Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant and they really were the best burgers we’ve ever had. After dinner we had drinks at the Chandelier Bar, it was gorgeous, the bar is literally inside of a giant Chandelier. And our last morning we ate brunch inside of the Eiffel Tower overlooking the whole strip.

On the drive home we started planning our next trip, where we want to stay, restaurants we’d like to eat at and shows we want to see. It’s was so nice to have a little get away just the two of us. Vegas is now very Popular with the Poplins!!

 

     xoxo,

              Rachele