Key West

Here are a few pictures from our mini-vacay to Key West!

 Is my mom not gorgeous?!  She got married as sunset on the beach-it was breathtaking.

 Here is my beautiful grandmother. 

 Me and the hubby in front of our hotel!

 We took a train to the place on the beach where they got married.  How fun, right?!

 There was a cruise ship that was docked- I forgot how HUMONGOUS they are.

 My older brother is on the left (he's the one living in France!) and the younger one on the right.

 It was so cool to watch the pelicans dip into the ocean and get fish.

 My two brothers escorted her down the aisle. :)

 Whew- this gorgeous landscape takes my breath away.

 this is how we got around on the island- by bike. it was so much fun.

We had a great time.  I would go back to Key West anytime.  And the weather was AWESOME.  80 degrees and around 72 at night with a cool breeze- yes, please!

It's been storming like crazy here-I didn't get the chance to finish up my picture frames because of the rain. :(  But I'll post them soon, I promise!

-Kait

P.S. I have a pretty great giveaway going on RIGHT NOW and you should definately go check it out!  You can find it here!

Giveaway Time!

Well, I finally made it back from Key West last night! We had such a fun time and I did NOT want to leave.  I'm going to post pictures in just a little while, but first I must let you in on a little secret:

I've reached my goal of 100 followers! 

You guys ROCK! I was so excited to see that when I woke up this morning because even though I did have access to internet in Key West, I seriously did not have time to get on!  We were always either at the pool with a pina colada or riding our bikes all over the island.

I love you all- I am so excited to host my first giveaway.  Since I don't have an Etsy shop or sell anything like that, I decided I was going to give you the chance to win a few of my FAVORITE things.

So, without further ado, here is what I'm giving to one of you lovelies!

1. EOS Lip Balm- This stuff is AWESOME. I got some for Christmas and use it all the time.  It's 95% organic, 100% natural, and paraben and petrolatum free. (Don't exactly know what that means, but it was on the back of the package!) It comes in that little ball and you just twist it off and apply! It's easy to find in your purse because you can just feel for the "ball".  

2.  Potpourri.  I hope this doesn't make me an old lady, but I love potpourri.  I bought a little wicker basket from Goodwill for 50 cents, spray painted it black, and put some in my bathroom.  It always smells sooooo yummy and even my husband commented on how nice our bathroom always smells.  It's in our guest bathroom too. 

3.  Notecards. I love a handwritten note.  When hubby and I were dating long distance for over two years (with me in TX and him in NC) that's all we had: handwritten letters.  I kept ALL of them and I think it's so special to have them.  These notecards are super cute and flowery on the front and I hope it'll remind you to write a sweet note to a loved one instead of texting/emailing.  

4. A flower hair clip made by moi!  I am going to post a picture of me wearing it once I take a shower (but I haven't gotten there just yet, haha) But it's made from black felt and it adds some pizazz to a cardigan or your hair! I wear it all the time and get a lot of compliments on it.  

5. This may also make me an old lady, but I like to have nice, pretty napkins handy for when I have guests over.  My mom got me started on this, because she always has decorative napkins for all occasions.  I bought these because they are french and since we're leaving next week, I thought it was fitting!  

6. A reusable shopping bag. This one is from Marshall's (and says Marshalls on the sides) but I loved the bright flowers on the front. Can you tell I like bright colors?  I have about ten of these babies, and I use them to grocery shop.  It's humongous and can fit so many groceries in them.  And then you aren't stuck with tons of plastic baggies in your pantry!  (I folded it up for the photo, but it is really large!)

And there you go!  If you want to have the chance to win these goodies here's the rules:

1. You can or don't even have to be be a follower of my blog.  haha, if you are a follower, just say so..and if you aren't, just say something like "Ohhh I hope I win!" {One entry}

2.  Post about this giveaway either on your blog {One entry} 

 or on facebook.  {One entry}

3. Send out some love and tweet about my giveaway. It can say something like this:
" @KaitJones28 is having her first giveaway! Come check it out here: http://sethandkait.blogspot.com/2011/02/giveaway-time.html  {One entry}

4. Follow me on twitter here. {One entry}

5. Leave a comment of where your DREAM vacation would be.  Mine is a trip to the British Virgin Islands. {One entry}

So, that's a total of SIX chances you have to win.  Leave a separate comment for each entry. Winner will be picked through random.org.

  This giveaway will end Thursday, March 3 at 10pm EST.   

  

If I do not hear from the winner on Friday by 4pm EST, I will pick another one and mail the goodies out Friday afternoon.  (Sorry that's kind of quick, but we are leaving for France on Sunday and I want to make sure you get your goodies!

Alright lovelies, I am off to take a shower and clean the house! I'm going to post pictures from our trip soon and I'm almost done with a fun DIY picture frame tutorial!

Stay tuned.

Xoxo,

Kait

*The opinions expressed in this post are my own and I am not getting paid/sponsored/bribed/etc for any of this content. :)

Key West, here we come!

Whew!!
After a long week it's finally time to relax


in KEY WEST!

We are flying out tomorrow morning to have a weekend full of sand, sun, and friends. {and maybe a couple margaritas!}

I will take lots of pictures and be sure to fill you in on all the details from our weekend, don't you worry! :)


I also have a couple projects to share with you guys when I return..including another lampshade redo, DIY picture frames, and I'm still waiting on some materials from my in-laws so I can re-do that sewing machine table I got from Goodwill last week. (I should have all the supplies by next weekend!)
I am also finishing up my wedding slideshow and can't wait to share it very soon.



Stay tuned for those and I'll be sure to think of you all when I'm laying on the beach! ;)


Xoxo,


Kait


P.S. I am SOOOOO close to reaching my 100 followers goal! If you have been reading my blog for awhile or if you've just stopped by and like what you see, please click "follow" over there on the right and you'll get the chance to win some goodies!
And I'll now leave you with this song. Enjoy.



(I am not sure who made this, but I thought it was pretty entertaining..haha)

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Thank goodness...this week is halfway over! It's been a tough one, but at the end of it i'll be in KEY WEST!

Link up with Jamie to see what everyone is loving!!

I'm loving  these swimsuits from Victoria's Secret! But I am not buying any because 1) It's not swimsuit weather just yet and 2)I do not have a beach ready body yet...

maybe I need to get out my Jillian Michael's DVD...speaking of working out, do any of you lovlies do ZUMBA?  If so, do you like it?  I've been wanting to get a DVD but didn't know which ones were good...

 Love how cute and playful this one is..except she needs a little more fabric on the bottom, if you ask me.

 I love the back of this one! and the color!

 I've wanted this suit for such a long time, but the bottoms are just too little! Seems like VS likes them that way...

Now this one looks perfect! Not too small on the bottom!
I ordered three suits on sale last winter for my honeymoon last year and LOVED them.  I just went up a size in the bottoms to get a little more coverage. 


I'm loving my sweet husband.  He has been super supportive this week (I haven't had the best of weeks) and I am so lucky to have him as my husband!

{I love this photo because it was taken right before we graduated college and I decorated the top of my hat to say "I am getting married in 19 days".  ;)}

I'm loving my sweet cat, Claire.  We adopted her around Christmastime and she was SO skittish and unfriendly.  Now, she is a completely different cat! The second we lay in bed, she jumps up there and starts purring.  She is the sweetest cat I've ever had and I am so glad we got her! Her previous owner got her when she was 5 weeks old and then dumped her on the side of the road 4 months later!!  (Shame on you, whoever you are!!!)

isn't she adorable?  She seriously sits like that all the time.  She is crazy.

I'm loving that when my blog reaches 100 followers, I'm going to have a giveaway of some of my favorite things! If you like what you see and want to follow my blog, feel free and then you can enter my giveaway when I post it very soon! :)

I'm loving this adorable picture of a cat I found while "Stumbling".  I like to use the stumble button when I get bored, and I found this and had to share it!!

haha! She looks so scared, poor thing!

So..what are you loving today?

Happy Wednesday!!!

Xoxo

Kait

Couponing..and Spring.

I went to Harris Teeter earlier this week to hit up their Super Doubles Week and saved quite a bit of money! Super Doubles is when they double any coupon that is worth $1.98 or less.  I always get so excited when they do this, and here is what I got this week:

Total before sales and coupons: $64.66
Total after sales and coupons: $9.26

I got all of that for just over $9!  Yes, please!

I love saving money!

And secondly, here is my kitchen table decorated for Spring. ( I may change my mind because i'm not sold on the look)  I couldn't think of a good tablescape for after Valentine's Day, but I threw this together with what I had around the house..I like the fresh, spring feel it gives the room. Even though it's technically not Spring...oh well.

 I made this vase with mod podge and raffia.

And here is a ladybug I found while laying in the sun today with Penny.  Very random, but I will take it as a good luck sign. :)

Look how presh she is:

awww...

It's hard being a grown-up.

 {source}

Although I am so thankful to have a college degree and to be married, sometimes it's hard being a grown up.



Sometimes, I want to go back to the days when:

you could stay up as late as you wanted, even if you had a big exam the next day.
every Friday night was spent with tons of friends and lots of junk food.
you didn't have to worry about bills because daddy paid for the apartment. (which I am still so very thankful for)
dinner consisted of Lean Cuisines or ramen noodles
Spring Break was a WONDERFUL thing to look forward to.
Date nights with your boyfriend happened once or twice a week.
There was always somewhere to go, something to do, and relatively nothing to worry about.




And now..that's all changed


If I stay up past 11pm, I am a worthless human being the next day.  I won't be able to even keep my eyes open.
Most Friday nights are spent at home with the husband watching TV or cleaning house. (haha!)
Bills pile up every month, and although we pay them off every single time,I sometimes (or all of the time) want them to magically pay themselves.

I cook dinner every night and try to have new and exciting recipes each week.  I love cooking, but sometimes I do wish ramen noodles or lean cuisines could be an every day thing. 
Spring Break? What's that?
Date nights happen once every two or three weeks..




Now, please understand that I'm not ungrateful for any of those things, but remember how people always told you "College days are some of the best of your life"?  Well..i'm kind of understanding what that means now.


Being a grown up is hard sometimes.


and i'm sure feeling it this week.


I got in bed last night and just cried and cried because I was worried.  Worried that I won't find a full time job to support our family.  Worried that we are going to spend a lot of money in France and not have enough for other things (although that is not true). Worried about our energy bill and how it didn't go down even though we kept our thermostat on low.  What if I don't find a job? What if our bills don't go down? What if our France trip costs more than we planned?...blah blah blah..i was an emotional wreck.

(and to think, it wasn't even my time of the month either! haha)

And then hubby prayed for me..and of course I cried more because it was so sweet and I love him so very much.  And then I felt guilty for crying because we are so incredibly blessed and I shouldn't worry about that stuff anyway.  God is going to take care of me. He promises that. 


I'm silly sometimes. 


But I guess we all have off-weeks...right? 


Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a worrier..you know how some people are like that and then others are not?  Well, that is where hubby and I differ. a lot.  he doesn't worry about anything..and me? Well you already know where I stand on that one.

I do know this though: God is good.  and He is going to take care of me and our family.

-Kait

P.S. Don't forget, I am having a giveaway once I reach the big 1-0-0!  I am almost there...only ten more followers!

Catchin' Up.

Goodness gracious, for the past few days I've been so so sleepy! I have slept in until like 10 am every morning (and that's late for me!) and it's only 9:00 at night and I'm ready to hit the sack again!

I don't know what is up with me.


So...in case you didn't know, the husband and I are taking two big trips in the next three weeks!

1) We are going to Key West this Friday! We are really excited-it's only for the weekend but I can't wait to get to warm weather, and the BEACH! I love the beach.  LOVEEEEE the beach.  I spent a summer working in Colorado in the gorgeous rocky mountains but nothing beats the smell of ocean water, the breeze and sand between your toes.

I guess I should tell you why we're going! My mom is getting MARRIED! I am so happy for her and can't wait to see her.  Since we live across the US from each other, it's always a treat to spend time with her.

That's where we 're staying.  Pretty fancy schmancy, huh?  ;)

I have heard Key West is SO neat, and I can't wait to experience it myself!

2) Just one week after we get back from there, we are going to FRANCE!  My brother lives there and we're going to spend a week with him and see the wonderful sights.  I've been twice before (my grandmother lives there as well for part of the year) and so we are staying at her house.  I can't wait to go again.  Have any of you ever been?  If so, what was your favorite part of your trip?  I am trying to get everything planned beforehand and wanted to see if you had any advice for us!  Both of the times I went, it was with my family and so of course, I didn't plan anything..and now that it's just going to be me and my husband, I am kind of scared since I have to plan it all myself!

So yes, we have quite a busy next couple of weeks!!

This past week was not only tough for me health-wise, but I also had to make a very hard decision regarding my job.  In the fall, my husband is attending law school.  Right now though, he works at Chick-fil-a. Well his hours have been cut and with me working part-time, we decided that I need to seek full-time employment.  I am currently looking for a full-time job now and am hoping and praying something comes through for me.  It was so tough to have to leave my part-time job because I really loved it, but this is the right decision for us financially at this time in our marriage. I'm praying hard for some doors to be opened!

On another note: I have a very exciting project in the works!!! And it involves this:

I found this old sewing machine table (without the sewing machine inside) for $15 at Goodwill.  It was more than I initially wanted to spend for the project I had in mind, but I liked the way it looked and so I decided to buy it.  If you know anything about Goodwill, it's that you better get what you want right when you see it or it'll be gone the next time you go back. I've learned that the hard way a few times too many.  So i snatched it up.

I have to wait a couple weeks for the project to be completed though because I have to get some items from my husband's parent's house.  :(  Once I figured out what I wanted to do with it, I realized that what I needed wasn't here! I was bummed, but I'll learn a good lesson in being patient.

I bet you're wondering what in the world I'm going to be getting from their house, now aren't you?! ;)

Let's just say that I will be painting it, but also adding something else to make it GREAT!

I am excited.

Well guys...it's time for me to go cuddle up in my bed with my fluffy furry cat. and husband.

Before I go, I wanted to let you know that in the next few days, I'm going to be making a video of wedding pictures from my wedding day to share with you.  I've had some requests to share our wedding day, and it got me soo excited to get on the ball with making a wedding video! Be on the lookout for that coming soon!  It was the best day of my life :)

Goodnight everyone!

-Kait

P.S. Remember that I'm having my first giveaway when I reach 100 followers! We're getting close, people! Keep those followers comin'!

All kinds of sick... (and a big announcement!)

So when I FINALLY thought I was over this flu stuff...here comes another bug!


I cooked dinner last night for us and our good friend, Colton.  It was a new recipe which I was semi-hesitant to make in the first place but went ahead and did it..

You see, I consider myself a decent cook, a lover of the kitchen, a seasoned chef..something of that nature.  And a recipe named "Sweet and Sour Chicken" didn't intimidate me. So I tried it out..and..

NO

THANK

 YOU.

 I (and my husband) decided that I need to not try out any more intricate asian recipes for a while.

It was not good-and our poor guest even said it was.  haha! I knew he was probably stretching the truth when he said "I like it!"

Hubby kindly said "It's not your best dish".  But he was probably thinking "PLEASE don't ever make this again".

It's not that it tasted horrible, because it didn't...but something just wasn't "right" about it.

I followed the recipe perfectly...but you know, sometimes things just don't work out.

A lesson learned.

So after dinner, we sat and talked about this or that and my stomach started feeling a tiny bit uneasy.  I went to bed early and woke up around 4 this morning with a horrible stomach ache. I am not going to share details on what happens next because well..you don't want to hear them.  But I made a bee-line to the bathroom in just the nick of time.

I am really hoping that our friend didn't get sick either!!  He'll never want to come back to our house if he did.  

I went to work today but when I got home, I've been nothing but a lazy bum.  My tummy is still unsettled and I have such a taste aversion to any food right now that the only the thing that sounds decent is sprite and chocolate.  (Not the healthiest of options..)

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has cooked something and didn't turn out tasting like heaven?!

I am ready for any kind and every kind of sickness to leave my house!! Being sick takes it out of ya..and I don't like feeling helpless... (although it is nice when hubby brings you chocolate and cleans the house!)

So...who is ready for my big announcement?!?  I've been dying to share with you and am soooo excited to let you know that:

I will be having my first giveaway...very very soon! 

The only thing that needs to happen is for this little blog here, to reach the big 1-0-0.
100 followers. 
That's all! 
And i'm not far from it either!!!
(Only 21 more followers needed before I give away something pretty awesome!)

For those of you lovelies who read this blog but haven't clicked "follow", now's your time! You could win some great goodies!  I've made it easy for you too, here's a pic that show you how to follow my blog:

It's located on the right side of my page, and all you gotta do is click "Follow!" 

So, go out and tell your friends, family...who ever!  Because I think you're gonna like what I have for one lucky reader!



Hope your weekend is FABULOUS!
I'm determined to feel better and get out of this house!

Xoxo,

Kait

What I'm loving Wednesday

I get really excited on Wednesdays for two reasons:

1. The weekend is NEAR.
2. I get to share with some great people what I'm loving!

Jamie @ This Kind of Love hosts a WILW party and you should definitely join us.  It's a lot of fun!

Here's what I'm loving:

1. I'm loving that today me and hubby have the DAY OFF!  Mine is due to me being really sick, but I am excited to spend a whole day with him. This doesn't happen very often because he works on Saturdays so I can't wait to relax and enjoy the day with him!

2. I'm loving that he also got an iphone this past weekend-I've been playing angry birds NONSTOP.  Does anyone else know how awesome this game is?  ;)

3. I'm loving the smell of my clean house.  Since I've been in bed sick for the past four days, the house was a WRECK.  I don't think I've ever seen it this messy..well today I finally felt halfway decent soI spent HOURS cleaning, mopping, sweeping, putting away medicine and kleenex..and my favorite part of a clean house?  The smell of Pinesol on my wood floors!! LOVE IT!

4. I'm loving the spring weather outside. I know it probably won't last long, but it was SEVENTY degrees here yesterday.  SEVENTY!!!!  I cannot wait for Spring to finally be here.  That means beautiful flowers, nice weather, and the best part: Wearing bright colored sundresses and skirts-I already bought two dresses in hopes that Spring will be here soon! Here's a few beautiful pictures to get you excited for Spring:

5. I'm loving that Harris Teeter Super Doubles starts today- they will double any coupon that is worth $1.98 or less! I save lots of money each time they do this and I can't wait to show you what I get this time!  If you're interested in reading about my past couponing trips, just click on the label "Coupons".

Can't wait to read about what you're loving today!

-Kait