Two Savvy Sisters: Back to the Real World

Hi friends! We are finally back from a long and restful family vacation that Justin and I, Carrie and her family, and Carrie and my parents took to the Outer Banks. While I don't have a project to show you today, my purpose is still two-fold. Yes, two-fold. It sounds more important when I say it that way. First, I want to show you some pictures from our vacation (I promise to try to keep it to only ones you might find interesting, and not the ones the sand castle Beeb and I made), and second, well, I'll tell you later.

So let me tell you, our vacation was BUSY. I mean it was nonstop. Between the pool lounging, book reading, ocean wave riding, shell searching, and ice cream eating, I seeeeeriously do not know how we found time to relax. Maybe we should go back for another week and try it again.

This is the Frisco pier, and it was basically right in our front yard. I feel like fishing off of it might have been a bad idea, no? But a fun picture opportunity. We kind of took a million bazillion pictures of it. At least.

Below the pier. See what I mean about picture opportunity? I love this picture. The seemingly haphazard posts here and there sort of make me wonder how the pier didn't end up in multiple pieces before the storm.

We made some bird friends.

Oh right, I promised only interesting pictures. But while I'm breaking the rules, here's one more.

Justin somehow managed to turn himself into Enemy No. 1, for which his punishment was the scariest a man could ever fathom- being chased and getting a bucket of water dumped on him.

I know his fate seems unsure from the looks of these pictures. But don't worry about him too much though. In case you hadn't noticed, he appears to be the one with the bucket in his hand. Perhaps this is how he manged to become Enemy No. 1 in the first place?

Evie and Daddy got a little quality time in searching for fish/crabs/jelly fish/whatever else one might find in the sand.

The adults may or may not have concocted a serious and complicated system in the attempt to catch fish/crabs/jelly fish/whatever else one might find in the sand as well. I do not have pictures of this, but I know they exist. Perhaps I will get my hands on them shortly. We did catch something. We considered eating him, but alas, he was about 1/2 an inch long. He was some sort of fish/crab combo. So we declared ourselves a catch-and-release program and let him swim/dig/scurry his merry way back to sea.

Also with the help of his Daddy, Chris did some spectacular kite flying.

Phenomenal kite flying.

Justin and I got a lot of great pics while walking along the beach. Yes, a lot of them are of the broken pier. We were sort of obsessed with it, ok? Case in point: Justin ate the broken pier.

And finally, one of my favorite pictures, we captured as a storm was coming in. B-e-a-utiful.

There they are, some of my favorite pics from the OBX '11 family vaca. Maybe Carrie will see fit to share even more of her own :)

And finally, COMPLETELY unrelated, the second fold of my two-folded purpose. I just wanted to share with you what you have to look forward to from me in the near future. Because, after all, we're back to the real world.

* A kitchen re-do, complete with cabinet painting and a beadboard backsplash.

* A master bedroom makeover, complete with furniture refinishing and a project slowly moving into my heart as the new favorite, a mantle over the bed. Here is my inspiration.