Updates & Apples Galore!

Well once again it has been quite an eventful few months and I have again failed to keep up with the world of blogs and social media networking; are we surprised? I'm guessing no one is at all surprised that I have failed to keep up, but alas I will not bore you with promises of more frequent updates or timely posts. You must however know that I actually sat down and planned a blogging schedule and have set a goal of two posts per week for the remainder of this month :)

If you know anything about me, you know that I have been awaiting the Fall season since May! Finally it has arrived and I couldn't be happier with the crisp weather and invasion of all things pumpkin flavored! I am also excited to pull out the ole crock pot and get some soup in my tummy. It always seems like I spend more time in the kitchen during this time of year and this year is no exception!  So when a friend of gave us a bag of apples I decided to attempt an apple pie, because when you have never made a pie in your life making an apple pie is always a GREAT idea, right? I mean I had the apples to why not make a pie? I picked up a package of pie crusts from Trader Joe's and made myself a pie!

I should probably mention that I don't really like cooked apples and I am pretty picky about apples in general. I absolutely can NOT deal with mushy, mealy apples {yuck}! So I had no intention of eating the apple pie but I knew Dr. Sarah would appreciate the treat and of course an apple pie is only as good as the ice cream you put on top ;) Here are before and after pictures of my apple pie!

Happy blogging, hope you enjoy the post! 

Beautiful Babes in June...

So we spent the first two weeks of June between the beach and home and has the pleasure of spending most of that time with our cuties Harry and Charlie. Here are a few of my favorite moments...

Summer Time at Long Last!

Well it is finally summer time and I am finally able to do some editing that I have been meaning to do for several months. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will be all caught up and will also manage to dust off the old camera and head out on a few picture taking adventures!! Here are a few recent edits, hope you enjoy!

Happiest Place on Earth

Here are a few shots from our Spring Break adventures. We spent the week in Cocoa Beach, Florida and ventured to Disney's Epcot and Magic Kingdom parks. Epcot is currently hosting the Flower and Garden Festival and feature nearly all of the current and classic Disney characters in flowers. They were absolutely beautiful my pictures do not do them justice! The last picture is one of my favorite from the trip and was taken by Sarah.

Beauty and the Beast

Tinkerbell's Butterfly Garden

Glass Flowers outside the Oz exhibit

Sarah and Me waiting in line at Test Track

Piglet and Eyor

Cuddly old Pooh

Cinderella and the Prince

Orchids outside Mexico

Ocean View

Renovation Updates- Living room!

As I mentioned a couple months ago we bought and moved into a new house back in October/November. We have done tons of work and are having such fun updating and renovating various things around the house. Most of the work to be done is cosmetic and has been fairly easy although we have had a few bumps along the way. I'll only be posting on one room at a time so stay tuned for updates!

When we purchased the house the only visible flaw was the lack of flooring in the living room, you can see a before picture here. Since replacing the floor was part of our purchasing contract we had to install proper flooring. We reviewed several possible options but finally decided on a manufactured hardwood from Ikea! Did you know that Ikea sold flooring, crazy right?! Besides the flooring we painted the walls and added quarter round but other than that this room was a fairly easy reno project. Here are a few pictures from the past few months. We love the end results!

Mantle view

Arial view from stairs.

Sweetheart VoxBox 2013

So again I have been MIA for sometime but I'm back for the moment and with some exciting goodies from Influenster. I am sure that most of you have heard of this company and the awesome program they are running. I mean they give you free stuff, what could be better :) I got February's VoxBox which was appropriately Sweetheart themed. I have to say the products I received this month were spot on and among my favorites! Here are a list of the items I received and my thoughts on them thus far, oh and my pics are less than stellar but you get the point, right?!

Group Shot- of course I ate the Skinnygirl bar before I took the picture :)

Olay Fresh Effects {Va-Va-Vivid} Powered Contour Cleansing System & {Shine, Shine Go Away} Shine Minimizing Cleanser

Now normally I am pretty particular about my face and the products I use to care for it, so naturally I was a little hesitant to use this product. The cleanser smells amazing and tingles just a bit so I knew it was working right away and the contour brush, oh the contour brush. The brush really gets in those tight spots around the nose and just under the bottom lip chin area to make sure your extra exfoliated in those hard to reach spots.

Secret Clinical Strength Stress Response

I try not to be pick with my products but to be honest I am pretty picky in the deodorant department. I have really itchy pits, sounds gross I know but hey it happens. I loved the smell of the product but again was nervous to use it, but so far so good no problems with itching or odor!

Skinnygirl Daily On-The-Go Bars- sadly I don't have a picture of this product because of course I ate it as soon as I opened the box. I liked it and I plan on picking up some on my next grocery trip!

Not Your Mother's She;s a Tease Volumizing Hair Spray

To be honest I am a little disappointed with this product but then again I am not much of a hair girl either so I could be going about this all the wrong way. The product smells great but I didn't see much volume happening but I'll keep trying and let you know :)

Hope you all have a fab day and take a few minutes to visit the Influenster website and sign up for some of their awesome products!


*Disclamer- products listed above are compliments of Influenster for testing purposes.

Awesomesauce Winter Photo Challenge

While trolling the web I happened upon this awesome website from Carrie Swails Photography called Photography Awesomesauce (you should check it out). Any way, Carrie is hosting a Winter Photo Challenge and I am super excited to be sharing and interacting with other photographers. This weeks theme was trees and last weeks was thankful so here are the two pictures I have entered so far...

Week 1 "Thankful" for our first Thanksgiving in the new house!

Week 2 "Trees"

New House Pictures

I mentioned in my last post that we recently bought a house here in GA, here are a few pictures of the house as is when we first bought it...

Front Yard View

Master Bedroom

Master Closet

Master Bathroom Garden Tub

Master Bathroom Shower

Living Room

Laundry Room

Bonus Room

Nursery

Guest Bath

Master Bathroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exciting Updates!

Well it has been a minute since the last post but oh so much has happened since then! I love that even though we have both completed all of our coursework we are still as busy as ever, and I thought we were going to be old cat ladies knitting and watching the news every night! Here is a list of whats been happening in Sumners/Kugle Land...

1. I am officially Amber Kugle M. Ed and Sarah is Dr. Sarah Sumners! Hooray for us!!

2. We bought a house and moved into it in just three weeks! Oh and I should probably mention that WE installed hardwood floors in said house.

3. We adopted/happened upon/inherited a new cat, her name is Baylee and she has the most gorgeous blue eyes!

4. We are currently in Denver, CO at the NAGC annual conference, fun stuff!

I know that list is pretty short but we haven't had a single weekend of nothingness in the past month! Hope this finds you well hope to post more detailed info about the house later on this week.

Leon September 2012

This past month has been super busy and rest is a vague memory of days past. We did however find time to see our favorite niece and nephew earlier in the month. While there I snapped a few shots at the base playground but have just gotten around to editing them this weekend. Here are a few of my favorites...

Picture Hike & other arbitrary photos!

Today we hiked one of the trails at Ben Burton and found this little butterfly fluttering about on it's back, so I righted it and continued on our journey. Unfortunately when in came time to capture the tree trunk colonized by fungi my phone of course died!
This is week 2 of subbing at Athens Academy in the 3 year old room and on Monday we finger painted and I captured a little gem to remember the fun!
I'm ending the week with frozen yogurt one if my faves and since we are trying to save a little dough this month I purchased this from Trader Joe's. it's fine on its own but I'm still trying to figure out how to get my hands on some melted marshmallow fluff!

Sunday Afternoon DIY

Since finishing my Masters coursework and completing my Comprehensive Exams I have acquired quite a bit of free time that I have devoted to practicing and fine tuning my photography, leisure reading, and various other enjoyable projects of my choosing. Much to my delight a good deal of this time has been spent perusing local thrift stores and re-working old finds and my collection of random odds and ends. I have also taken a particular liking to visiting antique shops and collecting sparkly and glittery baubles to add to my ever expanding collection of jewels. To accommodate this collection is a bit tricky since space is limited in our cozy two bedroom duplex. On a past trip to MS I found a hanging jewelry organizer that worked perfectly for necklaces and held a few of my bangles and bracelets but wasn't optimal for the latter so as I usually do when faced with a storage or other DIY dilemma I turned to Pinterest. As I imagined there were a plethora of unique and creative storage options and this past Saturday I happened upon the key component of one of those options...a wooden mug holder/hanger. I have seen these in various places and remember them fondly from my childhood located on the kitchen counters of my most favorite great Aunt Mage and my GrannyNette, however I have been unable to locate one for some time now so when I saw my little treasure on the top shelf I made a B line for it and ran for the door. Below are a few before and after photos I snapped and one of it serving it's knew found purpose! Happy Tuesday!!