Beating the summer heat

As the rest of the nation prepares for fall, we here in the great state of Texas are preparing for nothing except the continued heat of the summer.

To be fair, we have seen a recent reduction in temperatures. I found myself sitting outside on our screened porch 'enjoying' the cooler temperatures last week - the highs were only in the 90's!

This weekend I took our extended summer as an opportunity to try out a sangria recipe. I love sangria but the few times I've made it, I've been less than thrilled with the results. This recipe was definitely an improvement. It gives me hope that I might master sangria! :)

Next up on the fun food items to beat the heat: honeydew cucumber margarita popsicles (maybe)!

Progress

The husband painted the dining room this past weekend. Yay!

Wanna see it?

Ok - first, here's the way it was when we bought it.

Primed here.

Now painted Behr Ashes. I really like this color - it doesn't quite come out well in the pictures b/c of lighting issues but you can get the general gist.

Of course we still have to paint the trim and stuff but its a big improvement (and it's only been 1 yr and 10 months)! :)

A little color

One of the little projects on our to-do list (from here) was updating the front door with a new coat of paint. The original door color was red (we love red) but with a slightly recessed entry way and the surrounding red brick, our front door blended into the house in a not-so-good way.

See?

We considered painting the door a brighter red but eventually decided we wanted more contrast. We picked up a few paint samples and eventually decided on a Behr color that is a mix of blue, green, and gray. It's a big change but we both love it!

BTW - painting a door is not that easy - 3 coats and a lot of attention to detail later resulted in this new color.

Oh, and Gracie was a big help when the husband needed someone to hold his shirt!

Tailgating

We got together with some friends to watch the first NC State football game this past weekend!  We won so that's good - here's hoping the season continues this way!

And I of course used it as an excuse to try some new tailgatey recipes! We made macaroni and cheese cups, blue cheese dip, jalapeno poppers and hatch chile poppers, and s'more turnovers. All were easy and so very yummy - I'm glad we have leftovers! :)

Not a great picture but you can see some of the yumminess!