Upcycled wine

You might remember from my first blog where I posted about the process creating our wedding centerpieces. If not, in a nutshell we:

- collected a TON of empty wine bottles from local restaurants

(most of which were donated from Cali D and my awesome MOH)

- de-labled close to 50 bottles

- cut the bottoms out of each bottle

Cutting bottles is alot harder than it sounds and what YouTube tutorials might show! You need to be extremely patient and slow so the cuts are perfect and your bottle still stands without its bottom. And sometimes imperfect breaks happen even after the perfect cut and all your efforts are for not...

In which case I hope you have a full bottle of wine nearby

In the end, it was totally worth it!

Bottles were clustered into groups of 5 to give a warm look throughout our venue

So what do you do with 50 empty, bottomless wine bottles?

UPCYCLE!!

I have seen hanging lanterns before and decided how can I make mine different? 

(before)

(after)

Bingo! Monogram them! They can be left standing like at our wedding, or hanging like the one above.

We also incorporated around 1,000 corks in decor. 

...including a cork backdrop for our cake

*squeal*

And filling a dozen vase-within-a-vase with corks

So what do you do with thousands of corks after your cork backdrop is destroyed in 1/1000 the time it took to create it?

A monogram, of course! 

Haven't decided if I want to keep this either free standing or create a muscadine vine wreath with this hanging in the center. Who knows, maybe both!

If there's enough interest in the engraved wine bottles or the monogram cork letters, I just might open up an Etsy shop. Think I should??

First race of the year!

Half the fun of running and racing, for me, is actually the day before the race! I love the ritual of making sure I'm eating healthy for lunch, drinking plenty of water, putting my clothes together for the next morning (cus who doesn't love cute running gear?!), and carb loading the night before the race. A great excuse to eat tons of pasta and bread! I get a high each time I go to packet pick-up. It's kinda weird.

I guess it's the buzzing atmosphere of excited athletes and the surge of "I am woman, hear me roar" mentality that makes the night before the race almost as exciting as race day. Race morning, no matter if it's a triathlon, a 10k, or just a 5k, always goes the same. Water + peanut butter bagle + Gu 15 min. before race. It's never failed me and I've never "hit a wall" during a race.

The Charleston marathon was a 1st for me, and I participated in the Shrimp and Grits 5k with a coworker. She trains with a group of gals called "Black Girls Run." It's a national group of women who train and run together, raising awareness for African American women who struggle with rising obesity. They motivate each other in a way I found so moving on the day of the race. 

"No one left behind." - A snapshot of this amazing group in Sunday's Post & Courier

Latoya and I post race with our fancy new medals

I didn't set a PR, but for the first race of the year, I think it's a great start!

2 weeks in and already movin

We are two weeks into our countdown and we've already started marking things off our list! I've been a bit slack in running..and biking for that matter. I have only run once, and biked once. And goal is to bike once a week and run twice, so I've got some catching up to do!

Last week, we received an unmarked package from Germany. A 16 x 20 puzzle. Of us! It was kinda weird, it was a wedding picture. And only a few people had access to this particular photo as it was the one 

we used for our Christmas cards...

But we later learned it was from Stephen's mom. So in about 5 days of working together at night, 

we were able to finish our puzzle and it looks great!

We've also made a few additions to our beer and wine list.

AND I've signed up for not one, not two, but three races. The first one is part of the 

Charleston marathon series, held January 18th. Proceeds go to the Youth Endowment for the Arts (YEA)...This non profit group assists Charleston County schools fund art programs.

The Charleston marathon also has a half marathon and a 5k aka the "Shrimp and Grits" run.

Free beer, a warm bowl of shrimp and grits at the finish line, and helping students who could really benefit from music and art programs in their schools? Sold!

The second one I signed up for that's not til late March is Color me Rad.

OK, OK. So it's not the original Color Run but I ran the Color Run with a group of friends back in November. 

Before

After

Didn't wear the t-shirt since it was freezing, so I just might wear my Color Run shirt to Color me Rad just out of spite haha. I mean c'mon...ya sign up for a race that sole purpose is to become doused with color, and you give everyone a black shirt?! Lame. But it's cool, I'll be with my cousin from CO who will be in town to run the third race with me.....

The Cooper River Bridge Run! It'll be my 4th year doing this, and I've done each one with Stephen. So luckily he won't be in LA then and we can do this one together :-) 

Wish me luck this weekend as I run my first 5k since last May.

oops

Happy New Year! Here's to the first 500 days!

Today is the kick-off!

I finished my 99 list and given the new year and my new marital status, Stephen and I are starting our next 99 list together as a couple! There were many goals on my list I did not accomplish last go 'round, and I attribute that to my awesome ability to procrastinate. So with a more strict deadline of just 500 days, we're hoping to get a few more crossed of the list.

And..ok, technically we have been married for exactly one month today, but the last month has been SUCH a non stop whirlwind we've hardly had time to be by ourselves as husband and wife (except for our honeymoon....which was awesome). We had one day of rest after our wedding December 1st, before flying to Mexico for a week and staying at Forbe's rated "Most Romantic resort in the world" El Dorado Seaside Suites. We can attest. It was quite romantic! After the honeymoon, Stephen had to work a rotation in Louisiana, then we immediately spent the next week in Maryland, now here we are. Finally back home. Together.....at least for the next 2 weeks!

Thank you everyone for the suggestions thus far on our list of goals. But if you'll look at The List, you'll see we're still looking for just ONE more suggestion on #77 (and for family who read this, we need your input for #78!)

We are all ears :-)

Stay tuned!!

January 1st, 2013 is the kick off day!  

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