Winery Weekend

When I was married, my husband and I did not take any fun trips together. We did not have a honeymoon and the only times we got out of town was to spend a holiday weekend with my parents at the beach or to crash at a hotel for a computer geek conference (note: the husband would go to the conference and I would go sight-seeing/shopping by myself). During the last year and a half when I was dealing with the separation, divorce, short sale of the house, finances, etc. it was hard to imagine when (if ever) I'd be able to get away for a trip or vacation.

My boyfriend and I have been dating for over a year now and we've been having "talks" about our future together: moving in together, buying a house, marriage, kids, etc. One thing we agreed on was the want and need of taking overnight trips/vacations together. We both agreed that we had reached that stage and it was a lot of fun to plan this trip. Originally we were going to Atlantic City, New Jersey but trying to find a reasonably priced hotel room online was difficult. Same thing for the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He came up with the idea of Richmond, Virginia and at first I was a little put off by it. Richmond is not exactly a vacation spot in my mind, but it turned out to be the perfect little getaway for us.

We found an AMAZING deal on a 4 star hotel room in Glen Allen, VA (a suburb of Richmond) for $60/night! The hotel was beautiful! I've never stayed at anything like it before. It had a country club feel to it--located next to a golf course, sprawling property on top of a hill, and lots of upscale amenities. I have to give my boyfriend the credit for finding this place. He is my savvy shopper!

When we arrived in Richmond on Saturday, the first thing we did was visit the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. Since I'm an English teacher, this was a must-see attraction on our visit. It was a cute place and while I couldn't take pics of the exhibit, I did snap some pics of the garden and outside of the building.






Next stop was lunch at Buz and Ned's Barbeque restaurant. If you like the red-sauce kind of bbq, this is the place to go! I really enjoyed the down-home atmosphere of this place. It's like a little slice of country in the big city.


We still had time before check-in at the hotel, so we drove up to Glen Allen to James River Cellars Winery. They were having their summer open house for the July 4th weekend so the tasting fee was WAIVED. Woo hoo!

At this point, we were only planning on visiting 2 wineries and I have a 6 bottle wine rack at home. So I was thinking I'd buy 3 bottles from this winery and 3 from the other we would visit the next day. I walked out of there with bottles of Vidal Blanc, Hanover, and Chardonnay.

Next we checked in to the hotel and crashed for a bit. I went for a swim at the hotel's pool while my boyfriend watched TV in the room. Later on we got cleaned up, went out for dinner, and then saw Transformers 4 at the nearby movie theater.

On Sunday, we went for breakfast at Panera and planned out the rest of the day. We did have an plan drafted but I left the paper in the room...oops! One thing I wanted to do was go to the other nearby winery. While we were looking at the winery map for the state, we noticed there were a few wineries a short drive away. So any plans we had for visiting museums, walking around Richmond, etc. went out the door when we saw 4 nearby wineries on the map.

The first winery, Cooper, is a new "green" facility with a beautiful tasting room and deck overlooking the vineyards. When we got there, the "plan" was to just buy one bottle at each of the wineries (and maybe even not buy any at one) to fill the remaining 3 slots on my wine rack. Whoops! I walked out of Cooper with a bottle of Chardonnay (my boyfriend's favorite) and a bottle of Noche (has hints of chocolate in it). Here are some pics of the winery:

Next, we went to Windsong Winery. We had to go down a LONG gravel road to get there, but it was cute. It wasn't exactly my favorite tasting. They were out of the best wine we tasted, so I was able to get out of there with just one bottle! It's called Dornfelder.
After Windsong, we drove over to Byrd Winery and that was our favorite of the day! All of their wines were great and my boyfriend even liked one of their red wines (he's a hard core white wine fan). Of course that meant we had to get 2 of that wine (Apple Concord) and I also bought another red wine (Raven Red...named after Edgar Allan Poe). The tasting was great and the owners are wonderful. Our favorite part of the winery was the sprawling backyard that overlooked the mountains. Check out these pics:
Our last winery for the day was Grayhaven and we were not that impressed. First, they were all out of their white wines. Second, there were flies buzzing all around. Third, the wines, although made of South African grapes grown in the Virginia mountains, were overpriced in our opinion. Byrd, by the way, was VERY affordable. Still, I did purchase a bottle of their Sojourn red which goes well with BBQ apparently.

On Monday, we packed up and checked out of our hotel and drove back home. We stopped in New Kent County to check out Saude Vineyard. According to the Virginia Winery map, it was supposed to be open this past spring. We drove up and saw construction trucks and materials lying around. The owner was there and gave us a tour of the almost-finished building. They are opening later this month and we received an invitation for a free tasting. We're really excited about that. One thing that did get my attention is when the owner told us that they can host events at their winery and my boyfriend later mentioned that it would be a cool place for us to get married. EEK! Yes, we've talked about marriage before, but it was just nice to hear him talk more assertively about our future :)

The last stop on our weekend getaway was the Colonial Downs racetrack. We had a lot of fun placing our super-fecta 10 cent bets on races 1-9. We were only off by one number to win the last race. Boo! Oh well, better luck next time right?

The favorite part of my weekend was coming home and loading up the wine rack. Look at that beauty!

Gardening...Apartment Style

When I was married and lived in a house with DH, one of the first things he did was plant a garden. Never mind we had lots of indoor projects to do to make the place livable--he was going to fulfill his dreams of suburban life by planting a garden. Now this garden was small--I would estimate 6 feet long and about 3 feet wide--but he found it necessary to BUY a tiller and other tools for this garden. In my opinion, it was too much too soon.

Now that I'm living in an apartment, gardening was the last thing on my mind. About 2 weeks ago, my boyfriend and I were over at his mom's house where she's planting a HUGE garden. Seriously, that thing takes up half her backyard. She gave me two tomato plants which was really sweet for her to do. Fortunately, I didn't have to think how I was going to take care of these two plants. The BF and I went out to Target, got some small planters and some Miracle-Gro. I was amazed at how fast those babies grew in just a week! This past weekend we went to Walmart for some larger planters, stakes, cages, and moisture-control Miracle-Gro. Here are a few pics of the tomato plant progress:

In that last picture you can see the large planters. So what did we do with the small planters? Started an herb garden! Last weekend we also picked up some basil and cilantro. I can't wait to pluck some herbs and get cooking! Mmmm....garden fresh salsa! My mouth is watering already!
Finally, I needed some decoration to tie the space together. While I was at Walmart this weekend, I found this garden sign that I absolutely love. The brown/blue combo works perfectly with the gray blue color of the deck. I also like the sign's message--"Delight in the beauty that surrounds you"--I have so much in my life to take joy in but sometimes I just need a little reminder. I'm looking forward to enjoying my outdoor space this spring and summer!

Spring Cleaning: Office Organization

"A place for everything and everything in its place"--that is easier said than done when living in a one bedroom apartment. I was using my dining room as part eating space, part office space; however, the office space was slowing taking over the table and spreading to the top of the liquor cabinet. In the bedroom, my half accessories station/half office station on an old bookcase was just stressing me out. It is one of the first things I see when I wake up in the morning--talk about depressing! Thank goodness for Spring Break when I have large chunks of time I can dedicate to tackling these spaces.

DINING ROOM BEFORE:
Looks like something that should be on the TV show "Hoarders." With a stack at both ends of the table, it made for some interesting dining experiences.

LIQUOR CABINET BEFORE:
All of the stuff on the liquor cabinet is overflow from the dining room table. As I was standing taking this picture, the dining room table is behind me, so that means there is a narrow walkway between the two. I got tired of feeling crowded by stuff.

BEDROOM OFFICE SPACE BEFORE:

When I moved into the apartment, it was obvious that this little bookcase wasn't going to hold all my books, so I bought a bigger bookcase which is to the left of my bed. I decided to use this little one as an office center, but with no organizational plan in place, it quickly became a catch-all corner. This is one of the first things I see when I wake up in the morning and having to look at the chaos one more day was too much.

I started in the bedroom with the bookcase and went from top to bottom. First, the jewelry box. I purged old pieces and realized I had an earring problem. Too many pieces, no organization, so I grouped them according to color--gold, silver, etc. I also got rid of the pieces of cardboard the earrings come on from the store which were cluttering the top of the bookcase. The new space also allows me to display some of my favorite knick-knacks, 3 of which are from my beloved Nana.

Next, the first shelf. I decided to put my office supplies here so they'll be within easy reach. On the far left I have a "Real Simple" desktop organizer that holds my mailing supplies: stamps, address labels, envelopes, checkbook, as well as some extra pens, tape, and hole puncher. Then I have my Virginia Tech cup filled with pens, markers, and highlighters. Next to that I have a Ball glass charge for my change that I empty here from my purse. On the far right side I have a battery-operated pencil sharpener, a plastic apple filled with paperclips, push pins, and staples. The pencil sharpener is sitting on top of a notecard file box and the apple is sitting on top of my old and new check boxes.

Moving along to the next shelf--papers and files! On the far left is a notebook, blank notebooks (I ripped out the old pages--talk about therapeutic!) as well as some notebooks that I use for some of my church work. My pride and joy on this shelf is the filebox for all my papers. I wrote about this box earlier on this blog and it's something I take great pride in organizing. Next I have brown basket that used to hold my incoming mail. I might put that back out on my dining room table, but for right now it's sitting EMPTY on this shelf. Below that I took the extra empty box from my bathroom organization and put my leftover office supplies such as post-its, calculator, printer ink cartridges, and tape.
Last shelf is my least used, but still important stuff. While I was working on this space, I ended up with an empty basket but it was perfect for extra paper, blank journals, and...phone books. I realize that we live in the Information Age and phone books are somewhat obsolete, but I'm old-school so it's nice to have them around--just in case! Next I have an empty caboodle. Do you remember caboodles from the 90s? Yep, I still have mine after all these years. I've used it for various things over time, but for now it's just sitting on the bottom shelf, waiting for its next organizational transformation.
It only took a few hours, but in the end, I had emptied 2 boxes full of stuff, filled a trash bag, and gained 3 organized and beautiful spaces:

DINING ROOM TABLE AFTER

LIQUOR CABINET AFTER

BEDROOM OFFICE SPACE AFTER

Cutting Expenses: The Final Update

Happy Tax Day! For some people, those 3 words don't go together, but in my case they do. So much of this past year has centered around numbers and the bottom line. I'm so happy that 2010 is really over and that I can move on. The number one issue that I was concerned about was the tax consequences of my house's short sale. There was no way I was going to use Turbo Tax this year. Paying $$$ for a CPA to do my taxes properly was so worth it. On Saturday I signed the papers to process my return electronically and I should be receiving my $700+ federal tax return soon. I owed $39 on my state return, but I'm so happy that I didn't owe more on any of my returns. All this time I was worried about the short sale and how it would affect my taxes. Fortunately, the federal government isn't going after the "forgiven debt" of short sales now and it helps that I settled the leftover debt from the 20 mortgage company by the end of 2010.

So here's the breakdown
1. $700+ tax return will be applied to my $65 monthly rent increase
2. $68.76 savings after downsizing my cell phone/cable/Internet plans will go to....savings! (duh)
3. My extra summer pay will also go to savings (I'm on a 12 month pay plan as a teacher and I get paid a little extra during the off months)
4. Any summer salaries I earn will go to savings as well.
5. Insurance pay out for my November 2010 car accident (after the lawyers get paid) will also be applied to savings.

I'm really not sure how much 3-5 will get me, but whatever the final total is will be a blessing. In addition to building up my savings and fully funding my Roth IRA, I plan on using the money for a down payment on a house. More about that as the months go on!

Spring Cleaning: Bathroom Organization

I have lived in my apartment for a year now and there are still some areas where I haven't set up an effective organization system. One of those areas is the bathroom. When I moved in, I just shoved the ABC store boxes under my sink and told myself, "I'll get to that later."




So after living with liquor store boxes under my bathroom vanity, I decide it was time to purge, get organized, and ultimately save time on my morning beauty routine. First, I did an Internet search for "how to organize a bathroom." Hey, when you don't know or want a clear-cut, step-by-step process, just Google it. I used this link, copy and pasted the steps into a word document, printed out the information, and taped it to my bathroom mirror. I found this really helpful for keeping me on track as I worked on this room.


Next, I took everything out of the drawers, cabinets, and my medicine cabinet. Talk about overwhelming! I had no idea I had all that stuff in the bathroom.

I started by tossing out old medicines and then started grouping things according to categories. After a few minutes of getting the piles down to a more manageable size, I made a not-so-quick run to Target for some storage solutions. I bought 2 drawer organizers, 2 clear shoe storage bins (6 quart size) with snap latch lids, and a rolling pull out drawer. Once I got back home, I was ready to put everything together. The drawer on the right has my make up and hair tools.

The drawer on the left is a semi-organized collection of leftover toiletries that I'll pull from when supplies get low.

Underneath the vanity are 3 sections. On the left, cat litter clean up supplies which makes sense for this space because the litter box is in my bathroom. Ahh! Apartment living! In the middle, I have the rolling pull out drawer with miscellaneous health and beauty things (i.e. feminine products, shaving cream, razors, first aid kit) in the front and lesser-used products (i.e. rubbing alcohol) in the back. On the right, I put my 2 clear 6 quart boxes. I used one for all my Bed Bath and Beyond products (soap, bath gels, lotion, spray, antibacterial gel) and the other one is currently empty, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it in the near future!

I love how everything turned out! The bathroom has such a calm vibe to it and I can't wait to get ready tomorrow in my new space.
Ahhhh! A little organization goes a long way!

The Spring Wreath: A Quest

Every season, it happens. I get antsy, want to change up my decor, and then realize I don't have sufficient funds to do what I really want to do. I also feel hindered by the fact that I live in an apartment and don't want to buy too much because a) don't have enough room to store it and b) what works in the apartment may not work later in a house. So, a wreath is an easy, safe, and affordable option to sprucing up the place AND (temporarily) satisfying my decorating urges.

Finding a spring wreath was difficult because most of them were way too expensive and/or cartoon-y. Yes, I understand that spring=Easter in mos
t circles, but I've never been one to do the whole Easter bunny and eggs decor. I want to be able to keep a spring wreath up until Memorial Day without the whole bunnies and chicks vibe. So, when I went out to the stores, I had to turn down about 50% of what I saw because it just wouldn't work. Also, I didn't feel like paying $30 or more.

I went all over town ignoring the voices inside my head that were saying "Go to Target!" Last week I finally found it...in Target. I love it! It's the perfect blend of spring, whimsy, and a bunny. What? Yes, a bunny (I caved a little bit). Specifically, the Trix cereal bunny. Doesn't it look like Trix cereal? I think so. I also love how it has white wicker/grapevine on the back. Which matches perfectly with the wicker table I also have out on the deck.

Ahh. The little things. Now on to spring cleaning and organizing!

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

So many things are coming to an end in my life, and I'm okay with that! On Wednesday, I was released from chiropractic treatment and today I was released from treatment by my physician for my car accident. I'm healed! It's a miracle! Now my lawyers can move forward with settling with the insurance company. I also talked with a CPA today about the short sale on my house and taxes. The whole taxes/real estate/divorce thing makes my head spin, but the CPA put me more at ease. I can't wait to have it all finished with (hopefully) a nice refund in my bank account.

Filing my taxes also symbolizes the end of my relationship with the ex-husband. Can it really be over? Hard to believe that "everything works out for the best" like my grandmother would say. I feel like I'm finally moving in the right direction.