Before and After: Dinning Room

Greetings! We've been in our house for a little over a year now and I thought it would be fun to post some "before and after" pictures of the interior! So let's start with the formal dining area. I considered this space difficult since it is an open area to the formal sitting area.

Here is a picture of when we first moved in: red-ish orange accent wall, small black chandelier

The red/orange paint was the first to go. Originally I painted the wall beige, but currently I am living with a rose wall. Hubby isnt crazy about it. So we will see how long it lasts. Also replaced the chandelier with the Currey and Company Crystal Lights Large Gold Chandelier. Table is from a local shop, and chairs are Martine Collection from Restoration.

I painted the old chandelier, added crystals and lamp shades, and dropped into our entry way. Much better fit here!

We also purchased a fabulous bar from Pottery barn!

Holidays

Make a Smilebox greeting

England Photobook!

Had a fantastic time with Cori and her Mom in the UK! Swindon was lovely. Everyone was so polite and the city is so cute! London took me a little by surprised ~ pretty clean city and very metropolitan ;) I loved it! Special thanks to Cori for being a great host.

Click here to view this photo book larger

To see all 500 pictures from Cori, her mom, and my camera: check out http://picasaweb.google.com/raechel.frick/England#

Summer

Holy cow summer is FLYING by! We are having a great time with Frank and Lucy, our new puppies ~ including experiencing new dog friendly spots in Raleigh. It does make me very sad that we cannot easily travel with them and cannot introduce them to everyone! So come visit NC :)

This weekend is great so far... lots of relaxing, beer drinking, ran in the park this morning (Dave = 9 miles, Rae = 5 miles) , then ran around the local park with the dogs. Weather is hot, but not nearly as humid as last summer (thank goodness!)

We did try to see The Time Travelers Wife last night, but it was SOLD OUT! :( We will try again on the 18th in celebration of 4 months married life.

Hope everyone is having a great summer. :) xoxox

PS: I added a calendar to the bottom of our blog

Race for a cure

This weekend is Raleigh's own Race for a Cure ~ 5k walk in support of Breast Cancer awareness. Dave and I are both registered and need to raise $150 each :) I am really looking forward to wearing pink! And to see David in pink!!! I do wish I could bring the puppies with us; I have cute pink bandanas for them, but they will most likely wait for us at home.

Links to donate to the cause:
Raechel: http://race.komennctriangle.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1621465&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

David: http://race.komennctriangle.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1621506&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

Pink Martini

Pink Martini is a band from Portland, Oregon. They played pretty frequently when I was living there, but I never had the chance to see them... and we finally saw them here in Raleigh last night. The show was at the local Art Museum ~ we assumed indoors, but we assumed wrong. Dressed to impress, we showed up in heals and without lawn chairs. There happened to be a couple rows of "bleachers" right in front, so we played dumb and sat there. (our tickets said "grass") We ended up sitting next to an old friend of the lead singer, China Forbes. We learned a lot about China and the bands history. The music is amazing. I recommend everyone listen to a couple tracks. Last night, they played a variety of songs. From Hey Eugene, a pretty funny song China wrote after she gave her # to a guy and he never called, to Kikuchiyo to Mohshimasu, this beautiful song in japenese about a geisha who disappears in the fog... You can view our pictures from last night in my picasa album

China just released her first solo album. You can listen the the interview and a couple tracks here.

Today will be a lazy Sunday, our favorite type of Sunday. This afternoon the Mercado's are hosting a BBQ to kick off the SUMMER! And then we will sneak out early for the Banana Republic fashion show. :)

And if you want to view the pictures that Dajuan took of Dave and I this last week, go to: http://www.dajuanjones.com/storefront.html, click on our names and use the password "pink"

Great day

Dave and I celebrate 2 years together today ~ pretty exciting. We first celebrated last night, by having a romantic dinner for 2 at Bin54 ~ the restaurant Dave took me for our first date, June 4th, 2007. Today was a normal day at work (with Dave back in the office, yay!) I left the office a little bit early to swing by the DMV before closing. I am officially Mary Raechel Frick! Wow. Dave met me at home, then we went to Dajuan's house for a portrait session. Dajuan is donating proceeds this week to the American Diabetics Association. You can read more about Dajuan and his fundraiser on his blog: http://www.dajuanjones.com/blog/ The pictures look great from what we can tell. I cant wait to share.

Currently listening on the new Dave Matthews Band album via pandora. Pretty cool that we can sample the whole album before it releases! Check it out: Pandora Radio - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music