Our Weekend With Eddie & Jaithan

We all know how good of an incentive having guests can be for getting house projects done... Well, Eddie & Jaithan coming to visit was the incentive of incentives!!! Dave & I basically agreed that this would be our deadline to "finish" the house. (We have so many more projects to do & we all know you're never really "done" but we did get to most major things.) I can't tell you how good it feels to be "done" (mostly) and to be able to share it with friends who know & understand what kind of hardwork/ creativity / rear-busting it took to get it done. Eddie & Jaithan couldn't have been sweeter when we took them around our house & proudly showed off our (Dave's) handiwork...


We all met about a year ago at the very first flea market tour they did when there less than 10 of us. We hit it off instantly (and I totally frightened Jaithan as he reminded me that within 5 minute of meeting him at the flea market I told him I had a dream we'd met & were friends.. hahaha Can you say low self-monitor???!) and it's just so nice to know such thoughtful, creative, fun people. (you know how great this blogworld is!! :)

Saturday morning I went to the Big DC Flea and got to see the end of Eddie's tour & was wowed again by all the valuable info & tips Eddie shared with the group. It's really developed into a fleamarketing class... where you learn to see things the way Eddie does... you see things for what they could be not for what they are. I also got to see a bunch of the bloggers from the party the night before & here's a pic that the lovely Leila from In the Tweeds sent me of us:

I also got really attached to this beautiful oil painting that I couldn't afford... The pic just doesn't do it justice. Maybe it was pregnancy hormones but I loved it so much that looking at it made me teary! hahaha I love that it's a young mother & baby... One day we'll collect art...


After the flea market we went out to eat with my friends Amy & Greg (the ones who helped so much with our garden/ yard!!) and E & J and their good friend Caroline who was a neighbor at their apartment in the city. Yummy bbq but I have no pics!



Then, we headed into Georgetown to take Caroline to her mother's (gorgeous!!) townhome. On the way we made a stop at one of my favorite thrift stores, UNIQUE in Falls Church and had quite an adventure there that deserves a post of its own one day! When we finally got back to our place, Dave was waiting and did a really casual antipasto of salami, prosciutto, sopressata, peppers, cheeses & apples along with a apple cider & prosecco... (Actually Eddie helped Dave put it together... Jaithan & I SAT. :) Sitting felt so good at this point and it was really sweet of Eddie to handle it. ahhhhh He is such a whiz and in two minutes flat layed it all out perfectly. Should we have even been surprised???



Then we just hung out all night & relaxed & of course had a blast. (You can't not have fun with them.) Since I forgot to take pics the afternoon before (shocker!) I remembered int he morning & here is Dave making some bacon & eggs for breakfast:



And here's some pics of the table... Eddie's pics are so much better so hopefully he will post. He made out super-easy breakfast look like a magazine spread!!! These are my Grandma Maestranzi's "wild clover" china:



Some pretty bread with my dad's knife from his company, Illinois Cutlery Works:



And I had to take a pic of the beautiful little silver ladle they got for me at the silver flea market. When I first arrived at the flea market Eddie asked me what I was looking for and I said a pretty ladle (I only have the big rubber-handled kind) and a little while later he handed me a ladle! They're both just so generous & thoughtful and when we got home Eddie showed me how to polish it with toothpaste! (I don't own silver polish- but after seeing how quickly polishing transformed the ladle, it's something I could get into... )




And here's everyone at the breakfast table... How did that Dole OJ container get on there?!!! oops! ;)





And one last pic before they had to leave for another day of flea marketing... (You can tell it's AM by my eyes-eesh! ;)




We had such a fun weekend & enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home on Sunday. It was even warm enough for Christian to take a romp through the sprinkler:

I can't tell you how great it feels to have had such a fun weekend with awesome friends & to be "done" with our house. (besides little projects) Both Dave & I just have this awesome feeling of accomplishment about the house and have already started to relax & enjoy Fall. (as much as people like us relax ;) thanks to everyone we met for an awesome weekend & of course to Eddie & Jaithan for letting us steal you for a day!

xoxox,

lauren

ps- I'll be posting pics of the house asap. Eddie took some too & his are WAY better so be sure to keep your eyes peeled on his blog!