Can you believe 1 year ago today Boots and Totty.com posted its very 1st blog entry! It was quite a boring entry if I do say so myself, but none the less it has gotten me where I am today!

So here is the breakdown of what B&T.com has accomplished in the past 365 Days.

{in no particular order}

1. We showcased over 18 pairs of shoes in the Shoe of the Month Club.

2. We showed how to build a raised garden, how to install an in ground sprinkler system, and how to attempt to grow grass.

3. Also showed how to collect and recycle rainwater and how to install energy efficient windows.

4. Don’t forget we also renovated our Bathroom, Basement, and Kitchen.

5. And gave face-lifts to our Guest Room, Master Bedroom, Living Room and Dining Room.

6. We also had Mr. Sanders refinish our Hardwood Floors.

7. Let’s not forget all the holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries.

8. Gave Target plenty of free publicity.

9. Gotten some free publicity ourselves.

10. And continue to search for the Best Burger in Richmond!

With a grand total of 151 posts in 35 categories, I’d say it was a pretty busy year!!  BIG THANKS to the the 16,681 visits to the site and the 352 people that published comments.

It’s a nice treat to read them and know that you guys enjoy my silly stories!

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE doughnuts?

I once had a doughnut eating contest with Mr.vB, his brother Justin and my brother Travers.  It was a long hard fought battle, but Travers and I won.  Must run in the family.

The other day I was browsing my favorite blogs and came across this image at The Newlywed Diaries.

EASY HOMEMADE DOUGHNUTS was the caption.

It stopped me dead in my tracks. Could it be true?

I put them to the test this weekend while my Mums was visiting.  Here is the play by play.

Ingredients needed:

A Can of Biscuits, Milk, Confectioner’s Sugar, Vanilla, and Shortening

As instructed by Jennifer at TND, we began by separating the biscuits and used a small cookie cutter to cut out the center of each doughnut.

We also had the oil preheating on the stove.  Jennifer said to heat it to 350 degrees, but since I don’t own a candy thermometer we used her doughnut hole testing method.  We plopped one in to make sure the oil was hot enough.

CHECK.

So it was my job to fry up the doughnuts, while Mums made the icing.

Following Jennifer’s instructions again, Mums filled a bowl with confectioner’s sugar and then added milk slowly while whisking.  I believe she also added a dash of vanilla for flavoring.

Once she had the right consistency Mums poured the icing into a shallow dish to make it easier to “dunk” each doughnut.

The end result was WAY beyond my expectations!!

This could be a bad thing, a very bad thing…

I’ve been keeping a secret from you guys.  About 2 months ago I was interviewed for an article in a local magazine called V Magazine for Women.  I didn’t want to say anything until I was for sure if was going to be published.

Well guess what?! IT’S BEEN PUBLISHED! {insert high-five here}

As soon as I heard this, I ran out and picked up the first copy I saw . As I was knocking people over grabbing for my copy, I thought the girl on the cover looked awfully familiar.

For those readers I have never met in person- THAT IS ME ON THE COVER!!

How crazy is that??  Now I knew there was going to be an article about bootsandtotty.com in the magazine, but I had NO CLUE that I was going to be the cover girl!!  I was so excited!

Click here to see the online article.  It is really good if I do say so myself!  It was written by a great writer {and family friend} named Terri Jones.  When she’s not writing about awesome blogs {oops, did I say that??}, she is a freelance marketing and editorial writer for her company called WordPlay.  {If anyone is looking for a freelance writer drop me an email and I can pass along Terri’s info to you! She’s great!}

I tried to get Boots and Bailey to pose for the photo-shoot picture, but they weren’t so keen on the photographer.  Instead they were sent outside and Milo shared the limelight with me!

I’m just kicking myself that the kitchen wasn’t {one} finished, nor {two} staged for a photo shoot!  We didn’t have a lot of options to choose from though, considering there was no furniture in the living room or dining room {due to the floor refinishing}. I was envisioning thinking that I could be sitting on the stairs with Boots and Bailey lying at my feet- yeah right.  Who was I kidding??

It’s been a very exciting week.  First we were nominated for the Best New Blog in RVA and now our first article in a magazine.  Maybe next week Martha Stewart or Nate Berkus will call and ask me for design advice. {ha-ha}

Seriously though, Mr. vB and I really appreciate all of your support!  We hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as we enjoy telling our story!  xoxo totty

Hey loyal readers!

Bootsandtotty.com has been nominated as the Best New Blog in the River City!

But, I need your help!  Please click on this link and cast YOUR vote!  {Simply click on the link and then scroll down the page until you see the green writing that says Cast Your Votes for the RVA Internet Awards Now!}

Voting is open until Feb 19th at 10pm!

Thanks for your support!

So what I love most about reading other people’s blogs are the ideas they give me… As you can see in my blog roll to the right, I have several blogs I regularly stalk because I love their style and creativity. {you should check them all out too!}

From those blogs and blogs linked to their blogs, I have a stack of {idea} printouts for bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms and more.  Each printout has a different design idea that I would like to implement around this house.  But currently these ideas are in a messy pile tucked into a manila folder and that is no way to treat fabulous ideas!!

So tonight I thought it would be good to make…

My Rosewood Ave Idea book.

Pretty Cute eh?

I took a simple photo album from Target.. Some paper from my scrapbook-ing pile..

and these fun thickers (chip board stickers)..

And Viola!

A inspiring idea book for inspiring ideas!

Richmond is having it’s 3rd snow storm in 6 weeks.  Yes you read that correctly.  The first time it’s fun and pretty, second time it’s kinda cool, third time just straight up sucks.  Let me explain..

This morning I headed over to the local Kroger to pick up a few items to sustain Mr. vB and I throughout the blizzard weekend.  The place was INSANE!!!  There were no carts left, barley any food, and CRAZY people at every turn.  I took my time, gathered my groceries, and then hunkered down in line to wait my turn at the checkout.

As I was patiently waiting my turn, I heard someone behind me ask, “Is this the express line?”  I turned and said, “no we are all in the same line.”  They responded by saying, “Actually, this is the 15 items or less line and you have 25 items in your cart.”

I think my head whipped around like the girl from the exorcist.  In my most calm voice I responded by saying, ” We are all in the same boat here.  I don’t think it matters what line you are in today.”  {Mind you EVERY line was 30 people deep}  The ladies behind me continued to be obsessed by the fact that I had an extra 10 items in my cart.  They even had the audacity to tell me I needed to get in another lane.  Really people?? I don’t think I was in the wrong for standing strong in the 15 items or less lane.  I told the ladies they could switch lanes if they were that worried about the number of groceries in my cart!!!

UGH!!!!  It took me almost all day to calm down from that nonsense!  Snow really can bring out the worst in people, can’t it??

Any-who, we had to postpone the BBURP Outing #5 tonight.  Mums couldn’t make it to town and we {Dnort, dwayne, and mae-mae} didn’t think it would be good to be out driving in this mess.

So it looks like it’s going to be another weekend stuck indoors working on the kitchen.  Which is actually a good thing.  Keep those fingers crossed that I will be able to post some finished photos during the Super Bowl.  Not literally on CBS during the game, I meant on the blog.  But you probably figured that…

{Don’t worry girls, you haven’t been replaced.}

I bought a new friend for my favorite Orchid yesterday.  Isn’t she gorgeous??

I’m thinking about naming her Dotty…

On to the weekend plans…Since it is currently pouring snow outside, I have a feeling Mr. vB and I will be spending a lot of time indoors today!

We are {hopefully} finishing up the kitchen cabinets and starting on our new breakfast nook area.  Have I mentioned this new project to you guys yet? {Imagine that- we are starting a new project before finishing others!} It will include a new tile floor, a cute eat in area with a fold down table and 2 chairs, and some extra storage space.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  I need to reveal why the Boots n the Bae weren’t allowed in the kitchen.  Wish it was something really exciting- sorry for the let down.  While Mr.vB and I were putting the fridge back into its cubby on Saturday night we put a BIG nice SCRATCH on the new floors!  I called Mr. Sanders crying, begging, asking him to come back over and work his magic.  Sure enough he did and the scratches are now gone.  But the wet polyurethane required some drying time.  Hence the reason no paws were allowed in the kitchen.

All-right- Happy snow day everyone!  I can hear Mr. vB upstairs starting on the kitchen cabinets.. gotta run!

A normal Sunday for Mr. vB and I includes me waking up first, starting the coffee maker, and feeding the kiddo’s. (Boots, Bailey and Milo)  Once my coffee is ready I sit on the couch and catch up on my favorite blogs until Mr. vB wakes up. {which could be anywhere from 9:30 to 11 o’clock.. sometimes I have to make a little extra noise downstairs to get him moving! Luv You Hon!}

BUT this Sunday morning we shook things up abit!  Mr. vB and I have been trying to change up our workout routine and we have always said we wanted to try a Yoga class.  Well I mentioned this to my friend/neighbor, Karen, who is a Yogi and teaches over at Yoga Source in Carytown. She suggested that we come try out her Sunday morning class.  I mentioned this to Mr. vB and surprisingly he was down for it, even though it meant waking up early on a Sunday! {yes- Sunday at 9am is still early to my husband!}

So off to Yoga Source Mr.vB and I went this morning.  And an hour and a half later we emerged from the studio feeling awesome.  The class we took was called Slow Flow Vinyasa and it kicked our butts!  It was definitely a bit of a challenge since neither me nor Mr. vB had any clue of the poses that Karen was talking about, but she helped us to get each just right!

**Side-note- I have always been the type of exerciser that thought you had to SWEAT BUCKETS to get a true workout, but boy was I wrong.  Mr. vB and I used muscles this morning that we didn’t even know existed.  At one point I even looked over at Mr. vB and he WAS sweating buckets!  We are sure to be so sore in the morning!**

I was so impressed by Karen’s teachings that when I was suppose to be clearing my mind of all thoughts, all I could think about was how I was going to write this post!!  For anyone looking for a great Yoga class/instructor YOU HAVE GOT to try out Karen’s class.  She teaches multiple classes during the week over at Yoga Source, and she also does private sessions.  Karen even has a once a month Yoga session at a cool loft downtown called “Last Friday’s”.  Check out her website for the full scoop! www.yogawabisabi.com.

So I woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday morning. 

{Thanks to a little intestinal bug that Boots had- ‘nough said}

I couldn’t shake the bad mood all day.  Thankfully this morning I had no surprises waiting for me.

Except for this..

Take that Mr. vB for saying I don’t have a green thumb!

I received this orchid from my buddy Adrienne back in September.  It was in full bloom for about 2 months and then lost all its flowers.  BUT, with a little TLC from MOI, it is flowering again!

I’m feeling better already…

Mr. vB and I rang in the New Year with our good buddies, the Bashams, down in Raleigh. {You can check out Joettte’s own blog here.} Prior to us leaving town, you might remember me mentioning that Mr.vB had been on vacation and he was up to some renovations in the basement.

His allergies have been going haywire lately and we thought it might have something to do with him spending so much time down in the unfinished basement. {His office and music studio are down there.}  We originally used carpet tiles to hide the ugly cement floor because we could get them all for FREE!  4 years later, the tiles have accumulated tons of dust and pet hair, but more importantly condensation is starting to collect underneath them. It’s not their fault {the carpet tiles}, it’s ours, as we apparently did not seal the concrete floor properly the first time!  I had a mold and moisture guy stop in a few weeks ago and luckily we had no mold, but he did recommend removing the tiles and resealing the floor with a resin based product.  We also thought this would be a good time to ditch the carpet tiles and see if it helped Mr. vB’s allergies.

So last week our Basement looked a little something like this.. {I’m totally embarrassed showing this to you guys.  Our Basement had turned into a total catastrophe!!}

As of last night it looked like this..

Pretty Amazing Transformation, eh?

I am currently working on a post with the full step by step details on how we accomplished it all.

Our next step down here will be to drywall the ceiling and the remaining cinder-block walls.  But that will be after we finish dealing with the floors upstairs.  Remember me mentioning that little project too?  Our entire first floor is about to get a little face lift of it’s own!!