Mayfaire Town Center wins "Best Shopping Center"

And another one bits the dust, JK (sort of).
I am so excited that Mayfaire won "Best Shopping Center" by Encore Publications for the Cape Fear Area! Once a year, Encore magazine publishes a "Best of" issue by readers choice. Readers go online and vote "best" for numerous categories such as: restaurant, retailer, spa, pizza, beer, tourist spot, etc for the Wilmington Area. Mayfaire beat out Lumina Station, The Forum, Landfall Shopping Center, Hanover Center and of course...the Independence Mall!
This is my second year with this award and honestly, the best part is the awards ceremony! Encore holds the awards ceremony downtown at Level 5 City Stage and boy is it a show! I was fortunate to miss the preview show 2 years ago featuring "The Full Monty" and from what I heard... it certainly was. The Encore Awards' host & presenters are local comedians and actors. They are hilarious and really make this event extremely entertaining.
Now, this isn't a Golden Globes ceremony by any means, but it certainly takes as long as the Golden Globes, with over 100 categories! Luckily, Mayfaire was within the first 20. Normally I have no fears with public speaking, but the city stage actors are on a hunt to embarrass almost everyone who goes up on stage to accept their award.... all for a good laugh. And this intimidates the heck out me! Luckily, they only ranted me about Mayfaire Gift Cards, so I got off pretty easy.
So all in all, it was a great night hanging out with Wilmington's best.

Why Dads are so great!

Derek purchased his first house in November of 2008 and we have been updating it little by little ever since we moved in. From new kitchen appliances, interior paint, a full exterior paint job and a new roof, we are having a blast with all our home improvement jobs.
Next on the home improvement agenda was the fireplace. When we moved in, there was black tar like glue all above the fireplace with no mantel and an unfinished hearth. What a job it was for Derek to remove it with a scrapper and liquid "gook-be-gone" ... leaving the house smelling of a combination between rotten eggs and gasoline. Just a horrible smell!
But after that, it didn't take long to sand the walls down & re-paint above the fireplace. Unfortunately, it stayed that way for several months. But not anymore!!! We finally finished the fireplace this past weekend by calling in the forces of my Dad and step mom, Jackie (queen of fireplaces) on Sunday.
But for us, the hard part was actually deciding on tile that we both liked, and then creating the design. I think the design work is by far the hardest part!
I knew without a doubt I wanted mosaic tile along the outside of the fireplace, but couldn't decide on the hearth. We visited the famous Home Depot probably 6 times (yes a few of the employees, including the manager, knew me by name by the end of the weekend).
I am all vision and Derek is all numbers, so it was the perfect combination when designing. We had a tough time deciding between two hearth designs, but in the end we chose the bordered mosaic design. Friday and Saturday consisted of cutting the mosaic tiles, hammering them up on the wall around the fireplace and laying out the design. Once all decisions were made it was time to lay down the mortar and set the tile. We were exhausted Saturday evening (mentally and physically), but good friends and a few beers certainly lifted our spirits!
Dad & Jackie came in on Sunday with every tool you could possibly think of and basically handcrafted the mantel framing from scratch. They not only built the mantel, helped us grout the tile, & hung our flat screen TV above the fireplace... they fixed our guest bedroom window, painted our kitchen ceiling and made us dinner.
Wow!!! That's all I could say. Well, that and... "I am so glad I don't have to live through Derek and I trying to do all this". Major props to Dad and Jackie! We worked you guys hard and we are very thankful for your helping hands and home improvement knowledge.
We have a few more things to do, like repaint the mantel and add the bottom trim around the skirt of the hearth, but for right now, we are loving our new living room!