5 Years Ago...

This handsome man and I decided we would date!!!

It was all set in motion a week or so before that fateful day. He came in to visit his friend, Leslie, at work. Lucky for me Leslie was a mutual friend that I also happened to be working with that night. I was complaining that I needed a new love interest as the boy that currently had my attention was not as interested in me as I was in him. So he invited me out with his friends to see a comedy show the next week. He said "There are some great guys in the group, you'll find someone". 

Cue one week later, I'm out for a birthday dinner with my college bestie and had to leave early cause "some guy from Glory Days said I'd like his friends". I showed up to the comedy show and there he was offering me a chair and a drink immediately. Everyone was heading across the street to another bar with the comedians from the show, so I went with them. My gracious host and I ended up at a table by ourselves chatting it up for hours. When we were heading out for the night, we ended the night with a hug and he made the comment "we fit". 

The next day, I went into work thinking about my new crush. I gave Leslie a call to let her know we had hit it off, and asked if it would be weird if I pursued this crush (they had a brief stint dating but decided they would be better off as friends). She gave me the go ahead, phew.

I never did get to meet any of his friends. We ended up talking on the phone that night for about 7 hours. We'll call that Day One. 

Exactly three and a half years after that we would marry.

Photo Credits: 

First picture from our Engagement shoot with The Blonde Photographer 

Wedding picture courtesy of James Berglie

I Made It! Birthday Banner

So enough daydreaming about a house I don't have and wishing for things to just happen. It's time to actually do something! I'm starting a weekly series called I Made It! It will feature the current projects I'm working on around the house. I'm trying to ignite my creativity and try my hand at DIY projects.

My first project was a fairly simple one. My nephew is turning one in about two weeks. I wanted to make a birthday banner for him. It had to be something that can be stored easily and used for both of the boys. The older brother has his birthday out of town every year since it falls the week our family is in Barbados each year, so I wanted something that could be packed up small.

I've been loving the circle and flag paper banners that I've been seeing since wedding planning. Something like this is what I had in mind for my inspiration:

(From Martha Stewart Weddings)

I headed over to Michael's to pick up letter stencils and some blue and green cardstock. I used an Exacto Knife to cut out the letters. I then used a soup can and a margarita glass to trace the circles. After a lot of cutting, here's what I ended up with:

I was pretty pleased with the result!!! After trial and error, I realized it was better to have the ribbon run along the top of the letters rather than the middle. I can't wait to show my sister what I made for her boys!!!

Stay tuned for other projects coming up in the future!!! I'll try to post on Fridays or Saturdays so you still have time to try your own project over the weekend. 

Happy Crafting!

30 Day FAIL

So I naively tried to do the 30 Items in 30 Days challenge. After 21 days, I'm calling it quits.

I had so excitedly picked out my items, snapped the pictures and proudly posted my challenge. I was excited about spicing up outfits that had become common repeats in my work wardrobe and hoped to dress up my weekend wear at the same time. I neglected to account for the fact that I don't own a single belt, it's not cool enough to rotate in some fun tights, and I generally stink at accessorizing. So all this has turned into is my wearing the same outfits again and again. Oh, and I forgot to account for lazy football weekends spent on the couch. I never felt like actually getting dressed just to sit at home with the dogs. All this along with the fact I forgot to take pictures most days.

Here are a couple of my outfits:

All black the first day, dressed it up with a glass necklace my mom snagged for me in Italy

Then purple silk top with a black shrug

Fun dress for my birthday and sitting in the car for our 7 1/2 hour drive up to New York

Dress I wore to Jil's wedding

Favorite cardigan with white top underneath

And photo proof that I'm a cheater. Today's outfit, brand new cardigan from Land's End Canvas. It's not my fault. They are selling LEC at my Sear's now. I had been able to resist for so long, but when I finally saw all of the lovely goods, I had to make a purchase...

So some things I can take away from this, I can't ever complain about having NOTHING to wear anymore. This past week I've been eyeing all of my non 30 in 30 items and counting down the days until October when I can wear them. Since I've called it quits, I'm wearing them tomorrow. I need to invest in some accessories. I need to find some good belts, some chunky jewelry, and just over all fun items to dress up my wardrobe when I'm feeling blah. And third, I especially learned that I seriously can't stick to anything...

Next challenge: Hubs and I try to stick to a budget. That one starts Oct 1, so I have plenty of time to figure out how to fudge that one too.

Are you as bad as I am to sticking to anything for more than a week?

Exciting Saturday Night

What are you guys up to tonight??? We're having a SUPER exciting Saturday.

We started out at 6AM waking up to head out to my sister's house for a yard sale. After making some money and unloading some goods, we packed up and headed out to watch Penn State shut out Kent State!

After returning home for nap time, I woke up and finally finished: 

















The whole series was so good. I had a hard time getting into the first book, but about half way through that one I was hooked. I need to definitely check out the movie now!

Once I finished the book we headed to Harris Teeter for my favorite day of the month, Super Double Coupon week. We have to prepare for Super Double Coupons. You want to use up all your $1 and up coupons since they will double up to $1.98. We learned last time that there is a 20 coupon limit per VIC card, so we came prepared with my mom's number as well. There was a grand total of over $80 in savings. Amazing. (Proof for Mary below)

Then it was home to make some brownies. Really I just wanted to use the paddle attachment for my KitchenAid and test out some of my new baking goodies I got for my birthday (Thanks Bunnies!!!). Don't tell Martha or Ree, but I used a box mix.

While those are baking I'm cranking through some laundry.

Not the most exciting Saturday night, but being this productive definitely makes me smile! What are you up to this weekend????