A Baby Shower

Today was a first for me.  I went to a baby shower for one of my closest friends.  I'm sure I've been to baby showers before but they were probably when I was younger and for family members.  This is the first one where it hit me that I'm growing up.  No more talk of "where are you working this summer" or "what college are you applying for" or "how are your classes going"?  Now we're on to "guess how many bridal showers/baby showers/weddings/bachelorette parties I'm going to in the next year".  It really is crazy how time flies.  I'm so excited for new milestones that everyone is reaching in their lives.

The baby shower went amazing and the soon-to-be Momma's sister was a great host!  Here are some pictures for you to see just how much fun we had!

"All Star on the Way"

 Susie opening her presents from Matt and I.  My favorite thing we got them were the staple kid books like

Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungary Caterpillar, and The Giving Tree.

Here we are playing the famous guess what candy bar is in the diaper game.

We all had a great time and it was fun to catch up with wonderful friends!

(The four of us are so lucky that our fiances/husbands are fraternity brothers, because we got best friends out of the deal!!!)

Should have seen this coming...

I mentioned a few days ago that Matt was so sick.  Guess who it hit last night?  I should have seen this coming.  Not to mention two of my sisters that I hung out with last night have been sick too.  This is what my Saturday is looking like.

That would be the book I'm currently reading (Hunger Games), my tissues, water and meds.

On a beautiful Saturday like this I would rather be outside, but I know the only way to kick this cold is resting and watching my Saturday slip by :(

More wedding inspiration

I know today isn't "Wedding Wednesday" but after yesterday I can't seem to get the wedding off of my mind.  Each day Matt and I are more and more excited as we get the mail and see how many responses we got!  Yesterday I rode up to Morgantown with Matt and while he worked I took some time to shop.  Seems to be the theme recently...I'm not complaining.  Every store that I went in to had changed their floor set-up to showcase their Spring items.  I couldn't help but notice a theme.

 

Picture above and below - Source : AK2NY  

Maybe I can't get the wedding off of my mind because everywhere I turn, our wedding colors are in my face!

Source : Style Salad

Source : J.Crew Spring 2011 LookBook

Source : Bride Chic

Here are some wedding pictures that I love!

Source : VIbride.com

Picture above and below - Source : We Love Laugh Kiss

My recent craft project

I don't consider myself a creative person.  I am, however, very appreciative of other people's creativity and know when I see something (for a crazy price) that often times I could probably make it on my own for half the cost.

I took Matt to a craft show with me back in December (sorry to out you again, Matt).  There I found a shelf that I LOVED it was so cute and personalized.  (When did I get to the point in my life that I would LOVE a shelf?)  Anyways, I thought that it would be pretty easy to create my own.

A few weeks later I went to West Virginia to visit Matt and to my surprise, he had gone to Michael's and bought a wooden shelf which he spray painted brown and added hooks to.  I was very excited to get working on making this shelf my own.  Some of my Christmas presents needed a home, and this was the perfect place for them!

 This sign was a Christmas present from my sister and it is all about the South!  Love it!  For the hooks below the shelf, I bought wood blocks from Hobby Lobby.  I then spray painted the blocks ivory and when the paint was damp I sprayed them lightly with a pale aqua.  Once they dried I put black picture holders on each corner and cut family pictures to the right size.  I then used champagne ribbon and tacked it on to the back of the block in a loop so that they could hang.

The next day Matt and I went shopping and I found this pretty candle stand at Target on clearance.  Matt found the candle and it looks perfect with the color scheme of the whole shelf.  At Michael's we got the votive candles on an after-Christmas sale (for like .50 a piece).  I had some extra wood blocks so I added more pictures to the top of the shelf.

And here it is...the finished product!  I love walking in the door and seeing this!

Wedding Wednesday #3

This week I'm making sure to keep track of our responses that we're getting back in the mail!  So exciting!

I'm also attempting to wrap all of the bridesmaid's gifts!  I've tried to make every part of this wedding personalized, and I was so happy that my Mom suggested looking for bridesmaid gift bags.  After a little searching, I found these!  I love them because they're simple and not tacky like some of the other ones that I've seen!

I've also been spending some quality time on the table numbers/picture frames.  I read about this idea in one of my bridal magazines and it's naming the tables after places that are special or important events to the bride and groom.  This is great in theory, but I was watching a wedding show recently and since the tables were named, it took people FOREVER to find their seats because they couldn't find where there particular table was.  I figured we could number the tables (so they are easier to find) but also name them too.  Each table will have a name (Ex. The Outer Banks) and have a picture/write up about why that location is important to us.

Here are the picture frames so far.  All I have to do is type up a little paragraph about why we chose that location/event for each picture frame.  Also I love that the picture frames I found are white (to match the tables) and have a place for the picture, the table number/name, and the write-up!  I got very lucky finding these!

a close-up view

Surprise Sick Day

Matt was terribly sick yesterday so him staying at home all day meant we got some serious quality time!  It doesn't happen very often that we have a day with literally nothing we have to go out and do.  My day consisted of laundry, (4 loads to be exact) dishes, cooking, and wedding stuff (pictures to follow tomorrow).  It was great talking and spending the day together, I just wish Matt wasn't feeling so miserable.

By the end of the afternoon Matt was getting stir-crazy.  I've said it before, but he really hates sitting around, so I came up with some errands we could go run.  Problem #1...we drove past Krispy Kreme when the "Hot and Ready" sign was on.  Hello pre-dinner appetizer of warm deliciousness!

By the time we got home, Matt was starving (a good sign when your sick) and I was craving a cheeseburger.  Here is the recipe I use for a quick/easy cheeseburger fix when it's raining and cold outside so you can't break out the grill!  Warning - this is not the healthiest recipe, but so delicious that it's worth trying it out!

First you take out a muffin pan and coat it with non-stick spray.  Then you take a roll of pillsbury biscuits, flatten each one, and put one per muffin section.

Next brown the meat.  I used hamburger meat because that is what we had on hand, but you could definitely try turkey.  That's what I use for spaghetti to make it healthier, I don't see why it wouldn't work for this recipe too.  After the meat is brown, you add ketchup and brown sugar.  No measurement here.  I just add ketchup until the meat is covered (like a sloppy joe consistancy) then add brown sugar until it is sweet enough!  Yum!

I have to put a shameless plug in here to get these bowls!  I'm in love with them!  They have a no-slip grip on the bottom and are dishwasher safe!

Source : Real Gloss

Use a tablespoon and add meat in the muffin tin.  I use as much meat as I can stuff in those things without them overflowing.

I then bake at 400 for about 10-12 minutes.  With about 2 minutes left in the cooking, take them out and sprinkle cheese on top! 

 

Enjoy!

Travel Monday - High Tatras Mountains, Slovakia

Riding through the Mountains on the way back to West Virginia yesterday really made me think about my favorite memory of hiking the High Tatras Mountains on the border between Slovakia and Poland.

Source : Traveller

I remember stepping off of the lift that took us up the mountain on the first day and seeing this sign.  It is the little things like this that excite me when I'm in a different country.  

We followed the sign and did a little hiking the first afternoon to get us prepared for what was coming the next day.  Finding this waterfall was amazing and we were able to stop, explore, and fill up our water bottles with fresh glacial water!

After we spent some time exploring the smaller mountain we went back to where we were staying in a small town.  Here is a picture I took of some of the scenery around the area. 

I have no idea how these arrangements were made, but we ended up staying in the house that the Slovakian Ice Luge team stays at during the months that they are in training.  Here is a picture of the view out of the window from the room that I was staying in.  

They opened up the Luge practice track and taught us how to Luge!  So Fun!

Here I am getting ready to go down the track.

Crazy story.  Obviously we were in Eastern Europe, for those of you not obsessed with looking at maps (weird thing I do...constantly have to know where I am geographically) here you go for reference.

Source : Worn Through

Picking up where I left off, we were in far Eastern Europe (Slovakia on the border of Poland).  Here communism is something of the recent past.  I could go on for hours discussing Communism because the professor that took us to Eastern Europe was actually born and raised in Slovakia during Communism and his stories were horrific.  When your job has no possibility of being taken away from you, customer service is non-existent.  I never believed how bad this could be until I saw it first hand.  After our first evening of hiking the mountain and trying out the ice luge, we all went to walk around the small town that we were in and find a place for dinner.  We walked in to a pizza shop that was EMPTY.  I'm talking at least 25 tables that sat 4 people, and maybe one of them had a family sitting and eating.  When we walked in our professor asked if we could put the tables together so that the 12 of us could eat together.  The guy's answer..."no".  

We take for granted in the United States that we EXPECT our needs to be accommodated.  Customer Service at it's best would suggest that "the customer is always right".  This is one of the first things I learned at my very first high school job working at Ukrops.  It is a staple in our society.  Not the case in some place where business and meeting other people's needs is not a necessity.  No opportunities for promotion or demotion.  Crazy to see the theory of Communism and the mind-set in practice.  These people were in no way going to inconvenience themselves to help us out.  We left (my professor more than pissed off) and when we talked about it at the next restaurant that we actually ate at, my professor told us about the emotions that came back to him when he was treated that way.  It was an awesome opportunity to hear someone's first hand experience of living under Communism then getting to experience life in America, which he talked about so passionately.

The next morning we got up bright and early to head off to hike the big mountain.

About to start the hike!

At the end of the hike.

I can't even describe the scale of how huge these mountains are.

Enjoying a beverage after completing the hike.  This trip was like beer boot-camp in a week!  Awesome memories made hiking in Eastern Europe.  Experiences that I will never forget.