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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Weekend Re-cap

Happy Sunday! Here's what we have been up to lately....

I'm going to go ahead and start the weekend with Thursday night, because I made this super easy and super yummy recipe:


You need to make this! It has like 4 ingredients! And it was soooo good!!

Friday, we had our first houseguest!
Travis' friend, Tim, had a softball tournament in Rock Hill, so he spent the weekend with us! 
And he definitely earned his stay by telling us about this place...


YES. Frugal MacDoogal's. This place is incredible. It is a liquor/wine/beer warehouse just over the border in South Carolina. Everything there is SO cheap! They have bottles of Skinny Girl Margaritas for $12! I'm not a huge liquor drinker, but I do enjoy saving money on booze! If you are having a party, or just need to replenish your bar, I highly recommend going here!!!! Natalie, I know you are going to want to stop here before my bachelorette party! :)

Then, we continued our classy evening by eating some yummy Mexican :)


Saturday, I ran the slowest 8 miles of my life...it was SO windy! 

{I felt like this}

I also had my first dress fitting! YAY! The alterations lady told me I am not allowed to gain or lose any weight, or she would have to completely re-do my dress! Ahhhh...pressure! Good thing my weight is usually pretty consistent...but I guess I won't be trying to lose a few lbs before June anymore! 

Today, we went to our friend's baby shower here:


True story, I went to a baby shower at a bar/bowling alley. 

And it was SO much fun! It was very laid back, no cheesy games, and all of our close Charlotte friends were there! We just sat around, ate yummy food and drank mimosas! So it was really not so much a baby shower, but just us hanging out on a Sunday afternoon! :)

{the only pic I took...and it's blurry! You can't even tell Steph-in white-is prego!}

Now I'm watching the Oscars Red Carpet!! Woohooo :)
Have a great week, everyone!!!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

DIY Moss Letters

In the last week, wedding planning has gone from non-existent to taking over my life. I blame it on hitting the 4 months to go mark last week, and I am freaking out! How has this last year gone by so quickly?! I thought I had so much time to do stuff....not so much now!!!! 

In an attempt to have a social life, drink some wine AND do a little wedding project, I invited one of my bridesmaids, Kathryn, over for wine night at the new casa last Saturday...little did she know what she was in for! In all fairness, I did warn her to not wear her best outfit. I decided we were going to make moss letters!! If you feel so inspired, you can find the directions to make your own here or here!

A few warnings:
1. Do NOT spray the letters in your upstairs bedroom with no windows open-you may or may not set off the smoke detector and scare the $*&# out of your fiance. 
2. Definitely definitely DEFINITELY wear crappy clothes.
3. Plan on vacuuming up moss for the next 4 months. And finding moss everywhere and anywhere--in your house and on your body.
4. Hopefully you and your significant other have super easy intials-the T was a piece of cake, the M, however, was a huge pain!!

Here's our mess in progress:


Despite the mess, I have to say that I LOOOOVE Kathryn for helping me for 3+ hours, and I'm super happy with how they turned out! 


Can't wait to hang them on the church doors with some Carolina blue ribbon!! :)
If you decide to make your own (which I do highly suggest), make sure you have a good friend and a few bottles glasses of wine handy!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Our New House: The Official Tour

A lot of my friends and family have been asking to see pics of the new house. Now that we have moved in and gotten settled a little bit, I thought I'd share the current situation of our house. Obviously, there are rooms that need MAJOR work, but for now, I think it works for us. For now. Here you go....don't judge our messiness/lack of furniture...

{entryway}

 {Living room/Dining room...haha we need some chairs for our table! And just furniture in general...}

 {messy kitchen}

 {Breakfast nook...Travis got me the table and chairs for Valentine's Day! We spent the whole night assembling it...quality bonding time!)

{family room}

 {upstairs extra room--office/wedding planning room! Yes, all of those boxes are full of wedding stuff!}

 {guest bedroom-please excuse my laundry laying on the bed to dry!}

 {guest bathroom}

 {our bathroom}

 {master bedroom...this is a top priority to fix ASAP!}

{my closet! This picture doesn't show it, but it is really big and I love it!}

So there you have it! I love our house, but obviously, we have a lot of work still to do!
Here's some pinterest inspiration of what I hope our house will look like some day:







OK...now I am a little overwhelmed! Who wants to help me redecorate?!?!


Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Random 11

Lucky for you guys, Michelle tagged me a Random 11 post that has been circulating the blog world recently, and because I love all things random, yet list-like, I decided to play along! :)

The Random Eleven
The Rules:
  • Post these rules
  • Post 11 random things about yourself
  • Answer the questions set for you in their post
  • Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
  • Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
  • No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

11 Random Facts About Me:

1 - I was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck 3 times. I think that explains some of my ditziness!

2 - I am addicted to any Real Housewives. ADDICTED. It's really sad. I will watch the same episode over and over and over again! GAHHH I love the drama. I can't help it. Except Atlanta. I do not watch Atlanta at all--they are too ghetto for me! 
And one Sunday last December, I met Paul and Adrienne from Beverly Hills! They were at our mall to promote Adrienne's new shoe line! 


3 - I moved from Michigan to Ohio when I was 14 and have never forgiven my parents. It has been very convenient during wedding planning when they don't want to spend money on stuff...."Remember that one time when you made me leave all of my friends in Michigan in the middle of my freshman year and I was so miserable?! Let's up our flower budget!" HAhahaha

4 - When I was little, all I ever ate was lima beans! I was a strange child. 

5 - I LOVE making lists! I make lists of lists of lists. Specifically, to-do lists. I currently have 3 to-do lists and 2 grocery lists on my phone; plus a school to-do list and a home to-do list on paper! Plus a wedding to-do list that has several sub-to-do lists to go along with it! 

6 - My brother and I were on TRL (remember that show?!) in 8th grade! It's kinda my claim to fame....

7 - I can't stand ranch dressing. It makes me nauseous

8 - Speaking of nausea, I have the worst motion sickness! It used to be not-so-bad, but now, if I am not in the front seat (and preferably, driving), I want to die the whole trip! For planes, I always pop a Dramamine and then I'm good to go because I'm asleep! :) 

9 - I am terrified of rodents. Mice, rats, hamsters, gerbils, you name it. Their tails sketch me out. And their beady eyes. 

10 - I don't put milk on my cereal. It gets too soggy. Travis doesn't either...when I found this out, I knew we were a match made in heaven! 

11 - If it is pink, preppy or looks expensive I either own it or want to immediately!

11 Questions from Michelle
  • What is your favorite vacation spot? I studied abroad in Spain summer after my junior year and I have wanted to go back so bad ever since! 
{Salamanca, where I studied!}

  • What are the 5 items you cannot live without? Definitely my phone, running shoes, water (I hate being dirty), makeup (can that count as 1 thing?), and chocolate! 
  • What are your top 3 favorite movies? Legally Blonde, Clueless, and Love Actually (I clearly like movies that make me feel smarter!)
  • Chocolate or Flowers? Chocolate alllll the way! 
  • What are you most proud of so far in your life? Obviously, I'm proud that I made it through high school and college and got a job; but most recently, I'm pretty proud of myself for running a half marathon! It was my first running race ever and I got 3rd place for my age group! 
  • What is favorite cocktail/drink of choice? Wine. Any type is acceptable except Chardonnay or reds. Polka Dot Reisling is my absolute fav, partially just because of the bottle!

  • Do you prefer the beach or the mountains? Beach, although the mountains are super romantic!
  • What's your guilty pleasure? Watching trashy TV shows (see above). 
  • What is your dream job?  If I wasn't a teacher, I would want to open up my own cupcake shop. My specialty would be red velvet cupcakes with Carolina blue frosting! Oh wait, that's our wedding cake....but its kinda my fav!
  • Ballet flats, boots, or heels? Ballet flats for sure! I live in my Tory Burch Revas!!!!

  • Would you rather run outside or on the treadmill? This is so funny, because before I started training for my half marathon, I hated to run outside! But now, I love it! The treadmill gets so boring! I also love it even more now that we are living out in the suburbs and there are so many more great places to run than when we were living downtown! 
11 Questions: Basically, I am super lazy, so if you want to do this, just use Michelle's questions! She thought of some good ones, so no need to reinvent the wheel! :)

Who I'm tagging: Anyone who is reading this! :) Feel free to tag yourself!!!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Mountain Getaway!

Like I mentioned yesterday, every year we go to the mountains for Valentine's Day weekend. Last year was the *best* because we got engaged, so it was going to be hard to beat that this year! We found a Living Social deal for this place in the mountains with all meals included AND 4 bottles of wine!!!!! So, we bought it immediately...and just used it this past weekend for our mountain getaway 2012! 

We stayed at the Vance Toe River Lodge, which is this super cute place wayyy in the middle of BFE. But we had so much fun!!! 
{Please excuse the shoddy iPhone pics, I realized my camera battery had died as soon as we got there! Fail!}
{our cozy room}

{the main part of the lodge where we ate and hung out}

{our 4 bottles of wine!}

Friday night, after we had settled into our room, we had the most amazing dinner! I wanted to take pictures, but I didn't want to be the weirdo taking pictures at the dinner table (we had to eat at a communal table with the other guests staying there, and I didn't want to scare them off right away, haha!).

On Saturday, we woke up and it had starting snowing! The roads weren't too bad yet, so we decided to take a quick trip down to Linville Falls to go for a little hike! Now, I am obviously NOT an "outdoors" girl, so when I say hike, what I mean is "let me put on my Ugg boots and we'll go walk on a pretty trail for about a mile". 

Here are some pics from our gorgeous "hike" around Linville Falls:





I tried to take about 49273465 pictures of Trav and me, but it was so cold and windy up there, that this is what most of them looked like:

Hahahah, I don't think this is the best look for either of us! And good God, do I need to start getting Botox ASAP!!

After our big hike, we went back to the lodge for lunch. It had started snowing pretty bad, plus we had to watch the UNC game, so we just stayed around the lodge for the rest of the day. We met some new friends who were also from Charlotte and the 6 of us just hung out all day, trying to watch movies, talking about weddings, and drinking lots of wine! It was very fun and relaxing! 

Before dinner, the owner of the lodge, Cleve, let us all have a free wine tasting in their winery! I tried the most amazing peach Chardonnay! The bad part is that the lodge is in a dry county, so you can only buy the wine there! They don't sell it in stores! Guess we'll just have to go back! 




It was an amazingly relaxing weekend! Just what Trav and I needed! Now...back to unpacking those boxes! UGH! 

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Our Engagement Story

Today is a very special day--it is the day we got engaged!!!!

No offense to Christmas, but for me, now is the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, February. LOVE IT. No one expects good things to happen in February, but this February we got our new house, and last February, we got engaged! So February has been good to us!
I was one of those girls who always wanted to get engaged at Christmas...so last Christmas, I was NOT happy when I got some Tory Burch flats from Travis instead of a sparkly ring. I was expecting some bling!! But come February, I expected nothing. So here is the story of how we got engaged....and I know most of you have heard this 28736472 times, but I want to write about it anyway! :)

Our journey begins mid-January, when, after the Christmas let-down, I decided to make this recipe I found in Glamour magazine for Engagement Chicken. I mean, hey why not? What did I have to lose?!


Ladies, let me tell you. IT WORKS (obviously). It was really good, and if you Google it, there are pages upon pages of testimonials of girls saying it also worked for them. I am a true believer in the Engagement Chicken (yes, I do realize you probably think I am crazy).

Anyways....fast forward a few weeks. We always go to the mountains for Valentine's Day weekend....

{2009 in Spruce Pine}

{2010 in Chimney Rock}

So, last year we decided to go to Asheville and see the Biltmore.

Gorgeous, right?! 

Ok, so that morning, Travis seemed to be a little on-edge. I was running late (like normal), and he was stressing out that we were going to miss our scheduled time to tour the mansion. We finally got to the house and parked our car. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool to get engaged here?!" but I had thought that so many other times before (we had been dating for over 3 years, people!), so I quickly pushed the thought out of my mind, so I wouldn't be disappointed again. My friend, Natalie, had even said to me before we left, "OMG you're going to get engaged at the Biltmore like on One Tree Hill!" Hahah...but I was pretty convinced it wasn't happening. Anyway, Travis got out of the car and sort of patted his pockets down and asked if we had everything. There clearly wasn't a ring box in those pockets, so I just kinda forgot about my little engagement daydream.

We toured the whole house, which is AMAZING. They don't let you take pictures inside, so sadly, I don't have any. But if you've never been to the Biltmore, you have to go. Add it to your bucket list now

So after we toured the whole house, we decided to walk across the front lawn up to this little balcony, so I could take a picture of the front of the house. 

We got up there, I took a picture of the house and then this not-so-great pic of Trav and me.

Not happy with the picture, I put my camera on a ledge nearby and set the timer on. I walked around to Travis, he grabs my hand...which is when the timer went off:
I was like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

He simply said, "Baby, I love you," and then preceded to get down on his knee and ask "Will you marry me?" 
I WAS FREAKING OUT!!! I thought he was joking, because, hey, where's the ring? I probably asked him if he was joking no less than 25 times. Then he pulled this bad boy out of a ZIPLOC bag in his pocket! 


So THAT'S why it looked like there was nothing in his pockets...a Ziploc bag! He's so sneaky...
But anyways, I continued freaking out for another 10 minutes. I was shaking, out of breath and still asking "Are you serious?!?" Hahaha...then these nice people came by and took our first engaged couple picture!


It was honestly the perfect proposal...I was surprised, AND I got a picture of it happening (something I'd always wanted)! And that ring! He did SUCH a good job...I'm like seriously so obsessed with my ring. It's everything I ever wanted. It may not be the biggest diamond ever, but I wouldn't want anything different. I love it so so so so much! Almost as much as the man who gave it me :) 
We both called our parents, but then didn't share the news with anyone else via text or Facebook because we just wanted to enjoy being newly engaged!
We walked around the grounds and the greenhouse at the Biltmore for a little bit, then hopped in the car and drove to the winery.


Wait, whaaaat?! I just got engaged and now I get to go wine tasting?!?! Talk about best day ever! We got a tour of the winery, which is always cool, and then got to try basically any wines we wanted!
We ended up buying 3 bottles: champagne that we downed during the UNC basketball game (they won-and Ohio State lost! Which made this day even more perfect!), a bottle of wine that we drank before dinner, and then the last bottle of wine we have saved for our wedding! It was Travis' mom's idea to save wine from the day/place we got engaged to drink at the wedding and I LOVE it!

{champagne}

Once we got back to the hotel room (to watch the Carolina game, of course), we decided to start texting and Facebooking. Our phones were blowing. up. It was like my birthday! After we watched basketball and drank champagne, we finished off the evening by heading out to downtown Asheville for dinner at Tupelo Honey


The food was SO GOOD!!! It was the perfect ending to an absolutely perfect day!!!

Well thanks for reading the unabridged, longest engagement story ever! I'll be back tomorrow to post about our mountain getaway this year! And Michelle tagged me in a Random 11 post...which, let's not lie, I love all things random, so I will be participating in that soon!!