WEDDING VIDEO!

Last summer my best friend's dad asked me what my "bridal break down" will be?  I said, "no way, not gonna happen, I'm so organized, everything is pretty much done!"  Fast Forward 4 or 5 months and if you've ever planned a wedding, you'd know that the last two weeks are really the most stressful.  From planning the day of timeline, making sure everyone knows what they are responsible for, paying the rest of the vendors, as well as dealing with the last minute issues anyone can come up with, your life, brain, and emotions are really consumed.  I decided to give myself a little downtime and get into the wedding mood by looking up any wedding picture or video I could find when I came across the most amazing wedding videographer I'd ever seen, Meet+Cute (Adam Clark)! I HAD TO HAVE HIM.  Mind you it is TWO WEEKS before the wedding and the budget is blown. 

To humor myself, I decided I would email him, he would write back to tell me he was booked, then I would be bummed and move on.  Nope.  He was available and willing to negotiate pricing with me because he had family here to visit and could use the wedding as an excuse to come up!  I was thrilled and immediately called Adam (my Adam).  Like always he brings me back down to earth, told me the budget was blown, and that we had decided months ago we did not need a videographer.  Well, get ready because THIS WAS MY BRIDAL BREAKDOWN.  Like I said before, I HAD TO HAVE THIS VIDEO!  I wont go into all the details of me acting like a 5 year old being told I wasn't allowed to have cookies for dinner, but I cried, we talked, and because my husband loves me, Meet+Cute was booked and became some of the BEST money we spent on a day we will remember forever! 

Follow this LINK to see the AMAZING Result of my BRIDAL BREAKDOWN!

I still can't believe this was our wedding...





My Advice to Brides, spend money on the things that will spark the memory of that day for you and your Husband forever.  Make sure you have given yourself enough time to take your pictures, let the photographer get creative, and make sure you are comfortable with them because their work will be a part of your life forever (we loved our photographer- Lauren Gay- and think of her as a very good friend now- such a good person inside and out).  If you're wavering on spending the money on good videographer, do it.  The video brings these memories to life in a different kind of emotion.

HAPPY THURSDAY!

First Aid

Quick Little Follow up to Yesterday's Post...

Due to recent events, we have decided that a First Aid Kit is probably something that we should have around.  On my day home recuperating, I decided to head over to the local drug store to find the right kit for any emergency.  I started to imagine other common household injuries that could happen and decided the kit needed to support anything from a cut, to a burn, to a minor fraction/sprain.  I picked out this 131 piece kit from First Aid Only.

I also recommend a link from WebMD on Essential First Aid Care:

This website has a First Aid Kit builder to make sure you are equipped with the right tools for the people in your household.

Chunky Monkey

I love Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey Ice Cream, but let's face it, Spring is upon us (and has been all Winter) and I don't need to be eating 300+ calories and 17 grams of fat per 1/4 cup to fit in my shorts soon!  So I got some low fat ice cream and these frozen chocolate covered bananas in the freezer section to chop up and mix in! 

http://www.dianasbananas.com/our-products/#name-milk

I had looked forward to this dessert all day on Sunday and at 8:30PM I decided it was time to indulge in my sweet concoction.

Next thing that happened is everyone's nightmare- While chopping away (with a knife I believe was too big for the job) at my frozen banana, my right thumb slips under the knife and the meaty tip is sliced open.  The immediate shock, pain, and blood made my eyes grow five sizes.  I was convinced I just lost the tip of my thumb forever.  Adam was up in action blowing out the candles and putting my shoes on before I knew what to say!  He wrapped it in ice and a dish cloth while whisking me out the door.  To the ER we went and name dropping we did (thank you to Adam's sister for working in the ER!) to get in and out a little faster.  One tetanus shot and five stitches later (one through my finger nail-yum) I was sent home with my entire thumb (!!!) and a large bandage, only craving water and my bed.  On a good note, the ER doctor was very nice and paid close attention to me when I told her I was not numb enough for the stitches- great experience with her. 

Morals of my story- my husband is amazing, creativity is not always a good thing, chop slowly, and just eat the extra calories (you'll save yourself some time, money, and a great deal of pain). 

A special thanks to the husband of Perfectly Imperfect for coming over while we were at the Hospital to make sure we wouldn't be taking our dog to the ER next for cleaning up all the left over chocolate on the counter.  The dog was too concerned about our rushing-out-the-house actions that he was curled up on the couch anticipating our return...

Below are some Graphic Pictures, not suitable for a weak stomach, of what I get to live with for the next 10-12 days.

HAPPY MONDAY!

Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks!

Football Sunday! If you're at our house, there will always be beer and snacks :)

Though our beloved Redskins were not playing, for obvious reasons, there were only 2 combos I was rooting for in yesterday's games… First, if one Harbaugh brother won, the other must too!!  If not, let's see a rematch of 2007 Super Bowl and have the Patriots get redemption over the Giants to make up for that one loss in a nearly perfect season! For my Father, I may pull out that Brady Jersey he gave me 5 or 6 years ago to cheer him on!

Here is a yummy recipe I found on that little website known as Pinterest you may want to use at your Super Bowl Party!

I got this gem for Christmas and I've been so overwhelmed with WHAT TO MAKE FIRST! When I saw this recipe Sunday morning knew I had all the ingredients and decided to give it a whirl!

 

Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer- Gloss Cinnamon: Love love love the color on our counters!



CHEESY GARLIC BREAD STICKS!

Make your own pizza dough... this is what makes these cheesy sticks so good! No store bought crust!

Ingredients for dough:

1 cup Warm Water

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 Tbsp honey or sugar

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp canola oil or olive oil

3 cups Bread flour

(FYI: I tried to cut the recipe in half because I was almost out of my bread flour and I advise you not to do this because the dough whip couldn't really get a good grasp on the ingredients… )

Follow this link to the website for Lauren's directions… my dough did not turn out as well as her pictures did, but I decided to let it rise anyways and it worked! So don't get discouraged if your dough is not as uniform as her pictures, the dough is defiantly a little forgiving, just make sure it doesn’t dry out! Mine was a little tough to handle, but I brushed the dough and sides of the bowl with canola oil to keep it moist and it did rise in 2 hours! I had to roll it out then fold it up to get a nice ball shape, which I then rolled out into the crust. Next time, I may just use the easy-throw-it-all-in-and-push-a-button Bread Maker! But, this was a challenge I was up for on Sunday morning!



Not many pictures were captured... I was learning as I went along with this one for sure!



This is the Best Part!

Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks!

Ingredients:

1/2 of the above recipe "Fail-Proof" Pizza Dough

2 Tbsp softened salted butter

2  minced garlic cloves (we used 4 bc we love garlic!)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees, use a pizza stone if you have one, if not use an upside down cookie sheet, a tip from the above website!

Mix the garlic into the butter and spread on the  rolled out dough (YUM!)

Top with the Parmesan Cheese and Mozzarella Cheese. Sprinkle with S&P!

Bake 10 minutes until cheese is golden brown and starts to bubble!

Here is the finished product that did not last until halftime of the first game! Let me reiterate, YUM!

A little this, a little that...

So the 2012 New Year Party went off without a hitch and the night was spent playing a lot of BeerPong (until the Keg was kicked) and catching up with friends!  Unfortunately not many picture were taken, but here's a few of the FUN!

Four of my friends recently got engaged, and I'm so excited for the upcoming nuptials!

 

My brother-in-law, Andrew, proposed to this Gorgeous, Beautiful Girl, Gina (SO excited for my new Sister-in-law)!!



The Lovely Lisa was proposed to by her High School Sweet Heart, Eric!

 

Adam's friend from High School, Jeff, proposed to the sweetest girl I know, Sarah!

AND My Favorite Roommate from JMU got engaged to this hunk, Hunter!

Sarah, above, gave me some dog biscuit mix for Mr. Moose and I made him some biscuits the other weekend!

One of my best friends, Meagan, gave me her AMAZING meatloaf recipe and I thought I would share it below… Now I know what you're saying, "ew meatloaf," but I use to be that person… until Meagan made me try hers!  Even if you've tried it before and hated it, give it another go! It's pure Comfort Food!

Meagan's Magnificent Meatloaf!

What you'll need:

Meatloaf Meat mix (in the ground beef section)

2 Eggs

1 Pack of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

2/3 cup Italian Bread Crumbs

3/4 cup milk

Mushroom Topping:

1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/4 cup milk

(mix together, heat on stovetop, and spread over top of meatloaf when instructed below...)

Mix all Meatloaf ingredients together in a bowl until evenly distributed.  Transfer to a meatloaf pan.  Cook at 350 for 1 hour.  Take it out, drain the fat, add the mushroom topping, and place back in the oven for 10-15 more minutes.  So easy and so delicious!

Of course I ALWAYS forget to take a picture of my final product… so here is one I remember to take after I already put the left overs in the refrigerator… There is a red sauce, update on this recipe with that sauce later!

My friend Meagan, also got me hooked on a jewelry Brand, Stella & Dot.  I've been to 3 parties and love everything!  I am hosting my own party and for those of you who don't know the line, check it out here!

See you at my house soon hopefully!  Let me know if you're interested in coming if the event is not in your FB event box yet…

We're in the process of painting/decorating the bedroom and master bathroom… updates soon!

New Blog to follow! My cousin Erin moved to the city in Baltimore and started a blog about her city-living-life! Check her out here!

Custom Built-In ChalkBoard!

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever else you celebrate! :) We enjoyed our First Christmas as a married couple and decorated our First Tree!

Moose was waiting for Santa every night! Couldn't wait for some more Tennis Balls and Squeaker Toys!

The Sunday before Christmas I was itching to get back to some of my crafts and DIY projects so I asked my Husband to stop at Home Depot on his way home from his Parents house to get some supplies to finally convert this annoyingly un-useful custom built-in cork board to a FUN and useful Chalkboard!  It had a lot of potential because of the amazing large frame that surrounded the area, but the cork board just didn't make any sense to us...

Here is our before Picture after pulling off the cork that was coming loose:

Supplies that are needed:

Painters Tape

Magnetic Primer (Not necessarily needed, but useful to clear the most cute clutter I've ever seen from my fridge that is taking over because I refuse to take down the adorable baby pictures and announcements my family and best friends send me!)

Chalkboard Paint

Foam Roller and plastic paint tray (they are not pictured below because we ended up switching half way through when we noticed that the paint brushes, below, were a pain in the butt to make the paint even!)

Chalk

We used Spackle to fill in the small holes where the screws are that hold this custom built frame on the wall! (Might not be needed if you are using a regular frame or wall in your house)

Use Painters Tape to line the area where you want to paint.  You could use this to make a square on your bare wall and get a backless frame to hang over the area!  We primed the wall with a magnetic primer (3 coats, with 1 hour drying time in between the coats).

Magnets really work! Though the magnetic strength is lower than the refrigerator...

The next day we started our 3 coats of Chalkboard paint with 24 hours drying time in between each coat!

After it is completely dry, you must prime the chalk board with the side of a piece of chalk.   Take the side of a piece of chalk and rub it on the entire board.  This will make the board able to erase without leaving marks.  If you clean the board with water repeat the chalk priming method to ensure it erases evenly again!

I want to make a cute calendar up top and use the bottom for a message board, but that will have to wait until after hosting our first Party for the New Year!  Hope everyone has a SAFE and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

DIY Glitter Ornaments

I have noticed that having your own home makes decorating for the holidays a lot more enjoyable, but decorations can be expensive!  Sunday we woke up with the plan of completing the final holiday home decoration, getting a Christmas Tree.  Growing up in my house, as in many homes I assume, we put the tree up and spent time decorating it together.  Well if anyone knows my Husband, you know that if the Redskins are on, no matter how bad they are, he is still watching every second of that game.  I decided that we would put the tree off until next weekend because I in fact was not equipped with enough decorations for this tree anyways.

Which leads me to my latest DIY craft, Glitter Ornaments!

I was inspired by my latest trip to Crate&Barrell where they have huge stations set up with hundreds of ornaments to choose from!  This set of 3 adorable ornaments were going for $8.95.  I decided to check out a few other blogs and found how to make my very own, super glittery ornaments at home for a lot less than $8.95!

Crate & Barrell
Set of 3 Flurry Ball Green Ornaments



I went to Michaels Craft Store (my guilty pleasure), and bought an 8 pack of clear ornaments and some Martha Stewart FINE Glitter.  I read that I needed some floor cleaner and that the Pledge Floor Care Finish with the Blue Cap was the best one to use.  Other than that all you need is a funnel (or a cut envelope to make your own) and q-tips.  The supplies were probably $20 total, but once you have the glitter and floor cleaner you will make an 8 pack of ornaments for about $4.00!!

Take the top off the ornament, squirt some floor cleaner in the ornament, and swirl it around gently as to not create bubbles on the sides until the inside is coated.

Pour the rest back in the bottle and use the q-tip to get rid of any bubbles you may have created. 

Use the funnel to pour glitter in the ornaments.  Use a lot, you will pour the left over back in the bottle anyways.  Shake it around gently and coat the inside completely. 

Dump the remainder back in the bottle by tapping it gently. 

Place the top back on and you have gorgeous homemade glittery ornaments for super cheap! I will be headed back to Michaels today to pick up more boxes of the clear ornaments to fill our tree next weekend!

After the game Adam and I spent the afternoon building our first fire in our new fireplace!  Which of course called for the opening of another bottle of wine given to us at my Bridal Shower!  Thanks Ali and Brandon!

 Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!