Lucy Cupcake

All of my friends and family know how BADLY I want I dog.  I think I tell Dave almost every single day! :)  The first step is we need to move to a dog friendly apartment.  Second step, I need to be around more to take care of the pup!  I can't put any of the responsibility on Dave. 

Look at that precious face!!

She's so tiny!

 Luckily I have had the chance to spend time with my sister's dog, Winnie, and my friend Lindsay's dog, Lucy Cupcake!  Dave and I got to watch Lucy one weekend and it was the best weekend EVER!  She is so tiny, so ADORABLE and so well-behaved!  We walked her around Clarendon and so many people stopped us to comment on how cute "our" dog was!  I wish I could take the credit for this dog!  Thanks Lindsay for allowing me to post pictures of precious Lucy Cupcake!! :)  Plus looking at pictures of Lucy can't help but make you smile!! :-)  For now, I will just live vicariously through Lindsay!

Adorable Lucy!

18 Days to Go and I'm a Nervous Wreck

18 days until I get to marry the LOVE of my LIFE and I couldn't be happier.  I am truly the luckiest girl in the world to be marrying such a sweet, caring, loving and handsome man.  I had a wonderful weekend celebrating with my friends and family at my shower and bachelorette party (I'll post about that later).

How cute is he?!?!

However, most of my friends and family know that I am very shy, some even like to pick on me for it, which kind of hurts. So, the thought of walking down the aisle while everyone stares at me is completely terrifying.  I'm so ready to marry Dave and celebrate with our friends and family, but I just cannot get over this nervousness.  I keep waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares about the wedding; I sure hope this is normal!  I'm just ready to be husband and wife and want these nerves to disappear.

I guess I just need reassurance that this is completely normal...

Fall Decor

So, I know I've been saying I was going to post about my pumpkin decorations for awhile now, but unfortunately one of my pumpkins bit the dust after I finished it.  I'm so mad that I didn't take a picture of it prior, but I was sure happy with the outcome.  I had spray-painted it silver and then with black fabric paint, I drew some dotted patterns.  My decorations aren't as great as I thought they would be, but still give our place the nice fall look.

I simply put a pumpkin on a cake stand with leaves that I bought from World Market.  I also put tea lights on the cake stand.  I also purchased leaf-shaped tea light holders from World Market...super cute!  I bought 2 little white pumpkins and put them on our entertainment center along with a pie pumpkin and a gourd.  On our books shelf I put a pumpkin that I spray-painted with chalkboard paint then I simply wrote "BOO" with chalk.  I also put 2 little pumpkins up there. I am hoping to pick up a fall wreath to put on our door within the next couple days!  I just love fall and love our place to show that! :)

Dave and I were on a mission last night to make our place look absolutely perfect for all of our guests this weekend!  We have already received so many wonderful wedding gifts but have limited space in our apartment so we've been trying to reorganize our things and go through stuff we don't need anymore.  I went to Target last night to pick up a couple things and since Dave's little cousins are coming tonight, I decided to make them each a cute Halloween basket with goodies.  I hope they like them! :)  I also bought all the essentials (sprinkles and orange icing) to make fabulous Halloween cookies!  Dave's cousins arrive tonight with Dave's mom and her sister.  Apparently Dave's cousins, Val and Mia, want to swim in our indoor pool, bake cookies and eat macaroni and cheese with me...girls after my own heart! :)  Such a fun weekend ahead...I'm beyond excited!! :)

I Can Breathe Again

Tax deadline is OVER, I'm FINALLY feeling 100% and it's 25 days until I get married!  I have so much to be thankful for!  I am so excited for this upcoming weekend.  It's my bachelorette weekend and my aunt is throwing me a shower!  I cannot wait to see all my family and friends, especially my sister who I haven't seen since Christmas!  Just 3 more days of work this week, then let the fun commence!! :) 

I hope to post this week about my fall decorations.  I'm still putting on the finishing touches! ;)  Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...

Sorry I've been absent for quite awhile.  I've been busy at work tackling a couple quickly approaching deadlines and also been very sick.  Being sick and swamped at work is not the best combination but I'm determined to push through it.  I have so many exciting things happening in the next couple weeks that I really need to start feeling like myself again!

Enough about that. Last week I made 2 loaves of apple bread which apparently were a huge hit! (I didn't try any)  Dave loved his loaf and I brought the other loaf into work and got so many compliments!  Click -->here <--for the recipe.  I am also hoping to finish my pumpkin project his week so hopefully I can post about that this week.  Hope everyone had a great weekend and for all of you lucky enough to have Columbus Day off, enjoy!  Oh and I forgot to mention, my cousin had a beautiful baby girl this morning named Sadie Shea.  I cannot wait to meet this precious baby girl! :)

Is Chivalry Dead?

So I got into the elevator tonight with boxes in both of my hands and there is just one gentleman in the elevator.  He could see I had my hands full yet he did not offer to ask what floor I was going to so he could push the button for me.  Maybe I was in the wrong thinking he should have asked?  Maybe I was in the wrong and I should have asked for him to push the button?  So when I got home, I thought to myself, is chivalry dead?  I was brought up in a house where you ALWAYS said please and thank you, where you ALWAYS personally write a thank you note for a gift you've received, where you ALWAYS hold the door for your elder, where you are ALWAYS just gosh darn polite!!  I understand that women want to be treated equally and boy am I a firm believer in that, but I still think it's nice when a guy holds the door open for a woman, when he lets her get off the elevator first.  I don't think there is anything wrong with that.  Luckily, I'm about to marry a guy who ALWAYS holds the door open for me, who walks on the side closest to the street, who ALWAYS lets me exit the elevator first.  Maybe it's just me.  Maybe it's just the way I was brought up.  But whatever it is, I appreciate chivalry and I sure hope it's not dying.

Mini Apple Pies

I know it seems like we do this EVERY weekend, but since Saturday was our first crisp fall day, we decided we would venture out west to our FAVORITE orchard, Stribling Orchard.  We needed to replenish our stock of apples so we had a nice pick and also bought a 1/2 gallon of apple cider...yum!! :)  We also picked 2 pumpkins which I will have a post on later this week! (a little arts & crafts project).  After apple picking, we decided to stop by a winery which was located next to the orchard and just happened to be named, Chateau O'Brien!  We had a wonderful tasting.  We did the "Cellar Wine Tasting" which was a red wine tasting menu that featured 5 different wines.  After our tasting, which was very informative to say the least, we shared a glass of wine on the patio and just enjoyed each other's company.

That night I decided I would bake Dave a nice apple treat.  I've seen so many delicious apple recipes on Pinterest that I've wanted to try.  I decided to make these bite sized apple pies.  Dave seemed to LOVE them.  I didn't try them because I'm not a pie fan but I have to admit, they looked pretty darn cute.  They were very easy to make.  Hopefully I can try some more apple recipes later this week.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!