Movie Mayhem

Happy Tuesday!

Thank you for your sweet comments on the post below!  I definitely feel encouraged through your words and blessed to have the mop on my head that God gave me.  Regardless, I think my precious Chi will be accompanying my daily routine for quite a while still.

Holy cow, this week is SUPER busy! I apologize in advance for my lack of posts.  I have several work projects that I’m trying to finish – all of them design oriented – so it truly is SO much fun, but OH-SO busy! 

This past weekend was awesome! It was full of amazing times spent with precious friends.  I met up with a dear, sweet friend from college that I haven’t seen in two years!  Hubby and I spent Saturday evening with a couple we just met and we had a BLAST!  We are still constantly meeting new people where we live.  We’re so grateful for the amount of love we’re receiving.  THIS weekend we are heading to Baltimore!  All of our PSU lovies will be there, it really will be like a mini-reunion.  We are going to several costume parties, so this year we have been racking our brains for creative costume ideas.  It’s been so much fun planning, AND a little tedious, haha.  The possibilities are endless!

Here are a few that I think are so creative and I just love…

(apparently I’m all about movie costumes this year)

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Ann Darrow from King Kong – seriously, how fun is this?!  The gorilla hand is an inflatable thing that wraps around you.  LOVE IT!

Archie, Betty, Jughead and Veronica from the Archie comic strips – how fun for two couples going to a party together!

 

Fred and Velma from Scooby Doo, and the rest of the gang – I know this one is already a popular costume idea, but it’s still so much fun.

Miss Piggy from The Muppets – definitely needs a pig snout to go with it.

Princess Fiona and Shrek  – Okay, this CRACKS ME UP!  They look JUST like the actual characters.

Elle from Legally Blonde – Who wouldn’t want to be Elle?

Cruella De Vil – I had to add this one.  Love the wig.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Are you dressing up?  Are your kiddos dressing up?  Halloween isn’t exactly my favorite holiday, but I love spending an evening with sweet friends, making precious memories, all while in outrageous duds.  Unfortunately, I really don’t know if I’ll have an opportunity to jump back on here this week, so get ready next week for tons of pictures from a weekend in Baltimore!  Yay!  I’m excited to reveal our costumes.

Have an amazing and SAFE time this weekend!

Blessings/XOXO

 

All of the above images are from Zoogster.

Turbo5,000

Would you like to know the one beauty tool that I find absolutely ESSENTIAL to my daily routine and can’t possibly imagine living without?

(Okay, that may be a LITTLE dramatic, but still…)

I’ll give you a clue.

The following pictures have something in common.

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(Hubs & I with my niece and nephew from TX – seriously, how cute are they!?!)

(My PSU bffs!  Ahh, loveeee them)

And one last picture…

 

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WELL.

Now, take a look at this…

The secret is out.

Hubby calls my straightener the “TurboChi5,000”, because well, he is mesmerized by its power to transform my hair.  He sees me using it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Ohhhhh, sweet straightener, how I love thee!  Fortunately, now that my hair is longer, the curls/waves are weighted down and are so much easier to manage.  I honestly don’t know what I did back before straighteners were invented!  Isn’t it crazy what the power of a beauty tool can do?! The first time my in-laws saw me in my “natural state”, they didn’t even recognize me and actually walked up to introduce themselves!  Too funny.

What is your must-have beauty tool/product?  Please, do tell!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thursday and a wonderful weekend!

Blessings/XOXO

PS. My FIL is doing SO well!! Thank you so much for your prayers, we have really felt them this week.  He is out of ICU and we are praying he makes it home SOON.  I cannot thank you enough for your encouraging and kind words.  We appreciate it so much!

Li’l Recap.

Happy Tuesday, B-Loves! 

The 5 mile run went off perfectly.  It was definitely cold and rainy, but despite the crummy weather there was a huge turnout.  I finished and didn’t slip or fall once, so yayyyy for that!  Hubby was the most amazing cheerleader.  He made me feel so special and loved, it was awesome.  There I am on the right, in my hot pink and black pants.  It was so fun being amidst a sea of pink!  I am so happy I was able to be a part of the special day.

Our weekend actually had an unexpected turn of events.  My sweet father-in-love was admitted to the hospital suddenly while out of town, so my hubby flew out on Saturday after the race to go see him.  He is doing so much better and we are praying for a full and speedy recovery.  If you feel led, prayers for my FIL and my hubby’s family would be AWESOME.  I know the power of prayer!!  Sorry for being so vague.

After hubby took off, Tucker and I decided to pack our bags and take a trip to my mom and dad’s house.  It was so nice being home with them.  We went to dinner, watched movies, drank wine, and Sunday we spent the day SHOPPING.  Ohhhh how I love shopping with my precious mommykins!  I have been on the lookout for a new pair of black boots with a HIGH heel.  I adore heels, especially in the winter so my pants aren’t dragging in the ice and snow.  I stumbled across a pair of Michael Kors booties and it was love at first sight.  I know, I know – it’s a REALLY high heel!  Ahhh, it makes me love them that much more.  I went home and tried them on with all of my long jeans and they are so cute!

Michael Kors webster bootie

Hubby gets home tonight and I am THRILLED to be back in his arms.  The past few days have been a little bit of an emotional whirlwind, but we are praising God for his love and are resting in his sovereignty right now.  He is good!

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Blessings/XOXO

this & that.

This

I’m really excited!  This Saturday is the Women’s 5k Classic and I’m doing the 5 mile run.  It’s for such an awesome cause and I’m really excited to be a part of it.  The forecast is NOT favorable for Saturday, but the event is being held rain or shine and call me crazy, but I think it would be kind of fun to run in the rain!  Ha, see if I still think that come Saturday morning, BUT as of right now, it sounds like an adventure!  I’ll let you know how it goes.  Hopefully I come out at the end alive!  I’m known for being a little clumsy.  Running in the rain?  It should be fun for hubby to watch.

That

On a completely different note…

I have been on the lookout for new Christmas stockings for quite some time now.  I didn’t find anything last year that I really loved so I decided to wait until this year.  I found these embroidered ones last night in our PB catalog and am impressed!  The other stockings I have seen at PB have been VERY plain and just not as fun as I hoped they would be.  I asked hubs for his opinion and he said he wouldn’t mind waking up Christmas morning to a snowflake donned stocking (second from the left in the picture).  For me, I love the one with the white berries (third).  Our parents have stockings for us at their houses, but I’m excited to get our own that will stay at our house.  Fun stuff.  Sooo, I’m thinking these may be it!  Of course little Tucker will get one too, but I’m still looking for his – not sure the pinecone one is up his alley.  Before I jump online and buy them I want to ask you lovely ladies if I am missing out on some fabulous, fun stockings you have seen somewhere.  Any hidden gems that you have found?  Please let me know!  

Happy Thursday!  Have an AMAZING weekend!

Blessings/XOXO

- photo courtesy of PB

 

Delicious.

Last night was rainy and chilly. 

It was also heavenly. 

Thanks to a lovely little purchase I made earlier in the day. 

Michael’s voice and I had a blissful evening together full of fine cooking and delectable wine.  (Love his new CD!)

Hubby absolutely LOVES French onion soup.  It’s also my dad’s favorite soup, so I have known for quite some time that some day, some how, I needed to come up with a homemade version – a daunting task, I was sure.  Ohhhhh, Paula Deen, how I love you!  Ladies, you must try this recipe!  It was a little time consuming but SO easy.  And I am not going to lie, I thought I was the best chef in the world after sampling my concoction before serving.  It was the perfect meal for a rainy and chilly night.  Please note that the recipe calls for dry white wine in the soup. I highly recommend additionally adding some tasty red wine in your mouth, while cooking.  Oh, and plenty of pumpkin spice candles burning.  It’s all about the ambiance to get your creative cooking juices flowing!

Paula Deen’s French Onion Soup

Courtesy of the Food Network

Ingredients

• 4 onions, sliced (our onions were HUGE, so I only used 3 for both of us!)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 8 cups beef stock
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper
• 1 loaf French bread
• 2 cups grated Gruyere (it’s not hard to find, most cheese sections carry it)

Directions

Saute onions and garlic in oil over low heat until tender and golden yellow. Sprinkle flour over onions, cook a few minutes more, browning the flour well. Add stock and wine and bring to a boil, add thyme and bay leaf. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently for 20 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Meanwhile, slice French bread into 3/4-inch slices and butter both sides. Toast slices on griddle until golden brown. Ladle soup into an ovenproof bowl, add toasted bread and cover with cheese. Place ovenproof bowl on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees F or 5 minutes under a hot broiler.

Delicious.

Happy Tuesday!

Blessings/XOXO

Make yourself at home.

If you were to stop by our house, you would be greeted with this…

 

We would watch You’ve Got Mail and simultaneously look at this…

See those two, twig pumpkins on the bottom left?  Target – this season!  Loveee ‘em.

We would stuff our faces with this…

Apple Crumble Cake

compliments of justhungry.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 5 medium or small apples - about 4 cups worth of cut up apple, but you can do it with a bit more or less
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 'large' egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup melted butter, or a combination of melted butter and neutral-tasting oil such as safflour or canola

For the crumble mixture:

• 3/4 cup of raw cane sugar, muscovado sugar, or regular light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbs. butter
• 1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180° C / 350° F.

Grease a standard square cake pan (20cm x 20cm x 5cm, or 8" x 8" x 2") with butter.

Sift the flour and baking powder together, and mix in the granulated sugar. Add the milk, beaten egg and melted butter or butter/oil combo; mix together just until there are no huge lumps. Pour into the pan.

Make the crumble mixture: melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, sugar and cinnamon, and mix well until it become crumble.

Peel, core and cut up the apples, and put on to of the cake batter. Sprinkle the top with the crumble mixture.

Bake for about 40 minutes. Cut into squares. Serve warm plain or with whipped cream. You can nuke this to warm it up quite successfully. Also nice at room temperature, such as in a lunch box.

And I would be wearing this…

(Just ordered it!  Don’t you just love it?!  From Anthropologie.)

So if you’re in the neighborhood, let me know!  :o)

Happy Thursday, loves!  Have an AMAZING weekend!!

Blessings/XOXO

PS. Thank you SO much for all of your sweeeet comments below!  It makes it that much more fun to share pictures, tell stories and talk about the random happenings of sweet hubby’s and my life.  Thanks for the encouragement!

Playing some MAJOR catch up, whew!

Happy Tuesday, Loves!

Okay, ready for some picture overload?  I figured the best way to get caught up with everything is to just post away!  So, here it goes…

NYC was FABULOUS!!!  I had such an AMAZING time with my man.

Waiting for our elevator, ready to hit the town!

My STUD muffin.

Outside our apartment!  Oh yes, we had our own Manhattan, three bedroom apartment for the weekend.  SCORE!

Our 2 year anny was so amazing, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for three years!  And FIFTY!

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Hubby’s Birthday Skydiving Pictures!

I surprised my handsome hubby with a skydiving jump two weekends ago for his birthday.  He had a BLAST!!!  We paid for someone to jump with him, snap pictures and videotape the whole experience.  Here are some of the pictures I promised!

In the plane getting ready to go…

View from the plane.

About to jump…

They did a BACKFLIP out of the plane!  I didn’t even do that!  He’s so brave.  Although I also don’t know that he really had much of a choice…

Freefalling with his tandem partner.

Heeeheeee, I love this.

Parachute is pulled…

Going up and up…

Coming in for their landing…

He’s back, safe and sound! I love you, handsome! 

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I recently played along in a scarf swap hosted by the ever-so-lovely, Meredith.  The gist: get paired up, swap scarves, post about it.  I was paired up with Ashley and could not have been more thrilled!  She has become my newest lovie and is a total sweetheart!  She has an adorable little girl named Grace and is expecting little Jacob right now.  Ashley, you are definitely the other pea in my pod.  ;o)

Check out this amazing package I received in the mail.

It was almost too pretty to open!  ALMOST. 

Inside I found this little beauty…

How perfect and sassy!  I just loveee scarves. Thank you sooo much, Ashley!!  I have had a blast getting to know you!  I hope you enjoy mine!

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Last night hubby and I made Grilled Eggplant Parmigiana Heros and they were DELISH!  I was going to post about them, but I think this is a good time to stop.  I don’t want to lose my audience for good!  You can find the recipe here.  The best part about it was that the sauce we used for the sandwiches tasted like an excellent bruschetta topping.  Two recipes in one, really!

 

Okay, PHEW, I think that just about does it.  Can’t wait to show pictures of our fall decorations soon.  I’m loving our mantel!

Have an amazing day!

Blessings/XOXO