Hello...Goodbye...

No I'm not quoting The Beatles.

It's time to say hello to winter and goodbye to fall. And it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I hate when Thanksgiving is this late. I normally hold tight to my beliefs that Christmas decorations should wait to be seen until one holiday is finished and another begins. But this year I'm itching to get things up. So far I'm technically staying true to my own rule....there are no Santa's or stockings or Christmas tree's up yet. I only have a few appropriate things up that are more deemed "Winter" than "Christmas".

So I think that's totally acceptable. Yep...

Today (and my excuse is that it was a gorgeous day and why not take advantage, rather than putting things up in freezing cold temperatures...) I sadly took my outside fall decor down. The pumpkins were already shriveling, my straw-man was becoming frozen to his bench and all of my mums were brown (how do people keep those things alive anyways???)

Then up went the winter decor. Or the start of it. I have a few things to search for yet. It's actually kind of fun when you start a little early. I have time to get things the way I'd really like. You know....like the things one finds on Pinterest. How did we decorate before Pinterest? If you don't Pin, don't start. It's an addiction. It's worse than watching trashy reality T.V. If you are in the mood for fashion...pin. In the mood for food...pin. Decorating...pin. You get the idea.

Anyways....since winter is coming and I never got to show off some of my fall stuff, I'm going to share some of the pictures I took a couple of weeks ago when it was sunny and sweatshirt weather...oh, those were the days.

 I had the husband wait to put this up until
after my last name was officially changed.

I attempted to take a picture...

Handsome little dog

My straw-man. Best idea ever. Have a friend assist, have some wine,
create a straw-man. And laugh our butts off.

Fall colors.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. I'll share my decor soon! What great ideas are you putting up this year for the holidays?

Sneak peek: A new pair of flannel sheets.
The bedroom is even getting a "winter"look
thanks to a whoppin' $25 at Wal-Mart.
(I hate admitting that I was there)

31 and One Day!

Happy birthday it was. I told my husband that I didn't want or need any presents this year and that I just wanted to pay my credit card off (from the "baby" dogs emergency surgery in the midst of wedding planning). However, I was given the sweetest card with a pretty thoughtful gift. Inside he put money and a note that said "for clothes only". Now if that isn't the way to a girls heart, I don't know what is!

I also made myself an incredible dessert. (Yes...I know, I made it myself. My husband is great....but a baker he will never be.) But these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bars are worth getting up off the couch and baking for. I Googled until I found something that I had all the ingredients. I was feeling very, very, very unambitious on Sunday and now that we live in the boonies....I didn't want to go to the store. That's how lazy I was. And yet, I found the energy to whip these babies up and they were delish! Martha Stewart knows what she's talking about!

I had a short day at the bridal salon but took this incredible dessert to work to share with my coworkers. And while I mentioned to a fellow coworker that it was my birthday on Monday, I had no idea that she would bring me flowers! What an incredibly generous thing for someone to do!

My afternoon was spent working on a DIY wreath made out of book pages. This might be the most time consuming project I've taken on. I've put hours into this thing already and I'm NOT even CLOSE to half done. It better look amazing when I'm finished!

My birthday was topped off with dinner, drinks and great conversation with my husband and parents at one of our favorite local restaurants. It was a wonderful, relaxing night and with the help of my friend Dirty Shirley I accepted being another year older.

But MOST of all....

THANK YOU to all of my friends and family for their birthday wishes on Facebook. We ALL know that I am a FB junkie. And sometimes (and by sometimes I mean not very often, but once in a great while) I try my hardest to stay off it because I know all that social media cannot be good for the mind. But yesterday it made me feel like a million bucks. I had SO many people wishing me a great birthday, it was absolutely mind blowing. So THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

And for the friends that text me yesterday, you're awesome. You know how to make a girl feel loved.

I cannot believe how unbelievably happy I am. I truly hope that I can make someone smile the way you all made me smile yesterday (and still smiling today).

I am BLESSED!

Savannah!

Our honeymoon was awesome. The end.

 JUST KIDDING!

I have so much that I want to share but here's the catch....I'm trying to type on an iPad. Me. A total keyboard freak. I really need real buttons. No joke. It took me long enough to learn to deal without a mouse when I upgraded to a laptop. Jeesh...and I'm the techie of the household.

So here's the deal. I'll do the best I can and when I'm at my wits end and cursing at this fancy piece of technology, I'll say goodnight.

The first question people ask us when they hear we went to Savannah is "why?"

The reason is simple. History and sightseeing. We didn't want to spend a week just laying on a beach getting drunk...(we're saving that for the future). We wanted something fun, charming and relaxing all in one. We most definitely got it. There was more history than we could even imagine. And there's nothing more relaxing than walking around the squares talking and having fun with your best friend. As much as I enjoyed this trip it is hard to put it into words. So I'm going to share what I thought was the best part of all....the sights.

Be prepared, I took hundreds. Really. I'll do my best to limit myself to the good ones.

(I've already switched to my laptop....who the heck knows how to upload photo's to a blog from an iPad??)

Paula Dean's restaurant. We had fried chicken and spicy greens. But
most of all, I liked the building.

The courthouse. Pretty Impressive.

Love all the brick buildings.

Gigantic barges were a norm.

Just pretty. Old

One of the many cool fountains that were in the city squares.

Fort Pulaski. So much history. Can you imagine this
being a drawbridge?

I could still sense the cannons and soldiers
that once called this place home.

Cannon holes from the day that the fort was seized.
In those days this fort was considered indestructible.

It took 30 hours to conquer Fort Pulaski.

One very old blue door. The architecture
was absolutely incredible.

Forsyth Park.
(Tony wouldn't let me jump the fence to run through the pool. :)

An old house that we were able to walk through.
It's actually an antique store but I loved the house!

Anyone read Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil?
This is the Mercer House where the murder happened.

Winter in Georgia? A photoshoot took place.
If I heard correctly, I heard it was for Vogue.
I want to know if anyone's seen it??

 Stone walls, stair and buildings were everywhere.

More old architecture. Who knew I liked architecture so much?

Atmosphere in the old house we got to walk through.

Long staircase. I wonder how many
people have walked up and down those stairs
and used that banister to steady themselves.
Slaves? Maids? Madams? Town folk?

A monument in Forsyth Park.

Color in Forsyth Park.

Savannah also had a Victorian era. The homes and
colors are beautiful and breathtaking.

Colorful

Colonial Cemetery. It used to be one of the largest
cemetery's. It's now a smaller "park" which means
the city of Savannah is built on thousands of bodies.

The haunted house in daylight. This is the one that
has had mulitple owners but no one has lived there
since 1973. It was built on top of the slaves
"grave yard", a pit where all the slaves were thrown
when they were dead or thought to be dead.

Because General Sherman and his troops knocked over numerous headstones
during the civil war, many of the stones no longer match with the graves.
To honor these people the headstones (that were not broken)
were mounted to a brick wall. The impact is powerful.

One of the signers of the Deceleration of Independence.

Many of the deceased were taken from this world
by Yellow fever. I'll let you Google that. It's grotesque.

Married at 11 years old.

The most photographed Victorian house in Savannah.

My favorite place we saw. Wormsloe Plantation.

Remains of the original "plantation" at Wormsloe.
It is said that the builder, Noble Jones, was
a founder of Georgia.

I did get to dip my feet in one fountain!

Another fountain in a square. 

Tybee Island lighthouse. It was rebuilt 4 times.
The original was built by Noble Jones of Wormsloe.

In the ocean!

Posing at Tybee beach. There was a sign that said to stay off the rocks.
I'm such a rebel.

The last day was spent on the beach. What
a beautiful day it was and gorgeous surroundings.

I hope you enjoyed some of my photo's. Due to my blog having some technical issues I wasn't able to share any of this with you until today! But woo hoo! It seems to be working with no errors tonight! I have so many more photo's but I'll end with these today. Maybe some others will sneak into some of my future posts. I cannot believe that it's been a month since our honeymoon already. How time flies when you're crazy busy with a new job and finally decorating a home....and of course having fun!

Have a great night everyone! See you all soon!

New Name + New House

Hello friends!
I cannot believe where the year has gone! I started this blog with the intention of filling everyone in on all my wedding planning and new adventures up until the big day and found out between all the DIY projects I did for the wedding, working at a bridal salon, working horses part time and moving into a new house.....THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO TIME FOR BLOGGING....OR HAVING A LIFE. My life was pretty much eat, sleep (poorly), work, plan....repeat.

So rather than going on and on about the whole summer and boring you to death by putting it in one long blog, I'll make it simple....

WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY(ONE MONTH BEFORE THE WEDDING) !!!

and

I'M NOW A MRS!!!!

(and I didn't kill hurt anyone during the process...)

So, now that I will actually have some time on my hands, I'll see about sharing some of the wedding projects I did for the wedding while I'm waiting for the "big" wedding photo reveal! (I do believe I'm just as excited about seeing our photo's as I was for the big day!)

Also, I FINALLY have time to start decorating our home and doing all the DIY projects I've had on the back burner. Today I got to do my first one and I'm really excited that it turned out!

When we moved into our home, the old lady that lived here left us a wooden cabinet that she personally made. It's been holding an assortment of random pieces that were unpacked and stored for lack of a better place to put things. It's really a neat piece but it definitely needed some updating. I'm still thinking about staining or painting it but even my husband thinks it looks much better.

After about an hour at JoAnn Fabrics picking out just the right shade of green fabric with just the right pattern, cardboard and $14.00 later, I was determined to tackle this project today. No more excuses. Including, putting off cleaning the bathroom. Sorry husband.

It's a time consuming but easy DIY!

A) Measure the shelf openings
B) Cut cardboard to size
C) Cut fabric
D) Wrap fabric around cardboard, pull tight and glue
E) Insert finished backdrop into shelves

BEFORE

AFTER

I used a green fabric with small white polka dots to add some texture.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

No Satellite T.V......

Hello my blogger friends!!! It's been eons since I've last been on here. There have been so many things going on in this crazy life that my blog has been neglected.

Well, amazing what having no T.V will do to my "Friday" night.

For those of you not from the area, we have just been pounded by snow, sleet and rain. Imagine, a thunderstorm in January! I have a feeling our little satellite is covered in a mound of wet packed snow. (That should just magically disappear or it's going to be a long day off tomorrow!)

So since Tony has decided bed is better than watching our T.V search for a signal, I thought I would take a few minutes to update everyone my latest happenings.

A) I started a new job. I am now a wedding consultant at David's Bridal. How appropriate, right??? Now that I know how exciting it is to become engaged and how fun the wedding planning is, I can relate to these women. It's been the most rewarding and fun job I've ever had....well....maybe second to "playing" with gorgeous horses all day!  I cannot even tell you how enjoyable it has been being busy. To not notice when you haven't taken a break or eaten my 1st or 4th snack of the day? That's almost a glorious feeling. It beats watching the clock ticking! Not to mention the great group of girls that I work with. I have fun no matter what I'm doing.  Now I just have to get used to the weekend hours... and the fact that I will probably never wear heels again...

B) Wedding planning is in full swing! I've been working on checking things off of my list. We have our dessert finally figured out!! (after only 3 or 4 short months of deciding and researching...) I started on my ceremony decorations, I have a hotel picked out and we have our after party bar! (we have to be out of our venue by 11:30.....and this bride isn't going to bed early on the best day ever!)  :) Things are really starting to feel real. However, while this time of year I'm normally all about bringing on spring and warm weather, I have to say...SLOW DOWN!! I'm NOT ready! I have WAY TO MUCH TO DO!!! So for the rest of you, this is probably a good omen because I have the worst luck in the world and never get my way! :)

Well, my T.V has been searching for a signal for the last half hour. I'm pretty sure that this means I should just go to bed and get my beauty sleep. I'll be better at staying in touch, keeping you all up to date on my wedding progress and I'll be sure to share my stories as a B.C! Trust me, I already have some good ones!

Good night everyone and stay warm!

Tiz the Season

Once again I've neglected my blog. I'm still slightly baffled that Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is in full swing. 

We went and cut down our tree this past weekend. It was 50+ degrees which is completely out of character for Wisconsin in December. It was hard to believe we were tree "hunting" with no snow, the wiener dog didn't need a sweater, and I had a vest on instead of a coat. Although...it's totally my kind of winter. You'll hear no complaining from me!

After spending all of Sunday afternoon decorating the tree and Monday night decorating the house, I'm finally able to sit and enjoy all the lights, candles and pine smell.

Here are some pictures I took of some of my decor. I'm still hoping to get the basement decorated a bit as well. Although Tony's already telling me it's a lot like Santa's workshop in here... :)

A close up of our pretty tree.

I was so proud of how this picture turned out. And then I realized
I had forgot to put a couple items away. Woops.

Twinkling snowman and a flicker candle
that smells the room up like pine. Love it!

My DIY chalk board tin (made from a tin plate from Goodwill).

My new shelf in the dining room.
Perfect for decorating.

My new favorite piece. I get something from the
gift shop where we cut down our tree every year.

I'd love to see your tree or Christmas decoration photos! Have a great rest of the week!