Deck The Halls

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I love everything about this season!! The cold noses the hot apple cider and the friends and family coming together. I especially love decorating. This year in particular (seeing as how it is our first Christmas married) I wanted to make sure the Holidays knew they were welcome in our home.  I didn't have a whole lot and just kind of pulled from whatever we had accumulated over the years. The end result turned out pretty great I think!  It is so warm and cozy and perfect for watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate! Here is our Tree all lit up : )  This year is going to be pretty quiet as far as Christmas is concerned, which is just fine! This year, for the first time ever, I will be cooking the Christmas dinner and I must admit I am slightly daunted by the task. I am, however, excited to test my culinary skills and see what happens.  But more on that later...For now I just want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! May it be warm and bright and full of light!

"After all this time?"..."Always"...

It is of course no secret that I am a Harry Potter fan.  So naturally when given the opportunity to have a Harry Potter viewing party I jumped at the chance.  From home made Butter Beer to Licorice Wands and Pumpkin Pasties to coloring books we had it all! My best friend Melanie and I even went so far as to make shirts (insert snort of laughter here). We started at 10am Friday morning and ended at 4am Saturday morning...yes you read that right  - 18 hours of Harry Potter magic.  We did not even pause between movies.  We declared ourselves insane shortly after concluding.  Was it worth it? Oh yes!!! It was most definitely worth it!! It could not have been more fun. From beginning to end we saw the characters grow up and fight the battles of life and we were honored to join them!   To entertain ourselves we bought a Harry Potter coloring book (don't hate - appreciate).  Shown are a few of the masterpieces we created. 

Family Photos

             So at the risk of sounding like one of those crazy people who only ever talk about their animals, I am once again blogging about our adorable dog Molly.   A few weeks ago my dear friend Melanie and I, along with Molly, were sitting at Starbucks after a sleepless night watching every single Harry Potter movie back to back (view THAT blog HERE).  Whilst sipping on espresso laden drinks and laughing about the insanity of the day before, a Starbucks employee on break came over and mentioned how cute Molly was (on this we agreed) and she mentioned that her name was Megan and she was a photographer. She also mentioned that she had been wanting to do a photo-shoot with people and their animals and would I be interested? She kindly gave me her card and asked me to contact her if I decided to take her up on her generous offer.  A free photo-shoot? How could I say no? I visited her website to get a feel for her style and was immediately impressed by her free and lively pictures. She shoots real life at it's finest! I instantly loved her candid and real approach to people and photos. So a few days later we met her at the very Starbucks where we met and headed out for an afternoon of fun.  Several hours later (and one exhausted puppy/humans) later we were done.  Below are the results of this wonderful photographer's work.  I have also listed all her contact information if you are interested in her services!

MEGAN RIEFF: A Dot In Time Photography
http://www.adotintimephotography.com

 

 

 

                           

       

Molly Dog

         So before the wedding we made several trips to Post to finalize details and make sure everything was in order. Molly decided to accompany us on one of these trips and decided she deserved to ride first class.  Now I ask you...who can resist such a face?! We certainly couldn't and poor Michael endured the entire 45min care ride as he did not want to disturb her highness... She started out on my shoulders but decided daddy needed some love so she hopped up on his.
      We have since trained her to sit like the dog she is in the back seat (ok ok..sometimes she still sits in our laps).  As she is destined to be a 60lb dog we thought it best not to let her get too used to it : )  She is such a good little traveler though, and she spends her ride running back and forth from window to window.  We are trying to find a puppy class to take her too now that she has all of her shots! As I am writing this she is already almost 4months!!! Hard to believe but true none the less.   Let the training commence!

Oh Honey, Honey

I am a girl who loves the simple things of life.  I love simply sitting on a porch sipping sweet tea and I love the simple joy of long luxurious bubble baths.  I also love handmade, well, anything.  It complements the simplicity idea nicely.  So when I was trying to think of what to give the girls who would stand beside me on the biggest day of my life I knew that it would have to be a perfect combination of simplicity and handmade.   The solution was a super simple handmade sugar scrub.  I got the recipe off of Pinterest.com (one of my favorite sites).  The ingredients were few and the time needed was not exorbitant.  Although I highly recommend stockpiling honey (I had to send Michael out twice for more honey) it was one of the easiest D.I.Y. projects I have tackled yet!  I bought the jars cheep at Walmart and designed the tags using Microsoft Word, scrapbook paper and craft scissors.   The overall effect was fun and festive and smelled super yummy! The more I thought about the more I realized how perfect this would be for holiday hostess gifts or for giving to girlfriends on any occasion!  If you try it leave me a comment and let me know any hints or tips you discovered and if you liked it or not!!