Domestic Sunday

I not sure what got into me today, but I've been go, go, go all day and it's only the afternoon.

For starters I got up early enough to go to church. That hasn't happen in a long time, but it was nice to go. I even ran into one of Sam's cousins there. After church, I stopped by the banquet hall to put in another deposit for the wedding reception. Then I went to the store to pick up for some food for lunch and dinner. On the menu- tacos for lunch and chili for dinner.

I love to make chili in the fall and winter because it's so easy to make. Also it's a pretty filling meal.  Here is what went into my chili.

 
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 1 can of tomatoes and chilies
- 1 can of tomato paste
- 1 can of tomato soup
- 1 can of kidney beans
- 1 can of chili beans
- 1 packet of chili seasoning

On top of making lunch and dinner, I also made some muffins.

I have put my new crock-pot, muffin pan and the muffin mix  (all which I received at my wedding shower) to good use today. Now I just have to wait till Sam gets home and all this food will be history.

What is some of your favorite fall foods?

Wedding Dress Roadtrip

Last weekend was pretty crazy. (Oh by the way... Hi! Long time no blogging.) My cousin had her baby and I couldn't be happier for her and her family.

(From left to right- my mom, my mom's cousin, my (2nd) cousin plus baby on board, and me)

I have been meaning to make a trip to Michigan because my other cousin (the new mommy's younger sister) said she would do the alteration on the wedding dress. So this weekend seemed like a prefect time to do a wedding dress road trip. I got my dress altered and got to see the new baby.



I was shocked on how quick my cousin was able to make all the alterations to my dress. Granted all it really needed was the side taken in and a bushel added, but all those things are easier said then done. I really didn't know how many steps there is when it come to altering a wedding dress until my cousin showed me.

(The cousin after a long day of working on dress and undershirt)

Also while I was in Michigan, I got to spend a little time with my grandma and uncle. I figure if I made the long trip might as well get the most out of it.

All and all it was a great weekend. Plus I get to check another thing off the wedding to do list. We are only a month and half a way... time is really moving fast. 

My Labor Day Weekend

I have to say now that I have a full time job, I really do appreciate a three day weekend. When I was only working part-time, I always had a 3 or 4 day weekend; however back then a long weekend to me just meant I hadn't achieved my goal of getting a full time job. But now, it is just a special treat I get every so often.

I tried to keep my weekend pretty low key while spending some time with friends and family. 

Friday night, I when out with my mom and one of her friends for food and cocktails.

I got a chocolate cake martini which was really good. Plus, I got to try out my new camera that I got as a gift at my wedding shower.

I also got to spend some time with my bridal party and other friends in the last few nights as well.

It's nice to just to be able to hang out with old friends and catch up. Most of the talk was wedding related, but I guess that is to be expected when two of us in our group of friends are engaged.

I've also been busy with writing up all my thank you notes.

All of these are already done, and I still have at 20+ more to go. So, I hope to have all of them in the mail by the end of the week. Once these are out of the way, I can really start focusing on finishing all the other details of the wedding.

Question: How did you spend your holiday weekend?

Wedding Centerpieces

With only 55 days left till the wedding, we are officially at crunch time. All the things that are left to do, really need to start getting done. This includes my DYI wedding centerpieces. I really want to get as much done in the next few weeks as I can, that way I'm not completely stress out right before the wedding.

Awhile ago, I wrote about my plans for my wedding shower centerpieces; however, I didn't end up making those for the shower because Sam's mom bought her own. So, I'm making sure that I get some use out of the vases I bought. With that said, I have already gone ahead and made one of my wedding centerpieces with them. (How I made these will come in a later post.)

The colors I'm using for my wedding are black, purple, and silver. So these have a little bit of all my colors in this one centerpiece. 

I really like how these turned out, but I love when there a few different types of centerpieces at a wedding. Also, I love when there is a mix of different heights between the centerpieces as while. So now my challenge is to try to get all my centerpieces (I think I'll be having 4 to 5 different centerpieces throughout the room) to look like they "go" together.

For my wedding shower gift my mom bought me 3 other types of vases to use for my centerpieces. So here are the other vases I'll be working with....

My mom bought 6 of each of these vases. Plus, I still have 12 of the vases I bought for my shower giving me 30 centerpiece (if needed).

Currently, I have ideas for the first two vases but the "fish bowl" is the where I'm having a hard time figuring out what I'm going to do with it. I know I'll figure something out. I just hope I get an idea here in the next week or so because time is starting to run out.

Question: Did you/ would you try to make your own centerpieces? 

Busy Bee with Wedding Activites

Hi everyone! What a crazy few weeks. Here's a quick recap of what has gone down.

Ended both my part time jobs.
Started a new job.
Had our wedding tasting.
Had our wedding shower.
Started teaching my first class ever.
Went shopping for my DIY centerpieces. (To be talked about soon.)
Order my wedding veil. (Sorry, you'll have to wait till the wedding to see what I picked)
Started writing my thank you notes.
Made our final wedding menu selections.

I'm sorry I've been slacking on my posts but I haven't forgotten about you.

I'm excited for the holiday weekend. I hope with the 3 day weekend I can get caught up with all my loose ends that need to be tied up and get into a regular routine again. (which includes posting more often and reading more blogs)

Have a great weekend and blog to you soon!

Wedding Shower!

Hi Everyone! Did you miss me? I missed you!

I'm sorry I haven't posted all week. Being that this was the first week at my new job, my first week ever teaching a class, and my first (and only) wedding shower, it's been a bit crazy.

 (Sam's brother Jimmy and his hat)

So I have to admitted, I was a little nervous about my shower. My soon-to-be mother-in-law planned the whole thing, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, she did a beautiful job! I really couldn't have asked for a nicer shower.

  Sam's mom got us corsages, and my went on easy enough. Sam's... well not so much.

Does he look scared? Yeah, for some reason he doesn't trust me with a sharp pin by his chest; but no one was hurt in the putting on of this corsage.

Our showers was much bigger than I ever expected it to be, but I guess I should have known better. I mean we are inviting 335 people to the wedding, so I should have expected a big shower. Everyone was so generous, and I feel so bless by everyone's givings.

I love that Sam was so involved with this wedding shower. He seemed really happy to be there. However, considering he picked out more than half of the kitchen stuff we registered for, he should have been. He has already gotten into many of new kitchen gadgets. 

I feel blessed because we had people come in from out-of-town and even out of state. All my family lives out of state, so I was really happy that my cousins, grandma, and aunt were able to come. 

Also, I bet I'm one of the few girls who got to have a fire truck at her wedding shower!

One of Sam's groomsmen is a fireman, and he decided to come crash the shower- with the fire truck.

I really can't explain how excited I was to get to take pictures with the truck. I don't know, I became I little kid again and just couldn't stop smiling.

We had a great shower, and I'm now really starting to get excited for the wedding. I know it will be here before I know it, but there still a lot to do. On the top of that list- is getting out the "Thank You" notes to all the guests who made my shower so special.

Question: Do I have to hand write every note? Or could I type something up? (I really don't like my handwriting, and I want to make sure people can read the notes I send- so I'm not sure what I should do.)

Big Girl Job with my Big Girl Lunch

Happy new job day to me!

It went down without too many issues. Currently, I don't have a office because the advisor I'm replacing is still working for the college till the end of this month. However, it is nice that I can get trained by both the advisors first and then find my own system that works for me.

I have to say the campus I work on is very confusing because they have tons of random hallways that go in every direction, but I think I'm starting to figure out my way around.

I figured I would enjoy my first lunch hour enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon. I sat at the picnic tables pictured above, and tried to get a little color in my skin while I can. I even got to use my new sunglasses!

So for my first day at my "big girl job", I thought I should be an adult and pack a "big girl lunch". With the wedding getting closer, eating healthier probably is a good idea.

There also was a left-over square of pizza, but that was eaten before I thought about taking photos of my lunch. But once I saw how pretty my fruit looked, I had to take a picture- which lead to a blog post.

Doesn't it look good! And let me tell you it was. Other than the tasty fruit, I also got to enjoy the view from my picnic table of the pond which the building over looks.

However, I think my attempt to eat a healthy lunch was undone with our wedding tasting we went to tonight. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.) But all I can say is, there was A LOT of food to try. And they didn't just give you bite size tasting portions, it was done buffet style so you could try one of everything. I'm so full! However, Sam and I pretty well  know what we are going to be serving at the wedding, so that's one less thing to worry about.

All in all, it been a good day in the life of Stacy!


Question: Did you do a tasting for your wedding? What would you say is the best wedding food to serve? (I think I had one too many banquet dinners in my life to be objective on the subject.)