ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

I am very lucky to have a husband that is awesome at keeping secrets, plans romantic getaways and who I love to share a good adventure with. I can't believe a year has flown by already - it still feels like the wedding was yesterday.

You can check out all of the details and our wedding video here.

We started off our anniversary getting massages Friday evening, then came home to pack for an early morning road trip. Chris told me we were going to New York the night before and told me to pack something we could walk around in and something to wear to dinner. I love New York and Chris and I have only been together once before for Valentine's Day!

The drive there was gorgeous.

Once we got to the hotel Chris popped a bottle of champagne and we enjoyed mimosas and breakfast before hitting the streets. 

 Our first stop for the day was visiting the 9/11 memorial. Our hotel was literally right next to it and neither of us had been.

To say it took your breath away is an understatement. I feel so fortunate for the life we have been blessed with and cannot imagine losing someone I love to such a horrific tragedy. It was heartbreaking reading each of the names at the memorial - especially when you read "and her unborn child." My heart breaks for these families.

I loved reading about this pear tree. It is the only tree that survived the tragedy and they revived it from being only a stump in the New York park. Visiting in the fall only made it more gorgeous - being surrounded by all of the orange trees. 

Of course I had to stop and smell the roses ;-)

These flowers were calling my name as we were walking past a park. How gorgeous are these? A tiny patch of green in the concrete jungle. 

We decided to rent bikes and bike to the Hudson river. I love biking in the city! It was only 15 dollars to rent the bikes for a day, so we were sold. 

PS - I am that girl that will always have lipstick on her teeth. No matter how hard I try!

 We really lucked out with amazing weather. Last year we faced Hurricane Sandy the week of our wedding and were freezing taking photos outside. This year, the weather was gorgeous! Funny how things change in a year.

Also, these photos are proof that there is a God. How gorgeous. I am so thankful for this life and an amazing man to share it with.

We also found a turkey on our bike ride! 

After our bike rides we went back to the hotel, rested up for an hour then headed out to Stone Street to catch a drink before our dinner reservation. I love coming here and wanted to share it with Chris. 

For dinner Chris found a Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn. We walked and took the subway to Brooklyn and it was probably a good thing we walked so much - the food was awesome!

The next morning we took one last walk (New York is so picturesque in the fall) and enjoyed our coffee and breakfast on a bench. It was a bit chillier on Sunday, so it was the perfect day to head home (plus we beat all of the marathon traffic).

Rather than driving straight home, we drove to Kinder Farm in Severna Farm to meet up with Marisa from Misa*Me Photography (who took our awesome engagement photos) to have an anniversary mini shoot. She is an amazing photographer and her photos turn out so romantic - it's hard to choose a favorite! We definitely recommend them to all of our friends. Check out how gorgeous our friends Ashley and Doug look who also took advantage of the mini session for their engagement photos! Swoon :-)

Of course we couldn't forget to eat our wedding cake - which was surprisingly almost as good as the first time I tasted it. We had the Little Italy flavor from Baltimore Cakery as our cake topper and it is delicious!

I had such a fun and exciting weekend making new memories with Chris and celebrating another year in the books with my best friend. I can't wait to see what the next year holds for us!

HALLOWEEN 2013

Happy November 1st! 

Hopefully you had a great Halloween and didn't get soaked with the rain that came through last night and aren't in a complete sugar coma.


 
This was our second year in our house for Halloween and we learned a few lessons from last year: 1. We bought way too much candy last year (8 big bags) and ended up with at least 2.5 bags left over which we were forced to eat ;-) 2. As fun as it is to have little ones knocking on our door to scream trick or treat, it's 100 times easier to set up some chairs and a table at the end of our driveway with neighbors and hang out (win win for us).

My mom built her house last year and I love how new neighborhoods get into the holiday spirit and are all about their community. It's one of the things I look forward to when we one-day build a new home. This year, everyone in her neighborhood BOO'd each other - so I decided to BOO two houses in our neighborhood! You gather goodies and drop them on the front door step with a note and sign for the house to hang, knock on the door and run. Since I assembled, I made Chris drop and run!

It was really cute to see the house with the BOO'd sign posted to their door.

This year Chance was a T-Rex ... we were really excited!

Chris never looked more attractive then last night. Hoping he ages better than this!

My mom gave me the cutest and EASIEST Halloween idea. She helped me save empty milk/apple cider/tea jugs to turn into "ghosts" to line our front entry. I made these in 5 minutes and they were super cute.

I found a side without a label (you can remove them if you actually plan ahead) and then I painted on faces! I found black paint worked way better than a black sharpie. Drop a few glow sticks inside and you have yourself easy and cute ghosts!

There's nothing like a good throw back costume - this was my favorite and I miss working with these ladies!

FUN FALL WEEKEND IDEAS

We've been having an amazing fall and with Halloween just around the corner I wanted to share some easy and fun fall weekend ideas. Our weekends have been jammed packed with fall activities and hanging with friends and family. The weather this year has been perfect and we've been taking full advantage!

Here are a few of my favorite Fall weekend activities:

GO APPLE PICKING

I've always wanted to go apple picking so this year Chris, his sister, my mom and I went to Baugher's Farm in Westminster one Saturday morning and went apple picking! We had a ton of fun guessing each type and riding the hayride to the orchard. 

MAKE APPLE BUTTER

With all of the apples you pick, make a big batch of apple butter. I used this recipe and put it on toast, pancakes and plan on making a pumpkin pie with apple butter for Thanksgiving!

PICK PUMPKINS WITH FRIENDS

Picking pumpkins with your lover is always fun, but when you invite friends you can use them to take cute photos of you and your lover ;-)

Pick some pumpkins, grab some homemade apple cider, apple turnovers and homemade ice cream. Hopefully they won't be out of your favorite flavor when you go! (hint - they totally sold out of my butter pecan!)

STOP TO TAKE A FALL PHOTO

Life is too short and I love capturing moments in photos. I am starting our Lucas Yearbook this year. It'll be fun to look back on each year and all of the fun things we did!

Those corn stalks are also great for tying to your front porch posts. Peel back the corn in the husks and you have instant fall decorations!

HOST A PUMPKIN CARVING NIGHT
 

This year we thought it would be fun to host a pumpkin carving night at our house with friends. Pour some wine and try different seasonings when roasting the seeds. It's always fun to see how they turn out! 

VISIT A LOCAL FARMERS MARKET

Farmers markets are open well into the fall months and you'll never taste fruits/veggies as delicious as these. You can even find hard apple cider (my fav) and fresh bouquets at most!

GRAB BRUNCH IN A DIFFERENT TOWN

It's always fun grabbing brunch in a town you haven't visited in awhile. Browse groupon or living social - there are always brunch deals. We went to the Metropolitan kitchen in downtown Annapolis and grabbed drinks at a local bar on Main Street and caught the Ravens game one Sunday.

MAKE A FALL WREATH / CRAFT

I made this wreath one afternoon while watching football at home. I just picked up a wooden letter, burlap, grapevine wreath and fake hydrangeas and put this together! I love the way it turned out. 

I'm hoping to pick up some white trim and turn some burlap I bought at JoAnns into something like this!

GO FOR A FALL WALK / STROLL

Every weekend Chris and I take the dogs for a walk around our neighborhood. I love all of the leaves in the yards! 

The running paths at my work are gorgeous this time of year!

VISIT A FALL FESTIVAL
 

I love fall festivals! This year we headed to Fells Point in Baltimore for their Fells Fest. We grabbed beer, food and parked our butts on the pier to listen to the live music.

We also hit up our town's main street!

Some other fun outings we've had include going to a local food truck festival, attending a Halloween costume party and next weekend we are headed to the Raven's game!

REVIEW OF BETHESDA DRYBAR

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Recently my girlfriend Kelly invited me and a few girls to Bethesda's Drybar to get pampered before a night out in Georgetown for her birthday. I was excited to try it out!

When we walked in we were offered sparkling pink lemonade or cucumber water - both were delicious.

As you are getting your hair done, they play classic chick flicks and girly tunes - I was in heaven. I chose the cosmo and the birthday girl got the southern comfort. All hair styles are named after drinks!

One thing I hated was the check out process. The front desk girl was very unorganized and all receipts are emailed to you - which she completely forgot to tell us. Another thing was was disappointing is that all receipts are emailed to the individual who books the appointment - in this case, the birthday girl - so in reality when we paid for her hair, our surprise didn't go as smoothly.

While the girls who chose a style didn't love their hair (myself included), the girls who got a blow out loved theirs. I would definitely go back with a group of friends even though I didn't like the end result because ultimately it was a fun and relaxing experience to have with friends. All styles were $40.

The day I have a daughter, I will definitely take her here to get the "shirley temple" for a mother-daughter day.

On the metro heading to Georgetown with the gorgeous birthday girl in the middle!

When we got home I redid all of the ladies hair and make up - Elena is such a classic beauty. She makes me want to go brunette for the fall!

The weather couldn't have been more perfect. We had the best time laughing with friends!

STUFF LATELY - HOUSE TOUR

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Life has been crazy around here lately! I recently decided to step away from the advertising agency work scene and step into the corporate world. It was a bittersweet decision for me - I really love the fast-paced, high-energy nature of agency life, but I am so ready to see what opportunities are waiting for me with this move. I'm excited for my first day tomorrow!

With that being said, I need to completely overhaul my wardrobe and stock it with corporate essentials. It's time to actually take my clothes to the dry cleaner when they read, "Dry Clean Only" instead of just not sticking them in the dryer after washing and hoping for the best (I can't be the only one who does this). I'm off to the outlets today with Chris' sister. :-)

 Lately Chris and I have been excited talking about the possibility of building our "forever" home. We love love our home now - we've had so much fun with projects, we are less than a mile from our best friends and my mom and our location/back yard is killer - but we also know that realistically it's not our "forever" home and we would outgrow the house when we decide to have kids. <--- I feel like so many of our decisions revolve around having kids now. It's not in the near future, but we've definitely been talking and preparing ourselves that in the next 2 years this will be reality.

A new neighborhood is supposedly coming to the area in 2015 (perfect timing for us) so Chris and I decided to check out a neighborhood by the same builder to see the types of homes offered. We love the area we live now and I couldn't imagine more than a 5 minute drive to my Moms.

I love the exterior of this model - the windows around the door have me sold. How gorgeous would this house look with a hunter green or peacock blue front door? The garage door could also easily be transformed into a carriage style with hardware purchased at HD or Lowes.

One thing I loved with this builder is almost all of the floor plans offer a master bedroom with vaulted or cathedral ceilings. This particular model had french doors leading into the master which had me sold - I'm easy to win over. 

Has anyone seen this mirror in stores? I'm about to call up the agent of this model and ask where the designer got it - I fell hard for this mirror. 

Chris and I couldn't get over the size of the master closet! I mean honestly this could be a sitting room. My mom said we would have to get an ottoman or island for the closet like they have on RHOBH - done. Just call me Mrs. Vanderpump.

 The master bath sold over Chris - right now we only have 1 bathroom upstairs, with one vanity. Needless to say, Chris has moved to the downstairs bathroom to get ready in the morning.

All of the bedrooms upstairs were a good size with french door closets - my mom hates them, I love them. So win for me. 

Did I also mention the laundry room is on the second floor? That is definitely a must-have on our list after having to go into the basement to do laundry. My mom's laundry room is on the second floor and it is so convenient to walk out of your room and have everything there. I can only imagine how nice with babies and kids.

I do appreciate that crown molding and chair railing is standard with this builder. I'm not too keen on the columns (too formal for me), but Chris likes them. 

I will miss having a wood burning fireplace. Nothing beats that smell in the fall/winter. I love the amount of windows in these homes - I love bright, natural light. The windows also had really nice, deep sills. 

This builder doesn't allow you to choose your granite color and I'm pretty sure they only offer 2 cabinet color choices (they typically don't offer choices, but more things come standard without a price increase). That's definitely a bummer in my book - I really love our white kitchen and it would be a shame to paint over brand new cabinets. These were very pretty, just not my first choice. This kitchen is a win for us though - we have about half the amount of cabinets and counter space of this kitchen and currently no pantry.

 All in all, there is no telling what the market or interest rates will be in the next year or two - but we've put ourselves on the list and are excited to build a home we can grow in! Also, I'm pretty sure Chris is happy there won't be as many big projects like replacing toilets and installing granite in our next home.