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.

SUNDAY SHOPPING

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Chris worked all last weekend with corporate events and a skate competition so it was a low-key weekend for me.  Those are definitely needed after busy work weeks!

We did go out to the Cheesecake Factory Saturday night and went to the Maryland Live casino. It was my first time going, and although I usually find casinos to be loud and obnoxious (besides the fact that I get horrible anxiety about losing money) I had a great time! Chris showed me how to play the roulette table and we walked away with a good amount of extra money - which meant I was able to shop on Sunday with my mom while he was at work ;-)

I had my eye on this console table at World Market and a similar one at Anthro. Our dining room buffet and wood carved side table from World Market look great and are a good quality, but when my mom and I saw this table in person it just didn't meet our expectations. It definitely looked a tad cheap and my mom was highly against the wheels on the bottom - especially if we would keep this as a console table with babies. It wasn't very sturdy. 

No lie - I was definitely a bit disappointed. I had this image in my head from Pinterest that I pinned AWHILE ago and now I had to start at square one. I loved the industrial feel of the console table, but I definitely agreed with my mom (even though I didn't want to) that it wasn't a smart choice for when we have kids and I wanted to invest in furniture that would last awhile.

We decided to run into a few other stores and grab lunch. 

We decided to try out a new-to-us restaurant called Matchbox in Bethesda. I wish I snapped a photo of their outdoor dining space - it was set up really nicely and I loved all of their planters!

We started off sharing a bowl of their cream of crab soup - it was SO good and lots of crab! Just how we like it. This was definitely a winner in my book since most cream of crab soups can leave you with a stomach ache (from the cream and butter) or feeling full, but this was light and creamy - and no tummy aches for us!

I ordered their veggie black bean burger - the chipotle mayo made this. I definitely need to start making these again at home per my moms request. 

My mom got their cuban sandwich - it was a little too salty, but still tasty. 

After lunch we headed to the Container Store to check out what they had. I ended up coming home with a shoe organizer for our hall closet and a striped tote that could have multiple uses. My mom loved this garage set up.

After shopping around, my mom spotted this console table at Pier 1 and convinced me that it would be perfect. It is sturdy, light and open (not a heavy wood) and will last us for a very long time. AND it was within budget of what I wanted to pay and looks almost identical to a Pottery Barn one I found that was twice the price. 

I'm brain storming ways to style it - stacks of books, pots of leafy plants or succulents, lamps(?) and a new mirror. I like the fact that its extremely long (the picture doesn't do it justice) and there is room beneath for baskets and/or stools! 

LINGANORE REGGAE WINE FESTIVAL

This past weekend we went to Linganore Winery's reggae wine fest. If you are local to the Maryland area and haven't been to Linganore or one of their festivals I highly recommend it. This might have been our fifth (?) festival of theirs. 

The reggae fest is by far my favorite - there is just something about a live reggae band, sweet wine and dancing in the summer heat that is so contagious. You are bound to have a great time. We packed a picnic blanket, cold water bottles, lawn chairs and lunch - but there are always food trucks and stands if you aren't in the mood to carry a cooler. Be sure to get there at least 45 minutes early to snag a spot in the shade - the place gets packed!

Fruit doubles as a snack and is great in wine

Lobsters were on sale at a local market for 6.99 a pound, so I snagged three to make lobster rolls for the wine fest! 

Hot and sweaty laying in our lawn chairs listening to the tunes.

Too cool off from the seat, the winery offers 20-30 minute tours in their 60 degree rooms, ending with a tasting of wine flavors that aren't available outside at the tasting tents.

I am a sucker for lobster rolls, but I have to say shrimp rolls are my favorite (I made those too) - nothing can top lobster rolls you find up North!

In case you don't have Instagram and missed my duck lip, dancing self... enjoy ;-)