It Was My Turn To Pop The Question!

Although even before getting engaged I knew who I wanted to have by my side on my wedding day, it is always fun to make things a reason for celebration. I kept my lips sealed for over a month and acted super nonchalant about the whole "bridal party" thing until just yesterday. I gathered the girls for a brunch that would be a way for me to show them my wedding plans so far etc. What they didn't know is that I would be popping the question to them, asking them to be in my bridal party. Here is a little about what I did:

My very good friend came over to help me prepare a delicious brunch. As you can see in the photos, it turned out quite superb. As someone who rarely eats breakfast foods (they're just not my favorite), I was clueless about a menu for this day so she threw something together and essentially I helped HER execute the whole thing lol Thank you Des! We had everything from fruit, yogurt and granola parfaits, blueberry and banana mini pancakes, mimosa cupcakes, mimosas, turkey bacon, egg, potato and spinach mini quiche's, croissants with various fruit spreads, you name it we had it! I was very pleased with how everything came out.

Shortly after eating, I gave out a set of fortune cookies to everyone and told them that it was a "Chinese tradition" about good fortune and starting things out in a positive place (I'm good at whipping up elaborate explanations right? hahah) This was obviously a lie but hey, I had to do what I had to do to get them to open the fortune cookies without suspicion. Inside was the fortune that read "My wedding wouldn't be complete without you. Be my Brides Maid/Maid of Honor". I used a tutorial I found online to switch out the fortunes that came with the cookies and put my own special fortune for them inside. The things you find when you get your imagination going ;)

Then as a gift for accepting my "proposal", I gave each bridal party member a personalized hanger with their names that will be used on the wedding day for a photo op of all of our dresses hanging together. I ordered these hangers on etsy, love love love etsy!

Asking them was SO much fun. I put so much thought into the whole process and I loved putting everything together because I always feel like I have so many creative thoughts flowing around in my brain--when I get a chance to put them to work, I seize it!

6 BM's, 1 MOH and a Bride,

xox

A New Accessory On My Finger.....I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!!

October 18, 2013 the Mr. took me to dinner to celebrate our anniversary (which was the night before). After a beautiful meal with NYC skyline backdrops, we walked along the waterfront and were approached by a Doo Wop Group. For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE oldies music...almost as much as I love country music ;) This group, unbeknownst to myself, were set up to sing my favorite songs as my boyfriend proposed. The details are way more intricate, but I am still to excited to devote too much time to getting into those lol I said YES and my best friend and future sister in law popped out of the "bushes" (they were recording the whole thing!) and the rest is history...Thank you to everyone who made that evening possible..thank you to my friends and family who joined us afterward to celebrate such an exciting moment for us and most of all, thank you God for allowing me to meet my soul mate. Enjoy some of the photos of the evening below =D xox

Obviously I was excited to say YES! lol

Silly ;)

We are the King and Queen in this chess game called life ;)

Future Mother in Law and my Grandmama<3

Two of my best friends--yep we are all a bit excited =D

And I thought I loved you then,

xox

Pumpkin Picking Adventures at the Farm

Today wasn't just a typical Sunday, it was literally SUNDAY FUNDAY! :) A group of family and friends went to a farm to do our annual pumpkin picking adventure. Boy was it a blast--don't take my word for it, check out the photos below and I'm sure you be easily convinced :)

I love this photo, my nephew and brother are having a jolly ol' time navigating through the pumpkin patch searching for the perfect one! The scenery was breathtaking---a light fog sat atop the beautiful Fall foliage in the background. Ahhhhh...nature is beautiful.

Nephew having a "baby talk" chit chat with Baby R in front of the corn stalks---Love this!

Doing some farm maintenance in our John Deere! (I wish haha)

Brother and nephew also went for a ride in a monster truck!

This cow was more of a piggy--she must have eaten 30

 carrots in the time that we were there!

We ended our day with a walk through a corn maze! We actually did get lost with a large group of others--which made it even more fun :)

After Pumpkin Picking Comes........Pumpkin Recipes/Cooking =D

xox

My Apple Pie Recipe

You guys saw my previous post about my apple picking adventures, and if not go check it out now! So if you were wondering what I did with that whole bushel of apples, here is the post that answers that :) This pie is a favorite in my family and I promise it will be in yours too, enjoy!

Here's what you will need:

• 6 Apples (I like Golden apples but whatever you like most will work)

• Double layer pie crust--I buy the Pillsbury packaged ones--they come in a roll and are two to a pack which makes the process way easier--you will need just two but I often find that having an extra pack on hand for any mistakes or to reshape the crust is really handy.
• 3/4 Cups of white granulated sugar
• One medium orange
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• Lemon juice
• 1 Tsp of cinnamon
• 1 egg 
• 1/4 Tsp of Salt
• 1/4 Tsp of Nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit

•  Take your glass pie plate and prepare it for baking by either spraying it with non-stick spray or doing like I like to do and smearing a little butter around the whole thing evenly coating it.
• Next you want to peel all of your apples and slice them thinly removing the core parts.

• Once your chopped apples are in a bowl, squeeze a little lemon juice over top of them to assure that they don't turn brown while you are preparing everything else. Brown isn't a bad thing, it's just an esthetic thing ;)
• After this you will want to add everything else on your ingredients list. For the orange you want to use a zester/microplane or grater to zest the orange--I use 3/4 of the orange but if you're really not into the whole orange thing you can use none at all or 1/2 of the zest from the orange. I personally love the way the orange brings out all of the delicious the flavors we are going to add atop the apples, it's a perfect twist :)

• Spread out the pie crust in the bottom of the pie pan assuring that there are no air bubbles, mine was a little short (this can be fixed by using a rolling pin to flatten it out a bit more) but ideally it would hang a smidge over the side of the plate.
• Next place all of your seasoned apples in the pie plate and even out. 

• Now roll out that second pie crust and cover the apples, there are two ways I like to do so, either a traditional cover-all or a lattice design, either way is beautiful :) 

This one is only partially completed, but it is a lattice design, it's actually rather easy to achieve, just have to get the pattern down :) My boyfriend did it because I was having no luck with hand eye coordination this evening hahaha We looked up a YouTube video on how to make this top layer so if you aren't sure by just looking at the photo, just watch a video :)

Pictured here is the traditional cover-all design which consists of covering the whole pie and crimping the edges with a fork to seal them together. We then make four slits in the top so that the pie can "breathe" and bake thoroughly.

• After covering the pie with either design, you will want to make an egg wash of beaten egg with a teaspoon of water. Brush this over top the crust evenly and pop them in the oven for about an hour continuously checking on them. If your edges start to brown too quickly too soon in the baking process, cover them in aluminum foil or a pie crust cover, those are super handy! Continue baking and then let them set to cool for about an hour or so so that everything can come together and not be watery. 

**There is a chance that the pie will bubble over because the juices that are being made on the inside are that divine, just place some foil or a baking sheet underneath of the pie at the beginning of the baking process to keep your oven clean.

Last but not least, let your taste buds enjoy :) This can be served with a scoop of vanilla ice scream for a really rich treat!

This gal has baked three of these in the past two weeks,
xox

Apple Picking Adventures!

Apples are in season!!! You know what that means, Fall is officially here and pies need to be made haha I love apple pie, it is probably my favorite pie but here is the kicker, I don't like apple sauce, apple juice or even apples alone very much. Apple pie is just special I guess :) I have gone apple picking many times before but never thought to post about it. I love reading posts like this because it can get one in the mood to branch out and do something fun that they perhaps haven't done before. I highly recommend looking up where your local "pick your own" farms are--they can be visited all year long for different crops. We go pumpkin picking and also cut down our own Christmas Tree every year as well :)

Here is a site that you can use to locate these PYO farms near you: http://www.pickyourown.org/

I cant wait for pumpkin picking--I will post on that too, as well as some more of my delicious pumpkin recipes!

xox

2nd Annual Best Friend Getaway: BOSTON/SALEM

This year for our "bff weekend" we decided on Boston. Cristina has only breezed through the city once and I had been once on vacation and loved it, clearly it was the perfect choice. We are a friend duo that LOVES exploring, adventures and anything awesome to photograph along the way. I wouldn't consider myself a history buff, but I love old towns like Boston. All of the red brick, cobblestone streets and brownstone housing really makes me happy :) We got there on a Friday and departed late afternoon on a Sunday..here is how our weekend went in photos, enjoy!

• Pictured above are us at a park pit stop along the way. We decided to walk the "Freedom Trail", I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to see major points in Boston without getting lost. It's fool proof, you just follow the red brick lines through the town! Also above is "Samuel Adam's Tombstone". This was also a stop along the trail---all of the original signers of the declaration of independence from the area are buried here, it's quite interesting. **Fun fact for our beer connoisseurs out there: did you know that the man on the label of the famous "Samuel Adams Beer", is actually Paul Revere? Apparently he was better looking than Sam Adams and they thought it was better for business to place him on the label instead--who knew?! (our tour guide told us this, he also told us some other things that ended up being shams so don't hold me to this hahaha)

• Quincy Market is THE place to be it seems, well really the whole Faneuil Hall area. It is filled with shops, restaurants, nightlife etc. On the bottom left is a memorial for all of our veterans killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in the war. On the right is a shot from the train stop located just a block or so from our hotel. The Boston transit system is so visitor friendly and super easy to navigate, I truly appreciated this coming from an area with things like the crazy confusing NYC subway system.

• Massachusetts State House was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately I couldn't fit the entire photo into the frame of this collage but the dome atop the building was bright gold. Bottom Left: This is me pretending to get into a VERY small door on a Boston side-street. hahaha Then we have a photo of us along the Charles River.

• We ventured a little more north to Salem! I have always wanted to visit here so this was awesome timing. If you know me, you know I abhor scary things--more like situations where things pop out at me (haunted houses, hayrides etc), but I love a good witch story so Salem was perfect. I remember reading "The Crucible" in high school and being so interested in how the Salem Witch Trials actually happened. We visited a fun photography studio and had photos of us taken as witches--best part of my entire trip. I laughed so much because the entire thing was just so silly lol (photos below) Salem is also the place where "Bewitched" was filmed--hint as to why I'm posing with a statue of Samantha above :)

• How could we visit Boston and not end our trip with a lunch at the original "Cheers" bar?! I have been here once before but never had taken the opportunity to eat here so this was very exciting for me. The food is good, just typical bar food, but the atmosphere was pretty cool. Like my photo with Norman?! =D

Birthday Weekend Festivities: Concert, Dinner, Gifts and More!

For those of you who didn't already gather from my various photo posts on twitter and Instagram over the weekend, I am indeed, now, a 26 year old gal :) I must admit 26 feels way better than 25, odd as that may sound. 26 came with more ease and feels overall more fun, dare I say :) Below are some photos, most of which I also posted somewhere on one of my social media sites, of how my weekend went, enjoy :)

The day before my actual birthday I had one of my very good friends, my job and my boyfriend all surprise me with some awesome things :)

The actual night of my birthday I invited a group of my closest family and friends to a restaurant that I like for dinner. You can never go wrong with Mexican food right? Sombrero and all, I laughed the night away. I even had a shot, something that I haven't done in YEARS (you guys remember I don't drink right?)

Cake and a game night followed dinner and it was honestly the perfect ending. I am such a simple woman when it comes to things like this. I almost always have a game night on my birthday because board games are something I really, REALLY enjoy! Taboo games are always interesting with my crew and things can get a little crazy, I love it! :) As tradition follows, my pup helped me blow out my candles, love love love her :) Aren't my best friends beauties?!

The next day, my friend took me to see OneRepublic live as her birthday gift to me. I LOVE OneRepublic and this was honestly a highlight of my summer. They were AMAZING live, so much so that as awesome as they sound on their records, that doesn't even do them justice! I would definitely go see them again without a doubt.

I ended my birthday weekend with a picnic at the park with my pup and the mister. What a perfect way to wind down--the weather, food and company were bliss :) 

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as I did mine :) 

Candles, Cake, Friends and Being 26, 

xox

I Got Crafty Again...Disney Character Name Letters :)

I made these "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse character letters" for my boyfriend's nephews 1st birthday. He is a big "fan" of the television show so I thought it would be a great addition to his cake table. These are the standard characters but if you have a longer name, you could always switch it up. There are also many variations of each character letter, these were just the ones I liked the best from all of the research I did.

First things first, you will need to gather some of the things you will be using for this craft:

• hot glue gun
• variety pack of paint brushes that include all sizes and foam brushes as well
• pencil
• scissors
• acrylic paint--the ones I got were $0.69 cents each and worked wonderfully
• ruler
• 8" paper mache letters --only craft store that had these by me was "Joanns"
• various colors of card-stock--choose the colors you will need based on the character styles you are choosing. They will be used to cut out the ears, bows, bones and hats.

Start out by drawing lines with your pencil on the letters to separate where the different colors of paint should go, think of this as a guide. I used a ruler to give me clean lines. Once this preparation is done, its on to the fun stuff, the painting!

Before painting, I suggest throwing down a plastic table cloth that can be thrown out or some newspaper to avoid mess. Grab your cup of water to clean each brush, paper towel and foam/plastic/etc. disposable plate for mixing and prepping colors. Each color shown aside from the red and black had to be custom mixed--it is so easy so don't worry :)

I find that the foam brushes worked best for covering large areas. I used the smaller brushes for crevices and detail work.

After your letters are painted (this took me a few days as I let them dry on one side first etc.), now begin decorating them. For this I went online and found outlines of a Minnie Mouse bow, a Donald Duck hat and being that I couldn't find a goofy hat, my boyfriend free-handed it :) Print these out and use them to trace on to your card-stock.

Once they are cut out just glue them onto the completely dried painted letters with your hot glue gun to make your characters come to life :) For any details on the card-stock cutouts, ex: the letters "pluto" on the bone, I just used my very fine tipped paint brush and some black paint. Also, I couldn't find the perfect (did I mention I'm quite the perfectionist when it comes to things like this?) blue for Donald's hat so I painted over the card-stock color I did find and it worked out quite well !

When I took on this craft, I thought it would be way more overwhelming than it actually was, painting and crafts for me in general are rather therapeutic. This could be why I enjoy paint by numbers so much :)

Here is how it turned out on the table. From this angle it looks blocked a little but it looked quite swell--send praises my boyfriend's sisters way, she pulled off a pretty awesome Mickey table ;)

To the Disney in all of us,

xox

Highlights From Day 8 Of My Vacation: LA Local

We didn't do anything really superb today--just some shopping off of Melrose and pretty much stayed local after that. We were winding down in preparation for our departure tomorrow. We grabbed lunch at Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles today. From the photo above you can probably tell that it was a food coma waiting to happen. Cornbread, Mac & Cheese, Fried Chicken, Waffles...soul food at its finest. I have never felt so"heavy" in my life. My stomach literally grew as I took each bite, that's how heavy and delicious the food was! lol I don't particularly like chicken and waffles together but I did enjoy them separately (I'm  an odd woman I know) ;) 

Tonight we ended up catching a movie at a local theater. This particular theater is 21+ only which was awesome because they had a full bar and full dining menu, not to mention ridiculously comfortable CLEAN theaters. It felt very sophisticated inside, and for a movie theater, I loved it =D The movie we chose was Ryan Gosling's "Only God Forgives" movie. Of course I wanted to see it just for RG, but being that it was connected to the movie Drive, which I have stated many times is one of my favorite movies ever, I knew it was a must see. If you like "artsy" movies that leave a lot to be interpreted, you will love this. I saw many similarities between the character he plays in this movie "Julian" and the character he played in Drive. 

I'm all packed up and ready to go for the morning. Sad that this is my last night here :( I will definitely be visiting again and recommend all of you do as well if you have never been. California has been so good to us! 

Thank you for coming on this journey with me, 

xox

Highlights From Day 7 Of My Vacation: Santa Monica/Malibu/Venice Beach

This morning we had a reservation with the Paramount Studios for a tour--money very well spent! It could have been that our tour guide was very reminiscent of Melissa McCarthy, but that's besides the point lol We got to see sets of currently shooting shows, sound stages, famous buildings and places that some of our favorite shows were shot. Lady Gaga was also apparently there shooting a music video! There is so much history behind Paramount Pictures---I felt like I had a history lesson and a tour all wrapped in one :) Overall, I really enjoyed this tour and would highly recommend it. In the photo above I am making a wish while "holding the famous Bronson gate"--this is a tradition and apparently your wishes come true! Let's see... :)

Next up was a trip to Venice Beach. I always hear how eclectic and interesting Venice Beach is so I was excited to see what it was all about. If I could sum up Venice Beach in one word I would say interesting haha It is a place filled with hippies, skaters, canibus shops galore, artists and beach cruisers. On the other hand I also realized how many homeless people there are here--the most I have ever seen in all of the locations I've been to in California. It saddened me because I think--what is their story and why are so many in such a concentrated area? I guess that exists everywhere but it just made me sad :( Not pictured were all the street performers, the skate park (so cool!) and Muscle Beach, the outdoor gym area that is often featured in movies :)

Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is so stunning! We drove from Malibu and then back to Santa Monica on the way back. Malibu was filled with cool things like beaches, ginormous homes, fancy ocean front eateries and the most awesome in my opinion, horses on farms! Malibu seemed to be a little of everything--the perfect town :) In Santa Monica we visited the Santa Monica Pier where we saw the rides and famous Ferris wheel--I also snacked on some ice cream like a child (2 scoops for me!) and really enjoyed the panoramic views =D  

Tomorrow is our last full day here---we are going to head out for some shopping. The mister has been jotting down all the shops we want to return to. 

Sad to be leaving soon :( , 

xox