Ch Ch Ch Changes.

  It really is incredible how much a little paint can change the look of a room.  We have a lot of work to do on our new home and we are slowly checking things off the ever growing to-do list, but even the little tasks make a huge improvement.  

   One of the first jobs we wanted to do was to remove the dull paint colors and wallpaper and give everything a fresh new look.  The house was built in the 1930's and it needs a bit of love, but a fresh coat of paint can make it look brand new. ( side note: I have to give my Husband credit in addition to painting the walls he has spent hours repairing the plaster walls in our home and adding baseboards to the rooms, so it is a little more than just paint.). 

  The Master Bedroom: When we moved in the room was this very masculine tan color which made the room look dark and gloomy. 

 

  Also notice there are no baseboards.

 

We lightened up the room with this bright blue color ( I can't for the life of me remember the paint colors and I cannot find the swatches, but they are all Behr) 

 

The room looks so much happier and we now have baseboards.

 

Our office: This was the room the past owner used as a work room. Notice the wood  under the window, when we moved in the room didn't even have complete walls.   DFH fixed all of that.  I am so lucky he is so handy, I am sure it has saved us a lot of money.  We removed this terrible 90's wallpaper to find yellow paint. 

See! 

We then painted the room white, which made the room look sterile 



And now the office is a bright mint color and we have baseboards and door trim.



The mint is bright, but it is a fun color for our travel themed office.  We plan to decorate this room with pictures and trinkets from all of our trips. 

 

This is still a work in progress please ignore the mess.

 

 

 

The Hall: This dull yellow color was replaced with a bright sunshine color in the hall. 

 



 

And finally we painted the baseboards along the stairs which were in desperate need of some loving. ( See above)   

Hi Oliver! Thanks for the photo bomb.

 



 

 



Guest Post on Nautical by Nature: DIY Driftwood Jewelry Hanger

 
     Happy Monday Ghosts and Ghouls!  Hope you all had an amazing weekend.  It is Halloween Week!  Although I don't think I will get a chance to dress up this year I love seeing everyone's creative costume ideas. 

     Today I am guest posting on  Nautical by Nature's  blog .  If you like all things nautical please go stop by Kate's blog.  I am posing about my DIY driftwood jewelry hanger. 

                                   

It's Fall Y'all!

     Today I am talking fall decorations.  A new house brings new holiday decor placement. This is the first fall in our new home so I've had to find new places for some of my favorite fall décor. 

 

    Personally I like fall decorations over Halloween or Thanksgiving decorations so that I can leave them up from October through the end of November  #lazy.

 

This pumpkin looks so pretty when the candles are lit on our side living room table. 

 

I am still in love with our monogram pumpkin which we set on the bar for our wedding last year. 

Here it is all lit up. 

My mom brought us the fun witches shoe candlesticks when she visited in September and my mom and I picked up the pumpkin at Kirkland's on a recent shopping trip for part of my housewarming gift. 

 

I snagged these felt pumpkins in the dollar section of Target last week. The spider is perfect for a creepy touch as our dining room table centerpiece. 

1. 

I got these pumpkin lanterns from Pier 1 a few years ago. I love the fall colors of the lanterns. 

 

  These little pumpkins added a great fall touch to my cake plate. 

    Please ignore the heinous wall paper and blue counter tops in our kitchen. If we stay on track with our house repairs they should be gone in a few months. However I am loving the month of October print on my calendar from Kate Libby.

It is crazy Halloween is already next week.   Have you decorated?

Tour de Carolina

 

Two weekends ago I traveled  to North Carolina for my good friend Meghan's wedding and ended up on a tour of pretty much the whole state.  I mentioned last week that DFH was unable to attend so my college BFF Falon came as my plus 1.   

 

 

On Friday night I flew into Charlotte and landed just in time to celebrate my friend Kristen's 30th birthday with dinner and drinks.  Kristen lived in Pittsburgh for a few years and moved back down to Charlotte last year.  I miss having her local so it was special that I was able to celebrate with her and see my other college besties. 

We had an awesome dinner at Baku.   Their cocktails were killer,  I could have drank about five of the Nigori Blue Martini. 

 

   On Saturday Falon and I made the drive from Charlotte to Greenville, it was a bit further then we thought and we hit some NC State football traffic so we were not going to have time to check into the hotel and get ready before the ceremony.   We ended up getting ready for the wedding in Sheetz, which I can say is a first for me.    It is always an adventure when it comes to Falon and I, but they did have a full length mirror. ( in case you are ever in the same situation)

 

The Bride and Groom had a gorgeous day at Tripps Farm.   How gorgeous are those flowers?!

 

Meghan looked beautiful and was glowing.  Their son was too cute and stole the show.  Look at those tiny orange Converse sneakers!

We look pretty good for getting ready in Sheetz if I do say so haha

 

 

Me and my other friend Meghan we have been friends since elementary school.

 

 The reception was in an old barn, the lights and the rustic look was so charming. 

First dance.

 

The bride and her mom dancing to Mama's Song by Carrie Underwood...I pretty much bawled. 

 

The beautiful Bride and I

...and everyone knows that I love a photo booth.

 

 

...and I love a good sparkler exit.  ( I am still bummed that sparklers are illegal in NJ and I wasn't able to do this).

 

 

ECU and Elon Sigma Sisters <3

 

 

On Sunday on the way back to Charlotte we made a pit stop at Elon our College Alma Mater

 

Indulging at our favorite restaurants was on the top of our to-do list.  Best White Queso Dip Ever.  If you have been reading this blog for awhile you know my obsession with this.  I would move to North Carolina just so I could eat white queso on a regular basis. 

Of course a stop at our old sorority house was necessary.  I can't believe it has been ten years since we lived in the house as Sophomores  #wereold

We even forced a poor sweet student to take 1,000 pictures of us in the center of campus.  She was such a good sport.

We ended our tour of Elon with a stop at West End our favorite college bar, but we were shocked when we saw that our dive bar had been given a makeover and some class. 

Even though West End had stepped it up a bit, we still got our $2.00 Bud Lights our college go-to beers.

It was a great weekend and I loved that I was able to see so many of my college and NJ friends.



Weeknight Menu

    The last month I have been really good about pre-planning our weeknight meals and going to the grocery store with a list of ingredients.  It has kept us eating healthy during the week and as I previously said it has kept us satisfied.  I love fatty, creamy, carby foods and if I knew I wouldn't gain weight I would eat those foods everyday., Since that isn't reality I try and find healthy recipes of the fatty foods I love.  This way the food tastes great, but I don't feel guilty.

  Here is our weeknight menu from last week:

Monday: Healthy Chicken Broccoli Divan 

 

 

VIA

 

I used this Campbell's Kitchen Recipe. I love Chicken Divan but many times the recipe calls for cream or a lot of flour.  This recipe tasted like one of my comfort food favorites, but without all the added carbs and fat calories.  I used 98% fat free cream of chicken soup and used Panko breadcrumbs instead of plain dry bread crumbs

Tuesday: Quinoa Pork Fried Rice 

 

 

Picture VIA Queen of Quinoa

 

I found THIS easy recipe on Simplyquinoa.com.  It is quick to make and tastes just like Chinese food ( which I am always craving).  We didn't have any sesame oil so we left that out of the recipe, but it still had great flavor.

 

 

Wednesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup:  

 

 

VIA

 

The Food Network never lets me down when it comes to their recipes and THIS ONE was no exception.  This soup has so many different flavors and spices from all the different ingredients and was so hearty. Our avocados were not ripe when I made this so I added corn to the recipe.   If you are a lover of Mexican food you need to try this. 

 

Thursday: Turkey Arugula and Pepper Jack Burgers 

 

VIA DALLAS DUO BAKES BLOG

 

I found THIS recipe on the Dallas Duo Bakes blog.  I substituted pepper jack cheese for the feta and it gave the burgers a little spice to go with the arugula. 

 

 

Happy Tuesday!

Weekend Recap: Our One Year Anniversary

                                                WOW, WOW, WOW What a weekend. 

 

       On Friday DFH and I had a low key night as we had a big day planned for Saturday. 

 

Saturday morning we got up early and drove an hour north to go skydiving.  Skydiving was actually my 30th birthday gift from DFH, but we never had a chance to go this summer.  We decided to go our anniversary weekend, probably not the most romantic activity, but it was a great adventure.

 

   On Saturday both of us were pretty calm, it wasn't until we were up in the plane going higher and higher that things got real, but once we were out of the plane it was unbelievable.  We were 13,500 feet up,  You free falled for 1 minute and then you glide with the parachute for about 7 minutes.  The feeling is hard to describe, but I would definitely go again.  

  

    Once we landed I was shaking I felt like I had so much adrenaline pumping through my body.  We received a slide show of pictures with our jump, so I'll have to do another post with some of the professional pictures. 

 

 

This was right after we landed. 

 



 

 

On Saturday night DFH had a work event.  Both of us were exhausted after skydiving, I think mostly mentally drained, but once we got to the event we had a lot of fun, and I always love attending any event where you get to dress up. 

 

This is our red carpet picture.

 

 

Sunday was our actual anniversary, but DFH was flying out of town for work Sunday afternoon, so we decided to eat our wedding cake and celebrate the night before.    I was honestly surprised how fresh the cake tasted a year later.    We used our "I Do" "Me Too" wedding forks and cake server from our wedding and washed it down with some delicious champagne.

 

 



 

Both DFH and I got each other paper gifts for our 1 year anniversary.  DFH made me this picture with our wedding song lyrics printed on an artichoke ( which was the theme of our wedding).  He is so creative.

On Sunday we went to Meat and Potatoes for brunch before DFH left for the airport.  They have by far the best Bloody Mary bar ever.  I was full before I even got my meal, because I put so many meats and cheeses and shrimp and pickled veggies in my bloody. 

 

For brunch DFH got the short rib hash and I got the grilled cheese with pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes.  Everything was so tasty, but I left in a food coma and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the couch and catching up on no-brainer TV shows like Real Housewives and Breaking Amish. 

 

 



     We had a great weekend celebrating our anniversary.  Lately our weekends are so jam packed, it was so nice that we got to spend so much time together.