Happy Halloween!

Isn't that picture the most adorable thing? We're not dressing Spencer up this year (Sailor Boy wouldn't let me). We have a few Halloween parties to go to tonight, as well as handing out candy to the neighborhood kids. I'm happy to get rid of all that candy thats been staring me in the face all week!

We have a pretty fun and funny costume planned for tonight. I'm not going to say what it is, because I think the pictures will be better than the explanation. I'll be sure to post them this weekend.

Oh and Happy Birthday to Sailor Boy today!! hehe...he's the big 2-9! One more year of his 20's. I was a nice girlfriend today and made him breakfast in bed. I also baked him cupcakes last night to take with us to the parties tonight. Let's just hope Spencer doesn't eat them like she ate my birthday cake!!

Hope everyone has a great and spooky Halloween!

Giggles

I have been emailing back and forth with one of my brides who is getting married in a few weeks. She added her fiance to our email chain so he would be in the loop with what we were discussing. Well as I was looking at the email after she put him in the "CC" line, I noticed it said "Pooh Bear" before his email (like where you can put in nicknames for people on your email). Obviously everytime she types his email address in her email, it pops up "Pooh Bear", but I'm not sure if she realizes that the other people she sends it to can see it too. I got quite a kick out of that.

Then I noticed that in my Outlook Express, everytime I would go to enter his email, it now pops up "Pooh Bear" in my email address box too!! haha...I'm tempted to call him Pooh Bear the next time I see him!! It reminds me of Legally Blonde!

Day 2

It's my 2nd day off from work and I promised myself I would actually do more today than I did yesterday. I had all these shopping plans yesterday, but I was just so exhausted that most of the day, I snoozed on the couch with Spencer.

Speaking of Spencer, she must have known I was tired yesterday and I just wanted a nice relaxing day. She was quite a naughty little dog. I had been laying on the couch, eating my chocolate cake right out of the pan. Wow, I can't believe I just admitted that. Oh well, it's true...I was an extreme lazy butt yesterday. Anyways, I set the pan on the coffee table and walked into the other room for a minute to get a load of laundry in the washer. When I left, Spencer was dead asleep on the couch...literally snoring. I return a few minutes later to see her standing next to the coffee table with her whole snout IN the cake, licking and eating as fast as she could!! I literally almost died. My delicious cake was now dog food...not to mention I had to call the vet to make sure she wasn't going to die from chocolate poisoning.

After the cake incident, I decided she might be better off playing in the yard for the rest of the day. I let her out back and I'm sitting in our office, checking email. I look out the back window in that room to see what she's up to and I notice she's playing with something and then I see she has something hanging out of her mouth....by the tail. Yes, a mouse. She's running around with it like it's the greatest thing in the world. I get some rubber gloves on and grab my dustpan and brush and I head outside, only to have Spencer think it's really fun to play "keep away" from me. She did not want to give that mouse up without a fight. After quite a game of chase, I finally get her to drop it and then I have to basically sweep it up in the dustpan and then throw it into the woods. Let me just say, she must have been playing with that thing for a while...absolutely disgusting!!

Even though she may be a little terror, I still love her...she's too cute to stay mad at.


So I didn't really get to have the relaxing day that I wanted, but it's ok. I'm heading to the new J.Crew outlet today, complete with some birthday money and tips from work. This could be dangerous!

The Big 2-7

So my birthday was FABULOUS!! It's still a little hard to believe I'm 27. Yikes. That is definitely a little too close to 30 for me. Even though I had to work all day, I still had a really great day. I woke up late (ok, 8:30...but that is really late for me) and then Sailor Boy and I went out to breakfast. I had to be at work at 11am, but we still managed to have a nice meal. I was tempted to order a mimosa, but since I had to deal with a crazy wedding all day, I decided against it.

Work was another story...my wedding was insane. The families of the bride and groom were just NOT nice. In fact, they were downright rude and nasty. Even the bride was rude little you know what. I had actually be dreading this wedding for a while - I knew they were not going to be nice and since it was on my birthday, it was even more of a bummer. I mean, the mother of the bride never called me by my name (even though I introduced myself to her no less than 10 times)...she called me "girl" and kept snapping at me (no, I'm not exaggerating) But I got through it, and I smiled the entire time. Yes, I'm a true professional...haha.

Oooh...one good part of my work day - my office had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me when I got in on Sunday morning! I love them!!I got home around 7pm and I was pretty exhausted from running around all day. But I perked up when I pulled in our driveway and I realized that Sailor Boy had invited my BFF K and her fiance B over for dinner! He told me he had a special dinner planned for me when I got home from work, so I was happy to have a little impromptu dinner party! Sailor Boy also made a DELICIOUS meal...Shrimp Creole over rice! That's the meal his mom made both him and his brother for their birthdays growing up. I had actually never had it before, but it was SO good! And we have a ton leftover, I'm excited to eat for lunch again today.

He also made a chocolate cake - complete with sprinkles! It was yummy, I even had a piece for breakfast this morning. I was super impressed with his baking skills! Here's the cake after we cut several large pieces.
I also got some fun presents. My bff K got me an amazing yellow scarf. I had mentioned to her a few weeks ago that I really wanted a yellow scarf (I know, random) but she found me the cutest one ever...it's super soft and really long, which I love!! She also got me an electric wine opener, which I'm obsessed with!! I have been wanting one for a while, since I'm a super spaz at opening wine. This one is rechargeable and will open 40 bottles of wine with 1 charge!! I love it!

Sailor Boy and I had talked about not doing presents, since we just bought our new TV a few weeks ago, but he got me something small so I would have something to unwrap on my birthday. He got me reusable grocery bags!! And I never even told him they were on my birthday list!! There's a new store in Annapolis called "Shag Bags" and he went in last week to check it out and realized that I would love the bags. Here's the one he got for me:
Yes, he really does know me very well...pink polka dots with a green strap...I'm totally obsessed!!

So it was a wonderful birthday! I'm off of work today and tomorrow to make up for the fact that I worked ALL weekend. I'm absolutely exhausted, but I'm definitely not too tired to go treat myself to a pedicure and a little belated birthday shopping!

Busy Busy Busy!!

Sorry for the lack of posts...this week is CRAZY! We have 3 wedding here this weekend...Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. Yes, that's correct...we have a wedding here ON MY BIRTHDAY!! haha...I guess the bride and groom aren't as into celebrating my birthday as I am! I'll be back next week to post about this weekends craziness and a birthday review!! Hopefully I can manage to still have some fun even though I'll be at work all weekend!!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

HELP!

I need a baby shower gift idea. I got invited to Sailor Boy's cousins wife's baby shower in a few weeks and I need a cute gift idea. I've already looked at her registry and I'm not that excited by it. This is actually one of the first baby showers I'm going to, so is it really rude not to buy anything off the registry? She's registered at Pottery Barn Kids and Babies R Us. I was excited about the Pottery Barn registry until I looked at it and realized there's just 3 things on it...her bedding set. I don't really feel comfortable buying her that, because I think it should come from a family member. I'm not a huge fan of Babies R Us at all. This is their first baby and they are having a boy. I've seen TONS of cute stuff on blogs recently for baby boys, but I'm having brain freeze now! They aren't telling anyone the name, so anything monogrammed is out...unfortunately!! I could find tons of cute monogrammed options. I think I want to get her some baby clothes and maybe one fun useful baby item...and I want it all to be really cute and preppy, as she is very preppy herself. Any suggestions on online stores or anywhere I can find really adorable baby stuff would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!!

Fall Soup

I found this recipe in this month's Southern Living. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to try it! It sounded like a great soup for a chilly fall night. We had it last night for dinner and I DEFINITELY recommend it! Even Sailor Boy liked it, even though he was convinced it was "girly" and he was not expecting much.

Red Pepper and Pear Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 3 large red bell peppers, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 2 Anjou pears, peeled and sliced
• 1 (32-oz.) container fat-free chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Dash of ground red pepper
• Garnishes: thinly sliced fresh pears, plain yogurt, chopped fresh chives
  
  Preparation

1. Melt butter with oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add bell pepper and next 3 ingredients, and sauté 8 to 10 minutes or until tender.

2. Stir in chicken broth and next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes.

3. Process soup, in batches, in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. (I just used my Cuisinart stick blender and it worked great...much easier since I didn't have to keep pouring it into the food processor) Return to Dutch oven, and keep warm until ready to serve. Garnish, if desired.

**************************

We garnished ours with some sliced pears and a dollop of nice zesty greek yogurt! The fresh sliced pears were great in this soup, they added a nice sweetness! YUM!

Our Beach Cottage

It occurred to me that we've lived in our house for almost 4 months and I still haven't done a real post about it. I love our house, it's absolutely perfect for us. We have named it the "beach cottage" because it is about 2 blocks from our local neighborhood beach. When I say "beach" I mean the Chesapeake Bay...I'm not talking the ocean here people. But the beach is very lovely and we like going down there with Spencer so she can run around, dig in the sand and swim.

A little background about our house (which I think is very interesting, but maybe that's just because I live here). It was built in the 1950's and it actually was originally someone's beach house...DC residents used to come to Annapolis on the weekends as their "beach getaway". So that's why it does have such a beachy feel to it. In the late 1970's, our landlord bought it and turned it into a daycare. So no one actually lived here during that time, it was just a business. Because of that, there's some weird features to the house. None of the windows open, except in the bedrooms. The front door opens out - which is slightly frustrating when you have an arm full of groceries. All the doors have these weird child locks on them and we can't figure out how to remove them. While the house was being used as a daycare, there wasn't even a kitchen or anything, just one big room and then 2 smaller rooms off of that (which are now our 2 bedrooms).

3 years ago, our landlord moved her daycare to a new location and decided to make our house an actual house. They added the kitchen (literally just built it right in the middle of the house), washer and dryer and added closets to the bedrooms to make them bedrooms. They kept the beach feel to the house and gave the entire thing a white wash on the inside (including our amazing wood beam ceilings).

Ok, onto the pictures:This is what it looks like as you walk in the front door...you literally walk right into the main room (our whole house is just like 1 big room - everything is open)

Our kitchen, which I'm obsessed with. It's all updated and we have a HUGE island, as you can see. It works great with some bar stools (those are the ones we got from IKEA for $11.99 each...we stained them so they look much better)Our living room...I still need to find more stuff to put on our mantle. I've never had my very own fireplace before!
Looking from our living room into the kitchen and the back of the house. The kitchen has the door that leads outside to the backyard. We also have a huge full pantry/storage closet off the kitchen.
Our "dining room" - which is really just the far corner of the room. We hung the light to make it more defined as the actual dining room. The double doors right behind the table lead into our bedroom.Random picture of the wood beam ceiling. The entire house is like that, even the bathroom. It's an A frame house, so the ceilings are really high - which is good since it makes the tiny house seem so much bigger!

So that's our little house...we hope to stay here for several years to save up money, since our rent is very reasonable. I'll have to do a post about our weird backyard sometime soon!

Birthday Wish List

With my birthday a mere 8 days away (but who's counting??), my mom asked me last night to give her my birthday list...yes I still make lists :-) Here's what I'm wishing for this year:

Nikon CoolPix s60 Digital Camera
This camera is amazing...I was playing with it at the store a few weeks ago and fell in love. The entire back display is a touch screen! Plus, if you saw my old camera (which is like 5 years old), you would see I'm in desperate need of an upgrade!

J.Crew - I told my mom she could basically get me anything from J.Crew, but here's a few things I have my eye on...
A new set of Tervis Tumblers and I obviously love the crabs! Yay Maryland!!I've been looking to get a few reusable grocery bags so we can make the switch from plastic. I found this adorable preppy pink and green option at www.bhappybags.com
Even though I have no where to wear it, I'm loving this CK Bradley dress! So fun!
I'm sure I'll add more things to my list as it gets closer to the big day!!

Project Runway

Anyone else addicted to this show?? I've been watching since the beginning and I LOVE it! I've even got Sailor Boy sucked into it, even though he would never admit it!

SPOILER ALERT:

I thought last night's finale was good and I was happy with the outcome. I have liked LeAnne all season and I thought her final collection was amazing. All the pieces went very well together...it was very cohesive. Here's the pieces I loved from each designer:

LeAnne -- Korto -- Kenley --

I loved Korto's color palate and the shapes of her short dresses. I sort of felt like they were almost preppy...I think it was all the kelly green and yellow! So fun! As much as Kenley annoyed me all season (that voice is seriously BAD!!), I did like most of her collection, especially the blue dress (the bridesmaids dress). Can't wait for the new season to start up!

Which looks were your favorites?

100!!

It's my 100th post!! YAY! Before I started blogging in March, I barely knew what a blog was. Then I started reading (stalking) them and got hooked. I love having the blog as an outlet for what's going on in my life and as a journal of sorts...I already like looking back on my entries from a few months ago to remember what I was doing.

I know I have some readers, but anyone else who has been reading but never commented, please leave a message because I'd love to add you to my blog roll. I love finding and reading new blogs! Thanks everyone for your sweet messages over the past few months!! Here's to another 100 posts!!

Just call me Martha

On Saturday, after our hike, Sailor Boy and I went to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard. We ended up buying a few pints of apples and I got the great idea of making an apple pie. My very first pie ever. I am definitely baking-challenged, so I was a little nervous. I opted against making my own crust...I think I need to start out slowly. So I bought a roll out crust and found a fabulous Paula Deen recipe for the filling. I have to say...it's a very labor intensive pie. All that peeling, coring and chopping - it took me forever just to prep it all! But I think it's going to be worth it!
I have to admit...it won't be winning any "beautiful pie" awards. And my lattice work sucks...I totally didn't criss cross it properly - I sort of just laid them over each other. Oh well...judging from the smell in our house, I have a feeling it will taste much better than it looks!!

EDIT: The pie is actually really good!! I think I should have left it in the oven for maybe 5-10 minutes longer because it was sort of runny, but the taste is perfect! We had it warmed with some vanilla ice cream and OMG! I wanted to eat the whole pie! I'm going to keep making it until I get it perfect...then it will be my signature dessert! yay!

A Perfect Saturday

Here in MD, the weather is absolutely amazing - sunny, warm but not hot, very fall like. I was actually OFF work today (shocker - but I am working tomorrow...boo) so we decided to go for a little day trip out to Western Maryland for a long hike and then pumpkin pickin'.We drove by this tree on our way down the mountain and it was so pretty we had to pull over and take a picture. Seriously, this was the perfect fall tree.This is an angle from standing under the tree. It had like every color in it. Amazing.The view from the top of our very long hike. One thing I did learn from hiking today - I am out of shape. Like whoa. My plan - join a gym on Monday!! hehe.My new favorite picture. Spencer had the best time ever. She loves hiking because there's so much for her to smell. Look at that puppy smile!!
Me and Spencer on our way back down the mountain. Down is just as hard as up!

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone got outside to enjoy this wonderful day!!

Wedding Mania!

I'm obviously at an age where all my friends are getting engaged/married. It seems like all we do is attend weddings, showers, engagement parties, etc. The one I'm most excited about is my very best friend K, who is getting married in April. A few weeks ago, Sailor Boy's good friend W proposed to his long-time girlfriend C. They have literally been dating for 10 years (they met in high school), they own a house together, have two dogs, etc. It's been a long time coming. C's ring is AMAZING and I've been so excited for her and helping her start her planning.

Well they finally set a date and place last night. They are getting married in Block Island, Rhode Island next summer. Both their families vacation together in Block Island every year, so it was obvious that's where they wanted the wedding to be. They booked the Sullivan House, which is a bed and breakfast right on the ocean, with beautiful views and New England charm. I can't WAIT! I've never been to Block Island, but I've heard it's amazing. Sailor Boy is in the wedding, and we're planning on making a mini-vacation out of it and taking a few extra days to sightsee around the area. You have to take a ferry out to the island, which I think is so fun! Has anyone ever been? Any opinions or recommendations for us??

Ham Biscuits

I went to college in North Carolina and I was introduced to Ham Biscuits early on in freshman year. My sorority used to serve them for every brunch, tailgate, mixer and all other social events. Pair that with a sweet tea and you pretty much have a perfect meal. Unfortunately, you can't find Ham Biscuits this far north.

Last winter, Sailor Boy and I were down in Richmond visiting my sorority sister C and her husband for the weekend. C made a huge batch of ham biscuits for us to snack on all weekend and Sailor Boy FELL. IN. LOVE. He had never had them before and he basically thought they were the greatest things ever. He begged C to give me the recipe, which she did, but I have yet to make them, much to his dismay.

Sailor Boy went to a wedding for some of our friends last night (I was working) and the bride grew up on a tobacco farm in Southern Maryland, so all the food at the wedding was very southern-inspired. And guess what they served for cocktail hour - Ham Biscuits. He called me from the reception to tell me about it. When I picked him up drunk from the bar last night at 1:30am, he told me about them again. He actually talked about them on most of the way home. He also brought them back up this morning when he was nursing his hangover on the couch. So it looks like I may be making them soon. For anyone not familiar with the Ham Biscuit, here's the recipe that C gave me.

1 1/2 lb. boiled ham
1 1/2 lb. Swiss cheese
3 pkg. Pepperidge Farms finger rolls
2 sticks butter, softened
3 tbsp. prepared mustard
3 tsp. poppy seeds
2 tbsp. minced onion

Split rolls. Mix together butter, mustard, poppy seed and onion. Spread both halves (top and inside) of rolls with mixture. Layer ham and cheese on biscuits and replace with top half. Bake at 325 degrees until cheese melts (about 15 minutes). Serve hot.

Delicious!

Job Perks

One of the best things about my job is the completely frivolous perks that I get. Like, they really serve no purpose in my life, they just make me smile. One of the best perks, in my opinion, is flowers. I get a ton of flowers. I would say I get 5-10 beautiful arrangements a month. Florists will send me flowers to thank me for sending them business. Brides will send me flowers to thank me for helping them with their weddings. One of my absolute favorite florists sends me a monthly bouquet of flowers, and it always changes depending on the month and season. I have gotten gorgeous winter flowers from her, with beautiful red berries and orchids. Amazing peonies in the spring. Tulips in the summer, in crazy colors I didn't even know existed. I have to say, I'm very spoiled! She sent me this yesterday, to celebrate fall (and October!)
It's huge blooms of green/blue hydrangeas, orange chrysanthemums, some little orange flowers that I don't know what they are, pinkish tea roses and some other little purple flowers. And I love the round vase! I think it looks great on our little entry table and I like that you can see the flowers from inside or as you are standing outside of our house by the front window. Does anyone else get fun work perks?

Birthday Brat

Happy October! It's officially my "birthday month". Yes, I am a birthday brat, I will admit it. I celebrate my birthday all month long. My birthday is October 26th, but the celebrating and countdown begins today. I realize that I'm 26 years old (soon to be 27 - eeeek!!) and it's a little old to be so excited about my birthday, but I don't care. Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family, so it started at a young age. With my birthday being so close to Halloween, I always used to have Halloween themed birthday parties. We would go on haunted hayrides, do Halloween crafts and ALWAYS wear costumes for my party. The fun part is that I got to be 1 costume for my party and then I got to be something else for actual trick-or-treating. See, Birthday Brat.

The other really exciting part about my birthday is it's actually the day that Sailor Boy and I met, 3 years ago. We technically got introduced the week before, but my birthday was the night we talked, exchanged numbers and it was the start of everything. We met through our mutual friends, R and T, who were dating (and still are!). I was good friends with R and Sailor Boy was roommates with T at the time. We were all playing on a social kickball league in town, except Sailor Boy wasn't on our team. I had gone over to T and Sailor Boy's house the week before my birthday to pick R up for a girls night. I saw this very adorable boy (with blonde hair...I love blonde boys) and we briefly said Hello. I didn't think too much about it, except a few days later R told me that Sailor Boy had asked about me. I thought she was joking at first, but then she got the idea to get us together. We had a kickball game on my actual birthday, so she hatched a plan to throw a "kickball/kim's birthday party" at T and Sailor Boy's house after the games.

Since it was my birthday (and I'm a brat), I changed out of my yucky dirty uniform and into cute clothes for the party. I may or may not have been tipsy (but not drunk!) and we spent most of the night flirting with each other. I was being my typical birthday self at the party and I told him that when I was little, I liked to tell people that my birthday was Halloween. Well then Sailor Boy whips out with "well my Birthday really is Halloween". I called his bluff until he pulled out his license. I think that's what sealed the deal for me. Then we kissed. Oooops. I was on a birthday/vodka tonic high, so I had an excuse. We actually have a picture of us from that night and it's one of my favorite pictures....I love that we have something to show our kids from that very first meeting.

The rest is history. We pretty much started dating right after that and it's been 3 great years! So here's to October, my birthday and my fabulous boyfriend!!