Wedding & Vacation Pictures

Finally! Here are the pictures from Jenny's wedding and my trip home to Georgia. This is definitely photo overload, but I don't care. It's my blog and I can post as many pictures as I like, right?! :)

Enjoy!

The first few days of our trip was filled with wedding activities - bridesmaid luncheon, rehearsal dinner, shopping for shoes to wear with my bridesmaid dress, getting a manicure, etc. etc. etc. The first set of pictures are from the wedding activities.

my sweet "nephew" is growing so fast!

my best friend (Hunter's mom) and I at the rehearsal dinner!

the bride's niece and I became best friends 

because of our love for sparkles!

my mom and I before the wedding (she did my hair!)

Chris and I before the wedding

the wedding ceremony

husband & wife!!

first dance with the little girls watching...so cute!

The wedding consumed the first 3 days of our trip, but then it was all about family! Unfortunately my dad had a business trip that had him out of town so that is why he isn't pictured below...

Of course we had to take Chris to Jim 'n Nick's and as usual, it was DELICIOUS!

We took a scenic drive through the mountains,

and I was happy to see my old college town doing well!

We made a stop at the pumpkin farm.

And went apple pickin' in an orchard in Elijay!

Eating dinner with my brother (#2 of 3) and his family.

Chris had to have a drink at the #2 rated beer bar in the world!

Their food was delicious. I will dream about this

turkey cobb sandwich forever.

Rainy day in Decatur!

Our pumpkin display outside of the house.

Last family dinner at Mellow Mushroom! Yummy!

Chris had to see some home footage of me when I was little.

You would not believe my southern accent, y'all :)

I was pretty funny as a child...

 

I really am sorry that there are so many pictures here! But I didn't feel like splitting this up into two posts. If you made it through, thank you and I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my vacation.

New [Cheap] Shoes!

While I was home, I had to do some last minute shopping for a pair of heels to wear with my bridesmaid dress. I looked at over 5 different shoe stores, but couldn't find anything! The dress was called "truffle" but it was more of a greeny-gold color. Regular gold seemed too light and bronze was too dark. I felt like Goldilocks! Anyway, I eventually found a pair that worked (thank Heavens!) at Payless! The best part was that it was Buy One Get One 1/2 Off so I was able to snag two pairs of shoes for about $30. Since I will likely not wear the bridesmaid shoes again, I really don't feel bad about paying $4.50 for them :)

But, the whole point of this story was to share the second pair of shoes with you...the ones I will wear!

Kylie Wedge Pump

Aren't these so cute? As you all know, I'm a bargain shopper and while I like the animal print trend, I don't want to spend a lot of money on those kinds of pieces. So these are perfect! The wedge is a great height and they are super easy to walk in. The print will add a nice pop to an otherwise simple outfit, and I love the rounded-toe look with a pair of skinny denim. And at less than $30, you really can't go wrong!

PS - If there are still any of you that didn't receive an email about the fall scarf swap, please go ahead and let me know. I believe that all of the email addresses were accurate so it may just be a matter of checking your spam folder.

Fall Scarf Swap Update

* Updated to Add: I copied all email addresses directly from the comments left on the original post. For some reason, several of you have let me know that you didn't receive an email, even though the email addresses you are giving me are the exact same as the one I sent to in the first place. Maybe there is a glitch in the system and it is taking some of you longer to receive the email than others because I have not received any "can not deliver to email" messages. PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER! If you still haven't received an email by tomorrow morning with your swap partner's information, then go ahead and let me know at that time. Thanks.

If you signed up for the swap, and did not receive an email from me today, please let me know immediately.

Also, if there is a mistake with your email address or your blog link in the partner's list that I sent out, please just inform your partner directly. You can also look back at the original post and scroll through the comments to find your partner's information.

The important details to remember:

The spending limit is a minimum of $15 (you are free to spend more than this on your partner), not including shipping.

Please try to have your packages sent out by Friday, October 21. 

Thanks again, ladies! Have fun!

PS - My vacation was awesome! I'll be back soon to post a recap with pictures, but here is one of the beautiful bride (aka my best friend) to tide you over!

Sign Up for the Fall Scarf Swap!

Fall Scarf Swap

Thanks to a handful of interested readers, I have decided to go ahead and host a Fall Scarf Swap! 

Here are the details:

• If you left a comment on my previous post about wanting to participate in this swap, please leave a new comment on THIS post so I know that you are for sure participating.

• By signing up for this swap, you are committing to send your partner a scarf in the time period specified! The last thing I want is someone to not receive a package. That's just bad karma, folks. So please only sign up if you are serious about following through - to sign up, leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address. If you don't have a blog, you can still participate!

• The spending limit is a minimum of $15 (you are free to spend more than this on your partner), not including shipping. Since scarves are pretty lightweight and can be bundled up in a lined envelope/small package, shipping should not be that expensive. USPS has great prices on priority shipping so I recommend checking them out.

• Once you've been assigned a partner (I will pair you up randomly) it is your responsibility to communicate with them and find out anything you will need to know - address, favorite colors, etc. - in order to send your package.

• The deadline to sign up will be next Monday, October 10. (I will send out an email with everyone's partner information on or before Wednesday, October 12.)

• Please try to have your packages sent out by Friday, October 21. 

• At some point I will post a link-up on my blog so that you can share your new scarf with everyone (probably sometime after October 26 so everyone has time to receive their packages).

• I'm really computer illiterate so this button is very basic, but please feel free to share on your own blog about this swap. I'm pretty sure you can just click the image below and it will take you to my photobucket page. You can then copy the HTML code for the image and paste it into your own post/blog to share with your readers.

(PS - if this isn't working please let me know since I'm not sure

if this is the correct process or not....)

Thanks to all of you that expressed an interest in this swap, I think it will be a lot of fun!

Tuesdays at the Table (8)

It's been a couple of weeks since I participated in the recipe link up over at Cole's blog, All the Small Stuff. I haven't really been cooking very much so that's why I haven't had anything to share! But I did bake a wonderful pumpkin bread last week that everyone was raving about so I figured it's definitely worth sharing!

Fall is my favorite season and there is just something so cozy about the smell of pumpkin bread baking in the oven. I found this recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread and it had such great reviews that I knew I had to make it.

Prep time was so fast - it was ready to go in the oven in about 10 minutes, maybe less. I used mini loaf pans (5"x3") and baked them for about 50 minutes at 350°. The bread comes out super moist and the spiciness from the pumpkin pie spice is really delicious. Then there is the tartness & sweetness from the cranberries which puts this bread over the top!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 cups granulated sugar

1 can (15 ounces) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice or water

1 cup sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans. 

COMBINE flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil and juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

BAKE for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

Recipe makes two loaves.

FOR THREE 8 x 4-INCH LOAF PANS:
PREPARE as above. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. 

FOR FIVE OR SIX 5 x 3-INCH MINI-LOAF PANS:
PREPARE as above. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. 

I took this to work and it was gone so fast that I wasn't able to snap a picture, but I promise it's worth making!