And I'm off...

Today I'm headed to one of my favorite places in the world for a week.

CAMP TEKOA!!!!!

I'm helping with Barnabas camp for the week...and will be back in the mix on Saturday - just in time for the 4th! I'm so looking forward to a week in the mountains with friends that feel like family. I can't wait for spiritual renewal and reminders of how amazing God and all of His creations are.

As I'm technically "camping" (read: in a cabin with hot water...that's how I roll), I won't have much time to blog it up. But, I'll try. Just wanted to give my 2 loyal readers a heads up as to why all is quiet on the blog front!

Hope everyone has a fantastic week filled with blessings!

Fashion Friday: Clutches

Oh boy...do I love a clutch! One of my favorite things - and I constantly have to stop myself from buying up any cute clutch I happen upon. Generally, I like my clutches to have bright bold patterns & BRIGHT colors, so you can pair it with a classic outfit to give it some POP! Here are a few I could fancy myself sporting...courtesy of eBags - which is good mix of designer and affordable. Definitely some cute stuff!

Love them all...have a great Friday...and a great weekend!!

Flashback! Lake Lure/Winery Weekend

Flashback: Since I've only been blogging for a little bit - I'll randomly do flashbacks of fun things that have happened in the past...just for the heck of it!

About a month ago, Alan & I went to Lake Lure for Saturday & Sunday - mainly for a wedding for a friend of his on Saturday afternoon. Just for the fun of it, we made a weekend out of it and decided to visit a couple of the NC wineries close to Lake Lure and tour around. Unfortunately - it rained and was real overcast - but as usual - we made the best of it anyway! Here are several pics from the weekend...

The first winery we went to was Rockhouse Vineyards in Tryon. Very cute little vineyard - and the wine was quite nice. The "rock house" has the tasting room in it - and was built by a German couple over 10 years. It has gorgeous rock indigineous to the NC mountains. Beautiful!

As an added bonus - the vineyard was hosting a wedding that afternoon/evening. Unfortunately, I think the probably got rained on a little bit - but I couldn't resist snapping a few pics. First where the ceremony was - overlooking the vineyards. Then the tent for the party afterwards. I loved the tissue paper pomanders hanging from the top of the tent. They also had tons of white lights strung throughout the tent. I had serious wedding envy!

The wedding was really nice on Saturday evening. We followed it up with a nice dinner overlooking Lake Lure. On Sunday morning, we got a nice breakfast and drove around waiting for it to clear up a bit. We stopped in Chimney Rock and walked around the river a little. Since it had been raining so much -the water was quite high!

We stopped back by the Lake and walked around a bit between the showers. You can see the clouds...they were crazy!

Alan made fun of my fashion statement. I was going for the Grecian over the shoulder sweater tie. It's the new thing...trust me!

That afternoon we stopped at Green Creek Winery in Columbus, NC. It was also nice - a little more high tech - but equally good wines. Here's a few pics from it...

Serously - HOW ABOUT THOSE CLOUDS!?!?!

Overall - it was a wonderful weekend. We definitely will be going back to the wineries - and hopefully the weather will be a little more cooperative next time!

Mixed Emotions

Life is pretty interesting. It gives you good...it gives you bad...and I try my best to focus on the good. As a Christian, one of my biggest struggles is accepting when things don't work out the way I'm expecting/hoping for them to. It's hard for me to accept that God's plan isn't something that is always easy for me to understand (sometimes it's downright impossible), and to trust in Him that He's "got my back".

Something I was really hoping and praying would work out with my job situation fell through this week. It was a blow. I feel like I'm back at square one which is a little disconcerting. I'm having to refocus my efforts and muster up my courage to get back out there...oh...and to not take it personally. Logically, I know that I will find a job...and that times are tough out there...and I'm fortunate for all the many blessings that I have - even if a job isn't among them right now. Just today, God has shown me that He is constantly giving out crazy blessings that I couldn't even imagine...literally making dreams come true. I just have to remind myself to wait for the Lord and rest in knowing that He is in control. He will not let me down.

Here's some verses from The Message (aka the version of the Bible I turn to when I need it plain and simple...and to really zing me). "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all." ~ Proverbs 3:5-7 (The Message)

Now...onto the good stuff! Katherine, my college roomie was in town this past weekend. She twisted my arm & we went to look at wedding dresses. I bought the first one I tried on. Crazy! I have my wedding dress! I love it and I am done with that part of the process. Which again...is crazy! Hopefully the rest of the process will go as smoothly. A fair amount is done, but there is still more to be done! These last 300+ days will go by very quickly.

Sunday, Katherine, Jen and I went to a bridal show in Charlotte. I might have found my florist which is great - but it also made me realize how high maintenance/bridezilla-like some of the brides to be are. It is my pledge this will not be me! I am trying to enjoy this process and have fun every step of the way...so Alan will still want to marry me in 10.5 months. Here's a little picture that we took in the photo booth they had displayed. It was pretty fun!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and are having a good week!

Last Minute Father's Day Gift Idea...

Tomorrow is Father's Day. Do you have a gift for your dad yet?

If not...this is one of the coolest things I've seen. Clever and practical. A deadly combo!

Click HERE to buy the Pizza Boss. I mean...even the name is cool!!

Trying Something Out...

This is us (me & my boo...aka Alan) near Chimney Rock a few weekends ago. My main reason for posting is I'm trying to figure out the picture feature on Blogger. Hopefully - this will allow someone to click on the picture and it to open up slightly bigger than it displays in the post. If not...does anyone know how to do that?

Fashion Friday: Summer Tops

Who doesn't love a summer top?

cool and breezy...

light and airy...

ahhh...

All of these are from ModCloth which I love. Great site for jewelry, dresses and in general - good stuff. These are just some I thought were cute...with jeans, jean skirts, capris, shorts...just some fun tops!

Love these colors!

I think with the right skirt, this would be good for a date night.

I think with tan dress pants, this would be great for work. Jazz it up with fun pearls!

Lovin' the peacock detail on this one.

And since I love green so much - here are my two green favs...

Clearly this one would be great with some fuschia heels!

Have a great Friday!!

Catchin' Up!

So - I'm barely a couple of weeks old to this blogging thing...and I'm already behind! Time to play a little catch up!

First off...the bachelorette party was a blast! We had a super fun group of 8 girls and we showed Savannah who was boss. It was HOT & HUMID! But, good friends, good fun, quality pool time and sundresses made it bearable. Here are a few "tame" pics...

City Hall as the sun is going down.

I loved these tree...and they were everywhere.

Here's the whole group down by the river (without the van).

Early on our big night out...guess which one is the bachelorette!!!

A wee bit later that night. Note the transition of the lei to me...and also, one of my many "dance faces". *sigh* Why can't I dance like a normal person?

All in all - a great time! I loved Savannah - it was my first time being there and I want to go back - but perhaps this time in the early spring or late fall.

The rest of this week has been pretty tame -I've been spending some time in the Word and praying a lot about my job situation. In other news....I'm super pumped that Katherine - my best friend and college roommate (and my matron of honor) from Atlanta is coming to Charlotte this weekend for a visit. I get to catch her up on all things wedding...and we are braving a wedding show on Sunday. Our main objective is to sign up for a lot of chances to win free stuff (how boss would a free honeymoon be?!)...and maybe taste some cake! More to come on that!

Fashion Friday: Maxi Dresses

**I know when I post this it's Thursday...but, I'm rolling to GA in the AM...so here it is a day early!**

As noted in a previous post - I'm all up on the Fashion Friday bandwagon. I have long admired the look of the well-worn maxi dress...though I'm sure we can all agree it is a less than flattering name. I didn't think I could wear them - but I got daring and tried...and I love!

So, to go with my new obsession - here are a few ones that I could picture myself wearing at various occasions. These are all from Chick Downtown some of which is affordable - most of which I try and find a version of at Marshall's or TJMaxx!

Maybe this one for a summer BBQ...

Brunch with the girls...

An afternoon outdoor wedding...this would definitely need some chunky purple jewelry.

Just running errands...and maybe use the same purple jewelry from above!

Fancier wedding...maybe with fun gold T-straps?

That's it for me...have a great weekend...hopefully fun pics to come from my friend's bachelorette weekend!

Well...

I have to say "starting a blog" is a lot more daunting than I thought it would be. Where to start? So much to say. Topics that I've been thinking on to blog about are as follows:

• Wedding - this clearly has many subtopics which include *plans so far; *thoughts on what's left to be done; *things that I like that might be ridiculous - but there's always the possibility of us winning the lottery...right? *other random thoughts.
• Job situation - just need prayers here. I'm faithful that God will put me in the right place at the right time and is using this to teach me some good stuff!
• Downloads on life...this could encompass a multitude of things - the possibilities are endless!
• Maybe Fashion Friday? That seems to be the hot blog trend - and I'm kind of digging it. I might take a running leap at that blog bandwagon.

So, as I try and work through all that - here are a few updates! Alan & I went to a wedding this weekend for my friend Mattox. It was great - they are a super couple and we had a really nice time. We don't have a ton of pics from the actual wedding - but here's a couple of "action shots" on the way to the wedding and a few from the wedding. Sorry - none with the bride & groom - they were way busy!

We also went "swimming" at the Y on Sunday. As most of you I'm sure know...I don't fancy myself a swimmer while Alan was a lifeguard in high school. It wasn't as much of a debacle as I had anticipated, and actually was a lot of fun...though everyone younger than me - including 2 year olds, could swim circles around me! I felt like it was a good workout - so I'm going to try & work that in the rotation!

I'm off to Savannah, GA for my friend Jen's bachelorette party this weekend. Should be a good time! Much more to come...and I'll try to keep the updates a little more frequent!

My New Career? Ha!

Well - I've had a bit of free time on my hands which has led to some TV indulgence. I am now an avid fan of Ace of Cakes and the Food Network Challenge shows (mainly the cake/candy decorating ones...I find it weird they have "grill challenges" - I can't judge how pretty a steak is!). This has led me to get ambitious & try my hand at cake decorating. My mom & I dabbled in this a bit, back in the day (read: I was in middle school)...so I thought I'd dust off the old skill set & see where I landed.

Alan's stepfather was having a retirement party last weekend - and I gave it a shot. So, here is my first cake (cream cheese pound cake with cream cheese icing) decorated as best I could!

Definitely some room for improvement...but, you can read it! I definitely need to work on my smoothing of the icing. Perhaps this will lead to me to taking a class...who knows! Here's another shot from the side.

All in all - relatively successful! And, as a bonus - rave reviews on how it tasted. Maybe next time will go a wee bit smoother!

Here goes nothing...

Well, I'm diving in. I'm going to give this blogging thing a shot. Just sticking one little toe in the water to see how it feels and if I'm cut out for it. There are a lot of really good bloggers out there...and I am starting out a smidge intimidated. But, here goes nothing! Hopefully this will serve as a fun way to brain dump my thoughts on the wedding, job hunt, celebrity gossip and just whatever the heck else I want. And, who knows, some of it might be mildly entertaining! Here we go!!