Falling for fall

Seriously, what's not to love?

A picture recap of some of my favorite things from the last month (plus tyler's birthday):

tyler blowing out the candles on one of his many birthday cakes

tyler is an excellent uncle because he can build super tall lego buildings.

tyler (and nephew caleb) attempting to open some birthday presents at ty's parent's house

pumpkins are heavy?
super sweet corn maze-- it was alice in wonderland-themed and went through tunnels, over bridges, and even through a round room with a set of and little bottle that says "drink me"

pic with my little sis!

halloween party complete with glow-in-the-dark margaritas with creepy crawly worms!

and a picture in the dark :D

Nic and his lovely girlfriend Lindsey. You can just look at Nic's expression and see why I included this photo.

So, there are LOTS of fun things coming up (and hopefully lots more photos!) but one of the main things I am excited about is Tyler and I's Christmas Date Day (yes, with caps!) with our friends Craig and Angela. It was actually Angela's idea-- we were talking about how we miss out on Christmas in the city living all the way out here and she came up with the idea for an epic date day in Seattle on the weekend before Christmas! I am SO EXCITED!

Possible plans include:

• Christmas shopping downtown (including FAO Schwartz)
• Adult Christmas drinks at happy hour somewhere
• Ice skating (maybe?)
• Christmas-y (somehow haha) dinner!
• Possibly the Nutcracker or this Christmas boat trip thinger where you get to listen to carols and float around the sound :D
• Driving around looking at Christmas lights with hot chocolate!

Anyways, nothing is set in stone, but I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite Christmas-y things to do in the city if any of you have suggestions-- we haven't settled on a for-sure plan, but I feel like there are a ton of possibilities we are probably missing on our list here! :)

Cupcakes!

So, I have misplaced the SD card for my camera (sad face) so I haven't been able to update with photos from the last few weeks! And there has been quite a lot I'd like to blog about, but no photos! Ty's birthday was at the end of September and the lucky guy got to celebrate his birthday four (that's right- FOUR) separate times-- because we all love him. :) Once I find the SD card I'll do a nice blog post about it. In the meantime, however, here are some crappy pics of the s'mores cupcakes I made for work tomorrow!

Step 1: Graham cracker base with half a marshmallow on top.

Step 2: Layer on the chocolate cake mix!

Step 3: More graham cracker crust (because it's amazingly delicious)

Step 4: Top with chocolate frosting, more graham cracker, and a toasted marshmallow! (I broiled mine in the oven since I don't have one of those little torch things yet)

Happy Birthday Angela!!

Angela- you are amazing. Your birthday was amazing. Thank you for being born and then subsequently befriending us and choosing to celebrate your birthday with us. We had a blast.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the night (more will eventually be posted on Facebook I'm sure):

and we're off!

bartender craig was in the back making drinks for everyone for the first part of the trip
a partial group shot :)

the birthday prince and princess! it was nelson's birthday as well. :)

we fit our entire party (about 15 people) into an elevator

check out that AMAZING view- one of our many stops of the evening

we stopped at Alki beach and Angela decided to swap the heels for craig's sneakers

Ty decided that throwing a massive log was the only way to fully appreciate the beach

...and my personal favorite from the evening! haha!

LONG overdue update!

My apologies for not posting in such a long time-- I've been busy training for two (yes, that's right- TWO) jobs and working and have had a million other engagements. But now I have a little time to update!

First off- one year wedding anniversary. It was awesome. It was also very random-- most of our plans for the day never materialized, but we did end up in Seattle, and we walked around, looked in the shops, and ate an awesome lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Afterwards, we went the the REStore which has tons of awesome, weird stuff for the home that people donate and you can buy for (sometimes) pretty cheap. We didn't see anything super sweet that we needed for the apartment so we decided to head out to Alki beach. Somehow, we ended up missing our exit and ended up at Southcenter instead. We ate dinner at Joey's (which was MUI tasty--try the roast chicken if you are ever there!) and went and saw Dinner for Schmucks in Bonney Lake. We really did have an insanely jam-packed weekend. My favorite part, probably though, was eating our cake topper with my family the night before our anniversary-- it was fun to share the surprisingly delicious cake (afterall, it had been frozen for a year!!) and share our memories from the wedding a year ago.

our cake topper was seriously amazing- even after a YEAR of being frozen!

on our way to Seattle for our anniversary!

after Cheesecake Factory ty and I ended up at U-Village and ty ended up hanging out in a little shed.

super cheap, super delicious mojitos at Joey's happy hour

now THIS was interesting...

touche!

I especially loved the one up to the top right corner. haha

OTHER NEWS:

Tyler now has a motorcycle. He 'inherited it' from a work friend. Lord help us all.

364 Days Later

I wanted to write a post for you Tyler, tonight, the night before our one year anniversary to let you know how much I love you. But everytime I try to put it into words I find myself speechless, and am instead overwhelmed by a wave of happy memories from our four and a half years together...

Our second date when we went to Applebees and you found a pricetag in your sandwich.

The night of our first kiss, and the way I had to stare at you for a full minute before you finally got up the nerve to kiss me.

Saying I love you on the top of the parking garage.

Date nights with a movie, gingerbread cookies and four-dollar champagne.

The day you proposed to me at that beautiful lookout point, and you were so nervous that we stood out there for an hour before you finally got up the courage to ask me to be your wife.

Moving into our first apartment and the way neither of us could sleep because our bed was so tiny and creaky.

The night your grandpa died and I got to be the one to hold you.

The cookies I 'made from scratch' for you that looked (and tasted) like rabbit turds.

Walking down the aisle and not believing my incredible luck that it you-- wonderful, perfect you, were the one waiting for me at the end.

Tonight, on the night before our first wedding anniversary, I can't even put into words how much I love you. Thank you so much for the most amazing year of my life.

DILEMMA!

okay, so i have been wanting a vintage-y wingback chair for FOREVER, and today on craigslist i found TWO that are both super affordable, and very cute.

however, my friends, there is a problem- one of the wingback chairs, which is a perfect color and a style I like more, has some small tears on it because it is an authentic old wingback. and the other chair looks to be quite gold- possibly too gold to go in our apartment with our new yellow, cream and brown rug.

Here is the rug again:


And here is the first chair:

And here is the second chair:



Aarrgg! What do we do? Ty says it's up to me, but I just can't tell, especially with the rug not here yet. Darn you craigslist and your adorable items that disappear if you wait on them!

Things Tyler has made me...

Grilled cilantro chicken with pickled tomato and avocado salsa

Fettucini with walnut pesto and tenderloin medallions

Pulled chicken tacos with homemade corn cakes

Yeah, tyler definitely wins in the cooking category.

Other exciting news? I sold our old rug yesterday so now I can buy the beautiful stripey one! WOO HOO!

Paint, build, distress and paint some more

What a crazy Monday Ty and I had! We finally got started on operation redecorate this weekend (Monday was technically part of the weekend for us) and we decided to start painting and distressing our trunk/coffee table and tv stand. Ultimately, however, it was crazy insane-o windy outside, so we only finished the trunk. But it looks fab! We painted it ivory and distressed it. I even attempted to stain it with coffee blended into a little paint, but that was a total failure. Tyler also was working away on creating some sort of extra storage for us, and he ended up building this adorable little white crate with "coffee" stenciled on the side. I love it!

Once we got the chest inside, I was feeling pretty pumped so I also painted over the painting that was hanging in our living room (not one I did- I bought it at Marshall's...ssh) and now the colors are very bright and airy. All-in-all, not a bad start for operation redecorate!

before....


ty building away

after painting and distressing...

closeup of the distressing

our 'new' painting :)

ty's adorable coffee crate that he built. :)

SO much to post about, so little time

Okay, so there hasn't been a post in a while but I've had about a million things I wanted to write about and ZERO internet. So, instead, I will write about ty and i's ongoing redecorating plans for our living room.

As you all know (maybe) our room is very brown and orange at the moment. Not my first choice of colors, but what can ya do? Anyways, for the longest time I've been wanting to swap out our rug and lighten up the apartment with a blue and white or yellow and white rug and some beachy-looking pillows. We also want to repaint our tv stand white and then distress it, and possibly sell our couch and find one that is a little lighter in color. Here is what we are looking at at the moment for inspiration:

I saw this rug today, and fell in LOVE. however, I'm not exactly sure how to bring in the blue? we'll see.



I've also had my eye on this rug from Dash & Albert for FOREVER it seems like, but at the $195 price point I'm afraid I can't afford it. lol!


I also really love all of the fun embroidered floral and stripe-y pillows at anthropologie, especially
those with birds or fish!

other inspirations:


this is actually the photo that got me thinking about a striped rug-- i love it. i am also in love with the reclaimed wood table in the center-- i've been begging ty to help me build one forever. perhaps after the dresser this will be our next project? first order of business would be to find a super old, distressed door to use as the top of the table....we'll see how that goes. :)

This pic is from the set of the movie Something's Gotta Give, and i LOVE the enormous blue and white rug that covers the entire floor and the light-colored couches. Truth be told, I'd like our room to be a bit more eclectic/vintagey/industrial, but I love this look anyway.

I love basically everything on sfgirlbybay's blog, especially her interior design posts, which often feature photos from her own apartment. The way she showcases her collections has also been a major point of interest to me...what should tyler and I start collecting to showcase in our home? Either way, sfgirlbybay = LOVE!


I am also planning on painting over the red areas in the painting that hangs over our couch with some blue and white so that it is a bit more light and airy. And best of all, ty and I are going to go get some white paint tomorrow and get crackin'! Goodbye dreary colors, hello beachy ones!