my little ladybugs

I went to Target this morning for a few items and I found this ladybug hat so I decided my cats would be ladybugs for Halloween! They absolutely hate it. I happen to think they are adorable!

This is Mia. She's our sweet one who is always getting injured somehow. She's afraid of ceiling fans. When you put a costume on her, she falls to the side and freezes. These are the best pictures that I took of her!

This is Molly and she is our wild one. She loves Justin and hates me. When he leaves to go to work she lays on the back doormat for hours. The only way to get her in the hat is to put a shirt on her so that she is more calm. Putting the shirt on is another story. She hates to be dressed up even more than Mia.

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone has a wonderful and very spooky Halloween!

We are going to our church's Trunk or Treat where everyone decorates their trunks of their cars in the parking lot and they hand out candy. Justin will be with The Whitlocks passing out candy and dressed in camo. I will be singing with our praise band for the entire time. It should be a lot of fun! Have a great Halloween!

pumpkin cookie recipe

I got the urge a week or so ago to make some kind of yummy cookie. Pumpkin cookies! I found this recipe online and they are extremely moist and tasty. Top them off with icing and I betcha can't eat just one! This one is by Libby. Find it here.


Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze (recipe follows)

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease baking sheets.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.

BAKE for 15 to 18 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Drizzle Glaze over cookies.

FOR GLAZE:
COMBINE 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in small bowl until smooth.

fall decorating

I love decorating for fall. This is our first fall together in this house so I wanted to make it look festive. It's not super fancy, but I happen to really like it!

Spider web from Ben Franklin $2.99! What a deal!

Here is our front porch with the fall wreath that I made and our pretty pumpkins. My mom gave me some picks and a grapevine wreath. I became obsessed with making this thing. I think I went to the craft store three times to get more picks because I put them on the wreath so densely.

Pretty mums in urns

We got some small mums and I regret to say that I let them die. Yikes, I know. They have slowly started to come back but I thought they added a little greenery behind the pumpkins. I added this little bat from Ben Franklin for .99 cents.

My first fall wreath

I added this little scarecrow and I think it's so cute!

Some mums in our flower bed. They are huge!

Go Hokies!

This side tree usually has lights on it year round. It looks really pretty and it's a nice light to come home to. I decided to add orange lights for Halloween. It looks really neat.

Justin has had this tree for years and it usually has shotgun shell lights on it! I decided that it's going to be the holiday tree and I'm going to change it out every holiday. I put on purple twinkle lights, orange pumpkin wrap and skull lights that blink. This picture doesn't look like it does in real life, it's a lot brighter. I put little witch shoes underneath of the tree.

Upclose of the lights

Yes I give my husband milk in ghost glasses!

halloween cupcakes

Look at these adorable Halloween cupcake ideas from Fancy Flours. I L.O.V.E. this website!! It has the best baking ideas and products around. I would die for those cake stands! Augh they also cost $200!

re-post: engagement pictures

Justin and I took our engagement photos a year ago today! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown since we got engaged to now. Everything is back to normal but it's a new normal. Our photographer did such a nice job. The first picture below is one of my favorites. We have it on a 16" x 20" canvas(that I have yet to hang). The last picture was on our save the date cards.

Our save the date photo. Some people told us that they didn't even know it was us because they thought it came out of a magazine! I love it! We ended up going with this save the date from Minted:

my new design blog!!

This is very exciting news to share! I have finally started my own interior design blog!(click above)

As of a few months ago I had been contemplating doing some design work on my own. I wasn't sure how to go about it, so I decided to try to start a design blog and go from there. Hopefully soon I can offer full range design services to clients here in Richmond and the surrounding area. It's a work in progress but I do hope that you can check it out and support me! Erin at Designer Blogs has done it again and created a fabulous blog design for me! She comes highly recommended!


Please tell me what you think about the new blog! Also, what kind of things would you want to see on an interior design blog? Thank you so much!

wedding banner

I stumbled across this really neat wedding banner this morning. It can be purchased here by Made by Girl which sells cards and prints. You just plug in the wedding info of the couple and they print and send. This is just so sweet. It would be a great gift to send!

wintergreen weekend

We enjoyed this weekend with our friends Katy and Grace, Jason and baby Bryce. Justin's parents have a wonderful home at Wintergreen and they allowed us to use it over the weekend. It was extremely chilly but we had a great time together.




On Saturday morning we drove to Carter Mountain right outside of Charlottesville. We will learn for next year that apple picking should actually happen in September.

Katy, me, Grace

We set off with our bags in tow to pick some apples, only to find that they are almost completely gone. The granny smith's were all gone! We set off for some Fuji's and didn't have much luck.

Grace showing her empty apple bag.

We did find one itty bitty Bryce sized apple. How cute is this?

Truly one of the best parts of apple picking here is the food! These apple cider doughnuts and apple caramel cookies are a favorite every year. I have got to find a recipe for these cookies. They are amazing.

Baby worm Bryce

The Whitlocks

Me and Justin

After apple picking was over we went to lunch and then headed to the Veritas winery. This is originally where I had wanted to have my wedding because they have a gorgeous ballroom draped in fabric. We did a wine tasting which was fun. Look at the mountains in the background!

Sidenote - I desperately need to get my hair done and lose 20 lbs!

On Saturday night Grace made everone a yummy chilli dish with fritos, cornbread, cheese and sour cream. Thanks Grace! Katy really loved it as you can see!