Fun Weekend

What a crazy weekend!  But I mean that in a good way.  On Friday, Kevin's brother (Chris) and his wife (Lisa-who is one of my bridesmaids) and their two dogs came to stay with us for the weekend because Chris was in a wedding (they are from Cincinnati).  Kevin's mom and her three dogs also came to stay with us for the weekend too.  Now if you're doing the math, that means SIX dogs and FIVE people in our house for the weekend :)

I worked a half-day on Friday and then went to visit my friend who had just had a baby (he's too cute!) and then went to my parents for a little bit before heading home.  The dogs all loved playing in the backyard and them coming in the house to take a nap.  That routine was great....until we woke up on Saturday morning to lots of rain. All day.  No playing outside in the cold rain for the dogs.

I worked for four hours on Saturday then went to get some groceries.  Kevin and I just hung out Saturday while everyone was at the wedding.  We watched the Tigers WIN Saturday night.  Sunday we just hung out, watched the Lions and everyone left at half-time.  The rest of Sunday was spent watching football, baking cookies (used this recipe and they turned out yummy), doing laundry, and relaxing.

While it was a fun weekend, we were all tired Sunday night (Admiral went and got in bed at 7:00 p.m. because he was so tired).  I'm looking forward to a "fall" weekend this weekend, with hopefully no rain!  I want to rake leaves, get pumpkins, carve them, and make pumpkin seeds!  And of course I still want to paint the bedroom...I need to at least go get the paint by this weekend.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, even if you had all the rain like we did!

Bridesmaid Dresses & Cake

This week myself, my mom, my fiance's mom, my sister (maid of honor), and my friend Lindsey (bridesmaid) went to pick out bridesmaid dresses!  It was fun watching the girls try on all of the different dresses.  I decided on the color "lapis" which is a dark purple.  Short (knee-length) dresses for the girls, all in the satin-type material, but I let them pick out which ever style they like best and/or feel most comfortable in.

Here are the dresses that Lindsey and Ashley (my sister) picked:

I was a little worried about having the dresses be dark purple, because the wedding is in June and I didn't know if that would be a "summer" color.  However, I fell in love with that color the first time I saw it, and I think if I use shades of light purple and white for the flowers and decorations, it will make it all seem lighter and more "summery."  At least I'm hoping that's how it will turn out...

We also went to a cake tasting/presentation this week, which was fun and informative.  We have a few more places that we want to check out before making a decision, but cake tasting sure is fun, so I don't mind it :)  Once we decide on somewhere to do our cake, I think that is the last big decision we have to make.  Then it's more of the smaller details and figuring out decorations.

Wish me luck!

Art Prize & Rascal Flatts

I'm a little late on my weekend recap, but better late than never, right?  And this past weekend was a fun one, so it's worth reading.  Or at least looking at the fun pics :)

After work on Friday my cousin and her kids came over and we went downtown and walked around Art Prize.  We got to see quite a bit, but you really have to take an entire day or a couple of days to see most of it--there is just so much to see!  We ended our night with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings-yumm!  Here are some of the things we saw at Art Prize:

Carved out of one piece of wood

The Davidsons...made out of Harley Davidson parts

Metal Fish



Carved out of wood

 Made from tires

 glass mosiac

My cousins by the big motorcycle

I worked Saturday morning, so then when I got home, Kevin and I took the dog for a long walk and then I got ready for the Rascal Flatts concert!!  My mom and I went to the concert and we had a great time!  The concert lasted about four hours, and there were three great opening acts.

 Little Big Town

 Rascal Flatts!  Awesome stage!

My mom and I



 We are silly

Sunday was spent doing laundry, cleaning, and relaxing...which means I didn't get any painting done.  We have another eventful weekend this weekend, so watch for an update about it next week.  And hopefully some painting in the near future!

Photo Wall

I finally put something up on the walls in our house!  I had a mirror, some frames, and a couple of shelves that I wanted to hang together to create a little photo wall.  Since all of the frames and shelves were black, I decided to hang them in the living room, since they matched everything in there.

I first laid everything out on the floor to figure out how I wanted it.  Then I tried using this technique to make hanging them easy.  However, for me it didn't work very well.  I taped my sheets of wax paper together on the floor and just marked where the nails should go.  Then when I went to hang it on the wall, they wouldn't stay together and I got frustrated and just threw the wax paper away and decided to do it the old fashioned way (yes, I'm stubborn).  After reading the post about how to hang it with wax paper, I would do it differently next time.  I wouldn't tape the wax paper together on the floor, and I would outline the entire frame/shelf and where the nails go.  Then I could hang each sheet of wax paper up separately and I think it would work better.

So after some pencil marks on the wall, many incorrect nail holes (nothing ended up level when I did it), and getting my fiance to help, we finally got everything hung up!  The bottom shelf is higher than I really wanted it, but I also didn't want it too low so people hit it every time they sat on the couch.  So it's staying how it is.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I just need to find some pictures to put in the rest of the frames.  I have one of our engagement pics in a frame and a cute fall printable I found here.  I just printed mine on plain white copy paper.  It might have looked a little better printed on photo paper or something, but I'm happy with it (sorry the photo quality is so bad).  Right now our living room colors are black, tan, and green.  I have some green frames I want to incorporate somehow, but I'm not sure how to do that yet.

I want to paint the living room someday, but it's not a priority right now, so I decided it was time to start decorating!  I think that's why I have nothing up on any other walls, because I want to paint them first.  I'm hoping to paint the bedroom and the trim in the breezeway this weekend, so I'll post pics if I get them done!

Chicago

This weekend my fiance, his mom, and myself drove to Chicago to meet up with is cousin, brother, and sister-in-law.  We did nothing wedding or house related, but it was still fun so I thought I'd share :)

We drove down after work on Friday, so we pretty much just hung out Friday night when we got there.

Saturday we got up and took the train into downtown Chicago.  Then we ate Giordanos Chicago Style Pizza.  It's delicious, you should definitely try it if you are in Chicago.  Then we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It was really fun and the best part is, it's free!

Giant Bunny

Great view of Chicago from the zoo

Camel

Tiger

Chris (Kevin's brother) and Kevin playing in the mist

Bear

 Giraffe

Then we walked around downtown, went to H&M and I didn't even buy anything. I can't believe it.  I had been looking forward to going there for weeks and I didn't even buy anything.  The store was just really crowded, so it was hard to look around.  I saw a shirt online that I wanted but couldn't find it in the store, so I left empty handed.

Before dinner, I had my first ever wheat grass shot...it actually wasn't bad!

Me, Drew, and Lisa enjoying our shots :)

And our orange chasers!

We went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, which was delicious. And of course we got cheesecake to bring home for later :) I got the Oreo Cheesecake and it was AMAZING!

On Sunday the boys went golfing and us girls went shopping. Got some good deals on clothes at Target and picked up some cute fall decorations for the house at Michaels (hey, I guess I did do something house related over the weekend).

We drove home Sunday afternoon and then watched the Lions game that we had recorded (disappointing), put away all of our stuff from the weekend, read, and passed out in bed. I was so tired from the weekend, but it was so fun!

September Birchbox

Some of you may have seen my photos on facebook or instagram of my birchboxes.  I've had some questions about it, so I thought I'd explain a little here and tell you about my experience with it.

Basically, you sign up to get box each month.  It's $10 a month (or I think you get a small discount if you do a year subscription).  It's a great way to try new products without the huge investment.  The products are typically sample size, although some samples are larger than others.  For example, last month I got a sample of DDF Brightening Cleanser and I use it every day, and I still have a little over half left, and it's been about a month since I got it.  Other samples I use up in a few days or a couple weeks.

I get so excited when I get my box in the mail because I never know what's inside!  It's a surprise every time!  I've only received two birchboxes so far, but I've been happy with what I got so far.  I like the fact that I can try new products, without paying full price for a full size bottle, in case I don't like it.  For example, last month I received a sample of Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Beauty Balm and this month a sample of Jouer Matte Moisture Tint and I learned that I like these types of products.  I like the idea of using a tinted moisturizer instead of a moisturizer and a foundation or cover up.  And they include an SPF which is a bonus!  I never would have went and bought a full size version of something like this in case I didn't like it.  I was able to use the sample size products to try it out and decide if I want to purchase the full-size version.

If you are curious, you can check out birchbox's website here.  If you decide to sign up, let me know your thoughts on your first box!

Here is an instagram pic of my September Birchbox:

Weekend Recap

We had such a fun and productive weekend, I just had to share it!  Friday night we grilled and ate outside since it was such a beautiful night.  Saturday morning we got up and painted our breezeway!!  I was so excited to finally get this done!  However, now that the paint is dry, I think it needs a second coat, because you can see the primer through it in some spots....oh well, we only used half of the paint, so hopefully we will actually finish it next weekend.  Here are before and "halfway" after photos:

Before (bright red):

One coat of primer and paint later (needs one more coat of paint I think, but already looks better!):

(please excuse the mess)

The red was just too bright for us.  I think the blue lightens the room up.  I can't wait to finish it and take down all of the blue painters tape and put the room together!

Saturday afternoon we went to Hoptober Fest and had some lunch then had some friends over to see the house.  Saturday night we had Kevin's mom over for dinner and for some play time for the dogs (our dog, her dogs (the mom and a puppy) and one other puppy).  I think the dogs had a blast playing and I can't believe I didn't take any pics of it! 

Sunday morning we got up and cleaned out our cars--it was much needed!  Then we got ready and headed up to Shanty Creek Resort for the night!  We had a nice room with a great view:

 View from the balcony of our room:

Before going to dinner at the hotel:

Our dinner was AMAZING!  The only pics I have from dinner are on instagram because I took them from my phone.  You can follow me on instagram at: erickamarie87



Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and then went golfing at a gorgeous course.

View from the tee box on one of the holes:

I actually had fun golfing...and I didn't do half bad!

It was a great little weekend get away for us.  And since our five year anniversary is tomorrow, it was great timing.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!