Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Chic Critique Cover Contest

I'm entering this photo for the cover contest for Chic Critique. There's a lot of awesome entries so I honestly doubt I'll win BUT it never hurts to try, right? Plus the prize is a new bag which I so desperately need...mine barely fits two lenses. This is an outtake from my shoot with Alice and I like the offset composition and how she's holding her hair up.  (P.S. sorry for the double post today. It's the last day for this cover contest, but be sure to check out my post on our pumpkin carving that I did earlier.)


The Great Pumpkin Carving


Last Sunday Rhett and I headed out to his Mom's house for some family time. Jeff had pumpkins for all of us to carve, and he had already carved the grandkids' names into some others. He gutted them for us and everything! It was awesome...we didn't have to do the gross part. We played with the kiddos outside before dinner, which is always fun.




I used a template because otherwise I would have just done a smiley face. 




The reflection of the pumpkins in the mirror was pretty creepy! I think Rhett's Jack Skellington is my favorite, but I also like Hayden's scary face one too. It was a lot of fun! I felt like my arm was going to be sore the next day, but it wasn't too bad. It was nice getting to go hang out with Rhett's family, especially the kids! They are hilarious these days.




My witch and Rhett's Jack

Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you all stay safe. Rhett and I will be staying in and watching The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, a tradition that I'm forcing him to adopt. We won't have trick-or-treaters since my porch lights don't work....oops. 

Monday, October 29, 2012

Mustard, Plum and Midnight


I believe the cold is here to stay around these parts. We had a little heat wave last week where it got back up in the high 80s, but temps are back down in the 50s now. As much as I hate being cold, I have actually started enjoying bundling up these past few winters. I am planning to pull out my heavier jackets and sweaters this week, and put away my thin tops. I also love wearing scarves! I got a few new ones at the end of last winter that I'm excited to start wearing.


I wore this color blocked dress the other day, and it is pretty perfect for Fall! Looking at it now, I'd probably wear it differently. The gray jacket was an attempt to make the shoes work with the dress, but they really just don't. I just really wanted to wear these shoes that I got from Modcloth :) I bought them (A). because they were cute and not overly expensive and (B). the heel was thicker than my wedding shoes and I could possibly sub them if needed...which I didn't. They aren't super high quality, but they are pretty comfortable for the minimum walking around that I do during the day!




I like it much better without the jacket, and since this was one of the hotter days, I didn't wear it most of the day. I'm still carrying around a belly pooch from all the eating I did at Disney World, so it was a little tight around the middle! I need to get back into better eating habits now that Rhett and I have settled in. I have been cooking for him, but I don't cook near as healthy as I did for just me. I don't know what my deal is, but I've been going crazy with the carbs in our meals...bread bread bread breaded stuff bread bread potatoes....etc. I'm making an attempt to add more green to our meals this week, so we'll see. I hope to post some about recipes I try! I made some roasted potatoes last week that I am going to post on here, and I think you guys will enjoy that one. It was really easy and REALLY tasty.



details:
dress- Forever 21
tights- Marshalls, several years ago
jacket- Target
shoes- ModCloth
necklace- Express

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Read a Book a Month: September


I am THRILLED that I got through two books during September since that was when the bulk of wedding preparations took place. Both of these books were rather quick reads though, so I suppose that's why. First, I finished up the Hunger Games series with Mockingjay. While this book was crazy sad and depressing, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked how she wrapped up the story, and I'm actually pretty picky about endings. I was unimpressed with the writing after the first book, but either it got better or it just grew on me :)

HAVE YOU PEOPLE READ BOSSYPANTS?! If you haven't, you need to do that right now. It's so good! Just like most girls my age, I really enjoy Mean Girls, and I am also a big fan of 30 Rock, so of course I loved this book. It was really awesome to learn some details about how she gained fame. I read this crazy fast because I just couldn't put it down. Also, the parts about her dad...hilarious.

October has not been productive, unfortunately. I'm just now about to finish my book, so I won't be bragging about reading two next time!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Surprise Brunch for Margaret


With all the busy-ness of the last few weeks, I have put off posting these photos from Margaret's surprise party. Better late than never! It was such a wonderful time with friends. A while before Margaret's birthday, Josh decided he would try to throw her a surprise party, so he enlisted the help of Ben, Margaret's man candy (Mean Girls...did you catch that?). We each brought a brunch dish and set up in this adorable little garden area downtown. It's next to a photography studio and they rent it out for just like $50 a day. It's a steal! I actually got my senior pictures taken there when I was in high school.


I made muffins! 





Josh sure knows how to set up a table. Everything was delicious, especially those scones and mini BLTs. We mingled around with each other for a little while and waited for Ben to bring Margaret out. He told her he wanted to take her someplace special downtown, but didn't tell her where. So he just walked her right up to us, and we surprised her with a fun birthday brunch!








with the bff 

with the bf 


Like I said before, it was SUCH a fun day. I met some new people and got to spend time with some good friends. I am sure Margaret felt the love that day. If anyone deserves a top-notch celebration, it's her. I hope you had a happy birthday (forever ago), Margaret!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Eggplant Mozzarella Melts

When I went to the store the other day, I bought a nice big eggplant to eat. I do this all the time...I buy an eggplant, then I don't know what to do with it so I just let it rot. Shame! I was determined not to let that happen this time, so I found a recipe that I thought Rhett might like (he's not crazy about eggplant). I stumbled upon this one from Martha Stewart: Eggplant and Mozzarella Melt. It was ridiculous how easy it was! I have tried breading and baking eggplant before and kind of failed, but it worked a lot better in rounds rather than long slices. Making a pizza-type dish with a french loaf is no new thing, but I never thought to do it with eggplant. Next time I buy eggplant, I might just tackle eggplant parm (one of my favs!)



As you can see, I left it in a little longer than it needed. But a little browned cheese never hurt anyone, right? At least it didn't have a charred taste. Have any of you tried this recipe? If you like eggplant and don't mind a bread-y meal, I highly recommend it!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Fire + Water

Hello from Mrs. Woody! That's right, a week ago was my wedding day so now I'm a married old lady...and I love it. The wedding was a bit of a blur. All week we watched the weather forecast get worse and worse, but it looked like it might be ok there for a while. It wasn't. It was FREEZING cold, windy, and sprinkled on us during the ceremony. Luckily it didn't start pouring until everyone was in the barn for the reception (whew!). Even though it wasn't the day I had pictured in my head, I loved it. Once the day was here, all I really cared about was marrying Rhett...that's all that really mattered. I will post plenty of pictures from the wedding once I get them sorted out, but for now I wanted to share a few pictures I took of my dear friend Alice a few weeks before the wedding. 





The "assignment" was to use complimentary colors, so I contrasted her hair with a blue wall. I love Alice's long, thick curls! 

I hope you all have had a good weekend/weekend. I will hopefully have some fun tutorials for you along with wedding pictures. I did a large portion of it myself + a lot was done by friends and family. I can't wait to share!


Thursday, October 4, 2012

Home

So my roommate, Paige (not actually my roommate anymore...but it feels weird not to call her that), is an artist. A GREAT artist. She worked at Anderson Ranch this summer and she came back with some great new work. She just put a show up in our campus coffee shop, Barefoots Joe, and I had to go check it out.






I have only gotten to talk briefly about it with her, but I know it's based around home and family.Think about how many different types of homes there are. The houses are all made from the same mold, but they are all so different. The houses on the big wall are upside down, showing the foundations to be in various states. As a Christian I view the homes with solid foundations to be homes where God is the foundation of the family. Considering I'm about to start a family with Rhett this weekend, this show actually means a lot to me. I know that my family has to be grounded in Christ to thrive. That doesn't mean there won't be hard times...I'd be naive to believe that! But a family with God as it's foundation is a family that survives those hard times.

Paige, if you're reading this, feel free to leave a comment further explaining the show! I know I'd love to read it...since I won't see you for a few weeks :)

This is probably my last post until after the honeymoon! If I have time, which I doubt I will, I'll schedule a post about my friend's surprise birthday party, but please forgive me if I forget :) By 5:30 Saturday I will be a married woman, guys! And by lunch on Sunday I'll be in Disneyworld with my awesome husband! I think I'm more excited about going to Disney than I am about the wedding day. I know we're going to have a blast. I hope you all have a wonderful week and a half! I'll miss you.