Time Flies…

…When you try to pack several major life events into a three month time period!

In three months, between October and December, I have: bought a house; moved; celebrated Chris’s birthday; celebrated Thanksgiving with family; gone on a long, action-packed vacation; gotten married (!); held a reception with friends and family; and celebrated  Christmas and New Years with family, friends, and my now husband.  What in the hell was I thinking?  As much fun as I’ve had these last few months, I’m glad to finally have a break to relax.

Oh, course, you know me.  I have lots of photos to share.  Figured I’d start with my Instagram feed (and there are a LOT of Instagram photos), move on a photo shoot I did for Tammy and Jeremy while they were in town for the reception, and round things out with the wedding and reception photos.

Enjoy!

 September

This shit is gettin’ real.

Picking out paint colors for the new house!

How could anyone not love coming home to this?

Stumbled upon this while out biking with Chris.  Who knew we’d find a place like this in the city?

I still shudder thinking about biking thru this tunnel.  There were spiders EVERYWHERE!

So, um, there’s this one particular kind of Spaghetti and sauce that I’ve been eating since I was a kid.  It’s my absolute most favorite food on the planet.  Anyway, you can’t get it at any grocery store around here, so I ordered a case from Amazon.  Don’t judge.

That’s mah mouth.

My most favorite chair in the world.

I always feel kind of… angelic sitting under this halo dryer.

Decided on trying something completely new for a bit.  Red!  I loved it, but I didn’t keep it long.  I wanted a different look for the wedding.

We voted early!  Didn’t really have a choice because we moved to a new state right before the election, and Maryland voter registration was already closed when we moved.  Had to absentee vote in Virginia before we left.

Impromptu happy hour with Christy and Reuben at Bilbo Baggins.

 
So, I had this bright idea to hand made EVERYTHING for the wedding reception, including the invitations.  Here are my supplies.

But they turned out AMAZING!

I did all of the printing, stamping and embossing.  I was super impressed with myself.

Chris, Christy and I took Bruce to the annual Pups & Pilsners in Crystal City.  We got to sample lots of great beers and socialize with the dog.

Chris and I at a Paradise Lost and Katatonia concert.

Taking the dog for a walk around the Harbor, and reveling in the fact that in just one month, we would be living here!

A wall of caricatures and a delicious meal at the Warehouse Bar & Grill in Old Town.

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One of my new favorite beers, a strawberry wheat.

October

I seriously have the weirdest cats.  You would think they are starved for attention.

He’s definitely a tree dweller.  (Does anyone else love that show My Cat From Hell?)

Fat cats spooning.

Catching a live jazz band with dinner at Laportas.  And yes, that’s a little dog on a leopard throne sitting on top of the speaker.

My new Saturday morning go-to breakfast — homemade pumpkin butter rolls with maple cream cheese icing.

Starting to buy stuff for the house — ceiling fans, lighting fixtures, cabinet knobs.

Oh, yeah, I forgot that I also traveled out to Colorado for work in October.  Sunset over the Rockies from my hotel room.

And Christy was on that trip with me, too!  Here she is checking out a modern art sculpture in downtown Springs.

Sleepy.

Jars of spices at Society Fair.

Snuggle, snuggle.

You can’t beat the burgers at Bobby’s (as in Bobby Flay) Burger Palace.

Yes, of course one of these came home with me.

Bruce dressed up as a devil for Halloween!

Five days out from closing, we stocked up on paint!

Always nice to get an unexpected show of appreciation for your hard work.

The hubs-to-be (at the time) sure knows the way to my heart.

Packing up the garage.  Does anyone else keep random medieval weaponry in their homes?

Closing day!

Oh, how I’ve missed being able to splash some color in my life.

Oh, by the way, there was also a hurricane the weekend we moved.  Go figure.  This is what we called "battening down the hatches"… at the local pub, Harrington’s.

Home Depot the morning of a hurricane.

That, my friends, is what an entire bag of catnip looks like spread out over the floor. They were sprawled out on the floor nearly comatose with contentment when I found them.

Halloween dinner ambiance at Thai Pavilion.

November

Something tells me our heavy metal nutcracker is going to be on display all year long.

Oh, yes, I do so lurve this kitchen.

Seriously one of the BEST concerts I’ve been to yet.

Cats are weird, man.  Every time I get this ladder out, he climbs it.

Magnetized spices, FTW.  Oh, and I painted our kitchen red.

This is how I spent Election Day evening — stressed out at a pub drinking something called "Passed Out on the Beach at Night."  Srsly.

Buttons for the taking at my OB-GYN’s office.

Sephora Haul.  What?  I NEEDED these things.

Surprised Chris with a trip to a local hobby shop to pick out a Nitro RC truck for his birthday.  He was like a kid in a… well, in a hobby shop.  He ended up coming home with the Traxxas Revo 3.3.

The walls are painted hot pink and teal, and the margaritas are mixed to match. You KNOW it’s going to be some good food.

Chris just finished his paint job in the dining room.

Chris and me out to dinner with friends for Veteran’s Day.

Lookee, lookee what came in the mail!

So, I ordered a new cookie cutter for wedding favor cookies. It turned out to be a little more, um, GIANT than I expected.

So, for embarkation day on ShipRocked, we were supposed to wear something that represents where we hail from. This was on the doorstep when I got home. It was Chris’s idea. So I cooked dinner in it.

I heart finding them like this.

Skull chandelier at Piratz Tavern.

Mother fuckin’ Randy Blythe.

He’s such a handsome boy.

He’s all ready to be a reindeer for Christmas!

Made cookies for Thanksgiving with Chris’s family.  I was super pleased with how they turned out, especially those fall leaves!

Out shopping in the Harbor, and I found the perfect aquamarine and pearl jewelry for the wedding.

Out playing with Chris’s birthday present!

And our vacation begins!  First stop, Orlando, Downtown Disney.

Lego sea monster!

Because every girl needs a pair of sparkly, glittery mouse ears (and a matching bag, to boot).

Day two, Islands of Adventure.  First stop, Hogwarts!

The iconic Universal sign.

Rip Ride Rockit. The most awesome lift I’ve been on, and you get to pick your own rockin’ music!

Day three, Magic Kingdom.  At Christmastime!

Mickey and Minnie topiaries.

Chris tried to make us sick on these.  I remember them being much more… tolerable… when I was a kid.

They wanted to kill me for making them ride this, but it was absolutely imperative.  This is one of the most memorable things from my childhood.

And I still loved it just as much as I did when I was a kid!

Big Thunder Mountain!

And we finally got our ears!

Princess Castle and the Haunted Mansion (which we rode twice, of course).

Day four, Busch Gardens in Tampa.  This is only my most favorite coaster ever, Sheikra.

Back spray from the Sheikra drop.

Cheetah!

You know, I didn’t think flamingos were real when I was a kid.

Day five, headed to ShipRocked embarkation!  The NCIS shirt is to represent where I’m from.  Chris was wearing an FBI one.  DC represent, yo.

The day we said "I do."

December

We got back from the cruise early Saturday morning, December 1st, and we spent the day and one more night in Ft. Lauderdale before returning home on Sunday.  This was the view from the balcony of our hotel room.
 

The Margarita Cantina — funnily enough we ate lunch at this place after ShipRocked 2011, too!

Our last night on the beach, we slept with the door open listening to the sound of the waves.  This was the beautiful sunrise we woke up to before heading home.

The first ornament we hung on our first tree as husband and wife.

We literally put this up the day we flew back from our trip.  THIS made it feel like home!

Now it was time to really crack down on making the decorations for the reception, which was two weeks after we got back from the trip.  I made all the candles for the room.

Made a Mexican chocolate cake (with cayenne!) for Christmas.  It was mm-mm-good!

Spent Christmas Eve sipping Irish coffee with homemade cinnamon-ginger whipped cream.  And yes, playing WoW.

Evelyn’s kids got us the most awesome present ever!

Bruce has found his new favorite place to sit.  I find him in this chair all the time.

That dog is happy as a clam like this.

January

I learned to make Butterbeer!

I’ve learned that one upside to being a hobbyist baker… When you get a craving for something, you almost always have the ingredients on hand.

Caribbean chicken and coconut cilantro rice with refried black beans and poblano.  It’s what was for dinner.  A couple nights ago.  It was delicious.

I’ve also taken up a new hobby… nail art!  The blue ones are the ones I have on right now!

Well, there’s the Instagram feed… all 150 or so pictures.  I’ll try to get the others from the photo shoot and the wedding posted today, as well, but if not, definitely tomorrow!