Eat, Drink & Be Scary!

So I decided a while back I wanted to have a Halloween party. I've never really been that into Halloween, but I am into parties! I knew it would be too difficult to have a Christmas party with Drew and his classmate's schedules, so Halloween it was!

I had a lot of fun planning/preparing, and even more fun at the party! This post will be more pictures and less words, cause I'm lazy like that :)

The Invitation

Entry way






Food Table





Ghostly Cake Pops



Spider Cupcakes



Witches Brew




Mantle




Drew, the hunter; Me, the deer!



He got me!



Our family



Haha!



The beautiful Ansley and me, could not have done this without her!



Jessica and Emily




Kirran and Sam



Jessica, Cory, Kirran, Me



Zach and Drew




Tired Jax



It was a great time had by all!

Happy Halloween Y'all!

Roadtrip to Athens!

Ahhh...I like the sound of that title! Hopefully this will be the first of many road trips to Athens in the fall!

If you've known me long (or not long for that matter) then you know about my obsession love of football, especially college. Of course, my true love will always be with the Texas Aggies, although I don't know how many more blown 15+ point halftime leads I can endure (ahhh, the ambivalent life of an Aggie). Luckily, my love for Texas A&M and the Aggies goes far beyond football (but, seriously, play 2 halves already!!)

Anyway, I digress, I have always wanted to travel to different college towns and venues and experience their "game day traditions". You know eat at their best restaurants, bar-hop, tailgate, see the stadium and just soak in the game day atmosphere. At one point Hubs and I even made a college football bucket list of games we would like to attend during our lifetime. Ironically (or not), several of those match-ups were between SEC schools. So when we found ourselves living in Savannah, I figured what better time to start marking off that list than now!

Fortunately, we have met some interesting awesome people, many of which attended some of the schools that were on our list! We knew we wanted to go to a UGA game one weekend so we looked at the calendar and their first true home game, against South Carolina, fell on the weekend before Hubs had a week long break from school. Perfect! So we packed the car and Northwest we went! I swear we took the most back roads route on the way up there, and I thought there was no easy way to get to College Station. Ha!

We got there pretty late Friday night, so we just kind of took it easy. Athens is a very neat town, it reminded me of a mini Austin with a much smaller/rural surrounding area. Again, I thought I felt 'old' going out in College Station....this was waaaay worse! I promise out of the 1000's of people we saw on Friday night, we were by far the oldest there (and our mean age was 24, haha!)

Saturday, we got up pretty early and headed to campus to tailgate! We didn't plan on going into the game, so at game time we just made our way to a bar to watch it on TV. I'll have to say that this is where the "SEC" was different than my other experiences. There were as many people watching the game in bars as there was in the stadium. It was very very crowded! South Carolina ended up winning 45-42.

Saturday night we had a very good time! I won't go into details, but just so I can remember later in life, it involved a round trip free cab ride, a cutthroat foosball game, ring pops, the search for the perfect any hot dog, disposing of a perfectly good glass, some almost tears, a sore shoulder, and some really 'raging' times!

We really slacked on picture taking. We only got pictures from the tailgate, and 2 of our group members had already gone to another tailgate when we pulled out the camera.

Me and Ansley a.k.a., the sweetest, most genuine person you will ever meet! So glad our paths have crossed!

Our sorority girl pose with Jason

Swamp (that's really what they call him) being Swamp!

Jason, Ansley, Me, Drew (and Swamp)

The boys! (minus Zach) And no, Drew is not color blind, he was being a 'neutral' fan.

Zach & Kara....I wish Kara lived closer :(

We walked forever to our "destination tailgate" spot and low and behold look where we landed :)!

Hope y'all are as excited about football and fall as I am!

Be Still My Heart!!

I haven't blogged lately, not sure why, but I'm definitely not making well on my promise.

I'm sick and don't feel like typing/thinking much.

I need money to fly home and see these two little lovies.

(Donations accepted)

P.S. not even kidding about donations :)!!

Cooking Lately!

So I haven't been doing as well with consistently cooking as I had hoped, but I have made several real efforts in the last week or so! I've found that when I research my meals and get excited about them, I have a much better attitude about coming home from work and cooking. I have this odd hatred toward random meals that are not thought out and instead just thrown together. Example: grilled chicken/fish, broccoli, and baked potatoes. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, and sometimes I even end up liking it, I'm always in a bad mood when I'm cooking/eating these type meals. Maybe it stems from my random eating in college....who knows!

Last week I made a huge pot of this crab corn chowder. Delish! Not exactly perfect for August, but it was delicious nonetheless and made multiple meals, which is an added bonus! I combined ingredients from several recipes based on the reviews (what did we do before reviews/comments??)



I was also craving some homemade bread and remembered my lifelong friend, Whitney, blogging about an easy and tasty recipe a while back. You can find the recipe here at her super cute blog. Even if you're not interested in the bread you should check out her blog Harvest Home, she's a real life farmer's wife and shares great recipes and cooking tips! She's also a great photographer, an elementary school teacher,a pampered chef consultant, and runs her own online boutique, Park Street Market. She's also an Aggie, but that's neither here nor there ;) The bread turned out scrumptious just as she promised; I made several little loaves to share with my co-workers.



This past weekend I was really wanting something sweet and remembered my friend Robyn posting some amazing recipes to cure a sweet tooth. Again, even if you pass on the brownies, Robyn's blog is a must see! She's an awesome photographer,she post excellent recipes, she's super creative/thrifty when it comes to decorating, she sews!, and she has two ridiculously cute children. She also happens to be an Aggie, what can I say people, I pick good friends. ha! Anyway, I went on over to her blog, The Farmer Family and found this little beauty! Cookie-dough brownies! Originally I read this as chocolate chip cookie brownies, but after reading the recipe closer, I realized the middle layer is actually non-cooked (egg free) cookie dough.....heaven! Warning they are very very rich, but should definitely cure your sweet tooth, or leave you needing a root canal, either way, mission accomplished!



Tonight, I made this tomato pie. It was verrrry tasty and equally filling! If I could describe it in one word I would say "southern". I mean, we are combining pie crust, mayonnaise, cheese, and tomatoes (if that doesn't scream southern, heart attack, obesity and diabetes, then I don't know what does)! I was a little nervous about Hubs reaction to having no meat options, but after one small slice of this baby trust me you'll need a couch and a nap! I was planning to make my own crust, but got home from work an hour later than expected, so I used a frozen one, and it turned out fine!



Here's the recipe:

Tupelo Honey Cafe's Tomato Pie

* Pie Crust (I used deep dish)
* 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 10 ounces cheese)
* 1 cup mayonnaise
* 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 2 chopped green onions, white and green parts
* 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 cup panko bread crumbs
* 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, sliced 1/2 inch thick

Roll out a 10-inch pie crust and place in a 9-inch pie pan. Preheat the oven to 425F. In a bowl, combine the cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, parsley, green onions, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs, mixing completely. Layer one-third of the tomatoes in the pie pan, covering the bottom of the pie crust. Spread one-third of the Parmesan cheese mixture on top of the tomatoes and repeat, making 2 more layers of tomatoes and cheese and ending with the cheese mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top of the pie is bubbling and browned. Serve warm.

Makes 8 servings

There you have it, that's what I've been cooking up. The rest of this week I am planning some quick and easy (I hope) pasta dishes from The Pioneer Woman!

Happy Monday and Happy Cooking!

Our Savannah Bungalow - Part 2

Hello again!

In case you missed part one of this "series" (read: I was too tired/lazy to finish it all in one sitting). You can scroll down a little to read or just click here! Anyway, on to the rest of the house...

Guest Bedroom #1



Finley doing a little squirrel hunting from inside of course...



Notice the sign above the bed that I blogged about here? Well thanks to Hubs it was an easy and fun project! I think it looks great in the room, and we love the sayings we picked for it. Side note: The saying "Ignore Inhibitions" was supposed to end with "and pursue your dreams" but I ran out of room; I don't encourage people to ignore all inhibitions just most some ;)



This chest I got in April at Warrenton/Round Top with my friend Camille. It was mint green with hideous hardware. I love how imperfect it is i.e. uneven drawers that don't close flush.



Guest Bedroom #2 - The daybed was mine growing up, and still has the trundle, so it is great for guests that don't want to get too cozy ;) The wood side table was my grandma's.



The ladder I also got a Warrenton/Round Top for $10.



I didn't want to spend a fortune on the linens/pillows because I don't know how much longer we will actually use this bed. So, the bedding is a fitted sheet and the bed skirt is a top sheet. ha! The shams are from Target and are a much cheaper alternative to PBs pick stitch shams. The flowered pillow is from IKEA. The others are just pillow cases.



Drew's Mom gave me this desk my sophomore year in college. I almost got rid of it a few moves ago, but decided to re-finish it instead. I'm so glad I did, I love it now!! The wreath I made last year out of book pages from this tutorial.



I found this antique wooden stool at an antique store in Navasota, TX. I drove by it two times everyday when I worked in Brenham. One Friday I got off early, so I stopped in, and found this little beauty! The top quilt on it, is one that my great-grandmother (Nana) had began sewing but never finished. A couple of Christmases ago my Mom took the part that my Nana had finished and the rest of the scraps, and had it completed - such a special gift!!



Guest Bathroom





The Kitchen (I could definitely live without this tile!)






Breakfast Area



Curtains I made with no-sew glue..haha!



Love these jars!





Inspiration for curtains. First picture's from PB, second off pinterest (not sure of original source) and third, is from The Lettered Cottage, I liked the pattern.



We also have a formal dining room, but it has nothing in it, so no pictures. Hubs said he was going to make me a farmhouse table...but...that hasn't happened, YET ;)

I also love this little telephone table in the hallway and the transoms in a couple of the bedrooms!





That's all for now, hope you've enjoyed the tour :)