November Already??

Hola! Welcome to November! That's crazy.

Does time always go faster as you get older? Does it keep getting faster and faster? Someday when I have kids and they are on a school year schedule will it slow back down or does the preciousness of each milestone make the moments seem to slip away even quicker? 

This Sunday is our 3 month-a-versary. Here's where time really gets all messy in my brain. How can something feel like it was soooooo long ago but not at all that long ago at the same time. Here's another milestone for you: I've been eating vegan for 7 months now. No cheese for 7 months, guys! When did this all happen?? Is 7 months a long time? Is that not a long time? I don't know anymore, but here's what I'm thinking...

When you start collecting long-term constants in your life, i.e. a husband, a job, a house, a baby (choose those that apply), time becomes this weird nebulous of lots of amazing moments that are at the same time part of the  mundane day-to-day of a bigger life story. And that's really what this blog is about, telling the story.

Deep thoughts to start your Friday, but here's my biggest question: How the heck is it already November??? I think Halloween helps to make November extra sneaky with its arrival.

Halloween Festivities

I have a love/hate relationship with the fall down here. September is horrible. All I want to do is book a one-way ticket back home to the Midwest. I HATE that I have to wait till the end of October for the temps to dip and for fall colors emerge. But then when we finally get there, and it's 75 on Halloween night, it kind of rocks.

Since we don't have any chilis of our own to dress up, we have to rely on the cuteness of other people's. With that goal in mind we went for a lovely fall stroll last night.

Dress Code: Fall colored long-sleeve t's

Right away we saw an all white cat...on Halloween...that has to be super good luck right?? 

That large black spider at the top moved its head from side to side...spoooky.

Best house decoration award goes to the house above. Rats on the fountain...Mike hated it hahaha.

Beautiful weather meant that we extended the walk into the park. Lovely.

Piedmont Park

The walk ended with pizza on the patio of Mellow Mushroom. Luca did a better than expected job chilling on the other side of the fence whiled we nom nom nom-ed.

We got home and watched Halloween episodes of Modern Fam and Big Bang, then as the finale: The Great Pumpkin.

Charlie Brown was cracking me up. Poor guy.

It was great :)

Oh and the plumpykins...not carved. They are part of our autumn decor now. 

Happy Friday! Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Random Ramblings

Full disclosure... I had no plan for this post when I sat down to write it.

Also I'm not feeling 100% and am thinking I'm coming down with a cold. Grrrr. Tis the season I suppose. Here's what's been on my brain lately...

Those dang pumpkins.

We still haven't carved them! Can you believe it?? And now we have gotten to the point were we might as well wait til tomorrow night...Although if we don't carve them we could leave them out as autumn decoration right?? What do you think? Major cop out?

Speaking of autumnal decorations, I saw a really cute idea for watercolor leaf garlands. I'm thinking some Thanksgiving decorations are in order this year. Despite our tiny place and lack of family within 100 miles we were once again given the honor of hosting. Weeeeeee!

Back to the pumpkins, do you do this too?  Do you have a to do that just sits on the list and never really gets crossed off until you just get so sick of looking at it the you give up and just delete it?? Pretend you never put it on the list. Move on with your life. I swear to you those pumpkins glare at me every time I walk past. "You promised us faces!!!" Poor guys. On a positive note, it's giving me great inspiration for the carving that may or may not happen.

The Rabbit Hole

I've fallen down a serious rabbit hole and it's location is YouTube. Now don't get confused, I've always enjoyed the silly videos that get posted there or the helpful tutorials  or its ability to quench an insatiable song thirst for free, but the rabbit hole I've gone down is a much more specific one. Ladies and gentlemen, I've seen the Cheshire cat, broken tea cups, chatted with a caterpillar  and met the Queen, flamingo croquet and all. What's this rabbit hole I'm speaking of?? YouTube vloggers...gosh I love them. 

Here's where I turn into the white rabbit myself...come with me :) 

My faves

Start Here: Daily Grace - funny shorts posted daily (M-F)

From there you might want to check out Grace's BFF's Hannah or Mamrie - boozy fun

Or if you are more into pretties let's jump across the pond to check out Zoella - seriously she is precious, and adorable, and downright perfect. Plus the HAULS!! I don't now why seeing things other people bought is so exciting, but it really really is.

From Zoella's videos you might start to wonder about who this Louise lady is...SprinkleofGlitter - here come more beauty and haul vids, but wait BabyGlitter?? Say what?? And who is the US buddy name Marie with her awesome Box Swaps??

Back home to the US we go to Marie - she's just a really cool person ok? I don't have anything else to say on this one. Just go check her out.

Anyway that's a rough outline of my tumble down the rabbit hole. I'm sure yours will be different if you happen to stumble in....The water's warm ;)

That's probably enough ramblings for one morning. If you like these sort of posts let me know in the comments below! 

Friday Forecast: Frozen Jacks

FRIDAY!!!!

So it's pretty cold down here in Hotlanta. I'm starting to worry that last winter was warmer than normal. Now I know I've got a good amount of Midwest readers who are probably thinking, "Buck up buttercup!" But really guys, we've got a feels like 36 F going right now. That's chilly and you know it!

Perhaps the weather is preparing us for a move back to the Midwest, same as it did during the HOT HOT summer before we moved down here...Only time will tell on that one.

In the meantime, I've got my space heater cozy-ing up my cube and a delicious mug of Peacan Pumpkin oatmeal from TJ's waiting to be devoured. 

Here's our Weekend To Do's

1.) Finish up our costumes. The party is Saturday night so we've got time. I've got some cutting, tying, and gluing to finish up, but that's it. I'll be sure to post pictures of the completed costumes on Monday. In the mean time, here are some clues to help you keep guessing:

              - We are not an animal or person

              - We can be found in the US

              - We are not very hug-able

Any new guesses??

They look so sad...at least they have each other.

2.) Carving our Plumpykins! Our poor plumpies have been freezing their stems off in their per-Jack state. I've given up on the idea of carving them outside in the fresh fall air and come to terms with the fact that in this chilliness our Jacks won't be the only thing frozen by the time we are done.

3.) Bank Run!! Ok it's not really that exciting, but I've finally found time on a Saturday to head over to the bank and get my name changed on the account. Mike and I have also been talking about different ways to budget and track our spending (more below). So opening up a savings account will also be part of the run.

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4.) Now that the crazy wedding spending is over, it seems like a good time to re-evaluate our monthly spending habits. I recently read a few blogs about cash-only envelope systems and I'm thinking it could work for us. If you're interested in what this method entails, this blog does a good job covering the basics. It also has a link to envelope patterns that cane be printed out on scrapbook paper to make the envelopes extra fun. Sounds like a great project for my silhouette! And that my friends is called a Win/Win :)

And last but not least....

5.) Allegiant!! I really don't know how I've managed to hold off on this til the weekend. I think it's been a mix a busy-ness at work and projects at home. I think I might try to cross off my other more pressing to-do's first, but I can't guarantee that I won't change my mind over lunch today. 

Happy Halloween Weekend! Have fun celebrating!

Friday Forecast: We're Gonna See the Heck Out of Rock City!

Raise your hand if you've got a 3 day weekend headed your way!

Sorry for bragging, but I'm pumped that next week Monday I won't wake up and think, "noooooooooo!" Remember guys, it's the little things.

Even though next Tuesday is a filing deadline, and I'm currently up to my ears in returns, it's also Mike's fall break. Meaning we get a very rare and precious long weekend to do some serious adventuring. Shoutout to my bomb-digs boss who totally gets this :)

Our original plan was to head out for a second camping trip, but we we didn't know if I would for sure get Monday off with the above mentioned deadline looming. So instead we are opting for a pretty extensive day trip into the north Georgia Mountains. How far north?? All the way to the Tennessee boarder: Rock City, Baby!!

Seriously?? Is this a cult??
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On our very first trip down to look for an apartment, we stayed at this little B&B in our desired neighborhood. Hanging outside near the entrance was a "See Rock City" birdhouse. Interesting... After moving here last year I started noticing a lot more birdhouses scatted all around Atlanta. Even more interesting... Then last week in the midst of our "What the heck are we going to to do make this long weekend awesome???" convos, I saw a random piece of trivia:

Q: Where in the US can you stand in one spot and see 7 different states??

A: Lover's Leap, a point in ROCK CITY!

Ok universe, I hear you! So, tomorrow morning we'll be waking up bright and early to make the 2 hour trek to Rock City.  And I'll be coming home with a birdhouse to prove it!

Our voyage North!

We have some pit stops planned. Supposedly there is a whole group of orchards all along a highway up there that's been nicknamed Apple Orchard Valley. On the way home from Rock City, we are going to cruise that valley like two winos in Napa. Mental note: pick up a jar of peanut butter for the car.

Hopefully we'll find a sincere pumpkin patch to pick up some Sunday entertainment and achieve further fall bucket list completion. Fingers-crossed.

Oh and for car ride entertainment...Harry Potter on tape!! Well actually cd, but you know what I mean. A word to the wise: if you've got a long car ride in your future, check out your library's selection of books on tape. I was seriously impressed.

Sunday and Monday will be much less action packed. We might try to make it to the Packer Bar for Sunday's game. I'm petitioning to use our empty Monday morning to hit up Flying Biscuit sans the typical hour long weekend wait.

Happy Friday! Have a ROCKin' weekend :)

Fall Bucket List!

Another Wednesday here, another weekend right around the corner. I'm going to switch it up a little. Instead of telling you about a project I recently did, I'm going to share some of my projects for the future. So, without further ado:

My Fall Bucket List:

1.) Fall Reading List I've mentioned this in other posts, but I've been trying to spend more of my free time to reading. My goal is to get through five works of fiction before Thanksgiving. One of those works is actually a trilogy, but I don't hear any booklist police complaining.

Slots 4 and 5 are still up in the air. I've found that it's best for me to pick new books on the fly.

2.) Harry Potter Weekend This idea has been floating around in my brain for a while, but until recently our Harry Potter dvd collection was seriously lacking. (Fun fact: the first Harry Potter movie was the first dvd my family owned growing up...and our only dvd player was in the computer). 

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In addition to marathoning the movies, I have plans for some serious Lego Harry Potter board game battles and possibly some  Lego Harry Potter on wii if I can hunt down the game in time. And to accompany all this activity: lots of pumpkin based recipes and of course butterbeer! 

3.) Pumpkin Carving! I am seriously pumped for this. I've asked Mike about a million times now if we can carve pumpkins this year. He says yes every time, but you better believe that when I see my next pumpkin I'm going to ask again :) Not only do we have a great outdoor space to display them this year. We can also use that same space to carve them, meaning less mess in the house! Soo Pumped! (pun intended of course)

I've already started fall-ify-ing  our patio. Can't wait to add some pumpkins.

4.) Christmas Cards Last year we thought about sending out Christmas cards, but mass mailings have never really been my thing. Now that we are married, I'm feeling a bit more obliged to partake in this tradition. I'v got some ideas, but I'm going to keep it a secret for now since there's a pretty good chance anyone reading this will also be a recipient.

What's on your fall bucket list? Share your plans in the comments!

Want to get jazzed for fall? Check out this article. Swooon.