Peach Cobbler Experimenting

With all of these amazing summer fruits calling my name lately, I've been obsessing over cobblers and pies.  I've made three peach pies in the last week and I think I've figured out my favorite recipe. 
I used a combination of different recipes to get the right texture and flavor. 

I hope you all make one this summer because they are delicious...

PEACH COBBLER:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
4 cups fresh peach slices
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven at 375°
Melt butter in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish in your preheating oven.
Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over butter (do not stir).
Bring remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir). Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with Hagen Daaz vanilla ice-cream.  It's the right thing to do, trust me.

Enjoy!

Very cool new tool...

So, I was just browsing around EAD, and I came across a contest that I DESPERATELY want to win!  It is for a Laura Hooper personalized map.  I have been in love with these maps and was going to have my very talented Uncle recreate one for me.  However, if I win this contest, he won't have to.

Anyway, when I read that I would have a better chance of winning if I created a wedding map through Project Wedding, I thought I might as well.  I'm so glad I did!  This map is awesome, and I already added it to our website for guests to view.  I'm worried about folks getting lost up there in the mountains, so this will hopefully help out a lot.

I am also very happy to report that we have chosen our invitations!  I found them on etsy through her, and I fell in love immediately.  I received the sample I ordered, and it is everything I hoped it would be (and the price is incredible also!).  Check her out-

Here is the original:

Here is our version.  We are still going to tweak the wording, but notice how she added a bird to the tree for me?  Cute, huh??  I love love love it! (sorry for the crappy lighting and iPhone shot)

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  Vince and I are keeping the kids until Wednesday (my bosses went to Vail on Saturday morning) so we are in full parent mode, and it's exhausting but fun!

My New BFF, JODI!

If you haven't read any books by Jodi Picoult, you are missing out in a huge way.  I just finished her newest book this morning, Handle With Care, and like all of her books-it did NOT disappoint.  Her books are always thought provoking, interesting, and the most entertaining books I've ever read.  

Seriously, if she published her grocery list, I would buy it.   

I got to meet her in person on Wednesday night, and it was so much fun.  I had never been to a book signing before, and I'm so happy that my first experience was with an author I love so much.  She was just as funny and real as I thought she'd be-and I had to fight all of my natural instincts not to beg her to have a drink with me!  She signed my copy of Handle With Care, and then (even though they said she could only personalize one book) she personalized my copy of My Sister's Keeper for my little sister.  It was so sweet of her, and I'm still smiling when I think of how great she was.  

 

Are any of you big Jodi fans?  Her books are amazing for discussion because they are always taboo topics that everyone has opinions about.  

If you haven't read any of her books, I suggest you RUN to your local store and buy any of them.

I would start with My Sister's Keeper. It's incredible.

Some random thoughts...

Save the Dates are going out this weekend!  

I'm so excited to have this project behind us, and I cannot wait to hear what everyone thinks of them as they receive them.  The lovely Heather from We Met in a Bar designed and printed them for us with so much love.  If you have any need for an honest, easy going, hard working graphic designer, she is your girl.  Thanks again Heather, you're the best!

I ordered my ticket this morning for the Not Wedding here in Atlanta.  It should be a lot of fun, and I'm going with two other engaged girlfriends.  I'm also excited because our photographers will be there!

I am also super excited about getting my new headphones in the mail.  I ordered them from Overstock, and they were super affordable.  The ear buds that come with the iPhone really hurt my ears, and it effects my workout because I'm constantly adjusting them.  I can't wait to try these.

Last but certainly not least-I'm about to run to Barnes and Noble to get the newest Jodi Picoult book.  It sounds amazing, you can read the synopsis here.

Even more exciting is the fact that she is coming to my area next week, and it's free!  I'm going to meet her, and get her to sign my book.  I think she'll also be doing a Q&A, which I can't wait to hear.  If you love reading, I promise you her books will never disappoint.  I'm hoping we'll do one in the new online book club that Jane is starting!

I hope you're all having a wonderful week.  I cannot believe it's already Thursday!

Oh the weather outside is...

SNOWY!!

Well, not anymore-but shock of all shocks, we had a lot of snow here in Georgia yesterday!

It was so gorgeous.  For you folks in snowy places, you have no idea how exciting it is for us to get snow!

We took a walk behind our apartment.  It was beautiful with everything absolutely covered in white.

 I seriously feel like a little kid when it snows.  It makes me so happy!

Of course we had to have a snow ball fight.  Vince had no idea what was about to happen...

Vince and I were talking about how we cannot wait to have kids.  The only thing that would have made yesterday better is if we had some munchkins of our own to run around and play with!

Two new loves...

This blog:

And this blog

Both blogs have inspired me to start begging Vince for this camera for my birthday (May 5th)

His only comment: "it's going to be hard to fit that in your purse."

true.  so true.

But I need it.  I need it to take pictures like this:

A Valentine Recap...

What a great weekend!  

On Friday my sister came home from school and we took the kids to the park (I'm a nanny) to take some Valentine's Photos for their parents.

This is Tyler after coming down the slide...

Here they are together.  Aren't they cute?!

On Saturday afternoon, my sister and I went over to my Aunts house to have a fun lunch with our cousins. 

I'm in the middle, and my sister is on the far right.  The others are my fabulous Aunts and cousin!

Aunt Susie made us wear these hilarious red cowboy hats.  She is always coming up with the funniest themes for parties. 

After the cousins lunch, I went home and Vince had candles and rose petals all over the apartment (I later started a small fire in the kitchen because of one of these candles!)

He had written me the sweetest letter I've ever read on stationary from our hotel in Paris.  Then he framed it with our plane tickets and sweet memories of our trip.  It was so great.

We had some champagne before heading over to my parents house for dinner. 

My dad's birthday is Valentines day, so we usually do something with my family.  My family is awesome and we have so much fun together.  This is my dad wearing the cowboy hat and my  aunt told him he could be "broke back Gary".  He didn't like that!

We got TWO sets of our china at our engagement party from a family friend, and it finally came.  We opened it and I am SO happy we registered for it.  It's just so pretty!

The morning after Valentines day I made us a yummy brunch (with Trader Joes multi grain pancake mix.  It's awesome!)

After brunch I went to see "He's just not that into you" with my family.  It was so great!  Every girl in the world (single or not) should see it.  I loved it so much that I made Vince go see it with me again later that night!  I have been known to see the same movie twice in one day.  

I have never ever ever liked Scarlett Johansson, but I dislike her even more now.  

UGH.  Just see the movie and you'll understand.  WHAT is with her obsession with nasty colored lipstick?!

A depressing obsession

The chicks who work at Cathy Jean in the state of Georgia hate me.  I mean, LITERALLY hate me.  I have been calling every store in Georgia for the past three weeks looking for these boots in brown....

They look terrible in black, so I don't expect any of you to love them like I do right now.  However, they are sold out of brown everywhere.  Online, in stores etc.  So now I'm on the hunt for some that look just like them.

I found these on Aldo for the same price, but they just don't make my heart sing like the other ones.  

I also found these on Steve Madden, but they are TWICE the price.  If the Cathy Jean shipment that comes in today at 2pm doesn't have my brown shoes, I'm going to have to buy these.  I NEED them.  Desperately. 

A fun weekend...

Ok-so let me tell you all a little something about Vince's job.  He works for an awesome company that started out tiny, has grown to be huge, and has still kept the small company attitude.  They treat their employees like gold and we both feel like we hit the jackpot with his job.  He loves what he does with a passion, and I love the fact that the company is family oriented and respectful to it's employees.

Last year for Christmas-they took the entire company to Florida and we stayed in a gorgeous resort all expenses paid.  They even gave us spending money!  This year, we stayed at a winery here in Georgia (yes, we have wineries!)

This is Chateau Elan:

Here is the cask room where the party was held:

The atrium lobby area:

Vince and Me after a few glasses of wine:

We had the best time.  They had awesome food at the party, full open bar-and a really fun band. I am so thankful and feel so lucky that he works for such a great company!

A busy weekend...

Ok, here goes a long post with lots of fun wedding details...

Friday night we baby sat for the munchkins that I nanny for.  I truly love when Vince and I get to watch the kids together, because it makes my heart melt to see him with them.  He is so patient (he spent 30 minutes on this one book answering every single "why" question from Tyler) and he loves them so much.  I literally cannot imagine what it will be like to see him with our kids one day.  I can't wait!!

(check out Vince's standard weekend "comfy" outfit.  Sexy.)

On Saturday my mom and I headed up to the mountains to check out some wedding stuff.  We got to meet with our AMAZING DOC and venue owner, Suzy.  She is seriously an amazing woman who truly loves what she does.  We found out some AWESOME information: I thought our custom package and price was for 100 guests.  I've been stressing out about cutting the guest list to keep it to 100, and she told us on Saturday that our price includes 150 guests!!!!  That is the biggest load off-I cannot even explain to you!

So...after we met with Suzy we met with a cake lady, and I showed her the EXACT cake I want.  She quoted us a great price, and her cake tasted delicious.

I can't remember where I found this wedding, but I love so much about it...

I love this cake, and I cannot wait to see it in our venue with our cake toppers.

One of my biggest dilemmas right now is what to have the grooms wear.  Vince does not want them to have to buy anything.  He wants them to wear a black suit that they already have.  I'm thinking no.  I love this look below: 

Another big development is the dress.  We thought my mom was going to make my dress.  After a lot of discussion, we decided this might be too difficult and stressful for her and me.  SO, I have been looking at Nordstrom and Dillards online...here's what I like.  But I have to try them on of course...

I still want super simple and no poof.  So I cannot wait to try these on.  Although, I am still 40 pounds away from my goal weight, so it will be hard to tell right now what I will look like on the wedding day!

I'm OBSESSED with this boutonniere .  It's so manly and DIY friendly, don't you think?

So thats all for now.  I'm sorry I'm not too bubbly today, but there is some not so fun wedding stuff going on right now that has me really down.  I'll go into more detail later, but I will say that I can totally relate to all the girls who blogged about fighting with your fiance in the midst of wedding planning.  It's not fun, and I'm so confused as to what I should do right now so as not to offend him or his family.  Wish me luck!

Do you wanna know??

Thanks to the sweetness over at with a pixie grin, I have been tagged to tell you all 7 random things about myself.  Here we go:

1) It took me 8 years in and out of school to get my bachelors.  For the last two years, pretty much everyone thought I had graduated.  (I hadn't.)

2) I had a mole on the right side of my nose until I was 15.  I still thank my mom to this day for letting me get it removed.  It was TERRIBLE, and even though everyone in my family told me it was a beauty mark, I knew they were just trying to be nice :)

3) I literally HAVE to make the bed every day.  Yesterday I woke up too late and ran out of time, so I went back to my house during the day just to make it.

4) When I was 3 years old, my mom fell and broke her neck.  She was paralyzed from the neck down for quite some time and was told she'd never walk.  She now teaches aerobics classes.  She is my hero.

5) My dad used to partake in illegal substances with the members of the Allman Brothers Band when he went to school in Macon Georgia.  (He is also my hero!)

6)  Vince and I met our senior year of high school.  We never really knew each other but went to the same college as well.  After going to the same school for 5 years, we started carpooling together (we were both living 45 minutes away from campus).  After the first day we drove to school together, I came home and told my mom I was going to marry him.  

7) I am convinced that it is physically impossible for me to keep my own secrets.  I have none.  I have told at least one friend every single deep dark secret that I have.    

now i'm supposed to paste these rules and the next 5 bloggers i wish to participate:

• link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
• tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or twitter.

I tag:

The beginning of forever

simple yet classic

we met in a bar

Lovely Morning

from diamonds to vows  

Guess what SUCKS??

When your workout routine depends on Comcast actually WORKING.

Looks like it's the gym for me after work.  Boo.

Monday Morning Inspiration

Good Morning Friends!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I definitely did.  Friday night was wonderful.  Vince got a much deserved promotion that day so we celebrated with a friend and a special bottle of champagne.  

Saturday was full of house hunting (nothing we love yet) and then dinner and drinks with friends.  It was a great and relaxing weekend.

I came across this picture here

I am IN LOVE with the idea of hanging mason jars from things.  Branches, chairs, etc.  Since our amazing DOC and venue owner is already doing our centerpieces at Neverland Farms, I have felt a little sad that there wasn't anything for me to do as far as decor.  HOWEVER, now I can do this!

As mentioned here,

I have a little obsession with personalized cake toppers.  My super talented cousin is going to make ours out of sculpey and I couldn't be happier.  I still want ours to be me dragging Vince.  I just think it's hilarious.  

I think this one is awesome, and would be STOKED to have ours look like either one of these cake toppers.

I am also in love with this wedding found here via here.  This bride's hair and makeup is now in my inspiration folder to show my girl, Candace-who is doing my hair and makeup on the big day.  

On the proverbial 'fit train'

As Mojito Maven likes to say:  I'm back on the fit train kids!!

After the excitement that was my jean discovery this morning, I realize that the little working out I've been doing is actually making a difference.  SO if I PUMP UP THE VOLUME, I will be a few sizes lower in no time! 

I read on Lovely Morning that On Demand has some great workout programs.  I checked them out today, and that chick Jillian from Biggest Loser kicked my BUTT!!!  I did her 30 minute workout, and then I did a 30 minute All Over Pilates routine.  

It.  Was.  Awesome.  

I used heavy soup cans as weights, and I was really sweating by the end of them!

The best part?  I did it while the kids were napping, so I actually did something productive instead of surfing the web for 2 hours!

I also want to thank Simple Yet Classic for her inspiration, food and workout advice, and for starting her new blog!

WOOT WOOT!

OH!!!!!!!!

Guess who fit into these jeans this morning?!?!?!

ME!

I bought them a year ago and haven't fit into them since!

Oh and also....

They're LOOSE!!!!

The Waitress...

Well, blogger won't let me upload any pictures, so I will give you the song lyrics to one of my favorite songs from one of my all time favorite movies.  

The Waitress.

 If you haven't seen this movie, you MUST RUN to your local Blockbuster and get it.  Keri Russell is fantastic, and it will make you want to learn how to cook fabulous pies.  This song is one that her mother sang to her when she was young.  Vince plays this on the guitar and sings it for me any time I'm sad or trying to sleep.  I cannot wait to have babies and sing this to them.  Look it up to hear it, it's so great.  

 

Baby don't you cry 

Gonna make a pie 

Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle 

Baby don't be blue 

Gonna make for you 

Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle. 

Gonna be a pie from heaven above 

Gonna be filled with strawberry love 

Baby don't you cry 

Gonna make a pie 

And hold you forever in the middle of my heart. 

Baby here's the sun 

Baby here's the sky 

Baby I'm your light and I'm your shelter 

Baby you are mine 

I could freeze the time 

Keep you in my kitchen with me forever 

Gonna be a pie from heaven above 

Gonna be filled with strawberry love 

Baby don't you cry 

Gonna make a pie 

And hold you forever in the middle of my heart. 

Gonna bake a pie from heaven above 

Gonna be filled with butterscotch love 

Gonna bake a pie from heaven above 

Gonna be filled with banana creme love 

Baby don't you cry 

Gonna bake a pie 

Hold you forever

Hold you forever

In the middle of my heart.

New Year Resolutions...

So after reading Heather's post I decided I wanted to blog about my resolutions this year...

I never truly believe in resolutions at New Years.  I don't believe you really stick with them and I think bettering yourself and challenging yourself should happen throughout the year, not on one day.

With that being said, I feel very strongly about a few things this year and since it's been such an eventful few months, I feel inclined to make some RESOLUTIONS for the following year....

1) LOSE THIS WEIGHT.  STICK WITH WEIGHT WATCHERS.  GO TO THE GYM.

2) BE RELAXED ABOUT WEDDING PLANNING.  REMEMBER WHAT IS IMPORTANT: I AM MARRYING THE LOVE OF MY LIFE.  MINOR DETAILS ARE IRRELEVANT AS LONG AS THE END OUTCOME IS BEING MARRIED TO EACH OTHER.

3) SAVE.  SAVE.  SAVE.  SAVE.  SAVE.  SAVE.  SAVE.  SAVE.  

4) BE A BETTER SISTER AND DAUGHTER.  REMEMBER THAT FAMILY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING AND BE THE BEST SISTER AND DAUGHTER I CAN BE.

5) REMEMBER HOW LUCKY I AM TO HAVE SUCH AN INCREDIBLE MAN IN MY LIFE AND TREAT HIM WITH THE LOVE AND RESPECT HE DESERVES.  EVERY DAY.

Happy New Years, friends!!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

Hello friends!

I hope everyone is having a relaxing day after Christmas.  I am so cozy on this rainy day in Georgia, and I thought I would blog about our Christmas!  

We had a great time with family, and I have to say-it was so much fun being engaged over Christmas.  Every time I look at my hand and see my ring, I just feel so overwhelmed with happiness and excitement.  I cannot wait for all of the planning and spending time with family over the next 10 months.  It is such a fun time of our lives!!

This is me and my wonderful Momma at my parents house...

Me and my FIANCE!!!!

This is my awesome Uncle David.  He and his son, Nick, came up from Florida to spend Christmas with us.  Uncle David and I have a shared love (obsession) with cooking, and we had such a great time making eggs benedict on Christmas morning.

This is sweet Abigail, my parents God Daughter, and my favorite 5 year old in the world.  She got lots of makeup and nail polish this year, and Vince (being the amazing man that he is) let her do the works on him.  Nails, toes, and even makeup!  She loved every second of it.

My adorable Dad reading us The Night Before Christmas book...

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed time with your families!