Jill of all Trades

I have never been afraid to try something new.   I love to try new foods, or new games, new activities, meet new people etc.  It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I will also try anything crafty to see if "I can do it instead of buy it."  Never has this been more true than planning this wedding!  I want to be clear though-I do not want my wedding to appear as if corners were cut to save a buck.  I want our wedding to be lovely and fun, but I want to do as much as I can with the resources we have to throw this wedding.  If I can make it, I'll try, if not, I'll buy :)

In an effort to save our families an selves thousands-I've learned to decorate cakes so I (with a lot of help from MLL) can make my own cake.  I've come to really enjoy this cake decorating thing, and am not teaching cake decorating classes at Michael's.  So fun!

In the vein of saving moolah on this wedding, I've decided to try to make this amazing necklace I saw on Etsy.com.  I bought all the fixings to do it, and put one together during the Super Bowl.  Here's a pic of the finished product:

My first attempt at jewelry making.

The price for the necklace on Etsy.com was $46.00.  I made this one for under $1.00.  Really, how can I justify spending $45.00 more for shipping and 30  minutes of someone else' time?  

I am really not a cheap person-even though I sound it in this post.  I just feel so creative lately and I feel this DIY confidence all because of my newest addiction pintrest.com.  If you're not on it you should be.  I won't turn this entry into a tutorial for pintrest.com, but if you'd like one ask.  It's changed my life.  Seriously. The creative juices flow just from surfing on there!

I honestly feel like a Jill of all Trades lately.  MLL and I made all the invitations-between that and the jewelry and cakes I feel like a wedding planning business could be in the works!

New Numbers

A while back I posted something about countdowns of important events.  It seems only fitting to update that post since a lot has happened between October 24th and now!   The holidays have come and gone, and now we're looking forward to getting through Nic's 4th semester of law school and our wedding.

A few updates:
A friend of mine whose been going through more junk than seems fair for one life time has regained her confidence, sense of self, and her zest for life.  She again knows that she is strong, smart, and beautiful.  She's my biggest cheerleader and someone I loo to for strength.  I'm so glad she's back to herself.  It's time to send the traveling pants on-after you rock them out one night-they've done their job!  :)

The two gals who were pregnant in my previous post had healthy baby boys  in the last two weeks.  They're both named Lucas!  Thanks for making that update easy EH and JR!

9 days ago I ran the Disney Half marathon.  It was nothing short of amazing!  I am looking forward to making that race a yearly event.  Because it started at 5:00am there were fireworks every 5-10 minutes for the first hour.  There were marching bands from area high schools along the access roads, characters filled the parks and spectators were everywhere cheering the runners on.  It was so much fun. 

The final mile through Epcot Center

What a great feeling!

A few new countdowns...

115 Days until the Wedding..Oh my!  I need to get moving!

108 Until the Wedding Vacation begins!

101 School Days until Summer!

70 ish days until baby Heffernan arrives, and newly announcing baby Foundas in 165 days.  Both Nicole and Nicolette are very excited about their new bundles!

61 days until my next half marathon with a few of my best friends and favorite kiddos!

Thankfully this winter will go quickly with all the visits scheduled!  Nothing better than looking forward to spending time with someone you love.

13 days until a week with my parents in Boston

11 days until a Boston visit with MLH

4 days until 2 other friends come for a visit

I have a few VA visits on the horizon, but I'm waiting for a Jet Blue sale to book them.  One will be in February to celebrate MLH's 32nd, March for the Rock and Roll half marathon, and April for my shower and Bachelorette party, May to drive through on our way to the OBX wedding house.  We'll again be in DC for the summer so I can add June, July and August to the list.  I just realized I get to see my best friends at least one weekend a month through June and then all of July and most of August.  Oh my, that makes my heart happy!

My gal, Megan

This weekend was so much fun!  I got to hang out with former student and good friend Megan.  She came for a visit this weekend.  We shopped, walked around Boston, Watched Elf, played games, and just had a good time!

Yesterday we went on a harbor boat ride all around Boston.  This was a great find, and a lot of fun!

Here she is, doesn't she look like a movie star?? 

We also did the very touristy thing of waiting in line at Regina's for what is widely known as being the BEST pizza!  I am a New Yorker by birth, but my favorite pizza vote goes here! 

This was the line at 2:30pm.  Not lunch, not dinner...

After waiting about 20 minutes we got tired of standing! 

We were going to take a picture before we dug in, but forgot.  It was so delicious looking and smelling a picture totally slipped our minds!

We finished the day yesterday with Bananagrams and cannolis.  What a great day!

Megan is going to kill me for this one!

Just another (birth)day!

So another year has come an gone.  Birthdays don't feel the same as they used to.  I used to get so excited for my birthdays because in our family they were a BIG deal.  My parents still make a big deal about our birthdays, and everyone in my life made this a special day.  A while back I decided that I should do something for my parents on my birthday.  After all they did all the work raising me!  I send them cake and flowers every year along with a thank you for all they do.  It means so much to me to let them know how much I love and appreciate them-and what better day than the day I was brought to their family?!

Nic also worked hard to make this day special.  We typically do a lot for each other's birthdays.  I awoke to a new MacBook from him  (I am currently using it to post this blog entry).  I have been wanting a MacBook for a long time now, and he was so sweet to get it for me.  He also took me out for a great dinner, and got me plane tickets to go see my BFFs in VA in two weeks.  He's so thoughtful!

When I got to school, the lovely ladies I work with greeted me with breakfast and some beautiful flowers.

We went out to celebrate with some friends last Saturday-but not before a grueling road race for me.

I love that my number was 499.  It's our house number :)

I ran a 6.66 mile race in honor of Halloween on Saturday, but it was a horrible run.  I hit the week where I hit the wall.  It was a lousy run, but I felt so much better after talking to Lindsay about it (thanks Linds).  I tweaked some parts of my run and have since had the best runs that I've ever experienced.

We tried a great new restaurant Saturday night with our buds.  The menu was so good, I could not decide what to have.  I have since went to their site written down each meal that tempted me and made them all this week for our dinners!  YUM :)  Here is a picture of Chicken with cranberry cherry chutney, served with smoked collard greens.

The food was great, and then we enjoyed a scorpion bowl at the Kong.  The Kong is a three floor restaurant, lounge and club.  In that order as you go up floors.  My scorpion bowl was missing a few things though...no plastic toys :)

Nic, Nick, Sally, Adrienne, Chris, and I enjoyed this large, strong drink.  Missing Marissa, Julie, and Jen.

All and all this was a pretty spectacular birthday!  Thanks to all of you for your calls, texts, FB messages, cards, presents, flowers, etc.  I definitely felt the love!

Countdowns!

I felt like it was important to update my most important count downs.  I am the type of person who needs something to look forward to, or it's hard to get through the week/month.

199 Days until the Wedding...Cheers to being under 200!

192 Until the Wedding Vacation begins!

148 School Days until Summer!

About 75 Days until two of my favorite girls have their little babies!  What an exciting time for them :)

68 Days until my Half Marathon at Disney!- twice in one mothn to Disney!

56 Days until Disney with my Family

53 Days until a fun filled Christmas visit to Michigan!

30 Days until Thanksgiving with my family and future in-laws.

25 days until I head to VA to see my best friends- God I miss them!

10 days until I turn 31.  Wow. crazy!

I love having something to countdown!!

Charming Charms

MLH is a source of unmatched inspiration.  At her wedding, the bridesmaids pulled charms from her cake and were greeted by a (frosting covered) wish from the bride.  After two years -Happy Anniversary MCH and MLH BTW-I still have my four leaf clover charm on my jewelry mat on my dresser.

 The custom of "Ribbon Pulling" charms of luck and good fortune dates back to the Victorian England when the bride hid small charms attached to ribbons within the layers of her wedding cake. The tradition has made a "charming" comeback and is a very sweet Charming gesture.  I love the idea so we're doing it!

While out and about yesterday I picked these up:

and came home to attach the coral blush ribbon.

Now I just need to figure out how to get them under the cake.  MLH-I'm looking to you to help :)

When it rains...

To say that the last few weeks have been bad is a huge understatement.  It seems that everything in our little world that could go wrong has.  Car trouble, leaking bathroom in our VA townhouse, torn ligaments and hospital visit for Nic's hand, and oh could I go on....

I've been a little down in the dumps lately, mostly dwelling on all these yucky things that have plagued us over the last few weeks, but also missing friends and family that I don't get to see.  But now I'm done being blue.  My favorite principal ever, Angie always says "Choose your attitude"  and that's what I am going to do.  Time to look at the bright side, and choose to improve my attitude.

Amazing what a little conversation with MLH can do for my mood to help me see the bright sides.

Bright sides:

It's fall, and that can only mean one thing in my mind PUMPKINS!  If you know me, you know I love them.  They're cute to look at and tasty to eat.  Yes, I've already made a few batches of my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and brought them to boot camp to share.
I've also enjoyed (more than my fair share of) Pumpkin Beer.  Oh my are they good!  Here's a picture so you know what I'm talking about...

see that suraged rim.  It tastes even better than it looks!


College football games are also a bright spot for me.  If you notice behind the pumpkin beer is a U of M jersey.  That's our friend Nick Chang.  Nic and Nick went to U of M together, and love to cheer on their Alma mater together.  We head to the Michigan bar pretty regularly to take in games, drink and eat tasty bar treats, and hang out with friends.

I'm up to running 7 miles at a time.  that's huge for me.  I don't love it to be honest, but it's a necessary evil so that I can fit into a sleek wedding dress.  I am running two half marathons between now and the wedding to make sure I don't look like a wedding cake in that dress!

One last bright side: We are less than 7 months away from being the newest Hunter family!  I can't wait for the week of wedding festivities starting May 5th!