Elf's Welcome Dinner

Tonight was the arrival of our elf, Elfie. Aubrey was so excited! When she got home, Elfie had set the table in Christmas tableware and brought her a letter from Santa! It's a tradition that we have breakfast the evening that our elf arrives. So the menu included waffles, grits in the crockpot, eggs, bacon, & hot chocolate! Along with the letter, Elfie brought a letter for Aubrey to write back to Santa with special North Pole envelopes & stamps! We had a great dinner with Elfie & so excited to see what the rest of December holds for us!

Pantry Overhaul

I've been wanting to do some organizing to our pantry for some time now! Finally, the day has arrived! :) I wish I would have taken some pictures of the Before look, but I definitely got some After pictures! This project was so simple and inexpensive, everyone should give it a try. I've had the baskets and containers for awhile now which I purchased at Dollar Tree! I printed out these adorable labels from DomestiFluff, you can print them here.  They came out great, and have tons of color options to chose from.

I printed the labels, created my categories, wrote out the labels, used packaging tape to cover the labels, & attached to each container!

The basket categories are: Bread, Snacks, Breakfast, Potatoes & Onions, Snacks to Go, and Baking.

The closed containers are: Grits, Powered Sugar, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Gluten Free Flour, Beans, Rice, Flour,and Pasta.  

The shelves are categorized as: Condiments, Canned Goods, Packets, and Dog Food.

P.S. I'm sorry for the fuzziness on the photos?

Here are some of the AFTER pictures:

 

{The printable labels in red.}

 

{Categories for our pantry.}

  

{Our finished pantry}

 

{Some of the containers from Dollar Tree.}

 

{The shelves all organized.}

Weekly Menu

Monday: Chili & Sandwiches

2 cans of tomatoes

1 can of pinto beans

1 can of chili beans

1 medium onion diced

1 green pepper diced

chili seasoning packet

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker on low for 5 hours. 

Tuesday: Leftovers

 

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Stuffing, & Green Beans

 

Thursday: Taco Salad & Brown Rice

I use tortilla shells and place them in a upside down cupcake pan to create a taco bowl. Place them in the oven at 350 degrees until light brown.

Then place all ingredients in taco bowl. Ex. ground beef, refried beans, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cheese!

Friday: Shrimp Creole

{recipe}

Who knew a blank field could be so gorgeous?

I have to give a big shout out to AW Photography, Le Belle Photography, & Roxanne Photography. I've been wanting some new head shots & fun pictures done for awhile now, and these ladies came to the rescue! They are all great friends that enjoy learning from each other in the photography field (& we were literally in a field.) :)

They created some great pictures! Everyone needs to go visit their pages & check out their pictures! Also, it's a great time to get family photos done for the holidays!

Thank you ladies! We had such a great time!!

Honeymooning!

I have officially been MIA for over a month, and I'm so sorry! Life has officially been crazy the past month, and we're so excited to finally be settled! In the past month, we have gotten married--traveled to Mexico & had two birthdays! I plan to catch everyone up on our life this week!

We left for our honeymoon Sunday morning immediately following our wedding. We adventured to Cancun, Mexico for four nights! We had an absolute blast! The experience to remember was definitely the catamaran trip we took to a smaller island and went snorkeling in the middle of the ocean! It was an experience. :) I'll share some pictures below!

 {The beach in front of our hotel.}

 {Leaving Cancun on the catamaran.}

 {Grant so excited to hold the shark.}

 {Gypsy Breeze our transportation for the day.}

 {Traveling by golf cart.}

{Where we spent most of our time. :)}

OOT Bags

OOT Bags-- If I wasn't into weddings, then I would be wondering "What in the WORLD?" :) OOT stands for Out of Town. I thought it would be nice to have a welcome bag at our out of town guest's hotel rooms or residences where they are staying.

It's a nice gesture to be greeted after a long trip by a little bag full of goodies! Here are some cute examples I have found:

I love the sand buckets!

{source}

 

These personalized bags are adorable!!

{source}

 

I was impressed by the goodies!

{source}

Here's a look into our OOT bags. We don't have many out of town guests so we only prepared ten. 

2 Water Bottles (They were personalized with these labels & a monogrammed stamp ordered from Ebay.)

Brochures of our town & the park where our reception is located!

A Bookmark with our Town

Pin with our town's logo
Homemade Sweet Treats (Will add closer the week of)

The goodies in our bags.

Thanks to my fabulous Mom for putting them together!

Wedding To Do List

So excited about our long weekend. We were able to accomplish so many things off of our To Do list! This week I will be working on out Ceremony Programs, trying to find my something borrowed & old (Any Ideas??), sending our announcement to the local newspapers. 

The Rehearsal Dinner invitations were sent out last week, and my fabulous godmother is throwing my Bridal Brunch. The invitations just came in the mail literally ten minutes ago, and they are absolutely GORGEOUS! I will definitely share them shortly because I'm completely blown away by them! 

We've definitely been busy, busy around here with only 17 days left until the BIG day. Here's a look at the current "To Do" List:

 

                             o    Finalize your rental list (tables, chairs, and any other extras).  

                                           Just need a few more tablecloths! WAHOO!

o    Make all honeymoon travel reservations, including your flights and rooms. 

Just ORDER FLIGHTS!

o    Buy reception bar essentials (if you're providing your own).

o    Arrange day-of transportation for you, your wedding party, and guests.

o    Finish your ceremony programs.

o    Submit your newspaper wedding announcement (if you were planning to).

o    Confirm out-of-town guest hotel reservations. 

o    Finalize your ceremony vows.

o    Finish up your ceremony programs.

o    Send out rehearsal dinner invitations. 

o    Wrap all gifts for the wedding party and write each attendant a nice note. 

o    Brides: Get your final haircut, if necessary.  

o    If you are changing your name, work on all the paperwork to make it happen 

o    Decide on your "something old, new, borrowed, and blue.  

 o    Email your bridal party with essential wedding weekend info (dates, times, directions) 

o Call guests who haven't RSVP'd. Our date was September 1st, so we'll give them a few more days and will be contacting them.

 o Pack for the honeymoon.

Meal Planning-YUM!

I've been trying to stay organized & on top of our Meal Planning! We've been trying to save extra money, and that means not going out to eat! This leads to lots of planning so it's not six o'clock, and we definitely don't feel like cooking. I plan to share our Meal Plan for the week on Sunday nights. This week is a little off track with the holiday weekend. (Click on the picture to link you to the recipe.) But here it is:

Monday: BBQ, potato salad, corn on the cob with Peach Cobbler!

 

Tuesday: Chicken Kabobs with rice

Wednesday: Salad with baked potato

Thursday: Baked chicken, fresh green beans, macaroni & cheese

Friday: Homemade Pizza

 

U-S-C...GO COCKS!

"These are a few of my FAVORITE things..." this song is playing in my head while I'm writing this post! :)

Football season has officially kicked off with the GAMECOCKS with a big "W" last night 17-13 vs. Vandy!  The next eleven games with be adorned with my "Favorite Things." It's definitely my favorite time of year with boots, garnet, & tailgating! 

Gift Tracking! AH!

After invitations are sent out and bridal showers are hosted, you have a HUGE list of Thank You Cards to write! I wanted to make sure I was organized before the time came.

I ordered monogrammed cards from Vista Print, a set with my monogram and a set with our new "married" monogram. I planned to use my monogram cards for bridal shower gifts, and pre-wedding occasions.

For wedding gifts, we would use our "married" monogrammed cards. <--that's a tongue twister "Married Monogrammed"

My guest are already listed on the Detailed Guest List. After receiving a gift, I would note what the gift was and there is a check box to check off when a thank you card was sent! FABULOUS!


It's a very overwhelming task to make sure everyone receives a thank you card, and at a decent time. This process help me a lot to stay on top of the cards, and as soon as we received a gift--I "tried" to write a thank you card right away!

Wedding Website

Our Wedding Website

One Month Checklist

We are finally at the One Month Mark! AHH--bring on the checklists! The comes a point in wedding planning about 2-3 months out that you are in a "I've got all the big things accomplished," but before the "All the small things have to be finished NOW" mood. I'm now at the second mood, where it has to be finished today! :) We are out of time, and the wedding is fast approaching! Thank You Knot for keeping me sane! Here's what left of the major checklist:

o    Finalize your rental list (tables, chairs, and any other extras). 

Just need a few more tablecloths! WAHOO!

o    Make all honeymoon travel reservations, including your flights and rooms. 

Just ORDER FLIGHTS!

o    Buy reception bar essentials (if you're providing your own).

o    Arrange day-of transportation for you, your wedding party, and guests.

o    Finish your ceremony programs.

o    Submit your newspaper wedding announcement (if you were planning to).

o    Confirm out-of-town guest hotel reservations. 

o    Finalize your ceremony vows.

o    Finish up your ceremony programs.

o    Send out rehearsal dinner invitations.

o    Wrap all gifts for the wedding party and write each attendant a nice note.

o    Brides: Get your final haircut, if necessary. 

o    If you are changing your name, work on all the paperwork to make it happen

.

o    Decide on your "something old, new, borrowed, and blue. 

o    Email your bridal party with essential wedding weekend info (dates, times, directions).