Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Pioneer Woman

I'm part of the cult following that loves The Pioneer Woman. I've mentioned her in my own blog a few hundred times and even detailed my own attempts at making some of her recipes (Nantucket Cranberry Pie and The Perfect Pound Cake)

Last week as Whitney and I ventured into our first major attempt at dieting she decided to post the most delicious recipe yet - Sour Cream Noodle Bake. Well, maybe its not the most delicious recipe yet, but when all you've eaten in two days is a cucumber and a few pieces of lettuce it makes an online recipe scream at you.

I was explaining my dilemma to my co-worker, Gloria. She's been supportive of my plight and encouraging when I needed it most. But, today she may have done me in.

She gave me this.


I think I can officially say my diet just got that much more difficult. Any cookbook that can go from chicken-fried steak to sangria and creme brulee is a darn good cookbook in my opinion. 

I'll report back on my weight loss progress just after I finish my next cake! 

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Spring Cleaning

I decided it was finally time to de-clutter my schedule and my house enough to make time to sit in front of my computer and update my blog. I was on a roll for a while and then life happened. I'm not sure where I left off but here's where I'll start.

It's the first day of Spring - March 20 - and I live in a new town, have a new job, and I'm engaged. Not to mention in the midst of all of that fun we've celebrate Christmas, New Year's, a new baby, and I turned 30. I'm happy to report that while I've sometimes felt like I was treading water in a very deep pool it's all been happy and fun times on my end. I was even smiling on my 30th!


Before I even start on the all consuming wedding planning there's another little project I've been busy at. See those green walls in the background of that picture above? Well they are now SW Comfort Grey and I couldn't be happier.

As if I didn't have enough to do, we've decided to do a little renovating at Whitney's house. I love him, I really do, but he's been the quintessential bachelor for a while now and his house needed some attention. Yeah, those curtains - the previous owners left them for him and he thought they were great.

The curtains no longer live there.


I'll save all of my updates for another post but I'm so excited about the changes we're making and how it's coming together. Manual labor, blind installation, painting, painting and more painting may just be the best pre-marriage counseling anyone could have. You can learn a lot about your partner when you've got paint in your hair, it's close to 2:00 am, you've been at it since 6:00pm and you want to install the new light fixture before you go to bed.

When we haven't been working on the house I've been working on the wedding. Needless to say, I'm so far behind on good TV I'm just going to wait for next season to catch up.

We've got the basics in place. I've got a dress, we have a date and location, photographer, caterer, florist, band, etc. etc. We're getting our engagement pictures taken this Friday by Bianca, our photographer. Other than our colors (navy blue and green) she was the only sure thing I knew I wanted for my wedding day. She's photographed most of my best friend's weddings and does an amazing job. I'm so excited to see our pictures and we haven't even shot them yet!

My inspiration for our wedding!

There's so much more I want to write about but I can't keep my eyes open long enough to do it. It's been a busy weekend. I've spent 4+ hours in Belk's registering for china and most of tonight hanging a new ceiling fan in the living room. If only I could figure out a way to register for a personal assistant!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Why I'm Still Busy...

She was born on Friday, January 7 at 3:58pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21" long.

And she's perfect.

Lily James Kesler

I got to spend the entire past weekend with her. I pulled the night shift so her mom and dad could sleep. I never knew you could stare at something so much!

I'll get back to my regularly scheduled blogging just as soon as I finish enjoying all I have good going on in my life. Who wants to be sitting at a computer when you can be holding a new baby?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

I've Been a Little Busy...

The end of December and beginning of 2011 have been a whirlwind. I've got so much to write about I don't know where to begin.


There were Christmas parties and going away parties.


I moved from Raleigh to North Myrtle Beach, SC.


Christmas celebrations with my family and Christmas celebrations with Whitney's family.


We threw a New Year's Eve party.


But, for some reason I can't seem to gather my thoughts long enough to blog about it all because I can't quit staring at this...











Yep, Whitney asked me to marry him! It was snowing at the beach and it was perfect! 

When I come back to my senses I'll try to resume blogging. Until then... have another look - I do all the time. :)