Life Lately - April

April is over! Y'all, how can it be? We are already through a whole third of the year 2022 and that's absolutely nuts to me! People told me that the year of my wedding, time would fly especially - and that has been 100$ true! Less than 200 days to go now... and I'm sure they'll speed by just like the last four months have! 

Eating - The month of Easter and all things Spring! I created a lovely Coconut Cream Cake for my Dad's 60th birthday and it was pretty divine! It was a Pinterest success and I'm so glad I gave it a whirl! We ate at Out of the Blue in Gainesville and my love and my family had their fill of seafood... and I just watched them eat it all (and cracked some crabs).

Easter weekend was quite the feast! My Mom purchased some delicious cookies from our friend Jillian and I whipped up another Pinterest recipe: Peeps Easter Bars, which were some kind of chocolate chip and Reese's Pieces bar topped with melted Peeps! Our Easter day meal was divine: honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, corn casserole & cinnamon apples - it was tasty and led to a lovely post-meal nap!

Watching - I finished up the second season of Bridgerton pretty quickly at the start of the month and absolutely loved it! I can't quite decide but I do think I might have enjoyed season two more than season one! There's also one more episode of the sixth season of Outlander to watch before it comes to it's conclusion - and I have to confess, this season hasn't been my favorite. *sigh* But I do still love the show.

I suppose beyond those two shows... I haven't been watching a ton of stuff. Oh wait! That's not true! My fiancé loves all things wild animals and when I'm with him, I've found myself watching all sorts of National Geographic animal shows, ha-ha!

Wearing - My Draper James Orange Blossom Dress! Okay, that's cheating a little bit because I only wore it once this month but I love it and I am so glad they got this dress style/pattern back in because it immediately caught my eye last time it was available but sold out before I could get my hands on it!

I was so thrilled it arrived in time for the Apple Blossom Prayer Lunch - with it's bright pink hue and green accents, it was the perfect option for the lunch! And I will most definitely be wearing it all summer long (and even in the Fall, when I go to Jamaica for my honeymoon!)

Bought - I certainly didn't need another book (no wait - I always need another book) but when I saw that The Palace Papers was coming out this month and at Target I got it for $10 less than sale price, I had to snatch up a copy! I am fascinated by all things royal and am currently devouring this tome! Beyond my new book, most of the things I've purchased in the last month have been wedding-related and haven't actually been purchased by me but were actually purchased for me!

I got the cutest woven basket style purse and a pair of dangly earrings that both say "bride" and I also got some flip-flops that say "Mrs." and have golden bows! And don't even get me started on the gorgeous Barrington tote I purchased for myself with my new initials - I'll be staring at it longingly until November!

Want - What if I told you I don't really have a "want" right now? Would you believe me? I mean, certainly there are things I want but they are more personal and for now I'll keep them to myself. Perhaps if you're reading this, I'd want you to say a prayer for me. 

And if you're my Mom and you're reading this - no need to panic - I just figure we can all use extra prayer, right?

Reading - I'm reading The Palace Papers, of course! I started it shortly before the end of the month and it's been absolutely intriguing so far! I also read An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn and The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley - three very different books for the month of April! An Offer from a Gentleman is the third book in the Bridgeton series and follows Colin Bridgerton. The book resembles the age-old tale of Cinderella and I absolutely enjoyed it!

The Paris Apartment was a thriller and although it took a bit to pick up speed, once I got into it - I absolutely devoured it within just a few days! It was excellent and now I think I'd like to read her other book - The Guest List.

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That's all I've got for the month of April! I hope everyone had a wonderful month and enjoys the month ahead and Spring unfolding!

Friday Favorites

 The final weekend of April - and the beginning of May - all in one weekend! Let's get things started!

One. I'm Off Work - It's a Three Day Weekend and I am beyond thrilled! The town where I work celebrates the Apple Blossom Festival and this year is the 95th year that it's been celebrated! There are over 100 events that span a week and a half - with a large chunk of them taking place the final weekend of the celebration, which just happens to be this weekend!

The office where I work has always had "Apple Blossom Friday" off every year since I've been working here and it's always a nice Spring surprise! I am counting down the days to my upcoming week off... but a day off is always welcome along the way!

Two. Apple Blossom Prayer Lunch - One of the myriad of events that take place during Apple Blossom week is the Prayer Lunch (it used to be a brunch) and I will be attending my second one this year! I went about 4-5 years ago and had a great time. so when a ticket because available earlier this week (thanks Dad) - I decided I'd tag along with my Mom and attend again.

Everyone wears shades of pink and green (the colors of apple blossoms) for Apple Blossom Festival and I actually managed to buy a dress recently that while actually covered in oranges and orange blossom, is filled with the colors of pink and green, so I'll be wearing that! There will be a speaker and door prizes and delicious food - it should be a great time!

Three. Dance Lessons - Y'all... Ryan and I have been taking dance lessons and while the first one was a little rocky (for me)...we attended our second class on Wednesday night and it was great! We have learned to waltz, cha-cha and rumba so far - and had a less than successful attempt at the foxtrot! 

We are learning our dance skills at Social Graces Dance Studio in Berryville and our instructor Maria is a delight! She is an excellent instructor and so patient with our goofy selves! We will be taking a couple more lessons a little closer to the wedding so that we look like we know what we're doing when we start dancing our first dance, ha-ha!

Four. Elevation Nights - Ryan and I have tickets to attend Elevation Nights on Sunday night and we cannot wait! We will be making our way into DC, to the Capital One Arena to experience a wonderful night of music, worship and preaching!

I must confess that before I met Ryan, I wasn't very aware of Steven Furtick but I certainly am now and I enjoy listening to his sermons each week as they download to my podcast app! And some of my favorite worship songs are by Elevation Worship - and I can't wait to get to enjoy some of them live and with my favorite person in the whole world!

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The final weekend of April is here and before it's over, May will have arrived! Y'all enjoy it! 

Wedding Wednesday - Finding the Photographer

It's Wednesday and that means more wedding planning fun! You may be looking down this post and wondering why this post is filled with pictures of my family - and that would be because this post is all about finding my photographer - which wasn't hard at all!

 

We have dear family friends - the Lulls - and Brooke is not just a great friend, wife, wonderful Momma and just all around awesome person - she takes the most stunning pictures! I have been following her blog for years now and knew when the time came, she would be the person I'd want to take my wedding pictures! Brooke is down to Earth and so easy to work with - she makes taking pictures easy and I think that's saying a lot because most people do NOT like to be photographed, ha-ha!

I have experience doing photos with Brooke because for our parent's anniversary present five years ago (holy cow - it's been five years) my sister and I had Brooke take family photos. I thought I'd share some of them here so you could see just how amazing her photography skills are!

It's also worth noting that the picture used in my Wedding Wednesday banner is one of Ryan and I's engagement pictures - I'll share all of those a little later in the year. As soon as that ring was on my finger, you better believe I'd reached out to Brooke and let her know I wanted to have her with me on the big day to document it all! 

She has been nothing but a delight to work with and it's also really nice to know that someone I also consider a friend will be behind the camera to capture this precious moment that starts Ryan and I's life together! 

If you live in the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) area and you're looking to find an amazing wedding photographer - I cannot recommend Brooke Danielle Photography enough. Check out her website here: https://brookedaniellephotography.com/ and be sure to check out her blog - you might spy someone you know! 

Tuesday Tails

 

The sweetest old man - just enjoying the Spring flowers and the sunshine.

Adjacent to Luck

That weekend passed in a flash - holy cow! The most thrilling portion of Friday was that our wedding invitations arrived and they are absolutely stunning! We ordered them just over a month ago from Kimberly's in Winchester and I'm so glad we went with a local small business - the customer service was amazing and the invitations are just what I wanted and couldn't quite find on all the online retailers!

I did a whole lot of nothing on Friday afternoon and evening and it was amazing! Ryan was at work - so I ended up having some sandwiches and binge-watching Anatomy of a Scandal on Netflix! I even went to bed at a pretty decent hour because I had to get up at 7:15 to get ready for my Saturday plans.

Saturday morning I joined my Mom and we attended a women's conference at her friend Joyce's church - it was an all day event, so we kicked off the day with donuts, coffee and raffle tickets and went from there. The speaker was a woman named Robyn Dykstra and she was an excellent speaker! Her life has been filled with some definite faith-testing moments: she was a Playboy bunny, buried two husbands in four years and is now a Christian speaker - talk about the Lord using you regardless of your past choices! It was such an enjoyable conference filled with laughter, worship and words of wisdom!

One of my best friends, Meridith attended with her sister and mother and so we got to spend time together on Saturday too! We had lunch together and sat right near one another throughout the conference. It was so great to have her there too! And then my Momma - the luckiest woman alive for numerous reasons - but on Saturday because she won FIVE door prizes, including three gift baskets, a book and a ticket to next year's conference! I'm not sure what she's been doing but she's doing something right because luck was on her side!

I was lucky enough to benefit from her luck and ended getting a new Bible, a 52-week prayer journal and some highlighters to use in my new Bible and that was pretty exciting to me! I've been wanting a new Bible and this one (A Woman After God's Heart) is perfect! Ryan was working again on Saturday night, so I had dinner with my parents and then just relaxed and did some laundry on Saturday evening.

Sunday morning was church and then Ryan and I had lunch together at Cracker Barrel before taking a Sunday afternoon cat nap before he headed to work again and I continued to enjoy the lovely afternoon! My parents decided that since it was so nice out, we'd go get ice cream at New Town Creamery for dinner and I couldn't argue with that! It was our first visit of the season!

Once we came home, we watched the newest episode of Outlander and I ended up getting to bed at a pretty decent time to be ready for the work week ahead! And guess what - only three more days of work this week because our office is closed on Friday for the local Apple Blossom Festival! Thank heaven for local hometown festivals, am I right?

Friday Favorites

The second to last weekend of April - y'all the months are flying by! This has been a unique week beginning with snow and ending with sandal weather. *sigh* I sure wish Spring would get with it.

One. Weird Weather - It was in the 70's on Saturday (of last weekend) and while it was a little cooler on Sunday, the skies were blue and it was gorgeous! However Sunday dawned cloudy and cold... but in a defiant spirit, I wore my Easter dress with a cardigan and went on about my business. While talking to my fiancé on the phone before leaving for work, he mentioned I should take my boots in the car to work...

Y'all - the forecast was for 1-3 inches of snow and sure enough, it started snowing around 9:15 and snowed until 4 PM! I ended up having to wear my boots with my Easter dress while scraping snow off my car before I could head home from work! The Monday after Easter - and it snows! What are the odds?!? It also snowed some on Tuesday - but now it's 75 outside. Go figure.

Two. New Glasses - I am finally getting new glasses and I cannot wait for them to arrive! I used Warby Parker's online services to have five pair of glasses delivered to my house, tried them all on and chose the best option! I sent pictures to my fiancé, my parents, my younger sister and I even brought the glasses to work to get my friend's opinions!

Once I'd settled on the Clare frames, I ordered them online - which was super easy - and then placed my at home try-on frames in the mail to send back to Warby Parker! I tried the glasses on Monday, placed my order on Wednesday (and uploaded my prescription via the app on my phone) and I was notified on Thursday night that my new glasses have shipped!

Three. Dance Lessons - Ryan and I took our first dance lesson last night and it was an experience! I grew up taking dance lessons but this was Ryan's first experience... and he was the best of the two of us! He did such an excellent job and I honestly feel like I just floundered, ha-ha! We learned steps for the waltz, foxtrot and cha cha before our first hour was up and Ryan was the best partner!

Our instructor told us that we both hear rhythm really well and have great posture - but apparently I need to work on letting Ryan lead. *sigh* Why is that not surprising to me? I do like to have control of all situations. I somehow also managed to very excitedly step in the wrong direction with quite a bit of fervor and slammed my toe into Ryan's boot... and the top of my toenail got broken off. So for now - it's dance 1 and Natalie 0.

We have our second lesson next Wednesday and I'll be wearing closed toe shoes! *smiles*

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That's all I've got this week y'all! It should be a calm weekend and hopefully a lovely last week of April!

It's April 18th - and it's Snowing

It's actually now April 19th... but the phrase still stands because just thirty minutes ago, it was snowing. I mean sure, the sun has come out now but let's be honest - snow is not something you expect after mid-April, at least not in Virginia. Not even in Northern Virginia! *sigh* I'm getting ahead of myself.

See that moon? That moon is from Friday night - but yet again - I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

It was so so lovely to get to sleep in on Friday - an absolute gift! It's been a hot minute since I was able to sleep in and I was so thankful for a day with no real agenda! I mean, there was something of an agenda because my Mom and I wanted to go to DSW and look for wedding shoes - but that was the only thing on the agenda. And would ya'll believe it - we found the perfect wedding shoes! I certainly figured that it might be an uphill climb to find them but there they were - the perfect pair on the second aisle we walked down - VICTORY!

We had lunch at Out of the Blue where they had all things seafood related and Ryan was in absolute heaven, ha-ha! I just enjoyed smacking crabs with the mallet they gave Ryan... and while Ryan had me sample a clam and some crab, I won't be eating more of either any time soon. I told my sister that clam tasted like "ocean snot" and I stand by that description. We also popped into Hobby Lobby, Francesca's, Soma and Cabela's before heading home for the evening. We ended up having some Mexican food for dinner, opening our Easter "baskets" and watching The Chosen on Amazon Prime.

The Golden Egg (quite literally) in Ryan and I's Easter bags contained tickets to Elevation Nights - the opportunity to see Elevation Worship and hear Steven Furtick speak - which we are both thrilled about! Elevation Worship has some of the most incredible worship music and Ryan and I both have favorites that we love to listen to... and Steven Furtick is a gifted preacher and I know whatever he shares will be just what the Lord means for Ryan and I to hear. I cannot wait! We also got plenty of chocolates, jelly beans and beef jerky (Ryan - not me) and some precious bunny and carrot cookies!

 

 

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day - sunny and warm with a nice breeze - and so Ryan and I ended up checking out a craft bazaar at my parent's former church before washing our cars. I'll be 100% honest and tell you that Ryan did 70% of the washing and I helped with things here and there. Ryan loves to wash our vehicles and takes great pride in keeping them looking good... and he doesn't want to just take it through the drive thru car wash, ha-ha!

Ryan left for work around 2:30 and y'all - I am ashamed to say I didn't do a whole lot else all day on Saturday. I did run to meet up with him and change shoes (he wore the wrong shoes & so we needed to meet in the middle and make an exchange) but otherwise, I actually ended up just doing some things around the house: I put together some dishes for Easter lunch ahead of time & popped them into the fridge, started watching the show Anatomy of a Scandal, took a nice bubble bath and did my nails. Like I said - very productive!

Easter was the first holiday Ryan and I ever celebrated together and I couldn't resist sharing the picture from last Easter alongside this year's picture - the sun was right in our faces this year and it was hard to keep my eyes open! I cannot believe this is already our second Easter together - Ryan is truly such a gift from God, so I think it's perfect that the first holiday we celebrated together was Easter. Blessings on blessings, that's for sure!

 

After church service, Ryan and I headed to my parent's house to get everything in the oven for dinner - my parents had nursery in second service and so Ryan and I were at the forefront of preparing all the goods for the feast! We had ham, green beans, corn casserole, scalloped potatoes, cinnamon apples and rolls! It was delicious and was almost enough to put me in a food coma - even without turkey!

The weather took a turn on Saturday night and so while it was sunny and gorgeous out on Easter Sunday - it was pretty chilly! I think the temperature hovered around the mid-50's and there was a pretty brisk breeze! After our big Easter meal, Ryan took a nap and my Dad wasn't feeling his best - so my Mom and I (after we both took naps too, ha-ha) loaded up Watson and drove over to the Arboretum and we were not disappointed with all the beauty in nature! 

 

The fields of daffodils were spreading out in bloom and there were flowers everywhere! Now yes - it was pretty brisk out, but Watson was absolutely enchanted and acted like a little pup again - bouncing to and fro through the grass, taking in the sunshine and green grass. It was wonderful! We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the sunshine and then headed back home to have leftovers for dinner and get ready for the week ahead.

And then - in an act of sheer defiance on Monday, I read the weather forecast and decided to wear my Easter dress to work with ballet flats anyway. Eight hours of snow later, I was glad my lovely fiancé reminded me to take my boots to work with me. What in the world is this weather???