Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Happy Halloween

Halloween Part 1 is behind us. We held a small dinner party this weekend in honor of the upcoming spooky holiday. We're looking forward to more fun festivities this upcoming weekend!


We were undecided as to which costume we liked better, so we tried out both at our dinner party. Option 1, seen here, is McCain/Palin. Option 2, seen below, is McCain/Obama. Which costume do you like better?? We're going to have to choose one for Oct 31st!





Prepping for the party - our attempts at mini caramel apples were unsuccessful, despite numerous attempts. Our other efforts were much more successful, thankfully!



Using Momma Marty's "crazy chocolate cake" recipe, Branden made these creepy cupcakes - they were delicious!


These caramel apples turned out much better than the mini version. Another delicious dessert!



No Halloween party would be complete without a costume contest. We had prizes for the Most Creative, Funniest and Best Overall costumes.


Momma Deal visited the week before, so she helped me with the table decor. I always appreciate her good design sense!



Eric (the old school golfer) won the Most Creative costume, Gregg (nerdy basketball player) won Funniest, and Erik (Will Farrell's "Elf") won Best Overall. Branden and I can be seen as McCain/Obama here...have you decided which costume you like better for us??


Best Overall Costume: Elf (from the movie, "Elf")
The best part is that this costume is 90% homemade!


Amy, the wine glass thief! Don't set your glass down when she's nearby, she'll snatch it up :) (She managed to steal four on this particular night!)




Happy early Halloween! What are you going to dress up as?
We'll be back next week with more Halloween fun!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Miscellany

I've had a little break from papers since Kirsten's wedding, so I've been able to work on other fun projects. Here are a couple of my recent creative endeavors...



My friend, Shelly, hired me to put together these "inspiration boards" for a client of hers. Aren't they beautiful color combos??



This was a recent culinary adventure. Branden's boss and his wife just moved back here from Naples, Italy, so they hosted a group of us for an evening of Italian wine tasting. I was in charge of the fruit and cheese...I was so proud of my efforts I had to take this pic!


Kir's Wedding!


Here is the follow-up to my DC post. Enjoy the pics of Kirsten's wedding; it was beautiful!
Sisters getting ready! Ashley, left, is Kirsten's younger sister, and Steph, right, is Kirsten's new sister-in-law.

Getting ready for pictures before the ceremony. The wedding was held at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA. It was a perfect fall day!

Pure joy




Doing our "sassy" pose. Not quite sure why photographers love those so much!



Favors that give back - Kirsten and Daniel made a donation to their four favorite charities in lieu of a favor. How thoughtful!



Catching up with old friends, Anne and Marc Orloff. Branden and I went to Michigan with Anne and she and Marc now live in Boston.



More old friends! Cara and I went to Michigan together.


The after party in downtown Bethesda. We had too much fun!




Is that a yawn, Daniel?!

Ashley! She's the cutest!


Thanks for a great night!






Making like tourists

Last weekend we had the pleasure of traveling to our nation's capital for my dear friend, Kirsten's, wedding. Since the wedding was on Friday, we had the weekend to sightsee (I had never been there, unless you count a drive-by 15 years ago). My hubby, the history buff, was over the moon at the chance to educate his wife. I must admit, it was pretty inspiring to see such historic sights. My feet were very tired, but it was worth it to watch the sun set over the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the day (note to self, cute shoes are not appropriate for a day of sightseeing in DC).

First stop: The Newseum

The Newseum is amazing! It is an entire museum dedicated to journalism and the biggest news stories in history. I think anyone going to DC needs to check it out. Outside is the "front page" exhibit. They showcase the front page of one newspaper from each of the 50 states. The most popular headline the day we were there was that Congress had passed the bailout plan.

One of my favorite exhibits was dedicated to 9/11. The wall shown here is two stories of front pages from 9/12/2001. It was a very emotional and moving exhibit. My other favorite, though not shown, was the Pulitzer prize exhibit. It featured all of the photographs, and the stories behind them, that have ever won the award. Another emotional and moving exhibit.


The Newseum has the largest collection of the Berlin wall outside of Germany. In addition, they have an actual guard tower from the wall.



This is the view from the terrace at the Newseum. It overlooks much of Pennsylvania Avenue and they have a map explaining what each of the buildings is.

On Saturday, we made our way over to Arlington National Cemetery. If you don't know, one of my mom's closest childhood friends was MIA in Vietnam for over 30 years. Miraculously, his remains were found in 2002 and he was laid to rest in Arlington. Branden and I were unable to attend the service (finals week in college), so it was important to us to be able to pay our respects now. Being in Arlington was overwhelming and reminded me of how lucky we really are. I was so honored to be able to see such a special place.


This was one of the last sights we saw while in DC (we saw a lot more but our camera died while at Arlington). It is the US Department of the Treasury. I took this picture because I noticed the flag was at half mast. I thought it strange, since no other flags were flying at half mast that day. My theory? They were mourning the loss of 700 billion dollars. Just a theory...