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Hello there!!

I'm back!! Are you ready for this?! Because I am. Seriously, I feel guilty that I haven't made blogging a priority like I promised myself I would. However, I have been out and about.

There’s no way to go back and go into detail about everything but I'll do an overview. After that, I'm moving forward. I was slightly overwhelmed with the idea of having to go back and talk about everything AND blog about current events. Therefore I just didn't blog. Opps!

Thank you for all the summer reading suggestions yall have emailed me. I have read several books so far this summer and now I'm in the middle of 50 Shades of Grey. OMG! Don't tell me what happens but I can barely put that book down!

Life has finally calmed down. And I honestly mean that. Three work events (a two day bike event, a week of summer camp, and a black tie gala) in June was a bit much. We got them done and came through with flying colors. I've learned so much at this job already. My boss is amazing. He is fully confident in me and appreciates hard work. I'm very happy!

I have finally finished the last of the moving boxes and hung everything on the walls last weekend. It feels like home now. I can't thank my friend Shannon enough for coming over and helping. I'll take some pictures this weekend to give yall a tour.

Let’s see what has happened in the capital city lately....
Kt Pav got engaged!
Stacia got married
Shannon and Pat moved to the capital city
Pav asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. That’s wedding #11 ;)
I survived a wild work month!
I've had some dates. Maybe I won't be the eternal bridesmaid haha
I finally feel like I'm not living out of boxes, my car, my suitecase, etc. Oh happy day!

Upcoming funs...
A whole week at the beach! Yay vacation
Cake decorating class. Working on that bucket list...
Kelly's bridal shower. Kelly and I have been friends since 1st grade and she is getting married this fall. I can't believe after all these years, we still keep in touch.
Baby Fogleman is due this fall
A dinner party to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Fogleman

Okay, I think that sums up life around here. I'll post pictures, hopefully this evening.

XO,

Southern Gal

S + P Nuptials in the Sunshine State (part 1)

Okay, I've said that life was a whirlwind for a few weeks. Lets put a little perspective on this...

Tuesday was my last day of old job. Wednesday morning (5am) I loaded up the car with Shannon and we drove the 9-10 hours to Florida for her wedding weekend. Saturday we walked down the aisle, Shannon said "I do," then we toasted the couple and celebrated all night! Sunday I flew back to the capital city and Monday morning I started a new job!! The move took place the following Saturday, aka Shannon's one week wedding anniversary!!

Yaya road trip and Florida! 

Funny side story- Shannon and I were about 30 minutes into our drive and I realized that neither of us had grabbed my dresses (including my bridesmaid dress)!! I just assumed Shannon had grabbed them since they were hanging over my suitcase. She assumed I grabbed them. We are some lucky girls because Shannon's sister had not left the capital city yet. Stacia zipped on over to my house and grabbed all my dresses and certainly saved the day!!

The road trip and the few days in Florida prior to the wedding were amazing. Like my soul need to recharge. The wedding took place at Grandma Lynn's house. Shannon and I stayed there for a few nights before moving to the hotel with the rest of the wedding party.

Once we arrived in the sunshine state, we noticed all the smoke from the forest fires that were apparently happening all over the state. We never saw a fire but we drove for hours with this weird smoke.

 

My morning view. Serene. I'm so glad the smoke didn't follow us.

I started each morning on the deck with a big cup of coffee and a book. It was my peace before each chaotic, wedding-packed day.

When we arrived, we hung out with the family and seriously relaxed. Grandma Lynn made some fabulous meals for us, we drank some great wine and enjoyed each other's company. Sorry I don't have more photos but I completely checked out. I was in the moment and cherishing the special time that Shannon and I had before she became a Mrs.

Friday was the bridal luncheon at Aunt Nan's home. She hosted us on the porch with a lovely lunch. Shannon gave us our bridesmaids gifts at the end of the lunch. We all got Vera Bradley totes- each were different to match each girl's personality. We also got earrings, again different for each girl. Seriously the gift kept coming! Finally we each got a Velcro towel wrap with our initial on it.

After the luncheon, I worked on Shannon's practice bouquet for the rehearsal.

The happy couple!

Shannon and Patrick got married in the front yard with the lake off in the distance. We entered the ceremony through the front doors. It was a loooooooong aisle!! Fortunately, Shannon let us wear flats with our dresses so the walk was totes manageable.

We got through with the rehearsal and headed out to Grandma Lynn's barn for the rehearsal dinner.

We had bbq and a crayfish boil. It was my first crayfish boil and those little suckers are good!

Bride in yellow, MOH to the left and friends.

The "adults" warming up with the karaoke!

The rest of the night was a blur of fun! We all headed to the hotel bar after we closed down the barn. I met lots of new friends then the MOH and I decided it was time to put the bride to bed. We all needed our beauty rest!

Florida was fabulous and I'm seriously glossing over half the stuff we did! We were all over the place to make everything happen.

I will devote a whole post to the wedding day. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my random stories ha

~Southern Gal~

Weeeeeeeeeeeee

On the road again! I'm off to Florida to get Shannon married!!

And I actually got my first spray tan for this event! Feel special Shan lol

Fun in the Sun,

Southern Gal

Showering Bridal Wishes

Last month we were celebrating Shannon in Charlottesville, then at the end of March we showered Shannon's sister, Stacia, with bridal wishes! Yes, Shannon and Stacia are both engaged and are getting married 6 weeks apart!! Needless today it has been a busy spring for these sisters!

Stacia lives in town and Shannon lives about an hour away so I opened my house for the shower. It was bittersweet. It was my last party here so while my chapter here closes, it was wonderful to celebrate Stacia as she begins her next chapter as wife and Mrs. W.

Welcome guests! I don't know how well you can see the decorations, but we had tissue wedding bells hanging from railings as well as wedding bell garland looped around the railings too.

Oddly enough, I have truly enjoyed my mantle since Christmas complaints. I've not had any decorating dilemmas. I've kept it clean and simple. A moss 'W', white hydrangeas, magnolia leaves, and candles. Classic and timeless. Also, Stacia is a photographer with natural talent so we decked the house out with pictures of her and her future hubby starting with the mantle.

 

 Here we have the drink table. We served wine (red and white), water, and had an ice coffee bar. That was a hit! I will have to do that again for future parties.

Next to the drink table, I have this huge/random message board that takes up a whole wall in my kitchen. We carried the clothespins and pictures into the kitchen onto the memo board. Remember my glitter lanterns from ESM? I've kept them hanging since because I like the splash of color!

Food table- yum!! Shannon had food catered, including chicken salad, pimento cheese, corn dip, pasta salad, and broccoli salad. It was delicious and I'll use that caterer for future events!

The side table set up with plates, napkins, silverware, and dessert baskets. Shannon's fiance made Andes mint cookies and they are amazing! Shannon also had the caterer make strawberry cake pops. Mid-party I realized I wasn't taking enough pictures so I apologize for the random wine glass in the picture.

The night before the party, Shannon and I made mini key lime pies. I must love these sisters to juice thousands of key limes for those pies!!! About midway through squeezing key limes, I asked Shannon why we couldn't use store bought key lime juice. Apparently she didn't realize you can buy that at the grocery store.

We did play one shower game. When guests arrived, we asked each one to take a note card, write advice, wisdom, tidbits, etc for the bride. Once they were done writing, we had them fold their card and drop it into a vase. While the Bride-to-Be was opening presents, each guest read a card (not theirs) and Stacia had to guess who wrote the tip.

We had a full house and everyone showered Stacia with tons of gorgeous gifts. Lucky girl!

Yay for love!

Mother of the Bride(s), MOH, Bride

These sisters are beautiful, inside and out. I am so excited to watch Stacia walk down the aisle in May!! You'll see these ladies a few more times this month as we have a wedding next week!

xoxo,

Southern Bridesmaid (haha)

Goodbye Charlottesville

Sunday morning we all got packed up and checked out of the hotel. We decided to have brunch together before everyone went their different directions. We found The Pigeon Hole and it was yummy!

I had some egg, black beans, cheesey dish. I feel like all I did was eat my way through the weekend! Time for nothing but fruits and veggies to recover from all those carbs.

Final cheers of the weekend. Another weekend adventure for the books.

Thanks SMH for getting married and including me in all the celebrations! I can't wait to see everyone in Florida for the big day! Until then, safe travels.

xoxo,

Southern Gal

Wine Saturday

Saturday in Charlottesville was fabulous! We started the day with some Panera Bread. I've never had their breakfast before, and let me say I was highly impressed! Excellent coffee and perfect egg and cheese bagel. Thank you for starting my day off right.

Once we were all ready to roll, our party bus arrived. We used Talcott Limo and they were unbelievable. They truly took care of us on our wine adventure!

First winery- Afton Mountain Vineyards

Good wines, and gorgeous setting. We had our own private tasting room with a full view of the property. Thanks to our excellent tour company, we had a picnic lunch at Afton Mountain. We all bought a glass of wine after our tasting and sat out on the patio and enjoyed every moment. Lunch was yummy!

Second winery- Veritas Vineyard

The picture above is LOVE spelled out in wine corks! So cool! How can I make one for my house?!?! Their tasting room was breathtaking and their wines were delicious. I bought a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to enjoy at home.

I love the logo and the tasting glasses!

PS- One of the girls has a great picture of all of us here, under a pergola. Would you email please it to me if you have it?

Third winery- Pollak Vineyards
So at this point I'd had a lot of wine and I didn't take any pictures. I don't really remember the wine. It wasn't spectacular so it didn't leave an impression. However, I did purchase a bottle; hopefully it wasn't a mistake.

Forth and final winery- King Family Vineyards

I took lots of pictures here! We enjoyed the tasting then we each bought a glass of wine and headed out to the patio to bask in the late afternoon sun.

Cheers!!

Moustache love.

All the gals!

Party bus fun

Everyone at the end of a fabulous day! (Sorry for the glare, guess the driver isn't handy with a camera.)

We rallied for dinner and heading downtown for some Thai then we walked around the Mall area. We were all tuckered out so we all fell asleep early.

You should plan to make a trip to Charlottesville. Have you been? What was your favorite winery? I can't wait to go back (still dreaming about Mono Loco!)

Clink!

S.O.S.

Virginia is for Lovers...

...Or to celebrate lovers!

This past weekend I went to VA for a bachelorette weekend. SMH is getting married in April so we packed up and headed north to partake in some wine adventures.

Once everyone arrived in Charlottesville on Friday afternoon, we spotted this gem across the street from our hotel. Aberdeen Barn lays claim to being Virginia's finest steakhouse. Several of the girls were from the Captial City as well so we giggled how it looks like Angus Barn, even down to the logo. We walked over for a drink and the ACC tourney.

We got cleaned up after our round of beers and headed out for dinner at Mono Loco, which is possibly the BEST mexican I have ever had!! I'm still thinking about that dinner. Anyways, someone sent over shots to kick off the celebrations!

Amazing margs!

MOH, Bachelorette, Bridesmaid

I WISH I took a picture of my meal, but I do know that I ordered Pollo Con Queso, yummmmmmm.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, had cupcakes (courtesy of my new BFF, Swoop Envy) and a lingerie shower for the future Mrs. G. We called it a night in preparation for our early morning. We had our party bus pick us up at the hotel at 11am for our winery tour. Yes, 11 o'clock in the morning!

I don't want to get long winded so I'll share our wine adventures tomorrow!

Bottoms Up!

Southern Gal

February Weekends

February was a busy month. Enjoy the photo tour of my weekends recap.

Sorry for the poor quality photo its all my phone could do. Anyways, I saw The Remedy play at 42nd Street for a friend's birthday. We had a blast!! I even got the band to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl!!

Late February, I attended a bridal shower. I helped the MOH with menu and set up. The shower was held a cake shop so the atmosphere was perfect. It was a sweet shower. We had a great time and I can't wait to stand beside the bride on her big day in April!

Close up of the cupcakes at the shower. Then my camera died. Fail.

Awww this awesome kid! My sweet nephew was telling me that is Sunday morning biscuit was "haaaaa" aka hot.

Go Canes! Unfortunately, they lost the game I went to last weekend. They lost in double overtime but it was a good game to watch.

What did your February weekends look like?

S.O.S.

Lift....Tone...Burn

I tried a ballet class tonight!! And, wow Pure Barre kicked my tail. We started immediately with push-ups, leg lifts, and planking. Balls, hand weights and bands were all involved, along with tucking hips and working muscles against each other. It was a major core workout and I was sweating like a pig on a stick within minutes of the class starting. The whole ordeal was 55 minutes long. Oddly, the 55 minutes flew by, thank you baby jesus; but the 30 second intervals were slooooow AND painful. Cheers to being able to walk tomorrow!!

Photo Credit

I do want to go again but it wasn't ballet enough for me. It was lots of muscle toning which I do need; however, I was hoping for a few more battements, jetes, or piques. Secretly I was hoping we would do some barre exercises, then maybe a combination across the floor, add in a few arabesques, a port de bras here and there then call it a day. (Sorry, I don't know how to do the accent mark.)

I ended up choosing this class thanks to trusty old, facebook. But it was like I was meant to take this class tonight since I had just blogged about it. While I was Elkin for the wedding, I saw on fb that a friend wanted to try the class and was looking for some friends to join her. I jumped on the opportunity to have some moral support while returning to the ballet barre after 10 years! I think we're going back next week. Thanks ERob!

Look at me! Blogging AND ballet in one night. I wonder what else the week has in store. Maybe a date?!?! Probably not, but this forever-bridesmaid still has hope.

I'll be back later to blog about the state fair and other DIY projects that I've decided to add to my list.

I'm a bad blogger.

I'm sorry that it has been months since my last post. I have no real reason or excuse. I got out of habit and wasn't sure how to pick it back up. I guess I'll just jump right in again.

Quick recap and things I've learned over the past 4 months...
-I have lived out of a suitecase. Travels include Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, Greensboro, Myrtle Beach again, and DC.
-I've been in two weddings, two more friends got engaged, and several people have announced babies.
-I have been a bad Junior Leaguer- opps!
-Cherry blossoms are beautiful!
-The Eastern Market might be my new favorite place. Wish I could go every weekend.
-I'm another year older.
-The Magic Kingdom does not serve adult beverages; however, Epcot does.
-Don't go to Malibu's on a Thursday night....you'll feel RULL old!
-I have really good friends. Turns out that its a blessing that I can't hide anything from them.
-A Kate Spade is the best bridesmaid gift I've EVER gotten.
-I watched a couple get married recently and I feel like I now know true love thanks to the happily newlyweds. The bride's excitement of getting to spend forever with her new hubby was indescribable. It was truly something to aim for on my search for my Groom.
-Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero sing my new favorite song- Home. Go listen to it! Thank you to the newest Mrs. H for playing it throughout your wedding weekend!

I'm sure a thousand more things have happened but I'm clueless at the moment.

Happy Friday!

Learning to Make This a (Good) Habit

Ekk, its been a whole week since I last blogged. Sorry, I'll try to be better.

I left you last week as I was rushing off to supper club. Let me tell you- this group of ladies can cook! We had everything- gnocchi, pizza, prosecco, cannolis, and the list can go on. The best recipe, again, came from my favorite magazine (that my mom let my subscription run out- no, I'm not bitter) Okay, I'll stop with the side comments. Anyways, CW made Gnocchi with Green Beans, Pesto, and Ricotta. Two words- absolutely amazing. You should try it.

Ingredients
1 pound gnocchi (fresh or frozen)
kosher salt and black pepper
1/2 pound green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
1 8-ounce container store-bought pesto (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup ricotta

Directions
1) Cook the gnocchi according to the package directions. Drain and return them to the pot.
2) Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon salt. 3) Add the green beans and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes; drain.
4) Add the pesto and cream to the gnocchi and cook over medium heat, stirring, just until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes.
5) Divide gnocchi among bowls and top with the green beans, ricotta, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

**CW used half and half instead of heavy cream if you want to save a few calories

Alright, changing gears. The weekend was another whirlwind of fun. LBT, a dear friend (and old roomie), came to visit on Friday for the night. She asked me to be one of her bridesmaids for her upcoming wedding. Of course I said YES! and I cannot wait to celebrate the happy couple. We did "research" Friday night for the perfect yellow signature cocktail for the cocktail hour before the reception. If you've never had a Yellow Cake cocktail, go to your closest bar this moment and order one. Saturday we did lots of wedding errands while she was here in the capital since she doesn't have much at OIB. She found the perfect bridesmaid dress but its about $400 (without alterations). Does anyone else think that astronomical?! Seriously, has anyone paid that much for a bridesmaid dress?

Saturday evening I headed to my parents house to get some qt in with my perfect nephew. He is a whopping 11 weeks old! He has been smiling for awhile but now has added giggling to list of talents. He is also pretty good at looking like Elmur Fudd. Ahhh, I miss him! I've been searching for a turkey costume for him for his 1st Thanksgiving. I haven't been successful so I guess I need to settle for a cute outfit. Esty was even a disappointment. A co-worker suggested I make one. My response basically was "Silly girl, I don't own a sewing machine!" I know, one of these days I need to make that investment. But that is for another day.

Tonight is Bunco so keep your fingers crossed that I win big! I could use a new pair of shoes....I'll be back soon to share Bunco results, my chocolate pecan pie adventure and Angel Tree wrapping.

ps- I promise I'll learn how to post pictures soon since this is getting so text heavy.