the (de)evolution of an owl-o-lantern

just in case you were wondering what happens when you decide you carve pumpkins 10 days before halloween....

now you know.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN Y'ALL!

i'm totally the martha stewart of pinterest

okay...so i'm probably not the martha stewart of pinterest, because that would sort of imply that i originate the ideas...and that's not really true. BUT i'm for sure not the sandra lee of pinterest...cuz i don't make nasty-ass cocktails and cover shit in edible pearls.

somewhere in the middle...there's me. the internet-trained culinary wizard. perhaps the hermione granger of pinterest??

it's blustery and pretty dang cold here in my little corner of the southeast (VERY thankful it's only wind, and hoping everyone in the northeast stays safe!)...so last night, i KNEW it was soup time.

and thanks to pinterest, i was able to bust out this cheesy veggie chowder and IT. WAS. AWESOME.

it did take a hot minute to do all the chopping, BUT it was basically chop-drop-simmer-eat. and that's for sure my kind of cooking!

next time i'll probably actually grate my own cheese, and maybe add a little salt and pepper while the veggies cook (aaaaaaand maybe some bacon, but i'm southern. we'll put bacon in anything).  but considering it's only 2/3 of a cup of milk and LOTS of veggies...i felt pretty good about this recipe!

PLUS, i've got at least half the pot left, and since the hubs is a total weirdo and "doesn't like leftovers", i'm gonna nom the heck out of this ish ALL WEEK LONG. yummmmm!!

if you've got a favorite soup recipe, share it! cuz my bowls get a LOT of abuse when the temps start dropping.

stick around, for lots of balls.

 so 3 years ago, about this time...i was on a plane, flying back to the good old US of A after my honeymoon (which, for the record, was amazing...but getting off an island on the other side of the globe was a BIT more work than i bargained for).

and yes...this means i totally forgot to blog for my ACTUAL anniversary. sue me.

and yes, this is the one and ONLY photo that features me and the hubs from our honeymoon. that lady in the middle is "mama". she has a restaurant in santorini. she called a guy a sex bomb. she rules.

ANYHOO, the whole point of this post is that i realize...i'm pretty sure our honeymoon phase is over. and has been for a REALLY long time.

now, before you go off and start calling dr. phil or dr. drew or dr. ruth to run some kind of marriage intervention on me...hear me out.

i'm GLAD that phase is over. because while it's awesome to be all lovey-dovey and smoochie-woochie and "omg you're my heart and my love and my life" bella swann on steroids...IT. GETS. OLD.

because life isn't like that. you're not ALWAYS gonna be like that. sometimes, you're gonna wanna punch your other half right in the balls. and sometimes, he's probably gonna wanna punch you in the lady balls.

THAT'S LIFE. 

it doesn't mean you don't love each other. it means you're both human. and sometimes...ball-punching thoughts happen. but at the end of the day, can you look at whoever you're with and say to yourself "if someone IS gonna punch me...i'm glad it's you"?

if so...you're one of the lucky ones.

"You took the time to memorize me my feels my hopes and dreams
I just like hanging out with you all the time
All those times that you didn't leave it's been occurring to me 
i'd like to hang out with you for my whole life

Stay and i'll be loving you for quite some time
No one else is gonna love me when I get mad mad mad
So I think that it's best if we both stay stay stay stay" - Stay Stay Stay, Taylor Swift


i love my husband. but i also REALLY like him.


i hope you've got someone you like hanging out with too =)

how many chains is too many chains?

i'll be the first to tell you, i LOVE jewelry.

love it. hoard it. make it. wear it all the time. basically feel naked without it.

so, shoplately is pretty much my favorite thing. i've written about them before, but basically it's a site with a bazillion and one pieces of gorgeousness, AND they have stuff that's on sale even more every day.

shoplately order by hfdukes on Polyvore

all of this stuff? cost me a whopping $21. because right now they've got  a promo going on....spend $30, and get $10 off with the code SLBDAY. it's good through thursday, so go get your shop on! that chunky gold chain is only $7.50, and i'm pretty sure i'm gonna wear it with everything once it gets here...like a really fancy, girly mr. T. 

 this bracelet is from a previous order from shoplatey, and i'm pretty much obsessed with it. 

PLUS, if you sign up for shoplately, i'll get a little cash to spend there, and then you can get all your frtiends to do the same, and then we can all go on a giant 4 hour episode of intervention where we end up swimming through a room of necklaces and bracelets like scrooge mcduck while my bro jeff van vonderen just shakes his head at us.  

no mo' burning up the highways

see this handsome fellow with one giant ball?

starting in 2 weeks...this dude isn't gonna be around the house a few days a week for me to harass. no more working from the upstairs office. no more 9 rounds of golf when he gets off phone calls at 4ish.

BUT he also won't have to get up at 4:45am on the days he doesn't work from home. he won't have to spend FOUR HOURS a day in the car driving 200+ miles to and from work. he won't have to go to bed at 9:30pm anymore.

HUBS GOT HIMSELF A NEW JOB Y'ALL!! and it's local, which means his commute will now be about 12 minutes...versus 120. i'm so so proud of him...AND a little bit excited about the extra income boost for a few months, which means we can pay for some projects around the house and cough::saveforababybeforeallmyeggsshrivelupanddie::cough.

we MIGHT be planning a "hooray nate has a new job" party in the works, complete with burning of his old business cards in our fire pit. cuz you know...that's how we roll.