Water is so frightening!

After two years using the same bowl, Emma randomly became very frightened of her water dish.

The past couple of months we've been letting the dogs drink out of a plastic Tupperware... and it's just really an eye sore.

Putting away Christmas decorations yesterday, I rediscovered the old water dish and decided to give Emma another try with it ...

She's really not having it! Why is this dish so scary?!? Jack doesn't have a problem with it.

Goooooooooo Mountaineers!

Ummm... wow. I have not blogged since October!?! Yikes. Working full time has really gotten in the way of my blogging! So as I'm sure you can imagine I'm way behind on a lot of events. Our camera was broken for a couple of months though too. 

I'm about to blog about a friend's wedding and Christmas, but saw that I had started this post back in SEPTEMBER and figured I should probably finish it! This is the second half of my West Virginia trip with my dad.  

Our second day in WV we traveled up to Morgantown to go to the WVU football game. I love traveling with my dad! He is so generous and thoughtful. He had researched ahead of time and found a couple of vegetarian/vegan restaurants to take me to! This first place, New Day Bakery, had some amazing chocolate chip bread! 

I had been to Morgantown before as a little girl, but childhood memories are so often so different from reality. I had so much fun exploring the college town with my dad! As we journeyed around campus my dad pointed out places of interest and told me stories from his childhood visiting with his dad and also from his college years. I love history and love my family so it was the best of both worlds!

If you know me well, you know that I like to personify inanimate objects. This was no different when my dad took me to the ride in the campus PRTs (Personal Rapid Transit). These little guys take students from one end of the campus to the other. I think they are so cute and funny looking!! I gave them all names like Walter and Gus and felt bad if we passed one with no one riding in it. Ha.

We went to the 3rd or 4th game of the season and the Mountaineers had been doing really well! They were undefeated and Gino Smith was getting lots of attention. There was a great energy surrounding the campus and game and it was a blast to be a part of it! Tailgating was really fun. I love themes and school spirit and loved how much everyone was in to it! 

Dad and I got to the game early enough to see the team get to the stadium. I think it's called the Man Walk? I remember I kept saying it wrong during the trip...  but anyways, it was really fun! Anticipation builds as you stand there with the crowd waiting for the team to arrive. Then they all part to make a path and the cheerleaders, mountaineer, and band leads the team in to the stadium.

Gino Smith

I got to give a lot of the team high fives!

Coach Dana Holgorsen

Dad and I tailgated with some high school friends of my dad who were super generous and gave us some yummy food. 

Like I said, I hadn't been back to WVU since childhood and I had a lot of stereotypical, "Appalachian Man" images in my head before visiting. Overall, this really wasn't the case. But just like you'll find the redneck, wife-beater wearing, uneducated UGA fan at Georgia games, there were some stereotypical WVU fans as well. Dad probably won't like me sharing these two with you, but I find them hilarious! 

"Want some Moonshine, ma'am? It's cinnamon flavored."

Besides being pretty chilly, the weather was really cooperating for the first half of the day. The sun was warming everyone up and I even went on a search for sunscreen. 

It did end up raining on us a little bit later, but my dad came prepared with some heavy duty ponchos and I was actually really comfortable.

The WVU band is really good! They're known as The Pride of West Virginia and do an amazing job. Their performance leading the team onto the field gave me goosebumps and got me really excited for the game!

The game was really so, so much fun. The Mountaineers won and it was a good game to watch! We sat pretty close to the student section and that provided good people watching. Or maybe a lot of the fun people watching was due to the fact that beer is sold at the stadium...? ;)

WVU student section... top level. 

We won and I'm so glad I got to go to a game at the beginning of the season when the weather was still warm enough for me to wear my gold and blue dress! Even if I was literally the only person I saw in a dress. 

Thank you dad, for taking me on such an amazing trip! Love you!

Karis and Uncle Miguel

Miguel loves his niece!

 

Miguel trying to get Karis excited about Georgia Tech =)

I think Karis loves her Uncle Miguel too!

Love Is Brewing: A Bridal Tea

This past Saturday my mom and I threw a Bridal Tea Shower for a childhood friend. I have been so excited about this tea for a long time now and started preparing for it many months ago. I still cannot believe that it has already come and gone! Wow!

Since my parents are in the middle of moving and we knew that their house would be on the market this fall, my mom and I thought it would be best to throw the shower at different location. I imediately thought of having the party at a tea house because that seems very "Bridal" to me. I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered The Roswell Tea house! Besides being quite picturesque, it also offers food services accommodating the many food allergies (gluten, soy, dairy, chicken, vegetarian, etc) of all our guests!  We also thought it'd be fun to have a mother/daughter tea since the guests we were inviting were all high school friends whose mothers were also acquaintances and friends. In the end it was a mix of mothers and daughters though. Scheduling something on a non-UGA football weekend in the fall is hard when everyone else is also taking advantage of the "open" Saturday! We had a lovely turnout though and were so happy and thankful that our guests could make it!

Back in July I started gathering ideas for invitations. I spent hours browsing on-line paper companies and in the end decided to create something on my own. I wish I could take total credit, however I found an invitation for inspiration here and then whipped up the rest in Photoshop. I went through multiple versions, but in the end I decided I wanted something more classy, "Bridal" and something that looked like it would compliment a high tea. I axed out any tea motifs and drew a bridal bouquet instead. I paired the invitations with pink envelopes. I was really please with the end result and loved the sweet feedback I received from the guests!

I clearly love being crafty and couldn't have been more thrilled to have a reason to get creative! I decided to go with a bright colored, floral patterned theme. I also came up with the idea of using the phrase "Love Is Brewing" and incorporated that throughout the shower. We ended up having to provide our own tablecloths and, well, pretty much everything except the china.  Below are two pictures of how everything turned out:

I made this banner to hang, it reads: Love Is Brewing with the Bride's wedding date below 12.22.12. I also lucked out with having Cricut cartridges with the heart mugs! Too perfect and cute! I had to use them! I'm really please with the result, but a little disappointed too. This was the second version I ended up making and time just ran out on me. It was much more detailed in my vision, but like I said, I still think it looks cute and the effect was still created!

I also used my Cricut to make a banner to hang on the back of Sarah's chair. However, since the chair didn't end up having posts on the top, we tied it to the front with some ribbon. This actually turned out okay since we seated her towards the end of the room where the sign wouldn't have been seen by the rest of the guests had it been hanging on the back of the chair.

I also made a banner for the gift table

I also created some little tea-themed favors for all of our guests. I purchased tea infusers and little jars to fill with loose tea. Then on each infuser I made little bottle cap charms that read either "Love Is Brewing 12.22.12" or "cuppa ♥". The Bride's read "Mrs. Giovino 12.22.12" (her future married name). I made them in multiple background colors and added a little heart charm that read "love" on each as well.

I put the tea and the infusers in little brown, paper bags that I adorned with the love-mugs and tied with some ribbon. 

I knew I wanted to use tea tins as vases for the flowers. I found the pink ones at Publix and picked up the green ones at World Market. My mom and I purchased some loose flowers from Whole Foods and arranged them in the tea tins. The tea room staff had advised us to keep the flower arrangements relatively small since table space was needed for the tea service. The colors were perfect for the look I was going for, and again, I was really pleased with the end result. 

We had a florist make a corsage for the bride. The colors and flowers matched perfectly! Yay! 

That's pretty much it as far as decor goes. I couldn't have pulled it all together without the help of my wonderful mother! It was so much fun doing this together and I had a blast (as I always do) spending the weekend with her!

I have nothing but compliments to the Roswell Tea House! The food was delicious! I mean, really, really good! We had two teas, a seasonal maple tea and a wedding tea. I love tea, but I truly believe these teas would turn anyone into a tea person! To begin we had a choice of three soups, a butternut squash (which I got... yum!), a carrot ginger, and a tomato basil. Everyone commented on the wonderful flavors. Like my mom said, she had to stop herself from licking the bowl ;)

 

The tea service continued with tea sandwiches (cucumber, edamame, pimento cheese, curry chicken salad), scones, tea cakes, and loads of goodies... and this was just on our non-allergy end. The guests with the allergies assured us that the other options were just as tasty. Not only was everything yummy, it was also beautiful!

After we finished eating, we moved onto gifts. I didn't get too many pictures of this event, but the bride received many beautiful items to jump start her married life. 

Thank you, Claire, for diligently recording the gifts! 

My mom and I gave Sarah a Mackenzie-Childs tea pot in one of the patterns she registered for. The Bentsens (the Bride's family) collect Mackenzie-Childs pieces and my mom and I couldn't think of a more appropriate Bridal Tea gift!

Haha! Sorry, Sarah! This isn't the best picture, but it is the only one I got of Sarah opening the gift!

We had such a beautiful, warm October day! I'm so happy everything came together so well and we were able to celebrate the Bentsen Family and spend time with friends! Looking forward to December 22nd!

The Bentsen sisters, Amy, Claire, and the Bride, Sarah

Long time friends! The mother of the bride, Elisa, Amy, Claire, the Bride, Sarah, me and my mom, Lisa.