Halloween Lia Sophia Party: Better Late Than Never!

Life is busy!  I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of a little get-together I hosted a few weeks ago.  My sister just became a lia sophia advisor so I thought it would be the perfect time to host a party.  This was the first time I've ever had a party like this!  It was a lot of fun.  The party took place a week before Halloween so I decided to make it an Autumn/Halloween party too.

I don't usually use many Halloween decorations, but I found some easy, inexpensive Martha Stewart decorations at Michaels.  This guy was just relaxing in one of the drawers.

 I love using branches from our Burning Bush to decorate in the fall.  A few pumpkins and some creepy spiders crawling up the wall completed the look.

I kept the food simple.  I had a few little cans of soda with some vanilla vodka and some wine.  I served some of my favorite party foods.  Chips and salsa, my special pickle mix, and some homemade pretzels from a local bakery with honey mustard and spicy mustard for dipping.

I also served some hard cider and cheddar fondue, but I forgot to get a picture of it.  Ugh!

My sister did a great job with her presentation.  We played several games and three people walked away with prizes.  It was a successful party, and I think everyone had a good time.

A Syncopated Wedding Part IV: The Details

Hello!  Sorry for the delay in posting.  I've been busy not doing much of anything except relaxing and trying to soak up every last bit of summer.  I hope you've been doing the same.  I know we've moved into a new month, but I'm back to share the last details of our wedding two years ago.  First up is the cakes!  My favorite part.  I decided to go with 5 different flavored cakes.  They were made by a local woman who bakes them in her home.  They were even better than I thought they would be!

Our two-tiered cake was vanilla cake with a raspberry filling and buttercream icing.  My dad made the wooden stands.  The clay, bird cake toppers are from a seller on Etsy.

We had labels for each cake.  Our guests went through the line like a buffet.  We made sure to have enough cake so that guests could try all of the different flavors.

Weird faces.  We were eating cake!

The wedding party.  My sisters were my matrons of honor, and my niece was my flower girl.  Mark chose his brother to be his best man and his good friend as a groomsman.  Our ring bearer was my husband's nephew.  The men wore gray suits with pinstripes.  The ladies wore short, plum-colored dresses.

Our get-away car was a Pontiac Firebird.  It's owned by a friend of the family who graciously agreed to clean her up for our big day.  It was a sweet ride!

We decorated the tent with Japanese lanterns.  I ordered gold chargers from The Christmas Tree Shop.  That's where I found the best deal.  I think the chargers made the tables look just a little bit more formal.  Our favors were handmade soaps made in my hometown.  The boxes were tied with a raffia ribbon.  There was a "thank you" tag with our signature mum clip art coordinated with the wedding stationery.  

My sister made this banner to hang on the head table.  We added some wooden stands with candles, and orchids are strewn around the table for color.

We used an old ladder to hang the place cards.  Since we had a small wedding, I didn't think it was necessary to have a place card for each person.  We had one card for each table.

I think that just about covers it.  Thanks for tuning in for all of these details.  I hope you've enjoyed the look into our big day.

House Tour: Kitchen Reveal

I've been working on my mini kitchen update for quite some time.  I really wanted to create an entryway with a place to hang a coat and drop a bag.  I also mentioned that I wanted my kitchen to be a place that I want to be.  I want my kitchen to be a happy kitchen.  Here's what it looked like before.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that my husband and I don't own our house.  He is a pastor and our home is the church parsonage.  That means that any updates we make have to paid for by the church or by us.  The changes I've made to the kitchen didn't involve an major renovations.  They were purely cosmetic.  It's looking much happier these days!

Here's a list of the projects I did to complete my happy kitchen.
1.  Clean the cabinets.  In a previous post I mentioned that I might paint the cabinets.  I decided that was way too much work for the amount of cabinets we have.  I decided to try cleaning the cabinets and covering the scratches with Old English Oil Scratch Cover.  Since I only had the dark oil, I mixed it with a little bit of Murphy Oil Soap.  I couldn't believe how much better the cabinets looked.  I decided that it was good enough for me!
2. I spray painted all of the cabinet hardware black.  I thought about getting new hardware, but it would have come to about $200.  That seemed a little steep and a frivolous thing to ask the church to pay for.  I decided to spray paint a few to see how it went.  Much better!
3. Paint!  I chose a bold, coral color.  It's Sherwin Williams Jovial.
4.  Seagrass rug from Overstock
5.  Entryway

I totally copied this entryway idea from A Beautiful Mess.  It was the perfect solution for this space.  I got the crates for about $5 each from Michaels with a 50% off coupon.  I had the boards cut at Lowe's.  The hooks came from Lowe's.  I spray painted them black, because they didn't have black hooks in stock.  I got the clips from Office Max.

Flowers when you walk in the door?  I don't know about you, but that definitely makes me happy!

6.  I painted the door black.

7.  I made a valance for the window above the sink and a matching roman shade for the other window.  I used this tutorial.

8.  I created a seating area.  The bench came from Overstock.  We used to have a small table there.  I didn't think the area was large enough for a table and we really didn't need it since our dining room is just outside the kitchen.  I wanted a place to sit so that if I'm making dinner my husband can sit and chat and vice versa.  We still need to get a new phone.  It's difficult to find wall telephones these days!

9.  I made a few prints for the wall.  I purchased a set of watercolor tea clip art on Etsy and blew those up.  I created the text prints myself.  It was so easy and so cheap!

10.  I bought a new kitchen clock on Amazon.  See it down there?  I'm thinking I might try to find a cute dry erase board to hang beside the calendar.

11.  I bought a stainless steel trashcan from Target.

12.  I collected plates to hang on the wall.  This is one of my favorite things in the kitchen.  When the kitchen was painted I wasn't sure what to do with that strip of coral at the top of the kitchen.  Adding the plates was another inexpensive option.  I collected the plates from local thrift shops.

What do you think?  Have you made any updates to your kitchen lately to make it happy?  If you'd like to see more decorating with coral head over to Censational Girl.  She recently wrote a post on the topic.

Linking up at Suburbs Mama.

A Syncopated Wedding Part III: Jacob's Resting Place

Tomorrow is the big day!  It's our 2nd anniversary.  We're heading off on a mini vacation to a bed and breakfast.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Before we go I thought I'd share some of pictures of our reception site.  We had our ceremony at our church and our reception at Jacob's Resting Place.  It's a bed and breakfast in Carlisle, PA.  When I saw this place, I knew it was perfect for our reception.  It has a huge patio where he had appetizers, our introductions, cake, and dancing.  More on the cake next week.

Jacob's Resting Place has so many unique places.  Our guests could wander around and have fun exploring the grounds.  We put up a tent in the grass to have dinner.  The tent we rented was being cleaned so the owner of the company asked if we minded have this larger tent with windows at no additional cost.  Sure!

LeTort Creek runs behind the house.

One of the perks of having your wedding at a bed and breakfast is . . . breakfast!  I stayed at Jacob's the night before the wedding and that night of the wedding, along with some of my friends and family.  I was able to get up early and get started on some of the final details and have a delicious breakfast that day.

Breakfast started with fresh fruit and then we had the main course.  This is Jacob's Pillow.  It's like  an egg muffin with a cream sauce.  Delicious!

Thanks again to my sister, my mom, and my sister-in-law for all of the pictures.  Happy Anniversary, Honey!

Finally, I'd like to update a previous post.  Last week I posted a recipe for a lavender margarita.  It started with lavender simple syrup.  I mentioned that I would be using the remaining simple syrup to make lavender lemonade for a picnic we were having (of which I didn't take one picture!).  The lemonade was great!  After doing some research, I found that a 1:1 ratio of fresh lemon juice to sugar (simple syrup in this case) works well.  Then add four cups of water.  The lemonade was a hit.  It was gone before I knew it.  I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to share.  I was just too busy!  Have a great week!