Thanks Shutterfly!

One of my favorite things about Christmas and being married is to mail out our yearly family Christmas card! We married in November 2007 and when December came around, I mailed out our first Christmas card with a preview of a wedding portrait and I've made it a tradition ever since.

The last 2 years, we've made it an event to take our portrait. But this year, it is a little different. We've moved away once again, and don't have any friends/family near us to take it for us. And we are on a budget, too, since only one of us is working right now. However, when there's a will there's a way. This weekend we were home in Miami and my brother Michael was able to get a nice snapshot of us. And even though I already got an ear full from Ronnie saying we have to cut back on how many we send out, I was still determined to send out as many as we could afford to our closest family and friends. But then, when I heard about Shutterfly's promotion for 50 free holiday cards for bloggers, I jumped with excitement!

You see, I've used Shutterfly since our very first Christmas card. I usually shop around, but have always managed to go back to Shutterfly because of their great prices, amazing quality and their abundance of choices!

Here are our portraits through the years,

Our first Christmas Card, 2007

2008

2009

I had difficulty decided which card to choose for this year. But here are some of my favorites!

I don't want to share which one I've decided on, because I think it will ruin the surprise for my friends and family, but here are the runners up. I like these because they are modern, yet traditional and would display any photo nicely. You can find them all by clicking here

To enter this promotion, head on over to their submission form. Check out more of what Shutterfly has to offer, like Christmas cards,holiday photo cards, Christmas invitations, Christmas gift tags, birthday invitations,address labels.

Halloween/Fall Decorating In Our New Home!

A little late, but I thought I'd share our Halloween decorations this year. I recently shared our fall touches, but I thought I'd share how we decorated outside. Not many new decorations, but still different because we have a new home! :) Here are our Fall/Halloween posts from the past. We were a little disappointed because we didn't get not ONE trick-or-treater! But we weren't surprised because our neighborhood isn't fully developed yet (there are lots of empty lots) and as far as we know there are only teenagers around. Either way, we enjoyed the evening by laying low and enjoying each other. Ronnie made his grandmother's chili and watched Halloween movies. Have to make to the BEST out of everything, right?! Happy Fall Y'all!

Our beautiful mum in full bloom! We love these every fall!

Discovering our New Home State.

Living is Georgia has led us to feel like we are on vacation every weekend! We love to explore and discover our new home state. And since it's fall, the changing of the leaves and all of the seasonal decorations are out and about. We love it! A few weekends ago, we hopped into the car and went for a drive. We never have anything planned. We just go by what friends have told us to visit and in the meanwhile, we discover other places. We went for a drive towards North Georgia and we discovered several little towns and drove through great mountain roads, which had great foliage! North Georgia also has great mountain state parks and lodges, that we hope to visit one day soon and maybe even stay overnight in. (In a cabin, not in a tent! ha!) Anyways, we were such in a rush to get out the house that Saturday, so I left my camera behind. But I had my good ole' iPhone to help document our adventure. I took the best pics I could. I wish I hadn't used an app to take the pics, because I don't think it did the foliage justice. Never-the-less....enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes

I have been pumpkin obsessed this year. It must be because I've discovered so many pumpkin related recipes online and I have been really inspired! R and I both love anything pumpkin, so I decided to give some recipes a try.

This weekend I made Pumpkin Spiced Pancakes with Pumpkin Butter for breakfast. R loved them and so did I. They were really simple, especially since I had all the ingredients handy. And it was nice to cook together in the morning to get the day started. :) I recommend making these this season. They make you feel all warm inside..... enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Pancake with Pumpkin Butter Recipe from Skinny Taste.com

My 29th Birthday!

Last weekend, I celebrated my 29th birthday with my family in town! My mom, stepdad and brother Mike flew up to Georgia from Miami to visit us. I was so excited because I've been dying for my parents to see our new home and because I am extremely homesick and miss my family very much. I haven't been home (Miami, that is) since my grandmother's passing in May and life has been a whirlwind since then. It's hard to deal with her passing, and this whole new life transition, without having family close by. I've had to handle it all on my own and it just makes me miss my family soooo much! But I am blessed with the most amazing hubby who does help me see a better new day in each day. So, having my family here to celebrate my birthday was icing on the cake!

Anyways, we did a lot while they were here. We visited the cute town that is Dahlonega, GA. Had delicious food everywhere we went and my parents whipped up a delicious meal here at our home on one of the nights. My parents have this thing where they LOVE to go all out at home on the weekends. They get dressed up, my stepdad whips up a delicious restaurant quality meal, they have "happy hour" before dinner, my mom setups a fine dining table with her finest china, and dinner is enjoyed with family or friends in the luxury of their home. It was quite nice to be told by my mother to dress up, only to come out of the bedroom and into the kitchen with martinis served and the table whipped up to perfection! I really enjoyed the special treatment in our home!

We cruised around Atlanta and just enjoyed being together. Simple. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

First Home Art

I recently discovered a new photo editing website called BeFunky. It's very much like Picnik, but has different editing options, like turning an image to a cartoon or even a painting! That's the feature I have been obsessed with. I have been wanting to frame some of my favorite pictures of our first home to display in our new home. And I decided to play with these pictures at this editing site and fell in love with the way it turned our home pictures into paintings. All I need is to save them, print them and frame them! That simple and very inexpensive. How classy do they look?

Fall 10' at the new W. Home!

Fall is upon us! And this means a lot to us because we have our birthdays and wedding anniversary coming up. I always get excited during this time of the year, of course! And one way I celebrate is by decorating our home with fall decorations. We got to it this weekend and so far I am liking the way our new home looks decorated. It makes a home a little warmer and festive and I am all for that. I'm also loving my Bath and Body Works fall scented candles filling the air with autumn goodness. Soon, we will add Halloween touches and I can't wait to share those. I hope these will inspire you to add some Fall touches to your home!

Our mantle is decorated with a fall leave garland and small pumpkins.

More pumpkins on our fireplace.

Our coffee table is decorated with glittery fall candles and another pumpkin! I picked up these at Home Goods this weekend. I love that store!

Ovens are decorated with fall inspired kitchen towels from the Martha Stewart collection at Macys.

Our kitchen table is decorated with this centerpiece of glittery pumpkins and gourds! I got these at Hobby Lobby. I love anything sparkly!

And finally, you are greeted at the front door with these cute fall touches.