resolutions.

I realized it's been almost a week and I haven't officially written out my resolutions.  I find that writing them out and having them "set in stone", so to speak, helps me to attempt to follow them (mostly because I remember what they are).

1. Cook more & eat out less. I think we are getting better at this.  I officially love the crock pot and have been looking up and making crock pot meals.  I'm going to have leftover crockpot chicken and dumplings for lunch, actually!

2. Work at least 30 minutes of exercise into my schedule.  Whether it is walking around the neighborhood or going to the gym in my complex, I really need to start exercising more and making it part of my routine.  I know it will make me feel better and have more energy, it's just always such a struggle to work up the motivation to start.

3. Make (and stick to) a budget.  Money is tight right now with me still looking for a job, so I feel it's more important for us than ever to budget our money.  It's really hard for us because we like to be spontaneous and enjoy ourselves, but I hope we can find a balance and be responsible with our money.

4. Discover Charlotte.  Since we are starting this new chapter of our lives in a new city, we really need to make the most of it.  I want to discover all Charlotte has to offer: restaurants, shops, fairs, events, etc.  And I'm hoping we will be able to find things to do together that don't cost a bunch of money.

5. Get a job.  ASAP.  'Nuff said.

I think I should probably keep it to 5 for now... let's hope I can accomplish at least some of these!

diy art

Hopefully my husband won't see this, because I am going to do a post about some DIY art I made the other day that I am planning to give him for Christmas.  Maybe it's a selfish gift because it's something I'm going to enjoy too and we really need some art, but instead of buying all of our art I thought it would be nice to make some sentimental pieces that meant a little more.  Each piece that I made was inspired by projects I saw on Pinterest, so I will post the originals and then my take on them.

1.  First Dance Lyrics

2. Important Dates

3. Where We Are From

I'm really excited to give these to Dionis!  Hopefully he likes them.

recipe recap

That last post made me start to reminisce about the brief glimmer of enjoyment this past semester that was our cooking adventure, so I thought I'd do a little recap of the recipes we tried.

1. Penne with Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese

2. Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken with Rice

3.  Crock Pot Turkey White Bean Pumpkin Chili

4.  Honey Lime Tilapia

5. Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Mozzarella

6. Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce

7. Peanut Butter Cup Bars

All of these were quite good!  It's really hard to pick a favorite, but I would probably go with the penne... or the tortellini... or the cheesy chicken?  I guess I can't pick.  So after looking at all these, I've decided to set a new goal.  Starting when I move to Charlotte next week, I'd like to set the goal of making at least one meal off of pinterest/food gawker a week.  And here's the next one I'm going to attempt:

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

I will try to (1) actually follow through and make it and (2) post about how it turns out!

oops.

If you look at my post on August 28th it is safe to say that I epically failed at doing what I wanted to with this blog this semester.  With my thesis, it was just too much.  I spent the majority of the past 3.5 months freaking out, stress eating, and not having a life. 

I am happy to say that, with the exception of finishing up my final thesis book (which really doesn't count towards graduation), I have officially SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED GRADUATE SCHOOL!  Wooooo!  It really is a surreal feeling, because this a moment I never expected to come.  I always assumed something terrible would happen or I'd drop out because of frustration or I wouldn't pass my defense because of my terrible public speaking skills.  Surprisingly, I made it 3 semesters without any of that happening.

Most people don't know this, but I almost dropped out after my first semester.  I had a really bad meeting with the heads of my department who basically made me feel like I shouldn't be there.  I thought very seriously about dropping out and just trying to find a job like everyone else, but I couldn't bring myself to just give up like that.  So I stuck it out, and the next semester was better.  This semester was definitely a challenge, because I think my senioritis that I was supposed to have at the end of undergrad came a few semesters behind schedule.  But I stuck it out, somehow managed to survive 2 terrible pin ups to my defense where I had virtually no negative feedback.  It was glorious.  And after a presentation the following day (I had three within a 5 day period - sucks, right?) I was DONE with school!  It was the most bizarre, happy, sad, weird feeling I think I've ever had, just because I never thought I was going to be able to do it, but somehow I just had.

So now I'm on to a new chapter in my life... I guess people call this the "real world."  I've been living in blissful college land for the past five and a half years, but unlike a year and a half ago, I finally feel ready to move on.  I'm now the old person in Blacksburg (which is ridiculous to say, but it's true) and I think it's time for a change of scenery.  I will always love Blacksburg and I know I'm going to be overcome with emotion when I leave for good next week, but I am really excited for this next step.  Dionis and I have moved to Charlotte, NC, and although we are living in an apartment right now  (which is soooo much nicer than this one in Blacksburg, omg) we are going to start house hunting soon.  I am so freaking excited about this it's ridiculous.  I want a house so bad.

So I'm going to try to renew my goal of updating this blog more regularly with the everyday "little things" as was my original intent.  I am pretty bummed that I didn't keep this up this semester, because for a big part of the semester we had weekly dinner dates with my friend Lauren where we cooked something we saw on Pinterest or FoodGawker, and we came up with some pretty awesome meals!  I'd like to start that up again when I get to Charlotte.  Anyway, here's to a new chapter!

changing

Sometimes we all need a little reminder... I know I do.

{Image from Etsy}

a new chapter

Hey blog, long time no see!  I guess last semester kind of sidelined me from my wedding blogging, but that's okay.  In hindsight, I probably should have spent more time doing school work and a little less time losing myself in tons of wedding blog posts.

Now that the wedding is over (it was great, by the way! I will post about it some day) it feels like a big hole has been opened up in my life that used to be filled with wedding-planning stress.  Needless to say, it is a relief.  But I feel like I need to do something in order to feel more fulfilled.  Sure, I could work on thesis 24/7 and zone out in front of the TV for hours, but just thinking of doing that makes me feel like my brain is turning to mush.  Now that I've got this brand new chapter in life, I really would like to make the most of it.

I've had blogs on and off for years now, and I've always found it cathartic to write and document things that I'm doing or that are important to me.  Obviously this is no longer going to be a "wedding blog".  I assume it will be a bit more miscellanous, just documenting the "little things" (hence the new title).  Here's a quote that I ran across on Pinterest (looove pinterest, by the way) that inspired the title change:

 So that's the mindset behind this blog.  There probably won't be a common thread (except that I'm writing them?) but it will be the little things that I care about and want to remember.  I don't even care if zero people read this, because that's not what it's about.

When I went back and read this I saw my New Year's resolutions.  It's funny to go back and read those after you have completely forgotten them 8 months into the year.  Since most of them aren't applicable anymore since they were wedding-related, I'm going to make a new list of "goals" for the rest of this year.

• Start cooking!   We were very blessed to get lots of great kitchen appliances and utensils for our wedding, so there's really no excuse not to cook any more!   We, along with a couple of our friends here, have decided to do weekly dinners where we each take a night and cook for everyone.  I think it's an awesome idea because (a) it forces me to cook, (b) it means there are 2 nights out of the week that we know we have a meal, and (c) we get to spend time with our friends!  I'm really looking forward to it and I'm sure I'll post about it.
• Immerse myself in Thesis.    Last semester I was pretty distracted by the wedding and I don't think I involved myself in my school work as much as I could have.  I really used the wedding as an excuse, but now there are no excuses!  It's time to buckle down and work hard, which shouldn't be TOO hard since my project is something that I really care about (there will be posts about this too!)
• Stop living on Facebook.    'Nuff said.
• Blog regularly.    As I demonstrated last semester, it's easy to get caught up in things and forget to blog.  I really hope that doesn't happen this semester, because as I mentioned, this is rather cathartic for me.  And it's always fun to come back and look at later!
• DO STUFF!    I would really like to spend less time sitting in my apartment in front of the TV during my time off.  I'm hoping Dionis and I can get out and do some things this semester (you know, get some life experience).  A few ideas I have so far:  farmer's market, festivals in Blacksburg, the Cascades, Chateau Morrisette, pumpkin patch, movies at the Lyric... it'd be awesome if we could do them all!

So there you have it.  Better to make a short list so it actually seems doable, right?  Now, to start...

red alert! color change

Or should I say yellow alert? *ba-dum shhhh* SO I have made the executive decision to change my wedding colors. I know, it seems crazy, especially since I've already had the save the dates printed.  Don't worry, I'm still sending those out.  I'm keeping the pale blue and just changing my accent color from red to a saturated gold/yellow. I've been feeling iffy about my colors for a while now, and lately I've just fallen in love with this color combination.  I've also started seeing it all around me, which has swayed me to bite the bullet and DO IT.  I think it will be more sophisticated and also fit the season better (I realized over Christmas that my color combo is kind of wintery). So here are some examples of the new and improved color combo!

 Okay, this one still has the red in it, but try to just look at the yellow and blue :P

This is the best example of the colors!

...and imagine that the purple was blue.