As noted in the previous post, last weekend I had a Girls Weekend in NYC.  My girlfriend Christian and I had SUCH a great time!  Here’s the recap…

Friday morning we took a {REALLY EARLY} flight from RIC to LGA and were in the city by 9am!!  Major amounts of coffee were needed to get us to the airport that early.  Christian also packed her trusty NYC map and we were checking out the lay of the land before we even touched down.

Our first stop in NYC was my Aunt Totty’s apartment to drop off our bags.  She and her husband have an amazing place right in Midtown and offered us the place to ourselves for the weekend. {Ironically Aunt T and Uncle T were headed back to VA for a few days.}  Here’s the view from one of their bedrooms.

After a quick hello to Aunt T, Christian and I hit the pavement.  Operation STUD {also known as Shop Till U Drop} had begun. We navigated the subway like pros as we went down to Ground Zero, up to the Upper West Side, over to SOHO and back up to Chelsea.  It looked a little like this.

Have no fear.. we did stop long enough for lunch.

What?! Were you expecting to see food?? After a glass {or two}, we were back on the streets.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon hitting a few more stores and then we went back to my Aunt’s to relax before dinner.  Christian and I had plans to catch up with an old friend that has been living up in NYC for the past 3 years.

Honor suggested her favorite local Mexican spot for us to meet. Salsa Y Salsa.

Let me just give Honor props now.  She was out LATE the night before and was majorily hungover all day.  I think she was still hurting a bit by the time we caught up- but she was a trooper!

After dinner we hit a few more bars… and then called it a night.

On Saturday, Christian and I had a slow start, but nothing a NY bagel couldn’t fix.  Since Operation STUD was still in affect, we decided to switch it up a bit and hit some thrift stores.  Christian had heard stories of rich ladies dropping off their Designer labels after wearing only once.  We knew it had to be too good to be true and we left empty handed. Bummer!

Operation STUD was proving to be a very unsuccessful.  {Let me go ahead and admit here that yes- Christian and I know that there is more to do in NYC than just shop. Sure there are cultural things like the MOMA or the Guggenheim, but when you have money burning a hole in your pocket that is all you can think about.}  So if we couldn’t spend money on clothes, we thought we should spend it on food.  Thanks to my trusty iPhone we found a great burger spot called Pop Burger..

YUMMO……

We also took a break to catch up with a college friend of Christian’s.  Ellen and her husband had just welcomed a new baby girl into the world.  Miss Millie was only 10 days old when we met her.  What a cutie!!

Before we knew it, it was Sunday and time to pack up and head back to The Old Dominion State.  But before we left, we grabbed some quick breakfast and checked out Rockefeller Center.

Thanks for the great hospitality NYC.  Even though Operation STUD was a total bust, Christian and I still had an awesome time!

I’m feeling a girl’s weekend coming on…

So please excuse my absence.

Now that is was Official..

It was time to go on our Honeymoon!!

Mr.vB and I picked Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands and couldn’t have been more pleased.

The entire resort was wrapped around a crescent shaped beach.

Our home away from home for a week was this cute little bungalow literally steps from the water.

Our days consisted of floating in the clear blue water…

Having cocktails..

and then doing them both simultaneously.

We also fit in some time at the spa,

some time in the pool…

and some time getting dressed up to go eat!

We also made some dear friends that celebrate the same Wedding Anniversary as we do!

{We made a deal with Jenn and Bob that we would all return to LDB for our 5 year anniversary!  How awesome is that?!}

Our last night on the resort we were treated to dinner on the beach.

By the time we had dinner it was so dark that our waiter scared us every time he came to our table!

We were all very sad to leave.. but knowing that we would be back in 5 {short} years made it a little easier!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 years since Mr. vB and I tied the knot!  It seems just like yesterday!  Here’s a walk down memory lane.

(I apologize in advance for the grainy photos.  I spent longer than I would like to admit scanning them onto my computer.  We had a great photographer, Sarah Hazelgrove, but at the time she did not upload her digital photos.  We only have paper copies.)

It was the year of the white track suit- what can I say?  At least mine had my cool new initials on it!

Here is the vB Family Crest which was a key part in many aspects of our celebration.  We had these custom flags made, as well as used it on our invitations, and Guest Welcome Boxes.

Me and my ladies…

Mr.vB and his men…

Both of these photos crack me up because Mr.vB and I were SO NERVOUS!!!  I couldn’t even look at the camera.

Our Ceremony was held at St. Joseph’s Villa in Richmond, VA.

This is my FAVORITE photo that Sarah took!  It was as we were leaving the Church and headed to the Reception!

Our Reception was held at The Main Street Train Station in Downtown Richmond.

It’s still a working train-station with trains arriving even during Wedding Receptions!  My mom joked that she would let each train passenger have one cocktail and then she was going to push them on their way!

Mr.vB surprised me with these awesome Custom made Converse.  He had them made in our wedding colors and I loved the “Just Married” tag-line.

Introducing for the First time.. Mr. and Mrs. vB!!

Our First dance was to Paul Simon’s Late in the Evening.  We took dance lessons as we really wanted to wow the crowd!

Apparently we didn’t warn the photographer that we were going to do the DEATH DROP at the end of our number.

We had also planned for the wedding party to grab the fake instruments that we had laid out by the dance floor and start dancing around at the end of our First Dance.  If you have ever heard Late in the Evening, you know how perfect it was!

We created a candy bar for our guests instead of handing out favors.  Each guest got a cute little take out box and filled it to their heart’s content.

Mr. vB and I left our fun filled evening with guests lining the front stairs of the station waving sparklers!  It was such a great send off!

Next stop- Little Dix Bay- British Virgin Islands!

Mr. vB and I snuck away this weekend for an early Anniversary Celebration.  Have you guys ever been to Irvington, VA?  No offense to it, but if you blink too long you might miss it.  Surprisingly nestled right on one of its many creeks is a 5 Star Resort called THE TIDES INN. It was a very quick visit, but W-O-W! From start to finish it was amazing!

When we checked in, the front desk clerk told us that we had a note waiting for us.

(nice spelling of our last name, eh? )

We also found out that we had been upgraded to a suite overlooking the creek.

And we were in Room 213 nonetheless. (2=2nd Anniversary, 13= day we got married)

When we opened the door we were greeted with…

and these..

What a view!!

Once we got over the shock of our amazing digs, we decided to venture out.

Gotta love the self-timer.

I think these corkscrews might be Guinness World Record Worthy.

Before long it was time to head back! Cocktail hour was calling our name!

So the way dinner worked was that we had a server come up from the restaurant and take our order for each course of dinner.  We started with some cocktails and appetizers.

Then we each had a yummy salad.

The entrees were fabulous! I had the crab-cakes and Mr. vB had the Filet.

We ended the meal with a brownie sundae topped with whip cream! YUMMO!  It didn’t last long enough for any photos- Sorry!

It was such a nice treat being able to eat in the room vs. the restaurant.  Mr. vB and I loved watching the sun set and the boats coming in and out of the marina.

Many thanks to my Mums and Daddio for the special treat! It was such a great surprise!  And many thanks to the Tides Inn for making our anniversary getaway so memorable!

Do any of you guys follow the rules when it comes to Anniversary gifts?  And what I mean by rules is the “traditional” vs “modern” anniversary gift list.  Here is an abbreviated version I found on Wikapedia:

The reason I ask is because my 2nd Anniversary is right around the corner.  I always like to be extra creative with my gifts and after checking the LIST, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me.

So the Traditional 2nd year gift is Cotton.  I mean who came up with this list? The owners of Bed Bath and Beyond? I was totally stumped.  Cotton?  All that came to mind was clothing, towels, a bath robe?

I was recently at my neighbor Karen’s house and was ooh-ing and aah-ing over a painting of her dogs that her God-Mother Dianne had done for her.  And then it came to me!  I have always wanted to have that kind of painting done of OUR dogs!!  And the big twist was to see if Dianne could use a COTTON canvas! I ran home and called her immediately.  She loved my idea of incorporating the cotton and she said to send on some photos and she would get started!

Here are some of the picture’s I sent to her.  Having never met my boys I thought she would need a few personality shots.

It was SO hard to get the boys side by side in a “cute”pose.  They were totally against it.  But Dianne made it work!

Here is the finished product!

I love how she really captured their personalities!

Boots

Bailey

I was so exicited about how it turned out, I just couldn’t wait until the 13th to give it to Mr.vB.

If any of you are looking to have a portrait done I would HIGHLY recommend Dianne!  Drop me an email and I will send you her contact info!

You know Mr.vB and I are notorious for multi tasking when it comes to Home Improvements.  We barely have one project finished before we jump into another.  Currently we are:

• Working on the Kitchen Renovation
• Trying to order and install the rest of the Replacement Windows before Winter hits (9 Down, 7 To Go)
• Trying to prep the back of the house for vinyl siding
• Staining the Deck

And the newest project to add to the list is adding wood paneling to the wall behind our bed.  Originally Mr.vB thought about the idea of paneling the whole room, but I think it would look too busy.  Plus I have been bugging him for some time now about getting a headboard for our bed- this would be the perfect solution!

Here is what it looked like before:

It doesn’t show the whole wall but you get the jist.  Originally when Mr.vB moved in, the chimney stack was centered on this wall, meaning there wasn’t one solid wall in the room to put the bed against. Being the smarty that he is,  he built a new wall right beside the stack to make it appear wider than it really was.  And wadda ya know, it is the exact width of a king size bed.   He also added a little built in shelf unit that you see right above the pillows on the right side of the bed.  It’s the perfect spot for an alarm clock or glass of water.

So I spent some time last night searching the web for wood paneling ideas.  I surprisingly didn’t come across too many in a bedroom scenario- more in living rooms and dining rooms.  This image of a bathroom did spark my interest though..

I like how the paneling only goes half way up the wall and I can totally in-vision a bed against it.

It was all I needed to get started!  I got out my trusty blue painter’s tape and started taping up some ideas.

I knew I would need to keep in mind the open shelf, but I think it can be easily incorporated.  I am also not too sure yet of the scale/proportion.  I was totally just guessing at the height of it all.

Once we get the proportions figured out, I will then leave it to my trusty husband to determine exactly how to build it.  We will also have to decide it we want to paint it the same color as the walls, maybe a darker shade to pop, or even wilder- incorproate some wall paper into each niche.  Hmm.. wonder if I could talk Mr.vB into installing some cool wall sconces too!

Did I tell you that my brother and his wife bought a new house?  They have been busy trying to pack, so Mr. vB and I lent a helping hand by hosting the Baby Bird at our house this past weekend. The 5 of us went out to dinner on Friday night and then Mr. vB and I took Baby Travers back to our house to spend the night.  We (meaning Baby T, and me grudgingly) woke up nice and early Saturday morning and had quite a full day.  It is amazing how much stuff you can fit in on a Saturday when you are up at the crack of dawn!

I have decided though that I am going to have to invest in some kid sized plates, cups and silverware.  Poor Baby T had to eat his breakfast out of a Tupperware bowl using an appetizer spoon.  He didn’t seem to mind though!

Did you notice that little black nose in the right side of the photo?  Bailey was on standby if Baby T needed any help eating those Cheerios.

SCORE for Bailey!

After breakfast, Travers checked some email and then we were off to feed the ducks!

I believe the ducks were quite happy to see us!

Can you read what Travers’ shirt says?  Apparently his father had packed his overnight bag and I know this shirt was packed on purpose.  It reads, “I WILL DEFY YOU.”  Homemade by my brother himself.  Yes- He has a strange sense of humor.

I almost thought this dude was going to follow us home!  I think Travers was thinking the same thing!

Trav was definitely worn out by the time we got home and headed directly to the dog bed for some R&R.

Boots decided to join him shortly thereafter.

I just kept snapping photos because it was so cute..

Next thing I knew Trav rolled off the cushion and onto the floor..

Boots immediately took over the entire cushion.  At least he gave Trav a lick on the hand to make sure he was okay!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the playground, but my hands were too full to take any photos.  On the way to pick up lunch I could see Travers in the rear view mirror nodding off.  I kept talking to him REALLY LOUDLY so he wouldn’t fall asleep.  I needed a nap as bad as he did so I wanted to make sure to feed him first and then get him into bed.  A 5 minute car ride nap wasn’t going to suffice for either of us!

The last stop was Mickey D’s for Trav’s First Happy Meal.  I’m not sure if he liked it or not..

By the look on his face I am thinking that maybe he is more of a Chick-Fil-A connoisseur like his Aunt TT.

We ended our adventure with a nice 3 hour nap before his parents picked him up that afternoon. And when I say we, I mean Baby T, myself, and Mr. vB all snoozed!   We had such a fun time hanging out with the little guy!  Hopefully he says the same thing about us!

LOVE YOU BIRD!

Who’s There?

My Awesome New Front Door, that’s who!!

Many thanks for the inspiration from Little Green Notebook!  It was such a simple project and makes an AMAZING difference to the room.

Here is the Boring and Blah Before.

And the Amazing and Awesome After. (Am I getting too excited about a door? Don’t answer that.)

One photo is with the flash off (above) and the other is the flash on (below).    I had to show you both because without the flash you couldn’t see the frame around the door, but with the flash you get such a glare off the semi gloss finish.

The finishing touch will be to get the remainder of the hardware for the door. We already swapped out the lock-set to the antique bronze finish, but we have been saving up for the door pull.  It’s surprisingly how expensive those suckers are!

October is one of my favorite months!  Cool weather, pumpkins, and anniversaries!!

Mr. vB and I will be celebrating our 2nd Wedding Anniversary in just a few days!

And in honor of it, these made their way onto the mantle.

Aren’t they cute?  I picked them up on sale at a Floral Shop in Roanoke, VA called Flora Bella.

They normally hang out in my office year round- but I love to show them off downstairs from October til the xmas decorations need to come out!

I am currently working on a post to recap the wedding fun Mr.vB and I had 2 years ago.. stay tuned!