show us your life.

I started reading Kellys Korner before Kyle and I were even married and before I decided to start my own little blog. Kelly hosts 'Show Us Your Life' every Friday and lets people share pictures and stories of all sorts of things. Last week the theme was wedding dresses and this week the theme is wedding parties and flowers. I decided to join in this week because I love all things wedding and I obviously LOVED everything about our very special day. So here you are, a few beautiful photos from May 23, 2009...

One of the pew markers. We had these on every-other pew.

My house party. Meredith (college roommate), Andrea (college roommate & Theta), Mallary (Theta) and Holly (college roommate & Theta)

Just a pretty one with our Momma

Bouquets for bridesmaids, flower girls and the bride

The back of my beautiful dress

Bridesmaids
Melissa (Theta big sis), Sara (best bud since forever), Me!, Jenn (maid of honor and big sis), Kelsey (college roommate & Theta), Lauren (Theta little sis)

Flower girls:
My little cousins Morgan and Kaylee

The bridesmaids dresses were navy strapples bubble dresses with an azalea pink sash. The flower girls also had bubble dresses, but in ivory, with an azalea pink sash. I loved them both!

Our fabulous transportation to the reception

Our programs... I spent forever designing them and then we had them printed and assembled. I love how they turned out!

Fellas: Mason (high school friend), Chris (Kyle's cousin), Taylor (Kyle's younger brother & best man), my groom, Ryan (Kyle's older brother & best man), Troy (Kyle's lifelong friend), Brian (Kyle's cousin)

Kyle with our handsome ring bearer, Trecker (his cousin)

Love my dad

Good looking bridal party

The Simar and Krueger kiddos

I haven't posted a foodie Friday recipe in a while... we've been a little busy here! I'll see if I can scrounge one up in the kitchen and share it with all of you later today. I let myself relax yesterday after our houseguests left so today is cleaning day for me. Off to be productive! Hope you enjoy the photos!

taking a break.

To say that we have been busy over the last few days would be an understatement! We were in Dallas Thursday-Sunday for Kelsey and Taylor's wedding weekend and the Krueger boys + Mason have been here since Sunday night. I loved getting to go to Dallas and see some of my best friends and we are having a great time with the fellas here. The boys are at a concert right now and I am enjoying having a little time to myself. I'm taking a little break from being a hostess so that I can share some pictures from this weekend and catch up on some tv.

I'm a little tired from all of the excitement, so my wedding recap is coming in the form of some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Kelsey was a beautiful bride and I am so happy that I got to be part of her special day.

Holick roomies at the beautiful (and delicious) bridal luncheon

So glad this girl left Galveston for the weekend!

On our way to the SPCA

Mere meeting Miles for the first time

Auntie Andrea

Sweetest kitty I have ever seen

Taking the newest Martin home to Honey's :)

Holick.loves.headbands.

At the rehearsal


On our way to see the bride

Beautiful ladies


So good to see my roomies again

house party hug

At the reception

One last picture with Merry


On an unrelated note, today is my MaMa's birthday. She wasn't able to be with us at the wedding, so here is a picture that I took with her when I had my bridal portraits done. Happy birthday to my funny, feisty, beautiful MaMa. Sending lots of love your way!

weekend away.

Kyle and I are heading to Dallas today. This little lady is getting married and I am in the house party as well as one of the readers. 

With Kelsey Elizabeth back when we were Theta roomies

I can't believe you're getting married Banana! You are going to be so beautiful in that pretty new dress :)

In other Krueger news, we are having company the day we get back from our Dallas trip. Kyle's brothers, Ryan and Taylor, and his friend, Mason, will be staying with us for a few days. I have a few last things on my to-do list before we will be ready for them. We're excited for our first visitors to be here! We've got big plans to visit the aquarium and Varsity. It should be a fun few days!

Happy two months of marriage to my wonderful, wonderful husband! I am so proud to be married to you and am thankful for you every single day. Thanks for sticking with me for 7 years so we could make it to this exciting part of our life. I have loved every minute of it.

at our rehearsal dinner

I hope you all have wonderful weekends spent with family and good friends. I'll be back after the weekend with a super awesome wedding recap!

(Andrea... did you catch that extra phrase I threw in at the end?? Just for you roomie. SEE YOU TOMORROW!)

PS-I'll be traveling tonight so I may miss it, but SYTYCD is going to be AMAZING tonight! They are performing dances from previous seasons and one of them will be my ALL-TIME favorite, Ramalama Bang Bang. You can bet I will be watching this on my DVR the minute we get home from Dallas!

tuesday trinkets.

I mentioned here that I was looking for ways to break up the monotony of my daily blog posts. In addition to featuring yummy recipes on Fridays, I'll fill you in on some of my favorite finds on Tuesdays. My clever title... Tuesday Trinkets. To get the ball rolling...

• I mentioned here and here that I shopped the Nordstrom pre-sale with my mom and Jenn. These little beauties are one of my favorite purchases. They are by the fabulous Kate Spade so they are comfy, great quality and perfectly lady-like. You can find them here. They arrived yesterday from my UPS pal and I am still just as in love with them as I was in the store. The bow makes them look like little presents, thus the name I have given them is: my present shoe. 
  

• When I moved to Atlanta, my mom gave me these three bath salts as a housewarming gift. I love the muscle soak and stress less, but my favorite is the one in the middle-healing waters. The crystals are really fine and make my relaxing evening soak even more delightful. You can find out about the rest of the Aromafloria products on their website. Friends, don’t be surprised if you get one of these fabulous items at the next gift-giving occasion.
  

• Two words to describe this next little gem: absolute perfection. Just like most wonderful things in my life, my sister discovered this and passed it along to me. This is one of my all-time favorite beauty products. It is basically an intense conditioner and it smells fantastic. Unfortunately, a bottle of this magic haircare product is not cheap, so I don't use it every day. My creme de coco gets saved for very special times. If you are to purchase this product, ask yourself these questions to determine when is an appropriate time to pull out your Bumble and Bumble: 
  

1. Did you just return from a vacation where your resort was absolutely perfect, except for the fact that they had no conditioner?

2. Did you just spend a weekend swimming in the pool or out on the lake?

3. Are you going to a friend's wedding or fabulous party this weekend?

Catch my drift? This stuff is fantastic, but it's just too special to be used every day. 

Bumble and Bumble Creme de Coco Masque

• I stumbled upon a website the other day that is completely new to me. I emailed it to Jenn and she had never heard of it either. So, although I know it isn't a new shop, maybe it is new to all of you as well.If it is, enjoy! The website is bodenusa.com  They have lots of cute dresses for fall. I haven't purchased anything from them, but I am enjoying looking at all of the fall colors and getting pretty excited for this new season that I will be enjoying in my new home (yes, Georgia has seasons... be jealous)

pretty Boden scarf

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone! Hope you've enjoyed looking at some of my favorite things... or that you've at least now enjoyed a little just-for-fun online browsing!

thoughtful.

I am currently in love with trips to my mailbox. I always enjoy the days when my People Magazine comes in the mail or when InStyle arrives filled with lots of fashionable goodies. But the very best mail is the kind that is completely unexpected. I've received several of those special pieces of mail this week and each of them has made me smile and reminded me of my wonderful friends and family back home. 

Earlier this week I received letters from two sweet friends (one even included a special picture from the wedding) and a thoughtful wedding gift from the family I used to babysit for. The most special delivery came today. I opened our mailbox today to find a small package from my sweet Grammy. I immediately started hoping that it was a yummy treat from her kitchen. Grammy did not disappoint (she never does) and inside the package was her famous homemade peanut butter fudge. Kyle and I are really enjoying our tasty treat from my Grammy!

Pretty Grammy

My new best friend from UPS brought one last postal treat this evening... my Nordstrom pre-sale items arrived! Not an unexpected delivery, but an exciting one nonetheless! I resisted the urge to put on a fashion show tonight, but you can bet I'll be playing in my new arrivals tomorrow!

It's getting late here in my new time zone so I am off to bed! We're heading to Dallas this weekend so I've got lots to take care of tomorrow before the trip!

merry.

One of my very best friends is moving to Galveston today and starting an amazing new job tomorrow. I could not be prouder of my sweet Meredith. 

When we moved into our house in Bryan last August, I had only met Meredith a handful of times. There were four of us ladies in our house and Meredith was the one I knew the least. Somehow though, we became fast friends and I am so thankful that we shared such a wonderful senior year on Holick Lane. Whether we were sipping coffee on early weekday mornings, sitting on each other's beds laughing and talking about our days, showing each other our newest shopping finds or helping one another pick out the perfect outfit, I loved every moment of living with this girl. 

Congratulations on your new job, Merry. Best of luck with your first day tomorrow. I cannot wait to see you this weekend and hear all about your first week in your new town. Galveston doesn't know how very lucky it is to have you!

foodie friday.

Featuring: Easy Sugar Cookies

Just as the name implies, these cookies are super easy to make and mighty tasty. They are always a huge hit and an easy contribution to a family get-together. Last Christmas, I baked bunches of these and gave them to friends. I also included the most perfect Christmas cookie ever.... stay tuned for that one in a few months! This recipe is from the always fabulous Karen Simar, aka Momma :) Enjoy!

1 cup sugar

1 cup shortening

1 egg (beaten)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

• Cream together first 4 ingredients (sugar, shortening, egg, vanilla) until well mixed. A hand mixer works great for this, especially if yours is as cute as my pink one!
• Mix remaining dry ingredients in another bowl, then add to mixture. 
• Shape dough into balls (I usually make the balls smaller than if I were making chocolate chips cookies, but the size is totally up to you)
• Put some additional sugar in a bowl and roll the dough in the sugar.
• Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes
• Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet (don't leave the cookies on the baking sheets longer than 2 minutes or the bottoms will burn)

I don't have any pictures of these sweet treats, but here is a photo of the wonderful mom who gave me the recipe...

Hope you all have fabulous weekends!

gal pals.

I don't have much new to write about this evening and am feeling a little too sleepy to be clever, so I will leave you all with a picture of some very special ladies. 

Meet my sweet Holick roommates: Meredith, Kelsey, yours truly, and Andrea. Kelsey is getting married next Saturday (cannot believe it's already here!) so Kyle and I will be heading to Dallas for the weekend. I cannot wait to see these girls again! They made my senior year absolutely wonderful and I am excited to spend the weekend with them! Love you, Merry, Banana and Dre-Face!

there were never such devoted sisters.

My sister trip to DC was a HUGE success! I absolutely love my sister and we had a blast! If you aren't fortunate enough to know my sister, she is one of the smartest, funniest, greatest gals I know. We have so much fun spending time together and this weekend was even more fun than I had hoped!

Friday night consisted of delicious dinner at Del Merei Grille and then heading back to her apartment to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic (the movie was really cute but I definitely recommend the books). Saturday morning was jam packed with lots of our favorite things. We headed Shirlington, picked up coffee and the most delicious muffins (french toast muffins... they were even more incredible than the name implies) to enjoy during our manicures and pedicures. The last time either of us had our nails done was right before the wedding so we really enjoyed our morning of pampering! After that we enjoyed some window shopping and lunch outside at Busboys & Poets. Lunch was of course followed by just a little more shopping at Pentagon City. 

Saturday night was pretty much perfect. We met up with some friends for dinner then took the metro over to Nationals Park for the Billy Joel & Elton John concert. 

dinner at Red Hot & Blue

We got to our seats about 15 minutes before the concert started and were probably a little too excited for our own good. The concert got off to an interesting start... Elton John had a little technical difficulty with his piano, but these Billy Joel fans did not mind having him entertain us while they worked on the situation. Billy even attempted to fix the problem himself...

They each played sets separately and then came back together at the end and played as a duo to finish the night. It was an amazing concert. It is so fun to be in a stadium like that and hear thousands of people singing your favorite songs... it was a great night! Here are a few concert pics...

Yes, we bought tshirts. Yes, they were overpriced. Yes, they were worth it!

Billy Joel + harmonica = my all-time fave, Piano Man

Sunday was another great day... We enjoyed church and brunch at Evening Star Cafe. We did some shopping in Old Town Alexandria and finished off the night with one of our DC faves, Cafe Deluxe (Can you tell that we enjoy shopping and going out to eat??)

Sunday brunch at Evening Star Cafe

All in all, we had a spectacular weekend. I am already looking forward to my next trip. Thanks for a fantastic weekend, Jenn!

Now that I'm back in Atlanta, I'm busy catching up on laundry and trying to take care of a few little decorating projects around the apartment. We have a busy few weeks coming up so I am trying to take advantage of this week. Have a lovely Tuesday night!