Happy Halloween

 

Well actually that time is already here!

 

I hope everyone's Halloween started off fabulous!

 

Here in NC mine has started off well.  I'm sitting here at work dressed as a black cat, so I consider that a win for the day.  I'm also already on my second peanut butter pumpkin.  Don't judge!  I plan on buying more for the trick or treaters after work.

 

Since me and Kev had our Halloween fun this past weekend I plan to spend tonight with my parents handing out candy and feasting on vegetable beef soup.

 

If you are looking for something to do tonight ABC Family is showing Hocus Pocus.  Definitely a fan fave!

And it wouldn't be Halloween without the Great Pumpkin.  You can see that on ABC at 8 pm!

 

So for some Halloween Throwback Thursday fun I will leave you with the Ghosts of my Halloween Costumes Past....

 



 

 

Happy Halloween!!!

Wedding Wednesday

This is my first Wedding Wednesday Post!  I have to admit that I copied this idea after seeing several of my favorite bloggers doing it.  I think it's such an awesome way to track your progress!  Today I'm excited to show off our venue!  Without further hesitation let me introduce you to Magnolia Manor!

 

 

Magnolia Manor is a Colonial home located in Colfax, NC.  I first saw the venue in Triad Bride Magazine and thought I was so pretty.  After making a list of several venues that I liked I started doing some research and I was totally blown away on how far ahead places were getting booked for the following May.  Talk about stressed! When I called Magnolia they assured me that they had two weekends open.  After seeing the place in person we were sold.  Not to mention the fact that the price to rent it for the day cost about 1/5th the price of several comparable venues in the area.  Magnolia Manor is actually owned by the Girl Scouts of America and I'm happy to say a portion of our venue price goes to support them. 

 

Our ceremony is set to take place in their gardens under a beautiful oak tree.  Our reception will follow in the ballroom of the house.  Being the end of May we want to minimize the outdoor time for some of our older guest and the ballroom will provide a perfect amount of relief from the hear! 

 

That's all for now! 

 

XOXO Courtney



Weekend Shenanigans

I am now almost one month into my blogging adventure and I must say I am addicted!  This is my first time linking up with Sami Shenanigans and I'm so excited to check out some new blogs. 

 Happy Monday Ladies!

 

 

 

 

 

After work on Friday I did some Halloween baking for a party we had that night.  Thanks to Pinterest I was able to make skeleton cupcakes and smores' cookies.  Both were a hit!

 

 

 

I also made some "blood worms" as I like to call them.  Essentially it is just cherry Kool-Aid with sour gummy worms frozen inside.  I like to use them as a drink mixer.  It pairs especially good with lemonade. 

So maybe I sharpeed a pumpkin face on my orange Fanta bottle.  I thought it made it more festive.  Sadly everyone assumed it was some special pumpkin juice.  They were a little disappointed when they discovered otherwise.

 



 

I was a flapper for the evening.  It was a recycled costume from my Freshman Year of College.  I must say it's held up good for 5 years.  To my left is my beautiful friend Brittany looking snazzy in her nurse costume, which is not only just a costume but also her work clothes.  It was a 2fer!

 

 

 

I spent Saturday at the Lexington BBQ Festival.  It was an afternoon filled with country music.  The headliners this year included Josh Thompson, Joe Nichols, Brett Eldredge  and Darius Rucker (or as I like to call him Hootie).  In my opinion Joe and Darius stole the show but Brett was quite the cutie!

 

XOXO Courtney

5 on Friday

So this is my first Five on Friday and I am so excited to link up with so many wonderful bloggers.    Here's what I loving this Friday

 

 

 

1.  With Halloween coming up next Thursday Kev and I decided to throw a little party tonight.  We are now officially too old to celebrate Halloween on a work night, we'll leave that to all the college kids and trick or treaters.  I'm so excited to see all our friends costumes.  We take the holiday pretty seriously.  Kev was so pumped that he had to test out his costume a few days early.  I present Napoleon Dynamite!  

 

 

2.  For the party tonight I plan on testing out some things I saw on Pinterest.  Check out these recipes:

 

 

 

3.  Saturday is the Annual BBQ Festival in Lexington.  This is one of the biggest festivals in NC.  It always hosts a free concert with some of the top country music superstars and this years line up does not disappoint.  Tomorrow I'll see Darius Rucker, Joe Nichols, Brett Eldredge and Corey Smith take the stage and did I mention  it's FREE!!!

 

 

4.  This week Kev and I got creative with some pumpkins.  Carving is so overrated!  Allow me to present to you our Angry Bird and Polka Dot Painted Pumpkins.

 

 

5.  Finally for number 5 I'll leave you with my latest Taylor Swift song obsession. 

 

 

 

 

 

Carolina Panther's Game

This past Sunday Kev and I got the chance to go to a Carolina Panther's game.  This has become somewhat of a fall tradition since we went to our 1st game together a few years ago.  There is nothing like seeing an NFL game live.  This particular game they were playing the Rams.  This game actually proved to be the most exciting of the season thus far.  Here's a glimpse of the fun we had.

 

 

 

XOXO Courtney

 

 

A Day in Charlotte

So one of my favorite things about working in the financial industry is the fact that we get paid vacation days for all the random federal holidays.  So I now have new reasons to look forward to Columbus Day.  This year I spent my Columbus day in Charlotte, NC with my friend Sara, who drove all the way from Myrtle Beach to hang with me.

We started off our day downtown with lunch at Vapiano.  Vapiano's is defiantly different from the other Italian places I've been in the past.  Here all their pasta is made fresh, in house.  When you order you actually walk directly up to a cook and tell them how you want your pasta and they cook it right there in front of you.  The food was amazing and it all cost me a little over $10.  Not to mention the restaurant has the coolest modern décor.

A tree was growing out of the middle of our table!

After lunch we walked around downtown for a while.  I swear every time I'm down there I find something new.

Next we headed to Bar Cocoa, the cutest little bakery which just so happens to be inside the Ritz Carleton.  Fancy Right?!  Here we feasted on cupcakes, gelato and I had my first macaroon experience. 

After we had our treats in hand we hung out in their exceptionally nice lobby pretending that we were staying there. 

Overall it was a successful day trip.  I am now even more excited that Sara will be moving to Charlotte next year.  I feel some road trips coming on!

 

XOXO Courtney

So Lately I've Been Shopping...

So I frequently like to tell people that I'm not going to shop for a while because my closet is completely full.  In my head this sounds like a great idea... I mean all I have to do is avoid stores for a while and everything will be good!  But when the coupons start coming I cant help but pay a little visit to the mall.  So here's the Fall Wardrobe I've been rapidly building.

It all started with a trip to Target:

As I have mentioned before I love shift dresses!  So far I have paired this little number with a pair of cowboy boots and a burgundy infinity scarf.  It was a winner.

 After flirting with this sweater for a few weeks I finally purchased it.  I actually ended up wearing it in my Engagement Pictures.

 

Do you remember these riding boots from my Fabulous Fall Finds post.  Well I have officially made them mine last weekend and I have worn them ever since.

 

 

 

 

To round up my list can we please just take one moment to appreciate these suede booties I purchased from Old Navy.  And may I add that I got a 40% discount.

 

That's all for now!  Happy Shopping Ladies.

 

XOXO Courtney

 



 

 



6. See Taylor Swift in Concert

Oh Hey Tay Tay.....My experience at the Red Tour

So being this is one of my first posts I should probably introduce you to an important fact about myself.  I have a completely shameless obsession with Taylor Swift.  I know what your thinking "Isn't 23 a little old to be a giant T. Swift fan?" ...and to that I will answer you with absolutely not!  I have adored Taylor since her first album came out when I was in 10th grade.  With this said you will probably be surprised when I tell you that I have never been to one of her concerts. "Gasp"  Unfortunately every time she came through NC I was tied down with something like college or work. So when I saw in January that she would be in Greensboro this September I joined her fan club  and anxiously awaited the presale.  Unfortunately when the tickets went on sale I was unable to get any at the under $100 price level.  I was Crushed!!!

Months passed and eventually September rolled around.  I called local radio stations 100's of times trying to win tickets with absolutely no luck.  When the day of the concert came I moped around work knowing that I would not be in the coliseum that night.  That afternoon I decided to give Ticketmaster one more go and search for tickets.  To my astonishment 2 seats came up for $43 a piece!!!!  How lucky did I get! 

That night my fiancé, Kevin and I headed to the Greensboro Coliseum for what turned out to be the greatest concert of my life....



While originally I thought I was just Taylor and Ed Sherren on the tour I was pleasantly surprised with their opener Casey James.  He had a really good country pop sound and he had all the girls screaming.

Following Casey was Ed Sheeren!  I wasn't quite sure about him on The Red Tour but he was amazing.  Before the show I only knew one song of his but I can now say with confidence that all his music is legit.  He played as a one man band and mixed pitch perfect vocals with reggae type rap.  While I'm not quite sure that Taylor's younger fans and their parents enjoyed him, I give him the Courtney Seal of Approval.

Finally it was time for the Queen herself.  From the start of her set everything from the stage setting to the costume changes were completely flawless.  She look perfect and her vocals could not have been any better.  I even caught my "non-Taylor Swift loving" fiancé clapping along.  I mean who could hate of T-Swift.

Over all the show was nothing short of amazing.  It was a true Taylor Swift Miracle.

There goes #6 on my 30 for 30 list



 

8. Go to NYC

Courtney and Sara Take New York

So a couple of months ago I made my 30 for 30 list and the first thing I was able to mark off was to take a trip to NYC.   This is a trip that I have dreamed about since I was little and when one of my friends, Sara, approached me I jumped at the chance to go.  On August 24, 2013 we boarded a flight out of Charlotte and the two small town girls were on their way to the big city.

After about a 1hour and 30 minute flight we arrived at JFK.  We are all about saving money so we took the Air Tran to Jamaica Station  and then took the subway all the way to 42nd Street Time Square.  It also took an hour and thirty minutes but it only cost $7.

Once we emerged from the underground dungeon, some people call the subway we walked to our hotel.  Thank goodness for Google walking maps or else we would have been doomed.  After a few wrong turns we arrived at our home for the next 4 nights, Hotel Carter. 

Hotel Carter is quite an interesting place.  I'm pretty sure it is the cheapest hotel in Time Square only costing us about $100 per night.   I had read before our trip that all the rooms past the 11th floor had been recently remolded so Sara easily talked the young man at check-in into giving us the highest one available so 22nd floor it was.  If you are looking for a top notch place to stay Hotel Carter IS NOT FOR YOU!!! But if you are like us and are essentially just looking  for a clean, safe place to sleep, because really it's New York people who wants to spend time in their room when these so much to see, then check it out.

After a speedy check inn we hit the streets,

First Stop Central Park

 

 



Fellow Gossip Girl Fans this is where Chuck and Blaire got married on the series finale

 

 



After Central Park we walked around the Upper East Side




While walking down 5th avenue I was nearly trampled by a swarm of preteen girls... One direction drove by and it was chaos!!!!

And Ended the Evening in Time Square

The next day we woke up early and cashed in our vouchers for the tour we had bought before our trip.  The company we went through was City-Sights and I would definitely recommend then to first time NYC travelers.  The pass we purchased gave us 48 hours worth of access to their hop-on-hop-off double decker bus tour, a harbor cruise and a ticket to the empire state building.

The first thing we did was the downtown bus tour:  Here we went from Time Square all the way through Lower Manhattan seeing things like Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy, China Town and Wall Street.

 

 



After that we went to the Cake Boss Café (hopefully you are familiar with the TLC Show). 

The best cupcake I've ever had!..and I've had a lot of cupcakes



Next it was on to The Statin Island Ferry.  The ferry is free and runs from Wall Street to Statin Island offering great views of lower Manhattan.

The next morning we headed out the Harbor Cruise: Here we saw things like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and The Brooklyn Bridge

 

 

 

Our 48 hour bus tour passes were still active so we then took the Brooklyn Tour.  Brooklyn is actually the most populated to the 5 boroughs. 

That evening we headed to The Empire State Building



 

 

 





 The next morning we Started off in the Upper West Side:  This day was saved for some museum and shopping action

Serendipity 3 Frozen Hot Chocolate, Made Famous by the Movie

 

The New York City Museum, used as the school from Gossip Girl

Did My Best Blaire Waldorf Impression at the MET

Got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery from Sex and the City



That Night we finally got a picture together

That's the Problem with traveling as a pair, one pic in 5 days lol

 

 



 

On our final morning we went to the Today Show









 

 

After that it was back to the subway and back to good old NC.  It was a total world wind of a trip.

 

XOXO Courtney