{yes, I meet my friends on the internet}

So most of my blog readers probably don't know that the hubs and I met online. It wasn't through an online dating service, just instant messenger. I think the days of people frowning upon that are over, and I must say that it has worked out pretty well for both of us. ;)

I figured since I met the man of my dreams online, I might as well meet me some friends on there too. That's where my whores come in. And I call them whores in the best meaning of the word..although I'm not sure if there is a positive definition of whore.

For me, it means girls who are there for you through thick and thin, give you a shoulder to cry on, cheer for your successes and give you plenty of reasons to laugh every day. I met most of my whores on The Nest a few years ago, and some of us go back to our wedding planning days on The Knot 5 or 6 years ago! I finally got the chance to meet some of them this past weekend. A bunch of them got together for a girls weekend in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately, I had to work on Saturday, but the hubs and I packed up the boys and met everyone on Sunday for breakfast. The few hours I got to spend with them went by way too fast, but I'm so glad we were able to meet.

Here are the girls in their hotel room with pics of everyone that couldn't come...so sweet. :)



Here's Beth and I...she is the sweetest southern gal I've ever met!



Here we all are before some of the girls had to leave for the airport.



I'm hoping that I can make it for an entire get-together next time around.

{blog finds}

Wanted to share some cool blog finds from my plethora of blogs I look at every day (thank you google reader). This DIY entryway catch-all is a great idea, super inexpensive and looks great! Design Sponge featured this entryway shelf created using an IKEA wooden magazine holder. Genius!


Love squirrels like I do? The Long Thread has two free, adorable, down-loadable, adorable squirrel templates. I of course already printed them out and am planning on using one to make a felt squirrel to sew onto one of my porch pillows. I made this one really quick last night...


I stitched the tree top with embroidery floss in a pretty fallish orange and the trunk is brown felt. Super easy!

Oh, and I ordered that cute grey purse from Payless...can't wait to get it! :)

{finally}

I've been searching for a cute grey handbag for fall that won't break the bank and I finally found one! $25 at Payless!

The boys are getting so big and every day I love them more. They are so cuddly at this stage and I just want to squeeze them all the time. :) Here are a few recent pics...

Me and my boys

Ben in the bumbo seat

Pants are the new hats

This is as matchy as mom will dress us :)

{nails and cankles}

Pregnancy can do some weird things to you body, but nobody really talks about what can happen after, and I mean months after. One weird thing is that my nails are really hard now and I actually have grown them out to a substantial length. I'm not on the prenatal vitamins anymore so who knows what is causing this, but I'm very happy about it. I've always had brittle stubby nails, so I'm proud of these suckers!

The next phenomenon I'm not so proud about, in fact I'm trying to hide it as much as possible. Almost 4 months post-partum and I have serious cankles. My feet and ankles in the past week have gotten so swollen! Ugh. I went to the doctor yesterday and am waiting for an explanation. Hopefully it is nothing serious, and I won't have to wear support hose. I'm not 80 for God's sake! Take a look at my foot! Yikes!

And lastly, my hair is falling out all over the place. I guess this happens around 3 months pp. Our bathtub drain is not happy with me. Luckily I have super thick hair so I won't need to buy any rogaine.

{gray dreams}

I'm more than slightly obsessed with the color gray right now. I'm in love with it actually. For fall I'm just dying to get my hands on a gray leather shoulder bag and some gray knee high boots...suede would be absolute perfection.

These bags definitely fit the bill, and are fairly affordable...

Jessica Simpson Pacha Sm Tote-Croco

$98.00

Madison Large Buckle Tote

$90.00

And now for some boots that have me drooling (of course they have to be way out of my budget)

Frye Women's Jenny Double

$400.00

Bally Women's Edwina

$870.00 - yeah, that is our mortgage and cell phone bill for one month!

These are absolutely gorgeous...and slightly closer to our price range....but will still have to stay on the wish list.

MICHAEL MICHAEL KORS Women's Olivia Boot

$199.19

These from Target are more of a reality purchase, and are pretty cute. I like the buttons, but wish they had a bit of a heel instead of the wedge.

Women's Mossimo® Kinsey Boots - Gray

$34.99

Off to dream my gray dreams :)

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{design roundup}

So last night was a very entertaining night for Project Runway and Top Design. At first I thought the challenge on PR was a little cheesy (and still kind of do)...base your design on your astrological sign? Seriously? But, it did make for some quite interesting ensembles. I thought that Leanne had it in the bag again, but I really liked Jerel'ls and was so glad to see him finally win a challenge. He is just so darn cute! Tim wasn't a fan of his skirt, but obviously the judges were (or the past designers who picked the winner). I loved the houndstooth fabric that he used...

I thought that Joe's was pretty amazing too...the skirt looked like it took a lot of time and effort...

Korto and Leanne did amazing work as well and I was kind of surprised that one of them didn't win...


And as for the rest...well Kenley and Blaine...what were they thinking? She was so freaking over confident and again argued with the judges. She really needs to go. Blaine...poor thing...I'll miss his over tanned face, but his was hideous. As Michael Kors said, she was pooping fabric.

Sooo glad to see Terry go. She has had some nice designs but her attitude leaves a lot to be desired. I wasn't a huge fan of Keith, but I really felt for him. She treated him like crap.

On to Top Design, which was a pretty cool challenge. The designers were paired up and had to decorate a bunker...interesting. They were given a pretty large budget...$4000 to get furniture and accessories. I agreed with pretty much all of the judges assessments and loved the winning team's design. I was also glad to see Jennifer and Robert go...they were both being so immature about working together, and their room was awful. Here is the winning room and my other favorite...



Oh, and now I'm addicted to two more Bravo shows...The Rachel Zoe Project and Tabatha's Salon Takeover. There is no hope for me. There is just something about watching rich people wine about their fabulous lives and seeing dirty, clogged salon sinks that is very entertaining to me.

{design}

So Wednesday nights are definitely my favorite TV nights right now because of Bravo and two great shows...project runway and top design. I'm a PR veteran, having watched all seasons and I still love it just as much, if not more, than I did from the start. I'm a newbie to Top Design, having missed the first season, but it seems promising.

Last night's PR was a really good one. Their challenge was finally a really legitimate one...to create a design for Diane Von Furstenberg's fall collection. I was really excited from the first minute of this episode to see what everyone would come up with. I thought that the front runner's from the beginning would be Leanne, Kenley and Jerell since their aesthetics seem to fit with Diane's designs. I could tell that it meant so much to Kendal to do well in this challenge so I was rooting for her, but I also love Leanne and Jerell is just so darn cute!

I'm also a fan of Joe, partly because it is nice to see a straight guy on the show, but what was he thinking? His outfit looked like something you would buy off the rack at Walmart. So disappointing. The only thing that saved him this time around, I think, was his past work.

Kenley's dress was cute, but definitely not jaw-dropping. And she was so rude during the judging! I can understand wanting to fight for your design, but she was interrupting everyone. I'm sure that didn't help her cause.

Leanne...OMG. LOVED her design. The dress was gorgeous and the little jacket...I wish I had it. So wearable and glam all at the same time.

Jerell...disappointing. What was up with that blue belt? His design just didn't fit with the challenge at all IMO.

A couple of my other favorites that I thought didn't get the praise they deserved were Terri and Suede. I really liked Suede's design and as usual Terri really rocked the whole pant look.


Top Design seems like it will be an exciting show...the credentials of some of the contestants are impressive. The first challenge was exciting...design an entire loft apartment in 2 days with $2,000 dollars. Yikes! I thought a lot of the design choices were very questionable, but the team that won did a great job. Their accessories were interesting and well placed, and the rooms were very welcoming and cool.


I love that Todd Oldham is the Tim Gunn of the show. He seems so friendly and down to earth, and really wants them to do well. Looking forward to seeing more of what these designers can do!

{fall}

My favorite season is here...well...the 90 degree temp outside isn't really fallish, but the calendar says September and that is good enough for me! I can't wait to dig out all of my mini pumpkins, leaves, garlands and other autumnal decor and sprinkle it all over the house. This year I'll definitely have to do it whenever I get a spare moment since there isn't much time to decorate with the babies.

One of my fall front porch decorations is featured today on Delightful Home!


I love this post and would like to try this idea either this year or sometime down the road...

The little pumpkins lined up on the porch railing are just too cute!

BHG has some great inspiration pics up right now...these really caught my eye:









Hopefully I'll have some fall decor pics to show soon!

{picture wall}

I love this picture gallery idea from marthastewart.com. Its also in her current magazine. I've been wanting to add some more photos to the gallery in our hallway, but couldn't think of how to add to the current arrangement which looks like this:



Here are the instructions from her website:

Hanging multiple framed pictures so that they look orderly can be a challenge. The secret is to divide and conquer: Mark a horizontal midline on the wall, and hang all pictures above or below it.

The line can be delineated with a strip of painters' tape and then removed once the pictures are in place. To unify the group, choose a single color for all frames and, if displaying photographs, stick with either all black-and-white or all color shots.

Picture Hanging How-To

Unfurl a length of painters' tape (ours was 1 1/2 inches wide) horizontally across a wall, making sure tape is level.

Determine nail placement for frames above the midline by measuring from the bottom of a frame to its bracket. (If the frame hangs on wire, pull the wire taut, and measure accordingly.)

For frames below the midline, measure from the top of the frame to the bracket. Use additional strips of tape, positioned vertically, to create even spaces between pictures arranged next to each other.

When all frames are in place, remove tape from wall.

{words}

I happened upon a new website the other day that is really cool...wordle.net. You can input any text you want, or the url for a website or your blog, and it will create word art that you can customize with different fonts, colors and layouts. I entered my blog url and this is what I got...

It is fun to experiment with different words, colors and layouts. It would be great to create a gift using someone's wedding vows, favorite movie quote, bible verse, poem etc.

And in mommy news...the boys are 3 months old! They are growing so fast and have started to smile, giggle and coo at us a lot more. It is soooo much fun interacting with them. They are both staying awake a lot more during the day which makes it hard to get anything done around the house. I can't say that it hasn't caused some stressful times here lately, but we are dealing with it and learning how to adjust our schedules to fit theirs. Here are a few shots from their 3 month birthday. :)