Websites and ideas needed!

Hey guys!
As noted in my previous post, I am getting a new bed soon...which means I need new bedding (must be King size) and I am trying to find room inspiration. Anyone know of any cool home-decor bedroom Pictures online to inspire me?
Corey and I typically like jewel tones- teal, deep purple, rust orange, gold, deep chocolate brown....we are not really into red. We have also considered (I act like Corey has considered this and that's maybe a lie- he has mentioned...) that we could have neutral bedding (white or cream or tan) and then decorate with fun colored pillows. Thoughts? Bedding websites? Decor inspiration websites?

Thanks for your help!
Here is our bedroom set so you can see the coloring and help us find good ideas!

Matching Furniture

This weekend has been very exciting! I am finally starting to feel better, and this morning I went out LOOKING for furniture- I suppose eventually we will need to furnish an entire apt or house and rather than buying it ALL at once, I thought I should see what I could do to start the collection.

I ended up calling Corey and told him to meet me at the furniture store to help me decide between 3 bedroom sets.

So, I walked out of there with a yellow slip and a lot poorer, but very excited because next week I can go pick up my (for right now)/ our new bedroom set--it is dark brown wood and includes a king size sleigh bed with 2 drawers at the footboard for extra storage (LOVE this), a tall chest of drawers, a nightstand, and a dresser with a mirror on top. I'm really excited---of course, it will be very tight for now in my house, but that's OK.
:) Exciting stuff, huh? Well...exciting to get it, not buy it. And now I just need to save up for a king size mattress. For now, I will just put my queen on it and it will look silly but who cares until I can afford a nice mattress. We went with King size because it was only going to be 100.00 more for the bed so it just made sense. Plus, Corey likes the idea of having the CHOICE to be far away in case he is hot in the summer. I made him promise me 10 min. of cuddling each night because we laid on a king mattress and I felt SOOOOO far away from him. He's an odd duck but I love him.

Registry Dilemma

Here is my dilemma about wedding registries:

1. I think they are great, because many people can be specific about what they really need or don't have yet in their house.

2. How do you register ahead of time if the stores are just going to change their inventory after Christmas---but every magazine tells you to register around 8 months before your wedding. How do I know what will be in stock still? What if something better comes out? It would be annoying to have to change it a bunch of times. But, of course, some people (like mom & dad) want it before Christmas to shop for me and Corey. Which, by the way, I'm sure Corey can't wait to get a garlic press for Christmas. Haha.

3. OK- here is my REAL dilemma-or question: How many stores should you register at? (Sorry to end a sentence with a preposition. Gross. ) I have family ALL over the country coming and some family members don't have certain stores. Plus, some stores have kitchen things I like and others have decor things I like, etc. Is 4 ridiculous? I don't see why it would be a bother to anyone except the registrant (me) because I have to manage and keep up with 4, but if I am organized I think it will be OK. Thoughts?

It is already confusing because I have a pretty stocked kitchen for a 25 year old single gal. So I need to track what I still need and then figure out what I want new of, and then I can pass my older stuff to my beautiful sisters. More wedding lists....

Sorry if this post sounds vain- it's odd to talk about people buying gifts for me. But, if I were shopping, I would like to have the options available to me.

Also- it is tough to register if you do not know what or where you will live- apt? house? Is storage an issue? Will you need 1 shower curtain or two? What colors do I have to work with? My first apt. had hideous AQUA and PINK tile all over the bathroom. It would have been tragic to have registered for like a red and black zebra shower curtain- you see what I am saying?? If only we knew what STATE we were living in---if only we knew if we would even live together after we get married (for a year we may do distance-also gross). Will we need to pay two rents plus all of Corey's 7 years of college loans? ::sigh::

Our "Not So Scary" Halloween Party [in the snow]

Julie kisses our visiting Mummy for the evening.

So, it started with the idea that we wanted to have our first "party" at OUR house, so we invited about 10 people to come over. Then, it snowed. Crazy. And then only 3 people could come (many were coming from about an hour away so I understood). Julie and I trudged out in the deep snow to get ingredients that morning, and we spent the entire day cleaning, baking, and cooking. and decorating. We had a blast! Here are some of our menu items:

1. "Witches Fingers"- these actually taste really delicious- we didn't use a recipe, but my mom had this idea and passed it along. It was fashionista Julie's idea to "paint" the witch finger nails with red food coloring for sex appeal, of course.


2. Cookies and Scream- also yummy. Thank you to Food Network for this idea. I love that magazine. These are NO BAKE peanut butter and fluff cookies. YUM!


3. Toffee Dip with Cortland Apples


4. These pumpkin cupcakes were so delicious! They had a surprise cinnamon streusel filling and the frosting was homemade cream cheese! YUMMY!


5. Cauldron of fiery cheese dip! SOOOOO addicting.


6. Hot Apple Spider


This was our mini beverage table. The hot cider was a mix of OJ, pineapple juice, a splash of lemon juice, 2 quarts of fresh apple cider, cinnamon sticks (I think I put 2 in), a dash of nutmeg, and I think that is it. I simmered it on the stove for 30 minutes. DELICIOUS! With a bit of tang, too.

I am sorry the photos are dark- I snapped them on my phone and didn't edit them at all. But, you get the idea. Here is what the decor looked like....

Lots of spider webs, candles, old twigs from the backyard, Julie's fun twig pumpkin (Crate & Barrel) and of course all of my awesome Willow House dishes and decor. :) It's nice because our house looks kind of old inside so it was a bit spooky. I tried to capture the pics on my camera, but it decided to die 5 minutes before the party.

The party ended up being a quiet girls night in with good conversation, some wine & cider, lots of laughter, and too many sweets! :) I guess everyone needs that once in awhile. We have leftovers if you are in the area. ;-)

And, in case you don't believe me about the snow- this picture was taken 24 HOURS after it had fallen. Our front yard- still covered the next sunny day. We had around 8 inches, I think.

I am terrible at writing in this blog!

For my current grad class, I need to keep a journal every day for six weeks. So all of my "writing" is going to that journal, and even my efforts there are less than impressive! :-/

Let's see---- what is new:

• Rihanna is amazing. Her songs get me every time. I just downloaded "We Found Love" and I can totally feel the music moving through my body when I hear it. It's like my little radar immediately starts searching for lights in a club. Preferably the one I went to in the enormous city of Seoul, South Korea, where I danced until almost 4 AM (with class the next morning at 8) :) I think this song will be on replay for the next hour. Good thing my sister loves it, too, because she will have to deal with it playing over and over and over...
• Save the Dates- were SENT- for the most part! It makes it more official that the wedding is coming up! I really really can't wait to marry Cor-baby (as my sister Julie calls him ha!)- he has just gotten extra adorable lately. All responsible and stuff...it's cute. I get to see him Friday for the 1st time in 3 weeks. I am hoping for a date night!
  
• I sat at a craft show with mom for SIX hours and we sold nothing. :( What a bummer and a waste of the entire Saturday.
  
• Thanksgiving break (6 days without students) is around the corner. Let's just say this has been the roughest toughest year so far, so I need a break!
  
• Julie and I joined a gym. We did Zumba last Thursday. Result? I couldn't move on Friday.
  

I want to post pictures of the Halloween party that Julie and I had- it was cute and fun to set up, but the snow kept people at home and we had only 3 people show up. :-/ Thank you to Bethany, Korina, and Scarlett for stopping by...but I still made 32 servings of hot cheese dip so it looks like Julie and I will be in a cheese coma until Christmas.

Kisses from Grandpa

The family reunion was a wonderful day of fun catching up with my mom's side of the family.
I only have 3 cousins on my mom's side (and one of those I never see-he wasn't at the reunion) but my mom has lots of cousins around my age, so I am not sure what the technical term is for your relation to your mom's cousins- but anyway, it was great to see them! Two of them have 1 year old children who I hadn't even met yet! Amy has Sophie and she lives in West Virginia now. Her husband was one of the only people missing. And Josh and his wife Erica had baby Tristin. We found out that Amy is pregnant with baby #2, too, so Sophie will be a big sister. She is due in June, so I hope they can still make it to my wedding in July!

Friday- Started with a text from Corey mid-day saying "passed the bar" and I just about freaked out!!!! So proud of him. He did not want to take it again, and I didn't want him to take it again! Once was enough!!! Then, a day in the car- we (dad and I) went from Lititz to pick up Corey near Cherry Hill- saw his new apartment for the first time. The apartment is nice (albeit VERY empty with basically just a mattress on the bedroom floor), the area does not seem nice. From his place, we headed up to Massachusetts. It took us ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL night. I think we were in NJ for about 5 hours. My poor dad was exhausted.

Saturday- Woke up early and headed to The Big Apple in Wrenthem, MA. Ate fresh donuts, homemade spiced hot cider, and a caramel apple. SOOOO GOOD! For lunch, my family went to Papa Gino's for some yummy pizza!!!

Courtney at The Big Apple

Then we went back and rested at Auntie Jo's. My only 2 first cousins who were there (Isaac & Elizabeth) played on the docks and searched for snails and snapping turtles. They live in New York, but we don't get to see them a lot.

Isaac (age 9) catching snails on the dock at Auntie Jo's house. Yes, he is in his pajamas. :)

At night, we headed to the church for the BIG get together to honor my 95 year old great-grandpa. He has slowed down so much and doesn't really talk anymore. I sang Jesus Loves Me to him and he mouthed a few of the words. It was so precious. Then, I put my cheek up to his lips and he kissed my cheek! :) It is very hard to say good-bye to someone who is still sitting in front of you. I don't think I will see him again. But, the memories are good. They transported him to the church in a wheel chair and drove over his recliner so he could rest.

Kisses from Great-Grandpa

At night, we went back to Auntie Linda's and about 25 of us played games and had a great time laughing until 2 AM!!!! I figured since I was only there for a day, I better live it up!

Sunday- We packed up and headed to Boston Airport to drop Courtney off. Then, I rode home with mom and Julie all the way to Lititz. Another day of about 9 hours in the car.

Overall, it was such a wonderful weekend. I had MAJOR post event depression this morning. Didn't want to be back in chool, especially since many of the cousins stayed up there today and were going to the beach in Rhode Island. I hate missing out!!!!

I feel really blessed to have a loving family on both my mom & dad's side. Of course, I didn't get as many pics as I wanted to, and when I did, my terrible camera/camera skills made them turn out weird, but here are a few of my favs.

Hope you all had a fun, fall weekend. The weather was fantastic!!!

Hello, Blog.

Apologize for the hiatus in blogging. My excuse was that I just finished the toughest course of my life. EDUC 570, you almost killed me.
Just submitted my final paper yesterday- came out to 104 pages. That was the second paper in our course of only 9 weeks with an entire textbook to read and a scary final and weekly assignments thrown in there. *Shudder*
Anyway, enough complaining- now that is OVER. 36 credits down, 4 to go!!!!

So this week I will feel as though I have gobs of free time, and no one is here to hang out with. My sister went on vacation and my good friend in Lititz is on her honeymoon this week! :)

I guess to play catch up I will give a list of the recent highlights:

-October started with only one event on the calendar- a wedding- then all of a sudden, I had something planned for every weekend. NICE! :) Last weekend, it was spent with Corey's family. His baby cousin, Matthew Sean, was baptized and then we had a nice lunch at his Aunt and Uncle's house. His Uncle Dominic will be his best man, so it was nice to spend time with him. This weekend was spent with friends- next weekend is spent with mom's family, the following with dad's family, and the last weekend with friends as my sister and I host our first get-together at our house! :)

- One of my best friends, Jen (mentioned above), got married Saturday 10/8 in Bryn Mawr. NICEST weather ever for her wedding, she looked gorgeous, and my date was hot. Duh.

-Three day weekend: LOVED it. I swear- all weekends need to be 3 days. One day to work, one day to relax, and one day to have fun. Makes sense, right? I hung out with Dad and Corey yesterday and today- watched the Eagles roll over and die for like the third time in a row....Cici's pizza buffet....and a shopping trip to Wegmans.

-Corey loves his job. That makes me happy.

-I got TWO new cooking magazines this weekend- and will actually have time to read them since the class of doom is over.

-Upcoming fun weekend- family reunion with mom's side of the family- in New England-in the fall. YES! How pretty! We are going to honor my great-grandfather's life. He is now in the care of hospice and may be joining the angels in heaven soon. He will be 96 next month- so we will get together and love and celebrate him/his legacy.

Hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend. One sad update: My beloved cat, who goes by 400 names, is sick. I woke up at least 3 times each night at odd hours worried about her. This morning I took her to the vet with dad and they ruled out leukemia and her kidneys and liver are OK. Praise the Lord. It only cost $330.00. She has a fever and hasn't been drinking or eating anything. They gave her a shot of antibiotics and I PRAY she feels better soon. I'm obsessed with that beautiful cat- I have had her since I was in like 6th grade.