Halloween

When I was a kid growing up, parents would go back and forth every year about how we would celebrate Halloween and trick-or-treating. One year we would dress up and go door to door, and the next we would stay home and hang out, next year back to going out, then the next we would have a "Fall Festival" at church that night. I'm not sure why they did that, but oh well. When I went off to college, I thought my dressing up for candy days were over, but everyone wanted to go! (Flaskback):

I miss those days, and looking at that photo makes me feel like an old lady!! HA! Anyway, the last few years, I have just spent the night at home, eating candy. I don't get trick or treaters at my current place, but I'm thinking that when I move in a month or so, I may get them at my next place. :) Anyway, this year, I decided that I was going to carve a pumpkin, and I ended up doing it more than once. Ashley came over one night and then another night, I went to Sara's as she had never done it before!! I bought the simple carving kit at the local grocery store that came with some different patterns. I never used one of those before, and I was pretty happy with the results:

I did the haunted houses and the grim reaper. I felt like I should've won a cool prize for being so crafty, so if anyone is interested in giving me a prize, please let me know:)

Dress Shopping

So, I thought about posting a pic of my wedding dress on here because I'm dying to show it off, and Tunde doesn't usually read this, but I am going to wait on the chance that he decided to suddenly start reading:) I will, however, post a pic from the day I was trying dresses on and show you my second choice. I opted to look for a dress at the local YWCA because they have a special dress shop there and I was really into saving money. I only tried on 7 dresses total and got the 5th one. It was true for me, what some people say, that when you know, you know. I was happy to have some friends be there with me: Monica, Andrea, and Ashley. It's funny though: none of them are my bridesmaids, which is ironic. So, if you want to see the real thing, you will have to come or wait for pictures afterwards...but here is the 2nd dress I tried on and if I hadn't found another one, this is what I would've gotten:

I think I walked away with a great deal and I spent less than $350!! I've never heard of him before, but my dress is a Henry Roth. When I got home from getting the dress, I googled him. His dresses are incredible!!! And expensive. So, I say win-win for me. {wink}

Party Time

My BFF got married back in September and trying to be the best maid of honor I could, I gathered up the other bridesmaids and planned a fun bachelorette party for her (at the end of August-I know,I know, I'm wayyy behind). We started at the home of her sister-in-law, Erika, to all get into our ride:

There were a lot of girls there that I didn't know, but one that I am particularly close with:

This is a little bit dark, because we took it inside the limo, but this is my pal Deanna.:) Here's another view from inside:

It was a great night, with a great bunch of gals and I just wish I had taken more pics. I don't know much about the places we went to in Cortland, and I can't even remember their names. We did eat dinner at one place though and even though it was a bar, with typical bar food, they had fast service and the food was good. By the end of the night, I was thoroughly exhausted though...earlier on this same day, my sister got married, so I was busy, busy, busy. Here are a few pics of that day:

Hole in the Wall

I went here what seems like ages ago, but I am not very good at keeping up with this blog like I thought I would be. Regardless of that, I wanted to write a quick post about this little joint in Lynchburg called Isabella's. If you couldn't guess, it's an Italian restaurant. I had never heard of it before, then my friend Sara suggested we go, and I was up to try anything new. We went in for a quick lunch on a Friday afternoon and I opted for their special that day: Salad Greens with Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese.

Since it was October, they were offering pumpkin cheesecake as the seasonal treat as well:). I would really like to go back to this place and try some of their other selections. It's located in a strip mall in Boonsboro (the nice part of town) but driving past, you wouldn't know it was there. Maybe this will give them a little bit of free advertising. Happy eating!

New Trend

When I used to live in Florida, I paid half the rent I do now, and I made more money than I do now. So, I would get my nails done in the salon regularly and hardly had any reason to buy nail polish and do it myself. Since moving to Lynchburg, that's no longer the case. :( I have gotten pretty good at doing my own nails though, so I'm pretty proud of myself. :) The trick for me is to do my left hand first, because I am left-handed. All of that to say, some ladies I work with also do their own nails, and they told me about this great new product called Crackle. You can paint your nails any solid color you wish, then use a top coat of crackle nail polish and it has a pretty neat affect:

The second picture was from when I used an orange base and black crackle top and tried to get creative for Halloween. The crackle comes in only a few color options right now, but I'm sure as it grows in popularity, more options will come available. It does cost a little more than people would pay for just regular nail polish, but because you only use one coat, it lasts for a while. Try Target or WalMart as they are usually cheaper than CVS or Walgreens.

Robin Alexander

One of my favorite places to eat in Lynchburg is a place downtown called Robin Alexander. They have amazing food, great atmosphere, and an extensive list of unique martinis. I'm sure that I have written about this place before, back around my birthday. There are some places that I go that I just get the same thing (Panera), but then there are other places that I want to have everything on the menu. This is one of those places!! So, one random night, Sara & her husband Bryan, and I just went out and got some food and had a great time. I got shrimp and scallop linguini with plum tomatoes, as pictured below:

It was sooo yummy and I was only able to eat half. So the bonus here is that even though Robin Alexander can be a bit on the pricey side, I got two meals out of this. Two thumbs way way up!!

Homemade is always the best

I love cooking! Honestly, I love food! I sometimes just wish things didn't take so long to make...for example, I really wanted a chicken pot pie but the store made ones (typically frozen) have very high amounts of sodium. So, I gathered all of the ingredients that I needed and set to work:

I bought some pre-cooked, cubed chicken at the grocery store and just kept it in the freezer until I wanted to use it. You can use left over chicken breast cut up, rotisserie chicken pulled off the bone, or try canned chicken in water. I use soup (1 can of cr of chicken and 1 can of cr of mushroom) because I was making a chicken pot pie and I like mushrooms as well. You can use cream of celery or two of the same or even a gravy base. I had a bag of frozen veggies that are the steam fresh kind you cook right from frozen. If you use other frozen veggies, you may want to cook them ahead of time. I also like to add potatoes to mine, so I sauted up some red potatoe chunks with olive oil, salt, pepper, and one of my fave spices~thyme. While the potatoes were on the stove, I made up a quick crust.

Pie crust is actually one of the easiest things to make and I'm glad my mom taught me a quick, easy recipe: Mix 2 cups of flour, 2/3 cup of shortening, a pinch of salt, and 5-6 tbsp as needed. This is enough to make a top and bottom crust. So I rolled out the two crusts, mixed all of the ingredients together, and ended up with this:

Then just bake for about 45 minutes @ 375 degrees and enjoy:) Do you like chicken pot pie? What are some of your variations on the recipe??

And since I was in the homemade mode I decided to get up the next morning and make myself some scrambled eggs & pancakes: