Nashville!

There are few things in life I love more than weekend trips! Its sad to think that we'll only live in Atlanta for one more year... but in the meantime we're trying to take advantage of being such a short drive away from so many fun places! Cities, beaches, mountains... so many places, so little time left in the South!

Nashville has been on my short list of cities to visit for years, and I'm soo so glad we finally made it there :) I'm even more glad - ok, more like thrilled! ecstatic! overjoyed! - that we spent the weekend in Nashville with my bff and her fiance!

Stolen from SK's pictures... sorry for the red eye, hubs!

We learned a lot about her soon-to-be-hubbs... and we like what we saw! {Disclaimer: Andrew doesn't love everyone he meets, but he really loved Kyle so that says a LOT!}

We also learned:
what honkey tonk is (sort of),
country stars don't always write the songs they sing (boys' minds = blown),
we sort of kind of probably want to invest in a pair of authentic cowboy boots........
and we are much too old to stay out drinkin' and dancin' in the bars until they close!

Although we left Nashville with a bit of a wine flu, substantially broke-r, and easily 5 lbs fatter... we had the best time! With any luck, I plan to sneak in another quick Nashvegas trip before we leave Georgia ~ if for no other reason, I simply must eat at Pancake Pantry before I die. I already added it to my mental bucket list.

Cutie fiancees

My love :)

Booooots! Get in my closet. Camel colored, pointed toe. Thanks.

The boys

The gals

Puckett's for our last dinner

BFF... LYLAS!

And so continues my love affair with weekend getaways and cities with quaint, walkable downtowns. I'm already itchin' to plan our next trip!

SK and Kyle....... you guys down? Same weekend next year maybe?! ;)

Cookie Favors

As promised, here is a tutorial {of sorts} showing you how to make the wedding shower cookie favors I made for Sheila's bridal shower! Because my schedule is a little hectic this semester, I cut every possible corner... and I mean that in the nicest possible way. What I mean is ~ these cute, custom cookie creations were not made from scratch. And yes, you too can make these in any shape and any color for whatever shower or party you might be hosting!

What you'll need:

Sugar Cookie Mix

Wilton's Cookie Icing
Wilton's Decorator Icing

Wilton's Icing Writer

Cookie cutter(s)

Treat bags with ribbon

What to do:

Make the sugar cookies according to the instructions on the package. There will be a slight variation to make cut-out cookies (usually its just adding some flour). Rolling the dough and cutting the shapes is annoying... but you get to eat more scraps that way so just eat your way through the process :) Let cookies cool completely for about 30 minutes before decorating.

You should end up with a bunch of these!

I started by outlining the cookie with Wilton's Cookie Icing, and I found that heating the icing in the microwave for about 30 seconds to start, and then zapping it for ~10 seconds every handful or so of cookies kept it soft enough to work with.

They do NOT need to be perfect to look beautiful!

Then go back and fill in the outlined cookies with icing. If you heat up the icing, it helps it to "flood" more easily. Be patient - this is really tedious and your hand will start to hurt, but fill in your outline completely and try to swirl around the tip of the icing dispenser to get rid of any air bubbles.

This next part is really important... let the icing dry completely!!! I can't tell you how many cookies I ruined making cookies for Danielle's baby shower because I couldn't just sit still and let them dry. I learned my lesson... this time I gave the cookies a solid 45 minutes of dry time before I continued decorating them. When the icing is allllll the way dry you're ready to decorate with the Decorating Icing.

If I've learned anything at all about dessert decorating over the course of all my Martha Stewart wanna-be baking adventures, its this: Piping bags (and tips) are your friend! Even when using pre-packaged icing, I always always use a piping bag. The reusable ones are great, and for these cookies I just used a plain round piping tip. I've also found videos like this to be really helpful ~ I can now fill my icing bag and fasten the top so that I don't end up with a mess of pink icing all over my hands :) It's the little things...

Once your icing bag is filled up, you're ready to pipe! I browsed Pinterest for some inspiration ideas, but I sort of just made up my own designs until I settled on one I liked.

After I had my pink flowers on each and every cookie, I used the Wilton's Icing Writer to add some white-on-white accents to the cookies. This added texture and interest... but it was also great for hiding imperfections!

I traced back over the flower petals so that they were a little neater and raised a little higher. Then I let them dry for a loooong time. At least an hour before I started packaging them. I actually used lollipop bags that came with ribbon attached (found at Michael's) and cut little hearts out of a sheet of scrap book paper for the packaging. They turned out so adorable!

These were really fun and easy to make. They weren't "perfect" but thats what made them so unique! There was no denying that they were homemade... and most importantly, the bride loved them :)

Questions? Send them my way! Hope this was helpful!

Priorities

With a lot on my plate these days, I've had to re-prioritize.

One thing that needs to take a back seat: my blog.

I  love using this little corner of the internet as a way to document what happens in our life, and I plan to still do that... when I have the time. But truthfully, blogging (among other things) has become more of a chore than a hobby... so, expect my posts to be less frequent until things slow down.

The recipes, the crafty stuff... I just don't have time for right now. I wish I did! {But I do still promise a cookie favor post... I just need to get the pictures off my dang camera one of these days!}Maybe after I graduate in May. Until then, I'll stick to the big stuff. And pictures from my iPhone :)

Our Nashville trip was SO MUCH FUN! We loved the food, the music, the BOOTS! I still don't quite know what "honky tonk" is. But I'm pretty sure I like it! I have real camera pics that I plan to upload as soon as I have a free weekend, but here are a few randoms until then.

We bopped from bar to bar to bar... we wanted to check them all out! SO FUN!

I think I gained 9812349 lbs. Add that to my holiday pounds and I'm not sure how I'm fitting thru doorways.

My love affair with cute downtowns was reignited!

We left Nashville completely exhausted... we're getting too old to pretend we can stay out until the bars shut down! The list of to-do's I came home to was really overwhelming but it was so worth it for such a fun weekend. This was technically Andrew's "birthday trip"... we prefer those to birthday presents... but we celebrated his real birthday on Valentine's Day anyway! It was his 25th, so I decided it was worthy of a big fuss even if the bday boy wasn't going to indulge me in throwing a party!

A steak dinner, chocolate covered strawberries for my cake-hating-husb, and Maui Jim sunnies!

Fighting the Valentine's Day crowds at restaurants is his least favorite thing to do on his bday (duh)... so we opted for a quiet dinner at home - some fancy steaks and baked potatoes. He must have said 15 times how glad he was that we decided to cook at home haha :) My healthy husb loathes sweets... bless his heart. So I reluctantly agreed not to bake him a cake. He did eat 1 chocolate covered strawberry, after my nagging urging...... I ate the remaining 5. We agreed that we'd take weekend trips instead of getting birthday gifts for each other this year, but I was sneaky sneaky and surprised him with a pair of sunglasses he has been wanting for months! He was so. surprised! He deserves them.

**HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY, ANDREW!**

In other news around these parts........ Bella loves the faux fur throw Danielle picked up for me because it was a "great deal" and I just "needed to have it" (gotta love friends like that!), I represented my very first client in my very first hearing (woohoo!!), and you have to make these red velvet cookies!

Sleepy kitty snuggling with her new furry friend...

Looking all lawyer-like...

Make these!!!

This weekend is Sheila's bachelorette party!!! I'll be cozied up in a mountain cabin sipping champagne and doing my best to embarrass the bride with gag gifts. It'll be a rainy one down South....... perfect weather for baking some yummy cookies!

Not a whole lot...

There hasn't been a whole lot going on with us these past two weeks. I've been a busy little worker bee and have really not had the time {or energy} to blog. I haven't spent any time on Pinterest, and I'm way behind on my blog reading... so I haven't even bothered with Friday Favorites posts. If you're at all interested, here is what we've been up to:

~ Deciding whether we want to move. We go back and forth and back and forth on this issue. We have until March 6th to make a decision... we love our apartment, but for our last year in Atlanta we are considering moving closer to the friends we spend the most time with, and we have our eye on a neighborhood we both reallllly love. The search continues, as we have yet to find a *perfect* place. If nothing comes available that really excites us, we will both be content staying put. The search process has been really time consuming! But fun :)

This little munchkin's mama and I are trying our hardest to relocate to the same zip code!!

~ Planning a weekend trip. Sara-Kate and I finalized plans for our Nashville get-away this morning and we are soooo so so excitedddd!! We scoured the interwebs, polled our friends, and browsed dozens of menus... then made our selections (and reservations) with care. Our men are so lucky to have us! Right...?!
~ Partying. Sort of haha. After last weekend's bridal shower and Andrew's school's "ball," we had a Friday night birthday party this weekend, and hosted a Sunday night Superbowl get-together -- we are partied out! But we're going to have to rally... because our weekend trip will be a big 3-day party of sorts... and 5 short days later I'll be throwing together a small birthday fiesta for Andrew's 25th! The next morning, I'll will wake up bright and early and head to the GA mountains for Sheila's bachelorette party! Party, party, party. Maybe March will be a more relaxing month??

At the ball w/ my beau!

Cookie "pizza" for our Super Bowl party... husb said "no sweets." I win.

Who knew Publix made such delish (and pretty!) sheet cakes?!

~ Wedding stuff! I've received and/or ordered 3 bridesmaid dresses in the past 3 weeks! I'm helping my sister narrow down shoe options. Shopping for gifts. Planning what I'll bake for Sheila's bachelorette. Making hotel reservations for the night of the weddings. Pinning up-do ideas. This bridal party stuff is no joke! Its time consuming in the most fun way, but seriously exhausting! I just wish the big days would get here already so we can have some FUN!

That's our update. Nothing crazy... lots of fun stuff, but very little time to blog about it! I'll get caught up one of these days. Don't fret, I haven't forgotten about the tutorials I've promised and pictures I've yet to dump off of my camera. I know you're all on the edge of your seats... ;) kidding. of course. And just as soon as we have one free weekend I plan on getting back into the swing of crafting in front of the TV! I've got lots of DIY ideas up my sleeve, so don't give up on me just yet!