Baltimore Weekend with the Parents

A few weeks ago my parents came to visit Matt and I and we had a full weekend of fun in Baltimore. 

First we visited the Edgar Allan Poe House and the cemetery where he was buried. Kelly and I went to the house last year when she came up but unfortunately it was closed :( so it was neat to get to go inside this time. To my surprise, the house was tiny! I didn't realize in that time it was normal to live in such a small space! The staircases were so small, I felt absolutely claustrophobic and there was no way more than one person could pass each other on the stairs so we could only go one at a time. 

Matt going up to see Poe's bedroom

This is Poe's bedroom on the third floor and what I assume was his original furniture

This is the church where Poe is buried. It is located at Westminster Hall in Baltimore.

Where Poe was originally buried in 1849, until the new monument was built.

This is where Poe's body was moved in 1875.

After all of our Poe sightseeing, we went to the Inner Harbor to look through the shops and walk around before the baseball game started.

This is the Urban Pirates ship in the Inner Harbor. (Matt and I went on a pirate cruise on this ship last spring!)

View of the Inner Harbor

Although we are Panthers fans, I still like the Ravens! Who wouldn't like living 10 minutes from a NFL stadium?!

Matt and I LOVE going to Orioles games. I think we've been to at least 15 this summer. It is so much fun! So, I had to take my parents to see a game while they were here. I have yet to attend a game that the Orioles have lost so I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't break my streak and of course they won! :) 

Camden Yards

They played the Toronto Bluejays and won 8-2!

 On Sunday we visited Fort McHenry, where the Star-Spangled Banner was written. Mom says "If you've been to one fort, you've been to them all" but this one was truly neat! I didn't even realize that this was so close to where we live. They had a whole presentation showing the events leading up to Francis Scott Key writing the song and it really gave you an new appreciation for our National Anthem. 

Where the original flag was flown

I had to get a picture of Matt in the jail cell. I even closed the latch, too bad I didn't have a lock to lock him up! ;)

...and one of me too :P

We also visited the Fell's Point area (which is our favorite neighborhood of Baltimore) but we didn't get any photos. It poured down rain that day and we all looked like drowned rats! We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed having my parents here for the weekend!

Autumn

With fall right around the corner, I decided to work on a fun craft featuring fall colors and leaves! 

I created the jars myself using ideas from a Martha Stewart holiday craft book I have. (Thanks Mom!)

First, I'll describe how I created the jar with the leaves using wax paper and crayons! I had a box full of nothing but the "ugly crayons" thanks to the popular crayon melting art I'm sure you've seen on pinterest..

I laid down a long sheet of wax paper on my ironing board, and turned the iron on the lowest setting. I also placed some printer paper underneath the wax paper to make sure the crayon didn't leak through. I then shaved some of the crayons onto the paper using a pencil sharpener. 

Shave the crayons on half of the wax paper and leave the other half free. I repeated this with about 6 different crayons in fall colors, then folded the wax paper on top of itself. As shown below:

I laid the iron on top of the paper and it instantly started to melt. I believe if you put less wax and spread them out more, they will not blend together as much, but I actually liked the effect from them bleeding together because it made my leaves turn out more realistic.

I then unfolded the paper, giving me two identical sheets of wax paper with the crayon wax on both sides. I drew out leaves on the non-wax side and cut them out. 

Because I didn't have any Mod Podge, I decided to make my own. I simply mixed together equal parts Tacky Glue with water and stirred it together. I added a little glue at a time until I created something like Mod Podge. I actually used the Tacky Glue on the back of each leaf and glued it to the jar just to make them stay on a little better. Then I went over all the leaves with a few layers of my glue mixture. 

After allowing the glue to dry, my jar turned out like this! :)

 

I also made the red and orange jars using the technique from a previous post. Click Here!

I love how this turned out, so here are a few more pictures, just for fun :) I got the pumpkins (they're fake), the black wire pumpkin, and leaf garland from Micheal's. The candle stick holder and candle are a gift from Matt's mom (thanks!). And of course the jars are mine. :)

Jar Dyeing

I've seen this tutorial several times on pinterest to make jars look like sea glass by mixing glue with food coloring and painting the glass. So, I thought I would give it a try. Above is how my jars turned out. Not exactly sea glass, but still pretty nonetheless.

First of all, I washed out the jars. I had a salsa jar, pickle jar and marinara jar that decided to use because they were different shapes and sizes.

I simply filled the sink with soap and hot water and the labels fell right off.

On two of the jars, the expiration date was printed directly on the jar, so I used nail polish remover and it came right off!

Next, I mixed together my glue and food coloring. I originally wanted to make the jars three different shades of blue and try to create an ombre effect, but that was easier said than done :( (let me know if you can get yours to look ombre!)

I used blue gel glue because that's all I had on hand. I think this was my downfall on the "sea glass" effect. Try the white glue for that effect!

I mixed together the glue and a little food coloring at a time to get the color I wanted. I also added a little water so it wasn't so thick.

I placed my jars on paper towels and started to paint! I found that the glue bubbles up a little if you put too much, so just do a thin layer at a time and try to even it out with your brush.

Being as impatient as I am, I dried my jars with a hair dryer. This worked like a charm and they were instantly dry!

This was a fun project, but talk about MESSY! My hands were completely blue after. Haha! I found that white vinegar takes the color off pretty well.

And here's the finished product! I added tea light candles inside and made them pretty blue candle holders. I'm happy with the way they turned out and plan on doing another jar project for fall! Stayed tuned for another tutorial. :)

"thinspiration" my butt!

So... I have been trying to get my butt in shape. Ever since I quit working, I feel like all I do is sit around all day and I have no excuse not to exercise. I am an avid pinner on pinterest and have found that more than anything, there are posts about eating healthy and what exercises to do to work what area of the body and blah, blah, blah... They call it "thinspiration", I call it "sitting on the computer looking at pinterest and never actually doing any of it". Haha! So I decided to try a workout plan that doesn't seem so hard. 

 

Now, just look at the woman in the background-- I cannot believe that I will ever actually look like that in a million years! But hey, anything is worth a try and like they say "No matter how slow you go - You are still lapping everybody on the couch!" (there's my bit of "thinspiration" for you)

So anyway, Matt and I attempted doing this workout a few times and while we were semi-successful, it is WAY harder than it looks. My only problem with this is that it involves too much leg work and not enough arm work. The first time we did it, I couldn't walk for two days! I literally almost busted my face walking down the stairs because my legs gave out on me haha. By the time I get through the 80 jumping jacks (which is a little excessive if you ask me) I can never do the wall sit. Actually, I have done this routine at least 10 times now and have never even bothered to do a 10 second walk sit. Maybe I'll just cut that part off the bottom of my picture. ;) Also, that grey part at the top that mentions doing this 3 times? Yeah right! I'm lucky if I can get through it once. Call me lazy, I don't care, this is HARD! But I'm hoping that after I do this everyday for a few weeks, I will be more willing to repeat the whole thing without passing out or dying in the middle of my living room floor! 

Ok, so not only am I trying to do this routine at home, we are also members of the planet fitness down the street. Before, my excuse was always that I didn't have time to go or that I was too tired after work, but now I have run out of excuses and I need to take my butt to the gym! It always feels so great afterwards and I feel like I have accomplished something, but the getting there is the hardest part. Just telling myself to get my lazy butt off the couch is a feat of its own. 

 

One last thing and I promise I'll shut up about working out, I found a pretty cool workout mix online the other day that I thought I would share. It's called the workout mix 2012 and it has a bunch of popular songs from this year that are remixed with a techno beat to get you pumped while you work out. I get easily distracted while I'm working out at home and find myself sitting down or doing something else before I'm finished. So, this is a great mix to keep you focused and energized. 

You can view a list of the songs and preview/download here:

http://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/the-workout-mix-2012/id486621555

OKAY! well that's it for today! I will try to keep you updated with my "weight loss journey" and post other things I find later about exercise or eating healthy! Thanks for reading :)

 

My story thus far...

So here I am, newly 23, a college graduate with a degree in hospitality, born and raised in North Carolina, and living in Baltimore, MD with my military boyfriend and not a job to be found! But don't get me wrong, I've found that I love being a house"wife". I suppose I'm not allowed to use the word wife until we're officially married.. but that I'll save for a later post. ;)

A year ago, I found myself living in the college town where I had just graduated from school, working a dead end job in a restaurant (which I hated) and going nowhere with my life. I got dumped by my prick of a boyfriend just before graduation and had fallen into the "I hate men" stage of my life that many girls find themselves in at one point or another. I had my group of friends who were so much fun I had no reason to want to move away from the college life, and figured I would just stay and party until I decided it was time to grow up! That was until Matt came along.. 

We had known each other for nearly 8 years, but never considered dating each other. We had the same group of friends in high school, but because he was two grades ahead of me, he went off to the air force, and I stayed behind and finished school. After high school I went on to college at East Carolina University, and we never really spoke to each other besides the occasional "hey" on facebook and that was about it. Then, after 4 years of college (and 3 crappy boyfriends later) I found myself sending him a text saying "hey, you're hot" (haha!) and we set up a date to hang out the next time we were both back in our hometown.

So, about a month and lots of texts later, we went on our first date. He picked me up at my parents house (which he still remembered how to get to from high school haha) and off we went. The entire thing felt so normal and I knew from then on that we were going to end up together. We ended up sitting and talking so long that we shut down the bar! It was 2AM and we didn't really want to leave each others' sides so he ended up going back to my parents house with me and we watched some TV and he probably didn't leave until 4AM. That night, he "accidentally" left his sunglasses, so the next day he called and asked to come by and get them before he headed back to Maryland. To my surprise, he chatted with my dad the entire time he was there and didn't really even talk to me! Matt is in the air force, so because my dad served when I was a baby, they had lots to talk about. I was so pleased that my dad actually liked him because that was a feat for every other guy I brought home. 

The next week, we texted back and forth from sun-up to sun-down every day. I couldn't believe I had fallen for "Grubbie" from high school! But that weekend, I decided to drive up and see him. I spent the weekend in Baltimore with Matt and his friends and fell in love with not only him, but the city. I knew from then on I wanted to be a city girl and start a new life in a new place. I had spent my entire life in North Carolina and was in desperate need for a change, so this seemed to be the perfect next step in my life. SO, after much reasoning with my parents and a long search for an apartment, we moved in together! We had been dating for a little over a month, but we took the plunge and I couldn't have made a better decision. Its been over a year now and we're still going strong. :)