Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween from this little froggy.

Disclaimer: This was for a squadron fundraiser and it isn't a costume - it is a raincoat.
Disclaimer #2: Before you pass judgment about the raincoat, move to Japan during rainy season with a furry dog.

Oktoberfest.

Last weekend I had a truly unique experience – I went to Germany’s Oktoberfest in Japan.  Apparently for a couple weeks in October every year, Yokohama turns into little Germany.  Inside the makeshift chalet they had over 200 different beers – everything from local Japanese beers to pineapple ales to chocolate vanilla stouts – a German band, and so so much German food.  It is just starting to get chilly here and feel like fall – perfect weather for enjoying a nice crisp beer.

Here are a few pictures that I shot before my camera died.  And it is a good thing that it died when it did because there might have been some karoke later in the evening;)

The purple kitchen.

I realized that the only pictures that you have seen of our house are ones without furniture in it.  Since I don’t want you to think that we are still living on beach chairs and air mattresses, I thought that I would give you a little room tour.  I’ll post pictures of the house over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll start with the best room in the house: the purple kitchen.

I’ll be honest; I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of purple, but with all my moves I have learned that you just have to embrace the different.  And guess what happened, the kitchen turned out to be my favorite room.  It is such a bright cheery space and it makes me happy to be in there making breakfast in the morning or pouring a glass of wine at the end of day.  Here’s to making lemonade out of purple kitchen tiles…

PS. I have to thank my parents for helping with the kitchen from afar.  They sent me the rug and my mom made the beautiful curtains.  

Clearly I am very concerned with keeping my menu calendar up to date.

VA State Fair and Butterflies Live!

We have been loving the fall so far this year!  Despite the heat which has finally decided to take a backseat this week, we have been doing some fun fall activities.  I have to say that I am so happy to have family and friends here to enjoy all these things with us. Our weekends are really busy and fun.

Recently we went to the Virginia State Fair and the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens Butterflies Exhibit. This post is mostly about the pictures, but I'll tell you a little about each.

We went to the Virginia State Fair with our good friends Jessi & Nic and their 3 kids, Lydia, Samuel, and 3 month old Sarah (so sweet).  It was a crazy with 4 tykes in tow, but we had a great time.  I went to the State Fair every year growing up and remember it being huge and also a tad scary at nighttime...it's so interesting what you remember as a kid.  It was actually neither!  As a kid I also loved seeing all the animals (mostly the puppies and piglets) plus getting funnel cake was always a treat. These parts proved to still be true. So we went and saw tons of animals, some very close up!  Waverly seemed to really take it all in and we named every animal we saw.  We rode the carousel which she didn't love, saw a Grizzly bear, and ate some nice greasy fair food.  The evening was topped off with funnel cake and a hot air balloon sighting on our way out.  We stayed in the kid section most of the time, so I would love to go back next year and see more of the main part of the fair.

up close and personal!

southern fair food

this face...

carousel! Waverly is not so sure..

girls chillin.

baby Sarah!

sunset at the State Fair!

I am in love with these curls she's getting.

kids running amok.

love.

Funnel Cake - Elephant Ears - Fried Dough...yum!

The VonBanks

blurry pic, but a sweet pic of us...we have been friends since 6th grade!

The following morning we went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens...our wedding location and a beautiful year round garden.  They have lots of events throughout the year and we love re-visiting our wedding spot during these visits.  We went with my parents to an exhibit called Butterflies Live! My mom LOVES the gardens so she was excited to go with us to this exhibit.  The greenhouse had been turned into a butterfly habitat.  It was a very warm and tropical environment with different varieties of butterflies flying everywhere.  It was so neat to see.  Waverly loved them and watched them fly above her head.  She loves butterflies!  This started with the butterfly mobile above her crib, and then the book, The Hungry Caterpillar because I make a big deal about the butterfly at the end.

After a stroll through the gardens we went out for Sunday brunch.  Despite a noisy 13 month old who likes to throw food on the floor, it was a nice way to end the weekend!

you can't touch the butterflies but she tried!

she loves her Daddy!

flying everywhere...there were so many butterflies.

this guy hitched a ride on my Dad for a while!  A staffer had to remove him before we left.

My mom, Nick, and Waverly in the humid mist

beautiful day at the gardens

Conservatory

Love from Richmond!

DIY: Bracelet Holder

I wanted a fun way to display my watches and bracelets, so of course I turned to Pinterest.  There I found this…

Credit here.

Luckily, I already had a standing paper towel holder that wasn’t being used.  But I had to jazz it up just a little bit.  I dug into my craft closet and found some spray adhesive and glitter.  And here is the result…

A little sparkle just makes everything more fun, don’t you agree?!  

Improved Video Quality

Hello Readers!

Since I have been posting videos recently, I have been working on trying to improve their quality on our blog.  I also wanted them to be available for mobile devices which they weren't.  

So I have re-posted all my recent videos from Waverly's birthday and our trip to Boston.  They are now better quality and available on your iPhone, iPad or Android.  I had to rewrite some code...my dad and brother are laughing right now! 

I realize there are also better ways to post and take videos - vine, vimeo, or an actual video camera - but for now my phone is doing the trick.  If you have any tips, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks for reading :)

Leslie