We booked our Honeymoon! :-)

We finally made a decision about our itinerary and got a quote we were really happy with, and a few days after our wedding Adam and I are headed to Costa Rica!! I’m just about to burst with excitement, not to mention the fact that it’s one more thing checked off the list which is always a plus in the world of wedding planning.

Wednesday we paid the deposit and officially booked our honeymoon with Cecilia at the AAA in Raleigh, who is really sweet and patient, I would definitely recommend her if anyone is looking to book a vacation in the future.

So now the fun part… details! We’re going to fly into San Jose and spend the night there in a luxury hotel, then transfer to Arenal (the site of one of the 10 most active volcanos in the world) and stay for four nights at the Arenal Kioro and then head to the west coast to the Guanacaste Province and stay for four nights at the Paradisus Playa Conchal, an all-inclusive resort on the beach. The picture above is actually from the restaurant at our hotel in Arenal, all of the rooms have panoramic views of the volcano! We have transfers and drivers arranged between all the locations and won’t have to rent a car and drive ourselves (apparently driving in Costa Rica is not the most relaxing experience in the world). While we are staying in Arenal we have already booked a Hanging Bridges tour and a Zip line tour, so we should have plenty of chances to explore the rain forest surrounding the volcano. Part of the reason that I like Costa Rica is that it hasn’t been completely engulfed by tourists yet and they’re doing a good job of enforcing sustainable tourism to preserve their natural beauty. It also doesn’t hurt that the dollar is strong there and they are famous for their hospitality. There’s still more research to do on side trips and restaurants, but we’ve got a lot done already and I think it’s going to be amazing. I just wish it was less than 5 months away!

We’ve also been working on the registry and we still have to pick out our formal china, which Adam graciously told me that I could pick out and if I need to I can just show him the two options I need help deciding between. Who saw that coming? He’s been awesome with all the other stuff and doing his hold the scanner job very well, so I have no problem taking care of that one on my own, especially since he recently told me that all flatware and china look the same to him. They’re all so different and it feels like there are at least 500 different choices! Men, gotta love ‘em.

This weekend is Adam’s stepmother Diana’s 40th birthday so we’re going to Gastonia for her birthday party and we’re going to stay with our friends Josh and Sharla and their newest addition to the family, baby Jackson! I’ve been reading all the updates on their blog but this will be the first time we see Jackson in person, and Adam and I are very excited to meet him. Don’t worry though, I will not be catching the baby bug until we have at least gotten married, have a house, and have maybe gone to Europe, haha. I might catch the Pottery Barn Bug though, Sharla has the best decorating skills of anyone I’ve ever met, her house is like stepping into a Pottery Barn catalogue and everytime we visit I come home wanting to buy all new furniture. This is where the house we’re buying next spring will come in handy, wink wink. Speaking of Gastonia and it’s natives, we’re leaving right after work tomorrow, so I suppose it would be smart to get my stuff together now… goodnight folks!

patchwork dreams and popcorn skies…

I bought a very interesting crafty book the other night at barnes and noble called Pretty Little Patchwork. It’s a collection of patchwork sewing projects from a handful of well-known and new craft bloggers. I’ve been interested in quilting and patchwork projects lately without a solid idea of what exactly I wanted to do or where to start. I was initially drawn to the picture on the cover and the fabrics used in the various projects inside. They are decidedly more modern and useful patterns than most of the ones you tend to see in craft books, not that I’m totally against all traditional projects – I think that they have their own special place – I just don’t like the idea of spending so much time on a project that doesn’t seem to fit my style/decor/etc. I want to make things that I will want to use and look at and appreciate even after I’ve spent all my free time constructing them, not throw in a corner and forget about. And there are actually useful things in this book! Like cute little patchwork sachets, placemats, clutches and lovely belts! Just look at a couple of the examples from the back of the book:

I can say that I’ve already pegged some things as possible house-warming/birthday/Christmas gift possibilities. I’m also excited about the clearness of the instructions, at first glance it looks like a lot of the projects are a good options for a beginner and not quite as time consuming as a gigantor life-size quilt would be. Since I have no experience with patchwork I think it’s a good place to start… I’m excited to make something lovely for myself, and now I’m off to peruse the fabric selections online for something just right to start my patchwork escapades with. Ta-ta for now!

I am a palindrome – and proud of it :-)

Palindromes are fun… basically, they are spelled the same forwards and backwards.  Some people take this too far, such as the person who wrote: “As I pee, sir, I see Pisa!”.  But it still makes me chuckle

The apartment cleaning was a success, mostly thanks to my awesome m0nky, who helped clean the kitchen and bathrooms and vacuumed and did all kinds of other wonderfully helpful things… thanks sweetie!  We had thirteen people over for dinner last night and since we had cleaned we had plenty of space for all of them.  Ginny brought awesome potatoes and jen brought green bean casserole and I roasted an elephant of a pork loin and wahoo, dinner!  That’s all for now folks! 

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