Honeymoon Part III- Rome

Our final stop on the trip was the eternal city of Rome. So beautiful and fascinating! Did you know that everywhere you go in Rome you are walking on ruins? The ancient city is buried roughly three feet below the current street. We had an amazing time walking around and we stopped everywhere... Coliseum, Pantheon, the Forum...we even arranged a trip to the Vatican (side note- if you are planning on visiting the Vatican it is absolutely worth it to get a guide. You skip the lines which are day in day out over a MILE long. If it's the only guided tour you ever do in your life, you'll be glad.) We stayed at the Internazionale Domus hotel which was really more of a concierge apartment. Our room was literally on the Spanish Steps and was the BEST location we could have asked for. There is not 24/7 hotel staff but they are there roughly 14 hours out of the day and that was plenty.

The above photo is the view that was outside our window. AWESOME location!

The trip was hands down one of the best trips I've ever been on. We took the opportunity to spoil ourselves and do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. And we walked EVERYWHERE. I can count on one hand the number of times we were in cabs (not including to/from airport) and we averaged about 5 miles a day. At 14 days that is a large amount of walking! I know that we may not travel like this for a while again but it was a wonderful trip and I have such lovely memories of my honeymoon.

Honeymoon Part II- Florence

After a few days in Paris it was off to Florence! We opted to take the train so that we could see more and it was absolutely beautiful! A bit long but a great experience. We arrived in Florence and checked into our hotel, Orto de' Medici which was AMAZING. We had phenomenal views, great service and a delicious HUGE breakfast every morning. We didn't stay as many days in Florence since it is a smaller city than Paris or Rome (final stop) but we still managed to fit in the Academia, Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, and entire days walking around the city and visiting all the churches we could find.

Honeymoon Part I- Paris

It's hard to believe but we've almost been married a year! It's crazy how quickly time can fly by! Several months after the wedding, we took our honeymoon. We flew out of Denver on Thanksgiving Day and landed in Paris on Friday morning for the first stop on our trip! While the weather that time of year isn't ideal we found it very comfortable and we spent the entire time there walking around outside. I absolutely love Paris and had no change in sentiment for my second visit. We purchased the Paris Museum Pass for 32 Euro each and it was a great deal! The pass gets you into over 132 attractions including the Musee D'Orsay, Rodin Museum, Versailles, Louvre and many many more. The best part is once you buy the pass you don't have to wait in line to get into the next museum. Our hotel the Best Western Rue St Honore and was on Rue St Honore (obvi) which is the street next to the Louvre and was in the 1e Arrondissement which is easily the best. The hotel itself was small but it was very nice and the location is really what took us there.

New Name, New Look!

I've left this blog alone for several months now and I realized it was because it didn't really seem like it really was mine. After fiddling around with different websites all day today I've settled on a new address and new look for my blog so hopefully you'll "follow" me and I can grow my online family!

Hello Dolly Bars!

It’s really no secret that I love sweets. The more sugary and ooey gooey the better! I came across a recipe on Monograms and Manicures that I had to try and I think they turned out quite delicious!

Here’s the cast of characters needed…1 stick butter, 1 1/2 cups graham crackers, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, nut topping, and sweetened condensed milk.

First you make the graham cracker crust which is melted butter mixed with crushed graham crackers. While most people melt butter in the microwave, since we don’t have one I simply put the butter in an oven safe bowl and placed it into the oven while preheating. But I digress… put the graham crackers into a plastic bag and make sure it’s closed tightly. I used about 8 crackers and crushed them down to 1 1/2 cups. This is the fun part! You whack the crackers with a rolling pin until they’re as crumbled as you like! Be careful when crushing the crackers though because you CAN bust the bag and end up with little crumbs all over the kitchen counter!

Once the butter has melted you mix it into the graham cracker crust and flatten it into the dish, spreading it out so it’s nice and even throughout.

Add the bag of chocolate chips and butterscotch chips before drizzling on the sweetened condensed milk. Pour it on evenly and then top with the nuts if you’d like. Bake it in the oven for about 25 min at 350F. Once the toppings look melted it is finished…or when it starts to bubble- whichever happens first. Once it gets out of the oven let it cool before cutting. Slice them up and enjoy!!

Home Decor- Part 2

The other painting project that I started has been ongoing for a little over 2 months now.  I bought an adorable little nightstand type piece at Goodwill for $10.

I really liked the height and the fact that it had a small drawer on it.  It was an odd off-white dirty color so I repainted it a pale pink.  It looked terrible, so I then repainted it a royal blue.  TERRIBLE.

At that point I'd given up until I read that the Ralph Lauren paint collection at Home Depot was going to be discontinued to make way for the Martha Stewart collection (have you seen her colors at Lowe's??  AMAZING!)  Ian and I went to Home Depot on Saturday and I found that my local store had already cleared out the RL colors and MS was in.  I had seen a color that I really wanted called Golden Candlesticks and I kind of panicked that it wouldn't be there anymore.  Luckily, the metallic series will still be stocked so you can get those forever.  The rest of the colors will have the formulas but not the actual paint anymore so you'll have to use a Glidden or Behr's or another brand that Home Depot carries.  But I digress.

 I painted this little beauty and  I LOVE the gold color!  I didn't use any techniques on it so it's just the standard paint job but I think that this piece will find a lovely new home in our basement living room!

Here it is in our garage but once I have it in it's new location I'll post a picture of what it looks like!

Home Decor- Part 1

Shortly before our wedding in September I went to TJ Maxx Home Goods and decided I needed some new stuff.  I bought a ton of stuff and spent well under $100 but that's an entirely different story.  If you've never been to a Home Goods you are SO missing out!

One of the things that I scored on was an adorable little black iron stool/table thing for $15.  It sat in our entryway and held a vase of flowers until my lovely new coatrack took its place.  When that happened I decided I wanted to paint it and put it somewhere else where it would get more use.  I first picked an orange color that Ian HATED.  He thought it looked like a road sign (in all seriousness, the paint I bought WAS fluorescent orange.  Think HUNTING).  I went to Home Depot with Ian on Saturday and I spent some time perusing the paint section where I found the perfect sagey green color that Ian had wanted for the table.  A couple coats and this bad boy is transformed!

Here it is drying outside but I'll post another picture soon with it's permanent location!  The best part about that paint color is since I bought the large size I can use it on another small project!