First Porch Sitting of 2012

In honor of Ryan's birthday being last week, we hosted the first official porch sit of 2012 and had a potluck BBQ at our apartment. Ryan built himself a smoker out of basically found objects; I'll save you the details but it involved two 16" flower pots, a hot plate, and wood chips. We smoked both pork and chicken and our friends brought a plethora of sides to share. 

This is going to be a two part post, part one today and part two tomorrow. First let's enjoy the sun and smoker portion of our festivities.

We set up the porch with every chair we own (almost) and set up a runner to keep Nellie on so she could enjoy the outside with us all day. Ryan woke up at 6:30am to start the smoker and at about noon Nellie and I joined him outside. She kept getting herself tied up in her extra long leash, and it made for an interesting, and annoying afternoon of freeing her from her self made traps.

I was ultra impressed with Ryan's smoking skills and he was so patient and attentive to the meat's progress all day. It took about 10 hours to cook the pork, and 5 to cook the chicken. I didn't have to do a thing all day, just paint my nails and read magazines. Well, and take pictures of course.

I tried really hard to get some good pictures of Nellie and Ryan but she was so obsessed with her leash that all I got were silly wrestling pictures and a nice picture of Ryan almost smiling. 

At around 5:30pm friends started showing up and the party really got started. We had at least five types of springy salads, homemade bread, yummy cheese, and delicious dips. There were too many kinds of beer to count and fresh lemonade to drink. It started raining and cooled off quite a bit but it didn't stop anyone from hanging out until late into the night. Tomorrow I'll share some pictures of our porch sitting after dark. I hope this inspires you to start cooking outdoors as the weather warms up. It's so much fun! big kiss, bekuh

Paella with Friends

Paella is my most favorite Spanish dish, and last weekend Ryan and I hosted a little dinner party, serving a giant pan full of the saffron deliciousness. I was first turned on to paella while I was living in London; a wonderful Spanish friend named David made a group of us paella for dinner one night and I have been a cult follower ever since.The thing I love most about paella is that it is meant to be shared, you won't often find a Spaniard sitting alone to a dish of this. It's a perfect meal for large groups and has an everything plus the kitchen sink kind of quality. I've made many variations of paella but the chicken and seafood paella tends to be my favorite.

This was the first ever couples dinner party that Ryan and I had ever hosted. Normally we invite everybody and anybody who can make it out for a good meal but we'd finally made it to that place in adulthood where more friends than not are in couples. Sadly a bunch of people couldn't make it due to other commitments but the eight of us who could enjoyed a hearty meal with sangria and good beer to share. Martin graced us with a couple of bottles of his incredible home brew and the hard to get your hands on Bell's Hopslam.

After dinner we played a fun game of "Would You Rather..." There was a lot of laughter and the realization that among our living room knick-knacks there were all the props one needed to play Sherlock Holmes for a night (thanks Lewis and Christine). Having so many loved ones in one place made me super grateful for the friendships Ryan and I have been building together in Roanoke. I can't wait to get everybody together again soon big kiss, bekuh

Game Night with the Kleiners

After getting back from our holiday travels we had the chance to meet up with two of our good friends, Lewis and Christine Kleiner. We had a delicious meal of soup and crusty bread and then sat down two a game of Pictionary and Risk. We have a few pictures of sorts capturing the evenings raucous festivities.

First off let's meet the players:

The first game we played was Pictionary, which the Kleiners hands down whopped our butts. Thats not to say we both didn't have our highlights, like my rustic drawing of a french man (baguette and all), or Ryan's flossing man, Lewis' belcher and turkey gobble, and of course let's not forget the serious game faces exchanged by each group. This was a game of epic proportions.

After Pictionary was won (by the Kleiners) and over we decided to try our hand at a little game of Risk, again in teams. Neither Christine or I had played Risk before and are loving husband were willing to take it easy so we could learn from their mastery. It was a hard played game and as luck would have it the dice rolled in the Browning's favor and black conquered yellow in world domination. 

A hand shake was exchanged and in good spirits all around the Kleiners left into the night. This is one couple we'd play a game with any day of the week. big kiss, bekuh

Crowds at Weddings

A good friend of ours, Thomas, recently got married to a sweet little lady named Ashley and Ryan and I had the honor of attending said nuptials. It was one of those gorgeous winter weddings, with fires blazing in fireplaces and couples bundled up close. Though I couldn't take pictures during the ceremony (bad seating) we did get to snap a couple of pictures with friends before and afterwards.

I got to wear my brand new Red Velvet, Rosemary Velvet Bow. Katie got it for me for Christmas and it couldn't have come at a better time! I want to wear it with everything.

These lovely ladies are Caroline and Christine, two good friends who always make ordinary occasions inexplicably wonderful. Not that this was an ordinary occasion, but I felt like the deserved an introduction.

Thomas and Ashley gave out chocolate mustaches as favors and so Ryan doubled-stached it for the afternoon. The handle bar mustache was my favorite.

We had a great afternoon and couldn't be happier for the beautiful couple. Our first wedding as married couple, we can check that one off the list. Fun! big kiss, bekuh

Holiday Bits Before We Go

Just a few holiday bits for you to enjoy before the holiday weekend:

Image 1. Katie gave me the gorgeous Rosemary Velvet hair bow from Red Velvet for Christmas. I got to check off another Christmas Wish List item!

2, 3, 4. Katie and I had a craft night last week and made some fun felt ornaments. We even tried our hand at a Skunkboy Creatures' Ice Skate Ornament. 

5. I've been happily attending holiday fetes and snapped a picture as I got ready for one. I'll hopefully have a few full outfit posts from other holiday affairs soon.

6. On my way to ship Christmas presents to family afar and friends semi-close.

 Ryan and I are off to Ohio today to visit my Dad and Grandparents for Christmas. Our trunk is full to the brim with presents and I'm happily bringing along a few presents already unwrapped. Are any of you driving or flying to a totally different climate this Christmas? What do you pack for the journey? big kiss, bekuh

The Night Affair

So in the evening we did a couple of things, we went out for sushi and then went to a place called Rapture where we spent the last bit of our evening dancing and making positive fools of our selves. It was sooo worth it.

Is there any words for this, does there need to be? Excellent adventure, Alicia, Ashley, Lauren and Sarah are the best Bridesmaids EVER! Love you guys. big kiss, bekuh

Charlottesville Bachelorette Getaway

So I've at last edited the photos from my amazing bachelorette weekend. My stinky point-and-shoot camera didn't capture the moments as brilliantly as I'd hoped but here are a few of the highlights.

We'll start with early in the day first and then later on today I'll post again with the evening shots.

My sister found the quaintest little b&b for all of us to stay in super close to the downtown mall. We had half the place all to ourselves! We immediately began to nosh on some yummy snacks that my sister had packed in her "feed" bags. Poor Alicia had bus issues so we decided to hunker down and wait for her arrival before we took to the road and began our winery trekk.

As part of the welcome at the b&b they gave each of us a complimentary glass of wine and we sat out on the porch and enjoyed the park view and cool breeze. It was a magical start don't you think? big kiss, bekuh