Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I’m sure everyone has come back a few pounds heavier, I know I sure did!!

This thanksgiving we did the whole traditional family meal, blah blah blah, then watched UT v. aTm for the last time ever, so they say. I hardly believe this – it’s like when a rapper says they are retiring YUH RIGHT.

 

ANYWAYS GOO Horns, it was a great game, I definitely did not think we would win but it was a nice early Christmas present. It ends the rocky 117-year- relationship between us Longhorns and Aggies. As both our songs say, 

OK thats a Sooner. yea yea same difference.

NOW Onto the good part, Friday we zipped out to Galveston, TX to catch some fishies, and a cold front came in which apparently is great weather for fishing. I guess they get hungry bc of the temperature change, or maybe have to swim out to warmer waters? I really don’t know but they were biting.

Take a looky:

coy was pretty scared to get close lol:

No, daddy, no!

Matthew being silly:

ohh and the nasty part:

Fish guts! on the way to to the stove!

We’re going over to Emily and Marci’s to fish fry tonight! From the ocean to our bellies!!!!

Congrats to Alysha Walker on her engagement this weekend! She has such a gorgeous, unique ring. Super excited for her and her Fiance.

ANDDDD Happy birfday to Kristen at http://allinmytwenties.blogspot.com/ ! She inspired me to blog, and here is my most favorite birthday video ever:

and that's all folks!

Happy Holidays! & a mini blog break

SO I Just started blogging and I'm already taking a break?!? hahah this B is le tireddddd.

JK.  I plan to come back with a new design and a cool banner, and then I can write down all my scatterbrained thoughts after I stop looking at this fug bookshelf background.  I do hope to scope out a deal on boots this Friday, and thats sums up my participation in the shopping craze this week! *I hope* my shopaholic tendencies dont get the best of me!

I was also thinking of my christmas list and here goes:

• new boots

• iPhone 4S

• a few new make-up items

• a few items in winter white

to lose 10 lbs.

thats not so bad right??? Alright Toodles, in a few hours I'll be heading out to Cypress for some family time! Have a good turkey day everyone! And a special turkey day to Emily Mazey, her parents are meeting her fiance's parents for the first time tomorrow!

Jam-packed weekend

So what a jam-packed weekend it was! We went to Amanda and Rodney’s wedding on Saturday, and they had the most gorgeous service at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church.  Amanda’s middle name is Rose, so of course it’s her favorite flower, and the reception hall was absolutely decked out in red roses. 

You can read her wedding announcement in the Houston Chronicle here, and check out Marci’s blog (her matron of honor) for a more detailed account.

Big Congrats to Amanda and Rodney, they are off to Antigua by now…those lucky ducks. I have to say I had a little wardrobe meltdown before heading to the church, I didn’t want to spend $$ on anything new since we have to save money ect. But it all worked out.

On Sunday, the Texans had a bye week – and we just lounged around to take advantage of the day. We then got ready for Miss Jamie’s Thanksgiving Feast, and holy crap there was so much food, And people! girl knows how to throw a partay!!

Here’s some pics of the food:

Then I went to See Breaking Dawn with Chris and Kristen. I begged matt to come, and was a little upset that he wouldn’t budge. I told him I watch countless football games with him, but still, he would not budge. I was little sad as I realized we aren’t dating anymore and I can no longer easily talk him into sappy chick flicks.

 BUT – after about 20 minutes into the movie, I was like phew good thing he isn’t here bc he would kill me!!! It was sooooooooo cheesy. I think I felt awkward like 50% of the movie. So yea girls, DO NOT take your man to see Twilight. I know it sounds cute, but it really is just not a good idea.

And that’s a wrap! Hope everyone is in a good holiday mood. I plan to blog about my girl Brit Brit and all her South American Adventures. And hopefully we’ll have a wedding date soon!!

When Pinterest to real life doesn't work out

Happy Sunday to all! It has been a great weekend I will blog a little later about the action packed weekend.

So, I have had fallen for the new matte nail polish look... in pictures. I found it on pinterest of course. See Exhibit A below:

then I try to re-create  the look myself... not so good looking. haha. See Exhibit B:

I realize that half the problem is the lack of a fancy camera with a staged photo shoot out of a marie claire magazine. Anyhow, I used Essie matte top coat, and Essie Midnight cami (dark dark blue).  I was going to a wedding and thought it was too much so I quickly took it off and switched back to my lavender color.

I"m gonna try one more time, with the the blue.. and actually keep the color on for a few days to see if I can really buy into this trend.

You can find more nail polish trends here: Marie Claire Nail Trends

I bought my wedding dress !!

I had already tried  20 dresses total....(I warned you I was crazy).. by the Monday Morning that I had my appointment with Weddings by Debbie.  Needless to say I was overwhelmed and tired, and thinking wow it really sucks that I'm so indecisive. Then I tried on a dress that my sister picked out that I would have never in a million years picked myself, And that was it!!!!

Its very interesting that people say you just know when you find it, and I thought maybe it was a wise tale.  I am deliberate even when buying a simple cocktail dress. Knowing this about myself, I was really worried that I wouldn't just get 'this feeling' of absolutely knowing I had found it. But really, its so freaking true. You find the dress, and there is just no going back.

In true Tessy style, I slept on it, went to one more store, then impulsively rushed out to Katy three days later to buy it! I didn't even take anyone with me, which is probably odd, but when I make a decision I have to act in that moment (decisions with absolute certainty are rare for me). I planned on making the final purchase this Saturday, but I just could not wait. I was pretty nervous at first, but I tried it on one more time and was completely reassured again. I couldn't be more excited with my choice.

here are some dresses that I thought I would choose...

but I ended up picking something completely different!!!

Now I get to wait for it to come in... which takes a freakishly long amount of time, and hit that gym. Time to get serious about fitness!! yea.. I just ate Lupe's tortillas... this isn't going so well..

Eloping anyone?

Goodness gracious. I'm pretty stressed, which I think it dawned on me yesterday that zig zagging between stress and excitement is the norm. stress. excitement, excitement, excitement.stress again!

EXCITEMENT!: Matt and I found the Catholic Church of our dreams in Galveston, TX. Its completely white with an old European look. Its breathe-taking.

STRESS:  they wont answer the phone!!! do they have a phone? Hmmm. We think they do but the number on the internet is wrong. Then you are lead to two affiliated churches, who then just tell you, this isn't Sacred Heart, you've arrived at the wrong place. We've tried so many different things, and I think we might finally get a hold of Father Stein tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

EXCITEMENT: I found a wedding dress that I am absolutely in love with and has my name written on it.

STRESS: um.. can we say out of budget??? uh. yea. whoopsieeee

Then there is the reception venue debacle which I won't even touch on because it gives me a headache.

and thats my life in a nutshell right now. I really want to write about something other than wedding, but literally, its all I think about. I have to force my poor brain with all my will power to stop spinning around and around with wedding ideas, or even process daily life tasks like making it to the dry cleaners.

Am I crazy? Pathetic?Alright I'm out.

A sweetheart wedding dress: cupcake edition

 Well helloooooooooooo.

I took a little hiatus, last week came brought on a few challenges, so this post is long overdue. I gotta say, how does everyone feel about the time change?!? It was awesome at first because we got an extra hour of sleep, but now its just dark. haha. Such is life, the grass is always greener.

Alright! now on to what I really came here to gab about.  Last week I asked (most of) my bridesmaids, with hand-delivered cupcakes that looked like wedding dresses. It was pinterest inspired of course! I saw the cupcakes and just knew I wanted to use them at some point in my wedding planning process. After I asked my sister to be my Matron of Honor, (I had to ask her first, duh! ..see how I asked here) I very impulsively asked her if she could replicate the pinterest cupcakes. So we headed to Michael's to see what we could accomplish. We made the cupcakes first, obviously. I think we used Pilsbury white cupcakes. Here is how the hard part went:

Pearl sprinkles to make the necklace above the dress from Michael's

We used fondant that my sister had on hand

 We used a regular ol' cup to cut out a circle out of the fondant and a heart shape cookie cutter to create a sweetheart dress line. First roll the fondant out, then use the cup to cut a circle.We used tweezers to place the pearls in the appropriate place.



I placed them in a whie box from Michaels, for $1.29 a piece. EASY! We wrapped them in Tulle for that Bridal Touch. 


Then I placed little notes I printed out in the box, and voila! I delivered them. I delivered them in so many different ways. I woke people up and asked them to meet me on their driveway, dropped off them on doorsteps, had my sister deliver one disguised as 'dropping off a dress I borrowed.'

I really had a blast giving them to my dearest friends. It was so flipping exciting. Asking someone to participate in countless events and spend money on you.... is hard for someone like me that hates to ask for things. So I had to do something to make myself feel better! I couldn't have seen myself asking in any other way, and I'm so incredibly stoked to have my best friends in my bridal party. Now if I could only find a date.... you girls may get off easy! I keed I keed. Thank you Emily, Anne Marie, Stephanie, Julie, Jessie and Lynette for graciously accepting my cupcakes. I'll never forget it!

A big thanks to my sister, she really whipped these up in so little time. I have tried to convince her a million times to start her own wedding cake business, and she insists that brides are just too hard to please. Maybe after I'm married she will change her mind, she's practically planning my wedding anyway! :)

I will write about my quest to find the real wedding dress soon... :)

Asking My Matron of Honor

This was a big weekend in wedding land.  I came to Austin to dress and venue shop with my sister, and I knew I had to find a cute way to ask her to be my Matron of Honor.  My wonderful co-worker Lindsey mentioned how she designed hand-made coloring books for the kids at her wedding reception, and the lightbulb went off: I should have my niece color the question! She's my future flower girl so I figured I'd put her to work! I keed, I keed. 

Here a some pics of her coloring:

and my sister, we look nothing alike:

The whole process didn't go as planned (of course it didn't). 

I tasked my bro-in-law with having Ceci color the page, and after a long day we walked in to my niece coloring. Rob says "uh, she's coloring it right now," and My sister was like "huh, coloring what?" 

Pretty much bombed the suprise! 

But my sister looked at it, was confused initially, then started cracking up and whispered to Ceci to tell me 'yes.'  Ceci then got shy and ran away, which was pretty hilarious in itself. She definitely had no clue what was going on, but I think it will be such a great story to tell Cecily when she is older.

Overall this weekend was a success! I have a matron of honor, ate Maudie's twice, and saw the kids. I was super exhausted after it all, and then we got an extra hour of sleep to fix it!

A big, big thanks to Mrs. Lindsey Peters, you can read her blog post about creating the coloring page here.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Bride Brain to the Max!!

I'm driving to Austin this weekend for an intense wedding planning session with my sister, and I'm so excited I could pee my pants. We plan to look at venues, dresses, and hit up the Austin Bridal Expo. My sister has set up quite a few appointments, *thank goodness* she's so organized, and I have a suprise up my sleeve to show her how much I appreciate all of her help! I can't wait to share it with you all soon!!  I say you all, and nobody even reads my blog! haha. Here's the song that is playing on repeat in my head!

Have a good weekend everyone!! - Tessy

20 Mosquitoes bites and an Engagement ring :)



Matthew and I went to Galveston to hang out and fish with his parents. First of all, their was a sudden INVASION of mosquitoes, and I literally had to change at least 3 times, and spray myself with OFF underneath and over my my clothes. I was immediately grumpy - Mosquitoes love me and seriously FREAK me out. Matt kept telling me to stop being so ridiculous, and I would scream back "they are biting me through my clothes!" I talked myself into cheering up - I was determined to catch some fish.  We bought a fancy (hot pink) pole, I baited my own line (live shrimp) for the first time, and caught my first fish ever !!  A 14-inch  speckle trout! Then Sunday Morning we fished again, I caught another trout and we headed out to brunch with his parents at Sunflower Cafe. We came back to the house and watched the Texans as usual, just the ol' Sunday routine. We spanked the Titans, I was beyond tired, and ready to head back to Htown. Then Matt said, "honey, I need to take you somewhere." I immediately knew something was up and boy did I get nervous. I slapped on some make-up and a nice dress just in case in 25 minutes flat, created some weird hair do and started sweating my buns off..  We started driving towards TBD restaurant, and I was too shy or nervous to ask where we were going.  I fumbled with some CD's and tried to find something a little more romantic than Lady Gaga or Britney Spears; all I could produce was Kings of Leon, kind of lame I know, but I didn't have anything else! We eventually stopped at the Sea Wall. We had dinner at Gaido's, and throughout dinner Matt did not seem particularly nervous so I convinced myself that it was a decoy. I tried to stay calm and just kept on with normal conversation while repeating in my head "do not be disappointed if it doesn't happen. do not be disappointed if it doesn't happen.' We began driving back to his parents house, and instead of taking a right to the house, he took a left to the beach. I thought, this really might be it.  I walked up to the beach, saw this and immediately knew what was about to happen. Matthew was about to propose.

 

I can't even remember what he said!! But I replied 'Of Course!' Then he told me the ring was already insured, he knows me-oh-so well!! We called all our family members, then posted it on Facebook of course. 


In all honesty, I dreamt about this day for a while, but I never knew how crazy it would feel. I think if Matt had given me a ring in a cracker jack box,  I would have been equally as excited. Pretty shocking overall! 


A big thank-you to Matt's parents for taking pictures and helping Matt set it all up. AND a big Congrats to Emily and Marci who also got engaged!