Fat Quarter Sale

Today I wasn't feeling well at all.  I basically just layer around all day doing nothing.  The only thing I dragged my butt off the couch for was to stop at Joann for a few minutes.  Their fat quarters were only 99 cents and I had been waiting for a while to get some.  Exciting, I know.  Back to the couch!

Shop 'Til We Drop!

I think I shopped more today than I have in the last 6 months combined!  Ok...maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but still!

Ash and my mom came over for the day.  Peter joined us and I'm pretty sure he was regretting that at some point haha.  We went to Robinson, Cranberry, and made a stop for dinner at Wooden Indian followed by Bruster's for dessert.  Fun times and great food!  I didn't actually buy that much.  I bought 2 cute necklaces at New York & Co. for $2.99, some Yankee Candle votives for $1/each, and Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Soap for $2.50 at Bath & Body Works.  It's my absolute favorite scent for fall and I was pumped that the "Halloween" graphic bottle was on clearance already!

I also started my Christmas shopping for others.  It feels so weird that it's getting to be that time of year!

By the time we got home, we were definitely exhausted.  We probably won't be able to keep our eyes open much longer...

Pumpkin!

I wanted to make pumpkin bread today and only had a big can of pumpkin.  So I made 3 loaves of pumpkin, 1 batch of pumpkin fudge, and pumpkin cream cheese.

I put chocolate chips in the pumpkin bread so of course those loaves were deeelicious.

The fudge was a new recipe and was also very yummy.

While I like the cream cheese, it's definitely more desserty so I wouldn't use it on my bagels in the morning.  I was really looking for more like what I found from Kraft so the search will continue for that.

I wish I would've taken pictures of more than just the bread, but oh well.  I'll get a picture for the other things next time around!

Craft Night Alone

Tonight has been a relaxing evening for me.  Peter's gone with some guys form the gym at a fight and I stayed home to get some crafting done for my upcoming craft show.  My craft show is my "happy place" right now because it's where I can do all of my crafting, but we also closed it off during our battle with the fleas so we didn't see many, if any at all, there.  (And in the past week we haven't seen any in the house!! But we don't want to declare flea freedom just yet because we're afraid we'll jinx ourselves.)

I was able to get some onesies and burp cloths made as well as a bunch of flower clips/pins.

Now, onto vegging on the couch...

New Favorite Fall Outfit

I got this new dress from Target's clearance rack a few weeks ago for $6. It's quickly becoming a favorite. Comfy, cute, and can be layered. My 3 main fashion must-haves.   haha

Pumpkin Season!

If you know anything about me, then you know that I LOVE pumpkin flavored foods. I just spotted a new goody - pumpkin cream cheese. This morning I tried it on a honey wheat bagel and it was DELICIOUS! I washed it down with a pumpkin chai latte. Heaven!

New Sheetz

A new Sheetz opened in Monroeville and we got a bunch of coupons for free items.  Awesome, right?  Well, one of the coupons was for a free "coffeez" so I decided it'd be the perfect opportunity to try out one of their frozen chai beverages.  I saw that there pumpkin beverages were back for the season and asked for flavor shots of pumpkin to be added.  Yum-city.  This newly discovered treat did not disappoint and will likely be enjoyed many times this Fall.  :)

Kill Devil Hills OBX

Ahh, vacation! I miss it already!

We headed out early on Saturday from my parents' house. Lucky for us, that put us a little closer to the beach than if we were leaving from our house. We went a slightly different way and avoided the DC belts which was great! The drive actually didn't seem that long and we never got stuck in heavy traffic for long periods of time. Not to say there weren't a few knuckleheads along the way haha.

Mallory St! We only see this when we're on our way to the beach! :)

Crossing over the Chesapeake...

Starting to get excited to be getting so close!

We found a great deal on a new house this year. The pictures looked amazing and it definitely lived up to the expectation! While there were a few issues with a breaker box/hot water and the TV in the main living room, it was still a great house. We were also lucky since the house beside us and across the street from us was totally boarded up from the hurricane.

This is what you see when you walk in the front door. It's a game room with couches, a big screen TV, and shuffleboard. It also leads out to the pool/back yard.

When you walk up the stairs, you get to the dining room.

Off the dining room is one bedroom with its own bathroom. This is where Andrew stayed.

The view from the dining room/kitchen. It's the back yard and the ocean. Hard to tell from the picture, though.

This is the living room. Super comfy leather sofas!

The kitchen was in the corner between the living room and dining room. Very open - perfect for a vacation house!

On the third story was 2 bedrooms and a small game room area.

This was our bedroom. King-sized bed!

When we watched tv, it was usually while in bed since the main living room TV was broken all week. Our bathroom was awesome with a glass shower and separate jetted tub.

This was the view from the third floor. We could see the ocean! :)

It's hard to get a good picture of the bathroom, but this was ours.

This was the small game room with a poker table, TV, and air hockey table.

This was the other bedroom upstairs. Just like the one Andrew stayed in on the 2nd floor.

There was a pool, cement deck, and great yard space.

There was also a deck with rocking chairs on the ground level in addition to a second deck off the dining room with a dining table with chairs where we ate a few meals.

It was so relaxing to spend time in the pool. I read 1 book in 3 days. :)

The first day or so we just spent our time at the house because we were having so much fun. We grilled out, played games, read, and just had a great, relaxing time. This is a picture of one of our dinners we cooked: Grilled chicken, corn on the cob, caprese salad, and rice. Yum!

The beach was super crowded on Sunday-Monday, but the rest of the week was much more sparse.

Blue skies and ocean waves = so relaxing!




It was windy enough to even fly a kite.  Here's Peter and Andrew down the beach getting ready to fly a kite that they've had for years.


You can't see the kite in these pictures, but it's there.  See the string and reel in Peter's hands? :)




One evening we decided to go mini golfing.  Here's the 3 of us right before leaving.


I tried to get a nice picture of the boys, but this is what I got:


This one's better!


Me and the hubs:


We took Andrew to a place we went a few years go that has great mini golf courses.


Andrew picked up pretty much the smallest club.  Pretty sure it was for little kids.


So he had to play like this for the entire time.  We offered to wait while he switched it out, but he didn't want to haha.


My turn!


Why is mini golfing a must on vacations? :)


My hair was hanging in my face so I had to pull it back haha.


A few more shots of mini golfing:








The next afternoon we decided to go out for lunch to the Outer Banks Brewing Station.  It's cheaper for lunch and much less crowded!


Peter and Andrew enjoyed some Doghouse Tripel.  Peter and I also shared some Cream Soda - best we ever had!  Soooo delicious!


Outside the restaurant:




That night I tried to get some pictures of the sunset and dusk at the beach.  The pictures came out ok.














Andrew left part way through the week and after that, Peter and I were total beach bums.  I don't even have many pictures from the last few days haha.

Our last night we did go back to the Brewing Station for some more of the delicious crab bisque I had the first time and for some more Cream Soda!

Enjoying the Cream Soda! We would definitely buy some to bring back with us if they sold it.  Unfortunately, they only sell it in the restaurant.

My yummy dinner - salad and soup!


We are so thankful to be able to get time off and afford a trip like this.  It's definitely good for our souls to get away and have some fun without schedules and places to be, work to do, etc.  We love the Outer Banks and have been having fun staying in different areas each time we visit.  Next time we may try further south near Hatteras or Rodanthe - depending on their condition!