Happy Fall Y'all!

What in the world happened to the warm weather? Yesterday I was in shorts & flip flops and today is was 62 degrees. I'm not complaining, I actually LOVE cold weather. I just didn't expect it to come so soon. Has the temp dropped suddenly in your city?

Love these fall colors!

This cool weather has me ready to start my fall decorating. I don't want to spend too much money on decor since I still need to invest in my everyday decor. Hubby & I decided that we were going to try & look for an art piece when we go to New Orleans in 3 weeks. Have I mentioned I am SO ready to go?

In other news, one our local banks was robbed & a police officer killed the 2 suspects after they drove away & crashed about 1 block from the bank. They haven't released the names yet...but based on the description of one of the guys, I am suspecting it may be the father of one of my recent brides! Isn't that awful!! I am praying it's not him. But if it isn't, it's definitely one of his co-workers based on the company said suspect works for. I'll update when they release the names. 

Here is an actual pic from the crime scene...

Tonight we're going to a surprise birthday dinner for my friend Qwan. His birthday is actually Friday, so to throw him completely off his sister decided to have a dinner party tonight. We'll see if I remember to take pictures. I have just been so terrible about pictures. I guess when you do it for a living you forget to take pics for yourself.

happy hump day!

Weekend Recap

Friday night was my sis-in-law's 30th birthday....and she wanted to go to dinner at Applebee's. They recently renovated all the local Applebee's so its "hip" to hang out there again. They have karaoke on Friday nights so it has a lounge vibe...kind of.

Now mind you, this is the same Applebee's that I had THIS terrible experience at a few weeks ago.

The dinner started at 8, but we all knew we wouldn't be seated right away bc we had a party of 20. That is understandable.  But we got seated at 10:15pm...TWO HOURS AND 15 MINUTES! I was beyond annoyed. And then it took another hour before our food arrived. We didn't leave until after midnight! WTF?

We didn't so much as get an apology for the wait, no free desert for the birthday girl, NOTHING. 

Seriously Applebee's, that was strike 2. 

We got her this pretty necklace via my fav, QVC.

Saturday was pretty low key. We hung out at home & had some friends over as usual.
Of course the hubby is SO happy that college football was back. I was disappointed with Georgia but happy as hell about LSU. He went to college in Louisiana so he's a big LSU fan.

Sunday we threw a bbq for  labor day/ sis-in-law's 30th. Her hubby cooked all the wonderful food.  We had a houseFULL of people alllll day.

I of course got my 1 hour of True Blood in. I am so sad it's almost over bc is just so good. I am glad they finally killed the witch but annoyed that she is going to be back next week via Lafayette...which means they're going to leave us with a big cliff hanger until next year!

Ahh Monday...that god for holidays! I was so glad to be off. The hubby & I hung out at home most of the day. It was rainy here...and there is no place like home on days like this. When it finally stopped, we went to the mall because I heard Dillards was having their annual 65% of shoe sale.

I scored these lovely nude shoes by Jessica Simpson for $20! I saw Kim Kardashian tweeted something about nude shoes making your legs look longer, yaddi yadda, and I didn't own a pair of nude shoes, so for $20 why not. Now I have to find something to wear them with and wear them to. So now I'm on the hunt for a cute dress to wear for my birthday...3 weeks away!

Back to the work week...I hope it goes by quickly for everyone! :)

Better After

Does anyone else follow Better After? OMG I am always SO amazed by all the creative & talented people that are featured.

This particular before & after really caught my eye & impressed me SO much. I need a jewelry organizer so bad but I doubt that I would even have the patience could make this. 

 

Isn't it FABULOUS?!

For step by step instructions visit the talented Beckie from Infarrantly Creative!

Paula Deen's Smother Porchops

The hubby & I were watching Paul Deen yesterday and that woman KNOWS she can cook! She doesn't skimp on the butter at all! lol! Gotta love that woman!

So yesterday she was making smothered porkchops and decided that's what we wanted for dinner. So we hopped in the car and went right to Piggly Wiggly. Does anyone else have a Piggly Wiggly? They were actually America's first self service grocery store! back in the day, you would give your grocery list to a store clerk and they would gather the items for you. In 1916, the first Piggly Wiggly opened and they had baskets available for customers to shop themselves. They actually have quote an interesting story. 

Anyways, I digress...

So here are the ingredients:

• 4 center-cut pork chops, 1-inch thick
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Ground cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, spread on a plate
• 2 medium green bell peppers, stemmed, cored, and membranes removed, cut into strips
• 2 yellow onions, trimmed, cut lengthwise
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 to 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Trim the excess fat from the chops and season well with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Lightly roll the chops in flour, shake off the excess, and slip them into the pan. Brown well, about 3 minutes per side, and remove them to a plate.

Add the bell peppers and onions, to the skillet, and saute until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about half a minute longer. Push the vegetables to the side of the skillet. Add chops to pan and place vegetables on top of pork chops. 

Pour in the broth and sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce. Cover pan with foil and allow to simmer for 45 minutes or until chops are tender.

And then voila... SO GOOD y'all! You must try this recipe!

Don't judge me for using paper plates! I didn't feel like washing dishes. 

So what are everyone's plans for Labor Day weekend? My sister-in-law is turning 30 so we are having a dinner tonight, a party tomorrow, & a bbq Sunday. And I have a photoshoot Saturday morning. I am SO sleeping in Monday. Everyone have fun & be safe!

Home Decor

So as promised here are the few items I purchased lately to decorate our home.First up is my favorite. It's a mirror I found at TJ Maxx for $40.  I love that is has a silver tone to it, but it's not a bright shiny metal. The size is perfect for the space. Now I'm working on having some curtains made for the windows.

I love the texture in the frame!

For the living room I bought 4 pillows.

It is amazing what a difference that pillows can make!

These I found at another local TJ Maxx. 

The brown ones were $12 each and the white ones were $16.99 each.

What do yall think?

Now if I could just find something to go on these large empty walls!

Weekend Recap

Did ya miss me? This was supposed to post Monday, but I put the date as 8/29/2012 by mistake!

I am recovering for our big bbq we had yesterday. We decided to throw a just because party since he hadn't had one in a while.  We had so many friends over & would you believe these are the only pics I snapped...

All the yummy meat...

 the yummy drinks...

 the yummy dessert!

I have a funny story about the dessert. One of the hubby's friends made those strawberry & pineapple no bake cheesecakes. They were delicious. Once all the single ladies heard a man had made these desserts, they were on him like white on rice. I couldn't believe how many women started talking to him. He was so shocked that he said he was going to start baking for all our dinner parties and bbqs. LOL! One of the other single guys said, "man, I need to learn how to make cheesecake!" So the old saying that a way to man's heart is through his stomach...I guess that applies to women as well!

Sunday the hubby & I celebrated his little cousin's 11th birthday. We bought her a small cake & a gift.

 (excuse quality, I used my point & shoot camera)

Sunday night I of course watched True Blood.

I am so sick of this witch Marni! I can't wait til this Sunday to see the whole war between witches & vamps. I'm sure we all know who will win in the end.

New Phone

I got a new phone yesterday. My poor blackberry had been dropped 1 too many times and wasn't funtioning properly. It kept dying each time I accessed the internet. Luckily my friend was ready to upgrade & sold me his Samsung Galaxy S for $50.  Can't beat that price with a stick! And I didn't have to renew my contract, woot woot!

So here she is:

I hate her.  I love the apps, the vibrancy, etc etc. But I can't stand the touchscreen. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way. But I loved my BB keyboard. It's gonna take some getting used to, but so far that is my one & only major complaint.

I FINALLY did a little decorating. We repainted the living/dining room last year and since then our walls have been bare. When it comes to interior design, my mind just doesn't function. I didn't want to just buy anything so I'm taking babay steps. I bought 1 mirror for the dining room and 2 pillows for the couch. That's it! I still have 2 huge blank walls in our living room. I have no idea what to do! And I still don't have curtains for all the windows which is driving me crazy. I do know I want navy blue and white chevron print curtains for the dining room to offset the stripes.

I'll post pics in my weekend recap of the few items I have bought. I'm going to go out and look some more today. AGHH!

Have a great weekend!