House Projects

I just realized it's been over 2 months since I last posted on this blog...yikes!! We've been waist deep in home ownership land taking care of various projects around the house. We have come quite a ways in our progress since the first days of our move, but still have a ways to go before I would consider our house 100% finished. I often wonder though if your home is ever "100% finished"? Probably not. Anyways, incase you're curious, here's a look at what we've been up to over the last few months.

Projects Completed

• Paint entire downstairs (kitchen, family room, living room, dining room, & foyer)
• Paint 1/2 bath
• Install new kitchen countertops 
• Install blinds (all 21 windows!)
• Paint master bedroom
• Paint my office
• Paint Rob's office
• Paint guest bedroom

Upcoming Projects

• Paint hall bath & master bath
• Paint stairway (need to hire a professional due to high ceilings)
• Paint upstairs hall way
• Reupholster living room couches
• Continue to decorate/hang photos on walls (this will always be a work in progress in my book...)

*Note :: These are just a look at our MAJOR house projects...if I posted my real "house to-do list", we'd be here all day.

AND here's a look at our upcoming outside projects...install sprinkler system, reseed lawn/finish landscaping, and install patio in backyard. We've been working really hard on the inside of the house, and are now redirecting our focus to the outside of the house for the next few months. Since construction was finished just before winter began, our lawn is still mostly a pile of mud :( We have a TON of work to do in the yard, but we've been meeting with various contractors over the last few days to line up some work to begin in the coming weeks. Our goal is to have most of the outside projects finished up by the end of June. Rob is just itching to get outside and work in the yard...so much so, he's been looking for "the perfect" lawnmower for months now. I have to admit that I am excited too. I can't wait to plant flowers and enjoy the yard (one of the main reasons we decided to sell our townhouse with our itsy bitsy patch of grass). We are also looking for the perfect rocking chairs to put out on our front porch as well...looking forward to spending many warm summer evenings out on the front porch chatting with neighbors :) 

Well, that's all for now...pictured above is Rob & I in front of the house as it is in it's current state. Hopefully next time I post we will have a lushious green yard :)

Happy 30th Birthday!

Today Rob turns the BIG 3-0! Although, he is insisting that the records at the hospital got messed up when he was born, and that today he really is just turning 29 - we'll see about that when Mama Schmitt gets here tomorrow to celebrate ;)

As some of you may know, I met Rob just a few days shy of his 25th birthday (we just celebrated our 5 year "meet-aversary" on Feb. 9th!), and to celebrate these milestones, I've compiled a few of my favorite memories we've had over the last 5 years together.

College Graduation :: May 2006 (Greenville, NC)

Beach Trip :: May 2007 (Topsail Beach, NC)

Right after he proposed :: July 2007 (Raleigh, NC)

Visit to MI for our engagement party :: July 2007 (U of M Campus - Ann Arbor, MI)

Rehearsal Dinner :: July 2008 (Houlihan's - Station Sq. Pittsburgh)

Wedding Day :: July 5, 2008 (Mt. Washington - Pittsburgh)

Honeymoon :: July 2008 (Cancun, Mexico)

Rob's Annual Work Christmas Party :: December 2008 (Pittsburgh, PA)

Christmas in NYC :: December 2008 (Dinner @ Tortilla Flats - Soho, NYC)

Vegas Trip :: March 2009 (Venetian - Las Vegas, NV)

Italy Trip :: July 2010 (Grand Canal - Venice, Italy)

Italy Trip :: July 2010 (Colosseum - Rome, Italy)

Happy 30th Birthday, babe! I love you very much! 

XOXO 

Cookie Recipe :: Santa's Surprises

You're probably wondering why I'm talking about "Santa" in mid February, right? Well, this past weekend I went down to visit family & friends in North Carolina and we decided to bake these "little delicious miracles" as I so fondly named them ;) The "surprise" inside the cookie comes in the form of a mini Snickers. In my attempt to bake (and cook) more in 2011, I asked to learn a few homemade cookie recipes from my Mom, who just so happens to be the best baker in the entire world. Ok, I know, every girl probably grows up thinking that about her Mom, so maybe I'm a bit biased ;) 

Anyways, these cookies have been an annual tradition in our house for many years (even after Christmas has come and gone), so I thought I would share this recipe with anyone who is interested in giving these a try.

 

Ingredients :: 

• 2 sticks butter (softened)
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup regular sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups sifted flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large bag of mini Snickers
• melted milk chocolate, for drizzling 
• powered sugar, for sprinkling

Directions :: 

1. Mix butter, peanut butter, and sugars with mixer (medium speed) in large bowl 
2. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined - dough should be light & fluffy
3. Sift flour into a separate small bowl 
4. Add sifted flour, salt, and baking soda to large bowl above (mix with mixer on medium speed)
5. After dough is well mixed, cover bowl with plastic wrap - chill in fridge for 2-3 hours
6. Preheat oven to 300*F - unwrap mini Snickers 
7. Remove dough from fridge and divide dough in 1 tablespoon size pieces
8. Roll dough pieces into ball and flatten with hands
9. Wrap each piece of dough around (1) mini Snicker - shape with hands until Snicker is covered completely 
10. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet (2 inches apart), then bake for 10-12 minutes
11. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet (3-4 minutes) before moving to baking rack
12. Let cookies cool completely
13. Drizzle cookies with melted milk chocolate (Dove milk chocolates work the best!), and then top with a light sprinkle of powdered sugar 

Note ::

• Recipe states it makes 2+ dozen cookies; however, we usually find that it makes much more...usually about 4 dozen.

Enjoy! : ) 

Photo taken with my iPhone. 

2010 :: Year in Review

Wow...where do I even begin?! 2010 has been an incredible year for us! While it hasn't been without it's bumps in the road, we feel very very blessed. We're in the final hours of 2010, and to commemorate what a truly great year this has been for us, I thought it would be fun to put together a 'Year in Review' post.

Without further ado...here are some of our 2010 highlights:

January :: The year started off with my official "retirement" of my 9-5 job. After much discussion, Rob and I decide that my wedding planning business has grown to the point where it needs my full-time attention. Boy, were we right! This was by far our busiest season to date, and I really have no idea how I would have juggled a full-time (or even part-time) day job in addition to all of my business responsibilities. I'm sure I would have found a way to handle it, but it was a huge blessing to be able to start off the new year as a full time business owner. THANK YOU to my wonderful husband for supporting my dream...for without you, none of this would have been possible.

February :: Snowmaggedon 2010 hits! Crazy amounts of snow fall on Pittsburgh (largest snow storm Pittsburgh has seen in 17 years!), which forced us to stay inside for nearly a week straight...cabin fever hit me hard! We did manage to get out here and there thanks to our lovely Expedition, but when we did manage to dig ourselves out we had to call ahead to make sure businesses and restaurants were actually open! Looking back, it wasn't so bad though...we made it through the brutal winter of 2010 and escaped with only minor ice damming on our townhouse. We were one of the lucky ones who maintained heat + electricity throughout the storm, as I know many friends closer to the city who were not so lucky in that regard. 

March :: Spring sloooowly starts to emerge in the 'burg, but with a foot of snow still on the ground, we head to sunny San Diego/Southern Cali for a quick getaway! It was such a fun trip visiting old friends and taking a stroll down memory lane where I grew up. I had fun showing Rob around my old neighborhood and introducing him to old friends I've known and kept in touch with since my days on the preschool playground. Although, the real reason for our trip to CA was for Rob's new job. After a lot of dedication and hard work, Rob receives a management role within his company, and heads to San Diego for a training course. I was lucky enough to come along for the ride ;)

April :: After chatting with a neighbor one Saturday afternoon, we learn that the townhouses in our neighborhood are selling relatively quick (and close to asking); therefore, Rob and I start exploring the possibility of listing ours. After looking at several houses on-line, we decide to hire a Realtor, and a few days later a FOR-SALE sign goes up in our yard! Thus begins crazy purging of closets and a massive cleaning project! After looking at a number of houses, we decide that building new is the way to go when/if we sell our townhouse. In the middle of all this hustle and bustle, I took on my first ever charity/fund-raising event. I was honored to donate my event planning services to the Midwife Center of Pgh for their annual "Let Them Eat Cake" event. Oh, and I can't forget Rob's first international business trip for his new position. Rob travels around the world and back embarking on his first of many trips to Hyderabad, India.

May :: Rob graduates from business school and earns his second graduate degree, an MBA. BIG congratulations to Rob on this accomplishment - from your very proud wife!!

June :: Wedding season begins! After a busy spring, we officially kick off our 2010 wedding season with the help of my new lovely assistant, Meghan. We have two weddings this month, Rob takes another trip to India, and in the midst of a busy June, we get our first offer on our townhouse! After negotiations and (literally) minutes before Rob gets on his flight around the world, we have a deal! Let the packing begin!!!

July :: Up, up, and away...we jet set off to Italy for 12 glorious days! Since I've already recapped our journey to Italy, I won't go in to much detail here. It was a trip of a lifetime, and if you have the opportunity to go to Italy, jump on it! You won't be disappointed! If you're interested, you can read my recaps of Venice, Florence, and Rome. Immediately upon our arrival back into the U.S., I have a very large wedding to prep for, and only 4 days to do it! July was insanely busy with travel, weddings, and packing, but somehow we managed to pull it all off! 

August :: We close on our townhouse, and close a big chapter in our lives. I didn't think I would be so emotional when we said goodbye to our first home and the place where we lived when we got engaged/married, but I was. It was sort of a bittersweet feeling, but it was meant to be. At one point during the home selling process, I basically just said "it's in God's hands now...if it's meant for us to move into a new home this year, it will happen", and it did. We spent a large majority of the month moving almost all of our personal belongings into storage, packed up our daily "necessities" and moved into a one bedroom apartment. I'm not gonna lie and say it was easy, but it was necessary to do while our new home was being built. We adjusted pretty quick minus a few temper tantrums and barking fits by this little guy :)

September :: Not much to report other than wedding season is still in full swing. We're about half way through at this point, with some of our largest weddings still to come. Rob takes two MORE trips to India over the span of 2 weeks. To see photos from his trips, click here.

October & November :: Yes, I'm grouping these two months together, because to be quite honest, they were really all a blur. We spent the majority of these months in "house mode" with 3 huge back to back weddings thrown in there as well. Check out my 'Latest Happenings' post for what we were up to during the months of October, November, and in to early December!

December :: We officially move into the house this month! Naturally, we spend much of this month unpacking and organizing the house while getting ready for the holidays. We spend Christmas in NYC, and are finally "this close" to a fully unpacked house. Tonight, we'll say goodbye to 2010, and will spend the evening ringing in 2011 with friends.

Writing this post has really made me realize how blessed we are, and what a great 2010 we had. Even though I'm sad to see this year pass so quickly, we are both excited to see what 2011 has in store for us! What are we looking forward to most in 2011? Making our new house a home, having friends and family over for dinner parties and BBQ's, another busy wedding season, and a mid-year trip to Vancouver, B.C.. And you never know...there just may be a few other surprises along the way :)

We'd like to wish all of our family and friends a wonderful Holiday season, and a happy, healthy year ahead! We'll see you in 2011!

- Sumer & Rob

Christmas In the Big Apple

Rob and I got up super early on Christmas Eve morning (5:30 am to be exact) to hit the road for NYC. We spent all of Christmas week unpacking the house (we're down to only 2 boxes - yay!), organizing closets and cabinets, and anxiously awaiting the installation of our new kitchen countertops. Because of a few meetings and all of our house projects, we had to travel on Christmas Eve, which actually turned out to be ok.

Normally I wouldn't bother with recapping our 8 hour drive to NYC, but this time the drive was quite entertaining. We started the trip off with only the best Christmas movie ever made - "Christmas Vacation" (thank goodness for mobile DVD players). It's not really Christmas until you watch Clark Griswold string 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights on his house, right?! After the movie we then decided to make a quick little detour to Reading, PA - home of the only Bojangles north of the Mason-Dixon line. {Side note: Bojangles is my favorite fast food restaurant EVER!} Reading, PA also happens to be located right next to Amish country. We enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful scenery - mostly wide open fields and farms. Everytime we drive through the area I always hope, wish, and pray that we'll see a horse + buggy, and we never end up seeing one. However this time my wish came true - we not only saw one, but TWO horse + buggies traveling alongside the road right next to us! I was definitely excited to see one up close (yes, I know this makes me a huge dork, and I'm ok with that) - just ask Rob - I was elated!

Fast forward a few hours later, and we arrive in the city. 

We headed to Rob's grandmother's home for the annual Schmitt Christmas Eve tradition - dinner, gifts, and family time. This Christmas Eve was lots of fun since there were 4 babies running around all under the age of 2. It was fun getting to see Christmas through their eyes. It's amazing how the simplest toy can brighten their day. (2 out of the 4 babies pictured below - Brandon and Christopher)

We spent Christmas Day at my mother-in-law's in Long Beach, NY for another full day of feasting. I think I counted 12 different types of cakes and pies - not to mention we had just eaten a 4 course meal following a huge hors d'oeuvre spread. All of the food was so good, and naturally, we ate entirely too much. (This is the view from my mother-in-law's balcony. Ironically enough, we didn't get a single snow flake in NY; although, my side of the family down in NC had one of their first white Christmas's in a LONG time.)

Since we had to leave NY a day early due to the pending snow storm on the way, we decided to get up early and head to Carlo's Bakery before we headed back to the 'burg. Both Rob and I are avid "Cake Boss" watchers, and let's face it, we never say no to dessert ;) Luckily, there were no lines to get inside the bakery, and we were able to walk right in. We didn't see any of the staff members that are usually seen on the show, but it was still fun to see the bakery in person and try a few goodies along the way. Let me just say that the pastries were unbelievably delicious - I'm not just saying that because I love the show either - they were really that good. 

It was sad to say goodbye to NYC and the Christmas season so soon - it seemed that those 2 days flew by in the blink of an eye, but it was a good Christmas nonetheless. We packed lots of fun memories into those 2 days, so driving 16+ hours in a time span of 48 hours or so was totally worth it! We hope that all of our friends and family around the U.S. had a wonderful Christmas! We're looking forward to ringing in the new year later this week. I've been working on our 2010 Year in Review post, and hope to have it finished within the next few days. 

Photos taken with my iPhone. 

Latest Happenings

What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been! I feel bad for neglecting this blog, as I really want to keep it updated as much as possible, but with our schedules lately it's been tough. I'm certainly not complaining though...I'm glad things have been busy. So, without further ado here's an update on our latest happenings: 

House Update :: We officially closed on our house right on schedule! Hurray! We closed the week of Thanksgiving, so our Thanksgiving was a little...let's say..."non-traditional" this year. We really didn't mind though...afterall, it's all about creating your own memories, right? I should probably mention that we still ended up eating Turkey though...we opted not to cook and went out to dinner instead. Luckily, my Mom flew up to help us with the house, so we at least had one member of our family with us for the holiday weekend. We spent 4 straight days painting, and boy does painting take it out of you! Between picking and re-picking colors, a dozen + trips to Home Depot (that's a conservative estimate), blue painter's tape, and dreaming about rollers and paint brushes we were spent! We ended up getting about 75% of the house completely painted, so overall we are happy with our Thanksgiving painting progress. Still a ways to go, but we'll get there. This weekend we make the official move!

Business Update :: We just wrapped up our last wedding of the 2010 season! I am beyond words incredibly grateful for such a wonderful season. This was by far our busiest season to date (almost doubling what we did last year!) and I could not have done it without the amazing support of Rob and my super fantastic assistant, Meghan. I'm working on drafting a huge thank you letter as we speak...

On another note, we had our first real snow of the winter season this past week! Normally I'm not one to actually get excited about the snow (I'm a Southern gal!), but this year I've been rather chipper watching the snow fall. Maybe it's because I'm working from home now and don't have to drive in it every morning, or maybe it's because the snow and all that comes with winter season is actually starting to grow on me. Either way, I've enjoyed it. Ask me again in late January or February and I might have a different answer ;) One thing with our new house is that we're a bit more out in the country now, and since I'm not very experienced driving in the snow (flash back to the winter of 2008 when I got stuck in a Burger King drive thru) we decided it was time to trade in my beloved Toyota Camry for a snow friendly vehicle aka an SUV with 4-wheel drive. I've had my eye on the Ford Escape for quite some time now, and yesterday my wish was granted :) Rob surprised me with a morning phone call that he was taking me out to look at cars! By the end of the day, I had myself a new 2011 Ford Escape Limited. Luckily I got my favorite color combination - red with tan interior...just an added bonus! This is my first NEW car, so I had to pinch myself a little when I got inside. (Photo below taken with my iPhone)

Hopefully over these last few weeks of 2010 (and before the holidays take over our schedules) I'll be able to take some more pictures of the house as it slowly comes together. My goal is to update this blog at least once a week or 3-4x per month, so hopefully I'll be able to stick to my goal. I really want this blog to be a place to document memories...no matter how small they may seem. I know this blog isn't super fancy (and may seem rather boring to some), but it's more about documenting the memories that Rob and I make together so we can reflect on these moments in the years to come. My next post? 2010 - A Year in Review. Stay tuned!

House Update

It's hard to believe that 2010 is almost over, and that we are already approaching the half way point through November. In just 2 short weeks we'll be doing the final walk thru of the house. Rob and I have been busy preparing for (and buying) everything that comes with building a new house...we joke that we might as well just move into Home Depot, because we are always there it seems like. You can probably find us at Home Depot (or Lowes) at least 3-4 times per week. We've made quite a bit of progress on our "to do" list for the house, purchasing our new fridge, garage door opener, blinds, etc... We still have quite a bit more to do, but every week we make progress. 

Below is a photo (taken with my iPhone) of the latest progress...as you can see, we're almost there. This was taken last Thursday, Nov 4th. They were installing our hardwood flooring that day - we got a sneak peek inside and we liked what we saw! Since then they've seeded our lawn (a nice surprise!) and will hopefully finish the porch by the end of this week. 

We're so excited to get inside and call this our home. My Mom will be coming up from NC the afternoon of our final walk thru to help us paint. She'll be staying with us through Thanksgiving to make the most out of her visit. I'm excited to have her here with us since she has a great eye for interior design. Like me, she too is obsessed with HGTV : )