About that infrequent posting thing...

So, I have been a delinquent blogger lately, but dont worry, things in Prepadelphia land are just peachy. Only one small issue... work has actually picked up quite significantly in recent days and so my spare time has been very limited. It may be this way for the next month or so but I should be back with you all as we head toward spring! I have been enjoying reading all of your blogs still and although I might not be commenting very often, I'll be keeping up for sure. AND, since a bunch of friends getting married this summer, I should have some fun insights coming up as we approach wedding season 2009. So, until then, stay warm and beat those winter blues, spring is right around the corner!

Tag!

Katie from A Preppy Girl's Guide to Cross Country Living tagged me a couple of days ago for her fun quiz. Thanks Katie! Here goes.

Step 1: Respond and rework—answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.

Step 2: Tag eight other un-tagged people.

1. Make a list of things you can see without getting up: I am in my office at work, so... Chase Utley bobblehead, silver framed and monogramed calendar from the Pottery Barn, candy jar with only Hershey Kiss crumbs remaining (I need more ASAP), picture of Mr. Prepster and me on our honeymoon in Italy - we are sooo tan, and my coat and scarf hanging behind the door!

2. Favorite football team: Philadelphia Eagles!

3. Who is the most famous person you know? Hmm, don't really know anyone famous but one of my sorority sisters from college was on Survivor in Africa. She made it to the tribal council part at the end but didn't win.

4. What’s the last thing you read/are currently reading? I read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button sometime right before Christmas. Planning to read Suite Francaise soon.

5. Who was the last person you hugged? Mr. Prepster this morning when we woke up.

6. What’s your current obsession/addiction? Finding new, quick dinners to cook at home after work. I've been doing a better job planning my grocery lists lately, so that is a good start I guess.

7. What was the last thing you said aloud? I gave my boss an update about what's been going on with some transactions I've been working on while he's been in Newport Beach today (did I mention I'm jealous?)

8. What was the last thing you bought? Lunch for my friend who turned 26 today!

9. What are you listening to right now? Myself typing... it is really quiet at work right now.

10. What is your favorite weather, and why? Definitely those warm night of summer when you can eat outside and not be too cold or too hot.

11. Hmm, Katie must have skipped this one. There is no 11. on her list so I'll add mine here. What is your first memory as a child? Going to Disney World when I was 3 and having a swan bite off my shoe while I was in a stroller (seriously!).

12. What is your most challenging goal right now? Finding enough time to work out and pursue other non-work and non-home related hobbies.

13. Say something to the person who tagged you: Katie, I think we would have become friends if you wouldn't have moved away from Philadelphia. We seem to have so much in common!

14. If you could have a house–totally paid for, fully furnished–anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? Positano, Italy.

15. Favorite vacation spot? Beaver Creek, Colorado. Grew up going every year, sometimes twice. Love skiing, love the relaxing atmosphere, love the scenery.

16. What is your favorite children’s book? Goodnight Moon.

17. Name one thing you just can’t resist no matter how bad it is for you: Pizza.

18. Favorite hair product? Hair straightning iron. I look like a lion without it.

19. What is the first tape or CD you ever bought? The tape single for Two Princes by the Spin Doctors.

20. Describe your perfect day: Waking up post 9am in a gorgeous hotel somewhere interesting with Mr. Prepster at my side. Breakfast in bed then seeing where the day takes us.

21. The Added Question – What is your favorite outfit? Jeans, a silky top, cute heels, bangle bracelets and earrings that dangle.

I tag...
MMM
Prep-E Girl
The Pink Tutu
Adventures of a Southern Newlywed
Sweet, Sassy and Always Classy
Magnolias & Juleps
Spanish Preppy Girl
Lou Lou in Lilly

Can't wait to read your responses!

Be Back Soon...

A little in over my head all of a sudden but hope to be back with you later this week.

Blog Award

Thanks to DC Prep who tagged me for the Honest Scrap Award. Along with this award, I am supposed to list 10 honest things about myself. So here goes...

1. My favorite accessory is definitely a scarf. In the fall and winter I wear one almost every day and usually try to match them to my outfits so I can keep them on when I'm chilly.

2. Having clutter in the house really bothers me. I make sure to tidy up and throw away and extra mail, newspapers, etc. before bed almost every night. I have tons of bins and other modes of organization that I swear by.

3. I love receiving magazines and catalogs. I subscribe to many magazines, including Self, Glamour, Better Homes & Gardens and Bon Appetit. Every time I go to the airport I treat myself with UsWeekly or InStyle :)

4. I am left-handed.

5. I went to college and graduate school in the south. I think I am a southern girl at heart and want to move back some day.

6. My favorite professional sport to watch is baseball. My husband and I watch the Phillies on tv pretty much every night during the summer. We attend several games in person each year too, and I only eat hot dogs when we go to the game. For some reason I find them gross in all other instances but love them at the game.

7. I would travel just about every weekend if I could. I really enjoy going to new towns and cities and staying in hotels. Boutique hotels are my favorite, and I especially like the decor and style in the Kimpton Hotels.

8. I don't enjoy most movies - weird, I know, but I usually can think of so many other things I'd rather do with my two hours than watch a movie.

9. We have way too many proper drink glasses relative to the amount of entertaining we actually do. I think I went a little overboard on my registry as I have 12 of each of monogrammed cocktail glasses, water glasses, martini glasses, white wine glasses, red wine glasses and champagne flutes. Hopefully I will have more time for entertaining later in life.

10. I love to cook and try to make a proper dinner every night, even if it means we don't eat until 8 or 9pm. It is a good way for me to unwind at the end of each work day.

I tag anyone who wants to play along!

Out from Under the Covers

I've finally emerged from home after a horrible case of the stomach flu. Not fun, but the important thing is I am back just in time for the weekend. Lots to look forward to with my birthday celebration upcoming as well as the Eagles in the Conference Championship Game and Monday off work for MLK Day!! I think Mr. Prepster is going to take me here for my birthday dinner. Such a pretty setting and I can't wait to drink out of one of their lovely wine glasses. We will need to bundle up because it is supposed to be in the single digits here in Philly. Anyone seen any preppy and cute scarves, hats or mittens lately? I am in search of some new ones.

9 Resolutions for '09

Here's what I hope to "improve" about myself this year...

1. Work out at least twice per week (gotta start somewhere, right?)

2. Drink more water (hopefully a consequence of actually achieving 1.)

3. Invest in more special, interesting clothes that I actually need and will wear for years to come instead of mindlessly purchasing whatever tops are on final sale each season at J.Crew

4. Cook more, eat out less

5. Find reasons to have friends over for appetizers, dinner, drinks, etc., i.e. actually use all of my cute wedding serving plates and things!

6. Read more quality books (my list of books read last year consisted of way too many with the word "shopaholic" in the title)

7. Attend church more regularly and give thanks for my wonderful marriage, family and good health

8. Keep in better, closer contact with my two siblings

9. And finally, pay off my student loans

Happy New Year!

Hello blog friends and Happy 2009 to all. After a very busy Christmas season I'm looking forward to unwinding a bit in January and catching up on my blogging. This weekend was a good start to what I hope will be a more relaxing 2009. Mr. Prepster and I spent New Year's Eve and the weekend here, and it was just lovely! We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a room with a fireplace... so cozy. We played Scrabble, watched movies, went to a very cool restaurant for NYE dinner and then another very yummy restaurant later in the weekend and generally just spent a couple of days just being together without distractions or interruptions. This is the first year we haven't done a big NYE reunion with friends from out of town, but honestly (and not that we don't love seeing our friends), I don't think we missed anything. I'm pretty confident we'll all see each other plenty with the multiple weddings that are scheduled for this summer and fall. Oooh, and I wore one of my favorite Christmas gifts, my new pink Victoria Ruffle Cami, on NYE. Those who have been following this blog know that I've been coveting this top forever... And I'm happy to report it is even cuter than it looked online!

Wedding China and The Big Tumble

On Saturday night we had the pleasure of having dinner on our wedding china for the very first time! Mr. Prepster and I hosted his parents for a second round of Christmas since we had been out of town visiting my family the week prior. I figured it was about time we got it out after having stared at the china and stemware in our display cabinet for more than a year. I was so hesitant to use it though because I am always terrified to break anything, but after "the big tumble" on Friday afternoon I figured my luck couldn't get any worse...

I have been trying to (slowly) collect the serving pieces that match our china. Mr. Prepster surprised me while I was at home with his 2nd (I hope annual) addition to my collection, the Open Vegetable Bowl (like this one but in my pattern pictured at left). Of course I was thrilled and couldn't wait to get it back home to use it for Saturday night dinner. Not so fast.

This dish had to travel on a plane with us on Friday afternoon. So I decided I would carry it on, all wrapped up in a box and shopping bag, and not risk checking it. This seemed like a good plan until Mr. Prepster opened my parents' SUV's back hatch at the airport. Guess what came tumbling out... yep, only the bag with the Herend box. The beautiful bowl was in about 100 tiny pieces, some of them on the sidewalk. I was so upset that I didn't really stop crying until we got on our plane an hour later. I just couldn't believe it wasn't coming back with us. Luckily, our friends at Clossons, where I had registered for my wedding, took pity on us and offered a replacement at a discount. And my mom is convinced I can use the broken pieces for something like a mosaic table top one day... we'll see if that really happens though.

So, has anyone else broken a piece of her wedding china? Do you use your china often?

Hello Again!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I am back to work today after a wonderful break from everything and am looking forward to catching up on all of my favorite blogs and reading your comments. Christmas week was fantastic. Lots of celebrating with both my family and Mr. Prepster's family (we had two Christmas breakfasts and Christmas dinners this year!) and so many fantastic gifts were given and received. We were truly blessed. Hope everyone had fabulous holidays as well.

Holiday Mental Health Day

In the midst of all of the holiday shopping, cooking, hosting and decorating we've been doing lately, I decided I needed a little break from the office today. Plus it was so rainy out. So, I stayed home! I did have to work remotely for the morning hours, but since then, I've been drinking the yummy hot chocolate Mr. Prepster got me for St. Nick's day in my Christmas mug, wearing cozy sweatpants, baking peanut butter kiss cookies and red velvet whoopie pies and wrapping presents. It has been a wonderful day! And the best part is, only one more real work day before the weekend.

Holiday Tag

My Life in Pink and Green tagged me to list 6 holiday-related facts about myself, so here goes...

1. I almost always go shopping on Black Friday. Bring on the crowds, the decorations and the deals. There is nothing like it to get you in the holiday spirit.

2. My family has always celebrated both advent and St. Nick's Day. So every year on December 1 I get out my childhood advent calendar with little drawers numbered 1-25. Mr. Prepster and I alternate days so we get or give a small surprise to each other every other morning. On the morning of St. Nick's Day, December 6, we fill each others' stockings with the first gifts on Christmas.

3. My favorite Christmas cookies are very elaborately decorated butter cookies that have been cut into shapes like trees, stars, angels, gingerbread men, snowmen, etc. with colored icing and sprinkles. I love to spend a whole Saturday making and eating these pretty cookies.

4. I love hot chocolate, especially during the holiday season. For me hot chocolate should have at least one of the following accompaniments: whipped cream, marshmallows or a candy cane. One of my favorite holiday traditions from growing up is the hot chocolate my mom would make on Christmas morning. She would make a big pot on the stove with real melted chocolate and whole or 2% milk and top it with whipped cream and a candy cane for a stirrer. When the candy cane melts in it there is a wonderful peppermint flavor. We would get to take it in the living room in our snowman mugs and enjoy it while opening our gifts. Yum.

5. I like to open my gifts very slowly, one at a time, and organize them in piles to admire for the rest of Christmas day. I also save all the ribbons and carefully fold them so they can be re-used (mild OCD - maybe).

6. I have wonderful flannel PJs with holly and berries on them that I only wear for the Christmas season.

I tag these 6 preppy bloggers:
A Preppy Girl's Guide to Cross Country Living
Magnolias & Juleps
Preppy Sue
The Pink Tutu
The Prep-E Girl
Third Coast Preppy

Christmas Shopping - Can't Wait!

Tomorrow we are off to the mall to work on our shopping list! I can't wait. One big day of Christmas shopping and tasty mall lunch is something I look forward too literally all year long. (Just ask Mr. Prepster, I've been bugging him to "officially" schedule our day for a while!) I just love all looking at all of the decorated stores and choosing gifts and actually, seeing the crowds of people doing the exact same thing. It really gets me in the Holiday spirit. Of course we'll have to start out our shopping day with something yummy in a red cup too. To all of those with a similar Saturday planned, happy trails and good luck gifting!

Happy December!

I love December and was excited to start my advent calendar this morning. I'm very busy today though so I will have to wait to give a full update tomorrow... Hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and L O N G holiday weekend!

50th Post!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We're headed to Mr. Prepster's parents house this afternoon and will be there until Sunday. I can't wait to have a relaxing weekend outside the city in a quaint, small town and am excited that as soon as Thanksgiving is over, Christmastime will be here! I love the month of December and will surely want to hurry home and put up our tree and decorate our house on Sunday. Some things I'm thankful for this year... a healthy family, a loving husband, a warm home, a rewarding job and wonderful friends in my still relatively new city, oh, and that the Phillies won the World Series. Some things I'm looking forward to for this weekend... seeing my little nephew and Mr. Prepster's family, helping cook a yummy meal, eating pumpkin pie, sleeping in, watching football and shopping for Christmas gifts on black Friday.

Can you believe Prepadelphia has 50 posts! Thanks for all of your support and comments.

Big Weekend

We've had a jam-packed but fun-filled past couple of days, hence my neglect of this blog. Our weekend was kicked off with delicious restaurant week dinner on Friday night. For you non-Prepadelphians, restaurant week is an agreement among many of the nice dining spots in the city to offer a 3 course tasting menu for only $35! It is a great way to try new places you might not choose to splurge on otherwise.

Saturday was our annual fall adventure to Linvilla for the farmer's market, apple picking and a picnic. Picnics may just be one of my all time favorite romantic activities. Sadly, Mr. Prepster is less keen on sharing his lunch with nature, but he was a good sport. That was followed by dinner with friends and homemade apple crisp:

5 medium tart baking apples (I used Jonagold this time)

2 T lemon juice

1/2 stick cold butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Peel, core and slice the apples and place them in a mixing bowl with lemon juice. Combine the cinnamon and nutmeg with brown sugar and pour it over apples. Stir to coat the apples and set them aside. Combine flour, sugar and oats in another mixing bowl. Slice butter into 8-12 small chunks and stir it into the dry ingredients. Mix until the butter is coated then add walnuts. Grease a square baking dish and spread the apples on the bottom. Pour dry ingredients over the top and bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Try not to eat it all...

Despite the urge to camp out on the sofa, today was another high energy one as we tailgated and cheered our Eagles on to victory over the terrible towel-waving Steelers at Lincoln Financial Field. Whew, I'm exhausted and feel like I need another weekend to recover from this one! Hope everyone has had an enjoyable couple of days.

Ahhh, Fall

It is perfectly Fall outside today, clear and sunny with a little crispness in the air, and I am loving it. Here are my favorite things about my favorite season:

Apples. I love apple picking, apple crisp, apple cider, caramel apples, honeycrisp apples... you get the idea. Mr. Prepster and I are going on our annual apple adventure this Saturday. Can't wait.

Cardigans. I look forward to adding to my "collection" each year. This year I'm lusting over these ruffled ones from J.Crew.

Football. Oh how I miss the atmosphere of college (and grad school) tailgates and game days. But the TV and couch with a nice bowl of popcorn (Blue Ridge Kettle Corn is the best) isn't so bad either.

Pumpkins and gourds. I like to decorate our house with these items and find recipes that use them, like squash soup and pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing. Last year I made a flower arrangement like this using a pumpkin as a pot and it lasted for several weeks and was a fab centerpiece.

A Rough Start

So my knitting adventure last night didn't go quite as planned. Let's just say I am a complete buffoon when it comes to knitting.

To summarize:

I dropped my needles on the floor about seven times. I knew I was in for struggle when K, our instructor, said to hold the needles like chopsticks - I can't work chopsticks to save my life.

K had to unravel my work and re-"cast-on" my yarn to my needles twice.

I couldn't decide whether I should be right- or left-handed. This is a common issue for me, but more on that another time.

The gal next to me, M, was an absolute pro. She had completed about 10 stitches before K had finished explaining the chopsticks method for holding the needles. Luckily she was super nice and ended up giving me a couple of great tips.

When the rest of the class was learning to "purl" because they had completed the requisite five rows of the "knit" stitch on our practice swatch, I didn't even have one good row. After two hours I never did get those five rows so I didn't graduate to purling. To avoid getting too far behind, I have to try to teach myself via an online tutorial or perhaps by watching someone knit on you tube this week. Yeah, as if that is going to work. Know any good tutorials or videos?

We did not exactly get to choose our yarn. So no pretty pink or orange cashmere for me. K thought we should use something as thick and as light in color as possible since beginners are such slow knitters and light colors make it easier to see your stitches. So I am going to have pale yellow of this for my scarf.

I have to admit that even despite all of my troubles, I absolutely loved it! I practiced after class at home and have gotten a little better. My husband, Mr. Prepster, thought I was absolutely nuts when he walked into our bedroom and I was knitting in the bed. Oh well, let's hope I improve before we actually start the scarf pattern next week!

Hello Preppy Friends!

Lately I've been a little slow at work due to this but I've been so inspired by all of the fantastic preppy blogs out there that I've decided to join the party. Early family photos let me know that I was always a preppy girl at heart. Yes, there were sailboats, polka dots, hair ribbons and knee socks and I may or may not have matched outfits with my sister (and brother and Mom). My current sense of preppy has been shaped by a midwestern upbringing, a couple of southern universities and now, life as a 20-something newlywed in my new home on the East Coast. I hope to dish out and gain even more preppy style as I share my latests goings on in my Prepa-, er, Phila-delphia world.