Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! I wish I had some scary post for today but I don't. I am excited it is halloween. Well because it is my favorite holiday. Every year on Halloween from middle school until high school I would throw a Halloween party for all my friends and I. Then in college, my friends and I would all carve pumpkins and of course go have a little fun at a party. This year Clark and I plan to hand out candy to trick or treaters and watch a scary movie tonight. Clark also gets off work early today so that is fun. 

We did have to carve another pumpkin because ours rotted and molded big time. Eww. You can see our other pumpkins here and our Halloween costume here. We did dress up and go out last weekend so that is when we got all dresses up in our costumes. Anyways Happy Halloween. 
love, Carlee

Goodbye October

Can you believe October is already almost over? I mean Halloween is tomorrow so yeah. I still can't believe 2013 is almost over. Only 2 more months were did the time go. Anyways here are some of my favorite instagram snaps from October.

- Hot Chocolate. I believe it was about 85 degrees while I was drinking this. But now the temperatures have dropped to around 50-60 so I can drink hot drinks with a little more confidence.

-We got our first puppy Knox. I can't believe how big he already is.

-Saw this giant milkshake roadside attraction Dairi-o and also stopped in while in King, NC.

-Took a trip to the mountains and drove the Blue Ridge Parkway.

-Clark helped me build a greeting card display for my greeting cards for upcoming craft shows.

-Clark brought home a mum plant by surprise.

-We carved pumpkins. They molded about a week later so today I am going to get another one so we can carve it before tomorrow.

-Knox chewing up this favorite toy.

-We went to a Fayetteville FireAntz hockey game. I usually love sports games and have been to hockey games before but this one was kind of a bust. There weren't many people and the game just wasn't very exciting.

Anyways October has been a great month and I am excited for both November and December and what they will bring our way.
love, Carlee

follow me: @carleewengel

Lake Rim

The weekends are precious around here. Clark is off work and we get to relax and go out and be active with our pup. Or do other things we enjoy. This past weekend was as you know Halloween weekend, we decorated our trunk and dressed up as The Princess and The Pea for trunk or treat at Clark's battalion. We are very excited for Halloween this Thursday and we are hopeing to get lots and lots of trick or treaters because we bought way to much candy. At least we bought candy we both like that way we can eat it if worse comes to worse. haha.

On Saturday, we took our little man on a walk around Lake Rim. This lake is only about 10 miles from where we live so it was a good little trip to take. I really like walking in nature, especially since we got Knox and he likes going on new trails and getting lots of excercise. There was plenty of people fishing on the dock and relaxing. Also the sky was so blue and pretty. It was a nice crispy fall Saturday. I am really enjoying the weather this fall season here in NC. So much better then the humid summer days. The autumn weather is perfect here. Not to cold just crisp and sunny and no humidity. 

We actually didn't walk all the way around the lake. We got about a third way around the lake and realize we had already gone a mile and there was still a ways to go so we decided to turn around instead of going all the way around. It was a good walk and Knox loved it. After we got home he passed out for a couple hours and just napped on the flour.

This is one of my favorite flannel shirts. It is actually a Mens shirt, if you didn't notice. It is comfy, big, loose, and perfect for a relaxed weekend.

I still have 2 post from our trip to the Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I will get around to posting them. It feels weird then you get backup up on blog post and yet want to continue on with what is happening in your day to day life. I will probably post one tomorrow so stay tuned for that. 

love, Carlee

DIY couple Halloween costume: The Princess and The Pea

For our first Halloween as a married couple we were The Princess and The Pea, you know from the children's story. I really wanted to be something clever and catchy and I had thought of this idea a couple months ago. Clark thought it was a good idea as well and so that is what we went with. Most people got what we were and some people had to be told that it was a couple costume and not just one or the other. Some people guessed Clark was a pear, frog ?, Mike Wazowski (from Monsters Inc.) but once they realized it was a couple costume then they got it right away.

How we made the costumes:

Carlee's: The Princess

-Pink Senior Year Prom dress

-Pink crown

-Hair and makeup 

-Done

Clark's : The Pea
-We ordered this beach ball online
-And paper mached it
-Cut the holes out for head, arms, and legs.
-Bought a mini sample paint from Home Depot and painted it green
-Done

So this was our 2013 DIY Halloween Costume. We were very happy with how it turned out and since Halloween is my favorite holiday, I like having a great costume. It is also really fun to have a partner in crime to dress up with. I am already thinking of what we should be for next year... What do you think?
love, Carlee

Mr. Knox

I know I talk about my pup Knox all the time but hey he is super cute and delicious so I just can't help it. Lately I have been noticing him growing more and more. It is crazy to watch something grow up before your eyes. I can't even imagine having a child. I think the reason I am so into my Knox man is because he was kind of unexpected to get. I mean we were looking for a pup but it all just came together, you can read more of the story here.

I want to have documentation of my little pup because I know before we know it he will be a full grown dog and at least I'll be able to look back at these photos and see our pup. I was talking to my mom of the phone the other day and telling her about Knox. I was frustrated because he had peed on the floor that day and also chewed up his bed a little. Usually he is really good, so I was frustrated. But my mom said it will be okay and it is nice because you treat your first dog like your first baby. Which I can agree with. I love my Knox man. 

love, Carlee

Historic Orchards at Altapass

I saw this orchard when I was researching places to stop and see along the Blue Ridge Parkway and I thought it would be a great stop. We almost missed the turn from the parkway but we made it. There was a ton of cars parked and lots of people walking around outside the barn. We got out of the car to check out the scene. 

We heard lots of laughter and music the closer we got to the barn. Once inside there was an old time string band playing and tons of people dancing. I was trying to get Clark to get out and dance with me but he was not having it. One of the first things we noticed was how the apples looked. I did grow up on an Apple farm and these apples were not very good. I did have a sample and they tasted great but didn't look so good. Small and bruised. But that might have just been because it was the end of the season. 

There weren't just apples for sale. There was apple butter, honey, jelly, also ice cream. We didn't buy anything but we did leave the barn and walked around the grounds a bit. It was a nice crisp fall day. And I loved the smell of apples in the air, definitely makes me miss home.
love, Carlee

Gross Farm

For the past few years I have gone pumpkin picking at local farms in Washington State and even though now I am living in North Carolina I know I still wanted to continue on this tradition. So I researched places to go pumpkin picking around our area and found a couple places one was Gillis Hill Farm and the other was this place Gross Farm. We choose Gross Farm because there was good reviews and we had never been.  Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday so I enjoy doing everything that comes along with the holiday and autumn. One thing that is a most do is a corn maze and picking pumpkins.

So that is just what we did. I wanted to bring our pup Knox but didn't know if it was a good idea so I message the Gross Farm Facebook page before we went and they said we could bring our pup. So we did. We headed about 20 minutes north of Fayetteville to Gross Farms. First we did the corn maze it was about 2 miles total, it didn't really seem like it because we were having so much fun running around and finding the check points. We got all 15 check points and we were very happy. Knox was tired as all heck when we were finished. We got him some water and he was ready to go pick pumpkins. Also I swear I don't wear these orange pants that often it just feels that way since my last three post consist of them. Clark even said "I like that you have your pumpkin pants on today." Exactly what I was going for... pumpkin pants.

We seem to have found the two larges pumpkins in the patch or so it seems. But it was fun and we had a great time. We headed home after the pumpkins and Knox immediately feel asleep at my feet in the car. I still can't get over how sweet he is. After we ate some lunch and relaxed a bit we carved our pumpkins. It was a good Saturday. We enjoyed our weekend, now enjoy your week.
love, Carlee

Pumpkin Pants: Marshalls

Sweater & Purse: Target

Boots: Cathy Jean

Scarf: Old

Festive Fall Weekend

We had a great weekend. Last night at dinner Clark and I were talking about our weekend and what we liked best about it. This past weekend was actually one of my favorites here in NC so far. We were just around home the whole weekend but it was still so good. It might be because Halloween is my favorite holiday and we got to do things related to that. 

Friday Clark brought home a giant mum plant, so pretty and friday night we spent the night paper macheing for Clarks Halloween costume. (more on that later.) 

Then Saturday we went to pick our pumpkins & do a corn maze at Gross Farms, post on that tomorrow. And then we spent the afternoon carving our pumpkins. Mine is the Wolf and Clark's is the meme face. 

Sunday we took Knox to a big dog bark where he got to interact with some big dogs. He did good. Also on Sunday we made Halloween sugar cookies. We have also been eating Jersey Mike's Subs like crazy. I didn't know of these until I moved to NC and they are awesome. I think Clark and I would eat these sub sandwiches everyday if we could. I also made some fun greeting cards to send to my Mom and a pen pal. 

It was a good weekend. One of the best here in NC.
love, Carlee

Grandfather Mountain

Our last stop this day was Grandfather Mountain. Since it was a Saturday there was a ton of people going to Grandfather Mt. The road to the entrance gate was so backed up we waited for about 30 minutes to even get to the gate. The cost to get in was also $18 dollars a person but it was definitely worth it. They gave you a CD that narrated a trip up to Grandfather Mt and talked about the different spots along the way. 

The first stop we made was at the split rock area. We hiked to the fudge shop. We got chocolate walnut and chocolate peanut butter fudge. Clark waited outside with Knox while I got the fudge. I got out of the shop and Clark said "all the girls love Knox." Haha of course and Knox loves all the girls and the attention. I picked up a few postcards at the gift shop and sent one to my mom and one to an old teacher of mine. 

We drove up to the top of Grandfather Mt. There was options to park about a mile below and hike or drive to the top and park. We drove. The father we got up to the mountain the foggier it got so we decided it wasn't a good idea to hike. It was rather cold and wet. But we knew we wanted to at least walk across Mile High Bridge. It is officially one mile above sea level but really only about 80 feet above the ground below it. Once on the bridge we couldn't really see anything, I kept saying "It feels like infinity." And it did. You couldn't see anything just white nothingness. 

On the way down we listed to the rest of the CD and turns out there is a "Forrest Gump Curve" on Grandfather Mt. It is featured on the movie when Tom Hanks is doing on this run across the country. Some awesome trivia for today. Also this is the last post from this day with this outfit. Yay for a different outfit next post. Have a great day.
love, Carlee

Same outfit at last two post

Pants & Tanks: Marshalls

Scarf: old

Boots: Cathy Jean

Socks: H&M 

Coat: Target