Spring Cleaning for Lucy

It was time for our little pooch to get some pampering and boy did she need it. :)

Before:



After:


Quite an improvement even if her little bow is not straight. :)

Spring is Near

The weather over this past weekend was amazing and we took full advantage of it by being outside as much as possible. We kick started Saturday morning with a 9 mile bike ride ... that's right 9 MILES! Are we nuts...a little. :) But it really wasn't that bad. Our bikes have been stored at casa de Quartuccio since we moved down here and we decided to ride them to Centreville from Fairfax rather than shove them in a car. Now, keep in mind...Ed and I recently won the award for least active people in the Northern VA area. We quit the gym...literally. So 9 miles in 59 minutes was a HUGE feat for us. We even did another ride on Sunday morning. Time to get into shape! :) We were so proud of ourselves that we decided to celebrate at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. Yum!

The weather on Sunday was just as nice so Ed decided to treat Lucy and take her to the dog park. Since I am a paranoid Mommy, I'm no longer allowed to go to the dog park (per my loving husband), so I decided to tackle the weeds that were taking over the flower bed in the front of the house. I never realized how strong weeds were! Their network of roots is crazy! It was tough work, but it inspired us to make the outside of our house pretty this Spring so we are now entering "Project: Landscape Design". A little background: I kill all living plants. If a plant or flower enters my house, it is like a death sentence. It's so bad that Ed's mom bought me a fake plant because she was sad to see all the unnecessary deaths. So that fact that we are going to attempt to create an enticing landscaped area in the front of the house is a little scary. But we are determined!! Found some great looking stuff at Home Depot, but decided to hold off and hit good old Merrifield Nursery in the coming weekends to get educated. We even started scouting the neighborhood for ideas.

Spring is near!!!!

Ta Da!

The time has come - we are officially grown ups!! No...we are not pregnant. But we are the happy recipients of new, big boy/girl bedroom furniture! Gone are the days of IKEA and Ed's furniture from when he was a kid. We are now the proud owners of some beautiful Bassett bedroom pieces and I have to say...I am in love. And our new West Elm bedding makes the room the kind of oasis that will be hard to leave each morning. :)

Before:
and After:


As you can see, Lucy has made herself VERY comfortable in her new room. Time to go relax! :)

Sunday Night's Alright

Last night Ed and I had a date night. And this wasn't any old dinner and a movie date night, but instead, the ULTIMATE Date Night. Our date did include dinner and perhaps one too many beers at Gordon Biersch, but what made this date night so great was our plus +1 - BON JOVI! We were amongst the thousand of fans at the Verizon Center belting out "Livin' on a Prayer", "Bad Medicine" and all the Bon Jovi greats. Yes our tickets were rear/obstructed view and yes we had a great view of Jon Bon Jovi's butt most of the night, but really...is that such a bad thing? :)

What made the night so great is that we had a such a good time together. We truly enjoyed each other's company and made each other laugh all night long. Lucy spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so we were able to focus 100% on each other and it was fantastic! The stresses of life sometimes get in the way of seeing the love and joy that is in front of you and as our first anniversary approaches, I'm so happy that we take the time to have some fun and appreciate each other fully.

We are in the process of planning a little first anniversary get-away and have been so focused on the "where" that we need to take a step back and realize that it doesn't matter where we go. As long as we are together, we'll figure out a way to have a blast!! Love you Bubs!!!! xoxo!!

Thanks for the Memories

I was never the little girl that dreamed of her wedding. I never thought about the perfect dress or the perfect flowers or the music I would hear as I walked down the aisle. I was too busy playing soccer and getting dirty. When Ed asked me to marry him (Yah!) it was one of the best days of my life but also extremely overwhelming because I had NO idea where to start with the wedding plans. Luckily, we had a long engagement giving us plenty of time to plan the big day -- and what a day it was!! Everything went perfectly - from the pre-day primping at MetroModes to the borrowed Mustang (Thanks Mustang Scott!!) to the "perfect shoes" (both Ed and I!) and the cupcake flavors (courtesy of our favorite baker Cupcake Gourmet), all was as we had hoped and planned for. The year and a half of details came to fruition and we could not have been more pleased.

Now that the wedding is long gone (sad) all we have are the memories and thankfully over 900 photos documenting the amazing day. I have bragged a lot about our amazing photographer and his team and I will continue to do so - they ROCK! If you need photos of something ... ANYTHING ... you MUST hire Michael Falabella of Millimeter Photography. Part of the "non-package" he offered was a 4 x 6 print of every proof - genius! These proofs have been sitting in photo albums for a while now as we focused on other things, but I finally had the time to do something with them. Some of them made it into a frame that now hangs in our hallway....


... while others were blown up and act as decor in our living room.


The rest (well not all...there were over 900 prints!) made it into our official Wedding Album!!!! Because of many other expenses we are currently experiencing (ahem ~ mortgage, Lucy, snow salt - not a fan of the weather btw!), we unfortunately were not able to swing one of the fancy photographer albums. So we improvised. Pottery Barn saved the day with a beautiful engrave-able album and now we have a beautiful reminder of the wonderful day it was.


Not too shabby! :)

I may not have dreamed of my wedding day since I was a little girl, but I will never forget a single detail as long as I live.

God Love Restaurant Week

Ed and I just had an awesome dinner at Argia's in Falls Church - one of the many restaurants participating in DC's Restaurant Week. I have to say...I'm so excited to be back home so I can take my honey to some of my favorite spots around town. We enjoyed a fabulous 3 course meal that included mussels swimming in the most amazing garlic wine sauce I've ever had and a slice of pumpkin cheesecake that was sent directly from heaven. Thank god for those WW flex points!


Tomorrow we are heading to another favorite spot in DC - Zaytinya. Date night is so fun - even if it is only 20 degrees out!

Happy 2011!

I am a little late with the Happy New Year sentiment, but better late than never. :)

Life in the Mangiaracina world has been pretty darn good so far this year. I know we are only 13 days in, but they have been an eventful 13 days. After spending the holidays in New York with family and friends (and lots of snow), we rang in the new year with Suzy Q. and her boyfriend Brett with many an adult beverage and a Wii Let's Dance competition. Have you all tried that game?? It ROCKS! We even got Ed to participate which is a feat in itself!

The first week of January was pretty quiet, but this week has been very eventful. Ed's Mom has been down for a visit and we have really been enjoying her company. Ed and Mom have been exploring the area and have done some great stuff including a Trolley Tour of DC, a visit to the American History Museum and some shopping at Mom's favorite store, Plow & Hearth.



With Toy Fair around the corner I have been chained to my desk, but have been able to play at night...and play we have! It's been great showing Mom our new house and our new life and luckily SHE APPROVES! The best part is that she was SHOCKED to see that we had the same stores down here that they have up in New York. She is so cute! :) We can't wait for her to come back this spring to help us with our landscaping project -- nothing like manual labor when you are on vacation, right Mom? :)

I owe you all updated photos of the house and I PROMISE to get on that ASAP. My list of projects continues to expand, yet my wallet does not so many things will have to wait. We did finally mount the TV on the wall in the living room AND we received our new couch so that is good stuff. More to come!