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Last weekend we had the honor of being guests at the wedding of Mr. Robert Chaffer and Ms. Heather Campbell.  It was a lovely affair. The groom was handsome. The bride was glowing. And we were childless. That's right, we had the honor of being freewheeling and fancy free for 3 whole days and we were more excited and gitty about that than we probably should have been.  We love our child - of course we do!  But we REALLY loved being grown-ups for an entire weekend and we did the best we could to live it up. :)

The reason for the trip was not to abandon our child, but instead to celebrate this guy and this girl.

Rob and Ed go way back - junior high to be exact.  Over the years, they shared many jobs (Bellmore Movie Theatre, PC Richards, The Wiz), many good times (Prom, snow mobiles, adult beverages) and many women…just kidding.  :)  I met Rob a few days after I met Ed and I knew the kind of person he was pretty immediately.  He is one of those guys that is always there for you to help you move (even if it is to VA!), pick you up at the airport or be a shoulder to lean on when you need to have a good cry.  Rob has a huge heart and loves his friends and family with all that he has.  He is, as they say, a keeper!

In all the time that we have known Rob, we have never seen him quite as happy as he has been since meeting Heather.  In the short time that we have known Heather, it is obvious that she is a sweet, caring, wonderful gal with a huge heart to match Rob's.  We were lucky enough to spend some time with her when she and Rob came to VA to help celebrate James' first birthday and we knew immediately that she was the one for Rob.

So last weekend, when we were childless (happy face), these two incredible people got married and we took over 300 pictures to try and capture the excitement and love and joy that was in the air.  From the rehearsal to the ceremony to the reception, everything was perfect.  It was a wonderful weekend celebrating a wonderful couple.

Rehearsal & Dinner

Practice Makes Perfect!

Ceremony

The Legal Stuff

Reception

Party Time!

As you can see, we had a blast celebrating the new Mr. & Mrs. Chaffer.  It was so great to be with our family and friends without any distractions - most fun we have had in a very long time.  Congratulations Rob & Heather.  We couldn't be happier for you two and wish you all the happiness in the world!!

Hello Gorgeous!

This is a little story about how our kitchen's breakfast nook went from looking like this…

… to this!!

I know - gorgeous, right?  I can SO hear Barbara Streisand in my head when I say it!

I have outlined the simple steps taken to increase the awesomeness of the breakfast nook below in no particular order.

Step 1:

Tear down the awful green curtains, burn them and replace them with nothing so more natural light infuses the space.

Step 2:

Spend 3 long weeks watching a painter transform the space as slow as humanly possible with Revere Pewter paint.

Step 3:

Give said painter the "builder grade" chandelier and replace with a fancy (and HGTV approved) drum shade version.

Step 4:

Scour every furniture store in the entire world and find not one single farmhouse table small enough to fit the cozy space.

Step 5:

Marry someone who says "I can totally build that" when you send him sample plans of a DIY farmhouse table from a random blog.

Step 6:

Change your mind about the type of chairs to get roughly 100 times only to end up with what you wanted in the first place (thank you World Market!).

In all seriousness, how AWESOME does our new table look??!?!?  My amazing husband built it with his own two hands and I couldn't be more impressed.  It is exactly what we wanted from the style to the color to the type of wood.  A perfect fit for our space.  A.  MAZE.  ING!!!

Since Ed is a man of few words and I am not able to recount all the steps he took to create this beautiful new piece of furniture, I will let the photos do the talking.  There was lots of planning and calculating and internet research that happened before the supplies made it into the house, but once they did, he cranked it out in 3 days (and that includes dry time for the stain!).

As you can see, our basement doubled as Ed's "workshop".  The basement is still a work in progress so he was able to take advantage since it was absolutely freezing outside on the days he was building the darn thing.

The table is made of cedar wood which made the entire basement smell like a delicious closet.  Ed went to a lumbar yard instead of Home Depot to get the wood to ensure that there was no warping or splitting.  What I love most about the planks he chose are the beautiful knots and imperfections.  It makes the table have that rustic feel we were looking for without having to source reclaimed wood.

After lots of maneuvering and leveling and screwing (keep it clean, people!), it was time to stain.  We decided to go with Dark Walnut because of the rich color it gave the wood.  It also matches the space really well which is an added bonus.

After a few days of drying (and a trip to NY for a wedding - more on that soon!), it was time to move this bad boy girl up into the kitchen which was not an easy feat.  This lovely lady is a bit big-boned and weighs a lot.  Like a lot, a lot!  But we managed and now she sits in our kitchen with some beautiful tufted chairs and is ready to be the centerpiece of meal time in the Mangiaracina household.

So there you have it.  Our new kitchen table really completes this space and we couldn't be happier with the end result.  My Ed is so talented and is looking forward to the next project we have up our sleeves.  And in case you were wondering…James will continue to dine in his high chair on a wooden chair.  The way he eats, no fabric is safe. :)

Smile! (…please!)

With the holiday season almost upon us, it was time to get James in front of a camera and capture some A+ shots for our annual holiday card.  Last year, we worked with professional photographer Erica Cormier of Elevee Photography and were really happy with the results.  Our little man (who was just 7 months old at the time!) was quite stoic throughout the session, but pulled out the big guns at the end and gave us the smiles we were looking for.

This year, Erica was all booked up by the time I thought to schedule our session so we decided to take advantage of a well-timed Groupon and headed to the JC Penney Portrait Studio in the hopes of capturing a few smiles worthy for this year's card.  Full disclosure - we were very skeptical.  James is not big on cameras and lately, has not been big on actually smiling.  He had been a bit more of himself over that last week, though, so we were hopeful.

Upon arrival, we met the photographer that would be shooting our session, picked out our backgrounds, and planned some of the shots.  After we made sure James was camera-worthy, we got started.  As we suspected, our little man was not into it.  Don't get me wrong, he was in awe of the lights and the camera and all the sites to see in the little room.  But not in a smiley way.  More in a "what the heck is all this stuff" blank stare kind of way.   But there were no tears.  There was no throwing himself to the ground kicking and screaming so already it was a success.

The JCP session was A LOT different than working with a professional photographer.  With Erica, we had an hour to get as many shots as we could. Some good, some bad - it didn't matter. There were plenty to choose from since she took over 200 shots.  At JCP, you get 15 camera clicks.  That's it.  Not a lot of time to get a camera-shy kid comfortable to smile.  We did all we could to get this kid to show us some teeth. There were dolls.  And Mother Goose Club songs.  And Peek a Boos.  And every silly face we could make.  Nothing.  James only smiles when James is good and ready to smile.

Luckily, he decided on one or two occasions that it was okay to let loose and look semi-happy.  In the end, we did get some decent shots which was a tiny miracle so we were happy.  We won't get the images for a week so I don't have any to show you, but I can share with you some Behind the Scenes footage that make me so happy and infuriate me at the same time. Once we were done, Ed and James decided to play hide and seek while we waited for the prints to upload on the computer.  Wouldn't you know, this kid was all laughter and smiles.  I wanted to kill him!  But instead, I picked up my iPhone and took some photos so that we could prove that he does indeed smile when he is happy.  :)

I think we did well for this year's holiday card - but I think I might call Erica now to schedule next year's session.  A girl needs way more choices than just 15. :)

Something's Brewing...

My basement currently smells like a delicious cedar closet.  It seems there is a project looming in the Mangiaracina house.  Here are some teaser photos - more to come when it is complete!!

Ah - I love the smell of cedar wood in the air!

Trick Or Treat

More like Trick or Trick in our case seeing as we never made it out to get the treats.  Halloween 2013 has been one for the history books and one that we will look back on in 10 years with a laugh.  Our little buddy is going through that phase in childhood known as "terrible two's" but the word "terrible" doesn't really do it justice.  Life has been rough in the Mangiaracina household these days, but we are doing our best to get through it.  The ample bottles of Dogfish Head Black & Blue beer helps too.  But I digress...

For us, Halloween started on October 30th with a party at Willowcreek Academy.  All of the parents were invited to join the kids for a costume party at the school and boy was it festive!  I had been in New York the days prior so when James saw me arrive, he was the happiest kid in the room.  The unfortunate part of this was that he did not want to let go of me making his participation in the party a little tricky.  Luckily the view of cookies and cupcakes helped.

 He was a happy guy...

... until Mommy walked away to take a picture.

He did pull it together long enough for us to get 1 photo with him wearing his Clark Kent glasses.  Look really, really close and you will be able to see it!

The end result of the party was an extreme sugar high followed by an epic sugar crash when we got home.  It wasn't pretty, but lucky for us, bedtime was right around the corner.

Halloween brought about a new day that started with a James/Mommy photo shoot before school...

... and ended in tears.

Our little Clark Kent was just not in the Halloween mood - too many ghosts and goblins in the night I guess.  And once it started raining, we decided to call it.  We did manage to get a few photos in before the meltdown of all meltdowns commenced.

Aww well...there will be plenty more Halloween's in our future.  Hopefully our little Superman won't be taken down by kryptonite next year and Daddy he can get some candy!