Night in White

July 13, 2015
by Emily

This year I’ve tried to really make an effort to be a “Yes Girl,” that is someone who will accept any invitation barring previous plans.  I realized that no matter the event, you can always find a way to have fun with friends and you never know who you’ll meet or what you might discover about yourself.

When one of my girlfriends told a group of us she had found this event called Night in White in the nearby village of Arden, of course, I had to say yes.  Basically we dress all in white, design a tablescape all in white and have a great night out with friends.

Other than that I had no idea what to expect, but this was one of those times when everything I could come up with was completely exceeded.

I have a great group of girls who organized us, divvying up the menu and decorations.  As the date got closer we only got more excited.

We all arrived at the historic Gild Hall and then processed with the entire group to an Arden resident’s backyard where the event would take place.  The house, barn and guesthouse on the property were all beautiful – a Pinterest lover’s dream.  The barn even had two sofa swings, perfect for intimate chats at the event.

By the time we arrived at the event’s secret location we were all pretty hungry, so of course got right to work setting up our tablescape and laying out the food!  While our tablescape was definitely a coordinated effort, it turned out so cohesively gorgeous.  Gretchen did a great flower arrangement in one of my mom’s yard sale find vases, I had some battery operated white pillar candles and Ash not only donated white wedding lanterns, but also wedding chair decorations.

The spread was amazing and all of the contributing chefs did a great job.Although we didn’t display a printed menu like our neighboring table, we had so many great options – a cheese and charcuterie plate, sweet curry chicken salad lettuce wraps, summer peanut broccoli slaw salad and caprese and basil-melon skewers.  To top it off, Gretchen (@gebriz) and Dara (@darakmcbride) worked together on a gluten free, two layer cake with a blueberry vanilla filling – not only beautiful, but so, so delicious.  (Keep an eye out for recipes!)

Photo credit: Gretchen Brizendine


The rest of the night was filled with great conversation with everyone from our own table as well as all of the artists and patrons from Arden.  Bonus: Ashley and Steve had actually had their recent nuptials blessed that morning, so everyone loved that she wore her wedding dress and chose to spend her second wedding night with them!

Following dinner, the winners for Best Tablescape and Best Dressed Couple were announced, along with the raffle ticket winners.  Ashley and Steve won Best Dressed, of course.  I mean, how could anyone compete with an actual wedding dress on the day of the wedding?

Lucky for me Ashley and Steve had one of the winning raffle tickets but are so #humble they didn’t feel it was right to win twice so I gladly stepped in to accept their raffle prize – a free dance class at the Gild!  What a cool thing, especially for a Yes Girl.  I’m thinking about using my free class to learn Israeli dance.  How many people can say they’ve done that?

We wrapped up the night with the entire 150 person group doing a sparkler sendoff.  It was honestly one of those moments that was truly enchanting.

It really was just such a beautiful night.  I’m so glad I had such a great group to share it with!

*Dress is from Francesca’s, last summer

Travel Tuesday: Football in the cold followed by cozy cooking

November 4, 2014
by Emily

Over the weekend I had so much fun going to the Penn State game with my friend Betsy and getting to meet two new people, Dan and Andrew!  We had so much fun bleeding blue and white and cheering on the Nittany lions.  (Don’t you love how bundled up we were?  You can’t even see our blankets in that “ussie!”)  Best part of the day Saturday?  It’s a tie!

1. Our tailgate where we huddled around our portable grill to keep warm while nibbling on our charcuterie tray and drinking our Game of Thrones beer and Sam Adams pumpkin ale aaaaand

2. Playing a 2 hour long game of 20 questions (celebrities/notable people) on the car ride home.  The only person we couldn’t get was William the Conqueror who I now know accomplished something in 1066.  (Thanks for that one, Dan.  Andrew even managed to get my fav pick, Jared from Subway.)

We followed up our cold day on Saturday with a cozy Sunday spent indoors in Hershey.  We lounged quite a bit and tried some new fall/winter recipes – Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup and Gruyere Bacon Mac & Cheese.  Both were so easy and we loved them!  (We did substitute cream cheese for heavy cream in the mac & cheese which worked out perfectly.)

Betsy’s mom has these great soup and sandwich platters, perfect for our orzo and mac & cheese.  It’s not the first time I’ve admired them!
Nobody knows how to decorate a house or tables cape for a holiday like Mrs. Curry.  She always has the perfect seasonal decorations!

To prove that I actually helped!

Betsy – master chef!

Basic Girl Gone Apple Picking

October 26, 2014
by Emily

I’m not really into pumpkin spice lattes (I much prefer a hot cocoa), I didn’t rush out to get an iPhone 6, and I definitely don’t plan on doing any Black Friday shopping (hello, Cyber Monday!).

However, I did go to a local orchard (Milburn Orchards in Elkton, MD) this weekend and go apple picking.  I also snagged some fresh apple cider, apple cider donuts and a gorgeous white pumpkin that I may decorate later in the week.

I went a little overboard and ended up getting about 35 lb. of apples.  Luckily I was splitting them with my friend, Dave, so I wasn’t left with more than would feed a family of about 12 for a few days.  We also got to pick Fuji, so delicious for eating and applesauce, and Granny Smith, which meant we had to have pie!  I just use the basic Betty Crocker recipe.  Sometimes there’s a reason something’s a classic!

As for my attire, I definitely wore the basic girl fall outfit, often chosen for outings like apple picking.  I’m not going to lie though, I spent a lot of time debating between a chambray shirt and the plaid I ended up wearing.  Ah, the life of a basic girl in the fall, so many choices.

As for Dave, he opted he opted for a lumberjack look, jeans with a plaid shirt and a mountain man beard.  Although maybe he should have been dressed more like a Tibetan sherpa since he ended up carrying all my apples…

After finding out what it’s like to see a blogger in the wild he decided that he wanted to do a “fashion pose.”

Have you been apple picking this fall?  Did you opt for a “basic girl” outfit or did you choose something else?  And, the thing I want to know: Does Dave have what it takes to be America’s Next Top Model?

Shop my outfit (or similar – sunglasses, vest, leggings, purse):

My sunglasses were a BR factory purchase over the summer, the vest and leggings are many years old and the purse was an end of summer sale purchase from Express, so these are no longer available.

Fav photo of the day, my 77 count of apples!