The decision to do our engagement photos in Farmville, Virginia--the little town where Rob and I both went to college--was an easy one. This is where we met (five years ago this month!); where we became friends before falling in love.

We shot in three different locations, and the first was Longwood University, where I read and wrote every day, learned countless things about literature and life, drank cheap vodka, dated a few of the wrong guys, spent every minute and shared every dress with my roommates, and the place I called home when I first crossed paths with the man who will soon be my husband.

 Longwood means so much to me.

  

  

    

These photos were taken by Ashley Link of V.A. Photography, whom I cannot recommend enough. She is talented and creative and kind, and Rob and I are so excited to have her shoot our wedding in May. 

Stay tuned for Part Two next week!

(Outfit Details: I'm wearing a ModCloth dress and shoes c/o Jigsaw London. 

Rob's wearing a Banana Republic shirt and pants with Johnston & Murphy shoes.)

Rob and I got in the car on Saturday morning and set out to visit a new city. It's so weird to look at a map and discover the new places that are now just a long-ish drive away from your home. I'm so used to getting in the car and going to Charlottesville for the day or DC for the weekend, and it was fun to realize that, for a few hours more than it takes to get from Roanoke to Washington, we could be in Chicago.

On Saturday night we had a romantic dinner at a really cool sushi restaurant before seeing Phoenix play at The Aragon, and then we woke up on Sunday morning and sat outside with coffee at Intelligentsia. It felt like any other trip until we got to Millennium Park, where I unexpectedly got emotional at the sight of that huge bean.

Rob and I are a thousand miles from everything we know, and never in my wildest dreams did I think that we'd be so far from home. Minneapolis was never on my list of places to live, and Chicago wasn't even on my list of places to visit, and yet, standing there in Millennium Park with my hand in Rob's, looking at myself in the reflection of the sculpture, things suddenly felt like they were exactly the way they should be.

We stopped for a delicious lunch at Primehouse before heading back home. We got burgers with truffle fries and I had a Bloody Mary. Rob got an "Over Drive," which was a carrot-orange-ginger juice with vodka. It came in a cute little carafe and it was so good.

I'm obviously not that adventurous if I think that spending a weekend in one of the United States' largest cities is some kind of defining moment, but something happened while we were roaming the streets of Chicago. The weather was perfect and the sky was bright blue and I shed a bit of anxiety. I felt a bit more like myself (or maybe just the person I'd like to be), and I felt even more thankful for this man--the tall one who isn't afraid to drive in traffic--and for this life we're doing together.

It's pumpkin time, you know? And while I can't say I'm a member of the Pumpkin Spice Latte craze, last year I made a Paleo version that was pretty damn tasty. The other day, I bought a little sugar pumpkin who thought he was mousse but had an existential crisis in the mixer and soon decided that he was actually cobbler. And who am I to judge? Pumpkin cobbler, it is.

Ingredients:

One sugar pumpkin

1/2 cup canned coconut cream

One to two tablespoons honey

One tablespoon maple syrup, optional

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger 

One egg

For the crumb topping:

2/3 cup almond flour

1/3 cup arrowroot powder

1/3 cup butter, cubed

Two tablespoons honey

For the cream topping:

1/2 cup canned coconut cream (cold--pop it in the freezer for a bit first)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon honey

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut pumpkin into two or three pieces and remove the seeds.

(Set the seeds aside and roast them or I'll slap you.)

2. Add some butter to each section. Bake for 45 minutes or until the squash is tender (poke it with a fork).

3. Remove from oven and let cool before spooning out the pumpkin flesh into a mixing bowl.

4. Mix in egg, coconut cream, honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, and ginger.

5. In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, arrowroot powder, butter, and honey.

6. Pour pumpkin mix into a well-buttered baking dish and top with crumb topping. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

7. While the cobbler cools a bit, whip the ingredients for the cream topping together.

8. To serve, put a piece of cobbler on a dish and spoon the topping over it.
Sprinkle with cinnamon or unsweetened cocoa powder.