I mustache you a question..

Weekends always go by way to fast, and while this was true of this weekend at least it was an exciting one! 

I started Saturday by meeting a friend for brunch at a new local place we had on our list for a while. It used to be this super cute place called Native, but that shutdown for "renovations" and reopened as La Bodega 47. I thought they did a nice job with the new place, the food was tasty, the layout was well thought out. I plan to brunch there again soon.

After brunch I went to Target to pick up some much needed toilet paper for my apartment, apparently I am the only on capable of doing this. It is what it is, I found some books for yesterday's baby shower and a cute hat for my nephew and only walked out with one thing not on my list. win!

In the afternoon I left for Hoboken to spend some much needed family time. My sister hosted a mini belated Hanukkah party. I enjoyed some tasty latkes, a nephew who has grown way too much, and some sister time. And bonus..... I booked a trip to Prague! I have a week off in February and it occurred to me last Friday that I didn't just have to sit on my butt or go to Florida that week, but that I could go visit a new city. So I am. I will be there for about 4 days and am ready to explore someplace different.  Friday was a great day as well- I bought tickets to go see Kinky Boots, Matilda and Book of Mormon on Broadway! The next few months should be pretty great.

Sunday was my sister's baby shower for nephew number two! He is about a month away from arriving and I cannot wait to meet him. For this shower we went with the mustache theme. My sister R is a master party planner- and knows how to cover every detail. We had mustache balloons, straws, water bottles and games (did you know there are at least 12 different types of mustaches and names for all of them?!) She bought mustache cookies, chocolates, and cupcakes. Everything was in hues of blues and greens. Our special treat was a Polaroid camera for all the guests to use to take photos and hang on a canvas to be hung in the baby's room.

Overall the party was a hit, everyone had a wonderful time, the food was delicious, we laughed with the games, and my sister received some new goodies for munchkin number two. A fun weekend for sure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

all filled up!

cutie nephew in an adorable outfit..

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Goooooaaallll!

This is a post with just a lot of writing and no pictures- I won't be offended if you bypass it. A lot of it is for me to just get down on to something. Funny how blogging works sometimes..

and on a side note- for those you might be interested it is time again to sign-up for the Bigs and Littles Blogging network partnership again! You might recall I participated in this over the Fall and had a wonderful experience. It is a fantastic way to get to know a new blogger, and build a relationship that can help each of your blogs grow. Sign up here!!

New year, new week, new day. I love the feeling that with a new year it can mean a new start, a new life, a place to take a deep breath and start-over. Start a new job, relationship, health regimen. A way to start a new goal.

I have several goals for this upcoming year. I'm not going to call them resolutions because I don't want to feel as if I'm changing anything but instead striving to create something better. A goal to lose weight might be the same as a resolution to go to the gym more but instead it's putting it on a timeline that will hopefully last more than a week or two. And although both may have the same results and ending, I'd like to think it's different.

Blogging Goals:
As with any blogger I would love to grow this space. See more daily readers or even the occasionally drop-in. I'm going to work on making more of my images pinable and sharable.

I'd also like to focus on my content this year- perhaps to see myself become more of a niche blogger instead of a lifestyle one. Either way this may change in general because if all goes well around this time of year next year I will be gearing up for my long-hike.

Meet more of you! I want to create better relationships with the bloggers I have already started chatting too and while I'm at it start chatting with more of you. I like having this world of friends and acquaintances I can turn to at any time of the day.

Life Goals:
Along with most people I'd like to work on getting a bit more healthy. I had a stress-fracture in my leg this year in running and instead of doing the smart thing and continue to exercise with low-impact alternatives, I became depressed. I stopped working out at all, I ate my feelings and then started a fun cycle of not liking who I was becoming, gaining weight, become upset that this was happening and then eating some more. Ugly mess that I could totally acknowledge was unfolding and felt helpless to stop.  I'm not trying to beat myself up about it but want myself to be more aware of it. Make a more conscious decision when it comes to what I am eating and how I'm spending my time, and I've been cleared to start running again (slowly and at an easy pace) and that is what I'm going to do. Also, I'm still eligible for the marathon this year and kind of feel like I'm doing it no matter what- whether I can run the whole thing or have to drop out half-way, I will cross the start line (and hopefully the finish!)

I want to make better use of my time with my relationships too. With the job I'm currently at it's been hard to make time for the people I love and care about, to make times to go on dates. Every person I've been attempted to create a romantic relationship with in the past few years have falling apart before they even start because I'm scared of the time commitment. But guess what, relationships take time. I know, surprise! So I want to let me myself fall this year- and if that means I need to find a new job than I will, because although money is nice and yes I need it for forever, I also need relationships for forever and right now I think that is what is more important.

I'm a year+ ish away from my big hike and also need to start focusing on that. Spending my extra income on gear, finding a few weekends to take some practice hikes, figuring out how everything works. Start writing companies for sponsorships- it's going to happen, and I'm ecstatic, terrified and ready all at once.


So that is it, for now. I have a whole year ahead of me to start make changes, to work towards goals that have always been there but are now within my reach.

What kind of goals do you have for this year?

high five for friday

 Friday is a beautiful day! We finally had a little tiny bit of snow stick to the ground this week here in NYC and that was very exciting. There is nothing like the first snow of the year... now I just want a few more inches!

I've been battling a cold all week and trying to start packing for my next work trip. It's happening again. We are heading this time to warm, sunny Costa Rica for the holidays. Anyone interested in doing a guest post? Let me know! 

Besides that, not too much else is going on. I'm having my friends over for brunch on Sunday to swap our Secret Santa gifts and to see some of the new furniture and decorations I've put up. 

And as far as I know they are called Hot Toddys but either way I've discovered drinking hot tea with a bit of whiskey and honey in it and I've fallen in love. Maybe I'm making up my own things. Honestly though on Monday when my throat started hurting I made this concoction before bed, with some chamomile tea, and not only did I feel somewhat better but I slept very well. Winner all around in my book.

you can ignore me now and meet a new friend of mine...

Hi, I'm Llinos, AKA The Lilac Linnet!  I am 27 and I live with my boyfriend and guinea pigs in Cardiff, UK.  My name is Welsh for 'linnet', so paired with my favourite colour, there you have my blog name!  Over on the blog you will find musings on daily life, book reviews, craft ideas and insights into the novel which I'm writing.  I also write about the health problems which I've experienced, such as cancer and depression, to raise awareness of these issues.  When I'm not blogging or working, you can find me reading history books, crocheting a blanket or out for a run.  Nice to meet you!

blog/twitter/pinterest/bloglovin'

First off I'm way jealous of this lady because she lives in the UK. Would you like to adopt me? She is a wonderful writer (check out her cute Christmas short story) and has some fantastic book reviews. A woman after my own heart.. and I love this adorable DIY card! Ya'll should stop by this instant and check what shes got going on.

have an awesome weekend!

This Weekend I...

- played with some super adorable kittens

- moved into watching the third season of Gilmore Girls (I restarted the series a few weeks ago)

- met up with some family friends for breakfast at an amazing bagel place and then walked around central park

- bought a couch!! remember back in like February when I started blogging, and I went couch "shopping"? Well I finally made a purchase. Now we just cross our fingers that it actually fits through my apartment door.

If all is well then my next purchase will be a new coffee table, rug, maybe a bar cart? and I would love some new prints for my walls..

- tasted my Club W wine selections, haven't heard of Club W yet? It's a pretty amazing monthly wine service that helps you choose new wines based on your taste preferences. I used an Influenster perk to sign up which gave me a free bottle of wine and free shipping- with it I choose the 2013 Wonderful Wine Co. Rosé, 2013 The Independent Zinfandel, and 2013 Alcalá Monastrell. I tried the Zinfandel, which I really liked, and the Monsatrell, not my favorite but good, with my friends this weekend but still haven't tried the Rose yet. If you are interested in in signing up go ahead and use my referral link to receive $13 in credits!

- organized some of my room. This was kind of serious. I threw out a good deal of old make-up, papers, expired meds, put a bunch of clothes in the goodwill pile and more. Not too shabby.

And that's that, pretty productive, and yet relaxing as well. Now if only it was Saturday again!

p.s can we talk about how cute this monkey was this morning-..

Bigs & Littles Blogging Network

Um you guys, I just had one of the best experiences of my life. Back in the day, i.e September, I came across a post talking about sign-ups for the Bigs and Littles Blogging Network. I was intrigued... a program that would connect bloggers to help each other learn and grow? I was totally down.

And let me tell you- I am so so happy I signed up. I initially signed up with the intention to be a Little and find a Big since I'm a newer blogger but surprisingly enough was matched to be a Big to a Little.

And what a wonderful Little she was. I was paired up with Kaelyn from My Fair Daily. Kaelyn is a beauty blogger, which honestly scared me at first because, not that I don't love makeup but it's not something I blog about. But we exchanged a few emails and I realized I could help her and she could really help me.

Kaelyn wanted help with growing her blog, and time-management skills (not really my forte, but I tried!) and as well with help staying engaged with other bloggers and her readers. I was able to advise her to sign-up with passionfruitads, start participating in link-ups or to reach out to other bloggers about doing a guest or collaborated post. Kaelyn encouraged me to make more use of pinterest, to set short-term and long-term goals, and to be myself.

We continued our journey with google hangouts and good old texting. I am beyond thrilled to have made a new friend and so happy I decided to sign up for the program.

The ladies who run the program- Chelsee, Deb, Kristyn, Tiffany & Christine run the program three times a year, in January, May and September and I adamantly encourage all of you to participate in the next go.  I had fun, learned lots of new things and found a great galpal in Kaelyn. (like we even have a hangout scheduled for tonight, because we are awesome like that!)

And I think the biggest thing I learned from the whole sha-bang is not to underestimate yourself. I didn't think I knew enough to be a "Big"- that I didn't have enough blogging knowledge to help someone else grow or push their own space, but in reality I did. And so did Kaelyn- she was able to tell me things, introduce me to new pages. At the end of the day the fact that you started your own space is a big deal- and something you should be very proud of.

Happy Friday!

Apple Picking Adventure!

Hooray! I crossed another item off of my Fall bucket list- I'm way too impressed with myself and the progress I have made with this list this year. Woah.

I dragged a few friends out to Pennings Farm Orchard in Warwick, NY. It took about an hour + to drive there, a nice scenic route through the hills and mountains with lots of gorgeous fall leaves. We also listened to the new T-Swift album that a friend bootlegged. I give it absolute approval- T-Swift you've done it again!

The orchard was nice, they only had two varieties of apples left but we maneuvered our way through and found some delicious picks to snack on.

 After filling our bag of apples we went to the beer garden of the orchard that had some amazing house made hard apple cider, beer, and a bunch of other things. It had a great playground for kids, some chickens, goats and a sweet baby cow to pet and a great food area.

We ordered food, drinks, grabbed some sweets and goodies from the market area and then grabbed tasty doughnuts and fresh apple cider for the ride home.

Next year we now know to go earlier for a better apple variety but overall it was a lot of fun and I'm glad we made an adventure of it! 

My Fall Bucket List (update)

Well.. I already posted my Fall Bucket List a few weeks ago but it is also the Day 5 prompt for Blogtober14. So for now I will just give an update on my previous list..

 My Fall Bucket List for 2014:
1) Try a PSL again- okay so I haven't actually retried the PSL yet.. but I did try a chai latte with pumpkin spice syrup and it was AMAZING! It is now a fall favorite..

2) Go Apple Picking!- again, hasn't actually happened yet- but it is in the works! My friends for down for it, we have picked a weekend to go and are just narrowing down the millions of orchards. Woo-hoo!

3) Make a pumpkin pie from scratch.- haven't even attempted to get this far yet- although it may be my contribution for Thanksgiving dinner! 

4) Have a wine tasting party. - friends are also down for this one, but we are thinking a weekend in November will be best. Will update when we do it!

5) Watch Hocus Pocus- WINNER! This one I have actually completed- thanks to the Lifetime network! so perfect, in every way..

6) Find two pairs of great Fall boots. -Checkity check- what what? and it's only been like a week.I found a black pair earlier this week from Geox.

so progress has been made... perhaps I will actually complete my list this year!

Craft Like You Mean It

This weekend I discovered crafting skills I never knew I possessed.

Friday evening took me to Philadelphia with my sister to help our other sister with some last minute wedding planning. She is getting married in two weeks!! It's totally crazy..

Basically I spent all of Saturday covered in glitter from head to toe and learning new skills. The glitter was serious, I'm going to be finding it on my things for months and I can't even imagine what my sister will do- it's literally in every crack of her place. The projects were super fun and creative but I can't show anything yet. After the wedding for sure. Not going to lie- I'm pretty impressed with myself!

I came back on Saturday evening to celebrate a friends birthday. We had fondue, an ice luge and chocolate cake shots. If you have never had one you are completely missing out on life. I should do a recipe post about them soon- your mind will be blown!!

On Sunday I met up with some peeps for brunch and then spent a relaxing afternoon finally getting a much needed massage. Groupon is such a great site for this. This past Thursday I found a deal at a place I've been to before for $35, a 50 minute massage and a mani-pedi. Sha-bam. Everything I wanted.

My Sunday evening  was then spent catching up on some TV, plus Chipotle,  which made for an excellent night. 

What were you up to this weekend?

Linking up with Bella today!

10 Things I am Thankful For

I would like to think I'm thankful for things everyday and season, but for some reason Fall makes all of us a little more thankful (it might have something to do with Thanksgiving?)

Here are 10 Wonderful Things I am Thankful for Right Now:

1) Being able to support myself. I have a job, I make money and I can pay my own bills. I can save my money, spend it, feed myself and go places on my own. I know too many people who still depend on their parents for help- and I am very very thankful that for now, I am doing alright on my own.

2) Fall TV- I am oh so happy that TV is back, summer was great with PLL and Royal Pains but nothing is better than some new stuff!

3) Wine. I feel like that one is enough said.

4) My friends! Summer is over and now we are all finally back in town, hanging out as one big group. I love them a lot.

5) Health Insurance- this might be a ding ding alert to me becoming a grown-up but seriously this stuff is amazing and super expensive and I'm still ridiculously thankful I have it. #obamacare

6) Animals- Sadie and Phoenix are the best I could ask for- they snuggle, love me and I adore them. Plus they make really great feet warmers in the fall/winter.

7) The blogging world! I can't believe that I've stuck with this for so long and I'm so happy I did. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting a bunch of new people and finding my voice.

8) A family that doesn't care if I call them at 2 am while I am in Europe. I had a few meltdowns while in Paris. My family was there for every tear and thankfully every phone call I was able to have with them. Thank you!!

9) Red velvet cupcakes from Make My Cake. I seriously need to meet the woman who first started baking these because she may be one of my favorite people. Nom nom- if you ever come to NYC you have to stop here!

10) Technology- which makes it possible for me to write this post to you today. It sure has a come a long way and I can't wait to see where it goes next!

No photos today because I'm a lazy bum- you will just have to envision my thankfulness.

Linking up with The SITS Girls Back to Blogging Challenge!

Whirlwind of a Life

I'm just going to jump back into this thing and say the last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind of travel, stress, family and birthdays.

Let's go back in time to Saturday August 16th- this is where my journey began/ended/started/life got crazy. 

Except really we are going back to Friday the 15th when I went to pick up my first Rent the Runway dress- the blue Kate Spade one. I went to the store after dropping off the kids, they handed me the dress and at the last second I asked if it was okay if I tried it on. Thank goodness I did, in the dressing room I found the zipper was broken. Yikes- panic ensued. 

After trying on several more dresses and being assured a replacement dress would appear before 8 pm, I headed out the door with a beautiful green backup dress, just in case the Kate Spade replacement didn't show. Thankfully it did, but then I had a different dilemma- do I wear the new dress or the original pick? I decided to go with the original just because a) it is what I had originally picked, b) it's what my sister was expecting and c) that's what I had bought new shoes and a necklace for. 

Saturday I woke up bright and early, went down to DryBar and had my hair did for the bridal shower. I then hopped on a train to Philadelphia for the event. 

My eldest sister and one of the other bridesmaids planned the event, and they did an absolutely amazing job.

There were green candy stations (one of the wedding colors), stations to write memories, address thank-you notes, share a recipe and more. They had an engagement photo to sign as well. They also laid out the party favors (super adorable chocolate covered Oreos decorated with lips and a mustache- another theme). We even had super cute lips and mustaches on stick to play dress up with (and were for a game!)

The party was wonderful, everyone looked fantastic and it was so nice to see my family before I left for Europe. I hopped back on a train to head home and officially finish packing- a little last minute but hey, I made it..

good chunk of the bridal party- missing a few gals!

Sunday was one last brunch with friends and then heading to Spain! I watched The Other Woman on the plane, and it was hilarious- definitely recommended. 

The adventure continues tomorrow! Tune in for Spain...