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!

Friday Rewind

I think I may be all caught up with the weeks I was gone for. It was a lot. Well almost caught up.. Once back from my trip and fully into my jet-lag, I then hopped on another plane to Florida to see my family and attend my Mama's memorial service.

The service was on a Saturday night, but I flew in Friday evening to visit with my sister and nephew. We drove over to my Uncle's house on Saturday morning with my brother-in-law to hang out with my dad, my cousin, aunt, uncle and just about everyone else. That evening lots of people came over to celebrate my grandmother's wonderful life.

We had shots of tequila, watched a fantastic slide-show and shared our favorite memories of her. Overall it was beautiful and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go. I spent the rest of evening chatting with my cousins and catching up into the wee hours of the night. Sunday brought a very early wake-up call to eat breakfast at IHOP, my grandmother's favorite restaurant. I then lounged with my family for the rest of the day and flew back to NY. That was about two weeks ago now.

For the last few weeks I've just been getting back into the swing of work, school and all things related to being home. I finally finished unpacking last Sunday, saw a good chunk of friends for a birthday brunch on Saturday and made the dreaded trip to Target for more toilet paper. And surprise! I actually only bought what was on my list for once- actually I didn't even get everything on my list. I'm still not sure how I did it...

I'm jumping back into the link-ups this week so here are my weeks five.. good and bad.

1) Good news- I just started working with Ash from The Grits Blog to start a new design for this place! I'm super excited and can't wait to see what she comes up with- I love all of her work and this blog needs a little makeover!

2) Bad news- my stress fractured leg still isn't doing anything but being a bummer. I tried to run a few times while away (short short runs of 1-2 miles) and literally the next day the throbbing was back. My marathon training at this point is non-existent. Fortunately I did a bit of research on the cancellation policy and found that if I cancel this year I will still have guaranteed entry for the 2015 marathon. So at this point that is my plan- get my leg to start healing and run it next year!

3) I'm beyond excited that Fall TV is back! I've been carefully selecting what new shows I'm going to try out (Forever, Black-Ish, Gotham, Red Band Society). And am so looking forward to all my favorites returning ( The Walking Dead, AHS, Nashville, New Girl). Also is anyone else out there watching the Outlander series on Starz? It has been more than I could have ever dreamed of- I've advocated for the book series before (because it's ah-mazing) but the show is really being well done. The characters are perfect, they are taking it slow and yeah- watch it.

4) Remember that super awesome Harry Potter/Mean Girls shirt I talked about a few months ago? well my sister got it for me for my birthday!! I was way off my sizing though so I had to send it back to get a smaller size but the new shirt is on it's way! I can't wait! Thanks Migs! 

5) My sister's wedding is only 3 weeks away!! I finally dropped off my dress to be altered (better late than never!) and my other sister and I are going over to her place next week to help finish up center pieces, favors and all sorts of wedding related shenanigans. I'm super excited for the long weekend of her wedding, seeing all our family and friends, and to just have a fantastic time!

 

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...

A to the MEN

Happy August everyone (and happy Friday)! 'Tis finally the month of my birth- along with so many others in my family. All sorts of things are going on as the summer starts to wind down... in the next few weeks I have birthday parties to attend, bridal showers to celebrate, my own 27th birthday rocking the house and I'm off to Spain and France with work. Crazy town.

This week was pretty chilll- spent a lot of hours combing through all of the pictures on the work computer, printing them, filing them and enjoying my munchkins adorable faces...

Five Things for the Week!

1) If you missed it- yesterday was Harry Potter's birthday. He's pretty much the coolest person I know so props were totes given. I legit want to shout my love of him to the sky, to the universe, to all the maybe aliens out there... the love is real!

2) Went on a date this week! Will be updating next week- it was interesting...

3) Did anyone else see this article on facebook? The smarter you are, the more likely you are to be single? Might just be all the answers to my problems, haha!

4) I'm in desperate need of finding some heels for my sisters wedding- she wants silver or nude? anyone have any store suggestions? My feet suck so the more comfortable the better!!

5) And y'all remember a few weeks ago when I introduced my friend Jeanette, and her amazing business Peachy Keen Perfume? Well they were just nominated for the Martha Stewart American Made Award- I'm so proud and excited for them!! Help them out by sharing their page link (here)!

and I'm adding a 6) because I'm cool like that but also new Nsync album?! Can I get a what what?? (so surprising none of the members even knew it was being released!)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Party Weekend!

Woo-hoo! I had a wonderful four-day weekend celebrating my sister's bacherlorette party! Myself, along with 13 others sent her off in style.

I planned the weekend, along with my sister's good friend P. We wanted a fun, relaxing, but could get crazy, weekend to celebrate and catch up with friends. A family friend of ours has a travel agency and suggested to us that we look at VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner)- a site that allows you to rent a house from an owner. We first looked at places on the beach but the prices were a bit high and no one allowed for a four-day weekends. We then took our search to the Poconos. It made for a decently central location to everyone that was attending, brought the cost down significantly and made for an amazing vacation.

gifts for the gang!

For one, the weather was amazing. We all met up on Thursday night in perfect cool mountain air. After grilling some burgers and hotdogs we chilled with our excessive amount of alcohol and relaxed in the hot tub (against the rules- whoops!).

Friday we made it to the lake on a great little beach, we laid out for a few hours and then rented kayaks. This made for an exciting adventure around a fabulous lake. We went back to the house tie-dyed t-shirts. Friday night brought on the festive bachelorette activities- yes, I mean we broke out our singles and had a show.

Now let me tell you- this is something I've attended before and have experienced at other parties and with friends but I have never actually had to do the work of finding an entertainer myself... it was quite an experience. First was finding a website/company that didn't look to sketch. Thankfully another bridesmaid help me narrow this down, but I had to do the actual calling. Surprisingly they were all very professional, helpful and listened to exactly what I wanted. Something I can now check off my list?

our "entertainer" knocking down her door!

It was lots of fun, full of ridiculous laughter and added to the weekend.

Saturday we went to the beach again, it was overcast at first but when the sun finally appeared it was a fantabulous day! We played relay races, jumped around in the lake and partook in much chit chat. That evening we went over to a local bar had dinner and danced the night away with all the townies.

part of our relay races- anyone else ever done the toothpick/lifesaver game?

bride to be- with one of many shots!

the fantastic group in our beautiful tie-dye shirts

Sunday led to parting of the ways, with sad faces, full stomachs and heads full of happy memories. After a relaxing drive back to NY, I spent the rest of my Sunday chilling and watching some movies (Vampire Academy and Easy A). Not too happy to be back at work but hey... only 3 more weeks until Europe!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!