Oh hey, Friday!! Bridal shower edition

Last night I hosted my first big party in our new house: a bridal shower for my sweet friend Sarah! Her and I clicked on the first day of PA school and have been great friends for the past year. She is so sweet, genuine, and has kept me sane through this crazy journey. And funny side story, her future mother-in-law works for my dad and I grew up going to school with her fiancé but never knew her!

The shower was a "drinks and desserts" theme. On the menu was key lime pies, cheesecake cups, chocolate covered strawberries, cake pops, decorated sugar cookies, and lemon cake. For drinks we had wine and pineapple martinis, which were amazeee. It was mainly all our PA school friends so it was so great to get together outside of class and celebrate Sarah's upcoming wedding!

Hope everyone has a great long weekend! I am headed to the beach with my entire family and couldn't be more excited for one last beach weekend before Fall!

Bar cart

Since hubs and I moved into a brand new house right after we got married, we have been buying furniture slowly over the last 8 months to fill our new home. And let me tell you, this is no cheap project. Since I'm in school and we are living on one income, it obviously isn't possible for us to buy everything at once. We finally had curtains made for our dining room and bedroom about a month ago and they are getting installed today! So excited! [pictures to come!]

I have been eye-ing bar carts for a few weeks now and think this may be the next item I pull the trigger on. In my dream home I would have some sort of built-in bar in my massive kitchen [dream on]. Until then, a bar cart will suffice ;) I definitely want gold, which will match perfectly with some other furniture in our dining room. These are my top 2 choices:

via

via

And I would style it something like this:

 

Do you have a bar cart? What stores should I be looking for the best deals?!

I am // I am not

Two of my favorite bloggers, Lisa and April, did a cute post that I loved so I am tagging along :)


I am  /  a perfectionist. I will not attempt or start something unless I know it will be done perfectly and completely. Both a good and bad trait.

I am  /  a huge animal lover. I wish I could have 100 doggies. And a dolphin, penguin, giraffe, etc. etc.

I am  /  a lover of fitness but I despise the gym. My whole life I was active playing sports so I never had to go to the gym. Now, I'd rather die do many things other than step foot inside a gym. Outside fitness activities? Yes, please!

I am  /  an introvert. Most people would never know this because I do love making new friends and hanging out with groups of people. But I thrive off of "me time" and love quiet time and being alone.

***

I am not  /  a cook. I am officially ready to admit this. In college I told myself that "one day" I would overcome my terrible cooking skills, but I am starting to believe this will never happen. Luckily, my husband is a darn good cook and he loves cooking [lucky for both of us].

I am not  /  the typical "middle child". I have a younger and older sister, but I have never had "middle child syndrome". I am actually the peacemaker of the siblings.

I am not  /  a night owl. I looove going to bed early. Something is seriously wrong if I am awake past 10:30 pm on any given night [weekends included].

I am not  /  an online shopper. Nothing ever seems to fit right when I order clothes online [probably because my torso is unusually long and my booty huge], and I hate going to the post office. So, I do all my shopping in stores!

Join the fun and tag me! I love reading and learning more about all my blogger friends!

5 years...

5 years ago I moved to Chapel Hill, NC to start college at UNC. Since I was old enough to talk I dreamed of going to school here. Little did I know how much more than just a great education I would leave with...

My family spent the whole morning moving me into my dorm. That afternoon at lunch, I got a call from a tall, blonde, extremely handsome baseball player that I had been casually Facebook chatting with over the summer. He asked if he could take me out to dinner that night. I politely declined, making up some lame excuse about having too much to do. Thankfully my mom intervened and forced encouraged me to call him back and agree to go to dinner, because "I needed to meet new people". To be quite honest, I was not in the mood for an awkward first "blind" date with a division I baseball stud that would end up going nowhere. Little did I know...

Sooo he picked me up and took me to our now favorite restaurant. I remember exactly what he was wearing, and how I couldn't take my eyes off of him... literally. He was the best looking guy I had ever seen let alone gone on a date with. I knew for sure that despite how awesome our conversation and instant connection was, that I would never hear from him again.

I got back to my dorm room and called my mom to tell her how amazing it was. She asked if I thought we would hang out again and I said, "I hope." I hung up the phone and already had a message from him: "I had such a great time tonight. Can I take you to dinner and a movie tomorrow night?" I felt like 100 butterflies were fluttering around in my heart! Of course he could take me out again tomorrow!!!

1,826 days later and he still treats me like a princess. I am not quite sure how I got so lucky, but I definitely believe that God wanted me to attend UNC for more than just the education. I left baby blue Heaven with a degree and a husband.

 

Our first 2 pictures together... we look like babies!

Oh hey, Friday!

Last night we had one of my PA school friends and her husband over for dinner. It was so fun to just hang out, have a few drinks, and a yummy dinner together! It has been hard finding married couple friends since I'm still relatively young to be married [or so they say] and G is new to our town. Sooo we have been trying to branch out and make new couple friends!

We made bruschetta for an appetizer and it was so yummy! The perfect light summer appy. Aaaand super easy! All you need is:

-plum tomatoes, about 6

-2 cloves of garlic

-basil leaves, about 6

-olive oil

-balsamic vinegar

-baguette (we used the bagel round things)

All you have to do is dice the tomatoes (I like mine chopped up into pretty small pieces) and slice the basil into small pieces, mince the garlic, add a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, mix, and put on the bread pieces! So easy and so yummy! You can also add a little salt and pepper or onion if you want. A perfect, healthy summer appetizer!

MIA!

I have been MIA this week...

but I am not one bit sorry!

My toes are currently in the sand

my chair is under an umbrella

and I am enjoying my little slice of Heaven...

... the beach

So forgive me while I soak up my last few days of break

Doing a whole lotta reading, resting, napping, playing [with my niecey], and soaking up life sans school.

Xoxo

Friday favorites!

I am not ready to admit that I only have 10 days left of break before my LAST didactic semester begins. Here are a few of my favorite "back to school" essentials!

[1]

This Lilly planner made it's way into my life bookbag a few weeks ago and I have been obsessed! Lilly isn't really my "style" so I never thought to look at their planners, but I ran across them while in one of my favorite stores and fell in love. I am quite the planner/OCD/perfectionist and this planner is big enough for me to write my every thought and assignment down. And added bonus, how cute is it?! I heart elephants. Aaaaand it goes all the way to December 2015 [I may or may not have already written down my graduation date of December 12, 2015].

[2]

Simple, plain dress shirt from J. Crew. I got this top in both white and a burnt orange color that will be perfect for fall. I love shirts like this that you can just throw on with dress pants or even skinny jeans and your outfit looks complete.

[3]

Monogrammed Tervis Tumbler. I drink so much more water when I'm in class than when I'm home. Tervis Tumblers are my FAVORITE, for both cold and hot drinks. I fill it up with ice and water before I head to school and continue filling it up throughout the day. Perfect way to remind me to drink lots of water!

[4]

Tory Burch leopard print flats. I am dying for these adorable shoes! I don't think there is a single thing with leopard print in my closet, but these belong there. These shoes would add spice to any outfit, and flats are my fav shoe to wear, especially in the fall. Maybe these will be a birthday treat in a few months ;)

[5]

Lululemon cropped leggings. I scored these heavenly pants in Charleston and have basically been living in them ever since. They feel like fluffy clouds on my legs. The best part of these pants? They are super high waisted, which I am loving these days. You can roll the waist down or leave it up... I leave it up. These will most likely be worn every single day when I get home from school and get in my comfy clothes to study.

Linking up with Amanda!

Charleston part II!

Day 2... We woke up and headed straight to Starbucks. I can't even deny my addiction while on vacation. Then it was more exploring. For lunch we met G's cousin, who is a hand surgeon, and his wife and kids at a cute local burger restaurant in Folly Beach. It was so great to see family that we don't get to see nearly enough! After lunch we headed back to the room and I shamelessly closed the blinds, crawled into bed, and took a 2 hour nap. Pure bliss.

Before dinner we went to our favorite bar, Cocktail Club. It has the best atmosphere and most delicious, unique drinks!

For dinner we had reservations at Hall's Chophouse... only the most amazing restaurant on earth. We decided to take a "pedicab" to dinner, which is a taxi except not really. It's a tiny cart on the back of a bicycle. I felt totally awkward at first basically riding on this guy's back while he struggled pedaled us to dinner. But then I embraced it and made hubs take a million selfies with me while everyone on the street stared at us.

 We started the meal with an appetizer of fried green tomatoes topped with crab, shrimp, and bacon. There was literally a party in my mouth. For dinner we both got filets that were cooked to perfection and shared 3 huge sides of pepperjack creamed corn, lobster mac and cheese, and collards. Our waitress came to our table when we were done and said, "wow, I'm really impressed y'all ate all that". We were miserably full. Yet we still got dessert... homemade caramel cake with warm bananas foster. So. Good. We had all intentions of going out after dinner but due to the fact that I almost had to be rolled out of the restaurant, we agreed that all we wanted was our comfy bed.

It was such a great long weekend to getaway and spend quality time with my husband before school kicks back into gear!

Weekending: Charleston part 1!

One of my parents' best friends gave us 3 nights on King Street as a wedding gift and told us to pick the dates! Knowing I had a few weeks off from school, we decided this would be the perfect time. We hit the road when G got off work Thursday. We decided to be "fun" and get a few drinks instead of going to bed when we arrived in Charleston [we are an old married couple already]. We stopped at Proof on King Street where we both got our first Moscow Mule, and it did not disappoint! Those cute copper mugs will be on my wish list for Christmas!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and ready for breakfast at Toast, our favorite. I decided on eggs benedict and G got a huge omelet! And of course we got coffee and mimosas.

After a few too many mimosas, hubs decided it would be a good idea to buy me a ridiculously overpriced hand-made rose...

Then it was time to explore King Street. And my wallet suffered big time. Living in a small town without any good shopping, I was in Heaven. My favorites were Anthropologie and J. Crew... surprise, surprise. We had a late lunch at Magnolias, which is another one of my favorite spots. I wasn't very hungry so I had the appetizer pimento cheese and G got the tuna melt with collards. We were both so happy. Did I mention that I could live off of pimento cheese? That's the southern in me. We headed back to the hotel and spent a few hours at the rooftop pool then got ready for dinner.

Friday night we had dinner at Husk. I have always heard such great things but had never been, so I made sure to make reservations far in advance! Their bar is in a separate small house and was SO cute. It was all exposed brick and had whiskey barrels everywhere. We enjoyed a few drinks before we walked over for dinner. I had BBQ glazed chicken with grilled scallion relish, smoky butterbean and red pea Hop-n-John. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect when I read this on the menu. But I bit the bullet and it was SO yummy! G had the corneal dusted catfish with pepper mash glazed fried cabbage with sweet corn, charred okra, and bacon-onion marmalade. He loved his too! We got the bacon cornbread skillet to share and holy cow, so amazing.

After dinner we explored Bay Street. We stopped into Wet Willies because I had never been. I loved the "adult slushies" but couldn't stand the constant brain freeze. Next we walked over to the rooftop bar at the Vendue Inn, which we loved! You could see the whole city from our table. Then we stopped at Social Wine Bar for one last glass of champagne. It was SUCH a fun night! We are usually in bed by 10pm so we were so proud of ourselves for being "fun" and staying out semi-late. Best of all, it was so great to spend quality time together. It was the first weekend since our Honeymoon [8 months ago] that we have had school free, just "us" time!

[Sorry for the bad quality iPhone pics. I took my nice camera and had all intentions of taking it around with us. But then was too lazy since it doesn't fit in my clutch :( ]