Weekend Recap

I'm here for the Monday recap ;) Thought I would take a page out of Andrea's book and do a "weekend top" style post. (But can't I take all the pages out of that woman's book? She's the best.)

ONE

Some recent house items I ordered last week started to ship and deliver over the weekend. I'm so excited to get some of these last items in the house. One of those items is this ficus I found on sale from Wayfair. Was super pumped to get a notification that it shipped the day after I ordered it and it would be delivered on Saturday. Wellllll, a tree was delivered on Saturday, but it wasn't the ficus...

We got a yellow tree in our house right now haha. It's certainly not ugly (although Sammy is decisively NOT a fan haha), but it's just not the look I was going for. I called their customer service (which is always great) and they're shipping our ficus (fingers crossed!) today.

TWO

Very pumped to see Hallmark debuting their "fall harvest" movies ;) (starting this weekend!) 

THREE

I was able to finish The Inner Circle while at the fair this weekend (there's a lot of downtime) and am interested to see where the story goes in the next book. I started Anything You Can Do per Biana's latest book review and am looking forward to a light read after that historical-fiction mystery.

FOUR

Loved getting to spend Saturday night at home with my mom and brother (my sister was visiting her boyfriend) after being at the fair all day. It's always nice to be back at home with them.

FIVE

I packed up a few more boxes/items while I was at my mom's Saturday night so I could bring them to my house on Sunday. I did a little more styling of my bookshelves, brought over a few framed pieces for the loft, and framed some family/friend photos to scatter around. I'm loving the way that particular room is coming together and can't wait to share photos.

this is definitely sitting in the loft right now ;)

SIX

I got this sundae from Anderson's Chocolate stand at the fair twice this weekend. That caramel sauce. is. so. good.

SEVEN

I was talking to a new entrant yesterday as we were closing out the fair and she asked how I first got involved. My dad and I took over the culinary department a few years ago after helping out at the fair in other areas. I was telling her how nice it is to do with him because we get to spend the extra time together and it really dawned on me how blessed I am to not only get to spend time with him but actually enjoy spending that time with him. I know plenty of people who have strained or distant relationships with one or both of their parents, and it's not lost on me how awesome it is to have the relationship with mine that I do. The fair is always kind of stressful and a little annoying in the week leading up to and during, but I always miss it when it's over. I don't work the fair because I love the fair. It's definitely fun and a nod to a slower pace of life our country once possessed, but I do it because I love spending the time with my dad. The highlight of my weekend.

*

Sammy's off today and tomorrow, and I'm so glad he'll be home when I get home from work. Looking forward to spending some uninterrupted time with him :)

I have several appointments this week and a packed weekend (all fun stuff!), so I'm hoping to finish some house projects, have a little downtime, and clear my DVR of some Hallmark Christmas movies this week ;)

xo

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, peeps! 

Wasn't thrilled to start mine out by being on the phone with Bank of America for almost an hour *insert eye roll emoji* but happy it's the weekend regardless. On to the favorites...

Been living and breathing for Christmas Keepsake week on Hallmark Channel. For someone who  defiantly refused to watch Hallmark moves, I sure have turned a new leaf. I'm totally obsessed. October 26th can't come soon enough ;) 

Getting swirl cones from The Freeze with my dad...a definite favorite.

Forever living for Jason Reynolds's brilliant mind. Even his Instastories are genius.

My mom helped us out at the fair this week by making this cake super last minute for the local morning news show that was stopping by Wednesday morning when the fair opened. How cute is this?!

And then it was on TV! ;)

I'm reading The Inner Circle right now and really digging it. It's a little outside my reading comfort zone but is giving me serious National Treasure vibes which is my j.a.m.

This guy has had the craziest work week. Having to go in on his day off to interview a child, a random undercover night shift, special training today, etc. I don't know how he does it. Anyway, because of his unconventional schedule, he hasn't been in full uniform for part of this week, but every look is so good and I had to mention it as a favorite ;)

Not to sexualize men by any means, but...the uniform truly never gets old.

In between barely getting any sleep and taking care of me on Monday when I was sick, he somehow found time to paint our bathroom and bedroom *praise hands*

It's a purply gray but definitely looks more purple in artificial light. I don't mind the purply accent in the bathroom because it feels very calming to me which is such a relief after all that bright yellow.

Same color in our bedroom and you can see how different it looks in different lighting. Definitely more gray. He's totally done with it now and I'm obsessed. I feel like I can breathe now in there! ;)

We have our standing mirror and lamp shipping to us as we speak, and I have my girlfriend designing something for us to hang over our bed which I'm the most excited for. Will definitely post when the room is a little more put together.

I ordered this gem from Amazon and a ficus from Wayfair to complete our loft. Can't wait to get them in the room!

Another day, another Hallie Meyers Shyer tablescape screenshot I won't ever be able to recreate.

I grabbed this "Giget" Free People shirt when they were having 50% off their sale items last week. Totally obsessed with it. So soft and comfy, and for less than $15, you can't beat it.

And to begin the healthy habits portion of this post...Diet Coke for breakfast is my guilty pleasure favorite ;)

And so are foot long corndogs from the fair.

My dad and spent a few hours in our division last night at the fair and I'll be spending most of the day and night on Saturday there as well as Sunday to break it all down. 

My dad and I get together every week for dinner and they're always good, but lately, they've been so, so good. I feel so privileged to spend time with him. He's just the best human I know.

That's all for me! Like I said, I'll be at the fair all weekend (planning on getting a bunch of reading in and maybe some writing done during the slow periods), but I'm looking forward to some quality time with Sammy tonight :) 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

xo

*Linking up with Christina and Andrea!

Tuesday Recap

I'm here for the Tuesday recap ;) I was home sick yesterday (I caught some weird cold that manifested into some bacterial infection that was no joke on Sunday night, so staying home Monday was a no brainer), so I couldn't have written a post even if I wanted to. But enough about that...

FRIDAY
One of my favorite ladies came by on Friday to see our house and to spend the day wandering downtown CL. We started at Benedict's for brunch. Alicia got the breakfast street tacos and I got the apple, bacon, and brie omelet and I don't even like omelets but I was HERE for this one. I'm a sucker for brie every time. I'll definitely be recreating this at home.

A lot of of the shops downtown were participating in sidewalk sales, so we browsed a few before heading over to the antique mall.

We both found some awesome finds. I got a dried bunch of Eucalyptus which is exactly what I've been looking to put in this spot on our entryway table (and in every other room in our house, if I'm being honest) for five bucks! I'm obsessed with the smell of dried Eucalyptus, (well, all Eucalyptus actually) so I was pumped to find this large bunch.

I snagged this 1950's Gourmet cookbook for $3! Can't wait to display it with my other vintage cookbooks when I get some shelving in the corner by our kitchen table.

Alicia and I both grabbed one of these super cute porcelain menu stands. You can write on it with dry erase marker and I'm definitely using it for every party going forward.

  

This hippie stopped into Evolve to get some more sage to burn in the house ;) I forgot to cleanse the house when we first moved in, so I did it Friday afternoon. Sammy was super enthused.

After Alicia left, I Sammy put together this cheapo vanity I bought on Amazon so I'd have a place I could do my makeup outside of the bathroom. I'm big on natural light, so I don't do my makeup in the bathroom at all and have been using a cardboard box on the floor in front of this window up until now ;) I'm excited to have a little space where I can spread all my products out.

We also got our desktop up and running, along with building our desk chair. I grabbed it on Amazon for $30, and so far, we like it a lot. Eventually I would love a thrifted chair with a little more character to go with this desk, but we needed a chair here in the interim, so this will do just fine.

I'm hoping having this space set up and functional will result in me doing some writing...

SATURDAY

By Saturday morning I was starting not to feel great, so I took it easy while Sammy went to work. His dad came over in the late morning and stayed until dinnertime doing various projects around the house--God bless him--while my lazy ass watched SVU on Netflix all day. 

One of the projects we asked him to do was anchor my bookshelves to the wall and he did it in like two minutes. I don't understand Dads. They do things like that so effortlessly! By the evening I had gotten all the books I had on the floor of this loft on a shelf and semi-organized. My momma has since brought me more of my books from home and I have even more in various places in her house, so the empty shelves shown here will be filled soon :) I'm excited to play around the shelf space now and get some of my "knick knacks," as Sammy so lovingly puts it, dispersed throughout. I also have the coffee table my mom had in our living room while I was growing up in this room now and I'm obsessed with it. It makes the room feel that much cozier. Will definitely post another picture of this room at some point.

It's county fair season!...and my dad and I had to be at the LCF early Sunday morning to start setting our division up, so I spent the night by my mom's on Saturday so I could be closer to the fair come Sunday. Her and I stayed up late continuing the SVU binge :)

SUNDAY

I headed over to the fair with my Dad Sunday morning and we spent most of the day setting up our division which is Culinary.

The table/presentation setup is different this year which threw my dad and I for a loop, so we had to roll with it and make do with what we had decoration wise.

My chef uncles, and mom and brother judge our division for us, so they came by in the early evening to get that process started. I don't know how they taste so many jams and honeys...

The local news station is coming by tomorrow morning to do a segment on the fair and they called us to see if a contestant could make a cake "welcoming" the news show. Since the call was so last minute, and because we typically don't know the contestants prior to them dropping off their entries on Sunday, we didn't have anyone to ask. But my momma came through, as always. How cute is the cake she made?! She just whipped that shit up. And now she'll be on the tomorrow's morning news ;)

forever sneaking my vintage cookbook collection into the decor ;)

 I wish I had taken a picture of this cake from close up. The category was to make a cake inspired by a TV show or movie and this junior contestant made one inspired by Pete Rabbit! It was so cute, especially all the vegetables in the garden. And it deservedly won grand champion in the junior division.

Unfortunately we're down entries this year in the fair, so the judging went faster than it has in previous years which kinda stunk but I also wasn't complaining since I just wanted to get home haha. I was starting to feel worse and being on your feet all day doesn't help. *first world probs*

Sammy and I hung out for a bit when I got home before heading up to bed. I woke up every hour and then half hour after 1 a.m. that night with such horrible stomach pains, and without going into disgusting TMI detail, I determined it to be what I think was a bacterial infection from something I ate. 

I have a hard time staying home from work because I'm sick. I was the same way in middle school, high school, and college. I always felt so guilty about staying home and would have my mom rationalize my decision to stay home for me haha. This was the first time I stopped myself from wandering down the "what's due to the printer tomorrow? what do I need to edit? what needs to get done?" train and just said, nope, I think I'll stay home. Wrote my boss an email at 4 in the morning and called it a day haha. It did me a WORLD of good to get extra sleep, drink fluids, and watch the Hallmark Channel all from my couch, and I'm hoping I remember that the next time I get sick.

I'm feeling much better today and eating normal foods, so that's great. Hoping the week continues to go smoothly! I'd like to get through some house to-do items this week which really means organizing the bins of my stuff my mother seems to be sneakily bringing to me every time she comes over ;) that are now accumulating in the garage. 

Sammy's dad is coming over tonight to put our blinds up for us (Jesus, it's like we can't do anything ourselves), and his mom and grandma are tagging along for the ride and to have dinner with us. I'm so excited to see them and show his grandma our home :)

Hope everyone has been having a great start to the week. xo

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday all! A random mix of favorites to talk about today...

Can't handle this salted caramel Oreo concrete from Julie Ann's. I grabbed another with my dad last week when we picked up my mom's birthday cake and it did not disappoint. Ugh, SO good.

I change my phone background seasonally 'cause I'm a dork, and I love seeing these white hydrangeas every time I wake my screen.

Free popcorn from Ace being featured not once but twice on this blog of mine. When you're popcorn obsessed like me, how can this not be a favorite?

I follow Hallie Meyers Shyer on Insta (daughter of Nancy Meyers) and I'm so into her style. I had to screenshot this table she had on her stories the other day because I loved it so much.

My dad brought the desk I thrifted up into our second bedroom (which will be a guest room/office) over the weekend and I just love it. These details get me every time.

Fruit for dinner is my favorite in the summertime. We picked up some plums at Aldi earlier this week and they're SO good. 

I love Mari Andrew and I took a screenshot of this post I saw earlier this week. I just think her words are beautiful and relatable and spot on.

Can you even handle another screenshot?! ;) I really like Amanda's style and thought this look would be so pretty for a wedding we have in September.

I made a batch of breakfast sandwiches (a la Christina) earlier this week and am looking forward to having them as a quick breakfast to grab in the morning. Hopefully they taste okay!

  

Catching these gorgeous sunrises on my morning walk is definitely a favorite.

& for the big news!...

We're getting a puppy!

One of those sweet boys will be ours sometime around Labor Day :) I'm over the moon excited. I grew up with Goldens and it's been my dream ever since I was little to have my own. 

This is one of those times when I'm really glad I'm still blogging. The fact that I can remember starting this blog on my bed in my childhood bedroom and have now recorded huge milestones (and small ones too!) in my life like graduating college, getting my master's, buying a house, and now getting our pup (!) is surreal to me. While this is by no means a popular space on the internet, I'm so glad I've kept up documenting. If that girl sitting on her bed could see me now...I think she'd be pretty stoked.

*

That's all for me! I'm off today and have plans with my girlfriend to explore downtown CL. We're going to do brunch, some antiquing, and who knows what else--I'm so excited for some girl time.

Have a great weekend everyone!

xo

Tuesday Recap

Another weekend, another Tuesday recap ;)

Gotta start off recapping all the wedding festivities from this weekend! I raced over to the Onion Pub after work on Friday for the rehearsal and got there right in time to walk down the aisle. Like literally, it was my turn to walk down as I ran through the doors haha.

We headed over to Biaggi's in Deer Park for dinner and I was fully impressed with the randomly placed bowls of candy ;)

I got to sit with the most darling flower girl.

My cousin gave us these sweet boxes as our bridesmaid's gift that had lip balm, a bath bomb, soap, and face mask inside, along with a lovely coral necklace to wear on the day of.

Meanwhile, Sammy was living. his. best. life in South Carolina with his friends.

I headed over to the hotel on Saturday morning to get ready with my cousins (my cousin is also the makeup artist and an absolute genius at what she does).

with my favorite loves

The stunning bride just before we headed over to the ceremony space!

How cool was their cake?!

Her colors were navy and coral and they had flowers in that color family throughout all the details in the decor. And there were lottery tickets in our place card envelopes! 

  

my momma and her chickens

Me and my faves

  

I have the most fun cousins.

  

They had a late night snack bar with pizza and burgers and it HIT the spot.

The whole day went smoothly and my cousin glowed the entire day. I've been in five weddings before this one, but none of those were for my own family member, so I was thrilled to be part of my cousin's wedding party. It was such a great bonding experience for us and I'm so grateful to her for including me.

Sunday I was running a bit slowww, but I got up to go pick up the shelves I found someone selling online with my Dad. We had to stop at Ace for rope, and I'm officially only shopping at Ace for home improvement items simply because they hand out free popcorn in-store.

He's the best guy for helping me. He had to go into work Sunday evening, and he spent his only downtime during the day hauling wooden shelves around town with me. No one like him.

The ceiling fan light isn't doing the true color of the wood justice because it really is so much lovelier than in this picture haha. But I'm OBSESSED. I can't wait to fill this babies up. Bonus: they smell like an antique store and I LIVE for it every time I walk into the loft.

Sammy stayed by his parent's house Sunday night, so I stayed by my momma's house and so enjoyed spending the extra time with her and my siblings. My grandma came over for dinner and we all just hung out, like usual. 

Sammy and I grocery shopped after work yesterday and got things in order at the townhouse after not being there for a few days. 

This Friday is one of my Summer Fridays, so I'm looking forward to a short work week! I also have big news to share in my Friday Favorites post this week ;) Can't. Wait. 

Hope everyone has a great week!

xo