Weekend Wrap Up

It probably goes without saying that this was a (delightfully) hectic week. I don't think I've ever received so much attention in my whole life, for any reason. Now to get down to planing a wedding (gulp). I'm not going to lie, I'm ready to get through the whole wedding planning thing and get on to the honeymoon planning. We have a weekend packed with wedding and birthday celebrations, and I'm pretty excited to kick all this celebrating off. 

• The Animal Print Shop has the sweetest prints of pretty much any animal you can imagine. I'm torn between this one and this one.
• Okay, this is kind of dumb...but look who's (kind of) #1!
• Ha.
• Research for our trip to Portland this August.
• I think one of these puppies will be my next investment.
• This is exactly how my review of 50 Shades of Grey would have read if I was a lot funnier.
• This is just wonderful.
• I got sick of waiting for spring, so I ordered this.

Weekend Wrap Up

The weekend has arrived! I've been thinking it's one day ahead of what it's actually been all week, so this week felt l-o-o-o-o-n-g. Tonight we're going out for drinks with some of Jeff's old work friends - our next door neighbor (who also works with Jeff) offered to DD; what a treat! Tomorrow I'm going to try to drag Jeff to Ikea for some frames and maybe a couple of house plants, and then maybe we'll catch a movie after to make up for the Ikea torture. I don't know why he acts like he hates Ikea - when I first moved here, I had never even been to one, and he was obsessed. Now he acts as though I'm asking him to to carry me upstairs to bed because I'm too tired to walk (which is certainly not something I do, MOST DEFINITELY not every night). And on Sunday my friend Amber and her boyfriend Rob are having a Super Bowl party. I'm bringing these, and Jeff has elected to stay home to catch up on TiVo because he has an actual anxiety attack when it gets backed up. That guy. Have a stupendous weekend. Here are your links:

• J. Crew is offering an extra 40% off of their final sale styles right now, with some already at 50% off! I'm eyeing up this, these, and this.
• I don't have a pressure cooker, but this looks good.
• I already got my tax return and stashed it in savings, but I'm treating myself to a new pair of booties. Currently I'm torn between these, these Sam Edelman classics (I think regardless of what I choose I'm going to go with black, but I also really like these in the saddle leather color), or these.
• Oh, HELL yeah.

Weekend Wrap Up

This week was crazy busy. Fun busy, but crazy nonetheless. I'm planning on spending my weekend doing a lot of lounging, and sprucing up the house a bit - I've gotten a little behind on my daily chores with all the running around I've been doing.

Here are some links you might enjoy from throughout the week:

• South Korean Girls Trying American Junk Food. Funny, but not as good as this.
• Some new hand soap to freshen up the bathroom.
• These snazzy booties are an extra 30% off!
• So is this cozy sweater.
• This looks like the perfect pink nail polish.
• For all the small batch, artisanal ice creams out there, this might be the best ice cream I've ever had.
• This might be a close second (I only saw it once, I don't remember where I got it, and I can't find it for sale anywhere online. Tragedy!)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Weekend Wrap Up

Happy long weekend, y'all! I actually didn't realize Monday was a holiday until yesterday, so that was a nice little surprise. With my old schedule I was never able to take advantage of Monday holidays because I already had Mondays off, so I'm pretty jazzed.

My weekend plans include going to a winter wine festival with fire pits and mulled wine and food trucks (yes, I'll take all of that) tomorrow during the day, and then tomorrow evening one of Jeff's old friends is coming up from DC to have dinner with us. My plans for the weekend also probably include...buying a new car. Yep, I jinxed myself by mentioning my old car was still truckin'. Monday morning my old Accord just wouldn't start, and stayed that way for three days. He eventually managed to start on his own on Thursday and has been fine ever since, but I'm just too nervous for comfort driving the old guy these days. Sometimes he'll start, sometimes he won't, and almost all of his tires need replaced. I've told myself that I'm not going to put any more money into him, so I think it's time to retire the old fella and finally buy a new car. I found one that I really like, so I'm probably going to go look at it tomorrow or Monday.

I didn't get a whole lot of random article reading done this week because I spent pretty much all my spare time obsessively researching cars and auto loan/insurance rates, but here's a few gems (some "borrowed" from others) if you feel so compelled:

• This article (stolen from Hither & Thither) was fascinating to me.
• I think I might need this.
• Anthropologie is giving an extra 40% off sale items right now - time to whip out that Christmas gift card. Thanks to Jeff's mom! (I currently have this and these in my cart.)
• This comprehensive list of what to buy during the year and when to buy it is the bomb (I stole this one from my bud Laurie at the delightful Good Morning Beautiful)
• This article sums me up flawlessly.

Have a terrific long weekend, and I'll be back to report on my vehicle purchase (or lack thereof) next week.

Weekend Wrap Up

What a good week. I'm loving my new position at work, I feel like I got stuff done (though I'm not sure why; I didn't really do anything important), and I got to meet some good friends for Meatballs and Martinis - pretty much the greatest thing ever to exist.

Meatballs and Martinis is a happy hour at a local pizza restaurant featuring $5 martinis and - you guessed it - meatballs. Actually, for somewhere around two hours, they bring around free food to everyone at the bar every 20 minutes! How awesome is that? And it's different food each time - they always start with one of their house made meatballs topped with a dollop of ricotta, and the rest of the food varies. Think slices of their pretty solid charred pizza, caprese salad, roasted chicken wings with caramelized onions, and eggplant rollatini. It's just meant to be small bites, but so much food comes out that you're stuffed when you leave and there's no need for dinner. It's the best.

 Anyway. We're finally taking down our holiday stuff this weekend, and even though I'll be sad to see the last physical evidence of the holidays gone, I think it'll feel good to get it done. If you're bored over the weekend, here's some stuff I've gathered over the past couple weeks that I've enjoyed:

• This article made me laugh out loud.
• How to make a big, waffle-shaped mozzarella stick. Not kidding.
• This eyeglass shop not only allows you to upload a photo of yourself to try on glasses, but the image you take is three dimensional and turns left and right. It's pretty darn cool, and very useful. They also have you take a style test so they can recommend the best frames for both your style and face shape.
• Now that Serial is over, I'm officially addicted to The Serial Serial. Yep, the AV Club made a podcast about a podcast, and I'm into it. 
• On a related note, if you've been following the whole Serial saga, The Intercept did a three-part interview with Jay. They also interviewed the prosecutor of the case, Kevin Urick (fun fact: He lives and runs his practice about 20 minutes away from me, apparently). 
• Apparently there's a thing of where people are calling sandwiches "homemade Subway" now. What?!
• This also made me LOL.
• Interesting article about how divorce rates have actually been dropping for quite some time now, even though the public perception is that they continue to go up. Something refreshing to think about.
• This is literally just a 15+ minute video of Stephen Colbert breaking character, and it was one of the most delightful things I saw in 2014.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I was planning on doing my weekend wrap-up post on Friday as usual, but Friday was my birthday and I felt like taking a nap, so I did that instead. Birthdays are awesome. I had a really wonderful weekend filled with the people I love and lots of festive fun, so 30's treating me pretty good so far. I think if the last couple years of my twenties are any indication, my 30's are going to be pretty hard to beat. Bring it on, I say. I'll post some pictures from my birthday weekend most likely tomorrow, but for now here's some stuff I've found around the interwebs this week...

• This girl is my new personal hero.
• This instructional post on how to pluralize your last name made me chuckle, and is so very true.
• If you're looking for a quirky gift for Christmas, this site has some very strange, neat stuff. I ordered my brother a few things (I'll never tell what! At least until after Christmas.)
• Emily Henderson used to have my exact rug in her own house!!! Total fangirl moment.
• This packing tip is genius. I used it this weekend, and it worked like a charm.
• This made me lol.
• We happened to randomly end up here last night, and it was like a magical winter wonderland - with beer and spiked hot cider!! It was amazing, and there was no charge to get in. Highly recommended if you're in the Philly area. Pictures to follow.

Weekend Wrap-Up

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...at least around here! We got our tree this past Sunday, and decorated it on Tuesday. I always had a real tree growing up, but I had forgotten just how big of a difference it makes. The smell of fresh pine really makes it feel officially like the holidays have arrived. I've been decorating the rest of the house a little here and a little there, and this weekend when I have some more time I'm going to finish switching out all of the autumn gear. I'm officially in the Christmas spirit and I'm super pumped to spend the rest of the month watching holiday specials/Christmas movies. I've gotten super excited about every single special that I've seen a commercial for, to the point where I actually said that I want to watch the holiday version of the sing-off (?!) So that's where I'm at. Enjoy your weekend! We're driving  couple hours north to the Harrisburg area to meet my parents for dinner to celebrate my birthday on Sunday. I'll be back next week with the rest of my gift-guide series!

Here are some links if you're looking for something to check out this weekend...

• Why we should all stop apologizing all the time.
• Jeff and I have an annual cookbook tradition, too!
• I think it's safe to say that this will be part of my gift-giving this year.
• Can Bros Be Basic? (MR is killin' it this week!)
• We're considering going here with my parents. Their french fries (my bad, frites) are supposedly killer!
• Speaking of which, Belgium wants their claim to french fries back!

Weekend Wrap Up

I hope everyone had as nice of a Thanksgiving as I did. We had a nice, relaxing day and I ate so many mashed potatoes that I couldn't even finish my wine. I literally walked around with one glass of wine from dinner time until I finished it right before I went to bed, and if you know me, you know that's pretty drastic. Here are some photos I snapped throughout the day.

And some links for weekend browsing:

• How to Talk About Food Without Sounding Like a Snob
• Another amazing round of Celebrities Reading Mean Tweets About Themselves. Kills me every time.
• I made these whipped sweet potatoes from Tyler Florence for Thanksgiving, and they were DEEELISH. I hate when sweet potatoes taste like baby food, and these had just the right amount of savory...ness? to them. Don't leave out the orange zest, it makes the whole dish!
• How lovely is this DIY advent calendar?
• And this Scandinavian Christmas decor!
• And this framed holiday art!!! (I want the Donkey!)
• Thanksgiving is over, so I'm ready to go all in on Christmas everything (can you tell?) This year I'm all about fresh evergreen garland everywhere. Isn't this beautiful? (Scroll down to the last picture.)
• The perfect classic navy sweater, on my Christmas list. And if you order during Black Friday, they're donating 100% of profits back to the factory that produces their clothing. How stinkin' awesome is that?

Have a great weekend...I'm having trouble holding off on buying our tree since we're getting a real one this year, and we don't want it to die before Christmas gets here! My friend told me that her family has always dumped a 20 oz Pepsi (HAS to be Pepsi...no coke!) into their tree water, and it's made their trees last forever. Worth a shot!

Weekly Wrap-up

This week feels like the last relatively low-key week before the holiday buzz sets in. I'm already well into my Christmas shopping, and tomorrow I'll do my big grocery haul for Thanksgiving. I've taken the entire beginning of the week leading up to the holiday off, so I'll be able to prep everything at my (relative) leisure. I'm already starting to feel the excitement of the season, and I think this year in particular is going to be one for the books.

This weekend, we're going to see some friends play music at a local bar. It'll be nice to get out and see the gang; it's a rare occasion these days to see each other outside of going to each others' homes. The rest of the weekend will be spent sprucing up the house for Thanksgiving, baking pies, and relaxing before the glorious holiday chaos arrives. Some highlights from the week:

• My camera arrived! I ended up purchasing a Nikon D3100, which is an older model, but it got really solid reviews and since it's my first DSLR, I wasn't looking for anything crazy fancy or advanced. I definitely have a lot to learn, but I think I finally got the general scheme of things down (I wasn't used to the way I held the camera or pressed the shutter affecting my pictures!). I'm excited to learn the ins and out of taking beautiful pictures - if anyone has any tips for a clueless beginner, I'm all ears!
• Gifts I've been ordering online have been slowly rolling in, and I'm getting SO JAZZED! I haven't started wrapping yet, though, and I'm starting to run out of hiding places in the house for Jeff's unwrapped gifts. Time to do a gift wrap haul!
• Loft had one of their crazy sales earlier in the week, so I stocked up on some new leggings and a cozy sweatshirt to go with. I'm particularly excited for these.
• The company Jeff and I work for has an amazing rewards program and he had a bunch of points accumulated, so he ordered me a Le Creuset stockpot - If you're into cooking at all, you know that my head practically fell off with excitement when it arrived. I'm taking it on its maiden voyage as we speak with a big pot of tomato bisque. It'll be perfect for simmering stock throughout my Thanksgiving cooking, and I plan on braising pretty much anything I can get my grimy little hands on for the remainder of the winter. 

And some gems from around the web:

• This is where I grew up. People are literally BARRICADED with snow! Buried cars! Buried houses! I'm used to some crazy weather, but this is bananas. I hope everyone's staying safe!
•  I'm torn between here and here for my birthday dinner. Has anyone been to either? They both look AMAZING.
• I'm a little obsessed with this rug
• .Best beers to drink this winter. Proud of my Southern Tier for making the list!
• Last Thanksgiving was my first attempt at a whole turkey, and it turned out incredible. Like mind-meltingly good. I used the Simple Roast Turkey recipe from this Times article. It was ridiculously easy and apparently fool-proof. I'll be using it again this year.
• This book has been serving as my Thanksgiving bible.

Have a great weekend!

image via Hello Giggles

This and That

Some stuff from around the web that caught my attention...

Friday Night Meatballs. Who's in?

This blanket has officially reached the top of my "NEED" list.

This cocktail mixes beer, gin and tart berries...basically all of my favorite things in one drink. Gimme.

My home desperately needs some personality. Adding some art should do the trick. I'm torn between this and this.

People keep getting into strangers' cars because they think it's an Uber. Ha!

Everlane is my latest online shopping addiction...I want basically everything they sell, but especially this twill tote.

I'm getting ready to chop my hair for fall, and Emma Stone's bob is exactly what I'm going for. Now if only I could make it look as good as her.

Are you like me? Are you weirdly infatuated with yogurt, but hate sub-par varieties more than a special news report interrupting your favorite TV show? This is absolutely delightful. (Tart Cherry is my favorite, but Strawberry Rhubarb is a close second.)