But is it in HD?

Look at what Sailor Boy and I purchased today (somewhat on a whim):
The picture does not do it justice, because it's beautiful in real life. I had been contemplating buying a nice new shiny flat screen TV for a few weeks now but Sailor Boy hasn't really been on board with it. He thought it was an unnecessary purchase in our lives right now. However, I convinced him to go to Best Buy today to "just look". I knew as soon as we started looking at them, he would be hooked. It totally worked. We got lured into the wall of TV's in the back of the store and after about 20 minutes and a short tutorial from the helpful (which was a surprise!) saleman, we made our purchase. Plus, it was on sale, so we couldn't feel too guilty!

Our old TV was a hand-me-down from my parents and it was literally the oldest, crappiest TV ever. It was from 1988 and it had wood paneling on the sides. It also weighted approximately 586 pounds. So we were about due for an upgrade. I feel like I'm part of the 21st century now.

The funniest part is even though I was the one who wanted the new TV, I really didn't understand the whole "HDTV" thing. Obviously all new TV's are High Definition, but I didn't quite know what that meant. To me, the picture on all new TV's looks great, and waaaaaay better than our old horrible TV. I have a hard time distinguishing the HD from the regular channels on the new TV, which is driving Sailor Boy CRAZY. It all just looks so crisp and sharp, so I guess what is the big deal about HD??? He'll put on an non-HD channel and then a HD channel and I swear they look the same. All I know is that it's a major improvement from the old TV, so what does it matter? I love our new TV!!

Vitamins

I'm in search of a good multi-vitamin to take every day. I currently am just taking a Vitamin D supplement at the recommendation of my dad (who's a family physician) because of the recent findings on how Vitamin D helps protect the body from like every type of cancer. It's not that I don't eat well, because I do try and get my 5 servings of veggies a day, but I think adding a multi-vitamin will help to make sure I'm getting all my nutrients, especially on those off days when I just feel like eating crap. Does anyone have any good suggestions? The vitamin aisle at the drug store overwhelms me!! I have no idea where to start...so any advice or recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Also, Loves Pink and Pearls, can I have an invite to read your blog?? My email is kimblog19@gmail.com! Thanks!!

The 2 loves of my life

Just a little random post about my 2 favorite things in the world!

Fall Lust List

Alot of people are making their "fall love lists", but I'm making my "fall lust list" because these items will more than likely never make their way into my closet, unless I happen to win the lottery. So I will simply stay in lust with them, as I know they are unattainable.

I just love the way J.Crew styles all of their outfits. Well my birthday is coming up (October 26th), so what do you think the chances of me getting a J.Crew gift card worth like $5,000 is??? Hmmmm....

Officially Fall!!

Happy First Day of Fall!! My 2nd favorite season! To celebrate the new season, Sailor Boy and I did some major planting around the house yesterday. We went to the nursery to get mums and pansies in the morning, which was pretty interesting. Neither one of us know too much about gardening, so we were basically walking around pretty clueless. My mom had suggested we plant pansies because they last all winter and they are very hardy so it would be hard for us to kill them...hehe. Sailor Boy gets the great idea that he wants to plant purple and yellow pansies. The reason -- it's the Baltimore Raven's colors and he thinks it will bring good luck for the team if we have a huge Raven's garden out front. Yes, I'm serious. So we now have a purple and "gold" garden.I also planted 3 pots of mums, which totally mean "fall" to me.
Here's all of our hard work...the entire front of our house:I also got this adorable fall wreath at HomeGoods last week for $19.99 (I LOVE that store!!)
The weather has also been so brisk and chilly...I love it! I'm switching over my closet to all my fall/winter clothes today!!

Marathon Puppy!!

Spencer and I went running this morning! It's the first time I've taken her running, and to be honest, I was a little nervous if it would work out. Since she's a hound, she tends to follow her nose and gets a little distracted when we walk, so I had visions of us running and all the sudden, she would slam on the brakes to smell something and I would bite it on the concrete. But she did really good and she didn't stop to smell anything!

Sailor Boy has been bugging me to take her running for months now, and I've always said I wanted to wait until she was older so she was a little calmer (she's only 9 months). But today I thought, what the hell, I could use the extra exercise. Usually we just walk the loop in our neighborhood (it's about 2.75 miles) every morning, but today we ran the whole thing and I think she really did have fun! Now I'm not saying we ran fast....it definitely showed me how out of shape I am! But I think if we start running 2-3 times a week in the mornings, I will definitely get more in shape and maybe it will help Spencer get some extra energy out.

This obviously isn't Spencer, but I thought this was the cutest picture...her ears really did look like that this morning when we were running!

It's fall!!

Ok, not really (not technically until next Monday), but it totally feels like fall to me today. It's a little bit brisk outside, I'm sitting at my desk drinking a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks, and wearing a lightweight sweater. While I do love me some warm summery weather, fall is definitely my 2nd favorite season!! I even bought a scarecrow yesterday from Michael's for our front porch...it's so cute! Sailor Boy made fun of me and called me an old lady for buying it, but I finally have a little house I can decorate, so I'm going to take advantage! Once I get done fully decorating (we're getting some mums and pumpkins this weekend), I'll take a picture of my Martha Stewart-ness!

(photo from marthastewart.com)

How freaking cute is that? Obviously my decor won't be quite that elaborate. I love that the dog matches everything!!

Mini Vaca!

Sailor Boy and I are planning a mini vacation for the weekend of Thanksgiving. We were going back and forth on where we wanted to go, but we finally settled on Berkeley Springs, WVA. Yes, that's right. Sounds weird, but it's actually a pretty cute (small) town. We're renting a cabin for 4 days and I'm super excited to just get away and relax. Berkeley Springs is about an hour away from Harper's Ferry, and it's right on the Cacapon River, which has some great hiking trails. Berkeley Springs is also home to the first spa in the US!! Apparently there's tons of great spas in the area, so I'm totally getting a massage while we're there. We found a cabin that we could both agree on....sort of "rustic" but completely updated and nice since I DO NOT "rough it". Here's a pic of the cabin:And here's the lovely gourmet kitchen:

Now that's what I call roughing it! Plus the cabin is pet friendly so we can bring Spencer since she loves hiking with us. Hopefully the weather won't be too cold so we can actually be outside. We were thinking of going someplace warm, like South Florida, but I think we'll save a warm vacation for later in the winter.

Unrelated, how AMAZING was Blair's dress on Gossip Girl last night??? OMG, I want it!! I've checked and it's totally sold out everywhere and it's over $500 on ebay, so I guess that's not happening, but I'm still totally obsessed with it! Her style is always so put together and fun...it's seriously one of the main reasons I watch the show - to see what she'll be wearing!
I have off work again today (yay!) so I'm off to get a pedicure, do a little shopping and then I have a hair appointment this afternoon! I'm really tempted to get bangs!! I've been obsessed over bangs for a while, so I'm wondering if I should just take the plunge. I'm a little nervous though...I guess I'll see what my hair guy says about it! Wish me luck!!

I love Cake.

Sailor Boy's parents came over for dinner last night and his mom was sweet enough to bring dessert - chocolate cake! She knows it's my absolute favorite. She also brought me the recipe and told me it's one of the easiest cakes in the world to make (which is good for me because I'm baking challenged). It's from Southern Living.

Triple Chocolate Cake

• 1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix with pudding
• 1 (3.9-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 large eggs
• 1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate mini morsels

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring with a whisk to remove large lumps. Add oil and next 3 ingredients, stirring until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate morsels. Pour batter into a greased and floured 12-cup Bundt pan.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack. Melt the remaining cup of chocolate morsels to make a glaze and drizzle on top of cooled cake.

Here's a picture I took of the cake this morning. This is after me and Sailor Boy both had slices for breakfast :-)
Is it bad that they brought the cake last night and it's already half gone??

Getting Buff!

I have NO upper body strength. Like, none. It's sort of ridiculous how weak I am. I've always wanted those super toned and sleek arms, but I've never really been disciplined enough to lift weights or work on my upper body. I'm more of a cardio/pilates type of girl...weights are not my thing.

So I've decided that I'm going to do the 100 Push Up Challenge to get my arms in shape and hopefully gain some much needed strength. My BFF K is going to do it with me, since she's trying to get in shape for her wedding. I think we're going to start Monday (hehe). So hopefully in a few months, I'll be strong, buff and able to do 100 real pushups!!!

Food Mood

I'm a little OCD (ok a lot OCD) in my life and that extends to my eating habits. I will get cravings, find something I love and I will eat it for like every meal for several weeks in a row, until I get sick of it and then move on to something else. It's a bit freaky. Recently, my meal kicks have been:

Pear and Gorgonzola Salad with soy nuts
Black Bean Burritos with mango salsa
Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil (this one lasted pretty much all summer)
Strawberry, Feta and Apple Chip Salad
Fresh Arugula with olive oil, salt and pepper
Sliced Avacdo with tuna salad

I will eat the crap out of these until I literally can't eat them any more. It's particularly bad because Sailor Boy is either forced to eat them too, or be on his own for dinners, because when I'm in a "food mood" (as he calls it), I don't cook anything else. I can't imagine what's going to happen with my food cravings when I'm pregnant!

I don't eat these things for breakfasts though, which is my favorite meal of the day. I love all breakfast foods. I like to eat something different for breakfast every day of the week, because I'm constantly craving pancakes, eggs, waffles, oatmeal, cereal, etc. On Sundays, our routine is to make a HUGE spread of food and then having a leisurely brunch, usually with bloody mary's or mimosas. Mmmmm I'm hungry just thinking about it.

PS - I'm still on the strawberry, feta and apple chip salad kick right now...already looking forward to my lunch today!

Back in Business

Finally back to work after having a much needed break. All 3 weddings went well this weekend, but I was SO exhausted. When we got down to the river house Sunday night, I pretty much crashed and didn't move all day Monday. I think I took 4 naps and ate everything in sight (including about 50 amazing homemade cookies).

It was a bit rough to come back today...but also exciting! It just became definite, but the wedding at the hotel this weekend is being featured on the tv show Platinum Weddings! This is the crazy one, where they are spending like $200K on leather thrones, floral centerpieces that weigh like 150 pounds and ridiculous amounts of other unnessecary stuff. But oh well...the hotel gets to be featured on TV! Free publicity is always great!! Not sure if I will actually be on TV at all (since I'm just a lowly on-site wedding coordinator), but I'm really excited to have the opportunity to showcase the hotel on a national television show! It's not going to air until next year, but I'll keep everyone updated on it! For those not familiar with the show, it's on the WE channel and it's alot like "whose wedding is it anyway", only they feature super elaborate and expensive weddings. They focus on one bride and groom on each episode and then show how much each aspect of the wedding cost. It's a bit insane, but I guess it serves it's purpose to show how much money some people do spend on weddings.

So that's my exciting news for the day. I probably won't be around much until next week because of all the craziness!!! I'll be sure to have an update after they finish all the filming! Hollywood, here I come!! HAHA