Current Obsession

McDonald's Iced Coffee. Oh my gosh, I cannot stop drinking these!! I don't know what McDonalds puts in them and I don't think I want to know, but I'm seriously addicted! I'm sure they are not healthy in any way, but I just don't care. And a medium (which is HUGE!) is only $1.90! So I don't even have to feel guilty about indulging in them several times a week. Way cheaper than Starbucks! YUM!

At least I have started my pre-wedding running routine, so maybe it will counter balance these sugary treats. Spencer and I have been running every day for the last 10 days. I'm proud of us! We do the 3 mile loop of our neighborhood, which is good because it's nice and shaded and has a few little hills (which make me feel like I'm working my butt muscles!!). Starting tomorrow (July 1st) I'm back on the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred...that gives me exactly 2 months of running and shredding to get in Aruba shape!

Signed, Sealed...

Off to the post office this morning to put our wedding invites in the mail!! That means some people will have them TOMORROW! So exciting!

Here's some pictures from the surprise shower last week that my aunt took...

My reaction to first walking into the shower - total shock!

Jake's mom gave me a picture of Jake when he was a little boy in her card - SO cute! I loved it.

Cutting the cake - YUM

With my mom and J's mom. Surprisingly, my mom is the one on the left with the dark hair. Yes, I look NOTHING like my parents (seriously) and I definitely resemble Jake's family more than my own. 

End of the shower when Jake came back to pick me up. This was before he realized how much he was about to load into the car. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend - Can't believe it's almost 4th of July...where has this summer gone???

SURPRISE!!

OMG - I had a SURPRISE bridal shower last night!!! I am still in shock!!! It was thrown by J's aunt and my bridesmaid J. Seriously, I have never been so shocked in my life. I totally thought I was just having the one shower at the end of July. Last night was my family shower, all of my aunts and J's aunts and cousins were there, plus my maid of honor K.  

We had been planning (or so I thought) to head up to J's parents house for dinner to celebrate his mom's and brother's birthdays, which were both last week. That was the ruse to get me up there. J even went so far as to stop at the store on the way up and buy them both birthday cards. We pull into his parents driveway and there was a weird car I didn't recognize. I was like "who else came to dinner?" and J's like "hmm I think that's my grandmother's car, I guess my mom invited her too". 

So we walk around to the backyard and SURPRISE!!! All the ladies were standing out back, and the backyard was totally decked out in navy, green and yellow wonderful-ness. They really went all out - they made the cutest centerpieces on all the tables with starfish and adorable little yellow glass candle holders. I never suspected a thing...I guess the key to a good surprise shower is to throw it on a weeknight! 

It was seriously such a shock, but SOOO fun and I totally loved it. I've always had mixed feelings about surprise showers (mainly because I like to have a plan for everything, and a cute outfit!), but it was totally fabulous. The funniest part was when we were driving up there, I actually called my maid of honor and we had like a 20 minute conversation....all the while she's driving up as well, with my mom and aunt in the car with her. 

And I'm SO glad that I did decide to wear a cute outfit last night...at the last minute right before we walked out the door, I threw on a dress instead of the more casual skirt and polo that I had been wearing. 

My bridesmaid J, me and my maid of honor K with my bow bouquet! That's the only picture I have on my camera, but J was taking a bunch and once she sends them to me, I will post more. 

Everyone was SO generous and we got some amazing gifts. Jake about died when he was loading the car at the end of the night. He was like "where are we going to put all of this". Introducing the "wedding closet":

One of the closets in our guest room has officially been taken over by the wedding. This just had a few wedding items in it before (bridesmaids dresses, my wedding shoes, etc.). It's now jammed packed with all our gifts and I'm really not sure if anything else will even fit in there. 

It was such a fun start to my weekend!!! Happy Friday!!

Registry Lovin'

I saw this on Always Organized's wonderful blog, so I thought I'd steal it for myself :-) Here is a list of my favorite items on our registry. Set of stainless steel mixing bowls from Crate and Barrel. Glass cake stand - Crate and Barrel...maybe this will motivate me to start baking???
Of course, the lovely Kitchen-Aid Mixer. We didn't register for the red one though, just the plain stainless steel. I think J would die if we got this and I actually made him cookies that weren't slice and bake.
Oneida Chandler 65 piece Flatware set from Macy's. We are currently using my parents old silverware set from their wedding IN 1976! Definitely time for an upgrade. And I'm trying REALLY hard not to be a registry stalker, but I have looked a few times and someone has already bought this for us!!! So excited!

Glass Candlesticks from Crate and Barrel - this is actually a set of 3 in different sizes. I think they would look perfect as the centerpiece on our dining room table. Calphalon Stainless Steel 12 quart stock pot. Perfect for making soup in the winter! This matches the rest of our Calphalon pots and pans that we recieved last Christmas.

What are/were your favorite things that you registered for?

Invites!

I picked our invitations up on Monday! 

Since the wedding is a holiday weekend, we are planning on sending them out a few weeks earlier than normal. They will be in the mail THIS MONDAY!! eeek! That makes everything so REAL. Anyways, I'm totally obsessed with the invitations, I think they came out really well. They were hand designed and created by one of my friends, who also owns her own stationary company. They are very fun and bright, but I think they are still pretty traditional as well. 

Onto the pictures...

We did both outer and inner envelopes. The inner envelopes were lined with navy blue, which I think really pops the invitation and makes it stand out. 

The front of the invite

The back of the invite. You literally just flip it over to get to the pocketfold on the back. (sorry, I couldn't get that photo to rotate) All 4 of the insert cards fit right into the pocket and there's nothing to open or anything...it's all completely flat and just 1 piece of paper. 

One of the insert cards. I love the yellow line (all the insert cards have that at the bottom). I think it really ties in the yellow ribbon on the front of the invite.

We just have to put stamps on them this week and drop them at the post office Monday. Woo Hoo!!

Summer Strawberry Salad

I made this salad last night for us while J's parents were here and it was a HUGE hit. I got the recipe from my BFF K, who makes it all the time and we literally sit around eating it straight out of the bowl with our fingers. It's so summery, light and delicious. 

The star of the salad is the dressing:

Brianna's Homestyle Blush Wine Vinaigrette. You can find this at the regular grocery store and they make a ton of flavors. This one is perfect in the salad because it really compliments the strawberries. Anyways, here's the recipe:

Spring Mix or Baby Spinach

Small Vidalia Onion, chopped into small pieces

1 pint of fresh strawberries, sliced

2 oz. soft goat cheese, crumbled

3 Tablespoons of the salad dressing, plus a little bit more for drizzling

A few hours before you want to serve the salad, take the chopped onions and put them in a small bowl. Add the 3 (maybe a little bit more) tablespoons of the dressing to the onions, so that they are basically marinating in the dressing, but not so much that they are like drowning it in. Stick the onions in the fridge until you are ready to make the salad. This really helps cut the onion-y taste from the onions...the vinaigrette helps soften them and make them super sweet. 

Right before you want to serve the salad, add the spring mix or baby spinach to a large bowl, toss in the sliced strawberries and then take the onion/dressing mixture and pour it over the salad. Mix well to start to coat everything in the dressing. Crumble the goat cheese into the salad. I LOVE goat cheese, so I add a ton to this salad and use a very soft goat cheese so it can like start to coat the greens and strawberries. You may want to add a little bit more dressing at this point as well, depending on how much dressing you like on your salad. 

And that's it - now just try and stop yourself from eating the entire bowl. YUM!!! 

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day - in 74 short days, that will be me and my daddy (only I won't be wearing a dress with a turtleneck!) Love you dad!!!

Dress Help!

I just found out that my bridal shower is going to be July 24th! That's the only detail I'm allowed to know though. I keep trying to trick my MOH into telling me details, but she's not spilling anything. But I am really excited...apparently she and my bridesmaid J are hard at work on everything! I really hope that the big surprise is that my other bridesmaid C can come up that weekend from Florida! That would be so fantastic.


Anyways, a while back (like, seriously, March), I ordered this dress from J.Crew with the intentions on wearing it to my bridal shower. Hey, I like to be prepared ok?

It came, it fits perfectly and I love it. I don't own anything that color and I think it's so girly and cute! So it's been tucked away in my closet, awaiting my shower. I've asked my MOH if she thinks it's an appropriate shower dress and she said definitely, it's the perfect thing to wear.

My question is...what sort of jewelry should I wear? The dress is very classic and tailored, so I'm not sure if I should go classic and just do like a strand of pearls and pearl studs, or try to make it a little bit more trendy with fun colored or chunky jewelry? I don't want to look uptight or stuffy...my shower is actually on a Friday night so I have a feeling it's going to be a little different than a typical Sunday afternoon shower. I'm planning on wearing a pair of nude colored peep toed pumps, just to keep it neutral.

So any suggestions on types of jewelry that may go with the dress or stores I can check out to find something would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

Housewarming

We had my parents over to the house for dinner on Sunday so they could see our new house. They had seen it once while we were under contract, but this was their first time seeing all of our painting progress and the new bathroom. They were impressed by all our hard work. We even got to sit out on our deck for the first time (it was really our first time to relax since we've lived here!!)

My parents brought us 2 fabulous housewarming presents:

Beautiful set of cake cutting knives from Pottery Barn with an "E" engraved on both handles. I adore them! So classic and we can use them forever. Of course, I stuck them in our "wedding closet" since I can't use them until the wedding!

A New set of Tervis Tumblers...with crabs! Love them...perfect for summer drinks!

We're having J's parents over this Sunday for Father's Day. Does anyone have any really good dessert recipes? Of course, J's mom is like Betty Crocker and I am NOT, so I always struggle to find good desserts to serve. Any easy and delicious recipes would be greatly appreciated!

Another busy week with 3 weddings again at work this weekend (can you tell its wedding season??)...Happy Wednesday! The only thing getting me through today is happy hour tonight with my girls! YAY!

The Bathroom: After

It's finished!!! I'm so happy to be using our brand new, beautiful and squeaky clean bathroom. The guys did SUCH a good job, and J contributed his handiwork as well, by painting the whole bathroom while I was at work on Saturday and installing all the new towel bars. I think it all came together so well and I love using it. I took my first bath in the new tub yesterday!! 

Ok, here's the pics (it's really hard to take pics of a small bathroom, so they are not the best):

We painted the walls "Gentle Tide" - which is a blueish green color that I think complements our blue master bedroom and green guestroom. We also managed to find the mirror at TJ Maxx yesterday for $19.99!! We contemplated buying the mirror that matched our vanity at Home Depot, but it was $99.99. Not really in our budget for 1 little mirror. Totally random, we ran in TJ Maxx yesterday and there was the perfect mirror!! 

We're still using our old shower curtain (hopefully we get the nice plain white one we registered for!) but I think it works well enough. We've also registered for a set of navy towels and a set of white towels and I think both colors will look good with the wall color and the neutral tile. I'm so happy we decide to go with the tan tile instead of plain white for the floor. It makes it seem much more custom and doesn't show dirt as much!

I'm off to do a walk through with our on-site coordinator at the wedding venue and then pick up a sample invite from the invitation company we're using. Happy Monday!!

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

So I will admit it...I color my hair. I'm not a natural blonde. YIKES! And not only do I color my hair, I do it MYSELF. That's right, no salon color for me. I do it right in the bathroom sink. Always have, always will. 

The key to doing your own color at home is finding the right color/brand and sticking to it. When I was younger (high school), I would try different colors and brands every time. That often led to disaterous results. As I've gotten older and wiser, I realized the color that works for me and use it every time. This is my signature color...

The color is called "Toasted Coconut"...doesn't that sound so tropical and lovely? Ha! Anyways, I'm a big fan of the L'oreal Couleur Experte hair coloring system. I have used it since junior year of college. It's a 2 step process, where you do an all over color and then go through with a highlighting wand for color definition. Has anyone else used this? I literally SWEAR by this stuff...and I've tried ALOT of at-home hair dyes. 

This makes my hair the perfect shade of a nice medium blonde, then it adds in the lighter blonde highlights. Since I've been doing it for so many years, I'm now an expert on the little highlighting wand, but it does take some time to get used to it. But at-home hair dye has come along way...it's pretty hard to mess this stuff up, seriously! And I get compliments on my hair color all the time...even when I'm in the salon getting my hair cut...ohhh, if they only knew it was hair dye out of a box!

Well, since this hair dye is pretty much vital to my existence as a blonde, you can imagine my HORROR when I realized that a lot of stores were not carrying it anymore. I could no longer find it at the grocery store or Target. I just about had a panic attack thinking about having to switch up my brand and color...especially 3 months before my wedding. 

After some internet research, I realized that Drugstore.com carries it and it's only $14.99/box. Which is way cheaper than I was paying at Tar-jay. I totally ordered 3 boxes of it today! I've never used drugstore.com before and I was very impressed...free shipping and I already got an email saying it shipped out about 2 hours after I placed my order! So I won't have to deal with my gross dark roots for too much longer!!

So that's my dirty little beauty secret!!! Anyone else have any to share? 

Sigh

I wish I could snap my fingers and all our boxes would magically be unpacked, our house would be painted and our living room would look like this:

(image from Pottery Barn - obviously)

I've been a little M.I.A due to all the work we're doing on the house at night, coupled with the fact that I have 3 weddings this weekend at work (2 of which are extremely difficult and slightly rude clients). Oh and I just found out last night I have strep throat. Who even gets strep throat...i'm 27 years old! Hopefully the Z-Pack I started last night will start to help today. 

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more fun and exciting posts and pics of our house progress. We're taking our first showers in our almost complete bathroom today!!  

The Bathroom: Demo Pt. 2

They have been diligently working on our bathroom and are almost done. I can't wait! Obviously I'm a few days behind in posting their progress, but here's the 2nd day of work:

New tub and tile is in! Just needs grout. 

All of their stuff. Bye Bye gross bathroom!

The big hole they made in our ceiling to repair the rotted floor and the crappy patch from the old owner. Guess you need to make a bigger hole to fix it! 

Our new beautiful vanity and toilet waiting to be installed. Totally obsessed with them!! 

They are scheduled to be done tomorrow evening!! We'll be painting the bathroom this week and then taking our first showers there by the weekend! 

Exhausted

We are all moved into the house. Now we just need to organized the 28363515 boxes, get a few more rooms painted and start getting settled in. Of course, the first thing I organized yesterday was my closet. Gotta start in the most important room. I have the MOST amazing walk in closet and I am dying over all the storage space. I think we may have 1 closet in the house that we won't even need to put anything in right away. That blows my mind!! We literally had 3 closets TOTAL in the old house. 

Happy Monday!!

The Bathroom: Demo Pt. 1

Yay for progress! I took these on Tuesday, so they've actually made alot more progress since then and are scheduled to be done Monday or Tuesday! I think my favorite part is the ugly gross floor tile ripped out!!

PS - I borrowed a friends Dyson Animal vacuum yesterday and I am SO excited to use it tonight and this weekend. Goodbye dog hair and contractors dust!!! 

Have a wonderful weekend! We move into the new house TOMORROW!!! 

Ok, for real this time

A few weeks ago, I posted about weddings shoes that I ordered from J.Crew and I thought they were going to be "the ones". Unfortunately, they were definitely NOT. I tried 3 different sizes and they were all too big! I guess they run really really large. Even the 5.5 was too big (and that's the smallest size they make). Typically I wear a 6.5. I was really bummed because they were totally gorgeous shoes. So those weren't meant to be and I was back to the drawing board. 

I'm happy to announce that after months and months and million of returned shoes, I have really found THE shoes! Woo Hoo!!! I found these on Zappos:

They are the Ralph Lauren "Tyra" shoes. I got them in the champagne/gold color. I originally was going to get the silver, since all my jewelry that day is silver, but I decided that the champagne color will look better with my ivory dress. They are super comfortable and the heel is the perfect height. 

I'm really happy to finally have crossed shoes off my wedding list! Who knew it would be so hard to find them? And I'm excited to be able to bring them when I go to try on my dress (when I ever find time to do that!)

Happy Thursday!

The Bathroom: Before

Our master bathroom has some "issues". We didn't realize the extent of these issues until we were going through our inspection. Our inspector found this at the bottom of our bathtub:

Two nice lovely rust spots. And the best part, they are not just rust spots, they are actually holes in the bottom of our tub! The inspector was able to stick a key almost all the way through the holes. Awesome. We thought that maybe it would be a "quick fix" and we would just need to use porcelain patch to fill the holes and we would be all good. 

Unfortunately, it's not that easy. Turns out that the damage of the holes not being treated have caused the floor under the tub to rot. That has led to the ceiling below the bathroom to be damaged. It looks like they had tried to repair the ceiling in the past, but did a crappy job at patching the water damage and now there's a hole in our ceiling. Here's that hole (which is directly above where the front door is...makes a great first impression!!) 

So we talked to two of our friends who are contractors about what to do. They recommended pulling the whole tub out, repairing the floor underneath, as well as the damage to the ceiling below, then re-tiling the whole shower and putting a new tub and faucet in. Well then, since

 they were going to have to pull the toilet and sink out to get the tub out, we bit the bullet and

 told them to just do the entire bathroom! 

New tub, toilet, sink and vanity, tile floors, mirror, lighting and hardware, as well as having them also repair the wall behind the toilet which also has water damage. I'm so excited!!!! The bathroom really was SO outdated, gross and dirty so I think the complete renovation is long overdue. Here's some more pictures of the nasty bathroom..

From first glance, the bathroom doesn't look TOO bad...but just wait!

The rotting dry wall and tile behind the toilet. Lovely. And about 25 years of caulk.

The floor tiles are super gross. The previous owners loved their caulk!

Just plain nasty! The outdated mirror, the gross soap holder, yuck!

The gross vanity. It's super rusted and dirty.  

It really is one of the grossest bathrooms I've ever seen. And it's all ours! ha! Anyways, they started with the demo today, so I'll be posting a whole series of their progress and then the finished project (hopefully next week!) I'm super excited!! I told J he was going to have to drag me out of that bathroom because I was never leaving once it's done!! Love it!