large frames.

I need new glasses.  At work I can have to sit extremely close to my desk so that I can see my computer screen.  It has gotten bad, and I cringe when I think about the last time I went to the optometrist.  I think the year was 2006 right before I shipped off to college.

When I finally came to the conclusion that I needed some new spectacles it was right around the time that Alt Summit pictures were showing up all over the internet.  The geeky large frames were making a huge comeback and I for one was extremely excited.  I love larger frames on my face so these styles were exactly what I was looking for.  I started browsing around my local LensCrafters finding nothing that I really liked.  Then today I came across this great site BonLook that has prescription glasses for $99.  Insane prices, chic styles.  Sold.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 

midnight express / simply fabulous / honey badger / aviator

How much do you love these?  Honestly I can not decide on my favorite.  I love how on the website you can try them on with your web cam, such a cool feature.  I will be doing that this weekend.  Anyone else looking for some new frames or digging these frame styles?  Perhaps your making a trip to the optometrist this weekend or sometime soon? 

Happy Weekend everyone!

xo 

photography.

Last night I had the chance to work with a model and shoot some great images.  We did all outdoors right around the time the sun was setting and had some really great lighting to work with.

wedding wednesday.

When thinking about weddings I always like to go back to the guests.  I think the key to any great event is having happy guests.  You spend months upon months planning and executing all the details to then forget that the whole point of having a wedding is to share with your family and friends the love you feel as a couple.

So back to my point, treat your guests well.  Make sure they know how happy you are to have them there and always remember that a good amount of them probably spent some money to be there on your special day.  Having a family and a good amount of friends that live mostly out of state I always think about the traveling that we endure to see each other and how nice it would be to have a welcome basket upon arrival.  

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I love these options.  I think the most important things to include in a wedding welcome basket are:

·         Wedding Itinerary (This is the easiest way to avoid confusion with timing and where people need to be at certain times.)

·         Guide book or suggestions from the Bride & Groom on their favorite places to eat, see, and play

·         Water bottles

·         Bottle of wine or champagne (Trader Joes is a great place to get this)

·         Souvenir from the wedding location (Examples could be for a Virginia wedding, a Virginia is for Lovers bumper sticker.  A Charleston wedding you could place all of your items in the famous Charleston weaved baskets.  Or an item that is from a local store in the area such as cupcakes from the nearby bakery, or some nuts and dried fruit to satisfy a hungry traveler.)

·         Welcome note from the Bride & Groom

All of these small touches will not only make your guests feel welcome but also help them get into the wedding spirit and ease the stress of traveling.  Many people will do these for the all guests, just guests traveling from out of town, or simply their bridal party.  It’s a nice touch no matter what you do and is a great way to add some personalized options as well as get creative with your theme.

Have you ever done welcome baskets for your wedding or an event?  Maybe simply for out of town guests you’re having stay for a weekend?  I’ve never put one together but I think I may do this when I have friends in from out of town!

xo

lust.

I have been eying these for some time now but have never actually even smelled one in real life.  I need to take a trip down to Nordstroms and see for myself how amazing everyone tells me they are.

 

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 At $60 per candle it is not something I usually splurge on but I love the look of them and supposedly they are amazing.  Do you own one?  Or are you a huge fan?  What is your favorite scent?

xo

the ones that got away.

Do you ever find the perfect item for your house and squeal with delight at having found the item you have been looking for, to clink on the link, credit card in hand, and its sold...

Sad face and frowns.  These would have been absolutely perfect for the ends of my dining room table.

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The thing that kills me the most is that they were literally blocks from where I work.  O well I'm sure there is something else out there that I will love just as much.  But in the meantime can we admire these a little.  How awesome is that color?  They are vintage from the 1980s and were hand-finished in gold leaf.  In other words the key to my heart!

Have you ever found an amazing buy for it to be already sold?  Are you also a fan of vintage furniture from the 80s?  All hands raised here!

What did you do over the weekend?  I spent a lot of time relaxing and catching up on sleep.  I also worked on my bottle project and I will share soon!

xo 

weekend.

This week has seemed to drag on yet somehow its already the weekend!  I have zero plans, which is nice.  I plan on lounging around the house, sleeping in late, working on my photography and bottle project and doing a little cooking, potentially grilling out if the weather is nice.  And some shopping as well...I guess I do have plans?

The bottle project entails doing this...

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I have a ton of bottles that I kept after my birthday party back in January.  Mine are all different colors, shapes and sizes however, I want to see if it will work or if I need to continue collecting clear bottles.  Its a fairly easy project but I do have to peel all the labels off and run the bottles through a cycle in the dishwasher, I will post next week how it turns out.

I want to try a few new recipes this week as well.  I was thinking this one.  Looks delicious!

I also want to do a little shopping, I have a gift I need to buy for a very dear friend and would love to find some great summer staples to add to my closet this season. 

Really loving this from J. Crew.

 

As for the gift, it is for a recent grad so I want something that I know she will love and be able to use.  Any ideas?  She's really girly, loves romantic clothing, and has great style.  What have you bought in the past for recent grads?  

What are your plans for the weekend?  I hope yours is as relaxing and fun as mine seems to be shaping up to be!  Next week I am going to start a new series that I am really excited about.  I have been thinking about it for some time and am finally getting it off the ground.  Happy weekend! 

xo

tasty.

I am typically not your best cook, in fact that's an understatement,  I am not even a fairly decent cook.  I can make most single girl recipes...spaghetti, Lean Cuisines (yes I know...), pasta, baked chicken, you know the drill but actual food that tastes good that I would want to eat on a regular everyday basis has been beyond my skills for quite some time.

Going off one of my goals for the next few months of eating at home more I am determined to learn at least the basics of cooking.  For me cooking boils (no pun intended) to this, all you have to do is read the recipe and follow the directions it's really that simple.  It might not look like the picture and it might not taste quite as good but more than likely you'll have something decent.  Creativity in the kitchen is always a good thing, I like tweaking things a lot so this will be a quality I posses that is on my side.

The other night I decided to give a try to some Teriyaki burgers.  It's actually a weight watchers recipe so its healthy (always a plus) and I added a few things to pump up the flavor.  The original recipe can be found here but I changed it quite a bit.

I used 93% lean ground beef and added grilled onions and jalapenos.  I also used English Muffins instead of a traditional hamburger bun as I have always been a fan of less bread with burgers.

They came out great!  Super easy and healthy too!

xo

 

goals.

Lately I feel as if I am being pulled in a thousand different directions whether that be work, friends, family I basically just have a lot going on.  That being said I am lucky to have such a full and exciting life. Sometimes though I think it’s nice to sit down and evaluate what you’re doing on a day to day basis and try making time for the things that you always mean to do but never seem to get around to. 
Have you ever seen this little tidbit on Pinterest?

I look at my life sometimes and think, is this me?  Do I sit around planning projects and making plans without ever getting around to actually doing them?  After some consideration I have come to the conclusion that yes I’m a planner, I like to think about the future and have a gazillion projects going on all at one time but that makes me happy and if I don’t get everything done at the end of the day then it’s okay, there’s tomorrow.  And if the project that I have been meaning to do since my birthday (which is in January) still is not complete aka hasn’t even been started then that’s okay too, because sometimes you’re too busy living life to think about all those little projects and plans for the future.

However, I think it is always important to have goals.  Not huge, expansive, New Year goals that encompass the whole year, but small daily goals that I can accomplish now and cross off the list.  I have never been one to make a New Year’s resolution, I always feel like I’m failing before I even begin.  Small steps however are much easier for me, so here are the goals I have set for myself in the next few months.

·         Cook at home more often (Did this last night!)
·         Find a new apartment that gets great light (Yep, the roommate and I are moving!)
·         Do the bottle project for the dining room table
·         Really start to learn the ins and outs of my DSLR (Start my photography class tomorrow..so excited!!!)
·         Find a bar cart
·         Plan my Dad’s retirement party
·         Book a vacation with friends
·         Workout at least four days a week
·         Blog five times a week
·         Accomplish my goals at work  and hit my quotas
·         Drink less Diet Coke
·         Start organizing my whole apartment to get ready for the big move in June
·         Log off of the computer an hour before bed each night

I look at this list and it doesn’t scare me, they are small things that I will do over the course of the Spring and Summer without feeling overwhelmed that I need to get this done or that done.  And because it’s always more fun to make to do lists and set goals on pretty paper here are some great notepads I found over at Arianna Belle.


What goals have you set for yourself lately?  Or do you have a continuing to do list?  Anyone else out there moving to a new place anytime soon?  I am excited to be in a different place but the moving process is daunting.  Just thinking about all my stuff is a little scary, that is why I am determined to start now!  And for anyone wondering where Wedding Wednesday is I wanted to switch it up a little this week.  Next week will be back to normal though!  Happy Hump Day everyone, see you tomorrow!


xo

busy bee.

I want to apologize to everyone for my extreme lack of posting the past two weeks.  I have been busy to say the least and work has been taking up literally all of my time.  Its been go to work, come home, go to sleep, go back to work.  My computer somehow has decided that it has been so long since I last used it that it forgot my WiFi password.

However I am back and ready to start again fresh next week.  Here are a few of my favorite things that I have been seeing around lately.

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Nude polish.  So classic and pretty, plus it goes with everything and is very easy to fix chips.

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Any and all types of buns.  My hair is really long right now so I have been taking advantage of this trend. I am dying to learn how to accomplish the top braided bun!

Need I say more?

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I love the simplicity of this.  I struggle a lot with the need to fill every blank area of wall space that my apartment has even though I love the look of simple interiors.  Therefore, I am always pinning and taking inspiration from more simple designs to streamline the different varieties of design that I like and to always remember that less is more.

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I love the bright cherry yellow plus the one shoulder design.

What did you do this weekend?  I spent some time with family and relaxed on the beach.  It was nice and gave me a bit of time to unwind from the craziness of the past two weeks.  Hope your having a fabulous Monday!

xo

happy easter.

It has been a very long and tiring week for me (work has been crazy) and I am signing out until Monday, but I wanted to touch base with all of you and say Happy Easter!  The work continues until tomorrow then I am heading home to spend some time with my family.  I hope to dye some Easter eggs, eat a lot of chocolate, and sleep!  Maybe I'll do something like this to mine this year...

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What are your plans this weekend?  Any egg dying in your future?  Or maybe just a relaxing weekend with an amazing Easter brunch?  No matter what, I wish a very Happy Weekend and I'll see you next week!

xo

wedding wednesday.

Hola!!!  My roommate is taking Spanish classes so I have been working on my very elementary words with her!  Me gusta?  Wedding Wednesday is going to be a little short this week as I am so busy I barely have time to think.  But I did want to share with everyone one of my absolute favorite favors.

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Can you just imagine a picture taken from behind the bride and groom during their vows and all the guests are wearing the Ray Bans.  LOVE it!!  As someone who wears Ray Bans 24-7 I love this idea especially if it has significance to the couple.  There could also be used as a cute prop for a photo booth. 

Anyone else in the midst of deciding on wedding favors?  I think the best favors are ones that have significance to the bride and groom.  A good friend of mine once joked with me that the perfect favor were the two of us to ever get married would be pint glasses with some ridiculous quote on them because we both love to drink beer together.  I adored this idea because it was something that we shared as two individuals.  He then got down on one knee and proposed...just kidding but we did get another pint and continued to talk about our fake wedding.  

The key is don't spend money on something that people don't look at and see the two of you.  Make it something they will remember your wedding and you by, those are the things that turn a simple very run of the mill wedding into a spectacular affair!

xo

weekend pictures.

The other weekend I finally got outside with my camera and took some great shots.  It was freezing for some reason and the wind was blowing really bad but I lasted a good hour before I headed home.  Here are some of my favorites.

How was your weekend?  Did you have some amazing weather?  I am really loving this time of the year right now, the weather is perfect.  Just to let you all know I might be a little MIA this week as at work this is one of the busiest weeks of the whole year for us, but I will try my best to post everyday. Until then!

xo