Fun shoes!

I literally ran into Nordstrom on Wednesday to take a pair of jeans to get patched. I mean WHY do $200 jeans need patching. I still don't get it but whatever. THEY GAVE ME A NEW PAIR. Oh my goodness, I was SO excited! That my friends is why you buy from a reputable store!

Anyway, I parked close to the shoe department and these shoes totally caught my eye. They are Sam Edelman. I think they would spruce up any plain jane outfit. They are so cute!

New Years Swap

My friend Jen hosted a swap on Tuesday night as a girls night! It was so much fun to do something different like this. Here is the hostess with the mostess and all the goodies!
It was so nice to see some girls I hadn't seen in awhile and to meet new ones! :) I came home with a navy cashmere sweater and a navy and green dress, thanks to Ashley.

Thanks again Jen for hosting!

PS - remember I wrote about doing something like this here? My friend Lindsay did it in Philly and mentioned it. Then Jen knew about it. Maybe this is catching on around the country! It's a great way to get rid of things in your closet you no longer want and nice to donate to charity (and your friends!).

Where in the World Wednesday #2 - Charleston, SC

This is my second week participating in Where in the World Wednesday with Classy in Philly! This week, we are in Charleston, SC. Kevin took me down there for Labor Day weekend last year and we had an absolute blast. This is the first night when we went to a casual dinner...
The second night we went to McCrady's...it was amazing. This picture is on the rooftop of the Market Place Hotel. It is the perfect after dinner drink spot. This is a must if you are ever in Charleston!

Saturday we went to Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms. We will have a house down here one day!!!

This is the Battery that you so often hear about in Charleston. We walked down there before dinner the last night. A storm was moving in but we still enjoyed checking it out!

This is at Hanks - a great seafood restaurant. Reservations are hard to come by here - make them a few weeks in advance. We sat at the bar!

I also blogged about our trip here where you'll see some of the same pictures!

New Lilly!

I love this Lilly skirt....it is green and even has crabs on it for my Maryland roots!
I think this shirt is super cute too. Not sure how it would look on me but I think it is a darling outfit with white pants and some Jack Rogers. I'm ready for summer!

What are your favorite Lilly pieces this season?!

Josh and Wendy's Baby Shower!

A couple folks in our building hosted an Avenue baby shower for Josh and Wendy at Chris' place on the 21st floor. It was an all-Avenue affair and it was a blast! She is due on April 20th! We can't wait for their precious little girl to arrive!
A couple of the guys picked out some songs and played for us!

Opening gifts!

One of our friends made these little cupcakes - they were delish. Also, Chris the host had been cooking all week and had an amazing spread of dunch (lunch and dinner, ha!)!

Chris has a big concrete column in his place and the girls that decorated wrapped it in this pink paper. We all signed it. It was a cute idea!

The shower continued with a little after party at my house. Ended up being about 20 people over - ha! It was random but so fun! This is me, Josh, Kevin, Wendy, Heather!Here are Bish and Josh singing into my candlesticks! This must be after about 6 people chugged beer in a contest on my balcony (Mom, you didn't read that!).

A group picture after some people had already left.

Good times friends! Kevin and I went out afterwards downstairs to Dandelion and danced the night away. It probably wasn't smart to do that but we had fun!

Turbo Kick

So today was my first day of Turbo Kick at the Y. It was a good workout but I look ridiculous doing it! No coordination! I had been to the Hip Hop class with some friends Melissa and Ruby and I could sorta keep up but this was more difficult. I guess if I start going to these on a regular basis it will get better. Haha!

And just because a post is no fun without a picture....this was on Google Images when I typed in "Turbo Kick."
Yall have a great weekend!

NC State and Martini's

Big win for NC State last night over Duke! AND Carolina lost so it was a great day in North Carolina! We watched the second half of the game out and about!
I had a sorority meeting up at University of North Carolina Charlotte last night (I'm the financial advisor for our chapter there). I came back and Kevin had been out with some work friends so I met them out for a couple drinks. After stopping by Phils (a bar), we went to a place we never go - Cosmos. Definitely not my cup of tea but fun for something different. They had half price martinis so I got a dessert-ish one. Look at the detail...it was SO good and a big treat!

Barely staying awake today and Kevin and I are babysitting FOUR boys for one of my co-workers tonight. Ha, should be fun!

Where in the World Wednesday

I'm participating in Where in the World Wednesday with Classy in Philly.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

We had such a good time last June in Mexico celebrating our friend's Josh and Wendy's marriage!

Monogrammed Chip and Dip Bowl with Recipe

For the lil get together on Saturday night, I put a couple appetizers out. My sister in law Emily and brother Clay gave me this adorable acrylic chip and dip bowl for Christmas. It is hard to see in this picture but my monogram is on the front. It's adorable! Thanks yall!

Also in the chip bowl is a lil recipe that Emily gave me. Super easy and most of yall probably know about it (I'm behind times on stuff like this):

One pound cooked sausage, can of rotel and block of cream cheese. All stirred together, served warm with chips. Yum.

Swinging in the Rain

We walked over to Kevin's new condo on Saturday and went through 4th Ward Park. I was being goofy and got on the swing. Kevin snapped a photo. It was raining so this didn't last long but it was fun being a kid again! :)

Monday Monday

The weekend was fun. Thank goodness Kevin's flu ended up being the 24 hour bug and he was recovered by the time he picked me up from work on Friday to head to his parents. Well he wasn't fully recovered - he was exhausted, weak and still couldn't eat real things but it was a HUGE improvement over how he was Thursday and Friday morning. We had fun down there and headed back to Charlotte after dinner with his parents. I got to see his baby book and brought home a tape of one of their Myrtle Beach vacations from back in the day. Can't wait to check that out!

Saturday we walked over to his new condo and ended up seeing some of his buddies at their place in the same complex. We headed out to the mall to do a couple quick errands too. Then we had friends over to our common area floor. Some of Kevin's high school friends, some of his work friends and a couple folks from our building. It was great to catch up with everyone. Of course we closed Stoolies down so needless to say, not much got done yesterday. Must be nice for mostly all of Charlotte to have today off. I'm working, ughhh.....

Weekend Plans

Thank goodness today is Friday! What a week. Kevin has had the flu the past couple days and is still recovering. I've been attempting to play nurse to a hard headed boy that wants to eat regular food despite not being able to keep it down. Guys....!

Depending on how he feels this afternoon, we are supposed to head to Waxhaw to visit with his family. Remember I mentioned his high school buddy whose Dad passed a couple weeks ago? He is coming over to his parents for dinner tonight too so it will be nice for he and Kevin to be together. After that I think we're going with his brother to a bonfire with a bunch of their country friends. Ha! I'm looking forward to it!

Tomorrow we plan to do a couple errands, check on a new condo that Kevin just bought and meeting up with some friends tomorrow night on the 10th floor of our condo building. Should be nice to catch up with some folks. Of course, all of this assuming he is much better this afternoon when I get home!

Hope yall have a great weekend!

Lilly Bangles

Saw these on the Boston Lilly website and the green one is on sale! It was originally $98 and is down to $52.80 with an additional 20% off using code 1229 until Sunday the 17th. Thank you Black Labs and Lilly for the heads up!

Chocolate Chip Ball

This is a sweet appetizer that I found over at Monograms and Manicures. Thank you Hopsy!

I made it New Years Eve and everyone really liked it (and it was SUPER easy!).

1 pkg. (8oz) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 T. brown sugar
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate or Chocolate Chip Graham Crackers

Combine cream cheese, butter and vanilla until creamy. Add in sugars and mix until blended. Finally, stir in the best part, your chocolate chips! I would suggest placing this in the fridge for a bit before you form a ball (it was easier for me to work with). You can serve with graham cracker sticks, Teddy Grahams or Annie's Bunnies. It is just like chips and dip, but for the sweet tooth! Yum!

Note: I couldn't find the graham cracker sticks so I used regular graham crackers and broke them in quarters.

Guys and Matching

So have yall ever asked your boyfriend or husband to pick something out for you to wear? I had casual Friday at work so I asked Kevin to pick something for me to wear with orange cords. This is what he came up with: a Splendid orangish top, peach cardigan and my light brown cowboy boots. Haha!
Honestly I think he was just being funny because as yall can tell, he actually has good taste when it comes to his clothes. It still cracked me up though!

Pawleys Visit

Saturday morning, Kevin and I headed down to Pawleys Island to visit Clay, Emily and Anna Kate. We had so much fun! Clay had to be at a boat show most of the day Saturday but we got to hang out that night. Kevin building a fort for Anna Kate:
Riding to dinner!

Kevin helped Anna Kate learn how to do the monkey bars while Emily and I shopped!

Driving Aunt Beth's car

Getting some of Aunt Beth's lotion to use on Coco and Crissie.

There was silence in the other room and we went in to see what she was into. Make up!!!

Clay and Kevin built us a fire! Some of their friends came over too...

Fin loves Salt and Vinegar chips just like his Dad and sister!

How cute are they?!

Thank yall again for having us. See you soon!

Kimmy and Jeff Night

We loved hanging out with our friends Kimmy and Jeff on Friday night. We went out to their house and then went to Vinnie's which is 1/4 mile from their place. We had the best time and it got a lil rowdy.... Their precious Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Tahoe.

Uhhh, yeah...craziness. We just always let loose around them and it is so nice to have a couple you can do that with. We played Apples to Apples and Wii bowling. And yes, there was a lil water spill on the couch. Needless to say, we spent the night at their house!

Coffee Table Book

Well Barnes and Noble FINALLY called me about the book I ordered from them before Christmas. I wanted it to give to Kevin. He loves the Caribbean (who doesn't?!) and he doesn't have anything on his table so I thought this would be a good idea. It's a hard back book with lots of pictures and neat commentary. I had gotten him a small Costa Rica book to have in case we didn't like this so he is going to decide this weekend which to keep. I'm voting for the one above. :)

Sally's Vegetable Soup Recipe

You can make this with any type of meat. Mom makes it with a couple pounds of crab meat. This time I made it with a pound of stew meat (already cooked). Or you can always make it just with veggies!

3 beef cubes
3 quarts of water (12 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large stalks celery, chopped
1 large can of tomatoes
1 T. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
8 dabs of hot sauce
2 bags frozen mixed vegetables (I typically get the soup mix)
1-2 T. Old Bay (you know that this HAS to be included ;))

Mix and simmer on stove top all day (or as long as you can)! Don't eat it the day you make it. It's much better a couple days later. :)

Wine Bag

Mom found this adorable wine bag and gave it to me for Christmas. It has 4 spots for wine bottles and an area in the middle for other things - napkins, cheese, utensils. Super cute! I just got it monogrammed and it is hard to tell but it is kelly green. Mom, didn't it come out great?! Thank you!!!

A. Tierney Flower Cuff

My friend KAG over at Monograms and Martini's is doing a fun giveaway for the above bracelet. It is an A. Tierney Flower Cuff and I think it is super cute! Please jump on over there, enter to win and let her know I sent you! :)

Vegetable Soup

Last Saturday, I made some vegetable soup because it was cold out and I thought it would taste good to us for the next couple days. I knew Kevin would smirk at it because it has the word "vegetable" in it but what the heck, I was going to make it anyway. Maybe he would try it. Well this is the aftermath of Kevin's soup on Monday. Lots of comments like, "I'm trying the soup so quit making fun of me," "listen, I've already had a green bean so chill out on forcing me to try the peas." Oh my goodness, I couldn't stop laughing!

All in all, he liked the broth, tomatoes and some of the other soup mix (ie - corn and small potatoes). Andddd that's about it! Thanks Kev for trying it ;).

The Bachelor

It is so sad how much I love watching The Bachelor. Well let me just preface this by saying - this is the only TV show that I actually watch and cannot miss an episode. I don't watch anything else but this, except for sports and news and those really don't count.

Is it me or have the choices of the girls on The Bachelor really gone down hill in this season? That is my nice way of saying it.

Anyway, I look forward to a fun season and chatting about it with my friends Suz, Beth and Brittany!

Out with friends

We headed out to Connolly's on Saturday night with some of my friends and some of Kevins. Here are the ladies - Kim, Emily, Tara, me, Lauren, Emily (L to R). Always so fun hanging out with you girls!

Here are a couple of Kevin's friends from back in the day - Brad, Kev and Ken.
And here are Kevin and I...

Yesterday we had to go to a funeral for one of Kevin's high school friend's Dads. It was very sad and served as a reminder to treasure family, friends and every day.

Hope your 2010 is off to a great start!