Atlanta - Visit with Laura, Carl and Amelia!

So last Sunday Kevin and I drove from Raleigh (we were there for the wedding) to Charlotte to drop a car off (long story but we drove separately) then drove down to Atlanta.  He has been in Atlanta for the past 4 weeks (one more to go) for training for his new job.  Yes, that's another post for another day!  We got to Atlanta in time to see my niece and godchild, Amelia and her parents (my cousins) Laura and Carl.

Amelia has grown right up and is such a little girl now!  We had fun meeting them at Figo - I casual italian restaurant near their house. 

Seriously, look how perfect she is!  The curls in her hair are soooooo cute!

We got ice cream after dinner (like we needed it - ha!) and just caught up and enjoyed the Sunday evening.

Family portrait!!

Thank you Carl and Laura for such a great visit.  We love seeing you guys.  Wish we weren't 4 hours apart!

Wedding Photos

And here are the big day photos!  Here are some of us getting our hair done at Jolie.  Beth, Me, Bride, Suz, Meghan.

I thought this was a cute picture!  I got my hair done to the right side and it was fun doing something different with it.  Most all of us loved our hair-do's!

The bride and I.  Isn't she gorgeous??!!  She gave the bridesmaids the necklaces we are wearing.  She got them made at a place in Charlotte that I go to every now and then - On A String.  It is in Myers Park and super fun! 

Kelly and her husband Brett dancing to their first song - Rascal Flatts - Bless the Broken Road.

The bridesmaids with Kelly in the wedding party cocktail hour.

My parents drove down from Maryland for the big event!  It was pretty cool because all of our parents knew each other from sorority parents weekend back in the day and none of them had seen each other in about seven years so it was neat that they got to all hang out again!

Chi O's after singing shades.

Kelly and Brett with the children!  Most of these are their nieces and nephews on Brett's side!

Suz, her husband Jason, Brett, Kelly, Kevin and I.

My hot date Kevin and I. :)

And they are off to St. Lucia for 8 days!!!!

Sorority Quilt

Have any of you sorority girls gotten your t-shirts made into a quilt?  I never thought I would be able to until Suz's Nana offered to make me one (she had also made one for Suz and Kelly). 

The process started by going to Mary Jo's cloth store in Gastonia, NC (if you've never been there, it is a must) with my Mom to pick out fabric for the front and back.

I opted for yellow behind the shirts because I didn't have any yellow shirts and a light blue with green dots for the back.  I figured it would go with what I already have in my house pretty well. 

I chose to organize the shirts on how they best looked, color-wise.  Kelly and Suz did theirs based on the date of the shirt.  It could go either way!

It was absolutely gorgeous!!  As you can tell, Suz and her Mom brought it to me after Kelly's wedding on Saturday night so we all got to check it out!  I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at it.  What an awesome keepsake!  Thanks Nana and Suz!!!  :)

Kelly's Rehearsal Dinner

Kelly and Brett at their rehearsal dinner at Caffe Luna in downtown Raleigh!

My date, Meghan and I.  :)  Kevin didn't come until Saturday because he was in Atlanta for work!

Fab 5 girls from Winston-Salem (Kelly's high school girls)

Suz and I giving our toasts!

Has blogger updated their way to create new posts or something?  It is driving me crazy to have to learn a different way to do it! 

Bridal Luncheon

We had the best time on Friday at Kelly's bridal luncheon.  It was held at the Cardinal Club in downtown Raleigh.  It is on the 28th floor of the Wachovia building.  Brett's aunt threw the event and it was so nice!

These are all her bridesmaids...

NC State Chi Omegas....

Lilly ladies!  Bride with her Maid and Matron of Honor!

I have a ton more pictures from the weekend but I'm going to try to do a post on each event throughout this week!  :)

Kelly's Bridesmaids Luncheon and Rehearsal Dinner Day

The weekend is finally here! Kelly and Brett are getting married! Today we have the bridesmaids luncheon in downtown Raleigh and then the rehearsal at the church and dinner following. Tomorrow we will meet early to get our hair and make up done! The big event starts at 4:30pm! Woohooo! Pictures to come next week!

Here comes the bride!
Bride, Maid of Honor, Matron of Honor

CONGRATS KELLY! We can't wait to celebrate with you!!!!!!!!!!!

Sonoma and Candle Wine Cork Creation

Last night I went to Sonoma for a little Avenue event they had set up for us. It was $15 for all you can drink and eat appetizers. I had a couple glasses of chardonnay and they had hummus, calamari, sliders, egg rolls and a few other things. It was fun and an added bonus was that it is only a block from my condo!

As a continuation from yesterdays post, I wanted to show you something else I added. Mom had given me this hurricane awhile back and I've had it filled with lemon and limes and also full of wine corks. When I was at Pier One a couple weeks ago, they had an amazing smelling candle "pink honeysuckle" and since it was 25% off and I had a gift card, I figured I would give it a try. It smells so good! I kept some of the wine corks in there for an added little touch.
Yes, it is sitting on my subwoofer because I have nowhere else to put that big ole black box. You'll also notice a concrete column in the back. Our condos have exposed concrete ceilings and columns in each unit. It is part of the "uptown, urban" look. It's not really for me but it kinda fits for most folks that are into the really contemporary. Mom and I have made it work with my decorations! You know, oriental rug and concrete ceilings...gotta love it. ;)

New "Decoration"

Happy Wednesday everyone!

So I had some extra time last week and ran by IKEA. Saw these cute little tins that are magnetic and you can put spices in and stick them somewhere. I'm not a big "stick things on the fridge" kind of gal because I don't like the clutter but I thought these turned out pretty cute! I got some clear labels from my office and wrote what each spice was. I think I may go get one more box of them (they are $4.99 for 3) and this will alleviate the chaos of spices in my cupboard.
As you will see in the coming weeks, I'm trying my best to "redo" my condo. It is so hard living in such a small space and seeing the same stuff for three years straight. Mom is helping me change it up a little bit with ideas of new candlesticks and pillows for my couch (cheap fixes for it to feel a lil different!). We will see how it turns out!

Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale

This may be old news to some of you but I found online last night that the Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale is from June 9th - 12th on the Valley Forge Convention Center website! YAYY!!!! Who's going and which days?

MIA and Clay's Birthday

Yall, I'm so sorry - I've been MIA. I have many excuses but the reality is - I've been busy! Craziness!

We went out to Alive After Five last Thursday night. It is a big after work gathering outside of the Wachovia headquarters and a ton of young professionals go. It was the perfect weather and a great 80's band was playing. We always love going to these every Thursday from April until September. Friday, I wasn't feeling too hot. Not sure if it was staying out too late the night before or the sinus infection from the week prior. Either way, it wasn't pretty. I'll spare you the details. Since I felt better by that evening, we went down to see Kevin's parents and brother and cruised over to Fort Lawn, South Carolina to the fish camp. Think extremely small town, middle of nowhere, fried fish, lots of sweet tea, hush puppies, slaw....the whole sha-bang.

Needless to say, Kevin and I rode 10 miles on our bikes Saturday morning - ha! We biked all through gorgeous Charlotte neighborhoods and dreamed of owning a house with a yard - instead of a 2 room condo (we each have a condo separately but in the same building, for my new followers - it's how we met)! We grilled out early Saturday evening with a bunch of neighbors and headed to a patio for a couple beverages and to enjoy the weather.

Sunday we went to an early breakfast at this down home spot on South Boulevard - Greystone. Quite the establishment. We then ran some more errands and hung with neighbors on the 10th floor for the Bobcats basketball playoff game last night. All in all, busy but fun weekend!

Today I traveled down to Columbia, SC (about 1.5 hours) for a work meeting - the reason for such a late post in the day! Also - wanted to send Happy Birthday wishes to my brother Clay! Hope you have the best day!

Hope yall enjoyed the wonderful weather and had great weekends! ;)

Essential

Welcome to all of my new followers! I've gotten a few new ones recently and I'm super excited to have yall join my blog! I look forward to getting to know each of you through your blogs too!

I don't typically talk about specific food on here that I like but I have found something amazing at Wal-Mart of all places. This white corn and black bean salsa is so good. Like seriously better than name brand salsa. And it is only a couple bucks for this large thing of it...even better! So go find this at your Wal-Mart and let me know what you think!

And these are just for fun because I could not live without these. I purposely don't buy them so I don't have them in my cabinet so I won't eat them - ha! I'm sure yall have things you do that with too!

Today I'm off to Macy's at lunch to buy a couple wedding gifts. Amazingly enough, we are invited to 4 weddings in a row starting May 22nd but are only going to three of them, thankfully!

Where in the World Wednesday - McClellanville, SC

It is time for Classy in Philly's Where in the World Wednesday. Feel free to head over to her blog and participate! Today I'm in McClellanville, South Carolina where I was a couple weeks ago over Easter weekend. My sister in law actually gave me the idea to write about this so while I was there I took pictures for this post - ha - thanks Em!

We traveled there by boat but it is accessible via Route 17 along the coast of SC and is very close to Charleston.

Parts of Forrest Gump were filmed here....can't you see that in this picture? It is beautiful!

We went to the small seafood restaurant in their center of town called TW Graham. It was one of those down home places that you had to get sweet tea and some fried seafood.

You get the drift...small South Carolina town....

This was inside. I loved that sign "No cussing, No drunks, No jerks, No second chance." Ha!
This concludes the lil tour of McClellanville, SC. Hope you stop by there on your next trip up the coast! It is super cute!

Coastal Living

Do any of you have a favorite magazine that makes you want to be somewhere else...immediately?! That's how Coastal Living is for me. Last night as I layed in bed reading it, I just longed to be at the beach or decorating a beach house. I swear, every.single.time. when I read this magazine, I feel the same way. Ahh, I love it! Well, I would love it much more if I could actually be at the beach or decorating a beach house though - ha! ;)

What is your favorite magazine?

Bobcats game and Weekend

Hope yall had a fun weekend! Friday night we walked over to Brixx and had a quick dinner. We used a coupon so it was super cheap. :)

Last minute, we got Charlotte Bobcats (NBA) tickets for Saturday night in my company's box. We've gotten to go before and it's always have a good time.
Michael Jordan just bought the Bobcats so he has been at most of the games. You can see him in the middle of the picture here with a tan vest and hat on.
After the game, we went to a going away party out in Southpark for one of Kevin's Bank of America friends. They are moving to DC for her job. She got a big promotion. We'll miss them - they are a fun couple!

Sunday we went to breakfast at Eddie's Place in Cotswold. It was such a fun treat. We did a few errands afterwards and went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon and hung with our neighbors. We all went up to shower and came back down to our 10th floor common area to grill. Great weekend!

Love her!

On Thursday, I hadn't had the best day (ugh, work) and came home and jumped in the shower after dinner. Heard my phone ringing so I got out and checked my voicemail. It was Anna Kate. She called me! How fun is that?! I called her back and we chatted...told her I would bring her some purple bubble gum next time I see her. Girlfriend loves gum! I can't get enough of her!
This is us on the boat last week on Pawleys Island creek on HER boat - ha!

J. Crew Order

Well I finally bit the bullet and placed a J. Crew order. I had no intentions of doing other than the fact that I'm still looking for jeans and I had a 20% off coupon of an entire order. The Matchstick jeans have been highly recommended so I figured I would try them since they are half the price of the Citizens I ended up with and everyone loves them. Soooo, while I was "browsing" the website, I came upon a couple fun shirts that I thought I would order (since they were on sale!!! - yes, Dad and Kevin, because they were on sale). They always tease Mom and I about getting things because they were on sale. Ha!
Anyway, I thought these would be a fun addition to my closet - I don't have anything like either one. We'll see how they work out. I probably will end up taking one of them back.

I have zero money to be shopping right now but I justified this because I'm still letting myself buy jeans. We'll see how these work. I'm excited to try them on!

Happy Weekend everyone!!!!!

One Year

I know, I know, super sappy! We celebrated one year on Saturday, the 3rd! I had just gotten back into town and this was on my counter....he used some of my Easter decorations and bought a cute little mum to put this together! I got ready and before we went to dinner, we exchanged little momentos. He gave me the most thoughtful card, a mani/pedi (because I haven't gotten on in almost a year!!! - I just can't fathom spending money on that for myself even though I love them!), and a beautiful pair of pearl earrings. They have a flat back so they look like the are squished down a little bit. They are really cool and something different to my standard pearl. I've worn them almost every day since!

I made him a scrapbook. Let me tell yall - I'm the most uncreative person EVER. I made this thing with a glue stick, rubber cement and a regular pair of scissors and that's IT! It isn't the cutest book but it has 20 pages of memories of the past year...and I figured that was the most important part. It was fun to do! My friend Tara works for Provo Craft so yall know when she sees it she is going to be ashamed of it - haha!!!

After some wine and the exchange, we went downstairs to Basil for dinner (it's a fabulous thai restaurant at the bottom of our building). It is our place - where we hit it off, where we went on our first date and have been on many between then and now. They just added a patio area so we sat out there.

We had fun celebrating! Okay, enough of the sappiness! Just wanted to document since this is a much easier way for me to "scrapbook." ;)

Happy Birthday Dad!

To the best Dad in the world: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hope you enjoy your special day!!!! Wish I was there to help you celebrate!