Vineyard Vines Grand Opening in Charlotte

Yall - yesterday was a BIG day!  We got to go to the Vineyard Vines Grand Opening here in Charlotte as (what felt like) VIP's!  Some of us bloggers got a special invite from Vineyard Vines to attend their Grand Opening an hour early than it opening to the public!  It was amazing!

Kevin, me, Ian, Shep, April, Lauren

We got to hang out with Shep and Ian - the founders of Vineyard Vines.  They are so laid back and humble - just all around great guys.  They told us that they still go into the office every day!  Can you believe that?! 

And they certainly know how to throw a party!  Ian made sure all the ladies got a drink (wine, beer or a specialty cocktail) and they had fabulous hors d'oeuvres too.  Check this one out - tomato soup in a shot glass with mini grilled cheeses stuck in them!  Genius!

They had amazing little crab cakes and some pulled pork sliders!  They knew they were down south with the sliders! ;)  We told Shep and Ian how glad we were that they finally came south and opened a store and that we hope they've enjoyed Charlotte on their visits!

They told us about how they have folks come to Connecticut from their Nashville store and how they took them on their boat and they were freaking out that they were on a boat.  Hilarious! 

They were giving 10% off and an additional 10% to Junior League so Kevin ended up getting a new pair of shorts (Dock shorts) which he really liked.  It was so crowded in there once the party got hopping so I'm going to go back another time and check it out!  I did try on a couple skirts (the crab and lobster Margo and also the seersucker Maritime) -- their fits were perfect.  So comfy and classy!

And of course the whale made a visit too! 

So look at the ah-mazing goodies they spoiled us bloggers with!!!  A wine bag, personalized koozie that has "Charlotte" with the latitude and longitude of Charlotte on it, same thing with the hat, sunglasses that have Vineyard Vines written on the side, an acrylic glass with a polka dot whale, a couple magazines (Charlotte and VV), chapstick and the best part - a VV bangle!!!  Umm how gorgeous is that?!!!

They were all so generous to us and I'm truly thankful for the opportunity!  We had the best time!

Special thank you to Vineyard Vines and Rachel for making sure I was included!

Nail Polish and OOTD

Yesterday I scored big at ULTA on essie nail polish.  Inspired by the one and only BLC, I just had to go for some new colors!  I had a coupon for spend $15, get $5 off (that I printed from the internet) and once I got there, essie was buy 2, get 1 free.  Hello bargain.  So I left with three new bottles of polish!



L to R - Turks and Caicos, Blanc and Haute as Hello

Does anyone else have trouble choosing?  I stand in there forever...so long that I swear the people that work there are looking at me funny!  I thought about the below color (Absolutely Shore) but went with the Turks and Caicos this time. 

It was a fun treat to get some new polish and paying less than $4 each (with tax), this was surely a good deal.  Since I didn't feel too hot yesterday (or today), Kevin told me not to run (why is he always right?),  so I rested.  Which meant - paint my toenails.  He can't stand the smell of the remover or the nail polish, which secretly cracks me up!  So I moved into my room while he was working in my den area. 

What do you all think of Turks and Caicos on my toes?  Definitely weird to look down and not see OPI's Cajun Shrimp but it's fun for something different and the beach this weekend!

And I know I've been slack on the Outfit Of The Days but here is one.  A J. Crew blouse underneath with their Jackie Cardigan and a suit black skirt.  I also have black patent peep toes heels on.  Some of you asked to see my hair done like the video I posted a couple weeks ago.  Here it is!  Doesn't look the best but then again, I did not feel like really doing it last night.

This evening I'm off with A.Liz Adventures to meet Shep and Ian at the Vineyard Vines blogger grand opening at their new Charlotte store!

Tucker Blair Belts

Tucker Blair belts are on sale for $59 each on Gilt Groupe today!  Get some of your Christmas gifts out of the way early!  Shipping is only $5.95!  I may or may not have taken advantage of this! ;)

Go here for your invite if you aren't already a member of Gilt Groupe!

Basil with Kelly and Lindsay

After a busy weekend, I still had a fun dinner to look forward to!  Kelly and Lindsay were coming on Sunday evening for work on Monday.  They stayed downtown so we had dinner at Basil then they came up to my place. 

Basil never disappoints but let me tell yall how much I loved seeing them both.  I hadn't seen Lindsay since her wedding in FIVE years!  That's craziness!  It was so fabulous to catch up with her!  And I always love seeing Kelly (yall have heard me talk about her many times on here!).  We were all in the same sorority in school and Lindsay just started working at Kelly's company (my old company) in HR. 

Cheers to old friends!  Nothing better!

In other news, who watched Bachelorette last night?  Mickey said see ya later pretty quickly, didn't he?!  JP is so smitten with her....they are great together!  Via twitter, I've noticed that the Bachelor Pad 2 cast is back in the real world since it has finished taping.  That starts on August 8th and should be a disaster, haha!

A Two Wedding Weekend

Friday night we layed low in preparation for a big Saturday full of two exciting weddings!  One was about an hour south of Charlotte for one of Kevin's high school friends.  It was a very sweet ceremony and we're so happy for Mark and Cindy.  I know you aren't supposed to take pictures during a ceremony but since we had to leave the second the ceremony was done, I did snap one.

We drove up to Winston-Salem, NC and did a quick change in Kevin's parent's hotel room then headed to Kevin's cousin's wedding at the Greylyn House.  Wow, what a beautiful place it was!

Anna and Jordan are the cutest couple!  Wasn't she a stunning bride?

Kevin and his Mama!

Here is Kevin with his parents and great Aunt Kate.  Yall have heard me talk about Aunt Kate before.  She is the sweeeeetest lady you'll ever meet. 

They had a fabulous menu (shrimp and grits, carving station, fancy chicken fingers, veggies etc.) then we all went downstairs where the band was playing and it opened out onto the lawn.  It was the perfect set up.  Kevin and I...

The girls all did their Sigma Kappa song for the newly married.  We do this for Chi Omega too so it was really fun to get to see their tradition!

Kevin and some of the guy side of his family.  Nice guys!  The bride's dad is the 2nd from the right. 

The bride and I!

And they're off to St. Lucia!  They did a fake drive around and went up to their room to shower and change then got in a limo at 1:30am for the ride down to Charlotte.  Their flight was at 4:30am!

Their wedding was absolutely perfect in every way and we wish them all the best!

Yesterday we went to a party at the Epicentre for a couple hours with our friends Misty and Steven.  The party was called Soak and everyone had water guns and everything and of course there was a DJ.  It wasn't really our cup of tea (we definitely stuck out as not having enough tattoos or skimpy enough clothes) but it was nice to try something different only 2 blocks from our building. 

Last night I had a girls night with two special ladies which I'll post about tomorrow!

Alive After Five - The Roots

Warning - these are not the most attractive pictures ever!  But let me tell yall - we simply had the best time last night!

When the night began, Kevin and I thought it was a date night.  We went to Flemings for an appetizer and a glass of wine.  Then we decided to heard upstairs to Alive After Five.  A band called The Root (I think) was playing and they were great.  We ended up seeing some of our neighbors and the rest of the night was history!

Misty on the left is engaged to one of Kevin's and my friends from Avenue and they are getting married in October - we're very happy for them!  Kevin hung with Steven while us three girls went to the front of the band area and danced!  I mean let's be honest, no better time than the present - get out there and dance!

It was a beautiful night in downtown Charlotte and we loved it!  Sometimes you have more fun when it's unexpected, right?!

Then Kevin and I went to Aria and of course ended up at Stool Pigeons when we should have gone home!

Oh well, sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles...you do things you regret the next day, ha!

So today we're on a big diet and I don't know about yall, but I'm so thankful it's Friday! 

Who has fun weekend plans?  We have two weddings tomorrow which are about 3 hours apart!  We're so looking forward to both!

Show Us Your Life - Kylie

Today I'm participating in Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life - Singles Edition!

Kylie is one of my sweet neighbors here in Charlotte (we have lived on the same floor for four years) and is such a sweet, classy girl!  She grew up in Ohio but has been down south for years now.

She's on the right in the dress

 She's very successful at what she does and has got it together!  Kylie is certainly a catch!

She's on the left with the black dress.

Shoot me an email or comment on this post if you are interested in meeting Kylie!  anniesadventures16 at gmail dot com

Happy Anniversary, OOTD, Lilly Sale

Happy 38th Anniversary to the best parents in the world!!!!

Yall are role models of "how it should be" and you have no idea how much I look up to that! 

Throughout all of the challenges of life, yall stick together...no matter what.  And I'm very proud to call yall my parents!  Love yall!  Cheers to 38 more!

Some of yall requested that I do some Outfit Of The Day's!  Would love to!  This is for work today and please know, when Thursday and Friday come, I do get a bit more casual.  These are my dressy white Lilly pants, hot pink/orange-ish tank and navy cardigan, both from J. Crew.  I paired this with gold mckims wedges.  And no my white pants are not as tight as they look in this picture - #1 rule - a lady does not go to work with tight clothes on!

So yes, I did get up at midnight at search the Lilly sales online for their two day sale.  Honestly I was a bit disappointed!  The prices weren't that amazing.  The only real deal I saw were Callahan shorts for $17.40.  A shop or two had cheaper prices than the warehouse sale but otherwise, it wasn't that fantastic.  I didn't order anything - on my best behavior!  Honestly I really didn't neeeeed anything and I'd rather get some newer and fresh things!

Happy Thursday! 

Lilly Pulitzer Salebration

Set your clocks for midnight tonight, wake up and find some 80% bargain prices on Lilly!!!

Check out Lilly's blog here which gives more details!  Pink Pelican and Splash of Pink are definitely participating as seen on Juleps & Jon Jons blog!

Ladies Night Out at Cowfish

Finally Blogger is working so I'm able to load this picture! 

L to R - me, Shannon, Lauren and April

Anyway, last night we went to Cowfish in the Southpark area of Charlotte for a ladies night!  We had this planned for a long time because it's impossible for us all to get together!  Shannon got married in March and then April just got married over Memorial Day weekend.  We were thrilled to catch up and exchange stories! 

I simply love getting together with these ladies because we're all sort of in the same spot in life and they are good girlfriends to have.  You know -- the classy, sweet, got-it-together type gals!  Next time, we mayyyy bring the boys....but probably not on $5 martini night!  ;)

PS - some of you asked me to start posting outfit of the day (OOTD) pictures!  I think that's fun and I may start doing that every once in awhile!  Above is my "Lilly" outfit for National Wear Your Lilly Day...obviously the only Lilly is the green tank!  And my high heels make me super tall - ahh!

National Wear Your Lilly Day

Happy first day of summer!  While I feel like it's been summer here in Charlotte for a couple months, today is the official kick off.  And who is wearing their Lilly today?

I find it somewhat difficult to wear Lilly to work, especially in an office of mostly guys!  Yes, I could wear a classic shift or my white Lilly pants but I thought I'd try something else.  Today I'm wearing a bright green tank from last year with a gray suit skirt and a white cardigan and of course some patent heels.  The bright green is unexpected with the rest of the toned down outfit. 

What are you wearing today?  Do you have to be pretty professional at your job?  What are your outfit ideas?

Lots of Birthday's!

On Friday after work, we headed to the Avenue pool with some of our neighbors for a Friday happy hour and hanging out!  We love doing that on Fridays and it is so relaxing.  Sometimes we stay up there late enough to watch the sunset - gorgeous. 

I headed upstairs to change and get ready to go out for Lauren's birthday!  Emily picked Tara and I up from downtown and we headed to Soul in Plaza Midwood.  They have sushi and tapas.  Pretty cool spot!

Then we headed to Whiskey Warehouse to check that out.  It was kinda dead in there but they did play good music.

Then we headed out but Tara and I decided to go check out Thomas Street Tavern.

They were packed in there but we sat down and people watched and chatted.  A couple neighbors from my building were there too so we hung with them too.  We grabbed a cab and headed back home (Tara lives just a couple blocks from me).  We all had fun celebrating Lauren's big day!

On Saturday morning I woke up early to do my hair and get to a spa appointment.  Kevin had gotten me a spa day for a Living Social thing awhile back so I was super excited to use it!  It was a 30 minute massage, 30 minute facial and a manicure.  I ended up not having time for the manicure but they're letting me come back this week to get that done.  Modern is so super nice and I loved the massage and facial - probably my most favorite ones ever. 

I jetted home and Kevin was all ready and we loaded up the car and headed to Kevin's parents home to throw his Mama a surprise birthday party!

We set up shop in their garage because this is the best place at their home for a party because they have great decks on the back of their home so we can all spread out!  It's perfect!

Check out this cake that one of Kevin's friend's wives made.  Amazing right? 

And she arrived!!!  She was so surprised - it was fantastic! 

Checking out the invitation that everyone had received!

Kevin's adorable parents! 

Then the 6 of us (Kevin's parents, his bro and sis in law, Kevin and I) sat on their back deck and she opened some gifts!  Kevin gave her a frame with a picture in it and I gave her some monogrammed soaps!  Oh - did I mention that we got a huge storm in the middle of the party and the power went out?  It ended up being fine but it was crazy that it happened! 

We stayed on the back deck because it was much cooler out there after the storm than in the house without power.  We had a lovely time socializing and all that good stuff.  Kevin and I headed back to Charlotte later that night. 

Yesterday I got up and ran and Kevin evidently slept until 11 or 12ish.  Crazy!  I had done lots of things by then!  We headed back down to his parent's home for a Father's Day cookout around 4ish.  They grilled steaks and I brought a potato casserole and slaw.  His Mama made an amazing pie that I'll have to get the recipe for.  It was cool and summery!

All in all, a fabulous weekend and I swear they get shorter every week!  Back to the grind on this hot Monday! 

Happy Father's Day - Josh Turner Lyrics

Dad - Happy Father's Day to the best one in the world! You do so much for others and I hope you feel special today!

We have had so many fun times over the years and that is thanks to how hard you and Mom have worked over the years.

You have always been so selfless and taught Clay and I so much.

You're a leader in the community and I'm always proud to tell everyone that you're my Dad.

You're my gin and tonic buddy (I learned from you well), we've run many miles together, blackberry messaged millions of times, talked geeky engineering and played computer too.

We've partied on down at lots of yall's friends weddings and now my friends weddings (and many other events in between).

And you're the best Poppa around too!

 

Also, Happy Father's Day to my brother!  He's the best Daddy to Anna Kate and another baby on the way!!!   (Yes, big news that I thought would be fun to share today!)  I'm going to be an Aunt times two!!!

 

I saw this song on D's blog the other day and knew I had to post the lyrics for my Dad...he's always been there.  And I wish I could be in Maryland with you all today!

 Josh Turner - I'll Be There

When you need picked up 'cause you fell down

Need a piggyback right or a birthday clown

Need a song to take you to sleepy town

I'll be there

When you need a coach or you need a fan

Need a castle built out of ocean sand

Or a rainbow chaser, I'm your man

I'll be there

I'll be a tear dryer

A paper airplane flyer

A monster runner-offer if you get scared

I'll be a sap

I'll be a sucker

A story maker-upper

Anytime, anything, anywhere

I'll be there

When you break your heart or skin your knee

Need a big ol' hug or a bowl of ice cream

I promise you can count on me

I'll be a heart mender

A prayer sender

A hoper and believer when it's all up in the air

A strong and steady shoulder

I'll be a secret holder

Anytime, anything, anywhere

I'll be there

If you need a frown turned to a grin

Or you need a hand just to hold your hand

Need a daddy or you just need a friend

I'll be there

I'll be there

I'll be there