Weekend Recap

I hate it when an amazing weekend comes to end.  It makes the week go by at a turtle-like pace.  This past weekend was no exception.  Kelly and I drove up to Indy for my brother's Stock the Bar engagement party.

 

We may have stopped for a margarita (and some dinner) along the way.

 

 

 

We stayed with my sister and her husband...that's still weird to say!  Friday night we watched oodles of The Office and ate too much guacamole.

 

Saturday Kelly and I worked out and met them for lunch at Hop Cat in Broad Ripple.  We had a few delicious beers and ate way too many crack fries.  Have you had these?  OMG.  They are named appropriately.

 

Saturday night was the party.  Unfortunately I only took one picture. 

 

 

But it was so fun!  It made me excited for their wedding which is in 4 short months!

*Insert shocked emoji*

 

Sunday morning we met my BFF Emily for breakfast (still no pictures) and headed home, where we laid on the couch for the rest of the day!

 

Only 3 more days to go this week! 

 

Food Prep

My new years resolution this year is to lose 30 lbs. by my wedding on November 14th.  Thirty pounds seems like a lot but after losing 10 lbs last spring, I gained twenty back.  Not real sure what happened there.  I am continuing on with the 21 day fix plan, which I love and plan to do several rounds!  Portion control is my problem, so the little containers really help me to see how much I am eating.

 

My goal each Sunday is to sit down and organize my meals for the week.  Then I go to the grocery store to buy everything I need for the week and cook several meals when I get home.  Last time the food lasted us two weeks!  After cooking it, I portion it all out into containers, so all I have to do to pack my lunch is grab what I need and put it in my lunchbox.  I also labeled how much of what food group was in each container.  I portioned out everything from main courses to fruits and vegetables.  It made it so easy to eat healthy during the week!  Not to mention I didn't have cook dinner when I got home. and I felt quite accomplished!

 

 

Here are the links to some of the recipes I made:

 

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls - this were delicious by the way. I also added some golden raisins to it.

 

Chicken Enchiladas - I added a few black olives to the top which counted as one orange container also.

 

Stuffed Zucchini Boats - I just used some homemade taco seasoning for this instead of the other spices.  I also skipped the sun-dried tomatoes and used fiesta blend cheese instead of parmesan. 

 

Stuffed Peppers - I made these in the crockpot instead of boiling the peppers and then baking them. 

 

All these recipes were fantastic!  No huge changes from what we would normally be eating really, but I loved them because each ones tells exactly how many and what color containers are in one serving.  It made it much easier on my brain!

 

I am no stranger to food prep, but sometimes the procrastinator in me puts it off.  Especially when I have paint parties on Sunday.  This time around I am really trying to stick to it! I have lost 5 lbs. so far, so 25 more to go! 

 

I may have ran out of time to prep for the entire week yesterday, but I did get one meal made yesterday.  I plan on finishing tonight!

 

Have a great week!

 

A little life update

Oh my goodness what an amazing Christmas break that was!  Two weeks of family and friends, wine and cheese, cleaning and organizing, cooking and shopping, I really don't want to go back to school today!  I am trying to find the motivation to get going this morning, and it's proving to be a little difficult.  I am definitely thankful for coffee!

 

Since I haven't been blogging lately, here what I have been up to over the last month or so...

Lots of Christmas-ing.  I'm so sad that it's over!

 

 

 

Wine-ing and goodbye-ing with a bridesmaid who is moving to Boston!

 



 

Celebrating 5th anniversaries...

 

 

Drinking the coldest beer I've ever been served.

 

 

And getting back to healthy eating in the new year!  I have a pretty important wedding coming up after all!

 

 

 Have a great week!

The Best Things About Fall

I'm back!  And it's not a wedding related post! Can you believe it????

 

Fall is in full swing, and as always, I am enjoying the nostalgia that goes along with the fall season.  It might be my favorite.  Although I love when it warms up in the spring...And being by the pool in the summer...and winter has Christmas, so it's really hard to choose a favorite.  I love them all, but there are a few things about fall that really make me use this emoji.

 

 

 

Warm and fuzzy.

 

 

So here it is, my 10 favorite things about fall, in no particular order

 

1.  Apple Cider

 

I crave the stuff by itself, heated, with some caramel vodka (that's my favorite way).
 

 

2.  Bonfires

 

There is really nothing better than sitting in a lawn chair with a blanket and a drink, staying warm by the fire.  I would have a fire in our fire pit every night if I could make the day be a little longer.

 

 

3.  Leaves

 

That's a given.  Who doesn't love the leaves in the fall?!  The leaves are one of the reasons I wanted to get married in the fall.  Since our wedding is in November of 2015, I'm using this year to judge how the leaves will be on the trees.  It's looking like I will be gluing them back up at the rate we are going here!

 

 

4.  Boots

 

I would own all the boots if boots weren't so expensive.  Instead, I try to limit myself to one in every color.

 

Especially these beauties. 

 

 

5.  Scarves

 

Fall is the time when I can begin to wear scarves without feeling like I am going to suffocate.  Similar to how I feel about boots, I want to own all the scarves.  Fortunately for me, scarves aren't as expensive so I kind of do own all the scarves!

 

The chunkier the better in my opinion!

 

 

6.  Thanksgiving

 

I LOVE Thanksgiving!  It is tied with Christmas for the first place spot in my list of favorite holidays.  I can't choose.  But I love cooking, and eating, and drinking, and being with my family.  Definitely makes me do that emoji from earlier.  Oh and the parade!!!  Love the parade!

 

 

7.  Pumpkin Flavored Things

 

{typical white girl here}

 

I love pumpkin flavored stuff, mostly carbs, like breads and muffins, pie and other desserts.  Don't flavor my yogurt with pumpkin.  That's just weird. 

 

8.  Football Naps

 

I don't really watch a lot of football.  I let Kelly take care of that.  However I do like to take a nap during college football on Saturday.  There is something about the murmur of the crowd and the voice of the announcers that make me sleep for just the right amount of time.

9.  This turkey door-hanger

 

How stinkin' cute is he?!?! I wish I could leave him up all year long!

 

 

10.  Our wedding!

Our wedding is exactly one year from today!  I am so happy to have a fall wedding....just keep the snow and cold weather away please.  It's fall remember?  And having a fall anniversary will lend itself to some many cute little bed and breakfast/ winery trips!

 

Now if only fall could be longer!  The temperature around here is already in the 30's...and it snowed yesterday.  Too soon!

 

 

 

Flashback Friday- Halloween Edition



The best thing about Halloween is definitely the costumes.  Unforntunately as an adult, you just don't get to dress up like you did when you were a kid...especially a kid in the 90's.  Here are some truly fabulous Halloween pictures from way back when. 

 

Way back when the pumpkins were as big as you...And had weird looking noses.

 

And your brother didn't know how to hold a baby...

 

 And your mom sewed your costume...

 

 

And you (or your dad rather) carved a pumpkin every year...(not pictured is when my parents tried to put me in this pumpkin.  Tried being the key word.  I wasn't having it.

 

Way back when no one cared if you were lady like... Kelly says I still sit like this sometimes. Oops

 

And we were just plain cute.

 

And brothers didn't know how to wear masks correctly...

 

And you could see my undies through my tights...

 

And I was a smoldering bumble bee...

 

 

And my brother was a fluffy clown...

 



 

A better time it was!

 

Happy Halloween!!!!!

 

Making it big

So remember the pumpkin I painted last year?  If you don't you can read about it here. It looked like this:

 I had noticed recently that people were pinning it like crazy, and I heard from several people that it was one of the first painted pumpkins to pop up when you search "painted pupmkins" on Pinterest.  Sure enough, I just checked to see for myself and there it is!

 

Anyways, I got an email yesterday and it's going to be featured in an article on Countryliving.com!  How cool is that!

 

If you remember, I actually didn't win the pumpkin contest last year.  I lost to a Duck Dynasty pumpkin...

 

Thankfully those bearded guys have kind of fallen off the map this year and I have a fabulous idea that's going to knock their socks off.

 

Pumpkin decorators beware!

 

In the meantime, be on the lookout for my gumball machine pumpkin on Countryliving.com!

The Last Sail Before the Veil

Being that my sister has now been a married women for almost two weeks, I think it's time to share pictures from her wedding!  But first, I have to blog about her bachelorette weekend because that was a very important step, not to mention SO much fun!

 

 

Instead of going out to a bunch of bars, we decided to go to Kentucky Lake and rent a cabin, along with a boat.  Talk about amazing!

We started off the long weekend with a bloody mary bar upon arrival. 

 

 

And a celebratory shot.

 

Then we headed down to the dock for a little swimming before dinner...

 

 

Which was a grilled pizza bar.

 

I am dreaming of that right now  YUM.

 

The decorated mantle with all of its rustic perfection!

After dinner we played bachelorette trivia games, which are always good for some laughs.

 

The next morning we got ready to head to the boat dock to pick up our boat!  Check out how amazing the décor looked in the morning sunlight!

 

After renting our pontoon we headed out onto the water for a beautiful day in the sun!  We could not have asked for better weather.  It was perfect outside!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's cool to pull 10 plus people using a jet ski right?  We were headed to jump off the rock quarry!

 

Which is this...And let me tell you, I am not an adventurous person, but I decided to go for it, and once you get up there, there is really no way to get down unless you jump. And let's just say that two months later, I am still feeling the effects off landing wrong in that water!  My tailbone may never forgive me.

 

The crooked sunglasses pic that usually means you have had to much to drink!

The sun made us sleepy.....

 



 

When we got home we had to clean our battle wounds.  Boating is a dangerous thing!

 



 

What a fantastically fun time with some awesome girls!  I might just copy for my bachelorette party!