Showing posts with label Celebrations. Show all posts

Christmas Time Weekending

We meet again here on a Monday but luckily it's a short work week. I had a fairly low-key weekend which was much needed. On Friday, we did a Secret Santa gift exchange at work and I was gifted some puppy treats, a dog photo frame tree ornament and a gift card for Alex and Ani.   
    
We spent Friday night at home with Lola and she loved her new puppy teething rings.

On Saturday, I relaxed with Lola all day while nursing a migraine. I made these beef bites from Trader Joe's which are a really good snack or appetizer to take to a party. 

On Saturday night we went to a friend's holiday housewarming party and had a great night out with friends.

On Sunday, I got to sleep in which felt great. Later in the day we took Lola on a little road trip to visit friends and their baby girl who is exactly the same age as Lola (born a day apart). 

I'm looking forward to spending Christmas this week with family and friends.

How was your weekend?

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

2014 Year in Review

Looking back at the year, I think 2014 treated me really well and I did lots of traveling and fun things with friends and family while also keeping up with my full-time job as well as Martinis & Bikinis. It wasn't always easy and I've had ups and downs but I try to focus on the positives.

January
I was sent to Vegas by my company for a work convention and stayed at MGM Grande.  Since it was my first time visiting Vegas, I took a few days off of work to tour the strip and K came along to join the fun. 

February
Kate and I started our Tuesday Recipe Swap linkup which has been fun keeping up with and trying out new recipes every week. Feel free to join us every Tuesday if you have a recipe or food related post you want to share.

March
 Celebrated St Patrick's day with friends...

Also traveled to San Francisco for another work conference which was amazing! I used my free time to do a bus tour and visit the Golden Gate Bridge. I love this city and just found out I will be going back next year for the same conference. Woo hoo!

April
Went to New Orleans for a bachelorette with a group of 8 ladies and partied up and down the streets. My NOLA bachelorette trip recap.

I also threw an Easter dinner party for friends at my house.

May
Spent Memorial weekend at St Pete beach for a beach front wedding and stayed a couple nights at the hotel with friends.
June
We traveled to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for another wedding. Punta Cana is by far one of the most beautiful destinations I've visited to date.

Later in June, my work took us on a company beach vacation to St Pete beach.

July
Celebrated 4th July with friends at a pool party.

August
August was a fairly uneventful month. We made a few beach trips and I went to a baby shower and a gender reveal party for friends. We also lost our cat Skyh who was 12 years old. 

September
We visited Chicago with Kate and her hubby for K's birthday. We toured the city, went on a river boat cruise tour, ate some great meals, went to a baseball game at Wrigley Field and had an absolute blast! We all loved Chi town.

October
My parents came to visit for 2 weeks from Trinidad. We went for a beach weekend trip to Treasure Island on the west coast of Florida and stayed at a condo for a few days.

My best friend of almost 25 years came to visit me from Trinidad to go wedding shopping. We shopped til we dropped and had so much find spending QT together.

November
Our wrinkly baby joined our family and has been keeping us very busy. She made a 2 hour road trip with us to celebrate Thanksgiving and even got a little piece of turkey to try.


December
My work holiday party at Universal Studios and City Walk.

 

Celebrated my 31st birthday with K at Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

Witnessed the marriage of two good friends and had a blast at their wedding. 

2014 was my first full year in the 30's and WOW was it a fun year!

Looking forward to what 2015 has in store for me!

The Holidays Have Begun

The craziness that is the holidays is here and another great weekend for the books! I had my work holiday party on Friday night so we booked a hotel and had a little staycation for the night at Universal Studios since driving after several hours of free drinks is never a good idea. 


We had cocktail hour, buffet dinner and then the after party was at Universal's City Walk.

On Saturday morning, we checked out of the hotel and picked up our precious wrinkly bundle from her pet sitters.

Saturday night was a wash and we had planned to attend another holiday party but the couch and snuggles with Lola won.

On Sunday, we were feeling refreshed and decided to venture downtown for lunch and to watch football at a couple dog-friendly bars and restaurants. Lola had a blast meeting lots of people and other dogs and crashed hard when she got home giving me time to do some blogging and the usual Sunday cleaning, laundry etc.

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Joining Biana for Weekending and Leeann for Monday Morning Gossip.  

Puppy Shopping & Holiday Kickoff Party

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm so excited Thanksgiving is almost here. Definitely looking forward to some family time and a few days off of work. 

This weekend we started our search for a baby bulldog. We've had an empty nest since Skyh passed away and think it's time to adopt a new furbaby.

Friday night looked something like this. Well, it looked exactly like this. Chinese takeout, Redbox movies and homemade dirty martinis.

On Saturday, I used the pamper package gift certificate I won at a charity event a few weeks ago. I got a facial, mani & pedi and my hair styled. The package included a few more things but honestly I don't have enough patience to stay more than 4 hours in a spa so that was good enough for me. 

Saturday night, was our first Holiday party for the year with friends and it was a blast!




Sunday: we cooked up some brunch at home and continued our search for a new puppy. We finally found our furbaby and she'll be arriving this week from the breeder!!

 K also thought pineapple mimosas with blueberries were a good idea to celebrate.

How was your weekend?

Joining Biana for Weekending and Leeann for Monday Morning Gossip.  

Fun Holiday Potluck Dips

The holidays are coming up and I, for one, usually have a few potlucks to attend with friends & family and at work. I've been looking for some fun dip ideas from blogs I follow and via Pinterest and wanted to share some ideas I came across. 

White Cheddar and Cranberry Dip
via Little Broken
 

BBQ Chicken Dip

Cauliflower & White Bean Dip

Pimento Cheese Dip


7-Layer Mexican Dip

Avocado & Yogurt Dip

Texas Caviar

Pumpkin Dip

Do you have any go-to potluck dishes (not only dips) to share?


Celebrating Things To Come

As I mentioned on Friday, I've been needing a "my Netflix and my snacks" kind of weekend but this weekend had different plans for me. Friday night was pretty chill though, thankfully!

After going to dinner and drinks with my team on Thursday, we all arrived to work feeling rough on Friday. Very professional, I know, but sometimes we have to entertain clients and new hires that come into town and if they want to go out drinking then that's what we have do. We sent our new hire with a nice hangover on her flight back to the Netherlands on Friday.

K and I were supposed to go to a winery on Friday night that had live music and food trucks but I could barely keep my eyes open when I got home from work. We settled for a quiet dinner at Bonefish Grill and headed home after that. I've said this before but I'm obsessed with the bang bang shrimp at Bonefish. It's a must have when we go there! 

On Saturday we headed to K's hometown 2 hours away for a friend's co-ed baby shower. Baby Harper will be here next month and she got some wonderful gifts from their family and friends. 

After the shower we went out with some friends to catch up at the guys' favorite watering hole and then spent the night at my in-laws house.

On Sunday we headed back into town for one of my best friend's gender reveal party to find out whether their baby is a boy or a girl. Hence, the name of this post as we celebrated two babies coming soon.

The hosts asked everyone to wear either pink or blue depending what you thought the baby is going to be. I thought it was going to be a girl so I showed up in pink and K went in blue. They had a cute monkey pinata which the grandma-to-be was given the stick to hit and reveal the surprise. After many attempts out came a flood of blue candy. It was a really cute way to reveal the gender. 

As you can see based on the two teams below, the majority had a feeling it was going to be a boy. I was on the losing team but so excited for the soon-to-be parents and I'm looking forward to planning her baby shower.


How was your weekend?

Joining Biana for Weekending.
Weekending