February Favorites

It's always a celebration around here. I salute to birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers, and everything in between. I love party planning but planning new travel adventures is definitely a favorite.

Galentine's: Sips, Sweets and Jewels

Last weekend was a complete wash so I'm excited to go out and enjoy some fun with the ladies tomorrow night.

Practical Valentine's Gifts

While the sentiment of flowers are a thoughtful gesture, I'd much prefer something that lasts longer than 2 weeks. It doesn't have to be expensive. It can even be a gag gift but still something useful for everyday life.

Blushing For Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's and Galentine's Day my lovely friends!

K and I celebrated Valentine's day last night with Thai food for dinner. Our work schedules this week are crazy busy so that was the only opportunity for us to catch up but some fun things are planned for the weekend ahead! 

Valentine's Thoughts & Gift Ideas for Him

 

K and I don't usually buy gifts for each other on Valentine's Day. Often the money is well spent on a nice dinner date right before or after February 14th. We never venture out for dinner on actual Valentine's Day because of the mad rush and long wait lines at restaurants.

Happy Love Day

Just popping in today to say Happy Valentine's Day, Galentine's day, or Valium-Times Day as some like to call it!

It's a "school night" so we don't have any plans but K and I had a great time together on Saturday at Universal Studios.

On Sunday night, K cooked an amazing Rib-eye dinner for us paired with red wine.... so I think we inadvertently got the Valentine's celebrations out of the way before the crazy work week begins.

I'll be back tomorrow sharing some travel plans I have lined up for 2017!

xo Emily

Valentine's Gift Ideas for Her

I said it the other day but didn't we just ring in the new year? I don't have a whole lot of fun stuff lined up for February but I do always look forward to Valentine's day even though we don't celebrate extravagantly. Usually a nice dinner and a sentimental gift or card. I've told K almost a million times I'm not a huge fan of flowers, but he buys them anyways.

I wanted to share some unique and sentimental gift ideas for Valentine's Day so here's a gift guide for the ladies in your life.

I adore this cute tumbler perfect for a girly cocktail.

A sweet tribute to motherhood, this necklace features a silver elephant holding each of her little peanuts. 

An easy-to-use instant photo printer that lets you create awesome analog Polaroid-style photo prints from your smartphone or tablet.

A classic French dessert transformed into decadent macaron soaps.

Brew Kombucha with this crock designed for the tangy, nutrient-dense tea.

The Handcrafted Golden Bangle reminds you to live with intention and let joy flow freely.

Mimosa ready champagne flutes perfect for brunch.

This birch speaker for your phone amplifies sound through an acoustic cone.

This artwork marries a couple's names and anniversary date with a portrait of the city they love.

This Valentine's Day Gift Guide is made up of products sold by UncommonGoods which offers really unique jewelry, cute home décor, and many other handcrafted gifts created in harmony with the environment without harm to animals or people. I really loved browsing their website and finding so many unique and "uncommon" products as the Company's name rightfully implies.

Weekend of Love

Hope everyone had a great weekend! We stayed local and enjoyed some time out with friends along with some delicious food and drinks.

On Friday after work K and I met up with a good friend for dinner at Yamasan Sushi & Grill which has an amazing deal on sushi and drinks during happy hour. You can't beat $4 sushi rolls and wine so we splurged and picked six different rolls to share.

After dinner we went next door to Brass Tap to try some of their beers and hang out for a bit before calling it a night.

On Saturday, I did some damage at the grocery store and relaxed at home before getting dressed to celebrate Valentine's with K. We started off with some drinks in College Park. I tried some strawberry shortcake beer which was so delish!

We then headed over to Two Chefs Oyster & Seafood restaurant for dinner. It was our first time eating there and we really enjoyed the oysters for an appetizer. For entrees, I had blackened grouper and K had scallops and we shared some brussels sprouts and lobster mashed potatoes. Service was exceptional and we were in and out of there in less than an hour.

On Sunday I caught up on The People vs OJ Simpson and had a relaxing Valentine's day at home with K and Lola. We all made out with some gifts too.

K and I made some shrimp fondue to finish off the weekend of love and spent the rest of the evening planning our upcoming trip to Denver, CO!

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Valentine's Weekend Festivities

Another busy, busy weekend...

On Friday evening I came home from work to find Lola dressed in a cute Valentine's outfit and some roses from my two loves. You can tell she's getting big but I still love picking her up like a baby!

 

K and I then headed to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Planet Hollywood before the SOJA concert at the House of Blues. SOJA is a reggae band from Arlington, Virginia that I absolutely love. My sister gifted used the concert tickets for Christmas so I've been looking forward to the show for a while.

 

 

On Saturday we took Lola to her final training class at PetSmart. She passed her graduation class not exactly with flying colors and got her certificate of achievement so we're done with puppy training!

After training, K and I headed to Epcot to continue the Valentine's festivities. 

We did some shopping in China and had some drinks in Japan, Morocco and England.  

We capped off the night with a double-date dinner in the France pavilion at the Monsieur Paul restaurant. I had the duck entree which was amazing and same for the wine was but holy expensive!! On the plus side, we were seated by the window which overlooked the 9pm fireworks so the view was priceless.

By the time we were done with dinner it was at 10:30pm and the park was closed for the day so we had a peaceful walk back to the car without tripping over a million people and got some great photos. It was the perfect end to Valentine's day!

Sunday was a relaxing day at home. Lola played dress up in her new Chinese kimono I bought at Epcot and I also love the little Buddha statue I got for my office desk.

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

$150 Valentine's Giveaway + Friday Favorites

We meet again on this fabulous Friday and today this group of lovely ladies & myself have teamed up to offer you a fun giveaway! How perfect will it be to win $150 smackaroos to spend at Victoria's Secret just in time for Valentine's day?

Hosted by: The Sequin Notebook, Jessi's Design, Martinis and Bikinis, A Little Glitter, Martin Manifesto, The Kari Diaries, Pink and Fabulous, Make Me Up Mia, Green Fashionista and Meet @ the Barre

a Rafflecopter giveaway 
This giveaway runs from today (Feb 6th) until Feb 13th at 6am EST and the winner will be chosen at random. 

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Joining the lovely Amanda for Friday's Favorites.

Favorite Shopping Find:
The Heart Back Cut-Out Fit And Flare Dress from Express is sexy and sleek for Valentine's celebrations next weekend or any fun occasion.

Favorite Accessories: 
My Alex & Ani collection is almost complete. I think I've raved enough about A&A here on the blog but my most recent addition is this Tinkerbell bangle from Magic Kingdom. I still have a gift card from Christmas to purchase one more but I really need to slow my roll after that.

Favorite Recipe: 

Kerry from Till Then Smile Often always come up with such fun and creative recipes. Her Buffalo Spinach Hummus recipe posted earlier this week looks like the perfect snack if you're looking for something healthy, delicious and paleo-friendly.

Favorite Funny:
Have you heard of #FloridaMan? If you don't already know, Florida is full of crazies and it seems like most news stories coming from our wacky southern state sound something like this:

"Florida man caught with active meth lab in his pants"
"Florida man offers police officer $3 and chicken dinner for sex"
"Florida man arrested for smoking pot in hospital maternity ward"

There's now a documentary out called Florida Man that solidifies my theory/observation and something I've actually been meaning to post about because the stories are just that unbelievable and sometimes downright funny.

Of course, I love living in Florida but how can one not poke fun at these ridiculous stories that make it to the news? I really need to start posting more about these absurdities as they arise (which I've been meaning to do). Hopefully, one day, people around here won't be so coo coo for cocoa puffs.

 I leave you on that note...

Enjoy the weekend! Stay warm, safe and avoid the crazies out there!

Valentine's Weekend

I always get sad when the weekend comes to an end. Everyone knows Mondays and I are not exactly friends. Maybe one day I'll learn to embrace her...maybe...one day.

On Friday night, K and I went out for dinner to celebrate Valentine's day. We had some wine, calamari and I ordered roasted duck for my entree. After dinner we went home and popped open a bottle of champagne then dusted off our wedding flutes and had a relaxing night watching movies. 

On Saturday morning, I went to get my hair done and then stocked up on some groceries for the week & to entertain K's sister and boyfriend who were coming into town to visit us.

I made cheese fondue as an appetizer and K grilled ribs and turkey burgers. We had a great time catching up with my sis-in-law and hanging out at the house.

Sunday was a perfectly lazy day. We cooked brunch for our guests before they headed out to drive back home. K and I just hung out at home and relaxed.

Later that night I tried my hand at making Shepherd's Pie which will be featured on the blog tomorrow for my new Tuesday's Recipe Swap. It was so incredibly delicious!

Feel free to linkup tomorrow with your favorite recipes. I'm excited to start my very first linkup and hope we can have fun sharing and finding new recipes!

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<a href="http://www.martinisbikinisblog.com" title="Tuesday's Recipe Swap"><img src="http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k210/triniemily/Tuesdays-Recipe-Swap.jpg" alt="Tuesday's Recipe Swap" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
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I'm in the process of getting a new Recipe Swap button designed so this one will be the temporary replacement.

Joining Bella and Lisa for Weekend Recap.

 


Have a great week everyone!