Dancing With The Stars Live in Orlando

When I heard ABC's Dancing with the Stars show was doing a nationwide tour and coming to Orlando I knew it would be a fun show to go see during the holidays. I don't follow the show on TV much but seeing it live was a whole other experience that we all enjoyed, even the guys.

The tour features Season 23's winner and Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez along with some of the finalists including Lindsay Arnold, Sharna Burgess and Val Chmerkovskiy.

The live show had every type of ballroom and modern dance seen on the TV show including group performances, romantic duets, contemporary numbers and original pieces created specifically for the nationwide tour.

 

 

  

With all the fancy lighting and movement of dancing it was tricky capturing good quality photos so some of my photos don't have the best clarity but can still get a good enough idea of the details involved in the production.

 

 

After winning a gold medal in Rio and an individual silver medal on the beam, Laurie Hernandez went straight to the ballroom to compete on Dancing with the Stars where with her partner Val Chmerkovskiy.
 

 

 

 

The DWTS tour is still going on through February 14th in 43 cities across the US so if you're interested in seeing the show you can check the tour schedule on their website: http://dwtstour.com.

Weekend Happenings

Hello all! I'm sure everyone is trying to get back into the swing of your work and life schedules as the holidays have come and gone. I kept super busy during the holidays so relaxing weekends are much appreciated around here and that's exactly how it turned out.

On Friday night, K and I went for dinner and happy hour at Bar Louie and then spent to rest of the night relaxing at home since I was pretty exhausted.

We watched the movie Snowden which I fell asleep half way through but finished watching the rest on Saturday morning. I found it was very interesting to see everything that happened behind the scenes.

via

Saturday was cold and gloomy so it was perfect to sleep in a bit before getting productive around the house packing away Christmas decorations, cleaning and reorganizing.

In the evening the neighborhood ladies planned a sushi & wine night out. It was freezing (for Florida's standards) but we bundled up and headed out for our girls night. A few ladies bailed but the four of us had a blast feasting on sushi and chit-chatting the night away.

We walked to another bar to have some martinis and played around with some SnapChat filters that were hilarious.

We then called an Uber to go back to our neighbor's house where the guys were playing poker and hung out there for a bit. That night was the extent of my weekend fun.

 Sunday was another chilly day and perfect for relaxing and working on my "home tour" project for the blog. Here's a sneak peek.

I made use of our ham bone from Christmas (which I kept frozen) and put this Slow Cooker Ham & Split Pea Soup in the crockpot to cook for dinner. Perfect for a chilly night.

And that's all the happenings that happened over the weekend!

Friday Favorites

With Monday being a work holiday, this week seemed to just fly by which is always a great feeling! After the busyness of the holidays, I'm welcoming a fairly relaxing weekend which is perfect since the weather forecast isn't looking good!

 
On Fridays I usually post about some favorites from the week. Today I wanted to change it up and share favorites that are relevant to the theme of my blog (all listed in my navigation bar above).

Martinis & Bikinis is a Lifestyle Blog so I talk about a hodge podge of things which inherently means these are the things I love and enjoy doing.

Orlando Living

I talk about my weekend whereabouts and all the things I love about my city including my favorite sushi restaurants, happy hour hot spots...and other fun things to do.

Travel
I have a huge passion for traveling so this comes in 2 parts...

Travel Planning
The only trip I have signed and sealed for 2017 is Boston in the Spring and I'm super excited about planning out the details of that trip!

I'm sure there will be other travel adventures throughout the year once we figure out our work schedules.

 via

Travel Recaps
A recent one was our company Cruise to the Bahamas last month and how much fun we had exploring Nassau.

That's me learning how to use a selfie stick. Still don't own one.

Style & Fashion

I'm a shopper at heart but I like to find the best deals and stock up when things are on sale. I mainly share fashion and beauty products that are very affordable, not that $3000 purse that nobody can afford. 

Recipes

I love cooking and sharing new recipes. Sundays are usually when I have time to try a new recipe and share the details on the blog. My recipe posts have slowed down recently but I do plan to share some healthy new recipes for 2017 such as this Jalapeno & Swiss Stuffed Chicken dish.

My Life: Family & Friends

With all of the fun things aside, I don't share too much details of my family life to keep a level of privacy from the internet creepers.

What I can tell you is....

- K and I have parents that are still married (40+ years)

- We both have one sibling - both sisters

- Our extended family is huge on both sides & very close knit

- We have no kids but Lola is the love of our life (and a handful enough)

- We have a great group of friends in Orlando 

- Both of our best friends are from childhood days

Happy (almost) weekend and I hope the weather treats you better wherever you are!

Ringing in 2017

Since my parents had to cancel their trip to visit us for Christmas and New Years (details here), we decided to throw a last minute party at our house for NYE. Mostly everyone we knew already had plans or were out of town but luckily some of our neighbors were in for the celebration and we did a little house hopping to another neighbor's house to set off fireworks at midnight.

It was a very Christmas-themed NYE party because we bought so much food and drinks to celebrate with my parents but instead went out of town on Christmas Day to spend it with K's family.





Nothing goes to waste around here so we cooked turkey and some sides for dinner but we did have the NYE essentials ~ champagne and fireworks to ring in the new year.

We ate and had some eggnog and drinks and then headed over to our neighbor's house to pop the champagne and light off fireworks at midnight.

With my sister in town and lots on our agenda for the whole week, this was the perfect way to ring in 2017 with new friends in the neighborhood.

The Weekend When 2017 Arrived

Happy new year everyone! 

I've never taken a true "staycation" before but the past week off of work has been pure bliss with lots of relaxing, shopping and adventures with the sis, and ringing in 2017 with new friends/neighbors on NYE.

FRIDAY

K and I took my sister to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. It happened to be the coldest day of the year in Florida so we tried to fit in as much as we could before the sun went down.

 
We waited 2 hours in line to go on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride but that was definitely a must for my sister to get the full experience. We didn't get to taste butter beer because the lines were crazy. K went on the Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster while Leah and I opted for some browsing through the stores. 

We caught the Grinchmas Who-liday Show which was cute but I couldn't keep my eyes open for all of it.
 

We went on the Adventures of Spider-Man 3D ride and a few others but the lines were over an hour for most of the popular rides including Jurassic Park.

K and I just signed up for annual passes so we have a whole year to cover both of Universal's theme parks. Merry Christmas to us!

SATURDAY

Since my parents were supposed to be in town for NYE, we never made any official plans so we threw a small last minute shindig for our neighbors which was low key but we had tons of fun and I love that I have really cool neighbors!

SUNDAY

We relaxed all morning and cleaned up the house. In the evening we headed to International Drive to go on the Orlando Eye observation wheel and then have dinner at one of our favorite tapas and art restaurants in the area.

 

Cafe Tu Tu Tango

It was the perfect end to a weekend full of fun and celebrations. Luckily I have today off of work to unwind and get organized/mentally prepared for the work week ahead.

If you happened to miss my NYE holiday card you can check it out here.