Weekend Whereabouts

I can't believe it's already February. The whole month of January just zipped by, didn't it?

We had a fun Friday night out to celebrate a friend's birthday at Cafe Tu Tu Tango which has amazing tapas and sangria. It's an artsy restaurant that features local artwork on the walls along with belly-dancers, magicians, and artists painting right in front of you. Definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Orlando.

After dinner we went to Tin Roof for a couple drinks and some live music and got this gem of a picture with the birthday guy.

It was a fun night out catching up with Kate and the girls.

On Saturday, K and I went car shopping browsing because I'm almost due for a new car and I think I found the one I want. We still have a few more dealerships to check out but the Mazda CX-5 seems to be the best fit for me so far.

After hours of car dealerships, we met up with some friends downtown to celebrate another birthday with some drinks and then eventually dinner before settling at home for a quiet night. I was in bed by 9:30 pm. Talk about being old.

Sunday was all about Lola snuggles, food prepping for the week, and blogging. I made two different types of quiches for breakfast this week and a pot roast in the crockpot for dinner.

How was your weekend?

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Weekending & New Blog Design

Another Monday is upon us but let's decide to be happy and beautiful together. Life is better that way, right? I hope the snow and blizzards up north weren't too detrimental and hopefully cleared up a bit by now. We had the coldest weekend for the year in Central Florida but no snow.

I had a relaxing Friday evening at home with some Thai food for dinner from Sea Thai, which has been voted best Thai restaurant in Orlando year over year. I picked up K from the airport and we just hung out at home with Lola.

On Saturday I went to the hairdresser to get some highlights done and got my hair curled. Luckily the curls lasted up until today even with the cold weather.

On Saturday night the Central Florida girls (Kate, Kerri, Pamela and myself) had a blogger meet up with Ashley from Wandering Weekenders and her husband visiting from Texas. We had dinner at The Cowfish, a sushi and burger restaurant in Universal's City Walk.

After dinner we headed over to Red Coconut for a drink ~ moscow mules were the drink of the night for myself and some of the girls. As you can see we were all bundled up in winter clothes because the low was in the 30's which is deathly cold for our Florida and Texas blood. LOL

It was so fun meeting Ashley and her husband! I hope to visit them in Texas sometime later this year.

Most of Sunday was spent figuring out how to redesign my blog and having a mini panic attack while doing so after almost crashing the whole site. I'm super happy with how it turned out considering I have zero design or HTML skills...well now I have a little of both. It's not 100% complete but that's all my patience could handle in one day. I'll also be re-branding my blog with a different (but similar) name in the next week or two since I bought a new domain. If you run into any errors while visiting my blog, please let me know!

How was your weekend?

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Weekend Happenings

Another low-key weekend around here. On Friday K and I had dinner at Pom Pom's Teahouse which has amazing soups, sandwiches, and of course teas. I had the Cherry Bomb iced tea which was so good!

We rented Ted 2 from Redbox and had a relaxing night at home with lots of laughs.

On Saturday I finished organizing and decorating our home office and did a few errands around town. Later in the evening we went out to meet up with some friends for drinks at Firebird's and then dinner at Santiago's Bodega which has amazing tapas. We shared a variety of different tapas but the flaming cheese (saganaki) was a hit!








On Sunday, I went through my closet and purged 3 bags of clothes, shoes, and bags to donate to Goodwill. I then did some damage at Target shopping for warm clothes since it finally feels like "winter" here. Two of my favorite buys are this Mossimo Faux Sherpa Cardigan and the Kalliope Shearling Style Boots both under $35.

After said damage, I went to get an hour long facial at Massage Envy to use the gift package K gave me for Christmas. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at home, food prepping, and getting organized for the work week. I made this Chicken Tikka Masala recipe in the crockpot with lots of leftovers for this week.

Happy Monday...Let's do this!

NYE Weekend in Ft Lauderdale

Happy new year everyone! I hope 2016 is off to a great start for you.

I had a very eventful weekend in Ft Lauderdale ringing in NYE with friends. On Thursday I had the day off of work so we took the 3 hour drive to south Florida to check in to our hotel by Ft Lauderdale beach. While driving there the hotel called to say they overbooked and wanted to give us an upgraded room at their sister hotel only a block away and also gave us a small discount for the inconvenience. Fine by me! It was a cute boutique hotel called Tranquilo which was a short walk to the beach.

After getting settled we went out for dinner at Casablanca Cafe along the beach with a girl friend and enjoyed some escargot, baked brie, beef carpaccio and a strawberry mojito. Everything was amazing and the outdoor patio overlooking the beach was a nice vibe.

After dinner we went out for some adult beverages and then watched the annual ball drop along Ft Lauderdale beach at midnight. It was a fun night out with friends exploring a new town.

On Friday we went to visit one of my best friend's from childhood and spend some quality time with her three kids at their house on the water. We brought Lola along so the kids could play with her.

After a few hours of bestie and kiddie time and whining children, we were starving so we went with K's friend from high school to G&B Oyster Bar for some amazing oysters and stone crab.

On Saturday morning we slept in and then checked out of hotel to make the trek back to Orlando. Before hitting the highway, we stopped at La Granja Peruvian restaurant for an amazing seafood ceviche for lunch.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and doing errands. Overall it was an amazing weekend with good friends, amazing food and a nice change of scenery for a couple days in sunny south Florida.

How did you ring in the new year?

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

2015 Year Recap: Part 2

It's incredible 2015 has come to an end. Overall it was an amazing year and I kept very busy with traveling and celebrating weddings, birthdays, new babies and everything in between. I posted Part 1 of 2015 last week so here goes the second half of the year.

July:
We traveled to Las Vegas to celebrate a girl friend's 30th birthday and our fifth wedding anniversary. We saw Tiesto in concert and had dinner at the top of the Stratosphere for our anniversary.


 

August:

Celebrated Kate's birthday at Sunday brunch downtown Orlando.

September:

September was a fairly busy month. K and I flew to New Orleans to celebrate his birthday and explore the city. One of my favorite restaurants we ate at for lunch was Pierre Maspero's.

We went to explore Wekiva Island with Kate and her hubs.

Celebrated some friend's at their joint bachelor/bachelorette party.

Also went to Animal Kingdom with K and enjoyed a safari ride and a few other rides.

October:

My parents came in town to visit for a couple weeks and we went to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival.

K and I went back to Disney the following weekend to explore Hollywood Studios and went on several rides.

November:

We flew to Barbados for a girl friend's wedding which I was a bridesmaid in.

 

While we were in Barbados, K and I took an amazing catamaran boat cruise around the island and then toured the island with friends.

Met Kristen at Epcot while I was there with Pamela and Kerri for the Food & Wine Festival.

K and I also visited Magic Kingdom one last time before our Disney annual passes expired.



We attended our first holiday party a friend's house and got to catch up with all the girls.

December:

December is always a busy month with holiday parties and my birthday so lots of fun was had.

We went to Kate's annual holiday party which included a photo booth so everyone had a blast with that plus the white elephant gift exchange had some hilarious gifts.

My work holiday party at Universal Studios was also an amazing night and Kate came as my date since K was traveling for work.

I got to reconnect with some  college buddies over a sushi dinner and ring in my 32nd birthday downtown Orlando at a bar for a quick drink at midnight.

The girls came out on Sunday the 13th to celebrate my birthday at the best brunch spot in Orlando and I got spoiled with their love and gifts.

K finally returned from his work trip and we had another (late) birthday celebration the next weekend at the Orlando Eye.

Christmas was spent with my in-laws and extended family in Sarasota. It was a nice relaxing weekend with lots of good food and quality time with family.

I have to say 2015 was a pretty epic year and I'm looking forward to what 2016 has in store for us.

I hope you all enjoy NYE night and wishing you the very best for 2016!