Weekend Whereabouts - Florida Living

Hope everyone enjoyed the lil weekend break. It's never long enough, I know, but I feel rested and ready for the shortish week ahead. I'll be jet setting on Friday to celebrate our wedding anniversary!

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!

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.  

Football Appetizers & Entertaining

It's certainly hard for calorie-counting around football season. Everyone knows pizza and beer are consumed in copious amounts during this time. I know we'll be attending a few football parties this season so I went on the hunt for some fun and festive appetizer, finger food and dessert recipes that I thought I would share.

Loaded Potato Dip via Eclectic Recipes.

Mac and Cheese Bites via Virtually Homemade.

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos via Blog Chef.

Buffalo Chicken Bites via Eat Yourself Skinny.

Avocado & Grilled Corn Pico de Gallo via Yummy Life.

Sweet Heat Meatballs via Oh Bite it.

Football Cookies and Cream Dip via Get Creative Juice.



Nutella Chocolate Truffles via Just A Taste.

Football Whoopie Pies via The Cake Blog.

4th of July Weekend Celebrations

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend (long weekend for those in the US).

I went on my first blate last week with Rebekah and Kate at The Wine Room. It was really nice meeting Rebekah and talking about bloggy stuff while sharing a cheese plate & some drinks. 

On Friday/4th of July, I went shopping for some festive outfits to wear to our friend's pool/BBQ party.

I made a berry trifle and then headed over to the party that afternoon. We had a great time with friends, fireworks and delicious food and drinks. We played some flip cup and the girls won, of course!

On Saturday, K and I went shopping for a new fridge and also ended up getting a new smart TV. We've been saving up for a while now and, with the 4th of July sales, we found some great deals at Best Buy that were too hard to pass up. We had a quick Thai lunch date & went home to play with our new toy.

On Sunday, K and I had brunch at home, cleaned and relaxed. It was just what the doctor ordered after many back-to-back hectic weekends.We grilled some BBQ ribs for dinner and watch some more Orange is the New Black.

How was your weekend?

Joining Molly for Funday Monday and Biana for Weekending.

Sometimes I Love My Job

Yesterday my company took everyone out for some bowling, beer and arcade games. It was nice to get out of the office and mingle with coworkers. Everyone becomes so much more fun when beer is involved!

Other than free cookies on a Friday, I feel pretty lucky to work for a company that takes us out on fun trips and knows how to throw a killer party!

What company takes you on a cruise to the Bahamas?

I also love our holiday parties. Last year's party was held at Universal for the evening and they put us up in a sweet hotel for the night. Way to keep me motivated ;-)

Linking up with Lauren for High Five For Friday. 

Happy Friday!