Friday Faves + $50 Amazon Giveaway

Hello friends and hello pollen season!
My car and patio furniture are covered in a powdery yellow layer. Thankfully I don't have allergies but I feel bad for those who do because it's pretty intense this year.

Easter is coming up in a few weeks and I'm starting to plan our annual Easter potluck dinner so this weekend I need to figure out the menu and some pretty decor for the house. I'm thinking some mason jars with colorful flowers and maybe incorporating some fruit in there. Of course, one must turn to Pinterest for some inspiration.

 
source: here, here

Beauty Product Spotlight:
I just picked up this Revlon eye primer and shadow palette and love the medium neutral yet shimmery colors. I was definitely drawn to it because of the discrete application guide it comes with. I know how to apply some basic eye shadow for everyday wear but definitely could use some "professional guidance".

via

Healthy Meals:
I'm always searching for new recipes and while I'm not vegan or vegetarian, I found this Vegan Buddha bowl and it looks delicious but I would probably add some grilled chicken to the dish.

Favorite Blog Post:
One of my favorite bloggy friends, Alexis from The Chemistry Cachet posted about her favorite beach places and featured me with a questionnaire about my travel plans.

Alexis and I have also teamed up to host a $50 Amazon Gfit Card Giveaway so enter on below to win your ticket to a fun little online shopping spree!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to...



Joining Amanda for her Friday Faves linkup. 

Best Happy Hour Spots in Orlando

From traveling around to different cities, I've realized that Orlando has some of the best deals for happy hour during the week to unwind after work. Other than people that work for the big amusement parks in Orlando a large portion of young professionals work downtown and the surrounding areas so there's lots of fun places to meet up after work for a quick drink and/or bite with friends. Here are a few of my personal favorite spots although there are TONS of other great happy hour deals in Orlando!

Restaurant titles are clickable if you want to visit the website to get more information or view the menu.

Carmel Cafe & Wine Bar

Carmel Cafe has happy hour 7 days a week from 4-7pm which includes $5 large glasses of wine, $5 small plates, $2 off liquor drinks and $1 off beer. We also love going on Thursday nights which is $5 martini night. Nothing gets me more excited than that!

Aku Aku Tiki Bar
Aku Aku has a different special everyday on their Hawaiian style drinks. Insider tip: The Tiger Fucker cocktail pictured below is a must-try but only have one because they are very strong and a very large size cocktail!

 

The Gnarly Barley

Daily specials: Taco Tuesday, Wine Wednesday, Tin Thursday (craft beers) and $1 off drafts on Tues-Fri from 4-7pm.

Vanbarry's Public House

Daily drink specials and live music on the patio from 12-3pm. Vanbarry's has a really nice outside patio and allows dogs which is perfect for us for happy hour, lunch or brunch!

The Parkview

Graffiti Junktion
Graffiti Junktion has happy hour all week long M-F which includes $1 off draft beers; $3 house wine; $4 well drinks & margaritas.

Hammered Lamb

The Brass Tap
Happy hour is Monday to Friday from 4-7 pm and includes $4 pint beers, $4 house wines, and $6 small plates.

The Porch
The Porch has a nice, relaxed atmosphere with different food and drink specials during the week: Craft beer specials and 1/2 price burgers on Tuesdays. Kids eat free on Wednesdays. All you can eat wings on Thursdays.
 

So now I'm ready for some happy hour. Is it Friday yet?

Wanderlust Wednesday: 2015 Travel Recap

Looking back at last year, apparently it was a fairly successful year of traveling and exploring some new and old destinations. I also have some really exciting travel plans lined up for this year which I'll share at the end of this post. So here are the sites and scenes from 2015:

San Francisco & Sonoma
 In March I traveled to San Francisco for the second time to attend a conference for work but I made sure to fly in a few days early to explore more of the city and wine country.  I have some friends that live in San Fran so they picked me up and we drove out to Sonoma on the Sunday. It was a gorgeous day to visit the wineries and have a picnic outside plus every wine we tasted was amazing! (Here's another travel recap of my time in San Francisco over the past couple years.)

Trinidad & Tobago
In early 2015 I traveled to Trinidad and Tobago twice both times for weddings which I was a bridesmaid in (wedding recap here and here). It was a bit hectic to attend back to back destination weddings but I made it all work and got to spend time with family and catch up with friends while I was there.





Las Vegas
K and I visited Las Vegas for the 4th of July long weekend to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary coupled with a good friend's 30th birthday. Our days were packed with exploring the strip and lounging by the pool. Our nights were spent having some nice celebratory dinners, seeing Tiesto perform at Hakkasan, going to the "O" show by Cirque du Soleil and losing some money in the casino. What can I say? It's Vegas after all.

 

New Orleans

K and I traveled to New Orleans for the Labor Day long weekend in September which also happens to be K's birthday weekend. I'm usually a big planner when it comes to trips but K doesn't always like to follow a strict schedule so I made no big plans for this trip. We had some must-eat-at restaurants on our list as well as a ghost pub crawl and that we did along with lots of exploring, some shopping, and of course some drinking because Bourbon Street. (And here's NOLA Part 2 trip recap.)
 

 

Lots of Disney Trips

2015 was definitely filled with lots of Disney action and we made good use of our annual passes before they expired. Epcot was our favorite for the Food & Wine Festival but each park has it's own adventures to enjoy. If you have annual passes Disney it's also the perfect place to go to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, bachelorettes, etc so we did lots of that! The Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot (which is going on now) is also a gorgeous time of year to visit. Here are some of my favorite Disney memories from last year: one, two, three, four, five.

Barbados

In October we were off again for another destination wedding that I was a bridesmaid in but this time it was in the beautiful island of Barbados. The trip wasn't as long as I was hoping for (because lack of PTO at this point) but we did manage to squeeze some fun things in when I had some free time from wedding responsibilities. K and I went on a catamaran cruise around the island and then on our last day, some friends drove us around for an island tour so we got to see the best of both worlds.

Ft Lauderdale

Heading to Ft Lauderdale for New Year's Eve was kind of a spur of the moment decision for us. We didn't have any plans for NYE and were seeking some fun and adventure. We decided it was the perfect time to visit some good friends that live in the Ft Lauderdale area and when we were able to find an affordable dog-friendly hotel near to the beach, we were sold! We ate lots of good seafood and rang in 2016 beachside with good friends plus Lola got to join us for this trip.

Here's a sneak peak of what 2016 is looking like so far:

St Augustine, FL

Denver, CO

Coral Gables, FL

Boston, MA (tentative)

 Montego Bay, Jamaica

Toronto, Canada

Nashville, TN

Link-up Rules:

1. Follow Kerri, Kate and myself on Bloglovin

2. Link up your favorite travel recaps or travel related posts

3. Grab our Wanderlust Wednesdays button and link back to our blogs

4. Be sure to visit other blogs and build your travel bucket list!

Weekend Whereabouts

Hoping everyone had a great weekend. On Friday K and I went for happy hour at World of Beer and then had an early dinner at Shari for some amazing sushi rolls.

On Saturday morning we went car shopping and I found the exact car I was wishing for ~ Mazda CX-5.

After hours of car dealerships, we headed downtown for some lunch and a couple beverages. When we got there, we realized there was a huge Orlando City Soccer pub crawl going on so everyone was wearing purple to support our city's soccer team.

K and I went to Ferg's Depot for some oysters and a couple beers before heading home to watch movies and relax with Lola.

 On Sunday we were up bright and early so we made some breakfast and watched the news before heading to Vanbarry's with Lola for lunch and to watch the Orlando City Soccer game.

 

It was a relaxing weekend with some fun and not much productivity. LOL

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Friday Faves

More like is it 5 o'clock yet?

I hope this week treated everyone well. It went pretty smoothly for me and I finally got caught up on The People vs. OJ Simpson in the evenings and some of my other mindless shows. I'm hoping this weekend is a fairly relaxing one but I do love getting out the house to grab a bite or meet up with friends so we shall see where the wind takes me.

Let's get into some Faves:
Earlier this week, I enjoyed reading these mobile photography tips for creating quality photos for Instagram. Just good to know as a blogger.

On Tuesday night we made this Spinach & Brie Stuffed Chicken recipe (minus the cranberries) and it was so delicious. It's been added to my list of favorite meals to cook for dinner. 

Emelia announced earlier this week the opening of her new Etsy shop called Dreamy Details where she sells fun and inspirational wall art creations. I picked out the Life is Better with Furry Friends print for my office desk. I was able to download it right away, print it on glossy paper and get it framed for less than $10. I think her prints are perfect for affordable gifts for friends.

The home project that I'm planning to tackle in the upcoming weeks is landscaping the front area of our house. Our lawn looks great but 5 years after purchasing our home, the landscaping has gone to shit so I've been looking for some inspiration and ideas that will endure Florida weather. Honestly we will probably need to hire a landscaping company but I want to decide on a vision before then.

Found another type of dental chew treat that Lola enjoys from Chewy.com. Zuke's Z-bones and Whimzees dental chews are her favorite treats of all time and they're good for her hygiene so I approve. Yesterday I did a Throwback Thursday post and shared the story of how Lola joined our family, check it out here if you happened to miss it. 

Speaking of hygiene, one of my absolute favorite products that I stumbled upon at our local grocery store are the Petkins Pet Wipes....I use them to clean any dirt off of Lola's face, body and paws and they make her smell really good.

And I'll leave you with a funny....Have a great weekend!!

Joining Amanda for her Friday Favorites linkup.