US Cities: Loves & Lusts

Good morning!

We meet again for Wanderlust Wednesday travel linkup hosted by Kate, Kerri and myself. I hope you will join us by sharing your favorite travel-related posts and hopping over to read the travel adventures shared by other bloggers. Although I've traveled quite a bit throughout my life (yet still not enough) I'm running low on new places to post about due to lack of picture taking before becoming a blogger.

Over the past few years I've been trying to cover some ground on the US map and I've been to some cities that have just blown me away so I wanted to share a few of my favorites along with some cities that I've been dying to visit...some of which are already booked for this year.

Loves

San Francisco
I've  visited San Fran twice recently for work conferences but found some free time to be a tourist and explore. It's hard not to fall in love with this city. Here's my San Francisco travel recap.



Savannah, GA
 K and I drove up to Savannah for my 30th birthday a few years ago and had an amazing weekend exploring the history and indulging in some of the best food I've ever tried. Read more about our adventures in Savannah.



New Orleans
K and I made our way over to New Orleans last year to celebrate his birthday which falls on a long weekend. NOLA is another city with amazing food and a rich culture that's worth checking out.

New York City

Well isn't NYC a given? I visited New York for the first time for our 1-year anniversary and I was so amazed by the density of the city and the buildings as we flew in. I'd never seen anything like it. We did all the tourist things possible and really took in all that New York has to offer. 

Chicago

K and I visited Chicago with Kate and her husband in 2014 and once again did all the tourist things we thought were interesting. Some of my favorite things were exploring the Navy Pier, a scenic architectural boat cruise, going to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, having a bloggers lunch with Nikki for some deep dish pizza, and lots more. Chicago is another city you can't help not falling in love with.

Lusts

Denver
Luckily we have a trip booked for the end of this month! Although I still haven't actually planned some fun things to do on the trip.

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Boston

I was hoping to make it to Boston in July when K has to go for a work event but his schedule is way too busy for this trip to make sense so I'm hoping to make it there sooner than later.

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Nashville
Nashville is another trip we have booked for later this year to visit some friends and explore Music City. I can't wait!

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Charleston
I've been dying to check out all the charm and history Charleston has to offer so hopefully I can make a trip happen in the near future.

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Key West
 Key West is just a drive away for us but still a 6-7 hour drive so we still haven't found the right time to make it there. I have been before over 10 years ago for Spring Break in college so I think a return trip is much needed at this point!

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What are your US City travel loves and lusts?

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

Weekend Whereabouts

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Mine was a fairly quiet one since K was traveling for work so I enjoyed lots of "me time" and tried to sleep in but early-bird Lola woke me up at 6 am on both Saturday and Sunday morning.

On Friday night I did a whole lot of nothing other than relaxing at home catching up on some shows.

On Saturday I had a hairdresser appointment which is always a process but I love how my hair looks after getting a trim and some fresh highlights. After the salon, I went to Pier 1 to browse some of their gorgeous mirrored furniture. I talked about some of my current home obsessions on Friday and a pretty mirrored nightstand was on the list - These are the two I have my eye on - one  / two

Kate and I met up on Saturday evening at Brio Tuscan Grille to catch up over some delish Italian dinner and wine. The sweet potato and chicken risotto was amazing even though it looks like mushy baby food in the photo (ha!). The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at home watching the movie Sisters with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler which had some funny parts but altogether not a highly rated movie.

Bright and early on Sunday the bestie and I drove out to Cocoa Beach for some sunshine and fun. We stopped at Ron Jon Surf Shop first to do some shopping and I bought my first floppy beach hat.

 It's so lightweight and comfortable which is perfect for the Florida heat!

Once we got to the beach, we went to Coconuts for some much needed frozen cocktails to sip on while we relaxed on the beach for a few hours. After getting some sun we went to Jazzy's Mainely Lobster & Seafood Company for some local seafood dinner and then made the drive back home.

The weekend was capped off with some food prep and house staging on Sunday night to prepare for the week ahead.

Joining the lovely Biana for her weekending linkup.

Friday Faves: Home Edition

Happy Friday everyone!

 I hope you have some fun things lined up for the weekend even if that includes complete relaxation. R&R is always fun in my books. Since my mind has been consumed with all things home buying and selling recently, I wanted to share some home decor ideas I'd love to incorporate into my new home.

We already own a good amount of furniture but unfortunately not all of our pieces make sense for the new floor plan so we have to sell some and buy some that are a better fit. I'm still in the early stages of planning our interior design so most of the faves I picked out today have that extra girly touch. K may not approve of it in some rooms but most of the other living space will be decorated by yours truly. Let's take a look at some of my absolute faves (Titles are clickable)


Mirrored Nightstand

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Grey Shag Rug

Accent Mirror

Tuffeted Headboard

Metal Base Lamps

If you have any other cute and affordable home decor suggestions, please feel free to send my way. I'm still browsing ideas & figuring things out.


Joining Amanda for Friday Favorites.
 

Mother's Day Gifts

It can be tricky picking out a Mother's Day gift for a mom who has everything already and it gets even trickier when she doesn't live a short distance away.



With me living thousands of miles away from my hometown, I make great use of my Hallmark Ecard membership to stay connected and send cards to my friends and family for all occasions. It's $9.99/year so I think that's a great investment for unlimited ecards considering one card from the store costs about $3.99 on average. I have that part figured out, so now what about some gifts that are easy to order and send? (this is not a sponsored post of any sort)

These are some my favorite Mother's Day gift ideas which are also perfect if you're mom lives nearby too:

Mother's Day Cushion Cover

Alex and Ani - Mom Sawrovski Bangle Set

Subscription Boxes
There are so many cute options out there depending on your mom's taste or interests. Here's an article featuring 10 awesome and unique subscriptions boxes for Mom.

Mother's Day Mug

Tribute to Mom

 Day 1 - 10 Pink Tulips and 10 Blue Iris

Day 2 - 12 Gourmet Dipped Mother's Day Strawberries

To all the moms out there: what's your favorite gift to receive for Mother's Day?

Scalloped Style

Happy May 4th!
Some people like to celebrate today (like my company) but I've never really gotten into the whole Star Wars thing. What I do love is fashion and shopping so today I'm talking about some fashion finds of the scalloped variety.

I actually don't own one piece of scalloped clothing but I do love the look so I was browsing some affordable yet cute options online and wanted to share some of my faves. Let's be real, some scalloped styles can be on the tacky side so with that in mind I was looking for more sleek and versatile dresses, tops, and bottoms. Here's what I found:

one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight

nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen / fourteen / fifteen

 What do you think about the scalloped style?

Weekend Whereabouts

Oh Monday, you come to soon!
Thankfully the past few days were spent relaxing a little and being productive A LOT with deep cleaning the house and staging it to the best of my ability for potential home buyers.



On Friday afternoon after work, K and I met up for a quick happy hour downtown before heading to a little restaurant close to home for some pizza and wings. I don't think we've ever been such fat asses on a Friday night before but it was a nice casual change of pace. I spent the rest of the night at home sorting through and purging all unneeded belongings in anticipation of our move in a few weeks.

On Saturday I probably spent another 5 hours going through drawers, closets and cupboards to get rid of unnecessary things we've collected over the years. Ten or so large trash bags were filled and I was finally able to shower off the dust and venture to Publix to pick up some groceries and dinner.

That afternoon I started researching things to do on our trip to Denver later this month. I have a few things in mind but was underwhelmed by the options in the visitor's guide I ordered online. I guess I'm not so much of a museum and art type of person and like to go where the locals go to explore, hear live music, and just have a good time. Feel free to send suggestions my way!

Sunday was a full day of girl time with the bestie, starting off in the morning with some yoga in the park downtown. After an hour of some serious sweating in the sun, we walked over to the Farmer's Market to cool down with some fresh coconut water and live music while browsing about 50 local vendors.

C and I had lunch at my favorite teahouse and then went to the spa to relax and get pedicures before doing lots of shopping and errands. It was a busy but fun day together working out, getting pampered, and shopping til we drop.




Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.