Summer Weekends

After weeks of rained out weekends in Florida, we finally got a sunny 90-degree weekend, which is best spent at the beach!

On Friday night we took K's parents out to dinner to celebrate his Dad's birthday and to spend some quality time with them since they live 2 hours away.

On Saturday we met up with a bunch of friend's out at St Pete beach to celebrate a joint birthday/going-away party.

 

The guys had a corn hole tournament going while the girls got some sun.

We spent the night out at the beach and headed back home Sunday morning to deal with our house & pick out new carpets and wood flooring since it's still gutted from the flood last week.

Sunday night we grilled out and got to eat our weekly "cheat meal" which we like to do on Sundays so cheese burgers were on the menu.

Joining Sami for Weekend Shenaigans.

How was your weekend?

High Five For Friday!

Hey you! 

Well I'm still dealing with the flood that happened in my house on Tues and now living in a gutted house. It's a site for sore eyes and only wine can help me at this point! We're waiting to get money from the insurance company to start fixing our carpets and flooring.

Anywho joining Lauren today for H54F!

~ Have any of you tried Crystal Light's new flavors?  They now have appletini, mojito, mango passion fruit all for 0 calories. It's also great with vodka and soda ;-)

~Happy hour at work yesterday to celebrate our weight loss challenge. So far, with about 50 participants, our company has lost a total of 729 pounds!

~ Healthy dinners at home. We're loving Tilapia these days.

~ I randomly won 2 tickets to the Orlando City Soccer game this weekend. Since we're going out of town, I gave them away to the intern that's helping my team out for the summer. He's a happy camper.

~ Pathetic selfie at work. Sorry didn't really have a 5th good thing to share this week. I do have tons of sad pics of my gutted house tho.

Also joining Darcie for the first time today for 5 on Friday.

I'm heading out to the beach for the weekend and to celebrate a friend's birthday. Hopefully it will get my mind off my poor house. What's your weekend plans?

When Disaster Strikes

I experienced my first crisis last night as a homeowner for the past 3 years.  K and I both arrived home from work to a flooded house. 

Our toilet pipe broke and was gushing water into our house for a couple hours before our neighbors noticed water pouring out our front door and down the driveway from the garage so they thankfully cut the water supply to the house around 4:30pm. K and I arrived home almost 2 hours later so thankfully someone else noticed.

We spent the entire night ripping up our carpets and flooring so this is what my living room and dining room look like now.

Thankfully insurance will cover most of it but it's a very hard site to look at right now. Not looking forward to all the renovations and workers in and out my house.

Hope you're week is going a hell of a lot better

Weekend Festivities

Well my Monday started out with a bang after leaving my work laptop home so had to turn around and do the drive all over again. (40 min commute + tolls = no bueno). Hope your day started out much better ;-)

On Friday night, we went out for dinner and drinks at Bonefish Grill and got my fave Bang Bang Shrimp for FREE. I got the coupon from their Facebook page and it's good til Aug 11th.

On Saturday, this happened. Love my highlights and burgundy low lights!  I was also happy to find out my salon got rated #1 in the city by Orlando magazine.

Saturday night we had a friend's birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The mojitos were amazing!

On Sunday, I did some tax free shopping for K's birthday gifts and met up with two friends at Starbucks for a couple hours. Sunday night I cooked this delicious eggplant lasagna (you use thin strips of eggplant instead of pasta). I got the recipe from Lauren over at Boston Sweet Tea Party and it was soo good!

Joining Sami today for Weekend Shenanigans.

How was your weekend?

High Five For Friday

Hello ladies,
So thankful it's Friday! I'm sure we're all excited for the weekend to officially begin. 

1. Lovely friendship necklace given to me by a friend. Wore it for the first time this week.
2. Pretty sunsets from my backyard. 
3. Had a sushi date with a good friend. Can't go wrong with $4 sushi rolls for happy hour.
4. "Sometimes traveling to a new place leads to great transformation" -- Couldn't agree more!
5. Finally decided to start getting gel nails again after a long hiatus of no manicures. Lovin' my pretty nails :-)

Joining Lauren today for High Five For Friday.

 

Any big plans for the weekend? Whatever you do, hope it's amazing!

Product Review: Self-Tanning Lotions

I've done the tanning bed thing along with spray booths & airbrush tans but my most recent craze is self-tanning lotions. They're aren't harmful for your skin and you can somewhat control how much or little of a tan you get.

I aim for a gradual & natural look...nothing crazy just prefer not to be the color of the wall, that's all. So far I've tried 4 different sunless tanning lotions with very different outcomes/effects.

My #1 Pick:

Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer
(Retail price: $9.99)

For the price, you can't go wrong and it gives me the gradual/natural look I want. You can slowly build your tan over time if you use it as your daily moisturizer.


So Bronze Tinted Lotion 
(Retail price: $29.99)

It's quite pricey and I think it worked too well or maybe I shouldn't have bought the Medium/Dark lotion because I almost turned into a different race. It also dries very quickly so it's hard to spread/rub it evenly onto your skin. I may or may not try the Light/Medium one in the future.

Ulta Bronze Self-Tanning Lotion with SPF
(Retail Price $8.99)

Didn't notice any color difference in my skin so won't be purchasing this one again. Note: I bought the Medium Deep lotion color which had no effect on my skin.

Banana Boat  Sunless Tinted Lotion 
(Retail Price: $7.99)

Barely worked. Didn't notice any major color difference, however I did buy the Light/Medium Color so I might try the Medium/Dark in the future.

Any other recommendations for sunless tanning products?

Taste of Tuesday: Easy Spinach Dip

This is the easiest recipe ever especially since you can use as much or as little of each ingredient depending on your personal taste. 

Homemade Spinach Dip 
(Best served with Stacy's Pita Chips -- my fave)

Ingredients:

- Green Giant Creamed Spinach (thawed)
- Grated Mozzarella Cheese
- Four Cheese Mexican Blend
- Sour Cream
- Cream Cheese
- Salt & Pepper

Combine all ingredients and heat in the microwave abut 3-4 minutes until all ingredients are melted. Mix and serve warm. Simple as that.

You can also bake in the oven if you want to wait 10 times longer for it to be ready.  (I put more effort into it if I'm entertaining friends, but if we're just snacking at home, I prefer to do it the quickest way possible.)

Joining Jessica and Ashley for Taste of Tuesday.

 

What's on your menu?

Weekend Fun

Hello pretties! The weekend was sweet as usual. Nothing too crazy, just a little bit of sleeping in, eating, drinking and QT with friends

On Friday, K and I did our usual happy hour & dinner then decided to call it a night. We have some big/expensive weekends coming up so need to start saving & getting sh*t done around the house.

Saturday:

~ Went to pick out the materials and paint for our first home improvement project... We're finally about to start building a patio & deck in our backyard. Very excited to start entertaining more often.

~ Met up with Kate and her hubby for a couple drinks & lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.

~ Homemade Spinach dip w/ my favorite chips...Stacy's Pita Chips are so yumm!!

~ A good friend from college came to visit so we went to out for some drinks downtown to catch up on life & love ;)

Sunday:

Was pretty quiet. I cleaned the house from top to bottom. Then I went on a cooking spree and cooked flatbread pizzas to feed an army.

K picked up my favorite beer from Publix so I finally got to relax with a cold one to mourn the end of our weekend :-(

Joining Sami for Weekend Shenanigans.

How was your weekend?

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!

Buy It In Every Color

This time around, it wasn't shoes...but seriously, life can be short so get it in every color if that's what your heart desires.

Summers are ridiculously hot here and I've been looking for tops for work (& happy hours that ensue) that are lightweight but don't "show too much skin" so I went on a lil splurge. A very cheap splurge tho, from Kohl's. 

Apt9 Solid Chiffon Henley
These tops come with built-in camis which is def needed for work and you can dress them up with a belt & other accessories.
 

 

Candie's Dotted Sheer top
Need to wear a white cami underneath.
 

LC - Lauren Condrad top

(my only complaint is the small is more like a medium or large).

 Candie's Smocked Lace top
Need to wear a white cami underneath.

If you're signed up for Kohl's mailing list, they send out discount codes every week so I got all tops for cheaper than listed on the site along with $10 Kohl's cash for every $50 spent. Always love a good deal ;-)

Where do you go to find good deals on summer clothes for work or play?

Weekend Whereabouts

Running a little late today on my weekend post. It's hard to be all "put-together" and organized on a Monday morning! 

On Friday, I went to happy hour with my girl friend Emily and had a pretty quiet night after as we had plans to go out & about on Saturday night.

We had some friends in town visiting from Memphis so we took them out to dinner and proceeded on our own pub crawl through the streets of downtown Orlando. 

~ My outfit for Saturday night

~ Calamari from my favorite Tapas restaurant

~The girls downtown at Wall Street

~ $2 dumpster dive beers. (you have to take whatever beer the bartender randomly chooses from the cooler)

~ The guys enjoyed betting on the shots wheel. Guess which shot it will land on. If you get it correct it's free, if not you have to pay for it.

~ The whole gang for our Saturday night adventures.

Sunday was somewhat lazy. We had some other friends in town visiting so they invited us to over to their hotel pool to lounge in the sun. 

I enjoyed a $14 Mojito....the joys of hotel prices.

That's all I've got for ya today. Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans.

How was your weekend?