NYE Party Ideas by Love Always, Nancy J

I have the lovely Jordan entertaining for me today while I'm in Trinidad & Tobago for the holidays. Jordan recently got married and I've loved following her journey from wedding planning into the newlywed life.
 I'll let her take it from here...
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Hey y'all! My name is Jordon and I am the lady spilling out my guts over at Love Always, Nancy J.
I am so excited to be guest posting for Emily while she is away!
Isn't she a doll?

We are hosting our annual NYE party this year and while I am excited, this party also skyrockets my anxiety.

 Two years ago someone dumped a bottle of champagne on my kitchen floor and last year someone tackled my mini Christmas tree.Needless to say, I have really great friends.

Every year I find all these fascinating ideas on Pinterest and I never bring them to life.

This year will likely end with the same sad story, but a girl can dream, right?

Here are some of my favorites!

Is it obvious I love all things gold and black?

Those may or may not have been our wedding colors ;)..

I hope everyone has the best of New Year's and Make sure to stop by and say hello!!

Realities of Brandi: New Year's Eve Outfit Ideas

I have the beautiful Brandi taking over for me today while I'm boarding the plane to Trinidad in the Caribbean to visit my family and party with friends for NYE. Brandi and I have lots of things in common including the love for wine and dressing in style.

I'll let Brandi take it from here :)
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Hi y'all! I'm Brandi & I blog over at Realities of Brandi. When the lovely Emily asked if I'd be interested in taking over her piece of the internet for a day to do a guest post, of course I said yesss. I love reading Emily's blog & I can honestly say I am a big fan of hers. She's super fun & lives in Florida, the Sunshine State (I loveee beaches) ... Oh how I wish Texas was closer!

Now onto this little post of mine...

I recently became obsessed with Polyvore & this is actually my first collage, woohoo. So I am very pleased to share with all of Emily's readers.

Like most ladies, I n-e-v-e-r know what I want to wear for New Years Eve. It all depends on the party I know, but I am such a girl of comfort. I like to feel good in the outfit I am wearing & cannot stand being in anything too tight or heels that are killing my toesies. I picked 3 GO TO outfits: a dress, skirt, & casual denim.

1// A LBD. You can NEVER go wrong with a little black dress. So simple, yet classy. I LOVE tights, they are perfect for a chilly night & to hide my pale legs. 

2// Sequin skirt. Any bling whatsoever just screams New Years Eve, am I right? I really like the color nude, it goes great with fair or tan skin & looks great on both brunettes & blondes. Gorgeous accessories completely make an outfit, & Kendra Scott jewelry can dress up anything I've learned.

3// A blazer with casual denim. This look is actually my most fave. Like I said, I live for comfort. No matter what dinner party or fancy get together you are at, if you feel good & confident about yourself you can completely rock this outfit & look stunning!

Which outfit is your fave?

Happy NYE to all of you lovely ladies :-)

Christmas Traditions with Friends & Family

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday!

We spent Christmas with my in-laws and K's extended family. (We're traveling to Trinidad tomorrow to do a late Christmas with my parents and ring in 2014 with my friends back home).

On Christmas Eve night, we went out to celebrate a friend's birthday who's born on Christmas day. We meet up at the same bar every year to ring in his birthday at midnight with some celebratory shots.

On Christmas morning, we wake up and open gifts with K's parents and sister and then go for Christmas dinner.

Some of my pretty gifts from Santa.

Back to work today ugh!

Looking forward to flying out tomorrow to see my family & friends and SO excited to ring in 2014 in the beautiful Caribbean. I have some awesome guest posters that will be holding down the fort while I'm gone.

Also, check out my guest post over at Showered with Design by Lisa!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe NYE!

xoxo

Have a Fabulous & Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a fabulous Christmas and Holiday season however you plan to spend it.

Enjoy!

Tasty Recipes: Chicken Cordon Bleu

Merry Christmas Eve! This year has surely flown by...

This Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe is actually my husband's creation and his first time experimenting with it. We both loved how it tasted and will be making it again.

The photo doesn't really give it justice as you can't really see the chicken is stuffed with ham and cheese which is a delicious combination.

Ingredients:

2 large boneless chicken breasts
2 slices swiss cheese
4 slices ham
breadcrumbs
1 egg

What To Do: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pound the chicken breasts to thin them out. Place a slice of cheese and 2 slices of ham over each breast and fold the chicken over the filling. Secure with a toothpick or use plastic wrap to roll the chicken into a roll.

Dip chicken breasts in beaten egg and then coat with breadcrumbs.

Place breaded chicken on greased baking pan and cook for 35 minutes.

Enjoy!

The Birthday That Keeps Giving

I just have to say, I have some amazing friends! After celebrating my 30th with K in Savannah last week, my girls wouldn't let me get away without celebrating with them...Kate and friends planned a birthday party at a Greek restaurant, which was SO much fun!

This isn't just any restaurant, they make you dance on the tables, learn belly dancing, throw napkins in the air and do shots like your 21 again...We had a BLAST!

And to top it off, the girls all got together and bought me this beauty for my birthday. Way to make a girl feel special!

Joining Bella and Lisa for their weekend Linkup.

What a great weekend spent with friends :-)

2 more days 'til Christmas everyone!

Friday Favorites with a Birthday/Holiday Twist

Phew! So happy it's Friday! This week has been rough with all the holiday parties/drinking and the weather finally being cold, it's been painful waking up for work. I'm looking forward to spending time with my bed and the couch this weekend.

one: the sparkly starfish pendant I bought in Savannah over the weekend with some birthday money from my inlaws. If you know me well, I have a weird love for starfish :-)

two: this pretty box showed up at my office on Monday filled with cookies and candy from one of my best friends back home. It made my day!

three: so happy it's Egg Nog season! K and I cracked this baby open and enjoyed "dessert" on more than one occasion this week.

four: K's work holiday party was on Tuesday night at Charley's Steakhouse, which involved Surf 'n Turf for dinner and several glasses of Chardonnay.  

five: All my lovely birthday gifts from K and friends.

I got so spoiled for my 30th and get to cross off many amazing things from my Birthday/Holiday wishlist including the iPad mini & Marc Jacobs perfume from the best husband ever.

Only 5 more days til Christmas....Happy Holidays and enjoy the weekend!

Joining Lauren Elizabeth for High Five For Friday and Darci for 5 on Friday.

NBC's The Voice Winner & Thursdays Trends

If you follow NBC's The Voice, the winner Tessanne Chin from #TeamAdam was chosen on Tuesday night and I'm over the moon excited for her. I heard her sing at a concert a few years ago and have been a huge fan ever since.

I'm also loving her new single "Tumblin Down" that was released on iTunes this week. She performed it right after they announced her the winner of season 5 which gave me goosebumps.

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Now onto Thursdays Trends...

It's finally cold enough in Florida to whip out your jacket and bundle up with scarfs and the works. With that being said, they say people in Florida have no style when it comes to winter clothes so bare with my sense of style but these are some jackets I would to add to my current collection (of 3 or 4 jackets). 

Express Leather Jackets · Express Fur Coats · Express Coats

Where do you shop for warm jackets and winter clothes?

Influenster's Violet VoxBox Product Reviews

I found out several weeks ago that I got selected to review the Violet VoxBox and it finally arrived in the mail with lots of free goodies to test!

Inspired by this season's dark, moody florals, the Violet VoxBox is for the beauty queens of Influenster Nation. If you're not familiar with Influenster, it is a free service that sends goodies for you to test so you can share your thoughts with your social networks. The Violet VoxBox is the second box I received and I'm loving being an Influenster member so far.

These are the items I received in the Violet VoxBox:

Sally Hansen Triple Shine: ($4.99) This is a great quality nail polish that I'll definitely use often. The orange color isn't ideal for the holidays but it will definitely be great for the Summer and Fall months. The polish texture dries shiny/glossy, true to it's name, and doesn't chip easily so it's perfect in my books.

Goody Athletique Adjustable Headband: ($6.00) I'm happy that they sent me a headband because I use them regularly to pull back my hair to wash my face or for working out. This one is great because it's adjustable unlike all the other ones I own.

"Not Your Mother's" Clean Freak Dry Shampoo: ($5.99) I use dry shampoo weekly since I only wash my hair every couple of days. I find this dry shampoo works just as good as another brand I was using from ULTA. It has a nice smell which is hard to find for dry shampoos so I'm really happy I received this item to test and will use again as the price is affordable.

SoyJoy Dark Chocolate Cherry: This baked whole soy & fruit bar is all natural and gluten free. I'm more of a savory than sweet person so I'm not the best person to review SoyJoy bars but I saved it for when I was craving something sweet after dinner and I really enjoyed the rich chocolate taste at only 140 calories.

Montagne Jeunesse Red Earth Clay Mask: ($2.49) I tried this mask tonight after taking a shower and it left my face feeling "baby soft". The mask is different to all others I have tried because it's looks like a paper cutout that's saturated with the red earth clay. You place the cutout over your face for 10-15 minutes. I really liked how the clay made my face feel afterwards but the cutout was slightly too big for my face so it was a little awkward applying it. I'd be interested to try more of their masks.

*I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes and all reviews are my true and honest opinion of the above products.*

Taste of Tuesday: Savannah's Southern Cooking - Restaurant Reviews

As most of you know, I was in Savannah over the weekend to celebrate my birthday and one thing that stood out was the food. Everything we tried was just amazing! I seriously can't believe I've been missing out on this type of food for my entire life. Obviously growing up in the Caribbean I wasn't exposed to southern cooking but the food in Florida just does not compare to Georgia, well Savannah specifically.

Boar's Head Grill and Tavern

Cute restaurant on the riverfront with the best Shrimp & Grits I've ever tasted!

The Olde Pink House

 

This was my favorite restaurant out of the bunch and is a must for anyone visiting Savannah. Reservations are needed because it's very popular so that means the food has to be good. We loved everything we ordered.

Appetizer: 

~ Goat Cheese Stuffed Artichoke Fritters with Red Pepper & Honey Mustard Sauces 

Entrees:

~ Crab Stuffed Grouper, White Wine Lemon Sauce, Grits and Asparagus

~ Jumbo Sea Scallops with Herb Butter, Mashed Potatoes & Mixed-up Sugar Snaps

Drink:

The Pink Lady

And if it happens to be  your birthday, you get this complimentary dessert.

Vic's on the River

~ Oysters Rockefeller
~ Shrimp & Grits
~ Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Tubby's Seafood Riverfront

The Fried Green Tomatoes were amazing!

Joining Ashley and Jessica for Taste of Tuesday.

Birthday Weekend Celebrations in Savannah

What an amazing weekend! I'm so in love with the city of Savannah, GA now. So much history and beautiful sites to see. And I can't even begin to rave about the food. Just WOW!

K and I left home on Friday morning for a 4 hour road trip to celebrate my 30th in a place new to both of us. 

We checked into our hotel and went to check out Savannah's Riverfront shops and restaurants/bars. Later that night we went to The Olde Pink House for my birthday dinner. This restaurant is a MUST if you're in Savannah. 

Since it was Friday the 13th we booked a Ghost pub crawl after dinner to learn about some of the haunted buildings and history of the city.

Saturday was packed full with site-seeing. We took a ferry on the river over to Hutchinson Island and then a trolley tour around Historic Savannah - the graveyards, beautiful homes from the 1700s, Christmas trees, historic architecture and monuments. Do I sound old now? LOL  I've never been a history buff but this place is just enchanting!

Saturday night we had dinner on the riverfront and then met up with some friends we met on the pub crawl to unwind with some cocktails. 

Sunday was our last hurrah...We had to get one last taste of Southern food before hitting the road to head home to Florida.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Definitely a weekend/trip for the books and the best birthday EVER!

Joining Bella for her Weekend Recap linkup.

Happy Holidays pretties!