International Women's Day & Fashion Faves

In honor of International Women's Day this week I celebrate my beautiful fashionista grandmother who raised 6 strong women including my mother.

Here's to strong women.
May we know them.
May we be them.
May we raise them

She is no longer here on earth but her love will never leave me and her sincere support and guidance has given me strength to be a strong, independent woman.

Many of us, like my grandmother, have a love for fashion, shopping, and finding gorgeous accessories to compliment our outfits so I'm ending this week sharing some of my fashion lusts perfect for the beautiful and strong women out there.

Michael Kors Smart Watch * Crossbody Purse * Michael Kors Sunglasses 

Feather Hinge Bracelet * Slingback Block-Heels * iPhone Case

Cheers to the weekend!

15 Fun Gifts from Amazon

It would be an understatement to say I spend 75% of my online shopping on Amazon. I mean they have just about everything from Lola's dog food to my vitamins so I make full use of our Prime membership with free 2-day shipping. It's just so convenient.

Amazon's Interesting Finds recently caught my eye to browse for unique and fun gift ideas and it's updated daily. These are some of the awesome items I've stumbled on so far...

The Apple Watch Charging Stand

Whatever Wall Clock

Bunny Nickel Ring Holder

I'm Mat. Indoor/Outdoor Mat

Concrete Succulent Planters Set of 3

I'm a Catch - I'm a Keeper Mugs

Book Table Clock

Adorable Fast Charging Phone Battery Power Bank

White Marble Macbook Air Rubber Coated Cover

All Natural Body Sugar/Scrub

Decorative Pillow/Cushion Cases

Handmade Rose Gold Dot Necklace

Whale Shaped Butter Dish

Ceramic Vase Set For Single Stem Flowers

 

Get Shit Done Thermal Ceramic Coffee Mug

Weekend Happenings

We meet again on this Monday morning which means it's time to recap the happenings from the weekend. I hope you enjoyed yours!

My weekend turned out to be more relaxing and productive than expected.  I'm usually too exhausted from the work week to do anything on Friday nights but somehow I had a small pop of energy so K and I met up at Carrabba's for a quick happy hour followed by a delicious dinner.

Carrabba's is definitely one of my favorite Italian chain restaurants because of their Chicken Bryan dish which is topped with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes. That and the mussels are so good!

I mentioned on Friday that it turns out I have Tendonitis in my right foot so I have to wear the boot of doom for two weeks. Right foot = driving foot so my mobility is limited or at least very inconvenient with this big bulky thing.

Kate and I had plans to meet up with a girl friend on Saturday for a wine & apps picnic by the lake. Unfortunately our friend came down with a high fever and had to cancel so plans changed and I went out with K to do some shopping and errands.

I restocked on some of my favorites from Bath & Body Works. We go through those foam soaps so quickly and I can't live without their small hand sanitizers to keep in my purse, car, and for traveling.

Saturday evening I worked on so many projects from blogging to photography along with stuff for work and I finally made the Green Tea Body Scrub created by Alexis from the Chemistry Cachet. I like the idea of a natural body exfoliator and the rose water gives it a nice scent.

On Sunday afternoon we went to a baby's 1st birthday party for our friend's son. It was nice catching up with a few friends and seeing everyone's babies as they grow before your eyes.



 

 

Baby Jacob and Mom opening gifts.

On Sunday night we tried our hand at grilling lamb chops for the first time. Lamb is one thing I've never attempted to cook but K whipped up an amazing marinade and the lamb with smashed cauliflower and caesar salad for the sides couldn't have been a better Sunday night dinner.

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

What's New With Me

Happy Friday my lovelies!

This is my very first "What's New with You?" post linking up with Kristen and Gretchen. A little late to the party but better late than never. I post pretty often about my life's happenings and adventures so there's not much that goes unspoken here but perhaps I have a few new things to share today...

Das Boot

And not the fun kind that you drink German beer out of. More like the boot of doom. My right foot has been swelling up and in pain for a couple weeks now so I finally got it checked out yesterday. The results were that I have Tendonitis so this big bulky boot needs to be a part of my apparel for the next 2 weeks.

Fun Times

Since we've become Universal annual pass-holders, it's given us an opportunity to have fun on the weekends when no plans or obligations are attached. We have plans in the upcoming weekends to go back to the Mardi Gras Parade and catch some of the concerts at night.

Books

I have diagnosed myself with ADHD when it comes to sitting down and reading a book but Audible has opened up the perfect channel for me to "read" and I've been going through books like crazy. I finished reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck last week and I'm now onto a new adventure with Fifty Shades of Grey. Clearly there's no method to my book reading madness.

The Bestie

I'm counting down the days until the bestie will be here to visit me and go baby shopping - for her! We're hoping to find out the gender this week so I can start spoiling the little peanut rotten.

 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Universal Studios' Mardi Gras

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! 

I actually have some Mardi Gras fun to share today since Orlando's Universal Studios has had their annual Mardi Gras festival going on since the beginning of February. I've been able to visit twice so far and I have plans to go a few more times with friends to catch some of the concerts post-parade.

In the Spring, Universal Studios brings the food and festivities of Bourbon Street to their theme park. The French Quarter Courtyard is where you go to grab some "N'awlin's style food and spirits". 

There are several booths selling beads, masks & other Mardi Gras party favors but I would skip that and catch all the beads they sling at the crowd during the parade.

 

When the sun starts to set, the parade begins with street performers, stilt walkers, colorful dancers and festive floats with people tossing out countless amount of beads into the crowd.

I apologize in advance for the blurry pictures. You can blame that on fast movement of the performers + trying to catch beads and enjoy the parade all at the same time.

 

You can view a short clip of the floats going by throwing out beads:

What a FUN night!
Between K and I, we probably caught about 20 beads and both agreed as we were walking to the car that the parade was WAY more fun than we expected.

After the parade, (mainly on the weekends) you can head over to the Music Stage to catch some big-name musicians live in concert. This one we haven't done yet but that will be changing in the upcoming weeks.