Birthday Archives - Page 3 of 3

Glitter and Cracks: Weekend Recap

June 24, 2013 by Susan Leave a Comment

Is today Monday? Ever since I moved to my new house I have given up the power of sleeping well. I sleep, until I dream of zombies or until Chloe hears a noise and we all jump off the bed and do a freak out dance. Yep… pretty positive it’s Monday… which means it’s a-ok in blogland to do a weekend recap right?

Here we go!

Friday night we found ourselves a little over involved with the glitter. I am just now realizing that my wedding is not nearly as far away as it appears on the calendar. As I age, my knees ache a bit more and I begin to move a bit slower… but time seems to triple its speed every year. Even though my wedding appears to be months away, now that I have turned 29, I am practically only 17 minutes and thirty-two seconds from walking down that aisle. So I better get working on all the little details I have in mind. Good thing I had Chloe’s help… {And how incredibly terrific are these clothes pins? A tutorial on their awesome-ness will be available soon!}

Saturday started off early. I am bartering a month-of wedding planning package for yard work. I had the groom (soon to be cousin-in-law) and a couple others drive up from North Carolina to turn my jungle into a backyard. What do you think?

I love the fact that I don’t feel like I’m in the movie Honey, We Shrunk the Kids when I step into the backyard now. Huge plus.

Saturday night I was lucky enough to get another Birthday Present! One of my dear JMU friends, Caitlyn, bought me a ticket to see the Avett Brothers! We met for dinner, where I enjoyed a Dark & Stormy (one of my all time faves when made with Goslings) and then headed to the show.

Unfortunately, the walk to the venue was simply tragic. Imagine the one person (or thing) that is always there for you… She wakes up next to you and goes to bed next to you. She helps you when you’re lost. She helps you stay current with your chores (such as maintaining your farm). She tells the world your secrets, only when you want her to.

Imagine such a friend.

Then shatter her into a million pieces.

That is what happened to my iPhone. On the concrete. In a gross parking garage. Where I saw someone peeing next to my car later that evening.

The photo really does not do the phone cracks justice. She still works, but she is in “spiderweb mode” now. My sister had to use my phone today and actually said “I’ve seen cracks before - but never like this!” (Assuming she was talking about my phone and not my new shorts…)

But the show must go on! And so it did! We danced, we jammed, we hopped and sang… we had a good ole time and as we drowned our iPhone-less sorrows in live music.

I suppose the weekend is not complete without Sunday!

My Sunday was relaxing. I slept in, as much as I possibly could considering my body passionately dislikes sleep. Then I chatted a bit with Michael who is still stationed in Japan. I realized that my Bridal Shower is coming up and that our wedding registry needed a little work so I spent some quality time in Target. (Never a problem.)

I wrapped up the evening at one of my new friends’ home. We sat on her back deck, drank wine, ate the most scrumptious store bought, frozen pizza I have ever eaten, and watched the birds. (The ones in her backyard… not the movie.) It was quite a great way to end a great weekend… cracked iPhone and all.

Hope y’all had the loveliest of lovely weekends! Until next time…

Burger Bar & Birthday Celebrations!

June 12, 2013 by Susan Leave a Comment

I wanted to do a quick post before I head out to share with you the excitement that was yesterday and all the birthday festivities that went down!

The day started with a sprinkle donut from my godmother slash painter, followed by a crap ton of tunnel traffic on my way to try on my wedding dress! Yes, the dress is in! Yes, it is early! And yes, it fits! We may have a little bit of altering in the future but thank goodness it’s nothing major!

I happily stopped by Home Goods (since it is 3.4 seconds from my dress shop and about 1.3 hours from my new house…) I picked up a few more goodies for the wedding at a bargain deal!

After swinging by the office for some cake I headed back to the Peninsula to get the house ready for the party! I was so excited to have people come by the new place to see all the work that has been done to it and to grill out for my birthday!

I decided I needed to have a Birthday Burger Bar! Honestly, I wanted steak and veggies for my birthday but when I realized how many people were coming I knew I couldn’t afford to feed everyone delicious steak… so burgers it was! And to be quite frank - burgers are rarely my thing. I needed to think of a way to make them awesome… and let me tell you… having a DIY Burger Bar with a ton of toppings was quite awesome!

The concept was quite simple… pick your bread, pick your protein, pick your toppings, stuff your face. Done and done.

We had a ton of options for burger toppings. Pickles, Cheeses, Lettuce, Tomato, Pineapple, Onion, Bacon, Jalapeno, and Guacamole. I had two types of buns: the norm and then the delicious potato rolls. We had four types of protein to suit everyone’s different diets: Chicken, Veggie Patties, Turkey Patties and Beef Patties.

We definitely had quite the spread! I think everyone could find SOMETHING they liked. AND the best part - if you wanted to eat Paleo you totally could! Since it was my birthday I caved and had cake and a potato roll. It happens.

Michael surprised me all the way from Japan with a cute little patio set! I added some color and we had everything ready! With a couple of tables and a bunch of chairs there was plenty of space for everyone!

These two lovely ladies came from RVA to have dinner with me! The silver lining of now living in Newport News, Richmond is only an hour away! I have a feeling that will lead to some fun dinner dates more often!!

My sister baked one of my favorite cakes. It a Mandarin Orange Pineapple Cake. I will have to share the recipe one of these days. And yes - there are 29 candles on that cake. Frankly I was surprised the smoke detector didn’t go off! Why the sideways look? Here’s what you don’t see in this picture…

Little Kinsley really wanted to get some cake for herself!!

We stayed up drinking and eating and socializing past my bedtime but it was well worth it! This morning I had the last of the cake for breakfast (it has fruit in it so it’s a-ok right?!) and skyped with Michael as my body kicked into too-much-sugar-recovery-mode.

Time for me to pack up and head to the southside because tonight Leslie is taking me to see the Lumineers! I’m pretty pumped! Talk about an awesome birthday!

Hope you all had a lovely June 11th as well. xoxo

Birthday Week, Broken Promises and Happier than a Camel on Wedneday

June 5, 2013 by Susan Leave a Comment

First and fore most… I should never EVER promise to blog. I’m pretty positive THAT is my curse.

A week (or so) ago I blogged, and I promised to come back the next day with a list of positive things I am experiencing at my new house. Eh… it never happened. Don’t fret, the list is still saved in an invisible composition notebook in my head… so maybe one day. It will be written and it will be awesome. Because it would be a total diservice to you, my reader, if I did not share the new things I am learning to love… like my zebra stripe house key or the fact that the bath tub here is long enough for me to actually take a comfortable bath. Let’s not forget all three living rooms. Simply stated, all are winning and beyond blog worthy.

Today I am here to talk about more important matters.

Birthday Week. I’m pretty positive I am getting old because I am only semi-giddy about this week.

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Find me that shirt in an adult size, before Tuesday and you WILL be my Best Friend FOREVER. (Honestly, I would probably wear it every single day for an entire year… but that’s beyond the point.)

So this year, with the fiance being deployed to a far off land where they eat with chop sticks and apparently have grass ninjas, my family living an hour away, and my birthday falling on a Tuesday… I need help trying to come up with my birthday game plan. Get your party hats on (get it? instead of thinking caps? lololol) and think this over… because I’m stumped. And it takes a lot to stump a professional party & wedding planner when it comes to celebrating!

Should I go to the beach? Should I go to the river? Should I force my family to come all the way to Newport News (an hour from their save havens in Chesapeake) to grill out with me? I should probably get the Jeep inspected and go topless for the day. Maybe I should stuff my face with Cold Stone’s Birthday Cake Remix all day long…

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Luckily I still have a few days to think this nonsense over… All I know is I need to find something to do that makes me happier than a camel on Wednesday. Happy Wednesday friends.

Pinteresting Conversations and Birthday Wishes

May 23, 2012 by Susan 7 Comments

I just realized that it is Wednesday. Wednesday makes all of the hours I spend on Pinterest legit. My family, boyfriend, and roomie are beginning to realize the full extent of this time-killing addiction. It’s become a fun way to plan, dream, learn and pass the time. Last week I was at my family’s cottage having a discussion with everyone about jewelry.

Here’s how the conversation went down:

Jean (my godmother): I like brown diamonds

Me: Ew brown diamonds?! They aren’t diamond-y!! They are brown! Here look at this picture of a diamond I like.

My mom: Where did you have that saved that you accessed it so quickly?!

Me: Pinterest.

My mom: Alan (my dad) do you know what Pinterest is?!

My dad: Something that she talks about on her blog…

Leslie (my sister): Does Mike know you have diamonds on your pinterest boards?!

Me: He doesn’t care about my pinterests.

It may not seem like a semi-funny conversation to you unless you know the characters that are my family. We talk fast, and typically about multiple conversations at once. My dad is the only guy unless my boyfriend is around. Throughout my life he has been forced to learn things about Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nsync, and now Pinterest. My sister and I are polar opposites… but she is starting to jump on to the Pinterest bandwagon. Find her as be_leslie on Pinterest! My godmother apparently has a crazy taste in diamonds. And my mom… well… we spend a hell of a lot of time together.

They all keep asking me what I want for my birthday this year. As opposed to putting together a list and emailing it out to them, I have been telling them to check out my Pinterest “Wish List” Board. I’m so high tech and trendy now! 😉 It’s not jam packed with ideas, but it has a few. Today I will share a couple with you as part of the weekly link-up, Oh How Pinteresting!

I would love a large map that I can start pinning (in real life) places I slash We have been! This one is great because it’s got that vintage mappy feel to it. My friends Katie and Chris have this in their office and I love the idea!

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I just got my tickets this past weekend for a Mets game in NYC next month! This shirt would only be fitting! And who knew Victoria Secret made sports apparel?! (Probably in a Medium or Large… fyi)

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I would just love to have this guy… The view, the camper, the twinkle lights! All of it!

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Lastly - I have this watch in Navy Blue already, but I would love it in another color! I figured white would be summery and I could wear it with a bunch of things! And it’s only $10! Holler!

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I know it’s definitely not the most comprehensive list… but I am still working on it! It’s been tough this year to think of things I would like because right now my true desires are huge things… life, jobs, house… things like that.

Thanks to those who have been praying for my cousin. Things are still not looking good. Please continue your prayers. They mean the world to me and my family. xoxo