flashback friday

today takes us back to 2012.

here we are at beer hoptacular in chicago. we were quite excited to attend! we had purchased tickets along with my sisters, brother in law, hc, and miss dana. we also had other friends joining us there as well.

it was a cooler, rainy day. we {me, hc, and dana} grabbed a taxi and headed on our way to the event. we shuffled along with everyone else in line, stoked to get inside the big black tent to start our beer tasting adventure. when you get there, they give these cute little shot glasses to use. inside was a mecca of beer vendors ready to pour copious amounts of samples for you! it was beer heaven! we skipped from one beer vendor to the next, sampling all sorts of yummy beverages.

it was cute and fun because they also handed out little mustaches to the patrons to wear. uh, hells yes i put a mustache on! i rocked that thing like a champ. it also had free a photo booth that we totally took advantage of! on top of that, they were also giving out chip and stuff…score! tasty snacks to munch on!

after a couple hours of us beer tasting, we were dunzo. we grabbed a cab back to our place and hc and dana passed. out. on the couch. it was too cute. they were both out cold on the couch while, of course, i was a busy bee…cleaning, crafting, and doing random things i needed to get done, waiting for them to get up. it’s so me…i can never sit still or lie down for a nap, even if we were drinking for a few hours. call me cray!

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it was a spectacular time, attending beer hoptacular. it is definitely a fun event everyone should at least try once, or twice, or three times 😉

happy friday y’all!

xoxo

flashback friday {happy halloween!}

happy halloween lovies!

today takes us back to 2012. the family took a trip to bengston farm in homer glen {where?!}. it was a fun, fall event. there were plenty of pumpkins, rides, and greasy food to nosh on. we had a swell time exploring the place, there were plenty of fun activities for the kids like train rides, carousels, petting zoo, and haunted houses.

we played around and had a great time with the family. there were so many people there! it was a beautiful sunny day and it was perfect weather for us to hang out outside. i really do love going to a pumpkin farm, apple farm, any type of farm in october. it’s a tradition, it’s a must. it adds to the festive mood of the season. it totally gets me happy.

here, reagan and i snuggled onto the big wheel bench. look how small he was. so adorbs and cute. i love this pic because it’s sunny, cute, and sweet. i love this little guy and he is so wonderful to olive, such a caring cousin he is! what a cutie patutie.

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i hope you have some fun, exciting plans for this halloween night! we sure do. we can’t wait to experience olive’s first halloween. we are ready! what is she going to be?? shhhhh, it’ll be a cute surprise {something fluffy, furry, and adorbs…of course}!

happy, spooky halloween y’all!

xoxo

flashback friday

not that long ago…hc and i celebrated our six year anniversary. six years of being together! not long compared to some folks i know but six years sounds like a long time but, honestly, it’s been a blink of an eye for me. it feels like we just met! which, i guess, is a good thing!

here we are in our hotel room {i can’t remember which hotel it was?!}, in chicago. we were celebrating our one year anniversary. we were so excited. one whole year together! hc planned for us to have dinner at le colonial. i love that place. it’s so yummy good. i love the ambiance and the decor.

we got ourselves ready and headed out the door. we walked to the restaurant and enjoyed ourselves a yummy, delicious meal. it was a wonderful time. after dinner we strolled back and enjoyed the bustling avenue. i love chicago.

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it’s been a fabulous six years together. oh my, how eventful it has been! we have hit soooo many milestones in our short six years. so many wonderful milestones. i am thankful for all that i have been blessed with and i am fortunate to have this man in my life!

xoxo

flashback friday

today takes us back to october 2009.

hc and i went to an apple orchard in woodstock with grace and his parents. it was such a beautiful day out. the sun was shining, the weather was perfect, and we were ready to have some farm fun!

there was little playground, where grace had some fun exploring all the obstacles & interactive stations. after watching her run around, jump around, and exhaust herself at the playground, we walked our way over to the petting zoo. here, we had a blast petting & feeding the goats, lambs, and llamas {well, really grace had all the fun doing so}. grace was super happy and excited to be able to be so close to all the animals.

a trip to an apple orchard would not be complete without some hot cider and apple cider donuts!!! yum! we indulged in plenty of both. i love fall!

of course, we came home with some pumpkins. we picked out a few good looking ones and had ourselves a carving contest later that night. it was grace’s first time ever carving a pumpkin!

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i love doing activities like this. it just adds to the festive, seasonal holiday feelings of the month. it’s what it is all about! autumn = pumpkins, chilly temps, candy, farms, vibrants leaves, and fun!

xoxo

flashback friday

this lovely pic takes us back to 2007.

carol and ted just celebrated their anniversary a couple of weeks ago and it made me think about what a great time their wedding was! they were married at lake forest academy, a beautiful, beautiful place! it was a perfect day, the weather was warm and sunny, the ceremony was perfect, and the reception was a blast. don’t we all look so tan and fresh in this photo?!

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[jaime, pam, marina, carol, and moi…we are missing, from the picture, the other bridesmaid kelly]

carol and i have been friends for years. to date, we have been friends for about 29 years?? omg…does that just age me?! ok, just keeding. we’ve been friends for only 20 years and we met when we were just wee little ones at 5 years old 😉

we were neighbors and our families still live in the same houses! our infamous first meeting is still talked about with lots of laughter. just ask carol about the monkey bars…hahaha!

carol and i have been through everything together. we met at such a young age and have grown up together with life’s ups and downs. we went to middle school and high school together. i was probably at her house more than i was at my house! her parents would call me the other daughter. when she came home from college and switched schools, i practically lived at her apartment in chicago that she shared with jaime and amber.

although she currently lives in seattle with her husband and two beautiful children, we remain close as ever. friends for life, friends forever. or how bout best friends forever. whatever cliche statement you want to say, it fits. i’m lucky to have such a wonderful, longtime friend in my life!

having a friend like this is hard to come by. reach out to a close friend and say hi today. life is too short to let simple, meaningful gestures like that pass you by! happy friday y’all!

xoxo

flashback friday

today takes us back to a loooong time ago. oh, gosh. i can’t remember what year this was taken. probably 10 years ago…2004? give or take a year. unfortunately, this photo isn’t dated and it’s so pixelated {excuse the blurriness}.

rebecca and i are bridesmaids at a wedding. yes. a wedding. we are wearing long black gowns, black hair flowers, fingerless red netted gloves, and {fortunately you can’t see here} black satin chokers. bex actually took her choker off {smarty}.

oh, becky. b. bex. rebecca. we are long time friends. connected through high school. bonded through college. united through life’s ups and downs throughout these years. we would cross paths as we got older, we would drift through months and months and not see each other, we would reconnect from time to time and everything would feel the same.

life has taken us down some crazy paths {i’m gonna say more b than me} but rebecca and i now sit on similar roads. she’s currently in seattle with her husband and two beautiful little girls {ruby & wren…pretty awesome names, right?!}! i am settled in dg with my husband and our beautiful little olive. we are such family ladies now! life has really changed for us {for the better, duh!} and we are dedicated to raising our wonderful little girls and committed wives!

i am blessed to still have this sassy, fabulous lady in my life! she is one of a kind, unique, smart, lovely, sweet, and fun. i do love, love this picture of us {and yes, i mainly have blond hair highlights}. it captures our personalities so well. spunky, sassafrass b and who gives a crap me.

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i hope you take a moment to connect with an old friend or recall a fun, wonderful memory that makes you smile. happy friday y’all!

xoxo

flashback friday

today takes us back to september 2012.

we scheduled a trip out to new york city for our one year anniversary. i was soooo stoked. i love, love, love nyc. it’s my second home. i would live there in a heartbeat if i could 1. afford it 2. if my family lived out there too.

our trip to nyc was amazing. it was the most perfect weather and temperature. we totally explored the city by foot. only a few times did we take a cab. we literally walked everywhere. it gave us a chance to experience the city at our pace; we were able to see things we wouldn’t have seen if we were always on the subway or in a cab. we went into shops that were cute, we stopped at cafes and restaurants that looked yummy, we soaked in the vibe and grittiness of good ‘ol new york.

oh, i could go on and on about how amazing our first anniversary trip was there. i had a spectacular time. we were there on the anniversary of 9.11 and it was also fashion week! so, there was a lot going on all around us. the feeling of being there on 9.11, being right there where the twin towers were, was absolutely surreal and very sobering. the energy there was palpable and the emotions were so high. everyone was so quiet and the only noise you heard in the background were bagpipes. it was almost unbelievable that so many people were there but there wasn’t really any sounds but silence.

well, here we are at eataly in new york city. it had been opened for two years, by the time we got the chance to visit it. i was super excited to experience it…my sisters had suggested it, knowing that we were traveling to nyc. it was fantastic. there was so much to look at, so much to experience! all the food looked so mouth watering and we literally walked around and around to look at all the restaurants…we couldn’t decide on where to eat! we finally chose the restaurant manzo.

it was beyond delicious. the food was served as is. no salt. no pepper. no nothing on your table. just you and your food. it was a tiny little place and there wasn’t a lot of seating, so it was cozy and quaint for being such a ginormous place!

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i could go on and on about our trip to new york. it was so eventful and fun but i will save bits and pieces for another time, another blog 😉

well, there you go lovies. another flashback friday come and gone. i hope y’all have an amazing friday full of fun! cheers!

xoxo

flashback friday

today takes us back to august 2011.

it was one month before our wedding and i was at my last dress fitting. i had gone there with the lovely olivia…she was totally my partner in crime throughout this whole planning process. a true friend. to this day, i am so thankful for her support.

i had the last adjustments to my beautiful dress made that day. my tailor, at the bridal shop, was so amazing. it was like she had a magic wand. everything she did looked fantastic and she was so great with her advice. i couldn’t wait to wear my gorgeous dress for our big day!

as we were leaving the shop, we found this outrageous hair piece by the accessories shelf. it was so ridic. i had to put it on. c’mon…who would wear this?! really. it was so obnoxious. it’s an enormous bow that ate my head. i’d like to see the bride who could pull this off. don’t get me wrong, i’m into eclectic tastes and unique styles but this was off the charts on silliness.

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well, i hope you find some sort of silliness in your day today. find something that will make you giggle or even laugh really hard. because sometimes you just need a moment to be a kid again and just be goofy.

happy friday y’all.

xoxo

flashback friday

today takes us back to november 2009.

here we are, at a party, having a grand ‘ol time together.

i met matt years ago, probably around ten years ago? when we first met {on a project together}, matt thought i was some ‘kid’ running around, who had a big mouth and a bossy attitude! ha…not far from the truth! we got to know each other a lot better a year or so after our initial meeting. since then, he’s become one of my besties. i love him for his smarty mouth, intelligence, humor, kindness, and all the politically incorrect statements that he makes! very recently, matt and johann got married and we were very blessed to be a part of their joyous day!

we met ande, from our love of shopping at c.o. bigelow. matt and i would trek ourselves over to the store several times a month to peruse the product and pick up a load of skincare, haircare, amongst other smelly good items. through this, we befriended ande and eventually became very close with her {i think we have known her for about 6-7 years?}. i love ande for her quirky nature, her positive attitude, her zest for life, her kindness, creativity, and humor.

so, when we can, we love getting together for lunches or dinners, whatever we can coordinate. when we get together, it is just a gab fest! all three of us are such talkers and we run all of our conversations together. sometimes we talk so much, we never finish a story or a topic we want to discuss! we go off on so many tangents, it’s bananas!

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anyhoozle, i love these two. such fantastic, great friends! i love it when i get my time in with them. those moments are always full of laughter and fun!

here’s to great friendships! happy friday y’all!

xoxo

flashback friday

today takes us back to september 2009.

olivia, dana, and i met up in bucktown to have brunch. we decided to meet up at jane’s, a comfort food type restaurant. it was a lovely day and we optioned to lunch alfresco.

after eating, we walked around in bucktown to check out all the shops. we lingered around some stores, tried on some merchandise, and perused a lot of stuff. as we were strolling the streets of the city, we passed by a dairy queen {boo, it’s no longer there}. anytime we ever see a dairy queen, we have to go! so, we stopped in to order some ice cream!

we had a ton of fun inside. we took a whole bunch of silly pictures…i’m sure the staff in there were rolling their eyes at us but we were having too much fun! we snapped a bunch of photos and walked out with some yummy treats. there’s nothing better than that {okayyy, there are but i had to say it}. silly photos + ice cream = an awesome time.

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us gals have such a great time when we are together! always building such good memories whenever we meet up. cheers to great friends and friendships!

happy friday y’all!

xoxo