What I'm Loving!

I’m Loving….Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by: Seth Grahame-Smith. Andy grabbed this book in the airport on the way to Jamaica and recommended it to me when he finished. It’s fiction but is a really well researched story of Abraham Lincoln’s life. They actually made a movie version of this book and it’s coming out this summer. We both really like history based novels so this was great and it’s a fast reading and thoroughly entertaining. Yes the part where Abraham Lincoln is a vampire slayer is made up but it’s pretty convincing since the rest of the story is all facts.

I’m Loving…The dinner I made Monday night. I made Sausage and Caprese Lasagna from Iowa Girl Eats’ blog. If you haven’t checked her blog out before you must do it NOW! She shares awesome recipes, fun trips, and does a Friday Favorites that I look forward to all week. Anyway, she put this recipe up last week and said cancel your previous dinner plans and make this immediately, so I went out and got the ingredient and boy was I glad I did. This was AMAZING! It’s surprisingly light even with the cream sauce and there is only 2 tbsp of butter in the whole thing so it’s not terrible for you, plus the fresh tomatoes and basil make it light and summery. I substituted sweet sausage for the spicy version since I’m a spice wimp and it was still wonderful. Just to give you an idea of how good this was, Andy and I almost never like leftovers (I know, it’s inconvenient) and we both claimed the leftover of this dinner. Make it ASAP, you won’t regret it.

I’m Loving… A couple of my new dress purchases. Andy and I have been in wedding mania this season, so I bought a couple new dresses for all the rehearsal dinners, showers, and weddings we have on the books. I’m not great at styling myself so if you have suggestions PLEASE let me know!

via here

via here

via here

I’m Loving.. Essie Foot Loose Nail Polish. Last weekend we were in Columbia for a wedding and while Andy was doing his wedding party duties the significant others and I decided to go have our nails done. I picked a new fun color for my toes and ended up being obsessed with it. It’s a pinky purple and I love it so much I bought it. It’s a fun color however it’s not too loud that I don’t feel self conscious wearing it at work.

What are you loving lately?

My First Birchbox!

After hearing so much about Birchbox and reading lots of blog posts about it I finally decided to join the club. I've never been great with beauty products and experimenting with my "look" so I thought this may be a great way to try some new products.

I got my first Birchbox at the end of last week and I was really excited. I wanted to try everything out before I posted about it. It was fun trying out new stuff and getting out of the same routine. So here is what I got and what I thought:

Atelier Cologne: Vanille Insensee - I've been wearing the same scent for awhile so this was a great sample. I got a couple complements already on it  and I've only worn it a couple days. I like it, but I'm not sure if I'm in love.

Twistband - I've heard about these new hair ties before but I just wasn't that impressed. I have extremely fine, thin hair so I might be a harder sell than most. The band just didn't hold my hair very tightly.

Color Club: Nail Polish in Disco Nap - I can't say I owned gold nail polish before my Birchbox came in. I'm still milking my wedding manicure and pedicure for all it's worth so I'll have to try this sample out a little later.

Dr. Jart + : Waterfuse BB Cream - I really kind of liked this product. It is like a really nice tinted moisturizer, or at least that's how I have been using it. I love that it's really light and has 25spf built in, both are great with summer coming up.

fresh: Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment - This was by far my favorite item in the box. I'm addicted to chapstick but I generally hate the tinted versions. But this one was light, natural looking, and easy takes the place of chapstick. Two thumbs up for me.

It was really fun getting my first Birchbox and it was a great little surprise to get in the middle of the week. Big thanks to all my friends who suggested it. 





What I’m Loving Wednesday – Wedding Version

Now that we are six weeks out from the wedding, sorry for the constant updates, I figure I can post as many wedding posts as I want. I know this can be annoying for girls not in a relationship or not ready for marriage but one day you with become the all obsessed bride, don’t even think you will be immune because you won’t, and I won’t even tell you “I told you so”.

I’m loving…..that we are at the detail choosing stage of the wedding planning. I’ve always been a detail oriented person and the details are what make your wedding stand out from all the other weddings. The details are how you show yourself and your future spouse through all the chaos. I don't want to give away to much before the big day but here are a couple details that I'm loving.  

I’m loving….my invitations. I was pickier than I thought I would be about the invitations. I wanted something classic and simple but with a little detail that showed some character. I love initials but according to “stationary rules” if there was a monogram on the invite it had to be my pre-married monogram and I didn’t want it to just be about me. So I picked a big S in the middle since my first name starts with an S and my new married last name will start with an S. If that’s wrong, oh well. I love our invitations!

 I’m loving….our reception venue, The Millstone at Adam’s Pond! I went to a wedding reception there years ago and knew as soon as Andy asked me to marry him that Adam’s Pond was where we had to have the reception. I looked at one other place and my mom said there wasn’t any reason to look elsewhere because it was obvious I was set on Adam’s Pond. It has a southern feel and we can be inside and outside and I can’t wait to see everything put together. P.S. For anyone who is thinking about renting Adam’s Pond the event coordinator there is worth every penny. I feel like I’m in very good hands and the reception will go off without a hitch.

I’m loving….the Sh*t Brides Say video. Megan over at Fried Green Pickles, crazy cute blog, posted this video today and I thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately I think all brides have said some of these things and I apologize if I’ve said any of them to you.

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What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jamie over at This Kind of Love!

I’m loving…that the Bobcats won at home yesterday! I just needed to give a shout out to the home team. They’ve only won five games this season so it’s kind of a big deal when they win. Way to go Bobcats!

I’m loving….Oreos! Happy 100th Birthday to Oreos. Can you believe Oreos have been around since 1912? That’s crazy! I love Oreos but not as much as my Dad did or Andy does. I am trying to keep most sweets out of the house because I went a little crazy with the Girl Scout cookies but I think I might have to get some of the Birthday Cake Oreos. Oreos + birthday cake = AWESOME! 

I’m loving ….the dinner I made last night. I discovered on Pinterest a recipe for Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter. True it’s not the healthiest thing in the world, but it was so good and the hardest part was cooking the pasta. Plus if you don’t like asparagus this is a good way to try it because it is so good. (It’s the only way I can get Andy to eat it.)

Here is how you make it: via Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. asparagus

- 1 tbsp. olive oil

- 2 tsp. salt

- 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

- 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

- 1/2 tsp. brown sugar

- 1 lb. penne

- 1 stick of butter, cut into pieces

- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Directions:

1. Wash and chop asparagus into bit size pieces.

2. Toss the asparagus into a gallon sized ziplock baggie and throw in the olive oil, pepper, and salt. Close the bag and shake until coated. (I covered a pan with foil and mixed the asparagus with everything on the pan and it worked fine.) Place on a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. 

4. Put vinegar in a small saucepan and simmer until there is about 3 tablespoon. Toss in brown sugar and 1/4 tsp of pepper. Mix well. Remove from heat. 

5. Cook pasta. Drain and return to pot and toss with the butter, vinegar, asparagus, parmesan, and 1 3/4 tsp. salt. Add a little parmesan to the top of each serving. 

This picture turned sideways and I can't change it back but I wanted to let you see what it looks like. This dish is so tasty and only takes a couple ingredients and minutes to makes. I HIGHLY recommend it!

Knock Knock on the Door

A random love of mine is pretty doors. I know it’s a little odd but after reading a wonderful blog post about a yellow door over at Exploits of a Military Mama and watching a travel show about Dublin, Ireland, I thought I would share my small obsession.

(Random fact: Dublin, Ireland is famous for their colorful doors. The story behind them is supposedly one night a drunken man wondered into the wrong home because all the doors were painted black. He crawled into the incorrect bed with someone else’s wife and was shot dead when the actual proprietor came home. The next day all the wives went out and painted their doors different colors so their good-for-nothing husbands would know which house was theirs. ;)

Here are some of my absolute favorites:

One day I will go to Greek and see the blue doors.

Dublin, Ireland 

How pretty!

I used to have these posters, I should try to find them again.

This is me in front of a pretty blue door in London, England. 

Please excuse the lack of makeup but this was our first day there and I was still overcoming jet lag. 

One of our favorite engagement pictures. Charleston, SC definitely knows great doors. Big thanks to Evan Laettner!

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What I'm Loving Thursday (sorry I'm a day late)

So I meant to post this yesterday but I got a little caught up with stuff so I'm a little late.

1. I’m loving….The Hunger Games trilogy. My mom, who is a librarian and is always ahead of the game on what books are awesome, has been telling me to read these books for a while now. Then I heard they were making a movie I put them at the top of my list because I always like reading the books before seeing the movie. Well Andy beat me to it and read the whole series over what felt like a weekend and highly recommended them. So I started the first one and wasn’t sure about them since I’m not a huge survival book fan. (I think it's from reading to many books like Hatchet in school.) But I got hooked and now I’m on the last book and can’t wait for the movie to come out in March. They are extremely fast reads, even for a slow reader like me, and I would recommend reading at least the first book since I have a feeling lots of details will be left out of the movie.

2. I’m loving… the new show Smash. It’s about how musicals are created. You follow the writers, director, producer, and cast members through the process and it’s awesome. There’s song, there’s dance, there’s drama, there’s Debra Messing and Anjelica Huston, and it’s all about Marilyn Monroe, what’s not to love? Add it to your Monday night lineup for sure!

3. I’m loving… my new Bride and Groom Cookbook from William-Sonoma. I got it as a gift at one of my showers and I love it. Not only does it have great recipes but it helps you plan meals for entertaining, how to time meals so everything is done at one time, and basic tips and tricks for the kitchen. It is a must have in my opinion for wedding registries.

4. I’m loving….Mochi ice cream from Trader Joe’s. I was tipped on to these by a friend and just had to try them. They are Japanese ice cream balls and are covered in a rice sponge cake. They take a little bit of getting used to, Andy isn’t a fan, but once I did I was hooked. They are like little portion controlled desserts. We tried the chocolate ones, but I hear the strawberry ones are good too. Has anyone else tried them?

5. I’m not sure if I’m loving….my ESSIE nail polish in Mezmerised. I’m not used to wearing colored nail polish on my hands. So I’m not sure if it looks weird to me because it’s not clear or because it actually looks weird. Should I add silver sparkles, white polka dots, a pearl coat? Thoughts? 

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Our Love Story

Today I am linking up with some of my favorite blogs: Minor Details, Blue Eyed Bride, and From Mrs. To Mama. I have truly enjoyed reading about everyone’s Love Stories. It’s neat to see how people meet and what they cherish in their relationships. I thought I would add Andy and I’s story to the mix, half for blog readers, and half for posterity. We are literally on the brink of combining our lives and I want to remember how it feels. So here goes!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We have been together almost 4 years and then we were friends for 4 years before we started dating. Sometimes it feels like we started dating yesterday and sometimes it feels like we have been together way longer.

2. How did you meet? {What’s your “love” story?}

We met our freshman year at Carolina. We lived down the hall from each other in the dorm and then really got to know each other because we were both Sport and Entertainment Management majors. We were friends all through college but didn’t start dating until we both graduated. We figured it was about time when friends started introducing us as “This is Sarah and Andy, they are involved, they just don’t know it yet.”  Needless to say everyone else seemed to know we were distended for each other before we figured it out.

Andy was living in Charleston and I lived in Columbia so we made it work by spending the weekends together. I think we single handedly kept the gas stations in business with all the back and forth we did. Charleston will always be the city where we fell in love. After about a year Andy came back to Columbia for grad school, which was awesome, and then a horrible five month stint where Andy lived in Maryland, brought us to the present where we both finally live in the same great city of Charlotte. So much long distance was not the perfect situation but it taught us to do a lot of talking because that’s all we could do during the week. We also know what life is like without each other and with each other and we much prefer the second option.

3. If married, how long have you been married?

We are not married yet but we are 74 days away! We CANNOT wait!

4. If you are married, where did you get married? Big or small wedding?

We are getting married at my family church which is Shandon United Methodist Church in Columbia, SC and our reception will take place at The Millstone at Adam’s Pond. I went to a reception there years ago and knew it was the perfect spot for us.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

We don’t have really any interesting nicknames for each other. Sorry we’re boring.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

I love his go with the flow way of life, honorable work ethic, and the way he makes me laugh constantly.

7. Tell us how he proposed?
I know I’m slightly bias but I think Andy’s proposed was the best thing I’ve ever heard. It was perfect and was beyond anything I could have ever thought of. Here is our story straight from our wedding website:
My aunt and cousin were in Columbia, SC visiting and Andy came into town because he had never met them before. Not knowing anything I suggested we all go to brunch, which played perfectly into their whole plan. Unknown to me, Andy had talked to my mom earlier in the week and planned the next event. When we were finishing up brunch I asked what we should do next. My mom suggested we visit the University of South Carolina’s campus. After my father passed away the department he worked for at USC planted a tree right off the Horseshoe in his honor. Neither my aunt, cousin, or Andy had ever seen it so we decided to meet there. We were all standing around, chatting innocently, and Andy leans over and asked if I thought my dad would have approved of him. Andy only meet my dad briefly during college, which was way before we ever started dating. I said I thought my dad would have loved him, which is totally true. He said, “I’m glad to hear that because it makes what I’m about to do much easier”. Then Andy got down on one knee and said he loved me and asked me to marry him. Or at least that is what people told me he said. As soon as I saw him get down on one knee everything went fuzzy. I said yes, through an embarrassing amount of tears and hugs, and Andy somehow got the beautiful ring on my finger. It was a perfect moment and I had no idea it was coming!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Andy isn’t really either of these, he is more of a spend time together kind of guy. Since the basketball season takes up a lot of nights and weekends I really appreciate just doing stuff together. As I said before, date night is my favorite!


9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
I would love a dinner on the beach once in a while but I love movie night on the couch.


10. Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant other one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
Something Andy and I have talked a lot about is traveling together. We both have a long list of places we want to go, now we just need to find the time! We are so excited about our Jamaican honeymoon since neither of us have ever been there. Europe is high on the list along with Australia (with New Zealand and Fiji) so I can show him where I spent three months in college. 

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine’s Day.
This is one of the first Valentine’s Days where we will be in the same city so I’m not sure what’s on the agenda. I’ll have to get back to you on that.


12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s day?
Nope. Just spending some time together would be good.


13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Talk to each other! My answer is very much like everyone else’s but it’s still true. Talk about your feelings (good or bad), talk about your likes and dislikes, talk about your day, talk about your goals and beliefs, talk about everything. Make the lines of communication open and easy. That way if something tricky comes along, which it will, it’ll be easy to talk about it. 

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

*All pictures are either off my camera or taken by our fabulous wedding photographer Evan Laettner. Check him out!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I've seen a couple bloggers who do the What I'm Loving Wednesday posts and I think they are kind of fun. They are a great way to see what fun new stuff is out there. Thanks to Olivia over at Minor Details and Sarah over at Belle in the City for the great idea!

1. I'm loving...my ESSIE Oui Madame nail polish. It looks like I have 10 pearls on my hands, and what could be better than that? Please excuse the messy edges, I hadn't cleaned them up yet by picture time. 

2. I'm loving...The Help movie. I read the book ages ago and LOVED it but I hadn't seen the movie yet. Since I was a little sick today I camped out on the couch and finally watched it. The movie was SOOOO good! If you haven't seen or read The Help go do it right now. 

3. I'm loving...Gridiron Belles by Christie Leigh Mueller. I first saw this on Pinterest and had to have it. Andy was sweet enough to get it for me for Christmas and I loved it! Christie Leigh is a true southern belle who grew up watching football and believes, like me, that women need to learn the actual rules of the game. She also did a little feature about each SEC school and their tailgating/football traditions. This was really cool because that was basically what I wrote my final paper in college about. (Sport and Entertainment Management was the best major, just saying.) I'm no writer but I would love to do that, visiting every SEC school and observing southern traditions. If you need a right hand man Christie Leigh, call me!