Gasparilla 2.0

Ahoy, Mateys!

I can’t believe it’s already Monday again! The weekends seem to fly by while the work week tends to go super slow. This past Saturday, Sam, Dan, and I hit the road and headed to Tampa to meet up with our friends for Gasparilla! What a day that was. If you live in South Florida or near the Tampa area, I highly suggest you make it to Gasparilla at least once in your life.

                                    

We stayed at an Extended Stay so that all of us could stay in one room off of Westshore. While it was about a 20 dollar cab ride for all of us to get to where Gasparilla was, it was well worth it to stay off the “beaten path.” We were in a good location and close to a lot of other restaurants and things. We started off hanging out in the hotel room playing card games and enjoying ourselves before the actual Gasparilla parade. We got down to see the parade around 2pm and it was so crowded! I’m not one for hanging out in a big crowd and having to stand in the hot sun. So, we stayed down there for about half an hour and then it was off to a side street party for the rest of the day. Epic fail.

            

While we weren’t at the actual Gasparilla festivities for a long time, it was definitely worth going being with friends and just all having a good time together. Even though I wasn’t feeling well towards the end of the night (I had a little too much fun, perhaps?) we headed to the Green Iguana for a night out. The live band was great playing covers of even pop songs! We finished the night there and finally headed back to the hotel. It was a great time, and everyone needs to experience it for once in their life!

Wedding Gift Ideas

Being in a wedding as a post grad trying to get settled on her own two feet, it got a little pricey for me. I started brainstorming ideas as to what would be a good wedding gift that looked expensive but really wasn’t. I came up with the idea of a gift basket that Dan, his sister, and I would split!

The inside of the basket:

All tied together:

Ok, so it definitely looks better in person. The cellophane was a little shiny, but the gift itself looks nice and well put together. The best thing was that it only cost a little under 100 bucks for everything! (Shh, just don’t tell anyone!)

What Was Included:

- Bloomingdales Towels part of their Wedding Registry

-Bloomingdales $50 Gift card

- Yankee Candle cotton scented candle

- Mr. & Mrs. Coffee Mugs made by US!

- A card for the bride &  groom

 

What cost friendly wedding gifts have you ever given?

Monday Munchies

Happy Monday, Everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I know I was trying to post this every Monday, and I already slipped last week. Woops. Lets try this again!

Sunday Night- “Best Burgers Ever” w/pasta salad

Thank you Little Miss Momma for posting this delicious recipe!! These burgers were amazing and I highly suggest anyone to try them. Note: In the recipe itself, Little Miss Momma states the burgers will fall apart on a grill and she was right! I made mine on my George Foreman grill which was a little bit more messy, but made the burgers stay together.

Monday- Simple Chicken Pot Pie

This was a pretty good and semi-healthy meal we had tonight. While I didn’t leave the table feeling like I had eaten a whole lot, Dan loved it. Yes, it was simple to make, but not my favorite.

Tuesday- Leftovers! We have so much food in the fridge right now, we gotta get eatin!

Wednesday- Dan’s Fried Chicken (Hoping to share the recipe once I can get it from him!)

Thursday- BBQ Chicken Wraps

Friday- Crock Pot Meatballs

I’m hoping to share my own recipes as the week goes on! Like I said before, my recipes are simple to make and quick and easy for all people my age (and older) to try. No one should be afraid to cook! It’s easy and I love it!

All About the “Dealz”

Has anyone ever shopped on GroopDealz.com? I’m in love with it! The best part of it is that it has knock off designer jewelry for really cheap as well as other crafty items. I highly suggest you check it out!

My obsession has become big chunky necklaces. I got my first big necklace from BaubleBar, but then GroopDealz ended up having the necklace for half the price! And they even look the same! See below:

Necklace from Bauble Bar:

Necklace from GroopDealz:

See the similarities?? GroopDealz has a lot of items that copy the original for half the price are are just as good in quality. I highly suggest everyone check it out! Has anyone else bought anything from GroopDealz?

A Day at Disney Quest

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

After last weekend’s wedding festivities, I have been looking forward to a relaxing weekend full of nothing.  And so far it’s been just as that!

Friday night looked a lot like this…

Today Dan and I headed down to Downtown Disney for a little fun at Disney Quest! If you haven’t been there and you love video games, this place would be a must-do for you. While I’m not big on all of the virtual stuff, I do love competition and some old school video games as well as the fun interactive stuff so it made for a fun afternoon!

One of the attractions was part of the magic carpets of Aladdin where you had to put on your “safety turban.” Naturally we had to get a picture with our “turbans” on. Safety first!

While I had complimentary tickets to Disney Quest, I could not imagine actually paying full price for that place. I’d rather go to a theme park instead. However, if you are a huge gamer, this place is for you. I could go back at some point in time, but for now, I’ll stick with the Disney parks and their amazingly tasty popcorn!

Ditsy Duo Designs

Look out world, I have partnered with Dan’s sister to start our very own Etsy shop! This has been something that I have wanted to do for a while now and I am so excited that we finally went through with it! Hopefully we can add more to our shop as time goes on, but I figure we have to start somewhere!
Check out our shop HERE!
Please let me know what yall think and what we can do to only make it better! Below are some of the products we’re offering::

See anything you like??

Wedding Bells

Yesterday Jacqueline and Omar because Mr. and Mrs. Hutton. It was a beautiful service and I was happy to be a part of it.

Friday evening the rehearsal took place at St. James Cathedral. The church is beautiful and if I were to get married in Orlando, I would highly consider this place. After the rehearsal, we headed to the rehearsal dinner at Café Murano. I had never been there before, but the food was excellent. And boy, Friday night is the prime place for old folks to break it down. If you’re ever in the Altamonte area, this place is great to go and have a drink be entertained. And, as usual, I forgot to take pictures until it was too late, but I did make sure to take a picture of dessert...molten cake & an Espresso martini! 




Saturday morning we got to the Embassy Suites bright and early to start getting ready. Being a bridesmaid tough work.. Sitting there while someone does your hair and makeup, phew! Hehe. The most important job is to keep the bride calm. I was so excited for her to get married! After the ceremony, we headed to The Mezz for the reception. It was a nice size  and all around a good time.  They had an ice bar that would chill the liquor for your drink. It was so cool!

Dan and I after the ceremony <3

We drank and danced the night away and even continued the celebration at 310 Lakeside. Now I’m relaxing working on some different projects for myself that I have in the works so stay tuned for that. Oh and munching on some wedding take home M&Ms. They’re even personalized! How cute is that??

Wedding Weekend

My first wedding weekend is upon us! 

Last night my friends Jacqueline and Omar celebrated with a joint bachelor/bachelorette dinner at Rocco’s Tacos in Dr. Phillips. The restaurant just opened a couple of months ago and you can definitely tell. The place was packed! There were about 3 bars with both in and outside seating. The funny part was watching older adults come in at 11 pm for dinner! I’m usually in bed by 10:30! Needless to say, this play was fun and hip and I loved that they had a DJ that was playing music and watching people dance just around the tables. It’s funny how the vibe was so clubby you could just get up and dance around your table as opposed to say, going to Longhorn and trying to dance there.. you get the point!

The lovely almost married couple!

Last night a lot of this happened:

The drinks were good and rather strong. (A little on the expensive side for a college grad...) I enjoyed the chicken quesadillas for dinner. I had a momentary thought that I should probably take a picture of the chips and guac as well as my meal, but by the time I had this thought, I had consumed everything. Oops. I need to work on my blog photo taking skillz. 

At least I took pictures of people!

The rehearsal is tomorrow afternoon and then the wedding is on Saturday! I’ve never been involved in the wedding planning/party process so it’s been interesting to watch it all come together. I’m just so excited for the wedding day and for the reception. We all know that’s the best part ;)

The Bride to Be and her Bridesmaids!

The only bad part of the evening was waking up early and realizing I had an 8 hour work  day ahead of me. A bachelorette party on a Thursday night is never a good idea when you have to work the next day! 

Happy Wedding weekend!

Oh, The Places I Want to Go

With the new year upon us, I’m always thinking about where I want to go and what I want to do within the new year I started thinking about what countries I want to visit and can hopefully cross off my bucket list.

1. London,England: (Preferably on New Year’s Eve to see the London Eye—Come on, how beautiful is this??)

2. Bora, Bora: This would be a perfect honeymoon spot!

3. Auschwitz: I know this may look weird, but I had the biggest fascination with WWII and all of the history that took place along with it. I loved Anne Frank and thought the coolest place was the Holocaust museum in Washington,D.C. Those people went through so much and they deserve to be remembered. (I’m not posting a picture out of remembrance for all those affected.)

4. Amsterdam:

5. Venice, Italy: I really want to take a gondola ride.

6. Sydney, Australia: Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge is on my bucket list!

7. Paris,France

8. Dublin, Ireland: In Ireland, it is tradition that every leap year a woman can propose to a man and it not be unlucky! Not that I plan to go here and do this..just sayin…

9. Santorini, Greece:

10. Rome Italy:                 

11. Spain

 

What is on your world travel bucket list??

Monday Munchies

I hope everyone steered clear of the Monday blue’s today. This is my first day back to work where I’ll be working a full week since December. I foresee this being a little challenging. I have decided to implement something called the Monday Munchies where I get to share with you what I have planned for the week and some of the new recipes I plan to try/know are good from my Pinterest!

Sunday- Last night I made loaded baked potato and chicken casserole for dinner. Boy was it delicious! Thanks to the Steiner Family Blog for posting this fab recipe. I’ve added it to my recipe cards and plan to make it again!

Monday- Cheeseburger Wraps with a side of pasta salad. Thanks to Semi Homemade Mom for posting this one! While it might not be the healthiest meal under the sun, it was the BCS Championship so a little comfort food for a football game is A-Okay with me. Sadly I didn’t even get to take a picture of what it looked like, I ate it so quickly. Oops.

Tuesday- Hawaiian Marinated Chicken with Baked Potato Cuts. All I plan to do is season the cuts with the same seasoning I used to season the potatoes from Sunday’s recipe!

Wednesday- Raviolis and Salad. This one is easy because they were bought for the store. This is “Dan’s Specialty.” hehe

Thurs-Sat These nights will be filled with Jacqueline’s wedding festivities so I don’t have to worry about dinner!

The best part about the recipes that I will be posting are that they are easy for anyone like myself (and age) to make. I don’t spend much on the groceries and it makes a lot which is perfect for leftovers. Bon Apetit!

The Best Moment of My Life

Happy Sunday!

As most people can probably agree, if someone were to ask them what the best moment of their life was, it’d be hard to pick something that really stood out. Especially if you were my age.

Well, I’m happy to say that if someone asked me what that moment was, I’d be able to say it was January 5, 2013. The day that I jumped out of an airplane with my best friend. Yep, Dan and I went skydiving. He and I had always wanted to do it, so I thought a great birthday/anniversary gift would be to take him skydiving. We just got around to doing it one month late. Let me just say that it was well worth the wait. The feeling that you have jumping out of the plane and free falling then flying with a parachute is nothing I have ever experience before.

Let me break it down:

1 PM- Our reservation time at Sky Dive Sebastian. We park the car and head towards check in. Fill out paper work (aka the “Sign Your Life Away” waiver) and walk to the car to empty our pockets and what not.

1:15- They’re calling our names to strap us in our harnesses and give us a brief explanation of what to do and when to do it.

1:25- We’re packed like mules into the plane! We’re sitting person to person literally someone was touching my back and stomach at the same time. Literally cannot believe I’m doing this and praying to God I will live.

Minutes later—I jump first! I have the “Oh s***” M0ment” as the guy who is filming me is hanging onto the outside of the plane IN THE AIR and the guy I’m strapped to is pushing me out the door. I’m sitting there thinking, “no turning back now.” No fear, no knots in my stomach, nothing. Next thing we know I’m OUT of the plane. Freefalling. What a rush. The feeling of having no thoughts, just falling through the air is something I can’t really explain. You just have to go and do it. Our fall lasts about 5 minutes and I’m back on the ground. The adrenaline is pumping.  It is so cool sitting in the plane hearing them talking about the 8 seconds between each jump, stressing how we may not be able to jump because there is only a pocket of land showing between the clouds. Racing against mother nature to get this jump in before the clouds take over. Then, jumping out of a plane  and having the best. feeling. ever.

We spoke to people around us after we had jumped and they told us it is definitely a bucket list item to check off the list. People go their whole lives not knowing what that feeling is like, but to say I know it is pretty amazing. It was hard to believe that within 30 minutes the whole thing was over. The best part about the end of our jump was being able to crash the bar and have a much needed beer.  SkyDive Sebastian was a great place to go. It was along the coastline, so the view is amazing. The people were so relaxed and chill and all the tandem skydivers had so much experience and made you feel at ease with your jump.

If you go- You MUST get the pictures and video at least if it’s your first time. I’ve already been watching the video and looking at pictures over and over again to relive that moment. It it definitely a must.

Everything else I did this weekend seems minimal to that, so I’ll end it on that note. If you have the opportunity to ever SkyDive, you have to try it. I could go on and on about it, but I’ll stop there for now

“Winter” In the Park

Happy Weekend, Everyone! Now that I am working full time, I live for the weekends!

Dan and I spent a relaxing Friday night down in Winter Park at the ice skating rink. Back in November, I found a Groupon for the ice skating rink they put out during the holiday season in Winter Park called “Winter in the Park.” Thinking we would have time to go before Christmas, I bought the Groupon for two ice skating tickets. Well, here we are come January and we were able to go!

The tent is rather large and is set up in downtown Winter Park. While the ice skating rink isn’t rather large, the whole are was nice and set up pretty well. The ice rink was cold (I suggest at least a jacket). They had plenty of benches and tables to sit around and take a break if you feet started hurting. They even had a little concession stand which was really nice. Needless to say it was a cheap and easy date night out and something different for Dan and I to do. I’d go back again next holiday season!