Oscars + wedding places weekend

It's an Oscar-watching-birthday-cake-eating-confetti-everywhere-please-pick-a-wedding-location-this-weekend weekend :) And I'm super excited about it. What are your Oscar picks? C'mon The King's Speech!!

picture (of the garden where we want to have the ceremony!) via

forget me not

About 2 weeks ago I planted a little teeny pot of forget me nots. I think I put about 12 seeds in the the dirt and watered it lots! Then, all of a sudden, it sprouted! And now the plant is growing! It literally went from looking like just dirt, to this - overnight! I took these pictures yesterday and this morning I noticed that it has 12 little green sprouts. Could it be that every seed has become a plant?

a box full of shoes

The other day Lindsay and I got the best package in the mail! A box of shoes!!

We ordered some flats from Target because they were on super sale (all under $15) and they all arrived in one big box. It was very exciting. I got the brown ruffly ones and got my mom the same pair in black. Don't you just love getting things in the mail?

birthday tree: Oscar edition

The birthday tree is back and this time it's decorated with gold beaded garland, Happy Birthday lights, and this awesome silver garland with movie reels on it.

What a fun new tradition :)

Lindsay's southern feast birthday dinner

Last night was Lindsay's (delicious!) birthday dinner! On the menu: a southern feast that included barbecued chicken, fried okra, macaroni and cheese, green beans and apple pie.

Tori fried the okra

Brooklyn and Lindsay enjoying a birthday beverage :)

Me and the birthday girl

The Oscar themed birthday dinner table

beautiful wrapping

Lindsay's matching fingernails and headband ~ she is wearing OPI's black shatter nailpolish

yay! new nail polish!

Happy Birthday Week Lindsay!

super cool guest book + guest posting

This is one of the coolest ideas for a guest book ever! John and I are thinking of having a finger print tree guest book because it's awesome, but this idea is really awesome too. Props to the bride and groom for being so clever.

Spotted today on Green Wedding Shoes

Also, I'm guest posting today on Oh What Fun ... it's about polk-a-dots :)

Oscar themed birthday dinner

 

So Lindsay's birthday is this weekend!! It's actually the night of the Oscars .. which is perfect because we are having an Oscar themed birthday party! The festivities and decorations started early of course and the birthday tree is back and looking awesome (I'll share pics later this week!). Tonight we are celebrating with a delicious dinner and the table is set and ready :)

Since the color scheme for this par-tay is black, white and gold, I topped the table with a white table cloth, black plates and gold candleholders and birthday confetti. yay! The menu is a surprise, but I'll share pics and everything tomorrow.
Are you planning anything for the Oscars this weekend?

scones for breakfast

When I got to work this morning, these warm fresh cinnamon biscuits were sitting on the counter in a pretty little basket. What a wonderful way to start the day :)

Hope you are having a delightful Wednesday too!

recipe: chocolate croissants

Lindsay made these delicious things last week ~ chocolate croissants! Yum-o. (John and I love these - they have really good ones at Panera.) Her company has what is called "Fat Day" and everyone brings in delicious snacks. Lindsay organizes it because she's awesome. I'm not saying, but I'm saying.

The recipe is easy if you want to make some: 

1. Roll mini milk chocolate chips inside of crescent rolls 

2. Bake into melted warm deliciousness

3. Top with lots of powdered sugar, like a funnel cake from the fair 

ps - I made this the other night. It was pretty good. My first experience with quinoa and I liked it. Although next time, I would use less scallions. Do you have any other quinoa recipes that I should try?

adorable baking utensils

Look what my future sister-in-law Stephanie gave me! Cute little spatulas with lovebirds on them. 

Now I just need to bake something ;)

On Monday, I was Cupid.

On Monday, I pretended I was Cupid and I delivered some super fun Valentine's Day cards to some beautiful friends of mine ;)

I made them myself :)

and when you opened the card, it said ...

YAY! 

The reactions I got were priceless! Everyone was so surprised! It was awesome.

So now I officially have bridesmaids by my side to help me plan this beautiful event!

Lindsay, Tori, Ruthy, Danielle and Stephanie ~ love you all and thanks for wanting to stand beside me on our big day!

xoxo

Valentine's date: Solas

YAY! I'm back in action :) Now that the photo storage issues are resolved, I am back! And so happy to be sharing posts with you today. If you don't mind, I might backtrack for just a minute because Valentine's Day was an exciting holiday for me. This post and the next one will tell you why. 

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John planned a Valentine's dinner for us on Saturday and the location was a complete surprise. (He likes surprises ... remember our engagement?) So we head downtown for dinner and we ended up here:

at Solas! a newer restaurant in Raleigh that we've been wanting to check out. It's 3 stories and really fun!

I ordered a raspberry lemonade martini. Delich.

We sat on the first floor for dinner in these super comfortable chairs. It had windows down to the ground so we could see people outside and there were fun lanterns hanging from the ceiling. How romantic ;)

They had cool, modern silverware. I'm just sayin'.

We ordered an apple pear tart for dessert. It was amazing.

After dinner we headed upstairs to the other floors to check them out. The second floor was for dancing and it had a clear dance floor, which we think is pretty cool (unless you're wearing a skirt...)

Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the fun of the evening that I totally forgot to get a picture of John and I together on Valentine's Day all dressed up! Maybe next year ;)

technical difficulties :(

So apparently I've run out of space in my web albums and every time I try to buy more storage from Google it tells me that "your client has requested an entity that is too large". Has this happened to you before? Help!

favorites: BHLDN

BHLDN launched today! And there's lots of buzz about it. I thought I'd share my favorites from the new collection. Have you clicked through every page yet?

fancy shoes

ruby earrings

pretty hairpin

a little clutch

a purple dress

Valentine's cupcakes and photo shoot

How cute are these Valentine's cupcakes made by the Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe?? 

(you know I love lovebirds)

They are from an engagement shoot that is featured on Green Wedding Shoes today, and every detail of the shoot is adorable!

If you want to make your own, you can find these cupcake decorations and more at the Bake Shoppe's Etsy site.

ps - are those funfetti cupcakes? delicious!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

here's a shot of me and my Valentine from 2006 :)