Fri{YAY} Favorites: Summertime!

Summer, Summer, Summer Time 

Summer is officially upon us, and sadly almost over for some.

Summer is my favorite time of year (aside from winter and Christmas). It is a time to for BBQ's, beach days and lots of time spent in flip flops and a cute new bikini ( or two or three).

In the spirit of all things summer, here are some of my favorite summer activities!


1. Paddle Boarding!!!

From the beach to rivers or lakes you can paddle board just about anywhere there is water and it is a blast!! & A good arm workout! My favorite is to explore the mangroves we have in Florida, you can get lost for hours and find little hidden beaches that you have all to yourself.

2. BBQ's! 

not my picture, just my dream. 

I am not just talking about typical BBQ, I am encompassing it all! From burgers and dogs/brawts to pulled pork or smoked chicken. I love being able to cook on the grill and not freezing my butt off

3. Sipping Wine on the Porch

Our porch has the most perfect little sunset view! One of my favorite things during the first summer in our apartment has been sitting out here with a glass of wine relaxing after a hard workout or a rough day at work.

4. Long walks with the pups girls after work

My biggest is my runner,  Zoey is our rescue which I introduced here. She is quite the eater and has become our little fat girl. So when its not crazy  hot outside I will take her out for an evening run. We have our special little spot in the middle of our run so she can take a break and catch her breath in this insane florida heat.

These little runs are our bonding time. Just her and I together, she is a daddy girl all the way so these few moments of calm with my big girl is nice.

not my picture. 

These are just a few of my favorite things about summertime, my list could go on and on. I love the sunshine and hanging out at the pool or relaxing on the beach. Luckily here in Florida I have my pick of either one on any given day(when I am not at work).

What are some of your summer time favorites!?

Weekend Wanderings: Stella & Dot Trunk Show

So these day everyone is selling something, from clothes and jewelry to those crazy wrap things and essential oils.

And I admit I have been sucked in to the trend full force. I admit I have a shopping problem and that is the first step to recovery. But I am not a quitter!

My mom sells Young Loving Essential Oils

She has a few friends who also sell the oils and LuLaRoe Clothing

Multiple girl friends of my sell ItWorks

But my favorite and something I would like to be a consultant/stylist for soon is Stella & Dot.

& the first step in my eyes is hosting a Trunk Show!!

One of my girlfriends from back in Orlando is a consultant and I have had my eye on a few pieces from earrings to purses and they will be mine soon! But I figured why not let my friends enjoy too and I hopefully reap the benefits of their purchase.

I am adding two pieces to my closet.. so far

First the City Slim Clutch in slate grey with a gorgeous clear quartz accent.

And the Sparkle Studs which are only $19!!! They sell out frequently and I was able to get my hands on them during my trunk show! 

I can never seem to find a pair of stone studs that I am in love it, they are either to big or to fake looking. I have faith in these and can't wait till they get here!! 

This post is not sponsored and I am not making anything from it I just really love the brand and working with a friend as my stylist/consultant to make sure I am always getting the best deal. 

I have two other pieces from Stella & Dot that J got me for my birthday. A pair of earrings and matching ring from their lightening collection. He knows  supports my love  obsession for all things Harry Potter. 

I wear the ring while I wash dishes and  I wear the earrings for days on end. These pieces weren't expensive at all (under $30 for both) and there are no jewels missing my finger doesn't turn green and the earrings feel like they aren't even there!

The trunk show is also an excuse for me to have a girls night but that will be in another post, it is still being planned. I have yet to have a girls night at our new place and I am really hoping for one that works out, but all my girlfriends here in Jax have kids so its not as easy as it sounds. 

Well that is it for now! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there! J got beer, brownies and cards from the furry children of our house. 

Fri{YAY} Favorites: Currently Reading

I am a nerd. I gladly admit that fact. I love all things Harry Potter,

most things Star wars,

& dream of having my own personal Bumblebee


But, currently I am loving books, like actual books. Not digital on my kindle or Ibooks but real hold in my hand get from a book store books. I dream of a library in my home fit for Belle.

I am currently reading multiple books, and listening to a few but we will call that reading as well.

Lets get started.

First book is one I picked up from our apartments Little Library - a take a book give a book kinda deal.

Certain Girls: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner  is the final book in a series of three ( I wasn not aware of this when I found the book). This is a book about a mother and rebellious teen trying to get along, a husband and wife debating over having a baby and all the crazy family members and friendships in between.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - You've seen the previews and the movie but the book is ten times better. I am not technically "currently reading", and I have mentioned it before here, but I did just finish it and recommend it to all my girlfriends.  You will cover all of your emotions in about every chapter. It is simply amazing

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

Straight from the library at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to your(my) bookshelf. This book and a few other from the Hogwarts Library was a Christmas gift and I am finally cracking it open. 

& Pre-ordered coming in the mail with in the next month 

After You by Jojo Moyes the sequel to Me Before You an amazing novel I just finished and movie I am dying to see!! I cannot wait to read it, I have read nothing but good things from my girlfriends who have already read it. 

Sorry I have been so MIA and not writing as much, life has been insane! I will work on writing more I promise!! 

Wanderlust Wednesday: Honeymoon Holiday

So now that we are married we need to get on the ball with planning our honeymoon. Yes you read that right, we are married and have not had our honeymoon or even planned it.

J and I have known for a while we want to go somewhere in the mountains during the cold winder months for our honeymoon. We want to snuggle up by a fire with all our fur babies with hot cocoa warming our hands and snow is falling outside.

Something like this is perfect!

We want to get away from it all, no phones, no computers, no iPads, maybe a TV so we can watch movies or binge watch Netflix together. We want to spend some time together without a care in the world, not worrying about groceries for a few days or waking up the next morning for work and in our mind a nice cabin on the mountain side in the Carolina's is just what we are looking for.

Originally the plan was to rent our a cabin from a family friend in Boone, North Carolina... however we both really want to see The Biltmore Estate which is in Ashville, 2 hours away from Boone.

I always thought the Biltmore was just a big old beautiful historic house that they opened for tours, turns out I was wrong. Besides amazing interior and perfect gardens there is a restaurant with rave reviews and my favorite part.. a winery!!!

We plan on going around Christmas time and the amount of lights they have and amazingly decorated trees, just thinking about get makes me smile. J and I's most favorite time of year is Christmas, we love the lights, the joy in everyones hearts and it is a time for family which is something we love most.

But I mean look at this place during Christmas!  Breathtaking!!

Now to my favorite part... The winery!!! 

They make the wine from their own vineyard on property, have complementary tastings and a wine bar with one of my other favorite things... CHEESE! 

One of the older ladies J has befriended at work told him all about this estate and it has totally changed my mind on where we wanna go. Now to get planning! 

If you have any tips about Asheville, renting cabins or the Biltmore leave it in the comments! 

All images of the Biltmore are from their website.

Weekend Wanderings: Mothers Day Adventures!

*pretty filter on snapchat is the best

I am who I am today because of my amazing mother.

She taught me patience, taught me independence and taught me how to love among many other things.

She also gave me a little sister who is now my best friend and I cannot thank her enough for bringing that girl in to the world.

This weekend was full of fun and laughter with the fam, minus J who sadly had to work.

I drove down Friday after work and we all just kinda chilled at the house and had some killer burgers.

Saturday was an adventure. We drove out to the coast - Cocoa Beach area to take out the paddle boards and hopefully find an island with a little beach we could hang out on.... Mother nature had other plans, while the weather was gorgeous and perfect the wind was making it difficult to find a place to even start paddle boarding.

We drove around for an hour until we stumbled on this small park along the banana river and we finally put the boards in the water.

We ventured though all the mangroves and took a few little cuts back to large openings to just explore.

Sounds glamorous I know... Well we got lost for about an hour so we were starving and I was attacked by quite a few large branches going in to the little cuts. But all in all mom had fun and thats what counts!

Sunday was our annual Mothers Day Brunch at a local cafe where the wait is never less than 45mins.

White Wolf Cafe knows how to do it right! They have a waiting are where you can get double mimosas or bloody mary's while you wait inside with great music and most importantly now a days in Florida AC!!

I bought us all around of double mimosas ranging in flavors from mango to pineapple or pomegranate. We sat and laughed and had a great time, then it was time for breakfast and my sister and I went for it! She ordered one of the biggest cinnamon buns I have ever seen and then we got a full breakfast after including fluffy and delicious pancakes!

After brunch I said my goodbyes and headed back to see my hubby and do adult things like grocery shopping blah.

I know this is a late post but it was a crazy week last week and nothing very exciting happened this weekend... unless cleaning is exciting for you.

I hope all the moms, whether your baby is a human baby of a furry one, had a relaxing and fun filled weekend! Now we much all get back to cleaning up the spit-up or constantly vacuuming the hair from the carpet.

Happy Belated Mother Day!! 

Fri{YAY} Favorites: Top 10 Wedding Pictures.

Our Top 10 Wedding Pictures

J and I have been married one month as of this past Monday. I have loved being able to call him my husband and just being married to him in general.

Has life around the house changed at all nope, if anything we laugh more and can just sit and enjoy each others company at night without worrying about planning a damn thing!
   *except I should stay planning our late honeymoon getaway.... 

We just got our pictures from our photographer Eve, she did such a wonderful job capturing shots I had no idea she was taking! She aso did a wonderful job at editing them and making the pictures look flawless, we have a color and black and white of every photo... and there is easily 500 of them. 




Now to share with you our Top 10 Wedding Pictures. 

1. This one my be one of my favorites from the day. We had no clue where Eve (our photographer) was half the time and she captured some of the most beautiful images without us even knowing.

2. Another spontaneous one and another perfect shot. The lighting is great, the colors a vivid, its breathtaking. Here the bridal party was waiting to be announced and we couldn't keep our hands off each other.

3. This is made the top simply because it is J's real smile! Not a fake cheesey one but genuine. And I mean come on look at him!! *insert eyes popping out emoji* lol

4. One of the few "posed" pictures I actually liked of myself. I feel so safe and so beautiful in J's arms. & my eye makeup turned out great!

5. This was not even meant to be a picture, Eve was just "testing the lighting" but it is the perfect portrayal of the three of us. My poor mom has to put up with this for the rest of her life. 

6. A tie for my favorite photo taken. There are no words for how happy this picture makes me <3

7. This is my bestfriend/sister/maid of honor. She is 16, 3+ inches taller than me and got all the brains and athletic ability between the two of us. This is us in a nutshell and I love it!

8. Just a reminder of all the details that went in to the best day of our lives in such a short period of time. I can not thank all those who contributed to cooking and planning ans setting up enough. It really was the big party we wanted. Also a reminder of the delicious food I didn't get to eat. 

9. The wobble... I think. Me dancing, J trying to dance while trying to learn from all of our friends. Candid shots are the best pictures!

10. The venue, the dress, the guests and my husband. You cant see our faces but you can see the love. Yet again another shot we had no idea was being taken and its beautiful.

This day/night was the best day of our lives. The images our photographer captured make me fall in love all over again and wish we could go back and relive this day over and over. We didnt get to eat much of the delicious food, or hang out with half the people that came. 

You don't realize your hungry as you make you way around to all your family and friends that came out to be a part of the big day. I have been told that is how it always is and do not feel bad that you didn't get to mingle for more than a few minutes with every person. We only had 75 people at our wedding I cannot imagine having one bigger, I don't think we would have even made it to all of them. 

We will remember this day forever and all the wonderful people who helped make this day happen. 

Our Photographer : Eve Marie Photography

Our Venue:  Birdsong Barn

Dress: Davids Bridal 

Make-up: Myself 

Hair: Hair Gallery 

Fri{YAY} Favorites: Amazon Edition

Amazon.com....Is the Bomb.com

it was to cute not to put on here

I love Amazon, I buy just about everything I can from Amazon. This is not a sponsored post by any means. I pay the $99 for my Prime Membership just like everyone else, but lately I have found myself getting just about everything I need for our humbled little apartment from amazon.com. 

There are a few products I have ordered recently that I just love, so I thought I would share these wonderful items with y'all. 

1. Me Before You by Jojo Moyers. 

This book is amazing, I mainly ordered it because the movie is coming out this summer with actors I like and seemed like a good chick flick but not overly done. I used to love Nicholas Sparks books and movies but they got to predictable, so I stopped reading and stopped seeing the movies - being able to predict the entire story line is not fun for me. Me Before You reminds me of when I first started reading romancy/chick flick type books, I could not put the damn thing down! If you are into those kinds of reads I highly suggest this book! 

2. Clear Iphone SE Case. 

image from amazon

J just bought me a beautiful new Iphone SE in the rose gold so of course I want to show it off but still make sure it is protected. This case fits perfectly and was cheap to boot! Before I had such a pretty phone I had a clear case to change out my back ground as I please, with cutouts of things like Lilly Pulitzer prints from old planners or my Hogwarts Express Ticket from London. 

3. Waist Pack Running Belt

AKA. The slimmer version of a fanny pack and the cheaper version of a Flip Belt. This is a great product for the avid gym rat like myself. I hate wearing an arm band, it falls down if I sweat to much, if gets to tight if it is arm day, they just are annoying. So I found this on a website called review kick (more on that in a minute) and I love it! It is never in the way I put it around my stomach if its leg day and I am squatting or my hips if its not. My phone fits great, and there is room for plenty more in there but I don't want to make it too bulky. This is my new favorite piece of gym gear.

4. The Pet Grooming Glove Brush 

Our girls shed like its nobody's business, so I am always looking for the best brush/food/shampoo whatever it maybe so combat the shedding. I vacuum like 3 times a week, I could vacuum everyday but "ain't nobody got time for that"! Any who this glove which I also got for free to review from Review Kick, doesn't necessarily take a lot of hair off it take some and the pups love it! We go out on the porch almost every afternoon -weather pending- and they get a nice relaxing brush down and I get less hair in the vacuum.


5. Thank you cards for our wedding

It might not seem like something special or cool but they match our invites almost perfectly and I got a great deal on them! $13 bucks for 36 cards and free two day shipping (thank you prime) .... its kinda a no brainer!

Now to the website I mention earlier....

I recently joined a website called Review Kick, which sellers use to give very generous discounts on some very random products for in exchange for an honest review by any amazon member (as long as you have a profile set up which is easily done in account services tab on amazons website).

Basically you set up your profile on your Amazon account, add a picture, little quick bio and make sure you have reviewed previous purchases. Then you create and account with Review Kick, they will notify you when you are approved and you can log on to their site shop hundred of deal that are super discounted or even FREE, find a deal you like and request that deal and the seller will provide a discount code to apply on Amazon if you are selected for that product and review said product after you have used it a few time. It is that easy!!!

I have requested quite and bit and was selected to review a lot of them but not all, hey ya win some ya lose some. But if there is something I think I need like a new pet hair bush I search Review Kick first!


I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and think you should check out that website for some cool deals.

oh and Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there! If you have a human baby or a furry one I hope you have a relaxing weekend and are shown the love you deserve!!