High Five for Friday

I apologize for all of the food in this post.  I find myself taking lots of pictures of food throughout the week and then when it's time to put together my High Five for Friday post, I only have food pictures to show for it.  Danny and I are on a plane to Denver right now for our labor day weekend plans, so confession time, I wrote this post a day early on Thursday. Sorry friends.

1. Yankee Candle finally got to me and Danny this week with their fall collection.  Fall candles are probably my favorite for the amazing scents and because I get so excited for fall after summertime. This spiced pumpkin candle was perfection as we wound down from a busy work day this week.

2. Danny and I went to Burger-Fi this week.  Burger-Fi has healthy alternative options to the typical, greasy burgers you can find at fast food joints.  They have a great veggie burger and have an option called, "green style" which means instead of a bun you can get crisp lettuce.  It was delicious and I highly recommend it.

3.  Teddy in the laundry hamper while I was doing laundry this week.  Need I say more?

4. I made fruit salad this week and we discovered Moscato grapes.  I've always loved the taste of sweet Moscato wine, so these grapes resembled the same great taste.

5.  The Target down the street from us is now a super Target.  We went there for the first time this week and I stumbbled across these amazing little healthy desserts.  They're raspberry dark chocolate yogurt for 100 calories.  They are so good and the perfect snack for my work week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Can't wait to recap the fun weekend ahead on Monday.

Master bedroom Ideas

Since we moved into our new home four months ago, I have been itching to redecorate the place.  Danny and I started off painting the rooms that we desperately wanted to change (ex: sky blue for the man cave turned into crimson red and beige, pink guest bedroom turned into a nice grey neutral tone) although we aren't done yet.  I still feel like a lot of the rooms are unfinished because they don't have that decorative touch.  This week I wanted to address the master bedroom and pull together the ideas that I see for the bedroom.  This room was originally a green color when we bought the house and it was one of the rooms I just had to paint.  I choose a mocha color to paint it and I was happy with the results of the color.

The new changes I want to make to our master bedroom are shown below in my ideas board I created with the help of Pinterest and some other places for inspiration.

1. Since we have mocha walls, I want to keep the bedding light.  I think gold tones would be best in our room and it is gender neutral so it's not too feminine or masculine. 

2.  There are two things I love in this photo.  First, I love how the curtains frame the bed and I really want to try this look for our room.  Our only window is at an awkward spot in the room and I think curtains on either side would help to frame the bed.  I also like the collection of frames above the bed.  Although I might not use this placement, I think it would be neat somewhere else in the room to take up some wall space.

3.  I need to add decorative elements on the night stand tables.  There is nothing on them now, and adding just a small decorative piece can dramatically change the look of the overall room.

4.  I found these letters at Hobby Lobby.  I like the distressed look of them and they go with the dark brown theme of the room.  I currently have them above the bed which I like.  These letters were originally used at our wedding which is where the picture is taken from below.

5.  Danny and I have our own furniture that we came with (two different night stands and two different dressers.  I want them to match at least in color, so I want to stain them into a dark finish which will match our bed frame.  An extra chrome detailing would bring everything together too.

6.  A bench adds a nice aesthetic element as well as a practical one too. 

7. Updated ceiling fan since ours is older looking, see above.  I've done some research online and hardware stores have lights for ceiling fans that you can replace just to give it an updated look.  This will updated the overall look without putting a huge dent in your wallet.

#WeddingWednesday: Hair

To follow up last week's #WeddingWednesday, this week I wanted to highlight my hair.  The hair appointments for the day of my wedding was probably the most stressful I was with the entire wedding process.

I scheduled a trial with the person that used to do my hair when I was younger.  He basically curled my hair and then showed me what it might look like.  I was so upset with the trial because he criticized me for coming in with "dirty" hair.  I've been to my fair share of dances, proms, and even other weddings and I have NEVER heard of someone coming in with hair that has been washed that day, but he insisted that he couldn't work with hair that had not been washed that day.  That was my first clue I shouldn't have used him for my wedding day hair.

After going through my hair trail and at the verge of tears (this was 4 weeks before me wedding, so I was already very stressed out), we talked about the day of appointments and how he planned to get all 9 of us girls and moms done.  Since he's been doing my mom's hair for a long time, we told him pretty far in advance that we wanted to use him for the wedding and he was supposed to find people to help him.  After talking with him that day, I found out he had ONE person for only two hours which was definitely not enough.  He then decided to ask around the salon and see if anyone else could help him out on short notice on a Saturday morning.  This was the second red flag.

Lastly, he told me that he would do all 9 people and that he wanted to do my hair first because his best work happens first.  After I heard this, I knew this was not going to happen.  I was furious at the situation and Danny and my matron of honor heard the grunt of it.  I was so nervous to find someone so last minute.  My dad had suggested I look into Charles Penzone salons.  My dad and I grew up going to Penzone (Dad would get his hair cut while he would get me a manicure appointment when I was little).  I always had good memories of the salon.  I drove to one of the locations and asked for assistance.  Luckily, all I had to do was say how many was in my party and if they wanted a style or an up-do.  Charles Penzone made it so easy and they catered everything to me and my bridal party.  I received countless letters of confirmation in the mail to make sure everyone's appointments were scheduled and they had the right hair style on file. 

The morning of the wedding, Penzone had the appointments planned to a T accounting for each person.  They provided us with our own relaxation room where we could put our things and another dining area room where we could choose fruit and pastries to eat for breakfast.  Every one's hair turned out beautifully and I was so happy with the results with my own hair.  I ended up changing my hair style the morning of the wedding because I was just not feeling the style I had thought I wanted.  I spoke to the woman doing my hair and showed her a picture of what I wanted and she was so accommodating and it turned out perfectly.

The entire bridal party at Charles Penzone the day of the wedding.

This is the picture I got off of Pinterest for my wedding hair.
 Since I wanted my hair visable in pictures, she pinned it more to the side.

The day after the wedding, the curls still stayed.

All in all, I had a great experience at Charles Penezone and we were ahead of schedule too which made the day go by so much more stress-free for me!  I am so grateful of how everything turned out and thankful Charles Penzone was able to work with me on such short notice.

Photo Challenge: Something Funny

I haven't done the photo challenge in a couple of weeks, so I need to get back at it.  This week's photo challenge is something funny.  This is a hard one since it is subjective.  I started looking through my photos until I came across one that instantly made me smile.  There is of course a short story to go with it.

My pup, Yogi got neutered last week and he was so excited to see me after having surgery and then spending a whole night in the puppy hospital.  Unfortunately for him, he had a cone awaiting his arrival when we got home that day.  I took a picture of him with his cone and he was still so happy to see me, I don't think this thing on his head really sunk in.  A few hours later when the excitement wore off, I just had to take another picture of his pathetic looking face.  There are just too many captions that come to mind when I think of what he might be thinking in this picture.  Happy Tuesday!

Antiquing and things

This weekend was filled with laughter, friends, and relaxing time.  Some of my favorite things!  On Thursday, my friend Ashleigh had the afternoon free to take me antiquing! After thinking of plans to redecorate the house, I am trying to embrace the updated old instead of buying everything new.  I feel like this a trend at least in interior decorating.  If it's not actually old, sometimes it is made to at least look that way.  This concept always reminds me of the FRIENDS episode where Rachel doesn't want Phoebe to know that she got all of their apartment furniture at Pottery Barn, so she tells her all of these stories of the history behind their interesting, one of a kind pieces that she found at the flea market.  It's hilarious if you haven't seen it.

 

 

Antiquing was definitely an interesting experience to say the least! I thought it would be more organized than it was, these stores seemed to have stuff everywhere!  Since all of my grandparents are passed away, my parents have a lot of antiques mostly on my mom's side.  My great-grandmother kept everything which is why we have every TIME magazine dating back to the 1950's which are actually really neat to read through.  There are so many cool things and I guess that's the fun of antiquing, you just never know what you might stubble upon.  We went to four different stores, but the last one was my favorite.  The other three seemed very over priced.  I thought the idea of buying old was to save some cash too!  Among the various items we saw were a lot of old toy cars, lots of frame, cameras, and even crates full of old records.  I really liked the frames and thought about buying one to update and hang in our home, but I ended up chickening out (I wasn't ready to barter).  I also tried looking through the records for something that my husband could hang up in his man cave, but no such luck.  Even though I didn't buy anything, it was such a great experience and I hope to go back soon.

 

My favorite antique store we went to.

 

 

Friday night was game night.  We had a few friends over to relax and enjoy a night filled with laughter (lots of it) and competitive fun.  Our friends Chad and Kara brought The Game of Things.  You start out with a category like for example, "Things you shouldn't say to your in-laws" and everyone has to write down what you shouldn't say to your in-laws.  Then one person reads the answers and the rest have to guess who said what.  As you can imagine, this game can get very funny, very quickly.   It was such a fun night and I hope we can make game night a usual thing in our house!

 

 



Sunday Social: Childhood

Good morning, friends.  Hopefully everyone had a good weekend.  I definitely did and now we are in the final week until we leave for DENVER! I can't believe these last few months have flown by and we're almost to Labor Day weekend.  I can't wait to experience Denver with the hubs.  But for now, its Sunday.  This Sunday Social is all about childhood, enjoy!



Me at 5 years old.

1. What do you miss most about being a kid?
I miss that age when you have no responsibility and no worries in the world.  Its such a freeing feeling.  I wish I would have enjoyed it more while I was younger.
2. Did you have a nickname growing up? What was it? Just Suzy (my real name is Suzanne), or the classic Suzy-Q.  My Mom and Dad often called me Suzy Bear which might explain why I call my fur babies Teddy Bear, Rosie Bear, and Yogi Bear.
3. What was your favorite thing to do at recess? I loved to play tag or some other sort of highly competitive running game.  Freeze tag was a big one when I was growing up along with TV tag where you had to name a TV show before getting tagged.
4. What did you want to be when you grew up? A Teacher.  I loved school and I wanted to be just like my teachers when I grew up.
5. Did you participate in any school activities? In high school I was in track all four years throwing the shot put and discus.  My best friend and I did it together and it just happened to be something we did Freshman year to pass the time.



My best friend, Ranya and me during track practice our Senior year.

6. What is the funniest thing you did as a kid that your parents still remind you about? Instead of funny, I can just think of all the times I got in trouble.  According to my parents, I was an ornery child when I was really young. Once when I was four years old, I was playing with the neighbor kid and she invited me to play with her other friends a couple of streets away.  So thinking it sounded like fun, I went with her and didn't tell my Dad.  When my Dad couldn't find me, he got really worried and had the whole neighborhood looking for me.  After a little while I showed up like nothing happened and my Dad was obviously furious with me.  I learned my lesson after that day.  Although I was an ornery child, I turned out to be a good older child/teenager, so my parents always seem to remind me of these times when I wasn't so well behaved.

Blondes have more fun

After getting my hair done yesterday.

I went to the salon yesterday for the first time since my wedding 5 months ago, no judgements please.  I told my hair stylist, if I didn't come in soon, I would become a brunette again.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I definitely needed some color in my life.  After talking to my hair dryer person (yeah I didn't know they had people dedicated to this specific task until yesterday), I realized that most people that have only known me for the last 4 years think I am a natural blonde and that's good, I don't want them to think I look unnatural.  I was actually born a redhead and lived that way for 21 years.  I was one of those people growing up that never wanted to dye my hair because I really liked the color.  That all changed when I started my senior year in college.  I always joked that I started to dye my hair because I had a friend that made constant ginger jokes, but it was much more than that.  I wanted to do something different with myself and at that time in my life, I needed a change.

My first color move was a bold one, literally. I was a cheap college student, so I wanted to try dying my hair myself.  Looking back on it, it was actually a funny experience.  I had so much hair that I had to have my roommate go out, mid-dye and buy me another box because I didn't plan it out well.

After a few months with black hair, I dyed it again but this time a lighter shade of brown.  After college, I started getting blonde highlights and eventually that turned into becoming a blonde.  I've always secretly wanted to be a blonde, but I never thought I could pull it off.  I do have very light hair, like for example my arm hair and eyebrows are very light haired to begin with, which makes the lie easier to believe.

It was also a big decision when I got married whether to dye it back to my normal hair color.  I didn't want to look back on my wedding pictures one day and think, why was I blonde?  That thought quickly was dismissed when Danny told me, "I met you as a blonde, so I want to marry you as a blonde."  That was all I needed to hear.

I also think when we have children that maybe I should dye my hair back to brunette/redhead.  Since Danny is blonde too, I don't want my little redhead/brunette child thinking they are adopted if neither of their parents look like them.  This might be an exaggeration, but still something to consider.

For now, I love being blonde.  As far as the future, I guess we will just have to see.

High Five for Friday

This Friday I'm up early.  The dog woke me up to go outside at 4:30 am and I could not go back to sleep since I usually wake up around 4:30 am during the work week.  I'm hoping for a nap later today.  Hope everyone had a good week, now onto High Five for Friday

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1.  Danny and I had a nice brunch on Sunday at one of our favorite resturants, Manhatten Bar and Grille.  Since I had the day off, it was a good opportunity to sit and enjoy a nice meal with Danny.  He even let me sit outside for once, he usually doesn't like to sit outside because he gets too hot. We are complete opposites in that respect.  Plus, I need to take advantage of each nice day in Cleveland before it starts to snow again.
2.  I dusted off my GMAT prep book this week.  I have a big decision in my future as far as career goals and where I want to be with my career, so grad school has been on the brain.  I've always wanted to get my masters which is why I bought this book back in 2011.  I need to evaluate my options and see what's best for me before I decide on my next step.
3.  I snapped this shot of Danny and Rosie cuddling this week.  Rosie is usually anywhere that the computer is (as she stares at me while I type this).  Danny says he enjoys football season with Rosie because he will always have the computer on to keep track to fantasy football scores and she will sit with him all day while he is on the computer.
4. Yesterday, I went shopping with a friend and we stopped by Moochie & Co.  I, of course had to spoil my puppy with some new toys, but I also came across this car magnet and had to have it.  I came home with it and Danny was jealous that I didn't get him one.
5.  Danny and I went to the famous Melt Bar and Grilled last night.  It's one of our favorite Cleveland resturants and it's most famous for being on Man vs. Food.  They have amazing grilled cheese sandwiches with anything and everything you can imagine on it.  Some things you wouldn't think go together, but they turn out very good.  I get the same thing pretty much everytime, Big Popper.  Its jalapenos, cream cheese, cheddar cheese and then deep fried with mixed berry preservatives for dipping.  I didn't say anything about it being healthy, but it is very delicious!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

tbt: Green Bay, WI

Last October, Danny took me to Green Bay for my first ever home Packers game.  It was a birthday present  from April (even though he told me about it in March because he can't keep a secret...) so it was a long awaited trip to Lambeau.  We drove all the way from Cleveland, but the drive surprisingly wasn't that bad.  Danny planned the trip to stay in Appleton, WI.  Since Green Bay is such a small city, the hotels that they do have are really expensive to stay in on gameday.  Danny also found a bar that does a party bus from Appleton to Green Bay the morning of every game day.

Our first night in Appleton, WI was a fun one.  We discovered the small, college town by checking out the local bars including a Christmas bar!

Our first night in Appleton.

The Christmas bar was AMAZING!

The first night we also went to an Irish pub.  Guinness gives legit Irish pubs this countdown to St. Patrick's Day sign.  We were married on the day before St. Patrick's Day so whenever we see these signs, I always joke that Danny needs one so he can remember our anniversary every year.  Too bad I tried to find one for his man cave and they are hundreds of hundreds of dollars.

The next day we woke up extra early to get to the bar so we could get on the party bus in time.  The bar we went to had a Bloody Mary bar which started my very own Bloody Mary obsession!! After a morning drink, we headed on the bus to Green Bay! It was a short 30 minute ride and they had beer on the bus if you wanted it.

As soon as we got off of the bus, Danny and I were walking through the tailgating area when we suddenly heard someone shouting at us.  It was a nice group of family and friends that invited us into their tailgate! Danny's coworker is from Green Bay and told him that the people in Green Bay are very nice and welcoming.  They offered us food and drinks and we talked with them for the next hour before the game started.  I met a girl named Ashley and after talking, we had a lot in common.  We even found out we had the same birthday! They were the nicest people to welcome us into their tailgate and we had so much fun with them.

The group we tailgated with.

Danny and I tailgating.

Ashley, my birthday twin!

Before we knew it, it was game time.  We started to head to Lambeau Field.  It was such an indescribable experience since it's something that I've always dreamt of seeing.

Danny bought a Rodgers T-shirt, so proud :)

Outside the stadium.

After we got through the crazy crowd to get into the stadium.

Once we got to our seats, it was so surreal.  Our seats were amazing and we ended up making friends with the two women next to us.  All the tickets at Lambeau are season ticket holders, so they immediately knew we were new and were so nice to us.

The nice women that sat next to us.

Me and Danny in our seats.

How close our seats were.

After the game, we headed back on the bus and back to our hotel room in Appleton.  We had dinner plans, but because of the crazy, long day we had, we ended up going to sleep early so we could get a head start on the drive home the next morning.  Going to Lambeau was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it.  The people in Green Bay were so friendly and I loved the small towns surrounding the area in Wisconsin.

#WeddingWednesday: Wedding Makeup

 

This #WeddingWednesday is dedicated to my amazing makeup artist, Full Face Artistry.  This company is comprised of a sweet, very talented woman named Kerry.  I first saw Kerry's talents when she did my Matron of Honor's makeup at her wedding.  She looked amazing for her big day so I had to get Kerry to do my makeup too!

I had a makeup trial a few weeks before the wedding along with the moms.  It was so fun hanging out getting our makeup done together.  I usually don't wear a lot of makeup and its not because I don't like it.  Its actually the exact opposite.  I love wearing it, I'm just not that proficient in doing my own makeup.  Kerry made my wedding dreams come true with her dramatic eye makeup, bold lip colors, and I even had falsies!!

The day of the wedding, Kerry did not disappoint! She had 1 bride, 2 moms, and 4 bridesmaids to do and she made everyone look their absolute best.  She enhanced everyone's beautiful features and made the bridal party look gorgeous.  I was so happy with everything she did for me and my friends on the wedding day.  Her easy going nature and fun personality made me so excited to get ready for my big day!

If you need a makeup artist in the Columbus area check out Kerry at Full Face Artistry!

Check out some great pictures from the day of the wedding of Kerry's work!

 

Summer Slam

I know it was a good weekend when it's Tuesday and I'm still recapping the weekend! Sunday I had off of work for a bachelorette party Saturday night and also because we hosted Summer Slam!

So, never in a million years did I ever think I would marry a man that watches WWE wrestling.  I remember growing up with my older cousins watching wrestling and my parents would always tell me it was way too violent (which I still sort of agree with...someone died because of wrestling!).  When I met Danny, he started watching wrestling again.  He watched it mostly in college in his fraternity house and he one day stumbled upon in once again and started watching.  I still have my moments when I question if Danny understands it's not real (the outcome of the matches that is, I know the fighting is real/people really do get beat up), but after its all said and done, it is entertaining to watch and I like to keep up with the story lines.

Every month or so, WWE has a paperview and this past Sunday was Summer Slam.  We had our friends, Chad and Kara over for dinner and wrestling.  Chad is also a big wrestling fan and him and Danny can sit there and talk about wrestling all night.  Kara and I just watch to keep up with the story and occasionally dote on some sweaty, tan jacked up wrestler.

For the past two paperviews Chad has put together a "quiz" where you have to choose who wins each match.  This is also a big reason why I pay attention just because I am so competitive and want to win! Well I actually won this time and I was so happy I gained the most points by predicting who was going to win each match!

It was a fun night with our friends (as always) and I enjoyed a night of watching sweaty men in banana hammocks fight each other.  Gotta love it.



The puppy watching Summer Slam



If anyone is fimilar with WWE, our friend Chad looks
like Daniel Bryan (hence the "respect the beard shirt" and Danny
shaved his beard into chops to look like CM Punk.  I love how they get so into it!

CM Punk

Daniel Bryan
 

Bachelorette Party in Wine Country

Like I mentioned before, this weekend was very busy.  After the St. Helen 5K, I had a bachelorette party for one of my close friends, Melissa.  Her and her fiance are actually our neighbors and I went to her shower in July (you can read about it here).  I had so much fun on Saturday with the cute little bride-to-be and her bridal party including her mom and future mom-in-law and her Aunt Joann.  The day started at 11:30 am (that's right I said am, meaning morning time).  We started with the stretch limo (nbd).... and traveled to Ohio's wine country in Geneva, Ohio.  We visited three different wineries on the trip, Ferrante, South River, and Lakehouse Inn. This was such a fun day and I think the pictures speak for themselves.  It was a beautiful day for the occasion and I had so much fun with the future bride and her friends and family!!

Riding in style

The girls with Aunt Joann!

Posing with the bachelorette

The soon to be Mr. & Mrs.

They made her dance at Ferrante Winery

Amazing view of the grapevines at South River Winery

Right on the lake at Lakehouse Inn Winery

St. Helen 5K Race

Saturday was a busy day for me.  I woke up bright and early because me and the hubby had a 5K scheduled at a 9 am start time.  The 5K was for St. Helen's church.  When we arrived, it was a lot smaller than we expected.  We have only ran one other 5K together and that was last year.  That 5K had a lot more people, but I didn't seem to mind the small crowd for this 5K (less people that actually had to see me run!)  The other minor detail that both of us overlooked was the course.  Our first 5K was very hilly, so I was looking forward to running a flat race, but I was severely mistaken.  The course could have been one for a cross country high school race.  We started out on a trail in a forest and then ended up rounding an apple orchard and then going through the same forest again.  It was brutal and the whole time I kept thinking why did my husband sign me up for this!?  Danny is a faster racer than I am, so he was ahead of me from the beginning.  Whenever I run, I'm always in the zone, with my music and my pace that I don't pay attention to anything else.  Well, I guess after the first mile, Danny pulled his hamstring and was sitting on the sidelines and I ran right past him and didn't even notice him.  The kicker was after I finished I was so annoyed with the fact that he wasn't there to greet me at the finish line that I walked to our car and waited for him to be done with his warm downs (I had assumed).  Danny came a few minutes after and asked why I wasn't there at the finish line for him (this is why we are the same person sometimes).  I was shocked when he told me that he got hurt and that he was behind me since I hadn't seen him.  After our mixup, we just laughed about the whole situation and how we thought the exact same thing.

It was a fun morning, but it definitely was the hardest 3.1 miles I've ever run.

Danny getting ready for the race

Danny and I before the race

I was so amazed with the course, I had to take a "running" picture of it to show you.
This was the apple orchard.  Very beautiful, but not runner friendly.