Last Night In Apt. 124

So it's finally here, my last day at my current job. What is even scarier is that my first day at my new job is Tuesday!  Last night was my last night at my apartment. I celebrated by "packing" aka drinking wine (the classy way, with ice cubes), eating swedish fish, and watching The City on Netflix. Needless to say I do not reccomend swedish fish for dinner, but it seemed like a good idea at the time haha!

 

I had a little going away dinner at Maru earlier this week. It was a nice long dinner with lots of laughs and good food! I will definately miss the amazing friends I've made in Lansing and regular evenings spent at Maru, but I am looking forward to having them all visit and coming back for dinners! I was so busy stuffing my face and laughing until I cried that I forgot to take photos until after I already got my take out box. Above are some of Maru's fabulous sauces and what was left of my sexy bacon and nirvana rolls. Delicious!

 

 Josh and I are planning to head up north this evening to spend the weekend with my family. I am really looking forward to taking a break from packing and spending some time at the beach with my dogs! Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend!

 

Adios until next week!

 

The Best Thing To Happen To My Kitchen

My favorite thing in my kitchen, my pizza stone.

Since it is wedding season and everyone is scouring registries for something good left to purchase the new happy couple, I figured I would give a shout out to the pizza stone.

All Of My Friends Are Getting Married!

Jen and Josh, the happy couple

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending the evening with one of my oldest friends, Jen. Jen has been living in New York for the last couple of years, so I hardly ever get to see her. She recently got engaged and brought her fiance, Josh back to Grosse Pointe for a visit. Jen's parents threw her a beautiful engagement party while she and Josh were in town, so naturally I had to be there to celebrate one of my oldest friends getting hitched! 

I threw on a cute Ralph sun dress, some light pink Jack Rogers, a perfectly coordinated necklace, and had my friend Kelsey put my hair into a pretty bun. I am so glad I got a little dressed up since the cocktail party wound up being rather dressy. My Josh (when Jen is involved we have to distinguish between her Josh and my Josh, yes it does get confusing) was kind of upset with me since I told him boat shoes, khaki shorts and a button down would be dressy enough. Almost all the other men at the party were in sport coats...lesson learned. He still looked great though if I do say so myself. 

The dessert table was just too good to be true! Those lemon bars were deadly. I'm pretty sure I ate at least four or five of them...

Brie, chutney, and real whipped cream = heaven!

This was the only dessert that I didn't try, a girl has to draw the line somewhere, 

but it was too pretty not to capture.

Jen's parents' backyard was immaculate, and the outdoor tables had the cutest centerpieces!

Jen's engagement party was a great time, and I was so excited I finally got to spend some time with her and her fiance. I am so happy for Jen and Josh and cannot wait to be the best dressed guest at the wedding next summer! Love you Jen!

PACKING!

My apartment is a MESS! I have been going through all of my stuff, trying to organize it in some fashion, and staging it in my living room...it's clearly going so well! Ha!

The "coming to the new apartment" tub. I just couldn't bear to part with my Bruce concert t-shirt.

I've got three distinct piles going at the moment. I've got the "going to the new place" pile, the "going to my parents' house" pile, and the "I have no where else to put this but in the cottage up north" pile. Above is the up north pile, so I am hoping the closet in the room my sister and I share is big enough. At least now Erin and I will have a nice summer wardrobe up north to choose from when we're there with shoes to match!

This whole packing thing is really getting to me. I am just so ready to be done and moved!

End Of Summer New Jacks Treat!

My new fuchsia Jack Rogers with gold trim.

I have been going through ALL of my shoes to decide which I am keeping and taking into the new apartment, which ones can get donated/given away to friends, which can go up north, and lastly which ones can go into storage in my old bedroom at my parents' house. This has been quite the challenge and way more time consuming and emotional than necessary. This girl is seriously attached to her shoes! Since I have been getting rid of so many, I figured it was only fair to allow myself a little Jacks indulgence. My older pale pink and white Jacks have gotten to the point of almost total destruction, so it was time for a fresh pink pair and these have totally hit the spot! I cannot wait to wear them around for the last few weeks of warm weather!

Cutest shoe box!

Red Velvet Cupcake Minis

Yesterday was a friend's birthday, so my other friend, Kelsey and I decided to make his favorite red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. We did not have the time or the energy to do anything from scratch, so we just hit the grocery store on the way home from work and picked up a mix and some frosting, but they still turned out amazing! Kelsey and I decided to to do minis instead of regular size cupcakes so they would be easy to eat and share at work and they were just too cute! We added some sprinkles for some color and they were a hit!

Simple, Easy, and Yummy!

Spring Rolls and Edemame

As much as I love to cook and enjoy a nice meal, sometimes you need to put something good together quickly. Since I have been working and packing pretty much every moment that I am not asleep, these frozen veggie spring rolls really did the trick! I have been eating out, eating leftovers, and frozen dinners or no dinner a lot lately, so I am looking forward to having some time to cook again once the madness of work and moving comes to an end. I need to get back on the healthy eating/working out band wagon asap! What do you go to when you need a quick meal? Any suggestions for eating healthier when you're on the go for many days at a time? I would LOVE some advice/help!

MOVING

Liz, Cari, Amy, Kim

The girls helping me eliminate while drinking wine.

MOVING is so stressful that the word deserves shouty capitals. I am moving from my three bedroom apartment to a one bedroom with my boyfriend. As if moving in together is not stressful/scary enough, the fact that we are moving into a one bedroom (there was not a two bedroom available) makes it even scarier. Needless to say I have to eliminate A LOT of stuff! I have been negotiating for as much closet space as possible as well as working on getting the ok for a few girly decorations, BUT there is a lot that I have to part with asap. As I have been tearing apart my entire apartment organizing what I am bringing with me and what has got to go, some of my girls have been nice enough to give my things new homes. 

I had the girls choose their favorite items they were taking home...

 

While it was a little sad having to part with lots of shoes, purses, and girly decorations, it was not nearly as difficult as I thought. Gotta love friends who appreciate your things enough to give them new homes where they will be loved, appreciated, and used/worn. 

Thank you Cari, Liz, Kim, and Amy!

Stop and Smell the Roses

It's always good to remember to stop and smell the roses, even if they are fake.

I think I could do an entire blog segment on the many lessons my cat has taught me, but this one in particular seemed especially important lately. There are lots of changes on the horizon for me, and on top of being overwhelmed with said changes I am also working non stop. Thank goodness for moments like this with Hank that remind me to take a step back and a deep breath occasionally. 

There Is Nothing Better Than A Great Eye Palette

My Mary Kay Favs, especially the Beach Bronze lip gloss! It compliments all of my go to neutral eye shadows. On the far left in the almost oval containers, you've got Currant Craze and Copper Beach.

In their individual Mary Kay containers, we've got Granite, Crystaline, Hazelnut, and Moonstone.

The ultimate summer shadow palette.

From top left to right: Spun Silk, Precious Pink, Iris

From bottom left to right: Silky Caramel, Amber Blaze, Cinnabar 

I am a big fan of Mary Kay eyeshadows. Mary Kay makes great colors that go on beautifully, and for the quality of the product, they are fairly inexpensive. What I like best about their shadows is that they create colors to go together. You do not come across one great color and then have trouble finding complimenting shades to do a three color look (one for the brow area, one for the lid, and one for the crease). Mary Kay makes shadows that go together, which makes them so much more fun and easy to use. I received a couple of their suggestion cards that highlight three shadows together and I was so impressed that I wound up purchasing several of the suggested color palettes. After I tried a couple of the shadows, I bought the palette case, where you can mix and match the colors you use the most. The only trouble is I can never choose just six and I normally wind up bringing a couple more in their individual cases.

Throwing Crap Out!

I have been going through this spring cleaning phase now that it's the end of the summer...I am always just a bit behind the curve or fashionably late as I prefer to call it. As you saw a couple weeks ago, I starting going through and getting rid of shoes I don't wear. Although it was a tough experience, it felt good so I decided to keep going and get rid of the crap one category at a time. My latest throw the crap out adventure is nail polish. 

My nail polish collection had gotten a little ridiculous because I went through a phase a couple years ago where I changed my nail polish constantly. Since I was wearing different polish all the time, I decided to get a bunch of cheap, quick dry polishes. This was in retrospect a bad move. Having a bunch of crappy nail polish isn't good for anyone. I decided to get rid of all the cheap nail polish that is not great quality, the colors I never wear, and the polish that is getting gooey-even the really nice ones that got a little gross. I recently learned that you're supposed to put your nail polish in the fridge, so I condensed my collection down to one makeup bag and stuck it in the fridge. 

I LOVE Brunch!

Sunday morning Mr. and Mrs. Lofty, Lofty, Christine, Josh, and I met up at the Iowa River Power Restaurant in Iowa City for brunch. Originally a flour mill at the turn of the century, then converted to a power generating station, the Iowa River Power Restaurant is now the most popular place to brunch in Iowa City. They put on quite the spread with an enormous buffet with everything from eggs to to cream puffs. The food is fabulous, and the views are just as good.

This was the view from our table. It's a little fuzzy because it was cloudy, raining, and I got a weird reflection from the glass. This photo does not do the view justice, it was truly incredible in person.

YUM!

AND YUMMIER!

This was seriously the best brunch I have ever had, and I cannot wait to go back! Iowa City was an absolute blast and our Sunday brunch was the icing on the cake of an incredible weekend.

Weekend Trip To Iowa

Emily and Justin (aka T-Rex) JUST MARRIED!!!

Josh and I spent a long weekend in Iowa to celebrate Justin and Emily's wedding! Josh's best friend Jeff (aka Lofty) is originally from Cedar Rapids, so we started the weekend spending some quality time with Lofty and his girlfriend, Christine at his parents' house.

There was LOTS of good food and booze involved! 

Friday night (after no sleep and missing her flight and all connections) Christine made some incredible guac, and Lofty's mother made us an incredible, truly Iowan meal while we all hung out on their deck with lots of wine. It was such a nice night with perfect weather! We lucked out this past weekend with warm, but not too warm, breezy weather. Saturday morning, after another amazing meal care of Mrs. Lofty, we headed out to a cute little church in Solon, Iowa and watched T-Rex and Emily get married. They were so obviously happy and excited about getting married that it was impossible not to get totally caught up in the ceremony. 

The wedding program/fan for the ceremony since the church did not have A/C. 

Again, thank goodness for the beautiful weather! LOVED THESE!!!

Lofty and Christine

 

Josh and I loved the post ceremony bubbles!

After the ceremony, we headed off to the reception which was beautiful and a blast! I have never been to a reception where literally every single person is on the dance floor almost the entire night! It was impossible not to join in and make a complete fool of myself!

Dinner pic before we turned into hot messes on the dance floor.

Yummy appetizers!

The details at this wedding and reception were truly inspiring. I was so impressed with the little touches throughout the reception.

These are some of my favs:

Fabulous centerpiece!

Adorable!

Congrats T-Rex and Emily!

The Girl Can't Help It

Nine West Hansel Slingback Pump, Light Pink

Gotta love the little tear drop peep toe!

Rose gold is making it big these days in everything from jewelry to shoes! Always a fan of gold shoes, I found these rose gold peep toes irresistible. They are neutral enough to wear with nearly any summer outfit, but they add just the right touch of sparkle when the light catches them! My goal is to find a nice coordinating statement necklace to wear with them this summer. I have found that sling back pumps are more comfortable than a full pump if you are wearing them for several hours because you do not get any rubbing on the back of your heels. The slingback and peep toe in combination really turn a nice pump into a great summer shoe. I am a huge fan! As always, nice work Nine West!

First thing tomorrow morning I am flying out to Iowa for a wedding (hopefully I can fit my stuff in a carry on), so I will not be posting again until Tuesday, August 14th. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!