Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A Vera Tasty Cupcake

Today Vera Wang's bridesmaid collection launched at David's Bridal. I'm not typically a big fan of David's Bridal bridesmaid dresses, but I am a big fan of Vera Wang -- so I was super excited to see what she had come up with. Plus - all the dresses are UNDER $200! As soon as I found out they were launching today, I made an appointment to go check them out with one of my bridesmaids.

When I saw them initially online, I fell in love with this one...

One Shoulder Organza
Love, love, love it...so beautiful! "Please make it in navy," I thought as soon as I saw this one.

When I logged on to the David's Bridal website this morning to see the full collection, I almost jumped for joy when I realized that this dress and ALL of her dresses came in 'midnight' which is a dark navy -- just what we've been looking for!!

So...we did find two styles that we really loved in the new Vera line at DB, so they have been added to our options for bridesmaid choice selections...

...but alas, it was not the beautiful dress that I loved, loved, loved. Nope - my bridesmaid and I both tried it on and we both agreed that we looked like delicious, fluffy cupcakes.

Ignore my bright pink bra strap. :)
My tall, skinny bridesmaid - not looking so tall and skinny.
No matter how hard we tried to love this dress...we just couldn't. I seriously looked like I had two cinnamon rolls on each butt cheek, lol.

I was so disappointed that this dress looked nothing like the online picture that I even grabbed it at one point, shook it in the air and said "Damn you Vera, damn you!". Lol...ok, yeah, I'm dramatic...but I'm the bride, so it's allowed, right? :)

The store manager told us she's actually using this dress as her Jr. Bridesmaid dresses - which I thought was a super cute idea. These dresses would be adorable on tweens - but on 30 yr olds? Not so much.

But like I said, we did find two of the dresses that we L-O-V-E-D that I really didn't think I would... so it wasn't a waste of a trip....more on them later....

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

National Wear Your Lilly Day

Wearing an old Lilly Pulitzer blouse with my new Lilly Pulitzer cardigan to work today... I honestly didn't really go out of my way to do this - I wear this blouse A LOT to work because it's so comfortable and easily pairs with navy or khaki... so it was easy to wear today which just happens to be National Wear Your Lilly day. :) Wearing it today with a navy skirt from Anthro.

Are you wearing Lilly today?

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Puppy Patient

Willow had his dew claws removed today - not all dogs get them removed, but our vet suggested that since Willow will be an active, playful, outdoor dog, that we should go ahead and have them removed just to be safe.

If you're not familiar with a dog's dew claws, they are the little thumb claws - some dogs have them their whole life and others have them removed when they are puppies. If a dog has them, they can get caught on things like roots, fences, etc. and may rip, tear or break. This is super painful for the dog and can require surgery and may be prone to infection.

So with the recommendation by our vet, we decided it was best to go ahead and have them removed while they were still developing and not have to worry about it. It was fairly inexpensive.

We take Willow to Patrick Veterinary downtown on Meeting St. They are awesome - they answer all of my endless questions and you can tell they genuinely care about your dog.

Poor Willow now has two casts on his front legs and he hates them. He starts to lick or bite them and I quickly say "No, no Willow" and he looks at me with these sad little puppy eyes. My heart breaks for him...but I know it's a small amount of discomfort for a week so we don't have to worry the rest of his life.


It's almost like having a sick child - when we got home he went straight to my bed to lay down...but he hadn't eaten since last night, so I had to bring him food and some treats. He's passed out now next to me...he's so pitiful, poor little thing.

Any tips or suggestions on how to keep him from licking or biting his bandages short of getting him a giant cone to wear on his neck?

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Buzzin' Bridesmaid

I'm so in love with this new Lilly navy shift and I when I first laid my eyes upon it, I immediately envisioned all 8 of my lovely bridesmaids wearing these, complementing my gorgeous dress... we already decided to have short, navy dresses...so these would be perfect!

{via}
Then I looked closer... and closer...

And saw this guy...


{insert expletive} Boo! This dress could totally have been pulled off for a winter wedding - complete with green pashminas - if not for the stupid bee! Bee's aren't out in the winter, are they?

Groan. I love this dress... do you agree? does the bee ruin it for a winter wedding?

Maybe no one will notice the bees front and center on the ladies?? Maybe since the wedding is in Alabama where it's practically summer year round.. it's ok then?

Maybe????

Sigh.
Wah! :*(

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Swimsuits - Mix & Match

So this year I'm really into mixing and matching my bathing suits - it makes something I don't necessarily enjoy (i.e. picking out and wearing a bathing suit) easy. I have a few staple bottoms that I wear (black goes with anything!) and a variety of bathing suit tops I mix and match with the bottoms. Here are some of the styles I'm sporting this summer...

...and yes I realize that 90% of the tops are bandeau style, but I like not having the tan lines and I don't have much up top, so these usually work best for me. :)





I love that this is so easy to do and easy on my wallet. Target has a ton of cute options that are super cheap, and basic bottoms are always affordable and easy to find. If you find a bikini top on sale, as long as it goes with your basic black bottoms, you don't have to worry about buying matching bottoms.

Here are some links to what's still available online:
What type of bathing suits are you sporting this summer? Do you mix and match your tops and bottoms?

Monday, Monday

Things that made me 'blah' today...
  1. People who don't use their blinkers when driving - ok, this is a lifetime annoyance, but seemed to notice it more today
  2. The random cold that has snuck up on me today for no reason {cough, sniffle, cough}
  3. That it hasn't rained in like two weeks and it's still sooo hot -- fingers crossed it rains later this week
  4. My puppy Willow wanting to go outside every five minutes - not to pee or poop - but to eat sticks and pinecones
  5. The fact that I can never get to bed before 11pm...ok, who am I kidding, before midnight.
  6. Wedding vendors not being cooperative, not doing their job, trying to add on ridiculous extra charges, etc. I'm looking at you Mr. hotel and Ms. reception hall!
  7. The fact that wedding vendor stress (see #6) made me have a mini 30 sec. cry session
  8. Work and work stuff.
  9. A shrinking bank account.
  10. It's only Monday.
Things that made me happy today...
  1. Bridesmaid appointment at Bella Bridesmaid downtown with best friend Jtay, and I think we've found the dresses!
  2. Large tumbler glasses that fit a LOT of coffee in them to keep me motivated through a blah Monday
  3. The fact that I now drink coffee (officially a coffee drinker for a full week - lol!)
  4. Gloria Akalitus on tonight's Nurse Jackie episode did the blowing in the raisin box to make a whistle trick -- I used to do this ALL the time when I was little. I forgot about it until tonight.
  5. Daniel Island Hip Hop classes on Monday nights that take my mind off stress for 2 hours -- because I'm focusing so hard on learning the dances and trying to keep up...but also getting a killer workout
  6. My puppy Willow - he can drive me crazy, but one snuggle and kiss from him makes me fall in love all over again
  7. Unexpected friendships -- found out today that someone I wouldn't expect to had booked her flight to Vegas for my bachelorette
  8. Packages on my doorstep when I get home from work with goodies from RueLaLa
  9. An awesome fiance who not only takes over dog duty for the night, but also takes the Netflix movie back so I don't have to take the extra trip to Publix
  10. Remembering this past weekend and knowing that we have another weekend coming up in Charleston with another Happy Hour and another beach day...#10 will get me through this week alone...{sigh}
Photos from the weekend...
Happy Hour on dock of Shem Creek Bar and Grill. This looks like a painting to me.
Gorgeous sunset views.
Plenty of shade and a breeze - how have we not come here before!?!
Very cool picture ruined by guitar man's ashtray and cigarette...but still
cool picture. Would love to take kayak tour on Shem Creek sometime.
Guy with guitar - great live music.
Bathroom stall sign in Shem Creek Bar & Grill. Hilarious.
Dinner at new Triangle bar in Mt. Pleasant - everything in there is recycled.
Part of the menu - had the Popcorn app (definitely recommend!) and
Pimento Cheese burger with sweet potato fries. Delish!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Friday Fancies: Nautical by Nature

Today's Friday Fancies challenge from {av} of {long distance loving} is perfect for my Friday plans - I actually had already planned out this outfit (that's what I do when I lie awake at night, lol) for happy hour today at Shem Creek Bar & Grill... So it's a great coincidence that today's Friday Fancies is nautical inspired...


I own everything in this outfit but the shirt - but I'm wearing something very similar - and the necklace - I have a fabric blue and white striped one instead, but it's close enough. Oh...and the koozie I don't own, but I ALWAYS carry a koozie with me...so I had to stick one in there. :)

This has been a pretty stressful week full of highs and lows -- so I'm anxious to get to happy hour and raise my glass..er...beer.. to the end of the week and the beginning of another beautiful weather weekend in Charleston.

Happy Hour at Shem Creek Bar & Grill

Monday, June 6, 2011

My wallet hurts...

I think I will be staying in and eating Ramen Noodles all weekend after this week...

Tomorrow is a confirmed BIG sale at Anthropologie - biggest one in months.

Friday is Lilly Pulitzer sale on RueLaLa.

Doh!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

My current Anthro wish list...

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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Weekend Recap...why not?

I'm loving reading about everyone's Memorial Day weekends... so I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

Here's my (very detailed) weekend recap:

Some of the girls out at Suede Supper Club in Mt. P
Friday night: Girls' dinner at Bambu, then out at Suede in Mt. Pleasant. I've only been to Suede twice, but I think I might already be over it. I hate that too because the space and the setup is pretty cool. I think a lot of it had to do with who was there -- lots of weird guys who had no qualms dancing creepily close to you and your friends even though the dance floor is pretty much empty...and drunk guys who gyrate dance (by themselves) all over the dancefloor, hitting one of your girlfriends, and spilling his beer all over said girlfriend's shoe. And yes, I somehow convinced his friend to buy my girlfriend a drink...even though it wasn't her drink that spilled, lol.

Janelle De Ment
Saturday: Took a two hour ballet class from Janelle De Ment, who used to dance for the Charleston Ballet Theater, but now dances with the Orlando City Ballet, at DanceFX downtown. It was an awesome class because she also teaches Yoga and had us spend the first 30 min. doing Yoga poses to warm up before starting barre. She also related yoga positions to ballet positions throughout the class - it was very interesting and a crazy workout at the same time.

Saturday night: Group of us went out bar hopping downtown - which we haven't done in a long time. Started off at the new Molly Darcy's. I really liked it there - plenty of space, plus an outside area. They had two guys with guitars singing funny Irish songs - I said, "Cool! It's like dueling pianos, but with guitars!" All of my friends stared at me and then laughed AT me... not with me. Oh well.

Next we headed to Market Street Saloon. WHHHHHHHHHYYYYY??? I'm pretty sure one of the guys in the group threw this one out and he somehow got all 10 or so of us up there in the bar without paying a cover (thank God!). For those of you not familiar with downtown Charleston bars, Market Street Saloon is a Coyote Ugly bar wannabe - i.e. girls in scantily dressed outfits dancing and singing on the bar. Bartenders are all girls - so yeah, try being a girl who needs a drink in that bar... and they tip themselves. One of my girlfriends demanded her quarter back from one of the bartenders who kept it. And they constantly pull the drunkest girls up on the bar to dance. This is a popular activity for bachelorette parties. Men - dirty, gross ones usually - sit right up against the bar and yeah... they can see up your dresses ladies. Eww.

Disclaimer: Ok, ok... I have to admit that only 3 or 4 years ago my best friend and I used to frequent this bar and we were some of those girls that would dance on the bar. However, in our defense, this was when the bar had first opened and it was filled more with locals and not as...er... WT as it is now.  And long before they started charging expensive covers and high drink prices...lame!

Some of us girls in Market St. - you can see Bachelorette behind us, lol.
Moving on... luckily we all wanted to get the hell out of there after one beer...so we made our way to a new bar on the East Bay strip called Mac's Place Pub & Grub. We actually liked this place a lot - maybe we're getting older?? It had plenty of space and the typical bar games - darts, Golden Tee, Buck Hunter, etc. We stood around and drank some beers and played some games... it's a decent 'chill' bar for sure.

Me trying to be cool in Mac's while relaxing
on one of their many black leather couches.
Next up... Brick. Whenever we go out downtown, chances are you'll find us in Brick. I'm not sure why this is the place we ALWAYS go when we go downtown... I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan -- and mostly because it's always packed and it's about the size of a hallway. I've never been a fan of bars where you're constantly being bumped or shoved as people make their way to the bathrooms in the back or back out of the bar at the front. So it's constant traffic in a bunch of packed in sardine people. Not to mention there's one bar with two bartenders - so getting a beer takes for-ev-er. It has a nice dart area in the back that's fun if you can get it...but other than that, I'm not a big fan. We had a beer or two at Brick and then headed home to rest up for Sunday...

Sunday: Last week there was a continuous debate between our entire group of friends through multiple message threads on Facebook.... Sullivan's Island or Folly Beach for Sunday's beach day. Most of us wanted to go to Sullivan's because it's such an easier drive (90% of us live in Mt. Pleasant..and I live almost on Sullivan's Island!), traffic isn't as bad, parking isn't nearly as bad, and did I mention it was closer? The Folly Beach proponents made the case that yes it's a pain in the rear to drive out to Folly, etc. BUT you can drink alcohol pretty much freely out there without concern of tickets.

We typically go to Sullivan's when we do beach days - well the drinking situation on Sullivan's...is... you can't drink any alcohol, or even have it, on Sullivan's Island beaches or you get a ticket with a hefty fine. We've actually talked to a cop before and from what we've been told, as long as you've disguised it (i.e. it's in a sealed cup that looks like something else, etc.) then the cops will leave you alone because you haven't given them cause. We also always worry about cops checking in the coolers too, but we have also heard that as long as you don't give them a reason to look, they won't - i.e. they can't just walk up to your cooler and look inside for no reason. So...we've always been fine on Sullivan's.

However, the Folly Beach proponents finally swayed us Sullivan's fans with the following arguments: a) we will have almost 20+ people in our group - meaning obvious pulling of beers out of coolers to poor in hidden cups b) it's a huge 'beach' holiday so the cops will be out in droves, and c) one of our friends just saw new signs posted all over Sullivan's Island that said, "No Alcohol. Minimum $1000 fine". This previously was $500... yikes!

So Folly Beach it was! We had to wake up early and get out there early to beat traffic and get good parking. We were making our way onto the island around 10 AM-ish I think... parking wasn't too bad, but traffic was already backing up. We sat in it for a good 30 min. Some of our friends who came out later sat in it for almost 2 hours!

The day consisted of consuming adult beverages, bocce ball games, cornhole games, bathroom trips to the ocean, and frying in the sun. Despite my numerous reapplications of suntan lotion and going up in SPF each time - I still managed to leave the beach a shade of red I like to call lobster.

Photo taken by my friend as my
fiance and I walked down her dock.
Sunday Night: My fiance and I picked up Willow from doggie daycare and took him home to sleep. Then a bunch of us Mt. P locals met at Kickin' Chicken for some dinner. Then my fiance, my best friend Jtay and I went to one of my other good friends' (and bridesmaid!) house on Isle of Palms. Her family's house is right on the Inter Coastal Waterway and they have a sweet dock setup. So we watched the sun set, drank another beer or two, chatted about bridesmaid dresses (my poor fiance) and then called it a night and headed home and went straight to bed. We had some friends who rallied and went out Sunday night... I really have no idea how they accomplished that. I really must be getting old!

Monday: After a marathon day on Sunday, Monday was much more domesticated and relaxed. My fiance and I took Willow to the dog park for about an hour - so many dogs there for him to play with, it was awesome! Then we took him home, bathed him and put him down for a nap (lol), then we headed out for lunch.

We decided to try out a new place in Mt. Pleasant that we haven't eaten at before - Papa Zuzus on Coleman Blvd. It's a small greek restaurant. We both had gyro's and they were super delish! My fiance thinks it might be his new fave place to eat in Mt. Pleasant. He loves Greek food.

Then we were super domesticated and went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and REGISTERED! Whoo hoo... it was overwhelming and fun at the same time. Thank God for the girl there that helped us out - she was a wedding registry expert on crack. And thank God for an older sister and Mom on speed dial... "Mom, do we want non stick or sterling silver? Or both...or what? or dishwasher safe...or...or.. ahhh!" "What pattern crystal do I need again?" "Thread count wha????"

We also picked out our china pattern - we weren't in agreement at first, but I was surprised to hear my fiance say "How about that one? It's festive - I like it!" as he pointed to.... a Kate Spade pattern??? Whaaat??? :) Good fiance! I had seen the pattern but didn't point it out to him because I was sure he wouldn't like it and think it was too girlie...but he liked it because it reminded him of the holidays - which is probably the only time we'll ever use our china... so Kate Spade Belle Boulevard it is! We also registered for some Spode Christmas china serving pieces so we can pull it out around the holidays to compliment the Kate Spade pattern.

Kate Spade Belle Boulevard China Pattern

Spode China Pattern
We've heard nightmares about registering with Target, so we're not going there - but we're going to do Amazon.com and Macy's instead. Has anyone registered with Amazon before? What did you think?

Then it was dinner, 48 hour Mysteries and Dateline on ID, and then bed. :)

Lol... quite the three day weekend, and I'm already counting down the days to this weekend for more beach time.

So..... how is your week going?