Insta-lately

 I've been trying to post on Instagram daily.  I post a lot more of my outfits that never make it to the blog for whatever reason, some random shots with my family, and photos out and about.  That last picture is of my August Ipsy bag.  I'm planning a post in a few days to let you know what I think about those products.

 

  

If you want to keep up with my daily adventures on Instagram, you can follow me HERE.

OUTFIT: Our 5 year anniversary celebration

I took a little bit of time off from blogging last week but I am back this week with a full week's worth of posts, so expect to see me around a lot!

Last Friday was my husband and I's 5 year wedding anniversary!  I can't believe how fast time flies.  It does not seem that long ago.  My husband requested the day off from work and we had a babysitter so we could spend the whole day together.  Our original plan was to go to Kennywood (our local amusement park) then we had dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant at 6pm.  The weather had other plans and it decided to rain half the day, so we decided to see a movie, go to Dave & Buster's, then dinner.  We had so much fun!

Saturday I got to have an art day with one of my friends while my husband watched Paige.  And then Sunday we ended up going to Kennywood!  It was such a great, full weekend.

I bought this dress from ThredUp for sooo cheap!  It was under $10!  Just in case you never heard of thredUP before, it is basically an online thrift shop with brand name clothing.  You can buy and sell gently used clothing.  Everything I received from them was in great condition.  If you decide to check it out, here is my referral link.  Thanks in advance if you do!

Psst....I don't want to say this too loud but.... I'VE BEEN HEADACHE MIGRAINE-FREE FOR A WHOLE WEEK! Yesss!

If you missed my "Wedding Week" posts last year, here are the links:

Our Engagement

Wedding Details

Our Wedding

Our Honeymoon

What did you do this weekend?

linked up with: On the Daily Express and More Pieces of Me, Rhea EtCetera, Pink Sole and Cha Cha the Fashion Genius

The Guy Behind the Blog #2

Hi everybody!  I took a little bit of a blogging break yesterday and the day before because I had a pretty killer migraine.  But hopefully I have it under control again and can catch up on some of the posts that I am behind on.  ANYWAY, enough of that!  Today I am bringing my husband back again to take over my blog for Betsy's "The Guy Behind the Blog" link up.  Every month she comes up with new questions for us to ask our guys, so you can get to know them a little bit better too.  I like this link up because I think it's interesting to learn more about my favorite blogger's lives.  I'm nosey like that.. lol!  This is only my second time linking up.  If you want, you can read the first one here.

1. Do you have a good luck charm or ritual? (like a lucky coin, or you always used to listen to a certain pump-up song when you played sports in high school or college?)
Chris: Julie bought me a ring when we first started dating, kind of like a promise ring. It's a silver band with lightning bolts engraved into it, because she knows I love watching thunderstorms. I really feel strange if I'm not wearing it and I think its definitely my good luck charm.

Me: Awww!!  That ring is almost seven years old and he still wears it every single day!

2. What is your favorite dish that your wife/fiance/girlfriend makes for you? do you have any fun memories of a time when she tried to cook and it totally flopped or does she get it right every time?

Chris: More often than not, it's me that "flops" making dinner.  It's simple, but I love it when she makes spaghetti or ziti.
Me: He's just being nice.  I've "flopped" plenty of times!  And he's a great cook.  He makes coconut shrimp drizzled in honey that are to die for!

3. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Chris: Spider-Man.  Duh!  Or Batman... ok, let's make them fight and whoever wins that's who I'll be!
Me: hahaha!!  I knew this answer was coming.  He's such a HUGE Spiderman fan.

4. Which of the five senses is your strongest?

Chris: Spider-sense.  Duh!  Er.. back to reality.  I'd say my sense of sight is pretty good.  "I can see for miles and miles!"  (That was a Who reference that nobody will understand but me.)
Me: He does have really great eyesight.  I'm pretty jealous about it actually.  I am hoping that my daughter's eyesight will take after his though

5. Would you ever run for president?
Chris: Bahahaha.. bah. Bahahahahahaha.  Wait... seriously!?  No.  I'm not that great of an actor.  I'd just tell people how it is and likely start a war because I'd just tell the truth!
Me: Yeah, I can honestly say that I would never want that job either.  No, thank you!

Finally some good news!!

If you follow me on Instagram you may have already heard the good news: My husband just got a big promotion at work!  We have been waiting and hoping that he would find something out of the department that he is currently in.  He just has to finish out this month and train someone to replace him before he can start the new position on April 1st.  We couldn't be happier!!

We decided to go out to eat to celebrate, no where fancy, but I decided to dress up a teeny bit, just for him.  We went to Primanti Brother's, which is a famous Pittsburgh restaurant.  You may remember me talking about their sandwiches before.  Sooo good!  We wanted to go somewhere to have a celebratory drink.

I was also given an accent nail from Margaret at Jamberry Nails to try out.  I think I am the only person on the planet that had yet to try them out.  I don't normally paint my nails, but I was really intrigued by these.  She sent me a really pretty floral print, that just so happened to match my outfit. 

I am the absolute worst at painting my nails, so don't judge!!  It's weird, I can paint portraits but I can't paint my nails.  It doesn't make much sense to me!

I also got my Passionfruit ads up over the weekend, so I am now offering different sized sponsorship opportunities on my sidebar.  Since I am just starting out the prices are very low and reasonable; AND if that's not enough, I am offering 25% off my ad spots until the end of the month with the code: SPONSORJM

linked up with: Rhea EtCetera, Pink Sole and Cha Cha the Fashion Genius, More Pieces of Me and On the Daily EXPRESS, The Pleated Poppy

The Guy Behind the Blog

This is the very first time I am linking up at Heavens to Betsy for her "The Guy Behind the Blog" link up and I'm really excited about it!  I've always enjoyed reading these posts every month but always forgot to do my own.  But I scheduled this one ahead so I would remember. I'm OCD like that.  Anyway, meet my husband Chris.  We have been married for 5 years this July, and together for going on 7 years (and I've known him since I was 13!).  Man, time flies!  I think he's pretty amazing, so I hope you will too.

1. If you could write a book, what topic would you write about and why?
Chris:  I already have a large portion of data written for a fantasy book series with influences from Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Final Fantasy and Harry Potter.  Why?  Because I think I could combine those elements in a way that would appeal to many readers and inspire others.

2. What is one thing on your bucket list, or one thing that you'd like to do or accomplish in your lifetime?
Chris:  My bucket list is to travel the world and see all the sights I possibly can.  More simply, sky diving.
(Me: Oooo, I would love to go skydiving!  Let's do it!!  And travel the world?? Umm, yes please?!)

3. If you could look out your window and only see one view for the rest of your life, what would you want to see?
Chris:  My wife and daughter playing in the sunny back yard laughing and smiling.  Really.  That's all I want.
(Me: <3 <3 <3  Can you see why I love this man?!)

4. Imagine you're opening a shop.  what are you selling?
Chris:  Either a music store (because I'm a musician) or a gaming shop for dorks.  (Because I'm a huge dork!)  Or... maybe a store that has BOTH!  Boom!!  Best of both worlds.
(Me: He won't brag about himself but I will do it for him!  He is an amazing musician who taught himself how to play drums, guitar, bass, and piano!)

5. If you could have 50lbs of anything other than money, what would it be?
Chris:  Comic books.  That was easy!
(Me: hahaha!  I'm almost positive he already has more than that now!)

6. Time to brag on your girl...tell us one thing that makes you proud of your wife!
Chris:  Other than putting up with all my interests (band shows, dork games), I'm proud of her blog!  I am always amazed with how successful she has become and how many people care about her and what she writes here.

 (Me: Aww!  I told you!  Isn't he the greatest ever!? lol)

Merry Christmas!!!

I just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday!  I'm taking a little blog break for the day and spending time with my family.  I will catch up on all of your posts first thing in the morning.  I hope all of your Christmas wishes came true this year and you have a great day with family and friends.  Wish me luck I'm cooking my first Christmas dinner!  Eeek!

DIY: Open When... letters

I've been seeing these "Open When..." cards all over Pinterest and I think they are the cutest and sweetest idea ever!  My husband is the romantic type so I knew he would love this.  

For the people who have never heard of this; you basically create a bunch of different letters for the recipient to open at different times.  You can also fill the envelopes with momentos, memes, candy, anything!  I also made my own envelops just to make them more fun looking then plain old white ones.  

As I was starting this project I realized that my printer was out of ink so I was going to have to create everything by hand.  I was going to fill them with a billion memes and cute animal pictures, so this was a HUGE bummer!  But I guess in the end it made it more personal anyway.

I thought I would share what I filled some of my envelopes with to give you an idea on how to start your own.  Above each picture I will tell you the "topic" of the envelope, and below I will share what I put in mine and give you a few more ideas!

 Open when....

You want to know how much I love you

 Inside: A list of 100 reason why I love you, folded handprint craft: on the front it says "I love you" and inside "This much", Coupon (for whatever you want), love quotes, picture from our wedding day, a personal love letter

You Can't Sleep

 Inside: Hot tea bag, goodnight kisses, a relaxing photo of us at our favorite place, the beach, with a little note of the back

You are super bored

 Inside: here is where it started to get really tricky...I found all of these printouts online BUT my printer wasn't working...so I made them by hand.  Excuse the sloppiness!  Mazes, puzzles, Crossword puzzle, Word search, Random facts

You want to feel like a Superhero

 My husband is a HUGE comic fan so this was a must!! lol!  Inside: I drew a picture of Spiderman and put his head on it, Spiderman mask, Superhero stickers, and a photo of memory of when he was my hero

You are feeling stressed

Inside: Bubble wrap with a note that says "Pop 3+ bubbles as needed", inspirational quotes, stress management tips, mini bottles of alcohol, Coupon for a free backrub, Hersey kisses

Here are a 15 more topic ideas:  Open when...

You need a confidence boost

You are mad at me

You are sick

You miss me

You feel sad

Things get tough

You are worried about the future

You want to know more about me

You're angry at the world

There is a zombie apocalypse

You're feeling naughty

 You need to feel appreciated

You're confused

You need a confidence booster

On special date/holiday/occasion

Have you ever made something like this?  If not, do you think you will give it a try?

linking up with: Modern Pilgrim, Sweet Bella Roos, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Just Us Four, Create With Joy, 

OUTFIT: Date day with my hubby

It's getting chilly here in PA, so I have officially broken out my favorite leather jacket.  I probably wear it 3 or 4 times a week.  I love it!  If you've been around my blog for a while then you already know that I have a little bit of an obsession with tribal print.  I swear almost half of my closet is tribal, if not more!

These photos are actually from a couple weekends ago, my hubby and I actually had the chance to have a date day.  We had my mom watch her for a couple hours just to have some "us" time.  We definitely needed it!  Our plans were to go out to eat and see a movie, but we ended up missing the show time that we wanted so I got to do some shopping instead (thus the Express bag in my hand in the first picture).

We also decided to stop and have a drink at Rock Bottom, a microbrewery located right in the shopping plaza. (How convenient is that?!)  I love playing with my daughter and she is the cutest baby ever, BUT it was sooo nice to be able to have an actual conversation with my husband.  We had a lot of fun just sitting there being goofballs and flirting with each other like it was our first date.

What do you do for your date days/nights? Is the Fall weather kicking in where you are too?

linked up at: Rhea Et Cetera, Pink Sole and Cha Cha The Fashion Genius, More Pieces of Me, On the Daily Express , I Would So Rock This, Still Being Molly, Claire Justine,, The Fashion Canvas, Walking in Memphis in High Heels, Style Elixir

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 13

Okay, so I am way late to this party, but Bailey Jean over at Brave Love is hosting a daily link up for the month of September.  She gives you a different topic to write about every day for the whole month.  Today is already day 13 and the prompt is: Your current relationship status. If dating/married, give us a glimpse of your story! If single, share about this special season.

I am married to my best friend in the whole world.  I've known him since I was 13 years old!  He was always my best guy friend.  If either of us needed advice on the opposite sex we would ask each other.  We always had each other's backs.  I secretly had a crush on him since the first day that I met him....and he never knew!  Apparently, he always like me back.  But neither one of us ever said anything because when I was dating someone, he was single...and vice versa.  

Fast forward about NINE years....Until one day when we messaged each other on Facebook trying to catch up on each other's lives.... I was single and when he told me he was single too it was like all of those goofy high school crush feelings came rushing back, but I still didn't say anything.  Since he had just gotten out of a long term relationship (2 months before)  I told him he should come out with my friends to the karaoke bar.  After a few minutes of begging he decided to come.  I thought he might, because he was in a band and is a great singer.

When he showed up I was really giddy and we had so much fun.  He got along with all of my friends so well.  They loved him, and kept asking me (right in front of him) why we had never dated. hahaha!!  My friends are good for putting me on the spot.

photo from that night

He was only able to stay for an hour or two but when he left, he asked if I wanted to come over and watch a movie at his house the next day.  Of course I said yes!  And then stayed up all night wondering if we were watching movies as friends or if he liked me to. LOL

When I got to his house we were flirting THE WHOLE TIME but I was still worried he just thought of me as a friend.  Once the movie was over and it was really late he asked if I wanted to spend the night, and I actually gave him kind of a "EXCUSE ME?!?!" kind of look but he laughed and said no, not like that.  I said I don't know and we decided to flip a coin....if it was heads I would stay, tails I would go home.   We cuddled all night <3  

He proposed after a year of us dating and we were married almost a year after that...And the rest is history!  We've been together for 6 years, married for four.  And still completely crazy about each other.

I have actually shared the proposal story and also shared some photos of our wedding day if you wanted to know more about us crazy kids.

We made it to the zoo!!

If you remember earlier this Summer I posted a Summer bucket list and one of the things that I wanted to do was take Paige to the zoo!  We finally made it!  It's been hard with everything to find a day to go between events and rain, but we did it.  She LOVED it too!  I'm so happy we were able to go.

Paige loved the big Kee cats!  They were definitely her favorite!  I think she giggled for five minutes straight when she saw them.

The cheetah enclosure was SO CLOSE too!  There was just the metal fence, about 4 feet of space and then the wooden "rail" that Paige was leaned up against.  It was really cool to see them so close, but I won't lie.... It made me a little nervous being that close.  It really looked like he could have climbed the fence if he wanted to.

Paige really loved all of the monkeys too.  She kept pushing her face up against the glass because she wanted to get to them.

We all had such an amazing time.  Paige behaved herself the whole time even though she had to stay in the stroller or be held most of the time.  I was shocked!  She can't stand not being able to run around. LOL

We even bought her an ice cream sundae to celebrate!

We were a little disappointed that there were no bears when we went tho.  I guess they were fixing the enclosure.  The polar bears have a really cool area with a swimming pool and there is an underwater tunnel that you can walk through to see them swimming above you.  It's super neat and I would have liked to show Paige, but there's always next year!

Here's a photo from a few years ago with my hubby and I went.  Pretty neat, huh??

Did you get to go to the zoo this year??

Our 6 year anniversary

This may be a little confusing since I just did a post last month about our wedding anniversary, but my husband and I celebrate 2 anniversaries.  One when we got married, and the second is when we officially started dating as a couple.  We are super dorks like that.  I thought I would post a little collage of us year by year to celebrate...

And he's still my best friend in the whole world <3

A rock concert and a rant

For my husband and I's wedding anniversary I bought him tickets to see one of his favorite bands ever, The Offspring. Bad Religion, Pennywise, and The Vandals were also touring with him, so basically it was a punk rockers dream.

My mom came over to watch the baby and put her to bed for us so we could go.  This was our first night out that we didn't have to be home in time to put baby to bed!  I was so ready and excited to enjoy the night out with my hubby.

The Vandals were awesome and had amazing energy.  The singer was dancing all over the stage like a crazy person while the guitarist repeatedly shook his butt at the crowd.  So funny!!

After The Vandals were done playing things started to slowly go down hill.....  First of all, they oversold the concert BIG TIME!  People were practically on top of each other.  Actually sometimes they literally were on top of each other when groups of people decided to start shoving people around....which eventually turned into a huge mosh pit.  I get it, it's a rock concert and you kind of expect people to be going a little nuts, but throwing beer all over everyone and actually pushing over groups of women..??  Not cool.

The biggest thing that got to me was when almost every single person in the crowd around us started smoking pot.....really??  I don't care if you smoke or not but when you force other people around you to inhale your disgusting skunk weed and get a contact high, I think that is a bit ridiculous.  THIS is one of the many reason why I hate the whole "legalize" battle that is sweeping the country.  It's disgusting!  I shouldn't have to worry about whether or not there may be a DUI checkpoint on the way home and the cop smelling pot on me!

Maybe the pot situation just annoyed me more than it should have because, like I said, people were practically sitting on your lap so you had no choice.

There were also, of course, people throwing up EVERYWHERE because they weren't cutting people off.  So now we have people throwing up on each other, people showering everyone in beer, and potheads blowing smoke in your face.

Sooo long story short, we ended up leaving before the end of The Offspring's set because neither one of us could handle it anymore.  I got to look forward to a show that I have been dying to see ever since I was a teenager...only to have it ruined but a bunch of drunk stoners.

 Disappointing first night out...

On a lighter note, Offspring sounds exactly the same live as he does on his cd!  Craziness!  They played great.  I just wish I would have been able to enjoy it more..