Weekend recap

Friday, my mom and I braved the King of Prussia Mall for Black Friday. We headed up there in the early afternoon hours and missed some of the early-bird madness. The mall was still very crowded. Police were directing traffic and there were even lines for the ladies room. Overall, it was a fun trip. People were in good spirits and deals were popping up all over. I purchased a few Christmas gifts and even got some things for myself. We shopped over 4 hours and were beat. After shopping, we went to Charlie Brown’s for dinner and just got the salad bar and dessert.


Some things from Old Navy, Ann Taylor Loft, Sephora and a bracelet from Express


Love this grey sweater from Ann Taylor Loft. It is nice and long and will be great with skinny jeans. Headband and some jewelry from ATL and Old Navy.

I don’t know how I had the energy, but Friday night Jess came over and we went to the Clifton Inn and met up with some of our friends. I had never been there, but it was a total dive bar that had cheap drinks, a pool table and a jukebox. I got to catch up with my friends Tim, Dan and Steven. We had a nice time and ended up getting a late night bite at Denny’s.

Saturday, I had ice skating and then came home, cleaned a bit and relaxed. I got sucked into watching Honeymoon with Mom on Lifetime and it was cheesy, but good. My mom came over to keep me company since Geof is traveling.



Sunday, I had a much needed lazy day. I slept in late and got sucked into 2 more Lifetime movies. I watched, I Me Wed and I Do (but I Don’t). They were both cute and perfect for watching on a relaxing day. My mom came over again and I made us an easy dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup. For dessert, I finally made the soda cake that I had wanted to try for months. I used strawberry cake mix and Sprite Zero. I also made a low calorie frosting for the cake, but really I could have just used whipped cream. It tasted better than I expected, and I don’t know if I’ll make a normal cake ever again.

Cake fresh from the oven

Frosted! Next time I'll add some more Confectioners Sugar, since the icing was a little thin.

I hope everyone had a nice, long weekend!

Thanksgiving 2009

Geof and I slept in extremely late and I was shocked that the dogs didn’t wake us up. My only regret is that we missed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. We spent what was left of the morning catching up with friends and family on the phone to wish everyone a happy day.

In the afternoon, we headed to my aunt & uncle’s house and spent some quality time with the family. I honestly don’t know how my aunt does it, but somehow she manages to make a homemade and delicious meal every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Somehow it all gets on the table warm and fresh and each meal tastes better than the one before.


Geof and I at my aunt and uncle's


Table for 18 - not including the kids table


2 of my many cousins. They crack me up!

It was a great day filled with lots of turkey, pecan pie, love and football! I hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving too!

Thankful

With tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I thought that it would be the perfect time to reflect on some things that I’m thankful for.

My husband, Geof. No matter how ridiculous I can be at times, he is always there to keep me grounded and make me smile. When he came into my life, I knew it was something special. We may not be perfect, but we’re perfect for each other. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not happy to have him by my side.



My mom. Words cannot describe how thankful I am to have someone as caring and selfless as she is. She puts herself before others and works so hard. She’s achieved so many goals and even taken some chances I don’t know if I would have had the guts to attempt. I remember when I was in my early 20’s, she bought a small motel at the beach and ran it for the summer. It was so great to spend weekends there with my girlfriends. After that summer, she decided the motel business wasn’t for her and turned around and sold it. I give her so much credit for even taking that chance. She raised me as a single parent with help from my grandmother and she is so strong and I admire her for everything she has taught me and the women she has encouraged me to become. She has refused to let me believe that anything is impossible.



My dad. Growing up, he lived about 50 miles away and there was never a weekend or visit that he missed. He never complained about the drive and always used it as our time to catch up. Each visit, he had fun activities planned and wanted to make everything as special as possible. He took me to Disney World when I was about 8 and I remember it being so magical. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t have done to try and make me happy. I have so many fun memories of our times together while I was growing up; fishing trips, theme parks (he’s the first person to get me on a roller coaster), sledding, ice skating…ahhh, there are so many.

My dad lives in South Carolina now, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thankful for how hard he worked to be an important part of my life. I wish that I could see him more often.



My friends. I’ve said it so many times and I’ll say it again. I’m an only child and my friends mean everything to me. I have some of the sweetest girls in my life and I couldn’t ask for more. Being an adult definitely teaches you that it’s the quality verses the quantity of your friendships that is most important.



My dogs. They’re the sweetest, cuddliest and cutest little dogs I’ve ever seen. One of the best feelings that I get on a daily basis is coming home to them and seeing how excited they are to see me. A dog’s love is unconditional.

I’m also thankful for beautiful sunsets, 4 different seasons, having my own house (even if it’s small), having a car that’s paid off (even if it’s old and needs repairs from time to time) and holidays filled with lots of family!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my wonderful blog friends! I hope your day is filled with lots of yummy food and happiness.

Weekend recap - movie filled weekend!

Friday, Geof and I stayed in since I had work to do on and off most of the weekend. We ordered a pizza and watched a movie called The Hills Run Red. It was a horror flick that was surprisingly good and not what I was expecting at all.

Saturday, we had ice skating and then ran to Wal-Mart to pickup the Gazelle that Geof ordered. I’m interested to see if it works. We needed something that didn’t take up a lot of space to keep in his “man cave” and decided on that. Saturday night, we saw Paranormal Activity. I thought that I was going to hate it because I didn’t like The Blair Witch Project. It turns out that I loved it, even though it was very disturbing. I think I’m going to be freaked out for awhile now because of it.

Sunday, Geof agreed to go see New Moon with me (he’s the best). The movie was great and so much better than Twilight. Neither movie can hold a candle to the books, but it is still so much fun to see it on the big screen and see how what I pictured in my head while reading the books translates to the movie.

After the movie we ran to Macy’s to get him some work clothes and then made a quick stop at Target. Once we got home, I made dinner, while he put the Gazelle together. We watched football and some of the AMA’s and called it a night.

And the winner of my giveaway is...

Thank you to everyone that entered my Perricone Cold Plasma giveaway! There were 44 people that entered with a total of 85 entries (followers, those who posted on their blog). I used Random.org to pick the winner.

Min: 1
Max: 85
Result: 9

The winner of my giveaway is MCW at Saving the Best for Last…(fingers crossed). Congratulations! Please send me an email with your info and I’ll pass that along to the folks at Perricone.

P.S. If you didn't win my giveaway and want another chance, head on over to Jill's blog. She is giving away the same thing!

Blogger Get Together

Last night, Lilly lovers united at Bahama Breeze in King of Prussia to take part in a blogger dinner and get together before the big Lilly Warehouse Sale. A good time was had by all and it was fun to put a face with the blog.

While I don’t consider myself part of the preppy blog crowd, I do enjoy some preppy things and the colors pink and green. I’ll admit that I didn’t even know what Lilly Pulitzer was until I started blogging! I really just wanted to go and meet everyone in person. I got to meet the lovely Beth at Social Climbers, Preppy Coastee, Hopsy at Monograms and Manicures, Preppy 50 and Loving Lilly and so many more.

Group shot

Preppy Coastee and I

Hopsy and I

The group posing with a copy of Beth's book, Social Climbers

Beth and I

The goodies from the evening. I was so excited to get a copy of Beth's book! The cookies were so good and Hopsy made homemade cake balls. They were delicious and I'll definitely have to try making them around the holidays. She packaged them up so nicely in the green toile monogrammed box with pink ribbon.

Pour some sugar on me

I was tagged and given the glorious Sugar Doll Award by my lovely blogging friends, BLC @ The Company She Keeps, Emma @ Tales of All American Girl and The Preppy Pink and Green Puppy. BLC is a doll and I've been reading her blog for awhile. She got engaged not too long ago. Head on over and say hello! Emma has a blog that is so fun and I recently found her. She lets her readers know about new musical artists and all sorts of other fun things. The PP&GP is another blog that I recently found. She is so nice and we like to gush about how much we love our Cavalier's!

Thank you ladies for thinking of me and giving me this award! I love all of your blogs and am glad to call you my friends.

Here are the rules:
1. I have to list 10 interesting facts about myself (this list is more random than interesting)
2. Pass it on to 10 more bloggers

1. I’m going to admit something really embarrassing. When Titanic was in the theater, I went to see it a total of 7 times. With a running time of 3 hours and 17 minutes, that means that I spent almost an entire 24 hour day in total watching this movie. What can I say, other than I was a teenager and there wasn’t much else to do.

2. I have an addiction to diet drinks. Diet Pepsi and diet green tea are my faves.

3. I’ve had my car for 10 years as of this past August and I plan on keeping it as long as I can. I’m going for 200,000 miles. I love my Nissan!

4. Geof and I agreed that our recent trip to Hawaii was even better than our honeymoon. Sad, but true!

5. I love making lists for things (anything) and then checking it off. It makes me feel so accomplished.

6. My family has 3 sets of twins and one set of triplets in it. I don’t think I would mind twins, but triplets…wow. They’re all my first and second cousins. It just boggles my mind.

7. I will never and I mean ever get a tattoo. I think they’re fine for other people, but just not my thing.

8. I can’t stand ridiculous FB updates. Some are a novel, tmi or things that most people couldn’t care less about. I have friend named Tim that always leaves the best things on his page. Here is a recent one: Tim “thinks facebook should rename the "people you may know" feature, to "people that you know, but deliberately choose not to be friends with." It's the cyber equivalent of being at a party, and the host awkwardly shoving you in the direction of someone you dislike...trying to force you to be friends. Facebook is quickly turning into a forced Venn diagram of friendships... no good.”.

9. Each Christmas, without fail I watch A Christmas Story and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I’ve done this for a long as I can remember and it never gets old.

10. I have an obsession with accessories. Bags, scarves and sunglasses top the list!

I'm cheating a little on this and passing it along to anyone that hasn't done it yet. I thought it was fun to think of some random's. If you do it, let me know so that I can read your list.

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I was also given the Friendly Blogger Award from Kathie @ My Net Finds. She has been a bloggy friend of mine for awhile now and is so sweet. I always love checking in on her blog and seeing new internet finds that she has posted, along with yummy recipes. She has something for everyone!

Thank you, Kathie!

Weekend recap

Friday, Geof and I stayed in and took it easy. He made us steak and twice baked potatoes for dinner and it was delicious. Nothing says loving like Omaha Steaks! I caught up on the Real Housewives and I have to say that I cannot believe the way these women fight and name call one another. It’s like high school all over again. I loved seeing Vicki take her mother and daughter to Italy though. I would love to go there one day. I can almost taste the homemade pasta and Italian wine.

Saturday, Geof and I went to the mall before skating and I got some Yankee Candles for the holidays. They were having an open house and I had a coupon, so I couldn’t resist. I bought Christmas Cupcake, Red Apple Wreath and received a small jar of Nutcracker for free. We went to a few other stores and I got some things from Bath & Body Works and New York & Company. After the mall, we went to Subway for lunch and then off to the rink to teach at skating.



Saturday night, our friends Kristen and Sean went to a wedding close to us and we decided to meet up afterwards at a local bar/restaurant in Media called Quotations. They brought another couple along, Erica and Brian and we all had a nice time. I was drinking chardonnay and my glass fell from the table to the floor and shattered into what seemed like a thousand pieces. It made the loudest sound and the whole bar went, “oooooooooh”. It was embarrassing, but then I ended up laughing about it and taking a bow. The “ooohs” turned to clapping, but I was still mortified.

Kristen and me. She's all glammed up from the wedding!

Geof and I with some random dude in the background

Our new friend, Brian wearing Kristen's bracelet. That's why he hid his face.

Sunday, Geof and I went major food shopping. We filled up 2 carts of groceries and I really hope that we don’t have to again for awhile. Once we got home and got the food put away, I started cooking. I made Mrs EyesCanSee Turkey Chili recipe for a potluck at the office and Melissa’s Chicken and Dumplings recipe for dinner. Both were delicious. Geof and I watched some football and Desperate Housewives and called it a night.

Turkey Chili

Chicken and Dumplings

Home shopping is addicting

Last night, I was browsing through the channels and saw that NARS was having a beauty event on QVC. I thought I’d check it out and see what they had to offer (I was bored). I got completely sucked in and ended up ordering a lip gloss set.


Shades in set:
-Triple X, a clear shine
-Striptease, a candlelight nude
- Harlow, a silvery mauve
- Orgasm, a sheer, warm pink with golden shimmer
- Bloodwork, a red vinyl

The way that they speak about the products that are being offered completely sucks you in. I need to make it a point to stay away from that channel or I’ll end up ordering something completely ridiculous that I don’t need. They talk about the products like you’re missing the next big thing and start talking about how many were already sold! Like if you don’t buy it soon, you’re going to be sorry. I know that’s their goal and it worked on me hook, line and sinker. The good thing about my situation is that I know NARS products are fantastic, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Am I the only one that’s ordered something off of home shopping?

Perricone MD Cold Plasma Giveaway & Perricone Discount

I’m excited to be partnering with the folks at Perricone MD to give my readers the opportunity to win their very own bottle of Perricone MD Cold Plasma ($150 value). This product addresses the 10 most visible signs of aging: wrinkles, enlarged pores, dryness, discoloration, redness, uneven skin tone, impurities, loss of firmness, loss of smoothness and loss of radiance. It truly covers it all! This product has even been featured in Vanity Fair.

For those that are unfamiliar with the company, here is some additional information: Perricone MD is a US company created by well-known clinical and research dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone. After years of research, Dr. Perricone arrived at the conclusion that cellular inflammation may be the underlying cause of wrinkles. Through this conclusion, he has developed an award-winning line of skin care products and supplements based on his experience and research. If you’re interested in receiving a Perricone Discount, you can do so by visiting their blog.

Rules for giveaway:
1. This is open to US readers only
2. Leave a comment on this post – 1 entry
3. Leave a comment and follow my blog – 2 entries
4. Leave a comment, follow and post about this on your blog – 3 entries
5. Giveaway ends at midnight on 11/20/09

Good luck!

Weekend recap

Friday, we had our friends Jess and Franklin over and just relaxed and chatted the night away. We were going to watch a movie, but never did since it got so late. It was a lot of fun and nice to have some serious laughter.

Saturday, I had skating and then my mom and I went to the movies to see This Is It. The movie actually exceeded my expectations and was done so well. I never realized what a perfectionist Michael Jackson was. If the concert had ever come to fruition, it would have been amazing and definitely would have made history. If you’re a fan of MJ, I highly recommend it. I would actually go and see it again. It was 2 hours, but it went by so fast. One of his guitar players, Orianthi Panagaris was simply incredible. She could take most men on with her skills. It actually made me wish I could play the guitar.




Orianthi Panagaris and Michael

After the movie, my mom came back to our house to relax with Geof and I. I got some supplies to make the wine glass project that Lis posted and can’t wait to try it. Crafting is something that I would like to do more of.

Sunday, Geof, my mom and I went to an arts & crafts show at the local Penn State campus and it was great. They had a ton of vendors selling all sorts of goodies. My mom and Geof bought some fudge and jams/spreads. I bought a really cute “C” pink/green/black/white Christmas ornament, cashmere houndstooth scarf, pearl earrings and bow headband. Everything was very reasonable and I was so pleased with what I got. We left the show, went to Linvilla and walked around for a bit. We got to feed the deer and then visited the farmer’s market and picked up some fruit and goods from the bakery.

You can't see it that well, but that ornament has green polka dots on it and I love it!

Geof and I came home and watched some football and caught up on shows we had on the DVR. We had beautiful weather all weekend and it was nice to I got to spend so much time with my mom and Geof. I love family time like that.

Some things to keep me warm

Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks

How excited am I that they have the holiday cups now? The littlest things make me happy. I also cannot wait to have a Gingerbread Latte.

Bow cardigan from Ann Taylor Loft

I love all of the bows, ruffles and girly trends that are out right now. I had a coupon and had to order this cardigan. I don’t have anything like this and thought it would be cute for fall and winter.

Mossimo Chunky Infinity Scarf from Target

This is a new trend that I recently discovered and I see myself collecting many of this over the season. I love that you just wrap it around and go. This one I will wear with a coat and to skating. I want to get a trendy one that I can wear with an outfit that’s longer.

Snuggie for Chase

Chase is even ready for the cold! He gets chilly sometimes and I saw this at Bed, Bath & Beyond and had to get one for him. I think he likes it.

Holy hotness!

Ahhh, my favorite vampire has a new spread in the Vanity Fair December issue. I cannot wait much longer for New Moon to come out.

Team Edward or Team Jacob? I’m always curious to know.

In other entertainment news, Ashlee Simpson is out on Melrose and that makes me very happy. She was incredibly creepy and distracting.