wedding nostalgia....

I'm currently in New Jersey [dirty jerzzzz] with family celebrating the union of two beautiful people and can't help but get nostalgic for our wedding celebration... it was only seven months ago but it feels like forever at this point! Also, I know, you miss hearing all about me planning a wedding and seeing my wedding pictures? [what? you don't? well pretend you do] Don't worry, I'm here to make your day.... 

Want more? Check out these recaps I posted earlier in the year... 

Men of the Wedding

Hey Ladies... [my bridal party] 

Borrowed, Blue, Old & New [bridal details]

Dressing the Bride

First Look

Our Ceremony

Wedding Reception Details


oh man. 
are you over it?
is it sad that I'm not?


don't forget to enter my giveaway! :)

bulldog giggles...

thanks to Nikki for sending this gem of a video over to me earlier in the week, it was too cute not to share --

gotta love that bulldog determination!


don't forget to enter my giveaway! :)

1001 Places to See Before You Die

I'm so exited to be visiting Philadelphia this weekend to see [at least] two more places from the 1001 Places to See Before You Die book. One thing on my 30 before 30 list is to visit/experience 100 of the 1000 [10% that's a good goal right?!] 

...as of today I've visited...

40 out of my goal of 100!

here's the breakdown of what I've seen so far [what page the description is on in the book and the date(s) I visited]...


EUROPE [6]
- Capri [Campania, Italy, pg 181] - Summer 1999
- Pompei [Campania, Italy, pg 184] - Summer 1999
- The Best of Sorrento [Campania, Italy, pg. 188] - Summer 1999
- Rome [Lazio, Italy, pg. 192] - Summer 1999
- Sistine Chapel [Rome, Lazio, Italy, pg. 196] - Summer 1999
- Venice [Veneto, Italy, pg. 231] - Summer 1999


ASIA [1]
- Persepolis [Iran, pg. 456] - Summer 1996


AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, + THE PACIFIC ISLANDS [5]
- Sydney Opera House & The Harbor [New South Wales, Australia, pg. 516] - Summer 1998
- Fraser Island [Queensland, Australia, pg. 522] - Summer 1998
- The Great Barrier Reef & The Coral Sea [Queensland, Australia, pg. 522] - Summer 1998
- Bubbling Rotorua [North Island, New Zealand, pg. 534] - Summer 1998
- The Home of Jet-Boating [Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, pg. 539] - Summer 1998


USA + CANADA [28]
- The Grand Canyon [Flagstaff, Arizona, pg. 568] - April 2006
- Hollywood [Los Angeles, CA, pg. 575] - April 2006
- The Pacific Coast Highway [California, pg. 578] - April 2009
- San Francisco's Cable Cars [San Francisco, CA, pg. 581] - June 2009
- California's Wine Country [California, pg. 583] - June 2009, January 2011
- Everglades National Park [Florida, pg. 599] - 1994/1995 [?]
- Key West [Florida, pg. 600] - 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 [hello college spring break]
- South Beach [Miami Beach, FL, pg. 604] - Spring Break 2001
- Walt Disney World Resort [Orlando, FL, pg. 605] just to name a few: 1993, 2000, 2008, 2009
- Savannah's Historic District [Georgia, pg. 610] 2006, 2008
- The French Quarter [New Orleans, LA, pg. 634] November 2002
- The New Orleans Restaurant Scene [New Orleans, LA, pg. 635] November 2002
- The Freedom Trail [Boston, MA, pg. 644] September 2005
- Tanglewood Music Festival [Lenox, MA, pg. 649] July 2010
- The Catskills [New York, pg. 671] - February 2011
- New York City [NYC, pg. 677] - 1995, 2004, 2010, 2011
- Historic Downtown New York [NYC, pg. 677] 2010, 2011
- Museum Mile [NY, NY, pg. 686] 2010, 2011
- The Biltmore Estate [Asheville, NC, pg. 689] July 2011
- The Heart of Charleston [South Carolina, pg. 706] August 2005, June 2006, June 2010
- Low Country Cuisine [Charleston, SC, pg. 707] August 2005, June 2006, June 2010
- Spoleto Festival USA [Charleston, SC, pg. 708] June 2006
- Memphis Rib Joints [Memphis, TN, pg. 712] October 2006
- Nashville's Music Scene [Nashville, TN, pg. 712] January 2006
- Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA, pg. 731] December 2008
- Pike Place Market [Seattle, WA, pg. 733] - April 2008
- The National Mall and It's Monuments [Washington, DC, pg. 734] December 2005, March 2006
- The Smithsonian and Beyond [Washington, DC, pg. 735] December 2005, March 2006

let me know if you have questions about any place on the list, 

I'd be happy to share my experiences with you, 

these are some of my favorite places that I've visited and seen!

don't forget to enter my giveaway! :)

what I'm loving wednesday...

happy wednesday! I'm so excited because in work-week terms today is actually my FRIDAY! hooray for a mini-vaca! I'm linking up with Jamie again, so here are some of the things that I'm loving this week...


I'm loving... that we're heading to NJ + Philadelphia and get to see some new sites and to see two sweet people tie the knot this weekend...

I'm loving... that I won another giveaway! Married... With a Pup was giving away her favorite makeup item, which is Laura Mercier's Pink Mosaic Shimmer Block! I got it and I love it, I'm so excited to wear it this weekend at the wedding... fancy! Thanks Katie!

I'm loving... that DJ and I got to spend so much time with our friends this week! It was so refreshing to catch up in person versus over the phone, emails, etc. Sometimes [really all the time] there is nothing better than a face-to-face chat! We were lucky enough to get to do it three days in a row! I'm also loving that when we had dinner with Brian last night we had sushi.... I haven't  had sushi in forever and I've missed it!

I'm loving... the show Switched at Birth - does anyone else watch it? I know, I'm a tween...

I'm loving... the two adorable pairs of shoes I got from Macy's this week....

[I got the gold ones in black]

I'm loving... my sweet puppy... [who I'm going to miss over the next five days, sad!]

...and my adorable husband... [who I'm excited get away with for the next five days!]

[from our last trip to NJ, summer 2010]

don't forget I'm hosting a UPrinting Giveaway, check it out and enter today!

alright, off to make my packing list for our trip - tonight = packingmania!

what are you loving on this fabulous wednesday?

UPrinting Giveaway!

I'm so excited to be hosting another Giveaway! UPrinting has offered up 250 flyers for one of my readers!

These would be great if you have an company [etsy? photography? underwater basket weaving?! anything!] that you want to promote. 

They'd also be great to promote your blog, events or for a fun get together. 

Don't have anything to promote? I'd make 4x6 postcards to send to your friends and family!

The details: 

Nightclub Flyers / Flyers

250 Flyers for one winner

4.25" x 5.5"OR 4" x 6"

14pt Cardstock Gloss, Front Only Printing,

[nightclub flyer templates and business flyer templates also available for download!]

3 Business Days Turnaround, *Free Shipping

Restriction: Limited to *US residents 18 years old and above only.

To Enter: Just be a follower of forever88 and leave a comment with your email by Sunday, July 31st!

Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given and I will receive night club flyers for hosting. For more information about flyers, please visit UPrinting.com

cracking up...

What a whirlwind of a few days... I had a nice relaxing weekend [with a surprise afternoon visit on Sunday from Lindi which included some pool time, heck yes].  Then I got stung by a bee, fail. It itches, but at least now I know I'm not allergic!


Then yesterday was a pretty quick/easy day at work including a lunchtime workout and a not too terrible commute home. When I got home Tiffani came over for dinner and we went out to the mall for some shopping/girl time - it was great and much needed! I missed her tons when she was in KY for her internship this summer! 


Tonight, DJ and I are having dinner with our friend Brian who is in town for business! Getting to see three of my closest friends in three days = success! Then tomorrow, is my "Friday"at work - because we're off to NJ/Philly for the weekend!


This morning has been kinda craptastic though so I turned to my old friend someecards for a bit of laughter and of course, they did not fail... they shared a link to "The Most Awkwardly Public Break-Ups in Facebook History" - oh man, we all know that facebook is the cause of lots of drama but these take it to that next level.... 

people are crazy.

[all images via]

f#ck yeah! Ryan Gosling....

with all the previews of Crazy, Stupid, Love going around it's reigniting my love for Ryan Gosling... I mean - he's pretty hard not to lust over love.  I'm super excited to see this movie [not just for him, but it seems like an enjoyable flick], I don't know if we will if we venture out to see it in the theaters though or just add it to the netflix queue [when did movies get so expensive?!]. Here's the trailer for it - what do you think will you see it in the theater or wait for DVD?

in related news, have you heard of the site F#ck Yeah! Ryan Gosling? it's one of my favs... I mean, who doesn't love Ryan Gosling?! Especially when he's talking right to you with his "Hey Girls..."

here are some of my faves....

seriously. I could go on and on and on forever...

they are pretty amusing - do yourself a favor and go check it out for yourself

just when you think it doesn't get any better - it does.

Ryan sharing some of his favorite "Hey Girls" with us...

[which is old news, it happened back in 2010 - but it's still pretty darn funny]

Chateau Elan Winery

so a few weeks back when Lindi came to visit we finally ventured over to the Chateau Elan Winery - I was excited because it's pretty close to our house and if we liked it we could frequent it more often [DJ had been there before and told me it wasn't anything special, what does he know - clearly, a LOT].


so first we paid our $10 for the tour/tasting... whatever, money aint a thang... but wait, it is - that's kinda a lot for a craptastic tour and to barely taste five [not very good] wines. I threw caution to the wind and we went for it. 


the tour started out with a video [bad sign #1], lindi then mentioned to me that she had already watched this video on the webpage [bad sign #2]. oh yes... and this was my view....

yeah, not very good.

so we went on and toured the facilities, nothing exciting, and our tour guide didn't know the answers to our questions [annoying?!].... 

then we ventured outside and tasted the grapes [yum]....

back inside to taste the wine [eeehh]....

and back outside to grab a few photos before heading home....

clearly, the best part of the experience was the company. 

I wouldn't recommend it, especially not the tour...

I think you can do the tasting for $5 which might not be bad depending on what they had. 

I say skip the winery and head over to Paddy's Pub for a Guinness! 

The First Husband - Laura Dave

I mentioned on Wednesday having just finished The First Husband, now that I've had a little bit of time to process it I just wanted to mention it again... seriously - this is one of the best books I've read in a long time. This novel by Laura Dave is definitely worth picking up. It tells the tale of Annie Adams and her relationships over the span of a year or so and her highs and lows and throughout it all her love for Roman Holiday...


The Huffington Post writes --


"Her protagonist, Annie Adams, has followed love around the world, and when we meet her, she is about to be left by her boyfriend of over five years. Almost immediately after, Annie enters into her first marriage to Griffin, her rebound boyfriend of three months. The novel tackles Annie's misunderstandings of marriage and her own role in a relationship. Annie yearns for her ex-boyfriend (in Los Angeles), but is faced with a new reality (in Massachusetts) that she has lost herself in. Eventually, Annie is forced to make a choice between men. Annie's sympathetic "thought parade" as Dave says, gives the reader insight into how she is able to become proactive in her own happiness."

I'm not going to lie - this book hit some personal notes with me as there are a lot of parallels between the novel and my life [having eloping with my husband after dating for less than two months within a few months of ending a previous relationship... and then moving to nowhere other than - Western Massachusetts...?!], it was uncanny how many times I nodded my head or laughed along with the book as she paints an accurate portrayal of the adjustments to marriage/moving/trying to find a job all at one time as well as the mess of figuring out who you are and what you want.  I don't want to divulge too much of the plot-line because I feel that it's a journey you have to follow along for yourself. I will say this book is an incredibly quick read and Dave writes extremely likable and relatable characters. I can't wait to reread this book in a year or so and experience it all over again [I love when it's been awhile since I've read a favorite and I forget the little details and it feels new to me again].  I definitely recommend picking it up! 


Head over to Undercover Blonde's Book Club Friday for more Summer Reading Recommendations! 

true story....

welcome to a day in the life.... we wake up... I'm getting dressed and I hear....


DJ: man, I didn't sleep well, I had really bad dreams
AJ: oh no, sorry babe...
DJ: yeah, I had a really bad nightmare
AJ: really? what about?
DJ: I had a dream I cheated on you?!
AJ: WHAT? WITH WHO?
DJ: a supermodel
AJ: [insert hysterical laughter] okay, weird.

too funny.

note to self: don't leave danny alone around supermodels.

I consider myself a lucky gal that he considered cheating on me 
with a supermodel a nightmare not a dream come true!

really?

normally I love [pretty much] everything that uncommongoods has to offer and I am a dog-lover through and through but I think this is taking it a bit too far...

seriously, I don't know if I'd spend $20 let alone $240 for a custom necklace of Oliver's "nose print" -- and let's discuss the "small print" -- 


"you will receive a mold kit with detailed instructions in order to complete the molds of your prints..."

what!? can you imagine trying to get a mold of your dog's nose - I can imagine this ending in a variety of ways [most of them including Oliver trying to eat the putty/whatever else is sent to get the mold]... also, not to insult anyone who finds this endearing but I don't think I'd want to wear a mold of Oliver's nose around my neck... well, then again, maybe - let's see...

who wouldn't want to wear this [ollie's adorable snout] around their neck?!

yeah, not so much.

if you're so inclined feel free to head over to uncommongoods and get one for yourself!

Antler Hill Village and Biltmore Bubbles!

here's the last bitlmore/asheville post [I swear!], after the gardens and touring the house we headed over to the Antler Hill Village [within the Biltmore Estate]to walk around the shops a bit and do some wine tasting!  the first thing we saw when we got out of the car were a small patch of sunflowers... how cool?! of course we wandered closer and took some pictures...

I wanted to go run through them and dance around [luckily we saw them before the wine tasting] then I remembered I was wearing a dress, sandals and didn't want ticks... so we ventured on to the winery!  the basic wine tasting is free [cha-ching, my kinda wine tasting!] so we walked around and toured the winery and then sampled a few [35? jk... like 10] wines.... the wines were alright, nothing that was so overwhelming that I felt the need to buy any...

from there we went and had some ice cream [and ate it before I could snap a picture], sat and chatted and ventured onto our "Biltmore Bubbles" tasting, it was great a 45 minute tour/tasting. We learned how sparkling wine is created, bottled and then most importantly... TASTED. We had a blast and even though it's a bit pricey [$18 a person] it was a great time and I'm so glad we did it!

such a great time at Antler Village, they have a lot of other things there like a farm [!!] but someone [AHEM Lindi] refused to go to the farm... so I will definitely have to return and check it out [AHEM Danny]!  Great way to wrap up a great visit at the Biltmore, I'm so excited to return!

what I'm loving wednesday...

well, here we are again - wednesday... nothing too exciting is going on in my world, just excited to be at the midpoint of this week [aka closer to the weekend]. I'm linking up with Jamie again so here's what I'm loving on this sunny georgia wednesday...


I'm loving... my fancy [friendship] bracelet that I won in whitney's giveaway... I've gotten lots of compliments on it this week! [and the sweet blog-award I got from her blog]

I'm loving... that whitney [yes, clearly I'm obsessed with her] taught me how to make my kindle read to me [hold down SYM and the "UP-ARROW" keys at the same time... you can do this with any kindle ebook that is text-to-speech compatible [who knew?! so easy]... I don't know how I could not figure that out for myself - thanks whit! this is making my commute go by so much faster and I love that I can just pick up where I left off in the car and read at home/at the gym...

I'm loving... that next week is a three day work week! hooray for celebrating a wedding an in NJ and a mini-vaca in philadelphia! 

I'm loving... bad TV... seriously. The Glee Project - terrible, terrible TV that I cannot turn off...

I'm loving... sugarfree creamsicles... seriously. ADDICTED.

I'm loving... The First Husband... I [literally] just finished this book with tears in my eyes and I think it's going to be one of those books that takes me a few days to process.  As someone who eloped after dating for a month just a few months after getting out of a serious relationship... and then picking up and leaving my life at the beach to move to Western Massachusetts to be with my husband let's just say a lot of this book hits very close to home!  The story is extremely moving and it's definitely and engaging and quick read - I don't want to say much more about the story or my take on it because I feel like it'll ruin it, but I'd love to process it with anyone who has read it!

...as always, I'm loving... my sweet monster of a pup... his poor allergies are acting up again and it breaks my heart to see him sick! 

...and I'm loving my [cranky-pants and sick but always adorable] husband...

[damn georgia allergies, of course they always both get sick at the same time...]

what are YOU loving on this fabulous july wednesday?

biltmore blooms...

one of my favorite parts about the Biltmore Estate were all the flowers that they had in the gardens and all around the grounds... here are a few of my favorites...

how cute is this idea too - making flower beds out of old suitcases...

just beautiful all around! 

maybe one day my thumb will finally turn green and I can learn to plant flowers of my own... for now I'll just daydream about cute gardening gloves and clogs and call it a a day. seriously though, I would love to go back to the Biltmore Gardens in the spring and see all the tulips!