5 Things I Did This Week: February 26 to March 3

1. Take a spin at the "healthy" thing.
I decided that for the month of March (with the exception of St. Patrick's Day and a work event) I am going to be healthy. I've never really done it before--even when I was training for the marathon, I still ate whatever I wanted--but I'm curious to see what kind of affect it might have on how I feel. The rules of my made up health plan are these:

• No alcohol
  With the afore mentioned exceptions, I'm sorry but a girl's gotta have a life!
• No refined sugars
• No bad carbs
• No excessively fatty foods
  For me, this is really targeted at the 1/2 cup of half-n-half I use in my coffee each morning...
• Limited red meat
  More focus on fish and chicken, but I would never cut red meat right out--I'M A ROWETON FOR GOD'S SAKE.
• Daily exercise
  To varying degrees of difficultly, but daily all the same.

As I was looking around for meal plan ideas, I found this Mediterranean Diet that's along the lines of what I'm going for. Except that diet allows for 1 glass of red wine a day, which I'm still trying to avoid. I guess all in all, this is a pretty standard list of healthier living habits, but the idea is to go all in for March. So, we'll see how it goes!


2. Draw the 3911 Cannon Court embroidery.
Mom recently did the coolest embroidery of the Roweton Ranch. So, since I'm looking to leave Cannon Court soon, we thought it would be fitting to do one of my house as well! Here's what we've gotten so far...

3. Try out an ascot.
What better way to try out a quirky little ascot than with a leather skirt and monochrome outfit, that's what I always say. Now that I've done the ascot for the first time...I think I like it! There might be more in my future...that's for sure!

4. Watch the Oscars.
The only way to watch the Academy Awards is with the wonderful, knowledgeable Sue Roweton. In addition to adorable decor, Oscar bingo and ballets, she also know almost everything about every Academy Award winner, nominee and random person in the background of a shot. It's entertaining to say the least! If you want to check out my review of the Oscar Best Picture nominees, click here.

5. Visit Dad at the Sale Barn.
This was a random idea my mom had, which usually turn out to be really great. And this one was no exception! It was interesting and smelly and that's all I have to say about that.

5 Things I Did This Week: February 19 to 25

1. Try a new St. Louis restaurant.
Usually when we go out for Sunday breakfast, Nana and Bob get to pick. But this time...I DID! I chose one of the few breakfast places on my St. Louis Restaurants List: Yolklore. Bob said that he and his friends had talked about it and they knew it was a trendy place for young, hip kids because the menu prices were all in single digits. I didn't even realize that was a stereotype! Anyway, the food was pretty good, but I'm not falling over myself to go back.

On our day apartment hunting, we also found ourselves in Maplewood driving by Reeds American Table. This one has been on my list for a while and I definitely wasn't disappointed! We sat at the bar and watched the bartenders whip up breakfast cocktails and make our cappuccinos. Aaron thought the menu was a bit too trendy, but I loved my Gouda/prosciutto/fried egg/croissant breakfast sandwich. I'll probably never get him to go back, but next time, I'm taking a gal pal and getting one of those delicious looking cocktails!

Bonus! Aaron introduced ME to a new restaurant. He tends to stick with what we know (Imo's, Wasabi...more Wasabi), but this time he was determined to take me to a "burger joint" off of Manchester called Carl's Drive-in. When we finally found the place, it was worth the wait! Greasy, skinny burgers with root beer floats on bright red bar seats with snarky waitresses. Exactly what you'd imagine of a "burger joint."

2. Put my pro/con skills to use. 
The main intent of this St. Louis trip was to find a new dwelling. Aaron's lease is up on March 31 and now that I'm making move, he needs some digs that are a bit more woman-friendly. So, we toured a couple of rental options, including two that my company owns: The Residences at Forest Park Hotel and The Lofts at Lafayette Square. Perhaps you remember them from my rebrand a couple weeks ago? Anyway, the two Fairway Management properties (that's one of the JES Holdings' companies) were leaps and bounds above the other places we toured and soon we had it narrowed down to one unit in each of the two buildings. Thus...a pro/cons list was inevitable.

3. Just lounge and be lazy.
Sometimes, I go a whole week without wearing anything interesting or challenging at all. So, for this week, I thought I might post a little insight into my favorite jammy situation, AKA: what I wear anytime I'm not at work on a week day...pretty much my at-home uniform: old (but very soft) recruitment shirts, thermal fitted pants (wide-bottom pants are the worst for sleeping in) and slippers.

4. Visit the Science Center.
In retrospect, Saturdays are not an ideal day to visit free museums...but it was a great way to kill time between apartment tours on a rainy day in February. Aaron had never been before and we enjoyed ourselves as we wandered through exhibits in geology, biology, paleontology, astrology and...architecture (wow, that one really threw off my groove).

5. Enjoy accidental fresh flowers.
These are leftover from last week when I was so disorganized and distracted that I failed to communicate with my co-baby-shower-planner and accidentally bought flowers, even though I had assigned that task to my co-baby-shower-planner. Sometimes I really piss myself off. Anyway, they made for a nice little brightening to my weekdays...especially since my TV is not longer bright...in that it's broken. UGH. I don't want to talk about it.

#picturegameweak #weakweek

5 Things I Did This Week: January 29 to February 4

1. Try a local, Jackson Hole brew.
For the better part of this week, I was venturing around in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I am so excited to visit my dear friend Elizabeth and catch up with Abbie. A trip to a new city isn't complete unless you indulge in at least one local beer. In Jackson Hole, I managed to try an IPA from each of the three major, local breweries. I would give you a review of these brews, but as Aaron pointed out over the phone, "I don't think you've ever met a beer you didn't like."

Snake River Brewing   |   Roadhouse Brewing Co.  |  Melvin Brewing

2. Rebrand our St. Louis Amenity Sheets.
We have two, market rate* communities in St. Louis: The Lofts at Lafayette Square (in Lafayette Square) and The Residences at Forest Park Hotel (in the Central West End). Both are amazingly beautiful buildings and their's is among some of our more fun branding endeavors. We recently did a website rebrand for the two communities, so a print material rebrand was naturally next on the list. Do these "Amenity Sheets" make you want to move-in immediately, or what?

The Lofts at Lafayette Square

The Residences at Forest Park Hotel

3. Can you say, Snow Bunny?
Well, I didn't say it was the cutest snow bunny you'd ever seen...

4. Finish the Guestroom.
My pre-vacation project was to finish the guestroom. Since the walls are already painted, this meant that I would "fine-tune" some of the details of the room: paint the trim and window/door frames, paint the inside of the closet, replace the outlets, replace the air vent and paint the air ducts. Although this doesn't seem like a very big big undertaking...it freaking is. I promise you. Since I was going out of town Wednesday night, the magic had to happen in the three days I had time after work. But, it happen it did!

5. Tour the Grand Teton National Park.
On our first full day in Wyoming, we went Cross Country Skiing. Elizabeth used to give park tours via XC Ski Trips, so she taught us the skiing techniques and knew the best routes to go on. Our little trail traveled right alongside the Grand Teton mountain range and it was breathtaking. Most importantly, we learned that the Grand Tetons were named by a French explorer, translating to "Large Nipple." So, that was amazing.

For the full Jackson Hole tour, click here!

5 Things I Did This Week: January 22 to 28

1. Improve the daily juice.

In the last month's of Roweton's Home Center, I was lucky enough to procure a juicer. I've learned a lot in the two months of my juicer owners:

• It takes a LOT of fruits and veggies to make a juice.
• It's ok to mix fruits and veggies in the same juice.
• Cleaning up juicer equipment is a reeeeeeal bitch.

Anyway, my go-to juice was: 1/2 grapefruit + apple + 1/2 cucumber + 8ish carrots + spinach. But when Aaron came in town, we got a little juice crazy and I think I've made some improvements! This week it was: orange (rind removed) + apple + 1/2 lemon + 8ish carrots + 1/2 cucumber + spinach...and it was delicious! And Aaron agreed, which is the real acheivement.

Hehe, I made it look like a cocktail. Even though it's just a juice...hehe.

2. Share the (cross stitching) love.
After I posted the cute little picture of my dino cross stitch at my desk, a co-worker of mine expressed interest in the project and I offered to teach her how to do it! So, I put together this little Cross Stitching Kit for her! Then, I taught her how to do it over lunch one day. It was super easy to share and the materials didn't even cost that much:

• Hoop: $1.20
• Thread: $2.50
• (2) Needles: $1.50
• Fabric: $0.50*
• Pattern: FREE
• TOTAL: $5.70

*I just cut the fabric out of a large bolt I had, so this is just an estimate?

3. Swap a necklace with a bow.

You might've caught my "sweater hack" on my InstaStory earlier this year. It's a clever little trick where you tie a ribbon bow and pin it to your sweater--a stylish little look I've seen around my mom bloggers lately. This week, I thought I might try it on a non-sweater top in place of a necklace. You know how sometimes you put on a top that needs a longer necklace, but also you can't stand to mix metals and the zipper on your skirt is that weird goldish silver color? Oh, is that just me? Anyway, that's a real life problem I have and a cute little bow makes for a great necklace when the problem presents itself.

4. Paint more things white.

You know I love white house things: trim, walls, doors, fixtures! And while I have transformed most of my very oak-house-things home to white at this point, there are still a couple more projects to makeover. This week, it was the trim in the guestroom and the inside of the front door (and some touch-ups to the stairwell). I have NOT been in a painting mood lately, so I reeeeally had to drag myself through this one. But, it's done now and I can move on to the next painting project...guestroom walls and "the tall wall" perhaps?

5. Write Color a letter.

Last weekend, in The Great Purge of 2018, I discovered a 3-ring binder of colored child's coloring book pages, arranged neatly in page protectors. PAGE PROTECTORS. I'm a psycho. Anyway,  instead of purging the binder (like I most definitely should have), I got the idea that I might write letters on the colored pages and mail them out into the world, well, my friends specifically. This week, I sent out a blue kitty (Abbie), a princess (Lindsey) and, what I am pretty sure is, Puffy the Magic Dragon (Richard). Fair warning, Abbie: I have a LOT of colorful kitties headed your way. 

5 Things I DID This Week: January 15 to 21

I used to do this weekly series called "5 Things to Try This Weekend/Week" (check them out) that I thought I might try to revive? The formula, I believe, was:

1. Food   |   2. Craft   |   3. Style   |   4. Project   |   5. Misc

But you know what would be even better? If I didn't make the list in advance and put all this pressure on myself to definitely do five things even if they don't end up meshing with my week. Instead, I'll give you a recap on 5 Things I DID This Week...

1. Make 4 fabulous, grocery-free meals.I wish I would have taken photos of all of these, but I didn't know I was going to do this until Wednesday, so here we are. The lesson to be learned from this thing is: FREEZING FOOD IS AMAZING. Especially if you're making dinner for one.

• Monday: Creamy Artichoke & Spinach Pasta
  All made with pantry items, frozen spinach and, of course, I do always have cream on hand for coffee purposes, so that was a big part of it. Also, I'm sorry, but can anyone else just eat artichokes from the can? It's probably disgusting, but I love them.
• Tuesday: Chicken + Veggie Stirfry
  Oh, stirfry. You make meals on the fly possible. I just prepared LoMein noodles with a skillet of frozen chicken and veggies, plus a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Wednesday: Cheesy Spinach Pizza
  Pizza dough mix and sauce are the best weapons to have in your pantry artillery. I always have shredded cheese (although I actually didn't this time and had to grate block cheese) literally any veggie toppings will do.
• Thursday: Tuna Casserole
  I kinda had to wing this one, because I didn't have cream of mushroom soup (the easiest way apparently). It was my first time making tuna casserole and it was pretty damn good!

2. Upcycle a canvas drop-cloth into curtains.

A couple weeks ago, Sam gave me a canvas paint drop-cloth that went unused from his fraternity homecoming efforts. I got back to Columbia early on Sunday and the urge took me. Thank to my mother having now walked me through how to make curtains, not once but twice, I crafted the heck out of that drop-cloth. I wish I would've made this a tutorial, but alas, at leas you can check out the final product...

3. Wear a whole week of "easy hair."
For which my hair is very grateful. Learn more about "easy hair" here...

4. Purge the house.

My fella came in town this weekend to help me do some getting ready to move things. I'm not planning to make the move for another couple of months, but condensing this house down into an apartment is foreboding as hell. We spent a solid couple hours of both weekend days going through our respective areas and sorting everything into Goodwill, Trash and Keep Piles. After the piles were sorted and dropped off, we treated ourselves to a motorcycle ride and Andy's custard. Sunday was the perfect day for it!

5. Actually read books (instead of audiobook'ing).

Of my list of 35 books completed in 2017, I would say 90% of them were audiobooks...shameful! I know. But this week, I actually put in some good time with two non-listening books (an eBook and an actual, real-life paperback book). I'm slooooowly working my way through "A Little Life," which is so good, but soooo long, and investigating the logistics of possibly renting my house with a book my grandpa gave me called "Landlording on Autopilot." The downside of audiobooks is that even though they are 100% more convenient and you can listen to them while doing anything else, they have actually made me very reading book lazy. Ha, though it is understandable if I'm struggling to motivate myself to read a book called "Landlording on Autopilot..." 

5 Things to Do This Week: June 16 - 22

1. Make dinner for ME. I am usually making dinner for Becca, or Aaron when he is around, and they are pretty darn picky eaters. So, while Aaron is in California and Becca is at dinner with a friend, I'm going to make myself a little pasta...with tomatoes...and spinach (both of which they hate). I mean, look at this meal from Budget Bytes. They are SO picky to not want to try this!

Creamy Tomato & Spinach Pasta

2. Organize my craftroom. For the last five years of my life, I've been crafting out of small closest crammed with boxes of supplies. It is not an easy way to live a crafty life. But now that I have a house, I have an entire space devoted to me and my favorite hobby. During the move-in process, the boxes were just moved from the closet in my apartment to the closet in the craft room. So, now it's time to spread out my supplies into an easily-accessible arrangement.

3. Bring out the blazers. Jeffrey E. Smith of JES Holdings will be in the office this week and I look forward to the challenge of bringing out my blazers. I have four of them and would like to see what new (yet professional) outfits I can pull-off over the week.

4. Launch the big landscaping project. Yikes. Here we go. The first project from the "High Difficulty" column of my project chart. After discussing the project with green-thumbed Nana, I decided to hold off on most of the actual planting. She has offered to split some of her plants, which has to be done in the spring...or the fall, apparently. Anyway, this weekend will be about the edging and the "foundation" of the landscaping. I've sketched up an idea of what I'm going for...

5. Spend an afternoon out of the office. Our monthly social event is to Les Bourgeois. We did this last year as well and it was just splendid. I am looking forward to taking Friday afternoon off to overlook the Missouri River while I sip on some Riverboat Red.


*   *   *

1. Make dinner for ME. The pasta was delicious! I enjoyed it right after I made it and then I enjoyed it again when I took it to lunch every day after that. I highly recommend this recipe. It only cost $3.72 to make and I had five meals worth of food. Incredible.

2. Organize my craftroom. Once everything was in it's place, I printed and laminated my labels. I know myself well enough to know that I'll probably get an itch to move things around someday and I want labels that are as easily changeable as my mind.

3. Bring out the blazers. I actually had a lot of fun planning my blazer outfits for the week. I decided to do two dress outfits and one more casual...this is what I would wear if we had casual Fridays...but our "casual" days means khakis (blurg), so I don't get to wear cute things like this.

4. Launch the big landscaping project. That was a fail. I did nothing of the sort. Sorry people...maybe later.

5. Spend an afternoon out of the office. Well, it was a lovely afternoon to not be indoors, but it might have been a little too fun. Either way, I had fun while I was there and the drinks and snacks were just a delight. Can't wait for next month's social event!

An Apology Post

Hi.

I'm a little nervous composing this post today, because I've been away awhile and honestly, I'm quite rusty. I owe you a lot, my readers: a review of Las Vegas, an update on homeownership, about 40 things to try on the weekends and an apology. As my co-worker has reminded me (about twice a week), I am well on my way to getting kicked off the bookmark list...shameful. But alas, I'm here now and here it all is:


A Review of Las Vegas

Crazy, people.

With crazy people. Honestly, that was the best part. It was so great to be with the old college crew.

We gambled, we ate overpriced meals, we took plenty of pictures, we waited in hour-long lines for clubs, we paid $20 for drinks, we accidently stayed out till 5:30 a.m., we napped, we rode the roller coaster, we saw the Bellagio fountains, we wandered through Caesar's Palace, we sunbathed...oh, and we SKYDIVED.

How fun are those pictures? It was just as fun as it looks.


An Update on Homeownership

Well, I have officially lived in my house for three weeks. Phew, it hasn't felt like that long. I took a lot of before photos of the empty house, but I am determined to take the decorating/beautifying a little bit at a time. When I moved into the Katy Place apartment, I went a little crazy attempting to prepare the place perfectly within the first month. But I've learned now, I want to collect nice things and build a lovely home...slowly. For starters, I bought this beautiful dresser and mirror set today. It was quite an adventure and a big thanks to Taylor, Allie and Aaron for helping me find and secure and move that precious dresser. Check it out:

In other house news, I've been brainstorming pretty thoroughly on projects around the house and it is actually very overwhelming. There is just so much that I want to do that I don't know where to start...a problem I rarely encounter. But I made up a list of projects, which I then categorized by difficulty/time commitment and then ranked by importance. So now, I'm going through my calendar and scheduling the projects. Medium- and high-difficulty projects for the weekends (when I'm not out of town) and one low-difficulty project during the week. I even dug out the old uncalendar for the occasion!


About 40 Things to Try on the Weekends

Summers are pretty crazy, so I would like to take a break from trying 5 things every weekend and instead try 5 things every week. Maybe you want to plan things to do over your week as well? Brainstorm:

1. Make homemade salsa (and margaritas).
2. Treat yourself to Starbuck's Frappy Hour!
3. Yum...summer pasta salad.
4. Attempt a treat on your Pinterest food board.
5. Make yourself some high-waisted, cut-off shorts.
6. Rock that crop top.
7. Try a T-shirt transformation.
8. Plan a road trip and start saving!
9. Summer cross-stitch project...could be cool.
10. Try the high pony.
11. Find a stunning summer hat.
12. Make a summery smoothie.
13. Do a mook (movie-book) combo.
14. Maxi. So much maxi.
15. Bloody mary over brunch, with the girls.
16. Matching patterned shorts and top outfit. (Oh, yes I will.)
17. Whip up some spiked summer lemonade.
18. Treat yourself to a summer nail polish color.
19. Plant an herb garden.
20. Discover a new blog to love.
21. New sunglasses for you.
22. Spray paint your cheap patio furniture.
23. Make your entryway magnificent!
24. Enjoy the evening on the porch/patio/deck with book.

25. Take on a project you are terrified to try.

26. Find a festival and go!

27. Plant some perennials: peonies, daylilies or chinese astilbe.

28. Create a summery centerpiece.
29. Spend the weekend by the water.
30. Show your patriotism with an American-themed wreath.
31. Go antiquing!
32. Take advantage of a local attraction.

33. Plan a road trip to visit a friend.

34. Go boho.

35. Prepare your beach/pool bag essentials.

36. Red, white and blue jello shots? Yes.

37. Get rid of three items in your closet.

38. Vanity makeover.
39. Bonfire with friends.
40. Please see some live music...

Didn't think I could do it, did ya? I also dug up this old Pinterest board from two summers ago. Good times. Now, you will probably see some of these pop up again over the summer. So don't get your panties in a wad over repeats!

Hopefully this post will get me back into blogging business. Thanks for staying with me through the silence! See ya next week for the first Five Things to Try This WEEK post!

5 Things to Try This Weekend: May 9 - 11

Sorry I missed ya last weekend! I was just caught up in life and stuff and couldn't get the post up...or manage to do 5 semi-interesting things. This weekend, though, I'm headed home for all kinds of fun!

1. Try a Budget Byte. As required by my mom, I occasionally listen to the NPR: Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. At the end of each podcast, the host and guests share what's making them happy each week . One week, Linda (the wonderful host) shared about a blog called Budget Bytes. These kinds of recipes are right up my alley...cheap, easy and tasty. I just went on a printing-spree and have a bunch of new recipes that I'm sure the family would love to help me sample!

2. Give Mom a DIY gift! I have a lovely little gift I whipped up and am waiting to give mom. Another piece for her craft room that I hope she likes as equally as I liked making it!

3. Mother-Daughter mock outfit. You heard me. Mom, Becca and I have been browsing out excellent files of old photos to find the perfect photo to recreate. Here are some ideas we've considered...

Hahaha, so pretty cute faces for us to try and mimic.

4. Start a new show with mom. Mom always knows the best new shows or movies to watch when I'm home. No matter what plans I put in the Weekend Home Itinerary, we always end up on some kind of show-watching benge.

5. Springfield garage saling. The weather is getting nice and I've been itching to shop through other peoples' trash to find treasures! Mom has a good eye for treasures, so I like to utilize her good taste (and SUV) when I'm home. Hopefully the weather permits!

5 Things to Try This Weekend: April 25 - 27

1. Try a recipe from Grandma Rose's book. My wonderful Grandma Rose, puts together the sweetest collection of recipes into a book for each of her female grandchildren. She gave me mine a few weekends ago when I was home and I've decided I need to try one of her recommended dishes.

2. Fall for floral fashion. It's everywhere, have you noticed? Floral fashion is just so lovely for spring and I'd like to see what kind of fun floral outfits I have in my closet.

3. Do an illustration. I don't get to doodle much now that I don't sit through classes for five hours a day, but JES is participating in the Business School 5k next weekend and we've dreamed up a doodles design for the front. I can't wait to actually put a pencil to paper that isn't making a to do list.

4. Play a little catch-up. We were let out of work early on Friday! Woohoo! What a treat :) But I didn't quite get all my things done for last week (notice this post being done on Sunday, oops). So, I'm making a trip to the office for the afternoon to get ahead of the game before another week attacks me with projects.

5. Get glowing! I'm signed up to do the Glow Run on Saturday and I've already started stockpiling my neon. I love a fun 5k and it's nice not to have to wake up early for an 8:00 AM run! The glow run starts at 8:00 PM and I'm sure the breezy, spring weather will be perfect for a little jog.

*     *     *

1. Try a recipe from Grandma Rose's book. Italian Penne Bake: chicken, onion, garlic, parsley, penne, cheese, bread crumbs and tomatoes. Emphasis on the tomatoes, which Aaron does NOT like and complained about the entire time and well into our goodnight phone call. Though, for all his complaining, he still ate about four-fifths of the dish. It was delicious! Thank you Grandma Rose!

2. Fall for floral fashion. My favorite of my floral pieces is this Lauren Conrad blouse from Kohl's. I've been dying to try out my new white, crop pants for a while, but wasn't sure what shoes you wear with white pants (when you don't have white shoes). I went with bright red to pull out some of the color in the top. I think it turned out nicely!

3. Do an illustration. I was so excited with how my JES/5k doodle turned out! You can see in the next picture how it looks as a graphic, which I'm even more pleased with.

4. Play a little catch-up. I don't have a picture of me "playing catch-up" on Sunday, but this is me enjoying my Monday because I already did all the crappy things on my office to do list.

5. Get glowing! I like to think of the Glow Run as the watered down version of Dayglow, which also happened on Saturday night. It was much more my style, as far as colorful-sweaty-things-you-pay-to-participate-in go. We had a great time doing Zumba pre-race, racing and then having a little dance party post-race. Not to mention digging up all the neon for our awesome outfits!

5 Things to Try This Weekend: April 18 - 20

1. Peeps + Cadbury Eggs. It wouldn't be Easter without my favorite candy of all time. All these other holiday's think they've got something special to bring to the candy table...candy canes, candy corn, conversation hearts. But everyone knows that Easter has the BEST candy: peeps + cadbury eggs. It's a dream come true.

2. Rock the shirt knot. I've been seeing this around the blogosphere and it's just so cute! I've decided to give it a try this weekend, perhaps with a maxi skirt? I'm not sure I have any shirts that are over-sized enough to pull it off, but I'm sure I'll manage.

3. Try a DIY planter. As the world outside greens, I want a little green for my apartment/home. I've looked up some super cute planter ideas and have a few in mind that I'd like to try this weekend. Of course, I can only plant succulents because I am a horrible plant keeper.

4. (One more) Spring Cleaning Challenge: bring order to my purse and card. These non-home items seem to get away from me. I need to give the purse a serious de-clutter and the car needs a vacuum like you wouldn't believe. 

5. Put the inspiration boards to use. Now that I've got my cork-clipboards, I've got to put them to use with all my home decor inspiration! I plan to spend the weekend gathering ideas and "pinning" them to my "boards" (Pinterest jokes).

*     *     *

1. Peeps + Cadbury Eggs. Ooooh they were so delightful. I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the year's best holiday candy!

2. Rock the shirt knot. There it is. Paired with a chevron maxi skirt and the tassel necklace. It was pretty comfortable and an easy way to jazz up a simple outfit. I mean...vneck + knot + maxi = done.

3. Try a DIY planter. Ok, I went a little planter crazy. Look forward to my three planter ideas for Mother's Day gifts post coming up soon! I think I'll be keeping the pictured little gem I have here. It's so fun to wake up to on my nightstand!

4. (One more) Spring Cleaning Challenge: bring order to my purse and card. I officially vacuumed my car for the first time in...EVER. Embarrassing, I know. But it wasn't too bad. The purse is thoroughly de-cluttered as well. I officially claim spring cleaning complete. Thank GOD.

5. Put the inspiration boards to use. I had so much fun doing some real-life Pinteresting with my "pins" (magazine clippings, paint swatches and fabric bits) and "boards" (cork-clipboards). It was the perfect way to pass Saturday afternoon and now I have all kinds of great inspiration for my new house!

As you may have seen via Instagram (or pictured above), I have a little bike wreck. Sunday was the perfect afternoon for a bike ride and after running some errands, I pumped up the tires, filled up a water bottle and hit the pavement...literally. I had my earbuds in and I thought my gears might be off, so I started pulling them out of my ears, while trying to brake. Apparently, I hit the brakes a little too hard and flipped the bike over on the handle bars along with myself. UGH. It hurt like hell...and there were two spectators, who I ignored as I climbed back on the bike. Determined not to be another victim of bike wrecks, I braved the steep decline from our apartment onto the MKT trail. Once I was on the level trail, I felt much better and managed to bike all the way Hindman Junction, which is where the MKT meets the Katy trail, about 8 miles out and another 8 miles back. It was a great ride! Though I was all kinds of sore this morning...

5 Things to Try This Weekend: April 11 - 13

1. A bonfire with s'mores. On Saturday, Aaron and I are going down to the lake to stay the night with Zak and Jordan. Apparently, they have come by some extra wood and are having a little warm-weather bonfire. Of course, a bonfire isn't complete with s'mores! In celebration of our s'mores, check out this list of incredible recipes to make in honor of the best bonfire treat.

2. Try out some spring-inspired outfits. Yesterday I did a post of my what inspiring my style this spring: floral dresses, white jeans, nude heals, pastel purses, etc. This weekend, I'm planning to put together some go-to outfits for the season.

3. Make some practical inspiration boards. As I start daydreaming about my home-to-be, I keep getting great ideas that I need to keep track of. I'm not sure exactly how I want to make my inspiration boards, but I want to have one for each room of my house...and I'd like them to be versatile, in the sense that I can 1) move them around and 2) change the theme of the board. Here are some ideas I like!

Maratha Stewart  //  Bad Link  //  Bad Link 

4. The FINAL spring cleaning challenge: the living room. There is literally the word "DUST" written in the dust on our TV stand. I've been putting off another cleaning challenge, but I just can't do it any longer. I'll just need to wipe down all the dusty surfaces, clean the windows and vacuum. I'll probably give the couch a good wipe down as well.

5. Use my new car stereo! Happy late birthday to me! After a few considerations for birthday gifts (and a couple of months), my mom struck gold with the idea for a car stereo. I recently updated the music on my phone and need a way to play it in my 2001 Corolla. Mom got me this lovely stereo with an auxiliary AND a USB port! I'm so excited to give it a go during our drive to the lake this weekend.

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1. A bonfire with s'mores. Our day at the lake was so much fun! We drove down and arrived around 1:00 p.m. and the fun began. We played some brisbee, took a ride on the golf cart and bonfire'd. The night wasn't over till we watched a little Jumanji...which we had to finish the next morning.

2. Try out some spring-inspired outfits. I've got all kinds of plans for spring outfits to wear to work that transform into after-work outfits. I'm hoping to try one out today...so I'll try to post some pictures.

3. Make some practical inspiration boards. So, I decided to take clipboards and cover them with corkboard. It turned out really well and the edges look surprisingly good with a little sanding down. The only issue I've encountered is that the cork is too thin for regular tacks. I'm currently on the hunt for a shorter tack...if anyone knows of them?

4. The FINAL spring cleaning challenge: the living room. Ok...this is a lie. I haven't done it yet. BUT I WILL THIS WEEK, I promise.

5. Use my new car stereo! Isn't it beautiful! We were having some issues with the songs scanning randomly between songs, which was annoying to say the least. But my handy boyfriend solved that issue and we jammed all the way to the lake. Disclosure: Just because you fix my stereo problems, doesn't earn you the right to play your music.