Life

Weekend Recap – Easter 2018

| The Bee Life

Happy April! So glad to see a month that really makes you think spring – growing up March was always a bit of snow and a bit of sunshine, to be expected. But our Easter weekend was jammed back, yet so much fun.  With a much over-due trip to my parents, we headed in Friday to take advantage of as much of the weekend as we could!
Weekend Recap - Easter 2018 - the bee life
With a weekend full of delicious eats, like a NY fish fry, gourmet donuts with fried chicken, hometown pizza, bubbles with a side of friends and family it was all of my favorite things.  We caught up with K+T, Saturday morning and ventured to a hipster hot-spot called Boxcar and indulged on the finer things in life; donuts, coffee and fried chicken, among other things. It was so good and the perfect spot to relax, chat and people watch. We haven’t seen them since the wedding so it was great catching up with them and getting in person hugs!

Easter celebrations with the family consisted of some of the extended family coming over for some yummy pizza, laughs and spirits on Saturday – I always love that we can make time to see more of the family when we come into town, sometimes it goes too long! Church was super early Sunday morning, but worth it being followed up with some bloody mary’s, Mom’s homemade waffles and fully belly’s.

We ended our night with a super fancy Easter dinner… a bottomless bucket of popcorn at the Cavs game – yup we’re crazy, but they pulled out a good win.  It was an exhausting weekend, but so much fun and so great seeing everyone!

How did you spend your Easter?

 

#EmnBWed – The Girls

| The Bee Life

For an avid Bee readers, I’ve mentioned there would be more wedding photos to come! Well today’s the day… in the effort to not completely take the Bee Life over with wedding I’ll be featuring groupings every now and then from our special day!

One of the things I love the most about our wedding photos were my getting ready shots at the house. Our master suite turned out to be a clutch spot to not only get ready but snap beautiful candids and portraits with my girls… including my number one, Moz! *heart-eyed emoji*
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So many of the candids of getting the dress on/all tied up (which seemed like an eternity during the time) with finishing jewelry touches are so stunning and perfect. Timothy Logan Photography did a wonderful job not only capturing the space and making it look stunning but also putting the pieces of the morning together. I’ve been trying to scheme on what else we could have shot up in our space, maybe some boudoir shots?

Hope you enjoyed a few of these just as much as I do!

Xo

Weekend Recap – Birthday Fun

| The Bee Life

These past two weekends have been full of birthday celebrations! It was great being able to celebrate my birthday two weekends in a row with family and dear friends, sweet treats and lots of bubbles… all of my favorite things!
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When my family was in town we headed to Bar 32, a newer hot spot with awesome views of the city.  It’s a ‘rooftop’ bar on the 32nd floor with views for miles right along the lake, with a bit higher end menu of drink options. We enjoyed a few drinks here, the views and ordered a gigantic pretzel to share with the table, everything was so delicious!  From there we headed home grabbed some pizza, blew out some candles.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of my birthday celebrations was the night before, B and I went out to dinner to one of our favorite spots in town and had some bubbles and a great meal.  It was nice spending uninterrupted time as just the two of us, and a great way to really kickoff my actual birthday weekend.
20Weekend Recap - Birthday Fun - the bee life I took my birthday off and enjoyed a three day weekend!  Started the day with an early morning workout with B, my birthday workout – and honestly the perfect way to start the day! From there I ran a bunch of errands and got some things ready as we hosted a bunch of our friends over for an informal birthday party. It was fun having our nearest and dearest friends over for more celebrations, and a great excuse to have everyone over.

This past birthday, I truly felt so special and spoiled by all of our friends and the family, it’s been so great to bring in another year without focusing on the actual number!

Cheers for another year!

 

Birthday Reflections

| The Bee Life

Another wonderful year has come and gone, and I’m looking straight into the eyes of 28. Eek! So in order to celebrate and share, here is a hodgepodge of 28 things about me, things I learned about myself this past year and inspiration for my new year!
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Here we go!!

  1. I will always love birthday cake.
  2. The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie as a kid #rubyslippers
  3. Every year I would get a ‘Nancy’ cake and they were usually Disney princess themed growing up
  4. I love champagne, but it’s also one of the only alcoholic beverages that agrees with my stomach
  5. Hidden Talent: Dog Whisperer
  6. I am an avid scrapbooker and started in high school – I probably have about 10 and counting large 12×12 scrapbooks
  7. I hope to get more into interior design this year with projects beyond my own home
  8. When I golf, I only need 3-clubs: a driver, iron and putter and I’m not that bad
  9. Crafty especially in the homemade card department
  10. I prefer to cook without a recipe, but baking, recipe needed
  11. I have two godmother’s, but no godfather.
  12. This past year I learned I can go without eating pizza for months!
  13. I can recite The Wedding Singer, line for line, among many other movies…
  14. Dancing is one of my favorite things to do
  15. I’m really good at games; Scrabble, Cards, Connect 4, Wii Bowling (sitting), you name it… bring it on!
  16. Vanilla frosting, vanilla cake, rainbow sprinkles
  17. Fruit and desserts are two food groups I could live off of
  18. When I was little, I swallowed a plum pit, because I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to eat it!
  19. I have a super high pain threshold
  20. This past year I learned I am stronger than I think I am
  21. Pink and gold are my favorite colors
  22. Growing up my dream job was to be a CIA agent, like Sydney Bristow
  23. I love fast cars, like Lamborgini’s and Ferrari’s
  24. My Starbucks order started as a Carmel Frappuccino, I now order Red Eyes
  25. B and I were both characters from Wizard of Oz for Halloween, multiple years
  26. I don’t like going to the movies
  27. I wish I could’ve known my grandpa
  28. I dream of the mountains

It was really hard to think of 28-things because I didn’t want to overshare, but I also didn’t want to bore you! Did I miss something that you’re dying to know? Leave a comment and I’ll be sure to answer!

Cheers!

Latest Obsessions 03.18

| The Bee Life

With March being my favorite month, my latest obsessions are full of more of my favorite things! Craving sunshine, sweet summer vacays while keeping busy in these cold months with scandalous TV shows and swooning over our beautiful wedding memories.
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Our Wedding Pictures. I received the edited photos pretty quick, but recently received all of the raw images, that was a field day going through ALL of those pictures. Most of them being full of bloopers and blinks, good for a chuckle, but there were a few gems in there that I just heart-eyed emojied over. I am planning to tease some more wedding pictures this year on the blog, so get ready!

Red Bathing Suits. I am ready for summer, and I am ready for some new suits! With my significant weight loss this past year – I am feeling great in my body and actually looking forward to bathing suit season! I am loving red/orangey suits, whether it’s this one-piece from Target, or this fun ruffle top with a mixed printed bottom from Old Navy. Athleta also has this strappy red one piece that I have my eyes on.

A Sunny Vacay. So being summer ready and bathing suit ready, I need someplace to soak up some rays! We were blessed last year to be able to go on four-great trips, three of which were full of sunshine, bathing suits and lazy days.  So we are looking forward to hitting the road and getting out of town to soak up some more sunshine in my red bathing suits!

Versace. Well, let me clarify, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on FX.  We loved watching OJ vs. the People the first of the series, mainly because that happened when B and I were too young to remember! The acting in both of these series is beyond amazing, Darren Criss has transformed into the super creepy Andrew Cunanan and the rest of the cast is uncanny to their inspired real-life characters. Not to mention the music in the show is sooo on point!

What’ve you been obsessing over? What have you been binging to satisfy the cold months and what vacays or summer fun are you looking forward to?

 

 

Image Sources: Versace | Vacay | Timothy-Logan Photography

 

Cabi – Spring Fashion Preview

| The Bee Life

The spring collection of Cabi is full of pastels, fun patterns and bold shapes – all designed with inspiration from Spain. In case you missed it; I shared a preview for the Fall/Winter 2017 collection this past August sharing a few of the staples to jump start your Cabi wardrobe.

Cabi 2018 Spring Preview - the bee lifeMy absolute favorite piece for this Spring collection is the Bralette it is such a fun and comfortable piece that can be worn over the Whitney Blouse paired with the Brick Dust Skinny pant. You could also throw the Bell Jacket over the bralette with some nice tall skinny jeans. And finally I love the Flipside Blouse with the white Zip Skinny pants and the stunning Tanner Trench Coat to finish off the look.  The Tied Up Sandal is just a fun statement to dress up any look.

These are just a few of the many pieces that fill this stunning collection to make hundreds of different looks and styles.  You can also get inspired by shopping by look from casual, to girl boss, to dressy and date night.  And I will say again, every collection I see the clothes online and there will be a few that jump out at me.  And 9/10, I will fall in love with other pieces and won’t even end up picking anything I initially had my eye on.  The pieces fit your body so much differently than how they look online, the fabrics are stunning, soft and so unique.

Enjoy the full collection; here!

Bee’s Tips for Organizing

| The Bee Life

With the start of 2018 being pretty chilly, there hasn’t been much I’ve wanted to do besides hit the gym, dream of running outside and slowly work through parts of the house for a deep clean! From the pantry, to the freezer, to closets and the basement this year has started with a lot of organizing and purging and it is SO rewarding.  And as much as we are clean/organized people, and have places for everything – it’s amazing when you actually go through things how much crap we really hoard away!
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So if you are like me and have been purging or have been thinking about it, but just don’t know where to start – here are a few tips and pointers to help.

Start Small. If you’re just jumping in, and not one for cleaning or organizing, start small like tackling your refrigerator or freezer.  Cleaning out condiments especially can really work wonders especially once you start checking dates.

Pro Tip: Plan this around garbage day!

Downsize. If you have containers or organizers that are too big, downsize. For example we had a nice paper organize on our desk in the office – I thought it would be perfect. Well I only ended up piling more papers in each of the slots, never looking at them again. So I downsized, I got a simple 3-section mail holder to replace – much more streamlined plus it makes me be more selective with what I put in it.

Buy Tubs/Containers. If you’re working on a bigger space – like a closet, and are organizing clothes, keep sakes, crafts, gift wrap, all of the things – make a list of containers you need and go make the commitment.

Pro Tip: Label containers on the tops and sides for easy reading 

Make Pile’s.  The best way to get started with any project is creating 3-piles: Keep, Donate, Trash. Establishing these piles, will help you when it comes time to finalizing everything – what you still need space for, what you can throw away immediately, and what you can pass along to those in need.

Getting organized can be a bear, but it’s staying organized that is the real trick – so the key is to set yourself for staying organized, while you get organized. Labeling, color coding, and even just shifting were you keep things can help make a closet a little cleaner or the pantry fuller.

Happy organizing!

 

Image Sources: Right Image | Left Image 

Life After Wedding

| The Bee Life

Let’s keep the love train going! This weekend, B and I will be celebrating our 2-year proposal anniversary!! Yah, I know it’s a little obnoxious to celebrate every little anniversary or moment – but that’s what makes life special! And we always love an excuse to drink champagne and order Chipotle.

It’s crazy to think it’s been 2-years since we started this new journey of being engaged, wedding planning, and now living life married! After the wedding and all the holiday crazy, I had a weird lull – as I know many brides tend to have – where I kept asking myself; “Now what do I do?” We were consumed for almost 2-full years of planning, meetings, parties, and more planning for one single perfect day… and now it’s all over!  I loved planning our wedding, I would do it again, but our day was also so perfect and special I’d never want to replace it.
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So back to the question, now what? Well, we need to figure out a few trips this year, we have some ideas but nothing is finalized yet, we went on 4-trips last year, and I want to keep that up.  We are also figuring out and prioritizing house projects that have been on the list for the last 3-years… *smiles* … so looking forward to those, since that is something we both enjoy doing. Also, just continuing to experience more things together like more of our city, new foods, new adventures with friends and family and new hobbies.

I am also in the process of scrapbooking our wedding, which means I’ll continue to swoon over all of our gorgeous pictures, randomly post one or two now and then on instagram (or here!) and this lull will quickly turn into getting back on track to a normal life! A normal, beautiful life with B.

XOX

Valentine’s Day – 2018

| The Bee Life

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

The somewhat controversial, holiday that has been called many things – a Hallmark holiday, only for people who have a sig-o, a day to buy overpriced flowers,  yada yada.  But, I love, love!
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This year I decided to show a little extra love to B each and every day of February instead of just the holiday. It’s been fun planning out each day with a new surprise, I wanted to do it for 28-straight days because it’s far too easy for us all to just focus on spoiling our loved ones on this one, single, day — thinking we are in the clear until the next anniversary or holiday.   Some days have been more extravagant than others, and some are simply a text with a memory or a handwritten love note (my fave!)

So regardless of your feelings on the day, I want to send a little piece of my love and well wishes especially to those reading right now. And I hope that you can share a little bit of extra love today, whether it’s smiling at a stranger, buying someone’s coffee, taking out the trash for your boo, giving a compliment to a coworker or calling someone you haven’t seen in awhile.

Don’t forget to share love, today but most importantly… always.

Photography by: Timothy Logan Photography