Love

Hello, March!

| The Bee Life

Hello again March, I’ve missed you – you’re lush optimism of spring and dedicated day to me, you’re one of my favorite months!

Since my birthday is in March I have always loved this month, even though for the mid-west the weather is not always the best, it has potential to be amazing! We’ve had March’s where it’s been 80 degrees on St. Patty’s Day, and then the next year will be a cool 30 with snow.  It’s just unpredictable.  And since I’ve stopped celebrating my actual birthday (don’t ask), it’s become simply an excuse to go out and eat cake.

To commemorate the first day of March, here are a few pictures from the years!

2012
2013
2011
2014
2015

All of these pictures make me look like a lush! I promise, they were all birthday or St. Pat’s celebrations! See! That’s why March is so great, I get to celebrate with all my favorite people and have an excuse to get dressed up and drink more than usual.  It’s also great because I have an excuse to eat cake multiple times, and for breakfast! (Thank you, Kate Spade for making it acceptable to flaunt eating cake for breakfast, I should’ve trademarked it in 1990.)

Moral of the story, thank you March for giving me more legit excuses than the other 11 months of the year.

Here’s to you March, and all the future awesomeness!

 

 

Weekend Update – Engaged!

| The Bee Life

This past weekend was an exciting one, definitely one that won’t be forgotten as it was full of celebrating B and I’s engagement! He popped the question on Thursday and caught me completely off guard – which was his main goal, success!!

Engaged! - the bee life

Of course I’ve always imagined getting proposed to by B and being engaged, but at the same time it always seemed so far away! So until it happened, I was totally caught off guard not only when and how, but for all the follow-up afterwards…. here are some things I learned from my experience;

1. It’s not official until it’s Facebook official (we waited a few days before “officially” posting)
2. Everyone loves a good engagement story (and everyone wants to hear how it happened)
3. Everyone wants to tell everyone else
4. I couldn’t sleep worth a damn for 2 nights, I like to compare it to the Christmas morning jitters! (drafted this at 3am on one of the said nights)
5. Everyone has an opinion (about all the wedding planning you haven’t done yet)
6. I wish I would’ve printed a story of the engagement to hand out to people – it was fun telling the first 10 times…
7. It’s officially acceptable to starting looking at wedding stuff (unhide the Pinterest board) !!!!
8. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t like attention (especially at work) until I received it – yes I am beyond excited about it but there doesn’t need to be a million announcements about it! Although it’s nice that everyone is so excited for us (thank you everyone!)

For the record, we don’t have a date, we aren’t starting to plan at least for 3… 4 months? I just want to enjoy this time with B!  Oh, and we aren’t having babies anytime soon.

XO

Wednesday Reminders – Firsts

| The Bee Life

There are definitely times when I am especially reflective and thoughtful on specific moments in time or memories and in this instance, some firsts with B.  Four years ago marked our first weekend getaway together and our first Valentines Day.  I don’t know why this year I am so gooey over V-Day, it seems to vary year-to-year and for no particular reason… although in college my girlfriends and I threw a V-Day Sucks Party. *smiles*

Anyways… as I was saying, four years ago was our first weekend getaway to the cabin, which had gotten bombarded with snow, so much that it was up to my knees! There isn’t a whole lot to do in the middle of no-where, so we played a lot of scrabble and ate pizza and even took a stroll out in the snow.  It was a fun weekend away doing a whole lot of nothing, which makes it feel like you have all the time in the world.
Our first Weekend Getaway 2012 - the bee lifeOur first weekend getaway - the bee life (1)Our first weekend getaway - the bee life (2)I love looking back at this first trip to the cabin, because it’s become a tradition and our getaway, a place to get away from all of the daily noise. I also love looking back, because I’m thankful (and sometimes in shock) for the journey that’s gotten B and I nearly to five this year. I think that’s why I am especially reflective this year since we’re hitting a small milestone, yet still a milestone in my book!

 

Five Dates

| The Bee Life

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and although I’m not the biggest fan of this day (even though this will be #5 with B) – I love, love. So in honor of our 5th, here are some cute ways to spice it up, show some more love and rekindle those “just started dating” sparks.

Five Dates - the bee life - emilyboylan.com

One.
Write a love letter. Like a really good, spilling your heart out, a page straight from a Nicolas Sparks novel, aching of the soul… down right awesome, love letter. Find inspiring poems or quotes from his/her favorite book and gush a little. A piece of paper and pen is all you need for this one.

Two.
Make Out. Like it’s the first time you did.

Three.
Go for a walk, hand in hand. I know February isn’t always the warmest, unless you’re on the west coast or a southern bell. But bundle up, go to a park, and walk hand in hand, even if it’s for 20-minutes – oh and put those phones away! Just the two of you and Mother Nature.

Four.
Play some games. Keep the electronics off, throw on some tunes and play a board game or two. Scrabble, monopoly, uno, or a little bit of war?! Have a little friendly competition over wine and candlelight.

Five.
Skip dinner. Instead of a big fancy <expensive> dinner, try breakfast or brunch instead! Whether it’s making it at home or heading to your favorite diner, heart shaped pancakes and mimosas? What could be sweeter than that?

What I love about these ideas is they really get down to the core of what Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about, an extra day in the year, to spend dedicated time with the person we love. XO.

New Traditions.

| The Bee Life

This 2015 Christmas season is going to be full of new traditions, one of which was this past weekend! So in the past and as I’ve mentioned before, the first weekend in December is usually spent in Upstate NY with my parents helping them get their Christmas tree.  Well this year I broke the tradition after nearly 5-years plus the 20 years prior to that when I lived at home.

One of the reason I wanted to stay was my office company party – this was the first year significant others could join, and the first time in the 3-years I’ve worked there that I decided to go for that reason.  It was a good time! And nice for B to meet a lot of the people I spend most of my time with.


Saturday afternoon we ventured out to the country to this small Christmas Tree farm. Which finding a place to go around a super urban area was a challenge in and of itself! I did not want to pick up our tree at a Lowe’s or Home Dept – I wanted the experience and also a lower price.  So of course once we got to this place, they only accepted cash or check, in which we had neither.  So we ventured back to the town we’d driven through and luckily found an ATM and grabbed some cash and headed back (so typical for us). IMG_9216FullSizeRenderIt was just what I was looking for – handmade wreath’s, cut your own tree’s, hot coco and a gift shop! The search for the perfect tree was cold and long, since when we’d left our house and by the time we got out there the temperature had dropped about 20-degrees and we were dressed for the warmer.  But we FINALLY found the tree, there was a lot to search through, especially since we wanted to get a tree that was significantly taller than 6’6″ B – a selfie was immediately taken.

IMG_9208
After B cut it down, we walked it back to the little hut to have it wrapped up, grabbed a fresh handmade wreath (because you just can’t beat it!) and we grabbed some hot coco and hit the road back to the house. IMG_9213We will definitely be going back next year, armed with cash and dressed warmer!  But it’s those little things that add to the experience and make it that much more memorable.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon putting the finishing touches on the tree and around the house! It really feels like Christmas, and I’m so happy how everything has turned out, I hope to share final photos with you all soon!

I can’t wait to see what other new traditions are in store for us this Christmas!

 

My Top 5 Christmas Movies

| The Bee Life

One of the things I love the most about this time of the year is having the excuse to watch Christmas movies over and over again because you’ve only got a month to get them all in.  Here is a listing of my favorite Christmas movies that I watch a few too many times as soon as December 1st hits.

top 5 christmas movies

Of course there are a handful of others that usually play on TV that you just get glued too.  Another unconventional movie I love to watch during the holiday’s is When Harry Met Sally – it’s one of my favorites and reminds me of the holidays!

Last year B and I tried to start a tradition of picking a movie night during the week and start watching these classics – turn everything else off and just watch fabulous Christmas movies.  It was a little tough last year as we were working on getting our house painted and ready to move in (mid-December) and then the million other house projects on top of work and the normal holiday hustle and bustle.  But this year we are starting a new and will have success! I even put it on our shared calendars so that we would make a date of it!

What are some of your favorite Christmas movies?

Balancing Life

| The Bee Life

Work: “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.”

Life(style): “the way in which a person or group lives.”

Balance: “an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.”

Work - Life
With no major vacation this year, I am having some serious struggles with my work-life balance, not to mention my workout routine has been nonexistent, and I hate it.

Being able to workout and maintain a healthy lifestyle is something that is important to me, although it mostly annoys me that cost and work get in the way of a large portion of things that make me happy and used to be a huge aspect of my day-to-day routine. Knowing that I am essentially gym-less and on my own to get some motivation (and have to work) I decided to put together a list of items to be more cognizant of starting ASAP at home and at work (because complaining gets you nowhere).

Life

  • Morning workouts & weekend runs: Waking up an hour earlier to do a set of exercises for 30-40 minutes in the morning is more than I am currently doing – taking advantage of free time on the weekends will balance out anything missed during the week
  • Breakfast & Coffee at home: Waking up earlier will allow time to prep a breakfast and make coffee, so that I won’t be tempted by Starbucks which is in the lobby of my office building
  • Walks with Moz: A quick walk at the end of the day allows for the extra motivation and fresh air – maybe even a quick walk in the morning
  • Yoga before bed: I have a 10-minute yoga routine I do occasionally before bed, it needs to happen more often
  • Weekly scrap-booking: It’s something I love to do and don’t do enough up, I have a lot of catching up to do!  Even if it’s 30-minutes a week

Work

  • Afternoon fresh air: A quick walk around the block to break up the afternoon and recharge will take 5-10minutes out of the day but have a lasting effect
  • Packing a lunch & snacks: Will allow for me to save money and not be tempted by a quick sub or the leftovers in the cafe
  • Stay above the crap: It’s so easy to get sucked in or be the hitting board for someone’s bad day – remembering to stay above that and not sweating the small stuff
  • Drinking more water: No explanation needed

I want to start with little items that can be accomplished in order to stay focused and not get overwhelmed, creating good habits is half the battle – so starting small makes sense.  How do you maintain a good balance between life and work?

#weekendhangover

| The Bee Life

What a weekend! It was so busy, and so much fun – so many awesome things happened.

The big focal point around the weekend, was celebrating my aunts’ wedding – yes you read that correctly aunts, plural.  They decided to get married last month, just 2-weeks after the big Supreme Court decision.  So finally on Saturday we got to celebrate their marriage with family and friends.  Family started pouring in for the weekend Friday night with festivities starting early Saturday!

I was the designated photographer for my aunts, so I was busy popping around to all 170 guests making sure everyone was photographed, not to mention the group shots and cake cutting!  The cake cutting was about the only ‘wedding reception-esq’ thing that happened, besides an open bar with endless drinks.

The night ended over at our house, with some more drinks and a smaller crowd of the family – I was happy to host everyone around our dining room table.

Saturday also was a big day for B’s family, his brother and sister-in-law welcomed their first little girl, Avery into the world. She is the first grandchild, so it was a big deal!  We went to the hospital Sunday afternoon to meet her and see the new mom and dad!

The weekend was full of close family, good friends, lots of laughs and more memories to add to the books.  Moz even got to meet her new cousin, Findley (my aunt’s new puppy).  It was a nonstop weekend full of fun. I definitely have a weekend hangover to start this Monday off.

Weekend Update

| The Bee Life

Happy Last Monday of February!!

I know not all of you are lucky enough to live in the Midwest, but this past month has been freezing cold with snow-filled weekends! Living in a 100-year old house, and negative degree temperatures for consistent days in a row means frozen pipes.  Luckily(?) our frozen pipes are isolated and only in our kitchen, each time they freeze we learn something new… so long story short one of the fixes was putting in a new faucet.  B and I are now trained plumbers, thank you very much! Teasing, but we did it all by ourselves and it’s such a change physically along with hopefully helping the pipe freezing problem (we can now run cold and hot water at the same time) … and that was only Friday night!

Saturday morning I helped my aunts out while they went out of town and went over to feed their girls, Opa! the puggle and Maya, the black lab, also meaning Moz got to play with her cousins!  Of course Saturday morning was a mini blizzard, nonstop fluffy snowflakes falling and terrible, not plowed roads, so shoveling was a necessity. With bad roads and the beautiful snow fall, a relaxing day at home doing some little projects was the plan! Followed by a night-in, our own little happy hour with a cheese board paired with some Manhattans. And we topped the night off with DiGiorno pizza and a movie. We watched Sex Tape with Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel, it was actually pretty very funny!

Sunday was productive and relaxing as well (well sort of).  Breakfast and coffee and some Millionaire Matchmaker in the morning, followed by Church, the gym and some shopping/errands (which of course went longer than expected).  Home to relax for a bit and do a few more little projects (can’t wait to share these soon!) before dinner with the aunts and of course, more snow!

It was a very nice weekend, it wasn’t over complicated with endless trips or errands, it was productive and relaxing all at the same time.  Hoping to have a few more of these in the future! Hope you are all staying warm, wherever you may be.