High Five For Friday {Link Up}

Since this past Wednesday, I was occupied with our Giveaway, I didn't do my normal What I'm Loving Wednesday.

This week has been a pretty good (but LONG) week, so I thought I'd link up with Lauren from My Grey Desk to discuss my favorite things from this week.

High Five For Friday

1. Meghan and I are hosting this AWESOME GIVEAWAY that started on Wednesday. Have you entered? We're so excited and can't wait to give away these great prizes!

2. My little old bloggy gained some new followers thanks to this giveaway. So Welcome to all of you newbies here, I plan on doing a little "about me" post next week to introduce myself a little more. Can't wait to get to "know" some of you more.

3. I got a mani/pedi this week and it was amazing! I've been waiting for the sandal wearing weather to hit before I got a pedi, and I believe it is here to stay, especially since I've been wearing wedges and open toed shoes all week. I forgot how amazing pedicures felt and I now have a standing appointment with the nail salon until late fall.

Essie "Drop of Grenadine"

4. The hubby and I went to happy hour this week with some friends and former coworkers of mine. We sat outside at this local restaurant and had a great time. I love getting together with people and having a few drinks. Nothing beats breaking up my week or ending a long day like doing this:

 5. Carolina Cup is tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. Carolina Cup is South Carolina's own rendition of the Kentucky Derby and we take it pretty seriously. It is one of my favorite events that we attend all year. Any excuse to wear a big hat, pearls, fun dress, and socialize while drinking all day... you can count me in! We have friends coming in to town tonight and we'll be busy preparing food and cocktails to take with us bright and early tomorrow morning. Photo dump and weekend recap to come, don't worry!

What are your highlights from this week? 
 Be sure to link up with Lauren for this fun chance to share with each other.

I'll be back next week.  
That is of course, unless I hit the Mega Millions Lottery tonight... then I'll be high tailing it to some exotic island. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Giveaway Time!

Hey Y'all! Happy Wednesday! 
I'm SO excited y'all stopped by today because I'm (co)hosting my very FIRST GIVEAWAY with Meghan at Shine On. .

Meghan and I found each other a few months back and I have loved getting to know her through her blog. She's this awesome 20 something living life to the fullest in Nashville, TN and blogging about everything from her love for her sorority, to her TV obsession, fun trips, and even recipes. Meghan is super creative and has been such a blog inspiration to me so I just knew I had to link up with her at some point.

When Meghan and I first started talking about doing a giveaway, one of my besties here in SC offered to contribute something from her Etsy shop. Shannon from GSMonograms is so much fun and most of the time we can be found hanging out with each other at least a few times a week, not to mention constantly texting and gchatting it up.
If you are new to my blog, don't worry, you'll hear about Shannon quite a bit!
Lately, Shannon has taken off with her new creative vinyl designs and can be found making adorable things like this:

pic Shannon took of my new cup she made for me!

Isn't this cup just ADORABLE? It's a tumbler AND it's monogrammed, what else could a girl ask for?

So here's the FUN part.

Meghan & I are giving (1) LUCKY reader their very own personalized cup of their choice from GSMonogram's Etsy Shop AND a $20 gift card to Starbucks.

All you have to do is follow the Rafflecopter below:

I have an announcement!

...Shane and I are going on a cruise!
Thats NOT the announcement, I'm just overjoyed because we booked our first cruise and first annual trip as a married couple. The Hyatt's will be setting sail this November to Cozumel & the Cayman Islands. whew, SO excited.

In other news...

I'm proud to announce that this blog is having it's very FIRST GIVEAWAY!!!! 

Tomorrow I'll be linking up with the adorable Meghan at Shine On for your chance to win some goodies. We are SO excited for this giveaway... Be sure to stop by tomorrow to find out all the details of how you can win!


Happy Tuesday Friends!

Let's Chat... The Hunger Games

Hello Lovies,

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

Mine was filled with a little bit of Zac Brown Band (I worked/watched them in concert Friday night here in Columbia), sleeping + working on Saturday, and cleaning + Hunger Games on Sunday.

Yes, I saved the best for last. Let's get down to business shall we?

I want to warn you, I have not read the books. All of my friends went nuts about them, the same friends who went nuts about Harry Potter (which was my fav book series) then put a bad taste in my mouth for Twilight (yes, I HATED Twilight). So I swore up and down that I was not going to read the Hunger Games.
When Shane and I were flying back from our honeymoon, we had a ridiculously long layover and both of us had finished our books we'd taken with us on vacation. We went to the bookstore in the airport, and Shane picked up the Hunger Games. For the next week or so, my hubby was CONSUMED by these books. When he finished, he went on and on about them. He gave me a general synopsis of the first book and it just didn't sound like my thing so I didn't read them. No matter who told me how good they were, I just brushed it off and would reply with a "whatever, I'll watch the movie."

Fast forward to this past Sunday. Shane has been bugging me ALL weekend long, so I knew if I didn't go see this movie with him, I would never be able to persuade him into a girly romantic comedy again. We trooped to the movie theater, and right off the bat I knew I was the only one in the whole theater who had not seen the movie. I just knew. I made Shane swear not to give me hints or tell me what happened
So almost three hours later, the movie finished.

And guess what...

I'm biting the damn bullet.

It was awesome.

 So if you need me this week, I'll be reading the Hunger Games.  

St. Patty's Weekend Recap

Hello Monday, you came a little too quickly. But then again, don't you always? Stop stealing my weekend's thunder.

This past weekend was great. Friday after work, Shane and I took off for Savannah, GA, booze and green clothes in tow. We arrived about 7:30 and had a low key night with Brandon (our friend we were staying with), his friend Erin, and our friend, Beth.

We hung out, had a few glasses of wine, and dyed Brandon's hair green. Yes, DYED HIS HAIR GREEN. Brandon is the only person I know bold enough to pull this off, but it looked great as a finished product and clearly he got plenty of attention for it on Saturday.

Saturday morning, we woke up at 7:30 and began to prepare for the day. We made a few Irish car bombs and set out to walk downtown to River Street. It was a long walk but stopped a few times to watch the awesome parade.

starting out

Parade

 

yes, that would be Brandon. with green hair.

As our first time in Savannah, we were looking forward to seeing the beautiful, historic parts of the town, but that will have to be another trip. It was a beautiful day and we could definitely tell the town and it's buildings were a sight to see, but everywhere you looked, all you could see were people for miles. It literally looked like ants pouring in to the city from every direction.

I kept meaning to snap a picture of the large crowd on River Street, but this was the only one I managed to take. You can see how crowded just the area I was taking the picture was, and the cute little baby dancing in the window.

We spent close to 10 hours hanging out in some of the different bars and meeting up with a few people we knew. We had a blast and by the time we made it back to Brandon's that night, we were drunk, happy, and exhausted.  

St. Pat's 2012 was a success.
And needless to say, this girl is starting to show her age. We had to come back to Columbia early Sunday morning so Shane could work, and I didn't manage to move out of bed all day.

Did any of you go out to a festival or bar to celebrate?

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough

Since i'm heading out of town this afternoon, I wanted to go ahead and wish you all a Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
~Irish Blessing

this girl is excited today, can you tell???

Turn the speakers up...

Not sure about y'all, but some days I just need some good music to get me through. There's nothing like cranking up Pandora or my IPOD in the afternoon to help me get through answering emails or motivate me to complete projects.

Days like today are no exception, like clockwork, around 2:30 I hit that wall and had to crank up the music, have my afternoon caffeine fix, and fight through it. And it doesn't help that it's practically gorgeous weather outside. (Like I mean beverage in my hand, sit by the ocean, gorgeous weather)

Here's a few songs currently on repeat these last few days. Go ahead, crank up the speakers and enjoy the rest of today.

Can y'all tell I like country music? What can I say???

Anyways, hope you all have a fantastic afternoon. ALMOST the weekend!!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie today for another What I'm Loving Wednesday!

 I'm LOVING that even though I'm super swamped with work this week, I have this to look forward to this coming weekend.

That's right, Shane and I are road trippin' it down to Savannah Friday to stay with our BFF, Brandon. We're so excited for a little get away that will include lots of fun and booze. Bring it on, Savannah, I'm ready for you.

I'm LOVING that I finally was able to file my taxes, thanks Raymond James for the delay (ugh), and I have my eye on these few fun items. Even though, most likely this money will be used for bills and savings. Yes, boring, but i'm still dreaming!

Found on Overstock

Found at Nordstrom

Clutch from Tiny Tulip

 I'm LOVING this workout DVD for the Xbox Kinect. If any of you have an xbox, I totally recommend this DVD. We've been using it err off and on for over a month, but I can totally feel results when we do it! I've been doing the arm workouts for a week or two and my arms already look better. I'm hoping to keep this up for even more results over the next few months. Did I mention it has over 90 hours of workouts?!?!? And they're all very different so you never feel repetitive.

Oh and last but not least, just had to include a few pics of my twin baby nieces.
They just had their 6 month pics done and can you say cuties?!?!?! They're growing everyday!
 Kadence left & Avery right

What are YOU loving today???

What I would give...

to be on a beach somewhere

sipping some of these

while looking out at this

*pics from our honeymoon last August* 

I need a vacation!

I am swamped with work, bills, stress galore... (I know, cry me a river) But all I can think about is planning an escape with my man and sometime soon if I can have my way!

Any ideas??? 

I'm talking 5 star resort with Budget Inn prices here ... send me suggestions so I can daydream while I tackle mountains of paperwork :) 

Do any of you have any big vacations coming up that keep you holding on during your rough days???

Where I've been....

I've sat down to write this blog post about 7 or 8 times but every time my fingers hit the keyboard, I was drawing a blank. I haven't felt very "inspired" to write anything lately. I have high hopes for this old bloggy and hope to continue gaining followers. I've just been drawing blanks lately.

anyhoo...

Things have been busier than ever for me. I picked up my THIRD job recently. Yes, third. But i'm loving it. Between my full-time job (where i've been increasingly gaining more responsibility from the higher-ups... high five for me!) i'm also still working at the good old arena selling tickets to events where I used to work during college. Recently, I came across a golden opportunity to do some marketing and social media for a family friend running for state senate! This has been awesome so far, and although I'm just getting started, this is opening a lot of doors for me and allowing me to develop some great experience. Now, he just needs to win :)

Everywhere Shane and I go these days, we are asked how he is feeling and if he's back to normal. This has just been such a constant reminder that even though something really crazy and scary happened, SO many people were supporting and praying for us and that is just so humbling. But other than a pretty significant scar, Shane seems to be doing GREAT these days. Thank God!!! :)

This diet thing is finally starting to produce some results. Gah, I feel like I should be super skinny now, but I know i'm doing this the healthy way this time. I'm losing weight slowly, but i'm not doing a crazy diet and give or take a few slump weeks i'm still down about 10 pounds. I'm hoping it will pick up losing a little more now that i'm back to a weekly routine of working out and cooking for me and the hubby.
 
So basically, not too much interesting going on my way....i'll be back later with some more substance to my  future posts, I promise.

out to dinner a few weekends ago