& it's friday...

I started the day off in a good mood. I mean, it is Friday after all. Pay Day. I had a lovely evening out with good drinks and conversation. I drank pineapple wine when I got home (it smelled terrible but tasted pretty yum!).

However, once lunch was over... my mood turned for the worst quickly. I'm not sure why. I don't have any real reason to complain. Things seem to be going well. Wedding stuff is coming together -- finally -- and I'm very excited for the honeymoon! =) It's just a blah day. At least I can look forward to...

• Our last pre-martial counseling session tonight (which means we can apply for our license now! Woo!)
• Eating a nice dinner out tonight
• Partying like a pirate tomorrow (read about the magical holiday that is Gasparilla here)
• Having my fiance' off on a SUNDAY! (This hasn't happened since football season began, he has a weird schedule)
• Finalizing details with both the photographers and planner next week
• And... realizing it's about three weeks away....

I kid, I kid. I'm feeling prepared, ready, excited, and pretty much thrilled to be a Mrs. very soon.

1. If you had $1,000 to donate to a charity, which would you choose? I'd probably spread it out between a few organizations.

2. Snow days: Do you welcome them happily or are they a pain in your butt? Um... what's a snow day? We get hurricane days down here and even those are rare.

3. What talent did you wish you had and why? I wish I was a better writer (and had the determination to follow through).

4. Are you a news, politics or celebrity gossip junkie? All of the above. I stalk local news websites (we have some crazies in Florida, it's pretty entertaining), I read political things often (though I admit I get most of my news from Jon Stewart), and I love reading celebrity gossip -- especially when it's about Jersey Shore. I love to hate them. Or, I hate that I love them. Whatever. =)

5. What is your favorite "cocktail"? I love Bacardi Dragonberry and Sprite, but I drink everything. Just no tequila. Me and Pepe Lopez are no longer friends.

Bachelorette Party Recap: A night of typical debauchery and too many drinks

I just wanted to preface this with I used to party. A lot. Having a bachelorette party in Ybor City felt like I was 21 all over again. It was fun but definitely nothing we hadn't done before! I know some girls go crazy with their parties and do things that they wouldn't normally do, etc.... but mine was pretty much a normal night on the town five years ago. I loved every minute of it!

After I was allowed to come to the hotel room, we started to get ready.

My ladies know me too well. Glow sticks. I die. :D




My new friend Pinky. He came with us everywhere.


My MOH and myself. Yes, the theme was Jersey Shore / guidettes. Everyone totally got it!


The cast of characters


The hotel bartender offered me some wise marriage advice (which, by the way, I got a lot of. Most of it involved swallowing and that's all I'm going to say about that! Sorry, I usually keep this blog pretty clean, but that just made me laugh).


One male attended. For ten minutes. I've known him for over a decade!








At Coyote Ugly

and by the end of the night...

It's not that embarrassing of a picture. I haven't seen any that were! Like I said, a pretty normal girls night out. :D

I, however, did spend the next day comatose with a kicking hangover.

Edited to include Pinky's current whereabouts...

As I was bringing my stuff inside, Andre (the black dog) grabbed Pinky from one of my bags. Andre is obsessed with stuffed animals and things that are soft. It was ripped to shreds pretty quickly.

{*Misc Monday*}

One -- Another work week. January is almost over and I'll be a wifey before I know it. When does the reality of it all set in? I still feel like I'm floating along...

Two -- I seriously went a little nuts in the shopping department this weekend. Target had sandals on sale for $3.24 and I bought four pairs. They are not on clearance online, so I guess it's only in stores!

I also got the black pair in those.

It was just too cheap to ignore. I got a cute teal bathing suit (they're on sale this week!), re-stocked on Florida postcards ( For Post Crossing! Though, if you want one, I would be more than happy to send it, just let me know! =D ), gathered some Valentine's supplies, stocked our freezer, and raided Michael's for craft supplies. I was weak and bought overpriced and unnecessary wedding things... a tank top for me, luggage tags, lots of items for some DIY photo props... Like I said, not really necessary, but I'm glad it's done.

Three -- This weekend is Gasparilla. For those unfamiliar with the Tampa Bay area or the tradition of celebrating pirates, it's basically one day where everyone in our city drinks massive amounts of booze while wearing pirate accessories and screaming for plastic beads during a parade.

2009

Getting ready to head to the parade

People pass out. And then you take pictures of them. I have no idea who this is, but a police officer told me to back off after this.

2010
Last year it rained.



But we still stood around for beads

I've been trying to lay low this year since every weekend I'm ridiculously busy and need to get all this wedding stuff finished... but how can I say no to my Tampa heritage?! LOL We have no history so this is our (obnoxious) way of celebrating... pirates? I don't know and I don't care to know, but it's a great party throughout the city.

Four -- We decided on wedding favors and our special shots throughout the night. I don't want to give too much away, but we are doing special shots all night at the reception. Yes, I know it sounds more like a college party than a wedding, but it will be fun. Scott picked two liquid shots and I picked two jellos shots that have a fun twist to them.

Five -- Neely is having a super awesome giveaway! Enter to win on her blog! =)

Six --

Get a subscription to Cosmo or Marie Claire for only $5! Click here.

"Madness takes its toll -- exact change please"

Bridal Shower Recap

Even though it was only a week ago, it feels like an eternity! Things have been pretty busy around here and my thank you cards are already sent and all my gifts are already in their proper places. I was somewhat productive on that front at least.

The day of my bridal shower.... I was running late which is so unlike me! I had a hair appointment at noon that promised to last just thirty minutes. I got a blow out. How Jersey Shore of me, I know. There is this new place in Tampa that just does blow outs -- no cuts, color, etc. Since my hair is a disaster area and blow drying is not my friend, I gave it a shot. Since it was a recent Groupon (and a gift at that!), I decided to use it. Anyway, I should have known better.... my hair is not a thirty minute blow dry. It took over an hour with a shampoo, style, etc. So, I was thirty minutes late to my own shower. Oops.

Anyway, I am so NOT used to big hair and when I asked for their "Sexy blow" I definitely wasn't used to what I got. My hair was so...large?! You will see in my pictures that I was just being self conscious but it did (luckily) fall a bit once I arrived to my shower.

I suggested we have my party at The Columbia which is one of my favorite restaurants in the area. I always get the same thing when I go (scallops and a shrimp 1905 salad), so I have no idea if the rest of the menu is amazing but it must be since this restaurant is pretty historic by Tampa standards. It was SO crowded on a Saturday afternoon that they were not able to put us where we had requested... we pretty much just had a huge table in the middle of a busy lunch rush. Oh well.

We drank lots of sangria, played a cheesy game and compared my answers to what Scott had given them earlier, and I opened gifts! Now, let's look at the pictures...

Blogger Party!

With Crystal of Thrifty and Frugal Living (we went to high school together!)


With Jen of Starving, Insatiable and Katie of She Likes Ruffles {she is also Mrs. Buttons on Wedding Bee!}. I have known Jen since we were tots in elementary school and Katie also went to my high school


Contemplating more sangria...


Some of my favorite ladies

I (luckily) haven't been shown any awkward pictures of me opening gifts. I like to think they don't exist. I always think it's so weird when people snap millions of pictures as you're opening presents... I feel weird. Not sure why, but I do! Anyway, some of my loot included...




A necessity for our new bar!


Pretty excited about this... I think its first use will be to hold oranges at our wedding reception for our beer!


To help with the clutter of my new Keurig...

...and various other kitchen ware, an apron, some gift cards. You know. The usual. =)

After the shower was over and massive picture taking ended, some of the girls went to the hotel to get it ready for the bachelorette party. Yes, we decided to have both of these events on the same day. I'm really glad we did this since it made it easier for some of my friends who are not nearby to attend all the events! :D

Since I wasn't allowed to go to the hotel, some of us hit the bars... at 4 pm.


Some weird girl scout shot at James Joyce Irish Pub (appropriate since it's green...)


I have never seen or heard of this until that day! Some Italian liquor? Anyway, it was a $1...and I needed to use a bathroom... so we decided to duck in here for a bit and became "paying customers" to use their facilities...


And it comes in a huge bottle... who knew?

Next up... where the rest of the night took us....

I exist.

While last weekend may have drained me, I'm still here. I'm still reading. I'm still working. In fact, I was so swamped at work last week I managed to go to bed each night by 9pm. Lame. Last night, Friday, I left work early to spend time with my guy. We raided the liquor store, ate a delicious dinner at our rehearsal dinner spot, and watched Black Swan...all by 830 pm. I was excited to get home and relax together, but I definitely fell asleep on the couch. Really?! Asleep by 9pm on a FRIDAY?! Who is this girl? This is so not like me, but lately, I'm just exhausted. Sigh. I'm hoping that this weekend will get me back to a normal sleeping schedule (like... can I stay up until at least 11 pm?! I'm no grandma!), and I will manage to get caught up on life, blogging, homework, shopping, wedding stuff and laundry.

But, yes, we picked a place for our rehearsal dinner and we love it. We get a private room, it's on the water, and the food was pretty tasty. They'll have live music the night of our dinner, so it should be a great time. Picking a menu is the hardest part! It's so hard to pick five things that you hope your twenty guests will find something they enjoy. It's even harder when the menu consists of seafood (lots of shellfish items) and not so many other choices. Seafood can be tricky for some people... I hope they don't have allergies! Ha!

I somehow managed to manipulate Scott into seeing Black Swan. We *never* go to the movies, but it was early and we had no other plans. I loved the movie. Granted, I'm not going to run out and buy it on dvd and watch it again... but I did enjoy it. She was kind of amazing in it... but Mila Kunis was lovely too. =)

My bridal shower and bachelorette party were both tons of fun, and I'm going to post recaps this week! The Knot gently reminded me that there are 28 days until the wedding. Commence panic.

And, so this post isn't completely picture-less...

A creepy Florida sunset [taken yesterday]

A muddy puppy. He is the reason I am mopping all day today!

Happy 400!

It's my 400th post. Yes, no big deal, but it's kind of amazing that I've managed to have 400 post worthy topics (or, not so post worthy as evidenced by the amount of memes I play along with! Ha!).

This is a scheduled post. As you know, yesterday was my bridal shower and my bachelorette party. I am sure I'm sleeping in the bathroom or missing a shoe. It happens. Hopefully I will be returning home with tons of home goodies (though I did already stalk my registry, it is too tempting to not look!). I'm stoked about having a mixer. You have no idea how hard it was to cook Christmas treats without one!

Sign up for the accessory swap below!

Today & Tonight

Today...
I woke up at 6:30 a.m. for no good reason.
I hit up WalMart, KMart, and ChikFilA all before 8:30 a.m.
I saw the magic of Solo cups with a place to scratch your name in them. Genius! Why hadn't I seen these before? And, yes, these might just be the perfect cups for the wedding (We are having kegs, don't judge!)

I realized that this self tanner stuff really does work. No kidding. I definitely need to even that out!

I will get a blow out for today! I'm very excited. Blow drying my hair is torturous and I feel terrible for the woman who will spend 45 minutes trying to do so today. I will certainly tip her well.
I will stop at The Columbia in Ybor City for my bridal shower! There will be sangria, food and gifts. Fantastic.




Tonight...
I will don the trashiest dress I could find at Forever 21 paired with ridiculous accessories (the biggest earrings I could find, body glitter, amazing glitter pumps) for my bachelorette party!

Unfortunately, I won't look like THAT in it... but close. ;) Ha! I kid, I kid.
I will relive my 21st year by visiting all my old favorite clubs and bars -- places I usually wouldn't step foot in today! (But, hey, they're fun!)
I hope to have a lovely night out with my closest girlfriends.
I hope to not blackout, sleep next to the toilet or fall off a bar.

Tomorrow...
I will be sleeping until 6 p.m.

A New TV Deserves A Good Stand...

My mother graciously gave us an HD TV and brought us out of the stone age (we had an old school ghettofied TV before). Anyway, now that we have this snazzy TV, we started to browse for some super awesome TV stands!

Here are three that I found online...

I am loving how modern this one looks... and I like how everything has its "place." A cable box slot, a slot for the DVD player...

This is definitely more standard, more classy...

And, this one looks like it has more storage space! I can't complain about that.

So, which one would YOU choose?!