gigi

So I've always thought Gigi Hadid is awesome.  I never watched Real Housewives (which features her Mom), I've only known her as a model - any girl hot enough to be a Guess girl automatically achieves all star status in my book.  Snaps to her latest instagram post.

Keep doing what you do girl. 

Five Things Friday

We made it to another Friday y'all!  After work, I tried to make it to Pure Barre but with the rain, the traffic was so out of control it clearly wasn't happening.  So I headed home and instantly fell asleep on the couch for about 3 hours. :-)  pure bliss.

1.  My brother got engaged!

Here's a photo of Steven & Lisa in Iceland from this summer.

Lisa has a 3 year old daughter, Audrey.  Here she is with her (future) cousins.  

Welcome to the family!

2. Michelle Obama in Vera Wang at the China State dinner

Wow.  Just wow.  #goals

3.  Fragrances

Do you have a signature fragrance?  For the past couple of years, mine has been Marc Jacobs classic fragrance.  It's features floral notes like gardenia and honeysuckle mixed with white pepper.  Clearly, I got that from the website, not my nose ha!  My nose tells me it's a sweet yet spicy fragrance, which I like, it's not too feminine, not sickly sweet.  I just got a new bottle in mail after taking a little while off just because it's not cheap.  Excited to re-embrace this fragrance!!

4.   Tips on Getting Organized

Have a lot of clutter and not enough time to read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up?  Get the skim list here.


5. Skin Food

Hyaluronic acid is a chemical found naturally in our skin that helps hydrate and plump our skin.  It helps reduce inflammation and is especially good in keepy oily skin moisturized without increasing the oiliness.  I started using Hydraluron by Indeed Labs about a month ago and I love it.  It's affordable, easy to use, and keeps my skin hydrated.  It doesn't replace your moisturizer, you can simply add it to your routine.  Try it - I bet you'll like it!

What do y'all have planned this weekend?  I'm thinking cleaning, maybe wine and dinner out Saturday and some football Sunday (if you know me, you it's crazy I'm saying this but hey, there will be food).  Take care!!!

Alison's Birthday

the London/Italy photos drag on lol...should be only 3 updates left :-)

On our last day in London we celebrated Alison's birthday.  We visited this unique food market which was this amazing place of outdoor vendors selling all types of ah-mazing food.  It kind of changed my life.  If I lived in London, or if we had that piece of heaven in Raleigh, I'd be there every Saturday.  It blows every food truck rally out of the water.  Seriously.

 hard to see, but Aaron's getting a cone filled with saucy chicken

steak frites <3 <3 <3 

 Alison's friend showed up to surprise her!

After the food market, it was basically a mad dash to get home and shower because up next was Alison's surprise party!  She had no idea Neill and her friend Ben had been planning for months to throw a party for her 30th.  Her parents were in town and requested to go to the golf club to grab drinks before we all went out to dinner.  She walked into the golf club and surprise!  There was everyone.  It was a fun night of tabbouleh, mock television game shows, drinks and karoke.  It was so much fun I didn't get any decent photos, they're mostly blurry cell phone pics.  Here's a few of us playing tabbouleh and a mock version of Going for Gold, a British game show that Alison actually competed on before!  Yes, I'm friends with a British TV celebrity.   It was so touching seeing all of her friends and family band together to celebrate 30!

I'm in Miami trick!

The weekend before Aaron's birthday festivities, my girls and I headed down to Miami to celebrate another birthday, Ashley's.  It was so much fun.  It'd been a hot minute since I'd been down to MIA and now I'm craving to go again.  Good weather, amazing food, awesome parties.

deliciousness we call "torpitos" (tortilla + pita chip)

 beach babes

 with Debs

 Pizzeria Rustica

snapper cerviche with mango sorbet 

Kobe beef meatballs I dream about

the past 3 photos are taken from Ola-this stunning place made my top 10 list of favorite restaurants :) 

Mansion

 good eats in little Havana

tasty Cuban food

We truly had so much fun.  Looking forward to more girl's trips in the future!

30

Yesterday was my husband's birthday.  It was awesome.

We started the day with brunch at Joule.  Shrimp and grits!   

That afternoon we surprised him with a 6L champagne bottle -the size is called Methuselah.  The boys brought it in with sparklers and music, it was awesome.  The rest of the day was spent catching up and playing rounds of flip cup.  At 10pm a friend brought over 2 Bojangles tailgate specials...talk about a perfect ending.

 so much fun :-)

Labor Day

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the break in updates, as always life got in the way-we all know what that's like!

I'm so excited for this weekend however.  Why?  First off, this Sunday, Aaron turns 30.  Yup, we're getting old.

I love him so much :)

Also, it's football season again.  Our NFL fantasy draft was tonight and Saturday is the opening NC State game against Troy.  I'm not a huge football fan but I've been practicing the mentality of if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  As long as there's food, I'm in.

yay for the return of tailgating!

Aaron's been traveling a lot lately, so I'm looking forward to us a quiet Labor Day Monday together to finish the weekend.  This really may be my first 3 day weekend in the past 6 years of residency + medical school...I'm so happy I've paid my dues and can finally be a normal human again!

more blog updates coming soon!