Friday, August 29, 2014

the countdown begins.

friday! it's so lovely to see you. i have some super awesome news today and why you're my favorite this week!

this morning i told lee "happy negative anniversary!" because one year from today, we will be mr. & mrs. walker. how surreal is that people?
 

that's a picture from the night we met. you have no clue how much i treasure the fact that i have a picture of the very moment we started. apologies for the poor quality. we had had a long day & the lighting in brazwells wasn't the greatest. this is actually sam mills (former panther's player) son!

and to think back then, i thought he was just some guy at brazwell's pub. and come to think of it, i've never really told the story of how we met.

long story short: we met in a bar. and are the very few people to have that work out.

long story long: it was saturday, april 27, 2013 & i had gotten up early to fix breakfast for one of my girlfriends, katie, as she was coming into town and we were heading out to the panthers fan fest with another friend of mine (and now bridesmaid!), allyson. after day drinking and enjoying spending time with each other, we headed home to nap & redo it again that night. after all, i was a single lady!
 
all of the girls got together uptown at blackfinn and for some odd reason that i still remember to this day, i looked at katie and said 'i want to go to brazwells.' so in a cab we got. i walked in and ended up seeing three guys that i had gotten to know over the past year, so we walked up to say hello. after talking & drinking something called a bear claw {which is insane, by the way}, a guy walked up alone, tapped one of the guys on the shoulder and said hey! i turned around to see who he was talking to and that was the first time i saw my future husband.
 
we were introduced and immediately started talking. lee says i kept talking about my madden & ncaa football play station 3 skills and he couldn't believe i knew that O meant the spin move. hey, i grew up with a brother. you learn those things.
 
we went our separate ways and the next morning, this number was still texting me and sent me the picture you see above. well, we already have a picture together, he said. as he kept texting me, i realized i couldn't remember the poor guys name! how embarassing is that. someone joked that i should ask him how to spell his name because i wanted to save it in my phone, and praise the Lord i didn't because there's only ONE way to spell the guy version of L E E. he asked me out on a date the next wednesday, may 1st, where we grabbed a few drinks. one date lead to two lead to three lead to four and just like that, two and a half weeks after we met, we were dating officially.

our fourth date was the date that got me. we watched the movie 'no strings attached' and i mentioned how loved the fact that ashton kutcher planned an itinerary for their date. within a few days, lee told me to check my email. there sat an itinerary titled "super saturday." he had arranged for us to get lunch, drive up and play putt-putt, race go-karts, and then he drove me around the other parts of charlotte that i'd never seen. we later ended dinner at cabo fish taco and a movie at his place. the itinerary even included times! it was hands down the most thoughful date i've ever had.
 
it had been three years or so since i had a boyfriend before lee and wanted it that way. i took time to really figure out who i was and what i wanted in someone. so the girl who always thought she wanted to wait months before making something official, now was smitten after two and a half weeks. love can do crazy things.
 
so about a year and a half or so later, after moving in together, here we are. one year from today, we will be getting married. and i cannot wait!!
 
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linking up with for friday favorites, & oh, hey friday!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

old navy for fall.

growing up my dad called it "old gravy." i seriously have zero idea why he called it this, but it always made me shy away from shopping there. also at the time daddy was paying for my clothes and i was an american eagle/abercrombie snob. stupid teenagers.
 
however, this almost 26 year old now pays her own way and has real things like rent, a power bill, a cell phone bill, and has to fill up her car with gas more times than makes her happy.
 
so "old gravy" ain't so bad anymore. actually old navy is kinda the bomb. after reading lovely kaitlin's (the sequined spatula) post today about what old navy is doing for the fall, i commented on it jokingly at first saying i was heading on over to their website.
 
except the joking turned into for real and some how i ended up swiping my debit card for an online purchase. dang it.
 
BUT i got some awesome stuff for fall. here's the pieces that i picked out and i couldn't believe their price! old gravy you are killin' it!
 
Women's Floral Gauze ScarvesWomen's Elbow-Sleeve Jersey DressesWomen's Gauze Diamond-Pattern Scarves
Women's The Pixie Skinny-Ankle PantsWomen's Plaid Flannel ShirtsWomen's Sueded Pointed-Toe Flats
Women's Graphic Slub-Knit TeesWomen's Striped Hooded PulloversWomen's Quilted Tweed Vests
floral scarf | striped dress | camel & white scarf |
polka dot pants | plaid shirt | burgandy flats | holy chic tee |
striped hoodie | tweed vest
 
i'm big into plaid this season and i've never been a plaid girl. just like i was big into floral this spring & i'd never been a floral girl. what the heck, amanda. some of these shirts were as little as $6. $6!!!! a lot of these are on their 'labor of love' sale going on until monday.
 
i bought a pair of patterned pants from old navy about a few months ago and when i saw these polka dot ones, i didn't need much convincing. work pants that feel like pj's? k.
 
and this vest. at $39 and the most expensive thing on this list. i call that a good deal. so thanks, kaitlin, you just made my day.  
 
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linking up with annie for thoughts for thursday

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

about me + how i started blogging. the crazy story.

i've seen this post floating around blogland and figured i'd share a little about me for those who just started reading and write about things some of you may not know who have been following this blog for years.
 
that's right. years. you'll see what i mean. it's actually kind of a crazy story.
 
name.age.location |
 
well this is pretty simple. i'm amanda crute & soon to be amanda walker next august! man. saying that outloud really is weird. i'll be 26 next month and still feel like i graduated college last year. i also sometimes still act like it {insert last night's wine-o sesh with a girlfriend that lasted until 10:30pm}. i live in the beautiful charlotte, nc & can spend a lifetime here. i love this city.




relationships |
 
i live with my fiance, lee. he and i got engaged a few weeks ago! my parents and brother live about 3 hours away in roxboro, nc. that town doesn't even have a chickfila. i don't know how they do it.




work | 
 
i work in the crazy world of meeting & event management; specifically corporate meetings in the united states. i love getting to come to uptown charlotte everyday. my heart thrives in the city. plus, there's always good food around for lunch.
 
hobbies |
 
dude, i like to eat. not only eat though, lee and i love to cook. blogging has become a huge hobby of mine, too. i recently joined a gym to prep myself for the wedding & think it's a stupid idea. i'm hoping working out becomes a hobby, but i'll need to cross fingers, toes and everything else on my body to get that to happen. i am an admitted shopaholic. and i love to drink some wine or bubbly. 




favorite food |
 
sheesh. mashed potatoes? no, spinach alfredo pizza. no. buffalo chicken dip. no. sweet potato fries. no. CARBS.
 
standard bar order |
 
usually i try and stick to wine with appetizers or drinks after work. if we're going out with a group of friends, i'll hang out with a beer too. i love craft beers. i recently tried a blueberry beer & it was amazing.
 

places i shop |
 
j. crew. nordstrom. target. forever 21. h&m. & local boutiques around charlotte such as vestique, apricot lane, petal, impeccable pig, francescas, etc. i have way too many clothes & never have anything to wear. it sucks.
 
bedtime & wake up time |
 
lee and i end the nights during the week with a movie in bed. typically i'm asleep by 11pm, but if i start to do this stupid, insane workouts in the AM, i can see this being earlier. right now, i can get up at 7:15am for work, but if i choose to go to the gym in the morning, that will change to 6:30.
 
on the weekends, this varies. sometimes we're up by 9am and other days we sleep until 11. i love that i'm not a "i have to be up by 7am person" on the weekends.
 
what i blog about |
 
good gracious. i'm everywhere. sometimes i post about fashion, & then food, and then the wedding, and then what we did over the weekend, and then funny life stories by francesca. i mean, it's definitely a variety.




how i started blogging |
 
so here's the story for you. back in 2011 i started an anonymous twitter account just for fun; i came up with the name @LifeofaPrincess & started posting funny things that happened to me, inspiration quotes that i loved, or just anything in general. the twitter went nuts. before i knew it, i had over 250,000 followers within less than a year or so.
 
after i moved to charlotte, i started a blog to go along with the twitter - Life of a Princess Blog. i started writing anonymously about things that i was feeling or completely fictional pieces of work that i had floating around in my mind. i would post the links to twitter & then the blog went crazy.
 
i was receiving emails after emails from young girls from the united states and even overseas about how the things i was writing helped them. i mean i was getting 20 or so emails a day! girls saying my blog posts were getting them over relationships or making them realize what ws important in their life - i can't make this up people. typically it was about some sort of guy article or ex-boyfriend advice or a girl empowering piece that just stated girls kick ass. i submitted one of them to thought catalog & they published it! i got an email the other day from a reader thanking me for this one. how nuts right?
 
so i started slowly saying who i was via the anonymous twitter & blog. on a few different occasions, i had girls come up to me in bars around charlotte exclaiming omg! you're 'life of a princess'! once it happened on a date. the guy was like ummm who am i here with? life of a what did she say?? it was cool & weird in the same way.
 
about a year ago, someone hacked the twitter, changed my email address associated with it, and completely changed all the pictures & how the twitter was ran. they started filling it with ads and typical tweets that all other anon accounts were doing. i couldn't get it back. whomever hacked the twitter has blocked my personal account from even viewing it. the account now has over 324,000 followers and it's info "claims" to be the original. i can't look at it without getting mad.
 
so because i didn't want to be associated with that dumb account or the way they portrayed what i created, i changed my blog name & url to as the wine cork turns and decided to do a new direction with my writing. some of the older inspirational posts are still there in my archives; back in the early 2013 and 2012 years & know many people still reference them. it was a crazy ride  then, but it brought me to what i have now in the crazy world of the internet & i've developed tons of relationships with other bloggers all over the place. i wouldn't change a thing. :)
 
what about you? why do you blog?
 
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Because shanna said so for random wednesday & midweek muse

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

trending tuesday | DIY with wine corks.

i mean hello. this blog literally has my pick for this week's trending tuesday topic in its name! 

it's no secret that i am not a DIY person. i want to be so, so badly! i see so many of you posting about how you took this old run-down dresser & turned into a turquoise, refinished masterpiece. or how you took a 1979 chair and put new fabric on to turn it into something pottery barn would showcase.

but me? no. i can barely paint walls straight. however, we drink a lot of wine in our household. and i hate to see all those wine corks go to waste. so what does a white girl do on a monday night when she has nothing else better to do other than working out because that sounds terrible?

find way to turn drinking the $10 wines & using the leftovers to turn into cool things to hang around a future home. here are a few that catch my eye via pinterest

Wine Cork Necklace Rack by WhatShipsAreBuiltFor on EtsyWine cork backsplash
Wine Cork Cork Boardbird house made with corks
Top 5 Pins: Wine Cork Crafts

i recently asked my roommates and other friends to start keeping the wine corks because i have decided to seriously attempt many DIY projects for the wedding next august. and before i you say anything, i know. i'm crazy. why on earth would someone who sucks at DIY ever consider to do something DIY for this important of a day? ...i've already admitted to being crazy, so i don't have another solution for you. 

our colors will range from blushes to light purples so amen for me recently getting into red wines! these wines stain the bottom of the cork which gives an array of color as seen in the heart project above. 

so what's my biggest project with the wine corks? table numbers. 

Wine Cork Table Numbers Great for Weddings or by KrystlesWeddings, $9.50

honestly, i was always the bride who would preach 'pick a seat; we're all family' or whatever cliche phrase they have going on whenever i get married. but due to the nature of our venue, they have asked us to come up with seating arrangements. so insert my pinterest inspired wine cork table numbers.  

it turns out i drink a lot of wine so this project is right up my alley. i figure i could get a hot glue gun & go to town making numbers. it can't be that hard........ right? i say that now, but come three months before the wedding i'm going to be screaming to you all how the hot glue gun burned my finger & how none of my numbers actually resemble, you know, ...numbers. 

so when it all comes down to it, at least i know i can do something like this if it completely sucks...

Wine cork table numbers. Empty bottles, depending on the bottle could put something in them.

what did you do that was DIY? have you ever done something crazy cool with wine corks non-wedding related? i really want to invest in a super cute box or bowl to keep my corks so if anyone wants to buy that, that would be awesome. my birthday is next month. the 19th the be exact...so yeah. 

hey, throwing out ideas here because i am desperately need ideas from you.
 
link up with Kristina, Katie, Zelle, and myself every Tuesday to talk about whats trending!

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Monday, August 25, 2014

a cabin with a view.

to those who are eagerly awaiting to hear, the freakin' cabin supplied toilet paper! can you believe that? also, don't go to wal-mart in tennessee with hopes to buy wine. tennessee has this super cool rule that they don't sell it there.
 
so what did we do all weekend you ask? we never left the cabin once.  mainly because there was a death trap of a hill to climb that was probably a good {insert whatever number would be impressive} angle. turning the car around almost looked like the car was tipping over heading down the mountain. so located at the tippy top was our home for all eight of us for the weekend. 


we all got unpacked and into our rooms. there were three stories to the house - each with patio decks off of the bedrooms overlooking the mountains. on the top floor was the master bed & bath; the second floor was our room, bathroom, living area, dining area & kitchen; on the bottom floor was two more bedrooms/bath, a game room with a pool table & a hottub out on the back porch.
 
 
lee and i had a crazy cool view which i proceeded to do a balancing act on the rounded posts with all of the drinks i had that weekend. what i would have done if my coffee mug took a tumble down the mountain, i don't know. luckily it didn't.

 
we ate good. steaks the first night, a huge brunch on late saturday morning and a build your own sub sandwiches later that evening. we sipped champagne, played cards against humanity & even battled through a crazy tournament of beer pong with double elimination. it was really nice just retreating to a cabin where we had nothing to do and all day to do it.

we insisted on doing a selfie of all 8 of us and since lee has the longest arms known to man, he was volunteered to do so. and i know you're thinking - oh man, in the mountains the temperatures must have been perfect upper 60s with a cool brisk breeze in the .... NO. it was upper 80s/lower 90s the whole time.
 
i am an idiot for packing only fall clothing.
 
saturday night ended with us girls all sleepover style watching movies & the boys downstairs playing pool.
 

we're already thinking of our next spot within driving distance to travel. perhaps charleston in the fall? any thoughts? 
 
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linking up with biana & meghan for weekending.
Still Being Molly for Funday Monday

Friday, August 22, 2014

kissing summer goodbye...i think.


what's my favorite thing this friday? these shorts. i'm not going to sit here and ramble on about how i can't believe it's almost the end of summer. you know what month & day it is, and if you've been outside in charlotte lately, you know the temps are still reaching up to 90 degrees. so as much as i would love to throw on a chunky sweater & booties (that i am eagerly awaiting to wear!), i still can't because that would be stupid. it's like being the girl who wears uggs & jean shorts. 


i've been shopping at vestique for years. this boutique and another from when i used to live in greensboro were the ones who turned me onto boutique shopping. i used to be a hardcore department store girl, but then my eyes were opened to this. i actually was wearing this outfit the night that lee and i got engaged - and how fitting.. i was wearing white.
 
vestique has stores in charlotte, raleigh, columbia, greenville, cary and is looking to open one in charleston, sc soon! it's expanded so fast and that can only mean girls take things off the hangers just as fast as they can keep them on there.
 
vestique also always has something new. i swear every time i go into their store or look online, they have new inventory. i love that! snag what you like while you have the chance!

top: vestique; similar here & here | shorts: vestique; similar | wedges: target (old); similar here 
 
this shirt is so comfortable, i get it confused with pajamas. and we all know the first thing i do when i get home is take off my work clothes and put on some pjs. so wearing this thing is like the best part of both worlds. and these shorts are amazing. so comfy & i've worn them a a few times with other colors. a dark or light teal - i've seen it both ways.
 
patterened pants and shorts have been a huge trend this year - i just ordered two more pairs of pants yesterday!
 
of course, no post would be totally complete without a photobomb from francesca. that girl is constantly trying ways to get on the blog.

ps: have you checked out @thebloggercloset on instagram ately? some awesome bloggers are taking over & i would love to have you next. found out how - here!
 
we're headed up to pigeon forge today for a mountain cabin weekend! this is my first time in a cabin - and yes, in case some of you are wondering from my initial debate - we are bringing toilet paper. happy friday!
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linking up with for friday favorites, & oh, hey friday!