confessions.

- i confess that i have never been to a mountain cabin for a weekend. i've been to the mountains before and i've been to a house that looked like a cabin, but never the two at the same time. this one has a hottub, pool table, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and clearly amazing views. us + 3 other couples are headed to pigeon forge on august 22nd! i'm pretty happy with our home made out of wood that hopefully we don't burn down.

 

 

 

 

for those of you who have been to a cabin, do you have tips? should we bring toilet paper? i can't imagine a whole weekend without it and i'm not sure if it's supplied. that's sad (or smart), that's my main concern.

 

- i confess that i am liiiiiivid at walgreens. and to think, i have graciously picked you every time over cvs! with starting a new job, i knew the process would have to take time before my health insurance kicked in for my prescriptions. so after it was valid, i asked the cashier to apply my insurance card & he said it was the same one as my previous employer when it clearly says different. no, you dingbat - this is the one i just got in the mail. i can have a short temper with things like this so i paid for my prescription out of pocket. plus we were already late heading to the beach, so i just wanted to get on the road instead of mr. wonky walgreens telling me i'm wrong. {end rant.}

 

- i confess that i took the "my fitness pal" app on my phone, balled it up in to a tight piece of paper, and shot it in the trash for lunch yesterday. there was a food truck featuring wings & fries outside of my office and i forgot my lunch. all calories out the window on that one.

 

the smell of the leftover wings & (sike. there were no leftover wings) fries was haunting me from the trashcan under my desk all yesterday afternoon. 

- i confess that i've been listening to usher's confessions: part 2 the whole time i've been writing this post. thank goodness none of my confessions don't have anything remotely close to having a baby like usher's probs. why do you think i sucked it up & paid walgreens? ya follow me?

 

- i confess that i send lee way too many selfies during the day. and they're never attractive ones. i don't "do" attractive selfies. my eyes have been killing me lately so i've been having to wear my glasses more and this was to express how upset i was about it to him. i'm really glad he loves me.

and really glad y'all (hopefully still) do after seeing that. someone once told me if you don't make fun of yourself, you'll never get anywhere in life. clearly i'm headed straight for the top.

- i confess that i made veggie stirfry & tried to be creative by adding in balsamic vinegar strawberries for sweetness. and as this wasn't a complete fail, it was a little too sweet for stirfry. still pretty though! lee, you were right.

 

- i confess that i have worn my kendra scott earrings practically everyday since i have gotten them. even if it didn't go with my outfit. i wore them yesterday with my cat scarf. kendra & cats aren't exactly a winning combo, but hey - you can't see them in the picture so who really won?

 

 cats rule. don't try to tell me otherwise.

 

    linking up with Annie and Natalie for thoughts for thursday.

asparagus & spinach stuffed flounder.

i sent this picture to my best friend, because hello - this looks impressive as shiz.

i have a tendancy to binge watch the food network to the point where i start completely over-smiling every 3 seconds like giada de laurentiis does, talking in a raspy voice like rachel ray while slinging EVOO! all over the kitchen, and saying "good things are happening" over & over like the white haired anne burrell does while she teaches me to cook like a restaurant chef without being one.

she also resembles guy from guy's grocery games. fine, that was just mean. but the woman can cook though!

the zucchini and lemon were both used in this recipe, but figured it made a nice little decor around the food. right?

this girl right here is a fan of tin foil. not the prettiest, but that's why this blog isn't a dedicated food blog. i throw in an occasional receipe here & there, so when i find a way that prevents me from scrubbing cooking pans, i'm all about it.

so hence, the ugly tin foil. after all, i'm not on chopped (another food network show obsession), so presentation is thrown out the window at the crute/walker dinner table. it's all about the taste. however, i don't want y'all wondering what in the heck i'm taking pictures of, so i do try.

& now i've spent time rambling about my use of tin foil & justifying why its ok for it to be ugly. let's get back to the fish, mmkay?

when i sent danielle the picture of the cooked fish above, her first response was "omg, send me the recipe." but honestly, i don't know if there is one. i am forever mixing & matching in the kitchen; pattern matching with food, if you will. #fashionbloggerish

so instead of a standard recipe, i'll give you the easiest of directions. preheat the oven to 350. wait forever and go do a load of laundry because ovens are annoying and take forever to heat up. combine a small amount of room-temperature cream cheese & spinach together & slice the ends off of the asparagus. salt & pepper both sides of the flounder. spoon in the spinach mixture to the side of the fish you will wrap to be the inside (or don't, & just use cheese, if you have a boyfriend who declares he is scared for spinach to touch his food). wrap the fish around the asparagus & secure with a toothpick. spray with evoo. rachael ray will be proud.

bake for 20 minutes or less.

i sauteed zucchini because zucchini is hands down my favorite vegetable as a side & created a stove top made-from-scratch-no-i-don't-know-all-of-the-ingredients-in-it-because-i-kept-adding-random-things-cream-sauce to spread over the fish.

it's a really good thing this isn't a food blog.

there was milk, lemon juice, sauteed garlic, paprika, cream cheese, and pinch of flour for thickness. just throw some of that in a hot saucer pan & hope for the best.

that's what i did anyway.

 

ps: don't forget about this giveaway! $130 will buy you a whole lot of founder.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

linking up with peas & carrots.
also, with shanna

#trending | cobalt crush.

         

 

dress: vestique (old) | scarf: j. crew factory (similar) | sunnies: j. crew factory | crossbody: michael kors

radiant orchid needs a run for its money because i'm crushing on some cobalt. who is in charge of naming these colors anyway? radiant orchid? cobalt? whatever happened to purple & blue? you know, simple words. it reminds me of that restaurant in charlotte called the peculiar rabbit. what the hell kind of name is that for a place to eat? well, whatever. i'm going to quit before i get distracted.

i picked this crossbody up at the nordstrom sale solely because of it's color. didn't even notice its price before it was in my shopping cart. dang it. it's an easy bag that will transition into fall too. i'm a sucker for crossbodies because i'm still hands-free. i feel like i'm going to be one of those moms who straps their kid on a contraption held to their chest. maybe borderline lazy, but at least i'm not putting my kid on a leash. big no-no.

anyway.

other than this random purse i got from target, this is my first big girl purse (the six coach bags i carried in high school/college don't count). i've always just been a clutch kinda girl. i don't carry around that much stuff! gah, signs you're a grownup = a grown up purse. i'm pushing 26 this september and i don't want to talk about it.

i also am loving the idea of summer scarves. since i'm now, all of a sudden, into florals this year, the colors on the scarf - including a mashup of blended (?) cobalt - really brought out the look with this dress. i feel like high-low dresses have had their debut in the spotlight, but this one from vestique last year still knows how to party. it's lightweight & sheer; perfect for the muggy weather that being at the beach this past weekend brought to us.

i feel like a ocean goddess. just kidding, i don't. but if i had a dress to pick to try & mimic that feeling, this one would be it. 

now if we could just find a perfect shampoo to stop 102 degree humidity weather from ruining any chance of a curl staying in your hair. we can dream right?

it's time to link up ladies! join zelle at a southern style, katie at champagne & suitcases, and kristina at medicine & manicures, and myself every tuesday to chat about what's #trending in your world & ours!

also linking up with tucker up, i feel pretty, the modern tulip, blog hop & the pleated poppy.

six at the sea + giveaway.

the clock struck noon and we were seaside bound on friday. the only thing my mind could think of was all the lyrics to jake owen's beachin'.

our friend taylor opened up her 4 bedroom beach house at sunset beach to us and another couple. how sweet was that right? i owe you one (or five), tay. 

a low country boil + good people + a sunset on the beach + card games. there are not many other things that could top that. i'll quit jabbering because we all know pictures tell the story.

saturday was the day i decided to be super smart. why you ask? by not using sunscreen. i tan really easy, i said. it will be fine, i said, as every one else is slathering on layers upon layers of that spf 30. i have my floppy hat plus it's kinda cloudy out there. it's totally fine.... or i thought.

granted, all of the above actually are true. although i didn't get fried into lobster perfection like our buddy, JJ - but i am slightly peeling already. i'm going to blame it on the last time we took on the beach. 

yes. that's watermelon. genius? like, why didn't i think of that? salt + watermelon + tequila. that's like the margarita world aligning perfectly. 

the best thing about heading down to a beach house is no 11am check out time. we woke up around 10am, lee & taylor cooked up a fabulous brunch for us before heading out to toast our skin some more. in case you're wondering, i wore sunscreen on sunday. spf 50 to be exact.

a store blew in for all of 2 minutes with about 8 drops of rain, but it left a really scary cool sky. slightly instagram filtered a bit, but hey - is a picture even a picture if it's not instagrammed? don't think so. 

how was your weekend? 

in case it wasn't as cool as mine, myself + a couple of other awesome bloggers have teamed up to bring you this awesome giveaway. after all the beachin', drinkin' & eatin' i have done this past weekend, i'd lurve some of that cash in my pocket. wouldn't you?

so go ahead & enter, we have a ton of pretty cool ladies for you to check out. 

The Girl who Loved to Write | Meg in Training | Believe in the Sparks | Rad Maverix

{the farmer's wife} | As the Wine Cork Turns

Classy Living | september FARM

Heaven with a Wild Side | The Crazy Wise Woman | The Butcher's Niche | Rose Gold & Ringlets

a Rafflecopter giveaway

linking up with biana & meghan for weekending.

etiquette + blogland = blog-tiquette

oh, hey friday! so i bring to you, here on this lovely day, a lovely rant. maybe not so much of a rant because no one likes rants. but more so lessons i've learned from blogland. you can also scratch out lessons & replace with things that drive me nuts if/when they do/don't happen.

to determine my annoyance with this, i'm going to rank my eeeeeeek face (slash kinda looks like the joker face?). the more faces, the more eeeeeek i am - all cosmopolitan magazine style.

1. bloggers who don't respond to comments via email or via anything.

eeeeek factor:

y'all - this is like blog-tiquette rule number 1. i don't care if you have 15 followers or 15,000. these are people who take time out of their lives to comment on your little spot on the internet. every blogger loves a little blog love. people actually give a flip about what you're writing. they could be out getting coffee, or riding elephants in africa, or parasailing on the shores of bali, for goodness sake, but they're not. they're reading what you deemed appropriate to share with the world.

and then they take 15 more seconds to actually comment on your words. blogger even makes it easy for you - you get a flippin' email about it! simply reply to that email with something that relates to what they said; a thoughtful sentence/conversation or at least an "i totally agree," a "haha," - just something!

i make it a point to comment back and i love doing that. sometimes i comment back so fast it's freaky like jimmy john's. i feel like when i comment on someone's blog and they don't reply it's like an unanswered text that has the iphone read receipts turned on. humiliating. slipping in orange juice in your sparkly jeans in the cafeteria in ninth grade embarrassing (yes, this happened to me).

fine, it's not that bad, because that's pretty dang bad, but it's still the emoji sad face bad.

2. you blog twice a month. or haven't blogged since may. or haven't blogged since 2012.

 eeeeek factor:

one of the things i look for in a blog is how often you blog. i have made actual friends through blogland; people whose life i know what's going on. some call it creepy; i find it fascinating.

i know who just got engaged and another girl who is about to pop out 8 lbs of something i don't want for 10 more years.

i know whose boyfriend just took them on a fabulous trip or another blogger whose dog is sick and i check every day for updates because fur babies are life.

but if you only blog like twice a month about a concert you went to and one "five on friday," i can't follow that. unless you're hilarious - i'll wait for that til the cows come home because humor is high rankings in my book. but to me, blogs are like a constant book; ever-changing just like our lives. i genuinely care what is going on!

3. alignment.

eeeeek factor:

i don't know if it's just my blogger interface, but this little system annoys the crap out of me sometimes with alignment. i'll have a picture & then like 10 huge gaps of space between my next sentence. then my pictures will be off and uneven and i'm the queen of symmetry. i freakin' love symmetry. quadrilaterals used to piss me off because they're uneven if you split them down the middle, but i can hang with a rhombus all day.

{side note worthy piece: i like to read my blogs the way i read my books. left to right. none of this centered stuff. but that's just my preference. you like yours centered? kay, cool - keep rockin' on; at least you blog three times a week & reply to my comments.}

4. blogland all chatting about the same thing.

eeeeek factor:

okay, this one was recent. i, too, and guilty of posting about the nordstrom anniversary sale. and i get how flippin' awesome it really is. and no, i'm not mad that everyone posted about it - i mean it's the most wonderful time of the year right? i read the most amazing guides and picks which totally helped me make my selections. so don't take this one to heart.

i'm a lover; not a fighter.

the best way i can describe this is like when it snows in north carolina. everyone (and literally their mother) puts "it's snowing!!!!!!!!" as their facebook status. it's like, we know. we see it. it happens every year. this one is only 2 faces because the nordy sale rocks. plus i really like snow. but when my work email sent me a reminder about the sale, i was like really? i even snapped at my computer over it because that totally mattered. i know!!!! i screamed.

everyone eventually forgets about this and life goes on.

5. no reply bloggers.

eeeeek factor:

in your defense, you probably don't know you're one. it means we can't reply to you! i was one before & my girl chesson showed me the way to the light out of the darkness. so, how can i sit here and harp with my rant saying you should always respond to those who slather a lil blog love on you if we can't reply. no worries. you can fix that issue here.

6. you comment; but they don't make sense.

eeeeek factor:

you're browsing. you see a picture of a balloon. you see a cake. you see presents. you comment happy birthday girl! i hope it's the best! .... when in reality, it's not my birthday. it's no one's birthday actually. it's my parents anniversary party that we threw them.

you're browsing again. you see a picture of a puppy. another picture where the puppy is running! a picture of the puppy sleeping in the cutest little ball. oooo an older picture of the puppy. wow, this dog got so big! a final picture of the dog laying under the christmas tree. you comment awww. your dog is so cute! how old is she? i bet you love coming home to her everyday after work! ... when in reality, that was my childhood dog when i was 7. i was reminiscing and telling a funny story about how she ate her chew toy one time trying to get to the peanut butter. she's no longer alive so no i don't see her after work.

kudos for the comments, but when they don't even relate to the post, they're almost null; which takes us back to point number 1.

--------

and thus concludes my first real rant post about lessons i've learned in blogland. what's your pet peeves on blogs? besides my eek face because there's way too much of that in this one post.

linking up with amanda