Tuesday, March 31, 2015

i'm lucky except when i'm playing monopoly.


honestly, i am exhausted. so exhausted i went to bed at 8:30pm last night and am just now getting to what we were up to this past weekend. see that spray paint? it's about to become my best friend as i start tackling more wedding crafts on the weekend. i have this idea of something (that's so me!) for part of our centerpieces so i got to searching around. i found someone who could do exactly what i wanted for $12 a piece. i have 14 tables. $12 x 14 is math that i can't even do right now, but i know it's way more than i want to spend on 1/3 of our centerpieces & something i will probably trash after the wedding. 

so i'm attempting diy. cross your fingers and toes for me because i'm not gifted in the craft department. 


after crafting, i ran to two different malls and into countless stores only to not find anything i liked. the last store i ran into is old navy. i swear i could be a walking advertisement for this freakin' store! how adorable is this simple striped dress? it's in the works to do a whole recap of the amazing finds i got, so check back for that later. i could definitely see this being a future bridal shower dress. 


we stayed in both friday and saturday nights this past weekend, yet here i am still exhausted. probably exhausted from the stress of monopoly. i have probably played this game one other time in my life. let's just say i'm not so skilled & i was the first one out with only $5 to my name. i had the crappiest real estate of the entire game with two houses built. i'm so glad i don't manage my money in real life like i did in monopoly.


sunday morning we made pancakes and just soaked up the sun streaming into our breakfast nook. later that afternoon, i met allyson and we headed to amelie's french bakery in noda for a wedding wire event hosted by my wedding florist, pink petunia designs. i have such a stronger respect for flowers now! i know that seems silly, but i feel like when it came time to do flowers, i would walk in be like "i like it" ; "i hate that" ; "no, i want it to look like this" kinda mentality. they told us about which flowers were the best wedding flowers, and we got to make our own bouquet! the first flower picture is what i threw together for my bridesmaids as a rough idea. the white bouquet was a bouquet i won via raffle! 

i'm 3/3 at winning raffles at wedding events. lee says i need to go buy a lottery ticket before my luck runs out.

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Thursday, March 26, 2015

our save the dates.


so these pictures were taken back when i had my iphone 4 from my iphone 5's death. so oops! #notaperfectblogger. but this is the save the date we decided on. they turned out so simple - just how i wanted with just our names & date. the hudson in the background is a car that lee's dad built from the ground up and will also serve as our getaway car after the reception. 

we both love to celebrate so popping champagne during our engagement pictures was a no brainer. my favorite part about this picture is the way lee is looking at me. insert gush sentence, i guess. 


we used minted for our save the dates & i liked them the most. and trust me, i checked out a lot of websites. minted was easy because they had templates, if you wanted to use one, or you could customize. i wanted a big picture of us that took up the entire save the date, rounded corners, and a font that i could choose. 

so custom template was right up my alley. also important to me were our save the dates to be magnetic so you could just throw them on a fridge. minted also will printed your addresses and addressees for free! that's right - freakin' free! i decided to opt out of this for the save the dates because i had that design i told y'all about that i wanted to do. but for the wedding, i absolutely will. 

we're coming up on 5 months and i honestly can't believe it. ever have so much to do that you decide not to do anything? yeah, me too. 

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Monday, March 23, 2015

weekending in march.


friday was really exciting because people were texting me about receiving our save the dates! i'll def be posting more about this later this week, but here's a little sneak peak.

saturday morning, we woke up and i fixed some amazing avocado & egg toast while i caught up on some blog reading before our crazy day started.


i ran 4 times last week for a total of 11 miles. go ahead and slap me silly through the computer screen because here i am soooo sore today, but determined to go again after work. i quit my membership at the gym also. i will say i miss the machines - especially the in/out leg machine! but the fact of the matter is it's an added expense that i honestly don't need. 

since the time changed, it's light outside until 7:30 or later so that gives me plenty of time to get home, get a run in, & finish up by lifting weights/pushups/squats etc in our bonus room. 

plus when i was at the gym, i wasn't giving it my full potential because i hate working out in front of other people. just a personal thing. this way, i'm already at home so what's another mile if i can squeeze it in?

plus i'll take this view to a dumb treadmill any day of the week.


our neighborhood is great for having a nice mile loop back to my house and what could be cooler than having your nails match your weights? sinful collections polish is only $1.99 and i swear this is day 4 of my at home mani. 

saturday night, we went out with a big group of 14+ of us to all american pub to catch the state & unc games. they both won! it was a great win for state to knock off the #1 seed - i honestly didn't expect that one. 

this was my outfit that basically yells spring. 

dress / flats (seriously SO cute) / scarf from h&m (similar) / thin belt (target has so many colors!)

like i mentioned the game was intense. check out lee & drew's blank stare faces. i think a hurricane could have been going on outside, & they would've been glued to that tv.

can you just hear lee saying please oh please oh please over and over in his head?


the lovely miss hannah & her boyfriend matt got to join us also. i just love this girl. when we met over a year ago, we instantly clicked. i just love people like that! they came back with us to continue the night at our house where what did we do? .... play with the selfie stick and play beer pong. of course. sound familiar? of course it does. but when it ain't broke, why fix it?



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linking up with:
B Loved Boston and Champagne and Suburbs for weekending
Bella and the City for weekend  recap
A Cute Angle for monday madness

Thursday, March 19, 2015

four.

after seeing amanda's super cute post on four, i totally wanted to do my own. here's a little more about me. 

four of my nicknames

1. mandy - when people want to try and annoy me. don't call me mandy. my name is amanda.

2. sissy - my mom still calls me this; especially when talking to my brother about me.

3. susie or "suz" - my dad calls me this more than he calls me amanda. it's the weirdest thing. people give me funny looks when i tell them, but i'm used to its whatev. from the ages of 5-16 he called me "fred" so maybe he's just a creative dude.

4. bub - that one is all lee. and i call him the same. i hardly ever hear him say hey amanda! - it's always hey bub! 


four jobs i've had

1. back when i was 16, i worked at a gym. sold memberships, babysat the kids of the adults working out, cleaned tanning beds, etc. ya know - typically sixteen year old stuff. looking back though, the owners let a sixteen year old girl open, run, and close their gym without ever checking in on me. good thing i was a good kid.

2. i sold jewelry at friedman's jewelers for a little over two years at my hometown of roxboro & then transferred to the store in greensboro, nc when i moved to college. a lady that worked there accused me of stealing one time - she was clearly mistaken. the company went bankrupt a few years ago.

3. when i was also in college, i held three jobs at the same time. crazy am i? yes. one was a blogging job for my apartment complex where i had to blog for 13 apartment complex's across the united states. because of this, my rent was only $18 a month for my two story town-home. hello hookup!

4. when i moved to charlotte, i worked at the westin charlotte hotel as a sales manager. can you tell i was into sales? two years later, i decided sales wasn't for me anymore & decided to move on to my current job that i have now and i couldn't be more happy with it.

via

four movies i've watched more than once

1. the notebook - i could watch this over and over and over.
2. the lion king - yep, i'm 5.
3. taken - this movie never gets old to me
4. the father of the bride (part 1 and part 2) - this is on repeat recently because.. well duh.

four things in my TB purse


1. my kate spade eyeglasses & rayban's 
2. a corkscrew - you never know when you need this to open wine
3. urban decay naked lip gloss - i SWEAR by this stuff. & never go anywhere without it.
4. receipts.

four places i've lived 
1. roxboro, nc
2. greensboro, nc
3. charlotte, nc - south park area & mint hill area
4. concord, nc - where we now own a home!



four places i've visited

1. cozumel, mexico
2. green bay, wisconsin


3. san diego, california
4. st. thomas & st. maarten! (as a blonde)



four places on my travel bucket list

1. europe. i know that's a huge one. but i want to hit like 5 places at once. 
2. bora bora
3. antigua (and will get to check this off on my honeymoon!)
4. new york city. i've never been. ...i know.

four things i don't eat

1. cheerios. this is nothing but glorified cardboard. gross.
2. corn beef hash. it just sounds disgusting
3. meatloaf. reference the reasoning behind number 2.
4. fries with ketchup. call me weird, but i love me some fries AND i love me some ketchup, but the combination together makes me cringe. 

four tv shows i watch

1. the bachelor/ette - i'm hooked and i hate it at the same time. it's the only show i like to really live tweet and will make sure my butt is planted on the couch to watch.
2. pretty little liars - after catching up to today with the previous seasons on netflix, i'm now good to go. i usually don't watch it live, but i always catch up the next day.
3. gossip girl - i realize this has been off tv for years, but again, i suck at tv shows so i could rewatch this any time (and sometimes do!) blair + chuck 4eva. 
4. diners, drive-ins, and dives - i have all shows recorded and watch this before bed. i'm obsessed.


four things to look forward to in 2015

1. hands down #1 is getting married to lee. countdown to august!
2. hands down #2 is our honeymoon. i haven't been on a week long vacation since 2011. 
3. my bachelorette party in july. 
4. continue furnishing/decorating our home

i hope this gives you a glimpse into my little life. do one of your own - these are so fun to read!

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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

CAULIFLOWER pizza crust.


that's right. cauliflower pizza crust. i've been a cauli-connoisseur lately with my cauli-alfredo & now this. and you too, even if you have a super used in baking sheet like me, can create this wonderful carb-free crust at home. don't judge me on the baking sheet thing. i'm about to get married remember? and have registered for a million of these things.

this was surprisingly easy, but make sure to not skip the "drying of the cauliflower" step. it's crucial! 

i was craving pizza last night, but after my two mile run, i didn't wanna waste all the calories burned on papa john's that would've made me feel like crap an hour later. so cauliflower pizza crust with fresh veggies on top was the key for me. although you can add any toppings, including meat, to this & it's definitely just as good. 


i was really impressed. and i may even make this for lee and not tell him it's cauliflower until after he eats it, says how good my homemade "crust" was and then watch his jaw drop when i tell him it's vegetables. i love that kind of trick. 

what you'll need to make one 9 inch pizza:
1 small head of cauliflower (or half of one big one) - keep just the florets. slice off the stems.
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1 egg
dried oregano
dried basil
garlic powder
salt & pepper to season
desired toppings for pizza

what you do:
preheat oven to 450 degree. pulse your cauliflower florets in a blender or food processor until it resembles tiny rice. dump into a big bowl & microwave for 4 minutes. let the cauliflower cool & drain through a small mesh to rid excess water & pat dry with paper towels until the moisture is gone. toss back in the bowl. add the oregano, basil, garlic powder to your liking & then salt & pepper to taste. crack in an egg and combine until fully mixed in. i used my hands and it worked great.

spray a baking sheet with non stick spray & drop your "dough" onto it and press out to form a crust; making sure to do it evenly & not too thin. 

bake for 10-12 minutes until it's browning. then take it out, top with you desired sauce/toppings and bake for about 5 more minutes until crispy.

eat immediately. this doesn't do leftovers.

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Monday, March 16, 2015

the weekend that was green.


it actually was green in more ways that one, but more on that later. my best friend & maid of honor's birthday is st. patrick's day, so we had her down to celebrate alongside of her boyfriend graham, her sister morgan, and her husband caleb. 

after throwing around too many four leaf clover emojis, we started the night with dinner & drinks at all american pub, which was fun and all, but as most of us are 26 or older, we decided going back to our house for pajamas and beer pong was the better solution. so we did. and it was one of my favorite nights to date of 2015. 


i introduced them to my selfie stick and a party was made. it was quite hilarious choosing which pictures made the blog and which didn't.. if you know what i mean. caleb is well over 6'6" so, when he had his hands on the selfie stick, it was basically like someone was standing on our second story balcony taking pictures of us. 


we ended the night playing beer pong, of course, because that's one of mine and danielle's favorite past times from college. ask us what's most of our favorite memories from college and i guarantee you it was dominating the beer pong table. so, happy birthday beautiful! i can't wait for you to stand beside me in august.

saturday was the annual charlotte st. patty's day bar crawl which pretty much takes over uptown. everyone everywhere is wearing a green shirt & drinking a bud light out of the green clover aluminum bottle. it's madness. it's fun. i've done this crawl for three years now and it's one of the most entertaining ones.

lee, drew, and i met up with hannah & matt - other friends of mine and the 7 other people they were with. everywhere you look, there's a sea of green. see what i mean?


we ended the night with potato skins, wings, & chips & queso which are certainly not on the wedding diet. but hey, is this a time where i throw in #yolo?

yes it is.

sunday, lee and i decided to come to terms with how old we are. we have now found joy in going to lowe's to buy yard-work tools and supplies. we have these awesome planters on our deck which needed some sprucing up & our yard which needed fertilizing. 

 
being new homeowners, we had nothing. not a shovel; not a rake. nada. so this was quite the trip to buy all the tools that made lee feel super man-like. i love seeing his eyes light up over this kind of stuff! 

we picked out some flowers, mainly because the colors were pretty, and were on our way to fix up our yard now that north carolina is pretty much in spring mode.


it was a long day, but we got so much accomplished. the deck still is in need of a good stain, but maybe within the next few weekends we will tackle that. the previous home owner neglected these planters so digging up old roots were necessary. lee dug while i planted. i admit, it was so fun doing this with him because neither of us have a green thumb. thus the hashtag #nogreenthumb was started.

we also bought some herbs to plant because cooking is our favorite thing to do together & fresh herbs from the garden is pretty much like christmas to us. so those were planted as well.


cheers to my first "garden." coming within the next few weeks will be planting zucchini, tomatoes, and maybe some squash. we buy (and eat) vegetables every week, so this would be a great money saver. if you have garden miracles, throw them my way because i'm oh so clueless.

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linking up with:
B Loved Boston and Champagne and Suburbs for weekending
Bella and the City for weekend  recap
A Cute Angle for monday madness

Thursday, March 12, 2015

CAULIFLOWER alfredo.

so this is awkward. 

awkward for one because my blog title is capitalized and i hate capital letters. but i really, really needed to emphasize the fact that this ish is made from freakin' cauliflower. i'm still stunned.

awkward for two because this stuff is so good, i only took two pictures. two. and one doesn't even count because it's nothing but cauliflower almost boiling in a pot. hence the picture below.


i know i'm sorry. when i started this, i thought man, i should blog this! as long as it didn't turn out tasting like a foot, that is. 

well i'm here to tell you it didn't and i may not ever buy alfredo sauce again. or even the light version! (even though i have three jars still sitting in my pantry.) this is so simple to do & doesn't include any milk, cream, butter, half & half, or any thing you would think.

the boys were watching the nc state game last night so they ordered pizza. have you ever looked at pizza in the face and said no? and papa john's pizza at that? i have. and it was hard. but my meal of zucchini noodles & sauteed chicken with the cauliflower alfredo came in right around 360 calories for a big plateful. we all know pizza can't do that.


so there it is. in all its glory. intertwined between the savory zucchini and chicken with a little bit of garlic. so how do you make this sweet, sweet nectar? read on.

cauliflower alfredo sauce

what you need:

1 head of cauliflower
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of chicken broth
1/4 cup of cauliflower boiled water

what you do:

break up the cauliflower into small florets & boil for about 20 minutes (even longer if you have time). once it's done boiling, use a spoon with holes to get it from the water. don't use a colander because you need that water! throw it in your blender, and make sure to keep the boiled water nearby. toss in the salt, parmesan cheese, chicken broth, and 1/4 cup remains of the boiled water. 

blend with my ninja blender. (that thing is magical.)

it's done. 

seriously, could it get easier? i stuck a spoon into the blender expecting to be disappointed because i hadn't added anything "bad." by the time it was over with, i was practically licking it out of the blender. 

okay, i'll stop telling you how weird i am. go try this now.

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