If anyone still reads this, I've found a new home at loveandsapphire.com I will live this up for a little bit but this blog will eventually be deleted.

DIY

This weekend I finally busted out the cricut and made one of the first unnecessary, but completely cute DIY projects for the wedding reception: Drink Stirrers! I picture them up by the bar and the bar-tender putting one in each mixed drink. The front has our names and the backs have a knot, which loosely brings together our "tie the knot" theme, and our wedding date. Love!

Meat Muffins

Last Sunday I thought we would try to make something special for dinner. The thing is, when it comes to cooking the easier, the better is what I look for. I saw this recipe on Prior Fat Girl, and thought it was perfect. The only thing I really substituted was ground turkey for ground beef and I omitted the green pepper. They ended up only being about 4 weight watchers points a piece which is great!

This were so delish and making these again are a must!

Well that's a horse of a different color...

One of the first things I decided on when we got engaged was what colors I wanted throughout the wedding. I had yellow and navy blue gumdrops dancing through my head and one day when I was walking through Nordstrom's I stumbled across a pair of yellow and navy blue shoes and it sealed the deal. I mean come'on it was a sign from God himself saying what my wedding hues should be. Right?

(Source)

And then my indecisiveness kicked in.

And kept thinking that maybe navy blue and yellow was a little too nautical for us. It's not like either of us are in the Navy or own a boat, or even live near the beach. So I thought perhaps pink and navy I thought. Jonathan nixed that fast. When it comes to the wedding Jonathan said that the big decisions were up to me, and he just wanted me to be happy (that's the sign of a good man!) but the two things he does want are red velvet cake, and not to wear pink of his wedding day. I can make that happen, I think.

(Source)

So then I kept trying to come up with the perfect mixture. I wanted something fun, yet classy, perhaps a little preppy, and new. I find myself getting stuck on things and unable to move forward until I get over certain humps. When it comes to the wedding the colors were my Mt. Everest, and I shall overcome. My next choice was navy and lime green.

(Source)

But I kept going back to my first choice of navy and yellow, plus I did have the perfect shoes all picked out. But something just wasn't right. Until I stumbled across this inspiration board:

(Source)

And I knew this was the choice. It's perfect. Yellow and navy, but grey to break up the nautical-ness. I can picture the groomsmen decked out in grey suits, navy ties, and yellow boutonnieres. The bridesmaids in navy dresses (I feel like it is a flattering color on most people) and yellow bouquets, and perhaps grey heels? This weekend Jonathan and I are going to paper source to pick out the paper goods for our save the dates. Did it take you an obscene amount of time to pick out colors or a theme for you wedding?

Yellow is my favorite color...

Not really, but it is when it comes to sales! This weekend Jonathan and I went to the mall because saturday night we had a Murder Mystery party to attend and we needed costumes (more on that later). When we were there we made our way through Carson's and I saw my favorite sign: "Yellow Dot." We stopped immediately and I looked at the purses. I am very picky when it comes to buying a purse. It has to be stylish, but also have a cross-body strap. Usually finding a purse with a cross-body strap is like the kiss of death, it usually means that it is something more close to what a grandmother would wear than what I would buy. The purse I found is perfect, and used to be $120! After the discounts it was $20, that's $100 off! I couldn't be more ecstatic. I also found a wallet that was marked down to $6.80. Not sure how much it originally was and I don't see a label anywhere to help.

I love how organized, yet easy to get to the wallet makes all my cards and I also love the color. This was a super duper find and it made my day! Have you found any good deals lately?

Zoo Trip

Last Saturday Jonathan had a great idea for us to go to the zoo! Brookfield is free on saturdays, so why not take advantage of it while we can? I thought that the animals would just be sleeping, but many of them are actually more active in the winter. It did get a little cold outside, but once we started to get cold we would head into the indoor exhibits to warm up.

We saw camels

This goat stood like that off of a cliff for the entire 20 minutes that we were by him, he did not move an inch!

Giraffes!

Jonathan

Me

Jon caught me just staring and the giraffes

Polar Bear, I don't think he was too cold in this weather!

Penguins

We even saw a dolphin show

Lion, just chillin'

Peacocks- they walk around the zoo freely

Fun day!

Snowpocalypse 2011- Chicago Edition

It's and understatement to say that Chicago gets extreme weather. We have summer's that often topped the charts and clocked in over 100 degrees, and winters that often come in 20 below, so we are used to bundling up, or being ready with a fan and a cold bottle of water in the summer. Wednesday was a little different however.

I grew up in Chicago, and did a brief 4 year stint in Iowa for college, but I am a Midwestern girl through and through. I have never seen snow like I saw snow this week. We received, in some spots 32 inches, with 10 foot high snow drifts! We got thunder-snow, sometimes 2 to 3 inches per hour, Lake Shore Drive was even shut down, leaving 200 cars abandoned.

(Source)

I left work early at 4pm, right when the snow was starting to get back. My commute usually takes about 20 minutes and it took me an hour, not too bad in the grand scheme of things, and compared to other people! But that drive was the scariest drive I have ever made, at some points I had to stop because I could not even see a foot in front of me, It was a complete white out.

Wednesday Chicago woke up and it was still blizzard-ing outside. No one had plowed our parking lot, which is very unusual. I figured the snow plow-man had other more important roads to take care off. I could not even get outside the door to take Buddy out because there was a snow drift up to my waist against the door. Our neighbors had a snow drift at their door that was taller then me! Needless to say, I was not able to go to work on Wednesday!

Thursday, however, the city got back to work, even with that much snow. Some people were still snowed in, but not many. This is the view of my apartment complex from my car:

(personal photo- this is the view from my car looking at our apartment, no, that is not a hill, just snow!)

(Personal Photo- looking at the door to our apartment)

How did you feel about Snowpocalypse, Snowmaggedon, The Great White Out? Did you get any crazy weather this past week? Or ever?