Friday's Feature

Feature:

How perfect would it be to just pull a confetti popper… or two out of your purse at a wedding?! 

It's all about celebrating and love this Labor Day weekend Friday.  We're headed out of town later today to celebrate a college friend's wedding this weekend.  We'll also be celebrating our anniversary all weekend long.

I planned to share about some good one year anniversary {paper} gifts today but my husband convinced my boss {the best mom ever} to let me have a surprise day off yesterday and we were out way too late celebrating an early anniversary so for today, these fabulous poppers will have to do.  I'll get back on track next week… I'm already in a long weekend state of mind.

I need to teach myself how to make these!

via

Other Happenings: 

+ Speaking of celebrating - Lauren Conrad is releasing a new book on hosting {article here} which will probably be the best thing ever since she's the hostess with the mosses.

+ I went to my first dry bar yesterday.  I think they might be my new favorite thing.  What a perfect concept - get your hair washed, dried and prepared to go out.  Sign me up as a regular. 

+ One Target location in Chicago will be offering beer, wine and liquor to enjoy cocktails WHILE you shop starting in October.  Can you imagine if ALL Targets do this?? Amazing! {article here}

+ I'm dog obsessed, I think a lot of people out there are dog obsessed.  Here are a few items for those crazy dog people out there {article here}

+ Tomorrow is GAME DAY. We kick off our season on the road against Temple - the game actually just happens to be right here in Philadelphia but we'll be away.  Two weeks and we'll be back in Beaver Stadium cheering on our lions.  I  c a n n o t    w a i t.

Cheers to the Weekend!

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California Part Three: Beverly Hills

To see the start of our anniversary trip, our time in Santa Monica and Malibu can be found: here and our transition from the beach to the city can be found: here.

Day Five - Virginia Robinson Gardens 
I like to call this day our "Beverly Hills" day because it was simple and everything was close to the hotel.  We started with exploring a hidden gem and some beautiful gardens before walking down to the Beverly Hills Hotel for lunch by the pool (we loved enjoying this last year the day we flew out to our honeymoon and thought about staying here but couldn't beat the location of our hotel) and doing some shopping on Rodeo Drive.

We kicked off our morning with lunch on the patio outside the hotel overlooking the start of Rodeo Drive (another one of our favorites last year so a repeat was in order).

Each time we make a "repeat" visit to somewhere we've been before we like to try to do something new or see something we haven't seen before.  I thought it would be fun to tour a mansion while we were in town - the day before we walked through the grounds of Greystone Manor (a gorgeous, large property in Beverly Hills) and in the late morning we headed over to Virginia Robinson Gardens for a tour around the grounds.

It's right at the end of a normal Beverly Hills neighborhood, gated off like the other properties and the lady it's named after lived here until she was a month shy of turning 100.  (They credit her long life to swimming, walking around the property and playing tennis every single day) We toured inside where we had to put booties on to protect the floors as well as not touch anything or take any photos and toured the gardens and throughout the estate as well.  Everything was so interesting to see.

The hotel wasn't far from where we were so we decided to enjoy the nice walk to get to it (anyway to incorporate a little exercise).  It was nice to walk through the pretty surroundings and nice houses.

Another favorite from the previous year, we're big fans of the cabana cafe next to the pool.  It's an outdoor patio, fun setting and tasty "pool" food.  Plus their margaritas are amazing.

When we got back from our adventures around town we immediately walked across the street to Rodeo Drive for some shopping.  Derek got some fall clothes - of course he made the first purchase and I was a lithe ancy until I got something too - but the wait was worth it as I was treated to a very nice anniversary gift… which I'll be finally receiving in a few days!  We also picked up my some Tory Burch flip flops for my mom as Stella has nice style too and ate the toe off of hers that morning.  

We enjoyed some balcony time, relaxing and a sunset before heading out for dinner… Mexican.  I've always been dying to go to the mexican place that Spencer was always raving about on The Hills because it looked so delicious.  It did not disappoint - totally authentic, we sat out on the patio and each added a taco onto our meals - they were $1.50 - hard to turn down.

 

Each day my parents would send pictures of Stella… this was one of the ones today :)

Next time… Disneyland! 

Helpful Links…

The Beverly Wilshire

BLVD

Virginia Robinson Gardens

Beverly Hills Hotel

Don Antonio's

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September

The day September starts is unofficially when summer ends for me.  This summer was one of the best and I'm sad to see it go.  However, last year we kind of just skipped right over September - we got married at the start, we're away on our honeymoon for two weeks and got back for about the final week of the month so I'm looking forward to enjoying this preview to fall.

I took a little break from my month ahead posts during the summer months but thought I'd get back into them now that a new season is upon us.

Looking Forward To This Month… 

Celebrate One Year: We're almost at the one year mark (I can't believe how fast it went!) so I'm looking forward to celebrating once or twice or a few times.  We did our big celebrating on our anniversary trip but there's never too much celebration.

College Football: Three more days until Penn State's first game and I can't wait to have my Saturdays revolve around game time again.  My parent's have a getaway home in State College and we love spending as many game days there as our schedule will allow.  Tailgating is hands down my favorite fall activity… more to  come on game days soon.

Wedding Season:  Similar to last year, our wedding season is just about to kick off.  I'm looking forward to the start to this fun and eventful time this month with weddings to follow each of the following months.

Down Time: This summer has been go go go all sumer long (isn't it suppose to be though?!) and I'm really looking forward to some nights where we get home from work with nothing to do, a lazy weekend thrown in there and some time to just be lazy.

Wants… 

Barre: I loved the last barre class that I took but that it was a slight drive away (I like my workouts to be as quick and easy as possible) but over the summer I found a studio just down the road.  The only problem was I could never find a good time to go.  I'm ready to change that this month.

Fall Decorating: Last year I got the first of our fall decorations (very few) and this year I had a 20% off sale/regular items at Michael's so I snagged a few pieces for mostly 50% off and I'm ready to get those all out on display.

Closet Clean Out:  I like to try to stay ahead of the season change and get my clothes switched out a little bit before the weather actually turns so I see what I have and am ready.  It's been a few months since I did some purging and I'm ready to get a couple bags together for good will.

Keeping it very simple this month after a busy summer season.

Like every month, just a few simple, easy, fun things to add to the month ahead.

Happy September! Happy Fall!

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Melon, Prosciutto & Mozzarella Skewers

If you haven't noticed before, we are big appetizer people.  I love a good leisurely cocktail hour to chat and enjoy before a meal.  When we're at the lake, it's the ultimate cocktail hour - some people are booze cruising, others are preparing at home on the porch and "appetizers" last until after the sun goes down - hours of grazing on the delicious treats.

There are certainly "go to" appetizer favorites for different situations whether we're tailgating, on our deck at home, at the lake, bringing and item to someone's house but I'm always on the lookout for new ones to try.  Last week when we realized more of the family than usual would be at the lake, I thought it might be nice to add to our normal summer appetizer menu and decided to make melon, prosciutto and mozzarella skewers - super easy and super tasty.  My mom let us borrow her melon ball scooper the other week to serve cantaloupe balls (as an appetizer, surprise surprise) so this was the perfect fit to get more use out of it.

Just grab a skewer (I used a smaller size) and slide on a mozzarella ball, a cantaloupe melon ball, some prosciutto in the middle and I added a little basil at the end.  You could easily fit two-three rotations of the items on each skewer - I was just trying to accommodate more people. 

I know there are a lot of boating fans out there and my aunt was sharing with me that her new favorite item to serve on the booze cruise is some kind of skewer because it's easy to get down on the boat and easy for someone to grab and enjoy - win win.

In addition to the skewers I've already tried (caprese and tortellini) I'd love to try … Antipasto skewers, fruit skewers, no bread sandwich skewers, shrimp and pineapple skewers, watermelon/feta/mint skewers… the list could go on and on.  Also, definitely brownie, marshmallow with strawberries for dessert.

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