Scenes From Easter Weekend

First of all Happy Birthday to my Sister!  Today is her Birthday and I can't wait to celebrate once we get in town!  Maybe my nephew will be born on her birthday- although now that I think about it hopefully not,  who likes to share their birthday?

We had a lovely low key Easter in town. We decided we wanted to celebrate just the three of us, no traveling til after.  Friday night we used the leftover chicken from our Crockpot tacos to make some kick ass Nachos. The chicken saved really well.  It was a great way to use the leftovers.

Saturday we spent alot of time outdoors.  We walked this cool oyster trail near our house.

Then we made Val's Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Treats.  They were so good.  I could not stop eating them.

This is Sterling patiently waiting to dig in.  Not really I could hardly snap the picture before his greedy hands snatched one!

 Later that afternoon the ice cream truck came thru our neighborhood.  Who knew the ice cream man started in March?  Sterling was thrilled he had never seen a truck filled with all ice cream!

 Sunday we of course hit up the Early Easter Service at our church.  I wore my old Ann Taylor Dress and BaubleBar necklace.  Pink and yellow seemed like the perfect Easter combo to me.

 Sterling woke me up at 6:45 to see what the Easter Bunny brought him.  He was so excited.  How could I not let him eat some of the candy.  He was definitely on a sugar high when I dropped him at the church nursery.

I have to thank my blog reading friend (I should have asked your name!), we were outside trying to get pictures of each other with Sterling and she stopped and offered to take a family picture.  It turned out so well.  We have so few pictures where we are all looking at the camera and smiling.

As much as I love and really enjoy cooking this weekend I just wasn't feeling it.  We picked up the most amazing Easter Dinner from Piggly Wiggly.  Matt and I swear they have the best fried chicken in town.  It was a Southern Delight and so nice not to cook for once!  I cleaned my plate in seconds and then felt ill for eating so much!  But it was good.

 Check out my new About Me Page.   Sara, from a dose of pretty created a new page for me and its awesome!  Shoot her an email if you are interested in one too.  She is only charging $25.  I love mine!

Happy Monday!

Your Dose of Random Thoughts this Friday

It has been awhile since I did one of my random thoughts posts.  Get ready for some randomness.

Last night we cooked these Cheddar Beer CrockPot Tacos that I am sure you have seen floating around Pinterest.  My girl Chassity recommended them and I totally trust her food judgement.  She was spot on they are good, real good and easy to make. We loved them it made me realize I need to use my crockpot more often!

You can get the recipe Here.

My Gap shoes that I ordered from the Friends and Family Event finally came and they are even better in person.  Seriously they are so cute and it is hard to see in the picture but the black strap is calf hair.  They are comfortable too.

These Leopard Wedges are on my radar next.  I always love leopard and since I only own one pair of wedges, I think I do need another pair in my life.  Gap is offering 30% off now with code GAPEGG.

And have you seen these Gap leather totes? I really love them.  Kind of thinking I want the mint one but the Yellow one would be great for summer too!  You can get 30% off them too with code GAPEGG thru April 1!

Can we talk about how excited I am the Real Housewives of OC starts back on Monday.  The new season always comes at the perfect time when I am sick and tired of the previous season.  I am over Beverly Hills and used to love Kyle so much and dislike Brandi but now the tables have turned.  Anyways, I am excited for some OC drama. Looks like I spy a new housewife too.

This week Sterling and I dyed Easter Eggs.  If I am being totally honest I have not dyed eggs since I was a child.  So we dyed them and that was fun but what the heck do you do with them afterwards?  Sterling kept dropping them so there were egg chips everywhere- major mess.  I may stick with another Easter craft next year.  But they turned out pretty I must say for a $2 craft.

I have slowly been getting some house projects accomplished.  I still have yet to paint our den and hallway- that task is looming over my head because I know it is going to be such a bitch to do.  I do however have a runner picked out for our hallway.  I think the navy and pink is going to tie in perfectly with our den rug.  More details to come when she arrives:

{lulu and georgia jaeda rug}

This has been me alot lately.  Something about cold weather makes me so unmotivated to workout.  I have only been working out like one day a week and that ain't cutting it.   I hope I get my exercise mojo back soon!  Until then I will enjoy being lazy and drinking wine:)

I am so excited Baublebar is partnering with Adia Kibur again.  Her jewelry is my favorite. I ordered one of her necklaces last year and wear it all the time.   I love these two pieces.

Turq Tier Collar  ||Gold Pazzo Chain Strand

I will leave you with this.  Sterling keeps getting into my lipstick when I am not looking.  This is the third time I have busted him like this.  Everytime he says "Look at me I am Mommy."  He obviously thinks I suck at applying lipstick or that I look a hot mess often.  He did at least get the scarf right I wear that baby all the time.

 Have a very Happy Easter Weekend Friends!

Spring Break Fever

Spring Break is next week and am I doing anything fabulous?  Easy answer, no!  Sterling is out of school all week so we are headed to Charlotte to visit my parents and await the birth of my first nephew!  I am so excited to meet that sweet thang.  Do I wish I were going somewhere tropical, um hell yeah.  I need a vacay bad.  Just some time in the sun to booze, read, and relax.  That is not happening anytime soon but I can still dream about what I would pack, right?  Here is what would be in my suitcase.  Anyone have fun Spring Break plans?  Indulge me:)

JOIE LOUISA WOVEN TOTE ||  TORY BURCH TUNIC ||  RACHEL PALLY IBIZA BIKINI ||  VELVET TIE DYE DRESS||  JOIE SLIDE SANDALS ||  TOM BINNS ELECTRO NOVA NECKLACE ||  RAY BAN AVIATORS ||

Easiest and Tastiest Strawberry Cupcakes Ever

After posting this luscious picture on Instagram I got alot of requests for my recipe.  Strawberry Cupcakes are my favorite.  I absolutely love them.  This recipe is really easy- it involves box cake mix.  Now here is the deal I have made cakes and cupcakes from scratch but I swear the box ones are just as good and they save you time and effort.  Don't go hating on box cake mixes.  I do make a homemade icing for the cupcakes that my mom passed along to me.  It is my go-to icing for everything!  These cupcakes are super easy and filled to the brim with fresh strawberries in every bite!  Hope you love them as much as I do.

:: S T R A W B E R R Y   C U P C A K E S::

- 1 Box Strawberry Cake Mix + ingredients it calls for

- Pint Strawberries

-  8 oz cream cheese

- 1 box powdered sugar + more

- 1 stick butter

Mix cake according to box.  Dice up about half the container of strawberries and stir into cake batter.  Scoop into lined muffin pans and cook about 20-25 minutes.  Check by sticking a toothpick in middle to make sure cooked.

Using a blender cream together cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar.  Puree other half of strawberries ( I pureed about 10 strawberries using my ninja blender.  Add puree to icing and stir together.  This will make the icing thin.  I put mine in the fridge for about an hour or so to thicken up, you could also add more powdered sugar to thicken it up because you don't want it too runny.  Once thickened spread on cupcakes and enjoy!

**Side note my icing was thinner than I prefer.  If I had more powdered sugar I would have added it to thicken it up so I recommend buying the bag or two boxes of sugar so you have extra.**

Obsessions

:: M O T H E R  T H E  P A T C H I E  S H O R T ::

These are going to be new shorts for Summer.  I love a good jean short.  They are my favorite with blouses and a cute pair of sandals!

:: P A R K E R   P R I S M   D R E S S::

Gah, I am so in love with this Maxi.  I am scheming ways to get her in my life.  Love the black and white detail.

:: T O R Y   B U R C H B R I G I T T E   C O S M E T I C   C A S E::

I adore this cute Tory Burch make-up pouch.  I have always loved Flamingos and would love to have this to keep in my purse with my daily essentials.  This would be a super cute gift too.

:: A D I A   K I B U R  B L U E   C R Y S T A L  N E C K L A C E::

I am smitten with this necklace.  The color is pure perfection.

:: B A B Y   G A P   S W I M S U I T::

I obviously don't have a baby girl but I am obsessed with this adorable swimsuit.  If you have a baby girl please buy this.  Baby swimsuits don't get cuter than this!  I want to order one to save for baby gift for someone, so precious!

:: A S O S  M A X I   IN   V I N T A G E   F L O R A L ::

Can you tell I am into Maxis and Florals?  I love the Bohemian feel of this dress.  The perfect easy breezy maxi.  And it is only $86.  I am so ordering it.

:: J O I E   S H O A L  L E A T H E R   S A N D A L S ::

I got these for my Birthday and love them.  They are such a great neutral sandal that will go with anything!  I will say they run on the smaller side so order half a size up from normal- either that or my feet are just getting huge!

::  B U N N Y  B A I T::

Since I have done no Easter crafts with Sterling yet I think we are going to make this Easter Bunny Bait today.  How delish does it look?

Scenes From MY Birthday Weekend.

Happy Monday Friends.  I am one year older as of yesterday and one year wiser, right??  Unfortunately the weather sucked ass this weekend.  I am talking pouring rain both Saturday and Sunday, it put a little damper on things but I still had a nice birthday weekend.  Sweet Sterling woke up on my birthday and said "Mom, I am sorry its raining on your birthday.  Lets just get cozy and eat cake."  Sweetest thing ever!  Here is what went down.

Thursday night we made the taco casserole I blogged about Thursday.  We always make our own taco seasoning- how gorg is it?  Below is Matt's plate of food.  I always joke and tell him he should be a food stylist his plates are always so pretty!

Friday I hit up DT to do a little shopping with Caycee.  Now that she has lost so much weight girl needed some new clothes.  I managed to find two beauties at F21.

Polka Dot Shirt Dress | Ombre Marled Sweater

Then she took me to lunch at Basil for my birthday.  I love me some Thai food, it was so good!

Saturday I met a girlfriend for some afternoon wine at Bin152 to celebrate both our birthdays.  I wore my new Forever 21 Polka Dot Shirt Dress.

While we were having wine one of our friends stopped by and told us Matt Lee was down the street signing cookbooks.  We promptly closed our tabs and headed off to stalk him.  I was so excited, it is sad how excited I get about meeting chefs.  Matt signed my cookbook and was super nice.  You can see how giddy I am in the picture:)

Now lets talk about birthday gifts.  Baublebar was sweet enough to send me a giftcard that I used for these gorgeous necklaces. 
Gold Essex Necklace |

 Lemon Snow Collar |  Chunky Pink Link Strands

Caycee surprised me with the Tkees flipflops I blogged about last week and ladies these are the best flipflops.  So comfortable and cute on.  I highly recommend them, I see myself living in them all Summer!  Tkees are my new jam.

My mint clutch from Gap came and it is even better in person.  

Sarah From Social Dress Shop sent me this Camilla and Marc Hot Pink Dress I had been eyeing forever!!  It is on major sale now, somebody else should snag one before they are gone!

 I got some gorgeous flowers.  Orchids and Tulips are my favorite!!

I was pretty lucky in the gift department and I haven't even celebrated with my family yet!

Sunday I made myself my own birthday cupcakes.  It is times like that I wish my mom lived in town because she would have made them.  But Sterling and I had fun making them.  I wanted Strawberry, that is my favorite kind and I have a really great and easy Strawberry cupcake recipe!   Recipe coming, if anyone is interested in it!

The rain stopped long enough for us to hit up the Yacht Club a drink before dinner.  It was freezing there but I will say they pour the biggest glass of wine in town!

Matt cooked me a delicious Birthday Dinner.  Shrimp sandwiches with jalapeno coleslaw and spicy mayo.  They were off the hook good.  My man can really cook.

We were trying to recreate this sandwich on the new cover of Bon Appetit but with Shrimp instead of chicken.  Highly recommend.  I am happy to share our Shrimp Sandwich recipe too.

My birthday ended with lots of snuggles with this sweet guy.

  I want to thank everyone who messaged me on FB and instagram wishing me a Happy Birthday.  It meant so much to me!  I had a really great Birthday so thank you!  I am lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life.  33 is gonna be a good year, I just know it!
xoxo

To All My Charlotte Peeps

All my Charlotte friends, check it out.  Social Dress Shop is having a Pop Up Shop tomorrow.  Sarah stocks the best dresses in town, so if you are around you should stop by grab a drink and view the dresses in person!  Plus you get 15% off all purchases!