a little blank fun

If you haven't already noticed today is FRIDAY!!! And I am one excited girl that the weekend has finally arrived. I am packing my bags and am heading out of town tonight to probably an even smaller town then corvallis but the point is that I am heading out for a couple days. Heading home with my good friend/ roomie to coos bay! It will be nice to see the ocean and just be somewhere different. His adorable mom has im sure planned a great weekend for all of use 

but for now I figured we would play along with the blanks today. They are over on The Little Things We Do! 

1.  Something that is very near and dear to my heart is,   friendships. my close friends know that no matter what I will always back them and will always come to their rescue.     

2.      The fact that it is friday.   is good cause to celebrate .

3.  The most fun I ever had was    hmm..how about just some fun that i had recently? Last weekend my roomie and i made our way up to portland, had lunch and roamed the streets on a perfectly sunny day. and it was so much fun. It is fun to have days where there are no expectations and you just go with the flow. it's the simple things  .

4.  True friends are   the ones you may not see or talk to everyday but the ones that you pick right back up with when you are together. true friends will call you out and be honest when you need it the most and are always there to comfort .

5. Something that makes me terribly happy is       entertaining. I know it sounds weird but i love having people over for a dinner party. there is just something about everyone around one table sipping on wine and enjoying ones company that makes me just feel complete .

6. A good way to spend a sunny day is     outside BBQing, with great friends, great drinks and twinkle lights for when it gets dark  .

7.  My favorite celebratory food is   Chocolate, some sort of chocolate dessert is always a great way to celebrate  .

Only 8 hours stands between me and weekend. hopefully it goes by fast! 

Have a simply wonderful weekend! 

beauty products i love right now

every girl has her go to beauty products that she loves. and lately with all of my new beauty box subscriptions I have added a couple more to my list. but lately I have been obsessed with a few key items. here are some of my favorite beauty products at the moment. and the best part there are more economical items then splurge items! 

1. Essie. Tart Deco: $8 

My new color obsession right now. this peach brings out the tan that is slowly starting to emerge.

2. Pantene Brunette Expressions conditioner:  $5.99     

In the last year or so my hair has decided to be super picky about what shampoo and conditioner is   used. I have been trying to find some sort of alternative to spending $30-40 bucks for the good stuff. After testing out every variety. The only one that my hair seems to like is this stuff. It hates the regular Pantene but this brunette expressions is amazing and my hair has never looked so vibrant! 

                 

3. Julep Sicilian Orange Foot Soak: $26

With summer right around the corner and living in sandals this is a must for the summer. Your feet
will love you for such amazingness. And it smells like heaven! I was so excited it was in my Julep Maven box last month! 

4: Secret Scent Expressions- Cocoa Butter Kiss: $5.25

To be honest i  only bought this product because there was a good deal on Secret products and i loved the  scent. And i am so thankful i did. It is perfect to spray for a light airy fresh scent for those days you don't want to use your expensive perfume. 

5: Benta Berry G-1 Exfoliating Facial Cleanser: $16

My newest favorite product is this exfoliant that I received in my Birchbox last month. It seriously is amazing! And although it is a little spendy for the tiny amount you get it is well worth the cost. It seriously changes the texture of your face after one or two uses.

Do you have any favorite's? 

Hope you have a simply beautiful tuesday! 

now that was a weekend

Everyone loves a nice relaxed, no plans, go with the flow kind of weekend, but sometimes it is fun to see how much fun you can jam into a weekend. And this weekend I did exactly that. It started off with a great laid back bbq full of great food and yummy cocktails. A perfect way to wind down the week and kick off the weekend. I was so busy having fun that i totally spaced to take some pictures. But here is the picture version of what else happened this weekend! 

our beautiful saturday started out with a yummy lunch with my mamma at wild pear in salem
talk about perfect lunch and AMAZING red velvet cake. to. die. for.

we then made our way up to portland for a stroll up and down 23rd street.
so many things i could just die to have. and only in portland will you find a dog shaped purse
jen and i pretty much had the perfect saturday afternoon. 

sunday i got to spend the day with my lovely grandma and wonderful mother.
we had brunch at Portland City Grill and it was nothing less then perfection!
to top off the amazing food there were unlimited mimosas!

it was a lovely morning and it was nice to celebrate such wonderful women.
my mamma is truly my best friend, number one cheerleader, inspiration and motivation
without her i am nothing and honestly couldn't ask for anything more
love you mom! and doesn't she look great! hello she just turned 50!!

it was a busy weekend but the lack of sleep was totally worth it!
this whole month is actually full of jam packed weekends but they are
 going to fun weekends so totally worth it!

Hope everyone had a simply amazing weekend! 

bbq envy

tonight i am hosting the first of im sure many bbq's to come this summer. i have worked hard to tidy up the backyard and dust of the good ole bbq but i must say I am having some bbq envy with all the cute outdoorsy furniture, bbqs, and other adorable outdoor living area accessories. It makes me dream about someday owning my own home with a yard i can do some amazing entertaining in. But for now I browse the isles of stores wishing i a. had the home and b. had the money. It's okay though. I make due with my mini backyard and strings of lights. :)

i have wanted a fire pit for years now.....maybe this summer i should make that happen
crate and barrel 

everyone needs a great outdoor dining table.
would be nice to not have to use my folding tables
crate and barrel 

and we all need a good lounge chair. this one from westelm is perfect

these amazing plates would be perfect for my summer dinner parties
actually all the tableware anthropologie carries would be perfect 

pretty sure resting on this couch with a good book would complete my summer
also from westelm 

and for my grand finale this Altair Tent also by anthropologie
ringing in at a cool 8,998. only in my dreams 

looking forward to a fun bbq and weekend! 

hope everyone has a simply fantastic weekend as well! 

it is no secret

it is no secret that i have always despised yard work. i would rather clean my house 3 times rather then be out in the yard...but with a bbq right around the corner and my mamma not having time to come help her clueless daughter I braved the weeds and yard myself last night. Nothing like knowing I will have a backyard full of people to give me some motivation to get myself out there. And....I hate to admit it but it wasn't that bad. and don't tell anyone but I may even have slightly enjoyed it. It helped that I had made a trip to good ole Home Depot and got myself a fun pair of yard gloves, and a couple tools, couple bags of bark dust and some flowers. Side note: i love Home Depot. There is so much to look at and it's always so inspiring to walk around the place. Anywho...I got back to the house and started going to town on my little backyard. I made some major progress but still have more work to do. But I was able to string some lights and lay some bark dust...and the progress is so noticeable that it made all the work worth it. With the bbq being tomorrow night...means i will again be out in the yard tonight..two nights in a row!!! here are a few instagram snapshots from yard work fun

hope everyone has a simply lovely thursday 

Flower Mania!

What a weekend! Not going to lie, it was a jam packed, busy, hectic weekend. I had two different events that needed flowers, and one those events I also had to work. Thankfully one good trait I have is working well under pressure. Actually, I probably work better when i am under some pressure. It was a weekend of late nights and early mornings but I am happy to report that all 65 flower arrangements were made and delivered and I am still in one piece. I will let the pictures describe the rest...

what i started with...a lot of empty vases...

because both events were OSU themed I wanted to work in some black on to the vases
my solution: striped fabric cut and glued onto the vases.
hello custom vases for super cheap 

thankful for our amazing corvallis saturday market.
i pretty much cleared them of flowers

my first event was at the Portland City Grill. Not a bad view for the evening 

every flat surface in my house was covered in arrangements

not going to lie. the first hour or so I spent starring at flowers and trying to create arrangements and not being happy with them. having never made so many arrangements before I think the daunting task really started to hit me. But with the clock ticking i turned the music up and stopped thinking so hard about it and from there the arrangements just flowed. Thankfully....

Hope everyone else had a simply wonderful weekend! 

sneak peak

I am SO excited to have just received the pictures from my grandmother's 90th birthday! So excited that I just have to share just a couple. Don't worry I will be sharing boat loads of pictures next week but here are just a few preview shots! Leah from Leah Banick Photography did one amazing job! 

can you believe she just turned 90!?!

okay so that was more then a couple...but there are just so many adorable shots! 

hope everyone has a simply fantastic weekend! 

technology makes us silly sometimes

the instagram version of my iphone

lets face it, we live in one heck of an iphone obsessed country. a group of my friends were out this last weekend and as we were sitting around the table i noticed that every single person had an iphone. if its not an iphone then its a droid, htc, or some other smart phone. our generation is obsessed with keeping "connected" at all times. however connected probably isn't the best word. we are more obsessed with appearing to be connected. We want our information to be out in the world, but more importantly we want to be able to find out whats going on in other peoples lives. Whats silly is that with all this technology we are partly a little more disconnected. We don't have to call someone and ask them how they are doing, and have that "in person" conversation. we just text them, facebook, or twitter them. its pretty much allows us all to be low level stockers to anyone we may be interested in. 

for 59.99 you can to get this "vintage" inspired phone

our iphones have also become our cameras, our camcorders, out personal assistants, computers, and can settle an dispute about random knowledge or answer to any random question we may have. along with keeping us connected we now have an obsession with making our high quality iphone cameras look like they are "vintage". with antique filters from instagram with fun borders so we apear almost more "simple". i for one am totally one of these instagram obsessed people. we also have "vintage" blue tooth cordless phones that we can buy to make it appear we are on an old school phone. we love our technology but i think we love the idea of how simple things used to be. I almost think that part of us wishes things weren't so connected ALL THE TIME and a little more mysterious. I'm not complaining at all about the amazing technology we use on a daily basis. i love technology. im obsessed with technology. but i do think part of us, part of me, misses how things used to be...just a little bit. not enough to ever give up our amazing other half we call an iphone, but just enough to feel nostalgic about all these different apps, and accessories we can get now. we are human. meaning we will probably always want something we don't have. whether thats a cool new gadget or a simpler way of living.

i know im not that techie of a girl but when i stumbled across these "vintage" inspired phones, that to me don't seem that "vintage" i just had to say something about this whole thing. 

random thoughts for a simply random techie tuesday. 

sometimes you need a day

this weekend was back to hecticness. i am finally feeling back to normal and with my sickness gone i wasted no time having a jam packed weekend schedule. saturday i was up at the crack of dawn prepping and helping my mom with a MASSIVE garage sale. It was very successful but had to cut my time short at the sale to head back to corvallis and meet up with my lovely bride. We got to talk wedding decor and design and picked out some AMAZING linens. They pretty much brought the wedding to a whole new level :) 

Sunday rolled around and I decided to take a day for me. anyone ever do that? where you just want to do what you want to do and not have to take anyone else's opinion into consideration. sounds kind of selfish but honestly it was perfection. I needed to head to Portland to purchase a few ton of vases so I just made a day out of it. Heres what it looked like..

wore my new casual fun cute sweatshirt. you can by comfy and cute. :)
however, i did discover my shoes are cute but not that comfy :( 

of course stopped at jamba to start my day off

purchased 66 vases from ikea. starting prep for two different events next weekend. totaling over 75 flower arrangements . ha...im crazy..i know..

made a stop to visit my dad. the moment i got to his spot the clouds cleared and sun came out.
a beautiful day.

attempted to do a little shopping but ended up making it to only like 2 stores.
but did get these super cute nikes

the cool thing about a me day, you don't have to please anyone but yourself. i had grand plans of doing more shopping, because honestly i do my best shopping alone. but i was tired and thankfully didn't have to drag myself anywhere but back to the car to drive home. successful me day for sure.

hope everyone had a simply great weekend! 

BirchBox

A couple months ago I was introduced to Birchbox. Birchbox is an online beauty store with a twist. There are all sorts of amazing products that you can buy. However, Birchbox is known for the brillant concept of selling sample boxes for a low monthly rate of 10 bucks! Let me explain. $10 = 4 to 5 high end make-up or beauty samples each month. I mean who really wants to buy a product online without trying it first. Well this allows you to do just that. When i heard about the concept i jumped at the opportunity to sign up. I had to wait about a month for my invite but I got one and received my first box last weekend. I was so excited. The packaging of course was adorable! And I loved my first months samples! Here is what I got!

1. BENTA BERRY G-1 exfoliating facial cleanser 

2. Kahina Giving Beauity Argan Oil

3. Kahina Giving Beauty Facial Lotion

4. Yes to Blueberries Brightening Facial Towelettes

5. Wonderstruck Taylor Swift

6. Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Mineral Tinted Moisturizer 

Not bad for my first box! Not going to lie I was a little sad I didn't get a nail polish. Just because I love nail polish but maybe next month! And I LOVE the cleansing towelettes! Would totally buy them again. And the best part is that if I do want to purchase any of these products it will ship for free! a nice little bonus. Birchbox also has a reward system. The money you spend on boxes or in the store equals points that you can later use in the store as credit! Basically its a pretty fun little box totally worth the 10 bucks. You should join. Click here to join under me so you will get an invite faster! 

Hope everyone has a simply wonderful Thursday!