Our Easter Home

   Tonight I leave for NJ to celebrate Easter with my family.  I am bringing two of my bridesmaids with me from Pittsburgh, so I am excited to celebrate with both friends and family this year!  It is crazy it is already Easter considering we just got three inches of snow Monday and it has snowed every day this week.    It doesn't feel right to break out the pastels and spring dresses yet when I am still wearing my Puffer Coat and Hunter boots with the liner to work each day! 
   
  Not to be negative, but I hate that Easter is so close to St. Patrick's Day this year, I barely had any time to put up my Easter decorations, and I won't really get to enjoy them since I will be home in NJ until Sunday,   I didn't go crazy and put them all up since they will literally be up in our house for only a week, but here is a sneak peek at Easter in our home:

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter!

 

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Wedding Wednesday: Honeymoon Help!?

  Blog world I need your help!

DFH and I have been researching honeymoon locations for the past few months and are having a hard time deciding where to go due to a few different issues. 

We are getting married in the middle of October and will be leaving for our Honeymoon the following week.  Both DFH and I are looking for a Honeymoon spot where we can lay on the beach and relax, and also do adventure activities and day trips.

We are nervous to go to the Caribbean due to Hurricane Season in October.  We were looking at Costa Rica and Belize, but it is their rainy season, although many websites recommend Belize in October. 

 We both love Europe, but it looks like even in South Spain and Italy it may not be warm enough to lay on the beach. 

We also want to avoid a honeymoon on the other side of the world.  As much as we would love to go to Fiji or Australia we both can only take a week off of work, and we don't want to waste half the trip on the airplane. 


   I would love to hear recommendations! Let me know where your favorite vacation or honeymoon spot is located!

Dogfish Head Tasting Tour

   Recently, DFH and I attended a Dogfish Head "A-Hop-Eclipse Now" Tasting Tour at a local restaurant.  As I've mentioned in past posts Dogfish Head is one of DFH's favorite beers, and we couldn't resist attending the five course Dogfish Head beer tasting and food pairing. 

 

The tasting was at the Bigelow Grille in Pittsburgh.  Bigelow Grille paired up with Wild Purveyors, a local farm to table company.  All of the food prepared that night came from local farms in the area.

 

All of the food courses also contained each beer we were trying that evening.

 

 

All of the Dogfish Head beers on tap.

 

 

Butler County Hanger Steak with Yukon Gold Potatoes with kale, barley, and hop salt.

 

Absolutely phenomenal. 

 

Above is one of the new Dogfish Head glasses, made specifically for drinking IPA Beers.  It is made by the glass company Reidel.  Just like Reidel's wine glasses this glass is very delicate.  One of the creators was present at the dinner, and it  was so interesting to hear all about how this glass was designed specifically for IPA beers.   We each got to take the glasses home as a souvenir.

 

 

 

CHEERS!

 

 

 

 

Wedding Wednesday: Asking the Groomsmen

     DFH like myself is also very lucky to be having seven of his best friends stand by his side on our wedding day.  He also wanted to find a unique way to ask his guys, to be a part of our big day.  Obviously, he wanted to do something a little less girly then monogrammed Bridesmaid Tervis Tumblers.  ( See my post on how I asked my Bridesmaids HERE). 

      This past winter while I was searching bridesmaid ideas for myself I had come across a few blogs where grooms had asked their groomsmen through beer. I knew DFH, the craft beer connoisseur would jump on this idea....And he did!


          He decided he wanted to  make personalized beer labels, asking his friends to be groomsmen and wrap them around one of his favorite beers.  First, Doug used the website My Own Labels to make his custom beer labels.  The site is great and allowed him to customize the picture, color, and font used for the beer label.  

    Of course, boys being boys, DFH picked the silliest picture he had of himself to use for the label.  He wrote: "I'm Going to Need Your Help On This One, Will You Be My Groomsman?"

 Once the labels arrived, DFH picked up his favorite go-to craft beer Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA  to use for the labels.  Fun fact:  Dogfish Head has the same initials as DFH and the 90 minute bottles contain colors from our wedding color scheme, so obviously I liked that about it!

 The labels have sticky backs so they were easy to use.  DFH removed all of the old labels from the Dogfish Head bottles and added his customized labels.  

They turned out great!  DFH bought a extra large bottle for his Best Man and attached a custom label with a picture of the two of them that read, "Best Friends, Best Beer....Best Man?" ( Sorry for all of the glare). 

  Most of DFH's groomsmen also live out of state so we had to make sure that the beers were wrapped well, to avoid any beer spillage.

 

 

 

And they all said YES!

 

 

The "Before I Turn Thirty" Bucket List.

   As many of you know this month I turned 29.

 

 I still stutter when I say I am 29, it sounds so adult, but I've accepted it.

Hi, My name is Lauren and I am 29 years old ( almost thirty AHH!).

       In my head I've always had a mental life bucket list, that I've never written down, but could ramble off to you.  Things I would like to do in my life time, but know they may not be attainable right now. Many of them include travel,  such as traveling to all the continents, and visiting every state in America.  I want to visit a rain forest and go on a safari in South Africa, I want to see the pyramids, and attend Oktoberfest in Germany.  I want to one spend a night in an igloo hotel, go snowboarding west of the Mississippi, go whale watching, and see a whale.  I want to learn to surf, and re-learn to play the piano.  I want to have children and raise a happy and healthy family. I want to have a successful career and marriage and  I still want to be a contestant on the Price is Right.  This list goes on.


   I do hope to one day achieve all these goals, but I am also a NOW person.  This is probably one reason I am an attorney.  I like setting goals, and having deadlines, I like crossing things off my to do list and seeing the entire list crossed off.   Thus I have created my "Before I Turn Thirty" Bucket List.  At this point, I have 352 days left until my turning Thirty Bucket list deadline.  These are all goals I have not yet accomplished, but I believe I can achieve in a year, and so I present my list:

 

Lauren's Before I Turn Thirty Bucket List:

1. Get married ---> scheduled for October 2013

2. Buy a house

3. Go Skydiving

4. Learn to wear my contacts on a daily basis

5. Take an instructional make up class

6. Make my own sushi

7. Make my own wine

8. Make my own pasta

9. Travel to five new cities

10. Try five new foods

11.Ride in a hot air balloon

12. Do at least 5 random acts of kindness

13. Watch Gone With The Wind

14. Try at least 12 new restaurants with DFH

15. Cook at least one recipe from every cookbook I own

16. Learn to French Braid

17. Host a themed party

18. Host a dinner party

19. Make pizza dough from scratch

20. Decide on a signature scent

21. Finish watching all the seasons of Downton Abbey

22.Start a new tradition

23. Pickle something other than cucumbers

24. Frame my diplomas and decorate my work office

25. Read at least three "Classics" I 've never read before

26.Do at least two "Touristy" things in Pittsburgh

27. Appear in a movie or TV show as an extra

28. Learn to properly can jams/jelly's/sauces.

29. Successful grow and eat at least two new vegetables in our garden

30. Learn to get up earlier on a regular basis before work.

Let the countdown begin!

Do you have a bucket list?

Wedding Wednesday: Asking My Bridesmaids

      I am honored to be having seven fabulous women stand by my side on my wedding day. All of which have had a huge impact on my life and have been with me through thick and thin.

 

 

   Over Thanksgiving I asked my sister to be my Maid of Honor (MOH). She lives in NJ and I am in Pittsburgh and I knew I wanted to ask her in person. I arrived at my parent's house before she did and decorated her childhood room door with a sign that said, "Will You Be My Maid of Honor?" Inside her room I placed a photo collage and card I had made.

 

 

 

 

She was surprised......Success!!!

 

 

Posing with JLP's kitten Lily.

 

     
      I also knew I wanted to ask my other friends to be my bridesmaids in a special and unique way, but wanted it to be something that reminded them of me. I literally spent weeks reading blogs and searching Pinterest for a great idea.  Unfortunately, most of my bridesmaids live out of state so I knew I would need to do something I could put in the mail.  

    After a lot of thought I decided on monogrammed Tervis Tumblers with the Bridesmaid logo.   If you know me you know I am the Tervis queen. Both DFH and I use at least two on any given day for coffee and water. We have quite the Tervis collection including Tervis Tumblers with our college logos, sports logos, we have monogrammed Tervis Tumblers as well Tervis Tumblers we have picked up on different trips. 

Do I need anymore??

 

If you also know me, you know I love to monogram everything and anything possible. So I thought a monogrammed bridesmaid Tervis was the perfect personalized gift to give my potential bridesmaids that also reflected my personality.   


  I ordered six  16 oz. Bridesmaid Tervis Tumblers and one 16 oz. Maid of Honor Tervis.  I added each maid's monogram to the cup, and chose monogram/lid colors which I thought matched each girl's personality. 

 

Of course I had to order a monogrammed Bride Tervis for myself.

 

 

Once the monogrammed Tervis Tumblers arrived I wrapped them up and attached a piece of paper that said

 

"Will You Be My..."

 

 over the Bridesmaid logo

 

  I also attached a card I had written to each bridesmaid. 

 

 

 

 

 

Out they went....

and they all said yes !!

I am so lucky to have so many special women in my life and cannot wait for them to be a part of my Wedding Day. 

Celebrating 29 Years!

     This past Wednesday I turned 29. I can't believe this is the last time I will be celebrating a  birthday in my twenties. Seriously where did my twenties go?? I feel like I just graduated from college. Ok maybe not college, but at least law school and that was almost four years ago!!

  So far twenty nine has been pretty good to me, I had a crazy busy week at work last week so I couldn't do much celebrating on the actual date, but DFH still made sure I had a special day and cooked me a tasty tuna dinner, and bought me a fabulous new handbag!

This weekend, I celebrated my birthday with DFH and my amazing friends who planned a very special evening for me.  We started out the night at ALV's and she prepared quite the spread and  LES made some sweet treats.   After some champagne toasts, and blowing out candles we headed to Perle a champagne bar in downtown Pittsburgh for some bubbly and dancing.  ( I wish I had taken more pictures)

DFH and BS enjoying their manly Manhattans while the ladies sipped on champagne. 

Some of the girls and I.

 

 

DFH and I

  Sunday morning some friends and I attended the 2nd Annual Pittsburgh Drag Brunch, which raises money for the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh.  The mission of the Delta Foundation is to increase awareness and understanding for the LGBT community in Western Pennsylvania. 

As I've mentioned previously, I LOVE my Bloody Marys and starting the day with a this delicious pepper rimmed Bloody was just what I needed after the previous night's birthday antics. 

 

 

The show was fabulous!  The drag queens were so entertaining and fun, and I loved that the proceeds went to such a great cause. 

The girls and I posing with Blake Matthews.  Isn't her resemblance to Cher crazy??? 

ALV, DFH, and I ended the weekend by enjoying the weather with some drinks and snacks at a local restaurant.  It is just terrific being able to sit outside again.   We may have even come up with a brilliant business idea!!  Look out world!!

 Such a wonderful birthday weekend with wonderful friends!