My Favorite Gifts for Friends

     With Black Friday and Cyber Monday in just a few days I felt like it would be the perfect time to show you my favorite gift ideas for friends.  You never know what types of great deals companies will offer this week and it always helps to save a few dollars when holiday shopping.

     I always struggle with finding the perfect gifts for my friends.  Whether it be a hostess gift, birthday gift, or Christmas gift. I always obsess over choosing the gift as I want it to be thoughtful, useful but also unique.  It usually takes me days to actually bite the bullet and purchase something because I am worried I will find something better.  I know I am weird. 

     Anyways these gifts have all been gifts that I have gotten friends in the past and that as far as I am aware everyone has enjoyed them.  In addition all of these gifts can all be purchased for under $50.00.

 

1. Tervis Tumblers:

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This is a tried-and-true amazing gift. I have about 13 tumblers and have given them as gifts for both family and friends.  I even asked my bridesmaids to be in my wedding using Tervis Tumblers.   They have a lifetime warranty and are great for both hot and cold drinks.  In my opinion one can never have enough. 

2. May Notes:

 

 



 

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    These monogrammed note cards are the perfect personalized gift.  These cards are great because you can personalize the colors, font, and background design. I gave these to my bridesmaids as hostess thank you gifts and they came out super cute. 

3. C. Wonder jewels:

 

 

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Who doesn't love receiving fun costume jewelry?   C. Wonder has a great selection of fun bracelets, rings, necklaces and earrings and at a great price.  I always love receiving costume jewelry from others because it is fun to see what other people pick out for you 

 

4.  Coffee mugs:

 

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Over the past few months I have seen so many cute coffee mugs. I love drinking my morning coffee in my favorite mug. I have received a few from friends over the past year  and every time I use them I think of them.

5.  Luggage Tags:

 

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    If your friends are like mine then if seems like every week another friend is traveling somewhere around the world for vacation, weddings, or even with work.    When traveling especially on planes I always have bright colored tags on my luggage so that I can immediately spot my bags in the baggage claim.   Recently, I have come across so many cute luggage tags with great designs and colors. 

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Our Weekend

     This weekend was packed full of celebrations which I always love!  Friday night DFH and I stayed in knowing we had a ton going on the rest of the weekend.  

 

So this is what our Friday night looked like.

 

 Like Father like son.  

     Saturday we attended a friend's surprise 30th birthday party.  I always love parties but surprises are always the best. Our friend Kate hosted the surprise party for her husband Drew. She is so amazing, Kate had her baby only three weeks ago and was able to put together an amazing event. 

 

Riding in style to the surprise party.

How cute is this beer cap cake ALVs mom made for Drew. She is super talented. 

 

 

Surprise !!!

 

 

Some of the ladies waiting for Drew's arrival.

 

The happy family, I wish I had gotten a picture where Drew's eyes were open.

Sunday we attended Friendsgivig with another group of friends, and ate way too much food.  One of the couples brought a deep fryer to the party and I think we just about deep fried anything we could, pickles, mushrooms, turkey, and even Oreos.  Yum! I was in deep fried heaven.  I again failed to take any pictures.  I really need to work on that.

 

So nice to have a three day work week, I don't think eating all that fried food yesterday is going to help me run the Turkey Trot on Thursday.

The week in review.

        Happy Tuesday !!
 

       These weeks have been flying lately, I can't get over that it is almost Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner.     This past week was no exception, but it was also full of a lot of events and exciting news. 

       This past week marked our 1 month wedding anniversary hahha.  It literally seems like it was yesterday, I cannot believe it has already been a month. I wish I could re live our wedding day over and over it was just too much fun.

 

     I came home on our month anniversary to these beautiful flowers from DFH, so far he is doing a fabulous job of being a husband :)

    We celebrated that night with our vineyard wine glasses from the rehearsal dinner with our bride and groom wine charms.   Can you tell that we are really stretching out our wedding celebrations, but I'm OK with that. 

   On Tuesday my good friend  Steel Magnolia  gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.  I wish she still lived in Pittsburgh so I could meet the cutie. I guess it is time to take a trip south. 

    This past weekend our Junior League put on the American Girl Fashion Show it's a great event that raises money for local Pittsburgh children's charities . 
 

 

LES and I volunteering at the show.

 

 

It is so so cute and the little girls love it. I wish this show existed when I was little. They even have a doll hair salon, where girls can have their doll's hair done. 

 

               Last night our friends ALV and BS took us to a  Pittsburgh Penguins game. As usual we had the best time!  So happy that it is hockey season :)

 

 

Can you tell we enjoyed the hats they gave everyone at the game?

 

 



 

Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard Adventures

     In September I flew up to Boston and headed east to Cape Cod for my friend Jocelyn's wedding for the weekend, which I blogged about HERE.  A few weeks before her wedding DFH found out he was hired for a new position at work and was unable to take time off and come with me to the Cape.  My good friends LES and ALV were nice enough to offer to travel with me to the Cape from Pittsburgh since DFH couldn't come, and they made a weekend out of it. 

    Jocelyn's wedding was on Friday so it was nice that we had the whole weekend for wedding festivities and to enjoy the Cape and take a quick trip to Martha's Vineyard. 

   I had been to the Cape a number of times growing up, but I had never been to Martha's Vineyard, and I was excited when I learned that the ferry  was only a five minute drive from where we were staying. 

 

I was a terrible photographer while we were there and this is the only picture I took of the cute little town of Falmouth.

 

 

On Friday before the wedding we spent the day exploring Falmouth.  The town is lined with the cutest little shops and restaurants. 

 

Friday night was Jocelyn's wedding and Saturday we woke to a spectacular fall day, and we decided to head to Martha's Vineyard for the afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved the views from the ferry over to the Vineyard, especially the lighthouses.

 

 

It was not windy at all on the ferry.

 

 

Slightly better.

 

 

Once we were on the Vineyard we explored both Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven

 

 

Both towns were so quaint and had great little shops and restaurants. 

 

 

I loved all the buoys hanging from the porch of this shop.

 

 

The original Vineyard Vines store is located on Martha's Vineyard, so of course we had to stop in their shop while visiting.

 

 

 

Of course no trip to the Cape / Vineyard would be complete without a tasty Lobstah Roll.

 

 

 

I am already excited to plan another trip to the Cape!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Cape Cod Wedding

    Back in September I attended one of my oldest friend's wedding in Cape Cod.   Cape Cod is such a spectacular spot for a wedding, and my good friend Jocelyn's wedding was no exception.  Jocelyn and her Husband Matt were married at the Flying Bridge in Falmouth, Massachusetts which was right on the water. 

 

They couldn't have asked for a better fall day, the sun was shining and there was a beautiful sunset for the cocktail hour.

 

 

Amanda and I trying to get the sunset in the background before it sets.

 

 

During the cocktail hour Jocelyn and Matt had a Polaroid camera for everyone to take pictures for the bride and groom.

 

 

Amanda and I had a blast using the Polaroid camera.  It is a whole different ball game attempting to take a "selfie" with a Polaroid camera versus an iPhone, but we tried our best.  ( see close up above)

 

 

Jocelyn and Matt were both glowing and had the biggest smiles on their faces.

 

 

Her dress was gorgeous!  I love how everyone lined up when the bride and groom were announced.

 

 

 

 

Father daughter dance

 

 

The tables were stunning, I loved the lanterns with the three candles inside, they looked so pretty and were so bright all lit up.

 

 

Amanda was the Matron of Honor and gave a truly amazing speech.  I love Jocelyn and Matt looking at each other in the background during the speech, so sweet.

 

 

The three of us have been friend since 5th grade, over the years we have had countless sleepovers together, vacationed together, and gone through all the ups and downs as being teenagers together.  Although we don't get to see each other all of the time, I love that when we get together it's as if no time has gone by.

 

 

Can you tell I am the tall one, I have a serious bend in my knee. haha.

 

 

How cute were their canvas welcome bags?  I am obsessed.

 

Such a gorgeous wedding and a truly amazing couple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY: Cork Letters

      DFH and I held our rehearsal dinner at a vineyard in New Jersey. The private room at the vineyard was actually a greenhouse that was lined with lemon, lime, and orange trees and when we first checked out the greenhouse space we fell in love with how unique it was and knew it was a perfect rehearsal dinner location.  It also didn't hurt that we both are a bit of wine-os

Although the space was awesome as is, I wanted to add some personal touches to the room. I had remembered seeing cork letters on Pinterest and thought that would be the perfect addition to our vineyard themed dinner. I immediately took to my Pinterest boards and headed to Michael's to get my supplies.
 

All you need are the following 

1. Wooden Letters (if you want the letters to stand on their own make sure you get flat bottomed letters)

2. Corks (I probably used about 100 corks for three letters)

3. Hot glue gun and glue 

Simply put some hot glue on one end of the cork and press it onto the letter for 5 seconds   It helps to arrange the corks first so you know how many your can fit on each row. 

Continue to hot glue the corks onto the letter until the letter is covered.

Let dry.

( Please excuse the mess in the picture above, it was taken a week before the wedding and we had crafts and supplies everywhere!!)

 

All the corks I used for this project have been from wines DFH and I have drank since we began living together.  I was shocked that I was actually a few corks short, although I only used the real corks so this didn't include our consumption of wine with plastic or twist off caps. 

This whole project only took me about 45 minutes.  I loved the way it came out and I love that we can keep it up in our house all year long.