2013.

as i sat here scrolling through all my posts from 2013, i am overcome with such joy. what an incredible year it has been.

i kicked off 2013 with the new years eve party of a lifetime in vegas. i finished up january with an amazing long weekend in denver, colorado.

february is always a quick month with an almost week long annual trip to atlanta for CHEERSPORT.

i moved into a new house with my sister in march. living together has been so great. we also attended the annual march forth with hope gala that is always a wonderful night.

i ate 100% clean the entire month of april & watched my step dad complete his 2nd 180-mile hand cycle ride to the beach.

in may i planned my stepmom's 50th birthday party - it was incredible. i also visited one of my best friends who i hadn't seen in 2 years for a long weekend in michigan.

june came & went quickly and i helped my mom throw her housewarming party in her cute backyard.

july 4th was spent at the beach with my best friends.

august was insanely busy! my parents took me to aruba for my 25th birthday, we threw katt & brandon an engagement party, my college roomie got married, and football season started!

i welcomed september with an amazing labor day weekend at the beach with my pals. we also found out my sister is having a baby girl!

october is my favorite month of the year. i threw katie & chelsea a birthday fiesta and ran a lot.

november consisted of a trip to savannah, a trip to columbia, friendsgiving & thanksgiving.

december has closed out the year with a christmas gift exchange with my girlfriends, and a few great days off for christmas.

in the midst of all of the above...

my sweet friend katie from college got diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. you can keep up with her battle here: katie's fight.

i ran my first 8k, 10k, and half marathon.

two of my best friends got engaged & asked me to be part of their special day!

i went to A LOT of concerts. i spent many sundays this fall at panthers games. i had a ton of great nights with my best friends. i spent a lot of nights at home with my parents. i worked a lot, played a lot, loved a lot, and as the year comes to and end, i don't feel anything other than extremely grateful.

the best part? 2014 is sure to be even better. i am becoming an aunt in just a few weeks! i have bachelorette parties & showers & weddings. i am running another half marathon. and in july, we're going on an alaskan cruise!

i don't deserve this life, but i sure am glad it's mine. cheers to 2014!

christmas 2013!

i'm very overdue for my christmas wrap up post, but i have been laying in my bed for the past 5 days with a nasty combo of viral bronchitis and an ear infection. one would think this would leave me plenty of time to update my blog, but i literally felt so bad that the thought of typing exahusted me. but i am happy to report that i feel like a normal human again as of this morning!

christmas came & went quickly but was awesome none the less. work was kind enough to give us monday off too, making it a 5 day weekend.

saturday night i went to a party that my friend jackie hosted at her condo for all of us from work! there was lots of yummy food, awesome drinks, and a surprise visit from my sweet friend brett!

 

{the whole gang!}

{view from jackie's condo in noda}

sunday afternoon we watched the panthers beat the saints in the pouring down rain to clinch a spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2008! sunday evening we did christmas with my mom. normally this is a christmas eve tradition, but mom & b headed to new jersery early this year. we had a huge & delicious brunch for dinner, opened presents, and drank lots of champagne! santa was oh so good to me and brought me a new patagonia, a pair of duck boots, earrings, and some new running gear!

i can't remember what i did on monday... how sad. 

on christmas eve, i headed down to my dad's house around 1pm. we double churched it - we went to our church, new charlotte, at 3pm. it was an absolutely incredible service - probably the best christmas eve service i've ever attended. then we went to calvary at 6pm with my grandparents - i don't think i've missed this service since i was 3 years old! after church, we headed to del frisco's for dinner. while the service was pretty slow, i enjoyed the extra time with our family, and the food was amazing as usual!

christmas morning we opened presents which consisted of the most beautiful frye boots i have ever laid on and an ALASKAN CRUISE!! we set sail on july 4th, 2014! 

we enjoyed a day with family & a ridiculous amount of food celebrating the greatest gift we have ever received. i hope you had a wonderful christmas!

i went back to work for one day before spending the last 5 with these guys. i am very thankful to be feeling well again today!

DIY: etched glasses!

a few months ago kristin started working on etched glasses for her boyfriend's birthday. they turned out awesome (read her post here)! so when i was trying to come up with a small little gift to give my guy friends, i decided to give the glasses a go!

what you'll need:

• plain pint glasses (or any glass you'd like) - i actually couldn't find these anywhere. i finally found them at world market for $1.99 piece
• contact paper - this was hiding somewhere near the poster boards in michaels
• armour etch - near the paint in michaels

• isopropyl rubbing alcohol
• rubber gloves - apparently this armour etch stuff is full of acid and can kill you - so make sure you get some gloves!
• exacto knife
• plastic knife

here's how it goes:

• print off whatever you want to etch onto plain paper & cut it out - use exacto knife for any small areas. the areas that you cut out will be what actually gets etched.
• trace onto the contact paper and cut out any parts that you don't want etched. this actually took some serious thought and consulting with my coworker to figure out which parts i needed to cut on on the chapel hill  & villanova logo. 
• clean the pint glasses with the rubbing alcohol. i used a cotton ball and then a paper towel to dry it off. this makes sure there are no finger prints or smudges that will show up on the etching.
• place the contact paper on the glass. smooth out any bubbles. make sure all the parts that you cut out made it onto the glass  -- see the chapel hill logo below. (i saved all the little pieces in an envelope).

• put your gloves on, and use the plastic knife to "glob" the armour etch onto the glass. it doesn't need to be smooth or even - it works better if it's not. 

• be careful of the cream running off the edges! next time i will make the cutouts bigger because i kept having to wash off the cream and redo it. 
• let the cream sit for about 10 minutes. wash it off and see if you like the "darkness" of the etching. if not, add the cream again and let sit a little while longer.
• wash the cream off in the sink - peel the contact paper off & you're done!

an SEC girl had to make all ACC glasses :(

good luck & happy etching!

girls gift exchange!

last night caitlin had us over for wine &  a christmas gift exchange! we were instructed to bring a $10 gift and an appetizer or a bottle of wine.

i picked up a pair these awesome "cheers" glasses at target last week for my gift.

 and i made my normal cheese ball recipe, but turned it into a snowman! i used bacon bits for his face.

caitlin had her placed decked out for the party - it was awesome!

i ended up with a starbucks giftcard and a mini coffee candle - the perfect gift for me! we drank just about all the wine in charlotte & had a great night with our friends! i'm lucky to have such a great group of girlfriends here in charlotte. we ended the evening with this sketchy ipad selfie... a true gem.

 

merry christmas!

recipe: apple pie cocktail!

a few years ago while i was out west skiing at keystone, we took a day trip over to breckenridge. brian & i skied hard the whole day and decided to stop for a toddy half way down the mountain on our final run. this is when i first fell in love with hot cider + liquor.

fast forward a few years and now i have a complete obsession with fireball. i honestly wish i had never tried it because my liver and my wallet would be a lot better off. when i started seeing cider in the stores this fall, i knew fireball would be the perfect mate. i did some googling and also found that some people mix caramel vodka with cider as well - who knew this was even a thing?

apple pie cocktail

1 oz fireball cinnamon whiskey
1 oz caramel vodka
3 oz apple cider
1/2 a cinnamon stick

heat it up for about a minute & die of happiness!

snail mail reinvented: postable.com!

a few weeks ago i got an email from a friend from college whose life i have totally stalked over the years since her big move to NYC. no shame here! caitlyn and i suffered through our public speaking 101 class together our sophomore year, and for that, we will always share a special bond.

so apparently caitlyn reads my little ol' blog & since i am forever crafting & throwing parties - caitlyn introduced me to this new company with a great concept called postable! if you're anything like me, you know there is absolutely nothing better than receiving real life, hold in your hand, snail mail. don't get me wrong, i love emails, tweets, facebook messages, and instagram comments just like the next gen y-er. but there's something special about opening up your mailbox to find a note from someone you care about.

enter postable! it's as simple as this: upload your address book, pick out which design you like, write a personal message for each person or one blanket message for all your people, and postable takes care of the rest!. they print, stamp, and send your card for you - i am not making this up!

 

{one of my favorite designs - i am mason jar obsessed}

 

{they have a ton of awesome holiday cards!}

postable is awesome for several key reasons:

--- the price. all of the cards cost $2.00. tell me the last time you bought a seriously cute card for only $2.00. the target card section gives me anxiety just looking at the price tags on some of those cards! so all you do is pay $2.00 for the card + postage (currently $0.46) and you're done! $2.46 people!

--- you no longer have to wait in the terrible post office line for stamps. i have never been to the post office when i wasn't at least the 4th person in line. and also, postable's stamps are way cooler than the stamps with our past presidents or antique cars on them.

--- postable stores all your addresses for you. they even go as far to give you your own personal link (postable.com/yourname) that you can email out to your pals to add their addresses! and this part is totally free - so even if you never want to send a card, i just gave you a way to have an awesome virtual address book!

--- time. there are not enough hours in the day. so why not let someone else run your errands for you?
the kind postable people sent me a hilarious & awesome card in the mail a few weeks ago so i could see for myself how great these cards are!

 

{postable also lets you choose your own font}

{they are right - the cards do feel amazing!}

so as if you're as wow-ed by this concept as i am - head over to postable.com and get started today. there is still a whole week left to send out your christmas cards and you can use code holiday13 for 20% off your order!

cheers to people that are smarter & more creative than i!

weekend recap!

friday night after working late with the never ending holiday parties... i headed over to jackie's condo for sympathy wine. she had to put her cat down very unexpectedly on friday and already had a terrible week, so girl time + wine were necessary! i got to meet all her animals including this baby girl..

 

{nugget weighs about 15 pounds less that lola... aka lola is fat}

 

saturday morning i woke up and head over to urban ministry center with my sister. court works there full time serving the homeless & working in a rehab program for addicts. she's pretty much a saint. so we brewed up some hot chocolate and passed it out to everyone hanging around the center on Saturday morning. court had also arranged for one of the ladies she has worked with to tell us her story about being homeless. talk about a humbling way to start your weekend. the best part was that she just got keys to her very own place last thursday!

 

 

 

 

 

{one of the guys has these little birdies that he takes everywhere!}

 

the guys fetched court & i around 1pm and we headed uptown to drew's super cool apartment that has this view..

 

 

we walked down to the free concert that the acc championship puts on. sara evans & randy travis played - we had a little too much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

after dinner at cantina, we called it a much needed early night.

sunday was pretty lazy besides finally going to see catching fire! i thought it was great but am bummed they're splitting the last book into 2 movies. i'm ready to get on with my life. sunday evening ended at my parents house watching our panthers go down in all their glory to the saints.

hope you had a nice weekend!

thanksgiving weekend recap.

after a wednesday night at selwyn, and lounging around thursday morning, court and i finally headed to our parents' house around noon on thanksgiving. we helped get the reminder of the set-up done and i made the mashed potatoes, a thanksgiving tradition! it was a "small" crowd this year with only about 20 people in attendance. after consuming an insane amount of food, i literally could not keep my eyes open. i snuck upstairs and fell asleep for a solid 2 hours before derrick woke me up to begin drinksgiving!

 

 

the night ended how it always does at the fowlkes house on holidays - with an awesome bonfire & a glass of wine! i could sum up all i'm thankful for, but i'll spare you since i know you don't care anymore after reading facebook posts for the last 30 days.

 

friday morning we woke up to chickfila, courtesy of my sister. we hung around, watched the hunger games, and finally made it out of our pjs and back to our side of town around 5pm. derrick, leigh, and i met up with my mom & brian at painting with a twist for my mom's thanksgiving celebration. we did a lot of drinking and a lot of painting and had a great time.

 

 

 

saturday morning i woke up in total football mode! rivalry saturday finally arrived and boy oh boy, it did not disappoint. after lsu/arkansas on friday, i knew we were in for a treat this year. we watched the noon & 3:30pm game over at brad's and had burgers and beer. around half time of the bama/auburn game, i headed to icehouse to meet my parents. we watched the gamecocks kick some tiger tail for the 5th year in a row & i enjoyed every moment of it. after the game, i met back up with the boys to take on montford. it was a fun night celebrating a huge gamecock win!

 

 

{fireball & gamecocks}

sunday was a lazy day of catching up on sleep & working for a few hours. my liver needs a break after the last few days weeks!

friendsgiving 2013.

last year, i lost my mind and planned friendsgiving for 30+ people. while it was super fun, it was a lot of work and i wasn't up for it this go-round. so we kept it small, had a few friends over, had chili instead of turkey, and had a great night! shout out to drew for the bacon wrapped green beans and to steven for the cookie stuffed cupcakes - y'all's mommas would have been so proud!

 

 

 

thankful for my friends!