Hominy Girl: October 2015

Thursday, October 29, 2015

A to Z About Me!

A – Age: 29. One month til 30, which I'm very excited about!!

My 21st

B – Biggest Fear: Heights, Having Fertility issues, Something bad happening to my loved ones.

C – Current Time: 9:21 A.M.

D- Drink You Last Had: French Roast K cup, Southern Home style.

E – Easiest Person to Talk To: Really depends on the subject! K is the best listener I know, my mom is great to play devil's advocate, and my 2 besties can read between my lines. But I just want to say, I can talk to a wall so...

F – Favorite Song: It would have to be our first dance song, Sam Cooke's "That's Where It's At".

G – Grossest Memory: Eww, no.

H – Hometown: Charleston, SC

I – In Love With: NYC. And this coat.

J – Jealous Of: I guess I get jealous of perfect life blog/instagram mirages, but I appreciate people who keep it real more.

K – Kindest Person You Know: That would be my husband, Kevin.

L – Life Isn’t Complete Without: Love. Wine. Cheese.

M – Middle Name: Theresa, after my maternal grandmother.

N – Number of Siblings: Brother Bill, "William", who is 3 years younger.

O – One Wish: Right now I wish we had a bigger home. Our wedding gifts remain boxed up in stacks because we simply do not have the space. I know it's temporary, but it's my wish that we could expedite our house hunting timeline.

P – Person You Spoke To On The Phone Last: Mix 96, trying to win a contest on my way into work.

Q – Question You’re Always Asked: Lately it's been "How's the new job going?"

R – Reason To Smile: The sun is out and we're having turkey burgers for dinner and it's almost Friday!
And...

S – Song You Last Sang: The Weekend, I Can't Feel My Face. SO. CATCHY.

T – Time You Woke Up: 7:30 A.M.

U – Unique Talent: Give me a topic and I can come up with a pun. Still figuring out how to use this talent for success.

V – Vacation Destination: St. Barths

W – Worst Habit: Picking at my nails.

X – X-Rays You’ve Had: My teeth, all of which seen here:

Y – Your Favorite Food: Of all the favorites, my ultimate will always be macaroni and cheese.

Z – Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius.

Tell me about YOU!

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Wednesday Randoms

What a dreary week we are having in Charleston!

It's got me feeling super "blah" today.

Here are a few random thoughts for ya:

Chicken Chili is in the crockpot for dinner tonight, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I'm using the McCormick packet.

Now, if it would just cool off about 20 degrees we'd be in business.

A month from now we'll be on St. Barths.

We are so excited!

I am currently researching "must buy" beauty products from French Pharmacies.

Do y'all have any Halloween Plans?

We are both fighting colds but hope to make it to our friend's annual Halloween Party.

I simply have not had the energy to pull a costume together, but this is looking like a last minute option:

(One year I reeeeally want us to be Benson and Stabler because it's just too easy.)

I was researching Charleston wine tastings for my mom and I's upcoming party and found this cool new spot, Mira Winery Tasting Room, downtown... definitely putting on K and I's list for date night.

I'm not sure what made me think of these 2 electronic games from my childhood but I swear I can still hear exactly how each of them sounds.

But, after chuckling with nostalgia for a moment, I started thinking and...

WTF were these games?

On the one hand I agree with this article and on the other I'm like, Dang I wish I still had these.

"Long line, try again later"

"I know who it is but I'm not telling, ha ha"

That's all of got for you on this Wednesday!

Humpity Hump, it's all downhill from here :)

Friday, October 23, 2015

Friday Highfive

I hope that everyone had a good week,

Here's a highfive for making it to Friiiiiday!

Today I have some photos to share from last weekend...

Last Thursday we went down to Marion Square for the New Belgium Clips of Faith Event.

This is the fourth year we've done it and it was definitely the most crowed time yet.

In years past I have tried several tastes of their more obscure beers, but this year I decided to stick with Pumpkick, one of my favorite seasonal offerings.

--
We took it easy Friday night and grilled out (swordfish steaks) at home.
--
Saturday morning was my wonderful friend Cyd's Baby Shower down at Leaf.
Y'all know I love Leaf!
I think I may be a little too excited about Grey Elizabeth's pending arrival.
CHEESE:

Around 5:00 on Saturday we made our way down to the Maritime Center for the Sunset Cruise my parents gave us for Christmas. It was the PERFECT evening for this.

Here we have K, in need of sunglasses, with Captain Brian.

It was a gorgeous night on the water:

--

Sunday was The Neighborhood House's 100 Year Anniversary Celebration.
This charity is so special to me, and I loved being able to celebrate it's past and future.
Here are some of the paintings from their weekly art class:

Bishop Guglielmone gave the proclamation.

And that's a wrap on last weekend,

I'm ready to do it all over again.
--
P.S. Asking for prayers/good vibes for safe travel for my brother. He is currently en route to Thailand for the adventure of a lifetime.
:)

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Our Charleston Wedding: Featured

I was hoping to post some fun weekend photos today, but I left my camera at home again...

I have come down with a cold and so I'm in a bit of a Sudafed haze this week.

Anyway!

I was excited to see that our announcement was featured in the Newlywed section of the Fall-Winter 2015 issue of Charleston Weddings Magazine!

Here is a terribly blurry shot (again, no camera) of the little feature (online here):

The photo they used is the same as our Christmas Card last year.

It's so fun to see yourself in print!

Hope y'all are having a great week.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Friday Highfive

Friday, hooray!

Here's a highfive for getting through the week!

{1}

I'm trying to shed a few of my newlywed "happy pounds" before we go on our trip this December. All I can say is Thank goodness for seafood. We are eating fish at least twice a week these days. Tonight we're grilling swordfish steaks. Here is Tuesday's dinner: seasoned flounder filets with tomatoes. Q: Are these grape or cherry tomatoes?

{2&3}

Scenes from lunchtime walks...

LOVE this jumbo witches hat:

I feel like I've seen a painting that looks so similar to this photo, but I can't seem to remember the artist...Steven Jordan maybe?

{4}

I spy my little burrito boy!

He doesn't usually sleep in bed with us but we always bring him up for morning cuddles.

This is the sad stare I get as I'm getting dressed for work.

{5}

I have tried all 3 varieties of these and the green ones are my fave.

I think the avocado gives it a little creaminess:

What do y'all have going on this weekend?

We're busy with FUN stuff.

I'll catch you up next week,

have a great one friends!

xoxo,

Laura

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Our Weekend

Hi there,

I hope you all had a good weekend!

On Thursday I fiiiiiinally had my roots done.

Things were lookin' a little skunky over here...

Before that, I took selfie of a new dress I picked up from Belk several weeks ago.

The sleeves are open on the sides and I love the pattern for Fall.

It's been beautiful out these last several days, the kind of weather that just makes you feel spontaneous. So after my appointment on Thursday, in lieu of breakfast for dinner, we decided to go out to O'brions, a sports bar on James Island. We usually just grab a drink there while waiting on Chinese takeout next door, but recently I have discovered they make the most delicious buffalo chicken wrap:

On Friday night we stayed home and grilled out.

When we grill I set the table (cloth napkins, fancy!) and we light some candles and put on Sinatra Pandora.

Sometimes after dinner we'll dance and Alfie always barks at us.

That little boy wants to spin, too.

These are our favorite nights, which have been less frequent due to our condo's bylaws.

But (shhhhh) we do what we want!

Saturday we traveled to Brays Island for K's Family reunion.

What a pretty area!

We could not escape the glaring sun, but hey,

look at this dog y'all!

On Sunday we celebrated my mom's birthday!

We had a couple beers at Taco Mamacita and then dinner at Obstinate Daughter on Sullivans.

I finished this book late Sunday night.

Lots of fun to read about local spots in fiction.

And that's a wrap on our weekend,

How was yours?

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Vision and Goals

Ever since I can remember, I have always kept a journal.

I enjoy looking back on my thoughts and ideas.

My journals circa 2008-2009 are filled with visions and goals for my future.

Some of the entries are written in future tense, describing what I believed to be a day in my ideal life.

I found, and still find, these entries to be very powerful because they helped me SEE exactly what I wanted.

Blogging is a lot like journaling, right? It certainly is for me.

I think that one of the most unifying qualities of bloggers is that we are extremely curious people...interested in the lives of others and inquisitive of details...

It's the same curiosity of reading someone's diary.

This curiosity is what lead me to find Lululemon's Vision and Goal planning worksheets online.

Let me back up for a second:

Planning my wedding was a very content time in my life. Daily goals and checklists doth a happy Laura make. Once we were married, I was overjoyed, and also in need of a new direction...and I found that in my new job.

During this transition period, I found it helpful to, once again, look at my life with "future" goggles and see where I wanted to be.

In finding these worksheets, I wanted to share them because I find this strategy very successful, and these are wonderfully instructional.

I completed these months ago, but they are something that you can revisit again and again, whenever you need a reset.

Here they are with some of my commentary.

Here's the Introduction:

The second page was hard for me to get started.

The exercise is simple, but in the way that you want to overcomplicate it.

You are essentially filling the circles with words you find ideal to describe health/personal/career.

Next, this one is fairly self explanatory.

This process is supposed to get you thinking big. These want/don't want items are meant to be reflective of what is most important to us. For example, I don't want to work late no matter what...because my personal life is just as valuable to me as my career. It helps you to see your priorities.

From here, some fill in the blank.

Writing the vision was my favorite part:

From here, you backtrack.

You take your 10 year vision and give it a five year goal plan, and a one year goal plan.

The worksheets provide much better instruction:

I spent an afternoon filling these out on the back porch with a glass of wine.

It made me feel great and I think it's the perfect sort of thing for someone in a funk!

What do you think?

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Our Rainy Weekend

I'm very thankful that we were completely unaffected by the rain. I've been thinking so much about those who have not been as lucky.

I confess that I mostly kept thinking about all of the Charleston weddings and how they would cope with the Peninsula shut down on their big day.

For whatever reason, that was on my mind a lot.

We, obviously, spent the weekend inside so there isn't much to report. I did take a few pointless pictures, though!

Friday lunch: Have y'all tried the Honey Sesame dressing at Chic Fil A? I only mention it because I am very very picky about dressings (usually just a nice olive oil) but I really enjoyed this. With diet lemonade, it's the perfect light lunch!