Quotable Tuesdays

Four Good Things About Yourself

Currently?  I'm watching Love and Other Drugs, a movie Handsome Hubs hates, but I think is interesting and different and fantastic.

For those of you who haven't seen it, there is one part of the movie where Anne Hathaway's character asks her boyfriend, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, to tell her four good things about yourself.

"Do you think you're generous?  Sweet?  Do you think you're smart?"

It got me thinking, what are four good things about me?  What can I say, without a doubt, are four good things about Stress Case?  

But because this blog doesn't need to be a bragfest, instead of telling you all the wonderful things about me?  I want to know four good things about you.  It's a confidence boosting exercise that everyone should do.  (And if you share with me, maybe I'll come back and share with you!)

So,

Tell me four good things about yourself.

The Greatest Day

25 years ago today, Mother-in-Law Red bravely suffered through 22 long hours of labor to deliver a late little leprechaun (just six days after St. Patties) weighing in at 8 lb 7 oz and 21" long.

Because the stars aligned and God looked out for me, twelve years later, he met me, and quite a few years after that, he became my best friend, and even a little while after that, he became my husband.

Thanks for taking one for the team, MIL, and thanks for picking me to celebrate all the rest of your birthdays with, HH.

PS.  He's totally gunna kick my ass for the leprechaun joke.

Adventures in Pinterest: Tacky Las Vegas Party

It's been mentioned on the blog here and there, but for those of you who don't know - my sweet Handsome Husband and I are a week apart in age.  My birthday is exactly one week before his (I know, I'm a total cradle robber!).  So, most often, we combine our birthdays and celebrate with a big ole group of special friends!

This year was no different as we turned super old a quarter of a century this month (actually, HH's birthday is TOMORROW!), and I was itching to throw a theme party.  After lots of ideas, and many debates, we settled on a theme I had never actually heard of before.  Color me original.

Tacky Las Vegas

Tacky is really in the eye of the beholder, but to me?  Tacky Las Vegas begs for cocktail waitresses, tacky tourists, Hawaiian shirts, and lots and lots of sequins (though I love a good sequin piece of clothing, don't get me wrong).

Of course, I headed to Pinterest for inspiration and walked away with these two projects to copy make my own.

Source: entirelyeventfulday.com viaCasey on Pinterest

Source: Casey on Pinterest

With some Dollar Tree playing cards, some old white ribbon I had lying around, and a glue gun - I came up with my Playing card garland:

And while I was fresh out of adorably chic apothecary jars, but I added a little pizzaz to a vase and candle holder:

There were a few other little details here or there, and some adorable outfits from the night.  The best part about the night though?  Cheesy as it were, it was spending another birthday with some wonderful friends, and it was especially sweet that it was in our home that we found just before our last birthdays.

Something all of these ladies have in common?  We went to high school together.  What can I say, I love a good longterm friendship.

Definitely the winners of best costume: Twin Oh Yeah as a magician and his girlfriend, Future Dr. Babies as his assistant.

My very Handsome dealer, and me as a tacky cocktail waitress.  You can't quite see it in the photo, but my "name tag" says "Bill's Gambling Hall & Saloon: Trixie", my code name for the evening.

Linking up with: The Vintage Apple, Something Swanky, Vintage Wanna Bee, Ginger Snap Crafts, Lil Luna, I {Heart} Nap Time, A Diamond in the Stuff, Live Laugh Rowe, 504 Main, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Six Sisters' Stuff, C.R.A.F.T., Delightful Order, House of Hepworths, Positively Splendid, BEAUtiful Mess/Keep Calm and Carry On, Southern Lovely, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring Budget, A Night Owl, Creations by Kara

East Coast Vacation Recap: New York, New York

You can read part one of our East Coast vacay HERE, and part two HERE.

After checking into our beautiful hotel, we had a quick bite to eat (foodies will hate us for most of the food choices we made while in this city filled with so many different unique options - for example, our first NYC meal?  McDonalds.) before heading to pick up our bus tour tickets.

When we were planning our trip, I was overwhelmed with deciding what to do in what order, and so to minimize the stress of planning a vacation in such a big city, we decided to go the ultimate tourist route.  Double decker tour buses.

{via}

The buses allowed us to hop on and off (on most of the tours), which made it easy to get a closer look at what we wanted, and to get a glimpse of everything else.  I would strongly recommend this type of tour (Grayline New York was the company we went through and they were wonderful), especially for those who have never been to the city before.  The tour guides are the best part - all of ours were funny, kind, and full of NYC knowledge that we never would have learned had we trecked it through the avenues and streets on our own.

We took the Downtown Tour first, which led us through Greenwich Village, Times Square, Empire State Building, Union Square, Soho, Chinatown and East Village, Rockafeller Center and the World Trade Center Site.

The first place we hopped off was at the World Trade Center site.  This was something I was really looking forward to, as the memorial was not built the last time I was in New York. 

L: HH in front of the new Freedom Tower, currently under being built; Middle and R: the memorial fountains

The footprint fountain memorials are really beautiful, and I think it is so special that they put the names of the those who lost their lives there on the fountains themselves.  It must be really special for the families of the victims to come and see their loved ones' names engraved there forever.

After spending some time soaking up the intense combination of sadness and patriotism at the WTC site, we hopped back on our bus to check out Wall Street, Rockafeller Center and more.

The gorgeous trees lit up at Rockafeller Center, in a pit below the flags is where the famous ice skating rink is.

 

After hopping off the Downtown Tour, we headed back to our hotel and got ready for our first dinner in the city!  Something super special about this dinner?  We were going to be joined by Best Friend Fashionista!  She literally moved to the Big Apple a week before we got there for our vacation, so it was a fun little addition to our trip to get to spend some time with my bestie.

 

We had a wonderful dinner full of seafood towers, sushi rolls, wine and lots and lots of catching up and laughs at Blue Fin Restaurant in the lobby of our hotel.

 

{via}

 

After dinner, we headed up to our hotel room to show Fashionista our room, and grab our coats before walking over to a cute little wine bar to meet another old friend of ours who had also since relocated to NYC.

 

 

After quite a few glasses of wine, HH and I said goodbye to our old pals and stumbled back to our hotel for a good night's sleep before waking up on our two-year wedding anniversary!

 

Tuesday morning, we slept in (I firmly believe in sleeping in on vacation, unless in Disney World, where you should run yourself ragged to see it all).  After rising and whispering some sweet Happy Anniversary nothings in each others' ears, we were off to see the city!  This time?  By cruise!

 

The face you see on the left is one of a hungover girl.

 

The cruise might have been my favorite part of the trip.  While it was freezing and we couldn't stay outside for longer than a few moments at a time without crying (okay, that was just me), it was such a cool way to see the city.  I've been on one of these cruises before, but it was at night, and they were both so great I would recommend doing a day and a night cruise.

 



 

Post-cruise, we took a bus back to our hotel, did a little walking around Times Square, and then went to our room to get ready for our very special anniversary dinner.  While it was still hours before our 8pm reservations, we decided to get all ready so we could see and do more before dinner! 

 

Our plan was to take another one of the bus tours - this time the Night Tour that would take us into Brooklyn where we would get to see Manhattan from across the river, after our tour, we would swing by Fashionista's apartment to see her new NYC digs, and then head to our dinner (the location a surprise to me!).

 

The Night Tour was amazing, and while I loved the views, again I was freezing.  I never knew how much of a California girl I was until this trip.

 

Looking at Manhattan from Brooklyn - gorgeous photo, taken by HH!

 

After soaking in the night tour, we struggled to catch cab (we are so not New Yorkers) to go check out BF Fashionista's new apartment.  It was a quick cab ride away, and we were glad that we hadn't decided to hoof it, because it started sprinkling while we were on our way!  We made our way into the big ole building that Fashion now resides in, and were met with a friendly doorman who directed us to her darling little apartment.  Fashionista totally lucked out, let me tell you.  If I'm being real?  Her apartment in expensive New York is nicer than any place she's lived that I know of!  She's one lucky girl, that Fashionista.  After a little tour and some catching up, HH and were off to our dinner, and I was about to find our where he had picked to celebrate two years of wedded bliss!

 

We hopped in another cab, and were dropped off in front of this:

 

{via}

 

Handsome Husband had arranged for us to have dinner at the ultra swanky, Nomad Hotel.  The restaurant was very fancy, and the food? Impeccable.  We shared some appetizers, and I had my all-time favorite meal, steamed lobster, while HH had duck!  The service was wonderful, and we shared a few desserts afterwards as well.

 

On our way out of the restaurant, we asked the hostess to take our photo.  While it's not my favorite ever (let's just say she shouldn't quite her day night job), I love it because it is a photo of us on our day.  I'm not insanely into anniversaries, but it is a special day for us, and it will always be special.  I loved how thoughtful HH was in choosing a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary, he sought help from NYC transports that we had known in high school to get their best recommendation for a wonderful place to take me.  Sometimes, when I least expect it, I fall in love with the silly ginger all over again.

 





 

Wednesday morning, after another luxurious sleeping in sesh, we awoke and packed up our bags.  We had previously had big plans of taking more tours, and thisthatandtheother, but after two days of hustle and bustle?  We kind of wanted to calmly wing it on with our last few hours in the city. 

 

After checking every last nook and cranny of our hotel room (I am notoroius for forgetting things in hotel rooms), we dropped our bags off with the bell check and made our way down the noisy streets in Times Square to pick up some souvenirs from the city.

 

HH just hanging out in the lobby of the W Hotel

 

We stopped for a quick sushi lunch, and then headed to Rockafeller Center, where we shopped around in the NBC Store, and sadly got asked to attend a taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but couldn't make it due to our train leaving during the taping. 

 

My handsome guy at the Rock

 

Then came the moment I was looking forward to for the entire trip.  Our stop at Magnolia Bakery!  I'm not sure why I hyped this up as much as I did, but I was just itching to get myself a Magnolia cupcake from New York City!

 

 

We indulged our sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) - HH had the famous Magnolia Bakery Bananna Pudding and I had the above pictured cute pink cupcake, and then it was time to go grab our bags and make it to the train station.

 

 





All in all, our trip to the Big Apple was lovely.  It was wonderful to be somewhere new with my Handsome Hubs, to see some sights that I had already seen and some new to me also.  It was great to see BF Fashion, and our anniversary dinner was amazing. 

 

Next time?  I'll tell you all about our day trip to Washington DC!

Quotable Tuesdays

Heartfelt Happenings

Come by Tutor Girl's blog, Heartfelt Happenings, this morning for a BIG announcement I was honored to be making for the "Heartfelt" family!

The Proposal: A Guest Post by Handsome Husband!

First, I’d like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CASEY!!! I can’t believe it’s already the fourth anniversary of your 21^st birthday; time flies! Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful day!!

 So…the proposal. Where do I begin?

 I bought the engagement ring at Robbins Bros about a week before I planned to propose. I had driven up to Orange County for the day (somehow without Casey) and had a great alibi already planned out for the inevitable “what did you do today?” question that I was so sure Casey would ask (and she did. And she believed my answer).

Anyways, some of you might be thinking “why did you buy the ring at Robbins Bros, HH?” or “their rings are overpriced!” Well, at the time, we had a friend by the name of Twin Unicorn who was working at Robbins Bros. Not only did she make the ring buying process was less stressful but she was also able to hook me up with a discount!! Side note: Casey had already went in to Robbins Bros a few months before to check out some different ring styles so as to make sure that when I did buy her an engagement ring, it was one that she would like. Based on how well you know her from reading this blog, are you surprised?

Neither was I.

Back to the story. I got the ring. I drove over to my grandparents house and said “hey guys! Here’s an engagement ring I just bought because I’m proposing to Casey soon so can you hide it for me until I need it? Kthanksbye!” No, it was actually a little nicer than that, plus they were expecting me so it wasn’t SHOCKING news to them. After the ring was in its hiding spot, I returned to sunny San Diego.

The date was Saturday, April 4, 2009 and Casey and I were at a park celebrating my cousin’s daughter’s first birthday (Cousin Teeny Girl!) with my whole family. The only thing I remember from that party is being a bit anxious because my proposal plan was already set in motion.

I tried to time our departure from the party to coincide with that of my grandparents because they had the engagement ring with them in their car (as I had instructed them to do, not because they chose their car to hide my ring in). When we were walking to my car, I gave Casey the keys and told her to go start the car and that I have to go help out my grandma with something. According to Casey, this was a very weird request because apparently my grandma didn’t appear to need much help with anything but she got over it and got in the car. I went over to my grandma’s car, got the ring, put it in my pocket, got in my car, and started driving to the place where I had chosen to propose to Casey.

I knew it was going to be tough to get Casey to agree to go to the place I had chosen to propose, not because it was some disgusting, horrible place, but because she’s not a very “go with the flow” kind of girl. As soon as something gets off-track, she has a mild panic attack (love you, babe!).

So I asked her if she wanted to go check out our old junior high school, which as most of you may know, is where we met for the first time. Of course, and as I anticipated, my question was met with a very less than favorable response but alas, I was the one driving so therefore she had to do what I wanted to do (little did I know, that would be the last time we ever did anything I wanted to do that Casey didn’t want to do #marriedlife #justkidding #butseriously…).

We arrived at the school and parked in the mini parking lot. I think it is so funny how much smaller a school seems to get once you graduate from it and get older. I remember thinking that our junior high was SO big! Then, we went to the high school right down the hill and then I though the high school was SO big. Now, after going to college at a large university, both schools are ridiculously small, but I digress.

 

The Junior High we attended

 

This part was another part where I anticipated some more difficulties. I told Casey that I wanted to get out of the car and go walk around the quad of the school. She, of course, was saying things like “this is so dumb!” and “why are we doing this?” I just ignored all of that and began walking onto the campus because I knew she would follow me anyways.

First, we walked over to where we used to hang out in 8^th grade. There were these blue benches that we used to sit at, so we went and sat on them (you know, be able to really feel the memories better). My plan was to get Casey to stand in the spot where we took the famous (at least in our world) picture of us together in 8^th grade. I thought it would be very romantic to ask her to marry me in that very same spot (awwwwww!). But that’s not what happened.

 

 

We got to that spot and I gave her the whole “omg this is totes where we took that picture of us in 8^th grade!” thing and she was naturally surprisingly unimpressed. Not really caring about her lack of enthusiasm moments before I was about to change both our lives with a serious question, I was determined to still do it right there. She turned around for a second so I got down on bended knee and had the ring in my hand and then…………………

…………………she didn’t turn back around! So, I did what anyone would’ve done. I quickly got back up and put the ring back in my pocket before she could turn around and see the disaster that had just been averted and just. Acted. Natural.

From that failed moment on, I was wingin’ it. We walked over to the blue benches where we used to hang out in 7^th grade and sat there for a little bit, reminiscing ‘n such. I stood up (Casey was still sitting on the blue bench) and noticed that there was a mural painted on the wall to her right that I had never seen before so I very smoothly said “hey, I think that mural is relatively new.” Just as I had masterfully planned, Casey took the bait and turned her head to the right to look at the mural. When she looked back, I was down (again) on bended knee with the ring in my hand. Of course, she was extremely surprised to see me in that position and to see the ring. I started to say my piece, which was basically something along the lines of “hey. You’s cute. Let’s get married ‘n sh*t. Aight?” “Casey, you’re the love of my life. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

She said yes (she was excited about that!) and the rest is history!

At Mother-in-Law Red's House hours after we got engaged, with Cousin Ronomon and Tutor Girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,

CASEY!

Lots of Link Love

Like Tara, I think it's important to emphasize the importance of community in the blog world and not only focusing on ourselves and our own blogs, but to spread lots of blog love to those who deserve it.  Every once in a while, I will highlight the posts over the last few weeks that touched me, made me laugh, pulled at my heartstrings, and inspired me.

• Courtney shared the most helpful vacation planning tips, as well as how she and her husband budget for their frequent travels.

• Sabrina made me laugh out loud at the line: "Make a wish, weirdo" in her post.

• Ashley posted the most adorable Easter printable just waiting to be popped in a frame at my house!

• Lindsey took and shared the cutest photos of her daughter all dressed up in Mommy's finest.

• What links are you lovin' this week?

ANNOUNCEMENT: Spring Sweets SWAP!

Last year, Tutor Girl and I hosted a super fun Spring Sweets Blog Swap with over 30 fabulous bloggy ladies signed up for!  This year, can we hit 40?!

 

A swap is a great way to meet fellow bloggers. You can get to know everyone through the link-
up and really get to know your partner.  This year, we pushed it backso those of you in colder climates could really get into the Spring spirit for this swap.

 

If you've never pariticpated in a swap, or if you're a swap expert, please join us to celebrate the turn of the season (or what we imagine it to be like at least, it's always Spring in Southern California)!

Here's the 411

 

 

How does it work?

Link up with the linky form at the bottom of this page (you'll have two weeks to do so!), and once the sign-ups are over, we will assign you a swap partner by April 4th. 

 

What next?

You can go check out your partner's blog and reach out to them to exchange contact information! Get to know them and what sweets and fun spring goodies you might want to send their way. You two weekends to shop, and then ship their package to them by Tuesday, April 16th.

 

 

And then?

Check your mailbox like a crazy person, eagerly awaiting your fun Spring Sweets!

 

 

Then link-up with here or at Heartfelt Happenings on Friday, April 26th to show off your Spring Sweets Swap goodies!

 

 

Anything else I should know?

The price limit on spending is a whopping $10 - just enough for a few sweets, but not too much to make your friends and family worry about the amount of money you're spending on...strangers (they don't get the blog world, do they?).

 

You can see my swap reveal post from last year HERE.

 



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