Thursday, December 31, 2015

| Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016 |

Holy cannoli, how has 2015 already come to an end?! This year has been such a roller coaster ride and I couldn't have asked for a better year! I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for me!

Here's my 2015 year in review!

January

I started the year off by joining Amanda for the positivity project! It helped me appreciate all good in my life along with what I want to work on in the future! 

I also discovered this amazing recipe and made it, if you need an easy recipe try out this one for baked cheese and bean enchilada!

I also got to spend time with my babe for a few days  which was a great start to the year!


February

The month of love didn't start out as I had expected it to since I drove all the way to work only to slip and fall on ice and break my wrist...oof! I ended up with a pretty purple cast for the remainder of the month making it hard to do much of anything that requires 2 hands! 

This was also the month of the Grammy's where Rihanna wore a loofa on the red carpet...I can't make this stuff up people. Speaking of award shows, the Oscar's was also this month and we played Oscar bingo, can't wait to play again this year!


March

March started out a bit better than Feb, I celebrated my friend's daughters 1st birthday, went on a trial bridal hair/makeup sesh with my bestie, and in the best news this month....I got my cast off!!!!!


April

I celebrated Easter this month with my besties at brunch and headed to Houston for a weeklong trip with the parents meeting for the first time!!! 

I got to celebrate A's birthday, have our "Indian" engagement ceremony, and cry as I kissed my babe goodbye from 8 days of fun together!


May

I have to say, this was probably my favorite month out of this year!! The month started out with my bestie's bachelorette bash in VEGAS!! It was seriously the best time I've had in Vegas...I've been 3 times now and we got to see/do things that were new which was so exciting!!

The month ended on just as high of a note as it started with....


You can read all about the beautiful San Antonio proposal here...he's a keeper for sure!


 June

Woohoo for summer weather finally in Chicago!! This month we showered my bestie (the bride-to-be) with a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed bridal shower

I "popped the question" to my bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearers with the cutest cards!

Saw Jurassic World, took a trolley ride in the rain for a friends birthday, and tried the craziest drink concoctions at The Aviary!

I finished out this busy month celebrating love at a family friends wedding!


July

Started out this busy month with some 4th of July fun and fireworks!

I also photo dumped for my BEST FRIENDS WEDDING!!! I was so so thrilled to see her and be a part of her big day. She looked amazing and we had so much fun celebrating the two lovebirds! 

A and I went to a Cubs game where he got us seats right behind home plate!! It was such a fun experience and I think I ate my weight in food!


August

I talked about my favorite lip products, I also won an awesome giveaway where I got 7 new lip colors from Meg, celebrated my 27th birthday and spent my birthday weekend in Houston with my babe. 

We spent the latter part of the weekend taking our engagement pictures!!!!

I got completely spoiled with gifts from A, his family, my coworkers, and my family!!


September

I recapped my trip to Texas during my birthday weekend, set and failed on my September goals, attended my A's cousins fall inspired wedding, and made spinach lasagna roll ups!


October

This is the month that I finally joined the Clarisonic craze and developed a skincare routine for myself! I celebrated my bestie's birthday, hung out with my lover Luke Bryan at my very first country concert, and celebrated Halloween as a Gatsby girl!


November

I shared what I'm thankful for each Thursday of November, tried my first Pure Barre class and shared all my painful thoughts during it (p.s. I did love it, but my wallet didn't). 

I also celebrated Diwali & Indian New Year, unfortunately heard of the tragic new in Paris, and celebrated Pamela's blogiversary with a $325 Nordstrom gift card giveaway.

I headed off to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with my love and in-laws and had a lovely host of guest bloggers fill in for me while I was away (thanks again ladies)!!

While in Houston, we went to see the Rockets play and attended our last wedding of 2015


December

The most anticipated month of the year felt like it just flew right by! I tried squeezing in as much holiday time as possible!! I had a blast decorating like a mad man this year since it'll be my last one in Chicago!

I got to attend my work annual holiday party with my sis and spend time with my fun coworkers! 

I visited Chicago's Chriskindlmarket with some friends, spent Christmas morning opening presents and lounging with my sissy in our awesome matching PJs! That evening we spent time with family soaking in all the fun of the holidays!

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Phew, so much happened this year, so much celebrating and traveling done it's been so fun looking back on everything that happened in 2015!!

And just because this has been floating around all over Instagram, I wanted to showcase the best 9 posts from 2015!



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On that note, I hope all of you have a fabulous time celebrating the end of 2015 and the start of 2016! I'll be spending New Years Day driving up to New York to visit family and get some wedding shopping done until Sunday! I hope everyone stays safe and has a happy and healthy start to the new year!

Happy New Year!!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Christmas 2015 Recap

Hey guys!! It has been so wonderful taking a little bloggy break to really enjoy the holidays! I'm just popping in today to recap my Christmas! It was such a great time with family, there wasn't much I wanted for Christmas this year except for to hang out with all my family. Mission accomplished and it felt great to see everyone! I'll let the pictures to the rest of the talking for me!

festive nails
gifts from my lovely coworkers
"grinch" cookies

sissy and i with all our xmas goodies
matching pj's
much needed hot cocoa
gingybread house
cards against humanity kind of night
sissy and i
gramps with his girls
cousin love
mom with her girls
sissy did so good with my xmas gift 
awesome mug from Jess for our #tistheseasonmug15

A had no idea what to get me for Christmas, so he did the next best thing, $100 to spend at Target!! This boy knows the way to my heart!! I was so spoiled this year and believe it or not am still getting gifts from family, so lucky! 

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday break with your loved ones!

Friday, December 18, 2015

Friday Faves | Last one of 2015

Woohoo it's Friday guys!! This means there is literally just a week until Christmas!! Last night was the last girls night of the year and we made gingerbread houses, decorated sugar cookies and drank wine of course, it was awesome and so so good for the soul.

So I just wanted to get this out there, I haven't had the time or motivation to blog during the holidays and am thinking of having a little break until the new year (I'll probably pop in from time to time) and of course I'll be commenting and reading blogs like usual. I just feel like work has been nuts, I've been pulling 11-12 hour days and am just way too exhausted to think of blog posts and the weekends have just been crazy too.

I'm linking up with my girl Amanda for Friday faves one last time for 2015!!

favorite show



Guys, if you aren't watching this show on Netflix, then you're missing out!! Aziz Ansari is so funny and this show is so down to earth. It's basically about this guy named Dev, living the life of an aspiring actor hanging with his eclectic group of friends. I guess I also feel like I relate on some topics with him being an Indian American. This show has 9 Golden Globe nominations already, so there's definitely something unique with this show!

favorite song

 

Ok guys, the Biebs is knocking it out of the park with this Purpose album. This video is so cool too, the choreography and precision these dancers have is incredible. This specific song is more chill than the other hits, but I like how it almost sounds acoustic.

favorite funnies

Me (when the drug rep calls for our Sbux order): Can you please get me a venti with a double shot of espresso

.: Preach :.


For real though...





I just laughed wayyy too hard at that one!

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Alright folks, in case I am not back here before the big day next week, I hope all of you lovely ladies (and maybe gentlemen) have a wonderful and Merry Christmas! I also hope each and every one of you have the happiest and healthiest of New Years, stay safe out there kids!

I will have the link up for Wedding Wednesday up for whoever would like to link up on both Wednesday Dec 23rd & Wednesday Dec 30th!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Wedding Wednesday | Bridal Bouquet

Eek, another Wedding Wednesday and might I add, 7 more months until my wedding!!! I seriously cannot believe how fast time is flying, it'll be July 16th before I know it!! Now that we are at the 7 month mark, I know the details are getting down to the nitty gritty. Something I've been fawning over lately on Pinterest has been bridal bouquets. I'm not entirely sure what kind of bouquet I will have, still have to meet with the florist, but I can't help but fall in love with some of these gorgeous ones.

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Ugh, Pinterest makes it so hard to narrow down what colors, style, flowers I want. I loooove peonies, but know they are not in season. Possibly going down the silk flower route to get my peony?? Any suggestions or tips when picking out my bridal bouquet?

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Now it is your turn! We would love to have you link-up with your wedding tales, planning adventures and day-of memories.

Make.Up.HER


As always, we would love to have you linking up with us and sharing your wedding inspiration, stories and photos of your own! Just please remember to link back to either mine or Macy's blog in order to keep the Wedding Wednesday fun going around.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Weekend Shennanigans

Happy Monday folks! Can y'all believe there are only 12 more days until Christmas?!? Pretty wild!! Chicago has been getting hit with some pretty fantastic weather so far considering it's December. We had weather in the 50s-60s all weekend long, although the sun wasn't out, the temps were great!

On Saturday, my sissy and I had a little brunch date at Egg Harbor Cafe, we've brunched there before and it was great. This time was no exception, great food and yummy holiday latte's!



After getting stuffed silly for brunch, we headed home and wrapped up the rest of our Christmas goodies before heading out for my work holiday party. My sissy tagged along with me to the holiday party and it was a fun time with my coworkers outside of work. Everyone brought their families, so it was great meeting them and enjoying time with them, along with eating some yummy apps and desserts of course!


This is the great group of ladies and gent that I get the pleasure of working with. It's been such a great time getting to know these people and building my work family. Also I skipped the dress and opted for a more festive look with the cranberry colored sweater and leggings.

On Sunday, I baked some peanut butter blossoms for the holiday party at my other job. They smell and look like they came out wonderful, I just hope they taste just as good!

What were you guys up to this weekend?? Linking up with my girl Biana for Weekending!

Friday, December 11, 2015

Friday Faves {2 Weeks 'Til Christmas}


Wowzers, this month is flying by!! I already cannot believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away!! I luckily have all my shopping pretty much done, just waiting on a few to arrive at my door and be wrapped!
 

This weekend is my work holiday party and I'm actually looking forward to it since we were so new and skipped out on it last year. All of the ladies I work with are planning on coming and my work bestie is bringing her babies, so of course that will be fun!
 
Besides that, I plan on baking cookies at some point during the week. Katie posted all these cookie recipes and I have been wanting to bake this year so these were the perfect recipes! I picked up the ingredients and will be making the Peanut Butter Blossoms & Mint Chocolate Chip cookies.

This beautiful sunset captured me on my drive home earlier this week. I was so mesmerized by all the colors and even though it's not the prettiest or blogworthy pictures, it's the best I could do at a red light :)!
 
 
For my holiday party, I'm planning to do a semi-casual look. I got this shift dress from Nordstrom and have been wanting to wear it to something. I'm gonna pair it with some brown boots and possibly a festive scarf and jewelry!
 
 
 

I'm gonna paint my nails with this Essie color and I'm loving it. Such a pretty powdery pink, looks like snow!

peak show - pinks by essie


What do you guys have planned this weekend?? Linking up with Amanda for Friday Faves!