Happy Birthday Sissy

Happy Friday everyone!! Today's post is completely dedicated to my baby sis because it's her 24th birthday!!! I cannot believe you are getting so old now. 

Now I wanted to do a post today for her because last year when I wrote a post for her birthday, it happened to be the only blog post of mine that she actually read. My sister is my absolute best friend, future maid of honor, partner in crime, and Mindy Kaling look a like complete confidant. We have gone through so much in life together and managed to become closer and closer through the years. 

She is such a caring and genuine person who is always making everyone around her laugh and smile with her personality. I can act like a complete goofball in front of her and know she will out goof me ten fold. Sure, she annoys the crap out of me at times, but makes me want to be a better older sister everyday. Here's to your day today, let's eat lots of mexican food and drink yummy drinks! Love ya pistol!

Supermodel sissy!

Classic!

And because it's Friday and it's the first Back that azz up, I had to participate. In honor of my silly and goofy sister, I am listening to this song because she has such a blast singing along to it.

What makes me happy?

Hey all!! If you haven't already, enter my Random Act of Kindness giveaway for a $10 Starbucks gift card!! The giveaway is running now until the 15th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So to keep going with the Inspire Me challenge, today's prompt is:

A list of 5-10 things that make you happy!

Hot showers on a cold day

Crawling in bed after a long day

Cupcakes

Traveling

Starbucks

Waking up in the middle of the night and realizing you still have hours to sleep

Sunday brunches with mimosas

Falling asleep to rain/thunder

Summer time

Changing into sweats after work

What makes you happy? Link up with Lisa & Kristen!!

Inspire Me 2014: Day 5

Happy hump day all! Hope everyone's weeks are going by and think about this, only 2 more days until the weekend!!

Linking up for the Inspire Me 2014 challenge

Today's prompt:

What are some Random Acts of Kindness you'd like to accomplish this year?

I absolutely need to work on this for 2014. I always hear about how someone paid for the person behind them's coffee or meal and I often realize I should be doing something like that. I always feel as if I am a kind and giving person and realize I don't always show it as much as I should.

To fix all of this, I am going to giveaway a $10 Starbucks gift card to one of my lucky readers. I'll keep the giveaway open for 1 week and pick a winner randomly. I won't make you jump through a million hoops either, but help me spread the word!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to all who enter and I'll be emailing the winner on Jan 16th!!

Inspire Me 2014: Day 4

Hello lovebugs! I kind of struggle when it comes to blogging and can never really seem to gain inspiration for topics as easily as others can.  So when there is an opportunity to link up with some pretty awesome ladies who give you writing prompts for the month, I'm all for it. Now, this doesn't mean I will blog every single day, but with these prompts it will be a little easier to talk about things without being creative (because let's face it, I'm not). The 2 lovely ladies who are hosting this month long link up are Showered with Design & Happiness is a Mood not a Destination.

If you want to join in on this fun and see all the prompts for the month, check out this post for all the deets: Inspire Me 2014 Blog Challenge.

I'm obviously a few days behind, but since I had some content for those days, I figured I'd start off today. Today's prompt is:

When is your birthday? 

I cannot believe I am turning 26 this year and am kind of excited what the rest of 25 has in store for me this year. I love having my birthday at the end of summer because it's the perfect time to celebrate for the last time and enjoy the beautiful weather!

When is your birthday, I'll save it in my calendar and send a surprise your way for your special day! Leave it in the comments below!!

Best Bloggers of 2013!

Hey everyone! When I came across Helene's blog post about who was the best blogger of 2013, I knew I had to get my vote in and spread the word about voting. The awesome thing is that you can pick any blog you want to vote (and can vote anonymously).

Here are my picks for the best bloggers of 2013 (IMHO):

1. Helene In Between
I think Helene is one of the best because she keeps it real on her blog and you can really feel like you relate to her. Also she loves music so that speaks directly to me!

2. Not Entirely Perfect
Love Steph, she's a Chicago girl like me and I enjoy her cocktail cupcake recipes (and should def try making some) and love her crazy organizational skills!!

3. I Wore Yoga Pants
Whit is so awesome. She has this effortless style when it comes to blogging and I envy her for that. She also hosts the coolest link up, back that azz up, which is so fun to be apart of!

4. Karly Kim This girl is just pure hilarity! I absolutely love reading her blog and she has incredible fashion sense and I completely envy her closet!! Plus she responds to comments which in my book is huge since she's a "bigger blogger".

5. Meg O. on the Go
Ok, so not only is Meg super talented and has such an adorable little girl, but she is soooo nice! I trust her reviews on makeup and beauty products and love watching her little tutorials on her blog!!

6. Green Fashionista I do not have enough amazing things to say about Kate. She is seriously one of the nicest bloggers I've "met". I consider her a bloggy bf and love the fact that she comments on almost all of my blog posts and I am totally jealous of her life in the sun year round (send some our way please!!!)

7. Living Colorfully
So Robin is pretty much gorgeous and has the cutest wardrobe ever! Not to mention she just recently got engaged!!! I have enjoyed following her blogging journey from Florida to Hunker and can't wait to see what else she has in store!

8. Party of One
Jenn is awesome! I have been following her blog for so long and consider her another bloggy bf, she is so inspiring and fun to read. Plus she's a single girl like me and in the bloggy world that is pretty hard to find!

9. PinkLouLou
She is one of those bloggers that you just wish you could trade lives with. She can do a mean up-do and has the best girly closet in all the land! Plus her little Sadie is just too cute for words!



10. Martinis & Bikinis
Emily is such a fun blogger to read about. Her and Kate are close friends and reading about all the fun they are having down in Sunny Florida makes me want to be down there sipping on some yummy cocktails and lounging by the pool!

Now I read SO many other blogs that are just as awesome as these, but I had to narrow them down and 10 was the smallest list I could create. Who are some of your absolute must read blogs? Go and vote for them on Helene's blog (the winner will be announced Jan 8th)!!

Sunday Social {Week 83}

Happy Sunday Social everyone! This is the first Sunday Social of 2014 and that's so exciting! I'm linking up with these lovely hosts Ashley & Neely!

1. Do you plan to change any of your eating habits in the new year? I think I may need to considering I had slightly elevated cholesterol in 2013, plus all the crap I've been eating all through November & December has not helped. I think I will try to make a conscious effort to choose something healthier over junk when I can. My sweet tooth will get the best of me and I may crumble, but all I can do is try.
2. Any workout tips to get us back in shape after the Holidays? Oh goodness, I am definitely NOT the person to go to for workout tips, I need some crazy motivation to get back in shape, so anything that helps you guys out will definitely be welcome!!
3. What is your favorite thing you did over the Holidays? I didn't do much since we don't completely celebrate, but definitely putting up my Christmas tree was so fun for me and also facetiming with my nephews in Colorado while they opened gifts was a blast!

4. What is something you hope that you accomplish in 2014 that you did not in 2013?

Just trying to stay healthy and happy. I kind of got lost in life in the middle of last year. I also hope that I find love this year. Pretty much all of my friends have either gotten married, engaged, or coupled up in 2013 and I kind of hate being single sometimes. I'm giving online dating another go through and hoping for some success on it, any tips are welcome!

5. Name 3 things happening this year you are excited about and why?

This year is definitely going to be exciting for so many reasons,

1. Going to Colorado- I'm visiting the cutest family ever (and I happen to be related, which let's face it is awesome).

2. Spending a girls weekend for my best friends bachelorette party in NOLA!- I've never been and I know the group of girls we have, we're bound to have a blast!

Some of the girls.

3. The wedding of my best friends.- There has been so much planning and thought put into this wedding and I cannot wait to be apart of all the excitement.

At their engagement party, can't wait for the wedding!!

What are your answers to these questions, if you linked up leave your link in my comments and I'll check it out! Anything in 2014 you can't wait for??

New Year's Eve Recap

Happy Friday y'all!! This week has totally felt off with New Year's being in the middle of the week. Can't wait for some normalcy back in my life now that the holidays are over with :(.

First off, Happy New Year!! 2013 started off kinda sucky with my uncle passing away in Feb and didn't really excel after that too much. My best friend did get engaged and have a super fun party, but I'm hopeful that 2014 is going to be a much better year. There's nothing like a fresh start to make you feel like you have your life together right?! I'm excited to be starting off the first month of the year spending it with my cousins and nephews in Colorado, 19 more days!!!!

Tomorrow I'm excited because I will be having all my friends over to celebrate our Friendsmas (a little late yes, but at least we're keeping the holiday spirit up a little after the fact). So much food, gifts, and fun will be had and I will of course try to take enough pictures and blog about it.

Now let's get to the real purpose of this post, New Year's Eve. This year I had made plans with my closest friends to go downtown to a pizza bar and celebrate that way. I got my tickets and everything was set until a few things almost hindered the plans altogether, thankfully everything worked out in the end and I had such a blast ringing in 2014 with people I love! Not too many pictures were taken because my phone was close to death and I wanted to save some battery life up to call my family at midnight. Here are some of the pictures from that night though!

          

                           

In Chicago, we did get mother nature's fury with nonstop snow for like 2 days and that really sucked, but it felt nice being indoors on Wednesday. I'm going to start 2014 off with a new haircut (probably nothing dramatic, but nice to have some sort of physical change). Follow me on Instagram to see what it looks like!

What did you guys do for NYE? Make any resolutions?