Weekend Highlights.

This weekend was jam packed with activities and lots of celebrating! I'm looking forward to a low key holiday weekend coming up and then relaxing on our babymoon the following weekend! 

-I co-hosted a shower for one of my longest friends, Caroline! It was a woodlands themed shower, which goes along with Baby Ben's nursery. I'll do a separate post on it, but it all turned out really cute! 

-We celebrated Cameron's birthday with his parents with dinner at Indaco followed by cocktails (and mocktails) at 492. 

Appetizer: Burrata with shaved asparagus, pickled bluberries, and asparagus aioli

Recommend?: Yes! 

My Entree: Tonnarelli with lump crab meat, saffron, mint, breadcrumbs and paremesan

Recommend?: No. While the crab meat itself was tasty, there was no real flavor to this dish. 

Cameron's Entree: Garganelli with braised lamb, ricotta, herbs, and breadcrumbs

Recommend?: YES! I had major food envy with Cameron's dinner. It was much more flavorful that mine. 

Dessert: Espresso tart with chocolate ganache, biscotti, and espresso cream

Recommend?: Yes, how could you go wrong??

-Gus announced on his Instagram page that he was going to be a big brother x2!

That's a 3D pic of the babes!

-Cameron painted the nursery (yay!!!) while I did super fun stuff like laundry, de-cluttering, etc. 

-We celebrated June birthdays for my family, which are my sister, Cameron, my grandaddy, and my mom! My mom made the most amazing Kahlua cake with white russian icing! Reminded me of one of the layers of our wedding cake! 

Hope you all had a great weekend! Another Twin Tuesday post coming tomorrow! 

Some Life Updates..

Well, hello! It's me, your long lost friend. I'm still alive. A lot has happened in the past 7+ months, so let's play a quick game of catch up. Actually, it's a pretty long post. Sorry about that. 

You may or may not know, but Cameron and I had to say goodbye unexpectedly to our sweet, sweet Brady back in July. Hence the super long blog break. It hit me like a tornado and I was in a serious funk for quite a while. The blog got put on the back burner as I had nothing to talk about and didn't want to come on here and be a Debbie downer. I will do a separate post on Brady later, mostly so I can remember that awful day (why?!? I don't know.). 

We had our annual Edisto trip in September. Had to expand to two houses with all of the cute little additions we've been adding. Always such a good time (what vacation isn't?) and we had a sprinkle for Baby Jack while we were there, as well. 

About three very quiet and hair-free months since we said goodbye to Brady, we said hello to a little nugget named Gus! He has brought laughter back into our everyday lives and we tell him about his big brother Brady all the time. I'll also do a separate post on Gus because, as you can imagine, there have been a lot of photos taken and a lot of memories made already in his 8 months. 

South Carolina's football team did not fair so well last season, but that didn't stop me from going to Columbia to cheer them on! Cameron was, of course, happy that Clemson made it to the national championship last year. I was (a little) happy that he was so happy about that...

In October, our family had something very scary happen. Cameron's oldest brother, David, suffered from a major stroke. He spent almost six weeks in the hospital and rehabilitation, and still continues rehab multiple times a week. From day one he made significant progress in a short amount of time, even the nurses and doctors were amazed. Every day we went to visit him we would see progress being made. A funny story that I'm sure we'll never forget - one day while Cameron and I were visiting David, we were asking him questions to help stimulate his memory. I asked him what my name was and he said "bad sandwich" but then immediately knew he was wrong and we all started laughing. My nieces love to call me that now. :) Every time I think back on those weeks that he was in the hospital, and even afterwards, I think about how amazing it was that the family and their friends all came together to support David and his family. I really think it made everyone closer as a result and taught us all to appreciate each other, and every moment spent together. 

The day David came home from the hospital!

My best friend gave birth to her second son, Jack, in December. He is the sweetest little thing and his brother, Lane, loves being a big brother! 

Our good friends, Scott and Jane, got engaged! I also had the pleasure of going wedding dress shopping with her! 

In February we saw Garth Brooks and it was, as you can imagine, AMAZING! Three hours of non-stop singing my heart out. 

We celebrated my 32nd birthday in my most favorite way - good friends and yummy oysters! A few days later my nieces came over and spoiled me with a foot, hand, and back massage!

Our niece, Arden, turned one! 

FOUR of our supper club girls are pregnant and are all due in August! On the way are two boys and two girls. We have had such fun celebrating finding out their genders and can't wait to meet them all! 

We just recently celebrated our three year wedding anniversary! On our actual anniversary we ate dinner at Fat Hen and the following weekend we spent the afternoon riding bikes on Kiawah! Very low key, very perfect. 

I'll be back soon! 

Fly-By June.

Well, June sure did fly by! Work is a little crazy right now, which leaves little time for blogging. Here's what kept me busy otherwise. 

Cameron's parents bid on a private chef dinner at a private auction a couple of months ago and were kind enough to invite Cameron and I, as well as my parents, over to enjoy the experience and dinner! Chef Demal Mattson did such a great job showing us that a delicious meal does not have to be difficult.

The menu included a shortcut version of mini tomato pies (mini fillo shells, pimento cheese, and half of a grape tomato..that's it!), truffle mushroom tarts, summer melon salad, chateaubriand with a red wine reduction, roasted asparagus and potatoes, and chocolate caramel panna cotta. One of the best meals of my life! 

Hosted supper club at Cameron's parent's house on the river. Lots of fun!!

Celebrated June birthdays in my family - Sister's boyfriend, Sister, Husband, Mom, Grandad

Joined a group of bloggers at The Americano for cocktails and dinner. I ordered the Mexican Mule and the Yellowfin Tuna Tower. Both very tasty!

Celebrated Cameron's 31st birthday with burgers, bourbon, and cigars. 

Boss man treated the office to happy hour at Taco Boy. It's always fun to hang out with your co-workers outside of the office! 

Ended a long work day by checking out the Westbrook Brewery.

 

Finally went to 167 Raw to try out their lobster roll. Now I definitely see what all the talk is all about. It is AMAZING and I will definitely be back. (As a reference, this is a split portion.) And just a heads up, this puppy will run you $24. 

Still enjoying the boxed meal concepts! We have been going back and forth between Hello Fresh and Home Chef lately. To read a summary of the four different companies we tried, as well as get a discount on your first order, you can view my post here. 

On to July!

Friday Five {What I've Been Up To}.

{one}

Two weekends ago my Grandma Anna turned the ripe young age of 80! Not trying to brag, but I seriously have some good genes on both sides of my family. We celebrated at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Summerville. We had an awesome dinner prepared a little bit by everyone and afterwards, we sat around the table while Grandma Anna opened up her gifts and cards.  The best gift was from my mom, uncle, and aunt. They snuck into my grandma's old photos without her knowing and put together a photo book of memories. It was so neat to listen to a story about each picture.

Grandma with her granddaughters

Picture from the photo book - Grandma Anna was and still is a looker

Uncle Jerry & Aunt Debbie who drove from Iowa!

{two}

I posted a few weeks ago my weekly meal plan based around Skinnytaste cookbook recipes. I'm happy to say that none of the recipes disappointed and I would definitely make them all again!

Here are a few photos that I took, which look nothing like the cookbook's. ;)

Skillet Lemon Sole with Tomatoes and Capers
(I made with tilapia because that's what I had)

Chicken Pasta Caprese

{three}

Last weekend we celebrated our 2 year anniversary with dinner at Cypress, followed by coffee with Bailey's at a local coffee/dessert shop in Avondale, and ended with some nightcaps at The Roost with friends. 

I hadn't been to Cypress since prom my senior year of high school. It was amazing then and now, including the service! They started us off with two glasses of champagne and we ordered the cucumber tuna rolls to go along with it. I ordered the butter lettuce salad and Cameron ordered the Ceasar salad. He definitely had food envy after having a bite of my salad! For our entrees I ordered the filet topped with Boursin cheese and Cameron ordered one of their specials - veal with a soft shelled crab. We decided to forego dessert because they did not have bread pudding and well, we were stuffed! If you ever go to Cypress, even for their bar upstairs, you must order the lavender martini! So refreshing and delicious. Even Cameron liked it! 

I'm hoping my hair doesn't look this red in person. Someone please tell me if it does!

My yummy butter lettuce salad with bacon jam, buttermilk blue cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, and chives. SO GOOD.

Filet topped with Boursin cheese accompanied by asparagus, leeks, roasted garlic, crispy potatoes, and Madeira sauce.

{four}

Last weekend we also spent a lot of time in the yard getting it ready for Spring. I focused on my garden area, but did not plant anything due to the cold snap we had. Maybe I can plant my herbs and veggies today since I have the day off! I also picked up some peony bulbs at Costco last weekend. Who know's if they'll grow here in the scorching hot summer. Here's a good old fashioned before and after photo. Don't mind the pink ribbon - we're getting quotes to take down a few trees in the yard. 

{five}

I paid my car off this week!!  

Weekend Good Things.

Morning! Maybe it's the fact that it's slightly warmer today than it has been in a while, but I'm ready to tackle this week! 

Friday after work, Cameron and I had a meeting downtown so we decided to hit up happy hour at Bay Street Biergarten. Their "freaky taters" (tater tots with a demi-glace, smoked cheddar sauce and green onions) called our names and we could not resist.  So bad, yet so very good. 

Came home to my Amazon order waiting for me on the front porch. Why is it that every time you go on Amazon to order one thing (especially Amazon Prime), something additional always winds up in your cart, too? Target is also known for this, maybe even worse. 

Went on for the witch hazel, also left with a cookbook.

Saturday I made it to bikini bootcamp at the gym (definitely needed to after all of those tater tots), made a quick trip to the grocery store, then ran a few errands for my Dad's birthday party that evening. We held it at the "boat club" in Summerville (there are no boats, only a ramp), which is pretty much one of the two places to hold a party in Summerville is. It's perfect for oyster roasts though! My mom had some barbecue and sides catered, we picked up a couple of bushels of oysters, and other than that it was pretty low key. Exactly what my Dad wanted. 

My grandma and her two sons

(Camo was very prevalent that night)

Sunday was spent running more errands with a yummy brunch at Sunrise Bistro in between. I ordered the Mediterranean open faced omelet (no olives or onions, add tomatoes please) with a side of pepper-jack grits. Yum. 

We had some oysters left over from the party the night before, so for dinner, we made oysters rockefeller using Tyler Florence's recipe, served also with a big salad to balance everything out. :) They were SO good!! 

Sunday evening, I made a loaf of this banana bread (I substituted 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar) to enjoy as we watched House of Cards and as a quick breakfast option during the week. So tasty and moist - sorry, I know a lot of people hate that word, but I can't think of a better one. 

So basically, Sunday was based all around food. Just the way I like it.