Who Loves to Plan? This girl does!

Ladies and gents, I may have momentarily lost my mind....but hear me out okay? After seeing a friend of mine post on Facebook that she was looking at "Erin Condren Life Planners" I sort of laughed and thought to myself Life planner? What is this nonsense? Wow, I was so wrong! There is an entire following out there of ladies (and gents probably) who absolutely swear by the Erin Condren Life Planner. You all know I'm a law student and I'm a HUGE fan of everything organizationally focused. Yes, that includes agendas/planners. Color coordination? YES. Sticky notes? Heck yes! So I started looking at all the options for the Erin Condren life planner (I still chuckled that it was called a "life planner") and there were soooo many different types. The covers were all colorful and different. You could personalize it with your name (or whatever other words you want). And the space? Oh my gosh, the amount of space included in these things looked to be prime for 100% organizational bliss. The price of the Life Planner doesn't come cheap though, and I was really hesitant to believe that a planner, something to scribble down assignments, appointments, notes, etc, could cost such a price. At $50 it took a lot of convincing and I researched and researched the product. I watched youtube videos where people reviewed their Erin Condren Life Planners, checked blog posts reviewing the product, and even googled images for how you could use the showed you how you could use it. Eventually I broke down...and I bought one. More information on when it comes in! I might just review it? Or use it for a nail design? Who knows. If you want to see some of what the fuss is all about you can always watch this video:

And just a little hint: the cover of my Erin Condren Life Planner that I bought just might look like one these!

Wedding Dress Shopping with my Sister

As you know from my previous posts my older sister is engaged to be married in September 2015. As a continuation in the her Wedding Series, today my mom, my sister, my sister's bridesmaid, and I went to look at potential bridal gowns. 

Seriously, how are you not going to find the perfect wedding gown in this room?! It was an entire large room full of all type of white bridal gowns. Anyway, Sister tried on a bunch of beautiful gowns in various styles and she looked gorgeous in each and every one of them. She may have settled on her perfect dress but she didn't decide yet so we all wait to see if she will say "YES!" to the dress. 

Looks like there's 444 days til the Wedding Day!

Mani Monday: Fighting Phils!

Pardon me while I bust out some serious American "take me out to the ballgame" but...I went to a Phillies game yesterday with some folks from work! Naturally, a nail design was order! I had to keep it semi-work profesh because otherwise I probably would have gotten a few looks from the senior partners (and CEO!) and I wouldn't want that. I went with red but then a baseball on my ring finger. You guys may remember that I'm not a huge sports fan (I like odd sports like gymnastics....and nascar, lol) but I really did enjoy watching the game and chatting with my work people outside of the office. It was nice to see everyone relax a little bit.

Because it was a work event we had one of the "private boxes" that allowed us to have our own food, drinks, seating, and bathroom. It was so enjoyable to not have to wait in long lines for either food or the bathroom. I really had a great time and it turned out my sister and her fiance were at the game too! He had earned Salesman of the Month (yay!) at his job and so they were in a box too! We ended up not being on the same level but we met up after the game. Overall it was a really LONG game but a really GOOD night :)

In case you watched the game (or care)...the Phillies lost :(

Bonsai Tree

While Boyfriend and I were at Longwood Gardens (google it) last weekend we saw the most adorable little bonsai trees. Seriously...some were older then my grandparents (like the one from 1909!). Anyway, he knew I liked the bonsai trees and when we saw them for sale in the store he bought me one! Yep, proud owner of a "Mini Jade Tree" which, if you don't know, is a South African tree (I knew nothing about it) that might flower in autumn. By sheer luck we found out it's one of the easiest bonsais to care for. He even made sure to equip me with the appropriate bonsai trimmers. So sweet! Check out my little bonsai:

Philadelphia Bridal Expo

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon with my Bride-to-Be older sister, my dear mom, and my sister's official first bridesmaid at the Philadelphia Bridal Expo!! It was so much fun and there were quite a bit of vendors there showing off their products and such. For example, check out the group of 3 photos to the right. The Bride-to-Be (BTB) reallllllly wants a photobooth for her wedding and I have to say, they are so much fun. The BTB (in the pink and black masquerade mask), Bridesmaid (middle), and little ole Maid of Honor me (on the right) couldn't help but take advantage of a photo op. Love how it came out! So cute!

I have to say though, we were all a tad disappointed in the Bridal Fashion Show they had planned. The venue had a stage and would have been perfect for the modeling of the bridal gowns but instead they had the brides walk through the crowd (which not everyone could see). The BTB was disappointed and asked "Where are the lights?! Where is the music?!" I have to agree.

 

In case anyone is still unaware, my older sister is engaged and will be getting married in 2015 (as blogged about so far here, here, and here). Well, I have been asked to be her "MOH"...Maid of Honor!! I'm so excited =) I had been campaigning pretty hard (just kidding) and she finally asked me when I was home over Labor Day weekend! Wahoo! She always does things in style so she had created a little package (the wrapping is the black and white sheet behind the blue glitter photo book) to ask me. The card asked me to be her Maid of Honor and then the other things were little goodies: a tiny bottle of champagne (which we'll pop next time she's over), a photo book filled with some preliminary wedding info, a beautiful book on Paris that she bought the day they got engaged in New York, and a nail polish (how perfect?!) in a shade she's considering for her bridesmaids gowns. Naturally, a manicure was in store!

Also, because you can't really see the polish in the picture (it looks a lot more blue than gray in the photo) here is a closer look:

See? Much less blue.

Color Run Philly 5k

Today's post celebrates a little something my sister and I did today....we did in the Color Run Philadelphia!! My sister recently hopped on the fitness train and I couldn't be more proud of her progress and how far she's come. We completed 3.1 miles (ok we didn't run the whole thing) in our first 5k. It was so much fun and I am seriously covered in paint right now! It truly is "the happiest 5k on the planet," seriously!!

Next up, a 10k Tough Mudder Race! ...or a nap.

Quick Update

Sorry to have been MIA for a while. As usual I have no excuse other than I'm lazy. But I have some exciting news: (1) spring 2013 grades came out and I did A-okay! so I'm still able to continue on with law school (YAY!). But that's not all! (2) my internship is going well...I got a judge to grant one of my motions!! My first real-world motion accepted and granted by a real-world judge! But that's not all! (3) Boyfriend graduated this past Saturday from his college/grad school. I include both because he was in one of those fancy schmancy programs that give you your bachelors degree AND your masters degree in less time. It usually would take 6ish years to get to a masters level but for boyfriend it only took 5 (and that was with co-op employment placements for experience and summers). Yeah, the boy works hard. And he's so darn intelligent!! (He graduated with a cumulative GPA of 4.0) I know. Who does that?! He's showing off and making us all look bad. I always knew he was smart but geeeeez, academic perfection. And he's so nonchalant about it. He just shrugs his shoulders and dodges it. Personally, I think on the inside he's jumping up and down like a  5 year old on Christmas morning. I know I would be.  

Happy Father's Day!

We're spending Father's Day on the lake. We don't use the canoes often but today we will!

Work it Girl

Celebrating My Sister's Engagement

Yesterday night the families got together to officially celebrate my sister's engagement. It was at this beautiful manor restaurant and the food was mmmmm so good! It was nice to see his side of the family and catch up with them. I hadn't seen them in a while. 

I was in charge of the favors so my mom and I devised a plan for diamond decorated cupcakes. The cupcakes were vanilla with pink buttercream icing accented with a diamond decoration on top and served in a peek-a-boo box (so you could see the diamond) with a seal and message. 

They were a big hit and everyone loved the idea. I do believe I heard whispering of my soon-to-be brother in law's mom using the idea for another occasion in fact! What can I say, my family lives to inspire. 

Also, since it was on my Aunt's birthday I wanted to incorporate something to celebrate that too so I used some pink striped cupcake liners I had from a present she had given me a year or so ago. They went perfectly with the pink of the icing!

My favorite part was the peek a boo box. 

Maybe I'll open my own bakery some day! LOL

Do you like to bake?

Have you hosted an engagement party?

REQUESTED BY CAITLYN: TUXEDO NAILS

 Aw, my nails are dressed to the nines today! This manicure is pulling double duty today as the second installment in my Requested by Caitlyn series AND to further celebrate my sister's engagement.

To make these fancy fingers yours, it's super simple: paint your nails white (I used Zoya Snow White) and then use black (Orly Liquid Vinyl) for the rest of the design.