5 Things

1. As you read this (if you are reading this on Sunday morning), I am flying to Florida with my sister.

2. In Florida, we will be meeting our super cute, five year old little brother for the first time.

3. In other vitally important life-news, I will also be fulfilling a desperate dream of visiting Hogwarts, drinking butterbear, and possibly purchasing my very own Hermione-esque cape and wand at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. Does anyone else’s heart skip a beat when they hear that music? Just me?

Don’t judge.

4. When I told my dear friend Kristin, a fellow HP fanatic, that I was going to Harry Potter World, she immediately became furious with me, and then did the normal thing and bought a ticket for an overnight trip to Florida so she could go, too. I love my blog friends. (Matthew’s response when I told him this? “You blogger friends are just a weird little ring of people.” Touche, Matthew. I don’t think any of us would deny it.)

5. And last but certainly not least, I will be spending a day with Sarah Tucker.

 

Life = MADE.

 

Here’s a little Instagram picture of a quote I found and liked the other day. Made me think.

Some cute for your Friday + Sponsor spotlight

Can I be that annoying dog parent for a minute and post a completely random and somewhat pointless video of my dog simply because she’s cute, and I sort of want to eat her face off? I can? Ok, great. Here’s Gracie, and a squirrel clucking in the background.

She got one once. It wasn’t pretty. Nay, it was a bloodbath. Straight up predators, those two.

 

On to more important things. Check out these two fab blogs and one awesome Etsy shop, and have a great Friday!

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Up first is the gorgeous Sando (cool name, right?) of the blog The Daily Deelight. The Daily Deelight is a blossoming lifestyle and food blog chock full of amazing recipes and peppered in with personality. I’ve yet to encounter a post I didn’t drool over… girlfriend has great taste, literally! Just go to her home page right now and look at the top three recipes that come up. I seriously might make all three for dinner tonight. Thanks, Sando! Get to now her more here, and get on board while the gettin’s good. This blog is a baby, but it’s going places. You mark my words!

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

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Next is another fab blog called Picture It and authored by the ridiculously sweet Amy, a wife, mom, and quintessential blogger. What I like about Amy is that she’s a dang good story teller, and she really lets her readers into her life. That’s my favorite thing about a blog—when I get to feel like we’re chatting over coffee, and I leave knowing something about you. You can get to know her a bit better in posts like this one, and she has a little welcome message for you here, so don’t miss it!

Blog | Twitter

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Next is the Etsy shop Marolsha, a loyal sponsor of SOML and quite possibly the cutest little shop on the block. There is something for everyone here, and all of Maddy’s pieces are fun, colorful, and whimsical. How cute is that little owl locket?! Reminds me of Hedwig. I want. Go browse!

  Shop | Facebook

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Fredericksburg, Day 2

Our second day in Fredericksburg was the most fun! We started out with a morning of antique shopping, which is pretty much my favorite thing (and Matthew doesn’t hate it either). I found lots of little treasures like a few old dresser trays and a couple glass jewelry boxes that I’m thrilled with. I decided a while back I wanted to display some of my favorite and most used skin products on a mirror/dresser tray on our bathroom vanity, but I hadn’t found the right one 'til now. It definitely helps you remember to use your products (such as all the little samples from Birchbox) when they’re right there under your nose while you’re washing your face. I’ve been noticing fine lines around my eyes, etc, lately (horrors!), so I’m trying to consistently use different anti-aging creams I’m trying out. I’ll let you know if any of them perform miracles. :)

But back to Fredericksburg. After antiquing in the morning, we tried out The Peach Tree restaurant, which was just the sweetest little tea room, and probably my favorite place we ate. I got a burger (one of the heartier items on the menu… what can I say… I love my red meat), and then we finished off lunch with a damn good chocolate chip walnut cookie and coffee. Check out that creamer cow. I want one!

creamer cow here

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Next we did some exploring of the history around town, most notably the Pioneer Museum. This was great because I used to be obsessed with Pioneers as a child and, truth be told, I still kind of am. It was fascinating to explore the old buildings and houses they have on site there at the museum, most of which were built in the 1800’s! My favorite was the old school, complete with carved-on desks by decades of children long grown and likely passed on by now. It was haunting, really. If only the walls could talk in that place! I had fun pretending to be teacher. Don’t judge me.

You can’t see them well, but there’s a gun and ax in the picture above, hence the happy smile from Matthew.

  

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We had dinner our last night and breakfast our last morning at Mahaley’s Cafe, which was seriously top notch and soooo yummy. I ordered the grilled chicken for dinner, and for breakfast we each had a (huge) taco and shared a perfectly gooey cinnamon roll. I didn’t take pictures of the breakfast except for one cinnamon roll shot on Instagram, but if you’re headed to Fredericksburg, definitely try Mahaley’s for any meal of the day. SO good!

Necklace by Megan :) I almost never take that thing off!

Check out this week’s other Fredericksburg posts, if you missed them…
Amoroso Cottage
Fredericksburg, Day 1
Last year’s Fredericksburg trip

Fredericksburg, Day 1

I’m still dreaming about last week in Fredericksburg. Such a sweet little place, and I hope those of you nearby will make a trip there!  For us, it’s a pleasant hour and a half drive over rolling Texas hill country, past farmland and, as you approach town, past plenty of wineries and wildflower fields and stands with just-picked peaches every mile, it seems. Then you get to Fredericksburg itself, and there are restaurants and coffee shops galore, the quaintest little stores you’ll ever see, and of course the cutest bed and breakfasts. (we always book through this site.)  Just a nice place to escape and unwind.

For anyone interested, I wanted to share some of the places we went while we were there…

First stop once in town was Fredericksburg Fudge and Sundries for some strong, Costa Rican coffee and the creamiest milk chocolate pecan fudge. YUM. We were sleepy, and this place was the perfect pick-me-up.

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Next we walked around a bit and had lunch at Auslander, a traditional German restaurant. Gotta have German food at least once while you’re in Fredericksburg! I tried the Rouladen, which is a dish my mom used to make when my family lived in Germany. It was really just how I remembered it tasting when I was little… mmmm. :)

 

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And around town…

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For dinner we headed a few minutes out of downtown to Cabernet Grill, which was so incredibly delicious. We sat outside on the patio by a little pond complete with a waterfall and lots of Coy fish, and it was just perfection. We shared a salad, I had the trout, Matthew had pork tenderloin, and we shared hazelnut creme brulee…

 

Truth be told, though, we got some pretty crappy (too personal to blog about) news while on this trip, which put a major kink in our little fairytale vacation, but such is life, I suppose. You have to learn to enjoy those special moments you’re given, even when life seems to be ploughing on by and leaving destruction in its wake.  When will life ever be going exactly as you planned? The common theme so far is… never.

Check out my post on last year’s Fredericksburg trip, if you’re interested, and stay tuned for one more fun post tomorrow! Happy Hump Day. :)

 

PS – If you missed it, I posted photos here of the bed and breakfast where we stayed last week!

Confessions of an Addict + Deuce Fashions

Dress: Urban Outfitters (on sale here!), Shoes: Target, Necklace: c/o Deuce (enter SOML25 for 25% off in the shop!)

My mom and I were at dinner last night, and as I was Instagraming my salad, my mom made the comment that I’m in “my own generation.” I think that was a nice way of saying, “wow, it’s really weird and unfathomable that you feel the need to take a picture of what you’re eating and share it with the Internet, like somebody cares.” Or maybe I’m just reading into it?

But seriously, we Tech-Geeks/Social-Media-Obsessed really ARE in a generation all our own, aren’t we? My dependency on technology is borderline unhealthy. Case in point: last night after said dinner I left my phone on the table and drove the 20 minutes home, not realizing I left it until at least an hour later (shockingly). When I went searching through my purse to find it, I can’t even describe to you the feeling of horror that ensued once I realized it was lost. Straight up junkie-having-a-withdrawl style. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I began stuffing my face with cookies, as if to fill the empty space my phone left. So, apparently I’m an anxiety eater? Let’s keep the phone-losing to a minimum, lest I be 400 pounds.

Anyway, I skyped my mom who called the restaurant, the phone was retrieved (thank GOD), and I have settled happily back into my technology addiction. Oh, and mom? That salad picture has 33 likes on Instagram, so clearly someone cares! ;P

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Switching gears here. Check out that gorgeous necklace in the photos above! I was lucky enough to try out a piece by the seriously cool Etsy shop, Deuce, which specializes in exactly my favorite type of jewelry: unique, kind of tribal, handmade, great quality, and overall awesome. This shop is a winner, people. You never know what the quality will be like when you order on Etsy (sad but true—I’ve been disappointed more than once), but based on my experience with this necklace, I’d venture to say that all of Deuce’s pieces are top-notch and very reasonably priced for what you’re getting!  Even better, the shop owner is offering SOML readers an exclusive discount—just enter the code SOML25 for 25% off any purchase!  Happy Tuesday. :)