Friday Fives!

Man, am I late to the link up party today or what???  Better late than never, I guess!  This week's five are a bit hodge podge, but are all related to my tax return!  Ha ha!

1.  I bought a "new" couch from this great little consignment store around the corner from my house!  It matches perfectly and is great condition!  Next step is to recover the other couch and that room will be fully furnished!  Yay!

2.  Dinner out to a new taco place.  Do you guys know how much I love tacos?  It borders on obsession.  We tried out a great new place last night called Taco Luchador (which means taco mexican wrestler, apparently...).  It was awesomesauce!!!  Those fried things up top?  Those are fried plantains and they were scrumptious!!!

3.  I found a new place for monograms in Frankfort, where I work.  Super cheap and they do a great job!  I had four pillowcases monogrammed and it only cost $28.  Seriously.  Not to shabby!

(Imagine in black)

4.  New shoes!!!  I found a great deal on my favorite brand of shoes, Tory Burch, at the Nordstrom Rack this week.  I needed a pair of dressy black flat sandals to replace my old pair that were worn out, and there they were on Tuesday, calling my name!  Having a small foot comes in super handy when shopping at outlets.

(Photo courtesy of Monkee's Facebook page)

5.  I found my dress for the Day Spring Concrete Ball!  I went into the Louisville location of one of my favorite boutiques in Lexington, Monkees, and found a great dress to wear to our Vegas themed event this year!  I may have also found about 4 other dresses on clearance that I just absolutely had to have.  Hey, they were cheap, don't judge. Oaks and Derby are coming up and this lady has to have some new duds!

Thanks to Christina, April, Darci, and Natasha for hosting another week of the Friday Five linkup!  Check out their awesome blogs!  

Happy Friday!!! 

Five on Friday!!!

It's been a long time since my last post, and probably even longer than I linked up with these ladies (April, Christina, Darci, and Natasha) for Five on Friday.  Anyone else feel like this opener is recurrent?  Ha!  Needless to say, I've been super busy lately.

This week's five cover more than a week, but I think it will be okay!  

Número Uno!  I had the first piece of furniture for the family room recovered this week and it was done in two days!  How's that for a quick turn around?  I think it turned out great!

(It's not nearly as "grandma-esque" in person.  I promise!)

Número dos! Is that how two is spelled in Espanol? I took French...  Anyway, this weekend we had a staff retreat in Scottsdale, AZ.  I've been out to Arizona a few times before, but have never had the chance to go to the Grand Canyon.  This time, I made sure I got out there!  Oh my word, it was breathtaking!  

Nombre Trois!  My French is a little rusty, too.  After Scottsdale, I took a day off and flew up to Denver to have a belated Valentine's with the boy.  We had a fantastic dinner at a Greek restaurant, including this wonderful appetizer:

Flaming cheese!!!

Nombre Quatre!  The 14th Annual Concrete Ball is well into planning!  I'm so excited to be the Event Chair for this awesome evening, and it's really coming together!  Check out Day Spring's website for more information on the foundation and event!

And finally, number five!  I finally had a chance to sit down and have dinner last night with my family.  I've been so busy and traveling so much that it's been a few weeks since I've seen them.  For some reason when we go to this particular Mexican restaurant, we end up in ridiculous conversations that are way too loud.  It was an absolute blast!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  I'm actually getting a chance to see my friends and get back in my workout routine!  Can't wait!  Till next time, whenever that may be!

House updates, post 74,648

Let's just label this as project number who the hell knows, but this is one that will actually get finished.  Have y'all heard of the online estate auction site  Everything But the House?  Think eBay for estate sales.  Sometimes you can get really great deals, like the chair I bought below.  The catch is that I had to drive to Cincinnati to pick it up.  Luckily, I have nothing but free time these days.  Ha.

I'm going to have this recovered, and a week or so ago the really awesome fabric store in town had a huge clearance sale.  I might have spent a small fortune getting fabric for multiple pieces of furniture, but it'll will be worth it in the end.  And it could've been much worse.  I really look forward to the day when I can quit spending money furnishing this house.  

Actually pretty cute fabric, but definitely not the color scheme of the family room.

This is the new fabric for the couch.  I finally decided to just recover the one I have.  It's too darn comfortable not to keep!

Fabric for the "new" chair in the family room.

Fabric for another chair that will go into the upstairs guest room.  Funny story (or not funny, but proof of how I never get rid of anything) about the chair that this fabric will go on…the chair has been around since the before the birth of my baby brother.  He is turning 28 this year.  

I've actually recovered the chair once before, and it was a set of two.  Unfortunately, a certain blonde, hairy, burrowing dog ruined one completely and destroyed the fabric on the other.   Yet the chair must live on.  

Those chairs have been to college with my best friend, in all three of my houses, and all the houses I lived in during my childhood.  I just can't seem to let them go.  I think it's because they are just about my favorite thing to curl up in to take a nap.

Anyway, moving on.  The only other family room update for now is the addition of the base board!  It looks so much better, and really makes the navy walls pop.  For some reason, the walls look kind of purple in this photo.  Trust me, they are navy.  I went through 17 different swatches of paint to make sure.

But anyway, giant shout out and thank you to my roomie and his friend Chris that put these up for the cost of supplies and a lovely dinner out.  They're really the best!

Eventually, we will put up some crown molding, but that's going to be a huge undertaking.  Due to the age of the house and they way it's settled, the ceiling isn't exactly even.  According to people that knows these sort of things, it's going to be a pain in the butt to hang evenly.

So that's today's installment of "Oh My God, When Will I Be Done Decorating This House?"  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time!

Aruba Ariba!

Let me just preface this post with a small disclaimer; I realize how awesome my job is and the fact that a work convention took me to Aruba is beyond amazing.  So that being said, let me share some of the beauty of this Caribbean island that boasts some of the best weather I've ever enjoyed and the friendliest residents I've come across when traveling.

Balashi and Chill are the two beers made locally.  Both pretty good, and reminiscent of Corona.

Lots of iguanas and lizards at our hotel.  This guy pretty much spends all day on these rocks, just chilling.  Not too shabby.

Happy toilet is happy.

More iguana action.

Mango Daiquiri!  

Obviously, I had to get the fish tacos.

Clear water, soft sand, freshly painted toes.  No complaining from this girl.

Water is the essence of wetness.  That's all I could think of when drinking this.

Miami Vice!  Pretty and tasty, all in one.

More of my iguana friend.  I really like him.

Historic lighthouse on the tip of the island.

I'm sorry, does it get any prettier than this???  No wonder Aruba is a hot tourist destination.  

The ever popular bottle tree, Aruba style!

The water.  These pictures don't even do it justice.

The Jolly Pirate Snorkel Tour, well worth the $40.

Have I mentioned I like the iguanas?

And another.

View from my balcony, not too shabby.

Dinner the first night at Aqua Grille.  Did not disappoint.

More beer.

I loved the license plates there!

Straw market, where all the souvenirs I bought came from. 

We've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!

Downtown near the port.  

And more beer...

Sunset at the hotel.

Romantic dinner on the beach for three…the boyfriend couldn't come, so Bert and Melissa let me tag along on their adventures throughout the week.  We had a blast!

Hotel lobby drinks!  Does anyone think I resemble the shorter guy in the middle?  Ha ha, love you Dad!  Thanks for the awesome week!!!

The big mountain on the island.

Natural Cove.  Normally you can go all the way down and jump in, but as you can see, the wind and waves were too dangerous the day we went.  It was still absolutely breathtaking.

Natural Bridge

Our tour guide said that originally these were a way to make wishes, but really it's just a tourist thing now.  Still, it's pretty cool to see an entire beach covered with these.

You can really see how large these waves are next to the poor guy that got drenched!

I think the pictures pretty much show the beauty of the island.  I think that it's one of my new favorite places on Earth.  I am so happy that I got to cross Aruba of my bucket list, and look forward to going back one day.  

For anyone wondering, we stayed at the Marriott Stellaris, and the service was some of the best I've ever had.  Aruba's economy is 75% derived from tourism, and they know how to treat their guests!

If you're looking for a wonderful vacation spot, I highly recommend this beautiful, tropical island!  It would be perfect for a honeymoon or couples trip.

Anyway, that's my Aruba trip.  I must say that I'm glad to be home; I have a tendency to get homesick after about four or five days, and we were gone for seven.  But if you asked me to get on a plane this coming week, I'd go back in a heartbeat.  I hear the weather is going to be awful again.

Have I mentioned that I hate cold weather?  Stay toasty, my friends!