Thursday, June 30, 2011

Drinkin' on the Job.

"Ohh you know, just killing a 6 pack."

I seriously laughed very hard when I came up with that line. I am one of those people who think I am funny most of the time, yeah I laugh at my own jokes while my co-workers {all guys} just stare at me. So when I came walking into our office space with that one-liner they actually laughed. My next thought after thinking "finally I am funny" was why not share with my wonderful followers?… I HAVE 30 FOLLOWERS NOW! Thank you so-so-so much for following my little blog! Its means a lot and you make this girl very happy!

Believe that you can run farther or faster.

I am blessed to have such beautiful surroundings that make a workout run enjoyable. I love running outdoors and luckily a bike path begins off of my driveway. The path is ideal because it wraps itself along the shore of Lake Michigan allowing stunning scenery as well as a nice cool breeze.  I got home from work yesterday and thought I should take full advantage of the hot summer weather. So, I threw on my “Barney outfit” as my sister calls it, which consists of my purple NikePlus running shoes and Nike “Just Do It” t-shirt, and hit the trail.
As my iPhone played my favorite running playlist {shown below}, I decided to take a few pictures to capture the views. Ahh, I love living in northern Michigan.
I usually run when there's a lot on my mind because I think through problems or situations while alone and giving myself time to process. Trust me, my running shoes have gotten me through break-ups, final exam stress, or having to choose where to eat dinner later. Seriously, I am that indecisive! Haha. But I am glad I have a healthy way of venting and releasing all the little and great pressure in my life. Also, I was running last night just because I am finally happy this summer. I have amazing people in my life and loving the weather, so I celebrated with a 3 mile run. Definitely going to try to do this every other night after work and I will leaning on this blog to make it happen. I am going to need the support, people! Anyone else trying to work out more or become healthier this summer?
 
Listen to my current running/workout playlist here:

1. Bow Chicka Wow Wow - Mike Posner {warm-up song!}
2. Super Bass - Nikki Minaj
3. On The Floor - Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull
4. Blauw - Ciara
5. Hit the Lights - Jay Sean
6. Roll With It - Easton Corbin
7. Written In The Stars - Tinie Tempah feat. Eric Turner
8. Evil Women - Mike Posner
9. All of the Lights- Kanye West
10. Use Your Light - Katy Perry
11. S & M - Rihanna
12. The Other Chick - JoJo
13. Til The World Ends - Britney Spears
14. The Show Goes On - Lupe Fiasco
15. ScheiBe - Lady Gaga
16. Yeah Ya Know (Takers) - T.I.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I Want a Good Husband.

You guys need to give a listen to the group known as "The Good Husbands."
I would love if my "husband" was the guy who raps first in the video below who is wearing the Islanders jersey and camo shorts. {great combo, huh?!} My brother played their music for me almost a year ago and I couldn’t get their tracks on my iPod fast enough. It wasn’t until a month or two ago that Joe showed me the video for their single “Things I Haven’t Done” that not only did I fall in love with their lyrical skills but the guy in mirrored sunglasses. Ahh! I seriously spent the entire video scanning for him in every frame. Yeah, its love…. A one-sided love but I’ll take it.
“I got my chin up in this bitch, I’m unbreakable.”
I promise you won't be disappointed... How can you pass up listening to a good-look group of guys rapping about being "bros." Gotta love it :) At least it will get me through the work day.

It Keeps Growing...

If you know me personally or actively read my blog, you’ll know I have a movie addiction and love to collect good books. Little by little I have been adding onto my DVD collection and my bookshelves. Someday I will be able to display/organize it all in my future house so that everyone can ogle it like I do but until then I will keep “collecting.” Maybe this is a form of hoarding but honestly I only bought two new things…
First of all, the reason for my shopping last night was to just pick up a copy of the Social Network movie. I loved this film when I saw it in theatres and since my siblings haven’t watched it, I thought I’d purchase it for a little viewing party later that night. My poor sister felt a little bit overwhelmed... saying "He talks so fast... I can't keep up" and "Ohh my, I was tense though that whole part... I am now tired!" Haha I love her. If she had her way movies would only be able to fall into the horror or romantic catagory, she's stubborn like that.
Well… as I was walking out the door of the store, my eyes caught this beautiful turquoise book cover. {I am a sucker for bright, pretty books.} But this book has easily become a win, win. I couldn’t put it down last night as I read chapter after chapter laughing and learning where the dividing line between trashy and classy lies for a girl like me! It’s truly amazing and looks phenomenal on my bookshelf.  
If anyone has gorgeous books on their shelf, I'd love to know! Or let me know about your newest additions to your musical, visual, or literary collection. I would also enjoy hoarding tales so I don't feel so bad about mine :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

My Loves & Obsessions.

This post has been circling the blogger world for awhile and I figured I would give it a go! Funny thing is it reminds me of when I was in middle school and my friends would send these around via Hotmail e-mail address. But now I am older and wiser {with muchhh better taste} and seriously wanting to reminisce the good ole days by completing this little questionnaire...so here we go!

4 current shows I watch:
1. Big Bang Theory {I am an engineer so I love the science/nerdy jokes}
2. Army Wives
3. Tosh.0 {I would marry this man.}
4. Modern Family
4 things I'm passionate about:
1. Family
2. Friends
3. My education
4. Cupcakes - {I seriously make at least one batch per week}
4 phrases I use a lot:
1. Sounds good.
2. Perfect!
3. Let's go 'hawks! {Shout out to my Miami hockey fans!}
4. Seriously?
4 things I love to eat:
1. Sushi with a glass {or two} of wine
2. Chinese Food
3. Greek Salad
4. Salmon!
{Wow, now I am really hungry...}
4 movies I could watch over and over and over:
1. Miracle
2. Step Up {Anything and everything with Channing Tatum in it! Yum}
3. Boondock Saints
4. The Notebook
4 books I love:
1. Haunted: Chuck Palahniuk
2. Everything is Illuminated: Jonathan Safran Foer
3. To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee
4. A Million Little Pieces: James Frey
4 bands I will never get sick of:
1. Taking Back Sunday
2. Maroon 5
3. Mumford & Sons
4. Lady Antebellum
4 places I'd love to visit:
1. Australia
2. Italy
3. Alaska!
4. Ireland {I am an Irish girl!}
4 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Summer months spent outdoors camping, boating, and fishing.
2. Graduating from Miami University with a Mechanical Engineering degree.
3. Spending time with the important people in my life.
4. Being a mom of 5 boys who all play hockey {years & years from now...}

Pop of Color.

So lately I have been wearing a lot of gold and oranges...and loving it. So I thought why not pick out some new fingernail polish to pull my outfits all together. Last night I picked up Essie’s “Peach Daiquiri” and gave myself a manicure. I also painted my ring finger on each hand with a touch of Rimmel London’s “Gold Silk” color. Now today my basic black dress looks great with a new pop of color on my nails. In a man-dominated field of work it’s fun to be girlie every once and awhile.
To accent my new gold-fever, I wore my favorite ring form Chico’s. Its obnoxiously big but I needed some bling! I want to take full advantage of this summer weather because here in Michigan, it could be snowing tomorrow with how fast the weather changes. {hope I didn't jinx myself!} But at least this nail polish will get me through the early work-week blues!

Monday, June 27, 2011

A Little Humor.

and a little wishful thinking... hey, it is now afternoon. If only my workplace had a glass of wine or Skinnygirl margaritas on their lunch cart menu. Its 85 degrees in northern Michigan and if anything it would help me cool down. I know... I am making excuses but it would speed up the workday.

Just Keep Painting, Painting, Painting.

What a weekend! We finally got sun-sun-sun and heat both days this weekend and I made sure to soak as much of it up as possible. Saturday was spent at Jordan’s house painting the exterior of his home. The progress has been moving pretty fast even though we only get to work on it 2 times a week and that is only if it doesn’t rain. {which has been happening a lot lately!} But once we divide up all the work that needs to be done, things move smootly. I was in charge of all the little details {I am a perfectionist} such as scraping the windows, cleaning/polishing them up with some Windex and elbow grease, as well as painting the kitchen window and its shutters.
The best part of the day had to be when I was outside monitoring Jordan on the ladder above which was located on the deck. All of my sudden my attention shifted from the ladder to the window directly in front of me. Scotty had gone inside to wash his brushes and used the left over paint to “write” me a message. {of course it was backwards to me, but I knew what he was writing out.}
"I <3 U"
Of course, I did the normal girl thing to giggle and “awww.” Once Jordan got down from the ladder, he noticed it right away and quickly responded “Sarah, looks like you have another window to scrape clean.” I refused to do it… It looked even better that night. I highly doubt Jordan or Scotty will leave it there much longer, but I made sure to capture the moment via iPhone pictures. Stinkin’ adorable!
The boys did all the work on the ladders, while I stood by and worried about them. I am seriously a “mom” when it comes to things like that, but if they don’t care someone has too.
I made it up to them later by making margaritas as a cooling down/celebration that night. And with a view like this it made all the hard work we completed during the day disappear from our minds. It was so calming and romantic. I am in love northern Michigan and also these huge DIY projects. Almost done…  We have such a good time together that I don’t really want it to end.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Now Playing.

I cannot get enough of Matt Nathanson!
He is a lyrical genius plus one of the funniest guys out there. When I was 18, {woahh that was 5 years ago… I am getting old} my boyfriend at the time bought tickets to a show while he was opening for Howie Day. Once the concert started, I didn’t want Matt to leave the stage… which is a big thing to say since Howie Day was the reason I went to the concert. {high school obsession.} But afterwards, we got invited backstage to meet Matt. I was a nervous wreck walking back there and by the time I was standing in front of him all I could get out was “Hi… I’m Sarah.” My boyfriend at the time still LOVES to tell this story of my initial moments with Matt… I was awkward to say the least. But once Matt started making jokes and light of the situation, I fell in lust! Haha, he even signed a CD and told me I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything else…

I wasn’t able to fully fulfill that promise, but honestly I listen to Matt at least once a day. I get ready in the morning to his incredible voice and he is even on my “nighttime/sleep playlist.” Well it just so happens that this week his new album, Modern Love, dropped. I AM NOW HOOKED!  Especially this single, Run, with Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland. It has been on repeat all week!
To make things even better, I sang this song at a live mic night at my favorite bar last night. The guy who sang/played guitar with me looks just like him. Can’t help if I tried to envision Matt and me singing together, but Hey! A girl can dream.
Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Officially a VIP {at a bar}

A month and a half ago I completed a beer list consisting of 44 beers at my favorite downtown bar. It’s called the Noggin Room and if you want to see why it’s my favorite place ever, see here.
Anyway, upon completion you receive a mug engraved with any phrase you wish. I knew right away that my mug would read "Love & Honor" which is Miami University's fight song/motto.  I'm kind of obsessed about my college so it was kind of a given that my mug would represent that!

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand.
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.
{Fight, fight, fight!}
Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay.
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

So after a lonnnng six weeks of asking the bartender at least once a week “is my mug here yet?” it finally arrived! Last night while I was waiting to order a drink, my friend, Jordan, handed me a binder that has all the mug names and where they are located within the bar. I aimlessly started flipping through the pages until BOOM, I see my last name…then my mug name….then G-44. I was speechless while Jordan asked “wait…what’s up…is it there?” All I could get out was “what wall is G!?” before practically sprinting away. Jordan caught up with me as I was scanning the wall yelling out loud “39…40…41…42…43…AHH!”
There was my baby. One of my bucket list items I have been waiting to fulfill in my lifetime is now completed. I am now the proud owner/member of the Noggin Room “Hall of Foam." After my celebration and a few dance moves, I quickly ordered a beer to be poured into it. One perk, other than bragging rights of the mug, is for the rest of my life whatever drink is poured into the mug is only $1. FOR LIFE! Just think.... Someday, I will take my kids  out to dinner there and make them walk past it as I say “There’s my mug… Your mother worked so hard for that.” Hahaha. Don’t know if that’s a good example to give your children, but I can't help but think its going to happen. Enough with the future!

Here are a few pictures of my mug hanging out with some of its friends:
"Love & Honor" with "K.Scotty"
My best friend since kindergarden
"Love & Honor" hanging out with "Buzzing!"
My ex-boyfriend's mug...
He lives in Boston now so I thought I would send him a
picture of our mugs "bonding."
Little did I know that while celebrating and singing along to the live music, outside a storm was brewing... Luckily the bar is in the basement of a hotel, so I was safe but had no idea that this was going on in Bay Harbor right on Lake Michigan. I am kind of happy because I would have been a basket case.
What's with all this scary weather lately? Its creepy now to look at it and and think "What if?" but honestly nothing was bring me down last night! My mug and I are together at last.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Ugh.

Okay, it has been one of those mornings when you want to throw your hands in the air and say “I am done!” Haha. I woke up this morning at 4:30 am to get into the shower and start my day. Well in my daze of trying to wake myself up, I accidently grabbed my brother’s body wash instead of my own. I didn’t notice the mistake until I was fully lathered up. Yeahhhh, now I smell like Old Spice High Endurance… I tried to comensate the boy-ness smell by spraying my daily amount of Daisy perfume by Marc Jacobs, but I think its just made me a weird smelling combination.  
VS
Once I got into work at 5:30 am, things didn’t get any better. I have had 2 Diet Cokes already today {trying to cut back lately too} and it still hasn’t lifted me out of this stupor. Not to mention, the weather is dark and rainy making it even harder to stay awake.  I decided to crank up my iPod and walk a few laps around the office, get the blood flowing. 
Luckily, the Casey Anthony trial starts back up at 9 am. I have become glued to this case for months now and its the first case in which I have paid attention/watched from the beginning. While working on my engineering fixtures during work hours, I have a news website pulled up that is a live video feed into the courtroom so I can listen to anything and everything related to the trial. The only downfall is my poor co-workers are now subjected to me saying “oh my gosh, now the attorneys are playing games… blah, blah, blah” or all of a sudden I will let out a gasp or cheer for the prosecution. I am sure once the trial gets going for the day it will be a huge energy boost for me. Anyone else watching/glued to the TV about Casey Anthony’s trial?
Or do you have any good ways to get energized for a work day? I will take any ideas you wonderful people have! Sorry for being such a downer... usually I am a morning person but I guess we all have our days! Haha.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Co-Workers Perception of Me.

So I just recieved this little gem of a comic in my work's email inbox. Gotta love the guys I work with... Just because I have a social life and stay up later than I should, I have become the outcast. Every morning after we exchange "hellos" and "good mornings" they usually hit me with this next statement of "did you go out last night, Sarah?" So I should have expected this...

After laughing when I first read it, I quickly decided to start pouting to get sympanthy. So far, its not working.

Hockey Players > Basketball Players

Yeah you read that right. 
I would pick a hockey player {to date/drool/obsess} over a basketball player any day, but now that I have seen the celebration of winning of Stanley Cup the Bruins have sealed that statement for me. They know how to party. For years I have always envied the fact they get to drink out of the top of the Cup. But now after seeing this picture where the drinking out of the Cup is happening while other teammates are lifting a 100 lb bottle of champagne is insane.
Not to mention this bar tab!! Really 136 Bud Lights?! Haha guess all that champagne and liquor just wasn't enough... But hey, they are hockey players. The bill ended up at a grand total of $156,679.74.
The Business Insider online wrote:
"The Dallas Mavericks got as much attention for the NBA Finals after party as they did for actually winning the title, when they rented out a Miami club and spent $90,000 on a single bottle of champagne.
Well, after winning the Stanley Cup last week, the Boston Bruins were not going to stand by and take all that. After their victory parade on Saturday, the team traveled to Shrine, a nightclub at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, where they spent $100,000 on a single bottle of champagne, on the way to racking up a $156k bar tab.
The monstrosity you see pictured is the "Ace of Spades" Midas bottle, by Armand de Brignac, which holds 30 L of booze and weighs about 100 pounds. It's bigger than the actual Stanley Cup and there are allegedly only six of them in the whole world.
Make that five."
Seriously? Look at the comparison.
I want to party with hockey players... and then marry one.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

DIY Cocktail Hour.

One of my favorite things in the world are cocktail napkins. The designs and humor printed on most of them makes it very hard for me not to purchase a pack {or two}. But since I don’t host any cutesy cocktail parties and instead are having parties that involve canned drinks in cozies, it makes buying these napkins kind of useless. That was until I decided to make them into coasters so I could keep them forever. Little did I know they would become the perfect housewarming present to all my family and friends the past year. So I thought I would share my little project with the blogging world.
First of all, I purchased a handful of 4”x4” titles from Home Depot for about 16 cents apiece, as well as a piece of corkboard. {When I first did this project, I found rounded pieces of flattened cork that worked ideally. But with a corkboard it’s still easy but just needs to be cut to size.}  
In preparation I cut the cork pieces into the size of 2”x2” and used my hot glue gun to adhere a piece of cork to the underside of the tile. While the glue was setting, start cutting the cocktail napkin into a square that would completely fit the title as well as cover the four sides. Apply a thin layer of Mod-Podge using a sponge brush to the tile, and then apply the square of napkin in the center. Once you’ve smoothed it out to get rid of wrinkles or bubbles, apply another thin layer of Mod-Podge so the entire piece of napkin is sandwiched between adhesive. Set aside to dry and do the rest. Wait until the tiles are dry to the touch to do another layer on top.
Since these are going to be made into coasters and usually get wet, I decided to also add a layer of polyurethane with a different sponge brush once the coaster sat overnight. I always do two of everything {better safe than sorry} so I did two coats of that as well.
Once dry, there you go! I love to mix and match different prints with a few that have quotes/captions. To give them away as housewarming gifts, just take four tiles and tie a piece of ribbon around them. These are actually going to my best friend’s new apartment. She’s a wine drinker and the quirkiness of the coasters will be a perfect accent to her new home!
Update: My bestie sent me a picture of her using them! I quickly took that as an invitation to go over there and have a glass {or two.} Ahh, love my friends.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Happy Belated Father's Day.

I am a little behind on the whole “Father’s Day post” because I was spending the entire day with the man himself, but I thought hey, better late than never. I love my dad more than anything… He’s the hardest working and biggest supporter in my life, not to mention that I am his favorite {always a plus.} So I wanted to make sure he had the greatest day as possible.
Since my father never takes a day off I thought I would pick a few beverages so he could relax after work every once and awhile. So when I got off work on Friday, I headed down to one of his favorite stores and purchased a “make your own 6 pack.” I picked out 6 different beers, three light and three dark, and redecorated the beer carton as the perfect Father’s Day card. I love how a personalized and DIY touch can really make a cheaper, yet fun present seem like a lot more. I am obsessed with how it turned out.
He was very excited to say the least! Later that evening we had dinner on the front yard by Lake Michigan and told our favorite “dad stories.” I hope he felt appreciated even though some of the stories made fun of him.

One of the best parts of the night for me was when Kelly {my sister} and my dad realized they do the exact same smirk. For the rest of the night my sister would yell out “smile” and they both would look at each other to do the face. Gosh, I love my family. {see photo below!}
Overall, it was the perfect day. I have to say that it was probably one of the best weekends because this little baby thought she needs to be my wake-up call Sunday morning. This is Lola… A ball of fur that has no problem making sure you don’t sleep in on weekends. It’s hard to be mad at a face that pops over the covers like that.