Great Wine Paired With A Bad Movie.

After cleaning my apartment and making dinner, I decided to just chill and catch up on TV shows I have been neglecting in my DVR... That was when my boyfriend knocked on my door. He just smiles, holds up a bottle of my favorite wine, and says "its a movie night." While Mike was preparing some appetizers in the kitchen, I poured us some pretty heavy pours and we got ourselves situated in front of the TV.

I have been wanting to see The Apparition, a scary movie starring Ashley Greene for awhile now, so I figured it was the perfect pick for the night. Boy was I wrong.

We hated it.
Between the wine and the two of us trying to be funny, we ended up ruining the movie by pointing out EVERYTHING that is wrong with each scene. Needless to say, I will be completing the movie on my lunch break today because I need to know how it ends, but we ended up turning it off and getting another bottle of wine out of the refridgerator.

The rest of the night was spent on the couch with a glass of wine in our hands just talking and laughing. It was beyond perfect. Sometimes you just need nights like that.

Nights with no plans...

Nights of staying up...

Nights of hanging out with your best friend....aka your boyfriend.

Such a goodnight! (bad movie and all.)

Weird Combinations...

Last night was very interesting...
After a birthday dinner for my dad, I headed back to my apartment with my boyfriend to curl up with some red wine and watch Game of Thrones season one episodes. Of course, I couldn't sit still regardless of how epically great that show is, so I started brainstorming a little DIY project to do while watching. Little did I know this combination:

Creates these beautiful, glittered, dazzling, and brilliant pumpkins:

Mike just laughed at me as I am sprinkling glitter over cheap looking pumpkins and said, "Wow, those turned out really cool."

Of course I just smile and say, "Do you know how much these babies would be at Pier 1? Yeah, see with a little creativity, wine, and mid-evil violence anything is possible." (Why is he dating me?)

Now I just need a trip to the local farm market for some real pumpkins and autumn corn to create a centerpiece with these glittered pumpkins. Pictures of that project are coming up!

Safe to say I am fully throwing myself into this fall weather. Michigan is freezing so as long as there are fun projects to do, I will be game. Anyone else doing fall-related DIY projects? Come on, give me something else to do while we finish this season and continue onto the second season.

What I Love Wednesday. {6}

I haven't done one of these in forever, so I am sure I can easily fill this post up. Here are a few things I am loving this rainy and cold Wednesday morning.

• Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
• Getting flowers from the boy for honestly no reason.

• Tonight I will be attending my first hockey game of the season. Yes, the NHL is currently in a lockout but at least that doesn't mean the boyfriend won't have a season. Thank goodness for men's league hockey! I need a hockey fix, badly.
• Finishing the One Tree Hill series. I am currently on Season 6 and I'm trucking my way through it on Netflix.

• Fall themed candles.
• Having three kinds of wine in my refrigerator. The boy couldn't decide on what kind to get so he got all three. In his words, "I figured we could have our own private wine tasting party."

• Received a new People Puzzler for this hockey season. I spend a lot of time waiting for the boy before and after his games, so this baby gets me through it.

• The Grand Valley State University football team. Little brother is on the team & I am so proud.

• Hunkering down on rainy, cold days like this on the couch.
• Bones has started back up with season 8. I am still smiling after its season premiere on Monday. So good!

• Loving my family and friends who have made my life busy and extremely fun lately. Never a dull moment.

So what are you loving this Wednesday in September? I want know so maybe I can be talking about my new found love next week.

Meeting the Bachelor

So something pretty cool happened earlier this week. Remember this famous "bachelor"?

Ben Flajnik

Well he just so happened to drop into my hometown to do a wine tasting/signing at one of my favorite stores. Of course, I had to get myself out of work in order to get a little meet and greet with Mr. Flajnik and it was worth it. Overall, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be... I expected long lines for some reason. But it turned out perfectly since I got to learn more about their wines and the business that comes with it. I absolutely love learning about different winerys as well as getting to taste new wines. Win-win.

The best part? I got to walk away with a signed bottle of their Epilogue Chardonnay. I love when random things like this happen... especially on a weekday. So defintely keep a eye on your local stores to see if his signing tour will be rolling into your town!

Has anyone else had a run in with a reality star? I want to know about it!

A Lakegirl with Wine.

Hello loves,

Well it’s definitely one of those mornings when I stayed out having too much fun on a school night weekday instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour. Yesterday at the end of my workday, my boss e-mailed a coworker of mine saying “grab Sarah and get to the bar. I am staying upstairs in this hotel and I want to set it up for you two to charge your dinner and drinks to my room.” We couldn’t have gotten there any faster… Literally we were racing to a bar on a Monday. {Really?} The night ended up being one of the best. I had an amazing dinner followed by walking around a wine cellar and being told to choose two bottles of wine to take home. I was one happy girl.

Haven’t tried either of them before… Which in my opinion is all the fun. So I apologize if there is any wine-induced posts in the next week or two. { I'm not really sorry though :) }

We also thought we should go for a walk downtown Petoskey to get some air and this caught my eye in one of the shop’s windows. They must of noticed me drooling a little bit because the next thing I know they are buying me this hat. Its like they knew I had a blog declaring myself a “lake girl.” {Ohh I hope not!}

So I guess it’s worth a pounding head today, but that’s the payoff of going out with the boss and coworkers… Everyone is in rough shape too. This morning when ever we would see each other, we would just start laughing while remember the good memories of last night. Its times like this when I like to say "Man, I love my job!"

Anyone else a wine drinker and has recommendations... I love trying new ones! Any good summer ones? I've always wanted to try to rate new wines and maybe keep a journal of them all. Mmmm maybe.

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.

Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine.

Two weeks ago, I was able to stop in Lansing to shop at one of my favorite grocery stores, Horrocks Farm Market.  It has every type of vegetable, fruit, cheese, and meat you can ever imagine while also offering fun/different/exotic goods as well. I can't help but automatically be happy when I walk through the warehouse because I get a flood of childhood memories from when we lived nearby. The most vivid memory I have is the store's self-playing piano in the middle of the produce playing songs while my sister and I would walk back and forth through the plastic lined doors of their freezer section. Its little things like that which brings me happiness. So when my sister took potatoes and put them through her fingers and yelled "I have mutant hands," I realized we still haven't grown up at all!

Another moment of happiness occurred when I went around a corner and all of a sudden I was in heaven. I had found the wine section! Almost immediately I started walking down the aisles slowly trying to find a bottle that I haven’t tried but has a fun pretty label. 

This is the bottle I finally decided on… its a South Eastern Australian Moscato called Lotto. The label grabbed my attention but it was the description that totally sold me. On the back label is written "Every bottle is a winner." So adorable. It also states they wanted to make a wine that "was full of energy that you are able to enjoy at a summer barbeque with friends or simply turning a Tuesday night into something more special." Which sounds absolutely perfect and caused me to say outloud {alone} "How fun is that?!"

Along with the bottle of wine, I also purchased a few different varieties of cheeses. My idea is to host a little outdoor wine tasting party this week with my close girlfriends. It is the perfect way to get us together and catch up on each other’s lives lately. Hopefully the wine tastes as good as it looks!! {Expect more wine posts in the future. I love exploring different bottles and brands.}