So...

MY DRESS FITS!!

Like, really well, too.

That is all.

-C
xxx

Ship Me Up To Boston!

Something you might not know about me is how much I love Boston. I have this weird obsession with it. Would LOVE to live there. But, alas, it's too far from my mom, and other considerations. I don't know, maybe I'll convince her to move there someday... (we could go to lots of Red Sox games, Ma.)

Anyway, I already told you my husband planned a trip to Boston as my birthday present. Now I'm just going to tell you what we did. We were only there for, oh, a day and a half, but it was such a great trip!

We started off by getting up at 4am. OWWWWW. That's all I have to say about that. Got to the hotel, checked in, and got to the first stop - Harpoon Brewery! Yes, we were on a brewery tour at 10:30 in the morning. Don't judge. It was the best brewery tour I've ever been on! Ok, so it's only the 2nd, but still the best, and anywhere is going to be hard-pressed to beat it for a few reasons:

1. The first thing they do on the tour is fill up your glass for a tasting.
2. They let you taste beer directly out of the barrel - you'll never have fresher beer than that!
3. They're SUPER passionate about their beer, and it shows. They also give you some tidbits about their competitors, which was really interesting. Did you know that Sam Adams doesn't even brew beer in Boston?? But yet, they have a "brewery" tour... interesting. They actually brew it in Pennsylvania. Double interesting.
4. The "grain waste" that is created in the process is picked up by a local farmer to feed his cows. Talk about reduce, reuse, recycle!
5. They let you sample ALL 12 of their beers on tap, if you're quick! I think they give you a half hour to taste whatever you like. If you can taste 12 beers in that time, you can taste 12 beers in that time. I only got to 3, but that's because I didn't know there was a time limit (ok, again, don't judge, the tastings are like 1/4 of a pint glass).
6. And, FINALLY, Harpoon just finished brewing their very first PUMPKIN ALE. I LOOOOVE PUMPKIN ALE!! It's not even out in stores yet, and I got to taste it. I'm not joking, the aftertaste was like eating pumpkin pie. It was amaaaazing! Tim refused to try it because he "hates pumpkin ale". Probably like how he "hated pumpkin pie" before ever trying it and is now obsessed. Someday he'll try the ale... someday... and then I'll probably have to part with half the case of pumpkin beer I get every fall. Hm... maybe I shouldn't make him try it... good point.


Ok so clearly I just wanted to post about Boston so I could tell you all about the Harpoon tour.

We also...

Visited the Public Garden and Boston Common

Where I made Tim ride the swan boats with me.
He keeps telling me I owe him for that.

Notice how thrilled he is.

Got to go to Fenway!

... and see Big Papi!!

And they won! Thank god.

And, get this, we randomly got to meet up with some family of mine! Through the magic of facebook, I saw that they were at Fenway, and we got to meet up with them! I can't even remember the last time I saw them. It's been quite a long time, that's for sure! This is going to sound weird, but I can't figure out if they are cousins or aunt/uncle... um. My grandma's brother's son. So that makes him... either my uncle or my 2nd cousin (since it would be my father's 1st cousin)... well, either way, they're family, lol. Anyway, my cousin/uncle Mitch has a blog chronicling his MS over at EnjoyingTheRide.com if you're interested.

Found Mooo... (this one's for you Cass). Yes, it's a restaurant, and apparently those tubes are portable air conditioners. Weird.

And, AND I got to drink a Green Monstah IPA!
Why did they not have these at Fenway???

I'm pretty sure Tim's favorite part of the trip is that we found a Wagamama!

If you don't know, which you probably don't, Wagamama serves pan-Asian and Japanese food. There are, I swear, 50 of them in London alone, and the only 3 in the US are in Boston! We had sooo much clam chowder and other seafood this weekend that we were ready for something else and lo and behold, there's Wagamama in the Fanheuil Hall Marketplace.
He was thrilled! For real this time.

Boston, we miss you already. *tear*

-C
xxx

Dressing - You're Doing It Wrong

via Google Image Search

Apparently I've been dressing myself wrong for quite a while. I like colors, so I gravitate towards buying colored shirts a lot. Purple, teal, yellow, oh, right, and green (obviously). I tend to pair them with a neutral or black bottom. But recently I've been seeing people doing the color block thaaaang and I'm obsessed. I've been staring at my "closet" for a couple weeks now, trying to find a way to color block with what I've got.

What is color blocking, you ask? My definition (which I think is pretty accurate, but if not, I don't really care) is basically wearing a couple different non-patterned brightly colored clothing items (be it a shirt, skirt, shoes, purse), all together. Another helpful definition I found is: "...creating an outfit by putting areas or blocks of solid color next to each other. It can include monotone, bright colours, muted colors, contrasting and complimentary colors. Clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories can all feature color block designs or can make up different blocks of color to be put together for a color block outfit." (via this site) Sounds like a lot of color, and some people take it a bit too far, for sure, but sometimes it comes out super cute and successful, and those times make me want to color block.

Like this one, from one of my fave blogs everrr EatLiveRun:

Super bonus points for an awesome $2 thrift store find!

So basically I've decided I can't color block with what I've got because of a couple reasons:
A - My colored (non black, grey, or tan) skirts/pants are all patterned, except for one light yellow pencil skirt.
B - I can't quite think of any of my bright shirts that would go with said light yellow pencil skirt. If it were a real yellow or a mustard, yes, but it's not, so boo.
C - I have a ton of black, grey, and tan skirts/pants. Like, way too many.

I love color, but apparently I've just been doing it wrong! I need color on the bottom as well as the top. And need to stop buying so many patterned skirts. Duhhh.

I ordered a teal pencil skirt because I just couldn't wait to get to a thrift store/Marshall's this weekend. Fingers crossed!! Fingers also crossed for finding others at said thrift store/Marshall's this weekend, because I obviously need more than one option.

Hopefully I won't go too far, like this girl:

via Google Image Search

-C
xxx

Blogger SUCKS

I have a ton of blog posts started, but have been lacking the motivation to actually finish and post them recently. Why, you ask? Because Blogger (the service this blog is on), is annoying the crap out of me, that's why. People haven't been able to post comments on my blog since, um, MAY. I've notified them, others have notified them... to no avail. The only people who can comment are those who have blogger accounts (and I think it's only those who actually have a blogger account that they use - so other bloggers). So, it's pretty disheartening to keep posting and have no one able to comment, really. UGH BLOGGER, NOW I SEE WHY PEOPLE LEAVE FOR WORDPRESS!! Get your sh*t together.

via Google Image Search

grrr. anger.

-C
xxx

SMBHD - Misses England!

Obviously!

As is to be expected, there are certain food items he misses from home, that he has been unable to find since moving here... until now.

A while ago I purchased a LivingSocial deal for a place called The British Chip Shop, in Haddonfield, NJ (South Jersey). FYI - Chip shop = a place where fish & chips is sold. It's only like a half hour away, and near the Cherry Hill Mall, which I like to go to every now and then. I figured we'd certainly make it there at some point and I'd just take him to the chip shop as a side trip. The website's pretty meh and there aren't any pictures or anything, so I really didn't think it was going to be that great. Stephen Starr, famous restauranteur in Philadelphia, opened up a restaurant called Dandelion not too long ago, that Tim reaaaally wanted to try. Starr likes to open restaurants with various different types of cuisine - French, Japanese, Cuban, American Soul Food, etc... and now British. They were going to have roast dinners on Sundays and serve other various British food and drink staples. Well… neither of us heard anything good about this place, only bad, so Tim lost his desire to try it. So I didn't hold out too much hope for this little place in South Jersey… but it was a huge success! The place is nice and new, and right on the main strip in Haddonfield. It's such a cute area! We both decided within like 2 minutes of walking down the street that we could live there… except for the fact that it's a dry town. Yeah, no bars, no alcohol. What's up with that?? Anyhoo… I refused to tell Tim where we were going right up until we were on the main street and I pointed to the British flags. He was like, "A CHIP SHOP?!... I love you." with, I swear, sparkles in his eyes. We walk in, more sparkles. It was a really nice place actually. It looked like a traditional pub, with wooden tables and wooden paneling and things like that, but so that you wouldn't mistake it, there was English paraphernalia EVERYWHERE. Beatles posters, "Mind the Gap" signs, soccer football jerseys, a TRASH CAN WITH THE UK FLAG ON IT (where can I get one?!). They even do "take away" (complete with a sign that says so). He walked in and walked right up to the pastry display, marveling at all the pastries we don't usually have in America.

We sat down and more sparkles as he looked through the menu. There was HP brown sauce on the table. I'm pretty sure that was his favorite part. He constantly talks about how we don't have "brown sauce" here. Which, I'm not entirely sure what it is. Think consistency of ketchup, but smell of worchestershire sauce? I don't know, I haven't tasted it, only smelled it. The waiter came to the table and told us they didn't have Coke or Pepsi products, all they had were teas and soda imported from the UK (which is total garbage, because you can totally get a Pepsi or Coke from the UK, but whatever). We ordered a pot of tea (his favorite, PG tips, which he's been having his mom send to him), two fish and chips, and mushy peas. So this was the first time I tried mushy peas and I just don't get it?? I mean, they taste fine, but I just don't get it… why mush them when they taste perfectly good non mushed? The fish was DELISH. I am not a fish fan, but for some reason, I like it fried. And with half a bottle of ketchup. Tim has been telling me for weeks now that we're going to his favorite "chippy" (aka chip shop) when we go back to England (in just two weeks now!). When we had this fish, he said it was just as good as his favorite place! It was really, really good. So in conclusion, we found a great place to go when my BH needs his fix of British food, drink, and brown sauce. Oh, right, AND they do roast dinners on Sundays (very traditional English thing). Looks like we'll be back.

Tim with his face in the pastry display.

But wait, there's more! We walked outside and across the street, owned by the same people, is a place called The English Gardener Gift Shop. Now, in case you didn't know, I'm a bit of an anglophile. I like British things. British Husbands especially, but in general anything that has a UK flag on it or says "London" must be mine immediately if not sooner.

So we walk in the store and I'm in heaven. It's like a nice tourist shop in London... but in South Jersey. We continue to walk in and find that they not only have little souvenier things that you could fool someone with and tell them you went to England when you didn't at all, but they have UK food products. Brown sauce, staring him in the face. Cadbury bars, PG tips (tea bags), special sodas, mushy peas in a can (so wait, they even mush them for you??), and even refrigerated products like English meats and cheeses. WHOA. I thought for sure BH was going to go crazy and want to buy everything, but he didn't. He didn't buy anything, actually! He said since we're going to England so soon, he'll just get some things over there and bring them back. I tried to tell him to save the weight/space/possible leakage in his suitcase to just get it here, but he wouldn't have it. Said he wanted to get a much bigger "squeezy" bottle of HP brown sauce (which sounds gross to me). He also said we'll be making plenty of trips back, though, when he runs out of PG tips... and brown sauce. We may just have to live in Haddonfield yet.

-C
xxx

Identity Crisis

Today (or tomorrow, depending on how long the line is) I will be going through a very traumatic change in my life. No, I already changed my name legally (on most things at least, I'm still working to update everything). Now I'm… wow, I can't even say it. I don't WANT to say it. But I guess I have to… Now I'm finally going to get my Pennsylvania driver's license and become an official Pennsylvania resident. You have no idea how much it pains me to say this! And yes, it only took me 6 years and a marriage to finally succumb to doing it. Don't tell the po-po or they might lock me up. I'm sincerely going to miss my New Jersey license. And not just because I had a REALLY good picture somehow, and I can guarantee it won't look as good today (or tomorrow). I like being from New Jersey! (I also like being from Maryland, but that's not the point.) You don't have to pump your gas, just your fists! And gas is cheaper! And you don’t have to pay to get your car inspected! And the license plates are tie-dye-esque! I hope to someday again be a Jersey resident, but for now… it's ugly PA license and license plates for me. Boooooo.

via Google Image Search

via Google Image Search

So long New Jersey... :(

via Google Image Search

Also, I'm really going to miss how easy my license plate number was to remember. Let's just say out of 6 characters on the plate, 4 were the letter "U". People used to ask if I ordered it that way.

Sigh.

-C
xxx

Runnin Runnin and Runnin Runnin

So... I swear I have been doing pretty well on my working out and eating better thing since I discussed it earlier this year. But it's not doing much other than, I guess, keeping me at the same level I was at. Which is better than getting worse I suppose!

LuLu's - Hello Sunshine Dress

However, I recently realized that I have, oh, just under 3 weeks before a wedding in which I want have to fit into the dress I wore last June to Amanda's wedding. Which means when I wore it I was in the throws of my own wedding planning and therefore automatically skinny (seriously, wedding planning is like the best diet ever). Oh, did I mention I barely fit into said dress at the time? But I'm determined to wear this dress again because I love it, AND I recently purchased a flower for my hair from my awesome friends thecraftmasters (visit their Etsy site now!) that perfectly matches the dress. As in, it looks like they bought the dress, cut it up, and made me a flower, it matches that perfectly!

thecraftmasters
No really, it does match.
The pic of the dress above makes it look much yellower than it is in real life.
I have both in my possession and attest to the fact that they match.

So I've got my outfit decided... I just need to fit into it! I will admit that I haven't tried the dress on yet to see how much it doesn't fit. Probably because I'm in denial and think that I can make it fit, so my plan is to RUN as much as I can (and throw some hot yoga in there) for the next couple weeks, THEN try it on (with fingers crossed).

I don't want to hear anybody saying "you don't need to lose weight!" because it is an actual fact, that if I don't, I won't fit into this dress! And I want to. Lol.

So I'll keep runnin runnin and runnin runnin...

Best version ever, in case you were wondering.

-C
xxx

Rosie's Tea Party Shower!

A couple weekends ago, I went to my friend Rosie's bridal shower. Her family decided to throw her a tea party themed shower... complete with hats Royal Wedding style! You can imagine my excitement! :) It's funny because I was going to a concert after the shower and decided to wear a new hat I got (a fedora, not a pillbox or anything), so I was already wearing a hat when I got to the shower. Rosie was like, "You can just wear that one." and I was like, "NO WAY - I will wear a fancy, fun, awesome hat!!" or, I was like, "No, no, I'll wear one." Pretty sure my excitement was evident. Anyway, I picked up the only hat with a veil (yessss), and was promptly pinned in. These hats were so fun! I believe it was her stepmom and stepmom's sister that made them. Look at the fun and ridiculous(ly awesome) things she put on them!

LOVE.

SDogg, I know you'd love this owl hat!

Yes, that is a chew toy with dog bone-shaped sprinkles, lol!

The shower was very laid back, with hats and gorgeous teacups (I'm assuming Rosie's mom collects them?), and tea party-esque snacks. It was a really nice afternoon, sipping tea with our fancy hats on! :)

The beautiful bride-to-be is never caught of guard! She smiles even when I try to take candid shots!

I only wish I had thought to make hats for everyone for my fancy hat shower! Such a cute idea.

Pinky up, ladies!

-C
xxx

SMBHD - Works Really Hard

Ok, so every now and then, the Sh*t My British Husband Does segment calls for a post where I don't make fun of my BH. (Sorry.) This is one of those times.

My husband gave up a lot to be with me. His job, nearness to his family and friends, his country. Trust me, I know this and I so very much appreciate him for doing it! All for little ole me :)

He gave up his job as an attorney in London. To answer the questions we both get all the time - no, he can't practice law here. The US has stupid varying rules for every state with regards to who can and can't sit for the bar exam. The only places he could sit for the bar exam (which also involves a lot, LOT of studying beforehand) without going back to some form of law school would be New York or California. Honestly, he's not really interested in sitting for the exam anyway (at least not at the moment). He kind of got a bad taste in his mouth for large, corporate law firms after being with one for a few years.

He wasn't allowed to legally work in the US for X amount of months, so he volunteered with a legal non profit organization, who eventually hired him once he was permitted to work here. As with many non profits, they recently lost a lot of funding. He was told at the end of June that they were unable to keep him on after the end of the month. He had seen it coming, and started the long and painful process of job searching and interviewing over 3 months ago. I know it was hard for him, and it truly hurt my heart to watch him go through this process when I know what he gave up for me, but we knew it wasn't going to be easy. The hardest part for him, I think, was having to go into work wearing a suit so many days, when the non profit had a casual dress code. Obviously they knew he was out at interviews, and would ask him about it, but he never really had any good news to report to those who asked. It was embarrassing for him.

He also had to deal with one company who called him and told him "I have good and bad news for you. The good news is you've got the job. The bad news is, there's a hiring freeze and we can't actually hire you." So... not really good news at all.

June 29th - THE DAY BEFORE HIS LAST DAY, he got a job offer from another non profit. It paid peanuts. He got in touch with the recruiter who was working on another job for him and told her about it, and she got in touch with that company. I guess telling them he had another offer (even though he wouldn't have accepted it anyway with the pay being what it was) lit a fire under them because they offered him a job that afternoon (which he immediately accepted).

July 1st - He gets an email from the person at the company who was on a hiring freeze. They can hire him on temporarily for now, and hope to make it permanent soon, he says. BH comes upstairs to tell me about this email at 8am and as I turn around and say, "Well, aren't you just a wanted man!" I notice he's on the phone. ANOTHER COMPANY he had applied for a job with called and asked if he was still interested in the position.

A wanted man indeed.

Today, I just want to say that sometimes the Sh*t My British Husband Does involves working really hard and never giving up. He went through countless nights of studying company information and interview prep. I know it could have been so much worse, and gone on for much longer, but I'm glad it didn't. I'm proud of my BH!

-C
xxx

Fourth Stuff

We went camping this weekend. It was awesome. We were originally supposed to go with my BFF Cassie, her boyfriend, and two other couples, but one of the couples dropped out last minute and since there was a maximum capacity per site (so my husband and I couldn't meander over to the other camp or we'd get in trouble), we invited my newlywed friends Bonnie and Matt to join. It ended up being a great camping group, if I do say so myself! And the site was pretty frickin' sweet, too! Minus the bugs. G. D. bugs ruin everything.

We headed down on Friday night, put up our tents, and encountered a crazy amount of bugs in our faces. We hiked on over to the other site for the evening - which, for some reason, had a significantly less amount of bugs! On Saturday we went to a nearby beach (like, a 3 minute drive) which was great! I highly enjoyed this version of camping that we did - where we spent an entire day at the beach! Of course, I got burned to a crisp (literally), but totally worth it. Plus it's already starting to turn tan. :) All weekend I had been telling Tim to watch Matt while he built a fire so he could learn. Sunday morning Tim woke up and said, "I'm pretty sure I could build a fire on my own now." Then he got up and started, while Matt, his fire mentor, gave him tips. So Tim earned his Fire Badge this weekend, lol.

via Google Image search

After breakfast we packed up and went on a hike to a nearby lighthouse.

The lighthouse was pretty cool, but also pretty scary. There were these stairs and a ladder you had to climb to get up.

I'm convinced these two are unable to take a serious photo.

Cass and I were pretty much the wussiest people there, crawling on hands and knees, lol. Pretty sure the little girls that went up before us were less wussy than us... Then we went to a delicious restaurant in town on the way out and had some yummy crab bisque and crab cake sandwiches. We were in Maryland - we had to have crabs! It's what Maryland does!



My friends are scattered allll over the place at this point, so it was really nice to be able to meet up with Cassie (almost) halfway between Philly and DC. It's not like I can really do that with Arizona or Kansas... lol. Vegas is halfway between everywhere, right? No? Come on. Vegasssss.

Anyway, the whole weekend, I had to keep a secret from my BFF... that her boyfriend fiance was going to propose on the 4th of July when they went to watch the DC fireworks! Side note - I've had to keep the proposal in general a secret from her since DECEMBER. Do you know how hard that was?!

Fun weekend for all - but most especially for Cassie, I suspect!

CONGRATULATIONS TO TWO OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE:
CASSIE AND STEVVY!!!

I am so glad I no longer have to keep this secret. Phew.

The couple that wears skeletal shoes together, stays together. Or something.

Oh, and did I mention we rode cows and pigs?

We rode cows and pigs.



-C
xxx