On Saturday, Nick and I hosted a last-minute surprise birthday party for our neighbor, Stephen, as orchestrated by his wife, Hannah. We like our neighbors very much so we were excited to be a part of the celebration and were more than happy to provide a space (our backyard) and our event-planning ‘expertise’.

I threw together a few decorations that I use for my own birthday parties each year and Hannah invited a few of Stephen’s friends, who parked down the street and then hid in the corner of our porch so they could jump out and yell ‘Surprise!’  Hannah ordered some BBQ, bought lots of booze, and Nick made homemade brownies, and a great time was had by all.

Drink up! There were about 10 attendees to our surprise party extravaganza and we weren’t sure if we could drink all of this beer, but we happily accepted the challenge.

Nick made homemade brownies and then kicked it up a notch by making his own stencils and decorating them with powered sugar. It was adorable – and we got a lot of compliments.

Challenge accepted and successfully completed!

The best part of the night was that the furbabies had so much fun that they were tuckered out by the end of the night! And they were just as cute as a button.

I didn’t get a chance to take any outfit photos over the weekend, but the next time you see me, it’ll probably be in my new location. More on that to come!

There was a slight chill in the air earlier this week, which lets me know that Fall is not too far away. Fall is my favorite season, but this year I’m a little sad that it’s arriving so quickly because I barely had a summer due to my internship. But, that’s what I signed up for when I decided to go to grad school!

Thursday morning was beautiful so I made a breakfast of baked eggs in tomato parmesan sauce and ate it on the back porch.  I followed a Martha Stewart recipe so of course it calls for you to make your own tomato sauce, but being the lazy resourceful person that I am, I just used some tomato sauce we already had in the pantry. It was the easiest breakfast ever: throw some tomato sauce in a ramekin, break an egg in it, top with a little more sauce and parmasan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-24 minutes. And Voila!

When we purchased this little patio table, I had day dreams of us sitting there in the mornings, drinking coffee and relaxing before work, or eating our meals in the shade of the umbrella, or even sitting there with coffee in one hand and a book in the other. The reality is that Nick hates being outside (allergies and insects) and I don’t wake up early enough to leisurely enjoy a cup of coffee before rushing to get ready for work/school/life so we’ve actually only eaten at the table maybe three times in the two years that we’ve had it. So I was determined to have my eggs and coffee out there!

The chill made it perfect; it wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold. I ate my eggs and drank my coffee and had a very pleasant morning!

We’re visiting my family this weekend and celebrating my nephew’s 4th birthday so I’m planning some fun posts for you this coming week. I hope you all are having a great weekend and get to enjoy your coffee in a beautiful, cozy space of your own.

You may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve taken a short break from blogging. That’s partly because I had a lot of work to do as the summer session and my internship came to a close, but partly because I’ve been a little unhappy with my clothes and with blogging lately.

I started style blogging because I was really inspired by the amazing bloggers I’ve been following.  I was really excited about my outfits and wanted to share that with others. I felt good, I was getting a lot of complements and, most importantly, I felt comfortable; I felt like myself. I’m sure this happens to all bloggers, especially when starting out, but soon I started to feel like I was trying to keep up with the Joneses, and that I was dressing for the blog instead of dressing for me. I was doing way too much shopping (read: spending too much money) and purchasing pieces that I didn’t really like because I thought they would look good on the blog. And that’s not what I wanted my blog to be. I want it to be about having great style with easy, inexpensive pieces.

From a recent shopping trip

So, I’ve still been getting dressed these last couple of weeks but without constantly wondering if what I was putting together was cute/trendy/stylish/whatever enough for the blog, and the result has been great: cute outfits, a few complements, more confidence and comfort. Throughout all of this, I’ve also tried to take a good, hard look at what my style really is, and I’m thinking I’ll do a closet inventory post soon to get rid of the pieces that aren’t really me so that I can show you outfits that I really love and feel completely comfortable in. So, if you’ve followed me on my journey thus far, I am so thankful to you, and I hope you’ll continue to follow along. I have some cute outfits that I’m excited to show you!

source: Pinterest

Independence Day at our house was fairly low key. On Friday, we attended the USA vs. Chinese Taipei baseball game at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. A friend from my program drove up with her boyfriend and the four of us went together, and had a great time. We ate dinner before, then got beers and hotdogs at the game, watched fireworks in the stadium, and finished the night off with my favorite ice cream at The Parlour. I didn’t get many pictures that night. I’m not a very good blogger because I forgot to get pictures and when I do remember, they don’t always turn out that great. But whatever, we had fun!

On Saturday, we fired up the grill.  After all, what is Indpendence Day weekend without endless burgers, hotdogs, and, in our case, chicken wings? Yum! We made our own sauce to toss the wings, and we might share it with you one of these days.

What I loved about our picnic was that we kept it easy. Usually when we entertain, we put a lot into the presentation and recreate all of the Pinterest ideas we can find. But for this, it was just us, and later our neighbors, so we put condiments in plastic tuperware (so we just had to throw the lid on it once we were done) and we rocked the paper plates. It truly was a real-life picnic!

Burgers and beers – it doesn’t get much better than that!

As the sun set and night rolled in, we turned on our lights, which are probably one of my favorite things about our back yard. They’re just so pretty against the navy sky and the green leaves in the trees. I would sit under these lights every night if I could!

And, of course, the furbabies were included in the action. Look at that Mia face!

And that Chico face!

They wanted hotdogs! They stared at the hotdogs the entire time we ate, just waiting for someone to drop something for them. And you know they got some hotdogs eventually because, I mean, who can resist those adorable faces?

After dinner, Mia was happy playing with her ball. I thought I got a really good one of her lying in the grass but she must have moved at the last minute because it turned out really blurry. This is an action shot – she was probably looking for the ball even though it was right there in front of her. She’s so funny sometimes.

While Mia played with her ball, Chico was content snuggling up with our neighbor. He’s always been a cuddler, which makes him even more of a sweetheart. He’s my baby heart, for sure!

We had such a great weekend, just relaxing at home. We like doing it up big, but sometimes keeping it low-key is the best.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July / Independence Day! I’ll be sharing my red, white, and blue outfit within the next few days, so stay tuned!

We have a treat for you! Our favorite photographers, Thad and Sarah of  2 & 3 Photography, held an event where we had some portraits taken! We haven’t had any professional photos of just the two of us since our wedding photos; we usually take family photos with the furbabies in the fall for holiday cards but when this event rolled around, we decided we wanted to get some photos of just us for fun. We had so much fun running around the farm and catching up with our friends!

We were even able to recreate one of our engagement photos (which you can see on our About Us page) that so nicely depicts our personality differences:

P.S. I’ve been at the beach all weekend and haven’t decided yet if I want to post about it so today you’re getting our photos from a few weeks ago. I do hope you’ve enjoyed 🙂

All photos taken by 2 & 3 Photography. 

Linking up with More Pieces of Me | Monday Funday

Nikki:
Dress: Old Navy
Belt: Francesca’s
Shoes & Bracelet: Old Navy
Necklace: Target

Nick:
Top & Shorts: Banana Republic 
Belt: York Street via Trunk Club
Shoes: Tretorn via Trunk Club