Weekend Recap: Turning 21... round 7

This past weekend, I celebrated my birthday!

There's two things that one might think are great about celebrating your birthday during this time of year:

1.) It's always around (or on) SuperBowl Sunday

2.) Living in the North, there's likely snow

HOWEVER: I would state that snow is only nice when you need not drive, and the latter only makes it so people are actually celebrating something OTHER than your birthday.

But this past weekend was extra special.

It started out on Friday evening at Cooper's Hawk with some great friends and co-workers. It's been ages since I've been there. And I'm obsessed with their Malbec!

BF made the occasion extra special. He arranged an outing with Sarah & her husband Jimmy on Saturday.

We drove down to Bridgeport on the southside of Chicago to explore the area.

BF first took us to the Ferrara Bakery to pick up some cannolis for an after lunch treat.

Sarah & Jimmy

Some of the fantastic treats!

We grabbed lunch at The Pleasant House bakery which is connected to this little bar, Maria's Community Bar.

The ordering counter at the restaurant.

The Pleasant House is known for their 'meat pies'. Basically English style pot-pies. You can do as I did, and get them with a side of mint peas and mash potatoes with gravy, which is AWESOME!

We sat at Maria's bar next door and they even bring you your food.

Some of the unique cocktails at Maria's.

My Hornswagglers High Tea tottie

After drinks, we made a quick stop across the street at the Bridgeport Coffee Company for some caffeine.

We ended up hanging out and watching Groundhogs Day until our evenings facilities.

Saturday evening we went to dinner with Sarah & Jimmy and Jenn & DJ at Lucia's in Bucktown/Wickerpark.

I had the most amazing butternut squash ravioli! And there was BYOB with no corking fee, which was pretty incredible. ;) It was so nice though, because it was very much like a large dinning room in some family friend's house. And they had these great, tall ceilings and large paintings, and the the ceiling was lined with faux grape vines and grape-shaped lights!

BF did such a great job keeping his plans secret, and we then cabbed it over to Joe's on Weed for a concert by Clayton Andrews.

Which to BF's credit, was an awesome idea, EXCEPT for the fact that hell descended upon the facility in the form of Indiana Hoosier fans..... which, as a Purdue fan, I have an unreasonable despise towards.

The positive was...

I MET TRACE ATKINS!

So we shook our ba donka donks and had a great time, even with all that dreadful RED!

I've determined that 2013 is the year of the PJ parties! We spent Sunday with some great friends for a Sweat Suit SuperBowl Party!

Just an overall superb weekend!

Thank you everyone for making this year, EXTRA special!

Cooper's Hawk (Twitter & Facebook)

Ferrara Bakery (Twitter & Facebook)

The Pleasant House bakery (Facebook)

Maria's Community Bar  (Twitter & Facebook)

Bridgeport Coffee Company (Twitter & Facebook)

Lucia's (Facebook)

Joe's on Weed (Twitter & Facebook)

BF: Twitter

 

And as always you can check out my other sites here:

Twitter

Pinterest

Tumblr

Till next time...

XOXO, the Prep

Weekend Recap: Early Birthday Celebration!

This past weekend may have gotten a little cray cray...

Friday after getting out of work a bit early and testing some offers at the store on Addison, Dan managed to replicate an exact copy of Jim's Pad Thai! My BF, the chef :)

Saturday, we grabbed coffee at the Lincoln hotel's lobby coffee shop, around the corner from BF's apt. BF was so excited because he's been watching Dangerous Grounds, where this dude travels around the world trying to find the most exotic coffee beans. Elaine's Coffee Call serves some of the brews, so we grabbed a standard drip and an Americana with hazelnut to keep us warm on our way to the Green City Market at the Nature center in Lincoln Park.

The sad part is, I really wanted to go to grab some of the Cookies & Carnitas stew they advertised on Facebook. This place is too legit to quit! During the summer, I'm addicted to their porchetta, which they typically serve as a sandwich, and I had them convert to a salad for me.
BF and I also treated ourselves to some amazing canned veggies. Typically, I'm addicted to the salsa from Tomato Mountain, but this time I got canned beats (WHICH ARE INCREDIBLE!) from Bushel & Peck's. BF got the canned brussel sprouts, which I wasn't a huge fan of, but he seemed to really dig.

After the awesome trip to the market, I drove up Lincoln to Half Acre Brewery to pick up their donation to the JLKD Spring Fling. And while I was there... I may or may not have gotten a few growlers to enjoy of my own.

RANDOM NOTE: When I came back, I found not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR VW Beetles in a single block all of a different color! Did I miss some random Beetle convention?

Saturday evening we went out with our good friends DJ & Jenn for dinner and drinks. We ended up at Piece, because let's face it, I've been craving it ever since I first tried it.

This is the best pizza and I'm OBSESSED with their IPA, Camel Toe.... yes, Camel Toe. They name all their beers super awkward names. But it's Hilarious! :) There pizzas, as you can see, are GIANT! (ok, ok, I admit, I forgot to take the picture of our pizza(s), so this was our neighbor's pizza.)

After at least 1, maybe 2 periods of the Blackhawk's game...I'll be honest, I really wasn't paying attention.

We ended up walking around the corner to Violet Hour. I'd been talking with their manager this past week to see about a donation for Junior League's Spring Fling. After waiting in line to get in, I finally got to put a face with a name and she was wonderful to us! She gave us each a sparkling tottie to start our evening (which went fabulous with the warm fire we were sat next to).

This was so nice after waiting in the cold.

Their stellar cocktail menu is renowned!

My hot Tottie (Laird's Apple Brandy, Lemon, Spice Trader Syrup, Peychaud's Bitters)

DJ & Jenn enjoying their drinks and the warm fire!

Sunday I treated myself to an early birthday present, of a massage and hair treatment/trim at my local Mario Tricoci... A-Mazing... I now want a massage every week! Every DAY even... incredible. It was much needed, and I'll say it...  deserved :)

Just an overall great weekend with great friends! I am so blessed!

As you can see, mucho pictures... I might have pissed everyone off. But I realized this past year, that without blogging, I wasn't forcing myself to take pictures.... so needless to say it made my Christmas card especially difficult to create this year.

You may have noticed a common theme throughout this email... Junior League donations. I'm on the fundraising committee this year, and I just want to express my thanks and appreciate to the local businesses that have helped us out with our efforts this year. I can't wait to see what our league can do in our community in the coming year!

To learn more about the people/businesses in this post, check out the below links:

Elaine's Coffee Call (Facebook) 

Dangerous Grounds (Twitter & Facebook)

Green City Market (Twitter & Facebook)

Cookies & Carnitas (Twitter & Facebook)

Tomato Mountain (Twitter & Facebook)

Bushel & Peck's (Facebook)
Half Acre Brewery (Twitter & Facebook)

Piece Pizza (Twitter & Facebook)

Violet Hour (Twitter & Facebook)

Mario Tricoci (Twitter & Facebook)

BF: Twitter

 

And as always you can check out my other sites here:

Twitter

Pinterest

Tumblr

Till next time...

XOXO, the Prep

To Welly or not to Welly...

If you don't already have a pair and you're any kind of 'Prep', I'm sure you've heard of the famous Hunter Boot.

Whether you're roaming the hills of the country side, marching through the muck on the farm, shopping at your local farmers market, or walking in the snow down Michigan Ave. you're bound to spot a pair keeping some lucky girls feet and calves dry and warm (and in summer, maybe just comfortable and stylish).

Here's where I run into a jam:

There's a killer sale going on, on the Hunter website for their Original Tall boots for $79 (a steal!). And Mom has said she'd go in 50/50 with me for my birthday.

However, being the former cheerleader I am, and that I hate running, my calves are not what you might call 'slim'.

Being the savvy consumer that I am, I know this since last night I went to Nordstroms to be sure of the size before ordering.

The nice gentleman there, Jermaine at the Woodfield store, assisted me and showed me that Hunter, being the smart company they are and knowing not every girl has the same size calves, makes a different boot called the Huntress. This shoe has a slightly larger mouth to it, allowing for plenty of room for my cheerleader calves.  

 

My dilemma is this: Am I really going to wear these often enough to justify spending $135? I can't wear them at work (which is like 36% of my time; the rest being split between weekends 31% and sleeping 33%). And yes, I'm a numbers girl, so I did just calculate my time that I would/could be wearing these boots.

Here's where you come in:

I need you to vote Y/N, if you think I should get them. 

Either by leaving a comment below or (preferably) clicking the survey link HERE.

.

.

.

.

Here's where they really real me in... They have ADORABLE socks to go with the boots!

I mean how cute are these!

On the Hunter site they also have these on sale for 50% off!:

And fun British flag ones:

Anywho, that's my little style decision for the day. I greatly appreciate your input!

XOXO, the Prep

I'm Back!

Chello everyone! I apologize for the extended, shall we call it a virtual holiday?

After the holidays things just got crazy with Year End for work!

Where to even begin with what's been going on...

JANUARY:

The big thing was my trip out west to L.A. with BF again for his company's End-of-the-Year Bash. The amazing L.A. Holiday Blogger Erin picked me up at the airport when I flew in on Friday. We went to lunch in Brentwood at this great sushi place, Sugar Fish, where I experienced my FIRST public celebrity sighting! 

 (From Jurassic Park, The Fly, and more recently one of Rachel's Dad's on GLEE!)

We saw Jeff Goldblum grabbing a bite with some people and I was informed by the locals that you're not supposed to tweet/blog/etc. at the time because then they'll get mobbed, but everyone seemed very respectful!

After lunch we walked around Brentwood a bit, before driving along the PCP and stopping to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather!

Erin & I

The Gorgeous view!

We ran & screamed on the beach, and Erin even convinced me to do some cheers from our CHS days! "Y-E... L-L, everybody YELL!"

That evening we grabbed some pretty tasty 'Margs' (in the words of Mrs. K.G) over at Baja Sharkeez near BF's hotel. What I couldn't get over was how awesome all the fish was! Between Sushi for lunch and the fish tacos I had for dinner... I want to live in Cali just for the fish!


Saturday, BF and I debated about what to do for the day before the annual shindig that evening. We decided since last year I made him do all the touristy stuff, we'd go in search of some famous California wines. Since Santa Barbara was about 2H away, we felt that would significantly cut into potential wine time, so we settled on Malibu... and boy was it A-MAZING!
In search of our first vineyard, we accidental stumbled onto an ACTUAL vineyard (not a tasting room like you're apparently supposed to), then from there stumbled onto the Biggest Loser Ranch... that's right, I KID YOU NOT! 
We eventually at lunch there as well... after finding the wineries :)

BF at the Ranch Restaurant

Me out in front of Malibu Wines

This year's company blow out was at the club 'My House' it was neat and creepy all at once. Neat because it actually modeled a potential real house, complete with full kitchen (used as a second bar in this case), outdoor patio with grill, den, and living room. Creep-tastic because it had an actual bed complete with fur throw blanket and in-room jacuzzi...

creepy bed at the club

But all in all it was a pretty amazing trip that provides some wonderful memories.


February:
I got old... nough said.

Well, not actually Old-Old... but old-er.
I had my birthday, around the Superbowl.... again.
The Superbowl was in Indy. Everyone from Indy in the Midwest was freaking out and going home to see the spectacle. Same-ole, Same-ole. :)


All kidding aside, I actually had to look at my calendar to remember what I've done because I've been so busy. For my birthday weekend, we actually spent it downtown watch Purdue lose in a miserable basketball game at Red Ivy. But BF and I made up for it the following weekend for Valentine's Day.
He took me to the Violet Hour... a place I've been DYING to go to since he first told me about it! We got all dressed up, and went to enjoy our $12 cocktails. But BOY is it worth it!

One of th bars at the Violent Hour, but imagine with much dimmer lighting.

The bar doesn't allow people to crowd everywhere. there's almost always a line. But this allows you to feel like you're in an intimate setting even in a large room.

The bar tenders don't use hoses of soda water or even jugs, everything is glass or pewter and the drinks are mixed the old fashion way!

I was also recently recognized at work and received free tickets to see Cirque De Soleil. We went, I was creeped out by the eery music and scary clowns.
All-in-all, though this year has started off big.


Can't wait to share more with you all!



XoXo