Insta-Life as of Lately

 

 

 

 

 

 

01. Outfit for bridal luncheon for my friend Meg in Atlanta. {dress: H&M, pumps: UO}

02. Outfit for dress rehearsal and dinner. (dress: target, polka dot tights: target, necklace: Versona}

03. Bridal luncheon at Sage Woodfire Tavern.

04. With the bride (left) and two other bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner at The Diner at North Point. 

05. At dinner during the reception with all my buddies.

06. Photo booth ready!

07. Braved the crowds to do some Thanksgiving cooking. 

08. Cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal for two. Nom.

09. Maeby and our Christmas tree that has been up and glowing for over a week now. 

10. The mantel. I had lit garland up there, but liked the simplistic decor better. 

11. My two favorites napping on our new couch. 

12. Fabric from Hobby Lobby for pillows I plan on making for our new couch.

Follow along @linleyshea

Hello, Weekend!

In a little while Chris and I are heading to Atlanta. Two friends from grad school live there and two others are driving down from Raleigh and Charlotte. It's a reunion that doesn't happen as often as we'd all like - so I'm super excited to see their faces and spend the weekend roaming the city! 

Hope you all have a great weekend as well!

Over the Weekend

As mentioned in my previous post, I headed up to the NC mountains this past weekend to visit and celebrate with my friends! Here are a couple photos from the weekend. 

Our view from the hotel. This view never gets boring. I was incredibly happy to be there - the scenery is gorgeous and the air is so fresh. 

Saturday we ventured up to Barber Orchard for some apples! I walked away with a peck of Galas (I'm going to attempt my first apple pie!), an apple cake, apple cider, apple butter, and hot mexican salsa (the best salsa around - if you like it hot). 

 The reason we all got together this weekend was to celebrate those two ladies in the middle - Nicole and Donna! (Congrats, friends!) The ceremony was outside on a farm and it was a gorgeous day! Above is about half of our grad school class! 

Then the gang got together for another shot. 

The night ended with everyone gathered around the fire just hanging out and listening to the musicians play songs like Wagon Wheel on their guitars and violins. At some point in the night I looked up and the view was amazing. The only light around was the fire and the sky was clear - I saw millions of stars. It was a perfect night. 

On a different note - congrats to Heather! You won the Chipolle earrings!

Heading to North Carolina

This weekend I am heading up to the mountains of North Carolina. I was considerate of all of you as I refrained from typing that first sentence in all caps. I am beyond excited to a.) be in the beautiful NC mountains - enjoying the scenery and inhaling the air and b.) being re-united with all my friends! We are getting together for what's going to be a gorgeous, outside wedding! 

I'm not going to be seeing all of our friends from grad school (bummer), but most of them! In particular, it's the six of us getting back together! We were all NSSLHA officers for our program - and between classes, meetings, and events it was often the five of us! I love it and I miss it. Here are some pictures of us. Hope you all enjoy your weekend as much as I plan on enjoying mine! 

No, we did not plan to coordinate. We are just awesome. 

Michael was such a champ for dealing with nothing but women. 

Halloween 

Officer photo

Can't wait to see you, fraaannnnddsss! Shmeee!

A Year Ago

Last year, on this exact date, I graduated from graduate school. When I graduated not only did I take away a new degree, but also lifelong friendships and wonderful memories. It was two of the best years of my life and I have my friends to thank!

The week of graduation was fabulous. The week before we had wrapped up Literacy Camp (my clinical placement during my last semester), I had finished all my exams, and I successfully presented my master's project - all of that was over and this last week was wide open! My roommate and I really took advantage of a free week. Sure we should have spent some time packing so we wouldn't have had to throw everything into trash bags at the last minute, but who wants to spend free time packing? (not us)

We spent the week laying out in the park, eating Mexican at least once a day, and doing whatever the heck else we wanted to for five whole days. Right across the street from the park we loved and about a mile up that road was the historic stone called Judaculla Rock. We didn't care for the rock as much as we cared for the scenery before the rock. It was located on a huge farm, surrounded by mountains. It was one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. Meg (my roommate) asked me to take some pictures of her here to give to her mom and boyfriend - and that's where we went! Here are some pictures of the farm and of Meg!

Weekend Update

This weekend I was SO LUCKY to have two of my dear friends come visit! Tyra (update!) and Rhian (make a blog!) made the trip from North Carolina to come spend the weekend with me! We all met through our graduate program and have been great friends ever since. Here is a bit of a recap of what went on!

We made Chicken Triangle. Which are drool-worthy. Don't worry, I will most definitely be sharing the recipe soon - it counted as one of my NYG recipes!

Saturday morning, after a large breakfast and a couple re-runs of Bridalplasty (have you seen that show?), we got ready and were about to hit the road to Birmingham until I walked out of my room and saw that Trya Dee and I were twins. Great minds think shop dress alike. So then I just switched sweater. 

We went up to Bham for some shopping at the Summit. We made a pit stop at PF Changs to re-fuel and then got back to shopping. We had planned on getting downtown to explore as well, but we ran out of time. 

When we got back home, before getting ready to go out to dinner, we decided we should make fudge. And then eat fudge-pot (fude-pot is when you leave a significant amount of fudge in the pot after pouring it out into the pan to harden and then just eat if straight out of the pot while it's warm - yum!).

So then we finally got all dolled-up and went to SaZa for a pizza dinner. 

On Me:

Cardi: unknown

Top: Old Navy

Skirt: F21

Tights: Target

Shoes: UO

On Rhian:

Dress: Target

Tights: Target

Boots: Target

On Tyra: 

Top: Gap

Skirt: LOFT

Tights: Target

Boots: Nine West

 The girls left early Sunday morning to make a pit stop in ATL to see our friends Michael (also from grad school) and his girlfriend Teresa and do a bit of shopping at Ikea (jealous!). It was a wonderful weekend that went by too quickly. I really hope I get to see these girls again very soon! Shmeee!

Over the Weekend:

This weekend we traveled to the coast of South Carolina. Chris was participating in the Second Annual Scottie Marlowe Memorial Golf Tournament. The tournament was in Georgetown, SC (near Pawleys Island) and it was at Wedgefield Plantation (where Chris and his family used to live!). Although the driving to get there was horrendous, getting there was nice. We were able to spend the weekend with his parents, the Bensons and children, and several others Chris grew up with.

While Chris and all the men were away playing golf, all the ladies hung around in the clubhouse. One of these ladies had a three-month old baby girl that eventually made her way into my arms. And stayed there for quite some time. When I passed her on, I wanted her back. And I think for a solid and fleeting three minutes I wanted one. Yes, the baby fever came over me, but I quickly told it no. Not now. Come back later.

I did rock/bounce baby Elle to sleep and this was the first time I had ever worked to put a baby to sleep. And then I held her while she slept. And it was the sweetest thing ever. Have you ever seen a baby smile in their sleep? It will make your heart melt. Trust me.

Moving on. If we weren't in the clubhouse going goo-goo over baby Elle, Mary Ann, Ashley, and I were golf-carting it up and harassing golfer for pictures.

All in all it was a great weekend! Chris had a blast and was able to spend Saturday with several of his friends that he grew up with - and he always enjoys that.

Mommy and Maeby on the way to SC

Scenery through GA

Maeby giving us "the look" for leaving her in the hotel

Behind the clubhouse

Chris and his team for the tournament

(L-R: Chris, Jeb, Seth, Brandon)

Me, Mary Ann, and Ashley while out snapping photos

SC sunset

A super cute VB bag that Chris (somehow?...) won during the raffle. 

Since he has no use for a new purse, I took it. 

Over the Weekend: Last Weekend

I totally missed posting last weekend's Over the Weekend post. My bad. So here it goes...

Last Friday I woke up, got ready, packed, and headed to Atlanta. I was meeting my friend (and old roommate) at her house, and then we were loading up and heading to the North Carolina mountains to Sylva, NC. We had made these plans a couple months ago. She was meeting some of her friends that weekend and invited me to come. I was so excited to see her, see my friend Whitney who is finishing her last semester of grad school, and to just be back in the NC mountains.

My plans involved getting to ATL several hours before Meg got off work so I could SHOP! I researched the malls in the ATL area and ended up at the Perimeter Mall. It had every store I wanted to visit: Zara, Anthropologie, Lush, Sephora, Forever 21, and Urban Outfitters. I was in heaven. I didn't give myself enough time, though. Meg called and said I should go ahead and head to her house and I hadn't been into Sephora or UO. Oh well. We are so close to ATL I will fo sho' be making another shopping trip up there soon! I didn't even buy that much... only a few items at Lush. And that was it. Anyway, on to the weekend...

We got into Sylva late Friday night and met her friends at a Sapphire Brewing Company. We were there shortly and then headed to O'Malley's where we got to see Whitney! After some beer and fries with ranch, we headed to the "new club." And I was shocked. This little town actually had a little bar/club scene going on. When I was at school there my friends and I would go out on the weekends and be the only ones there. Literally. Seriously. I'm not kidding. This place was packed. It had two bars, booths, tvs, and a good dj. And probably close to 200 people there. Both nights. Packed. I still can't get over it. 

Saturday we woke up struggling. But we made it out of the hotel, dressed and ready, for the big game. We first stopped by Walmart for some tailgating supplies, then campus dining for lunch. Then we tailgated. Then we went to our seats. In case you are unfamiliar with Western Carolina Football, they aren't that good. And by "aren't that good," I mean not good at all. But much to my surprise they played well against Appalachian State. But still lost. By quite a large margin.

This is right before turning into campus.

The band.

Half time was the best. Again, in case you are unfamiliar with Western Carolina, the band rocks it out. They are amazing. People cheer just as hard for the band (if not harder) as they do for the football team. No joke. They were great. They even dougied a bit.

After the game we had dinner back at the Sapphire Brewing Company and then headed over to the other bar/club. We then retired back to our rooms pretty early since we all had a long day of traveling on Sunday.

At Sapphire Brew Co.

There was even a line to get in... Whitney and I sneaked (snuck?) our way into this picture.

Sunday Meg and I got up and headed up to Waynesville, NC to Barber Orchard. This place is exhibit A as to why I miss the NC mountains. They are only open from late summer to December 24th and have the best anything-apple-related you can find. All types of fresh apples, apple cider, apple juice, apple pie, apple turnover, apple jam, apple butter, and so on... they also have an assortment of good that aren't apple related like salsa, hot sauce, other fruit jams, and some fresh vegetables. This place is jackpot. Since I had already demolished an apple cake mom and dad brought down when they visited, I decided it would be in my hip's best interest not to purchase another one. I did end up walking away with a turnover and salsa. Yum!

 In front of the orchard

 All the jams and jellies. 

 Apples! Apples! Apples!

 Apple-baked goods. 

My apple turnover. Nom. 

So then we headed back to ATL where I hopped in my car and make the two hour drive down to Abalama (it's just more fun to say it like that). Great weekend!