Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Randomness in the Bogdan Household...

I'm excited for my Matty. 

His band finally finished their cd!

If you didn't know already, Matt is in a band. He's the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. His band plays about four shows a month, since the guys in the band are getting older they don't play as much anymore. When they do play it's usually cover shows so that they can earn more money and attract a bigger crowd. 

They have been working on a second cd for the last two years. 
And it's finally here! 
I'm happy for Matt, I know he's very proud and I'm glad he has songs recorded so he can always listen back and remember. 
I might be bias but the cd actually sounds really good, guys. 

And maybe I also think this because majority of the songs are written about myself and Matt and our life, but I swear the cd is really good!

I love the sound of Matt's voice and love that I can jam out to his music at work now! 
I don't know if they are putting any of their music on Itunes or if it's just for friends and family.
But fo realz, the old cd does not even come close to the quality of this cd. 
Is it because no one buys cds anymore? 
I will have to chat to Matt about it. 

In other news.

Chase followed me all around the house yesterday squeaking this baked potato in my ear...
 Obsessed, I tell you. Absolutely obsessed with getting attention from me. 

Lord help me when I have a "real" baby.

In more randomness....
My mom gave me a picture of her parents (my Pop-Pop and Cunnie (Grandma)) years ago when Matt and I lived in our apartment.
 I finally got around to framing and hanging it. 
I just love this picture of them. 
I put this picture at the top of the stairs. 
I think it fits perfect there. 
So glad my mom gave it to me. 

Hope everyone is enjoying their week! 
Come on Friday!




Sunday, March 25, 2012

I'm Loving...

My totally adorable owl wine glass charms, thank you Pier 1
These guys couldn't be any cuter! 
I was very excited to drink wine Friday night with my girlfriends and use these. Come to find out, another girlfriend is pregnant! 
Yay! Babies!
And more wine for myself and my bestie, Emily, I guess?
I told Emily, "Don't you go and get pregnant on me! I need a drinking partner this summer, damn it!" 
One last summer till us Bogdans start thinking of starting a family of our own. 
I'm TRYING to live it up here, ladies!
Don't these girls know that?
I'm very excited for all the baby madness that's entering our lives!
And let's be honest, Emily can hold her own and will make a fine drinking partner all summer with me.
Hooray, for Emily and her love of wine!
I'm also planning on inviting myself on my guy friend, Chris', houseboat a lot this summer, it was only natural that I HAD to have these boat shoes.
Thank you, Target for making floral boat shoes. 
You are my hero. 
I will live in these this spring/summer. 
And for $1 at Forever 21 I got the best eco-friendly bag ever designed. 
Don't mind the dog, he HAS to be where ever I am. 
Obsessed really.
But besides the cute dog, I love anything rainbow and bird/owl.
I couldn't pass up a rainbow owl bag. 
Who could?
And when my sister gave me this for my birthday, I feel in love.
 Lime green and a bird and a candle. 
Couldn't be anymore perfect for this girl. 
I'm just really enjoying all the bright colors and cuteness that's out there.
We went into Kirkland's today and holy, so hard to WALK AWAY.
I could buy that whole flippin store. 
Matt's picking up our new patio furniture tomorrow and getting 5 tons of dirt delivered to our house for the backyard. 
Girl, don't even ask. 
We got a lot of work to do on this houses exterior. 
Lord, help me. 
At least Chase is enjoying being able to sit out front in the grass.
Unlike the apartment's cement patio.
 Seriously, he's actually smiling about it. 
Hope everyone had an awesome weekend!


Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bustin out some color for spring...

I'm so happy it's officially spring!

Love that the days are longer and I get to feel the sunshine on my face again after a long day of work. 

Chase and I have been taking long walks when I get home from work. 
So long that Chase did four, yes four, poops yesterday. 
All within a 45 minute period. 
What am I feeding this dog? 
He's healthier than me. 
And that's saying a lot. 
TMI? Too much bowel movement talk?
Really, could this binker dog be any cuter?

I'm just all around happier now that it's nice out. 
It's been 70 degrees here, guys. 
And all the neighbors have been out every night talking, laughing and carrying on.
I live for this time of year!

I even feel like my wardrobe is happier--brighter--crazier?


 Dress: Forever 21 Sweater: Forever 21 Sunglasses: PacSun Boots: Old Navy Necklace: Gifted


I know, I have to say goodnight to these boots and bust out my scandals. 

I'm thinking pedicure this weekend.

I love me some nice weather!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

26th Birthday Party (Pinterest Recipes!)


Friday I took off work so that I could clean and cook for my girls’ night birthday party.

It was a real treat having a three day weekend; actually it was totally divine and I wish I always had a three day weekend. (When did we all start working so damn much? Ugh. It’s terrible. But that’s a whole different conversation).

Anyway, Matt and I TOTALLY took advantage of the three day weekend together and enjoyed it with some amazing friends and family!

Basically we drank and ate entirely too much all weekend long and it couldn’t have been any more perfect. My butt may be bigger, but it was totally worth it. 

For Friday night’s party I decided to ONLY make recipes from Pinterest. I honestly was really nervous about this, not knowing how anything would turn out. Luckily all my amazing girlfriends all agreed to bring a dish and a bottle of wine, so I knew we’d have some sort of food if my recipes bombed. 

But I actually surprised myself because everything I made turned out good!

I made four different Pinterest recipes. 
(Here are the links to the blogs where they were pinned!)

I think they were actually successful in that order. 

The Moscato spritzer was really yummy and so flippin easy!
It’s just Barefoot Moscato wine, Sprite Zero and Frozen raspberries (I used mixed berries, though) combined. Served chilled. 
My only party fail was that my very cute beverage dispenser got clogged up with a blueberry (within an hour of the party) and didn’t work anymore, Waah. Luckily my neighbor was nice enough to go get her beautiful glass pitcher and we just dumped the spritzer into that and served it. (You got hunks of fruit in your drink then which was good if you didn’t let your drink sit too long, because once the fruit sat for for a few hours it was mushy. Ha!) 

The pizza rolls were also super easy and super tasty! No pictures of these, sorry. I was in a panic making them because the readers had arrived and I wasn’t ready for them. I actually almost burnt them; thank goodness I didn’t because they were the biggest hit, besides the wine (of course).
Simply:
Crescent Rolls
Pepperoni
Mozzarella string cheese
Roll the pepperoni and half of a string cheese into the crescent roll. Follow crescent roll baking instructions.

The Mexican dip I kind of improvised. I didn’t go exactly by the recipe but it still turned out super yummy!

Mexican Dip
Can of Whole Corn (Drained)
Can of Black Beans (washed and drained)
Can of diced tomatoes
Chopped Green Pepper
Chopped Jalapeño
Chopped Onion
2 Tablespoons of Virgin Olive Oil
Add a little salt and pepper. 
Mix everything together in a large bowl. Serve with hint of Pepper jack and hint of Jalapeno tortilla chips. Amazing!  
I also added fresh avocado on top after I had mixed everything else together. (don’t want to smash your avocado).

Well actually I didn’t add the avocado I asked my two girlfriends, Emily and Jess too. They gave me a bunch of shit because they said I get totally stressed when I’m hosting a party. 

(Unbelievable, isn’t it? Hahah)

I think they think I get stressed because of the following “incident.”
I was trying to make the damn pizza rolls and asked one of them to please cut the avocado and add it on top of the Mexican dip. Ok, maybe I didn’t even say please but they both just looked at me. The readers had just entered the house, I was trying to hurry and get everything together. According to Jess and Emily this is when I gave them both the look of death and screamed, “Can someone cut the F-in avocado?!!” They looked at each other and said, “Have you ever cut an avocado?” I was like, “Just cut the f-in avocado!” The both were dying laughing at me because I’m such a stress ball. Hahah! We laughed about it all night.

Chocolate Pretzels with M&M's
Square Pretzels
Hershey Kisses
M&M
Heat oven to 250 degrees. Place pretzel squares on a cookie sheet, put Hershey kiss on top of the pretzel and put in oven for 3 minutes. When they come out of the oven smash M&M lightly on top of the Hershey kiss. Place in freezer for about 5 minutes. Serve.
(The only problem I ran into was that some of the Hershey kisses fell off of the pretzel. And don’t do what I did either, and store them in a Ziploc bag- the Hershey kisses will for sure fall off.)
Other than that, these were a very good sweet/salty snack!  
I was happy with all my Pinterest recipes. I can’t wait to have or go to another party and make some tasty things from Pinterest!

And here are some moments from Friday night that had us laughing….

Me, “We live in Essex, none of our doors close!” (Regarding how literally none of doors in our house close properly). 

Brittany, “Where did I park?” Me, “You didn’t you brought your boat.” Brittany, “Oh yeah, let me get my lifejacket out of your house.” (To the HUGE boat that sits out front of our neighbors house). 

Jeanette: “Chuck and that camper. Here take a picture of my boobs, I’ll show him something better then that camper!” 

Everyone, “There’s a random dog at your door!” Me, “Oh it’s just Ari. Let him in.” 

Reader, “You should get out of the shower and walk around your house wet, completely naked and when you hit a cold spot that’s when you know there’s a spirit present.” Me, “I think I’ll pass….” 

Me, “Take the damn pretzels.” Katie, “No we don’t have any snacks at our house.” Me, “Not even pretzels?” Katie, “No.” Me, “For the love of god! Take the damn pretzels and a donut for your poor deprived husband!” 

Needless to say, it was a very interesting and fun night! I feel lucky to have such fun girlfriends!
 I wish I would of taken more pictures of us girls. 

Next party, I will be sure to keep my camera out!

Perfect Birthday Outfit


When I went shopping with my mom a couple of weeks ago for my birthday gifts we found a couple amazing and cheap dresses at Charlotte Russe

The dress I chose for my birthday party was very loose (good for drinking wine) and light (good for avoiding pit marks*). 

I wanted to dress up without over doing it, since I was just hosting a house party. 

I really love the colors in this dress. A hint of turquoise color, perfect for it almost being spring! 

Since the weather wasn’t super warm I paired the dress with a pair of long black leggings and closed toe wedge heels (very comfortable). 

I also threw on a turquoise necklace I had in my jewelry box. 

I love spring/summer dresses!

 Dress: Charlotte Russe Leggins: DSW Shoes: Payless Belt: Forever 21 Necklace: Gifted

*Armpit sweat marks= totally not a cute look. 



 

Sunday, March 11, 2012

"It's a Boy!" Photo Shoot...

Last weekend, my dear friend, Jess asked me if I’d take some pictures for her and her husband announcing the sex of their baby. 

There are so many good ideas on Pinterest that she and I had been emailing back and forth different pictures ideas. 

We came to a mutual decision, no matter what, we needed two things- balloons and an “it’s a boy” sign. 

So when Sunday ended up being a very mild day Jess texted me asking if I’d take some pictures of her and her husband. 

She and I were super excited about it!

And even though I’m no professional photographer, I tried my best to take some good pictures for them! 

Jess put one of the pictures up on her FB page on her birthday (the day before mine) saying “Thank you all for the Birthday love! :) - I can't wait for my true gift to arrive this June! - A SWEET BABY BOY!! - Yup, it's a boy!!!!! ;-)”
 Seriously, aren't they just the cutest?! 
We love them! They are so fun and we can't wait to meet their little baby boy June 6th!

On another note, my girls night birthday party Friday night turned out to be so much fun! 

I only made recipes from Pinterest. 

The best thing ever was the Moscato Spritzer I made. Oh my yum!

Post to come, with recipes!