Summer Reading

One of the best things about summer is having the time to read again. I hadn't read much in the past few months and this past week I have already read two books. It feels so nice to unwind and read a book over the weekend and when I get home from work at night. I will use this post to continually update my summer reading list as I finish a book.

50 Shades of Grey- E.L. James
The Rescue- Nicholas Sparks
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)- Mindy Kaling
The Wedding- Nicholas Sparks

If anyone has any good summer reading suggestions, be sure to comment with them on this post! Happy reading!

Free Valentine's Day Love- Tiny Prints

I'm so glad I saw this on another blog. I think this is a great idea and I had no idea that Tiny Prints mailed personalized cards for you.

TODAY only...you can send a personalized Valentine's Day card from Tiny Prints for free, you just pay for the stamp. All you have to do is "like" their Facebook page. You can do that HERE.

Happy Valentine's Day card browsing!

Erin Condren Love

Recently I discovered Erin Condren's website. I read a lot of blogs and people are ALWAYS talking about her products and I know now why! I love her design work and bright colors!

I got her iphone case for Christmas and love it! I get so many compliments on the case and highly recommend it! I even gave one for a Christmas present. I got the case below.

My next purchase was her Life Planner. I check my order status everyday in anticipation of receiving it in the mail. It has been printed and is now waiting to ship! I have read so many positive reviews about her planner. I used to love writing in a planner in high school and college and can't wait to do so again! The iphone calendar just isn't cutting it for me. I picked the same cover as my iphone case so they match.

My most recent purchase, I didn't even realize was Erin Condren. I received an email from Shutterfly thanking me for my 2011 purchases and it had a $20 off code in there to use on my next purchase. I searched all their stationary to pick what one I wanted and when I go to check out...it is Erin Condren! Crazy! I ordered the card below from Shutterfly. I just love their customer service and deals! It is my go to place for cards, photo cards and address labels! Below is the stationary I purchased from Shutterfly.

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

To check out Erin Condren visit her website at www.erincondren.com. I hope you all love it as much as I do! P.S. I do have a birthday in just a month...so if you need a website to look for presents, you know where to go! Ha!

Picture Dump

A picture dump to update you on what we have been up to lately!

Last Night's Dinner

I've become addicted to Pinterest and one of my boards is for new recipes. Last night I decided to try one on there for the first time. I was so excited about this dinner because it sounded really good. While I was making it 1. I made a complete mess and 2. it just did not look like it was going to turn out good. I really thought I had made a disaster of a dinner. To my surprise when I tasted it, it was great! I loved it and can't wait to make it again. Colin even really liked it!

The recipe is from the website Ready Set Eat. I have never made anything off this site before but I will start looking for more recipes on it now that I tried this one! The recipe is called Zucchini and Black Bean Skillet. I've linked to the recipe below. The only two changes I made to it were that I also added yellow squash and garlic. I think I will add corn and chicken next time.

Click here to see the recipe!

Catching Up the Last Couple Months

Wow, I have been a bad blogger. So bear with me as I play catch up minus pictures.

• This summer I traveled to Ohio for my Grandma Sweval's 80th Birthday!
• Colin and I went home for a week to spend with our family and friends.
• Once August started work got so busy that I feel like we haven't had a few weekend in months.
• We have done some house updates including starting to put edging around our flower beds, Colin painted a hallway, we re-did our bedroom and Colin made a headboard (will do a separate post about this) and we re-painted our front door red.
• We have had 4 home football games in a row and I am exhausted but Clemson is also 4-0! We have had a great football season so far and hope to continue it this weekend as they travel to VT! Go Tigers!
• We have had company the past 4 weekends between family and friends. Colin's mom and grandparents came down for a few days and it was nice to have them here.
• Next weekend my brother is coming for our homecoming game.
• I am going to the Maryland game to host an IPTAY event the night before the game.
• We have a big donor event before the UNC game.
• Colin's parents are meeting us in Atlanta for the GT game the last weekend in October and then coming back in November for the Wake Forest game.
• Our nights are consumed by Fall TV again. So glad our shows are back on. I'll do a post with all the shows that we watch later and my new favorite show.

That is our life lately. Super busy. I feel like Colin and sometimes just pass each other in the morning and at night and don't get to just sit down and enjoy our time together.

Scaredy Cat...I mean Dog!

For the second Sunday in a row we took Bella to the rowing facility on Lake Hartwell to see if she liked to swim. We hoped deep down that she would be a water dog and would just run right in to fetch a ball. Well today our dreams were dashed...we realized she just does not like water. Last week she did pretty well, actually walked into the water on her own and would swim to us. Today, you could tell she did not like it. She wouldn't walk into the water on her own, so we had to pick her up and put her in the water and when she did swim, she swam straight to the dock to jump out and wouldn't come near us. We were disappointed that she didn't like water but she does seem to enjoy running around on the dock while we lay in the sun. Bella we loved you but you are such a chicken doggie! Below are some pictures of the 5 minutes we actually got her in the water. Even though she hated every minute of it, I think she still looks pretty cute!