Summer Must Haves

I love this time of year! I am gearing up for Summer time! I love spending the weekend at the lake, grilling out with friends, Redbirds Baseball games, traveling, reading a lot, playing tennis, and relaxing. During the school year, I stay busy, busy! I look forward to winding down and doing a lot of R&R over the break. This summer, I will be gearing up for a J-O-B! I hope that I can find a teaching job come this fall! I will be attending quite a few workshops and spending a lot of time getting my classroom together.  I WILL relax some, but it will definitely be different than the summers in the past. Until then, I want to share with you some of the "things" I CANNOT live without through June, July, and August...

1. Summer Dresses

I cannot tell you enough how HOT it gets here in the summer.

I cannot stand to sweat, so a dress is my only option during

this time of the year. During the day, it will usually get over 100

degrees. I honestly do not see how people can wear pants/denim.

2. Linen

I adore linen. I will wear anything that is linen.

I love linen pants, linen shorts, linen dresses, etc.

It usually takes the place of my dress pants and denim

in the summer time. I love that linen is super flowy, so

I usually never get hot when I wear it. Also, if you

have an office job, where you HAVE to wear dress

 pants, linen is a great substitute because you

can dress it up!

3. I love Aveeno's Positively Radiant Moisturizer.

I love wearing this stuff in the summer.

I will never leave the house without it on!

It's light, airy, and keeps my face from burning

in the hot heat. I also love it because it gives my

skin a radiant glow, so lots of times, I will not

put any face makeup on.

3. White Wine

If you know me in real life, you know I am a

red wine drinker. I love my Cabernet.

Unfortunately, I cannot drink red wine in the middle

of summer time, especially if we are outside at a

cook out. I usually will order a white wine when we

are out to dinner. It's definitely not my favorite, but it

is a lotttttt cooler ;)

4. Fish

This somewhat goes along with why I drink more

white wine in the summer. I LOVE any kind of fish

in the summer time. I love it all the time, but ESPECIALLY

enjoy it more throughout June, July, and August. It is super

light and wonderful with fresh veggies. Sounds crazy, but

I cannot eat a heavy steak and potato in the summer.

My favorite fish: Red Snapper, Halibut, Grouper, and Salmon.

5.  Cute Ponytails

I have long hair, but you will never see it

down much in the summer. I wear it up A LOT!

I am constantly looking for cute ponytail styles.

If you know of any, please pass them along!

This is just a short list of what I cannot live without in the summer! What are some of your must haves?

BJH

What I Bought:

I did some shopping while we were in Florida. I also did some shopping when we got back on Saturday. I am stocking up for Spring/Summer! ;) I wanted to share with you all of the exciting goodies I got.

From J.CREW:

I got this adorable dress. I thought

about wearing it for Easter. We'll see..

This is not the exact dress I bought.

I did not get it in black/white, but I bought

the dress with the blue/white stripes. I love it.

It is so perfect for school and this summer.

I must have an obsession with stripes.

I bought this Martime Maxi dress, too.

I love it. I think it will be great this summer.

From Old Navy:

I did not buy this color, but

I bought these fold over white linen pants.

They are SO comfotable! They are also

really, really long...Perfect for me! :)

These will be great for school.

I bought this adorable dress as

well. I thought about wearing this

one for Easter, too, but not sure yet.

I love the bold print. I wear a lot of

black, so it will be perfect to wear Navy instead.

I adore color block tops.

I also love blue. This top will

be adorable with white jeans this summer.

They did not have this shirt in the store, so I

ordered it offline. I am so glad I did. I love it.

I did not buy this dress in Florida, but hit up

the Old Navy in Memphis when I got back.

It looks so much better on! I love to wear  green.

It would even be a cute coverup.

Simple, but cute. Goes with everything :)

Everyone knows that I have an obsession with leopard.

I bought this top, too. Simple, but cute! Can't wait

to wear it to school and this summer.

I also purchased a linen romper, but for some reason,

I cannot find the outfit online. It is super adorable!

GAP:

I also purchased a simple grey Maxi dress from Gap

while we were in Florida. It was a great price!

I did quite a bit of shopping, but I don't really shop that much. I usually will go every couple of months and really buy things I need. I like to buy items that I can wear to school and throughout the summer time. I think all of these pieces will help me transition into Summer break. If you have not been to Old Navy, I highly suggest it. I could not get over the amount of cuteness that is going on in that store right now.

BJH



Florida Recap #6

Today was our last day in Florida....:( It was cloudy, rainy, and chilly, so we headed out to the Outlet malls and had lunch at The Backporch. We had a great day! I did a lot of damage in the Ralph Lauren Polo store, J.Crew, Gap, and Old Navy. We are definitely taking back MORE than we came with.

I guess you can say that my shopping trip was successful.

Our seafood nachos at The Backporch.

They were SO good!

Last night, we stayed in. We are leaving

early in the morning to head home. We

ate a ton for lunch, so I stopped by Publix

and grabbed me a sushi roll...It was my dinner ;)

We enjoyed good company, red wine, tv, and relaxing!

We had a WONDERFUL trip! I am looking forward to getting back on my scheldule, but will seriously miss Florida. I hope I get to come back again this summer! 

Florida Recap #5

Today was more productive ;) We laid out on the beach for awhile, grabbed some lunch at Dewey Destin, went BACK out to the beach for some sunshine, and then Christin made Shrimp and Grits for dinner. Later that evening, Sam and I took off to the beach to enjoy a bottle of wine and catch crabs ;)

Interesting start to our day...

We get down to the beach and someone

has brought an air mattress out to the beach.

I'm serious...They had paddles and an air mattress.

We laughed and made several, several jokes.

We called them, "Redneck Yacht Club.."

It was somewhat chilly and windy, but

I still enjoyed the sunshine and quiet time :)

He is so excited about his lunch at

Dewey Destin.

I was quite excited about the snow crabs!

My lunch...sooooo good!!!

After lunch, I came back to the condo

and did some more of this...LIFE WAS GOOD!

He is EXCITED about catching crabs.

We were ready to have fun on the beach and

catch some crabs. Sorry for the bad picture.

Once again, it was night time, windy, dark, and late.

We didn't care ;)

It was a great day! :) 

Florida Recap #4

I have to say...We did not do much of ANYTHING on Day Four. We stayed in ALL day. We had  too much fun the night before, so we were somewhat lazy. We also nursed our sunburns, so we were in the horizontal position for awhile. I DID manage to get up and cook dinner. We had honey glazed salmon, stuffed scallops, asparagus, and potatoes. I HAVE to tell you...I loved the easy, easy recipe for the honey glaze. It is: honey, mustard, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and worshire sauce. I mixed it all together and let it sit for a little while. I let the salmon bake for about 25 minutes before taking it out an pouring the glaze over the top. I stuck the salmon back in the oven for a few mintues and then took it out and served it! It was delicious! I will definitely be making this recipe again. I LOVE SALMON.

Florida Recap # 3

Monday, we decided to head to Sandestin to meet up with some friends at Sandestin Beach Club. They actually live in Sandestin, and were very kind to show us around. They pampered us all day! We laid out on their beach, enjoyed yummy lunch and drinks, and then headed to their house to freshen up for dinner! It was a GREAT night! I enjoyed crab cakes for dinner again. Can you tell I like crab cakes? ;)

Our amazing view from our chairs at

Sandestin Beach Club

I had to leave my cover up on...I was BURNED.

Enjoying the wine ;)

.

Florida Recap #2

We got a good night's sleep and we were ready to hit the beach! It was a PERFECT day. The sun was shining bright! We enjoyed our day on the beach, hit the grocery store for some yummy seafood, and made a yummy dinner our second night there.

The guys ready for some beach time!

Christin and J.R. on the beach.

My view all day...perfection

It was cloudy when we first got down to the beach, but

it immediately cleared up and turned out beautiful!

Soaking in the sun!

The life of bloggers...Our guys are sick

of taking pictures of us.

I love Christin..

Dinner:

Local Crab Cakes, Corn on the cob, Fresh Shrimp,

and not pictured...LOBSTER!

Funniest memory of the whole trip...

J.R. bought a live lobster at the grocery store

and named him Steve. He had planned on

setting him free, but decided we needed to cook him.

It was divine!

Florida Recap # 1

We had a WONDERFUL time in Florida! It was such a relaxing trip! I definitely needed it. School is fixing to pick up big time, so I needed all the R&R I could get ;) I wanted to update you on everything we did, ate, etc. I will be doing several blog posts, so I do not bore you too much ;) Christin, J.R., Sam, and I did not want to leave, but knew it was time to get back into our regular lives :( Here is our first night:

 

We had dinner at Harbor Docks. It was amazing.

Loving on my S man ;)

Christin and J.R....They were decked out in their green!

This was right when we arrived at the condo. We enjoyed a

couple bacon infused Bloody Mary's. They were delicious!

After changing, we geared up for St. Patrick's Day

and headed out on the town!

The famous Backdown roll from Harbor Docks.

It was SO good.

On the way to Florida, we stopped at Firehouse Subs.

The guys enjoyed their hats ;)

A close up of our bacon infused Bloody Mary's ;)

I apologize for the pictures not being in order, but I think you get the picture ;)

Our first night was fabulous! We are looking forward to a great week.

Beach Trip Update

We are having a great time so far! I am loving the sunshine, relaxtion, and good time with friends. I hope you all are having a fab week! Here are a few photos from this week so far:

St. Patrick's Day!

I have been doing this for the past three days :)

Great night out with friends!

Dinner with S.