Flowers for Friends

Life’s been pretty fast-paced lately, so when I found a spare hour right before my friends came into town, I headed over to Trader Joe’s with an open mind and an eye for faux fancy things to spruce up my condo. Fifteen minutes and twenty bucks later, I had an armload full of what the bagger boy called “fun homemaker stuff.”

It was a simple lesson that the best things in life don’t always have to be planned or costly. Bonus: most of the flowers survived the weekend and are still going strong, so I can come home to their tropical scent, even though it’s now snowing outside. 

Weekend Warriors

The weekend's signature cocktail: The Ladybug

Every girl has at least one BFF—you can count on her to remember outrageous stories from the past, help you rationalize future life decisions, ignore your less than sizeable condo and focus on the comfort of the blowup mattress that you have to offer, and make you laugh over glasses of wine, chocolate truffles, YouTube dance video reenactments and Instagram pics.

I’m lucky enough to have a great group of girlfriends from college, and even more fortunate that we can occasionally put our careers, significant others, kids and obligations aside to focus on our friendships. As these photos can attest, we wholeheartedly did just that this past weekend. Needless to say, I don't think I'll have to eat or drink for a week. 

One of two surprise birthday desserts during a night out in Evanston

Morning trampoline jumping/stumbling class at Sky High Sports 

The best accompaniments to a manicure/pedicure: mini champs cans and tabloids

Group tequila round at Acre Oyster House

Late night at one of Andersonville's oldest bars

Tucking Baby D into the backseat for his first wild weekend with the girls

Loud Laughs

With college friends coming in from out of town for a visit and a weekend packed full of fun plans, I’m expecting a lot of them... 

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Night In

Now that it’s getting colder outside, we’re finding ourselves huddled up in our condo more than usual. In an effort to remain somewhat independent from the TV, I started dreaming up my ultimate low key night in.  These are the components on my must-have list right now. 

1. Sofia Mini Champs 4 Pack, $20

2. Alexander Wang Dominoes, $95

3. John Hanly Pink Tartan Merino Wool Throw, $220

4. Cable Knit Sock in Oatmeal, $24.50

5. Hunger Games Wild Ophelia Chocolate Bar Library, $65

6. Alexandra Von Furstenberg Acrylic Trays, Price Varies

7. Diptyque Orange Chai Limited Edition Candle, $68

Changing Clocks

I thought the “fall back” in time that we recently experienced would make getting out of bed a little easier. Instead, it’s resulted in pitch black driving conditions on the way home from work at night. Though I always get anxious at this time of year thinking about the long march ahead into the dead of winter, I do have a few things in store this month to keep my spirits high:

1. Spend a long weekend hosting friends from college and finding every excuse to do girly activities like a trampoline exercise class
2. Hit the strip in Andersonville and check out some bars and a restaurant that I’ve never before visited
3. Wear my new black leather booties to death
4. Check out the Wonders of the 1893 World Fair exhibit at the Field Museum
5. Continue my heavy use of the crock pot and try a few new recipes
6. Attend a local art and wine festival event with the tickets that I recently scored from a friend
7. Clean out my closet and get my massive sweater pile into the drycleaners
8. Head to Cincinnati to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and eat lots of turkey, cranberries and stuffing
9. Start to seek out the perfect item to add to my ever-growing holiday decoration collection
10. Begin planning my next warm weather vacation…