What I'm Loving Wednesday

Linking up with Jamie today and loving a lot of Random things. 

I'm loving that I work for JCPenney.  Today the new company strategy was announced to media, investors, and the supplier community.  The broadcast was shown live at the home office at 7:55 this morning.  I have never seen so much traffic around the building before 8am, and I had to park in the back corner of the parking garage...did I mention it was before 8am?  I can pretty much guarantee I am never at my desk before 8.  8:01, yes; 7:59, NO!  I do not think it is appropriate for me to blog about my company, so you can watch an interview with our new CEO here.  I will say I am very excited for the new logo, reminiscent of the American flag, and I am super excited that Ellen is our new spokeslady.

I'm loving yoga!  My New Years resolution was to go to yoga 5 times/week from January 1 to April 7 (aka the wedding day).  I made myself a calendar that I put on the fridge to track my progress and I get a sticker for each class.  I realize I am not 5, but I love seeing how great I am doing.  I am in the 4th week and I have stuck to my goal 100%.  I also love that I am able to bring a guest for free each time.  It helps me justify paying so much for my membership.  If you ever want to go with me, just ask:)

I'm loving my new Kindle Fire I got for Christmas and I am especially loving my new sleeve I bought on Etsy.  I have a slight obsession with chevron.

 

I'm loving that I found Essie Smokin' Hot at Target.  I was convinced that it was discontinued after I found it on pinterest.   I was either wrong, or they brought it back.  Either way, I am one happy lady.

I'm loving my Etsy shop.  Since the wedding is only 73 days away, I have not had a ton of time to dream up new creations, but I love the pieces I have been making.  My favorites have been: sashes for a wedding party, a flower girl sash, a maternity sash for a photo shoot, a newborn headband for a photo shoot, and a red, white and blue headband for a little girl to wear when her dad comes home from Afghanistan.  I have also sold a lot of dog collars and poo bag holders.  Who said picking up poo couldn't be cute?  You can visit my shop here, but there are really not a lot of new pieces.  My shop will get a complete overhaul in May - new creations, new photos, and hopefully a lot of new customers.

Happy 30th Birthday Johnny!!!

John's 30th Birthday turned out perfect!  I really wanted to surprise his with a trip to a warm beach, however we just got back from Costa Rica and we are going on our honeymoon in 3 months, so a trip did not make sense.  Instead we went to Fort Worth - Yee Haw!  

The day started out with a surprise visit from John's family, followed by lunch at Mi Cocina, and Bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  YUM!!!

John & Noah

Reading Noah's card.  He is the ULTIMATE card picker-outer.

Noah, John, & Nicholas (John's little bros)

That night we met a bunch of friends at Texas de Brazil for dinner

Me and John

The Girls

After dinner we headed to Pete's Piano Bar

Since it was John's 30th we had to get him up on stage.  He decided he needed to make friends with EVERYONE and was giving everyone he passed a high five.

 Even though we did not celebrate at the beach or in Vegas, I think the day still turned out fun.  Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate.

Painting with a Twist

For our team holiday event at work we decided to be different and go to Painting with a Twist.  We waited until after the holidays, which was a fantastic idea.  We did not have to cram in another event into our busy schedules before Christmas, and it was a great way to end the first week back in the office.  Everyone in the group has to paint the same thing, and none of us agreed on a painting, so we each picked out our favorite and then had someone draw from a painting from a bucket.  Of course I wanted something girly, but we ended up with a sail boat.  Here is the final product:

I only had a little help

Jill (aka the boss)



Jean!

The group

I think they turned out FABULOUS!

NYC - Part 1

 On Tuesday, I arrived in New York for a market trip for work.  Typically, work trips are mostly work and a little fun, but I think I have had a pretty good balance this time.  The first day we shopped Soho.  Shopping is probably one of my favorite parts of my job, and I love it even more now that I am in junior's apparel.  Shopping in men's was also fun, especially when I traveled to LA, but I really enjoy knowing women's trends more than men's.  Anyhoo, my boss and I spent the afternoon shopping Soho, walking our floor at JCP and then team dinner.  The weather was super warm (and rainy - gross)!  Dallas was freezing when we left and our plane was delayed because they had to de-ice.  I took a screen shot of my phone to send to John because I did not think he would believe me that it was 61 degrees.

Our first day in market was LONG.  We were in appointments for 11 hours, none of them were in the same building, we were off schedule the entire time, and it rained all day.  My Hunter wellies definitely paid off!  Today was way better.  We had less appointments and finished much earlier, giving us time to enjoy the city.  This is my first time to experience the city at Christmas so we headed to Macy's:)  The store was so pretty, and the windows were even more beautiful, but the craziness of holiday shoppers stressed me out.  Our next stop was dinner at Pronto Pizza and then shopping at Sabon.  Since it was still pretty early we decided to walk around Bryant Park.  The tree was beautiful!

There were a ton of cute booths so I did a little shopping.  I found this little ornament for Ashley.  When we lived together we started the tradition of buying Christmas ornaments for each other, just like our moms did.  I am so excited to give it to her later this weekend.

We found this fun sign to hang in our sample room at the office.  Our team has an obsession with coffee!

I really wanted a giant chocolate chip cookie and hot chocolate.  The first hot chocolate booth we found was closed and when we asked another vendor if she knew if there was another she suggested we go to Starbucks.  NO!!!  We walked by several Starbucks on our way to Bryant Park because we wanted something more special.  Imagine my excitement when we found a booth that sold both hot chocolate and giant chocolate chip cookies!

 The hot chocolate was so thick that we had to add water, which made no difference so we threw it away and went to the Hot Apple Cider booth.  It was so yummy and just what we needed.

We shopped a little more and then headed back to the hotel.  I was back in my room at 8:45 so I decided to have a mini spa night with the products I bought at Sabon.  Tonight was one of my favorite nights at market ever!  I have a few more appointments tomorrow and then I get to spend the rest of the weekend with Ashley.  I am SO excited!!!

Wedding Information

Hello Friends & Family!  For Wedding Information click on the tab above.  We will continually update this page as the wedding gets closer.

Engagement Photos!

Below is a sneak peak of our engagement photos.  Amy did a FANTASTIC job!  As I stated in a previous post, these were taken at SMU, the Stockyards, and TCU.

  

I was very giggly that day!  John kept whispering funny things and making ZZZZ noises in my ear.  

 

I have no idea what is happening here, but John's face cracks me up!

I'm not a fan of the last photo in this series, but it is funny so I posted it anyway.  I did not see that John was giving my TCU shirt a thumbs down.  It all went so fast that I did not have a chance to make a cute face in the last photo. 

This is one of my favorites.  This was taken inside Dallas Hall at SMU.

Standing on the edge of Frog Fountain

IN Frog Fountain!  LOVE this one!

I'm a really good jumper so I had to do a jumping photo

 

The End...

My Grandpa's Garden

I was looking through old photos on my camera and came across pictures I took of my Grandpa's yard and garden I took a few years ago.  I spent a lot of my childhood playing in the backyard, but never appreciated how beautiful it is until I was older.

Front yard and front of the house.  I wish my grass was this green!

I love the M on the front door!

Garden - I loved picking (and eating) raspberries when I was little.  Probably the reason they are one of my favorite foods.

So Charming

Every inch of the yard is PERFECT!

Growing up, I loved to swing from the clothesline

If only we could get our yard to look this beautiful.  Maybe we need to get some tips from my grandpa.