Weekending & Life Lately Catch-Up

June 22, 2015June 22, 20152 Comments

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend 🙂 Mine was really pretty great and I actually took pictures so I thought I’d spend today sharing those with you! But, before I get to that, let’s catch up over the past couple of weeks. I can’t believe we’ve been back from Italy for over 3 weeks- seems like just yesterday we were packing up to go there.

I’ve been working out outside a lot- whether in the form of running or bootcamp style workouts. With the nicer weather upon us, I just want to be outside as much as possible!

But, I’m also loving being back in the gym with weights and strength training! Feels so good to leave the gym with jello-feeling everything 🙂

I’m participating in Neghar Fonooni’s Bikini Rebellion challenge this month and am more than obsessed with it. If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve probably seen some very personal, “leave it all on the table” types of posts, which has been hard, but also really refreshing.
We’ve been loving healthy, light meals. In the heat, it’s awesome to throw something together quickly!

My curly hair is back… BIG and back! I was afraid my curls were going away over the winter, but fear not… it was just the dry weather that made my hair less curly than usual!

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Italy Recap Part 3 (Final one!): Castiglione Della Pescaia

June 16, 2015June 16, 20152 Comments

I can’t believe I’m here with my 3rd and final recap of our recent Italian vacation… I’m not ready for it to be over! In case you missed the first 2 recaps, here they are: Italy Recap Part 1: Rome Italy Recap Part 2: Pienza Our last leg of the trip was spent on the sandy beaches in Castiglione Della Pescaia, which was about 2 hours north west of Pienza. The ride on Friday morning was actually quite nice as we entered into the more beach-y areas of Italy.
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Italy Recap Part 2: Pienza {including stops in Montepulciano & Siena}

June 12, 2015June 12, 20158 Comments

In case you missed my Rome recap, you can find it here: Rome. Today i want to share the second portion of our trip, which was spent in Pienza. Grab a coffee (or a glass of vino), and settle in- it’s a long, picture-filled recap!

On Monday, we packed up and headed out in this bad boy:

Poor RM- he was the only one who felt comfortable enough to drive this beast on the windy roads of the Tuscany region (and he knew how to drive a standard!). It wasn’t the most ideal vehicle to have due to the size of it vs. the size of the roads, but we made it work! He handled it very well, too, so that helped.

Anyway, before this trip I thought Tuscany was a specific place to visit like Rome or Florence, but in fact it’s a region to visit and you go there to visit all the little towns within the region. We absolutely loved Pienza as it had a super cute city center and was relatively close to other charming/picturesque towns. It was about 2.5 hours from Rome.

We stayed at Tenuta Santo Pietro, which was about 6KM from the city center, for our 4 night Pienza part of the trip. I loved the B&B for so many reasons! Here’s a bit about it from their site:

Nestled in the heart of the rolling Tuscan countryside, Tenuta Santo Pietro
is a tranquil oasis comprised of a twelve bedroom inn that dates back to the 13th century, and a 72 acre working farm. Vineyards and olive trees spread through rolling hills rising to a small valley. A stay at Santo Pietro is one of the best ways to enjoy all that Tuscany has to offer.

They serve wine from their vineyard, olive oil from their trees and vegetables from their garden- pretty awesome, right?! The service was impeccable and we all felt really at home while we were their. The rooms, grounds, food, wine, pool, etc. made for such a great stay!

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I Love Wine & I Love A Good Deal

May 21, 2015May 19, 20155 Comments

If you’ve been following B2B for a while, it should come as no surprise that I loooove my vino 😉 and bubbly, for that matter! I’m no where near a wine snob, so as long that it’s not Franzia in the box (sorry mom and dad, I just can’t do it!), it’s good for me. But, if you’re like me, you get comfy drinking your “favorite” wines, right? For me, those would be (in no particular order):

La Crema Chardonnay
Butternut Chardonnay
J.Lohr Chardonnary
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc
90+ Cellars Sauvignon Blanc
Konos Sauvignon Blanc
Layer Cake Malbec

…and so on. However, although I certainly have my “favorites”, I’m always open to trying new ones, especially ones that are in my price range ($10-15/bottle), which is why Club W is so awesome (<— full disclosure: this is a referral link- more on that below). My friend Kelly introduced me to this and as soon as I talked about it with RM, we were both totally game. 3 bottles of wine delivered to your house every month?! Sign me up! And, the way the referral program works is that when you sign up using the referral link in this post, you automatically get 2 free bottles of wine as part of your first month shipment. And, anytime someone signs up using your link, which you’ll get if you sign up, you get 1 free bottle, so it works out pretty well.

We’ve received 2 shipments so far, so we are pretty well stocked up, but another perk of this program is you have the option to gift one of your months to someone else, which makes for the perfect birthday present (or Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, anniversary….). Here’s a review of the wines we’ve received. What I love is that they give you a note card for each wine, telling you how to serve it (chilled, room temp, etc.), when to drink it (relaxing, dinner party, etc.) and what to serve it with as well as a recipe. Pretty awesome, right?

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My 30th Birthday Celebrations

April 23, 2015April 22, 201512 Comments

Well, it’s official: I have the best friends, family and boyfriend around! Everyone made my entire birthday week SO special- I wish there was a better way to show my gratitude, but hopefully this post will help.

As I mentioned last week, my birthday celebrations started the weekend before my birthday with the Wine Fest. From there, my birthday was an amazing day from start to finish! Finally getting a chance to check out SoulCycle was such a fun thing, and doing it beside my sister and Jess was even better 🙂

After our workout, we walked over to Seasons 52 for lunch. Have you guys ever been there or heard of it? I’m not one for big box chain restaurants, but since this one was so close and since I had heard such great things about it, we decided to check it out. I’m so glad we did because it was awesome! Everything was so light and fresh. We talked to the waitress and although everything on the menu is currently under 475 calories, they are shifting towards removing the calorie count since they are starting to incorporate more super foods that generally have higher calorie counts. Think: avocados, nuts, etc. I think this is awesome because it’s true- just basing your meal on calories isn’t going to be the healthiest option (but that’s another post for another time!). Anyway- I got the fish tacos (surprise, surprise) and a glass of rose and my sister got a flatbread which came with a wine flight AND a glass of wine for $15- amazing deal.

Later in the evening, I got dressed up and met RM in the city and we grabbed a drink at Rumba (the bar in the Intercontinental) before heading to dinner.

He took me to Cinquecento, which is an Italian restaurant in the South End. We were supposed to go there for Valentine’s Day, but due to the weather, we ended up staying local, so it was a nice surprise that he chose that restaurant for my birthday. I sipped on the most delicious glass of bubbly rose and then enjoyed my Tagliatelle alla Bolognese. RM got his favorite dish, the Branzino con Scarola Brasata e Funghi, which was also delicious. I was SO impressed with both dishes- I’m suddenly hungry as I start thinking back to the meal!

Lastly, RM surprised me with a molten chocolate lava cake and ice cream which was to die for!

And… now for the party recap! I told RM that I didn’t care about a surprise party, I just didn’t want to be the one to plan it. With that said, he reached out to my sister and my friends in various groups in my life and planned one hell of a party. I had no idea where we were going or who would be there or what to expect, so I did what any other 30 year old would do: wear pleather pants, new heels and my reddest lipstick 😉

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