Tag: wine

Ringing in the New Year (by pictures)

13 Comments

Remember how I said I was feeling really blah about NYE this year?  I think part of the reason I wasn’t hyped up and excited about NYE this year was because my friends weren’t all doing something together. With that said, what I really wanted was to be dating someone and be able to just go somewhere fun for dinner and to ring in the New Year that way. Obviously that wasn’t the case for me (this year), but I am happy to say I pulled myself out of my little “womp, womp” mood and decided that I would go to my friends’ (Christy and Jamie) house party in Exeter, NH.

I wasn’t in the mood to drink (I had a glass of bubbly, though), but I still had a great time catching up with my friends that were there and getting to meet some new people, too. Waking up without a hangover and in my own apartment on New Years Day was ahhhhmazing! Here’s my recap by pictures- enjoy!

IMG_6328IMG_6323 IMG_6322 IMG_6326 IMG_6341 IMG_6342

IMG_6343

Big thanks to Christy and Jamie for throwing a fantastic party!

****

For the past handful of years, my sister and I (and whoever else is around) have had a tradition of going out to lunch on New Years Day. We’ve had our fair share of hangovers for these lunches, but this year we were both hangover free- yay! We decided to try someplace new and went to Stephi’s in Southie. We were both totally impressed with the restaurant! It had a great vibe, neat décor and a super tasty menu (and affordable wine and cute guys. True story.). We enjoyed white wine, the black forest ham and brie sandwich and the special of the day: open faced omelet with hollandaise sauce, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and asparagus. Yuuu-uuum. We foresee going back for a girls night dinner sometime in the near future!

IMG_6346 IMG_6347 IMG_6348

So, although I wasn’t super amped to go into the new year, I’m feeling really good about it now. In all honesty, your life is what you make of it, so I’m trying to go into this year with a positive outlook and make it a terrific year.

Questions for you: What did you do for NYE this year? How do you manage a hangover? Have you been to Stephi’s?

This Week: Weekend Catch Up, Workouts, Things I am Looking Forward To

5 Comments

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? It felt good to have one since last weekend I was cooped up inside at MANIA on Friday and Sunday and ran the Spartan race on Saturday (I owe you that recap this week!), which didn’t leave much room for “weekending”.  Friday night I went to drinks at Warehouse on Broad Street followed by dinner at Anthem which is always a favorite of mine! Saturday I taught an amazing kickboxing class (46 people came!!!) then ran a bunch of errands and went to lunch at Not Your Average Joe’s with my sister. I went back to Warehouse on Saturday night for drinks with a couple of friends (they ate dinner and said the food was great!!) and Sunday I hosted a Pampered Chef party. So even though it was a busy weekend, it was fun 🙂

IMG_5868

Stemless champagne flutes at Warehouse? New to me… not sure if I’m a fan or not. Regardless, the bubbly tasted good 😉

IMG_5870 IMG_5871

Winter beer for lunch and an amazing seasonal flatbread which had pesto, caramelized onions, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and cheese (can’t remember what kind, though).IMG_5872

The girls got the “Greek Nachos” to start, which I tried and thought were delicious. It was such a fun idea!

IMG_5875

IMG_5879

How about the workouts? I took Monday and Tuesday as rest days because my body needed it! Holy moly did it need it. I was SO sore and tight after my weekend festivities that it felt good to rest and foam roll. Once I got back into workouts, I felt like I did the right thing by giving my body some time to rest.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday & Tuesday- Lots of walking! Monday I took the long walk home and Tuesday ran errands and shopped. My muscles loosened up a lot by walking and getting blood flowing. Needed that!

IMG_5865

  • Wednesday- I ran a 5K on the treadmill (a slow one, but that’s ok!) before teaching UXF Burn. It was a big class, so I didn’t get to do as much of the workout since I was walking around correcting form (I brought in some new moves so that required a lot of coaching from me).

IMG_5862

Wore my new shirt from MANIA!

IMG_5864

  • Thursday- Taught SHRED using a format I learned at Sunday’s MANIA events and taught kickboxing with a totally new set of combos (that I made up as I brushed my teeth, haha). It was high cardio- we gotta burn those calories before T-day!
  • Friday- I did 10 minutes of random cardio (jogging, jumping jacks, burpees, jump squats, etc. etc.) and the upper body and core exercises from Athena’s Total Body Blast workout.
  • Saturday- I taught a super sweaty, super high cardio, super crowded kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. I woke up feeling like I had done a million lunges on Friday, and since I didn’t, I blame it on Delayed Onset Soreness from Thursday’s workouts. Felt good to shake my legs out in class!
  • Sunday- Since I feel like I didn’t get a chance to get in some isolated and focused strength training in, I headed to the East Boston YMCA for their 10:30 “Y Pump” class. Felt great!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Subbing a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC- it’s a 6:30, so BSCers if you’re looking for a good class, please come!
  • Tuesday- I will probably head to the gym after work for strength and maybe a little cardio.
  • Wednesday-My 6:30 UXF Burn class is cancelled, but I am subbing the 5:30 Sports Conditioning Class, so if you get out of work early, definitely come- we will work super hard to burn lots of calories before Thanksgiving!
  • Thursday- I will do some type of at-home workout at my parents house. I am trying to come up with a Thanksgiving-themed workout, so be on the lookout 😉
  • Friday- Rest day! I am getting my hair done and then my family is heading to Kennebunkport for lunch at David’s, walking around, shopping, and drinks at Hurricane Restaurant (fun fact: I used to manage the books and be a hostess there- so fun!).
  • Saturday- Heading back to Boston early Saturday morning to teach Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA- come burn off your holiday eats!
  • Sunday- Maybe a rest day? I’ll see how I feel.

Things I am Looking Forward To

Gosh! There are so many things! I am exited to sub a few classes since I am missing both of mine on Thursday. I am excited to be home in Maine for Thanksgiving. We are doing dinner just the 4 of us and then we head to Sara and Amy’s mom’s house for dessert… a tradition for as long as I can remember! I’m excited about getting my hair highlighted and then spending the whole day with my family because we have lots of fun together 🙂

Questions for you: What was your favorite part about last weekend? Do you plan on working out on Thanksgiving? What are you looking forward to this week? Please share- I love hearing from you 🙂

Surprise 60th Birthday Party

2 Comments

Surprise parties can be iffy; some people love being surprised and some people hate it. Luckily, the surprise 60th birthday party for my mom’s best friend, Christine (who happens to be a “Shapleigh Girl” mom… Sara and Amy’s mom, to be exact), went off without a hitch and was very well received by her. In fact, I don’t think she could have been happier OR more surprised… a win-win (side note- when I first typed “win”, I accidentally typed “wine”. Does that mean I have a problem?) situation if you ask me!

I headed up to Christine’s house in East Wakefield, NH Saturday after my kickboxing class. Sara took Christine to go baby shopping for Zeke, so Amy, my sister and Gordie headed up early on Saturday to get the house “party ready” while Sara and Christine were shopping. By the time I showed up, the house was looking great!

IMG_5607

The weather was absolutely perfect for a fall party. Not too hot, but warm enough for people to enjoy the weather out on the deck. People started arriving around 3:30, in anticipation of Christine and Sara’s 4pm arrival. Once we got the heads up saying they were on their way, we headed outside for the big reveal of the surprise!

IMG_5614

Not long after, she arrived!!

IMG_5619

And boy was she surprised! I think everyone started crying when she arrived because her emotions were contagious! Both Christine and my mom are HUGE gushers… aka, people who gush over, well, anything, so when she realized what was going on she was crying and screaming and laughing and just completely shocked. I don’t think I’ve seen a more successful surprise!

IMG_5621 IMG_5624 IMG_5626

Gosh just looking at those photos makes me get all choked up again!

I’ll let the photo’s do the rest of the talking. I am so happy to have been a part of such a special day for an incredible lady. Christine is like a second mom to my sister and me so it was awesome getting a chance to shower her with love and celebrations!

IMG_5608 IMG_5609 IMG_5610 IMG_5611 IMG_5612 IMG_5617 IMG_5628 IMG_5631 IMG_5633 IMG_5637

Happy Birthday, Chris!!! Now you don’t have to plan your own party 😉

Questions for you: Do you like surprise parties? Have you ever thrown one or had one thrown for you? I haven’t, but I think I would love it.

Pizza night, Halloween party, relaxing

4 Comments

Overall, the past weekend was really quite relaxing… or at least for me. I didn’t spend a lot of time at my apartment since I screwed up and broke my heat. With the temps we had in Boston over the weekend, this wasn’t the best time to break the heat. Needless to say, I spent Friday working like this:

IMG_5542

I was so grumpy and frustrated with myself by the end of the day. There’s nothing I hate more than doing something stupid that ends up costing me money. I was tempted to just stay in and drink wine by myself, but I decided to pull myself together and take someone up on their offer to grab pizza and a drink at Santarpio’s Pizza.

IMG_5546

Totally worth it and I felt much better after! Santarpio’s has totally lived up to its name, too… loved, loved, loveddd the pizza!

Saturday started off with kickboxing and then I got to do one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen: frost cookies!! There is something so relaxing about frosting cookies… and, ok, maybe I love it so much because I get to eat frosting throughout the process. I could literally eat frosting by the spoonful. Anyone else like this?

IMG_5549

For me, holiday’s are not complete without funfetti cookies, so I make a point to bring them to every holiday party that I go to.

Rachel and her husband, Dan, had a Halloween party on Saturday night, so I headed over to my old apartment to hang out with my sister and Amy before going to the party. I reused a costume and went as a flapper.

IMG_5557

Rachel’s apartment was so festive! Everywhere I looked there was glitter and cobwebs and other “Halloween” stuff. I couldn’t help but have some of her famous sangria… my favorite part of every party she has 😉

IMG_5554IMG_5552

It was so nice to go to a house party where you can actually have conversations with people… and snuggle babies!

IMG_5561 IMG_5560

Thanks for a fun party, Rachel!

Sunday was another relaxing day… spent mostly at my old apartment. Since they had heat and I did not, it made sense to go hang out with them. My sister and I also had to plan our Chicago trip, so it made for a good afternoon to hang out there! She made us pizza for lunch… yummm.

IMG_5565

When I left the girls’ apartment, I did my weekly grocery shopping and was so excited to have time to make a real meal! It’s been far too long. I’ll share the recipe with you later this week, but it was delicious and a perfect warm, fall meal to eat.

And here we are… another week! I am happy to have heat back, that’s for darn sure!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite pizza place? Do you love frosting or are you more of a cake person? Do you have a Halloween costume? If so, what were you? What was the best part of your weekend?

5 Things I’m Looking Forward To This Weekend

7 Comments

Hey there! Happy freaking Friday! I feel like this week absolutely flew by, anyone else? It wasn’t an extraordinarily busy or exciting week (just a regular ol’ work week, followed by workouts and teaching), but every part about it seemed to be in fast forward. I mean, it’s already October 11th. Yuck!

Anyway! I thought I’d share some things that I’m looking forward to this weekend, because that always gets me in a better mood. Plus, I want to know what you’re looking forward to this weekend, too!

1. Going to the dentist. Yeah, that’s weird, right? I love getting my teeth cleaned and haven’t been to the dentist in an embarrassingly long time (who else ends up skipping dentist appointments all together when/if they have to get rescheduled? That’s totally what happened here!).

2. Heading to Maine tomorrow to spend the weekend hanging out with my parents and escaping from my Boston life for a while. Sometimes a girl just needs to get away!

IMG_5181

3. Foliage and leaf peeping! The drive up to Maine at this time of year is absolutely amazing. I’m going to crank some good tunes and soak it all in.

Fall-Foliage-1-Large
source
4. A little shopping in Kittery on my way north, puttering around some stores in Maine and maybe (hopefully) getting my hair cut. Oh, and enjoying some relaxing time where I can drink wine and maybe even sit by the fireplace… It’s the little things…

IMG_4491

5. Prep some fun posts for the next week and give B2B a little lovin’. I’ve had a few workout post ideas in mind, but haven’t had time to get them actually done, so I hope to do that this weekend!

Your turn! What are you looking forward to this weekend? Where do you go when you need to ‘get out of dodge’?