Stiamo Andando Verso l'Italia

We are … Going to Italy! Like everyone else in the blog world it seems! Seriously though, we are super excited. Mr. A and I both love to travel and we have yet to take a big international trip together. Our honeymoon was great but was a bit of a “bust” as far as our expectations goes. So we are looking forward to our big trip for our first anniversary. We are considering it our second honeymoon and there for I can totally justify spending too much on clothing again! Whoot whoot! 

A little history for you all about why we choose Italy. I actually lived in Rome for a semester in college. This is actually where I met my great friend Kate, who I just visited in Philly. I feel as though I know Rome pretty well and originally really pushed to spend like no time in Rome. But Mr. A has never been there (he lived in Germany for years and has only been to northern Italy) so I gave in and we are now going to spend 4 days in the eternal city. Then we are heading to Sorrento for four days. We will use this location as a base camp for day trips and wine tastings in the southern regions of Italy. Neither of us has been to this part of the country and we are really looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. We have planned a trip to Carpi and to Pompeii (I have already been there, but again, Mr. A wanted to see it and who am I to object some good porn frescos). We are then heading for three glorious days to Positano! Positano is the one place in Italy I have always wanted to go to. Ever since falling in love with the movie “Only You” in the 90’s I have dreamed of going there and running down the steps in a fabulous dress. This will make my dreams come true, I just need to find the right dress. 

One of my favorites. Totally go watch it if you can. Source

We have actually already reserved our hotel for Positano because that place books up like a year in advance. Hotel rooms costs a freaking fortune, so we decided to really let loose in Positano and go for a bad ass hotel room, since we were already going to spend a lot anyway. We are staying at Hotel Marincanto. It’s ranked one of the best on Trip Advisor and came recommended by some friends who have already stayed there. We have sprung for the suite with the hot tub on the balcony and views of the whole city.

Source

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this part of the trip. We plan on doing nothing for three whole days. Anytime I am having a rough day I just go to the hotel’s website and dream of wearing a huge sun hat and laying on my balcony drinking wine and reading my book. It is going to be legendary. 

The whole trip is going to be amazing. I can’t wait to plan every detail and then get there and enjoy all that Italy has to offer. All of you who have been posting about your recent trips have just gotten me more and more excited about our trip. The food. The wine. The romance. UGH it is going to be perfect!

I could have thown a saddle on this bitch

Check out the huge ass roach that walked passed me this morning like nbd. I had a heart attack and then ran away...

The fear of knowing that thing was still alive in my house then
over ran any other emotion and I pounced. I smaked that thing with Mr. A's shoe about 5 times whilst screaming. Then promptly took the attached picture.

Btw, while taking the picture it started to move again so I freaked out and killed it AGAIN! Then covered that shit up with a shoe and left Harry and Mr.A to deal. I am horrible.

Annoyed... But better now

UPDATE, I got it back up! 

I had a great post up about my Philly girl weekend and SOME HOW it was deleted. I don't know what the heck happened. I will be reposting it later but it was actually really long and I have to go back and rethink the whole weekend. I am so upset.

I am sorry to all of you that are dying to hear all about my weekend. Kate I swear it was not on purpose love!

Philly girl weekend re-cap!

I had the pleasure of attending the bachelorette party of a great friend Kate. She is marrying one of her longtime friends and an all-around great guy Matt. If you don’t remember Matt is the cop that was in a horrible accident about a year ago. They have worked so hard to get healthy and stick together. I know they are going to have a really special marriage and I am so lucky to know them both.  Right away I knew I wanted to attend this girl’s bachelorette party because I knew it was going to be a great trip. 

I headed out at the ass crack of dawn on Friday morning and landed in Philly around noon. After some last minute shopping and a tour of Kate’s adorable 1950’s Cape Cod style home we got the party started. I made queso and guac which I am sure the Philly girls thought was weird. I also busted out my favorite Oreo truffles. They are amazeballs, and super easy to make.  We hung out all night with all the bridesmaids and got to know each other. Gallons of champagne will really speed that process up! We finally headed to bed at 4am after a lot of great story telling and yummy snacks. 

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast and then headed to the real party in the city. It had literally been years since I had been out in Center City. It was so much fun to be home. We stayed at a cute hotel right across from City Hall. After we all finished getting ready we headed out for some drink’s at Steven Starr’s “Continental Mid-Town”. I had a huge fight with a cab driver who refused to make change for a $20. Curse words were said and I did not pay. I did not cut anyone, WOOOT WOOOT! I feel I have really had some growth in the cutting department… 

We headed into the bar and went right up to the rooftop lounge. The weather was perfect and we had survived the rapture so it was time to get the bubbly flowing. Kate had about 25 people at the party including her mom and MIL. I thought it was so cute to see them all out and ready to party! We ordered a bunch of appetizers and yummy drinks. I had a freaking heart attack when I paid for my first drink and it was $9. I took a picture because I had to keep a reminder of what $9 champagne looked like. BTW- It totally looks like $3 champagne… 

Bride looking fabulous.

My champagne that I sipped so slowly... It was so yummy!

My outfit for the night. Thoughts? It was the first time I wore heals in like a year.

We then headed to another bar called “Time” in the gabor-hood. Loved it, but they played horrible techno music so we headed to our final destination. We had to walk through a shady alleyway and there may or may not have been a raunchy photo shoot in said alley. It was the funniest part of the night. We then got into “McGillians Pub” the oldest bar in Philadelphia. Such a cute pub and I have been going there for years. Kate got hit on by some randoms and we all fell down a lot at this point. We then walked back to the hotel and hit the sack around 345am not without some awesome Philly pretzels and more drinks. 

The next morning the bride took us all to a bunch at the ironically named spot “Supper”, such a cute spot. It reminded me a lot of a few cute Austin spots. We had a riot at brunch sharing stories from the night before. Everyone was tired and hung over. We again had many $9 mimosas, which I again had a heart attack when I heard the price.  We had some really yummy food and then said our goodbye. The whole thing went by in a flash. 

GGAB? Maybe. But I thought she looked fabulous for the day after her party!

Right after brunch I had a few minutes to catch up with my good friend Sarah who also still lives in Philly. She took me to this totally cute little coffee shop “Spruce Street Coffee” and I had an amazing cup of cappuccino. We caught up and she of course looked fabulous! I am always amazed at how Sarah pulls off looking better and better through the years (that bitch). After coffee Sarah walked me to the train station and got me all set up with a ticket to the airport. I hopped on the train and off I went. I headed home and after a very long weekend was back in Mr. A’s arms. 

Love the heart in my coffee!

 I can’t begin to tell you how touched I am to have such great friends. Kate is one of those people who will always be there for you and never ask for anything in return. I feel so blessed that I can be a part of her wedding and maybe in some way return some of the MANY favors and acts of kindness that Miss Kate has shown me over the years. I can’t wait for the big day, her wedding is going to be amazing! Congratulations Miss Kate!

Hunger Games Porn

Thanks to Amelia I have become a Hunger Games addict! I read the first book in five days and I am in the middle of the 2nd right now. If you have not read these books you have too! They are an easy ready but still super intense. You will find yourself up late at night with a flashlight reading. Mr. A hates these books because I do not even pay attention to him wile reading. I could not care less if he lit himself on fire! It is that amazing.

So amazing that they are making the book into a movie! WHOOT WHOOT!

Here is the first image of Katniss!!!!!

At first I questioned the casting of Katness Everdeen but now I totally see it and I am DYING to see how they pull of everything else from the book!

Hope the rest of you from Panem are as happy as I am!

Conclusion

Sorry for the delay folks, this Yankee was one sick puppy this weekend. I still feel like death but I am working through it with lots of NyQuil and sleep.

Last week just before a crazy storm with no rain and lightning during the sunset, I finished my frame selection.
Then I made my templates for the frames a la Young House Love.

The storm was wicked awesome... you can't tell in this picture.

Again an awesome use for the magazines you have laying around...

I then taped them to the wall and go and even better sense of the space. The hubs even helped out a bit with shifting the taped mock ups around for me!

Once happy with the layout I began hanging the frames. The tip that Young House Love gave me about measuring out where the hooks were on the template and them hammering in the hook on the paper totally helped. I only had to redo a few frames. For sure worth the extra step.

Off to a good start as you can see, wait for it, I screw something up soon...

I only had one mishap, a frame fell off its hanger:

What a shitty hanger!

It looked like this:

Damn you cheap frames!

But this is what I ended up with:

Don't worry it will look awesome once I take out the upside down pictures...

I love love love it. Next step will be getting the pictures selected for the space and getting the matting cut for the frames. I will post a final conclusion conclusion then. That process will take a while for sure! Ugh!
Hope you like!

The saga continues

After I got what I thought was all of my frames spray painted and put back together I thought it was best to get a better idea of the space I was going to fill.So I did a rough measurement of the current gallery wall I had created over my sofa, then marked it out with tape on the floor. I thought this would help me figure out what I was working with.

Of course I vacuumed before I took this picture...

Turns out it was a huge help. The space was actually way larger than the amount of frames I had prepped. So of course panicked and ran around the house grabbing all sorts of frames (some of them I am not sure Mr. A would be happy about me stealing, SHHHH!)

Ignore the pictures in the frames they will be replaced with more fabulous stuff at some point.

I then started my layout to determine if I really needed to use all the frames I grabbed.My first attempt I thought was to forced looking so the second picture is what I have been working off of.

I thought this looked like I was trying too hard, but then I realized I am trying too hard and decided to roll with it.

More changes to come I am sure of it.

Since it has ironically been raining for the first time in 6 months here and I actually need to be outside (damn you Obama for coming here and saving all of us by bringing rain with your magic powers!) I have not been able to finish the picture frames. But once I do I will show you my next step, template making and hanging the pictures.