I love the Color Run + weekends + my dad's birthday.

HIIII. I feel like all of my blog posts in 2014 start off with me saying "LONG TIME NO SEE" or something along those lines. And if they don't, it's because I feel like I'm always saying it on here. But really - long time no see. 

To be real, I haven't been in the best of moods lately. I'm not in a bad mood, I'm just not feeling 100% Lindsay. And because of that, I've been neglecting this. But, here I am! I had a good weekend and am feeling pretty Lindsay-like so I'm back and hopefully back for good! Ayooooo. 

This weekend I ran (eh...mostly walked) the Color Run with Shannon, Catie, and Natosha. It was hard waking up 6:45am on a Saturday but do what you gotta do to make sure you can get some Starbucks and a crossiant before speeding to the Color Run because you're super anxious about parking and not making it there before 9am when the first waves start the run. Great news though: we got there at the perfect time and were one of the first waves! Like I said, we mostly walked -- and by that I mean, we only jogged a few times: through the color stations and then again at the end to make it seem like we jogged/ran the whole thing. We are maybe posers for running at the end like that. I like to think we got to enjoy the course more than anyone who ran because we walked! 
The finish line "party" was a great time and everything but the weather and being able to be near the stadiums (ugh, dreamy M&T -- heart eyes) and hanging with my BFF and sister and Natosha were the best parts. I miss it already! 
It won't be too long until the next little fun run, though. Shannon, her cousins (who I love - hi!) and I are running the Electric Run in July. Excited for that :)

Easter was also obviously this weekend BUT it was also my dad's birthday! 
We're not a super religious family so Easter doesn't mean going to church or doing anything tradition-wise at my house. It normally means I have to be punished by hearing we're having ham for dinner (ham is not one of my favorite meats -- ick!) and just hang out with my family for half of the day and Paul's family for the other half. 
However, today was a bit different with it being my dad's birthday. Lots of Easter candy, dessert, playing outside, present opening and pictures on the deck. As an almost-25 year old adult person, I still get pumped on Easter baskets. Living at home has its perks - thanks, Easter Bunny! Paul surprised me with Easter treats too (Mr. Nice Guy) and I got to try the Summer Honey Wheat Blue Moon (heart eyes again). Wound up being a pretty great day!

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this whole blogging thing again. I have plans to try a few new cookie and brownie recipes in the next few weeks so I'll post those on here! With my 25th birthday in a week and a half, I am trying to come up with a year-long fully-pre-planned Happiness Project especially for my 25th year of life which I will also be posting on here for all to read. Fingers crossed I can have enough brain power and energy this week to get something going with that!

I love life lately.

celebrating Nick's birthday with a surprise party thrown by Shannon that was really great and had Chick Fil A and good times and arguments about the Ravens. I'm sorry. I can't be tamed.

making cupcakes with Catie around and realizing that you can dip cupcakes in sprinkles if trying to sprinkle them on top of the cupcakes isn't working. Catie is a baking genius - WHO KNEW? 

looking at ModCloth 3x a day trying to find something to buy but I don't like anything enough to purchase anything #roughlife #feelbadforme

drinking hot lemon water every morning - it's refreshing and apparently great for you so just doing that to try to counteract the pizza and cookies I'm eating for lunch

listening to One Direction non-stop to-and-from anywhere I drive and humming them forever at work 

trying hard to memorize my expiration date for my new debit card so I can become a pro at online shopping once again without having to look at my card

wearing exclusively leggings or jeggings on the weekend because I'm sick of wearing jeans but I have to during the week for work and also I'm an adult I make my own decisions so yolo
obsessing over my new camera that I am in love with and want to cuddle with all day but when I'm not cuddling I want to be using it to take pictures of Sasha
wishing I could commit more to my Happiness Project. February is going to be my month, OKAY?

I love weekends.

This weekend I:
ate way too many mini York peppermint patties. Paul started eating them in the past few weeks and now I find myself strangely addicted to them when I used to think they were stupid. 
spent the last hour of my work week with a meeting that consisted of Bohs and sushi. Probably the best + only way to spend the end of that crazy week.
bought lots of new things at Target -- totally unusual (not) -- including dry shampoo (finally) and the best (and cheapest) eyeliner pen. Shout out to Jackie for the recommendation on eyeliner -- I'm really excited.
hung out at my house + watched football with my bff and boyf. This is really great (and unusual) because I rarely hang out with both of them on a Sunday afternoon and even more rarely (probably terrible english, whoops my bad) at mi casa. 
started running again. Hey sore legs. Ouch. Feels good to be back at it, though, as it always does when I start running again after a long period of time without running anywhere ever.
got sleepy at Starbucks with Shannon. Just doesn't seem right, AM I RIGHT? The lighting in the Starbucks near my house makes me FALL ASLEEP while I drink my drank. That's life, I guess. I did get a new pretty Christmas cup - yaaay!
watched Paul play on his iPad. #iPad

I love weekends.

Hi again, blog. Long time, no see! 

This weekend I:

visited Nick + Shannon (hehe, the Barrs) @ their new apartment finally. We got Chick-fil-a, drank pumpkin beer, and lol'ed. Best times. Can't wait for the Fantasy Football draft @ their place next weekend with so many snacks and so many pumpkin beers and me probably not getting a good team but still being really excited about it. 
celebrated my mom's birthday by taking her out to lunch @ Beck's with Catie - finally. We were only a month and a week late. Sowwy, mommy. John Mayer was our waiter (there's a waiter at Beck's that looks exactly like John Mayer) and the child/baby expo was going on outside on Main Street so it was amazing people watching from our table. Saw some cops on Segways and robots requesting high fives so that was pretty great, I guess. 
stopped by Gyspy Systers. Sigh. It's a really rough life because I want literally everything in there but then I get so overwhelmed by wanting everything and end up walking out with nothing. It's not right and it's not fair to anyone - especially myself.  I need to go back again soon and buy a million candles. And some purple feather earrings for football season :)
hung out with some neighbors that moved to South Carolina but stopped by for the weekend on a trip up to Syracuse. Hi, Momos! They brought some peaches from SC that might be the best peaches I have ever had...ever. So perfect. 

I'm going to try really hard to start posting more and making fun things and baking good foods so get excited! Hehehe. Lots of fun things coming up! 

I love(d) my four-day birthday weekend.

My birthday was Thursday. I'm 24 now. I had the best four-day birthday weekend. I'm a lucky gal. I'm also old (or getting there). Here's to hoping year 24 is as good as this weekend was!

During my birthday weekend, I:

• went to Chili's for my birthday lunch - it doesn't get much better than that. Shannon + I had the most energetic waitress (whose name was Lindsay - that's some birthday magic right there) and I basically yolo'ed on appetizers and Blue Moon. Best life.
• broke a plate or two and ate the best nachos and drank the best sangria at my birthday dinner with Paul at Cheesecake Factory. So yummy + so clumsy. 
• got a birthday shout out from my favorite NFL player on Twitter - Anthony Allen. I think I laughed so hard I cried for about five minutes. Seriously - anyone who knows me, knows I love the sht out of him. I was so happy. 
• ate the best birthday cake of all time - triple layer banana cake with peanut butter + cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmmm.
• made the trek down to Bethesda for dinner with Shannon + Catie. I love Bethesda. So many stores and great restaurants and most importantly of all - Georgetown Cupcake.
• made the tipsy mistake of purchasing an entire dozen of cupcakes. Why? I wish I knew. I can't eat 12 cupcakes on my own. That's not true. I probably could but I don't want to be sick everywhere (TMI or...?) and/or gain 10 pounds overnight. I learned that I shouldn't be going into a cupcake shop while tipsy because this is going to happen and it's just not a good idea.
• had my first frozen yogurt of the season. Also, it's worth noting that I ate gummy bears for the first time in a long time on my froyo - ugh, I love them. Such an addiction to gummy candies + Twizzlers lately. I'm a child. 
• spent the last afternoon of my weekend at the Fine Art + Wine Festival in Sykesville. Sangria, getting to see the new GypsySysters store, spending time with fun people. It was the best way to end my weekend.
• decided to commit to being a part of a football league with Shannon, Nick, Paul, etc. Should be good if all goes well!

I love St. Patrick's Day.

The days leading up to St. Patty's Day, I knew I wanted to make Lucky Charms cupcakes. But...all of the recipes I found were either gross (they used the yucky cereal part for a 'crust' for the cupcakes - barf) or too simple and didn't seem festive enough. So I came up with my own way of making them that made them more festive without being disgusting.

I bought:

• white cake mix
• a box of Lucky Charms - the smallest box available
• white icing
• green food coloring for the icing 
• green crystal-y sprinkles

I made the cake mix as it was supposed to be made according to the box, dumped a bunch of the marshmallows in and folded them into the cake batter, then put them in the oven! 

The icing was obviously just green food coloring and the white icing which I just mixed in a little mixing bowl. 

Then I decorated them with the green icing and more marshmallows.

That's it! The worst part was having to dig into the bag of Lucky Charms to get all of the marshmallows out. That took the longest.  But I think they turned out awesome! They're basically Funfetti cupcakes but with the marshmallows as the sprinkles.

I went with friends to Chili's - surprise! - to get food and drinks. Nothing flashy but it was really fun and they got to eat my cupcakes post Chili's.

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• felt like I was VIP at Chili's with Shannon. Hilarious. If there's a wait, they don't even ask for my last name - they know it, we get seated before other couples that got there before us, we get the best booth in the restaurant, and we get to sneak back into the kitchen to say hi to Dan. (There's your blog shout out, Dan!) Also, shout out to Sean - you're the best. Chili's is probably my favorite restaurant and I don't care if that makes me uncool, hahaha. I love it.
• laid around like a big lazy lazy lazy and watched a lot of winning by the Caps and the Terps. It felt great, though. After last week's hot messiness, I needed to do nothing and just feel like my life was organized and good again. I also spent probably about 30% of the weekend trying to plan fun things to do in the spring because I am 110% over winter right now. 
• went wild in the picture frame section of Target. I'm really into buying photo prints on Snapfish lately. Reeeeeeally into it. So...I bought a lot of picture frames to put up in my room. I'm also about to go wild on Etsy and buy some quote prints. Excited!

Side note: look at what the Maryland SPCA put up on their Facebook Saturday afternoon. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  

Here's a link for you to click on so that you can hopefully donate at least $5.00. Even if only 7 people donate $5.00 each, I'll be at $100. That would be really awesome! 

I love weekends.

I've felt so unproductive the past few weeks/weekends but this weekend I feel like I finally got my groove back.

This weekend I:
brought my bangs back to life. They've been missing for probably the last 2 months and I'm so happy to have them back. My face isn't the same without them. I need them in my life. My stylist/hairdresser laughed at me because I was so excited about her cutting them, haha. She said, "it's the little things in life." Holla. Except bangs are not little things to me. They are everything.
hooked myself up with a new purse. Finally. FINALLY. I have been using the same one for probably two years and that's not very girly of me. I'm so picky about my purses/bags which is the main reason why it's taken so long. I'm also cheap and can't afford all of the nice ones that I actually do want. Either way, I went to Target and found the perfect one. It was only $30.00 (the cheap-o in me was so happy) and it's just perfect. Again, it's the little things in life. But purses are kind of big things, right?
celebrated my BFFs new kind-of job (or field placement) by going to Chili's. Chili's is the perfect place to celebrate. And you know what? It got her a free molten cake. Where else could you get free food/dessert just because you're celebrating something? PROBABLY NO WHERE. Chili's is the best. 
watched some of the NFL combine with Paul on Sunday morning. Hilarious. Google "Mike Glennon" and TELL ME HE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE HE'S 16 OR 17. He's my new obsession because I'm going to love laughing at how young he looks. Can't wait til he gets drafted. He'll be the new Anthony Allen. Or maybe not. No one can replace Anthony Allen in my life. But this Mike Glennon kid already has me lol'ing. I've got a weird sense of humor, I guess.
played (more like watched) baseball with Shannon, Nick, Paul, and Steve. I'm definitely not very sportsy. I try (sometimes). Can it be spring already so I can be outside and not be whining about the wind/how cold my hands are?

If you haven't donated and want to, there's still plenty of time! My Fundraising Page.

I love weekends.

FIRST AND FOREMOST, let's acknowledge that Grace Helbig acknowledged me. 
Most people probably 1) don't care and 2) don't know who she is because they aren't YouTube crazy like I've become (or maybe a combination of both). But other people - who I talk to on a daily basis - know that this made my weekend. I was freaking OUT. 
I maaaaaybe got tipsy a lil bit on Saturday night and decided to post a bunch of random photo booth pictures on my Tumblr late at night, hahaha. So cool of me. #livingitup. One of the pictures I put up was this one - which is a picture of my youngest sister and I from a month ago:

I won't explain it too much but that's called Grace-facing...and Grace liked the picture on Tumblr.  It's the little things in life. Please watch her videos. She's hilarious and is about to be famous, haha.

Without that happening, something else would have made my weekend instead - a crab pretzel. Shannon and I go out to eat every Friday night but I like to pretend this past Friday was special because it was my half-birthday. I really yolo'ed it up and got dessert (which was a cinnamon roll cookie with pumpkin icing and pecans...SO GOOD) and a beer. It was a great evening! I hope the second half of my 23rd year of living is filled with more crab pretzels + desserts. 

In addition to all of that, I made the most amazing pumpkin cookies in the world. I've made them every fall for the past 2 or 3 years. They're really incredible. "You should sell these cookies and make a fortune" - direct quote from Shannon. I can't really do that because I didn't come up with the recipe but I highly recommend trying these out if you like pumpkin-y sweets + cake-y things. Amazingly easy and amazingly amazing. I made my own icing because I was lazy and didn't feel like going all out - because it'll end up too thin anyways (as always, haha). The cookie itself is enough, in my opinion. They don't really need the icing! But go all out if you want. Yolo, hahaha.

I love things lately.

Lately has been pumpkin brownies, new obsessions, and fun buys.

Last weekend, I baked pumpkin choco-chip brownies for my sister and I. We were home alone and needed treeeeeats. They turned out pretty decent. I think Catie liked them more than I did. I usually can't get down with brownies from scratch -- they just don't taste as good as brownies from a box. It has something to do with the cocoa powder? I don't know. 
If Catie weren't in the house when I was making these, I probably would have gone nuts. There were a few mishaps - including putting in the wrong size pan and having to scrap off parchment paper while yelling. Good times. I think they look pretty! If you like brownies from scratch, pumpkin, and chocolate chips - here's the recipe!

In the past week or so, I've developed a few little obsessions. One being Google Docs. I'm obsessed with using Google Docs right now. I have so many lists and it's thrilling to me to know that I can look/add to the lists while I'm at home, at work, etc. SO CONVENIENT. Anything that helps me with my lists makes me happy. The other obsession is scarves. This isn't a new obsession in my life - just a new obsession now that it's fall again. I have to have at least 15 scarves already....and then I've been buying them online every weekend since it started even looking like it was going to be cold soon. Even when it was 75 degrees outside, I was looking at scarves, wanting to wear scarves, dreaming of scarves. Ugggh. I love scarves. So warm and cozzzzzzy.

When I said fun buyssssss...I meant fun buy. Singular. Just one. I mean, I always have fun/make fun buys when I buy things online at 10:00am every Saturday morning. But I made this one on a random Tuesday afternoon and I'm pretty excited. I got a Baggu bag! I've never had a reason to buy a Baggu...but I've always wanted one! This lil guy will be my new lunch bag. 
Here's the one I got:

It's got cute lil baby foxes and it's orange-ish pink-ish. I'm in love. 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• baked the yummiest pumpkin cupcakes! 
• went to Baugher's with Paul, Aditi and Anusha to hit up the pumpkin patch. It was a blast. There's so much to do there! We did the hayride to the pumpkin patch (obviously) which was so fun. When we got back, I bought some applesauce and apple cider and a baby (or not-so-baby) pumpkin to carve! I need to think of how I'm going to carve that little baby. 
• had about 8 heart attacks during the Ravens game. Ouch. Luckily, I had the previously mentioned applesauce to eat as I ate my frustration/pain away during the 4th quarter.
• did the "dynamic duo" - I just made that up - with Shannon. The dynamic duo is Chick Fil A and Target. Winning.
• spent a lot of time on the couch with my puppy. Quality bonding time.

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• went to dinner with Paul and two of our friends, Aditi and Courtney. We were expecting two more - but they stood us up, hahaha. It was a lot of fun. It's nice seeing the both of them since Paul and I rarely get to see them in general. I got the "trifecta" of margaritas - which was pretty great. 
• attended an 80s party @ Zoe's house with Paul. I'll be real - I wasn't sure if I was going to dress up! Luckily, my handy-dandy kind of-crafty skills allowed me to just make an off-the-shoulder shirt and my mom's handy-dandy "OH MY GOSH THE 80S" skills allowed me to have a jean jacket to wear. Those two things with some stirrup leggings and a side ponytail = 80s life. I was most impressed with Paul's outfit. He's cute. And so was Zoe's cat, Shiloh. I love him and he loves me.
• drank an iced pumpkin spice latte. Who loves hearing about Starbucks? Okay good. My brain never thought that iced + pumpkin spice would ever be a good pairing but AH IT WAS SO GOOD. If it were warmer outside, I might start getting them but I have a feeling I won't want an iced drink once the fall weather really decides to kick in and stay around.
• sportsed it up with Shannon and watched the O's game with her on Friday night. I can't lie - I fell asleep between the bottom of the 8th inning and right after the top of the 9th ended. My body knew what was coming during the bottom of the 9th and decided to wake me up so I could watch it and I'm so glad it did! AHHHH. 

I love parties. Weeeee.

This weekend, Catie + I had the house to ourselves so we had a bunch of people over. Or...she had a lot of people over and I just had Paul and Shannon over. It was a good time. Lots of hard ciders (for me) and apparently just a lot of balloons for everyone else. Catie has a really solid (and awesome) group of friends that I really like so I'm pretty thankful for that. Great food and good buddies and lots of Olympics watching.
On Saturday, Paul and I went to his cousin, Amanda's, going away party. Her family decided they were going to host some backyard Olympics. Magically enough, Paul and I ended up on the same team. Team China. Myyyyy favorite. We won the bronze in jump rope - which was pretty great.
Fun parties. Fun fun fun. 

I love graduation parties.

I'm really glad that graduation parties go on and on and on during the summer. They're one of my favorite things ever. Graduation parties mean fun people (usually or...hopefully) and a lot of great food. This hungry monster (hi, Jackie and Tyler) could eat all of the chips and fruit salad forever and be so content with life. I wouldn't be able to eat like that at home...only at parties.

Paul and I went to two on Saturday and they were both awesome. One was for Paul's friend and Shannon's soon-to-be (legally) Uncle David's son (did you follow all of that or..?) who graduated from high school. The other one was for Amanda and Jess. Two of my most favorite people in the whole world. Amanda graduated from Washington College and Jess graduated from high school. Aw...I love them.

Both parties were great. Kyle's was just a little rough because it was ridiculous outside. It was 200 degrees outside. Okay, maybe it wasn't that hot but it was really hot outside. I've noticed that I sweat a lot more now that I ever did before. I feel like I was sweating so much more than Paul and I had a dress on (a light one, without sleeves, etc.) and he had a t-shirt and shorts on. What's wrong with me? Sweaty monster life. The party itself was great and the location was awesome. And I got to see Nick and Shannon for a hot second! It's crazy to think that Paul knows Nick's uncle so well and we end up at the same parties because of it. It makes me want to sing "It's A Small World."

Amanda and Jess's party was honestly the best ever. So great that we stayed until 1:30 in the morning - that's late not just for us but it's also late for me. I haven't stayed out that late in forever - grandma alert. Their family is...amazing. I can't even describe it. They're all so open and honest and awesome and nice and friendly (hi, Shannon). Hanging out with their family (immediate and extended) feels so comfortable. It feels like I've known them forever. Paul and I had a blast hanging out with them. And honestly, they're some of my new favorite people because they told me that I look like Zooey Deschanel. Twice. I don't. At all. But you know what, I'll take it. What an awesome compliment, hahaha.

Here's some pictures from the grad party at A + J's as well as some from the 4th of July!

I love weekends.

This (super quick, extremely fast) weekend I:

• went to Aditi's graduation party! I love her family and her friends...but most of all, I love Indian food, hahahaha. Just kidding. Her family and friends are much more awesome than the food. But seriously, Paul and I both lose it over Indian food. It's so amazing. I got to take some of the dessert home. This was bad for my weight loss goal but...it was so good for my mouth at lunch on Sunday, haha.
• got to meet 7 little puppies. Words can't describe my life when I got to hang out with them. They were ADORABLE SO CUTE I LOVED THEM. There are a ton of pictures of them below. You're welcome.
• took my dad out to an early dinner to Cheesecake Factory with Catie. It was pleasant. Can't remember the three of us were together without the little one or the crazy mom. We offered to buy him beer, etc. He said no...and ordered a strawberry milkshake instead. Livin' it up.

I love weekends.

 

This weekend I:

• had s'mores twice. TWO times. Once on Friday and once on Saturday. It was great. If I had a firepit or someway to have bonfires, I would have s'mores two times every weekend. 
• overslept a bunch. I never oversleep aaaand I did this weekend big time and my entire life was confused. I'd rather wake up at like 9:00am than 11:00am! Weird or weird? 
• met a cop who I was fascinated by. Is that weird? I just am so afraid of cops out in the real world that in a friendly setting, I'm amazed that they're real people and not big meanies. He was actually really nice. I told Paul this but I'll say it again so everyone can hear it: I want cop friends. I want to hear all of the storieeees!
• learned that I can develop frisbee throwing skills in under an hour. I went from completely sucking at it to being good at it in a fast amount of time. I'm becoming more athletic, you guys. This is fantastic! 
• almost choked eating celery. This is not a joke - this is actually really serious. I've never had something lodged in my throat before. But at the graduation party I went to, I had celery annnnd...it got stuck in my throat for a second and I had to make this loud UGHHHH noise in front of everyone to get it out. If I wasn't loud and obnoxious, I might have seriously choked. This is real life. Everyone, eat your celery very carefully.
• had Rita's for dinner. That's the way to lose weight, right? Eat that kind of stuff for dinner? 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• had Jesse Lacey as my waiter at Beck's. Not really. He looked like him, though. He was thoughtful. Thoughtful is my new favorite adjective. 
• had Arbor Mist for the first time since high school, I think? I was not impressed. 
• finally bought clothes from J. Crew. I've always wanted to be able to afford J. Crew and I never have been able to feel like I was able to. But...I'm excited to announce that I bought two pairs of shorts and a v-neck from J. Crew. They were (extremely) marked down but who cares! It feels like a weird accomplishment and makes me strangely happy to be at the point in my life where I can afford (even if it's marked down) clothes from J. Crew.
• played basketball/shot some HOOPS for a little bit with Paul. It was so nice out and so pleasant. I'm getting better at actually getting the ball into the hoop.
• got snowballs for the first time this year from Ice Planet with Paul. I got dreamsicle and it was quite dreamy. I was going to get my usual flavor but Paul said, "YOLO" and I decided to branch out, hahaha. OH, and Paul is playing a show at Ice Planet NEXT FRIDAY between noon and 2pm, I believe. Ice Planet is giving out free snowballs and my thoughtful little boyfriend will be playing good music while you wait in line to get your free treat! I wish I could go! Everyone else should if you can! :)
• said goodbye to my dad. He's going to Candada for the week for work. Him and I are world travelers this week.