month in photos: may

One of my favorite months has come and gone. May was filled with tons of sun, a tiny bit of travel and plenty of patio time. Can't complain about that!

Boston:

Trinity Church.

George Washington.

Hancock tower. They have a pretty amazing food court on the main level.

Fun with friends:   

out with the girls, way too much flash.

Blue Eyes enjoying Cinco de Derby. Yes that is a seer sucker suit. ♥

Caught a lot of rays pool side with the roomie.

the grad in front of his favorite K-State bar.

While I was doing this.....

... Blue Eyes was getting some besos from his sweet Goddaughter. Love her!

Miscellany:

latest Pinterest meal: ham & cheese sammies.

SportingKC game. Nice save, too bad it was the opponent's goal keeper...

Today's outfit. Pants: J. Crew / Top: J. Crew Factory (similar) / Cardi: Banana / Watch: Burberry / Shoes: Steve Madden (similar)

fascinating life

via

Speaking of art, I went to a wonderful little art gallery/restaurant/wine bar at the Lake of the Ozarks over the weekend. Check out my Yelp review for the deets if you are ever in the area. I can't wait to go back!

Please excuse the short post this morning as I am slammed at the office. But, wanted to get this pretty little quote out and wish you all a happy hump day! 

Thakoon for NARS

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It's the Nordstrom Half Yearly sale, and while I'm there I fully intend on picking up one of these pretty Thakoon for NARS polishes to celebrate the beginning of summer! Which one is your favorite?

2012 resolution status update

Do you have drafts that have been sitting in your Posts queue forever? I just cleaned mine out and realized I never hit the Publish button on a post about my New Year's resolutions. Whoops - That's an easy way to get out of keeping them.

Only 5 1/2 months late, here are my 2012 resolutions:

I keep this framed scrapbook paper on my vanity (see those toothbrushes making their first blog appearance?) so I'm conveniently reminded of my resolutions every day. Here goes the status update:

1. Learn Spanish. 

I spent weeks stalking eBay for a cheap and legitimate set of Rosetta Stone CDs to no avail. Then in February, I received a promotional email for a 12-month online-only subscription for $20/month. Holy bargain! Seriously, have you seen how much those CDs cost? Since then I've passed one level (out of TWENTY) but regardless, I'm on my way to communicate with the locals at the two Mexican destination weddings I'm attending over the next eight months. Gracias.

2. Work out three times/week. 

Meh, more like once or twice on average. But hey - that's progress compared to this time last year.

3. Go to church more often. 

I'd say my monthly attendance would earn me a C if the Catholic church gave out grades.

4. Eat more veggies. 

This one is conveniently hard to quantify.....

5. Read 12 books. 

Now here's something I'm excited about! I bought the Kindle at the beginning of the year, which has made this goal much more attainable.

Complete: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close | 30 Pieces of Silver | Bring on the Blessings

In progress: 50 Shades of Grey | I Will Teach You to be Rich (<---- you can make fun of me for this one but I'm enjoying it!)

Next on the list: The Happiness Project | Yellow Crocus | A Tale of Two Cities | A Distant Grief | The Girl Who Played with Fire | the next book club choice

How's everyone doing on their New Year's resolutions? What other books should I put in my Amazon wishlist?

faves: memorial day weekend

via kspeddler's etsy shop

Were you wondering if I had survived the Crawl? Not to worry, I did. With only one embarrassing moment in the form of a dance off. I refuse to put up pictures of what, at the time, I thought was an excellent showing of my i-was-on-drill-team-in-high-school skills. I hopped to the Soulja Boy alongside some man with a beard in front of a crowd in the back of the Riot Room, my hair flying all over the place while my friends took pictures and video. For the record: friends don't let friends compete in dance offs after sharing 10 pitchers of beer. Especially without a hair tie.

So I'll chalk that weekend up as a success. What else can ya do?

All the way back here, when this blog was an infant (it's a toddler now, I think), I mentioned how one of my favorite places is the Lake of the Ozarks. Since then I've left the continent for the first time and can say the lake is still one of my faves. We're heading there this weekend, and I'm looking forward to relaxing in the sun with my family and Blue Eyes, J. Crew & Banana Factory shopping, and hours of board game competition. Maybe I can finally beat my dad at Scrabble - thanks to lots of practice via WWF.

I just wish I had this cute suit to lounge around in!

j. crew

What are your Memorial Day plans?

cirque de sol Mon: round 3

**You've just entered a judge free zone**

This weekend is the Crawl for Cancer, or as Blue Eyes calls it, Cirque de Sol Mon.... because as you can tell from last year's pictures, it's a bit of a circus. Our theme last year is a personal favorite: 80s fitness. Please note my ridiculous two-toned leggings and crimped hair. This year our team dwindled from a healthy 11 people to 5, however we are determined to be small but MIGHTY in our neon outfits.

Happy weekend everyone, TGIF!

estate sale steals: KitchenAid mixer

Have you ever shopped an estate sale? If not, let me tell you , they are pretty amazing and I am hooked! I don't remember how it all started, but I signed up for weekly email notifications from EstateSales.net about a year ago. If you want to get serious about finding some major steals around your city, I highly recommend signing up there.

I've only gone to two sales within the last year, so I'm far from an expert. The first sale was right off 63rd & Ward Parkway (KC people, you know how gorgeous and old and beautiful those houses are!) where I had decent luck. I walked away with two large, white ceramic serving platters for a total of $15. And an old WWII pin for Blue Eyes since he's obsessed with history and war.

This purchase from the second estate sale is a little more exciting. Welcome to my kitchen, pretty white KitchenAid mixer!

via Instagram: @monicarosekc

$80 baby. Whoever was going to buy me one of these beauties as a gift someday... I took care of it. So that $300 can go to something else now, right?

Full disclosure time: when I picked it up from the little house just on the Kansas side of state line, it was not in perfect shape. It looked like the previous owner had set the motor to "whip" with yellow cake mix in the bowl, and forgot to wipe down the mixer afterwards. But, in my mind, nothing a little TLC, bleach, suds and elbow grease couldn't take care of. Especially for 1/4th the retail price.

Now I no longer have an excuse not to bake delicious cakes, cookies and cupcakes. Summer 2012 looks to be a sweet season. Pun intended, couldn't help it!

weekend recap

I can't believe it happened, but baby bro graduated college this weekend! He made it through two 20 hour semesters his Senior year while bartending and remaining involved with his fraternity. This was clearly cause for celebration in the Ahrens household, so my parents and I left for Manhattan early Saturday morning to watch his commencement. I'm so proud of him, and excited that he's moving back to Kansas City to start his career.

the relieved grad

The early morning road trip meant I needed to lay low Friday night, which I didn't mind doing at all since it was Big Trash Day in Prairie Village. If you don't have one of these (I just learned about them two years ago), it's a day when the city makes a deal with the trash companies to pick up any large items they normally wouldn't accept. Mattresses, furniture, carpet rolls, you name it. The night before the garbage trucks come by, scavengers drive through the streets to see if there are any pieces that can be salvaged. One man's trash is another man's treasure, right? We sat 10 feet from the street in Blue Eyes' drive way with a cooler between us and, naturally, created a BTD drinking game. One drink for Missouri license plates, two for a truck with Big Trash in it, three drinks for a towed trailer with Big Trash in it, and an additional drink if the vehicle stopped in front of a neighbor's house to search through their loot. I was hoping to see Trish Moore, the genius behind Good Ju Ju rummaging through the neighbor's stuff, but no such luck.

After the excitement of graduation day, Sunday was spent outside, sipping red wine with my wonderful mom while my dad grilled rib eye steaks. All in all, a wonderful May weekend!

make it work

Chirp... chirp.... [crickets, not birds].... Yes I've been quiet lately. I've been in beautiful Boston for a business trip, and the client had very strong firewall limitations where I wasn't allowed to access Blogger, but was able to get to Pinterest. Looks like they need to update their blocked sites as Pinterest is the biggest time suck of most 20-30 something women's lives since online shopping was invented by geniuses.

As previously mentioned, I saw Tim Gunn IRL a few weekends ago and haven't been able to share the experience until now! He was just as pleasant and upbeat (and precious) in person as he is on Project Runway. And apparently he's on some show called The Revolution on ABC, but I had never heard of that before. Which was sort of his point of bringing it up, I guess no one watches it. Wow I'm rambling today, I've missed the old bloggie. 

I went to see the Silver Fox with my friend Casey. We sent many a text that morning trying to figure out what to wear, downed two mimosas at my apartment and then walked the (dangerously) short distance to the kate spade store on the Plaza to see the main attraction! PS Sorry for the sometimes-fuzzy shots, we were standing towards the back....

mimosas to ward off the pre-celeb sighting jitters

Tim and his cute co-host, wearing Kate Spade striped celina dress

left: kerrigan striped dress right: tropical orchid elliana dress

Prints and bright colors walking down the runway first.

Tim said white is hot for spring yet again this season. I love all three of these outfits!

Lucky Brand sabrina denim jacket

The ubiquitous denim jacket. 

abstract arielle tee, cropped micah jacket, stargazer pants

Perfect work outfit, don't you think?

linen viola dress

Loving all the purple!

topliner trench

The trench is to die. This was Tim's way of showing how easily it is to dress it up or down.

At the end of the show, Tim hosted a Q&A session where I learned he absolutely thought Mondo should have beat Gretchen in that season of Project Runway. Totally with you, Tim!

pura vida bracelets

A friend of mine told me about these Pura Vida bracelets a few weeks ago, and since I'm a surfer and all now, I am pretty much obsessed. If I could just make a decision on a color (or a few), I would be wearing them right now. Did I mention they're extremely reasonable? Like $5 - $15. Nice! You can read the story behind the brand here. Hint: it's a good one that will warm your heart. :)

{all images via Pura Vida bracelets}

on being a vacation junkie

As I am clicking the Purchase button at Expedia today for a trip wayyyy far out in the future (Jan. 2013) I thought about my ridiculous leisure travel schedule over the past two years: 6 different countries and at least 10 separate trips. Apparently if you need a friend to go on vacay with, I'm the one to ask. I'm like Ado Annie, I just can't say no.

Yeah, it gets expensive and definitely puts a damper on my ability to partake in most some happy hours and enjoy expensive wine and shop at J. Crew all the time, but here's why I'm doing this now. First off I have decent PTO at my job thank goodness. Secondly, my friends keep deciding to get married in exotic places (keep it up, friends!).  Tertiarily (not really a word but I use it at work all the time to sound ridiculous), my grandparents would say their favorite memories together were when they went traveling the world and learning new cultures. So sweet, right? So if not now, when?!

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What are your next vacation plans? Or where's your next dream vacation? I am dying to go to Europe....