50 Things To Do Around Tampa Bay This Summer

Hey guys!! 

Happy Thursday! How's everyone doing? 

Our summer started last week and while the Memorial Day weekend was filled with boating, beach, and a trip to visit family in Ft.Myers, our weekdays aren't always so adventurous.

 This whole summer thing kind of creeped up on me. Obviously I totally knew it was coming, but I guess I was in denial about needing to have a plan. 

Sophia doesn't start summer camps until mid-June, so until then I'll be trying to balance work with an adventurous and enjoyable summer, 

This summer will be a random mixture of office days, summer camp, vacations, and day adventures exploring our own backyard of Florida.

What are we going to do with all this freedom!? I do have a few ideas...

1. Have a Picnic
Pack up some sandwiches and fruit and head out to Vinoy Park to find a shaded area to lay down your blanket. It's a great way to have lunch by the water!

2. Homemade Flubber
Mix 3/4 cup of the water with 1 cup glue in a bowl. Stir this mixture until it is thoroughly mixed together. Set it aside.Mix 2 tablespoons of Borax with a 1/2 cup of water in a separate bowl. Mix thoroughly until all of the Borax is dissolved.Combine the two mixtures. Add several drops of food coloring until the mixture is the color you want it to be. Put the mixture in a plastic bag with a good seal. Knead the mixture for a few minutes. Keep it stored in bag when not using it.

3. Movie & Popcorn
Some great movies are coming out on DVD over the summer. Hit up the RedBox and grab the movie HOME. Pop some popcorn on the stove and make it a movie day. 

4. Visit the Florida Aquarium
There is so much to do at our local aquarium including a perfect splash pad area to cool off. 

5. Lowry Park Zoo
*Dads get in for free during Father's Day weekend with purchase of a child or adult full priced ticket

6. Curtis Hixon Park & Splash Pad

7. All Pearson Park & Splash Pad

8. Tampa Bay Rowdies Soccer Game

9. Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Game
Check out the Summer Concert Series line up

10. Explore Alderman Ford Park
For $2, explore nature tails and listen to the beautiful sounds of nature. For additional fee, rent a canoe!

11. Make Homemade salsa
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until desired consistency.One 14 oz can diced tomatoes, 1 can Rotel, 1/2 small chopped onion, 1 clove minced garlic, 1/2-1 seeded jalapeno,1 tsp honey, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, handful of cilantro, juice of 1 lime. 
12. Giraffe Rescue
Located in Dade City, FL, safari tours cost $75 per person.

13. Weeki Wachee
Florida's only spring-fed water park and live mermaids!

14. LegoLand

15. Rainbow Springs
Have a wonderful experience tubing down the river in some of the clearest water in Florida!

16. Tampa Bay Children's Musuem

17. Take a boat or ferry to Egmont Key
Whether you own a boat or can go by ferry ,go explore the land and lighthouse only accessible by boat. 

18. Big Cat Rescue

19. Make S'mores
Don't be boring, check out these life changing ways to make s'mores!

20. Common Ground Park in Lakeland, Fl

21. Visit a Farmer's Market
Visit ParksDale Farms Tuesday-Sunday until August and taste the best Strawberry Milkshake you'll ever have!

22. Ice Skate at Ice Sports Forum

23. Rent Tampa Water bikes and #RideTheRiver

24. Horseback Riding
Head over to HorsePowerforKids and enjoy a relaxing guided tour for $20. 

25. Take a bike ride along the Tampa Riverwalk or Bayshore Blvd.

26. Drive out to the beach for the sunset
It's no lie that it gets extremely hot outside. Sometimes too hot for the beach. On a day that is spent mostly indoors, switch it up and go out to the beach for the sunset. You won't regret it. Check sunrise & sunset times HERE

27. Bok Tower Gardens

28. Pick Fruits or Vegetables at a local U-Pick Farm
Visit THIS website to find an open farm with things to harvest all around West Florida.

29. Old McMicky's Farm
Closed on Monday, tours start daily at 9am.

30. Great Explorations Childrens Musuem & Sunken Gardens
Located right nextdoor to each other, make a day of it and visit both!

31. Clearwater Aquarium
Visit the famous dolphin, Winter and celebrate World Oceans Day on June 7th!

32. Explore Lithia Springs

33. Weedon Island Preserve
Located in Pinellas Park, Weedon Island had boardwalks, trails, and guided hikes. 

34. Orlando City Soccer 

35. Camp out in your backyard or living room
Have a tent? If not, build fort with sheets in your own living room!

36, Make homemade Ice Cream
One ingredient! Blend frozen bananas in a blender or food processor until smooth. Serve immediately. 

37. Dinosaur World

38. Cool off at Adventure Island

39. Have a water balloon fight
Even better, fill the balloons up with paint and wear all white for a colorful blast!

40. Watch FireWorks at Channelside on July 4th

41. Mosi

42. Volunteer 

43. Explore Ybor City

44. Beach Day
Take the day to feel the sand in your toes and build the best sandcastle you can!

45. Paint with your feet
Buy blank canvases or use construction paper. Put a brush between your toes and paint using only your feet

46. Grow a vegetable

47. Make homemade Popsicle
Puree 1 cup strawberries. Alternate adding vanilla yogurt and strawberry purree into popsicles mold. Freeze 

48. Drive-In Movie
Check movies and times at Ruskin Drive-In or Funlan Drive-In off Hillsborough 

49. Have a Tech-Free Day
Put all technology to the side and just enjoy your day, your surroundings, and your company.

50. Take a picture everyday
Don't let summer slip by without capturing memories. Take at least 1 picture each day. 

A reminder to Count Your Blessings

This weekend was about remembering those who died for our country, our freedom, our rights as Americans. I have a few living veterans in my family, and a few deceased ones. Thankful for them all. <3 It's quite the emotional weekend for many around the country. But it's not ONLY this weekend that's emotional for those who've lost loved ones.

Reflecting back on this weekend, and just thinking about what this weekend meant, it truly opened my eyes to my multitude of blessings. 

First I thought about my family. My husband. My girls. 

Then I went to the simple things we take for granted. 
Clean water to drink. 
A place to call home. 
Shoes on my feet.   
The ability to walk
Functioning fingers and brain to write this post

It's when you open your eyes and think about the millions of people around the world who don't even have these simple things, that you truly feel grateful and even privileged. Who am I to complain? About anything?

There has been a lot of heartache and sadness surrounding me and my friends and family the past couple weeks. Unfortunate circumstances. Life.

And when that happens, I usually think, "well, I must be next."
My way of thinking is if it can happen to you, it can happen to me. No matter what it is. 
I am a true believer of the phrase "Anything is possible".

When you're in the middle of the darkness it's hard to see anything positive in your life. 
So if you're going through a hard time in in your life, I challenge you to stop and look around. 
Count your blessings. 

When we complain we are forgetting about our many blessings. 
So stop today, look around you. Because what we take for granted, even if it's that's piece of chicken you just ate for lunch or your ability to walk, someone else is praying for it with all their heart.


It's Tuesday! Short work week, something to celebrate!

XOXO

Sweet Potato Salad Recipe

It's Friday people! Rock On!

Today is OFFICIALLY the first day of summer for us. In true summer fashion, we slept in (7:30 am), cooked breakfast, and just hung out. Then we decided to not be lazy bums, although I'm sure there will be a many lazy days this summer, and planned a little park date with our besties Alisha and Harper! It's just the beginning and summer is looking good. :)

Also in summer fashion, today I'm sharing a potato salad! Perfect for the many BBQ's and parties everyone loves to throw during summer. 

We made this on Tuesday night and have enjoyed it as a side dish for the past three nights! It's wonderful to eat immediately after cooking AND after sitting over night. 

You could make it a spicy salad but adding different peppers, but since I have two youngins in the house, I kept it very mild with just the green chilies. 

(This recipe was originally found on PopSugar, and adapted to my liking)
Gluten Free, Vegan, and Paleo
Sweet Potato Salad

What you’ll need:

4 large sweet potatoes
1/2 cup EVOO, take out 2 tbsp and put to side
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and quartered
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 cup sliced scallion
1/2 cup minced fresh mint leaves
1 (4.5oz) can chopped green chiles
1/4 cup golden raisins

Salt and pepper

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. 

Peel and cut sweet potatoes into bite size pieces. Place on baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbsp EVOO. Toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Put in oven and roast, turning occasionally for about 30 minutes, or until browned.

While sweet potatoes are cooking, combine rest of EVOO, vinegar, bell pepper, and cumin in a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into large bowl.

When sweet potato are crispy and brown, remove from oven and place in large bowl with dressing. 

Add scallions, mint leaves, chilies, and raisins. 
Toss everything together and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve and Enjoy!

XOXO

Eggplant Caprese Recipe

Hey guys! Happy Thursday!!

How are you doing?

I just got back from Sophia's Last Day of School Performances!! I can't believe today was her last day of school and she's currently sitting next to me, at the office,singing...still on that performance high I'm guessing. ;) More on that later...

My last post hinted at what my next few recipes posts will be: EGGPLANT! 

I have a lot of eggplant ready to be picked from the TowerGarden so eggplant is on the menu...almost everyday. JK...kind of.

The other night we made two different dishes with the eggplant. Eggplant Caprese and Eggplant Gratin. Both were absolutely delicious! It's funny because I rarely buy eggplant and cook them. So, when I started the TowerGarden I knew I wanted to plant something that I don't normally buy. This way it will encourage me to eat them! 

Turns out my entire family loves eggplant and so far have devoured every dish I've cooked with them. Great Stuff! 

Grilled Eggplant Caprese Stacks

What you’ll need:

1 bunch of basil leaves
1.5 cups EVOO
2 garlic cloves

1 eggplant, sliced
2 large tomatoes, sliced
1 ball mozzarella, sliced
Salt & Pepper

What you do:

Blend together basil, EVOO, and garlic in a food processor. 
Marinate the sliced tomatoes and eggplant in the sauce for 20-45 minutes. Season lightly with salt & pepper.
Keep out some of the marinade to top your stacks at the end.
On a grill or stove top griddle, grill eggplant on medium heat until soft & you see grill marks.
Grill tomatoes on one side for about 2 minutes.
Stack the eggplant, mozzarella, and tomato.
Top each stack with a tsp of the saved marinade and/or basil leaf.

Enjoy!
XOXO

My first RocksBox

Happy Wednesday!!

Yesterday was a ME day for a couple hours at the hair salon, followed by lunch with Alisha, racing to work to get an hour of work done, racing to get Sophia, then back home to craft it up for End of the Year gifts followed by 3 hours of cooking eggplant. 

We have so many eggplants ready to eat on our TowerGarden, and I'm hoping to get another TowerGarden up and running soon, so look forward to eggplant recipes on the blog because theys a coming!. (Longest sentence ever)
If you don't like eggplant, you can always sub it out for another vegetable of your choice. Sweet potatoes or regular potato would be good ones.

I wanted to share with you my latest adventure in life: Rocksbox

I went out to dinner with a fellow blogger, Lora Hogan, at CopperFish a couple weeks ago. Noticing her jewelry, I gave her a compliment.  She started telling me about RocksBox and it turns out she's an "It girl" for Rocksbox and offered me a free shipment! How cool! See? It pays to compliment people!

What is Rocksbox?

From the Website: Rocksbox was created “to help women everywhere enhance their style through an ever-rotating selection of jewelry, chosen for them and sent directly to their doors.”

In a nutshell, Rocksbox is kind of like Netflix but for jewelry. You wear the three pieces they send however many times you’d like and when you want new stuff, send them back and get 3 new pieces. A girl's dream of a revolving door of jewelry deliveries. 

This couldn't have sounded more perfect for me. I like to think I'm a rather simple person. The majority of my days are lived in a simple wardrobe, minimal makeup, and minimal jewelry. I wear simple diamond studs that rarely leave my ears and a wedding ring, which sometimes I even contemplate on switching to a plain diamond band.

With that being said, I just don’t buy jewelry too often because I rarely wear it. I buy the occasional statement necklace here and there for family photos or nights out.

The only reason I have Bourbon&Bowties or Alex and Ani bangles is because they were all gifts. Thank you to my friends who keep me up on the latest fashion trends!

So I went on Rocksbox website,  took the survey, and entered the code to receive my free box! 

About a week later my first RocksBox arrived!

Inside there was a necklace, ring, and pair of earrings.

I wore the necklace three times (record setting) last week and my mom kept asking me if I was going to buy it because I liked it so much. Necklaces just change your whole outfit sometimes, right?! 

The ring I wore once because it's a little big and I didn't want to lose it. I really liked the ring though and already went onto RocksBox.com to change my ring size for my next shipment! (Who am I?!)

I don’t see myself ever wearing these earrings. I’m more of a stud lover, in regards to earrings. Maybe I’ll give them a try this weekend before I send the box back for another one. You never know until you try!

So in all, I really enjoyed my first RocksBox! I feel like it made me step outside my routine and into this world of wearing jewelry. A great world indeed! The jewelry that was picked for me matched my taste almost perfectly (that's what the survey is for). Simple classic pieces that aren’t clunky and big. 

Wearing jewelry can make you feel pretty fancy and change your outfit and/or attitude!

My three year old tells me it's always the right time to wear jewelry. She thinks jewelry should even be worn to bed so when you wake up you can put on your pearls and heels and be ready to conquer the world! (Lessons learned from a 3 year old...)

If you think you'd like to experience Rocksbox, check out their website! Let me know what you think!

Do you do any subscription boxes like Rocksbox? 

XOXO

Frozen On Ice & Weekend Recap

Just another manic Monday!

It's not even noon yet and I feel like it's been such a long day, but a productive one! This week is Sophia's last week of school and I should have done some errands yesterday but it was Sunday and nobody wants to do a bunch of stuff on Sunday, right?! 

So this week is going to be filled with crafting, putting together gifts, and other last week of school shenanigans. 

This weekend was a more relaxing weekend than the past couple ones.

Friday night my mom and I took the girls to see Frozen on Ice. It was about two hours long with a 15 minute intermission in between. When tickets went on sale a year ago, I didn't buy them. I honestly thought the whole Frozen thing would be over by then. Then Stonyfield yogurt offered 50% off tickets, so I bought some!

Turns out, Frozen is still very popular and Sophia was excited to go see Elsa & Anna. Nelpe was all like "yeah whatever, give me popcorn". 

We have been to a Disney on Ice Production before that incorporated a lot of different Disney movies and characters, but this one was was exclusively Frozen. 

The girl's were engaged most the time but Nelps started getting antsy the last 15 minutes. The songs are what kept her interested for so long.I think all the good songs are at the beginning anyways. ;) The cutest part of the whole thing was hearing all the kids sing along to "Let It Go" and hearing the screams when Elsa came on. Why is everyone Team Elsa? A little girl behind us yelled out "It's all Anna's fault!" when Elsa went bizerk and turned the town into ice. I kinda felt bad for Anna! LOL

While the girls appreciated the singing the most, I appreciated the skating. I found it most appealing to watch the skater play clumsy, awkward Anna, and do it with grace. It was overall a great show and I'm glad we got to experience it (for 50% off).

Saturday was a boat day for us. If you know about us and boating, you know there is rarely a time when SOMETHING doesn't go wrong. We thought we were done with all these rookie mishaps when we sold our first boat. But, no. We got to the dock at 9:30, put the boat in the water, and it doesn't start. We switched out the batteries, jumped it, nothing worked. Turns out both our batteries on board were completely drained. Luckily we were right next to a marina and able to buy two new batteries in no time. Fortunately there was also a park near by where we took the girls to run around and play while Angelo and Jay (brother) got the boat ready. We finally got on the water around 11:30. It's always something with these darn boats! :) We live and learn with each boat outing. 

Once we got on the water, the day was great! We are currently in love with boating over to Egmont Key because the water is unbelievable! 

Sunday was a day of rest for some and work for others. I'm part of that "work" group. I brought my computer home from the office on Friday to catch up on some things. Normally when I say I'll get stuff done over the weekend, it rarely happens. This time I actually got stuff done! A bunch of data entry and time consuming lame stuff. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Great debate over the weekend: Is Sunday the beginning or end of the week? Technically if you look at a calendar Sunday is the beginning of the week. But our culture treats it like the end of the week. What do you think?

XOXO

Celebrating American Craft Beer Week at #BrewsWithAttitude

Hi Y'all! Happy Friday!

Good news! My prayers have been answered and our house plans went from denied to approved in a week. That's the fastest anything has happened with this house building process, so Happy Friday in deed! Doing the happy dance over here....well, after I finish up the mountain of construction loan documents I still have to do. Yikes!!

If you didn't know, this week is American Craft Beer Week celebrating breweries and retailers all over the United States! Tampa has become a hub for craft beer and microbreweries in the past few years, becoming home to over 30 production breweries!  

On Tuesday night I had the privilege of attending BrewsWithAttitude at the TPepin Hospitality Center as part of the Tampa Bay Bloggers.  I am a fan of craft brews and going around and taking a few sips of so many from around the U.S. was perfection. Date night perfection. 

This was my first time going to the hospitality center and color me impressed. It's a beautiful place that I wanna throw a party at!

When we arrived at 6pm, we grabbed our tasting glass and beer guide, and darted to the food trucks. I had to get food in my stomach if I was about to sample 100s of brews. Actually I tasted about 10 of them. Did anyone taste every single one? Is that possible? So many to choose from!

While trying to figure out which food truck to order from, there was a Beer Truck in the midst of the food! So we actually got beer before our food. Easing into the brew experience...

Renny's Okidoki food truck won the vote and it didn't disappoint. I had the Katsu chicken, while Angelo enjoyed the Teriyaki Chicken bowl. Both were delicious and satisfying. 

Then the brews started. The whole hospitality center was jammed with beer tents, Outside and inside. The local breweries had inside digs, while other breweries opened up shop outside. We started outside and made our way in.

I spotted the beer tent with the longest line. "That's what I want to try" pointing to Rochester Mill tent. I chatted it up with the guys in front of us who told us it was their 3rd time in line at that tent. They recommended the "Red" and it ended up being my favorite beer there! I went back for a 2nd sampling a little later before heading inside!

The Bayshore Beer Company had the coolest dispenser that ran the beer through a collection of hops before being dispensed into my sample cup. It can't get any refresher than that! I chose to sample that beer solely on that dispenser and was pleased!

Inside were all my local favorites. We did a Tampa brewery tour last June so had actually been to a couple of these brewery facilities. Again I looked for the longest line. It was at Mad Beach. 

I sampled the I Yam What I Yam beer and Angelo sampled the Beetang Mango. Both very interesting flavors. The Beetang had a ABV 10%! 

I'll say I'm not really into the flavored beers. I'm talking about beers with fruity or in this case vegetable undertones. I'm more into the clean, crisp, light beers. When I go up to the beer sampling tents I always tell them, "I'll have your lightest beer" and it's usually very delightful for me.

Perfect example of my kind of beer: Beach blonde - 3Daughters Brewing - St.Pete, Fl

All the beers that ended up being my favorites were recommended to me by people I struck up conversations with in line. I met a man who owns a local convenient store who carries a lot of the local beers. He was a good resource and I stood in lines based on his word. Thanks man!

I was able to share the experience with my husband and we made it a date night. 

We even got to sit down and enjoy each other's company...until I got a notification that I was a winner! I won a prize basket! The basket consisted of 2 shirts, 2 coozies, 3 beers, a beer pilsner, some coasters, and a hat. Very cool and it's always a great feeling when you win stuff!  

My husband says he needs to come to all my blog events because obviously he's good luck ;)

We headed to the front of the event and no lie, 2 minutes after I took this picture, it started down pouring.

With our beer thirst quenched, we called it a night and ran to our car.

It was a successful event and definitely one I will be back to next year! 

Our Top 10 Beers from BrewsWithAttitude

1. Red - Rochester Mills Beer Co - Rochester, MI

2. Oxtail - CopperTail Brewing Co - Tampa, FL

3. Beach blonde - 3Daughters Brewing - St.Pete, Fl

4. Big Wave - Kona Brewing Co - Kailua Kona, HI 

5. Reef Donkey - Tampa Bay Brewing Co - Tampa, FL

6. True Blonde - Tampa Bay Brewing Co - Tampa, FL

7. Balustrade IPA - BayShore Beer Co - Tampa, FL 

8. 420 - SweetWater Brewubg Co - Atlanta, GA

9. Live - Southern Tier Brewing Co - Lakewood, NY

10. American Pale Ale - Shipyard Brewing Co - Portland, ME

What is your favorite local beer?

XOXO

 **Disclaimer: Thanks to Tampa Bay Bloggers, I was provided a free entry into BrewsWithAttitude in exchange for social media love and review. All opinions are my own.

McDonald's Has Gone Kale....

McDonald's has gone kale and I don't care

This is going to be a “sorry I’m not sorry” kind of post. If you buy foods from McDonalds or eat McDonald’s salads, that’s your prerogative. I’m not judging. I’m simply typing out my thoughts.

Onward…

I know the exact date the last time I ate McDonald's. It was August 12, 2011. The day my first daughter was born. I had a Sausage McGriddle upon request after giving birth. It was my requested "after birth" meal. In true pregnant form I wanted that McGriddle so bad! I ate it and it didn't even live up to its expectation in my mind. 

Before that, I remember getting out of a movie, about 20 weeks pregnant, starving. Angelo and I headed to McDonald's and while in the drive thru I got a call from my sister to congratulate me on finding out we were having a little girl. After I told her where we were she reamed me for feeding that poor excuse for food to my unborn child. She then gave me endless other options to eat that didn't consist of fast food. At the time I wanted that burger and I ate the burger. And that was my last McDonald's burger.

Side note: My sister is what I call an eco-friendly vegan who has numerous degrees showing me that she knows what she's talking about when it comes to nutrition. If there is someone who is “one-with-nature”, it’s her.

I'll never forget that phone call and it was the beginning of the end of me being a McDonald's and many other fast food restaurant customer. That phone call made me think about what I was eating and feeding my unborn child. It made me think about WHY I was eating. For nutrients and energy. Was that McDonald's burger giving me the best nutrients and fuel my body needed? That the growing human inside me needed? No it wasn't. 

So all these years I haven’t even given McDonald’s any mind. Except I do use their restrooms during road trips sometimes…

Then, yesterday I read that McDonald's is adding kale to their menu. My first initial reaction was "WTF?"  While I think this CAN be a good thing(??), I also can't help but believe that McDonald's will some how manage to create a kale entree that will be anything but healthy. 

Take their oatmeal for one. I remember when they came out with it and everyone was talking it being a "healthy option". I think they even marketed it as healthy, maybe they still do. I have no idea. But when you took a deeper look, you found out it was far from healthy.  How can they put oatmeal on a menu, market it as a healthy option, and add more sugar to it than that of a snickers bar? Leave it to McDonald's.

source

McDonald's needs to stick with what they're known for and make THAT better. Stick with burgers and fries and make them better!! Stop feeding people chemicals and start feeding them REAL food. Don't just stick kale on your menu and think people will forget how terribly non-nutritious your other food is. 

End Rant.

XOXO

Current Situations: Portable Closets

Happy Hump Day!! 
I hope your week has been busy and productive OR relaxing and rejuvenating. Either way, hope it's been good! It's almost done and the weekend is in sight! YAY weekends!

Yesterday morning I had a school PTF meeting which ran until 11:00 a.m, then I met Alisha for lunch at our favorite local place, Dellas. 

Lunch with best friends is always fun because there seems to ALWAYS be something to chat about! If Alisha and I don't see each other for a week or so, we can sit there and talk for hours about our lives just in that past week, even though we text daily. Isn't that something? Women be talking...

Afterwards it was time to get Sophia, come home, and put up my new "closet"! 

Since we are living with my parents at the moment, we are basically living in 2 bedrooms. One bedroom has our beds, and the other is a big closet/living room/man cave. We have a lot of stuff packed into this "all-inclusive" bedroom and it has been functional to the minimum. Gymnastic moves and hurdles were needed just to get dressed every morning. 

With two bedrooms, that means two closets. The girl's clothes are taking up one and Angelo's clothes are taking up the other. That leaves my clothes with no where to live... The solution to this problem has been portable clothing racks. I bought one at Target for $20 and the other day I noticed it leaning heavy towards one side. If a bookshelf (the room is also a library) wasn't there to hold it up, I'm positive it would have already been on the ground. When I tried to fix it, the plastic piece on one side completely snapped apart, alas, sending all my clothes tumbling to the ground. Let me also tell you that this happened LAST WEDNESDAY. So for the past week, all my clothes have been on the floor. 

This is the rickety rack my clothes was slowly destroying. 

Target

Finally on Saturday, I was able to get to Target to buy a new closet. This time I splurged and bought the $60 one with side shelving! Much cooler and so much more exciting than the last. It's stupid how excited I was about this closet system. Well, obviously not THAT excited if it took me another 3 days to set it up. (Never enough time in these days, I tell ya!) I was patiently waiting for Angelo to do it, but that never happened... :)

So I am happy to show off my newest pride and joy... this closet system. If you live in a studio apartment, you may be familiar with these.

Target

I should have taken pictures of it in the room to show you the masterpiece! I did on Snapchat, but that's no good for this blog post. Use your imagination and hopefully I'll get some pictures of our living situation on here to show you what we're working with.

This leaves me to tell you the current situation with our new home build. The property we purchased to build a home is in a small "equestrian" neighborhood, therefore, we have a HOA. The HOA denied our house plans on Friday. Something about the garage being a certain way and blah blah. Give me a break...
Our builder, Kevin, is drawing up some options for us...and that's the latest in the "Building a New Home" saga.

XOXO