Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, friends!

I hope you are all enjoying it with your families.  Today, Mike and I will be with his parents, sister, and her boyfriend.  But before I leave, I will be hiding 12 packs of beer and nips around my house for two of my roommates to hunt for all day!  Welcome to 19 Southfarm [again]!  

As you [probably] know, I love doing holiday-themed things.  So, yesterday I did some baking and we decorated eggs:

The first little dessert I actually found in a cute Buzzfeed article I read last week.  I also pinned it so you can find it too!

The second baked good I made I found via searching "Easter desserts" on Pinterest.  I gave Mike's sister a list of possible ingredients, and she picked coconut - so here's what I made!

Of course, last night we also colored eggs with everyone!  This has been one of my favorite activities since I was little.

Do you like my rainbow "egg-sterpiece"??? Yeah... that was the best I could do - but "eggspert" does sound good! haha

When we finally got home last night from our egg-ventures, I found this amazing Easter gift on my front porch.  One of my very first and closest blog friends Amanda from Manda Loves sent me these amazing Easter goodies!  She is seriously the sweetest - you should check her out.  I am actually hoping that she will be my first "blate" in the coming weeks :)  Happy Easter, Amanda!  

A Very Good Friday - My First Day of Spring

I forgot how amazing long weekends are.  I was so excited to learn that my office would be closed for Good Friday [Mike's too!].  We spent the whole day down in my Rhode Island hometown.

In addition to the excitement of a day off, I can honestly say it felt like my first day of spring.  It was sunny and 55 degrees, and I got the American Eagle plaid shirts in the mail I talked about on Thursday.  I don't think it was a coincidence that yesterday was also Good Friday - God is definitely shining down on us with beautiful weather all weekend!

This is what I've woken up to the past two days - Roxy basking in the sunlight!

I love looking in my closet and seeing so much plaid!!

Revlon "Minted" nail polish that perfectly matches my new shirts!

Come on little sprouts - I'm ready for tulips!

My first spring outfit of the year!  Sorry Twitter friends, I had to go with the capris - it'll be shorts weather soon :)

Our initial reason for going down to RI was so Mike could finish some tree work he was doing for my parents, but [of course] we did so much more!  While he was outside working, I decided it was finally time to clean out my childhood bedroom.  I haven't lived there in two years [well, 6 years if you count college], and there was still so much stuff.  It felt so great to clean everything out and donate it all to people in need!  I had three huge garbage bags of food and housewares to give away.  

There is an AWESOME dino museum on our drive down.  How cute are his bunny ears?

Loving my parents' crocuses!

After our hard work, we went out to lunch at one of my favorite little Italian restaurants.  Of course, we also drove around the beach, it was great!  Oh, and bought some great food to bring back - Mike calls them our Rhode Island FOODventures.  [I can't wait to talk about some of my favorites on this month's Hometown Hop THIS TUESDAY!!]

 My hometown is working SO HARD to rebuild the dunes, beaches, and shops to be ready for Beach Season '13.  The whole town was decimated by Hurricane Sandy.  

My favorite food stop of the day would have to be to get Easter Sweet Bread.  Every Good Friday, the fire station in the town across the river sells these breads.  They are DELICIOUS.  

Beautiful day? Of course stopped at the golf course where I grew up to hit some golf balls.

And of course Roxy was sad to be alone all day, so we let her have some fun roof time when we got home.  Can you spot her?

Just your typical amount of food brought back to CT from RI.  Yup, this is takeout from 5 different places.  I can't wait to share a bit of it with you on Tuesday!! [Yaayy for not having to cook all weekend now]

After all of our excitement yesterday, I can't wait to spend today relaxing, making a few Easter goodies, and packing for Las Vegas [I leave on Wednesday!!].  I hope you all have a happy and blessed Easter with your families! 

HIMYM Friday

It's been a HIMYM kind of week.  I worked in the school district where I live all week so each day for lunch, I drove the 3 minutes back home and watched a few of my favorite episodes.

In honor of a short week [Happy Good Friday], here are a few random HIMYM funnies I thought I would share with you!

First, this isn't a spoiler, but it is from Monday's episode.  Oh my gosh, it might be one of my favorite HIMYM moments ever!

Have you ever Etsy searched "How I Met Your Mother"?  Yeah, do it.  There are some amazing things, like these!

via

And this!

via

And of course, Pinterest!

Source: smallscreenscoop.com via Meghan on Pinterest

Source: home-designing.com via Meghan on Pinterest

Source: bandbbuildalife.com via Meghan on Pinterest

Oh, and this is my 500th blog post - hooray!  In honor of that, one more video, from the 100th episode of HIMYM!

It's Okay Thursday [Spring Fashion]

It's OKAY...

...that every time I think I've outgrown Forever 21, they suck me back in.  I spent $75 and bought 8 fantastic spring [and summer... I bought 2 pairs of shorts...] pieces that I cannot wait to wear.  I love the bright colors.

...to be obsessed with American Eagle's sandals this year.  None of them are good for my plantar fasciitis, but they are so darn cute!  Especially these:

via

...to buy every one of American Eagle's girlfriend plaid shirts.  Mike bought me one last week, and I mightttt have ordered the other two colors since it was free shipping last week and they were on sale [not sure why they aren't anymore... but still buy one!].  And then Mike tricked me...

...to buy pieces of clothing that don't really go together.  I am awful at outfits.  Exhibit A and Exhibit B: my last two shopping trips last spring and summer.  I tend to get a lot of patterned/colored pieces then pair them with plain tops or jeans.  I am NOT a fashionista.

...that I've shopped at Old Navy for 15 years.  Come on, their dresses are so cute this year!

...to wish I could look as cute as so many of my fashion savvy bloggy friends I see!

...to join in on a great Spring flip flop and nail polish swap!  Today is the LAST DAY in join in, so think about it!

...that I've taken outfit photos with my Canon & self timer over the past year, but haven't done anything with them...

My First #CaraBox: My Name Is...

MEGHAN!

[That's my name, in case you were wondering ;) ]  

I saw a few friends participating in Kaitlyn of Wifessional's #CaraBox last month, and I just had to join in.  If you haven't seen this exchange yet, check out this link and join in next month!

I have to say I that I had a great experience.  This month's theme was "My name is..." and we were all paired by our names.  It also worked as a round robin, so I got to meet two great bloggers instead of just one!  I gave a box to Mallory at Mal's Miles and received one from Megalin at Turquoise Lollipops.  Each box had a theme of the letter "M" since we are all M girls!

Now about what I received from Megalin: as many of you know, it's been a hard month for me.  Megalin seriously could have just sent me the beautiful note she wrote me in an envelope and I would have been more than thrilled.  It was so heartfelt.  I have it in my planner and look at it everyday :)

Well, she did send me more, and boy did she splurge!  And she wrapped it all so beautifully too!  Muffin Mix, an "M" for my room, Milano Melts, a Meghan Mug, Magnets, and KitchenAid Measuring spoons were all so Me!  I guess our 30 something emails back and forth helped her out a bit ;)

[the mug says "Borrowed Heaven" on the other side too]

Here are the items in use!  Making muffins, the measuring spoons and mug match my kitchen perfectly, the M looks great in my bedroom, Roxy wants to share my Milanos, and I especially love the honey magnet :)

Here is a preview of what I sent Mallory; go check out her blog to see what M goodies there were! 

So, today, I'm linking up with Kaitlyn to reveal my Cara Box and the usual ladies for Wednesday Walkabout!

Welcome to 19 Southfarm

Today is Mike's three year anniversary with 19 Southfarm*!  

*Street name changed for privacy.

I feel like I talk a lot about things going on at my house as well as my roommates.  I thought it would be fun to compile all of my posts/photos about the house as well as introduce you to my roommates.  So, here's "where I live."

First of all, about the house: Mike actually bought 19 Southfarm with one of his friends.  It is a 2,500 square foot, 5 bedroom house, in a suburb of Hartford, CT.  Since initially "splitting" the house with his friend, that friend has left, Mike has become sole owner, and A LOT of work has been done [by us].  I love painting and decorating, so it's been a lot of fun [and a VERY rewarding experience] for me!  

Here are the updates so far [click on the link to see the most recent photos]:

Upstairs: 
- One, two, three bedrooms [the 4th bedroom was always livable]: de-wallpapered and painted
- Bathroom: de-wallpapered, painted, re-grouted, caulked, and made/hung curtains

Main floor:
- Living room: de-wallpapered and painted
- Hallway: de-wallpapered and painted
- Dining room: de-wallpapered, painted, stained and put in new chair rail
- Kitchen: de-wallpapered, painted, made/hung curtains, and deep cleaned
- Bathroom: de-wallpapered, painted, re-caulked, made/hung curtains, and wooden built-in refinished
- Cedar sunroom and breezeway: already good to go!

Basement:
- Main living space: wall removed, painted, all new crown, baseboard, window, door, and accent molding [stained and put in], made/hung curtains, and bar built from scratch
- Bedroom: painted
- Laundry room: [Still needs to be painted]
- Bathroom: [Still needs to be painted]
- Kitchen: dry wall ripped out [Still needs new dry wall, insulation, paint, and to rehang the cabinets]

Outside:
- New, extended back patio
- New shutters, painted doors, and gardens

And of course, we have decorated every room of the house, too!

One thing I realized when linking to past blog posts, there are NO photos of our master bedroom!  How crazy is that?  There was even a photo super far back in this blog of my college dorm room, so how did I miss our room?!  Here are a couple:

You might notice a common theme in the diy projects: de-wallpapering.  When Mike bought 19 Southfarm, EVERY SINGLE ROOM OF THE HOUSE was covered in 1970s-style wallpaper.  In fact, the first party he had was to de-wallpaper the house.  Here are a few photos of what it looked like when Mike bought it: 

[those saloon doors still exist between the kitchen and dining room :) ]

But, of course, we couldn't just get rid of all of it.  We saved a few pieces, framed them, and hung them in our upstairs hallway!

Now onto the roommates.  As you can imagine, in three years, with a bunch of single people, all with different careers and life plans, we have had a few people move in and out.  The top left photo was the first set of roommates in 2010, the top right is 2011, the bottom left is 2012 [at the Color Me Rad race], and the bottom right are our current roommates in 2013.  And yes, we hang these photos in our stairway like most families hang photos of their children.  

We have also had our share of pets.  Roxy was rescued 6 months or so after Mike bought the house.  Her best friend in the photo below this is Grizzly Adams.  He belonged to the guy Mike bought the house with and sadly left when he did.  Actually, Roxy used to be his cat as well, but since I took care of her for a good 6 months after he "forgot to," I refused to let him take her - not that he cared anyway.  Okay, rant over.  Now we are happy to have Roxy and Merp [our other roommate's cat]!

And now: the 5 of us.  There's me, Mike, Jeff, Dave, and Lindsey.  Jeff has lived there from he start with Mike.  He's our mountain man and went to college with Mike.  Dave moved in two years ago and was childhood friends with the kid Mike used to own the house with.  He's our sarcastic, sports freak.  I moved in on June 1, 2011 after I graduated from college, and Lindsey moved in this past summer with her kitty, Merp.  It's so nice to have another girl around, especially after going a year with 4 guys!  She is finishing her senior year of college this spring.

Clockwise starting with Lindsey: Lindsey, Jeff, Mike, and Dave

[I was taking the photo]

I absolutely love it here.  My thought is that at this stage in our lives, this is probably the last time any of us will live with anyone else besides our significant other [well, until retirement homes], so why try to grow up too fast!  

I hope you've enjoyed this look at 19 Southfarm!  I hope to have more updates soon with more diy projects.