Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Happy Birthday, Harry!


Happy 32nd birthday to Harry Potter!

In honor of your birthday I would like to thank my Grandma and my Dad for buying me all of the books and waiting in line at midnight in front of Barnes & Noble more than once. I would like to thank Camp Louise for allowing my love of Harry Potter to grow by celebrating his birthday every summer. I'd like to thank ABC Family for playing Harry Potter marathons almost every weekend. I would like to thank the creative kids on Tumblr who take the fandom way too far, but I love it. Even though Voldy was the one who made a grand appearance at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremonies and not you, it's your day Harry.

Unlike the Dursley’s, we will never forget. 

P.S. This box set is the ultimate HP birthday present! I don't think we have room for it in our apartment..Don't let that stop you from pre-ordering one and sending it my way ;)

Monday, July 30, 2012

My Weekend, in Snapshots

To see my weekend, on instagram (follow me @eeelishalynn)

Left to right, top to bottom:

1) We were invited to a pot luck dinner at our friend's house on Friday evening to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies. On the way, we stopped at Food Lion to pick up beer and discovered this beauty already on shelves!

2) Everyone at dinner happy to be together, confused about the opening ceremony presentation, and waiting to see team USA!

3) Saturday morning was nice and lazy. I cooked brunch, we played with Skwisgaar, and we watched a few Olympic events. After lunch we decided to check out a few thrift stores that I had bookmarked on Yelp. I found a dish, a mint julep cup and a mason jar at the Durham Rescue Misson's Bargain Center and this amazing vintage table at Father & Son's Antiques downtown. It was out of my budget though :(

4) The top floor of Father & Son's Antiques is an art gallery. I was oddly drawn to the telephone with the antlers...

5) After all of our treasure hunting we walked over to The Raleigh Times for a late lunch/ early dinner.

6) On our way home we stopped at the Cupcake Shoppe. They were celebrating their 5th year of business and were giving away free mini cupcakes! We tried a few at the shop (these were Mimosa and maple) and bought two regular size cupcake for later. Yum! There was a huge thunderstorm Saturday night so we decided to stay home with Skwisgaar, enjoy our cupcakes and watch more Olympics.

7) On Saturday we video chatted with our families, cleaned the apartment, took on the laundry, and ran a few errands. Obviously this jar of magical deliciousness found a new home in our refrigerator. I don't know how I had gone so long without it...

8) We went to see and afternoon screening of Ted at the Raleigh Grande. Aaron liked it, but I was not so impressed.

What did you do this weekend?

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Simply Saturday


Friday, July 27, 2012

Friday Favorites



This beautiful Tentacled Cake Stand from BHLDN. I know just the perfect place in our kitchen for this platter. I would know I would be constantly baking something delicious just to keep it stocked with treats! 


Going to the gym every day this week! I have started running on the treadmill and have discovered that it's not as terrible as I remember from high school gym class! Running has never been my strong suit, so it surprised me how much I like it. It was hard at first, but I have been working up to longer and longer stretches of running every day. 5k's here I come!
 

These beauties from Chromatic Gallerie are the same heels that Zooey Deschanel wears on New Girl! I discovered them on a fashion blog earlier this week. Zooey knows best! Even though I have only been wearing sandals to work I really like that they offer multiple heel heights, since I am not crazy about tall heels. I can't decided which color I want to try first! They are thigh up in my shoe price range, but I think they would be a good motivator to get myself to get up and go to the gym every day.
 

The 2012 London Olympic Games are here! Aaron and I are going to a friends house to celebrate and watch the opening ceremony. I can't wait!


Skwisgaar has his very first check-up at the vet today! He has been sneezing consistently ever since we brought him home and he might have an upper respiratory infection (they are common for shelter pets) so we are hoping it's not too bad. 

Also, I want to shout out a big MAZEL TOV to my friends Brittany and Andrew who just got engaged last night! Aaron and I can't wait to celebrate with you!

Hope you have a good weekend!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

HelloGiggles Illustrated Tweet of the Day

Illustrated Tweet of the Day is my favorite series on HelloGiggles. Especially because they post each one on Instagram!

These are my top 5 top 6 favorites:

 
 

Monday, July 23, 2012

My Weekend, in Snapshots

To see my weekend, on instagram (follow me @eeelishalynn)

Left to right, top to bottom:

1) On Friday night Aaron and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises, but first we stopped at Target to pick up kitten toys and candy (a box of candy at the movie theater is $6, but it was only $1 at Target!).

2) Waiting for the movie to begin. So excited!

3) Game face bro! In honor of the 2012 London games, Aaron and I competed in the 2012 Raleigh Beer Olympics! We were on team Scotland and we competed against Greece, Vatican City and Cuba.

4) We played a 4 round Mario Kart championship!

5) Our new favorite beer pong game: baseball. Even though Greece won our match, Scotland put up a good fight.

6) Our teammate, Sophie, representing Scotland!

7) After our 8 hour Olympic battle and a 4am apartment shaking thunderstorm, we spent all day Sunday relaxing and playing with Skiwsgaar.

8) On Sunday night we met our friends Adina, David, Nadiv, Kelly from the American Hebrew Academy for dinner at Piola in Chapel Hill. It was so nice to see them and the pizza was delicious! On the way home Aaron and I stopped at Citizen Yogurt to try out this classic treat.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Cinema Sunday


Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father's former partner.  Plot summary by IMDB

Summer blockbuster season is in full swing! Both movies on today's post feature masked men. After the last batch of Spider-man movies, I was skeptical about how this new version would turn out, but I was so impressed! Andrew Garfield is a fantastic Peter Parker and Emma Stone is so cute! The movie had good flow and the plot progressed very naturally. I would really like to see Garfield in another Spider-man movie.



Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.  Plot summary by IMDB

Aaron and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises on Friday evening. There were two local camera crews posted outside of the theater. We went to an early showing around 7pm so there were no crazy crowds or lines, but I won't write much about this one, since I know a lot of people haven't seen it and I don't want to give anything away. Overall I did not like Dark Knight Rises as much as Dark Knight, but I liked the characters (Cat Woman, Blake & Bane) better. Bane is a very realistic villain, less comic booky than The Scarecrow or The Joker. Go see it!

Did you see any movies this week?

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Simply Saturday


Friday, July 20, 2012

Friday Favorites


Aaaahhhhhh! THIS IS SO EXCITING! Mumford & Sons has officially announced their second studio album Babel! It is set to be released on September 24. There is a track listing and a video on the Mumford & Sons website. Also, I have been listening to a Ben Lee station on Pandora all week at work, it's a good one!


ComicCon! I have loved scrolling through all of the fan photos on Tumblr this week from the San Diego ComicCon. Maybe we will be able to attend one day, but until then I will following along via Tumblr, twitter, Instagram and blogs.


Turf & Turf! I randomly searched Ron Swanson on Etsy and found this amazing print created by Bill Main Illustration. It may find it's way into our collection in the near future... I can't wait for Parks & Recreation to return in the fall!


Oh yeah, and these handsome gentlemen! *Love for these two is not isolated to this week*

Hope you have a good weekend!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Bon Voyage

Originally, I was going to save this for a Friday Favorites post, but I liked them so much I decided they need their own post. ImagineNations are handmade by Wendy Gold in San Fransisco. They are beautiful pieces of art crafted on vintage globes. Since each piece is scouted out, hand-cut and then decoupaged, they are pricey. Luckily beauty and inspiration are free. Vintage globes is definitely being added to my flea market search list.

These are my top 5 favorites:




Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Meet Skwisgaar


This is our new kitten, Skwisgaar. We adopted him on Sunday from the Wake County SPCA. He is 3 months old and was born in Raleigh. He is very affectionate. He has so much love and is not skimpy with the cuddles. His favorite toy in a fluffy brown mouse. He enjoyed climbing on everything in our apartment, playing fetch with his mouse, chewing on our couch and having his belly scratched.

Our Skwisgaar is named after Skwisgaar Skwigelf who is a member of the fictional band Metal band Dethklok from the animated series Metalocalypse. Skwigelf is said to be "taller than a tree" and he is Dethklok's renowned lead guitarist. He has been coined "The Fastest Guitarist Alive" as he exhibits a specialty in speed scales. As such, we lick to call our Skwisgaar, the little rocker.

We are so happy that he is part of our family!

Monday, July 16, 2012

My Weekend, in Snapshots

To see my weekend, on instagram (follow me @eeelishalynn)

Left to right, top to bottom:

1) On Friday night we went downtown to celebrate with a friend of a friend who had won a Luau Party at Rum Runners. There was a tasty free BBQ chicken buffet and a dueling piano show! Our group enjoyed making song requests, dancing and singing along! I snapped this photo of the sassy half off shots menu.

2) A duel to the death? Don't be so dramatic! After Rum Runners we stopped by The Big Easy and The Hive.

3) Shining Hollywood stars in the floor of our local movie theater. Aaron and I went to a matinee of The Amazing Spider-Man.  After the last round of Spidey movies, I was a little skeptical, but I am glad that we decided to go see this one. (Cinema Sunday review coming next week.)

4) Awkward bathroom mirror shot of what I wore around town and to the movies on Saturday. I love this scarf! It was only $4 at Walmart. After the movie we drove across town to have lunch at the Hibachi China Buffet. 

5) Our first time going to the Crabtree Mall. We went to the Apple Store to get Aaron's iphone fixed, and then we took a lap around the mall to see what stores and restaurants were there. The mall was very quiet since we were there before noon on Sunday morning.

6) A beautiful bright red plane hanging up in the mall outside of Red Monkey. We took a peek at their menu that was posted outside of the front door. I can't wait to have dinner there with friends or family!

7) The key rack/ mail organizer/ chalkboard that I ordered on Etsy arrived! I hung it up in our entry way as soon as I picked it up from the office. The mason jar is holding our spare change until I buy pick some flowers to pop in there.

8) Oh yeah, and we adopted this guy from the Wake County SPCA on Sunday afternoon. Meet Skwisgaar!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Simply Saturday

Audrey Hepburn Quote by Unraveled Design on Etsy

Friday, July 13, 2012

Friday Favorites


Two things in the apartment department this week, I am loving our new gel pro kitchen mat from HSN and our new sheets (thank you to my Aunt Robbie for helping to make both of these items ours!). The gel pro mat makes such a big difference when I am cooking dinner. but now my feet are comfy and cushy while I'm cooking away. 

The new sheets are our first set of nice sheets, meaning they are Egyptian cotton and have a thread count. Before this set of sheets, we only used jersey sheets from Target that would get all stretched out and threadbare after a few washes. Our new sheets are soooo soft and comfy. Our new mattress helps too!

For the past couple of years Brittany has been telling me how much she loves using Yelp so I finally gave in and created an account this week. I am so happy that I did! I have started writing reviews for local restaurants and businesses and have found that it is fun! Yelp has helped me discover places. Yesterday when I needed to find a dry cleaners, I looked on Yelp to find one close by with good reviews. If you have a profile on Yelp send me a friend request!


Angel! It was one of my favorite shows back in high school. I have been re-watching season 5 this week. It comes on right before I leave for work and is perfect background when I am getting ready. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter + True Blood + Angel, vampires all summer long!


Earlier this week I bought this key rack/mail organizer/chalkboard from Legacy Studio on Etsy for our entryway. I have been been lusting over them for a few months, so I am excited to finally have one! Ours will look like the one pictured above, except that I ordered it in Mountain Sage with a distressed finish. It should be arriving via FedEx today!

Hope you have a good weekend!


Thursday, July 12, 2012

Hello Thursday


 Kentucky Bourbon Pie and Fudge Nut Crumb Cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes on Oberlin Rd.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Pinterest Party


Last night I went to my first event with the Raleigh Tribe, which is an organization for people ages 23-35ish who are interested in meeting new people, exploring Raleigh and getting involved in the local Jewish community. I have been looking forward to participating in events with this group since my friend Brittany, who happens to be one of the leaders of the group, told me about it when Aaron and I told her that we had decided to move to Raleigh.

Every other month the Raleigh Tribe organizes an event based on a project found on Pinterest (you can view my Pinterest page by clicking on the button on the side bar). Members and friends of the tribe are invited to come together to crate craft projects, nosh, and socialize. The event last night was called Pinterested: Mezuzah Edition and the project was, as I'm sure you can guess, making a mezuzah

Everyone brought a mini airplane liquor bottle to use as the base of the mezuzah. After we emptied the contents of each bottle and mixed up a cocktail or two, we rinsed them out, covered them with decorative fimo clay and beads, then baked them in the oven to set the clay.

Getting crafty with new friends!
Twist and smush!
My mezuzah finished and ready to go into the oven.
Everyone's finished mezuzot! 
Ladies of the Tribe

Helping our hostess hang a beautiful mezuzah.
I am so happy that I was able to go to this event! I met some wonderful ladies and got to exercise my crafty skills, which I love to do! If you are a Jewish young adult living in the Raleigh area be sure to check out the list of events on the Raleigh Tribe Facebook page and join us at the next event. It is a great opportunity to meet new people and visit new places around Raleigh.