sweet tea magnolia

New Year's Eve

2012-02-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve was a nice laid back time this year. A group of us went to eat at Oya for dinner and had a great time. The food was fabulous, as usual, and the champagne was flowing. Here are a few pics of our night below.

Jaci and Olivia

Becca's cousin, Hannah and her husband Jay O Howe

Meg and Holly

With my honey :)

Mary Beth had a fun party at her house to celebrate instead of going out to the craziness that is a bar in DC on NYE. We had plenty of cocktails and appetizers to last all night long. I even ran into a friend from high school who I haven't seen since then. I had a great time celebrating a year ago to the night this guy and I started hanging out/dating. It's been a great year!

Holidays

2012-01-26T14:00:00.000-05:00

Loved the sweet Christmas card from the White House this year. Cute little Bo just chilling in front of the fire.

Since Chris was in town for the holidays, I pretty much had a perma grin on my face like this. He arrived right before Thanksgiving and stayed through New Years. While he spent his Thanksgiving and Christmas with his family in Florida, I still got my time in with him. We had a great time in the city with all of the holiday parties and such. This was taken at the W rooftop bar after we had been at the JLW holiday event, which was great!

I left a couple days before Christmas Eve and flew down south for an Arkansas Christmas with all of my family and friends. One of my favorite things about going back to Hot Springs for the holiday season is seeing all of my high school friends. We always have a blast at either house parties or 'the chill' as locals refer to it. On our Christmas Eve Eve celebration night, we had a party at Eryn's house for the night. Oh wait, that was after my parents dragged me around to 3 other parties I just HAD to attend for a bit. This entailed me having a couple glasses of wine at the first party and then not so I could drive them to all these parties we had to attend. By the time we left the last house, I was ready to get my hs reunion party on! My parents even stayed for a while, till they cabbed it home so the youngins could socialize all night.

Christmas with my family was as entertaining as ever at my aunt and uncle's house. We all stayed the night and had a big sleepover that lasted through the next day. Of course, we stuffed ourselves with a great breakfast and big Christmas lunch/dinner.

Quite possibly one of my favorite things to do when I am home is to see lots of babies! Sweet baby Miles was sick, but he sure was happy when he got his awesome new tricycle stroller put together by uncle Ryan.
Tucker decided to sneak into the pantry and get some vanilla wafers out while his mom and I weren't looking. Sneaky little man.
I love seeing all my friends/cousins sweet babies when I am home visiting. It's gets the baby syndrome out of me for a bit :)

Holly's Birthday

2012-01-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

This girl. This fabulous girl has been a friend of mine for over 8 years now. See we met one very hot August of 2003 while going through 'rush' at the University of Arkansas. We ended up in the same sorority and have been great friends ever since. We have some great stories and even better memories of our college days. I love that we both live and work in DC in our 'late 20s' and are still great friends.
Last month we had a great night out for my Holly Sales. We had a big girl date at Ping Pong Dim Sum, which was perfect for a table full of girls drinking lots of champagne :)

Jaci, Olivia, Meg, and Mary Beth

The gals at dinner.

A pic with my hot man :)

Love my Sales!

Vacation girls minus Becca.

And then things got very party like at 18th Street Lounge, as you can see from the pic above. That would be my lovely roommate Kelvin failing at doing the limbo. How do you limbo at a bar you ask? Well leave that up to Olivia and Kelsey.

I literally left to get a drink, I come back to Christopher snapping shots of my friends making a human limbo. This went on for what seemed an hour, while everyone (minus my un flexible self) attempted to do the limbo after a few too many cocktails. Great bar entertainment if I do say so.

The above pics gives you an idea of which direction the night ended ;) It was another fun night in the city with some of the greatest friends. Happy Birthday Holly, until next year....oh the holiday season and it's parties!

Aspen

2012-01-04T16:27:00.000-05:00

Well my trip to Aspen started in typical Emili travel fashion. Something always happens to me when I travel. This time I missed my flight out of Dulles to Aspen. First issue was working too late and second was getting stuck in rush hour traffic on the beltway out to the Virginia suburbs.
I start by meeting Chris at his truck out in Alexandria, then he drove me out to Dulles. Well that's after I called to see if I could catch a later flight on the way out, only to find out I couldn't get to Aspen till the next day. I changed the flight to the following morning, which put me flying from Dulles to LAX, then to Aspen. Oh yeah, I flew completely to the west coast only to fly back to the middle. I then had four hours to wait in LAX, so I decided to purchase a day in the United lounge so I could eat, drink, and chill.

I finally got to Aspen late Saturday night, which took an entire day off my trip. Oh well, it was still a fab time. Stella watching cartoons in my bed before going out for the day.

We stopped in a couple stores, where she picked up a cookie and we had a break.

We found a big metal bear. She is making her famous "rawr" noise.

It was absolutely gorgeous.

I decided to spend my afternoon one day getting a facial and mani at the Aspen Club and Spa and passed this scene on the walk there.

The girls eating cookies and drinking milk while watch The Grinch for the first time.

The last night I was there it snowed a ton and everything was covered in snow. It was a great send off from my trip to the beautiful little town. Can't wait to go back next year, well this year :)

Thanksgiving in DC

2011-12-21T16:46:00.000-05:00

This year was a bit different for thanksgiving. Since flights were so expensive and Arkansas was playing at LSU, I decided to stay in DC. Since my brother and dad were going to LA (lower Arkansas) to go duck hunting, my mom decided to spend the holiday cooking for me and all of my DC friends. It turned out to be such a lovely little dinner.

my thanksgiving banner :)

Brad showed up in a turkey costume. It was a hit!

The whole group

the turkey cutting the turkey!

my sweet little Lucy

San Diego

2011-12-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

Last month I headed out to the west coast to two of my very good friends Justin and Haley. I've known Haley since we were in junior high at Lakeside back in the day, but she also lived in DC for the first year I lived here. I met Justin through work, since his political consulting firm worked with our big environmental campaign from 2010.

Justin moved out west to see try the laid back lifestyle for a couple years in San Diego. Haley is currently based in LA as a travel nurse and plans to stay in Cali for a few years also.
I went out on a Thursday evening after work and 6 hours later, spent a long weekend with some great friends.

This picture was taken at the Pacific Beach Shore Club. Yes, it looks all lovely and beachy, which it was. They even had some concoction called a frozen Red Bull and vodka (sick!) which Justin and Haley loved. Everything was all fun and games until I made a horrible decision and ordered the "best fish tacos in PB"......NOT! To make a long story short, I got food poisoning. It put a damper on my party filled weekend we had planned to say the least :(

Before things went downhill, Justin and I had a fun day of sight seeing around the San Diego area on Friday. These pics were taken at Balboa Park, which was a great time to be a tourist in the city. There are lots of museums, theaters, palm trees, and fountains.

We even saw a civil ceremony happening while we were walking around the park. It was a very small and intimate ceremony. Very sweet.
The couple below were taking their wedding pictures by the water and on the bridge. Love :)

Even though it wasn't the best weekend I could've planned in San Diego, I still had a great time with my friends who I miss. I am already planning on heading back out next spring for beach time!

Review: Kevin Murphy Color Bug

2011-11-28T17:46:00.000-05:00

This was the pic I took when I opened the package and was super excited about my new purchase. I was still super excited about it until the night I actually used it on my hair. Epic fail.

Not only was the flat bottom a pain to apply, it got EVERYWHERE in my bathroom. I'm not even kidding. I wish I would've taken a pic of the purple residue all over the place. So before I noticed all the purple stained bathroom later, I spent about 30 minutes rubbing the dense eyeshadow like chalk into my hair. It's covering my hands, which washes off with soap and water, whew! I then notice that the purple is now all over my back and left shoulder. Awesome, I look like Violet in the chocolate factory. Then I notice it's all over the left shoulder of my dress (one shoulder dress). Great, my cute dress is stained and I haven't even left the house for Kelsey's birthday party. No big deal, I'm wearing a black blazer over the dress...until I take it off at the party. It all the pics from the night you can see my stained shoulder.

See, purple arms :(

Thankfully when I washed the dress, the purple came out in one wash. My hair wasn't so lucky. I had washed my hair the night I put it on and had to re wash it the next day since it was all over my pillows from sleeping. I literally had to wash the ends about 6 times before it all came out and the shower water wasn't purple.

Needless to say, you can see how much I didn't like this product at all! Oh and I forgot to mention that it tangled the crap out of my hair also. Another negative. I def don't recommend this product for a fun night of color, which is what I was expecting. I threw the remaining product away and wasn't happy I wasted $20.

Halloween

2011-11-15T14:52:00.000-05:00

Since a few girlfriends and I were supposed to be in Mexico for a 5 day vacation, I didn't have to plan for a Halloween costume this year. Well, that was until Hurricane Rena decided to show up and ruin our trip. Becca and I just decided to go with neon wigs and LBDs. Oh, and lots of fun makeup!
There was an amazing party that is held every year at the Newseum and we decided to check it out for the first time. It did NOT dissapoint! I'll def be going back for the next few years to come. Questlove from The Roots was the main DJ and there were about 6 others on different floors. There were plenty of bars and amazing costumes. If you are in DC over Halloween ever, I would definitely recommend trying to make it.

Olivia was a cat with her cute little ears and tail.

The boys of the evening. Preston was a great Harry Carry. So funny!

Wilbur looking all dapper as Clark Kent/Superman

Ran into these two outside of the Newseum. Ghaddafi and 'buried at sea' Osama.

Part of the Berlin wall at the Newseum.

The Stellavator. They transformed the clear elevators to mini bars. So cool!

Becca and Waldo (Jon) looking cute :)

The crowd at the main floor was insane. Questlove was spinning and we danced for what seemed like hours.

How cute are these two?! We had tons of trick-or-treaters on Monday night at our house. We literally went through about $35 worth of candy! The little boy above drove his power wheels down the sidewalk and you brought the candy to him. He was pretty smooth!

My fave kid of the night by far! The second Nikki Minaj right there. She even sang me a little, Super Bass. Loved her!

Amazing Eyes

2011-10-27T14:55:00.001-04:00

Amazing Eyes by emmajean014 on polyvore.com

Kendrew's Wedding & baby heaven

2011-10-21T13:38:00.001-04:00

Ramona and I before the wedding.

*Boots and Butterflies

I can say that Andrew and Kendra's wedding was one of the most perfect weddings I've ever seen/been to in my life. No offense to my other fabulous friends and their weddings, but I don't think this one can be matched. Not only was the weather absolutely perfect, but the wedding went off without a hitch. This coming from the most laid back bride you've ever seen in your life. I'm not kidding...known the kid since she was born. Super chill. She literally planned it all in about a week. Right before she moved to Arizona and then the few days she had in Arkansas before the wedding. Typical Kendra. I am too OCD for that, but of course she pulled it off!

Kristen Everhart was the fantastic photographer for the wedding. Her company is Boots and Butterflies and she does everything from weddings to babies to senior pictures. I love every single shot I've seen so far and can't wait to see the rest of the wedding day pics. I've posted her website and Facebook page below in case anyone is interested in booking a session with her. This week she is doing pumpkin patch pictures...and taking pics w my bf baby Miles today :)

Right after the rehearsal.

Found this little gem standing in the field during the rehearsal. Gotta love the country!

Loved the pig sign and the always delicious McClard's BBQ in Hot Springs. Great relaxed rehearsal dinner.

This sweet little nugget is Kinley and boy did I love on her for a good long while! Her momma is Emily and we went to high school together. I danced with her and then held her till she fell asleep and locked her in the car seat. It was pretty much my heaven. I freakin' love me some babies! Her older sister Chloe is pretty cute too and was breaking it down with my dad most of the night. So cute!

I got to meet sweet baby Jack and see my little cousins all in the same weekend. Talk about me getting my baby fix.

Snuggling baby Jack :)

At Mady's soccer game with Tucker Jack.

I had a great weekend with my family and friends. Can't wait to celebrate with all my friends next year in the 5 weddings I have!

*Photographs property of Boots and Butterflies Photography.
http://bootsandbutterflies.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Boots-and-Butterflies/134632626567066

Tuscaloosa

2011-10-11T12:52:00.001-04:00

Well it wasn't the outcome we had hoped, but it was still a great weekend trip down to Bama. While Libby left on Thursday evening, Reed, Holly, and I left Friday morning. We planned on leaving around 8 am, but the fog delayed us for a little bit.

Reed being a baller pilot

Knoxville from the sky.

Bryant-Denny stadium before landing

After the visibility improved, we took off from Manassas, VA and headed over the Appalachians to Knoxville, TN for a pit stop. Had to load up on fuel and Cheez-Its of course :) After a bit of turbulence and 5 hours in the sky, we landed in Tuscaloosa along with several other hog fans who flew in from Arkansas.

One of the only times she wasn't sleeping ;)

Libby and I stayed with her sister Selby, who goes to school at Bama. Reed and Holly stayed in the AR house which was like a mini SAE/DDD house...such a fun group of friends from college. They were right around the corner from us, so we were constantly over there where lots of AR fans gathered to tailgate and party all weekend.

Friday night began with a pre party and then we moved on the "The Strip", which is just like Dickson Street, but not as long, to begin and end our night out. We were told to head to Gallette's, which was the equivalent of Grub's, so we of course loved it. It was the typical fratty college scene, which was great for free entertainment while we caught up with old friends and danced a bit.

Saturday began with tailgating around 11 am for the 3:30 kickoff. We ate some delicious fried shrimp with remoulade and had a side of fried green tomatoes and hushpuppies - very healthy ;) We headed to the game and enjoyed the first quarter. It all went to hell by half time and didn't get any better in the second half. Not only is Knile Davis out, but Jake Bequette was out this game and Javarius Wright broke his arm in the first quarter. Needless to say, we lost. It was definitely not the game that we traveled down to see, but we didn't let it effect our fun.

Had to get a pic of the Delta Shelta, Bama style :)

Libby and I sat with Adam, Chip, Missy, and Howard and had a great time. We then went to an Asian restaurant for dinner and drinks before we headed to the Bear Trap to meet the rest of the AR crew. It ended up being a long and memorable night out in Ttown.

Sunday morning was a little rough after a weekend of pretending to be in college on a game weekend. We all met up for lunch at Chipotle and then all went our separate ways back home. Libby decided to fly back with us to DC, instead of waiting to leave Birmingham later in the day. She is scared of flying in the first place, so it was pretty eventful watching her in ReedAir. We finally made it back home around 8 pm and hit the hay.

We all had a fabulous time in Tuscaloosa, minus the loss. Don't worry Bama fans...we'll be back down in 2 years for a W....after you lose in Fayetteville next year!

Review: Sally Hansen Salon Effects

2011-10-04T14:01:00.000-04:00

I had seen these nifty new polish strips a couple months ago, but was skeptical on the quality and price of the product. While at the beach, my friend Kelsey told me that she tried it once and loved the result. She said it even stayed for the 10 days it promised on the box.

Being obsessed with painting my nails and always trying new things, I headed to CVS and bought two different styles; gold glitter and one I like to call pantyhose.

I decided to try out my purchase on a rather slow afternoon at work ;) To my surprise, they were actually super easy and mess free to apply! Since they are already dried polish strips, they don't have to dry for several minutes.

The only thing I can say is you MUST follow the instructions! Do every single step it lists, especially swiping polish remover over the nails right before you apply the strips. Also, DO NOT apply a clear top coat!!! I can't stress this enough....it ruins your whole manicure! Usually when I get a manicure, I put a top coat on almost everyday to make it last. That is not the case with the strips. Idk why, but it causes the polish strips to peel up around the edges. No bueno!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-27T14:02:00.001-04:00

Well, it was another successful weekend trip to Dewey Beach this summer. This time we had a group of 8, up from 4 we had 4th of July weekend. My BFFs from AR, Ashley and Kacee came up on Thursday night after work. After a short work day for all of the DC girls, we headed out early Friday afternoon for a long weekend at the beach.

We left around 3 and instead of the usual 3 hour trip, it took us 5. Why, you ask? Well we took Holly's car (I of course drove ;) and programed our destination in the GPS. Well, Sky Bia (as we refer to her) doesn't tell you when you make a wrong turn; she redirects you by whatever change you made driving. That's great and all if you know exactly where you are going. Not so much when you are on a mission to get a big girls weekend started ASAP.

Kacee and Olivia

The entire group on Friday night.

Had to get a pic of the Trident lifesaver :)

As you can tell, we didn't let that slow us down one bit. We all got ready at the condo and headed out to the usual hot spots and had a fabulous time. By the time we got to Bottle & Cork, we had a few and I decided the best way to get a creeper to leave us alone was to break out a full on crazy dance. I don't have pics of this, Kristen on the other hand has a video. I don't know what came over me, but it worked!

Sunday night dinner on the bay at Venus on the Half Shell.

Perfect ending to a great girls weekend!