What I’m Loving Wednesday

1. The day after my birthday, I had brunch at Crave Kitchen & Cocktails. I’ve been going there pretty regularly and am always so pleased with both the food and service. To eat, I had the veggie wrap: fresh garden vegetables with a hummus spread, feta cheese and lemon vinaigrette wrapped in a low carb lavosh wrap. I added smoked salmon to it and had sweet potato chips on the side. I love this wrap and daydream about it.

Chef Landen sent out an incredibly delicious slice of gluten-free salted caramel cake that Carmela makes. The frosting was definitely the best I’ve had in a long time.

2. I recently purchased 2 new bracelets from Handpicked: a sideways cross and a chevron bangle. I love them both so much!

3. Thanks to Justin and his 4 billion channels, I’ve discovered an interesting show on National Geographic: Taboo. The show “explores behaviors and lifestyles that are acceptable in some cultures but forbidden, illegal or reviled in others.”

4. This heat wave is pretty sticky, but it provides for some glorious days on the boat. Yesterday, we went wakeboarding! I’ll post videos soon.

5. Pickles in a bag.

6. This boy loves Chick-fil-A as much as I do!

And his little dog too.

: )

Scenes From The Weekend

Cupcakes from Cupcake. Carrot Cake and Banana pudding. Sign up for their birthday club and get a free cupcake!

Early birthday Presents from the Grandparents!

Jelly beans from Hall’s. A lot of them. We’re obsessed!

Beach time.

With Paula Deen’s Piña Colada smoothies. Delicious!

Running.

Boat day.

Waterkeeper and watermelon on the sandbar.

Some dogs eat kale.

In summary: I love the sunshine, my friends, and dessert, and that dog is healthier than I am.

Make Up Less But Not Labor Less Labor Day

That title cannot be grammatically correct.

Just because it was Labor Day did not mean I would skip the gym! I woke up, quickly ate some cereal, and met Amanda at the gym. We both jumped on the elliptical for about 20 minutes and caught up on our weekend. We did some arm and booty workout, and then I jumped on the treadmill for 20 minutes of HIIT. And that was enough labor for the day.

My little brother spent the night w/ me on Sunday, so I let him choose where we’d have lunch. I nearly passed out when he didn’t say “Chick-fil-A,” as he too is obsessed. He opted for Japanese and we invited Mariah along. Initially, we wanted to try Sushi Taro, but it was closed! I guess they believe in Labor Day! Boo! Our next option was Umi, right outside of Park West. Just inside the plaza with Publix, this unassuming restaurant was tiny, but welcoming. Their lunch specials were very fairly priced and were served quickly. All three of us chose the Teriyaki chicken with vegetables and rice, for $8. It wasn’t the best Teriyaki chicken I’ve ever had, but the sauce was a nice citrusy flavor.

A mandatory stop at both TCBY and Target was next on our agenda. By a pure miracle, I didn’t purchase anything for myself at Target; the mission was solely to purchase an iPod shuffle for my brother’s 15th birthday. Holy crud, my baby brother is getting old! That evening, it was time for a booze cruise with Matt and Tyler.

This photo may alarm you for two reasons: Matt is smiling (!) and I have a naked face. The only logical explanation for this is that Matt was drinking an adult beverage and it was just too darn hot out for makeup. Fall is nowhere in sight.

We made it just in time for the fireworks from the Riverdogs game.

Doesn’t that second picture look like a jellyfish? Someone teach me how to take pictures of fireworks with a DSLR, por favor!

See you tomorrow for a sweeeeeeeeeet review. So sweet my teeth hurt.

Oh, I almost forgot!! The winner of the Thrive Foods book giveaway is:

Congrats, girlfriend! Send your address to christinaorso @ gmail dot com.

Sunday Funday

In case you missed it, I had quite the blog failure of a weekend. Sunday was a much better day. I slept in later than normal, but woke up just in time to get ready for church. We had a very special speaker today. Tim Scott!

That was a nice surprise. He was quite the animated speaker and it was nice to have a Charleston celebrity in the house. Tim seems like such a great man and I was impressed that he has been with the church for over 14 years.

After church, Matt insisted that we go to See Wee restaurant, an old shack of a place that I had never been to. See Wee is pretty deep in Mt. Pleasant, on the way to Awendaw. It’s right off 17 – you can’t miss it.

The inside of the front room looks a bit like an old convenient store with candy, fresh pies, and glass soda bottles. We ate in the back room where everyone else was and were immediately served fresh hush puppies. Yum. They were piping hot and delicious. If they weren’t just a ball of fried goodness, I would have eaten them all. My arteries were happy sampling one and a half.They serve strictly Southern food, most of which is not healthy. I was relieved to see that grilled chicken and steamed vegetables were an option on a menu full of fried food. Along with my grilled chicken, steamed squash, and butter beans (love!), I could not resist a side of fried pickles.

Believe it or not, their fried pickles were just as good as Midtown’s, which are my very favorite! The pickles tasted very similar to Charleston Pickle Company’s pickles.

Matt had a very traditional southern meal: fried chicken, macaroni & cheese, fried eggplant, and butter beans. His poor arteries.

I wasn’t in love with this restaurant, but mostly because it’s not my favorite cuisine. The service was excellent though! We were checked on multiple times by the very friendly staff. I also love that they had fresh homemade pies. The sign out front makes me laugh too, “Y’all come!” Oh, South Carolina.

Our next stop was at Marshall’s to check out some home stuff. I was ecstatic to find this plastic cup. It looks just like my blog header!! Totally meant to be.

I also snagged this salmon pink & grey blouse. The picture doesn’t do it justice – it’s adorable and I can’t wait for cooler weather so I can wear it.

Well, I’m off to a booze cruise with some friends. Matt’s trying to recreate the cocktail we had at Biggie’s, and then we’re taking the boat out to watch fireworks. 

Happy Labor Day my friends!

Happy 4th of July!

This pretty much sums up my weekend.

Friday:

Dancing with a belt?

Slightly upset that she took it away from me. I guess she thought I was going to choke myself.

A Charleston fire engine.

Saturday:

Boat day.

Stopping for our favorite fast food after a long day in the sun.

Sunday.

Beach day. Later at the bar we took about 45 pictures doing “The Chandler” smile. Please say someone knows what this is.

Monday:

Beach day #2. Champagne and pickles – the most delicious combo.

Sporting Kira’s new cover-up from Wing’s.

My liver really wants me to go back to work tomorrow.

I might do a full recap later. I might not.

Love,

Your most classy friend, Xtina

Destin Days 2 & 3

Friday: Boat Day! Margaret and I, along with her brother and sister, took the family’s boat out to Crab Island. There were a ton of boats, but believe me when I say that we didn’t go unnoticed. How the heck would we wearing these ridiculous headbands? Oh, and matching bikinis. We didn’t purposely both pack them, but when we found out that we had, we couldn’t resist wearing them together! Dorks.

Look how clear the water is!

While on the water, we spotted quite the fancy party boat. We soooooooortaaaaaa kinda wanted to be sunbathing on the roof of that thing.

I also spotted a lime green boat!

And a pretty all white house.

After a couple hours in the sun, we met Mama Maclin at Dewey Destin’s, a seafood restaurant on the water. We shared the smoked tuna dip appetizer. It was surprisingly light on the mayo – thank goodness! It was delicious.

I had the grilled mahi basket with corn, potatoes, and coleslaw. I really liked how the seafood was simple but full of flavor. No nonsense in messing with fresh fish!

After such a light meal, we did something really naughty. We celebrated National Doughnut Day!! I still can’t believe we did this. Krispy Kreme was handing out free doughnuts all day long. Margaret’s little sister insisted that we get some and we didn’t argue. Mama Maclin even asked if we could have hats. As if we needed more crap to put on our heads…

Saturday: Pool Day! On our last day, we felt like being lazy by the pool. It was soso hot. The temperature raised to well over 100*. I liked it.

That afternoon, we four girls got pedicures. It had been too long since I had gotten one, and all the dancing at Trio had caught up with me…er, my feet? I got an orangey color that was strangely similar to that of a persimmon. I hate feet and I also hate that I’m putting a FOOT on my blog, but whatever, I hope you’ll love me anyway. Pretty please?

Next, we did a bit more shopping. I picked up this cute summer dress from Forever 21:

I also fell in L-O-V-E with one of Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Lovers perfumes at Sephora. Meet “G of the Sea.” This limited edition summer scent is “a citrusy woody floral with hints of crisp apple, magical water lily, and the sweet surge of crushed berries.” Mmmmmmmmmm. I might have to buy this.

Saturday evening, Margaret and I went to Baytown for dancing and drinks. We snapped a Blackberry photo and somehow a dude managed to creep in the back! Ha. 

We drove the 8 hours home today and I’ve been slowly settling in. I love vacations, but I always love coming back to my bed. Hope you all had a great weekend!!