Five on Friday

It's almost the weekend - yahoo! It's also the second to last weekend of September; which, what in the world? The official start of Fall is on Monday but I could see my breath billowing out in front of me in little clouds when I walked the dog this morning... so that's enough for me to declare that Autumn has arrived! Granted - it's supposed to be the seventh circle of the sun this weekend - but I'll hold on to today's weather for now. 

One. Downton Abbey - The Downton Abbey movie comes out today and I have tickets for a 6:00 showing tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse... I can't wait! However, I don't think I'm quite as excited as my Dad is - I can say with 99% certainty that Downton Abbey is probably his favorite show ever. I love that the Alamo will be offering themed food and drinks, which I will definitely be taking part in! I can't wait to see where the movie takes all the characters - but mostly Lady Edith - I've always been a fan!

Two. Weekend Things - I know so little about doing home projects...but I do believe this weekend I will be learning how to put down flooring in my wee home - flooring for my kitchen! The supplies are purchased, we just have to pull up the carpet and put down the floor. It sounds so easy but I feel like it can't be that easy... I'll report back after the weekend is over and let you know, ha-ha!

Three. Chick Fil A Things - Earlier this week I met my Mom, our friend Jen and her kiddos at Chick Fil A for lunch and I finally tasted the much talked about macaroni and cheese - which was fabulous. I enjoyed my chicken, I enjoyed snuggling my sweet girls and listening to them tell me about Disney World, Sesame Place and Great Wolf Lodge with all the wonder that only a five year old can conjure up... and it's always nice to eat something besides a Lean Cuisine for lunch!

Funny faces are our favorite.

Contemplation... maybe about chicken?

It's that good y'all...

Four. A Moment in Time - Did y'all realize that yesterday, at 9:19 in the morning (and again in the evening) that is was 9:19 on 9/19/2019... whoa! I made sure to snap a shot of my screen to capture the moment in time. I suppose that won't come around again until 3019 - and I won't be here for that!

Five. Bookworm - A friend sent me this picture below and I couldn't agree with it more. It speaks to me on a deeply personal level and I just thought I'd share. 

That's all I've got for this Friday! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - I certainly plan to!

Watson Wednesday

A little flashback to September of last year & my pup - taking in the sights and exploring the Shenandoah National Park!

Fab Fit Fun - Autumn 2019

Autumn 2019

It's that time again - time to share with you all about my Fab Fit Fun box for Autumn of 2019 - and this box was an excellent one! Who am I kidding? All of my Fab Fit Fun boxes have always been excellent and this one was no exception. 

Amika Strand Perfect Ceramic Styler ($80) - Have a good hair day, every day. The 100% ceramic plates generate safe and even heat for shiny, smooth hair. 

How exciting to see this in my box?!? I have a straightener with titanium plates but I was so excited to see this straightener with ceramic plates. Did you know that titanium has the fastest heat transfer for more immediate results while ceramic eliminates frizz - so now I have the best of both worlds!

Kut from the Kloth Slim Striped Wallet ($60) - With seven credit card slots, an ID window and one full-length bill compartment, this wallet is just as functional as it is chic.

How cute is this wallet?? I wasn't in the market for a new wallet but I love this slim style but I pretty much immediately reorganized all my things into this wallet and popped it into my purse. I love it and I also love how I could just grab it out and carry it on it's own - like a little clutch.

BaubleBar Farah Ear Crawlers ($34) - From the intricate crystal embellishments to the modern silhouette, these earrings are absolute showstoppers.

These earrings are beautiful and so delicate - I can't wait to pop them in and wear them!

Afterspa Hair Towel Wrap ($18) -  Wet hair, don't care! This towel is specially designed with an elastic loop and button to comfortably dry and hold your hair up. 

These little towels are great - I already have one and I love it. So, I passed this one along to my Mom and she's been enjoying the benefits.

AVEDA Damage Remedy Daily Hair Repair ($30) - Instantly repair and protect your hair from heat styling (up to 450 degrees) with the power of quinoa protein, macadamia oil and soy.

I'm always looking for products to hep with keeping my hair looking soft and healthy since I use heat related products on my hair so often. I'm sure this will be a great addition to my arsenal of hair products!

Harper + Ari Exfoliating Sugar Cubes in Juice Cleanse ($16) - These delightful sugar cubes are a great way to exfoliate and cleanse yourself in the shower - all while leaving a yummy scent.

Oh. My. Goodness. These smell absolutely amazing! I could just sniff the jar on the daily and it would make me happy... however, they are also fabulous to grab out of the jar and just gently scrub skin to a soft, smooth and deliciously scented state.

Human + Kind Body Souffle ($18) - Lather yourself in a souffle blend of apricot oil and shea butter. Your skin will be incredibly soft and moisturized. 

Yet again - can I just say that this smells like the most amazing thing ever. It smells divine, feels so creamy and leaves my skin feeling incredibly soft! 

SKIN&CO Roma Truffle Therapy Face Toner ($30) - Designed to cleanse and deeply purify the skin, this toner is jam-packed with natural extracts of truffle, calendula, rose and rosemary. The result? Healthy, youthful-looking skin.

One more time - smells amazing! And so far, it makes my skin feel so soft and wonderful. I am definitely loving this but I don't want to fall in love with it because... I don't know about $30 for toner, ha-ha!

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Fab Fit Fun is a quarterly subscription that cost $49.95 - but each box has at least $200 worth of goodies inside. There is a box for each season and my Autumn box had a value of $286! I have done several subscription boxes and this is hands down my favorite. If you'd like to give it a try, you can use my link: https://www.talkable.com/x/cGzKdR and get $10 off your first box!

Doing All the Things

What a weekend! It was full and I ended up getting in bed after midnight two of the three nights of the weekend - and some how I'm still happily functioning this morning (coffee - it's the coffee). I left the office at 12:30 on Friday...joined up with my Mom at home and then we picked up my Dad and headed into DC for the Nationals game.

 

We ended up arriving shortly after 5:00 and after a short wait in line we grabbed our Anthony Rendon bobble heads and managed to snag a seat at the Brewhouse for dinner. It was overcast for the entire night and shortly after sitting down to eat I ended up needing to put on my jacket - the breeze coming from the Anacostia was nice but it got cool really quickly!

 

It was Pups in the Park night and a pup actually "threw" out the first pitch to start the game - which was just as cute as it sounds. Unfortunately the rest of the game wasn't so cute. *sigh* Max Scherzer was uncharacteristically shaky and the Nationals bats were just not doing much. Some of that may have to do with the fact that they'd arrived home from Minnesota at 5 AM on Friday morning - but all in all it was a lackluster game. We left after the 6th inning (I know - shame on us) and crammed on the Metro with what felt like half of DC on the way home. Whoosh! 

 

I didn't get to sleep on Friday night until after 12:00 and so I had big plans to sleep in on Saturday - and I did, after a fashion. I slept until shortly before 8:00 and then had coffee and shared my breakfast bagel with Watson. I also made sure to get in exercise since the Saturday afternoon outing was Afternoon Tea at the George Washington Hotel! 

My family took part in the Afternoon Tea at the George Washington Hotel in July and my Mom thought it would be a perfect outing for the Ladies Bible Study in our neighborhood, so she booked the tea and Saturday was the day! There were seven of us that were able to go and we had delicious tea, some tasty food and conversation and it was such a wonderful way to spend some time on Saturday afternoon!

I do have to say - the only thing I didn't love - one of our savories was Duck Confit and y'all, I am not a fan of duck liver. I tried it and then I moved on. Ha-ha!

It came a little late Summer storm on Saturday afternoon and once the storm had passed, we had chili and watched some football as the evening arrived. The sunset on Saturday evening was spectacular - as they tend to be after storms and I couldn't resist taking multiple pictures - two of which are below!

Sunday morning was the usual - church and then lunch at Chili's (okay, we don't always eat at Chili's but we almost always go out to eat somewhere, ha-ha). We popped into one of our favorite shops in the area called Miller House - they were having their Fall Open House and I picked up a little werewolf figurine to add to my Halloween decor. It's so cute y'all. So cute.

After a few hours just relaxing around the house, we made our way to the Gainesville area and perused Cabela's for a wee bit before having dinner at Bar Louie - where we stayed for a bit to watch some of the (sad) Saints game on the big screens. Then it was off to Jiffy Lube Live to see Game of Thrones: the Live Concert Experience.

This was my third time seeing the concert and I convinced my parents that since they recently (finally) watched all eight seasons of Game of Thrones (and seemed to enjoy it) that they'd like the concert as well. The two previous times I've seen the show were at Capitol One Arena but for this third outing, the concert has been done for amphitheater audiences and it also includes music from all eight seasons.

 

My Dad's assessment of the show at the Intermission was "it's fine"... and my Mom's was "it's really good, it brings back a lot of memories"... I think my Mom definitely enjoyed it more out of the two of them but I enjoyed every minute of it. No doubt about it. I almost had a situation where I attempted to climb over to the row in front of our seats, my foot slid in the seat and almost got caught when the seat closed on my ankle - I managed to keep my cool, mutter loudly "SITUATION...SITUATION" and then my Mom looked over to see me manage to get myself unstuck without incident. Crisis averted.

The concert ended around 11:00 and blessedly the exit from Jiffy Lube went really quickly - we were home by around 11:45 and I was in bed shortly after midnight. I'll definitely be needing that 2:00 cup of coffee today, ha-ha! I enjoyed every minute of the concert though and I'm so glad I was able to go - even if I didn't love the way the final season capped the show, I have always loved the amazing music that Ramin Djawadi created and seeing it performed with scenes from the show is a fabulous experience.

So - as I said - it was a full weekend! I'll leave you with a snap of Watson this morning, doing what I wished I could be doing.... curling up in a ball and going back to sleep! 

Five on Friday

One. Nationals Baseball - It's Friday night and I'm heading into DC for a Nationals game! It's Anthony Rendon bobble head night (thank goodness I got a new shelf...) and Max Scherzer will be pitching! The Nationals just returned (as in - at 5:01 this morning) from a three game set in Minnesota where they won two of three. It's the third to last weekend of regular season baseball and the Nationals have a 3.5 lead for the NL Wild Card game - can't wait to see how the rest of the season unfolds!

Two. Afternoon Tea - I'm going to tea on Saturday afternoon and I'm so looking forward to it! The Women's Bible Study that I take part in within my neighborhood decided to have a little afternoon tea and so we are going to the nearby George Washington Hotel to have delicious afternoon tea (which my family took part in about 2 months ago - it was divine). I can't wait to have tea, scones, sandwiches and savories! 

Three. Game of Thrones: In Concert - Sunday night is the Game of Thrones: Live Concert Experience and I am getting so pumped! I've seen the concert both times it has come to the DC area previously and both times were fantastic - I've always loved Game of Thrones and even though the eighth season was disappointing, the music has always been spectacular. Ramin Djawadi is an incredibly talented composer and I'm looking forward to seeing how the concert has been changed now that the story has come to it's conclusion! I can't wait!

Four. Giggles - Y'all know I always have something funny for you and this week is no exception! All of these things have made me laugh this week and maybe they'll give you a smile too!

Five. Kitchen Things - My "grand" kitchen plans are going to come to fruition and it more ways than I'd originally thought! I'll be getting my wee IKEA kitchen in the coming weeks and apparently I'll also be getting new flooring in the process as well - it's all very exciting. I'm looking forward to getting the finished product all set up - it's going to be great. The picture below is the small kitchen I'm speaking of... so we shall see how I make it my own and fix it up in the coming weeks!

Y'all have a good Friday and enjoy your weekend! I'm scooting out of work around 12:30 today so my weekend is just a wee bit longer than usual and that's always a good thing!