Weekend Roundup: Fourth of July!

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend!  There were some serious thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday evening.  

It didn't keep us from venturing out for an impromptu date night at Jeffery's Grocery.  This is a restaurant that 's extremely close to our apartment and we had yet to visit.  While the food was good, the service was average and the hostess was incredibly rude.  That can ruin an experience.

The weather put a slight damper on our Fourth of July plans, but that didn't stop us from venturing over to our friend's place in Jersey City for a delicious homemade dinner and fireworks.

(Steak salad recipe coming soon.)

Yum!

Even though we didn't make it to the pool on Friday, we were determined to sit outside most of the day Saturday.  Mission accomplished.

It felt so good to be outside almost all day.

We were craving a Nebraska favorite, Valentino's Pizza, on Saturday night.  I know, very random.  For those of you that don't know, Valentino's is a pizza chain in the Midwest, more specifically Nebraska.  We are probably one of the best pizza cities in the world and this is what I crave.  Why does no one offer hamburger as a topping?!

(This pizza recipe coming soon as well.)

Overall, it was a very successful long weekend.  Now, back to the grind before a bachelorette/bridal shower this weekend.

Have a great week!

xx,

KMH

Weekend Recap!

What a great weekend!  We decided to celebrate my birthday on Friday night.  I hate when your birthday falls on a Monday.  You can't go out and celebrate as you normally would.

Since I knew we were doing dinner and drinks on Friday, I was smart enough to cancel my Barry's class for Saturday morning.  Thank goodness.  Saturday morning/early afternoon was spent sitting on the couch doing nothing.  I take that back, I did get up to go get a 60 minute massage.  Then came back and continued doing nothing.  This is very rare.

Anyway, this year's birthday dinner was spent at Gramercy Tavern.  The setting is slight more classic than restaurants we typically go to, but it was super cozy.  Especially on a rainy Saturday night.

There was a more casual bar area upfront that we'll definitely be trying sometime in the near future.  It seemed like a great place to grab a drink and a small bite.

We opted for the traditional pre-fixed menu which included some amazing dishes.

After dinner we dropped by ABC Kitchen for a quick nightcap.  

Needless to say, we're getting old and headed home after one additional drink.  This place is a lot bigger inside than I thought it would be.

Most restaurants that offer a pre-fixed menu give you something to go such as chocolates or macaroons.  Gramercy Tavern took it one step further and provided us with a oat muffin which ended up tasting like coffee cake.  It was delightful.  Even more delightful since I didn't have to cook breakfast on Saturday morning.

After a full-day of recuperating, we had a friend's housewarming party Saturday evening.  Great time, with great friends in what I must say is a gorgeous apartment.

Definitely was a slow starting Sunday as well.  We both had a little too much fun.

On our walk over though, I did get this amazing shot of the sunset.  It was a perfect Saturday night.

We have a short week ahead, thank goodness!  It is officially wedding season.  :)

xx,

KMH

New Year's Resolutions - 2014!

New Year, new you!  Isn't that the saying?  While I appreciate what New Year's resolutions stand for, there's something to be said about being the best you year round.

I hope everyone had a great time ringing in 2014.  I know we did!

Great dinner with friends.  We managed to find a restaurant in the New York that wasn't offering a pre-fixed menu only.

Everything is better in these coupe glasses from Crate and Barrel.

 Now on to my resolutions.  Here are a few of mine:

** Practice more patience, in all aspects of my life.  I am not a patient person.  I try to be, but I'm not fooling anyone.

** Fit in more early morning workouts.  I do a great job of working out, but with the workdays getting longer and longer, I need to get my butt out of bed before work.  No excuses.

** Stop worrying so much...about EVERYTHING!  I'm a bit of a hypochondriac and worry about everything and everyone that I love.  I need to let go!

**  Live in the moment.  This is a good life lesson for everyone.  Life is too short.  Don't worry about what's next.

** Let go of the planning process every so often.  For those of you that know me knows that this will be hard.  I'm such a planner and need to hand over the reins every so often.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

xx,

KMH

Weekend Recap: Thanksgiving!

What a great holiday!  I am most certainly not ready to go back to what is bound to be a very busy week.  Between book club (we are reading Brain on Fire), a girls night, a work holiday party and friends in town, I'm going to be exhausted by Sunday!

We hosted our first Thanksgiving this year and it was a lot of fun.  I long for the day where we have a big house and a dining room that allows for us to entertain a larger number of guests.  I think we improvised well in our small place though.  

Of course we started with a cheese plate before dinner.

After a mini panic attack that the table we purchased wouldn't work, it ended up working out very well!  I am so pleased about how the everything turned out.  I ordered the runner from Etsy and the chargers from Pier 1.

Fresh flowers are always a great idea and a must when putting a table together. 

Thanksgiving is the only time of year that I don't feel terrible about piling endless amounts of food on my plate. I definitely went to a hardcore workout on Friday after this feast.

Clearly the food was good...everyone cleaned their plates.

After at least 2 consecutive days of eating like food didn't have calories, I took a break and decorated for Christmas.  Even though we aren't home for too long before heading back to KC, I still love how homey it makes our place feel.

It doesn't appear that the eating and drinking marathon for the holidays will be letting up anytime soon.  Fitting in healthy lunches and dinners and working out 4-5 times a week is going to need to be a must.  

I hope everyone has a great week!

xx,

KMH

Weekend Recap: Vegas/Denver

What a fantastic weekend!  It was a long week last week though.  Rarely do I travel for work, but last week I was in Las Vegas from Monday – Thursday.  Vegas is exhausting.  

I was luckily able to grab drinks with my brother-in-law and future sister-in-law as well!  Love them!!  Thanks for meeting me.

Our conference started at 8:30 am every day, which meant we had to be ready by 7:45 am to ensure we had breakfast before the festivities began.  It was quite interesting getting up at the same time others were coming home.   #whathappensinvegasstaysinvegas

The conference was very informative; definitely something I’d attend again.  Their welcome and cocktail party were really fun!  Checkout this extra-long foosball table!  I’ve never seen anything like it.

 Any event that has a DJ at 8:30 am you know has to be interesting.  Right?

After the conference, I headed to Denver to visit a friend of mine and her husband.  It was a blast!  Do you ever feel like you’re terrible at visiting friends?  I feel like most of my friends have come to visit me, but I have never visited them. 

Katie (not me, my friend) had so many fun things planned.  We went to Fresh to get our nails done, brunch at Snooze and dinner at Duo.  I highly recommend every single one of these places if you haven’t been and live in the Denver area.  We also went to brunch at Root Down.  Bottomless mimosas?  Yes, please!  

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Awesome restaurant, Duo!  So cute.

Such great hosts.

I never get eggs Benedict, but this was amazing!!!  Go to Snooze immediately, Denver folks.

Definitely great to reconnect and have some quality time with a friend you rarely get to see.

Next on the list, my friend and her fiancé that I’m dying to visit in San Francisco.  It will happen sooner or later!  :)

After a week of only working out once and eating and drinking a lot, I’m ready to get back into my routine.  Work is very busy this week (as always), but I’m trying to fit in at least 5 workouts!  Wish me luck. 

Have a great week!

XX,

KMH

Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday, everyone!  The only thing making this Monday a happy one is that it's a 3 day (well, technically 2 1/2 day) week for us!  We are headed back to KC on Wednesday for another Hiatt wedding.

It was a perfect summer weekend.  The highlight, of course, was that the guest post I did for The Lean Green Bean went live!  If you didn't know, The Lean Green Bean is an AWESOME blog.  Lindsay focuses a lot on a healthy lifestyle and fitness related posts.  Not to mention she has some amazing recipes.  Here's the link in case you missed it!

I took a few photos to be featured on Saturday but sent them over a little too late to get them posted.  Lucky for you, here they are!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have NO IDEA how professional bloggers do it.  I would seriously have to have a photographer on staff to get the photos I like.  Although, my husband does do a pretty nice job.  He has a lot of patience.  ;)

Saturday was quite a busy day!  It started with a book club brunch that was amazing.  Amazing because of the food, not because of the book (which I didn't finish, unfortunately).

The host made an amazing strata that I will definitely be trying soon.  Of course, no one else wants to host following this spread.

In between brunch and a BBQ, I headed to the salon for a fresh haircut.  My hair feels stringy when it gets too long.  It feels a lot thicker at this length.

Ugh, I miss grilling!  This was our amazing rooftop spread on our friend's roof.

Thank goodness there was a makeshift table already up there.

And obviously this face was the best guest.

Hopefully this week moves as fast as I think it will.  The only downside, there is a lot of work to do between now and Wednesday.

Cheers to a short week!

xx,

KMH