Last week I pretty much felt like I won the lottery when I realized that these little stick things in our backyard had transformed into lush peony bushes.  I had never even seen a peony in real life – they were like this unicorn flower that only people that live in California seemed to have.  And now I have them!  My joy was following quickly by panic when I realized that I would almost certainly kill them, so I ran up to the hardware store to buy all of the flower things.  So far so good, as the beauties are now blooming.

My parents bought us a new grill right before Megan’s party as a surprise gift.  We have since become avid grillers, and by we, I mean Corey.  I just sit and eat the things.  The bistro lights kind of make us feel like we are having a party every time we grill out.

This past weekend we watched a little fellow that goes by the name of Riley Bop.  The bop is a surname Megan and I added on for really no good reason at all other than that it is fun to say bop bop bop.  My cat despises all other animals but somehow found a way to tolerate Mr. Riley.  She even slept in the same bed with him (although she was giving him the side eye the whole time).

Happy Friday everyone!  It’s about time, right?

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My makeup routine is about as simple as it gets.  Powder, maybe some very neutral eyeshadow, and mascara.  On a really good day, I’ll add on foundation (before the powder, obviously), eyeliner, and a tinted lipgloss.  I’m pretty happy with the products I use, but I always use the same ones.  My makeup rut is so severe that when I know a big event is coming up, I start to get panicky about the fact that I won’t be able to do my makeup.  I look up all these tutorials with hopes and aspirations that I will look like someone that can do my makeup well.  Then I’ll pretty much ignore them day of and do the same boring thing I always do.  One thing that I’ve been wanting (but been too scared) to try is lipstick.  In particular, red lipstick.  Since my eye makeup is so simple, it would be the perfect thing for me to add to make me look a little different than the everyday.  But y’all I’m scared I will look like a clown.  I know when I get to France I will feel like a frumpy mcfrumperson no matter how hard I try to look chic, so I feel like now is the time for me to step out of my comfort zone and purchase my first red lipstick.  It’s now or never I think.  The world sometimes tells me that I can’t wear red because I’m a redhead, but I say screw em Angus.  So here we go.  Now which one to choose?

Lipstick options to make me glamorous:

1) Nars Jungle Red is one of those lipsticks that gets really good reviews and is supposed to look good on everyone.  Looks a little orangey to me.  I don’t know if I’m supposed to go orangey or bluey but for some reason bluey sounds better.  But I should probably try it anyway.

2) MAC Ruby Woo is supposedly the go to red.  This is a must try.

3) Revlon Super Lustrous Fire and Ice  has apparently been around for forever (like our grandmas probably used it) and is way cheaper than the other options.  I can’t try it before I buy it like I can in the fancy stores, but it is less than half the price of the next cheapest option so maybe I should just purchase for the heck of it?

4) I’m still pretty scared of lipstick.  I have literally never worn it except to play dress up when I was little.  So if I chicken out, maybe this Yves Saint Laurent lip stain will be an ok replacement?

5) Normally I would never even think of wearing a lip pencil but Jamie from Ann Street Studio, who I am kind of in love with, mentioned that she uses this Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in one of her posts that I can no longer find.  The Sephora reviews are pretty great too, so maybe it’s a winner?

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As I mentioned on Friday, this past weekend I attended the wedding of an old friend in Lake Lure, NC.  I had been to Lake Lure but it had been several years and to be honest I forgot how stunningly beautiful it is there.  The wedding itself was as lovely as the location and was very special.  And also…holy florals.  The flowers for this wedding were seriously the most amazing of any wedding I have attended.  There were knockout flowers everywhere you looked.  Big lacey bunches of them.

Seriously.  Look at that head table.

I also thought the bouts were super cool and I don’t usually even like calla lilies that much.  I loved the wire wrapped around them.

This (on the right) is my friend Stefan, the groom, and his brother Andrew who is one of my besties.  His wedding was just in August and some of you may remember it.  This family has been busy.  Aren’t they the cutest bubbies?

Ceremony backdrop was not too shabby.

The bride’s daughter was a flower girl.  All the little girls wore these precious floral headpieces.  I want one bad.

The beautiful couple, Molly and Stefan.  She was breathtaking.

We stayed at the 1927 Lake Lure Inn which is also where the reception was which worked out perfectly after a few cocktails.  The hotel itself is very old and very historic.  Parts of it were used in Dirty Dancing.  Sometimes I think older hotels are not very well decorated and feel stuffy but this one was pretty freaking cool and somehow despite the fact that it was probably decorated a million years ago it still felt kind of relevant and I quite like it.

All of the walls were full of beautiful and interesting paintings and photographs.

All of the columns had trophies and statues on ledges.  Kind of neat, right?

When we got there on Saturday, before we got ready for the wedding, we had time to go do some Mohicaning (hiking) at Chimney Rock, which was a few minutes from the hotel.  Here is the view…

And this is what it looks like from below.  That little bee bop sticking up by itself on the left is Chimney Rock.  It was seriously such a fun weekend and very nice to get away for a short and stress free trip spent in a lovely and refreshing location.   If you ever get a chance to go to Lake Lure or Chimney Rock I highly recommend it.  You will not be disappointed.

Congratulations Stefan and Molly!  Love you!

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So you guys might notice that we are looking a little differently around here.  To be honest, we have been wanting to update our blog design for at least a year, but we never really wanted to spend a whole lot of money on it.  A custom blog update is super pricey (like hundreds to thousands) and we are cheap (like real cheap) and also pretty darn picky.  For a while I was even considering learning how to design the website from scratch but then I realized how ludicrous that idea is seeing as how I don’t even have time to paint my nails.  So I started looking into pre-made wordpress themes and stumbled across Blog Milk.  I liked how the designs were simple, elegant, and fresh looking.  There are really a lot of ugly blog themes in the world and these were a sight for sore eyes.  So we purchased one of her themes.  To make it a little more “us,” I changed around some colors and made us a new logo as well as some festive blog buttons with my trusty Photoshop Elements.  We are ever so happy with how it turned out and we hope you guys are too.  Please let us know if you see any issues or bugs so I can fix them asap.

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