Missy's First Birthday Party - A Blush & Rose Gold Affair

Good afternoon, Loves!
I hope you each are having a darling weekend.

I had been waiting to write this post until I have received all of the photos from everyone who attended, but it looks like I have all I'll be able to get for right now, so I'm just going to work with what I have.

As some of you know, I live in PA and my parents live in FL (where I grew up for several years of my life), and we were planning on having my daughter's first birthday party there, which can be tricky at best to plan from several states away. I had envisioned something a little more classy and put together, but life is life, and the truth of the matter is, the baby is only one and doesn't really care what it looked like as long as we all had fun, and we did. So the party was a huge success. :)

Our FL trip, by the way, was quite the happening. My husband's foreman from a previous job is Amish, and he and his family were vacationing in Sarasota, FL and needed someone to drive them and their large 15-passenger van (because Amish people don't drive, remember?) from here in PA to there, so he asked my husband, and we all got the privilege of going along. Free family vacation for us! We still had to make sure we could cover the bills with that much time off work, but the gas to and from was free. So you see, I had a very short time to throw a birthday party together. Lol.

We had planned one having her party the very next day of our arrival, Sunday, which was Mother's Day as well as the day of her dedication to God

(I will add more photos of her dedication if I can get someone at the church to send me some, but here are a few I took of her with my mom afterwards...), 

but we ended up just having a nice Mother's Day with my parents and resting from our trip that day, and planning on having her party the following Sunday.

In between the one Sunday and the next, we hung out with my siblings, went boating on Lake Alto, "kidnapped" one of my aunts and took her to dinner, visited a ministry in Bradenton, FL, went to St. Augustine Beach, went to a family reunion at Hart Springs, and caught a cold. Lol. We were still recovering from all of that running around and from our sore throats when I sang in the choir last minute as well as sang a solo in church, then put on the birthday party after the service. Whew. So you can imagine why it wasn't quite as meticulously prepared, but that's ok. I feel like we made wise choices with our time while we were there.

The party colors were Blush & Rose Gold, and the theme was A Teddy Bear Tea Party. We don't have as many photos as I wish we did because I was kind of busy making food, but here is what we have.

Melissa wore a rose gold tiara that I found at Icing and a ruffled outfit I picked up at Burlington Coat Factory, and Chari wore a coodinating dress that I got on clearance at Target several months back. My dress I got on sale/clearance (I don't remember which) from David's Bridal.

The cakes stands (which I haven't managed to find another picture of except for the one below, with the waffle on it), napkins, balloon sign, foil letters, rose gold flower string lights and pinwheels I found in the dollar section at Target.

I found a mini waffle maker at Marshall's and thought it was so adorable that I had to have it. Instead of giving my daughter a sugar-filled first cake, I made her and Chari lowcarb sugarfree mini waffles, with whipping cream that I hand-whipped and sweetened with stevia, and topped with fresh Florida strawberries. Trust me, she won't be missing out on anything but cavities and diabetes.

She clapped for herself when we sang Happy Birthday. Lol.

The geometric candle holder (on the table in the photo featuring the balloon sign) is also from Marshall's, and the mini copper mugs are what I had the girls use as teacups because they can't break them. :)

My gift to the girls was matching satin kimonos (so practical, right? lol) that were on sale at Davidsbridal.com.

I just couldn't get over the fact that they had itty bitty kimonos, and Chari has already asked to wear one of mine on several occasions, and the only thing better than her having one is her AND Missy having one.

They have several color options, and I probably could have coordinated the color to match the party very easily, but I went with the color I did because I know it will hide dirt or stains easier than a blush color would have, and lets face it these are toddlers who are going to wear them. Lol.

All in all, I think we had a great time.
A special thanks to my mom & dad who helped me throw all of this together on a whim right after church. ♡
I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos I was able to scrounge up.
If I receive any more, I'll add them to this post and put a heads up on my IG.
Happy weekend!

XXOO,

The Brunette

St. Augustine Beach, and The Best Restaurant in Town

Good evening, people!
I hope your week is going well!
I am so behind on my blogging its not even funny, and on top of that Instagram has been giving me major trouble and restricting my viewers, my content, etc. Its like it thinks all new accounts are full of hefalumps and woozles. >:|

But I'm just going to keep posting as usual, because even if new people can't see what I'm sharing, my family and friends can still keep up with our goings ons, and besides that I enjoy taking pretty pictures and sharing just for the heck of it. ;)

Anyway, as you might have already heard, this was my youngest daughter's first time seeing the ocean. And she LOVED it! Actually, I think her favorite part was just being allowed to play in the messy sand (typical toddler, lol), but hey, she still loved it!

Chari doesn't really care for swimming, but she adores building sand castles.

When she was done with her creation, she jumped to her feet snd threw her hands in the air and yelled, "Tada!" ♡

My mom and dad and two youngest siblings went with us, but I only managed to get a pic with my mom.

The other three were harder to get a hold of, being avid body surfers. ;)

Mark and I and the girls left the beach in between our time there and went to check out a restaurant that had come highly recommended to us by a friend of mine.

Its called Gas Full Service Restaurant, and let me tell you- its da BOMB!
Seriously. SO. DELICIOUS.

It has major character with the cutest retro vibe going on. Even the hostess was wearing a cute polka dot dress, and the cooks wore retro gas attendant jumpsuits.

Everyone was beyond polite, and the food (we ordered burgers) was out of this world. Food came out in a timely manner and was fresh and hot, and well worth its price in quality. I recommend the Sarah Burger.

Its got bacon and fried green tomatoes. Definitely a southern burger!

If you stop by, ask for Chef Gabe and tell him The Brunette sent you and says hi! :)

It really was a lovely afternoon spent at the beach.

*Note: I'm not sharing these full-length shots because I think I look great. I struggle a lot with self-image, among many other things. I'm sharing them because they're real.

This is me, and my body is on a journey to being better along with the rest of me. Too often we're pressured to share the perfect parts only (and don't be fooled, nobody is perfect, anywhere), and to hide the rest. So here's me being real, saying that I want you to be real too, and to love yourself, all of you, on your very own unique journey. ♡

XO,

The Brunette

Memorial Day Outfit Idea aka My Wednesday Night Dinner Look

Good morning everyone! I hope your week has gone well so far. We're allllmost to the weekend, hang in there! ;)

You're probably thinking, "Why does she care if its the weekend or not? She's on vacation!" Lol. Well, because this weekend is my youngest baby's 1 year birthday party, as well as a much-anticipated overnight beach stay. Yes, please!

Tonight (or rather, last night) we went and surprised my great-aunt and took her to a nice dinner. She didn't even realize I was down from PA yet, so it was lots of fun to scare the crap outta her when she saw me. Haha.

But before dinner, I walked downtown in the little (and I mean miniscule) town of Hawthorne where we are staying to snap of few pics of this outfit I had put together.

I had memorial weekend in mind when I created it. I wanted it to be subtly patriotic while still remaining chic and sophisticated, instead of the usual all in your face stars and stripesy (not that stars and stripes are bad, mind you...) and this is how it came out. What do you think?

Blouse is on clearance for $17.48 by Who What Wear for Target and is only available online in sizes XL & XXL, but check your local Target. They may eithet still have it on the rack, or have more sizes in clearance.

Pants are by Anne Klein and I found them at Marshall's, but Target has these and these that are similar, and is currently offering 20% off select denim with code. Click on the links for details.

Shoes are also from Who What Wear for Target, and purse is by Merona for Target.

Lipstick is "True Red" by Icing similar to this one, with a lip plumping gloss on top similar to this one.

Let me know what you think in the comment section below! 👇

Have a lovely Thursday!
XO,

The Brunette

Boating on Lake Alto

This photo above is the only photo that I do not own. Found on google search. I forgot to get one of the park sign. ;)

Hello, beautiful people! I hope your day is going absolutely wonderfully.
I am in full vacation mode here in FL, in spite of the fact that we've had to rearrange our plans a bit. FL is both vacation and home to me, because even though I currently live in PA (Lancaster County area), I was actually born in FL and lived here til I was about 10 (when I moved to Central America- its a long story), and then have continued to visit on and off throughout my teen years til now.

As a matter of fact, one of my favorite things to do during the summer when I lived here was to visit any one of the state's many lakes or rivers. My dad was quite famous for stopping at random places after going just about anywhere and spontaneously taking us swimming. It got to the point that we just knew- if we were with dad, we had better bring our swimsuits, just in case!
We also owned a boat for a few of those childhood years, and we enjoyed boating on the lakes nearby as well as down the St. John's river...
So you can imagine how delighted I was when my dad suggested we spend the afternoon out in his new (to him) pontoon on Lake Alto.
Here are a few snapshots from our outing, as well as some links about the history of the area, for your browsing pleasure.

This was Missy's very first time on a boat. She really liked it, and actually preferred sitting in the front with the wind in her hair. Just like her Momma. ;)

See? I told you she gets it from me. Lol. Definitely an over-dramatic photo for a pontoon boat, but I had to.

Chari squinting into the wind when we went a little fast. She absolutely loved the experience, and had so much fun pointing out and narrating every little detail.

This good-looking hunk is my brother. Ain't he handsome? He's also a sweetheart. But girls back off, I think Mom & Dad say he's still too young.

My lovely little sister who didn't want me to get a picture of her face (she's kinda shy), so I had her pose for this cute shot. Note to would-be beaus: also too young. ;)

I'm pretty sure its safe to say that Mark enjoyed himself too, even though he chose not to swim because he knows there can be gators in fL. Hey, to each his own. He missed out. ;)

Look at this beautiful view! I love being out on the water!

We stopped the boat in the midde of the lake and swam for a while. Even Missy joined us! She looks really unsure of it in this photo, but she did end up enjoying herself.

Here she is afterwards all chilled out after swimming, taking after her big sissy and eating the filling out of the snack crackers. Lol.

To be fair to Missy, here's what I look like after swimming, all mascara smeared and everything. I had to majorly swallow my pride and self-consciousness to post this, but ya know what? I have a little sister who I tell her she is beautiful no matter what other people think, so here's me living what I tell her. ♡

Here's a panoramic shot of the lake. Not exactly what a lot of people envision when they think of FL, but this is what a lot of it looks like.

Here are a few links I found that offer some history on the lake and its surroundings.

http://bryanberg.net/lake-alto-park.html

https://www.floridamemory.com/blog/2014/08/15/headin-down-the-waldo-canal/

http://waldohistory.com/SantaFeCanal.htm

Hope you enjoyed seeing a piece of our vacation.
I'm excited to share our next FL adventure with y'all as well!
Have an awesome day!

XO,
The Brunette