Twenty Four Hours

Trevor and I made a quick trip to Chicago this weekend that lasted all of twenty four hours. It was a whirlwind trip to celebrate a dear friend's birthday that we were able to fit in between endless hours of studying and a final exam that I have later today... but if you know me, and let's face it, I don't hide this fact, you know that I don't ever, ever turn down a chance to visit my favorite city!

Saturday was snowy which made for messy travel but picturesque scenes. We stopped at Millennium Park for ice skating and the birthday girl snapped this lovely shot. 

{Keep your eyes peeled: this photo is part of a project I'm working on to finish off an empty bedroom wall... coming to the blog soon!}

We stayed downtown, near Grant Park, at the Blackstone Renaissance... it was drool worthy. Marble floors, dark, heavy, thick wooden doors, views of the lake, and just look at that lush wallpaper on the bathroom walls.

After an "I ate so much food, I think you're going to have to roll me outta here" dinner, we hit up a comedy club and laughed the calories off. Or, at least that's what I'm telling myself.

A little bit of Starbucks, some of the fantastic strawberry orange juice that I had a few months ago, and a stroll through the park wrapped up our trip before we headed home in time to grab the pup and watch the big game.

After today's cumulative final, I have approximately five hours off of school and then another class starts. We've got eight months of this crazy schedule left before the real world swallows us whole but a weekend like the one we just had was just what the doctor nurse ordered.

How was your weekend? Who were you rooting for to win the Super Bowl?

things are looking up

Good morning, lovelies!

Notice things are a little less cluttered around here? How about that new blog design?!? We're still polishing everything {like trying to find the perfect font that's easier to read than this skinny mini} but it should be good to go within the next day.

I'm inviting you to take a look around and give me some feedback. If something is hard to navigate, I want to know. If links aren't working, I want to know!.If you can't find something, I want to know. I want to know {all of} your thoughts!

I wanted to tell you all about my trip to Chicago with Whit last weekend but I think I'll save that for next week. If you want a little sneak peek, head over to Black Little Button and get ready for picture overload!

So, the real reason I'm here today?!

The house is ours.

The seller agreed to the amendment we proposed and our lender is working her butt off trying to get everything set for closing in just TWO. WEEKS.

Trevor and I are going to be homeowners in 14 days. Oh my goodness!

Project: Do You #17

Today's Project: Do You post is going to be the last one. I don't know if I should be sad it's over or if I should be excited that everything's checked off!

Let's do a quick run down on how things went:

#1 - Read one book per month. Pretty darn self explanatory, right?

#2 - Work out on a regular basis. I was doing much better at this before my wisdom teeth surgery at the end of June, but since then I've stayed active at home rather than going to the YMCA 3-4 days a week.

#3 - Run a 5K. I ran/walked The Color Run on Sunday with 5 other teammates. We did incredibly well - seriously, I'm so impressed! - and I'm ready to sign up for another one already! It was so.much.fun!!

#4 - Add another 2K to the vacation fund. This one went out the window when a house came into the picture. It would be silly to put money in a fund that we won't use until late 2014 at the earliest, especially because more money that we can put towards a house, the less money we'll be in debt to our mortgage lender!

#5 - Plan a date night ahead of time for each month. This doesn't take a lot of explanation.

#6 - Enjoy a weekend away with Trevor. And it was a relaxing one at that!

#7 - Shape eyebrows. I finally was happy with the shape a few months back... and I've been pretty happy since then, too!

#8 - Finish our wedding scrapbook. I know it didn't say this on the list, but this was a summer goal. Now that summer's over for me, this is done and over with as well. It's not close to being done, but there's just simply much bigger and better fish to fry. I still have everything I need and I may have a scrapbooking weekend with my mom sometime in the future, but it's just not high priority right now.

#9 - Travel more. I had checked this off a while ago and I've since planned another trip to Chicago with Whitney in a couple weeks. I'm excited!

#10 - Learn to say no more often. I put this on the list because I felt that I was kind of getting walked all over at work. I'm still sticking to my guns and saying no when I don't want to pick up extra shifts at the drop of a hat.

#11 - Make more time for crafting. I finished a table, a bookcase, and a dresser within the past week and they look fantastic. I'm also in the middle of finding stuff for a gallery wall {leave links to your favorite free printables in the comments below!!} Crafting is a nice relaxer for me and I'm loving it in my life right now!

#12 - Get out of my comfort zone more often. Rule number one: Nothing about starting an accelerated nursing program with 29 strangers or buying a house is within your comfort zone.

#13 - Share our wedding on the blog. So glad I did this!!

#14 - Attend a concert. Checkity, check. And, Trevor and I are thinking about going to Chicago for another concert the first weekend of October!

#15 - See a Broadway show. BOM was amazing!

#16 - Get hearing tested again/look into surgery. It's good to know where my hearing stands and what my surgical options are. I'm not planning on going under the knife quite yet, but I'm glad I had the appointment.

#17 - Bake someone a birthday cake. I totally didn't skimp on this one! The chocolate cake I baked for Trevor was pretty yummy!

#18 - Go to the beach. What's summer without a little time with your toes in the sand?!

#19 - Forgive. I honestly feel like I've become a better person and that this comes a lot more naturally to me now.

So that's that! The list is done! Are you sad to see it go?

How are your goals coming along?

You can recap my journey by reading all of my Project: Do You posts here.

check this out!

Mother-Daughter Take Chicago: Part 1

While sorting through the hundreds of pictures I took on our trip to Chicago, I quickly realized that our trip is going to have to be a series - there's no way I can show you and tell you about everything I want in one post. It'd be so long and chalk full of pictures that it'd be difficult to load the post, so I'm going to space things out a bit.

My mom and I enjoy visiting The Windy City, and because it's only an hour and a half train ride from Milwaukee, it's pretty darn easy for us to get away. Our latest trip was the last week of May and we had a fab time. We decided that we had done most of the tourist stuff in past visits so we switched it up this time around! In just under 48 hours, we managed to see and do just about everything we had on our wish lists.

First things first. We boarded the Amtrak in Milwaukee and enjoyed the ride, as usual.

And watched buildings like this go by.

Until we finally saw signs of the city.

One of the best things about not driving and taking the Amtrak is that Union Station is right smack in downtown. No sitting in traffic, no wasting gas in traffic jams, and no paying to find a place to park.

We walked through The Loop, visiting our favorite spots and saying hello to the city once again.

Then we hopped on a bus to take us to the apartment we rented.

With the smallest elevator known to man.

Complete with lake views!

We got settled in, took a stroll around the area we were staying in {Streeterville, Gold Coast, North Michigan Avenue} before getting ready for dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. We were supposed to meet Maya for dinner but due to a misunderstanding, we never got the chance to catch up. My parents and Maya's parents go way back, so we were all bummed about it.

My mom and both ordered salads that were not only crazy huge, they were pretty delicious, too!

After dinner, we headed to the Bank of America Theater to see Book of Mormon.

It was fantastic! If you've seen Pitch Perfect, do you remember Benji, the magic obsessed roommate? Well, the guy that played him {Ben Platt} also starred in BoM as Elder Cunningham. He was perfect for the part and seriously hilarious. The rest of the cast was flawless and Mom and left with big smiles on our faces.

We made our way back to the apartment, making a pit stop in the park before catching a bus back up to the Gold Coast. 

Before bed, we indulged in a little treat. 

You'll be seeing a post solely on these cupcakes, soon!

That's the quick recap of our first day in Chicago this time around! More to come soon, I promise!

Have you been to Chicago before? What did you love about it?