Myrtle Beach Bachelorette-ing

It's Wednesday and I am only starting to write this today because I finally feel like a normal person again. Last weekend I flexed from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach on a little propeller plane for my lovely friend Brynne's bachelorette party. 

View from the propeller plane

I spent a very low key Thursday night in a Myrtle hotel by myself in anticipation of everyone's arrival Friday morning. We don't get together as often as we would all like but when we do, it is a guaranteed good (and wild) time. 

Memorial Day 2013 in Vegas

The weather was beautiful and we spent Friday getting settled at the hotel and laying by the pool. It was a fun, low key day of catching up so we decided to keep the low key vibe by staying at the hotel for the night. Before I knew it, I was three drinks in and signing up for the Philadelphia marathon with Carly and Kelli (who does that!?).

Marathon girls?

We ended the night playing Cards Against Humanity and dropping it like it was hot to "Turn Down for What." It was a fun night one and so good to be back together, acting like we were in college!

Cards Against Humanity Laughing

Now don't get me wrong, I love to party, but Saturday morning was my favorite. Our little yogi Erica arranged for us to have a private yoga instructor teach a class on the beach. The weather was perfect and I decided I could spend every day with yoga on the beach.

We all felt fantastic after yoga and, after a day by the pool, we were ready for Saturday night, "THE night." We planned our best party outfits and were ready to hit the town. The best part of all being back together - getting ready together and taking bathroom selfies.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Nailed it.

We kicked off the evening with presents for the bachelorette, pictures, and champagne... lots of champagne (notice that food hasn't been mentioned once yet).

Bachelorette presents!

BFFLzzz

The Hetzel Roomies :)

We headed to a piano bar to celebrate the bachelorette and get our dance on. The evening quickly got out of control and, although we all survived, the too much fun made for a very rough morning.

The Bride loving the piano bar jello shots

Yes.

Kel. 

I was in very bad shape Sunday morning so Carly and I looked up the closest health food store to find some rejuvenation food. It was the best decision we made all weekend and a green juice instantly brought me back to life.

Mecca

We concluded the weekend with an alcohol-free evening (just one glass of wine!) and an awesome seafood dinner on the water. We were on the road to recovery and sad knowing we would say goodbye the following morning.

Dinner with the girls 

Silly night

Only 9 days until we head to Pittsburgh to celebrate the Schues! I could not be happier for Brynne and was so lucky I was able to make the trip to celebrate. It makes me smile knowing that Zach will keep Brynne booty-dropping for life and I can't wait to celebrate some more :)

Mom to the Kitchen Rescue

It finally feels like summer is on it's way and I am loving our little city house. We won't be home much this summer so I am embracing every beautiful weekend day I am in Philadelphia. 

Merrill is happy I'm home.. so he ripped down the curtains

Andrew kicked off our summer of travelling this weekend with a bachelor party in Fort Lauderdale. I was home alone with the cats so I asked my mom and sister to have a little slumber party with me on Saturday night. My mom arrived in Philly early Saturday afternoon and our first stop was checking out quartz at ProBuild on Washington Avenue. I have got to make these big kitchen decisions and soon...

We (my mom) found back splash and floor tile at Lowe's so we brought them along to mix and match with the counter samples. Our contractor's counter guy uses Zodiaq Quartz so I was on a mission to see the Zodiaq Quartz in Mystic Black. Seeing it in person really helped me to envision it all together and it ended up being my favorite.

We have a quote from our contractor and are going to get another quote from ProBuild before we make any final decisions. It was a quick day of decisions and my mom was a huge help! After the tile store, we headed to 9th and Carpenter for the Italian Festival.

Happy girl with meatballs and sweet tea :)

We walked around for hours, tasting cheeses and olive oils and enjoying the beautiful day. My mom loved the very Philly experience and seeing parts of the city we don't explore as often as we should.

Tasting cheese at Di Bruno Bros.

Looking at pastas for Dad

We left the Italian Market for shopping on Walnut and bought new outfits for dinner in Society Hill. I had made reservations at The Twisted Tail at 2nd and South, a new adventure outside of our normal dinner spots in Center City.

My girls

The food and company at dinner was the perfect way to end the fun day in Philly. We walked off dinner by exploring the old stone covered streets and talking about all the history our little city has seen (clop clop clop).

We had big plans after dinner but instead ended the night with candy and Sex and the City. It was a really wonderful weekend!

Planning a Kitchen

After six weeks of interviews and role searching, I am back to work in Charlotte. Same client but very different project, working with my all time favorite Accenture friend/mentor. It's good to be back and on a schedule but I needed two weeks off of blogging to get back into the swing of things! 

Since the last time I wrote, we finalized our kitchen plans and will be making our deposit next weekend. Below is the updated layout, which is very similar to our current layout but with many improvements, including a 6 foot island.

The tentative plan is to rip out our current kitchen 4th of July weekend, have the new kitchen installed the weekend of July 12th, and the counters installed the weekend of July 18th. We have a crazy summer planned already and a ton of decisions to make but I have made good use of Pinterest to start our planning. 

We decided on white cabinets with a butcher block counter top for the island, but the counters are a bit trickier. Our contractor works with a guy that sells Zodiaq quartz, so I am hoping to see the selection in person next weekend.

Pinterest find of black Zodiaq Quartz

I have never been a huge fan of quartz so I am also exploring a soapstone counter. My mom is renovating her kitchen now and using Soapstone, a matte look I prefer over quartz.

Pinterest Soapstone Inspiration

After we decide on the counters, we can move forward with planning the floors and backsplash, both of which we will be installing ourselves (with a lot of help from our parents). Both will be tile, we just need to make sure the colors work well together.

Pinterest Tile Floor Inspiration

The one thing we do need to have decided before the cabinets are made are the appliances. The sizes of ovens, dishwashers (we are finally getting one!!) and microwaves are fairly standard but refrigerators are the trickiest. Today we went to Best Buy to check out prices and sizes and really lucked out! One of our top picks, an LG French Door refrigerator, was a floor model and on sale for half the price. 

The newest member of our family

The fridge will be delivered next week so we get to live in two months of refrigerator luxury until the rest is installed in July! We have decided to keep our old refrigerator for beer/extra food in the basement so we are really looking forward to the extra room and a refrigerator that doesn't require solo cups to catch the leaky water.

Next weekend I will be taking a trip to Kutztown to check out counters and make a decision! Andrew will be gone for a bachelor trip so I am hoping to make good use of the weekend and make some decisions :) More updates to come!

A Break from the Blog

Last week I lost my phone (and all my pictures) and started a new project in Charlotte, North Carolina. Life has been a little hectic so the house has moved to the bottom of our priority list. I am taking a little blog break but will be back up and running in the next week!

We have some exciting projects coming up (new kitchen!!!) and some great trips, so I need to get back into a routine and get blogging! :)

xoxo Emma