Simply Saturday

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Happy Birthday Skwisgaar!

We are back from our weekend Couples Wedding Shower/Passover/Spring Break trip to Ohio! We were busy the entire time with visiting family, friends, our favorite spots in Akron, and celebrating! Even though I wasn't looking forward to the 18 hour round trip drive, I remembered how much I love road tripping with Aaron. I will post a few pictures from the shower next week for Wedding Wednesday.

More importantly - today is Skwisgaar's birthday!!! He has made it to the first year mark in his life. We are so happy that he is part of our family! For his birthday we bought him a new feather toy and a bag of cat treats.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Skwis over the last year. 

Simply Saturday

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Friday Favorites

Want to model your home after your favorite TV show? Now you can! Spanish illustrator Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde has recreated the floor plans from shows like How I Met Your Mother and Gilmore Girls. They're sold out right now, but keep an eye on this Etsy shop.

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I found the most perfect dress at Target yesterday. Mint green + anchors + pockets!? It was made for me! Usually I try to only buy dresses when they have gone on sale or are on the clearance rack, but this one is new and after I tried it on I couldn't resist! 

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Okay, so here is a little kitten cuteness! He has been getting snugly in our bed more and more often. We are driving 9 hours North to Akron, OH for our wedding shower on Sunday and then family Passover Seders next week. Have a good weekend!

Passover Seder Inspiration

 

Now that we have reached the first day of Spring it's time for one of my favorite holiday traditions - searching the corners of the Internet to create a new Pinterest board! This time it's for Passover, which starts on Monday evening.

The ecard above is telling it true. Unless you attend or host a themed Seder, (have you been to a 1960's flower child Seder? We have!) it's a holiday that doesn't call for much more than a beautifully set table and a vase or two of fresh flowers. Passover is one of the only holidays that we don't have a box of decorations for. The main focus is the Seder table and the story of the exodus from Egypt.

Even so, I have decided to post a collection of my favorite Passover entertaining ideas and recipes that I found this year. If you need inspiration or ideas for your Passover Seder, this Pinboard will help you out.

 Seder place setting with a Spring color palate

Charoset dippers

Matzah name cards

Seder Plate Collection

DIY Haggadah Cover

Beautiful Matzah Tray

Passover Brunch

Be sure to check out my Passover Seder board for even more beautiful home decor and party inspiration!

What are some of your favorite Passover entertaining ideas or traditions?

Recipe // Pink Salsa Dip

Pink Salsa is one of my favorite recipes to bring to a party or have ready for an afternoon snack. It's a no fail, simple recipe with only a few ingredients, which is why you can usually find a batch in our fridge. 

I learned how to make Pink Salsa during the summers that I was working as a counselor at Camp Louise in Cascade, MD. It was a staple evening snack at Cabaña, the staff only eatery. Even though there was a fresh bowl every night there was still never enough to satisfy the hunger of counselors on duty!

You can use any flavor of salsa, store bought or local and use regular cream cheese, low fat or go crazy and try flavored! I like to stick to the basics It's also a great addition to a 7 layer dip for a Superbowl party.

It's not a pretty process, but if you spend time mashing the cream cheese and salsa together, you will be rewarded with delicious pink gold.

Ingredients
8oz. of room temperature cream cheese
8-10oz. salsa of your choice
1 can of whole kernel corn

Directions
Mix the cream cheese and salsa until completely combined. Stir in corn. Enjoy with chips, pretzels, veggies or crackers.

Hot Pink Salsa
To make Hot Pink Salsa follow the same steps then in a shallow baking dish. Cover top with shredded Mexican cheese and bake until the cheese is melted. Serve and enjoy!

Girls Season 2: Almost Getting it Kind of Together

The image above is pretty much how I looked every time I watched an episode of HBO's Girls this season. Zoned into my laptop while having distressed emotions about all four of the girls (and the boys too) and yet unable to look away or stop watching. 

Okay, sometimes I also yell at the characters and tell them that they are making poor choices. Skwisgaar can vouch for that, he always watches with me. So after 10 episodes this is my take on the sophomore season of the show and the characters.*

*Just incase you didn't see this coming, I am going to write about the entire season, so there are going to be big spoilers. If you haven't finished watching, bookmark this post now and come back to read it later. Seriously, please come back...

Weekend Recap

This on and off Spring weather is teasing me! Luckily, we were treated to beautiful weather all day long on Saturday for the big St. Patrick's Day celebration Downtown. After a relaxing morning we suited up in our St. Paddy's best (Guinness attire for Aaron, Flogging Molly for me) then headed downtown just before noon to find a good spot to watch the parade. Since this was our first year going, we weren't sure how popular this event would be. The traffic going down was a little crazy, but Aaron had the brilliant idea to park in the garage by the Museum of Natural Sciences.

We walked across the State House block and found a curbside spot on Morgan St. by the announcers table. The parade stated soon after we sat down. There were bagpipers, local High School marching bands, dog rescue groups, the Carolina Rollergirls, Irish dance companies, dressed up ponies, a wagon of hillbillies, tiny semi go karts, local law enforcement, local business floats, and many more that I can't remember. Even though the parade was a little stretched out, we had fun!

After the parade ended we walked over to Moore Square for the The Wearin' 'O the Green Festival. We bought a few drink tickets and had our first couple of pints of Guinness while we walked around the vendor booths and enjoyed live Celtic music. The festival completely filled the park with food vendors, face painters, bounce houses, a rock climbing wall, artisans selling jewelry, t-shirts, kilts, and all of the other typical fair attractions, but all with an Irish twist.

The festival spilled out onto Blount St. in front of Tir Na Nog were there were tables set up for playing games and a stage for dancers. We were disapointed that there were no stands selling Irish food, we could only find overpriced corndogs, cheesesteak, and other typical country fair style foods.

One of the dog rescue groups that was featured in the parade was the Ierne Irish Wolfhound Kennel. I had never heard about this breed before. I thought we had some big dogs in our family, but these pups are HUGE! They were almost as tall as their pen. They were very friendly and interested in eating as much popcorn as they could find.  

After Aaron and I finished walking around the festival we met up with a few friends at the bars for a round of drinks and dancing before we continued on to another party at our friends house over by NC State. We stayed their for a few hours, but I started to feel tired around 8pm so we headed home for some couch time and kitten cuddles.

Sunday was nothing but normal for us. We dragged ourselves our of the apartment early (okay, it was 10am, but it felt really early...) to make it to Costco and Trader Joe's before the Sunday rush. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, napping, reading, catching up on Smash, and video chatting with family.  

Hope you had a good weekend!

Cinema Sunday

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Aaron and I spent most of yesterday downtown watching the parade and celebrating with friends. I will post a few pictures and write more about that  tomorrow.

Okay, now on to this weeks movie review. On Friday evening Aaron and I decided to watch John Dies at the End. Listed as one of the must-see films at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, John Dies at the End follows the story of two friends, Dave and John, who are less than ideal candidates to save Earth, but through a winding chain of events that they stumble into, saving Earth is ultimately what they must do.

The main character, Dave wants the world to know and understand his story. He contacts a reporter named Arnie (Paul Giamatti) and recounts his experience with a new hallucinogenic street drug. Their conversation sets off the nonlinear timeline of the movie. The drug, called Soy Sauce, has unique side effects that include communicating with the dead, seeing into other peoples dreams, and sending its user across time and through alternate dimensions. 

Dave and John, who spent the majority of their unemployed evenings facing off with the undead and demons, wind up with the drug in their systems and a detective on their trail. Eventually they use their undead slaying skills to battle a big, nasty evil from another world.

If you cannot handle movies that leave gaps in the story, then this one is not for you. The winding story has a disjointed timeline, but that does not stop it from drawing you in. Characters come and go and some of the questions are answered, but mostly as the viewer, you are just along for the ride. 

Even though there were some big plot holes, I have a feeling that they were meant to be there. It is definitely a movie that inspires conversations. Each viewer can see parts of the story in a different way. We always appreciate movies that can do that. We both really enjoyed John Dies at the End and would be interested in seeing a sequel done right.

Have you seen and movies this week?

Simply Saturday

Friday Favorites

Chocolate Stout cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes on Oberlin Rd. It was (haha delicious past tense) a Chocolate Guinness cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Cheese Frosting! They do a great job using Instagram for marketing and showing off their daily cupcake flavors.

 My dream hair! I might have to take this to the salon...

If you are a fan of HBO Girls, you should check out all of the pins in this Behind the Scenes pinboard from the official Girls Pinterest collection. There are some amazingly insightful articles that go inside the story and characters. 

 Mermaid scale tattoo + mermaid scale metallic leggings!? Yes please. 

Home State Personalized Return Address Stamps from Paper Pastries

Free stuff! Printable anchor gift tags so everyday from Hey Look.

Hope you have a good weekend!