He Gave Me His Heart

My fiancee and I have a wicked sense of humor.  And yes, this is one of our engagement pics. It has a lot of 

heart (hee hee)

Courtesy of Jarod Kearney Photography 

And yes, I'm rocking the Dangerously Lacey Dress (www.bluetiquecheapchic.com).  Best fitting dress 

EVER!

Ain't love grand :)

Jax

A Single's Guide to Valentine's Day

This will be short and sweet because without researching it, I'm almost positive that this topic has been dissected in every way imaginable. I just wanted to throw a few things out there to all my single ladies (and gents) that may help you get through the dreaded day that belongs only to couples.

First and foremost: get a pet. You will never wake up alone and you will never be loved more by anything else in the world. Here I am with Fanny. If only a significant other could look at me the way she does. (Fun fact: she is 100% blind).

Secondly: get a little festive. There's nothing wrong with wearing a pop of pink or red. I know it's tempting to really stick it to the happy couples and drown yourself in all black, but what does that really prove? The recent string of bad weather is depressing enough.

Third: if you feel overly inundated with cutesy couple pics and mushy love notes on Facebook, divert your eyes to something else. In my case, I took lunch to look at cute dudes with animals. It was fabulously mind-numbing and judging by the amount of cute dudes with animals (CDWA), I was not the first person to search. Another fun fact: there is a calendar dedicated to CDWA!

Lastly: try to find something fun to do on V-day evening. I know jumping into sweat pants and watching the Snapped marathon sounds great, but try to muster up some social interaction. I am lucky and was able to wrangle some friends together for a night of pizza, wine, and other snowed-in entertainment. If you cannot find any dateless participants, simply refer back to suggestion #1!

Crazy Cat Lady

So anyone who knows me, knows I'm completely obsessed with cats. I love my cats, shirts with cats, pictures of cats, conversations about cats, etc. This obsession started when I got my two little angels, Xena and Bowie.

I mean they are pretty much the most adorable animals on the planet. So, as a pet owner, I have become incredibly obsessive over all my babies. I would probably adopt many more kittens but my fiancé is not a fan of this idea. So instead, I spend lots of time on the internet finding awesome cat related things.

Like this awesome cat pillow!

And some amazing and funny pins that I've found on pinterest. Enjoy!

Rach

Monday, Monday

Oh hey, Monday. Is it just me or are the weekends getting shorter? I'm really, really ready for the spring to come and per usual, I've got a little instagram getaway for you today. It only seems right to show you pictures of adventure to help you get through the longest winter in history. Yes, you've guessed it, another lovely instagram account to follow, jetsetfarryn. Farryn Weiner is the director of digital and social communications at Michael Kors as well as an adventure capitalist and a lover of 14 hour plane rides and so much more. #Swoon. Weiner is one lucky lady and she is only in her twenties and has already accomplished so many things as well as making the Forbes 30 under 30 list. I mean, this girl means business. Tumblr and instagram are the easiest ways to track jetsetfarryn as she conquers the world, one city at a time.  So again, for all of my globe trotting friends, here are some of my favorite snapshots from her instagram. They're oh so inspiring and cause wanderlust. So please, enjoy the following. And remember, I warned you about the wanderlust.

 

       

  

 

 

 

 

     

Told ya about the wanderlust.

So tell me, where are your favorite #jetset destinations?

xoxo,

hunter

Dog Lover!

If you aren't an animal lover, I just feel sorry for you. If I can be half the person my sweet puppy thinks that I am, I should be alright. Always so happy to see me, the perfect cuddle buddy..it just doesn't get any better. On my lazy days, I love to get on Pinterest on the 'animal' tab and look at all the funny dog posts. Animal lover or not, these are hilarious! 

If this is the only thing that makes you laugh, or at least smile today, keep it in your arsenal for a quick pick-me-up!

Chaney 

Goals!

When you are in school, your goals are made for you.  Graduate high school.  Pick a major.  Graduate college.  Make a good GPA.  You are constantly taking steps to, one day, have a bright future.  You graduate.  You get a job.  You have a life.  Then what?

When the goals aren't pre-set before you, what do you do?  What are you working towards?  What is there to accomplish? Am I making your head hurt yet?  At work, I am the woman of a thousand questions.  They have learned to expect this.   I don't stop this habit in my regular life either.

I set goals for myself.  Each year.  Small baby steps in the never ending quest of self improvement.  Last year, I quit smoking (so not easy - the best way to avoid ever doing this is to never start - imagine me saying that in my mom-voice.  My mom-voice is way impressive).  This past year, I trained and ran my first 5k.  3.1 miles is not that long but for the girl that was forever a non-athletic-drama geek, this is huge.  

Ok, so it wasn't a normal 5k - it was the CASA Superhero 5k (any excuse for drama girl to wear a costume).  The earmuffs were because it was 28 degrees!! Aidan, my son,  ran it with me. He who didn't train for 6 months like I had.  He who decided to do this 10 minutes before it started. He who beat me soundly by 5 minutes.  

It was hard.  Harder than I thought it would be.   My ankle hurt (I had twisted it the week before), I was tired, and trying so hard.  About 50 yards from the finish line, my son and my runner-friend, Donna, jogged back to meet me to help me finish. 

I wanted to cry with the show of support.  The kindness of helping a friend (and mom) achieve a goal.  Isn't that what all this achievement is for?  To live a life making yourself the best you can and have wonderful people help you along the way as you help them.  

It's a blessed life, isn't it? 

Jax

Bows On Bows!

What southern gal doesn't love a good Bow here and there?  Personally, if its got a bow on it, I'll take 3!  I was ecstatic to find out that I could stop wearing my little girls bows around the house and that it was now totally acceptable for me to wear them in really life!  Like, daily!  Not only that, but we are now carrying monogrammed bows in a bazzillion colors here at Bluetique!  (Monogram everything, right? Done and done!)  I knew this Pin would come in handy one day and just wanted to share with you sassy ladies all the fantastic ways to rock that bow!

Jaci