Birthday Weekend: Crafts Galore and Winesgiving 2018

Call me Priyanka Chopra because I was basically super busy globe-trotting (or...Virginia-trotting) for all of November and life ain't slowing down one bit. I had a truly wonderful birthday full of friends and laughter this year and thought I'd share a few pics of our celebrations!

Amber's Favorite Things Birthday

One of my lifelong icons is Oprah, and I love the audacity of her Favorite Things. Jokingly, I said I wanted to have an Oprah-themed birthday inspired by Amber's Favorite Things and thus, my birthday party theme was born. When I thought about it, my favorite things are: breakfast pastries, crafting, mimosas and girl time. So, I invited my girlfriends over for a crafternoon brunch!

The dress code was "luxurious loungewear" and I ordered beautiful pastries from May's Parlor in Virginia Beach. The only food I had to "make" were the straight-from-Pinterest baguette cups filled with hummus and bell peppers.

My handmade mug collection ready for duty.

My sweet friend Kate brought her espresso machine over and made lattes to order for everyone (what a rockstar!).

Once the living room was set up for crafting, it basically looked like I'm running an at-home preschool art program. I was truly shocked to find out I had more art supplies to share than I could put out on one table — I have a hobby problem.

I even took a cue from Oprah and hid a few of my "favorite things" as party favors around the room. We had an impromptu scavenger hunt and people got to take home some of my iconic faves: Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers, orange Tic Tacs, Sour Patch Kids, and more.

For my craft, I ultimately just practiced my watercolor brush lettering and added some words to a friend's moon and stars paintings.

A couple friends made wreaths, like Ashleigh's winter showstopper here...

And Kate even taught herself some origami from YouTube!

It was such a fun day of just gabbing and crafting, and I honestly might want to do that quarterly.

Winesgiving 2018

The very next day, Wine Club convened for what is arguably our favorite "wine club" day of the year: Winesgiving! We introduced Winesgiving maybe five years ago and it is basically the Thanksgiving of my dreams. We all pile into cars and convene at The Cheese Shop in Williamsburg, where we collectively spend approximately $200 on gourmet sandwiches, cheeses, jams, crackers, cookies, chocolate and whatever random foods we can't resist. We stock up on our favorite snack: Torres black truffle potato chips. And then we set out for a winery to partake in wine, cheese and fellowship!

This year we ventured again to Gauthier Vineyard in New Kent County, which has a beautiful lake view and fantastic fire pit!

Stacie surprised us with matching wine tumblers that all said "#winesgiving" and we were arguably the most obnoxious clique to ever take over a winery.

It was a fantastic cap to an excellent birthday and I couldn't be more grateful for the friendship and fellowship that enriches my life. As I've aged, I've realized how rare it is to forge deep connections to form and maintain adult friendships, but I've been exceptionally lucky to have found so many members of my tribe. 

Wine Club Throws a Puppy Shower!

My friend Ashleigh's had a lot of great ideas, but I think multiple lightbulbs went off above her head when she suggested we throw our friend Stacie a Puppy Shower. It's such a great concept, I assume it will sweep the nation.

Our friend Stacie let us know she was getting a chocolate lab puppy a few weeks ago and Ashleigh — perhaps inspired by the Sex and the City episode about why showers are reserved just for weddings and babies — said we should surprise her with a puppy shower. Brilliant!

Ashleigh invited Stacie's sister and sister-in-law and we all met for dinner at Leone's, a fancy new Italian place. Somehow none of that seemed out of the ordinary to Stacie, and she didn't even notice each of us carried a gift bag in when we entered the room. We had a magical moment where we all put them on the table at the same time and she was totally shocked!

Puppy George got all the necessities: chew toys, pool toys, poop bags, treats, grooming supplies and beyond. When I mentioned in passing that I was buying these items for a Puppy Shower, the Petsmart employee squealed and said, "OMG that's amazing." Our waiter said he needed to get better friends. What can we say? We love a good theme party.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also shout out the tremendous beef tortellini I had with sun-dried tomatoes and shallots, followed by profiteroles. Mmmmmm good.

Mermaid Masters

Did you know a group of mermaids is called a shimmer? Well this shimmer of mermaids-in-spirit had such a great day customizing our own mermaid statues at Mermaid Factory in Norfolk. 

Part of the reason people love these social crafting venues is that, for many, we rarely experience the peace and fulfillment that comes from engaging in "flow" — the state of focused creativity that eradicates time and eliminates consciousness of simple needs, like going to the bathroom or drinking water. When you're in the zone, you're in it, and we spent a solid two hours in the zone.

It's also fun to consult with your friends, and see how everyone's creativity manifests. For $25 and two hours, it was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.

Mermaids come standard with access to paint and glitter, and for an additional cost, you can add all sorts of embellishments, from tulle tutus to shell bras.

Our final products! Amy created a musical mermaid, I made a classic scaled version, Ashleigh made a mermaid version of herself, Lauren created a chic gold statuette and Kristen's mermaid wore an embellished rope skirt covered in shells.

A close-up of my finished product! 

Mermaids are the symbol of Norfolk, so it's really fun and special to do something different than your average wine and paint or painted pottery activity. 

Fourth of July 2016

Who would I be if I didn't share my annual Fourth of July outfit snap? 

This year I skewed red-orange (Sean says orange) in an effort to switch it up from my usual blue, and paired with turquoise jewelry. 

 We spent this year's Fourth at our friend's house on Fort Monroe, one of the coolest places to see fireworks in Hampton Roads! Because of its position on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the James River, the Fort has a view to fireworks shows in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News and some other spots (hard to identify which are official fireworks vs. ad-hoc home fireworks). We dined on cheddar-and-bacon stuffed burgers, hot dogs, cherry pie and blueberry beer. God bless America!

Wine Fest 2016

Guys, times are tough when more than a week has passed and I'm just now posting pics from our favorite kick-off to the spring social season: Wine Fest! This year was just as fun as all the others, happily lacking in sunburn but with the unhappy addition of puking when I got home. Eep. Here are a few snapshots from the day!

We enjoyed a bottle of Rosemont rose.

The best part of the day: our oasis tucked away from the fray. So fabulous!

All in all, another great day sipping wine by the water, even if it ended with a little barfing on my part. :)

Scenes From Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving itself was a whirlwind; Sean had to work the day before and the day after, so we did a quick round trip to his parents' house. I'm guessing we had fun, because I mostly forgot to take any pictures of anything! My mother-in-law made a turkey of only legs (this is a thing you can buy, apparently!), delicious ham and with my sister-in-law, a great side dish of sweet potatoes and apples.

I made roasted brussels sprouts and we enjoyed pecan pie and apple pie topped with cousin Emily's hand-whipped cream. So good!

The Kennedys have a very dinner party-style Thanksgiving that starts with cheese and champagne, for which I am grateful.

And we always start with a salad. Not very traditional, but I love it. Elizabeth made this salad with sliced pears, walnuts and blue cheese.

We had fun leading up to the main event watching Friends' Thanksgiving episodes on Netflix and now I'm totally down the Friends rabbit hole. I can recite most episodes, but I didn't remember the last two seasons very well, so now I'm working on that.

Although I definitely did indulge in a little Black Friday shopping, I saved most of my energy for Small Business Saturday. I don't have to tell you that Small Business Saturday feeds a boost into your local economy; the community members who own and work at these stores also spend their money around the area, pay taxes, send their kids to local schools and patronize local restaurants. If they have more money, we all benefit. /rant.

If you're in the Hampton Roads area and would like to support some local small shops, here were my stops in Norfolk on Saturday: 

• Samla: Fresh florals, home goods, beauty items, jewelry and accessories, and stationary.
• Table Seven: An entire store devoted to tabletop antiques and hostess gear. My dream store!
• Bridget's: I've never walked out of Bridget's empty-handed. It's an amazing gift shop with art items, stationary, accessories, baby gifts, an AWESOME jewelry selection and all the most adorable knicknacks you never knew you needed.
• A. Dodson's: A local institution among gift shops, A. Dodson's has three locations. I especially love to pop in at the holidays when their selection of decor and ornaments is full of German glass glitter-covered I-have-to-have-its.
• Le Marche: These importers of fine French gifts and furniture also have the best ornament game in town. I can never resist picking up some super unique ornament when I'm there; they even had ornaments of blue crabs in cages!
• Kitsch: Kitsch is a local art and craft consignment store that showcases the very best Virginia has to offer. I especially love the felt flowers, stuffed Day of the Dead mobiles and great prints from artists across the state.

Winesgiving 2015

One of my favorite newer Wine Club traditions is Winesgiving, which is basically my ideal Thanksgiving with my favorite people. We all bring delicious sandwiches and snacks to a winery, split bottles of wine and catch up for several hours, laughing all the way. It's super fun. 

This year, we trekked out to Saude Creek Vineyards in Lanexa. We were sorry to miss Erica, who had to go out of town, but we did have lots of fun and good food.

Winesgiving would not be complete without a stop at The Cheese Shop for their delicious sandwiches (topped with their famous house dressing), expensive cheeses, kettle chips and fancy chocolates. We split bottles of Saude's Tavern Red (a delicious Christmas-y wine with hints of cinnamon) and their other red blend, Saude Creek Red. Both were great!

This is my ideal Thanksgiving spread: Cheese and chocolate.

They had a singer and although we at first were annoyed about having to shout over him, we decided to get the party started by requesting two crowd-pleasers: "Piano Man" and "Friends in Low Places."

We finished the day with a hilarious photo shoot. The wind was not our friend — or was it? Because this picture is an instant classic.

I'm so thankful to have a group of girlfriends in my life who are committed to each other the way we are. It's a rarity and a blessing. Happy Winesgiving to you and yours!

My Many Halloweens

There were years and years that I never dressed up for Halloween. Basically my hot years, from 15-20. What a lost opportunity! But for some reason Halloween has never been more fun as it was this year.

For our work fundraiser, we had a Halloween theme this year and my coworker Alex and I dressed as the Black and White swan. So fun! I'm all about costumes that involve a headband and fake eyelashes.

GLITTER EYELASHES.

And of course, there was our annual Hallowino...

And — MOST EXCITING — for the first time in my life, I had trick or treaters. I've always lived somewhere that ended up being a complete bust, with tons of candy left over. Half the fun of homeownership is handing out candy, so I was really pumped about the 40-50 kids who came by. And of course, we still have tons of candy left over.

 Once trick-or-treating ended, we changed into our costumes to go to a party. Sean hadn't planned one (surprise, surprise), so at the last minute went as Joaquin Phoenix on a bender. I went as Disgust from "Inside Out."

Ashleigh was the Sadness to my Disgust, and it was so fun doing a couples' costume with her for the third year in a row! We're officially taking suggestions for next year. Leave 'em in the comments!

Art Everywhere, Wine Fest and Fall-ifying the House

Busy times call for a good old-fashioned photo dump post! Things have been extra busy 'round here, because when the weather is moderate in Hampton Roads, every festival is scheduled for every weekend in October.

 A truly amazing thing happened: a nationwide movie has been released about the tiny coal-mining community where I grew up! It was amazing and emotional to see Big Stone Gap on the big screen in Norfolk, like traveling home without the 8-hour drive. I burst into tears the minute I saw the landscape. The movie isn't perfect, but it has a lot of heart and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 On Thursday and Friday, Norfolk was lit up — literally — with the inaugural NEON Festival, a celebration of all things art. The Norfolk Arts District, or NEON, was blanketed with murals and light installations and performances for two days and it was so, so inspiring. Here are a few of my favorite snaps from the unveiling of the district:

 We ran into Carmel, a friend from the Shenandoah Valley, on the street! So stunning!

 The incredible soon-to-open Glass Wheel Studio, featuring a beautiful mural by Hense.

The cementiscope, an incredible love child of a kaleidoscope and cement mixer created by three ladies from the Chrysler Glass Studio.

 Asa Jackson, finishing up a mural behind Exotic Home.

One of the coolest visual moments: At Work Release, 90's rap videos were projected toward the street, with the DJ silhouetted in front of the screen. So cool to see walking down the block.

And in another alleyway was this delightful space baby, tagged to say, "From Da Womb to Da Moon!" So good. I foresee many, many photo shoots with all the great murals.

 On Saturday, we ventured out for our traditional fall Wine Fest day. Ash and I had a great time scouting out perfect locations for future Wine Fests...

 And many glasses of wine were had!

Lastly, I've tried to autumnify the porch with some mums haphazardly planted and a couple soon-to-be-carved pumpkins. I definitely want to scope out some more pumpkins, though, but Sean reminded me, "We're just going to throw them away."