Five on Friday - Memorial Day

Today I am doing my first link up with some of my favorite blogs!! Make sure to check them out as well!

Here are 5 of my favorite things from this week!

1. Georgia Aquarium 
We are visiting our friends this weekend and on Sunday went to the Georgia Aquarium. If you haven't been you have to go! This place is AMAZING!! We couldn't get over how big the tanks were. You should see the size of the sharks and whales. Our other favorite exhibit were the otters. Below see a few pictures of our adventure!

2. Southport - Oak Island
I am so excited that we are at my Mom's house in Southport for Memorial Day weekend. We haven't been to the beach in a while so we are super excited. We are planning on golfing, beach time, shopping, and of course taking the ferry from Southport to the Aquarium at Fort Fisher. If I haven't mentioned it before, my husband has a salt water fish tank and is slightly obsessed!

3. Memorial Day Appetizers
Of course we need to make sure we are well fed at the beach. I love this recipe for blueberry, strawberry and jicama salsa. Not only is it on theme but doesn't it look refreshing after a long day at the beach or golfing? I will definitely let you know how it tastes and if you should make it.

4. Hibiscus Iced Tea Sparkler
We need to make sure we stay hydrated over the weekend. I can't wait to try this hibiscus iced tea sparkler. I am a huge fan of hibiscus iced tea, it is a great alternative for when you want something slightly sweet and don't want all the sugar of the juice. Looking at the recipe at first glance I might swap the honey for agave and cut the amount in half. I am personally not a fan of overly sweet beverages.

5. Memorial Day Weekend
WOOO HOO! I can't tell you how excited I am that it is Memorial Day Weekend. After living in the Northeast for my entire life, Memorial Day Weekend was always a sign that we made it through another winter. No more snow for a few months, we can start taking out summer clothes (yeah for white jeans!!), and most importantly being able to actually enjoy the outdoors. Living in North Carolina that means it is time for us to go out on the boat, swimming in the lake, and grilling outdoors.

Armondo our cat is all ready for the holiday weekend!! 

Hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and I can't wait to hear how you celebrated. I will also make sure to recap all the recipes that I mentioned in this post, and any tips and tricks I learned.

Happy Pinning!
By Jennifer Shelton

My Southern I'Dos - Dessert Time

I am not sure if it is because I ate so many sweets yesterday, or the fact that I am craving them now that I decided to write a post about my dessert table at my wedding.

A few years ago we went to a wedding and instead of doing traditional cake, they passed around mini milkshakes, cake pops and ice cream sandwiches. Both my husband and I thought that it was the best idea ever. Not to mention you can always find me on the dance floor by the time the cake is being served and I always miss out.

Here are some of my pins I used for inspiration for my dessert table!!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204889071134/

 Even though we were having a dessert table we wanted to make sure we did have a cake to cut.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204889002335/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204887205903/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204890337826/

 The dessert table from Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's wedding! I guess good minds think alike!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204889319750/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204887579722/

Of course we had to put our own spin on the dessert table. So we went with miniature pies for guests since we wanted to have a backyard bbq feel to our wedding. Then we ordered mini canolis since my husband and I met and lived in the North End of Boston. If you aren't familiar with Boston that is the little Italy section of the city. My husband is from Ohio so of course we had to have buckeyes on the table, and last but not least we had a cookie jar full of Oreos!! My husband and I met at The Sail Loft on Boston's waterfront and at the bar they always have a cookie jar full of Oreos! So of course we needed to incorporate that detail into our dessert table. We also had our caterer make us a small cake that we could cut for the cake cutting!! Here are some pictures from our dessert table!

I found these great signs at Paper Source that I used all over the wedding. You can't see in the picture but it says Love Is Sweet. Also, my caterer had farm table toppers made. We were able to use these at our wedding and save lots of money!! 

We also used the bridesmaid bouquets to add more flowers to the table. In the framed picture is my husband and I in front of the The Sail Loft. Where we met!

 I would have loved to ship canoli's down from the North End in Boston, but since our wedding was on a Sunday we weren't sure how they would have held up. Instead we went to the next best thing! The Whole Foods in Mount Pleasant! That is our little secret!

Ohio Buckeys from Malleys in Ohio. Malleys has the best chocolates! Not to mention my sister-in-law worked there in high school. I actually have a HUGE Malley's chocolate bunny that is calling me right now!

Hamby's Catering created all of the mini-pies and tarts for our wedding. 

 Picture of our cake! It was extremely simple and exactly what we wanted. We had a few flowers decorating the sides, and then a burlap flower on top. The flower was actually a decoration on a Christmas present from my mother-in-law!!

 I saw these forks on Etsy and had to have! I put them on my Christmas list and my sister-in-law ordered them for me! I was so excited. They were engraved with Mr and Mrs on them too! My friend Lauren made us the pink napkin which she gave to me as a shower present. The cake plate we used was a pink depression glass that we had. And my mother-in-law bought us the Kate Spade cake serving knives as well!

 We received Kate Spade champagne glasses as a wedding present. Obviously this is a before picture because all night I had a glass of bubbly in my hands!!

 I found these small chalkboard signs at World Market and used them ALL over our wedding! You can also get a glimpse of the chevron bags we had for guests to take home food at the end of the night. The bags had our monogram on them as well!

 You may ask what is this? Well this is the Groom's cake. We are slightly obsessed with our cat and since he couldn't be at the wedding (even though he owns a bow tie) we had to incorporate him somehow! My Mother-in-Law ordered this cake for the rehearsal dinner but it was way too fabulous to cut into. So our Armondo cake also made an appearance at our wedding. Not only do we have a cat we love, my husband is slightly obsessed with his salt water fish tank.

 This is the original picture that my mother-in-law gave the bakery to base the cake off of. This is one of the many Halloween costumes we have for Armondo. He is such a natural in front of the camera!

 Last but not least a picture of my husband and I cutting our wedding cake!!

All right I am off to eat some of my Malley's chocolate bunny!

Happy Pinning!!
By Jennifer Shelton

Easter - Chickadee Deviled Eggs

With Easter being tomorrow I decided to try and make some Chickadee deviled eggs that I saw on Pinterest. Of course I thought it would only take me a few minutes to assemble, but let me tell you make sure to dedicate the proper amount of time and cook a few extra eggs as well.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/167196204886031104/

Here are a few tips we learned while making these!!

• If you are making a dozen chickadee deviled eggs, make at least 6 extra hard boiled eggs. 
• We used the egg carton to hold and display the eggs! We thought it added more flair and we didn't have to worry about them standing up correctly. 
• Be careful when taking out the hard boiled yolk, you don't want the egg to break. 
• Use a icing decorating bag to fill the eggs. 
• Pre-cut all your vegetables before hand. We cut them out and put them in little bowls and used food tweezers to place the eyes and beaks on the chickadees. 

Here is what ours looked like! I might be bias but I think they are adorable!!

Also, since this blog is new I really haven't been able to share too many photos of my adorable cat Armondo. Here are a few of my favorites of him in his bunny ears!!

By Jennifer Shelton