Some Wisconsin Weekend Shenanigans

Hi everyone! 

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I'm linking up today with Sami from Sami's Shenanigans for the Weekend Shenanigans link up. 

My weekend started on Thursday afternoon. I had a 7 page paper due and a meeting with one of our deans to figure out a graduation requirement snafu, so once I was done on Thursday I headed home to relax. I finished the last few current episodes of Revenge, took a long hot shower, made some high waisted denim shorts (check 'em out below!), and waited for my boyfriend to get into town! Once he did we hung out and watched an episode of Game of Thrones (he's really behind!) and fell asleep reeeeally early... very exciting, I know! 

Friday was way more exciting - I got my first pair of cowboy boots! They were my birthday present from my boyfriend. He unexpectedly had the day off so we had planned on making a road trip to a store a few hours away to find some but we got lucky and there was a horse expo in Madison so we only had to make a 15 minute trip (and pay an arm and a leg to get in) instead! These Ariat boots were the winners - I liked the plain brown leather, classic look, and minimal ornament. I wanted something simple so I wouldn't feel pressured to be "matchy matchy" with a certain color on the boot and instead get used to working them into my wardrobe as a "brown boot" and not a "cowboy boot", if that makes any sense. 

Ariat Heritage Western R-Toe

Brand new and fresh outta the box!

Since we were at the horse expo and because it was cold, we walked through all of the barns on the way back to the truck. I got to indulge my inner child and pet all of the horses and relive the days where horses were the coolest. The best part was when we discovered MINI HORSES! They were pretty much the size of my childhood golden retrievers - could you imagine having one!? I wanted to take all of them home and their full size counter parts... if only. 

Once I got my boots, my boyfriend and I headed back to campus because I had to work (woo!). He hung out at a local... establishment and befriended one of the .... drink pourers and basically had a grand old time while I was doing my thang at the store. Since I gave him my keys to my apartment, he decided that instead of making me walk home and buzz myself up, he would come and meet me at work to walk me home (cue the awws). While he was waiting he may or may not have looked like a homeless man, which once my co-worker and I figured it out, gave us a pretty good laugh. After he picked me up, we went to a local barbecue place and got dinner. We were both wayyy too hungry to snap a picture of our food before we started eating so I only got a picture of the cider I tried, ACE Fermented Berry Cider. I liked it, it was tart and light and almost reminded me of wine. A nice change of pace from the craft beers I normally drink! The boyf and I both got pulled pork sandwiches with a side of mac & cheese - I mixed some of my pulled pork into the mac & cheese and topped it with some BBQ sauce... yum! Can't wait to try making my own version of that soon. 

ACE Cider (click for website)

Saturday was the big show day. It was my first cow (or any animal) show so I was kind of quiet and followed my boyfriend's lead all day. I was trying not to stand out too horribly as a newbie/"city slicker" and I was trying to stay out of everyone's way as they prepped their cows for the show. While the weather was supposed to be in the 50's and sunny, it ended up being very windy and very very cold in the show ring itself. The boyfriend and I were not exactly prepared for that and we should have worn another layer under our jackets.... we were in need of some coffee and extra warmth (read: Bailey's) after a couple of hours. Once we got some of that we were set for the remainder of the day. I learned some handy dairy cow judging things from my boyfriend (he's kind of really good at it.... national college champ kind of thing kind of good) so hopefully by the end of the summer I will have learned a thing or two! His knowledge plus my art history background (see, I knew it would pay off someday!) should make it a bit easier for me to learn. After the show, we headed to dinner at Red Robin (#yum) with his best friend and his girlfriend. We were starving and absolutely demolished our food plus two extra baskets of fries (whoops!). Once we got home we were in such a food coma plus completely tuckered out from our day that we took a looong nap and ended up missing out on everything going on that night.

Sunday was uneventful. I almost missed work (oops) and when I got there it was so slow I only stayed for a couple of hours before leaving. I did get a white oxford and tried on a couple of sweatshirt tees - super comfy and casual! I love them and will be picking up two (green and gray) later this week. When I got home I relaxed and watched a couple of episodes of Smash - I love the show and cannot get enough of it! I also decided (on a spur of the moment whim) to cook my boyfriend dinner because he had a rough day at work. I had a serious craving for pasta and instead of heating up some jarred pasta sauce (obviously I had to do better than that for the boyfriend!) I checked Pinterest for some spaghetti sauce recipes. After consulting I came up with a pretty good version! Not my grandma or mom's recipe, but it did in a pinch. Seriously - it was so easy I have no idea why I ever bought jarred pasta sauce in the first place! I even made cheesy garlic bread from "scratch" and despite me completely forgetting to add garlic to the topping mixture, my boyfriend loved it. "It will be even better the next time you make it because you won't forget the garlic!" Hey, if he's happy then I'm happy. 

Look for the recipe coming soon!

Whew! Well forgive me for being a little bit late on this one - hopefully I can make it up with some of the awesome things I have planned for this week! 

Weekend Shenanigans!

Hi everyone! 

Hope your week is off to a good start - I'm trying to get myself back in the swing of things after a waaaaay too short spring break. Today I'm linking up with Sami from Sami's Shenanigans... yes I am a little bit late but hey, better late than never?! 

I spent this weekend breaking in these Minnetonka Moccasins that I got for Christmas and found in my closet while packing for spring break. My feet hate shoes. It took me six months to break in my Sperrys guys. SIX. MONTHS. I can't even tell you the number of times I attempted to break those shoes in while slooooowly walking to class.... halfway there I was hobbling and bleeding. I always packed a pair of flip flops as a precaution. 

Yum - part of the Easter dinner my mom made! Baked beans, corn casserole, and asparagus ricotta tart. Not pictured (fail) but equally delicious: cheesy potato casserole, fruit salad, Hawaiian bread rolls (my fave), ham, turkey, cauliflower. Don't get me started on dessert. I'm still full from that. 

Errrr excuse the poor lighting. I was holed up on the couch drinking a ginormous Dunkin Donuts iced coffee with caramel and skim milk. If you'd care to bring me one in the morning, you'd be my favoritest person ever. Also, I stalked the J.Crew Factory website for any deals I might have missed in stores (uh, 50% off everything? Yeahhhhh I took advantage of that. Goodbye to the next $200 of paychecks). 

Finally, I took my mom's Volkswagon Beetle Convertible out for a quick errand. I wanted to Instagram a picture of it and make a bad Easter egg joke (and by bad I mean that it probably would not have made sense at all) but I refrained. You're welcome. You should also follow me on Instagram if you don't already! My username is leopardspot. Also, look at how cute and springy those flowers are in my mom's car. They are always in the way when I'm driving, unlike in the red beetle that I drive, which has a perfectly sized bouquet of daisies in it. I don't know how my mother does it. 

Okay, well that was a very small peek into my weekend. I can tell you that the outfits I wore are not in any way memorable, although they were warm and comfy. It hasn't quite become "spring" yet in the Midwest. I would settle for high 40's, Mother Nature. Come onnnn. Please? Maybe just for my birthday? You have 13 days to figure it out, girlfriend. 

Weekend Shenanigans Link Up

When my boyfriend and I first started dating, one of our first jokes was the word "shenanigans" because it's a word I use on a daily basis. He always uses "shenanigans" in coversations with his friends, family, and coworkers and he tells me every time he says it, they all look at him like he's crazy. With my friends, it's totally normal. Ha ha! Anyways, I couldn't resist this link up by Sami of Sami's Shenanigans!

Friday: Woke up early and went to yoga and the gym with my friend Anna. I slept through my workout on Thursday (oops) so I wanted to make up for it - only three weeks till spring break, ugh! yay! (?) After we worked out we went on a little adventure off campus to Target... and by adventure I mean we used the city buses, which I have been reluctant to use for the past oh, FOUR YEARS of college (okay, 3.5 years but who's counting). I have sworn that I will never use the bus again unless I'm going with her because knowing me I would get lost and end up walking back to campus. Yikes. Back to Target - it was a true test for my Lenten shopping ban. I saw adorable espadrilles, cute bikinis, and an awesome pair of cropped pants - they were almost identical to the J.Crew Minnie pant but in a light coral-y/salmon color, and $7. I almost couldn't resist. They were the only pair and in my size. Thankfully, I resisted and instead devoted my shopping to buying lots of good-for-me foods. Only one box of mac & cheese made it into my cart, which was cray. I only did it to save myself the quarter when I would want to buy it on campus (it's Lent! I need meat free foods for Fridays!). Fast forward to the evening - the boyfriend came to town and we hit up a local fish fry, which seems to be turning into our Friday tradition (I don't hate it. My family doesn't do fish frys. Blame it on a picky sister and father).  After that, we decided to head out for a couple drinks with friends from out of town.... and that quickly turned into a couple more drinks than we were planning on. Oops.

Saturday: I had to get up way too early to open the store I work at. It was a slooooow sales day, most of which I spent trying to brainstorm ways to get more shoppers in the store for spring break clothes! Highlight of my day was stopping at a coffeehouse to get a snack on my break. I had the most delish raspberry cream cheese croissant and coffee that was surprisingly better than I anticipated - while I was sold on this spot for snacks and a bite to eat, the coffee was good enough (and cheap enough) that I'm going to start making it a study spot. Yum. After work, I came home and relaxed for a while before going out to eat with my roommates. Burgers and a sampler basket of deep fried goodies was probably not the best idea for a spring break body, but it was definitely delicious and fun. Once we got home we decided to have a movie night and watched Taken 2 and Flight. Flight was good - terrifying at the beginning, but so good in the end.

Sunday: Another chill day. I woke up and the sun was shining, a nice change from the cold and clouds. I did a lot of reorganizing and cleaning up on my Pinterest, watched an episode or two of Smash and Nikita, and tidied up my room. My boyfriend stopped by after work and we went out to dinner (Buffalo Wild Wings, you are delicious but not helpful to my spring break body). Someone ended up falling asleep promptly after dinner and I took some time to catch up on J.Crew's spring offerings... I'm proud to say I was only minimally tempted to add some things to my shopping cart, but hopefully anything I want will still be available later in the month for my birthday!

So - all in all I suppose my weekend wasn't the most productive, but it was enjoyable. Next weekend will be interesting because I'm going to be accompanying my boyfriend to an event in his field of work.... to say I am completely uneducated in the area is an understatement. More to come next week! :)