I'm Home, I'm Home...for now!

        Well I officially finished my co-op in Charlotte on Friday afternoon, my sweet, handsome and strong boyfriend was kind enough to come up and help move all my stuff from my house I was renting to his house. We moved all of my stuff out of the house and got back to his house before 11pm, with it raining sporadically through the night. It was all sort of bitter sweet, I am glad I get to go back to school and have my college schedule back but it stinks to leave all my good friends I made at work (and of course not getting that paycheck from work kind of stinks too) I am happy however that I do get to spend a few weeks with my sweetie before I pack up and dive headfirst into a pile of homework, test, and projects this coming semester.

         Before I dive head first into that mountain of work I am thankful that I get to spend a few weeks at home and visiting family. Cole and I are heading up to see my big sister in Ohio and then we are heading over to see my brother and my Gram over in Pittsburgh. We are spending several days up there. When we get back all I plan on doing is spending time with my sweetie pie, and all our friends, oh and hopefully soak up some rays before school starts. :) Keep an eye out for some photos from the trip :) 

 

"Tell me about it Stud..."

      Dusk and I always have a "conversation" about going home the night before hand. He always gets really pumped up and excited to see the girls (Cali and Dakota, Cole's dogs) and Cole. I really enjoy talking to him about it...cause lets face it he is just too darn cute. Even more so now that he has is handsome bandanna to wear. On another note please excuse the messy room, Dusk and I are getting ready to move tomorrow so it is sort of a mess right now. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the entertainment of my pooch! 

Peace, Love and Puppy Hugs
Dusk and Stacey <3

Big News!

Dusk got a cute new bandanna....

Dusk being handsome...

....and silly

Ok, I was super excited about his bandanna because it was super cheap and adorable. (only $1 from walmart, they have a huge selection of bandannas near their purses) 

but that isn't the big news. 

The big news is that I am currently working on updating Poppies, Puppies and Pearls! I am planning to incorporate some more of my interests into the blog including photography, fashion, food and exercise. 

I do plan on still giving Dusk updates and my weekend or special event updates but I want to add a little more to shake it up. 

      On a side note Dusk and I are getting ready to move back to our hometown for a few weeks because I am finishing up my co-op this week, and I don't have to be back to good ole Clemson until mid-August so I plan on Dusk and I enjoying a few weeks of summer and sun before I have to hit the books again! Keep in touch....(if your wondering how check out the spiffy new buttons I added to the top right side of the blog...you can now easily see my twitter page, the blog facebook page, my blog pinterest board, and the blog on stumbleupon) 

Peace, Love and Puppies,

SLE :) 

Hello Sunshine

       This past weekend was absolutely not what I expected. I planned on going home and having a date night with Cole Friday night, spending the day with mom Saturday, having a girls night Saturday night and going out on the boat with some friends Sunday. Most of my plans happened but they all ended up with some strange twist to them.
        Friday I did drive home, through treacherous downpour. I was super duper excited to be having a date night with my boo. We decided to try out a local sushi and hibachi buffet restaurant that we had heard a lot of positive things about. It wasn't terrible but I would prefer to go to a sushi bar for some freshly made rolls, and a hibachi restaurant that cooks in front of you. But that being said it wasn't awful and the service was good, I think I just have a personal issue with buffets, I don't like not knowing how long ago the food was cooked and put out. The plan for after dinner was to originally go home and watch a movie....
        Well that changed instead we ended up watching the sun set out on Lake Murray and hitting a few bars that are right on the lake with a few friends.

The gorgeous view of the sunset

Cole and I riding on the boat, which is why my hair is crazy looking. 

The boys smoking cigars

Cole with his cigar and a drink

    We didn't get off the water until around 3am...Then we got up early Saturday morning so I could go cowboy boot shopping...which was unfruitful, I found a pair I loved but I decided against them cause I would have been kind of restricted on what I could wear with them, and the other pair I have been looking at were not in stock in my size at the store so unfortunately I walked away empty handed.

These are the said boots that I loved, I may end up ordering these later! 

Once we were done boot shopping I made a super drastic change I went from being a super dark brunette to being a blonde, which I swore I would never do again, but I must say I LOVE IT! I am so happy with the way it turned out.

Now...

 

Before....

     

                   

                    The rest of Saturday was full of girl pampering time, including pedicures....my toenails are now a lovely lavender shade that apparently reminds people of Easter....Saturday night my mom, Deidre (my Bestie since Freshman year of high school) and I went out to dinner then Deidre and I started our girls night...which we thought was going to be just a wine and a movie kind of night. Literally 2 minutes into the movie i got a phone call from Cole... The call basically goes like this: 

  Cole: "hey, what are yall doing"

Me: "nothing watching a movie"

Cole: "Do you guys want to go to a house party?"

Me: "uh I dont know, ....'Deidre do you want to go to a house party?'.....Sure we want to go?!"

Cole: "Ok be ready I am on my way to pick you guys up!"

     Can you talk about random? We seriously ended up in the middle of no where and mine and Deidres night, well I guess morning ended in us watching the sun rise on Lake Murray while we danced to the cupid shuffle on a boat...It doesn't matter how calm of a night we plan to have we always end up having some crazy story to tell. 

Best Picture of the Weekend, Deidre doing the Cupid Shuffle
 at Sunrise on Lake Murray

         Deidre, the friends we were with and I went back to the house slept for a few hours, then literally got up and went back out on the lake for the rest of the day. We ended our weekend eating dinner at San Jose, a local mexican joint where almost all of us looked like we were going to fall asleep in our food from sheer exhaustion, and possibly alcohol for some.

          This weekend was definitely one for the record books, and it is for sure a weekend full of memories we will be talking about for the rest of our lives. 

The World is Coming to an End!

             Ok, ok, not seriously (its not December 21st yet)...but have you ever said to yourself or someone else "oh that's never ever going to happen!" and then it does actually happen? Well when that happens to me one I feel like swallowing my tongue cause I was wrong and two I feel like the world is ending just because I never thought it was going to happen. Anyone else feel that way? yes, no, maybe so...

              When Dusk was a small itty bitty puppy he was the runt of the litter and was the one everyone seemed to bully, so he has always been kind of shy around new people, he is timid around new dogs and he has never been a cuddler. Dusk has some pretty hilarious stories of new dog and new people interactions that I will have to share sometime soon. Anyways Dusk loves, loves, loves to be pet and he is a real ham for attention when he knows you well enough, in fact the first trick he learned was his puppy hug. Puppy hug is literally where he stands on his hind legs and rest his front paws on your leg and enjoys some attention as seen in the photo below.

The famous puppy hug
photo was taken by  mariah simmons photography

         Dusk loves his puppy hugs but he has never been a kisser, in fact in the four years that I have had him he has never once licked me. Another thing that he never has been known to do is to cuddle with you, or sleep anywhere near a person. I tried my hardest when he was a puppy to convince him to sleep in my bed and cuddle with me. He would start out good, at the very, very end of the bed as far away from human reach as possible but would get down literally ten minutes later or as soon as I moved an inch. He just wasn't a fan of it. 

          Now keeping all of that in mind imagine how mind blown I was when over the last few weeks he has gone from sleeping at the end of my bed for two seconds and then getting down, to sleeping at the very end of my bed all night, to sleeping against my leg to completely cuddling. My dog has gone mad! But a good mad, I love it,I think I like the sense of security of him laying right beside me since we live by ourselves right now. 

          Since we live by ourselves we don't normally leave Columbia until Monday mornings now. Well on Monday morning I was up before Cole and had already packed all my stuff up. I went and got Dusk up and got him to follow me into Cole's room. I literally patted the bed once calling him up there to wake Cole up. The next thing I know dusk hops right up on the bed and shoves his cute little muzzle right under Cole's hand and woke him up. It was the most precious thing I had ever seen him do, and man do I wish I had a picture or video of it! 

With all that said I literally thought the world was going to end because my dog is officially a cuddler, I NEVER saw that coming!

My Birthday Extravaganza ~ Part 2

Saturday morning we got up super early and headed to the best beach in south Carolina, Folly! When we got down there we of course ate at the Lost Dog, oh and Howled like dusk 21 times in the middle of the restaurant (it was one of my challenges) and filled up on delicious food, and tasty mimosas! 

My mango-peach mimosa

We then hit the beach, swam in the ocean, tanned, did a few challenges and played football, it was a great time. Once we got all the sun we could handle we strolled on down to Taco Boy. Taco Boy is this amazing taco joint on the main street of folly and it has so many types of tacos its insane. I loooove their tempura shrimp taco and their portabella mushroom one they are so yummy. Anna and I then traveled on down to Black Magic, this unbelievably good coffee shop in Folly to get a coffee to finish another challenge, oh and we took several green and purple things from both Taco Boy and Black Magic. Finally we headed back to the main land. Before we could leave though we were supposed to paint the boat that welcomes everyone to Folly…This boat is basically out there for people to paint and tag with spray paint, its pretty much a staple to Folly and I have never done it so we were supposed to do it as a challenge. Well we go and buy to cans of spray paint, hop in the car head to the boat and when we get there the boat is plastered with “Will you marry me Morgan?” and well we just couldn’t bring ourselves to paint over it because when we came in earlier that day it wasn’t there so we knew that they had just painted it and we didn’t want to ruin something that thought full and cute soooo we never got to cross that one off the list. All in all the beach was a great time, and we all got some good sun, other than Glenn, he got some silly looking sunburn.

The ladies :) 

booty pop! I love my girls

Me and my boo enjoying the sand and the sun 

My BFFL and her boo looking cute

Saturday when we got back from the beach we all split into different ways. Cole, Anna, Nichole, and I set off to go fulfill a challenge. Cole and I had to go stand in the middle of the waterfront park fountain and say I love you 21 times…but that got sabotaged. Some jerk of a guy messed with the fountain so that all the fountain heads got stronger and were hitting Cole and I head on, whereas before we were in the middle and the fountain was barely getting us wet. Thank god I have fast reflexes cause I was wearing a strapless dress and strapless bathing suit and it could have possible been a disaster! But it was still fun and we did get a really cute picture out of it. After that us ladies split off and went shopping for a dress for Anna at forever 21, I must say I love that store but I hate digging through all the messy unorganized clothes.

Cole and I in the fountain
I love him  

That night we all got dressed real nice and went to eat out at Basil. Basil is quite possibly my favorite restaurant in Charleston. It is a very tasty Thai restaurant. Cole surprised me with a birthday cake there too which was super sweet! After dinner we hit the town, it was kind of late when we hit the town though so we only got to go to two places. The first place was called the Market Street Saloon, and basically it’s a dance club. The bartenders dance on the bar for specific songs and then the bar is open to dance on for all the ladies there. One of my challenges was to dance on a bar so Nichole, Anna and I got our sassy little butts up there and danced on the bar. It was surprisingly a lot of fun, but of course there are always creepers out there. Throughout the night I had one creep stare at us forever then try to offer me an open beer, then one guy was just way vulgar, multiple people thought I was getting married (because I was wearing a sash that said “birthday babe” and a crown with a 21 on it, apparently drunks cant ready) tell me “don’t Do It!” which was obnoxious, and also some creepy old man attempted to kiss me on the lips…there are some strange people in the world thank goodness I have some great friends, a protective boyfriend and a very protective big brother! We ended our night up on a roof top bar where us ladies danced the night away after I finished another challenge. My challenge on the rooftop bar was to tell a bartender how to make a shot called “Skinny Dipping” and order a round for the girls. My shot had mango rum, peach schnapps and pineapple juice and it was sooo good. After the bars we ended up at a pizza joint, and then a house party of some sort, and finally went back to the room a crashed.

My cute birthday cake

The best picture of the weekend
Anna, Cole, Me and Nichole

 Sunday we spent shopping all day…well Nichole and I did and eating frozen yogurt. The boys ended up sipping on drinks at a bar all day.

Sooooo good! 

At the end of the weekend I was able to put the pieces to my puzzle together even though we didn't complete all the challenges.......and it was........

A Cowboy Boot, cause Anna gave my money for a pair for my birthday! 

My Birthday Extravaganza ~ Part 1

I decided since it was such a huge birthday I was going to treat myself and take Thursday and Friday off of work. Anna and I made plans in January to go to Charleston, SC to celebrate my 21^st together with Cole, and some of my other friends. We seriously booked our hotel rooms in January, because we wanted to be close to downtown so that no one had to drink and drive. Not to mention downtown Charleston is absolutely gorgeous. The architecture, the history, the greenery, the shops everything is breathtaking. Anyways of course Anna got a job in Virginia a few months ago, so it was super great that she was able to come down still and celebrate. Anyways we booked two really nice rooms in one of the nicer hotels down there, for two nights. Friday morning we drove down to Charleston. When we got down there we met up with my brother and went out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and filled up on delicious frozen peach margaritas. Everyone started trickling into Charleston and we all met up at the hotel to check in. So, Anna is freaking amazing and made this awesome game for me to do over the whole weekend. Basically the game is there were 21 clues/challenges, and each time I finished one I got a puzzle piece….and all the clues had something to do with me personally, our friendship or just normal Charleston traditions. It was really awesome and it gave all of us stuff to do during the random lulls in the weekend.

I have no clue why buy I love this one, its so candid

Nichole, Me, Anna and Bethany

Friday night we traveled down to the Southend Brewery for dinner. (the southend brewery is literally a beer brewery that is also a very nice and yummmmmy restaurant). While we were there I attempted to do a couple challenges, and our waiter totally helped me with one of them. One of the challenges was to find 21 purple and green things (because they are my favorite color) and when he brought our checks I asked if he possibly had anything green or purple and he seriously came back with three things, a purple calculator, a green crayon and a purple pool stick chalk, It was awesome!  At the end of dinner the waiter brought out an amazing birthday brownie for me, but I ended up wearing the ice cream thanks to my brother :P We get a picture in front of the restaurants sign, and I made friends with a huge gorgeous great dane named Breaker….His owner probably thought I was wasted. To follow we went on a hunt for a cannoli, and bought some pralines (both part of my challenges).

Glenn and Cole, this sums them up pretty well! 

The whole group under the Southend Brewery sign

Me and Breaker, cutest dog ever! 

Yummy Cannoli, not as good as Mike's in Boston though! 

We ended up going back to the hotel room for a little bit, a few friends came by for a little bit. We ended up doing a few more challenges while we were in the room. We had to drink a bottle of rum and we also all each ate 21 sour patch kids all at once….and man I think that ruined sour patch kids for me… but it was fun. Several people ended up falling asleep soooooo Glenn (my brother), Cole, my roommate Nichole and I all went to a bar called Mad River, it seriously is a bar that used to be a church! We finally went back to the hotel and went to bed around 3.

All 21 Purple and green things I collected this weekend
 including the things from the waiter

The bottle of rum we all drank together

*if you like this post read part 2! 

I'm officially 21 :)

     Well, As of last Wednesday, June 27^th I am officially a Legal adult…

Since my birthday was on a Wednesday I was certain it was going to be a boring, oh well who cares kind of day but it turned out to pretty great. Almost the whole office went out to lunch at Red Robin for my birthday, and I ordered my first Legal drink. To follow after work a few of my work buddies and I went out to Coyote Joe’s the local Country Club, that offers ladies night and free line dancing lessons on Wednesday nights.  We had a great time learning new line dances, drinking and playing corn hole (yes I know, I didn’t know bars had corn hole set up in the middle of them either). My good friend Lee and his wife bought me a whole bunch of fun birthday gear; they truly made my actual birthday a hundred times better than I thought it was going to be. J  

My First Legal Drink, a Screamin' Red Zombie from Red Robin

My awesome Cup and Pin Lee and his Wife got me