Late Afternoon Lattes

Living together as roommates since August has been a new experience for Katelyn and I.  What's my favorite part, you ask?  SHE'S A BARISTA.
Aside from her brilliant sense of humor, passion for travel, social awkwardness, and love for all things weird, she makes a DAMN good cup of Joe.

We shot this quick 6 second video using the Vine app.  I'm so lucky to have this awesome espresso maker that an old coworker gave me because she wasn't getting enough use out of it.  I LOVE this thing!

Today I was also in need of some color.  This January has been so cold, grey, and gloomy.  I've never been more ready for spring.  I decided to brighten up my day dressing in color for work.

Katelyn and I warmed up this afternoon by sipping on the delicious lattes she made.
Like I said, living with a barista is BALLER.

Syrus wanted in on that latte action.

 

Have a lovely night. :)

xoxo, 

L

Lessons on being socially awkward.

Since Laura and I have started this blog we have managed to throw around a few ideas on what our theme should be. We both love fashion, shoes, eating, traveling, etc AND we're cousins, but that just seems like too much...like all those commas in this sentence. So tonight as we were at Wealthy Street Bakery eating and taking pictures and embarrassing each other we had an "a-ha!" moment: we're going to blog about being weird and awkward and crazy because it's what we're best at. So here's a little re-cap of our night tonight:

We first decided to take photos for our blog in wintery clothes looking all cute and cozy. So we both get home around 5:15 and rush to get ready trying to make it outside to snap some photos. By the time we got to Reeds Lake, the sun was set and the good lighting was gone. So we instead went to Wealthy Street Bakery to take a few photos. 

My new $5 hat from Target (love me some sales) and my HUGE piece of a cinnamon roll. The whole 'I'm getting married in 5 months, need to diet' thing was shattered by this sweet and scrumptious roll...and I have to admit I don't regret it at all ;)

I love this hat. I'm a hat lady and I'll probably be a crazy hat lady when I'm older...get ready Alex!

I'm really happy in this photo because I had just finished that awesome cinnamon roll :D

Caught in the action. I didn't even stop for a photo...I was on a mission at this point to finish that pastry! Such a weakness of mine. Here's a prime example of me being awkward...I couldn't manage to put all the food in my mouth and now here's documented proof of that moment forever. 

After Laura and I awkwardly took photos everywhere...we went to Hobby Lobby! I bought a cute new glass lantern thingy and filled it with coffee beans and a candle and viola! You have this beautiful candle holder! 

It perfectly showcases my coffee obsession in a very tasteful manner. 

Okay guys, it's Laura's turn to describe tonight's events and share her uber cute outfit with you. Over to you Laura-- 

Welp, Katelyn just about sums it up. When searching for our "niche", we decided it'd be best to be ourselves, and who we are is straight up, 100% no holds barred WEIRD.  We thank our mothers for that. (Shout out to our mamas!)

Anyway, here are some more photos of the evening: 

xoxo, 

K & L

The Detroit Zoo

Better late than never.. am I right?

I'm a little late on this post, but it's only because I left my camera in Steven's car the weekend we met up in Detroit (which just so happened to be over a month ago).

Last month, Steve and I met up in Detroit.  For those of you who don't know, Steve is from Ontario, Canada and lives part-time in Nashville as well.  We do get to see each other often, although not as much as I'd like.  I'm super lucky that when he drives back and forth, he stops in Grand Rapids to see me and stay as long as he can.  Anyway... during our visit to Detroit we decided to wander around the Detroit Zoo. 

This was an interesting experience and probably the first time I went to a zoo during the middle of winter.  It was desolate and FREEZING, so we obviously took every chance we could get to run indoors to a warm exhibit. 

 

We could not, for the life of us, get a decent picture in front of the penguins.  It's my favorite exhibit of all time and I wanted to get a decent shot of us in front of the cute lil' guys.  We just kept making faces at each other.

Aside from the cold temperatures and the lack of animal exhibits due to the winter months, it was a fantastic day.

xoxo,

Laura

Katelyn returns to the Mitten

I'm back! After 8 days, two different countries, meeting so many new people, and a TON of food...I'm officially back in my house and in the mitten. Alex and I flew from Lansing (my brother works for an airline so he helped us out with cheaper tickets...thanks again Brandon!) to Los Angeles. From there we rented the van we were going to use for the next five days and headed to San Diego to meet Alex's mom. So the purpose of this trip was to visit the families that Alex and his mom (and a ton of other hard workers)  built houses for. After over 20 years, they STILL come back every winter during Christmas and bring gifts and spend time with them. Here's our first group shot in San Diego:

Here are a few more photos from visits we did with the families. 

I adore this last photo of Mary with the family here, so much joy!

This little man could use lots of prayers from everyone. He'll be having surgery on the frontal region of his brain and then be in an induced coma for 3-6 months. He is SO precious and so full of life.

Our last stop was to Carmen's house before we crossed the border into California. Here's Alex modeling one of his favorite food groups: Mexican sope's. 

Alex smooching on Carmen (who also made the sope's).

After a few goodbyes Alex and I hit the road from San Diego to San Francisco. Here's a view from our drive up:

After a shameful stop where we ate way too much In-N-Out, we picked up Mary from the airport and made our way to Napa Valley. Alex got really into wine this past year so this trip was really special to him, and I got to try a lot of good, and other not so good wines...but I wasn't too picky :)

Perfect View ;)

A few more photos of the vineyards. Unfortunately, it wasn't the harvest season so we did not get to see grapes and lush greenery on the vines. Regardless, it was breathtaking.

This last photo is of Chateau Montelena which was the first winery in Napa Valley to really put California wines on the map. There also happens to be a movie about it: Bottleshock. Check it out!

We even managed to make it to San Francisco for a half day and saw the golden gate bridge and even took a small walk on it. The scenery in California and Mexico is so different than Michigan that it felt like a little treat every time we saw mountains. I'm also still trying to figure out what makes this bridge so special...I personally think our Mackinaw Bridge is way more impressive :D

Overall it was an amazing trip with amazing people. I was so happy to go to Mexico with Alex and see something that was so important to him and made him who he is today. I guess our next big step is to finish planning this wedding! 

Until next time! Xoxo, K

Katelyn's Hiatus

For those of you wondering why Katelyn has been MIA lately, it's because she's too busy traveling through Mexico and California.

;] She's actually doing some amazing things with her fiance' and soon to be mother-in-law for their non-profit company.

Everyone send good vibes and thoughts while she's on the west coast.
She's probably currently enjoying a nice glass of wine in Napa Valley.

Here's one of her photos:

Stay tuned! She will have all kinds of excited news, updates, and photos from her trip.

Hope you all have a great week!

xoxo

A Nashville New Year

Hey ya'll.

This past weekend I rang in the new year with my boyfriend and two friends/coworkers in downtown Nashville, TN (which, as most of you already know, is my favorite city EVER). 

We made the 9 hour drive down from Grand Rapids on Saturday morning and stayed until Tuesday.  Since Steve lives in Nashville part-time, he knew of some fun things we could do.

NOTE: Please forgive the horrible quality photos.  I forgot to bring my T2i on the trip, so these were all taken with my iPhone. :| 

After we arrived to the hotel, we settled in and and made some drinks at the hotel.  We had way too much fun with the camera.

Once we got ready, we went downtown for some dinner, beers, and then headed to Paradise Park for some live music and cheap pitchers.

Sunday consisted of a continental breakfast, some shopping in Green Hills, Trader Joes, authentic Mexican dinner & fishbowl margaritas, and some bar hopping in Midtown.

Monday we decided to get up, grab some breakfast at Noshville, and head downtown for some wandering, shopping, and sight-seeing.

At Tootsie's on Broadway, Downtown Nashville

At Legends on Broadway, Downtown Nashville

 Since they had concerts and the 'dropping of the music note' in the downtown district, we hung out there but were rained out before midnight.  Regardless of missing the music note drop, we had a fantastic time and I wouldn't have traded it for the world.

Nashville has always been, and will forever continue to be my favorite city.  I have so many great memories of Tennessee from my childhood and can't wait to build new memories. :)


xoxo,

Laura