Cheap Date Ideas from Money Crashers

One of the biggest changes newlyweds are faced with is dealing with their finances as a couple. Have you ever visited the site MoneyCrashers.com? It is a great resource for advice on everything from your credit score to how to thrill your hubby on the cheap.

Speaking of which, MoneyCrashers.com recently posted an article on inexpensive romantic ideas for you and your loved one. How great is that?

One of my favorite ideas that didn't make their list is to have a themed date. For example, for a Roman Holiday themed night, make Italian food, have some champagne and gelati on hand (Anya had never tried the bubbly) and maybe sneak silly pictures of each other a la the reporter in the film who follows Princess Ann. Oh yea, don't forget to snuggle up and watch the DVD too.


I loved this article from their site about romantic and cheap staycations. Here's their list of ideas just in time for the weekend. Hope you enjoy!


Picnic at the Park
You may go to the park frequently if you have young children, but this trip is for adults only. You’ll need a blanket for two, a bottle of wine or sparkling cider, a cheese sampler, and sliced fruit. Take along a book of romantic poetry by Shelley, Keats, or Browning (if you don’t have one pick up one at the local library). Take turns reading to one another or talking about something that interests you. To keep it romantic, don’t talk about the children, work, or your mother-in-law.

Bike Ride in the Country
If you don’t have bikes of your own, you might think about renting some at the local bike shop. Find a meandering country road with little traffic, or if there is a state park nearby, then head out on a slow-paced ride enjoying the scenery and the wildlife. Take breaks along the way to laugh or to catch your breath. Just being out experiencing nature together can be exhilarating and get the blood flowing to the heart.

Dance the Night Away
It’s terrific if you are a dance pro, but if you’re like me you have two left feet and your partner only has one. It doesn’t matter if you can’t do the two-step or the tango; it’s about getting out there and spending time focusing on one another. Choose a music genre you both love if possible, or try something new.

Dining Out
This idea is a bit predictable but it’s a classic way to spend time focusing on your spouse. Add a little spice to it by trying a new restaurant, eating a cuisine you’ve never eaten before, or going to your favorite spot but ordering a dish you’ve never had. My favorite romantic places are Italian or French, but these can get expensive, so I some sometimes like to go the home cooked route and fix up a simple spaghetti and salad, dress up the patio table, and put on Sinatra.

Video Game Fun
If you have a video game console lying around and you have kids, chances are you’ve never been on it. Why not hit the rental store and pick out a game you can play as a couple? Challenging yourself and each other can be fun and great way to laugh together. Pick something that will get you animated, like a racing game. The Nintendo Wii sports games and Rock Band/Guitar Hero are also great games to play as a couple.

Beach or Lake Day
Hopefully, you have a large body of water nearby. We live super close to the coast, so it is nothing for us to hop in the car and have a day of sand and sea. Hopefully you can do the same. Take the lawn chairs, an umbrella, and a cooler and hit the lake or beach. Even if you don’t plan on taking a dip, you can sport your swimsuit and enjoy time together on the shore.

Sleep In for a Change
You may be in the habit of jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn even on your day off, but try to control the urge and snuggle up together instead. Staying in bed, dozing in out of sleep, talking quietly to one another and shutting out the world can be a great way to reconnect and encourage intimacy.

Aren't those great suggestions? Do you have any fun and cheap date-night ideas?

Wedding Wish & Happy Anniversary to Us!

With our wedding 2 neat little months behind us (how is that possible? Happy 2 month Anniversary to us!), I have now had plenty of time to think over anything I would have done differently. I am so happy to say that of the entire week of festivities that made up our wedding, I can count only 3 things that I would have changed. That's pretty darn good considering!

One of those things is the fact that about 50% of our guests were all old high school friends. Of our bridal party alone, 6 out of 10 of us went to HS together.

With our 10 year high school reunion looming next year, I really wish when the photographers had asked, "are there any other special shots you guys want?" I would have requested a group shot of all our HS alum. Sigh. We do have all of these...

Ce la vie. We have plenty of great pics of all our friends, but none of us with all of them. Jonathon says, "you never know, maybe we will all get together again soon," and maybe he's right. I guess 10+ years of friendship and the fact that they made the cut on an 88 person guest list gives us pretty good odds that the friendships are here to stay.

Great Furniture Hunt USA

While the "Great Furniture Hunt USA" continues en mass and our home is still generally empty, we did make one big purchase over the weekend. A headboard! Doesn't it look fab with one of our favorite wedding gifts, this amazing quilt? Uh, yea, it does. And so does our ridiculously adorable and good mannered baby.

Now we just need two nightstands, a dresser, mirror, and highboy and our bedroom set will be complete! It's a good thing we are both patient shoppers.

Birthday Party Dance Off Pants Off

My birthday was AWESOME! I spent the whole day with my honey buns drinking Starbucks, reading magazines, watching Percy Jackson and the Olympiads, receiving loving phone calls and just generally having a grand old time. For din din Jonathon and my besties took me out to eat at a local fish restaurant where we all ate to excess and laughed a lot. It was pretty darn great.

After fun family time, we all went out for an old fashioned BoWlInG pArTy.... WATCH OUT! Apparently, and none of us knew this or we may have chosen to go to the batting cages or something, ERIK is a kingpin... Or whatever you call a semi-pro bowler. Sheesh, there's always that one guy that takes the group sport too seriously. :)

Erik pretty much kicked our butts every time, but we all had a blast regardless. Besides it being my birthday, it was also Latino Night which meant simply that we heard the "Cuban Shuffle" and "The Macarena" over and over and over and over. It was pretty fabulous. To the left to the left to the left to the left now walk it by yourself now walk it by yourself... Inappropriate public dancing, bowling and birthdays all go hand-in-hand anyhow.

I am still not used to living in the same city as my two best friends, but it is pretty freaking great if you ask me. I felt so loved all day, and to me that is the mark of a great birthday.

Here I am in a birthday-girl-and-best-friend-sandwich.

Life is good.

Free Orlando Adventures

Welcome to Monday... Oh yea, it's also my birthday! Have some cake for me. :)

I can't believe I actually missed a blogging day on Friday, so sorry everyone! I was off being very busy and important. I had a job interview that I hope/think went really well because it would be such an amazing position. Hopefully this week I will get called back for a second interview and then I can tell you all more about it. In the meantime, think good happy thoughts for me!

After my interview I felt pretty good about things so J and I did what we do best. We went shopping... More to come on that tomorrow. For a visual, here we are on the roller-coaster that is our shopping induced endorphin-rush. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

It has been so great getting to know a new city. Everyone asks if we have hit up any of the sweet attractions Orlando has to offer, but, as I am currently "job-seeking" we are trying to keep the belt in the tightest notch ifyouknowwhatimsayin. Plus Disney World is like $80 a pop!

Not to fret though because we are certifiably some of the world's greatest free-things-to-do finders and have been enjoying the heck out of our new hometown on the cheap. For example, we are frequenters of the great downtown Orlando library, we know all of the local art museums' "free days" and that goes double for the nifty botanical gardens as well. We even got to check out a free preview of the movie Robin Hood at the Universal Citywalk in Orlando. Aren't we just the cutest thriftsters?! It has also been just super to spend so much QT with our best friends and new neighbors.

Yesterday was one of the most "southern" days we have had here in the deep southern state of Florida. In our search for fun and inexpensive ways to explore the city we found a spot that was hosting a free fish fry during a Magic game, and knew it was for us. We may have suspected this freebie was a bit too good to be true had we inspected the establishments motto a a little closer. It simply stated, "We Got Booze," seriously. But the food was awesome and so was the Nascar (apparently basketball was not on the agenda) and the company was even better.

After our "we got booze" adventure we decided to take Teeny for a walk in our neighborhood during a bit of a thunderstorm. We were only slightly thwarted by a bit of hot summery rain and lighting. Yes!!!

I really think the word "adventure" sums up our new lives here in Orlando. If you know me, getting to know the nooks and crannies of a new city is one of the things that makes me feel most alive, so I am truly having the time of my life. Even if I am a whole darn year older...

Orlando Antiquing

Shopping for all new furniture is soooo much fun. It is also a little crazy making if you don't have a clear direction on your way in. Why? Because you will see something like this here chair and decide you should just go ahead and do the whole living room up in dirty mustard yellow. I know some might find offense with this chair but I personally think it is the bomb diggity.

You know what else is the bomb diggity? This sweet wicker chaise. Are we coming to grips with my inappropriate adoration and lust for The Chaise? This beauty was only $850. Take one home today, then enjoy a mint julip on the porch to celebrate your great Chaise conquest!

What was I saying about shopping without a plan and everything going horribly horribly wrong? You know you like this sweet vibrant blood orange chair and ottoman as much as I do... I could see blood orange coming into style soon. What?

I truly know that I found and married my soul mate. How you ask? Oh, well, this shabby chic vintage floral couch was one of my husbands fav finds of the day. My taste for the eccentric must be rubbing off on him... Our poor, poor children.

My Amazing Husband

I am so proud of the amazing person that I married. He makes me feel blessed everyday. He starts a new job today and I know he is going to ROCK everyones socks off. GO baby GO!

Oh, and he's totally hot too...

I know I'm lucky :)

Lavender and Brown Living Room Furniture Shopping

First things first, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to my mom, step-mom, mother-in-law, and all my friends who are moms, moms to be, moms of pets, or moms to their husbands (doesn't that count???). I love you and hope you had a beautiful day! You truly make our world go round.

On to the design! Sticking with the lavender, brown and cream living room color scheme that we have been mooning over, Jonathon and I went out shopping last week to see what the stores have to offer and if these colors truly work in real life or only in pretty magazine pictures.

Our only successful stop (by successful I mean furniture that we can afford AND also happen to like) was at World Market. I am in love with this place. Three years ago we bought our first bedroom furniture set there during one of their half-yearly clearance event thingers... Sigh. We had the most gorgeous four-poster bed and matching black-brown wood dresser, etc. I drool... Anyhow, we moved and lightened our load and thus our bed is currently bed-frame-less and of course they discontinued our set and we will never have it again. FOCUS, I know we're doing living room not bedroom. Sorry.

So, we did find a couple of couches that we liked a lot. This first chocolate brown one pretty much fits the bill. It is not too mushy but not too hard, it is a nice soft fabric and it is a neutral color. The only real issue is the color though, I'm thinking the chocolate is too dark. I really think the lavender works best if everything is muted and romantically soft, therefore a cream colored couch would be the best option. But then you have a cream couch. That's just a disaster waiting to happen... especially with yours truly, the clumsiest person you've ever met. I do think this couch comes in a "sand" version so maybe that is our best bet.

Then there's couch #2 which is more of a true neutral in an oat-mealy beige color. Only problem here, I absolutely hate microfiber. Sorry to everyone who has it, don't hate me. I think it looks beautiful and is durable and I know it seems to be everywhere you look right now, BUT I have a mild case of OCD and the way the pattern mushes like soap residue just does not work in my world. Por ejemplo:

SO who knows what to do with the couch thing. Maybe we will go with the chocolate for durability's sake. What do you think? If we DON'T get a chocolate couch (mmm chocolate couch, now I'm hungry) and we go with the softer "sand" color, then we could get this AWESOME velvet brown wing back chair from World Market. Apparently, I have this animal thing for wing backs. Doesn't it look like Pee-Wee Herman's Chairy the Chair that is just dying to be your best friend, read to you at night and tell you the word of the day? We should probably own it.

And then there's chaise lounges. Jeez shopping for furniture really makes you wish you were filthy rich money bags so you could just go for it and buy the eggplant velvet chaise for your second home because really, its only you who will be summering in your Lake Como villa anyhow so who cares if its a loud color.

We are thinking of rounding out the more contemporary World Market furniture with some antique pieces. We have been scouring the local shops and one of the pieces I really fell in love with is this dusty-rose velvet and wood wing back chair. I almost made Jonathon pack it in the car the second I saw it. I know with antiques it may not be there the next day, but seeing as how we are still trying to decide on this color scheme in the first place, I figured it may be a tad hasty to have an empty living room save for this one pink chair...

But the pink would really add something wouldn't it? The amethysty pink-lavender is so romantic. Then I could decorate around the room with accents like this amazing bowl.

In addition to that awesome pinkurple chair, I also fell madly in love with this antique record player console. I want it. Am I crazy or do the speakers have a mellow lavender glow to them? I think it is calling to me, and I think it would look perfect with...

The pièce de résistance, this purple and cream rug from Target. In person, it's actually a lot more lavender and a lot less purple. But I am still a little scared of it. It's so aggressively purple. And purple is REALLY not my color of choice. This decorating thing is seriously not as comfortable for me as personal style... Shouldn't it be the same? Maybe it is and I am just second-guessing myself. Maybe we will buy it and see how it actually looks.

PURPLE! I know that is an awfully purple room I have shopped out for you, and I know it is in dire need of brown and cream, but so far these were the exciting pieces that I fell in love with. More on our antiquing tomorrow...

Indian Wells Esmeralda Mini-Moon: Part 2

For the second half of our four-day mini-moon we decided to switch things up and stay at one of Palm Springs' famous nudist resorts...

PSYCH! We saw the sign on our way out of town and I couldn't resist snapping a pic. I bet some people do honeymoon there, but that is a whole different kind of website...

We were very very very happy in our hotel room at the Esmeralda in Indian Wells. I mean, can you beat this view?

Days three and four were pretty much par for the course. There was relaxing, eating, being pampered, the usual. Of course we spent some more time pool-lounging and room-service-ordering.

We felt so special staying at the Esmeralda. Although we were there during Spring Break and it was family-central the staff were so sweet to us. Every time we went in or out they would say "here are our newlyweds!'' We felt like rockstars.

We went out for dinner for our third dinner as husband and wife (I know I'm corny) to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion and if we thought we were treated special at Ruth's Chris, well, Roy could teach Ruth a thing or two. Except the guy outside who took our picture... he could learn a thing or two himself.

We had so much fun. I highly recommend pretty much anything on the menu including the pineapple mojitos. Oh yes. Don't mind our gold rings...

We were pretty excited about our dinners...

And our new wedding rings...

And being newlyweds...

We felt like we were on our tropical island honeymoon after all!

After dinner we decided to test out our hotel's sweet fire pits and cabana chairs by the pool. I'd say the test was a success.



We had a fantastic time on our mini-moon, we really did not want it to end. Although we had to say our good-byes to the Esmeralda and our vacation together, we were ecstatic that it was such a beautiful beginning to our brand new life together.



Because we were married on Palm Sunday, it will always be easy to remember our anniversary as it will be falling one week before Easter every year. Although our honeymoon was officially over, we kept the party alive through the weekend by shopping (hell yes) and seeing the Easter Bunny himself in the fur. It was pretty thrilling.

Hopefully next year we will be seeing the Easter Bunny on some tropical beach on our postponed white-sand-beach-honeymoon. Now that we live in Florida, I imagine finding one of those beaches shouldn't be so hard. In the meantime... Married life is good.