Freck's Friday Fancies XLV

Gingham. I'm loving this trend more than anything right now and I happen to be sporting this bad boy today.


Let the fancies begin.

J. Crew
Etsy
Forever 21
Piperlime

Not gonna lie though, I'll stay away from red because of the country vibe it gives off. Know what I mean?

TGIF!

Disney World Recap!

First of all, I have to say Omigosh Disney was so much fun!!!!!!!

Warning, this is a super long post. Key takeaways are at the bottom for anyone schedule a girl's trip to Disney in the future :)

*All images courtesy of Disney's site and moi*

Thursday morning the girls and I headed to the airport for our 7 am flight (which wasn't very difficult because we were all running on pure adrenaline). We had a stop over in Kansas City, and then continued on to Orlando. We hadn't all been together in quite some time so we had plenty to chat about on the trip down there (yes we were those loud women on the plane but we could care less).

Once in Orlando, another girl's flight arrived from Michigan and she met up with some of us while some of the other girls were grabbing the (sweet) rental van. Then we were off to the hotel, which was awesome, and the POOL, which was just as awesome as the room. It felt good to sit by the pool in the hot sun, it was then that we all looked around and knew we were on vacation :)

Hotel

That evening we went to one of the girl's aunt and uncle's home about 20 minutes away and enjoyed a delicious meal complete with great conversation and yummy wine.

Friday, we were poolside again, swam a little, picked up another girl from the airport who came from Texas (yep, there were 6 of us) then started getting ready for our night out and little did she know, one of the girl's surprise bachelorette party. Moments like getting ready all together are what I miss most about college. You can usually find me doing most of the girl's makeup and some of the girl's hair while drinking some wine and watching silly TV (one of the first seasons of The Hills just happened to be on). Pure bliss.

Right before we were about to leave, I kept asking the bachelorette (who still did not know about the surprise) if she reaaalllyyy wanted to wear the shirt she was wearing. Of course she was super confused and annoyed by the time I asked her 3 times, which is when I pulled out the shirt she'd be sporting for the rest of the evening...

It was a hit! Got this from Skreened.com. The dude I spoke with on the phone was really cool.

She looooved it. We spent the rest of the evening sipping on margaritas at Margaritaville in Universal (pass next time, we weren't too impressed with this place) and dancing our booties off at the City Walk clubs in Universal.


This is another moment I really took in, we haven't all gone out and danced all together in over a year, which was always so much fun. Our version of dancing is mostly goofy and fun, and we really took it easy on the drinks because we were going to Disney the next day (and no one wants to go to Disney with a hangover).


Saturday got up bright and early and headed straight to Where Dreams Come True :) This is the day all of us had been so excited about, and we got a great deal on getting into the parks because TBF's dad scored us some free tickets. Awesome.

Anywho, on to MGM where we ran straight up to the Aerosmith ride.


Now, remember, it's 9:01 am at this point, I haven't had my caffeine, I'm so excited to be there, and I'm trying to calm one of the nervous roller coaster riders with us.

"Should I put my hair back? Should I keep my head straight? Should I cross my toes??"

Those of you who have ridden the Aerosmith ride can agree with me that this is a pretty medium to high level rollercoaster ride where you are throttled from 1 to 60ish mph in 2 seconds and fly through flips and curves and cork screws. So by the time I'm in the VERY front seat of the ride, it's 9:05 am, I haven't assessed my own feelings about the ride yet, I'm still just on cloud 9 because we got through the line super quickly and we're AT DISNEY!!?! Then the ride begins and..

HOLY HELL IT'S SO MUCH FREAKING FASTER THAN I REMEMBER AND I'M PRACTICALLY STILL SLEEPING BUT I'M NOT BECAUSE I'M FLYING THROUGH THIS ROLLER COASTER OF INSANITY.

It went something like that. It was a blast, and the nervous roller coaster girl loved it :) We then continued onto Tower Of Terror (my favorite!), the Star Trek ride (so old school and awesome),and the Great American Movie Ride (a classic).

Next, onto Magic Kingdom!!!! At this point we were S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G, so we went straight to Space Mountain, grabbed some Fast Passes (yeah, I know, Disney pros), then noshed on some pretty decent food in TomorrowLand. After that, we digested on the People Mover, very chill and slow, killed some time at the Monsters Inc. comedy show (which, I'm not kidding, I'd totally do again because it was hilarious) then used our Fast Passes at Space Mountain. Man, that ride will never get old. Well, I mean it's old, but I could ride it over and over.

Next, on to the Tea Cups, It's A Small World (of course), the Haunted Mansion (LOVE THIS RIDE!) then Thunder Mountain (always a good ender). Ok, by this point, we were tired and seriously thinking no more. Did we stop?

No.

When in Rome people!

Onto Epcot we went where we began our cocktails around the world. Okay, if you went to Epcot before you were 21, you probably, just like me, thought Epcot was SUPER LAME. Well, my oh my how cocktails make it so much more fun.

I'm not kidding, you must end your Disney day at Epcot if you only have one day.

We started in Mexico with some margs (sugar helped us wake up too), took some funny pictures with some sombreros, then continued on to Norway, China, then Germany where we saw...

SNOW WHITE! Pro - picture with Snow White. Con - she was super lame, made us put our drinks down for the picture (understandable), but in a super high princess voice, and she wasn't very nice. No, we weren't being stupid(, we had had AN sip of our margs by this point).

Anywho, onto Italy, (where we ran into Belle who was very kind and pretty!),


US (kind of lame),


Japan,


Morocco (Very cool!), France,


then the UK (where we ran into Sleeping Beauty, who looked like she slept in her makeup). We took a pit stop here and went into an Irish bar to grab some more cocktails and relax for awhile. Our dogs were barking at this point so the brewskis definitely helped.



Next was Canada (pit stop at Niagara falls). Then off to the hotel we went.

Sunday, we checked out of the hotel, filled the rest of the day with mini golf, a nice meal, and a movie before our flight left at 7 that evening (which was delayed a couple of hours for the record because of a storm).

Key takeaways from our girl's trip to Orlando:

-Yes, you can squeeze 6 girls into a suite hotel comfortably.

-Get groceries when you arrive, if you have a suite, you'll have a full kitchen and will save so.much.money. Breakfast,snacks and booz were the main items we got, then bread (less than $2), cheese, deli meat, and pb & j are cheap and go a long way.

-Grab some extra towels at the pool, they'll come in handy.

-Ask around for Disney tickets and passes, including your Concierge. Be nice. Kindness goes a loonnng way, especially with the concierge who ended up giving us tons of free cards for Universal. Let them know if it's a special occassion.

-Take advantage of the fast passes and I definitely recommend getting to the park as early as possible to avoid long lines. Long lines can be huge buzzkills.

-Wear sunscreen, you will get burnt, even if you "tan easily."

-Something that we didn't do that I will definitely do next time, schedule an extra vacation day for when you return home. I was A ZOMBIE (hence my lack of posting) when I had to go to work on Monday after my flight was delayed and I got home late on Sunday night.

Any questions? Let me know. We had such a blast and our next girl's trip will be in Vegas next year so if anyone has any tips, please share! Can't wait!


Happy Thursday!!

What's This Thing Again?

Oh hello Blog, my name is Freck, it's been awhile!

Ok, I'm alive, but ever since I got back from vacation late on Sunday night, I've found it extreeeemely difficult to sit down and write after a day of work. My brain is still in Orlando and last night was my first complete night of sleep in awhile. (and man does it feel good)

Anywho, I'll be back soon to share Disney and Orlando deets, please bare with me while I struggle to put my blogger pants back on. I will let you know for now that it was an absolute blast and I can't wait for our next girls trip! We're thinking Vegas next year :D

Happy thank Jesus we're halfway through the week Hump day!

I'm Off To Where Dreams Come True

Yep, the day has finally come! I’ll be heading to Orlando bright and early (5 am) tomorrow morning with my girlfriends and I couldn’t be more excited. There will be 6 of us, in one hotel room, with one bathroom. Should be interesting :)

While on the trip there will be a couple of surprises along the way that I can’t wait to share when I get back. (Some of the girls who I’m going with read this so I don’t want to spoil it!)

As of 6 pm tonight I’ll have in my hot little hand 4 Disney tickets, courtesy of TBF’s dad who gets them through work. This means we’ll only have to pay for 2 tickets! This will save us a bundle! Also, one of the girl’s parents was kind enough to get our hotel room for us every night that we’re there as a belated graduation gift. Another save! Any gift ideas for these giver’s would be greatly appreciated :) Maybe some Mickey ears?


This trip has been long overdue. All you gals out there who said (when you were freshman-seniors) in college that you’d go on a girls trip but never did it after graduation because you (duh) had no money (like we did), I encourage you to plan that trip a year or so later when you have some extra cash and haven’t seen each other for awhile. It’s going to be awesome!

Needless to say, I won't be posting until I return on Monday.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Tardy For The Party

I'm going to be super tardy for this lovely piece of face's party. She'll be making an appearance down the street from my place this Friday, when I'll be in Orlando.

In case you forgot what it sounded like, here she is on Ellen to refresh your memory:



Ugh..I'm sorry if your ears are bleeding.

Best of luck to you Kim.

Weekend + Birthday Recap

Well well well, the birthday weekend has concluded and it was a great one!

Saturday TBF and I went to the Cubs game and that little thing I was so excited to share with you? Well, during the fifth inning stretch, he told me to check out the messages that people put up like, "Will you go to Prom with me, Maya?" because they're entertaining and um, because MY NAME WAS UP THERE!! It said Happy Birthday FRECK (ok my real first and last name, not Freck). I FLIPPED! It was so cool to see my name on this thing!


Also, McLovin' was at the game! He and the cast of Kick Ass were there to promote the movie and throw the opening pitch. Let me tell you, he's just as awkward and adorable as he is in every movie.

Needless to say I was super giddy and taking tonnns of pics. You'll see in these pics that Papa Freck did an awesome job at getting us tickets because we had an AMAZING view!

McLOVIN!!

Cast of Kick Ass

Unfortunately the Cubbies lost. After the game TBF and I came back to the apartment, cleaned up and went to Cafe Ba Ba Reeba with one of our favorite couples.

via

They're great and we had an amazing time. This place is known for their amazing Sangria and delicious tapas. We ate so so much and drank so so much :)

via
Delicious sangria :)

Yesterday, my actual birthday, was very relaxing. I went to the gym, TBF made me a yummy breakfast, we went to Target where I picked up sooo so many goodies, went to the grocery store, TBF made me a delicious salmon BLT, we watched Sherlock Holmes (so good!) and had some yummy drumsticks (of course made by TBF).

Oh, I forgot to mention that TBF got me a Michael Kors watch. I'm kind of in love with it.


It was a great birthday weekend :)

3 days until Orlando!

Happy Monday!!

Ya Say It's Ya Birthday...

Well ladies and gents, today is my birthday and dog gone it I don't really know what to do besides what I normally do on a Sunday, and that's clean, go to the gym and the grocery store. Why? Well, because it's a Sunday and I thoroughly enjoy getting those chores out of the way and relaxing before the work week begins. Ohhhh, maybe I'll go to Target though?! (yes, I just thought of that as I was typing this)

I may pick up a portion of one of these bad boys at Whole Foods...

I'm looking forward to reviewing this birthday weekend with all of you tomorrow, if you follow me on Twitter then you most likely know why I'm so excited about sharing :)

Alright, time to begin the day.

Enjoy your Sunday!

I'm Having one Of Those Awesome Moments...

Within the past couple years I've become that person who if I'm having a great day, I'll stop, take it in, and remember everything about the moment and how I was feeling and put it in my memory bank. I do this on vacations, birthdays, on beautiful days when life is good, when I'm with my family, boating..you get the idea.

I'm having one of those moments and I wanted to post about it so I made sure not to forget. So yeah, this may be a wee bit corny, but here I go :)

Today feels good and I want to remember it because...
-TBF and I went out for a walk this morning when the city was still quiet, the sun was shining, and no one was out and about yet (a very rare occurrence in my hood).
-I ran 6 miles last night, a distance I've never hit before. Endorphins = awesome.
-I'm going to the Cubs game today, where happiness is contagious.
-TBF is making a massive breakfast for me and I'm getting some extra princess treatment because tomorrow is my birthday.
-I just got my tax refund. My first year to actually have it go straight to my bank account because my parents didn't claim me on theirs. Having an accountant in the fam rules.
-Leaving for Orlando in 5 days for a girls trip. Awesome.

My apologies if you're barfing at this post :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Freck's Friday Fancies XXXXIV

First, let the birthday weekend begin! Cubs game tomorrow and who knows what on Sunday, my actual birthday.

Oh my goodness gracious I can't believe it's already here!

Anywho, it's bittersweet my friends. Martin + Osa, one of my favorite brands, has released it's final collection, Summer 2010.

Yep, you are looking at this week's fancies.

Yep, they can all be found here.

By the way, T - 6 DAYS until Orlando with my girls!!

I bid you adieu M+O, I bid you adieu.

TGIF!!!