Date Jar: Completed!

Earlier today I wrote about how I wanted to make a date jar for J and me to use. Well mission accomplished!

Isn't it cute?

I painted the sticks green, blue and light blue. The green sticks are the ones that have more expensive date ideas:

The blue sticks have the stay at home date ideas. I left some blank so J could have some say in the dates. :)

Finally, the light blue sticks have the go out date ideas.

Some just have ideas, others have names of some of our favorite restaurants, and once again I left some blank for J.

I'm really excited to start using it. Like I said before, J and I can be really indecisive when it comes to our date ideas. I hope this helps!

Have any interesting ideas for me to add to the date jar?

Versatile Blogger Award

Rachel over at LaLaLists was really sweet and nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks Rachel! So since she nominated me, I have to do the following:

Thank the nominating blogger and link to their site. Give 7 random facts about yourself. Nominate 15 other bloggers, link to their sites and let them know!

 

So here are my seven random facts:

1. I'm an avid reader (I'm currently reading THREE different books) but do not own a Nook. Go figure.
2. My two absolute favorite places in the world are St. Augustine, FL and Puerto Rico. 
3. I will always double click a clicky pen before I write with it.
4. My favorite flavor of ice cream is Strawberry Cheesecake. 
5. Speaking of ice cream, my very first job was an ice cream maker at Bruster's.
6. Even though I was HORRIBLE at it in school, my favorite subject to teach is math. 
7. If I wasn't teaching, I would want to be a Visual Merchandiser for a retail clothing store. Two totally different things!

The lovely ladies below are some of my favorite bloggers. They all are great writers and are such great reads!

1. Carly @ Lipgloss and Crayons 
2. Tiff @ The Coffeehouse 
3. Caitlin @ The Teacher Box 
4. Torie @ Lattes and Love 
5. Nicole @ Me and The Moon 
6. Bonnie @ Life of Bon 
7. Alison @ Life of Two Sokools 
8. Danielle @  The life of an "ordinary" housewife
9. Jessica @ Lovely Little Things
10. Lourdes @ Love is Life
11. Kodi @ Leaving My Mark
12. Paige @ Eloping Stethoscope
13. Niki @ Gumdrops and Gloss
14. Erica @ Inspired By Above
15. Brittany @ Buckeye Belle

Go check 'em out!

Date Night in a Jar

J and I can be very indecisive at times. It'll be Friday night (our typical date night) and neither one of us can come up with anything to do. So a few weeks ago, I hit up Pinterest in the hopes of finding ideas for us. I came across this awesome idea from Life in the Greenhouse:

Basically it's a jar with different colored sticks. The different colors stand for different date categories. She even gives you interesting ideas for the sticks.

I went last week to Michael's and got all of the supplies:

I changed the colors to some of my favorite ones. They're also less girly, which is a good thing because this jar will be staying at J's place. :)

Even though I bought the supplies las tweek, I just haven't had the time to complete the jar. That will be today's focus. COMPLETE THE DATE JAR! I'll post pictures when I'm done.

How do you and your sweetie come up with date night ideas?

Yea, yea, I know I just posted

But this is my blog and I decided to write about what I want right? Well right now I need to vent.

I haven't been sleeping well lately, not really sure why. I've been staying up late, but that's normal for me during summer vacation. Tonight, all I want to do is curl into bed and fall asleep.

Here's the problem: my windows face my next door neighbor's house. Their back porch faces my windows. They like to have incredibly loud parties late at night. Apparently, tonight's party includes karoake and, since 4th of July is around the corner, firecrackers.

It's Murphy's Law in action! Seems like whenever I want to get a good night's sleep, they're out there being loud and partying. I'm all for people having a good time, but I wish they'd remember how close our houses are and how thin the walls are, which means you can HEAR everything in our neighborhood.

Cross your fingers for me that I'll be able to fall asleep ASAP. Do your neighbors do anything that bugs you?

Shopping and Ghost Stories

I realized the name of my blog is Laughter, Love and Necklaces, and I've yet to post a picture of me actually wearing one. I have quite the necklace collection and the one I wore today got me a lot of compliments:

I love teal and this necklace is awesome. Yes, I'm the lameo taking a picture in the Loft fitting room. Loft had an amazing sale today, half off everything with a special coupon. I had a gift card from the parents and got a pair of shorts, and two shirts for 12 dollars! Score!

After shopping, I met up J. His mom is in town, so we took her to St. Augustine. St. Augustine is one of my favorite places on the planet for multiple reasons:

• The history. I'm the biggest history geek and love that it's the oldest city in the USA.
• The atmosphere. St Augustine is just such a laid back place, despite all the tourists.
• And last but not least, because of this place:

 

This would be a picture of Flagler College, where I went to school. Beautiful isn't it? It was originally the Ponce De Leon Hotel built in 1888 by Henry Flagler. Flagler is right in the middle of the touristy area and is a National Landmark. I had the best time there! /end gushfest/. 

J, his mom and I walked all over St. Augustine and I gave her a tour of the public areas of the school. I ended up showing her what is a classic Flagler artifact.: the tile on the floor with Henry Flagler's face on it:

Legend has it that Henry Flagler's funeral took place in the rotunda of the hotel. A hotel janitor closed all the doors and windows (despite Flagler always wanting them opened). Hotel workers dropped Henry Flagler's casket and his spirit, having no where to go because everything was closed, flew into this tile. Neat, huh?

Now there's a huge possibility that it was put there on purpose. Each piece of the tile was hand laid, and Flagler had a sense of humor. For instance, he had the dining hall designed so that depending on where you sat you could hear the conversation across the room. He did this so he could hear people talking about the hotel. But I like the ghost story, better don't you?

All in all, despite it being hot as you know what, it was a great day! Speaking of ghost stories, what's the best one you've ever heard?

High Five for Friday! Birthday Week edition

I like the link-ups that make you think, so today I'm linking up with Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog for High Five for Fridays! Here are my awesome five things from this week, almost all of which have to do with my birthday.

 

1. My birthday! I had a really fabulous one and it puts a smile on my face when I think about how much fun I had Tuesday night.

 

2. I pampered myself on my birthday and got a gel manicure. Always so nice to just sit there and have someone take care of you isn't it?

3. Made my first smoothie with the Magic Bullet blender J got me for my birthday. Can I just say it was nice to be able to make a smoothie without have to yell and pound the blender??

4. Even though she gave me a scare yesterday, I love that my cat Athena can always put a smile on my face. When I woke up yesterday, she was curled up next to my knees:

Right in the crook of my legs was where she was!

5. Finally, even though I complained about the rain at least once every day Debby was here, I'm thankful to say that my house didn't have any damage. Check out the flooding in my front yard:

 So what five things made your week the best one yet? Don't forget to link up with Lauren!

Go, go gadget closet organizer!

Ha. Have no idea why that's the title I came up with, but hopefully people know where it's from.

I'm a teacher, which means I'm off right now. I try to stay busy each day and give myself some kind of project or activity to accomplish. When I woke up this morning, I knew I had to clean out my closets and organize them. I have two closets; a small one inside my room, where I keep only work clothes, and a larger one in my bathroom.

I turned on my TV to the Music Choice 90s channel. My best friend from college and I use to always jam to 90s tunes when cleaning our dorm room. It's a tradition I've stuck to ever since!

It took two hours, but I must say, I'm quite proud of the outcome:

This is my work clothes closet. There aren't that many clothes in it, because for the most part, I stick to buying things I can wear casually and professionally. Most of my giveaway clothes came from here. I had 10 pairs of black pants! Who needs TEN pairs of black pants (especially when most of them don't fit)?!

Here's my main closet:

Left side of my closet holds my jeans, purses, and dresses. I live in dresses during the summer. Too darn hot to wear other stuff!

Yes, I am that girl. The girl who organizes her clothes by style then by color. It just makes it a heck of a lot easier to find what I'm looking for. I'm normally not OCD but when it comes to my closet I am. :)

So now the question is, let's see how long this lasts. I give myself a week, two weeks tops! Then I'll just put everything in random places.

How do you keep your closets organized?

Current Crush

I'm linking up today with Danielle at Framed Frosting for Current Crush Thursday. It seemed like a fun link up and I have the perfect topic.

 

I realized after my birthday shopping trip yesterday that my current crush(es) is/are STRIPES. Wasn't sure how the grammar works out there. 

1. I bought this cute green striped cardigan from Forever 21. I'd been looking for a cute green cardigan and this one fit the bill!

2. I couldn't find an exact image but this shirt comes close. I bought this shirt from Forever 21 in teal stripes. Teal is one of my favorite colors. (Doesn't hurt that my favorite NFL team, the Jaguars, have teal as one of their colors!)

3. Charming Charlie is this super cute accessories store. They sell clothes as well, but not on their site. This dress looks almost exactly like the one I bought from Charming Charlie. Instead of blue stripes, I got it in TEAL!

4. This pink striped shirt comes from Gap. Apparently J's mom has some form of ESP and knew of my love of stripes because this top was in my birthday bag (as well as a super cute STRIPED beach bag!). Love her!

So there you have it, Nilda's obsession with stripes. What's your current crush?

Tropical Storms and Birthday Parties Don't Mix!

I love when I can say that I had a wonderful birthday. Yesterday was a wonderful birthday! YAY!

As I mentioned yesterday, J and I share a birthday. Which is neat, because a) it was the coolest coincidence on our first date and b) he will NEVER EVER forget it. It was his 30th, so he decieded to host a get together at Whisky River. But we wanted to celebrate privately so we went to his favorite Indian restaurant 5th Element:

Photo from 5th Element Trip Advisor site

They have a phenomenal lunch buffet. J and I got our eat on! I had multiple servings of basmati rice and chicken tikka masala and he had his favorite: chilli chicken! 

After lunch, J and I traded presents.I got him this beautiful Armani watch to commemorate his 30th birthday. 

I wrote yesterday how I have been dying to make my own smoothies for my post work-out snack. Well that dream will be a heck of a lot easier thanks to his gift:

A MAGIC BULLET! J pays attention to when I like something or say I want something. I mentioned getting one a few weeks ago when we were in Bed, Bath and Beyond. I'm excited to use it. 

So a few hours later, we met up at Whisky River with our friends. I love that people came out, even in the torrential downpour of Debby. I was late to my own party, because Debby just kept dumping buckets and buckets of water on my town. I'm grateful that my side didn't get any bad flooding the way the Westside of Jacksonville did.

It was a great night and a bunch of our friends and family came out. A few of my friends and J's friends stayed out at Whisky. I didn't get home till late, but that much fun was totally worth it!

Here are some pics:

J's peeps from work, my little brother (who's the tallest!) me and J. Forgive the crazy hair, it was pouring! Note my massive umbrella!

I love that my Central Riverside peeps came out! I'll miss them so much at my new school.

So as I said earlier, a wonderful birthday indeed. What was your favorite birthday? (Oh and forgive the use of the word peeps...)

It's my birthday!

Yep, it's my birthday. 27. Man, that feels old. There are plenty of things that I thought I'd have by now that I don't, and plenty of things that I do have by now that I didn't even think of! Oh, and it's J's birthday too! Yes, you read that right, my boyfriend and I share a birthday. It's one of the quirky facts about us. It's his 30th, so OBVIOUSLY he's the star of the show today. We're having a joint party at Whisky River later this afternoon (as long as Debby decides not to ruin anything).

I kicked of my 27th year right: by going to the gym and doing my strength workout. It was my first time doing this routine without my trainer Trey (he's kind of pricey and I'm trying to save here!). It is a kick butt workout:
Circuit one (repeat three times)

• 30 walking lunges
• 30 dumbell lifts with 20 pound dumbbell (15 on each side)
• 30  side plank hip tucks (15 on each side)

Circuit two (repeat three times)

• 15 pushups
• 15 kettlebell rows with a 20 pound kettlebell
• 15 throw downs (I don't know the technical name, I just take an 8 pound weight ball and slam it down 15 times)
• 30 woodchucks at 12 pounds (15 on each side)

Circuit three:

• 15 reps on one of the weight machines. Forgot the name, but I have to reach down and pull with my side muscles. I do this at 40 pounds
• 30 shoulder presses with 12 pound weight. 15 on each side.

Wow. I feel like such a kick-ass person seeing all that in writing! It's an awesome exercise and definitely gets my heart pumping.

I normally do cardio afterwards, but my brother was with me and he wanted to leave (his trainer kicked his butt!) so we went and got smoothies. My current favorite post workout smoothie is the Lean1 at Smoothie King.

They finally got the Lean 1 strawberry powder in, so I'll be going back to buy it. This way I can make my own Lean1 smoothies at home!

Off to get ready for my birthday lunch date! What kind of workout do you do?

Debby, Debby, Debby

Apparently Debby will making a turn, crossing Florida, and exiting RIGHT below St. Augustine. Which means, non stop rain for the next few days. My backyard is flooded, and earlier today the street by my house looked like a little river.

It dried up for a few hours, so I headed to the library and Target.

Media Monday

I found this while browsing some blogs the other day. I'm linking up with Rachel from Lists from the Heart and Brittany from Yellow Umbrella Design. It's Media Monday!

Being summer, I have plenty of time to find some new favorites in music, movies, tv and books. Currently:

TV

I found this while browsing Netflix one day. It's a teen drama from Australia. It has the usual teenage relationship drama but what makes it slightly different is the amazing dancing and the characters. Besides, the awesome Australian accents don't hurt!

Music

I promise, I'm a late 20 something girl not some teenybopper, but The Wanted's single "Glad You Came" plays all the time at my gym. Whenever I hear it on the radio, I immediately start singing along and get reminded that I haven't gone to the gym yet. They are from England and have adorable accents as well!

Movie

This one isn't a new movie, but I rented it the other day because it's one of my favorites. It features Justin Long (who I think is absolutely funny) and Drew Barrymore as the main characters. They have to deal with their long distance relationship issues. It's a great watch, especially for dreary rainy days (like today!)

I haven't read anything new lately, but I might try and venture out in the downpour to pick up some of the books I have on hold at the library. 

What are your current favorites?

Rain, rain, go away

I don't mind rain. In fact, one of my favorite things to do is read a book on a rainy day. But when the rainy days fall on the weekend, that's a problem. I'm off right now, so every day is like a weekend. But J is not a teacher, so the only time we get to spend a day together is on the weekend.
We hit the mall and did some people watching. That's always fun to do, because it makes you wonder about all the different kinds of people in the city. Then we went to Home Depot, because he has something in his apartment he wants to fix (J likes fixing things on his own). Now we are off to just chill at his place for the rest of this rainy day.
What do you like to do on a rainy day?

Motivation

I joined the local gym back in May. My brother and my boyfriend keep cracking up at how dedicated I've been, because before May I had not one athletic bone in my body. I worked with a trainer a few times who really taught me how to use all the weights and machines correctly. Now I try to keep up with doing strength exercises 3 times a week and cardio 6 times a week.

But this morning when I woke up, I just wasn't feeling going to the gym. I take this awesome class called Sh'Bam on Sundays. Check out the video below:

Sh'Bam is a Les Mills class that's like Zumba but instead of dancing to Latin music, you dance to current Top 40 hits. Your burn about 500 calories doing it, and it's really the most fun workout I do! But I just wasn't motivated this morning. Then I got a text from J saying that I haven't regretted going to any of my workouts, but that I have regretted NOT going. I love him for motivating me and I realized he was absolutely right.

So off I go to Sh'Bam! Are there any motivating tips you have? What's your favorite exercise?

The first one...

I had a Livejournal in college. I wrote in it every day. It was a neat way to get caught up on the comings and goings of my friends' lives. Now it's a fun time capsule of that time period. I read an entry and it takes me right back to that moment.
That's one of the reasons that I started this blog. As a way to capture the comings and goings of my life right now. I hope I'll get readers, but even if I don't it will be my little record of my life. I'm going to post the interesting ideas I find and actually complete from Pinterest. The special little moments of life, like my cruise to the Bahamas this past spring. I know people say to find your niche for your blog. But I'm the type of person who isn't an expert in anything, but knows a lot about A LOT of different things. That's the direction I'll go, until I find inspiration that diverts me in another direction.