It's been such a fun and busy few weeks around here! I've been working hard getting things done around our house and adjusting to life outside of a downtown apartment. I've hit the garbage can pulling into the garage more times than I care to admit. I'm getting back into my workout routine which honestly feels amazing. I've realized that I feel so much more like myself when I squeeze in some time to workout and turn my brain off for a bit. This weekend was the Gasparilla Classic and I'm actually sad that I wasn't able to get myself together sooner and train for one of the runs. Next year! We've also been hosting family and celebrating birthdays and holidays pretty much all month!
Chris and I lived through our first Gasparilla in our new house which was actually not as bad as we thought it might be. There were floods of people dressed in their best (and not so best) pirate get ups. It made for some really great people watching. Chris's dad was spending the weekend with us so we didn't make it down to the parade to see all the chaos for ourselves. We had breakfast at Piquant and spent the afternoon in St. Pete walking through the park downtown and we had lunch at Locale Market. If you're ever in the area you have to stop at Locale Market. It's a restaurant on the top floor and a Dean & Deluca style grocery store on the bottom floor. The fish tacos and their latte with almond milk are my faves.
The weekend after that was my mom's 60th birthday and my brother and sister in law flew down for a day to surprise her! We actually all managed to keep it a total secret and she was absolutely shocked when they came walking in at brunch. It is borderline painful for me to keep things like that to myself so I was really relieved that I hadn't accidentally blown it.
Speaking of secrets, Chris and I have been planning a trip for this spring as my mom's birthday gift for a few years now! I'm pretty much bursting at the seams to tell her where we're going but we decided that she'll have to wait and see until we get to the airport. Of course I've already told her what kind of weather to dress for and to bring comfortable but stylish shoes but that's all she knows! The flights and accommodations are all booked and now begins the fun part - planning our days! Chris and I are very hardcore travelers and my mom is more laid back. We walk like New Yorkers and her pace is more of a saunter so I'm actually excited to slow down a bit and not try to cram every single thing into this trip. She's a really good example of living in the moment and appreciating the now instead of rushing through to check the next thing off of the list.
Valentine's Day was low key and filled with treats! We made blueberry banana pancakes, got all of our favorite treats, and walked around Hyde Park together.
Last weekend was Valentine's Day and it was also my friend Ashley's birthday! She's fabulous and you can check out her blog here. I took her for pre-birthday brunch at Datz and we porked out with our forks out! I love living a healthy lifestyle and working out but every sometimes a girl needs to eat her weight in breakfast foods. It's called balance. That night we all took Ashley out for birthday tacos and drinks at Bartaco. Seriously though, I could live on the chicken and the mahi mahi tacos. Amazing. We walked to the rooftop bar at the Epicurean Hotel so the birthday girl could get her prosecco fix and went to South Howard to play giant Jenga. Unfortunately Jenga wasn't anywhere to be found so we ended up back at my house for an epic ping pong battle. Chris graciously served as referee to keep us under control and I'm happy to report that the winning team was me and the birthday girl!
We've also been hard at work on new designs and new products at Kelly Elizabeth Designs. I can't wait to share them! Being a creative entrepreneur is such an incredible blessing but some days can be really rough. If you're trying to carve out a place for yourself in the world and you have days where you just don't feel like you're enough, please know that every single person goes through it and you are amazing! Life is a journey and it's very rarely glamorous, despite what you see on social media. Hang in there girl!
