Mal and Kev's Excellent Adventure

The alternate title to this blog could be "Ode to Roadtrippers" because let me tell you, that site is absolutely amazing!

Kevin and I were feeling bored and were aching for an adventure, but had no clue where to start! And really, where do you go to start an adventure? Well, I had subscribed to this awesome site called www.roadtrippers.com but hadn't actually used it yet. They send you fun locations around the world that are unique and a little off beat. It was perfect for me and Kev. So, when we had an open Saturday with no real plans, (when has that ever happened?!) we decided to take advantage of it and explore Northern Virginia.

I decided to search for a destination a few hours away, and then build a road trip down there. We found a fabulous location about 3 hours away, and then added 8 stops in-between. We got up, packed our healthy snacks and salads.

The first leg of our journey was about an hour a half. We had a beautiful journey through the Virginia country side. We saw more farmer's markets and veggie stands than I had seen in a long time! It was so cool. Our first stop was a giant roller skate and we continued on down to a winery, saw a large chicken, a nutcracker, ciderey, and brewery. We had to skip a few stops so that we could make it to Foamhenge in time.

If you are interested in doing our trip for yourself check it out below!

4/12/14 | My new trip on Roadtrippers.com!

This was just on the side of the road! We had to do some creative jimmy-rigging to get this picture!

We are super sophisticated wine tasters, obviously. 

Here is the Rooster at the diner called Lumpkins. We were totally gonna stop and eat here, but it was closed. boo!

I am not sure what Virginia's obsession with giant things is, but I love it!

This Hard Ciderey had free tastings and a great refreshing beverage!

We did a beer sampler! So good!

Kevin loves his beers!

After we left, we realized we had to rush to get to our destination!

Pretty sure this is the best place ever*

*Side note: The whole time I was secretly hoping that Kevin and I would get sucked into the past like in Outlander. (Sorry annoyed friends who read this I couldn't help myself)

Want to see more pictures from my adventure? Follow me on Instagram! http://instagram.com/miss_mallory

Weekly Wrap Up

Looking back at my pins this week, I am noticing that they are mostly CLOTHES! And while I would not call this a fashion blog at all, I am dreaming of some warmer weather and skirts! Are you following me on Pinterest? You can follow me here!

I have also been in love with some tutorials and inspiration for decor.

This is a BHG Tutorial. Check it out here!

I love this one from the Nest, I hope to be doing some of these soon! Check it out!

I am also loving these from Apartment Therapy!

I also just started the P90X workouts this week.

I know it will give me results, but man I am tired! 

Carnival Day

Soo how cute is this???

Bona Fide Bride is an amazing site. The author, Kristin is a planner too, and she has some links to some great stuff. My favorite find are these great labels!!!! I am going to use them for my animal cracker snack pack!! It is going to be so cute!! They are a totally free download, and they are so precious. You can type in your information and then use it for your business, wedding, or just a cute label in organization!!

My idea is to get those frosted animal crackers put them in clear white bags, and take white card stock with these labels on top stapled over. I will be posting pictures later this week. I am so excited about it!!!

Here is the link to download all the different types your self: http://bonafidebride.blogspot.com/2010/01/vintage-whimsy.html

My top 5 websites for procrastination

I have a very unhealthy relationship with stress, my first inclination is to eat something. Big, greasy, crunchy and salty. Jack and the box tacos do the trick wonderfully, my expanding waistline non-withstanding. I have learned to quickly suppress that urge and replace it almost immediately with an all consuming urge to shop. In college I was able to curb this to buying two $10 tops from Forever 21 and not breaking the bank. BUT my new Dave Ramsey lifestyle to become completely debt free has been forcing me to look again at my finances and not splurge on anything. So that is out. So now, I came back to an old friend my Xbox 360. But what about during school or work or anytime that you are not near a TV and have 5 hours to waste. What about then? Well I use the all-powerful internet to fill my time. Here are my 5 favorite sites

5. Pinterest

Obviously. This is a great time filler and a way to pretend you have a wardrobe and designer and fabulous outfits. You go into dream mode with your house and wedding. You can pretend that you are living all the fitness tips and your weight is magically falling off. You repin those witty someecards imagining that it is you who is thinking of them, and will now start using these phrases.

"Well it is true!"

This is one of my favorites too and I do all these things above too, because I can plan the perfect wedding or find work ideas, or plan my house with 40 pools, 10 kitchens, 25 master suites, and a whole slew of living rooms, organized spaces, offices and libraries. All that is within a super sleek, shabby chic, modern inspired Castle. Probably in the South of France. 

4. Cracked

Sooooo, this site is amazing. I don't know how many people have read it. But I suggest you do so immediately. As long as you, and the good friends at Cracked promise not tell about how I stole their lay out for this Blog. 

They have guest writters, reappearing ones, Magician ones, silly ones. Its a great site, full of both humor and knowledge.

3. Meme Base

Everyone loves a good meme.

Ouch

This is linked to LOLcats, can I has cheezburger and many more. I love these a lot. Many funny ones in there.

I actually stopped writing this, because I got caught up in meme base.

2. Refinery29

This is a site full of how-tos, top ten lists, and just the overall success guide to fashion, career and a glamorous life in a city. They have 5 or 6 cities now, and are growing rapidly, but they have local spots to eat, and the appropriate attire, cute outfit ideas, and great gift ideas. They show you wonderful splurges and cute steals from local boutiques as well as big department stores. This is one of my favorite sites ever. 

1. Stumble upon

This site is widely popular I know. But it is the best. Get websites that are unknown, amazing pictures, even just cool ideas. You tell the site what you are looking for and it will deliver. It is awesome! I have found some pretty cool stuff from this site like the Side Walk Chalk Guy.....

uh-maze-zing

I'm Back!

This has been an eventful week. (Well I know. Its been since last Friday, but lets just call it a week.) I got to see Kevin. He came up for Easter, and then spent the week with him. It was awesome. But it was hard, he went back today. So don't mind the depression or the alcohol, but I am here to blog, and will be for the foreseeable future.

This has been a really chill mellow week for me, but a crazy eventful one at the same time. You don't think that that is possible, I know, but I will tell you all about it!

First thing, Friday of last week I had a great time out with friends, I got to hang out with a friend that was MIA since he was in a relationship, it was really great to catch up with him, he is a really nice guy. But the girlfriend reeled him back in, so I doubt we will be seeing him anytime soon. I deleted them from Facebook, just to minimize some potential drama, because I don't need that in my life. But it is a big deal because I NEVER delete people from Facebook. Like seriously never. I feel bad when I do it, but I know that it is the best thing to do, so I made the decision.

I don't know why I can't delete people. I don't feel anything from having them as my friends, there are some people on my list that I rarely have any interaction with. Even when I do, it is just stalking someone, seeing what they are up to. But I just can't bring myself to delete people. And I pretty much accept ANYONE. Its almost a sickness.

Secondly, I had a great staff meeting for work. It was really good to see what everyone else was planning for our Candyland event. It will be a huge event in September/October. We do a carnival type event and this year we are doing Candyland! It will be so cute! Pinterest has been my lifesaver. I have found some really great things on there. I am in charge of decor and signage, so I have found some really great ideas off of Pinterest and from what my coworkers have sent me from things that they have found. I am really excited about this event.

For my personal Carnival Day in June, I worked on it last week, and have booked a location, have my petting zoo, my magic show, my balloon animals, and my games almost all sorted out. I have to do my site walk and order some cupcakes coming up. I am planning on making a cupcake carousel too with animal crackers. I am super stoked. But before that can happen. I have my cake decorating class, which is going to be full, and then a couples trip to Magic Mountain! Going to be super fun times.

Finally, Kevin and I had such a great time together. I really love my life with him. It is just so natural. I mean the first dayish is weird and not like real life, but we quickly fall back into the routine of our life. It is nice to have these days with him, but it is almost bittersweet. We get to hang out and spend all day together, (minus the time spent at work) and then we have to go back to only texting/phone calls again. I feel like we get used to each other, and we have such a good time, and then we have to say good bye. We have spent more of our time apart or long distance than we have in the same city. Which has been really hard, but I think that it really has made us stronger and we are sure of what we want now. Its a big challenge sometimes, but the time we have together makes it all worth it.

See you all tomorrow ;)

Youtube, the down fall of society.

This is the both the saddest and most awesome thing about the world today. This poor man in the projects rescues his sister in an act of fearless chivalry. He then spreads his caring nature towards other members of the community, warning them about the man who, and i quote, is climbin in yo windows, snatchin yo people up, trying to rape 'em. This video went viral and swept the world simultaneously with hilarity and shame that this is what we have become. Not long after this video came online, the auto-tuned version came out. (Thats what is featured above) Giving youtube watchers more opportunity for laughs, and new catchy songs.

Too bad it didnt stop there.

If anyone had met him pre 2010, they would have laughed at him and then walked away and told stories about times that they had met a crazy person. We literally are teaching the world wide viewers that Americans are shallow, and we will make you rich and famous if you are uneducated and poor.

This is not as big of a deal as

But....what can you do?

Its the end of the world as we know it

This world is changing fast, all of the old methods and theories in many different fields are now an explainer of the past. As a communication major, the information I am learning is almost old and not relevant by the time they can get their work published. We had a speaker come into my advertising campaigns class and she was an online business owner, and it all started by blogging. (No I have no plans to turn this blog into a business, I just enjoy writing) She, two years later got a paid trip to Dubai to blog about a Ford Motor Company car show. How cool is that?! She has not spent a single dollar on advertisements in her full two years of service. All her advertising has been on social medias.

Social media advertising is the future of all marketing. The world is pulling away from the traditional methods of communicating. We are slowly pulling out of printed materials, books are electronically available, newspapers are dying out (which is a terrible monstrosity in itself, but a totally separate issue), and the old way of looking at communication is just that: old.

Universities are loving this. Especially the writers of communication textbooks. My intro to mass communication book was easily $100, it was updated in 2009 (i took the class spring 2010) and it was already outdated. Then because colleges love to take all our money; we werent allowed to sell it back because, surprise surprise, the information was old and outdated. (this is again a totally different topic which i will not digress on at this moment)

All of this to say. the future of the world is electronic. hate it, love it, doesnt matter, you need to just learn how to use it and then jump in it. 

The Sidewalk Chalk Guy

Some people have ridiculous talents that make the rest of the world feel like a bumbling idiot. The sidewalk chalk guy is like that. He takes a pastime for three year olds and turned it into art. I found this guy on stumbleupon.com. Which, if you have never been is an amazing site. It's free, you just sign up, enter your likes and then start stumbling. It takes you to wonderful sites randomly.

Anyways, back to the sidewalk guy. Here are some of my favorites:

As I am sure that you can clearly see. This guy is crazy. I can't even imagine the hard work that he puts into this. I was really impressed with him. How cool would it be to have a skill that you were that good at ya know? So crazy! It would just be awesome to be able to feel confident in one area of your life, like if the entire world turned its back on him, and he was all alone he would still have his art. I know that life would be sad like that, but its the same thing for like pro-sports players, actors, writers, musicians, they all have this amazing recognizable skill that everyone can admire. It would just be really cool. 

If you want to see all his work go to: http://gprime.net/images/sidewalkchalkguy/ he has a ton of different art work on there. 

When I was a Sophomore in college I also attempted to try this art form here is what i ended up with.....

Clearly I still need practice.