Friday Fabulous

         Good evening blogosphere! Hope y'all are headed home to start another great weekend! I'm
actually about to head to work but I'll join the weekend festivities tomorrow! Oddly enough, Friday is
my favorite night to go to work. I know how crazy that sounds, but hear me out. On Friday, customers just act different. They are happier, more care free, they are excited to see friends and they are almost always 200xs nicer than every other day.. so I'm kind of looking forward to that. On another note, I am so excited because my Insty Pom (aka Lexie) is making me a cute little bit of parisian flair to use with my daily cup of coffee. She's so thoughtful and talented! This post is about to be all over the place so get ready. Since it's Friday and I have almost officially closed out another school/work/hectic/no sleep week of life, I figured it's time for a weekly recap. I'm thinking of doing a post just like this every Friday, so look forward to that. This Friday's agenda? The Vampire Diaries, Fun., and Print Mint!

    Let's begin with Print Mint. I have to say that I am feeling so lucky. We've only been semi official for a couple of weeks and we are so blessed to be getting in orders of all sizes. Trying to get your business off the ground is quite a challenge, but so far we have been blessed with amazing opportunities. Oh, and it's so important to talk to people. Good thing I LOVE to talk. Today we got a new client and though the production time spans over a few months, I am beyond excited about this! When I am able, I will definitely share more.

  Second. Nate Ruess, the twins are coming for you! Sigh. Lexie and I have been obsessed with this man's lovely voice for a long long while. In high school he made us swoon while we sang along to every word of The Format's Interventions & Lullabies, Snails, & Dog Problems. Today, we swoon as we sing along to the FUN. albums. That is why I wrote myself about sixteen sticky notes, set two alarms on my cell phone and brought my laptop everywhere with me this morning. All so that I could be the first one to purchase my ticket's to FUN.'s concert in Atlanta Feb 15th!!! I am super stoked because it's been a few years since I went to a good concert and well, Nate Ruess. So if you live in the area and there are still available tickets, grab some and meet us there next year!! :)

Third. The Vampire Diaries. If you didn't know before, I'm obsessed. Turns out that I can't watch TVD when it airs (don't get DirectTV), so I usually watch via the CW website or HULU plus on Friday afternoons. Like every episode, this weeks did not disappoint. One, I love Elana as a vampire. She isn't nearly as whiney!  Two, I've always been aboard the Delana train and it looks like the train is finally going to hit the tracks! Plus, I loved watching Damon and Klaus together be on the same side even if it was for just a second. Do you guys watch? What did you think of last night's episode? Stelana or Delana? Let me know in the comments.  And because I've been picture lazy today, I leave you with some beautiful boys to get your weekend started right! xo, Brooke.

WHOLE 30: DAY 18

It's day 18 of the WHOLE30 guys! YES!! Unlike yesterday, when Lexie and I both thought of giving up, today I have completely changed my mind. The main part of staying on this diet is remembering to cook food for yourself.. and not just any food. GOOD FOOD! Chances are that the food you used to eat tasted pretty darn good. Mine always did. However, the creators of the WHOLE 30 discourage trying to recreate meals of your yesteryears. While they have a very good point here, this is something I only partially agree with. Now do yourself a favor and break this rule. Personally, I think it is important to make similar meals so you won't feel deprived. Just don't go expecting it to taste exactly the same. The underlying moral is simply this: You won't be able to create a whole 30 approved bag of dove chocolates or your favorite pasta dish. It just won't happen. Plus, neither of those things are what you should eat. The entire point is to give your body all the nutrients it needs without all the crap. Think hunting and gathering. So sit down and think of an old recipe and then modify it. Please remember, it won't taste exactly the same, it's modified! Now allow me to show you the meal I recreated today. Anyone for Cajun Fried Tilapia with mango peach salsa and avocado? Modified for my lunch. It's so much more colorful and it was extremely good. I licked my plate! No peaches since they're out of season (but maybe next summer I'll try it again)
This was a huge success and I highly recommend trying it. In addition to our little tilapia cooking adventure, we made sweet potato fries with the leftovers from our chuck roast we're eating for dinner tonight. Here's a photo of them cooking. I don't have a great photo of the after product because we devoured them, but they were the simplest recreation ever.
This is another must try and I included the seasoning directions on the photo! Now everybody go get to cooking and being healthier!                                                 xo, Brooke

P.S. I didn't forget dessert. Check out some of our WHOLE 30 desserts  and look forward to more. BTW, the not whole 30 version of our homemade chocolates can be found here. For Whole 30, omit agave nectar and the cranberries and replace with just sliced dried dates. :) Oh, and I'll get these recipes up ASAP! 

We should have bitter day on our blogs

It's officially Wednesday people! Yay! Other than the fact that this means I'm done with another week of my MICRO COMPUTERS class, it's that much close to the weekend. Today is also day 17 of me and Lexie's WHOLE 30. Ugh, today is a STRUGGLE! I was having a giant panic attack and whining non stop before I left the house at approximately 1:49 this afternoon. Where was I going? Oh, just to my 2pm Micro Computers Class(the bane of my existence) which I skipped last Monday and last Wednesday. The panic might have been caused by the fact I haven't gone and I'm behind.. but how do we really know that? So I'm on my way to the car having eaten all of two poached eggs today and I remember that I have exactly .000001 gallons of gas left in my car. JUST GREAT! So now I'm late (school is 20 minutes away), SUPUH HANGRY, and SWEATING as I think about where I'll get over when my car SHUTS OFF FROM HUNGER AS WELL!! So, of course in my head I'm thinking Stupid Lexie. (since she was the one who convinced me NOT to get it last night on our way home from work.) Btw Lex, we only got $.07 off of our gas at Kroger. So I'm like SRSLY KROGER? Thanks for making my life so much easier since I spent my entire paycheck in your store!! I should be qualifying for $.50 off per gallon. #Bitter. So guess what happens next? Well, my saint of a teacher said nothing about me being late or absent. #ILOVEYOU #YOU'REMYFAVORITEPROFESSOREVER #ADOPTME. The day is finally turning around. So I go deposit by babysitting check. I'm surprised those people still pay me. I usually wait about 2 months to deposit the checks and if somebody did that to me... WELL, let's just say that my life would be over and my bank would hate me. After the bank I went to Kroger and spent more money. Bought a Lemon Lara Bar and scarfed it down as I chopped up onions and seasoned my frozen chicken tenders (more like niblets).. then covered it and left it.. came up here to the office (where I am currently sitting with Lexie and Taylor working on Print Mint orders!) and find that they have rearranged everything and they set up my cozy back corner for me! Of course they broke my chandelier in the process.. and I came and found it all partially disassembled and kindly spared them my wrath because I know how to fix it. ((I'm not sure why they didn't?)) Then my chicken burned. The whole house smells funkalicious and I resolved to eat an apple and hang my baby chandelier over my desk. Hope you are all having a fabulous Hump Day. Love ya peeps.

  P.S. Forgive the obsessive hash tagging. I'm having a bitter day and that's apparently what I do when I'm bitter. AND take it from me. GO TO CLASS! Oh , and I LOVE YOU LEXIE. You're NOT stupid! xo.  and TAYLOR PRESH PRESH. Thanks for continually brightening my day by mentioning that one thing about ZAC EFRON

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Operation Hay Bales

Hi lovelies! So if you read my sister's blog (and something tells me that you do), you already know that we were is Statesboro, Ga this weekend. Statesboro. Small Georgia city, home of Georgia Southern University(alcohol anyone?), some of the nicest locals and the Bulloch County Fair (Yeah Mawma). Add all of that and the fact that our best "sister friends" were involved and you have a recipe for a very entertaining weekend! We went with the intention to do a fun fall photo shoot and though we accomplished it, I wouldn't say it was easy. In the process of the shoot, we were honked at by stretch limos, met some cool characters, ran over the Sheriff's pecans and drove off what Lollar thought was a small cliff only to find ourselves in a wheels off the ground hilarious situation. This is the sort of stuff that always ensues when The 'Wigs and Gilpinatuhs get together.. I'll have to tell you about the time me and Gilpy rode her grandma's tractor into a ditch (scarred for life) or the time we faked a bloody massacre at their house for Lollar to come home to (complete with a fake dead body, ketchup and a HUGE knife!)... neither of which has anything on the hilarities that come from a road trip or vacation. Needless to say, it was a knee slapping hellavuh time in the 'Boro this weekend. In addition to the craziness, we went to the fair and got what seemed like extra long rides.. and crushed lungs from riding the Gravitron, which is now my least favorite ride. If I could have documented this trip with a video camera, I would have.. but since I didn't you'll have to take my word for it. :) But here are the photos I took of our two best friends! They are such gorgeous girls inside and out and I just adore them.. and spending time with them. Thanks for showing me such a great time Gilpy and Lollar and for letting me photograph you. Enjoy part one of your photos!

Aren't those two just gorgeous!? Their shoot was a total blast! And just for kicks, here are a few extras featuring me and Lexie too!

(photo credit to Emily (Gilpy) who was a fantastic model!) I hope you all enjoyed these! I'm finally starting to get into my niche with photography. I told Lexie that this is the first shoot that turned out exactly how I wanted it to! My fingers are crossed for amazing shoots to come! :) Everyone have a great Tuesday! xo, Brooke

#GLORY DAYS MUSICAL EDITION

So I totally forgot to put the video that I promised up in the last post since I was running late for class. So for your enjoyment, I proudly present: A FERGALICIOUS RENDITION AND BRAT PACK VIA BRYCE AVARY





I might regret this later, but you definitely won't regret watching. Enjoy! :)

#GLORY DAYS.

How long has it been since you type Myspace.com into the search bar of your favorite internet browser?! For me, it had been about five years. Five years up until last night that is. LEXIE was doing it first and as she sat there and uncontrollably laughed about a post our sister Callie wrote on her wall I felt the urge to do the same. So, I quickly(after 10million tries) conjured up my login information and signed on eager to see the beauty of my Whateverlife.com custom layout, about me section,old blog posts, top 8 friends (I was exclusive), my old photos, the old "ICONS" and the days of all the girls writing "I can't put mascara on without my mouth being open". What I found was both disappointing and a treasure! Sadly, Myspace is not the same overdone glitzy can't scroll down the page because of how many icons and gifs you have place it once was, and Tom and I are no longer friends!! :( It is now very clean and white! Streamlined and centered all around music, as it always was. I remember P!ATD coming into my life right as myspace was ushered in and and I obsessively sang THERE'S A GOOD REASON THESE TABLES ARE NUMBERED HONEY. YOU JUST HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF IT YET in our room. But for all it lacked, I was able to uncover a good amount of old high school era photos and a few wall posts along with a playlist of my old profile songs. I must say, I had pretty good taste back then! Best of all were the videos that we uncovered. I'll share one that is so my life back then and defining of that mini era.. at the end. So without further ado, allow me to use my "myspace generation" skills and conjure up a little of what you would have seen if you had visited my myspace page circa 2004- 2007.

The Homemade Halloween Pink Toga Profile Picture and Good 'Ol About Me Section. Please feel free to laugh at the latter. It was a whole lot of inside jokes put together that I only remember about half of. ;) I was a charmer, no?

Okay, that's enough. Although I have to admit, I could get addicted to this task again. Ah, the days of browsing photobucket for hours! Funny thing is that up until today, Photobucket even had the same layout as it did in the Myspace days of old. Oh, and I think this was meant to tell you about what I like in icon form. LOVE IT!
So all my blogs had disappeared, which is a disappointment and I don't have many wall posts either. So, I shall leave you with these photos of old.
THIS WAS OUR SURPRISE SWEET SIXTEEN BIRTHDAY PARTY. ME LEFT, LEXIE RIGHT.

MY FIRST JOB AT THE MOVIE THEATRE! THAT'S JONATHAN..AND YOU CAUGHT THAT WE REALLY DO LIKE STARBUCKS ;)

LEXIE AND I PLAYING DRESS UP.

DAILY RITUAL AT SCHOOL. WE WERE ALL FOUR EXCUSED FROM THE SAME CLASS AT THE SAME TIME AND OUR TEACHER DIDN'T CARE BECAUSE WE WERE SO OBNOXIOUS SHE NEEDED THE BREAK. #RAZR original right there.

ME AND JONATHAN PLAYING GUITAR HERO! OBSESSED WOULD BE PUTTING IT LIGHTLY. ALSO NOTE MY CHEERLEADING UNIFORM.. PARTIALLY HIDDEN BY THAT JACKET. #yesteryears

TRIP TO ATHENS WHERE I PURCHASED THIS FAB DRESS THAT I STILL HAVE AND ADORE. MY FRIEND LOLLAR IN THE BACKGROUND. IF YOU READ LEXIE'S BLOGS, THAT IS GILPY'S LITTLE SISTER.
THIS IS MY SISTER AND I AT THE MALL OF SPARTANBURG ON OUR WAY TO THE COVE CAMP. THIS WAS A TRIP I TOOK SIX YEARS IN A ROW.. and THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVE PICS OF US.
AND HERE I AM TYE DYING SHIRTS WITH ALL MY FRIENDS WHO YOU CAN'T SEE. THAT'S MY DAD IN THE BACKGROUND AND YOU CAN SEE MY LOVE FOR THE ROCKET SUMMER IS REAL! :) I ROCKED THAT BRAID TREND EARLY GUYS.
Thanks for reliving the glory days with me! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and I also hope that each of you will go and break into your old pages and laugh, cry, feel sentimental about where you are now. I can say that I have changed a lot, but the spirit of who I was then still remains in me today! To me, the beauty of being in High School and being young is that you are carefree and true. You haven't experienced every bit of bad or weird that the world is and that defines you. I hope that I can remember to not care too much of other opinions (especially negative ones) as I continue in my life.