currently.

isn't chester's niece the sweetest? those cheeks just kill me :)

watching: i'm still loving the following. i'm really curious to see how the rest of the season goes. i have a few predictions regarding some main characters... i wonder if i'm right ;)

i also recently became obsessed with scandal thanks to hulu plus. leave it to shonda rhimes to have me rooting for a mistress to get her married ex-boyfriend back. every. single. episode. i just love fitz and olivia together. everyone does, right? ;)

reading: i've actually been pretty bad about picking up a book lately, but i have been reading some fabulous new-to-me blogs like a brunette duet, his little lady, i love you to the moon, & treasures and travels. be sure to check these ladies out if you haven't yet!

listening to: a lot of the lumineers. i can't believe that i just heard the dead sea only a week or so ago! i love that song so much! i also really like the tracks slow it down and stubborn love.

excited about: well, i recently bit the bullet and bought a clarisonic mia 2!  and so far so good :) my skin feels super smooth, and i'm looking forward to balancing/clearing up my skin before summer.

looking forward to: dinner with friends at the girl and the goat next week, dark lord day at the end of april (i still can't believe chester and i got tickets!!), easter with the family, girls night tomorrow, and game of thrones!!!

hope you all have a great weekend! xoxo

st. patty's weekend

hello hello! i hope everyone had a safe and happy st. patrick's day/weekend! here's how we celebrated:

stout fest 2013 at goose island (clybourn location). chester managed to get our tickets before the event sold out in mere minutes. i'm so glad that he did b/c this event was amazing! i've mentioned that i've been getting into different stouts before (here on the blog), and it was really great to taste these new-to-me flavors on tap. here is what i tried:

my favorites were definitely the bourbon county stouts, specifically the blackberry & the apple brandy. i also really enjoyed london fog and d-day. heck, i loved them all! 

are any of you on untappd? trust me, the last thing i need is to be on another social networking app, but chester got me on this one and it's pretty cool. that's where the screen grabs above came from.

i downloaded the dbl cam app last week and tried it out on saturday. it takes a photo from the rear facing camera first, then immediately after it takes a photo from the front facing camera. it's a cool idea, and some of the shots i've seen by other users are pretty cool.

after stout fest and a much needed nap, we headed out to the beer market in vernon hills for my best friend dana's 30th birthday. it ended up being the perfect bar for her party since it wasn't crowded and the people there weren't totally drunk/obnoxious like in most bars this weekend. i picked up this disposable camera at UO and we had fun trying it out. 

we ripped off the cardboard packaging on the camera so each shot would be a surprise. and most of the text lined up awesomely with the photos :)

hope you all had a great weekend! 

lately.

happy friday everyone! just wanted to share a few photos of what chester and i have been up to lately.

chester is a big fan of craft beer, especially stouts. i was never a beer person, and usually stuck to my rum & cokes when we went out. but over the past month or so, i've been trying some great stouts. i really like the ones with coffee or chocolate flavoring. my favorites are bell's black note (has a hint of licorice) and goose island's bourbon county stout. lucky for me/us, there is a great bar near chester's place in franklin park, hopscotch, that serves both of these :)

last sunday chester and i went a stout tasting, put on by solidarity, called "darkside" in wicker park. we each got to try 8 different stouts... which made for a tipsy sunday afternoon! haha. but it was a lot of fun, and i like that events like this are something we can now do together. we actually have tickets to stout fest 2013 on the 16th! i'm really excited for that one!

last night chester and i joined his dad and a few of his friends at a shooting range. we were lucky enough to get a private room reserved, and it was really nice learning about everything in that kind of environment. i've never shot a gun before, and i was so nervous, but the guys were really great teachers. i picked it up pretty quick, and was quite proud of my target sheets!

so that's what we've been up to lately, drinkin' beer and shootin' guns. hahaha! j/k. hope you all have a great weekend!