Showing posts with label Gift Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gift Ideas. Show all posts

Thursday, November 20, 2014

It's Game Day- Get Your Monogram On!

I feel like I am late to the party on the monogram. I grew up having things like my dance bag, sweatshirts or bags monogrammed but then I just kind of stopped. I think it grew harder to find a place to do monograms and then at some point in college, I had in the back of my mind that I would eventually get married and my initials would change...so I just stopped.

Then I did get married and my initials changed and I went through some sort of identity crisis. It is really hard to change your name. It's really hard to all of a sudden not have the same last name as your family or your sister. Four years later I feel I am finally settled into being AGW.

A few weeks ago Kristina told me to enter a blog contest she saw where Marley Lilly was going to send a few bloggers an item to blog about...so I entered. They asked me to describe my blog and I was a bit stumped....so I said I write about my life sarcastically. This blog is basically an exercise in not taking myself too seriously.

May I also point out that it is really sweet how my sister is thinking of me as she trolls her instagram. 

So I entered. And guess what....last Saturday I had a notification that we had a package and Gregg arrived upstairs with a box that had this inside:

A creme colored scarf with my initials in a dark brown. AGW. That's me! 
Coincidentally I was also getting dressed/more like prepared to freeze at the Texas A&M game that evening before we drove to College Station that day. I thought hmm...this goes perfectly with my outfit, it is really cute, I think this will be the ultimate test of this scarf. It is SEC game worthy with its southern monogram style...but will it keep me warm....stay tuned for the verdict...

My new scarf packed in my bag to head to College Station with my A&M gloves courtesy of Forever 21. A neck scarf for my Grandpa. Beanie hats. You get the picture. It was basically like we were moving to College Station for the day and trying to stay warm.
Let me tell you what would have made for a cuter bag though:



It has a zipper, it is lined and in black it would work very well sitting in the stands. It is the perfect "throw around and throw everything in" bag. You know what I am talking about...everyone needs one and you really need one with a zipper. Instead I took a big purse that I shouldn't have taken and was not super durable in the elements and well...I think it is going to recover but the poor bag was never intended for such use.

Back to my story...finally made it to College Station. Gregg and I headed to see some friends briefly before Kristina arrived with Papa. They were driving up on the A&M bus from San Antonio.

Wearing my scarf. Staying warm. 
One final picture in front of what is the soon to no longer exist side of Kyle Field. Look how cute my AGW scarf looks.  I know they appreciate me renaming it my AGW scarf.
Can I also point out that it is really fun to wander around your old college campus drinking beer? Luckily the tailgate I went to was giving out some free koozies. But I think a fun stocking stuffer or addition to a gift for a friend who loves a tailgate would be a monogrammed koozie. It would also be the perfect gift if you had a friend who just got engaged or a friend who just had a baby...since everyone I know seems to fall into one of these groups recently, this seems appropriate. The newly engaged friend would appreciate seeing her new initials and the new mom would appreciate you thinking of her return to the land of beer and wine. She'd probably also appreciate a cute monogrammed onesie for the baby. Onesie inside of the koozie. Boom. Done. Someone is getting that soon.

You could do blue if your friend is a new boy mom, pink if they are a new girl mom. any color if they are a new fiancĂ©. I could come up with tons of reasons to buy this koozie
It's also really cute that you could choose to put the monogram on the bottom instead. 
Post-beer....Kristina arrived with Papa.

These two. The hilarious duo. 
The second she got off the bus she was showing me the mini wine bottles she had stolen from Dad...she had one left. And you know what...she could've used a koozie too...granted she wasn't drinking a water bottle... but I think this size would've worked best
It is a water bottle "koolie" but considering the size of Kristina's mini wine bottle, I think this has multiple purposes. I also think I need one of these for summer. I may also be getting her one for her  upcoming summer honeymoon.

After wandering around and hitting up another tailgate with Papa we finally were ready to head into the game.
See those smiles? Approximately 5 minutes after this picture it started drizzling, then raining. Do these look like the faces of people prepared for freezing temps AND rain. 
We all could've used a rain jacket over the tons of layers of clothing we already had on...the irony is I was sitting there thinking I wish I had a rain jacket like I had when I was in college that said Pi Beta Phi and lo and behold this is the same thing but I could get it with my initials. Granted, I would love to still sport my sorority letters everywhere I go but I may need to update.  

Sigh. To be dry.
Don't be fooled by the smiles. We are FROZEN.
I tried getting the monogram portion of the scarf in a large amount of 'stand selfies' Kristina and I were taking because we were losing and frozen. It wasn't working out so well and this is the best one. But I was as warm as I could be given the elements. 

The verdict: This scarf did its job keeping me warm and looking as cute as possible given the weather. 
Let's be honest, we look pretty rough. We left at halftime and found warmer and drier temperatures across the street at the MSC where we finished watching the game. There's my AGW scarf. Still keeping me warm.
The only that would've been better is this sweatshirt....which I think I need for winter. It's cute enough that I can wear it indoors lounging or running errands and look like I got dressed even though I didn't. That is my favorite kind of weekend outfit, fyi.

It comes in a lot of colors but duh, I want it in purple. This neon is amazing though. It gives the  sweatshirt such pizzazz! 
There are approximately 5,000 other things I could've used to stay warm at the game. I was already wearing leggings, jeans, cowboy boots, wool socks, and two shirts and a jacket and a hat but clearly that wasn't enough for or any of us. 

Maybe a fleece vest would've made the difference...or a fleece...or who am I kidding we were never going to make it out of there warm or dry. The other people in the stands that dressed in full on hunting camo gear with wind jackets and pants though clearly came more prepared...similar to the guy next to us in the stands who brought a cardboard box to shield himself from the rain. We have so much to learn.

Crazy game days of being crammed into Aggie football games with these people- they are some of my most cherished memories. We won't have these exact season tickets or seats next year but it's been a fun ride full of wonderful memories with Papa, class of '47.

Hope you enjoyed my game day recap combined Marley Lilly post! 
Go get your monogram on! 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Mini Thoughts, Not Deep Thoughts

I don't have just one big thing to say today and instead have a list of all the random mini thoughts that came across my mind today. In case you are wondering how my mind works, here are my top ones: 

Thought #1:

Do you ever get on Pinterest and start to see annoying things? And then you start to wonder who the heck this person is you are following? And then you click on their name and still can't figure it out? But then you get anxiety thinking you may miss something if you don't follow them because clearly there was a reason one time you followed them? 

This just happened to me. 

Thought #2:

I was at a meeting tonight and as an ice breaker they asked people to get up and tell a story about their best/worst/anything Valentine's Day related. So I just sat there keeping my mouth shut and so did a lot of other people. Then slowly people started getting up and sharing their stories and they started giving them boxes of chocolates for sharing. And the more boxes of chocolates that were distributed the more I wanted one. So I got up and told the story of the year in college where the guy I liked totally didn't acknowledge the day but in my head we had pretend plans..yes, this made the situation even more annoying. I remember this story because I ended up at HEB with Hayley buying magazines and random food and then she ended up getting asked out on a Valentine's date to Taco Cabana while we were in the check out lane at 11pm. But the girls all just quasi-stared at me like they didn't know if they should laugh or feel sorry for me…and I am thinking I am a 29 year old happily (sometimes) married woman. I am just telling this story for the chocolate.

Give me the chocolate. 

Thought #3

NY Magazine put out The Top 25 Romantic Comedies Besides When Harry Met Sally and I just disagree with many of their selections. For #3 they selected the new movie Her. Ummm excuse me. You cannot pick a movie that is currently in theaters as one of the TOP 25 BEST. There are rules. And where is Pretty Woman??? 

I am irate and want to go watch Pretty Woman in protest. 

Thought #4

If you are last minute shopping for Valentine's cards or gifts or 50% off 2014 calendars tomorrow you need to head to Paper Source. I had time to kill before a meeting tonight and I literally could've bought out the whole store. In case you are in need of last minute gift ideas, I have a few. Due to the fact that my husband just got new ski clothes, he will not be receiving any presents this year. But in case you need some help, here are my clever ideas:

Buy this coffee mug and gift it along with a Starbucks gift card because at the end of the day he won't use the mug and you will, making it a win win for everyone.

Buy this card and set out some donuts for breakfast. I know. I am a genius.

And if your significant other happened to wear the wine and silver blue in college and was a Pi Phi, might I recommend any of these items: coffee mug, glasses, or tea towels. And if you happen to be my husband reading this, I will also accept any of these presents as well. 

Thought #5

I have been a day ahead all week and I felt like today was Thursday and it wasn't. It is a horrible feeling when that happens and I just had to share. 


Two more days to the weekend. Ugh.