Category Archives: Holidays

Birthday Beauty Wish List

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Birthday Beauty Wish List

Hi everyone and happy Thursday! The month of April is a time when I get really excited about my upcoming birthday on June 7th. Three birthdays fall in succession in my family – my mom’s on March 22nd, followed by my dad’s on April 6th, and my sister’s on April 8th. So needless to say, birthday fever has got a hold on me like you couldn’t believe. I love birthdays. I love giving gifts to friends and family and of course, I. LOVE. PRESENTS!!!

True story, all my boyfriend had to do this weekend was mention that he ordered some of my birthday presents and it turned into forty-eight hours straight of poor Kyle having to listen to me ask twenty-one questions about my gifts. I hate surprises and I hate waiting so the fact that I have to wait over a whole month to see my birthday gifts killed me! If there’s one thing that soothes my birthday fever though, it’s making a list and checking it twice. Therefore, I created my Birthday Beauty Wish List to hang proudly on my refrigerator to give all of my family members a not so subtle hint on what to get me. Check it out:

Beautiful Sarah’s Birthday Wish List:

(^^^ Lol that’s how I labeled it!)

  • Cash money
  • Good but cheap cleansers
  • Good but cheap moisturizers
  • St. Ives tea tree, apricot, oatmeal, and pink mandarin and lemon scrubs
  • The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost
  • The Body Shop Brush on Radiance, Ref. #63691
  • The Body Shop blushes, shades 05 Bubblegum and 01 Macaroon
  • Covergirl mascaras in the darkest shade possible
  • Covergirl Liquiline Blast eyeliner in the darkest shade possible
  • Maybeline Dream Bouncy blush shade 05 Fresh Pink
  • Wet n’ Wild eyebrow pencil shade 604A A Taupe Of The Mornin’
  • Vidal Sassoon’s Runway Red hair dye

On my birthday and Christmas, I almost always ask for a restock of all of my must have beauty products. To me, there is nothing better than receiving a box full of beauty goodies because then I don’t have to buy my most loved products by myself! It’s a win/win because I know exactly what I want so it makes gift giving to yours truly an easy and relatively painless process!

For my birthday, I’d love to have a garden style party because I have a really big backyard. My family has badminton, croquet, and bocci ball set up and I feel like those are some of the perfect ingredients to having a super classy and fun birthday bash. I picture cute little appetizer food, teas, and mimosas for the menu as well as a big fruit salad for dessert. I also would love to have some type of water activity like water balloons or squirt guns in case it’s really hot out. Hopefully I have enough friends to make it a success. 😉

So there you have it, my Birthday Beauty Wish List! How would you throw a perfect garden party? What are some must haves for my possible birthday bash? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Happy Birthday, Sissy!!

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Happy Birthday, Sissy!!

Hello everyone and TGIF! In the past couple of weeks there have been a lot of birthdays in my family! Both of my parents and now my sister who turns twenty-four today! I refer to my big sister/best friend/soulmate, Kristen, frequently here on lifewithlilred so now it’s time to give her some birthday loving! Let’s do this thing:

Happy birthday to the best sister in the world…MINE. I love you so much, Kristen, and I can’t wait to celebrate with you this weekend! Thank you for all of the late night Taco Bell runs, borrowing my clothes without asking, and always providing me with a laugh or support when I need it. You are the bravest, strongest, most beautiful gal I know and I’m so happy that we share DNA with each other! I can’t wait to continue adding on to our endless list of memories and adventures now that you’re the big 2-4. You are beyond my best friend and I hope that you have the best day in the whole world! ❤

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❤ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KRISTEN!! ❤

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

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Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Hi everyone and happy Thursday! Yesterday was a very special day because it was my handsome, fantastic, hunky father’s birthday!! My dad is not a big fan of celebrating birthdays, as he so optimistically puts, “it’s another year closer to the grave”. BUT, that isn’t going to stop me from creating a loving blog post about him anyways:

So here’s to you, dad. You are a real stand up guy and I love you so much! You plan the best vacations, you’re great at making oven pizza and spaghetti, and you always know how to make me laugh! I am the luckiest gal in the world because I get to say that you’re my dad! I hope you had fun on your special day even though you treated it just like any other one. I also hope that you enjoy the season DVDs of the TV show, Fargo, that I got for you because I know how much you liked the series and the movie and I can’t wait to watch them together. Happy birthday!! ❤

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❤ I LOVE YOU, DAD!! ❤

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

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Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Hi everyone and happy Hump Day! Yesterday was a very special day because it was my mom’s birthday!! I am so lucky to have the best mom in the whole wide world and I love her so much. She is the smartest, funniest, bravest, most beautiful person that I know and I’m privileged to be able to call her mom! I hope your new year is filled with nothing but happiness because if anyone deserves it, it’s you. Take a look at us being cute and then be sure to give my mom some happy birthday loving:

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^^^ When we took these pics, my madre said that she wasn’t “selfie material”. I say FALSE!!!!

❤ Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!! ❤

Sarah & Lea’s Eggcelent Adventure

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Sarah & Lea’s Eggcelent Adventure

Hey everyone and TGIF! Last week my best friend, Lea, and I had the best time coloring Easter eggs. Lea and I have been BFFs for over seven years and dyeing Easter eggs is one of our many bestie traditions. Every year we always have so much fun, even though our eggs never really turn out all that great! This year, Lea’s mom de-yoked the eggs so we were working with empty shells for the first time. It was all very well until I walked away from the first egg that I sat down on the table for one second and it rolled off! Lucky for me, it only left a crack and we had no further incidents! Take a look at our eggs and us being cute and then let’s discuss further:

^^^ I love us! :*)

As you can see, our eggs clearly aren’t worthy of gracing the Good Housekeeping pages BUT we have a really good excuse for it! The colors in the egg coloring kit that we got sucked! It was seriously the most random compilation of colors ever, with two blues, one green, a yellow, one pale orange, and a pink. I wouldn’t be so upset about the color selection that we were working with had they been bright and vibrant but these colors were dull as dish water! Part of it may have been that we mixed the dye wrong but I’m just going to go ahead and blame it on the coloring kit. 😉

So our eggs didn’t turn out picture perfect – big deal, because we still had such a good time! I can remember dyeing eggs in high school with my bestie so the fact that we have kept this tradition alive after all of these years makes my heart feel very warm. There’s nothing better than sitting at the kitchen table, dyeing sub par Easter eggs, and having girl talk with your best friend! We dyed our eggs pretty early in the month, so who knows? Maybe another Eggcelent Adventure is in our future soon. With much better colors, hopefully!

❤ Love you, best friend! ❤

So there you have it, Sarah & Lea’s Eggcelent Adventure! What concoction do you use to make Easter egg dye? What is one of your favorite traditions with your BFF? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

PS: Quick shout out to myself because I think that the title of this post is a hoot! I’M SO FUNNAYYYYY! #ihatemyself

Monday Update: Valentine’s Day Edition

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Monday Update: Valentine’s Day Edition

Hellooo everyone and happy Monday! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and a lovely Valentine’s Day if you celebrated. Yesterday was my first time ever celebrating Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend, Kyle, and it was certainly a day for the memory books! Take a look at us being cute and then let’s discuss:

^^^ I love us!!

Yesterday our day started out kind of late because we both slept in but it was so nice and much needed. By the time we got ourselves ready, it was already noon and we still had no idea what we wanted to do with ourselves for the day. Kyle and I are literally the worst at picking out places to go to for food, drinks, or activities so we usually just end up binge watching Netflix all day…Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

We went back and forth for a solid half hour on where to go for lunch and thanks to a shocking suggestion from Kyle, settled on an Indian buffet. I absolutely LOVE Indian food and Kyle has never tried it, nor do I think he wanted to that much! Spicy foods and Kyle don’t always get along too well. I’ve been talking about wanting some good Indian food for a while so it was definitely a pleasant and sweet surprise when he came up with that idea.

We Google searched for Indian restaurants close by and were presented with two options and a Kentucky Fried Chicken. We decided to go for Bombay Sitar because of the amazing looking food pictures we saw that were snapped on Yelp. After all of the last minute preparations at home, we were finally ready to go and I was SO excited and so insanely HUNGRY.

The thing about me, is that I’m one of the biggest babies on the planet. When I’m A) really tired or B) really hungry I turn in to such a little diva. Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t too far away and we didn’t have to wait long to take part in the buffet so Kyle didn’t have to deal with too much sass! As soon as we walked in the restaurant, I began to droll because of how good everything smelled so needless to say, I tore that buffet up!

At Bombay Sitar, they brilliantly arranged the buffet in a vegetarian and meat section and I took a helping of everything that the vegetarian side had to offer. By the time Kyle and I made our rounds around the buffet, my plate was piled with food and I was ready for action. I couldn’t wait to get the first few forkfuls down my gullet but I was also looking forward to Kyle’s reaction to the food. I had a feeling that he would like it but it was a definite possibility that Indian food might not be his cup of tea.

Luckily, after our first few bites, I had nothing to worry about! Kyle completely devoured his plate full of Indian cuisine and went back for seconds and dessert. He even contemplated going back for thirds!! Success! Our lunch was absolutely to die for but let me tell you, mama needed a nap afterwards. Like I said, I adore Indian food and if it were up to me, I would eat it all the time. However, the richness of the dishes are my downfall and I’m always left feeling like I need to sleep for thirty-six hours straight after an Indian meal.

Once we got home, we decided to spend the afternoon in. We lounged in the robes that were deemed “too tattered” from the restaurant and villas Kyle works at, binge watched Wentworth, and played Mario Kart. We both agreed that the downtime would do us good and then in the evening we would go out for a light dinner and drinks. But leave it to the most indecisive/cutest couple ever to turn that idea into a wild goose chase!

We came up with the plan of going to a pet store and then hitting up a nearby restaurant to continue the festivities. I have my heart dead set on getting a bunny so Kyle was going to take me to snuggle up with some little critters and see if there were any that caught my eye. Unfortunately, the pet store was closed by the time we got there so we had to push dinner to the top of the priority list.

We began to drive around the shopping area we were in to scope out a nice place to go. Of course, with it being Valentine’s Day and all, every bar and restaurant was jam packed. We ventured on and brainstormed different places and ideas, which all ended up getting vetoed for some reason or another. At this point, I was getting sleepy from the drive and really just wanted to go back into our little basement bungalow. That’s when we both agreed on the idea to go to Pizza Hut and order the biggest, cheesiest, stuffed crust pizza that we could get our hands on.

Kyle and I had to laugh at the fact that it took us being twenty minutes away to come up with the idea that we should get a pizza – something that easily could have been done from home! After rerouting the trip, we ended up at the Pizza Hut that’s literally two minutes away from his house to order our pizza. We waited in store for our Extreme Cheese Lovers pie to bake, took the cute pictures seen above, and doodled on the little chalkboard they had set up that was obviously meant for children.

Finally, our pizza was ready and we headed back home. We piled our plates high, got back into our PJ’s, and turned Wentworth back on to continue our marathon. It. Was. Perfect. Kyle is watching the season premiere of The Walking Dead as I write this and soon it will be time for more pizza, more Netflix, and bedtime after the best first Valentine’s Day a gal could ask for. I love you, Kyle Kyle! ❤

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Valentine’s Day Edition! How did everyone celebrate V-Day? What was the best or worst Valentine’s Day you’ve ever had? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hiii everyone and happy Valentine’s Day! I’m going to keep this post short and sweet because this is my first Valentine’s Day in my twenty-one years of living that I have a boyfriend to celebrate with. It’s crazy to think that last year I got stood up for a V-Day date and now I get to have a special day with my darling beau of six months! I hope all of you have a wonderful day whether that be with your significant other, your family, a best friend, a box of chocolates, or three bottles of wine. 🙂

A Valentine’s Day post wouldn’t be complete without some romance so enjoy a reading of my favorite poem of all time by Leon Phelps:

❤ HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! ❤

Christmas Gift Night – Sister Style!

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Christmas Gift Night – Sister Style!

Hellooo everyone and happy Tuesday! This Saturday I was surprised with the literal best Christmas gift ever…Two tickets to see Elf the musical with my beloved big sister, Kristen! My sister purchased us two tickets for a night on the town to see one of our favorite movies turned into a musical at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio. Take a look at us being pretty (!!) and then let’s discuss:

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Last Friday night when Kristen asked me if I had plans for the following evening, I didn’t think anything of it. But when Saturday came around the next day and she texted me with meticulous plans for when to pick her up, I started to get suspicious. When I called her to ask her where we were going for our hang out she told me it was for my Christmas gift and asked if I wanted to know what it was. The thing about me, though, is that I HATE surprises with a capital H and a capital ATE – so of course I wanted to know! That’s when she told me that she got us two tickets to see Elf the musical at 7:15 sharp this evening! I was blown away!!!

After I came out of my happiness coma we began to make plans for when I could pick her up and where we would go for dinner. We settled on our favorite…Taco Bell! Afterwards, she treated me to a full tank of gas and we went on our merry way to Playhouse Square in Cleveland. The drive was easy peasy and once we were in the downtown Cleveland area we got to enjoy seeing all of the buildings lit up beautifully for the holidays – it was awesome!

We arrived at the theater in perfect timing and Kristen managed to get amazing tickets for our date night. We were about twelve rows away from the stage and smack dab in the middle so our view was spectacular. While we waited for the show to begin, we took lots of sister pictures and I also took a picture of the stage, which is my featured image photo. I couldn’t take any pictures during the show, of course, but rest assured that it was incredible!

Elf the musical was simply fantastic. The actors were sublime, the music was catchy, the set was darling (it was storybook themed), and the choreography was superb. Kristen and I had a blast watching one of our favorite films come to life on the stage. The story from the movie was modified a little but all of the changes were clever and made perfect sense. We were in stitches the entire show and spent the whole car ride back to  her apartment quoting the musical.

Before we returned to Kristen’s place, we stopped at Giant Eagle to pick up some holiday gifts for her coworkers. The Giant Eagle that I live by is open twenty four hours and I found so much joy in just roaming the aisles with her at ten o’clock at night. We found gifts that suited our needs, as well as some treats for ourselves, and then headed back to her apartment.

Once we arrived at her place we crawled into our pajamas ASAP. As soon as we were comfy we made further preparations for our sister sleepover because this was the first night that I spent the night in her new apartment. Afterwards, I drove back to my house quickly to grab my sleeping pills and morning medication. It was no biggie, though, because we live a whole three minutes away from each other!

By the time I arrived back at her place, we were both beyond ready to hit the hay. We got tucked into her super comfy queen size bed and turned on the tube to fall asleep to. It was the absolute perfect ending to a perfect sister Christmas date night.

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had on Saturday night with my big sister. She completely surprised me with my Christmas gift and it will be a memory that I’ll cherish for forever. Everything that we did from our dinner and the show to even just driving around to our locations was a blast and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend our Christmas Gift Night with each other. I love you, Kristen! Thank you for treating me to an amazing evening – Sister Style!

So there you have it, my Saturday Christmas Gift Night – Sister Style! Kristen and I had a glorious time wrapping up the holiday season together and starting 2016 on a wonderful note. Have any of you seen a musical lately? What is your favorite Christmas movie to watch? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Monday Update: New Year’s Eve Edition

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Monday Update: New Year’s Eve Edition

Hello everyone and welcome to the first Monday Update of 2016! On New Year’s Eve my darling boyfriend, Kyle, took me out on the most wonderful date night ever. We enjoyed dinner at Gervasi Vineyard, where he works as the assistant manager. In our over four months of dating, I had never eaten there before – asides from food heated up in the microwave, which so doesn’t count! When Kyle told me he had made New Year’s Eve reservations for us I was beyond excited! Take a look at us being a cute couple and then let’s discuss:

kyle!

^^^ I love us!!!

Gervasi Vineyard is one of the most gorgeous eateries in the Akron/Canton, Ohio area. There are three restaurants on the property, Tuscan style villas to stay in, an apple orchard, a beautiful lake, and of course – their vineyard! Kyle has been working there for close to five years and is amazing at his job. I kept telling myself it was only a matter of time until we had a special dinner there, so as I mentioned before, I was so thrilled when he told me about our reservations!

The entire night was so fun and even just getting ready to go to our 6:15 reservation was a treat. I got to help pick out Kyle’s outfit for the evening and it was so cool! Haha, I always love exploring a new wardrobe! We got dressed to the nines and made our way to the restaurant, which he lives very close to. We were the perfect amount of fashionably early for our table and got seated right away so we could begin our meal.

One thing (of many) that I love about Kyle, is that no matter what restaurant we go to, he always plans the dishes that I can eat ahead of time by researching their menu because I’m a strict vegetarian. Since we were on his home territory, however, he spent the whole car ride there describing all of the different things that I could order. Believe me, by the time that we were seated I was drooling like a dog in front of a tub of peanut butter. Classy! 😉

Thanks to Kyle’s expert descriptions of all of my options, I didn’t even have to look at the menu to know what I wanted. For our first course, I chose their butternut squash soup and Kyle got the apple salad. We also ordered a bottle of their sparkling white wine to enjoy with our meal. Butternut squash is my all time favorite kind of soup and it was seriously the best bowl I’ve ever had. It was so creamy and perfectly seasoned and it was so worth the four month wait to try it out!

For our entrees, Kyle ordered the lobster gnocchi and I opted for their linguini with an aglio e olio sauce topped with fresh spinach and arugula. While we waited for the main course we were serenaded by the saxophone player who was performing in the restaurant and it was all so very romantic! Our entrees came very quickly and they were to die for – just like the entire meal!

We finished the main course in record timing and then ordered a small dish of their bread pudding for dessert. We could barely finish half of the serving before tapping out but it was delicious! It had a caramel sauce and rum ice cream to top if off and it’s safe to say that I was in carbohydrate heaven! Once we completed the three course meal, I felt like I was going to explode from my belly full of food. I also was wearing a skirt that wasn’t very forgiving so I’m sure the whole restaurant got a nice view of my big ol’ gut! 😉

To finish our night, Kyle and I went to Giant Eagle after we decided that we could move again and purchased a bottle of champagne to toast with. It was around eight thirty when we got home and after a glass or two of champagne and a few episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, I was beyond ready for bed. I ended up falling asleep at nine thirty, well before the commemoration of the new year at midnight!

By the time I woke up the next morning, I felt like such a goon for falling asleep so early and missing what would have been our first new year’s kiss together. Lucky for me, I have a boyfriend who’s always coming up with sweet surprises for his girl! Kyle showed me a poorly lit but super cute picture that he took of him giving my sleeping self a kiss on the forehead at midnight for proof that I still got my new year’s kiss. How lucky am I? Very. ❤

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: New Year’s Eve Edition! My evening was straight out of a fairy tale and I’ll never forget it. I hope all of you had just as great of a time celebrating! How did everyone ring in the new year? Is there a place similar to Gervasi Vineyard in your neck of the woods? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love and happy 2016. -Sarah

Best Friend Christmas Haul

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Best Friend Christmas Haul

Helloooo everyone and happy 2016! My best friend, Lea, and I were a little bit late in celebrating Christmas with each other but it finally happened this past week and it was glorious! We had such a wonderful time opening our presents, eating Taco Bell, and girl talking to our hearts content. Take a look at what I was gifted with by my darling:

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From Lea I got:

  • A cozy fleece blanket (which I’m wrapped in right now!)
  • A to go coffee mug (which I’m obsessed with)
  • A Starbucks mini ornament
  • Bath & Body Works lotion
  • A coffee mug filled with bath and body products

I love everything that Lea got me so much but honestly I didn’t need anything from her. Our over seven years of best friendship is enough for me! It was a bit funny opening our gifts, however, because we got each other very similar presents. I got my girl a new mug and bath and body care goodies, as well, among other things! We seriously know each other too well and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m so looking forward to a new year full of hang outs with my best girlfriend and I’m so thankful for her friendship and the beautiful Christmas gifts I received! You’re such a doll and I love you, Lea!! ❤

I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year’s weekend! Make sure you tune in with me for this week’s Monday Update so I can tell you about how I rung in the new year! Until then, how did everyone celebrate the arrival of 2016? Who has been doing some last minute Christmas gifting to your friends and family? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah