Let's play Catch-Up!

It's been a long almost 4 months since I've last posted (minus a few from this week) and I thought I would use this post to catch you up on everything that I have been up to since we last spoke. I was inspired by my friend Jessica over at pyreflies.org as she too did a similar post when returning from her blog-break.
These last few months have kept me incredibly busy and when it came to prioritizing my life, this unfortunately fell to the bottom of the list. So real quick, let's play a game of catch-up!

• First and foremost school has kept me sooo busy. For anyone that has been through nursing school, I'm sure you can relate to this. This semester was incredibly tough as it required A LOT of heavy reading.

• Lots of Villanova basketball games. This photo is from the Villanova/Georgetown game.

• Started gardening. My plants are still alive too, surprisingly.

• Started nannying for a very sweet, HIGHLY-energized 5 year old boy. He keeps me young haha.

• Trips down the shore to my families beach house. Even during the chillier months it is still a blast, which makes me love South Jersey even more! Photos below are from Polar Bear Plunge weekend. This weekend attracts over 50,000 people to my cute little shore town.

• Working on my fear of public speaking. I thought my nerves would have subsided years ago after having to give my Valedictorian speech for my LPN program, but they have remained in place all these years, so working on this has been important to me.

• Reconnecting with old friends. Technically top right photo is a photo of me and my hometown mayor, but I thought it was a nice photo. He was hammered when this was taken.

• Also, making new friends!

• I saw Klingande DJ live. It was fun. I danced a lot.

• I met one of my favorite blogger (and also Instagram) friends, Kathy of Lace and Whimsy in real life. She's even more adorable in person than she is on her blog and on Instagram.

 

• Kathy and I also saw Postmodern Jukebox live at the Trocadero in Philadelphia. They were AMAZING. I totally plan on seeing them again when they come back in the fall:

• I broke up with my on again/off again boyfriend of the last 3 years. It was a difficult decision for me to make, but looking back, it is the best thing I could have done. I am proud of myself and get emotional thinking about it because it took a lot of courage for me to walk away. 

• I also started online dating. It's been an interesting adventure to say the least, and something I have thought maybe anonymously blogging about. (Some guys can be sooooo weird and creepy!)

• I've started to really explore Philadelphia on the weekends:

At a rooftop party for the Kentucky Derby. The views were killer as his deck wrapped around the side of the building.

At a bar called Kung Fu Necktie. (That's my brother- heeeeyyy!)

In front of an old firehouse turned residential home

• Online Shopping (whoops!) I think we're all guilty of this as not only ladies, but also fashion bloggers.

• Visited LOVE Park for the first time.

• Lots of clothing swapping. And I've met some lovely ladies in doing so! Plus, look at some of these cute items I've received:

1) Vintage Leslie Fay. 2) Delicate Detailing Dress. 3) Retro Reveler Dress

Travel Day Skirt.

I love H81 dress in this adorable apple print.

• I've caught up on the entire series of GIRLS. Fun fact, I also watched Tiny Furniture and got to see lots of the actors from GIRLS in this movie. I also watched all three seasons of United States of Tara on Netflix. 
•  Fun fact: One of Tara's alters was named Shoshana Schoenbaum, and Zosia Mamet (who plays Shoshanna on GIRLS) was also in this show. Perhaps this is how/where she got her name for GIRLS? Who knows!

• I went to the Lego Exhibit at the Franklin Institute and it was awesome! 

• I hosted my very first online giveaway for a fashion group I am in on Facebook. 

• Lots of brunching. I mean, honestly, who doesn't enjoy brunch?

• I was asked to film a video for the youtube channel of one of my favorite fashion platforms (fashom.com, and they also have an app so you should definitely download it!)
• I was also contacted by the founder of the app and told that they would be hosting their next event in Pennsylvania and they would love for me to attend. All travel expenses would be covered as well. How cool is that? This app and the fashom family are awesome!

• My cousin who is getting married had a Jack and Jill wedding shower, and I felt so pretty wearing my beautiful Bernie Dexter skirt. I will do a post with more photos another day, but for now, here is a sneak peak: 

• I cut my hair. You can read the post where I talk about it Here

• My very best friend/favorite person in the entire world came to visit me in Philadelphia. It was like we hadn't skipped a beat, even though we have not seen each other in 3 years. (Funny story: the last time we saw each other, we were actually dating! He just got engaged this week though, and I could not be happier for him!) 10 years of friendship and nothing has changed.

• I cooked my very first steak all by myself and it came out a perfect medium rare.

• With lots of practice, I also now make a mean homemade guacamole. 

• I've been making my way through my list of the best outdoor bars in Philadelphia. That has been fun. (Cheers!)

• I have revamped my blog. (Worked on taking more professional photos, played around with the layout, etc. Kathy [who I mentioned above], is actually working on designing a new blog header for me as we speak, so I am excited to see what she comes up with!)

• Also, did you see me in the ModCloth email a couple of weeks ago? In case you didn't, here you go:

Well, that about sums it up. 4 months is a long time for me to remember things, so I'm sure there are some happenings that I've missed. I'm glad to be back though and have truly missed the blog-o-sphere. 

As I now have to catch up on all of YOUR blogs, is there anything monumental or fun that you have done that I may have missed? I would love for you to share with me and share a link if you have posted about it! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

XO Amanda

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