Weekend recap: Color Run, city gardening & a wedding!

So it was a very lively weekend for us!

It started on Friday with a fun Summer (spring) Social down in Baltimore’s harbor with the Waterfront Partnership. There were food trucks, drinks for adults, games for kids, a band and more!

We hung out for a little bit, but then headed home for a lovely dinner at Liv2Eat - a delicious little restaurant in our neighborhood. They have a gorgeous back patio that lets you escape from the city. I had an amazing dish from their spring menu that I’m DEFINITELY going to try to make at home – pea salad with grilled salmon. It was something I’d never seen before! Basically most of the salad “greens” part was thinly sliced peas! Add some pecorino, hazelnuts and light lemon and voila! Delicious, light dinner!

Saturday morning, I ran in the Color Run! I have run it twice before but it was their first time in our city, so I had to! PLUS, I needed to get in a cardio workout! :)

It was a blast – as always! I will say it was difficult to find friends though – there were SO MANY PEOPLE there (25,000 total I heard)! But I got to run with my gal Annie and we met up with a few friends later. I will say one of the really cool things about this race, and other fun-runs like it, is that it gets people out who don’t typically run. I had FOUR friends who had never run a 5K run this one! I’m so proud of them!

Saturday night when we went out with friends to Fleming’s & a movie at Landmark Theater in Harbor East. I LOVE Harbor East because it’s a little microcosm of cute shops, delicious food and a movie theater! (and a Whole Foods!) Not easily beat.

Anyway, Fleming’s has a great happy hour deal – 5 For $6 ‘Til 7. 5 cocktails, 5 wines by the glass and 5 appetizers. $6 each, served at the bar until 7 PM. I tried a tasty peach sparkler drink with wild mushroom ravioli. Delicious and affordable! Then we were off to see 42 – the new movie out about Jackie Robinson.

It was a cute movie. I’m a huge sucker for movies like this – sports, emotion, change in society. It was good. A little short, but good. Plus, Harrison Ford was amazing (as always).

Sunday, we tried to sleep in. We are always up very early and don’t often take advantage of weekends. It wasn’t very long, but we did have a nice little rest. Mahoney probably enjoyed it most. :)

After grabbing a quick breakfast, we headed up to Home Depot to get a few things for our home improvement projects! We live in the city, so we don’t have a lot of space for gardening, but I got inspired and wanted to brighten up our little space! I got a TON of plants – window box flowers, herbs, tomatoes and even a gardenia bush/tree!

 Gardenias are my absolute FAVORITE (besides tulips)! They are beautiful. They smell amazing. Definitely excited to finally own one! I put it right outside our bedroom window on the deck so I can smell the blooms (hopefully) when I wake up!

Sunday evening was a very big night – Brittany’s wedding! We had all of the BMOREtoned girls in attendance, which was so fun!

It was a whirlwind weekend…and now back to work! I’m excited that my friend introduced me to a new drink – Suja Juice – over the weekend, which I had ready to help me recuperate today! Raw, organic, cold-pressed juice. Definitely worth checking it out!

CHEERS TO A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!

Spa night at Four Seasons

I was incredibly thrilled to be invited to the Four Season’s Spa Launch last night. Even more than that, I got to invite friends! It was a beautiful evening event spent with old friends and new FS friends (who I hope to become even BETTER friends with as I hopefully bring myself to the spa more often!).

We arrived at the Four Seasons, valeted (free valet…small touch but greatly appreciated) and went up to the fourth floor spa. As we checked in, I met a few lovely ladies I’ve been talking to on that Twitter thing (always fun to know someone more than their avatar HAHA). We kicked off our Spa experience with a delightful champagne-based house cocktail.  It was delicious to say the least!

You could immediately feel more relaxed with the smells and sounds of the spa. (Can I live there?) We were then guided on a tour of some of the beautiful rooms they have available – including the waiting room. Yes, the waiting room is also amazing.

We met an awesome team from emerginC who told us all about some of the products they use throughout the spa. It was great to hear about all the Earth conscious things their company is doing – planting their own trees to make their product and planting double to make up for anything they take down; using recyclable glass packages and staying away from single use plastics; etc. Working at National Aquarium, we were all very well versed in these types of conservation efforts and it was actually very impressive to hear. I was incredibly proud/excited that I got to use the word “nurdle” in conversation haha

We stashed some of our gear in the lockers (thank you again, FS staff, for letting us do that!) and relaxed for a few minutes – just taking in the scenery…

Then we headed to the spa treatment area, where we’d explore 11 different offerings from spa experts!

Can I live in this room, please?

We even got to try some of the treatments!

Being in Baltimore beautiful Inner Harbor, Four Season’s really does benefit from a beautiful view. Not to mention, many of the spa rooms/areas have private decks!

After we were done our tour, we enjoyed another cocktail (ok, a few more!) and explored their store/offerings. Although the services are priced as you’d think for a Four Seasons, they really weren’t the bad! PLUS, because we were guests of the launch event, we got to enjoy 20% off! I bought an amazing smelling candle and an exfoliation/massage session. I’m planning to visit during the week, so I can not only enjoy the spa – but also have access to their amazing pool! (Don’t worry, I’ll update you all when that happens)

 On to PABU…

We then headed down to visit PABU, who was celebrating their one year anniversary! (I can’t believe it’s been so long already!) Our little group had an amazing time! At this point, my phone died so I unfortunately have almost no photos…womp womp! (I did steal some from my friends though!)

For the birthday celebration, PABU had an all night happy hour (woo hoo!) which we thoroughly enjoyed! Everything from $1 edamame to a specialty punch cocktail to $4 skirt steak skewers/hand rolls…it was a feast! At the end of dinner we also got to split some delicious cake! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PABU!

Thank you SO much to Four Seasons and PABU for hosting such an amazing evening for us! I can honestly say I’m incredibly happy that you’re now in our little Charm City!

And a special thank you to all my friends who joined the party!! Check out another post about the night (with more photos) from Mary! 

Friday Favorites 5.3

HAPPY MAY! 

May is my FAVORITE month! Not only because it’s my birth month – woo woo Geminis! – but because it’s really when we start to see spring here on the east coast! I love all the green and flowers that start showing up! Hopefully the weather starts warming up too.

This is also the season for new movies and new spring/summer outfits. All things I like. So let’s get to it…here’s what I’m loving this week to kick off May.

Iron Man 3

Suit up and go see this movie. ♥

So we saw Iron Man 3 last night at the pre-opening day showing and it was fantastic. I’m no movie reviewer (honestly, I like MOST movies haha), but I must comment on this one. It was awesome!

Gwyneth Paltrow = amazing. She is a rockstar both in real life and in this movie. I’ve been waiting for her to get in a suit for ever and they finally let her do it. Without giving too much away, she seriously kicks some tail and it’s great!

RDJ, well, is RDJ. And that’s always awesome.

I was hesitant because it’s the first Iron Man movie that Jon Favreau did not direct…BUT, I was impressed by Kiss Kiss Bang Bang writer/director Shane Black. I LOVE that movie too, so I should have had more faith. If you haven’t seen that, go see that one too. Plus, I saw this great quote from Favreau who said he was like “a proud grandfather who doesn’t have to change the diapers but gets to play with the baby.” Hysterical.

It’s got everything you want: love, heartbreak, action, Iron Man, Gwyneth kicking tail, Gwyneth in a sports bra (for the mens), RDJ being sassy, Don Cheadle running around in a polo and jeans, etc. All in all, just go see it already. :)

Message from Katrina, Tone It Up

This note from my trainer, Katrina from Tone It Up, almost made me tear up. I seriously love this TIU team so so so much. Karena & Katrina have been so incredibly important in my life and so has this TIU team. I don’t know where I’d be without you ladies. ♥

“A special note for all of you tonight~ This is a picture from the ‘Unstoppable Campaign’ with Oakley. Karena and I are so honored to be part of such an inspiring message! ‘Unstoppable’ is all about strength, perseverance & reaching goals you never thought you could. I’m a firm believer that with everything that life has to offer; the hard times and the blessings, we can all make it through together by taking the time to understand each other’s struggles & supporting one another to let nothing stop us from living our best life. Last week at our meet up, we heard so many different stories that made our eyes well up. Each of you has a different background & story. You never know what someone is going through unless you open up your heart & listen in return. That’s what this team is about. We all stand on a common ground- trials, tribulations, and fears and we all have unexpected things come up in life. So we want to remind you to be unstoppable. Move forward with your head high, with an open mind and lead every day with your heart. Today, open up to someone and see where it takes you. It’s so powerful.www.community.toneitup.com This campaign means so much to me, beyond words can explain.”

Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey photobombed this woman in Boston this week…He just ran up behind her and yelled “PHOTOBOMB!” and then ran away. haha Awesome. They are back in Baltimore filming House of Cards version deux. I just hope I get some Kevin photobombs action. That’s all I’m saying :)