Category Archives: Cocktails

Boston Moves & Food

During this summer in Boston I have continued to eat great food, while also trying out some new fitness options (and keeping with old favorites). I’m back with another round-up post to catch you guys up, and this one focuses on both moves, and the food that makes all that moving worth it.

Vélo-city Spin in Back Bay

I went to Vélo-city once before, and was excited when one of the owners recently reached out and invited me and my partner in crime Emily to try out a class! We opted for this past Tuesday’s 5:30pm Britney vs Beyonce ride. FYI, Vélo-city offers a TON of fun theme rides, including country, which Emily and I plan to return for.

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The door to the studio is in an alley and looks like a portal to another world, like something out of Harry Potter.

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Making Sherry Cocktails in the South End

I received complimentary admission to this event for media purposes. All opinions are my own and I’d pay for a Barcelona event in a hot second!

I had the chance a couple of weeks ago to attend a sherry cocktail making class at Barcelona Wine Bar‘s South End location in Boston. Regular readers will know this is definitely not my first event at Barcelona Wine Bar, and not even my first cocktail-related event – I attended a class about bitters at the West Hartford location a couple of years ago. This time around, the sherry-focused class was led by Corporate Bar Manager Jeff Marron.

The class started with some words from Jeff about sherry, but he quickly led us into the hands-on portion. He called up a couple people at a time to make four different cocktails, and the class got to sample each one!

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Two Islands, One 4th

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! I first want to start by thanking any readers who gave me positive feedback in response to my recent #TransformationTuesday Instagram. I’ve definitely been feeling some self doubt since getting back from four days in one of my favorite places – Newport, RI. But this summer has been so much fun so far and I’m glad that I’ve embraced every opportunity I’ve been given to enjoy myself…especially given the winter we had.

View from our timeshare deck!

My family has been going to Newport every summer since we moved to New England. And as of a few years ago, I’ve started taking my own trips with friends, because one Newport visit per summer is not enough. Here are some previous Newport posts from this blog:

Recently my parents got a timeshare for the 4th of July week, right in the city’s downtown. It’s awesome to be able to arrive, park the car, and not move it for the entirety of our stay! Newport is the largest city on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. And on Sunday, my family took the high-speed ferry to Block Island for the day. Hence the title of this post – two islands.

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Bully Boy Big-Batch Mint Julep

I received Bully Boy whiskey free of charge for purposes of making this recipe. My opinion of the product (I was already a fan!) is my own.

After inadvertently scheduling my good friend Rachel’s bridal shower on Derby Day, I decided to roll with the coincidence and make the shower Derby themed!

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Rachel’s dad made that horse – isn’t it amazing?

Since I came back to CT from Boston to throw the shower, I brought some Boston-based beverages back with me. Of course wine came courtesy of 90+ Cellars

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A Kind 26th Birthday

I’m glad you guys seem to be enjoying my cruise recap! I neglected to mention the super-cool way I got to the airport – via a new-to-me car service called Blacklane! They approached me asking if I’d be interested in trying them out and sharing my experience (so full disclosure, yes it was free). For what would have been $50-something, a black Mercedes came to pick me up super-early Friday morning to take me to Logan. The driver was polite, on-time (early, in fact), and kind enough to offer me travel snacks! The car was pretty baller, and extremely clean. I don’t think Blacklane is for me if I want to just get somewhere for something everyday (or night). But if I was trying to show up somewhere in style, it would be a great affordable alternative to your typical towncar service!

If you're interested in trying it out, use code KS5HMBGQ for $10 off your first ride.

If you’re interested in trying it out, use my code KS5HMBGQ for $10 off your first ride. Look at those snacks! 😀

So I would consider my 26th birthday celebrations to have begun on Saturday 3/21, the day before my actual birthday on the 22nd. I was supposed to come back to Florida on Friday the 20th, but I woke up that morning knowing I wasn’t ready quiiiite yet to go back to the still-frigid Boston temps. So I got my flight switched to the next day, and ended up travelling back on Saturday.

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Marvelous Visitors!

This past Saturday, two very special visitors touched down in Boston to stay the night – my good friend Rachel and her husband Steve! She got her wedding dress on Newbury Street, so thankfully for me, each fitting involves a visit to moi. (Rachel and Steve got married in a family-only church ceremony on New Year’s Day, but are having a big ceremony/party in Mexico in June, hence why Rachel the wife still needs a dress fitting.) And once the fitting was done (of course Steve didn’t accompany us to that portion), I had plenty of marvelous activities planned for the three of us.

Link up with Katie if you’re sharing a marvelous post today too!

Marvelous is…retail therapy. Before reuniting with Steve, we took advantage of girl time and headed to the Pru for some shopping, which I actually haven’t done since moving here. LOFT was having a great sale so I got a couple of tops for just $36, and a very helpful Sephora associate helped me pick out my first bronzer and eyebrow pencil. I’m really growing up!

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The Most-Needed Trip Ever

Sorry that I’m so late to the game in announcing the winner of my Tuttorosso Tomatoes giveaway! The winner of the prize pack is Amy – thank you for entering and I will be reaching out about getting you your winnings!

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It’s been a busy holiday season with no time to blog much…followed by a vacation during which I did not feel like blogging much. Sorry about that! Long-time readers already know that I go to Florida every Christmas season with my family. We use to split our time between my grandma and grandpa’s apartment and hotels, but now we have a condo of our own in the Palm Beach Gardens area.

My grandparents and I

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Trade Em Up Tuesday: Halloween Weekend

I look at Marvelous In My Monday as super positive and Trade Em Up Tuesday as more honest about the good and bad. I certainly did not feel super positive about my Halloween weekend (not due to lack of fun though, that’s for sure) so I decided to wait and participate in Trade Em Up instead. I’m just still really struggling with being okay with the changes in my lifestyle that have happened since I moved to Boston. This was a big weekend for me and I’ve been feeling pretty crappy about it, but also thankful for the fun I had with family and friends.

I would not trade…starting Halloween weekend early with the WeWork Boston Halloween party. OK, so this (free!) event was really awesome. Jeannie has a WeWork office space so she brought me has her guest, and then I found out Emily was going to attend too, so I was looking forward to this party allllll week. I found out last minute it was space-themed so I turned my pre-planned cat costume into a last-minute laser cat costume. (Has anyone seen that SNL skit?!)

Such a last minute costume that I was building my laser cat glasses on the way to the party. Note: crafting on the T makes you look like a crazy person.

Such a last minute costume that I was building my laser cat glasses on the way to the party. Note: crafting on the T makes you look like a crazy person.

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Staying Put is Marvelous

I cannot thank everyone enough for the support I received in response to last week’s post about my doctor’s appointment. It’s weird – sometimes something is weighing on your mind so much that it just has to come out in some way. So I wrote that post. But once I did, I was kind of over talking about it. I am so appreciative of the love I have received, but I also often found myself politely brushing off the subject with an, “I’m doing better!” or a quick change of subject whenever someone checked in on me. I’m glad I put my feelings out there, but now am trying to focus on moving on. What better way of doing that than a Marvelous In My Monday (MIMM) weekend recap?

Link up with Katie if you too are talking marvelous on this Monday.

Marvelous is…STAYING PUT! Every weekend in September except this past weekend I have plans to be away. So I knew I wanted to just stay in Boston. After all, I always can find plenty to do in the city. Starting with Friday night – after-work happy hour with co-workers turned into dinner, dive bars, and a bit of dancing.

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Five Things Friday: My Week

I’m glad you all related so much to last week’s Five Things Friday post about aspects of life that have REALLY been making me feel adult-like lately. Those reminders have continued throughout this week, and I also want to give an update on how I’ve been doing since my particularly overwhelming weekend. Then I got to thinking – there are five days in a work week, and it’s Five Things Friday. So I’m going to share how each day of my week went/has been going, in an effort to catch you up on all the things.

Link up with Clare today if you are also rambling on about five things!

1. Monday

I knew all I wanted to do Monday was go to work, go to spin class, and stay in watching the Emmys. One of those things didn’t happen – spin class. Did I not feel well? Did I not have time? No, I just didn’t want to go. I got out of work late and the class was halfway over. I could’ve made it to half the class or gone to the gym to do my own workout, but I was starving. I was exhausted. So i went home, heated up the casserole I’d prepared the night before, popped a bottle of Prosecco (which I ended up not drinking half of and pouring out #singlegirlproblems), and watched approximately 20% of the Emmys. And then I went to bed, because it was absolutely necessary.

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