A fall Clink wedding!

Last weekend I did the flowers and decor for a small wedding at a local vinyard. I did not get any good pics of the bride's flowers and such but I hope to collect them from the photograhers that were there. Here are some of the centerpieces. Nathan was a great help! :) He was in charge of tacking down everything on the tables since it was windy!

Clink - Events by Julie makes it's first public appearance!

Clink made it's debut in Morehead, Kentucky at their first ever bridal expo. It was a great start and I met some interesting people and some great leads for both brides and venues! Here's to my first start in the biz!

My whirlwind tour of Florida….

So I made a secret trip to Florida this weekend to spend some time with the newly preggers, Megan, and to surprise Cristi on her 30th birthday. I had to be hush hush so I stayed off of Facebook to stay under the radar.
I flew out to Orlando on Wednesday night after work and Megan came to pick me up, we stayed up late talking and hanging out to catch up. She was off on Thursday for Yom Kippur and since we were trying to do something for the holiday we of course had to have some Jew food. It was yummy. We got some shopping done and even went to the maternity store with her so she could check out the selection and get a few things since she has already out of her jeans and shorts! She is now 15 weeks and is due on March 8th, so I am really excited for her and Oliver! That night I taught Megan my tricks to making lasagna and watched the two Elizabeth movies that I had wanted to see. It was good to just spend some quality time that was not rushing around a holiday.

Friday I went with Megan to her high school where she is a 9th and 11th grade teacher. It was such an odd experience seeing how young these kids were! Just think about 12-13 years ago I was in their shoes. Crazy! I got to meet some of her and Oliver’s friends and we went to trivia night with them and our team the “Sofa Kings” won!





Saturday we got up bright and early to head to Gainesville for the Gator Game. Being in Gainesville was so weird too! Things looked really different. It was such a hot day that we ended up at the Copper Monkey for lunch and cheered our (badly playing) Gators to victory. It was so great to catch up with Meg and get to see her with a bun in the oven. We even got to run into McKenkenzie who is my sister-in-laws sister. She is a junior at UF and was tailgating. I think she has the gator fever now too!
After the game I met Cristi’s folks in Gainesville since they were at the game too, we drove back to their lake house and had some yummy Greek dinner with her Yaya and closed the day on the dock with a wonderful breeze off the lake and a yummy drink made with Ouzo. It was great to catch up with her folks and to talk with her Yaya, she is such a beautiful person and I am lucky to know her, and eat her Greek cooking too!
Sunday we packed up again, her rents, Yaya, and me to head to Ponta Vedra Beach to surprise Cristi on her 30th birthday but about 20 feet out of the driveway, we realized we had a flat tire. Bob, Cristi’s dad, was determined to get us back on the road and back on schedule for the plan to work, so voila! We were off after a little shifting of stuff and a lot of sweating. (Her dad is probably the most dedicated and focused person I know, if anyone could do it I had no doubts it was him!)
We made it to the beach and surprised Cristi, Matt and Hannah, Cristi’s brother and sister-in-law, were all in on the plan and had contacted a bunch of Cristi’s friends and co-workers to come over as well to join in. She was really shocked I think and we had a great day by the beach and in the pool. Again the Morrell family cooking was in full effect and we had FOUR desserts to celebrate with!
I went back to Orlando with Cristi’s family and they were such great hosts and it was so awesome of them to help me be able to spend Cristi’s special day with her. I will remember it for years to come. Nathan was a good sport too, especially since I have been traveling a lot for work this summer. He did get some home cooking in Morehead I hear of his favorite things, so I am sure his mom spoiled him a little for me!



I had a fast dose of reality when I got home, plane landed, Nathan picked me up and less than two hours later, and I was in class. Yuck! What a rude awakening. So farewell to my sunshine state for now. It was a good dose of home to get me prepared for the Kentucky winter ahead.

Summer time is coming to an end...

With summer coming to a close, we spent two weekends ago in Morehead to work on the Gazebo project some more. This weekend while I was in Florida, Nathan and his folks worked on the shingles and copula so it is almost complete! Danny and Amelia also bought us the gazebo chandelier that I was pretty much in love with. Super cute huh? I think it looks like something from long ago with its little candle holders and wrought iron scroll work. I think we will have to have a shin dig soon to celebrate!  Lucy seems to be a fan of the new space too.







Also new on the Morehead home front was a rose bush. My first one! I hope I can keep it alive, might have to recruit the family green thumb, my mother in law, Amelia, to assist us with that. The roses are a pale pink when they bloom. I also had Danny help me to drill holes in my daisy pots so I could finally get something to live in them, and Mums were just the thing to welcome in the fall. I brought those back to the house in Lexington for my first piece of fall décor! 
I got back from Florida yesterday and had a great time; I will write a post on that soon and upload some pics!

The Windy City

Chicago is a great town, If I could pick any one big city to live in, I think it would be Chicago. Has lots to do, art, culture, museums, yummy food, friendly people, diversity, a major airport with good fares, oh and pizza.
The best pizza!

I only had three days of work in Chicago last week but it was worth the adventure!

Florida!

So after a site visit for work in Orlando, where we got wined and dined by Mickey and friends, as well as Harry Potter the next night, I was able to see my sister and the girls, and had some fun with some extra back to school shopping for them. I had dinner with them at my sister's favorite, Maggiano's, and our friend April and her daughter Brianna came too! Saturday night I headed down to my folks house to hang out with the rents and got to have dinner with Brian and Mandy. Sunday morning I helped my Dad mow the grass, however he neglected to inform me the mower was self propelling until after half the yard was done and I was dying!
In short my week was work, Mickey, Harry, grass mowing, yummy seafood, and shopping!



C ya' real soon!

Friendsick...the new Homesick

So this weekend Cristi and Jenny and Jenny's new beau Daniel came to Kentucky to play, hang out, and harass Kentucky in general. Seeing our pictures and a few phone calls this weekend, along with being around them make me think of so many things a few of which I can outline here...
1. I am going to go back to my regular exercise routine; I have nine chins in some of these pictures, good grief! Married life will sure fatten you up!
2. I miss my friends immensely. It is hard to describe exactly what you miss until you experience it again. It is nice to have people who truly look out for you, who are on your team no matter what, and who long after your parents, siblings, spouses have gone (cause let’s face it the men will kick the bucket first! :)) you will have someone to sit by the beach, drink margaritas with, and reflect on the sunset of your life with.
3. It is a different kind of bond and love that you have for one another that seems to not age as we change and grow.
4. Good girlfriends are rare, so many girls are manipulative, lazy, out for their own interests, irresponsible with the relationship, or conceded. Also few women have female friends that have stood the test of time. Lucky for me in life I have found a few that break this mold. They are scattered throughout the US unfortunately but we always seem to be a phone call away, or a short plane trip out from each other.
5. Life is short, Jenn’s Uncle lost a long battle with brain cancer on Saturday and I have had to watch her grieve slowly as his health deteriorated. It made me realize the loyalty that Jenn and all these women have is something that runs deep, it is a part of their character, their grace and their very being. While it was hard to not be physically present to comfort and console Jenn, it made me realize that each day is a call to action. To take charge of your happiness, your anger, your love and your hate and to truly seize the day.
6. This “seize the day” mentality is what I think has bonded me individually with these women. Each of us are driven, motivated, loving, loyal, honest, passionate, and energetic. These traits all in one individual compose us, even though our personalities are different, we each have these traits in various doses. Until recently I did not see what a rare combination this is to find in a single person, let alone five women who also all know each other and that I am lucky enough to have found in my life’s journey so far.
I am happy to have these fun women in my life! My own set of fearsome foursome!


A little pic of a Rednecked Cristi to close out my post!:

Amanda and Jeff get hitched!

So after my horrible flight from Connecticut to Knoxville I finally got in at around 2AM. Nathan picked me up at the airport and we stayed the night there since we had to get flowers and supplies for Mandy and Jeff's wedding! I got to work at the lodge around 2:30 in the afternoon and was able to get finished with everything that night. I was pretty tired I have to admit! They did turn out really well.






The wedding went well and we had fun getting to know all the fun folks that turned out for the weekend.






Nathan and I went to the Aquarium on Sunday and he was his typical kid in a candy store about the place! That guy loves him some fish! :)







And they had a cute little Penguin exhibit!! They were swimming around everywhere! I loved it!

My trip to Connecticut

So I had a work event at the Mohegan Sun last week in Connecticut. It was a cool place and they even had a Chihuly piece! One of my fave artists, he does these amazing things with glass. I have seen several of his pieces in the Bahamas and the ceiling of the Bellagio in Vegas.

Check him out I put a link below!






To close out the week we our entertainment was Santana!

Loren and Steve's Wedding in Cincy

Saturday was our friends Loren and Steve's wedding in Cincy. It was a great day and the rain held off! Here are some pictures of the fun night!\