Baby Shower Bonanza!

We welcomed November to a baby shower for our friend!  Believe it or not, she planned her own baby shower, but if you knew her, you would understand.  She is the definition of a true planner!  She rented a room upstairs at a pizzeria which also included a bar and a couple of flat screens for the Bulls game.  Nowadays, most baby showers are co-ed, and sometimes children are invited too!  It's a time where friends and family come together to catch up, and people have a hard time getting a sitter as well.  With all of that in mind, trying to keep the festivities joyfully for the length of time you have the space can be a tricky thing.  That's where the games come in...
First up, trying to figure out what type of baby food it is.  There are so many variations of baby food out there!  Every guest where to check-in and try to guess what they were looking at.  NO TASTING ALLOWED!!!
You can't have a baby shower without trying to guess the size of her baby bump!  This game is infamous, and a fun way of getting a prize to whoever gets the closest estimate.  Remember to bring extra yarn or ribbon!
To spice things up, we had a couples race where one sits on a chair and the other stands in front of them blindfolded.  Once the clock starts ticking, the one standing has to feed the one sitting baby food and whoever finishes first wins.  NO HELPING!!  And bring extra bibs so there's no food falling all over the place...
I was still in love with my headpiece from Claire's so I wore that with a tunic and black skinny pants.  The headpiece looks better with my hair curly and I got lots of compliments on it.  I like funky accessories to spice up a look!
We had a good time at the shower and even continued at the bar next door for some dancing and fun.  One of our good friends is having her baby shower coming up this Memorial Weekend, so I'm excited about that too.  I have the responsibility of thinking up games to play at this shower, so I'll share with you what I came up with.  Planning a party is hard work!

The Hunt for a Calm October Part 3

I CANNOT forget about the best part of October, which is, of course, HALLOWEEN!  I thought long and hard what my costume would be, and without a doubt, I chose a Roman Empress!  I was super excited too!  I ordered it off Amazon and sure enough, it arrived in time for the festivities.  The problem was, the weather was horrible!  Rainy and cold.  I was pretty close to not doing anything, not to mention, I had a sore throat that would not go away.  But in the end, I called up a friend, and headed down to her place where her roommates were throwing a little party.  I loved my accessories, too!  I bought a headpiece from Claire's and won a gold coin bracelet off ebay that went perfectly with my outfit.  I also wore my gold gladiator wedges since my gown was long.  We had a good time, and even headed out to another loft party where we partied it up some more.  They had a costume contest, and there were some pretty clever ones!  I like when people get creative.  The winners were two girls who were dressed as wine boxes (with actual wine coming out of the nozzle).  Pretty impressive ladies!  We had an hour to kill so we headed down the Underground nightclub and danced to Thriller.  lol  Goodtimes...

This devil scared us!  YIKES!

The Hunt for a Calm October Part 2

You would think my girlfriend would have had enough seeing the Pitbull & Enrique Inglesias for her birthday, but noooooooooooooo.  Since her actual birthday was a week away, she still wanted to do something special the day of.  In order to do something fun in the city, we decided to go to K1 Speed in Addison Illinois for some go-kart racing!  The weather was starting to get nippy, which is why we decided to do an indoor event.  What I liked about the place is that you could spend hours racing with your friends and then hanging out at their sports bar upstairs for some food and drinks.  We had a blast!  I was a nervous wreck (typical Gemini thing again) but eventually the adrenaline took over and I loosened up once I rode around the course a couple of times.  I was in a rush getting ready so I threw on a pair of legging and a sweater since I didn't have time to iron out my clothes.  lol.  I know my friend had a blast doing a girl's night out and it was a first for all of us.  Good times...

 Let's get ready to race!!!

 Group Shot

Birthday Shots...

The Hunt for a Calm October...

October brought in some unexpected surprises.  Namely the Pitbull and Enrique Inglesias concert.  I've NEVER bought tickets at the box office on the day of, but my friend insisted that we give it a shot.  Being a pessimistic Gemini, I had my doubts especially since I couldn't find tickets online.  But we ended up at Rosemont praying that we had a chance.  We did, but of course, for floor seats.  I was prepared for the damage, and I'm glad I did.  The seats were amazing!  We couldn't stop dancing throughout the whole show!  I honestly was blown away by both their talents.  Not that I wouldn't have expected anything less.  But the entire show was high energy non-stop.  This was a birthday gift to my friend and I'm happy she enjoyed it...

In September...Part 2

The rest of September was pretty hectic.  Considering I was in Italy a few weeks earlier, there was always something coming up.  I was beginning to have house music withdrawals and was in dire need to dance my butt off.  In Italy (or I'm assuming, pretty much everywhere in Europe) dance music is very popular.  With the rise of EDM hitting the American scene, the music in Italy was phenomenal.  It was in heavy rotation wherever you went.  But back here in the States, with the exception of a few dance tracks being thrown in between pop, hip hop and country, it wasn't enough for me.  Luckily, I saw that one of my favorite djs was going to be in town, so I quickly bought my ticket and off I went to Paris Nightclub on Hubbard.  I had a blast! 

 CHICAGO LOVES YOU ERICK!!  PLEASE COME BACK SOON!

Erick Morillo playing New York house music.  The crowd went crazy!!

 

Later in the month one of my dearest friends celebrated her birthday at a Bears tailgate!  We thought it was a great idea considering the Bears were playing the Packers that Sunday.  One of our friends hooked it up with a mobile bar so we definitely had all eyes on our setup!  lol.  Even though we lost the game we had a great time.  The weather was pretty warm that day too.  Best tailgate I've been to in a long time...

Moving the grill to our next stop in the parking lot.

Time to mark those red cups to avoid any confusion!

Yes we even had a hammock...

The view up top...

Make a wish!!!

PEACE OUT!

 



In September...

Coming back from Italy was not easy.  Luckily the weather was still warm here in Chicago.  It was a pretty crazy month last September.  I jumped into the swing of things with our annual taco crawl!  My friend likes to coordinate this crawl every year and this time we headed down to Maxwell Street for an afternoon of fun.  I have to admit, I DID miss having some good tacos while I was gone! 

Following up in September we were entering Virgo/ Libra season.  Some of my closet friends were celebrating one after another.  First up, a night out at Analogue in Logan Square for some cocktails and light bites and then next door to finish up at The Owl.  The weather was still pretty warm around this time.  My friends took advantage of the warm weather and wore their summer dresses before it gets too nippy.

The following weekend we celebrated at The Dawson restaurant where we munched on appetizers and drank martinis!  We ended up back at n for some dancing and more cocktails. 

I also got a chance to squeeze in one last festival for the year!  The Riot Fest!  This year the Cure were performing and I've had them in my bucket list FOREVER!  I was SUPER EXCITED I scored a ticket to go.  Me and my friend had a blast!  I still can't believe how perfect they were. 

The Festival was held in Humbolt Park..

Robert Smith was AMAZING!!!  LOVE THE CURE!!

My Last Day in Paradise...

On my last day we got up early to sneak in some time to visit Manfredonia.  It's a port town 30 minutes away.  I had to catch a 7pm train back to Rome so I can catch my flight.  We figured we'll go and pick up some seafood for a finite pranzo.  Of course there was another castle there, so I had to check that out.  I will say it's not something you see in the States, so I did want to take advantage of it.  They are amazing in architecture and massive to be around.  You do get morphed into another era.  We headed to the seafood market and picked up some goodies for our lunch.  Once we headed back into town, we decided to visit the town's winery for a quick tour.  Can you believe at this point, I never checked out their wineries in Italy???  So little time for everything!  Unfortunately, due to the rain, their harvest had not yet begun.  Too much rain damages the grapes.  At this point they were ready to begin the harvest but were waiting for things to clear up with the weather.  There had been some flooding throughout Italy as well, with some towns being evacuated because of the dangerous conditions.  That was the unfortunate part of my visit there, so next time I know to head there sooner in the summer than later. 
Back at home, I had my last risotto dish and it was yummy!  I also tried squid for the first time (I liked it!) and afterwards had a quick siesta before I was dropped off at the station.  I cried as I was boarding.  I knew what was waiting for me personally back home and it was not easy for me to realize my life was going to have some changes.  I think all vacations DO make you prioritize your life a little.  How can it not when there's so much to see?