Awesome weekend with awesome people

San Sebastian Winery, St. Augustine, FL

This weekend was simple just an awesome weekend.

One of two of my best friends drove up for a lovely visit. (Vero, you are next) It was a short visit but we made sure to pack it to the brim with fun. 

Friday night we went out to the most non-Irish, Irish pub I have ever been to. It was nice to catch up over a couple of drinks and just enjoy the company. There was also a little poking fun at the odd people that had gathered in the bar. Because Jax is full of nothing but old people the bars close pretty early, forcing us to take the party back to our place and split a couple bottles of wine. 

Saturday we had a lazy morning. Ate breakfast, played with iphone apps, and got ready for a day in St. Augustine. Stopped by Angie's Subs for some yummy lunch and then headed on our way. St. Augustine has to be one of my favorite things about living in Jacksonville. It is always a treat to go and walk around the old town. 

Our first stop is one of my all time favorites, The San Sebastian Winery. Who can say no to a free wine tasting? Especially when its good wine served by silly inappropriate old ladies.

After some sips of wine, we went for a stroll along St. George Street. Stopping in chocolate shops, tourist traps, shops full of owl merchandise, and for delish bowl of gelato. Pumpkin pie gelato for the win. 

For dinner we went to an amazing french restaurant, Bistro de Leon. It was like heaven. Joey and I ordered the same thing. Poulet au Gratin a la Savoyarde, chicken, cream, cheese, bacon, and penne baked in oven. We also split a couple appetizer for the table. My favorite was the Salade de Chevre Croustifondant, Fresh goatcheese encrusted with pecan nuts and honey and roasted, served over a fresee salad. I think I might have found a new favorite restaurant in St. Augustine.

Taberna del Gallo

Our last stop for the night was the Taberna del Gallo for some Sangria Swiggin' Shanty Singing Sloshed Sailors. Which turned out to be a ton of fun. 

We also got pulled up to sing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, making for a completely embarrassing moment caught on tape.

Sunday was a little rainy, and gloomy out. To make up for it, we went for our traditional "Joey's visiting, Mellow Mushroom lunch" complete with a stop at Cami Cakes. 

Thanks Joey for the lovely visit full of nothing but fun :)

We will do a repeat in a couple of weeks!

Its all in the details.

Recently I received a Sample and Share opportunity from Old Navy via Crowdtap. I was able to sample Old Navy's new activewear line. I am in love with the new line. For me it is all about the details. I loved all of the thoughtful additions to the activewear. Some of my favorite details were the thumb holes on the jackets, the little zippered pockets on the pants and tops that are perfect for a couple of keys or a few dollars, and the strips of reflective material on the bottom of the legging. All of these detail were really handy additions to the active wear. 

If you haven't heard of Crowdtap yet here is a little overview. 

New to Crowdtap?

If you’re looking for a way to help out charities and get rewarded in return, you may want to check outCrowdtap. Crowdtap is an online community that connects consumers with brands so they can directly influence new product and marketing ideas, while earning cash and free products in return! With Crowdtap, you’ll get to tap in to engage with brands, test products, and earn cash while helping charities at the same time! Here are a few well-known charities promoted on their site:

(To read more about Crowdtap, click the link below “Read More / Post Your Comments”.)

*Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation – funds efforts for breast cancer research, education, advocacy, health, ect.
*Autism Speaks – goal is to find the causes, treatments, and cure for autism and help those with autism and their families
*Pencils of Promise – help build schools for children who may not receive any education in developing nations around the world.
*ASPCA – mission is to provide effective means for the prevention of animal cruelty to animals
*American National Red Cross – provide emergency assistance, disaster relief, and education in the US and other countries.

…and more!

How Does it Work?

By signing up with Crowdtap, you’ll be presented with a variety of opportunities to complete and you’ll be helping brands make major marketing decisions as well as help spread the buzz about products you like! You’ll also be able to answer “Info questions” that will help them better match you with more opportunities. How do you earn cash rewards? You can earn cash by earning top awards as a result of providing meaningful responses in discussions and participating in discussions daily. Also, once you reach level 5 you will receive a 5% cash bonus for every $10 you earn.

1.) Just head on over here and sign up for a Crowdtap account with your Facebook account
2.) Answer a few polls (click on Quick Hits) to help brands target you by your interests
3.) View Opportunities and participate with the brands and offers that interest you
4.) Earn status, rewards, and charity – the more you do, the more you get, the more you give!

How do the Rewards Work?

After your account reaches at least $10, you’ll be able to redeem your earnings in the following ways…

*Cash Rewards – Certain activity launched by brands will earn you cash rewards.
*Gift Cards – Your Crowdtap cash can be redeemed for Amazon.com gift cards
*Help Charities – You can choose to help your selected charity
*Free Products – Some activities will also offer free products and other goodies

Keep in mind that you’ll need to earn at least $9.99 before you can “redeem” your earnings (you’ll just click on the “redeem link at top”) AND 5% will automatically go to the charity you select on signup which Crowdtap will match. Then just choose to donate the rest to a charity or get an Amazon gift card e-mailed to you!

Also, the points you earn determine your “level” and each level you obtain gives you privileges on the site and showcases your accomplishment. However, keep in mind that points and dollars are completely separate in Crowdtap. Points will help you level up, unlock badges, and compete with your friends while moving up the leaderboard. Dollars translate to real money and can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards or donated to your selected charity. Individual actions can earn you points, dollars, or both but points and dollars are not directly related to one another.

If you are a current Crowdtap member, what has been your experience?

Everything else is secondary

RIP CREATIVE GENIUS : STEVE JOBS

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. 

- Steve Jobs

This totally made my day!

I had to share because this just made me so warm and happy inside. 

Happy Friday!

Winner

Just stopping in really quick to announce the winner of the For Your Basket giveaway!

Congratulations Katherines Corner! 

Send me an email with your address, so we can get your goodies out to you :)

Shellsea.oberski{at}gmail.com

Lets Talk Trunk

I have a lovely quartet to introduce you to today. Not the singing type of quartet. Way better than that. The all about affordable fashion, crafting, make-up, photography, and fun loving quartet. 

Lets Talk Trunk is where you can find these lovely ladies.

These girls are amazing, with tons of fun post that are just a joy to read. I have quite a few of their tutorials and fashion posts bookmarked for inspiration.

Go check them out at Lets Talk Trunk, I'm sure they will be your new best friends too. 

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Enter in the For Your Basket Giveaway - 2 lovely items

September Sponsorship Now Available!

I don't know who told August is could fly by like that. It's amazing to think that September is right around the corner. But lucky for you, that means there are openings for September sponsorships. Love, Shellsea offers sponsor ad space, promotions, and giveaways.

I would love an opportunity to work with some of my lovely readers and favorite brands. If you have a blog, etsy shop, or business and think you and I are awesome, send me an email and I'll get you the details right away. 

shellsea.oberski{at}gmail.com

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Enter in the For Your Basket Giveaway - 2 lovely items

Monday Giveaway - For Your Basket

I have something really special for you guys today. For Your Basket is giving away two items from two of their super talented vendors. This event makes me want to be in Idaho this weekend so bad. Certainly sounds way better than the pending hurricane Irene, that is on its way to ruin my weekend.

1st Item

Hand-stitched Pendant Necklace by Fire and Ice Stitchery!

 

2nd Item 

Flower Accessory Clip by  The Tattered Petal

 

Here is how you can win both items. The giveaway ends Friday, August 26th


Mandatory Entry {1}:
Follow Love, Shellsea Blog


Extra Entry {6}: 
Follow For Your Basket Blog
Follow For Your Basket via Twitter
Like For Your Basket via Facebook
RSVP on Facebook Event Page to the For Your Basket Vintage & Art Market in Idaho Falls, ID
Follow Love, Shellsea via Twitter
Like Love, Shellsea via Facebook


That's a total of 6 chances for you to win these lovely items. Please leave a separate comment for each entry.


For Your Basket is a handmade and vintage market being held at Taylor Crossing in Idaho Falls this Saturday! The market features 25 local vendors who offer unique clothing, accessories, art, decor and gifts. The first 100 customers to the event will receive a free cupcake from The Cocoa Bean Cafe! You can see all the info and a list of vendors at foryourbasketmarket.com. We hope to see you there!


Good Luck :)

It's Lil' Sisters Birthday

Big news people! Lil' Sister is the big 21!

See that little tiny thing next to me? 

That little thing grew up to be the best sister I could ask for. 

Happy Birthday!

Hope you are having lots of fun, and we have to celebrate when you get back. 

6: a photo from a low angle

on days like these

sand between my toes

sun on my shoulders

book in hand

that's where i want to be

instead i get

florescent lights

computer screens

get here faster my dear friend

the weekend

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30 Day Photo Challenge

1: a photo of yourself

2: a photo of what you wore today

3: a photo of your favorite place to be

4: a photo from a high angle

5: a photo of whatever you please

6: a photo from a low angle

5: a photo of whatever you please

outside of our apartment i found this bush that was just covered in spiderwebs. i mustered up all of my courage to get real close to those nasty webs to share their glory. pretty impressive, even if they were made by icky spiders.

and just for fun, a cartoon rendering of the shrub.

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30 Day Photo Challenge

1: a photo of yourself

2: a photo of what you wore today

3: a photo of your favorite place to be

4: a photo from a high angle

5: a photo of whatever you please

August Sponsor Love

This months sponsor is For Your Basket, a handmade market event featuring 30 local vendors and artists.  The market features unique clothing, accessories, art, decor and gifts. The event will be held August 27th in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

And the best part, the first 100 customers to the event will receive a free cupcake from The Cocoa Bean Cafe! Could one of you pick on up for me? Just ship it to me, I will enjoy it, even if it is stale.

For Your Basket has a whole team of creative people making some amazing things. Check out their team on etsy.

Not here, over there

Hey guys! 
I'm over here today. Check out my post on some of my favorite summer styles on Moose Tracks & Tater Stacks. 

4: a photo from a high angle

Right before drop on Flight of the Hippogriff

Last weekend we took a little day trip down to Universal to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Only one of the best theme parks ever. We got our frozen butterbeer fix, rode all three rides, and had lunch at the Three Broomsticks. I consider it to have been a very successful trip, not one inch of sunburned skin, or a drop of rain, and none of the ride broke this time.

Maybe one day we will explore the rest of Universal Studios, but for now I am content to explore the village of Hogsmeade/Diagon Alley.

________________

30 Day Photo Challenge

1: a photo of yourself

2: a photo of what you wore today

3: a photo of your favorite place to be

4: a photo from a high angle

3: a photo of your favorite place to be

my favorite place to be is anywhere with this guy.

being with him makes every activity 10 times more exciting and fun. doesn't really matter what we are doing, if it's with him. 

I want in. 

runner up for favorite place: the wizarding world of harry potter (more on this tomorrow)

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30 Day Photo Challenge

1: a photo of yourself

2: a photo of what you wore today

3: a photo of your favorite place to be

2: a photo of what you wore today (yesterday)

This is one of my favorite office skirts. Yes, skirts can be categorized by environment in which I wear them. Betcha didn't know that. Because while this is my favorite office skirt, I have skirts that I love even more, that I would never dream of wearing to the office. Which makes me sad sometimes. The office is always dampening my outfit choices. 

But one day I will work from home and never have to conform to office attire. 

Until then, pretty flowy green paisley skirts will make me happy.

What's your favorite office clothing item?

________________

30 Day Photo Challenge

2: a photo of what you wore today

1: a photo of yourself

There are days when an hour is just way too long for lunch. 

We have been very good lately. Packing a healthy homemade lunch with lots of fruits and veggies. Which is amazing! But makes my hour lunch break much longer then I could need to eat lunch.

What does one do when they have 30 extra minutes to kill?

Play with Snapbucket! That's what.

For those of you that have not been enlightened yet, Snapbucket is the closest thing to Istagram that I have found for android. 

Love it. 

Loaded with a bunch of settings to mess with your phone pictures. Best part - Auto upload to my photobucket account (also can upload to facebook and twitter). Nothing beats that. 

If you have an android phone and have Istagram envy, check it out.

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30 Day Photo Challenge

1: a photo of yourself

30 Day Photography Challenge

Lately, I have found myself in a creative rut. I don't know how I came down with such a terrible thing. Maybe it's due to the fact that I have gotten sick twice in the paste few weeks, how crazy hot it has been, or that my house is a complete disaster (still) from the move. Every time I think about doing something creative, I tell myself cleaning, organizing, consolidating, and getting rid of stuff we no longer need is way more important. While it is more important, I need to have some type of creative outlet.

My solution to get the creative juices flowing again. 30 Day Photography Challenge. Tomorrow will start day 1.

Wish me luck

If anyone of you are interested in accompany me on my little creative adventure. Let me know. If there are enough people that want to join in, I will set up a page that we can share all our lovely photos with each other. What do you think?

I'm back.

As I am sure you, my lovely readers, have noticed. I took a semi-blogging hiatus. A lot has been going on, and I got overwhelmed with it all. Thank you for sticking around, even though my post were very sporadic. You guys are the best.

But, I'm back. Only down side, I am recovering from strep throat. I am feeling much better. Now. Last weekend, different story.

I thought today, I would share with you what I have been drooling over all day.

Ruche's new summer look book.

I am all about the turquoise, yellow, and pink-ish red this summer. Such warm, happy colors.
The whole look book is filled with beautiful, poolside photos. Take a peek, I am sure you will be drooling in no time too.

Awkward & Awesome Thursday + A Winner

Awkward

- The lack of posts these past two weeks. I have been in a Jeans & Ts funk that has been hard to shake. Any suggestions? Besides be less lazy. Haha

- Extreme Couponing. I have decided to try my hand at it. With the way things are going we need to save anywhere we can and groceries eat up a lot of our cash. Do any of you coupon? Have you been successful at it? Any tips? I have been doing so much reading up on the subject. I hope it works out. Seems complicated but I'm hoping it will get easier as I go along.

Awesome

- Harry Potter this weekend. It is so bittersweet. I am excited to see the last movie, I have heard so many great things about it. But I'm sad because its the end for a 2nd time (the first was reading book 7). I grew up with Harry Potter. My grandmother bought me the 1st book when it came out back in 1998 when I was 12. And I have followed the golden trio ever since. I truly feel like part of the Potter Generation. 

I have to keep telling myself: Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. 

How about you guys? Happy, sad, excited, devastated?

- Google+, I think I'm in love. Such a great social media site. I have always had issues with Facebook so I am thrilled for the change. If you want in on the fun, email me your email,  and I'll send you an invite.

shellseaoberski{at}gmail.com

- We have a winner from the Peace Republic Giveaway.

#12 - Adelyn Finley from Randomness from the Addie Corner 

Adelyn send me an email so we can get your headband to you.

For more Awkward and Awesome, check out Sydney's - The Daybook

Giveaway ends tomorrow.

Just a quick reminder. The giveaway for a super cute headband from Peace Republic Clothing ends tomorrow.

Candace is giving one lucky reader a headband of their choice.

To enter in the giveaway, click here.

Check back later today for a new post. :)

Gourmet Food Truck Craze

While we were visiting Miami for the long weekend we were introduced to the "Gourmet Food Truck" craze that has been happening in a lot of the big cities around the country. 

We went to a local bar (Tobacco Road) that was hosting a Food Truck event. There were somewhere around 15 Food Trucks all together serving everything from grilled cheese to sushi. It was a weird but fun event. The whole thing is a cool little niche, you can bring the whole family, try a bunch of different types of food (with some weird twists in some cases), and spend a little less than you would at any chain restaurant ($7-10 per entree).

I have to say everything we tried was very tasty.

This was my grilled cheese. Spiced apples and havarti cheese grilled to perfection on multi-grain bread

Here are some of the food trucks we stopped at:

Ms. Cheezious

The Red Koi

Dim Ssam a Go Go

Topped the night off with some nutella & banana fro-yo. yum.

Here is a quick list of some areas that have a decent if not plentiful supply of food trucks: 

Orlando http://www.yelp.com/se...
and Miami  http://www.yelp.com/se...
are on FIRE with gourmet and ethnic mobile food purveyors.
LA, http://www.yelp.com/se...
Portland, http://www.yelp.com/se...
all have a thriving food truck scene.
Even Tampa is on board with this hot new trend:http://www.yelp.com/se...
Jacksonville has/had one or two, but there didn't seem to be too much support for it.
Chains seem to be the thing here.

I was pretty into the whole thing. Now, I need is for Jacksonville to catch up with everyone else. 

Have any of you experienced the Gourmet Food Truck Craze? What are your thoughts? Love it/Hate it?

Food Trucks
	Love it! Yay!
	Hate it. Boo.
	Could take it or leave it.
	Want to try it out.
	Not the least bit interested.
pollcode.com free polls

Peace Republic Headband Giveaway - Click Here.

Counting down the minutes

I'm counting down until 3pm when my long weekend begins, and there will be:

BBQs

late nights with some of the best people I know

fireworks

lots of cuban food

sandy beaches

10 hours of driving

What is your weekend going to be full of?

Happy 4th Everyone!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Awkward

- All of the students that have come in Monday & Tuesday asking me if their classroom has been changed or if I know why said professor is not in class. Because classes don't start until Wednesday. So you say you're in college?

- Lover is out of town for the third time this week. I am beginning to dislike his job very much.

- This ice gun my fridge made just for me. So thoughtful.

- The fact that we are still unpacking. Will it ever end?

 

Awesome

- One student's response to the fact that classes started Wednesday: "Sometimes my life is such a joke." 

- Four day weekend for me. Who's excited? This gal.

- This giveaway

For more Awkward and Awesome, check out Sydney's - The Daybook