lifestyle – Jaclyn Grace

Friday Favorites

Yay for the weekend! Tomorrow is my big test and I am SO excited for it to be over with. Here are a few things that I was loving this past week. 🙂

1. This week I really loved some of the excerpts that I read from my book before bed. They all focused on having faith rather than planning for and worry about the future. They spoke about how God has a plan for us all that is already set and will be slowly revealed to us moment by moment.

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Some days I like the readings more than others, and this week I felt like they really were all things that I needed to hear.

2. On Thursday night my Dad and I went out to dinner in Hoboken to a restaurant called “Margherita’s Pizza and Cafe.” I had been looking forward to our visit all week! It was nice to get out of the apartment and spend some time catching up.

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I had a feeling that the food would be good here because each time that I previously walked by there had been a line out the door. The atmosphere was really cute and cozy and felt like your typical small family owned Italian restaurant.

They started us off with bruschetta and Italian bread and butter. Then for our main meals, my dad had chicken parmigiana and I had raviolis stuffed with eggplant, sun-dried tomato, and cheese. Both of our meals were fantastic!

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We then finished off our evening with a coffee and cappuccino before heading out.

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Overall we had a great time! We hopefully are going to try to do something like this once a month or so. 🙂

3. Lastly, two of my favorite things this week have to do with my bedroom coming along in my apartment. As of right now, the kitchen and living room feel nice and cozy, but the bedroom is a mess. For the past (almost) two months I have had no rug, curtains, or even a bedspread. Luckily that all changed this week!

My aunt had been working hard on a hand-made quilt for my bed for a little while now and she just finished it! I haven’t seen it in person yet, but it looks absolutely beautiful from the pictures.

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My grandma picked out the fabric for me when she was in Amish country this past summer and I immediately fell in love with it. I knew that it would make a beautiful quilt, but I’m not super confident in my quilting abilities yet so I decided to ask my aunt to make it for me. Luckily she said yes and it’s already one of my very favorite things that I own (despite that I don’t actually have it in my hands yet)!

Even the small details are perfect!

To go along with this, I got a nice surprise from my Grandma telling me that she bought me a braided rug for the bedroom as a Valentine’s Day gift!

Screen Shot 2017-02-17 at 8.52.54 PM.png — Here’s the photo she sent me, but I’ll be sure to post actual pictures when I get it!

I had been looking at very similar rugs online for weeks now but hadn’t mentioned it to anybody. I was so shocked when she told me that she bought me one in the exact color that I liked! I am so excited to get it into my bedroom and see how it helps things come together.

I will definitely be doing a post on the apartment in the near future to share my attempt at making this place feel like home!

That’s all for this week. I am so grateful for my fantastic family who truly made this week fabulous.

Have a great weekend!

xo,

Jaclyn

First Weekend Visitors!

So I’m a little behind here (per usual) but I wanted to fill you all in on the fantastic past weekend that I had with my mom and brother.

Before they arrived on Saturday morning, I woke up early and took a walk downtown to a cute little coffee shop called “bwe kafe.” I heard about this place through Instagram and I am so glad that I decided to go check it out.

They had the cutest little set up and I loved the atmosphere. I’m hoping to spent a few hours here this weekend catching up on some studying!

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I ordered a dirty chai latte, which was essentially a chai latte with a shot of espresso. It was so perfect and I have been craving one ever since. Though next time I do think that I’ll go with 2 shots of espresso!

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When I got home from the coffee shop, Anthony and my mom were here! We brought up all of the stuff that didn’t make it into my car during the first move and spent a few hours unpacking and chatting.

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By the time we finished, we were starving and decided to head over to Mom’s favorite deli – Fiore’s. We got roast beef and mozzarella subs and they were just as great as we remembered from last time that we visited there.

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We spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch watching movies and napping. Around 7 o’clock, Anthony was starving so we ordered pizza and wings to snack on during the football game.

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On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed into the city for a fun and touristy day, starting with Times Square!

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We went into the M&M store and the Hershey store, both of which were absolutely packed for so early in the morning. We had enough of the huge crowds after that, so we decided to head over to Rockefeller Center.

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On our way we stopped into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was just recently renovated. It was beautiful inside. I wish we could have stayed for mass!

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We spent the rest of our day walking down 5th avenue, visiting Madison Square Garden, and getting an awesome lunch at “The Counter.” We had huge cheeseburgers with french fries, which pretty much put us into food induced comas immediately.

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We headed back to Hoboken and spent the rest of the afternoon napping and hanging out.

Even after our fun weekend, I think my favorite part was coming home from work on Monday night to dinner on the table and all of my grocery shopping done for the week. I am so lucky and already can’t wait for their next visit!

I have a fun post coming up regarding some of the things that I’m loving lately, so keep an eye out! 🙂

xo,

Jaclyn

Home Sweet Home… Kind Of

The past few months have been crazy as always. Between finishing grad school (!), Christmas, New Years, and moving to Hoboken, NJ (!) I have barely had a moment to myself. For months and months I waited until New Years Day when I would be moving 3.5 hours from my childhood home to my first real apartment…. and here I am.

screen-shot-2017-01-04-at-6-06-37-pm — First glass of wine while relaxing in my new home!

I am finally settled in and trying my hardest to adjust before I start my new job next week. It certainly has been a rollercoaster to say the least. I’ve cried, laughed, celebrated, and cried some more (… there has actually been lots of crying if I’m being honest).

The last few days have been hard, but I knew that they would be. I know that it will be an adjustment to be so far away from the majority of my family. As you may know, my family is extremely close. Almost every night for the past few months my mom and I have sat down on the couch in our pjs to chat, drink our favorite David’s tea (more on this later), and watch a show together. I have loved our quality time and it’s hard to think that we can’t do that anymore. It’s also hard to wrap my head around that fact that I can’t just walk across the street to visit my grandparents or hop in the car for a minute to go visit my Godson anymore.

But, the important thing is that I know I will adjust in time! I know in my heart that this is exactly where I am meant to be and exactly what I am meant to be doing, no matter how difficult it is. Growth comes only from pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

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This post isn’t meant to be me throwing a pity party for myself –but rather me being completely transparent on how I am feeling so far in this post-grad transition. I have always hoped that this blog would showcase highs, lows, and everything in between that happens in my life. I never wanted it to serve as a highlight reel, because what’s the point of telling my story if I’m not going to be completely honest?

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my New Year Resolutions, along with a recap of the fun that Dan and I had today! Be sure to check in 🙂

xo,

Jaclyn

Family is Everything

This past weekend was perfectly relaxing and happy. It had been awhile since I had a weekend with nothing planned, but sometimes that’s just what you need.

Friday night I stayed in and watched a movie with my family before heading to bed by 10 PM. Can you say grandma? No shame.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to enjoy a cup of coffee and indulge in a good book on the deck before going to my hair appointment.

There’s not much I love more than starting my day off in this very way. I hope there’s a lot more of this in my future! I was reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. It was a great story that kept me captivated from the first page to the last. I will admit that I did shed a tear or two throughout, but now I can’t wait to see the movie. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for an end of summer read!

After my haircut, I went out for a round of golf with my brother and my aunt. We were all having a terrible game, but had a great time together anyways. Unforunately, when we got to the fourth hole the thunder and lightening cut our game short. We packed up and decided to have a family game night instead!

On Sunday morning, the whole family piled in the car and headed to Boda Borg to compete in some escape room challenges.

There are physical challenges and mental challenges that each team must complete in order to move on in the quest, and let me tell you – they are not easy! We had a blast though! I don’t think any of us have laughed that hard in awhile. 🙂

We ended the weekend in the best possible way – with an ice cream from Kimball Farm.

I usually only get here once per summer, but it is always a highlight. I always get the cherry vanilla chocolate chip ice cream and love every bite.

Feeling so thankful to have spent a great weekend with my family.

xo,

Jaclyn

Be A Girl That’s For The Girls

Being a girl is tough, mainly due to other girls. From middle school to middle age – there’s often gossip, hurt feelings, and lots of drama. You likely have a group of close girlfriends, but it’s unlikely you have never talked behind each other’s backs. Even more so, you probably spend a good amount of your time together analyzing the actions of girls that aren’t in your friend group.

Did you see what she was wearing? Why does she think her makeup looks good like that? Could her skirt get any shorter? OF COURSE she’s talking to him.

And the list goes on. I’m just as guilty of it as everybody else, but it’s something that I have been noticing in myself and others more and more recently.

Lately I’ve been spending a majority of my time with my guy friends and came to a startling realization. They support each other in everything. Very rarely do I hear them say anything bad about each other, or any other guy for that matter – and I think that makes all the difference.

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I think that as girls, we should strive for this. Stop talking behind each other’s backs. Build each other up. Tell others how pretty they look. Complement complete strangers on how great their hair looks or how much you love their shoes. Be one of the few girls out there that is for the girls.

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We need to come together. Just the other night a random girl stopped me on the stairs of a party that I was at and said “This is random, but I just wanted to tell you that you are really pretty.” And you know what? It made my night. We need more of that. There are plenty of undeserving guys out there that will tear us down and break our hearts, we don’t need to do it to each other.

xo,

Jaclyn