Streets of Philadelphia!

Since discussing a few months ago about us wanting to leave the nest [also known as New Jersey] and branch outwards - we've really warmed up to Philadelphia. Yes it's only a few hours from where we live but it's a great and nice change. The city is smaller, feels like New York but way less calmer & has such adorable and charming parts. So we decided to pay Philly a visit on our Staycation! And when we were just strolling around the city talking about where to eat and happened to walk on the EXACT street there was a SHAKE SHACK I saw it as a [really stupid] sign that we should be moving here! Besides Shake Shack being there, we really do love Philly and plan on making a few more trips there ... mmmmmaaaybe to speak with realtors and show us around :)

even Shake Shack loves Philly :) 

 the most delicious fries ever

 the cutest shake shack you'll ever see

 me trying my first ever pumpkin spice latte [and loving it!]

 home is wherever i'm with him :)

snapping polaroids like crazy

our #1 philly must do? franklin fountain! the most delicious ice cream EVER!

 ben franklin chilling in franklin fountain

he might get murdered in philly wearing that hat but it's all good!

Have any of you been to Philadelphia?

Share with me your must-dos! 

If you really knew me...

(photo taken by Jose this past weekend in NYC)

I saw this on Explore.Dream.Discover [one of my favorite blogs!] and thought it was a cute idea! So I decided it would be today's post that way you can get to know me a little better. and if you do it or did it, let me know in the comments! 

If you really knew me...

- you'd know I actually had crazy wavy hair instead of straight hair like I only show on my blog.

- you'd know I really want another dog. there are too many homeless dogs in shelters and i don't think we should be selfish only thinking about our needs. we should help them too.

- you'd know im a pain in the ass when it comes to going to sleep, everything must be perfect.

- you'd know im not always interested in watching a movie. i really need to be in the mood.

- you'd know i used to bite my nails down to the cuticle. thats why i think i'm so obsessed with nail polish, i never really had nails to paint!

- you'd know my body hates the sun. i get hives when i set out in the sun too long and have to wear sunglasses constantly because my eyes are crazy sensitive to the sun.

-  you'd know i've been developing a crazy fear of heights over the past couples years. i was never afraid of heights EVER and now everything I do - if it's too high, i'm terrified! 

- you'd know im insanely in love with all things disney. i've said this before here on the blog but i don't think you get it. we just went to Disneyworld in march and i all ready want to go back! everything about disney I love.

- you'd know i suffered with very bad acne in high school & sadly, have the scars to prove it and i am insanely self conscious about it. i hate it.

- you'd know i know my music. i recognize voices easily and can figure out who sings a song, i know songs from YEARS ago. i will always win in the category of music trivia.

- you'd know i'm always down for a good time and trying something new. unless i financially cant at the moment or work is permitting me, I am always down to go somewhere and try things out. 

And that's all for now! :)

This was fun! Let me know if you do it. 

Dark VS Light

On Sunday, I randomly decided I wanted a change with my hair! My bangs have not been cooperating with me so I've slowly been growing them out... and that wasn't enough, I wanted something else. I decided I wanted to go light brown for Spring and do it early since we are going to Disney in 20 DAYS!!! Anyway... Sunday night I did it!! And everytime I look in the mirror, I keep forgetting I did! It's the lightest my hair has ever been but I love it! Heres a before of me from a couple months ago... me and my dark natural hair :) 

And me now. Wearing the same shirt no less. Pathetic.

LOVE. Yesterday while I went shopping I walked into the fitting room, looked up and was like Oh yeah!!! I dyed my hair!! lol It's a fun change up and I'm loving it 

Just thought I'd share :D

Do you like me dark or light? 

Pumpkin Carving Night

Wait a minute... F the pumpkins for a second. Do we know what month it is?? That's right, it's my birthday month! Rewind to a favorite picture of mine just to highlight as awesome this month is.

This month is the shit! Not just cos it's the month I was born but it celebrates like my second favorite day ever... Thanksgiving! Holla, comfort food day!! But fuck that, my birthday comes first! It's on Sunday this year which means weekend long celebrating bitches. I'm gonna be 26 though so lets not go crazy, I'm not celebrating getting older lol just ME! 

So onto our pumpkins...

Friday night before our party [before the snow] we got together with my brother-in-law & sister-in-law to carve pumpkins. It was their first time carving pumpkins and they were pros at that shit. 

look at them sexy pumpkins

I had to carve my favorite animals, an owl :) 

my brother in law dont like to poss for pictures

jose and his bat

Yay! Halloween is done and OVER with. Now time to enjoy November and all it's goodness :D come back for more birthday goodness since I'm celebrating all the way til the 13th [the big b-day!] 

Bits of my week [& a blog change!!]

Just throwing in the fact that I changed my blog! Whoo!! I was waiting on another blogger to install one I paid for [2 MONTHS AGO!!!] but than I said fuck it and learned how to change it myself. I'm still working on it. But this is the new name!! Sequins, Plaids and Paws!! 

Don't lose me! Don't forget about me now that I'm FINALLY not a brown eyed bride to be anymore!!! :) And expect a couple more changes when you come back to blogger on Monday!

Soooo my week...

had several fabulous hair days. those are rare when its humid and rainy everyday. 

just doing a bit of experimenting... 

been hunting these anthro bowls for MONTHS. and FINALLY found them. now I just have to go back and get more :) 

doing some research... 

found out kelly green and black go really excellent together lol i'm a bit slow...

Tweet tweet!

Yup! I joined twitter nation! You can find me [actually FOLLOW me] at tinalovesequins. But be kind, I only joined like a week ago or something so I'm still getting this thing down. But here's some of the pretty things your missing out on if you're not following me :) 

Totally kidding... but for real, come at me!

Kiss Me, I'm Irish! [Seriously... I am!]

It's St. Pattys Day!! YaaY! Truth is I think I've celebrated this day twice in all my life... and I'm 1/4 Irish! We never really celebrated it cos I wasn't really Irish lol I've never had corn beef and cabbage or soda bread!

In fact the most "St Pattys" things I've had are guinness's, dirty girl scouts and green bagels

celebrating in 2007

It's sad though, no? I know NOTHING about 1/4 of my heritage!! Hope to change that eventually... let my kids know "hey! your moms irish! you may not be cos my 1/4 Irish in me cant be passed down to you but we gonna celebrate damn it!"

and celebrating in 2009 with my friend

Well... to anyone fellows Irish out there, HAPPY ST. PATTYS!!

Ima be blasting my U2 and Cranberries today :D

The Bride I will be

The bride I envisioned myself being when I first got engaged...

Is nothing like the bride I am going to be in 49 days...

Girls are silly. Most of us picture what we want to look like when we get married since the age of 12... I always thought I knew the dress I wanted to wear. Then I put the big princess ball gown on and it just wasn't me. I thought I wanted my hair down. Then I thought about it. And I don't want my hair in my face, or to curl up from dancing or running around all day. I want it up. I thought There is NO WAY I'm wearing a veil. Now I'm not just wearing any veil, it's a birdcage veil.

It's an animation but the bride in the second cartoon IS me. She looks more relaxed, she looks fierce, she looks ready to do this. And just seeing it all come together even in animation makes me think even more I'm making all the right choices for this day. I will look good [FABULOUS!] and Jose will think I look FABULOUS too! [Yup.. this fabulous thing will haunt me til I die lol]

My wedding hair trial - awesome!!

What up!! It's Monday and it is 10 degrees in Jersey!! FREEZING!! I'm posting this REAL QUICK while Jose is in the bathroom to show you how my hair trial went for the wedding and seriously - it couldn't have gone better. I am SOUPED and absolutely loved my hair!! This is the picture I showed my girl that I wanted just not to look as "undone"

And this is what we got! [with my birdcage veil and my flower hair piece I freakin love]

 I'll keep the flower in my hair for the reception and just the flower alone is gorgeous

 And the back!

I was nothing but smiles!! My girls did their trials too and I'll probably show you theirs later but I really am souped about mine. And for some reason it really felt real like the wedding was coming yesterday... when I saw the hair done, the veil on... I was like "whoa!" And it's happening in 96 days [says my countdown on the knot]

The Wedding To-Do List

With only 4 months to go [122 days to be exact] it's officially Wedding crunch time! Time to get back to me at my most fabulousness. What is me at my most fabulousness?? Right here!

July 2008. Punta Cana. It's a crazy blurry picture but you get the drift...

Tan!

Skinny!

Toned!

That is my goal for my wedding. I need to get back to THAT picture. Truth be told I was only like 140 lbs in that picture [not THAT skinny at all] but I was toned! I worked out everyday for a half hour - and get this, I worked out at home! Did nothing but squats, sit ups, lifted my 8lb weights and did just that every single day! I didnt eat all THAT good but 2 months before Punta Cana, Jose and I disciplined ourselves like CRAZY to look good for this vacationa and it paid off!

So it's time to discipline myself for the next 4 months! Because this time it's my wedding! And I need to not only look good - but I really need to FEEL good!

So here's my to-do list:

Start going tanning again [yup! sorry but that tan up there is from a tanning salon! that was the first day on the trip so i was all ready that tan!]

Eating healthy [more fruits, veggies, whole grains... ONE alcoholic drink when I go out]

Working out every day for a half hour

Lose 15 lbs before April

and thats not all!

Regularly use leave-in conditioner

Use morroccan oil [i'm positive this is the answer to my hair prayers]

Scrub my face 3 times a week [I'm quite prone to breakouts]

I'm excited... and I'm pretty sure I'm missing some things I want to do to make myself more "fabulous" for my wedding - and seriously, I hope to keep this all going AFTER the wedding. Cos AFTER the wedding is summer and I do NOT wanna feel disgusting in the summer.

My first thing I'm doing to give me an extra push is buy the Reebok Tone sneakers [for walking] Since I work in Retail and am on my feet 8 hours a day and saw nothing but good reviews for these shoes, i figure why not give it a try! Ill let you know how it goes when i get em!

All right this is it!! Starting January 1st - WISH ME LUCK!!

I'm sooooo thankful for...

I just want to take this time to think about the things I am REALLY thankful for this year. Like my dogs :) who we brought to the vet today and are both perfectly healthy and in the best shape of their lives! And who I literally can not live without

 Or my brandy new camera. Seriously. You really have no idea how much I love this thing do you? Here is my like 16 hours after me owning it :)

 And my little man Hitchcock, who is suddenly a BLAST to take pictures of with my camera! Now I can catch this quick little bastard and every move he makes! And if it wasn't for Hitch, I don't know how I'd wake up for work without him being my second alarm clock!

 For my man. Making every single day easier and easier to live. He is the shit. I love him

 And to all of my family whom I love... but especially my mother, my best friend. Who, without her, we would seriously not be getting married. I love this woman and respect her more than I think she knows!

lol! This picture is from July 2005 when my sister, my mom and I took a vacation to San Francisco. And we go to Pier 39 to see all the sea lions and than we find out they migrate south in the summer and we only saw 2 fucking sea lions!!! We were pissed at them so here's my mom giving the sea lions the finger!

[and my mama's in the scooter because she has MS in her one leg but she's the shit! obviously that dont stop her from traveling!]

Hope everyone has a fabulous and full Happy Thanksgiving!!! :) I'm thankful for my blog friends too!! I love you guys!! :)

How I ALMOST was on E!

By now, any of us that watch E! have seen the disgusting commercials for their disgusting new show called BridalPlasty. About Brides competing in challenges to earn plastic-surgery procedures in a quest to win their ultimate dream wedding. Uhm... excuse me?? I thought the point was to look like ourselves!? Well... I was ALMOST on this show! lol

Back in March Jose & I went to a Bridal Show to check out vendors and we went with our other "engaged" couple friends - Liz & Dave. We went, we walked around, we tasted yummy red velvet cake and watched some DJ companies put on a show. And while we sat there watching the DJs a woman came up to me and Liz and said "Hey! You girls wanna enter your names in a chance to be on E!?" We looked at eachother than were like "Oooook?" lol She handed us forms and we started filling them out... and the questions were STRANGE. If you could have your dream wedding, where would it be? How much would you ideally spend? If you could get any cosmetic procedures done, what would they be? I started laughing reading all these questions. What the HELL is this?? lol

But she wouldn't get off our asses so we filled it out, they took our pictures and we sat down to watch the DJs again. Than a week later, they contact us! They want us to come in to New York City for an audition that week. An Audition?? To be on a reality show?? The whole thing was sketchy to me. But Liz INSISTED we go cos "it'll be fun!!" Sooo we went! lol and it was WEIRD! We had to sit in front of 4 people and they explained to us what the show was - you live in a house with other brides, competing in challenges week by week and EVERY WEEK you win adds another cosmetic procedure to your list! Whatt!!??? lol

Half way through [when they started asking me about ME and what i want] I started giving them fake answers I knew they wouldn't like. I was like uhm.. i'd do my calves over lol. They were like "Thats it??" And i was like "Yup. I hate my calves!" lol It was hard not to laugh! I just could NOT let myself do that - even if I would be on E! How can these girls go on that show?? They KNOW they will be looked at like WHAT THE FUCK GIRLS!??

Ay! All I know is this is one E! show I DEFINATELY will not be watching!

A New Sensation

I've been pretty sick of having a "design" on my blog. Im much into the plain look and have been dying to do this little change up to my blog for a while. Today, I cleaned my apartment like you don't even know and was mad motivated so I decided to tackle the blog after and I'm very happy. Like my new banner? Some random pictures I know but I can explain...

The first one is of me on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial last April in Washington DC. It was fucking freezing and I'm rocking my favorite UGGS and my favorite jeans - holes and all. And holla! My mama is behind me [she has MS, hence the wheelchair. She can walk fine, but not when we're walking all over the place. Than she gets the luxury of getting pushed around] but I cut my mama out cos this aint me and my mamas blog. lol

The middle picture is of Jose and me [duh!] on one of my favorite nights out ever. It was just us, going to get sushi at our favorite spot ever and we were a little drunk and decided to take a ton of pictures in the parking lot. This is one of my favorites ever of us.

And the last picture is of me when I was 8 in my FABULOUS pink hat! I love this picture of me so much. My sister is actually sitting next to me [and it's adorable] but right now I only have the cropped version of me.

That's it. Now I'll continue to keep cleaning. Family at our house tonight to celebrate a bunch of birthdays!!

How's about some Hot Stuff??

I am not afraid of color at all... I loove color. I mean I've got yellow, purple, pink, red, AND blue sunglasses. I am all about wearing different nail colors [sometimes at the same time] and aaallll my eye shadows from MAC are basically the brightest shades you can find! I mean my picture on blogger says it all...

Yellow shades, blue nails... love it! And I LOOOOVE my bangs! I miss them so much :( And I have decided I'm going to rock my bangs after my wedding in April... seems so far!! But anywayzzz... than in Vegas I was a STAND OUT!

All my girls [including the one taking the picture] wore all black! And me? I want to wear a bright yellow dress! lol Not sure when this started but I am just very attracted to BRIGHT colors!! Soooo when I saw these eyeshadows I had to have them ALL!!

These are brand spankin new to CVS [aka my job] and the minute they came in, I put all 4 of them aside and waited 2 weeks for them to be Buy 1, get 1 50% and I bought them bitches!! It's from the brand N.Y.C. and for 2.99 a POP... c'mooonn!! What a steal! And the pigment on them?? AMAZING!! Don't believe me?? Check out this months' Allure magazine! They get a shout out!

Oooh I'm sooo happy I have more color in my life for maaad cheap! Holla!!