GIVEAWAY WINNERS & BRIGHT BLUE SKIES

Hi friends!

I'm back in the Midwest, and thus, back on the blog. For the last 5 days we've been visiting my parents in sunny Florida, and are kind of in denial about being back in the snow. When we left Wisconsin it was 5 degrees and snowing. When we got to Florida it was about 75 degrees and sunny.

Nothing like a 70 degree climate change to make you happy, let me tell you. 

Our time in Florida was well spent exploring the beach, visiting historical sites in St.Augustine, shell searching, beach bar hopping, and taking an obscene amount of photos:

Clearly I took a ton more, but I didn't want to overload you lovlies in case you already follow me on Instagram- or hate me for getting to see the sun for 5 days. Our place was right on the ocean, 5th floor looking over the sand. Not too shabby, right? One of my favorite parts of the trip (other than just walking along the beach) was beach bar hopping with Michael one night. There were tons of restaurants/bars within walking distance of our place, so we just went to one-had a drink-and walked to another! Rough life, I tell you.

One of the strangest things about being in Florida in December is that all the Christmas parades and celebrations go on...but it feels NOTHING like the holiday season. Christmas lights on palm trees...snowmen made out of sand...trees tied to the tops of open air Jeeps...so strange!

On another note: I LOVE announcing giveaway winners!!!

The winner of the $50 UncommonGoods giveaway is Fran Hasselhof! I was giddy when I saw Fran won, as she is a former Wisconsin girl herself! She lives in PA now- and you should follow her lovely fashion blog- Franish.  Congrats, Fran!

WAIT! You're sad you didn't win and want some presents for yourself? There's still time to enter the Favorite Things giveaway! A handful of awesome prizes (plus a few surprises not included in the image) could be all yours! Enter now!

Tomorrow I'll be sharing a drink that doesn't SEEM like it's appropriate for the season since it's a sangria- but I promise once you see the ingredients I'll be able to convince you otherwise!

This week I'll be a busy bee making Christmas candies like my caramels, peppermint bark, and more! 

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?

Sand snowmen, anyone?

xo, lp

**let's be Instagram friends, shall we? find me here:@lpodlich

PNW- TAKE 1

OH HEY.

Vacation is over. Womp-womp. To be honest it is 8:21 pm and I am totally loopy. We took a redeye with 2 layovers back from Portland which meant not going to bed until 10 am. Blah.

I took a disgusting amount of pictures, and posted a ridiculous amount of them on Instagram- but don't worry, I won't repeat them all here!

Here are a few highlights from the first leg of our trip in Portland, Oregon:

 1. Stereotypical flight picture. But I mean, gorgeous!

2. We got into town around 1 in the afternoon and got a mini-tour of downtown from our friend Elliott, including food trucks & pioneer square.

3. The next morning Michael and I explored alone a little, grabbing Stumptown coffee (sooo good).

4. We stood in line for VooDoo donuts for a while...but after realizing the line was wrapping around the block and had about 60 people in it, we decided to skip out. I just don't like donuts that much. Meh.

 5. I am 25 and play with my food. Including taffy from Rocket Fizz.

6. Just a little #ootd.

7. We stopped next at the International Rose Test Garden. Flower heaven.

8. On our way to the garden some kids were selling SnoCones...I mean, GENIUS. Bet they make a killing. 

(M is on the left of course, and our Portland hosts Scott & Elliott are next to him)

9&10: What better way to see the city than up in a gondola in the sky? Even scared-of-heights-Michael enjoyed it!

11&12: One of our hosts is Michael's childhood friend, and happens to be all super cool and runs for Nike. He was nice enough to let us geek out a bit and tour the Nike World Headquarters- the place is gi-gan-tic. So note to anyone travelling to Portland: make sure you have an athletic friend so you can see this place!



Alright. Picture overload.
What did I miss this last week, friends?
Tell me something good.

xo, lp

UNPLUGGING...sort of.

I know what you're thinking:

"LAURA. You just took a break like...a couple weeks ago. You're tied to this blog like a second full time job and aren't allowed to leave us!!"

Or...at least in my head you all care about this blog that much. Oops.

Anyways: 

Michael and I are going on vacation to Portland & Seattle (eee!) and at first I was set on taking my computer and blogging along the way. Then I realized: nope. This is a true vacation. Time to stay away from work & blog emails, and just enjoy exploring some new cities.

I mean, I won't be THAT unplugged. You can still find me on Instagram & Twitter, documenting our trip! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

If anyone has Portland & Seattle tips, leave them in the comments! 

xo, lp