Chicago Does Easter

Chicago did good this weekend. The weather was so nice it almost made me forget the winter hell we've been living in for the past six months. Almost... Chicago has a lot of making up to do yet. 

Chris and I decided to spend Saturday at Wrigley watching the Cubs. I guess I should say he was watching the Cubs, I spent a majority of the afternoon thinking about my next snack. For some reason food just tastes better in a stadium. 

(This was only Chris's third hot dog of the day...)

After the game we decided to celebrate the Cubs victory with a little barbecue from one the oldest and best restaurants in the city, Twin Anchors. Take my word, if you ever come to Chicago you're going to want to eat at this place. It's like walking into a time warp and it's amazing. There's a reason it was one of Frank Sinatra's Chicago go-tos back in the day.

And then of course we did a little Easter brunching on Sunday at my favorite neighborhood spot, Dunlays on Clark.

And the last part of Easter was spent grilling on the patio enjoying our cute little side yard for the last two weeks before we move to our new home. Even just typing the word "move" makes me exhausted... I love decorating a new place and reorganizing, but it's all of that other stuff that I don't love. Let's just say moving is hard on a relationship... at least for a few hours. You know, those hours when you're trying to move an awkwardly heavy mattress but someone is walking too fast and someone is walking too slow and suddenly you run into a corner and jam your head and why are you so damn inconsiderate all the time?

Moving is fun.

And now it's time to get ready for another crazy week. Happy Monday, friends.

One Hoolie Mama

Introducing Suzanna from One Hoolie Mama.

1. Tell us a little about One Hoolie Mama.

One Hoolie Mama (by way of explanation, “hoolie” is short for “hooligan” in my home and I am surrounded by hooligans).  I blog about my life as a mama to five canine hoolies, one feline hoolie, and one recent addition to our menagerie, a hoolie baby.  #BabyD was born on New Year’s Eve, and he is pretty awesome (at least in my opinion). I blog about life as I know it these days.  I am an animal and wine lover (in that order) and I never say no to chocolate.   I love to cook and bake (basically, I love food) and I am a runner (to counteract that whole love of food & wine thing...).

2. How did you and your husband meet? 

  

Hubby (as he’s known on the blog) and I met a small eon ago when we both started working at a local diner/cheese/wine store.  We’ve been married nine and a half years now and I’m trying to plan an awesome celebration for our ten year anniversary in January.  Do you all have any suggestions?  We’ve discussed a big party and we’ve discussed traveling…  (At the moment, I’m leaning towards trying for a trip to Hawaii or something equally lovely!)

3. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging for a couple of reasons.  I wanted to keep track of our life while also tapping into the huge community that is the blogging world.  I wanted to challenge myself to keep learning about the DIY world (oh, there are so many things I would like to know about – fixing cars, sewing, writing code, playing musical instruments, photography, etc.), while keeping track of the lovely, though perhaps mundane, fun that we have in our life these days.  

As a new mom who works full-time outside of the home, I’m finding time management to be my biggest challenge these days, both in blogging and IRL.  One of the things I’m really loving, though, is getting to know some new-to-me bloggers, both local and all over the country.

Thanks for letting me introduce myself and I hope to get to know more of you!  Please connect with me any way you can find me - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, even Google +.  Anyone care to share a tip or two for time management or organization? 

*Comments have been turned off, click here to say hello to Suzanna.

Girl Walks Into A Comedy Bar

It's Friday! Yay it's finally here! Let's keep this short and sweet because I'm sure all of you have better things to do on this lovely Good Friday.

I found out a couple of days ago that I made the line-up for the Chicago Womens Funny Festival in June! Woo hoo! I'm really excited because it's my first comedy festival so I'm not quite sure what to expect. My ultimate goal is to get into one of New York's comedy festivals this summer, but I know they're really competitive so I don't want to get too ahead of myself. Then again, I'm always ahead of myself. This whole comedy thing is just so weird and new to me, I have no idea how long it will last so my goal is to simply ride it out as long as it's still fun me. Let's just say some nights are better than others...

Last night I told jokes at the comedy bar downtown and was lucky enough to have my old roomy from Kansas City in town, Sara, to take some photos. Sara was one of the first people to see me do stand-up last year in her living room after I drank a little bit too much and decided to do my first set ever in front of three of my best pals... And then an hour later I accidentally started her apartment on fire. Oh that was a funny night.

Not my best look... 

That's all I've got for today. I had about 100 other post ideas that were all going to be much better than this one, but I've got a bad case of the Fridays and my mind is all over the place.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend! I'm throwing it back to Easter '89 when I used to rock a bonnet like it was nobody's business. "Look ma, it's a fence."

Ten Of My Greatest Instagram Fails- Part II

When it comes to Instagram, I'm just as guilty as the next person in regards to posting stupid stuff. I don't know what it is about that app, but for some reason I just get all caught up in the fun of it and will start documenting every last thing I do because I think it's all totally photo worthy.

Unfortunately most times it's not...

That being said, I present to you a follow up from my first "Ten Of My Greatest Instagram Fails" because I obviously didn't learn my lesson.

(Part II)

#1. The "look at me drink coffee."
Cool Tay, you just bought new coffee. Way to tell the world this ground breaking news.
ground, get it? it's like a coffee pun.

2. The "I got dressed today and need everyone to know."
There's snow on the ground. Nice outfit choice, loser.

3. The "I'm at a concert and need to take a blurry photo."
Sorry sucker, no one likes concert photos. Take your brag, elsewhere.

4. The "take a pic of me looking awkward."
Hey girl, skunk called, wants its hair back.
Hey girl, Vienna from the Bachelor called, wants her hair back.
Hey girl, ewww though, really? You wanted a pic of this?

5. The "quick let's take a pic for no reason at all except for the fact I haven't taken a pic in awhile."
I just hope I got that hat back to the baker in time.

#6. The "blogger brag."

Ugh, stop it.

#7. The "subtle fashion blogger."

But not really, put your hand down.

#8. The "fall photo."

This isn't even your house, stop being a creep.

#9. The "I'm wearing shoes today in case anyone was wondering."

Nobody was.

#10. The "coffee mug on a tray."

Just because.

God bless your sweet souls for being nice and tossing some "likes" toward me anyway. I know you're just doing it to be kind and I appreciate that.

Oh Instagram, why can't I quit you?

Just A Little Garden

*above photo taken from Pinterest, but as soon as I'm feeling crafty I'm going to make my own.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nature's Care for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Remember those cute little cucumber plants I told you about that I was planting with the help of Nature’s Care potting soil? Well they have officialy started to sprout! I was worried I might accientally kill them before they were even able to break through the dirt but they pushed through the surface and look like they might actually survive. Chicago's spring weather isn't exactly predictable so I've been growing them inside for the time being, but hopefully they can be moved out to the patio in a few weeks. Or even better, out to my new back yard May 1st!

I've tried once or twice to grow plants in the past, but sadly the outcome was never too great. I'm pretty sure I always over watered them and drowned the poor seeds before they were ever given the chance. This time around I've pretty cautious about only adding as much water as necessary, and I'm trying to follow all of the tips provided by Miracle-Gro Learn And Grow. I'm convinced this soil is like magic because my plants came alive far faster than I thought they would. I also love that the soil is completley natural and won't give my cucumbers that gross fertizlier taste.

I think the first thing I'm going to make with my new home grown vegetables is a great tzatziki sauce with Greek yogurt, fresh dill, red wine vinegar, and some olive oil and dill. Tzatziki sauce with shredded chicken in a whole wheat pita is one of my favorite summer meals. It's super easy to make and I like to think it's pretty healthy, as well. After this sudden burst of nice weather Chicago has been treated with, I've clearly got summer on my mind. What are you some of your favorite summer meals?

Big Plans For My Twenties

Guys, my birthday is officially one month from today.

I'm old fashioned in that I believe getting older truly is a blessing because not everyone gets to do it, yet I'm also a little superficial and can't help but freak the hell out a bit as well. Let's just say living in a van down by the river isn't exactly where I thought I'd be at this point in my life. Okay, so I'm not technically living in a van (yet) but I'm not living in the life sized Polly Pocket mansion I thought I'd be in by now, either.

I look at that smiling face of the little girl in the photo with her bangs cut way too short and kool-aid stained on her lips and I can't help but feel like I've let her down a bit. Kind of like the idiot who must have made that birthday cake of mine, "Happy Birthday Taylor Four!" Uh, come again? And why is there a Garfield in scuba gear just hanging out? I'm assuming this was a year my mom was pinching pennies and gave cake duty to my older sister. But I digress.

Little-me had such big plans for my twenties and I feel like I'm not living up to my full potential. I'm supposed to have a corner office in a tall building downtown somewhere, wear power suits to work, and say things like "I've got a huge meeting in five minutes with the Zander account, can this wait?" or "No problem, I'll just use petty cash for lunch." Because everything I thought life in my mid twenties would be like was fully inspired by two movies- Working Girl and Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead.

And so per the usual, when faced with a deadline I'm desperately going to try and pull everything together at the last minute. I've got one month to get my life in gear. Here's my plan of attack-

1. Get up earlier. I feel like no one told me that getting up in the morning would never ever ever get any easier.

2. Drink more water. I don't know why, that's just what everyone else is doing so I figure I should follow suit.

3. Write more. More blog posts. More stand up material. More sketches. More chapters in my book. More articles for the site I'm now contributing to called The Whiskey Journal. Just more writing in general.

4. Less Facebook & Instagram life comparing. Everyone I know has bought their first home, well good for them. I'm hoping to buy my first bike this summer. Because I'm a twelve year old.

5. Actively make more positive decisions that will shape my future. I'm not sure what this one means yet, but Tony Robbins said it will make a huge impact on my life so it's worth figuring out.

And this last one is the most important of all.

6. DYE HAIR SUMMER BLONDE. Once I get my platinum thinking cap back on all will be right in the world again.

I've got thirty days to change my life, it's time to make some moves.

*Ps I've also got this ad sale going on if you're interested!

I Don't Want To Brag But...

Well guys, I had so much fun writing I Don't Want To Brag But... from a couple of weeks ago I figured it was time to write another. Not to mention the fact I am (once again) nailing life as of late. I have to share it with someone, don't hate me cuz you aint me.

I don't want to brag but I made another video. And it's just as life changing as the others have been. You should probably watch it.

I don't want to brag, but today for breakfast I ate peanut butter smeared on a hamburger bun. Because that's just how awesome I am at life right now.

I don't want to brag, but when I take a dirty dish out of the dishwasher nine times out of ten I'm putting it right back in without trying to scrub it first. Just because it didn't get completely clean the first time doesn't mean it won't the seventh time.

I don't want to brag, but today I tried to call Chris, my mom, dad, sister, and brother to tell them some exciting news I just found out and not one of them answered. Literally not one.

I don't want to brag, but right now I have a grey tooth. Life just doesn't get any better.

I don't want to brag, but the most productive part of my day is definitely the two minutes while the microwave is heating something up for me.

I don't want to brag, but last week I was on the bus wearing a baseball cap and a little kid said "excuse me mister." And he was talking to me. As in "Mr. Wolfe."

I don't want to brag, but last night I watched my basketball highlight tape from high school and I teared up.

I don't want to brag, but people on Linkedin keep endorsing me for stuff I didn't even know I was good at.

I don't want to brag, but last night I spent almost an hour getting wrapped up in the lives of famous high school cheerleaders on Instagram. I'm pretty sure I've figured out who's friends with who, and who's dating who. I think I might start writing fan fiction about them.

I don't want to brag, but I'm planning on having an Easter egg hunt this weekend by myself. In the words of Jesus, #YOLT.