Category: Lifestyle

Memorial Day Sale | Kitchen Finds at Macy’s

Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

Good morning friends! There are a lot of sales going on this weekend and although I am not shopping all of them, I have my eye on a few finds at Macy’s. I have been loving the color scheme of the Martha Stewart Collection. My house is predominately white, grey and beige with mixes of pale and navy blues. One of my top home decor tips is to keep your color scheme consistent. This approach helps the whole house feel connected. The Martha Stewart line fits right in to our home.

Before getting into today’s finds, I want to share one of my best online shopping tips. I always use Rakuten (formerly Ebates) when possible. When you sign-up through my link, you’ll automatically earn $10 (I will earn $25) towards your next shopping trip. Refer your friends and you’ll earn extra too.

When you shop through Rakuten, you earn cash back for all of your purchases! To date, I have earned over $500 from my online orders. The cash back deals range from 1 – 10% or more. I have noticed that the change back rates per store change through out the week and I usually notice the highest ranges on Sunday or Monday. To make sure I never forget to shop through Rakuten, I downloaded the Rakuten extension (add-on) for Chrome. With each website you visit, the add-on will notify you of potential cash back savings.

In this post I have linked a few items I have my eye on and a few dupes of items you can already find in my kitchen. My #1 find of the sale is the Dutch Oven. Right now you can get the 6qt Dutch Oven for $69! It’s larger than the Le Cruset I have for a fraction on the price. For Christmas, I bought my mom the Martha Stewart 8qt Dutch Oven and she loves it. Definitely a great option if you’re in the market for a Dutch Oven, but don’t want to splurge on a high-end brand. To read more about why I love mine, click here.

Wooden Spoon | Towels | Dutch Oven | Rubber Tools | Cutting Board | Ice Cube Tray | Tongs | Cocktail Shaker | Cork Screw | Jigger | Tool Crock | Oil Cruet

Other staples in my kitchen include mixing spoons, plenty of tongs and a pretty tool holder (to match my Dutch Oven that’s always on display). I highly recommend having a wood cutting board with a well around the edge to catch juices. I use my wood cutting board ever time I cook.

For my bridal shower, we didn’t register for a ton of barware. Over the last few weeks we’ve been trying to stock up our bar! I found pretty low baller glasses at HomeGoods and now I am trying to find the rest. I have my eye on the Martha Stewart shaker, jigger and ice cube tray. We actually have silicone ice cube trays, but I really like how this version comes with a cover. Oversized ice cubes are great for at home cocktails.

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Wedding Welcome Bags with North Fork Potato Chips

Red Rose & Honey1 Comment

Hi friends! The summer and wedding season are quickly approaching, and I could not be more excited. Today, I am thrilled to share a local company that I incorporated into my own wedding day. This is a great way not only to support local businesses, but it is also a fun way to add some unique touches to your wedding.

As you may know, I got married a little over a year ago. Sometimes I still have to remind myself that my wedding day has come and gone. I am the type of person that enjoys anticipating a big event like a holiday or vacation. Although I hit a few bumps in the road during wedding planning {or as my husband says, “the fews weeks I lost my mind,”} I really did enjoy everything about our wedding season. That being said, I know wedding planning can be overwhelming, so I thought this would be a great time to share some planning ideas with you all.

In this post I am giving you a better look inside my wedding welcome bags. These bags were placed in the hotel rooms for our guests the night of our wedding. There are so many reasons I love living on Long Island, so I really wanted to incorporate something special into these bags. A few months prior to my wedding I was in Southhampton with my parents looking at wedding bands. We stopped for lunch where I opted for a side of chips — North Fork Potato Chips. This was the first time I had heard of these chips, but instantly fell in love with them because they had such a good crunch! Then it hit me; these chips were the perfect addition to my wedding welcome bags. I knew these would be a lot more special than a regular old bag of Lay’s.

With all of the crazy details that go into a wedding, we opted to keep our welcome bags pretty simple. Sticking with our theme, I purchased craft paper gift bags, white tissue paper and a tag from Etsy which we simply tied with twine. Along with the North Fork Chips, we added a couple bottles of water, a few gluten-free [salty & sweet] snacks and Advil packets. For more details on my wedding planning, click here.

If you check their website, you’ll learn that North Fork Potato Chips is a family owned and run business on the North Fork of Long Island. Starting their business in the 1970s, the Sidor family has grown their company to offer seven flavors of chips, and all except BBQ are gluten-free. I opted for a mix of the original and sweet potato flavor in my wedding welcome bags. If you’re not incorporating wedding welcome bags into your day, North Fork Potato Chips would make a great favor, to-go gift {often left at the door as your guests leave} or after party snack.

When I placed my order for North Fork Chips, I remember speaking with Cheryl Sidor. At the point I spoke with her, I was losing wedding planning steam — so much so that I actually called their office about 10x in a row thinking my call wasn’t going through. Turns out, it was actually call waiting, and I was repeatedly “beeping into” Cheryl’s conference call. Hello bridal brain fog! Not only was Cheryl very sweet, but she made the process so simple. To ensure optimal freshness, she also made sure that the chips shipped at the right time.

As a kid, my parents often took me out to the North Fork, and I generally referred to it as the land of “farm, farm, vineyard, farm.” These day my day-job requires me to be in the city which makes me appreciate the farm lands and beaches of Long Island so much more. My husband and I love spending time on the ‘NoFo’ for the wine, craft beer and pure relaxation. Some of our favorite places include the Bating Hallow Farm Vineyard, Briermere Farms and the Shinn Estate Vineyard. We’re happy to add North Fork Chips to that round-up.

LI brides, be sure to check out North Fork Potato Chips to add a special element of LI to your wedding day. Also, ask for information on the bridal specials and let Cheryl know I sent you her way.

Thank you to Cheryl for sending me chips to recreate my bags for this post!

All opinions are my own and today’s post was not compensated.

Tips for a Productive Weekend

Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

Hello and happy Thursday! With the week coming to an end, I thought today would be the perfect time to share a few tips that help me keep my house in order over the weekend. A couple months ago, my schedule changed and I have been super busy. Between work itself and my commute to the city, I honestly don’t have much time at home. Keeping the house in order, a graduate degree and an energetic puppy, in addition to a professional career have really been keeping me on my toes {shout out to all the mamas out there taking care of kiddos too – I am having an extra glass of wine for you tonight}.

Limited time at home during the week makes taking care of the house and cooking dinner every night difficult almost impossible. This doesn’t fair well for someone who is a self-proclaimed need freak that cannot handle dirt, mess or clutter. But, during the times in my life where I have not had much free time, I have learned that it is possible to do more with less. I am pretty amazed with all that I have trained myself to do in the last few months. Truth be told, six months ago I had way more time on my hands and looking back now, I’m not sure how I didn’t solve the world peace problem ;). Like, what the heck was I doing with all of that time?!

The rest of this post by no means includes my full cleaning routine. These are just the minimal things I do to help keep me on track, so if it is a jam packed weekend and I don’t get to clean the house from top to bottom {while walking the dog, blow drying my hair, cooking dinner and doing homework all simultaneously}, these things help me feel like I kind of have it together.

Friday night

Throw in a load of laundry. Pick an easier load of laundry like towels or sheets. You can throw them in the dryer and forget about them and not worry about them shrinking. Right after putting that laundry in, vacuum! Pick up all that junk that made its way to the floor during the work week. If I have extra time or energy I will also stream mop the bathroom floor. I try to vacuum a few times a week before or after work as well.

Saturday Morning

Start laundry as soon as you get up then pick an area to immediately straighten up. You can enjoy your coffee and your morning routine while getting a few loads of laundry done. I’ve noticed that when I start my laundry earlier in the day, I get through it faster. I generally try to go to bed with a clean kitchen, but if I don’t then I will straighten up the kitchen then put away laundry clean. Before I know it, a couple loads of laundry are out of the way.

Saturday Midmorning/Early Afternoon:

Change your sheets and straighten up the bedroom. I don’t really mind doing laundry, but I feel like changing the sheets is a huge pain. I almost always change my sheets weekly. Sheets get much dirtier than most people may think. I have very sensitive skin, so keeping my sheets fresh helps to avoid unwanted breakouts. I have found changing my sheets on Saturday makes a huge difference for me. I use to put it off until Sundays, and before I knew it, I was battling the Sunday night scaries with no sheets on my bed to boot!

Clean the bathroom before and/or after your shower. This will probably sound silly, but I like to start cleaning the bathroom before I shower. I will clean the toilet then dust my bathroom shelves, baseboard and window first. After my shower I will spray down and clean the shower then clean the vanity after I get ready. If I didn’t vacuum and clean the bathroom floor Friday night, I will do that to finish up the bathroom.

Sunday Morning

Yep, you guessed it, laundry! If I didn’t finished up our laundry, I throw in another load as soon as I wake up. Next, I will plan out our meals for the week and make our food shopping list. Fortunately, my husband does the food shopping and sometimes Costco runs too…I generally cannot be trusted at Costco because #CostcoDoesItAgain.

Sunday Afternoon

Depending on my husband’s work schedule, I have been trying to devote a few hours on Sunday to meal prep. I will try to prep at least 4 dinners for the week. Any small bit helps, even if it’s just cleaning chicken and making a taco seasoning. I also try to make enough that I will have a few days of leftovers for lunch. Meal prep is still a work in progress for me, but I am working on it! My goal is to get meal prepping done earlier in the day.

Would you like to see more blogs like this? Let me know in the comments.

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