Wine and Design

#15 on My 30 for 30 list

I've been dying to take a painting class after seeing several of my instagram friends share pictures of their wine and design creations.  If you are no familiar with Wine and Design allow me to introduce you.  Wine and Design is a painting class that you can sign up for.  To sign up you simply find a painting on their calendar that you would like to do then you register for that dates class.  Simple enough!  Wine and Design is a franchise with new locations popping up all the time.  There are also several similar chains.

I was always amazed when I saw pictures of my friends' masterpieces.  I mean everyone's always looked good,  I couldn't wait to try my hand at painting and to get some new wall décor.

I was so excited when Groupon put up a deal for  one class. Me and my friend Brittany jumped right on it!   Normally it costs $35 but with my Groupon it only cost $19.  This included the supplies!!  Next it was time to pick our painting...We chose the snowy night scene. 

The class itself was great.  There was one teacher who somewhat directed us along step by step on which color to use and what order to paint it.  He also help with any issues we had.  3 hours later we had our work was complete and we now have the cutest homemade winter decorations.   I would definitely recommend one of these classes. It was such a fun time!



 



Wisconsin Weekend

This past weekend I headed up to Green Bay, Wi with Kev and his parents.  Kev's dad grew up in the north western part of the state so Kev has always been a giant Green Bay Packer's fan.  He even has a super sized Brett Favre picture over our mantel.  Ever since I've know Kevin his dream has been to see the Packer's play in their home stadium. This also knocks  #9 off my 30 for 30 list.

It was quite the day of travel to get to Green Bay.  We started off by driving to the Charlotte airport.  From there we flew to Chicago and after a short layover made our way to Milwaukee.  There we picked up a rental car and drove the final 2 hours to Green Bay.



Here are some pics from our drive through Milwaukee.  Such a beautiful city! 
I would love to explore it more!

 

If you've never been, Green Bay is definitely a sports town.  Everything in it centers around the Packers!

Even the straws at McDonalds supported the Pack!

And all the cabs showed their Packer pride



On our first night we had dinner at Sidelines Grill.  A restaurant directly across from the stadium.  The food was good and it was neat to see so many Packer's fans.  It was here that I tried my first cheese curd.  They are amazing!

The next morning it was game day and the whole town was ready to go super early.  After a warm breakfast at Denny's we made the drive to the stadium and I faced the true cold of Wisconsin for the first time!  Burrrr!  If you are a southern native like myself it is unlike anything you've ever felt before!

 

Our seats were on the 3rd row!  I could almost touch Clay Matthews!

Me and the Packer's most memorable fan St. Vince.  I happened to be sitting right behind him!

 



Even though the Pack lost it was still a neat experience.  Kev had the time of his life and I was so happy to see him so excited.

The next morning it was time to head back to NC.  After seeing some snow we were on our way.  Wisconsin was a beautiful place!  Next time we might visit in the summer though :-)

 

GO PACK GO!

 



XOXO Courtney

6. See Taylor Swift in Concert

Oh Hey Tay Tay.....My experience at the Red Tour

So being this is one of my first posts I should probably introduce you to an important fact about myself.  I have a completely shameless obsession with Taylor Swift.  I know what your thinking "Isn't 23 a little old to be a giant T. Swift fan?" ...and to that I will answer you with absolutely not!  I have adored Taylor since her first album came out when I was in 10th grade.  With this said you will probably be surprised when I tell you that I have never been to one of her concerts. "Gasp"  Unfortunately every time she came through NC I was tied down with something like college or work. So when I saw in January that she would be in Greensboro this September I joined her fan club  and anxiously awaited the presale.  Unfortunately when the tickets went on sale I was unable to get any at the under $100 price level.  I was Crushed!!!

Months passed and eventually September rolled around.  I called local radio stations 100's of times trying to win tickets with absolutely no luck.  When the day of the concert came I moped around work knowing that I would not be in the coliseum that night.  That afternoon I decided to give Ticketmaster one more go and search for tickets.  To my astonishment 2 seats came up for $43 a piece!!!!  How lucky did I get! 

That night my fiancé, Kevin and I headed to the Greensboro Coliseum for what turned out to be the greatest concert of my life....



While originally I thought I was just Taylor and Ed Sherren on the tour I was pleasantly surprised with their opener Casey James.  He had a really good country pop sound and he had all the girls screaming.

Following Casey was Ed Sheeren!  I wasn't quite sure about him on The Red Tour but he was amazing.  Before the show I only knew one song of his but I can now say with confidence that all his music is legit.  He played as a one man band and mixed pitch perfect vocals with reggae type rap.  While I'm not quite sure that Taylor's younger fans and their parents enjoyed him, I give him the Courtney Seal of Approval.

Finally it was time for the Queen herself.  From the start of her set everything from the stage setting to the costume changes were completely flawless.  She look perfect and her vocals could not have been any better.  I even caught my "non-Taylor Swift loving" fiancé clapping along.  I mean who could hate of T-Swift.

Over all the show was nothing short of amazing.  It was a true Taylor Swift Miracle.

There goes #6 on my 30 for 30 list



 

8. Go to NYC

Courtney and Sara Take New York

So a couple of months ago I made my 30 for 30 list and the first thing I was able to mark off was to take a trip to NYC.   This is a trip that I have dreamed about since I was little and when one of my friends, Sara, approached me I jumped at the chance to go.  On August 24, 2013 we boarded a flight out of Charlotte and the two small town girls were on their way to the big city.

After about a 1hour and 30 minute flight we arrived at JFK.  We are all about saving money so we took the Air Tran to Jamaica Station  and then took the subway all the way to 42nd Street Time Square.  It also took an hour and thirty minutes but it only cost $7.

Once we emerged from the underground dungeon, some people call the subway we walked to our hotel.  Thank goodness for Google walking maps or else we would have been doomed.  After a few wrong turns we arrived at our home for the next 4 nights, Hotel Carter. 

Hotel Carter is quite an interesting place.  I'm pretty sure it is the cheapest hotel in Time Square only costing us about $100 per night.   I had read before our trip that all the rooms past the 11th floor had been recently remolded so Sara easily talked the young man at check-in into giving us the highest one available so 22nd floor it was.  If you are looking for a top notch place to stay Hotel Carter IS NOT FOR YOU!!! But if you are like us and are essentially just looking  for a clean, safe place to sleep, because really it's New York people who wants to spend time in their room when these so much to see, then check it out.

After a speedy check inn we hit the streets,

First Stop Central Park

 

 



Fellow Gossip Girl Fans this is where Chuck and Blaire got married on the series finale

 

 



After Central Park we walked around the Upper East Side




While walking down 5th avenue I was nearly trampled by a swarm of preteen girls... One direction drove by and it was chaos!!!!

And Ended the Evening in Time Square

The next day we woke up early and cashed in our vouchers for the tour we had bought before our trip.  The company we went through was City-Sights and I would definitely recommend then to first time NYC travelers.  The pass we purchased gave us 48 hours worth of access to their hop-on-hop-off double decker bus tour, a harbor cruise and a ticket to the empire state building.

The first thing we did was the downtown bus tour:  Here we went from Time Square all the way through Lower Manhattan seeing things like Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy, China Town and Wall Street.

 

 



After that we went to the Cake Boss Café (hopefully you are familiar with the TLC Show). 

The best cupcake I've ever had!..and I've had a lot of cupcakes



Next it was on to The Statin Island Ferry.  The ferry is free and runs from Wall Street to Statin Island offering great views of lower Manhattan.

The next morning we headed out the Harbor Cruise: Here we saw things like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and The Brooklyn Bridge

 

 

 

Our 48 hour bus tour passes were still active so we then took the Brooklyn Tour.  Brooklyn is actually the most populated to the 5 boroughs. 

That evening we headed to The Empire State Building



 

 

 





 The next morning we Started off in the Upper West Side:  This day was saved for some museum and shopping action

Serendipity 3 Frozen Hot Chocolate, Made Famous by the Movie

 

The New York City Museum, used as the school from Gossip Girl

Did My Best Blaire Waldorf Impression at the MET

Got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery from Sex and the City



That Night we finally got a picture together

That's the Problem with traveling as a pair, one pic in 5 days lol

 

 



 

On our final morning we went to the Today Show









 

 

After that it was back to the subway and back to good old NC.  It was a total world wind of a trip.

 

XOXO Courtney