July 29th is legen- wait for it- dary!

July 29th many awesome earth shattering things happened on this day.

1981 Prince Charles weds Lady Diana Spencer
2000 Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt got married.
2010 Jersey Shore comes back for Season! Snooki I've missed you!!

1987 Ben & Jerry's agreed on their newest flavor: Cherry Garcia. 8 years later that August, I was at Ski Camp (in the summer, i know. we rollerbladed) in Stowe, VT. Jerry Garcia passed away that week, which led to the grounds playing the Grateful Dead the entire week. I've been a closet dead head ever since. Adding on to the coolness of this story, the camp brought us all to Ben & Jerry's Waterbury Headquarters later that day, because they were giving out free Cherry Garcia ice cream cones. Had I known I was going to be a blogger when I grow up- I would have made more of an effort to document this crazy yet awesome day.

1982 A future fabulous blogger was born (spoiler alert.. that's me!). Thanks Debbie Q!!

A Closer Look

Are you a Cosmoholic? YEP. Here's a great read about people buying makeup for maybe more wrong reasons than right. Yes, I read it carefully and have checked myself into Sephora Rehab.
*and yes, I still have 3 huge boxes filled with great products that I will most likely never touch again.

Okay, I'll admit it took me a good 30 seconds of staring at this picture above to realize where the unfortunate product placement was. But when I did... all hell broke lose with the giggles.

Speaking of Giggles. It took me way too long to start watching Tosh.0. Me and the hubby have finally caught up on most of them, and let me tell you.... its the greatest comedy show to hit Comedy Central since Chappelle Show. Daniel Tosh is a deliciously sarcastically funny host. New episodes are every Wednesday at 10pm on Comedy Central.

Amanda Bynes has unretired. Poo. Well... unless she's coming back to do "What I Like About You" with Jennie Garth. Because I admittedly watched that show.

Sunday nights are already stressing out my DVR. Mad Men is back, True Blood is rocking this season, and all of a sudden-- TBS' My Boys shows up at 10pm on Sundays. AAHHHHHHH! I know, tough problems.

Bling up your Summer!

Doesn't it feel like Summer is almost over? Maybe its just me. But I can already cringe thinking that snow storms are around the corner. Something that helped get me over my crazy thoughts about snow and help keep the dream of summer alive? A gift in the mail from Tiffany & Co!

They sent me this lovely Charm from their new Tiffany & Co.'s Summer Travel Charms collection.

Commemorating one's favorite warm-weathered hobbies and activities in the Greater Boston Area, there are so many cute things to choose from. A Sterling Silver Scooter Charm with Tiffany Blue Enamel Finish (seen above), a Sterling Silver Flip Flop charm -- an ode to Cape Cod and hot pink pedicures, a Sailboat Charm -- the classic symbol of sunny summer days spent on the oceans of the Cape or Maine.

Plus there is a beautiful Tiffany Sea Shore Charm bracelet that will remind you of the beach each time you wear it.

Call your local Tiffany & Co for more information. Or stop by the Copley Place Tiffany & Co next time you hit up Newbury Street or Boylston for some shopping, as well as the Chestnut Hil & Natick Collection stores... And thank you again! I cannot wait to put my charm on a necklace. Tiffany Blue always makes Julie Q look much more sunkissed than bronzer ever could.

The Gennylite Baby Shower!

The first reaction L-lo and I had after some screams was 'We have to throw you a baby shower' back in the wintertime when Gennylite told us they were going to have a baby!

Since their families are both out of state, we figured it'd be the perfect event to have the local friends as well as her sisters who came in for the festivities.

We had it on a hot and humid Saturday in July.. and it was girls only!

There were yummy treats to eat.. many cocktails and mocktails.

My mom made an amazing Baked Macaroni & Cheese that was a hit, as well as the Rice & Chicken Salad I made in the last post.L-lo made these amazing chocolate covered pretzel favors! Very impressive.
The game we played was 'The Price is Right'. Me and L-lo picked up a list of 'new mommy necessities' at Target and handed each of the guests a card. Each time we held up an item, the crowd would write down how much they thought the item cost. At the end of the game, the person who's list comes the closest to the receipt receives a fabulous prize! (which they then dedicate to the new mom-to-be!!)

Time to open the presents! The Baby Bjorn couple on the box seemed totally sketchy so we had to get a close up of it. The girls said she didn't look as if she just gave birth to that baby..

Gennylite's son is going to be the best dressed baby in Boston with all the cute outfits we all have been collecting since we found out she was having a boy.

Of course you need to learn your Boston ABC's. I wonder what they have in lieu of 'R'

Last but not least, I can't be a Shower without some delicious cake! We got this at Russo's and it had Strawberries and Whipped Cream in the middle. So awesome.

The happy mom-to-be! One month to go!

The first baby shower out of all our friends was a huge success! When L-lo and I were decorating the house, we got sentimental thinking about all the times we decorated our college apartments for the theme parties we'd have every weekend. And now we're doing it for babies! When did we get so civilized?? :)

Cookin' with Q: Wild Rice & Chicken Salad

Since its been so hot out, its the perfect time to share with you the Wild Rice & Chicken Salad recipe that my mom loves. I made it this weekend for Gennylite's baby shower and it was delish!

Wild Rice & Chicken Salad
Ingredients: (i made this for the Shower so you can probably use a smaller amount)
2 boxes Wild Rice w/Seasonings, 2-3 boneless chicken breasts, 1 lemon, 2 avocados, 1 red pepper, 1 cup sliced almonds

Ingredients for Dressing:
2 garlic cloves (minced), 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, 1/4 rice vinegar, 1/4 veggie oil, salt'n'peppa to taste

Cook rice, and cook chicken. I poached it with garlic and herbs, because I'm classy like that.
I pulled the chicken apart like string cheese. Then I threw it in with the rice.
Then add the lemon and the chopped up red pepper.

Mix up all of the dressing ingredients and throw it in the food processor. Me being an awesome blogger did not capture this via digicam. But I DID put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour to cool before mixing it in with the rest of the salad.

For the candied almonds, throw the almonds on a frying pan with a little bit of butter. Sprinkle some sugar on them and mix it around until it turns a light golden brown. Note: it totally burned the first time I did it, so I had to do it again and make sure not to leave them on for too long. (2 minutes tops). Burnt almonds are no ones friends.

I then went to L-lo's house with the rice mix in one container, the dressing in another, and the candied almonds in a sandwich bag. Right before we served the food, I cut the avocados up into little pieces and mixed all of the ingredients into this pretty serving bowl. This cold salad was perfect for a hot humid day!

Baby Shower post coming soon!! It was SUCH a great time

Currently

Obsessing over Naughty Betty. These brutally honest sayings are showcased on T-Shirts, Paper Goods, Magnets, Greeting Cards, etc. They even have a fun Bridal section- where each Bridesmaid has a shirt meant for her too! I wish I'd thought of all this!!

Pining for all the new shows to come back in September! They've just announced the start dates for all my favorite shows later on that month... but in the meantime, its nice to know that Big Brother, True Blood, Mad Men, Bethenny Getting Married, Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami, Top Chef, My Life on the D-List are there to hold me until September comes. Oh, and can we talk about how I like a Real World cast for the first time in about 6 years? New Orleans cast is like they finally went back to the old school types of people they'd cast.

Surprised that I enjoyed She's Out of Your League. We'd put it off from renting on Apple TV for quite some time because the cast just didn't jump out at me. Finally we watched it this past weekend, and it was actually funny! Granted, I still kept on replacing the cast with what I felt it should include (Seth Rogen & Jonah Hill I usually cast in everything in my head). Definitely a fun rental.

Planning a Baby Shower for one of our best friends, Gennylite, who's expecting her first baby next month!! L-lo and I may or may not have got lost in the baby section of Target, trying to figure out what most of the stuff was, but we've got lots of fun games & things planned and I'll make sure to take lots of pictures this weekend!

Embarrassed that I watched about 5 hours straight of The Hills marathon this past Sunday. Just when I thought I could go on with my life without it, it came back for one final moment. Just in time for it to REALLY be over with. Now we wait for Allie Lutz to get her spin-off. But everytime I see the beauty that is Brodie Jenner, I can't get over the fact that he dates Avril. She's always reminded me of a bratty rhodent. And him? A beautiful work of 5 o'clock shadow.

Drooling over all the treats at Harvard Sweet Boutique! I found their site through a giveaway over at Travel Eat Love's blog.. such cute stuff! Click here to enter the giveaway as well :)

If You Knew Suzy

Its taken me awhile to write a review for Katherine Rosman's book 'If You Knew Suzy'. I'd started it on the plane ride traveling back from a wedding in Buffalo on the Kindle in May. Which by the way, the Kindle is such a fun way to read books now.. (we have the iPad too, but for books? Hands down, Kindle wins)

'If You Knew Suzy' I'd found through a review in People Magazine as a great read for Mother's Day. While its about the loss of a Mother's tough battle to lung cancer, the way Katherine Rosman takes on this subject is to investigate and report about the lovely life her mother led before this terrible disease, by grabbing her moms Filofex and going back and interviewing people from her past to find more about her as a person, not just as the mother she'd known all her life. And with each story she learn about, another stranger would pop up in which she'd have to track down leading to even more great stories and adventures this lady had been on. I'd had no idea it would be such an amazing read.. plus the way Suzy Rosman loved to shop hit a chord with me.

This book is uplifting, sad at some parts, hilarious at many, bittersweet, and really just makes you think about the lasting influence you would like to leave on people. Because this lady certainly left some on me..I wish I could just send someone a copy of mine to read which is probably the only downfall about having a Kindle. Sigh.

You will absolutely love this story. I highly recommend it.

Maine. The Sunshine State.

America, I'd like to thank you for the great weekend we had celebrating the 4th of July in Maine. 2 days of relaxing by the lake thanks to the generous invite from Nals & Gennylite.
I'm such a nice Skipper who help refueled the boys who were hard at work floating around in the lake!

Even though I didn't see The Lake House, I picture this as something similar to it...Dogs on a Dock could be my favorite thing (oh yeah, that's me zooming in on these people while on the boat). Creepster.
I was so stoked to grab a picture of the Mallards, but then I was told they were LOONS. Who woulda thunk.
This immediately made me think of Weekend at Bernies!!!
Gorgeous sunset!
I could get used to waking up to this view every morning.
Next time I think we'll just fly up to Maine to visit them.. Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! And yeah, go visit Maine. Its good times.