Category: Life

Here, There and Everywhere

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The winter blues are real and I caught a really bad case of them in February. I was cold and tired of being cold. As a result, I neglected writing. All I wanted to do was get out of town, and get out of town I did. In the matter of five weeks I went to New York, Chicago, Austin and Naples, Florida. It was exactly what I needed. Once I got home I was refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. My focus is back 100% and I can’t wait to share amazing new content with you.

For now, I am going to share some travel pictures. Enjoy!

Until next time (I PROMISE it won’t be another two and a half months!)

xoxo
Blair

New York: 

16 Handles
Dinner at The Smith
Dinner at The Smith
Milk Bar
Goodbye New York!

Austin:

Lunch at Bangers
Mimosas at Olivia
Breakfast at Olivia
Snowball Food Truck
Street Sign on South Congress
Street Art

Naples, Florida: 

Flying in to Fort Myers
Lunch at Campiello
Turtle Bay Club
The Ritz Carlton Naples
The Ritz Carlton Naples

 

Valentine’s Day, My Way

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I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded but, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. A made up Hallmark holiday filled with pink, hearts, and a whole lotta love. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good reason to celebrate. I grew up in a household where every single holiday was celebrated. So much so that I would get holiday related socks for everything. I’m talking Halloween, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day- you name it, I probably have a pair of socks for that holiday (and anyone who has lived with me or one of my sisters knows this to be true as they probably have a collection of their own holiday related socks as well 🙂 ).

It should be no surprise that all I need is a reason to celebrate and I am a happy girl.  But my love of celebrations usually comes at the expense of my husband having to plan said celebrations. This year I started to think- why does all of the planning always have to be on the guy in the relationship? Why does my husband HAVE to plan the day? Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love. So, this year I decided to take matters in to my own hands.

This Valentine’s Day I wanted to plan a day that was stress free for my husband and fun for the both of us. We started the day off with brunch at Spoon and Stable. If you haven’t been to Spoon and Stable for brunch, run, don’t walk there. It is seriously SO good. With your brunch menu, you also get a pastry menu. There are a ton of selections to pick from. You seriously cannot go wrong with any of their pastries. Delish! All of their brunch items are incredible as well. Oh and obviously don’t forget about indulging in a brunch cocktail. They have the most unique cocktails for brunch. I was boring and went with a mimosa but my husband had the Irish coffee. Yum!

Our next stop was The Depot Ice Rink.  My husband is a hockey player and in the five and a half years we have been together we have never been ice skating together. It made me feel like a little kid again. It was so much fun to lace up our skates and get out on the ice.

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After we had eaten and burned some calories, it was time to drink. Minnesota has SO many new breweries so you really can’t go wrong. But one of my favorites is Lakes & Legends Brewing Company. Aside from the beer, which is great, it has the cutest aesthetic. String lights line the ceiling and they recreated a campfire outdoorsy feel inside. So on the coldest of days you can step inside the brewery and feel like you are gathered around the campfire with your best friends playing board games and bags. So fun! After a few beers and a couple rounds of bags (my husband beat me both times- per usual!), our Valentine’s Day had come to an end. It was such an incredible day of laughs and love.

I encourage you to do something special for your significant other. It was amazingly fun to mix up the status quo for this Valentine’s Day and be the one surprising, not being the one who was surprised.

Until next time.

xoxo
Blair

Follow me on Instagram- @bewithblair

Wedding Bells

Published on by BlairLeave a comment

These past few weeks engagement news has taken over my Instagram and Facebook feeds. ‘Tis the season for shiny blingy rings to make their way on to girls ring fingers. I LOVE seeing all of the engagement news because getting engaged and planning a wedding was truly one of the most fun times I have had to date. If you are like me and are as Type A as they come you have already read every “top 10” list, month-by-month countdown, “best of” vendors, and everything else you can find on the internet to help you plan that perfect day to a T.

But here’s the thing, I wish I would have been told that it wasn’t all fun and games all the time. I only ever read the fun stuff about planning a wedding, never did I read anything that made it seem like this wasn’t supposed to be the most fun thing all of the time. So I want to share a few things I wish I would have known while I was planning a wedding. This is a very honest post about my experience planning my most favorite day of my life.

First, no one prepares or warns you for how stressful this exciting time can be. Real talk, there will probably be tears somewhere along the way and they will not be happy tears. Personally, I was naïve going in to the wedding planning process and wish someone had prepared me or at least warned me that some stressful times were ahead.  Putting aside the obvious of setting a budget, finding vendors or sticking to your budget (because if you haven’t been told this already– you will probably go over it any way), the stress is inevitable when planning the day that you begin your lives as a married couple.

Second, there will be A LOT of opinions. When I say a lot of opinions, I mean A LOT OF FRIGGEN OPINIONS. From the people that my husband work with telling him “what are you doing getting married?! why would you do that?!” to others telling you that they have the BEST vendors that you have to use or asking WHY you would do something a certain way, everyone feels like they know what’s best. But guess what, this is the one weekend that it will be all about you two as a couple. This is truly the start of your life together no matter how long you have been together because now you have the new title of husband and wife, or wife and wife, or husband and husband.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying completely disregard the opinions. But it is definitely a balancing act between making everyone involved happy and staying true to who you are as a couple and what will make you two happy. Be prepared to balance.

Third, your life is going to become consumed with wedding planning. Leading up to the big day I had multiple dreams about our table linens… who dreams about table linens!? Brides to be dream about table linens, that’s who. And if you are laughing at that thought right now, just you wait… it will happen to you. 🙂

But just as fast as your life is consumed by the details, you have to cut it off and take a step back. The BEST advice that we got from one of our very best friends was to cut it off before the wedding. Give yourself a deadline where you and your fiancé agree you will be done talking anything and everything wedding. We got married on a Sunday so we decided that the Wednesday before, we would be done chatting about anything and everything wedding. We had planned our hearts out and nothing we were going to say or do 4 days before the wedding was going to change that. CUT IT OFF!

Fourth, your partner is your safe haven. It is SO easy to get caught up in all of the glitz, glam and details of planning a wedding but don’t for a second forget why you are planning a wedding in the first place. You found your one true love who you want to spend the rest of your life with. Don’t forget to make the day about the two of you, because it is quite easy to do.

Fifth, and finally, HAVE FUN!!!!! There were so many times that I felt like it was a job to plan the wedding because THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO!!!! I looked at my husband multiple times and said “should we just go to the courthouse?” The details are endless and the planning is non-stop but looking back at it I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It really was the most fun 14 months of my life planning our wedding.Our wedding day was everything I could have ever imagined. It was like a dream, so even though it involves a little stress, some tears, and a whole lot of planning- it is all totally and completely worth it in the end.

Enjoy yourself during this time. Have fun and congratulations!!!!!!

Until next time!!

xoxo

Blair

Follow me on Instagram @bewithblair

 

Bonjour Winter and Bonjour to You!

Published on by Blair1 Comment

Bonjour winter! Winter is finally here and I could not be more excited. This Sundry sweatshirt was the obvious pick for the first day it actually felt like winter with snow on the ground and beautiful snow covered trees.

More importantly, not only am I saying bonjour to winter, but I am also saying bonjour to you and this blog! You may be thinking, oh no, another blog… I have to say I had that thought initially too. I have been procrastinating writing my first post because I kept thinking whether people really wanted to (or will) read another blog. But then, with a little…ok maybe big… push from my husband I decided to bite the bullet and just post already. For me, this blog is not about other people reading it but it is about having a creative outlet. Don’t get me wrong, I would love if I created a following but most importantly I want to do this for me. So who am I? IMG_2641

My name is Blair and I live in Minnesota with my husband and dog Elle. I recently graduated law school and passed the bar in the fall. After being in school for so many years I started to get a little restless this fall and winter when I was getting used to the same day to day routine of waking up, going to work and coming home. Now, I love my day to day routine but I needed a little something more in my life. Something for me. So voila, Be with Blair was born. So, the million dollar question, what will this blog be about?

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This blog is going to be a mix of fashion, exercise, food, travel, and life. I am no expert on any of these topics but I LOVE all of them. I will try any health trend once to see if it works. I will sweat my way through any new workout class. I will try a fashion trend and hope I won’t look back and cringe. I literally can’t stand spending tons of money on one article of clothing so I hope to give some inspiration on how to create affordable yet fashionable looks.  I try and cook at least 4 times a week so I will share some recipes that will make your week a little easier. And last but certainly not least, I absolutely LOVE traveling with my husband so I will post about anywhere we go. So basically, this blog will follow me and my journey through life. IMG_2634

I have no idea what this blog will become or what direction it will go but I am hoping you will Be With Blair on this fun and new journey.

Until next time!

xoxo

BlairIMG_2628 Outfit credits:Sundry, Old H&M Black Jeans but similar ones here->H&M Black Jeans, Old Sorel Boots but similar ones here->Sorel Boots

Instagram- @bewithblair