Weekend Highlights

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We definitely had no idea what we were in for when we sent in our RSVP for an old family friend’s wedding. The ceremony was at Epiphany Church and was standing room only. We discovered there were 1200 guests and 17 buses to shuttle us all from the church to the cocktail and reception venues, which were the most glorious houses I’ve ever seen in my life. Holy hell. We were greeted by Asian drummers, trays and trays of champagne, cirque de soliel type dancers and performers, an ice bar literally made of ice serving all kinds of shots and martinis and about 10 different food stations throughout the premises. Now that was an event. I wish pictures could do it justice, but they really couldn’t. Regardless, you can check out the set on my Flickr here. Congratulations to the lovely bride and groom!

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Lovable Friday!

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1. Congratulations to Adri & Jose!
1. Congratulations to Adri & Jose!

I’d like to start off today’s Lovable Friday with a personal bit of love aimed directly at my amazing friends, Adri & Jose! Not only did they just close on their first home this week but they found out they will be expecting a little one!!! These two are going to make great parents and I am beyond excited for them both. Squee! :)

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Weekend Highlights: Valentine’s Day Edition

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I’m sorry this post came so late – we had a really busy (but wonderful) weekend and we didn’t have today off like the majority of you lucky people! Our Valentine’s Day was amazing though. Completely low-key in traditional Sanchez style, but very romantic and special.

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Happy birthday Melificent!

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Melificent is a year old!

Although all my major plans fell through: no one submitted any videos (sad face), the hubs is backed up & doesn’t have time to work on a new layout for me (boo) and things have just gotten too complicated for an anniversary photoshoot, I still didn’t want my one year anniversary to come and go without any mention.

When I started this blog, it was mainly out of Livejournal withdrawals. I needed somewhere, something to write my ideas, thoughts and just general rants in. I had spent too many years with a blog and felt empty without one. I never imagined so many people would be reading about my life and my interests, much less following it religiously as some of you have admitted to doing. I also thought the idea of posting daily was really daunting, I figured it would drain me and I would eventually get sick of it and just give up. Never ever would I have thought that it would be anything but a chore. Granted, I’ve had my moments where life catches up to me and I can’t post regularly, but those have been far and few between. I genuinely love my blog and look forward to writing posts to share with all of you.

My first year has been more than I could ever dream, and I hope Melificent only continues to grow. I have a feeling my second year will be amazing – I have a lot of projects on the horizon and can’t wait to share them all with you here on the blog!

I love you all and want to thank each and every one of my readers for making me a valuable member of the blogosphere!

Feel free to share your thoughts & feelings about my blog in the comments!

xoxo

Surprise Spoiler

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So after incessantly guessing what my Valentine’s Day surprise could be, my husband caved and gave it to me last weekend! That’s right, I got my pretty little Fujifilm Instax Mini!!! I am so thrilled. He’s the best hubby ever! Plus, he assures me I have more gifts to open on Valentine’s Day so I didn’t spoil it completely. ;)

I’ve started to play with it a little, but I’m really excited to put it to use at some of the photoshoots the hubs and I will be doing in the next couple of weeks. It definitely gets a lot of attention when I pull it out of my purse but since film is so expensive, I try to tuck it back in there after a couple of shots. It requires a lot of self control ;)

I do hope to have a whole series to share with you once I’ve played with it longer!

What would you like to see me take shots of with my new Instax Mini?

xoxo

Weekend Highlights

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Friday night I braved the Super Bowl traffic and headed up north to Broward to celebrate our good friend, Omar’s birthday. Although the weather was most definitely not cooperating, we managed to have a great time at the always awesome Tarpon Bend. We picked up some yummy burgers and calamari and then danced like fools to their house band (which I always love), Fuse. Definitely going to hire them in the future.  Happy birthday, OG!

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Walk 4 Autism

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I used to work with autistic children when I was younger and it was something that really had an impact on me. Although it was probably one of the most challenging jobs I have ever had, I loved every second of it. At times I would come home scratched, bitten or just flat out exhausted, but I felt like it was all worth it because I was changing and having an effect on the life of a child. Nothing was more exciting than seeing these children I worked with progress, decrease negative behaviors and acquire new skills. Although I no longer work with this population, ultimately my career goal is to once again work with autistic children as a behavior analyst and do everything in my power to help not only the children, but their families.

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I participated in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks in 2008 and was able to raise almost $1000 for the cause with the help of my amazingly generous friends and family. I know it is a very rough economic time, but I have decided to do the walk again this year as Team Melificent. I would love to top last time’s donation, but realistically have set it for lower.

If you wish to make a donation under our team name, please click here.
Any amount will suffice.

Also, I would love it if all my local readers could join our team and walk with us on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at Nova Southeastern University. It is absolutely free to become a team member and it would be really special if we could come together to do something like this. I’ve always wanted to use this blog for good, and this seems like the perfect opportunity.

Thanks everyone!

Nothing is irreversible

Wow what a night!
As promised, here is my “better late than never” post about last night’s LOST party and 2-hour season opener. The first half will focus on the party and then I’ll make sure to put any spoilers or information about the show under a cut so that those who have yet to see the show won’t want my head on a platter. ;)

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The party was a complete success! Almost all of our LOSTie buddies were able to make it and I think it’s safe to say that we all had a great time being little fan girls and boys together. In case you were wondering, that’s my super-duper-I’m-so-excited face in the photo above. We were about to hit play on the DVR.

lost1: Both the hubs and I made Sawyer-iffic fish biscuits thanks to this great recipe. It was really difficult and quite the mission, but I think they turned out pretty decent. And they ended up tasting like animal crackers – nom nom!
2: I made my infamous pumpkin cupcakes (recipe here) with cream cheese frosting. In order to make them Dharma worthy, I added some fun custom flags (template here) with the Dharma logo on one side and the numbers on the other. They were a huge hit!
3: The complete table setup. Plenty of Dharma rations and a little recruit area complete with party favors (Dharma mints) and job titles on labels. Our guests were able to choose what job they would like in the Dharma Initiative. I really enjoyed watching people as they picked their occupations. It was really fun ;)
4: Mini chocolates also were dressed in Dharma gear. The remainder are now at my office – they are dangerous to have laying around the house.

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Weekend Highlights

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This weekend was all about birthdays! On Friday night, we celebrated my friend (& co-worker’s) birthday by getting together for happy hour at Gatsby’s. I got to spend time with people I hadn’t seen in a long time and missed a whole lot and also got to drink $2 Blue Moon’s. I was a happy camper! We then moved the party to the Kendall Ale House for a couple more beers and good times. I’m pretty sure the party kept moving along, but we got off the train after the Ale House (ah, being old).

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Weekend Highlights

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I am not a homebody. I love to be out doing cool stuff with cool people. I, however, do not like spending vast amounts of money when doing so. This is why I was super happy when I found out that there was going to be a tweet up at Miami Beach’s 8 oz. Burger Bar with an open bar, free appetizers and a Rock Band competition. How fun is that? I can vouch it was tons. The place was slammed, but the bartenders were really great about handing out the free drinks and the appetizers were being passed around like hot cakes. Plus, it helps that I was with great company. I hope they do more of these – totally loved the idea and the freebies! We finished the night at a friends’ house where we caught up with each other, drank and had a delicious dinner. Perfect start to the weekend!

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