Dupont & Occoquan Weekend

This past weekend was a great one! I really can't tell you how much I appreciate weekends. Work has been wearing on me and while I also worked most of the weekend [but on After Sunset jewelry!] I also had the chance to have a little fun :)

Saturday started off with a Metro trip into DC for the day. I used to take the Metro into work everyday for my first job out of college [and one of the best jobs I've had yet!] There's something about traveling alone in busy cities that I just love so much. The people watching, the chance to just chill out and listen to music...it's just nice for a change!

So, I put on my teal skinnies, grabbed my Metro SmarTrip card, and jumped on the train to meet up with Raquel! I just adore her and we always have a blast when we meet up! Delicious food and shopping are always involved. You can tell we are bloggers :)

We ended up on the same train and met up in Dupont Circle. Dupont is a fun little neighborhood in DC full of cute shops and eateries. The Metro station there also has the longest escalator. Note to tourists: If you are going to stand instead of walk, move to the right!

Yep, straight up into the sky!

We started off at Cosi for some yummy lunch outside. I got the turkey & brie sandwich... yum!

We chatted, caught up, and talked about Vampire Diaries. The usual :)

Then, we had to grab fro yo because that's just what Raquel and I do when we get together, ha. The place we went to was really not worth mentioning. They had more of a sorbet than fro yo and it kind of started to melt right away. It was tasty though, so it hit the spot.

We took our fro yo and headed across the street to one of Raquel's favorite little boutiques, Lou Lou.

DC ladies - if you love jewelry [like I do!] you must head on over to this adorable shop. It is filled to the brim with the cutest designs and organized by color. Perfect, right?

I scored these bad boys:

Do the pair on the right match my blog perfectly, or what? :) So sunsetty!

Raquel and I had a blast. Be sure to go say "hi" if you haven't already!

Here we are outside of Lou Lou:

Later, I took my dad out to dinner for his birthday [which was on Wednesday!]

There's an old, little town down the road from my house called Occoquan that's right on the Potomac River and they have a delicious restaurant on the water, Madigan's.

Fun moment for me: As our waitress walked up to greet us, before she even told us her name, she said, "I love your necklace!" It happened to be one of the new designs I've been working on for After Sunset and it pretty much just made my night. She was the sweetest and who knows... maybe she'll be rocking an After Sunset piece soon ;)

Our meal there was amazing. I had to go with the coconut crusted Mahi with a pina colada sauce and my dad got the Rib-eye.

'Twas amazing. So was the crab dip that we got as an appetizer. Go big or go home, right?

I'm grateful for all the dad/daughter dates we've been able to have since I've been back on the East Coast and since my Mom passed away. We sure miss her.

It was a productive weekend but there's always more to do so it will be a busy week!

I am getting really, really excited to share my new After Sunset designs with you all!

[If you follow me on Instagram, you already got a sneak peak! @chelseasunset]

What did you do this weekend? :)

Blogger Blitz DC

It’s finally time to do a re-cap of the fabulous blogger meet-up I went to this past weekend! Blogger Blitz DC was organized by the fabulous Alison over at Long Distance Loving! She made snazzy name tags and even a directory with everyone’s pictures, Twitter handles, and blog addresses!

Here was my OOTN, in case you didn’t already see it on Twitter!
I bought those boots months ago and finally took a picture in them. LOVE them!

We all met up that evening at a posh little spot in DC called Urbana. Whitney, Erica, and I met up and drove over together. Good thing we did because parking in DC was scarce, Metro was apparently horrendous, oh and also because I just adore the two of those girls :) Anyway, once we got to Urbana everyone mixed, mingled, and talked about all sorts of fun things like our blogs {duh}, where we grew up, and our NYE plans. {So excited to finally spill the news on what I’ll be doing… but you’ll have to keep waiting! Although some of you already know…}

I got to be reunited with some of my in-real-life friends, finally met some bloggers I’ve been wanting to meet for a long time now {shout out to Ashley!}, and met many new bloggers whose blogs I now adore!

Ashlyn. Raquel. Whitney. Me. Ashley.

Oh, and while we were at the meet-up, Alison gave away TWO beautiful Spike the Punch necklaces. Whit and Ashley were the lucky winners :) Maybe they passed a little of their luck onto me for the future?

Shannon. Me. Whitney.

The two hours flew by! I wish I had the chance to chat with every single blogger that was there, but sadly, I didn’t. Which means we’ll all just have to get together again soon, right? :)

The blogging community is truly such an amazing thing and it is a huge blessing in my life. At first it started out as a place for me to write, grew into me having conversations via email with other bloggers, then chatting through Twitter, and now I even get to meet bloggers in real life! I’ve met ladies who I KNOW are going to be life-long friends and there are still many of you who I still want to {and better!} meet one day :) Another great thing is meeting bloggers all over the country {and world} so if you’re ever in their city, you can plan something together {right, Jenna?}

So, DC bloggers – let’s start going on some blates! Seriously.
You never know… we could become new best friends :)

Again, I’m so glad to have met so many of you! It’s amazing to see how many bloggers are in the area. Thank you, Alison for putting this all together! Your creativity and extra, little touches never go unnoticed!

By the way, it’s the last weekend before Christmas! I should probably start shopping, huh?

p.s. last two pictures c/o Raquel. Can you imagine every one of us trying to take pictures? I decided I’d borrow :)

My First-Ever Blate

This weekend I went on my first-ever BLATE!! {aka blog-date!} I’m so excited to be back in the DC area so whenever I “meet” fellow DC bloggers, it pretty much makes my day. However, Raquel and I have been following each other’s blogs since before I moved :) We’ve been wanting to meet up since I’ve been back in the area and finally, this weekend we did! Raquel blogs over at Dream Out Loud, so, if you haven’t yet, go pay her a visit and say hi!

We met downtown in DC and started our blate off with lunch at Five Guys! Yum :) Five Guys started in Virginia so it’s always been a favorite local spot when you’re in the mood for something greasy!

Is she the cutest thing or what? So, while we were ordering food and gabbing away we realized that, sure enough, we were wearing the SAME nail polish! Get out of town, right?

See? True story. Great minds think alike :) Or, great bloggers perhaps?

After lunch, we did some shopping at stores like F21, H&M, and Zara {another first for me}. We were far too overwhelmed with the 3-story F21 to take any pictures but I promise you, we both walked away with some cute purchases after the shopping madness! The weather was absolutely perfect so we decided to just walk around and enjoy the beautiful city!

That church was built in the 1700’s. What a beauty!

Then, we ventured over to Chinatown :)

After about ten tries at getting a picture of the two of us with the archway, this was the best one. Please pardon the hair all astray :) It was a breezy day in the District!

We knew the weather was still too perfect to end the evening there, so we chowed down on some tasty fro-yo! I tried the pumpkin flavor and it was delish!

We were pretty tired from all the walking so, we found ourselves a nice place to relax – Ford’s Theatre {where President Lincoln was shot}

We walked back to the Metro station where we said our goodbyes {but, not for long hopefully!}

I’ve seen other “blaters” say it too – blogger turned real life friends are the greatest! It’s such a cool and unique thing to get to know someone through their blog and then as soon as you meet, you just click instantly!

Raquel is such a sweet girl {with killer fashion sense, might I add!} I had so much fun on our blate and can’t wait for the next one!

Have you gone on a blate yet?