I think the title of ‘wrap up’ for this blog post perfectly sums up my lovely weekend with the Blond Squad. I just want to wrap up these incredible women in a big hug. And I want to wrap up my memories of our time together. Because having wonderful women who lift you up is a gift! And what do you do with a gift? Wrap it up!
If you aren’t familiar with the Blond Squad, here are the other ladies:
Kathrine from Kathrine Eldridge
Jill from Doused in Pink
Andrea from Living on Cloud Nine
Caroline from The Petite Fashionista
They are all fabulous and I hope you are following their blogs and instagrams. We have done quite a few blog collaborations and gotten together a few times as well. We’ve been planning this weekend together for a few months. The hardest part is just finding a few days when we are all available.
We had discussed meeting in Chicago again when Andrea kindly offered to host us for the weekend at her home in Indiana. And if you have followed Andrea for any length of time you’ve undoubtedly seen photos of her beautiful front porch, pool, and back patio. I don’t think we all said, “Yes!” fast enough.
Here is all the super fun details of our Blond Squad weekend together:
Friday
Friday morning bright and early I drove over to Kathrine’s house. She kindly volunteered to drive. Thank goodness because I get kind of anxious driving downtown! We met Jill and Caroline downtown and then it was off to Indiana!
When we got there, Andrea had an incredible spread for lunch. She had a lovely charcuterie board from Graze by Erica as well as delicious nibbles she made. Let’s just say I left with many new recipes to add to my recipe box.
There were beautiful bouquets of flowers from Farm Grown Flowers everywhere. Aren’t the colors so pretty?
Andrea also had these sweet gift bags that she put together for each of us. They were filled to the brim with goodies from local small businesses and other sponsored products.
Want a little peek? Here is what she packed inside:
- Beach towels and beach powder from Confetti Betti
- Custom Blond Squad candles (!) from Moondance Botanicals
- Chocolate covered pretzels from Pretzee Co Pretzels
- Soaps from Princess City Soaps
- Candles and hand cream from Thymes Fragrances
- Heels from Teddy Blake
We also received some other goodies we’ve been highlighting on reels over the past week or two.
After lunch we enjoyed some time by the pool and had fun making a reel with our Cabana Life dresses and personalized towels from Pontoon Girl.
After getting ready, we went to Artisan, a restaurant nearby. The food was incredible and they had light up menus that were fun!
After dinner, we went back to Andrea’s home and had fun in our Cozy Earth pajamas and Pantuss slippers in Andrea’s bunk room. I actually slept in mine and they are so soft and comfortable!
Saturday
The next morning after enjoying a delicious breakfast of Guilt Free Donuts while in our Emi & Kay loungewear, we headed to Saint Joseph, Michigan. We walked a bit through the market there with the beautiful chalk art and enjoyed lunch at Silver Beach Pizza. Yummy! It was so good and I got some good ideas for Matt to try and recreate in his pizza oven.
Afterwards we walked along the water and stopped by a few shops.
Then we headed south to Journey Man Distillery. We even did a little bit of gambling at the Blue Chip Casino. Well, I watched because it fascinating learning about Black Jack! Afterwards we headed back for some snacks and key lime pie and fun time in the pool!
If you saw my stories, you may have seen our funny smoke alarm issue around 11. How many blonds does it take to change a smoke alarm battery? Haha! But we did get it figured out!
Sunday
Sadly Sunday was our last day so we enjoyed some delicious quiche and then headed out, our hearts full, with lots of promises to meet up again in fall.
