SHE'S GRADUATED!

This week, my family and I traveled four long hours to visit my sister, but this was a very special visit. After four long years of University, Sarah has finally graduated...with a pharmacy degree! We had lots to attend, from a cocktail party, to a morning brunch, to the actual convocation, but it was so much fun to celebrate her massive accomplishment!

Not only has my sister graduated, but she has won awards and landed an extremely prestigious residency on the other end of the country. School began her adventure, but it is far from over! I know that she will continue to make her mark on the world and prove herself over and over again. I am so lucky to have such a beautiful and brilliant woman to look up to. As she walked across the stage to receive her degree, I was so proud, not only of her achievement, but because I am her sister. It was a crazy busy three days, but so worth the trip to be there, cheering her on. She deserved every minute of it.

Congratulations Sarah! You did it! And I am so incredibly proud! I love you!

EXPECTO PATRONUM!

I have always loved Harry Potter. From the moment my eight year old eyes watched the very first movie, I was enchanted. The characters, the imagination, the stories that came from J.K. Rowling's mind inspired me to one day write my very own novels.

Twelve years later, I still love the stories and the characters, but now I appreciate the imagination and work that went into every inch of the books and films. I have seen almost every Harry Potter movie, but up until this year I had only read one of the books. So, seeing as England is the home of Harry Potter, I decided to spend my summer reading all of the books and re-watching all of the movies. 

That brings us to today. While relaxing on a Saturday afternoon, my mother came into the living room with the newspaper article above. This gives all the details of the Harry Potter studio tour available in London. Naturally, I began to freak out and may have even teared up a bit, completely unable to even read the entire article. I did a bit more research and found that they will be doing the tours when we arrive in September! The tours are reasonably priced and completely magical! My mum knew I wanted to do this badly and said that while it would be fun, she is completely clueless when it comes to this enchanted world. So, now she is in on my challenge and while she does not have time to read all the books, we will be watching all of the movies together. That way, when we walk together down Diagon Alley, she will understand and be able to share in my excitement.

I could not be more excited. This trip gets better by the day and now a story that inspired me at the age of eight will become a bit more of a reality! We will not be booking our tickets for the tour yet, because we still need to finalize dates, but it's happening soon!!

SIGNED, SEALED...NOW TO DELIVER!

Today, I finished my going away party invitations! I know I`m a little ahead of myself, seeing as the party is not for another four months! That said, I did not want to have to mail them all and I will be seeing my extended family very soon, so I decided to try and be proactive.
I am slightly in love with these invitations! I wanted my party to be British themed, but with a bit of a twist and this vintage style is exactly what I was going for! I purchased them on Etsy from a store called DesignsbyNicolina. Not only did she edit it exactly for my needs, but she was so sweet to deal with! I am beyond pleased with the outcome (and they were so reasonably priced!)
It was slightly bittersweet to put them all together. First of all I love party planning, so I refused to let anyone else plan my party. Plus, I`m excited to be surrounded by my very large extended family and friends, but at the same time it will be a day filled with smiles and tears because no one wants to see me leave. That said, I was not allowed to call it a good-bye party, because no one will be saying good-bye. I am not leaving forever. I have four months left, so I will enjoy it while I can!
I just thought I would give you all a little peek at what`s to come! There is much more to do and I`m hoping to do a little vlog when I`m deeper into the planning. For now, this is what I`ve done...and I love it!