Life These Days

Best of...

2011-05-13T21:46:00.002-04:00

I recently came into tickets to the upcoming Hour Detroit Best of 2011 party and it got me thinking - when the heck is the last time I updated this thing with my personal best of's? As I round the corner to May, 2011 I'm proud to say that there are a lot of best of's to list this year. Highlights? I thought you'd never ask.

Best of the gig: I'm still loving my job at Livio Radio. I get to do all of the things I love including PR, events, weird pitches and even a bit of travel to cool industry events like the Consumer Electronics Show, CTIA and of course, New York for press visits. Also, I've had the pleasure of testing out and launching new, cool products for car Internet radio and it's seriously cool.
Best of the friends: my friends are all such talented and focused men and women I feel like a proud family member (which, I suppose they should be referred to at this point)...here are some exciting highlights: one bought a house right next to my office, one just got into MSU's medical school, my sister & friend bought a house, my husband & friend has a hell of a baseball team, another has become a social media go-to and regular speaker at her marketing agency
Best of the home: In addition to looking forward to opening our pool again this summer, I recently spent a whole weekend redecorating the master bedroom along with all of the decorations in the bathroom and kitchen to make things look a bit more spring-like!
Best of the life: It's good. I can't complain. I'm happy and really am looking forward to another beautiful Michigan summer and the adventures it will bring. I'm also promising myself to blog more. It makes me happy.

As for the Hour Best of Detroit party, I'm looking forward to celebrating the city I left Dallas and Denver to be a part of and the very best music, food, shopping and entertainment it has to offer. Feeling left out? My friends at MotorCity Casino Hotel shared some cool offers I'm happy to share with all 5 of my readership - so check it out here, get some tickets and come party with me:

What: Hour Detroit Best of 2011 Party
Code for $25 Off your tickets: FBBOD2011
How to get a discount on a sweet hotel room: http://playm.cc/lnT4pY
Event Hashtag: #BestofDetroit

I'll be sure to post some updates leading up to both this event and the Detroit Social Media Day over the next couple weeks.

More to come,
Nicole

Changes

2010-07-22T21:09:00.008-04:00

After a quick dinner with a great friend, I realized that as many changes as 2009 brought, 2010 has been and incredible year so far. From exciting professional milestones to big home improvements and even travels, this has certainly already been a crazy year. I guess that's what life is about though: changing and continuing to move forward to get the most out of every day. If it isn't it certainly should be.

All things considered, here are some my big changes:

Found a way to make printed programs more interactive by using QR codes and attracted national attention from media and other professional leagues from the success.
Stopped making excuses and started making time to spend with wonderful friends for random nights, adventures, workouts or even lunches. Laughed more. A LOT more.
Hosted a party worthy of the Detroit blogging community at MotorCity Casino Hotel's Amnesia Ultra Lounge in celebration of social media day, where I got to physically see what our over 400 blogger strong social media community looks like in one room (determined, enterprising and excited to name a few).
Found a better way to cope with allergies and started gardening with Mr. NWlife (despite my aversion to pollen, flowers or any other allergic-reaction-inducing plant life).
Made the decision to leave the new amazing friends and colleagues Detroit Red Wings (those really, really great kinds of friends made at work who make plans and keep them) to become the brand manager at Livio Radio.
Found the time to open and use the Yelland house pool.
Convinced Mr. NWlife to (finally) get on a plane and celebrate our second wedding anniversary in Mexico. Had the time of our lives.
Picked up more books for fun, remembered why I love fun reading so much.

Every day I'm inspired by my incredible friends (professionally and personally), technology, art and businesses continuing to thrive in this economy. I have a feeling if this was the first half of 2010, the second is only going to be better.

More to come,
Nicole

Livestrong

2010-04-27T20:18:00.006-04:00

I love working out. Not only because of it's physical benefits, but also because of the opportunity it presents to do some good in my community. Over the past year and a half, this opportunity presented itself through spinning.

Spinning is something I've always liked but it took getting involved in a local fundraiser for Livestrong get me hooked. The Ultimate Cycling Challenge (started by a fantastic group in Grand Rapids) is a 12 or 24 hour event (depending upon your team's stamina and availability) with live entertainment, food, music and dozens of spinning bikes that annually come together to raise money for the Livestrong Foundation.

It's a truly inspiring event, I met both cycling enthusiasts, cancer survivors, cancer patients and families of those fighting cancer. These people share their stories and help put a face to a cause. My team included 3 other women (my sister and two friends Amanda and Cat) who have all been affected by cancer in our lives at some point and had been looking for a way to become more active in our communities - needless to say, we couldn't say no when our friend Katy emailed us about this event.

Team Old School was born. To date, we've participated in 3 events and plan to keep it going. This past year was our first pass at the 24 hour challenge and it was great motivation to get into shape to compete with other teams. I'm hooked.

So now I'm challenging you - how are you getting involved in your community and using your passions to make a difference?

More to come,

Nicole

Catching up

2010-04-24T14:21:00.013-04:00

Now that I'm back from the dead, it seems the most appropriate thing to do is recap the past eight months - in true NWLife style: bullets and photos!

In July, Greg (or for those of you on Twitter @CoachYelland) and I celebrated our first year of marriage in Mackinac Island
After nearly four crazy years, I chose to leave my wonderful friends, coworkers and clients at Airfoil Public Relations for a new job as Social Networking Coordinator with the Detroit Red Wings
In my first month at new the new gig, I not only traveled to training camp with the team in Traverse City, MI but also got the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Sweden with the team where I live blogged from the road.
Feel deeply in love with our new Akita-Chocolate lab mix, Coach.

Made new friends (like the really good kind) at work. Breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Made the best EVER Halloween duo combo with my sister.
Celebrated my birthday tradition by heading to Crossroads Village to see the Christmas lights (I'm a Christmas Eve baby) with great friends.
With the help of Medical Weight Loss Clinics I learned how to eat right for my body and celebrated the loss of 20 pounds and a new beginning.
Took some time for myself during the Olympic break with my best friend from childhood and spent Valentine's Day in NYC for Fashion Week and was inspired by art.
Headed to Grand Rapids for my annual Ultimate Cycling Challenge spinning event with Team Old School where we not only raised money for Livestrong but also managed to clinch the most spirited team award after 24 hours of spinning.
Celebrated the birth of William Louis Urbanik, the son of Nikki and Phil Urbanik - my first friends to have a baby.
Celebrated Coach's first birthday with special doggie cookies from Doodle Dog Bakery.
Adopted and temporarily housed a siamese kitten as a gift to my dad for his 49th birthday.
Started taking boxing lessons and really loving my time at the gym.

This brings us to today. At home, blogging while snuggling up with my puppy (I still call her a pup) waiting for Mr. Y to get home from his baseball tourney and have a date night. There's so much to be thankful for and happy about. This post doesn't come close to capturing it all, but it's a snapshot of my wonderfully charmed life.

More to come,

Nicole

I'm alive

2010-04-24T13:32:00.002-04:00

Hello bloggosphere! I know, I know I'm very guilty of not posting for a long time. The good news is that I have inspiration to post. For the past eight months I've been manning my post at my new gig as the social networking coordinator with the Detroit Red Wings. It's been a whirlwind few months but I really do love it and am inspired every day by bloggers, social media types and becoming even more of a nerd than even I thought I'd ever be.

Not only am I inspired by Wings bloggers, but even my own sister-in-law has started a blog full of deep thoughts and mental deep breaths.

So thanks guys, I'm back from the dead!

Rockin' Robin, Tweet Tweet, Tweet Tweet!

2009-06-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a big fan of the newest social media phenomenons - Twitter the microblog. For those of you who are either new to the service or wondering what's next, I thought I would post my top 5 favorite new tools available to help you measure your effectiveness on the site. With no futher adieu...

1. Twinfluence - Twinfluence is a scientific approach to measuring the influence of Twitter users. This can serve as another set of metrics to help you figure out how successful our client twitter accounts are proving to be in their respective industries. Plus, it’s pretty cool to get your overall rank. It’s hard to say though how valid this information means as we have no way of knowing what it is measured against and exactly what criterion the service is using to rank users.

2. Tweetcloud - Creates a tag cloud of a person’s tweets to give you a bird’s eye view of the type of things they tweet about, this tool allows you to zero out and see which words we are using for our clients most often, look up other users and check what they are writing about or even look to see which users are tweeting most often about a certain word and allow you to follow them from the application. Check it out to see if you’re on message with your tweets.

3. Qwitter – Ever wondered when certain users quit following your client accounts? Qwitter is a nice app that will update you via email whenever someone stops following you. It will even let you know what you tweeted that caused them to stop following you, which could be useful for continuing to grow you following

4. Twitvid – Have a cool client video on your desktop but not on youtube? Never fear, Twitvid is here! It’s just like twitpic, only for video application.

5. Tweepler - Of course our clients want us to follow users, but when it comes to following everyone, sometimes we need to be a bit more choosey and do it quick! Tweepler is a new follower management application that lets you make quick, one click decisions about whether to follow people back or drop them into an ignore pile (out of sight, out of mind). In addition to being able to view recent tweets, Tweepler gives helpful stats about new followers, such as average tweets per day.

If anything, it's fun to see how others are viewing the value of what you are sharing and how you can work to improve in the future. Happy tweeting!

More to come,

Nicole

And they called it - puppy love

2009-06-07T19:01:00.000-04:00

Well, we finally did it folks. My husband Greg and I brought home a puppy today!

She's a 13 week old lab-akita mix and has brown and white coloring. It has been a wait though, due to the poor economy and owners not vaccinating grown parent dogs before bringing puppies to a rescue, potential disease in her litter left us waiting 4 weeks before we could bring her home. Now that we have her home, we're both convinced it was well worth the wait. Considering the things a little dog is bound to teach a newly married couple about ourselves and each other, we decided to name her Coach.

Surprisingly, though Coach has only been home for 3 hours, she's had 8 visitors, several presents, a walk and lots of kisses - better than either of our last birthday! No matter how you slice it, this is going to be one spoiled little dog.

And here's the part I know you logged on for...adorable puppy pictures below...enjoy!

A puppy's life is so tough.

Coach takes a breather from trying to buck off the leash.

I love her speckled legs and curley tail.

My husband, Greg already in love...

Last, but not least, Coach and I share a hug in the livingroom!

More to come,

Nicole

Never gonna give you up!

2009-06-01T17:26:00.000-04:00

These past few months at work, I have become more involved in social media for clients. From helping develop social media strategies, to "tweeting" it's been an adventure. Lately, I've been enjoying updating my own personal vocabulary, which brings us to today's new term: Rickrolling.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Rickrolling is an Internet bait and switch tactic where a person provides a web link that he or she claims is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". When a person clicks on the link and is led to the web page, he or she is said to have been "Rickrolled" (also spelled Rickroll'd).

This most recent emergence of this trending term is shown here with promise of a wheelchair and escalator stunt – this time the user is “Rickrolled” into viewing a keyboarding cat halfway through.

Currently, this trend is taking media by storm – Stephen Colbert rickrolled his viewers and even Adam Sandberg rickrolled his captive audience during this year's MTV Awards.

Okay, so what's my point? Well as it turns out, shocking and sometimes outright silly humor is not only still appreciated but also effective in communication...not to mention, this particular version of humor earned Mr. Astley over 36 million youtube views with two viral campaigns.

So go ahead, give funny a try. You just may start a trend.

More to come,
Nicole

Neither Hair Nor There

2008-11-16T00:21:00.001-05:00

For any regular readers, I may have forgotten to add in one key detail - I cut off all my hair and nixed the blonde. I'm not sure what exactly sure what inspired me to do this, but hey you only live once right?

Before:

After:

The good news is that I don't regret the choice. We'll see how long I stick with it now that I'm trying new stuff.

More to come,
Nicole

Welcome to Miami

2008-11-16T00:05:00.000-05:00

Shortly after coming back from New York, our client let us know that we were on board for Miami Fashion Week in October. Not unlike New York, it was a bit of a whirlwind. But at least this time I didn't break my toe...or rather someone didn't break it for me with their shoes.

The weather was beautiful, the people were odd but the media was bountiful and that's all a gal like me needs.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the week:

The group I worked with for the week, our models on the outside and clients (or, as we were calling each other by the end of the last trip: fashion week family) before it all kicks off:

The Bejeweled swimsuit show at the Setai Hotel

The girls celebrating the close of the week at the Russell Simmons show afterparty.

While a little crazy, this week was another successful venture and a nice burst of warm weather in October!

More to come,
Nicole

Start Spreadin' The News

2008-11-15T23:41:00.001-05:00

I realize my blog is obscenely behind and neglected as of lately. Surprisingly enough my life has become increasingly busier with the wedding behind me (as you're about to read). These past few months have been filled with craziness, laughs and lots of hard work.

Back in September, one of my clients was able to secure a space at New York Fashion Week and after some vigerious follow up, or as most might see it, moderate stalking (and I mean borderline restraining order stalking here) of the New York national media our client determined that they needed a hand. Additionally, my company decided it would be wise to have a presence at an event of this magnitude.

The week was nothing less than a marathon for all participants - from 7 a.m. until 1 a.m. every day for four days my colleagues and I worked the runways. We had incredible success and face time with national media outlets and some really great celebrity sightings (and who doesn't love those?). The cherry on top was staying with the Mizzi family, Margaret and Chris - who were just married in June. These two are some of my favorite people and getting to spend a week with them made it just that much better.

While photos can never truely nor accurately describe the hilarity and awesomeness of the trip I've posed a few below. Hey, what would an NW-Life post be without photos?

My coworker Elin and client, Amanda smile big before the event kicks off in front of the sponsor board

Models on the runway doing a practice run of the show. I always liked these best as they were half ready and had their hair in curlers, some had shoes some didn't. It was just funny to me.

Clients and I share a celeb sighting and photo with Danielle from America's Next Top Model

I was lucky to end the week by having a girl's night with Margaret and the client. Margaret's husband later joined us, because everybody loves chris:)

New York was definately a whirlwind, but it felt great to be in good company and think on my feet for a while too.

More to come,

Nicole

U is for Urbanik, That's Good Enough for Me!

2008-11-15T22:58:00.000-05:00

Shortly After Greg and I came home from our honeymoon, we had more weddings to see! Our friends Nikki and Phil decided to celebrate their bachelorette/bachelor parties and wedding in the same weekend and what a time it was!

Before I bother to describe what a fun time Nikki's bachelorette party was, I must first say that her friends who also attended the celebration had a lot to do with it. What a fun and nice group of people to spend the weekend with. Plus, it was fun to adventure with not one, not two but THREE Nicole's.

The photos below chronicle the fun parts of the night I was able to capture before my camera sadly died (RIP camera of fun...)

The bachelorette, Nikki rocked Elton John glasses along with whatever else we could fit on her dress to appropriately embarass her

All the girls excitedly pose in front of the limo before heading out for a night on the town!

Smiling with Nikki before ending our night on the town in Royal Oak and heading home.

Overall, it was a really great night and as usual, the best part about bachelorette parties is making friends with new people who are already simliar to the bride you love.

Now comes the fun part - the wedding day! The night before, my husband and I went our seporate ways to stay with the betrothen two before their big day. Nikki was such a breezy bride the day of her wedding and they had beautiful weather all day long.

The two were married at Holy Family Church in Grand Blanc and celebrated their reception at the Flint Institute of Music. The reception hall was a really unique choice and offered the couple and guests something different to celebrate the day with. The photos from the day were stolen from my husbands camera (since the recent passing of my own, i still think of it daily) and may not do the beautiful couple and day justice, but here's a taste:

Meet the Urbaniks! Phil and Nikki breathe a sigh of relief once they're really married, the ceremony is complete and they are officially on the party bus

A little background: Nikki's dad is the anchor for ABC12 in Flint and her brother is one of the camera men for the station and Nikki is a sports fanatic. For the grand entrance, her family made a SportsCenter-themed broadcast for the entrance. To make the most of it, the whole bridal party donned eyeblack and Big League Chew, here are some of the bridesmaides having a good laugh

Towards the end of the night, I even stole a photo with one of the groomsmen (okay and he's my husband too)

This was a great weekend and time well spent celebrating with good friends.

More to come,

Nicole

Summer of Love: Officially a Mrs.

2008-08-10T21:39:00.000-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen of Google Blogger: I'm a married lady!

So many amazing things to say about the day, the week leading up to it and the honeymoon. Greg and I were lucky enough to have so many friends travel to Michigan to either be part of the day or just to spend time with us. Big thanks to our big travelers: Martin, Margaret, Chris, Mike, Kasi, Jenny, Bryn and even our local travelers who drove to the great up north.

Since we got married on a Friday, my last day of work that week was Tuesday and I celebrated my two weeks of freedom by picking up Greg's college roommate (and one of our ushers), Mike and his girlfriend, Kasi up from the airport. I've only met Mike a few times before he moved to Virginia and hadn't gotten to meet his girlfriend before so it was really cool getting the know these two a bit better over the week. We had a great time hanging out, going to dinner and playing card games throughout the week.

Of note, they stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Auburn Hills - their toilet had a bidet! I've never seen one before up-close and proceeded to ask ridiculous questions about it for the remainder of their stay.

Mike and Kasi - so glad you two could make it!

The next day, Greg's friend who he met at camp Greylock flew all the way in from South Africa to make the wedding and be our other usher. It was wonderful to finally meet him since I've heard so many nice things and funny stories about him over the years. Since he'd traveled such a long way, and since we have an extra room in our house he stayed with us. Meeting Martin definately confirmed everything kind Greg had said about him over the years with me as with the rest of our friends. Here's a funny picture of Martin Eric (best man) at the wedding, so glad to have met you Martin!

Later on in the week, one of my favorite couples ever made the trip in from New York. Margaret and Chris were just marred in June (scroll down for photos) and are wonderful friends that Greg and both look forward to hanging out with every time they're in town. Margaret and I have known each other since fourth grade, last month I was in her wedding, this month, she's in mine. It was great getting to see so much of these two this summer and they did a bang up job taking photos all day before, during and after our wedding. Here's a photo of Greg, me, Margaret and Chris at the wedding - love you guys!!!

Two of my other favorite ladies, Bryn and Jenny made the trip in from Chicago for our wedding. I've known Jenny since the second grade and Bryn since middle school. They've always been so much fun to hang out with and I was so glad that Jenny was able to be in the wedding and I got to spend some time with my much-missed Bryn. It was also really cool that Greg got a chance to know these two a bit better as they've not really had much of a chance to get to know each other until this summer of weddings came along - love you girls, thanks so much for coming!

Onto my local shout-outs, my friend Nicole Blair has turned into the next big thing in photography and we were lucky enough to snag her to be our wedding photographer. Truthfully, if anything (while we're all completely in love and quasi-obsessed with her photos) it was great to book her so she had to come to our wedding and couldn't go to anyone else's and had to chance to be a guest after a certain point in the night. She's already posted a photo preview on her blog at her site (see the link to the right). At the end of the night, her boyfriend Andy took a photo of all of us girls who grew up together. Nicole, you're wonderful thanks for everything!

There are so many shout-outs to include, but since it's my blog I'm going to stick to the remainder of my bridesmaids who I haven't yet mentioned. Jennifer, my little sister and maid of honor delivered one heck of a speech and remained an awesome sounding board throughout the whole planning process. I had so much fun having the extra excuse to spend time with her and do girly things. Jennifer, you're awesome and I was so happy you were a part of our day:

And for you Rachel, Amanda and Trisha my former roommates. You are hilarious. If there is a point where comic releif or a good sense of humor is required, that's what you are for. They also happen to be wonderful friends that I've spent countless hours doing talking nonsense with and living the dream while in college. I was so happy to have you all as a part in the wedding and hang out more. You girls are certainly another set of friends I can't get enough of...love you lots!

Here's a photo of all the bridesmaids:

What a great day! Greg and I had so much fun with everything leading up to and including the day. To credit the groom, he was very cool about me slowly losing my mind with wedding things this past year. More importantly, wedding aside, he's a wonderful partner and husband, I couldn't have asked for anything more in someone to marry. Here's one of our first photos as Mr. & Mrs. below.

All in all, we had a great time. Our parents and family were wonderful and looked stress-free all day. We appreciate all the support and help each of you offered - thank you Paual, Greg I, Dad and Matthew, we love you guys too!

More to come,

Nicole

Here comes the Bride(al) Shower

2008-08-10T21:04:00.000-04:00

*Whew* I've not been myself these past few weeks! With the wedding on my mind, the honeymoon and all my other friends tying the knot, I've been a neglectful blogger. Never fear, today is catch-up day - prepare to read about life these days:)

Previously, Lynn hosted another bridal shower for me at her and Grandpa's house. The whole family put forth a lot of effort for a really nice brunch and we had a great time catching up and devouring her amazing food. Here are some photos of the day:

Bridal Showers don't only mean good food. They mean good competition. Here Mrs. Yekulis, Lynn and Trisha prepare for the wedding dress toilet paper showdown

Jennifer models the creation that she, Jenny, Mrs. Taylor and Greg's mom, Paula cooked up. It's really...something huh?

Trisha sports a more conventional 80's look.

Present Time! Looks like we got lots of fun things for the garden - Thanks sister Melissa (Yekulis)

At the end of the day, I not only had tons of great gifts and spent time with the fam/friends, but Melissa (Blevins) also made me my boquet for the rehearsal.

Onto part II, a few months ago, Greg's sister Melissa (A.K.A wedding guru) threw me a beautiful bridal shower to celebrate our upcoming wedding. Details are definately this girl's forte, from the decor to the food to even hosting the afternoon outdoors, this thoughtful gal made a beautiful afternoon soiree to celebrate our wedding.

Look at the amazing lunch Melissa put on! What a crafty gal:)

The ladies enjoying our outdoor setting

Such cute napkins, I was completely obsessed.

Look at my amazing lunch! I wish I was eating it right..now...*drool*

My maid of honor, Jennifer and bridesmaid Amanda smile in the sunshine:)

Heeeey! That's me, another day, another rockin' bridal shower.

All in all, it was so nice to have so many people come and celebrate Greg and I getting married later this summer. The women who put together these events were so thoughtful and created another wonderful event to add to the scrapbook - Thanks to everyone who made these days and came!

More to come,

Nicole

Mizzi in the Hizzy

2008-07-02T13:53:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, my friend Margaret (see link to her blog on the right) got married! It was a really fun couple of days and so nice to see big grins on both their faces all day. They got married in the same church her grandparents and later parents were married in Ypsilanti and held a beautiful reception at Henry Ford Village. I was a bridesmaid for hers, and she's going to return the favor in just a few weeks for my wedding!

While my camera died half way through the day (way to go on preparation...) I was able to scavenge some photos of the good stuff.

Congrats Margaret & Chris Mizzi!

Here's the bride and groom running out of the church with her bridesmaids and ushers behind. Fancy hair Mrs. M!

Chris' brother and sister-in-law Ann-Marie and Anthony (they're pretty awesome)
Here's Ann and Anthony's son Simon...he's adorable....

Such a fun day, can't wait to see photos from her photographer later.

More to come,

Nicole

Batter Up!

2008-06-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

A little update on our favorite coach, Greg Yelland: his baseball team made it to the final four state championship this weekend in Battle Creek!

The Boys of Summer are at the park today and first up is Divine Child. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend but will instead cheer from my cubicle today.

Never fear, he has promised pictures so I can post later!

Coverage of the Martian's win:

Must have been those awesome cupcakes that spawned success....just kidding...congrats to coaches Greg & Bob and the boys:)

More to come,

Nicole

Out of This World

2008-06-09T18:43:00.001-04:00

Avid magazine reader that I am, I have a confession: I read Redbook. I love it. It may not be targeted toward my demographic, If not for it's thrifty decor tips (which I look forward to putting to use one day), definately for it's recipies.

One day while thumbing through, I found a true gem to surprise Greg with.

(a little backstory) Greg works at Goodrich High School and coaches baseball (mentioned below). Their mascot is the Martian - and while it's a different type of martian - I couldn't resist attempting the recipe I saw photographed here:

After seeing this, I couldn't resist the challenge! While mine may not have turned out as exact as this photo, I had a TON of fun making them, turning my clothes green from mixing in the food dye and even added a little yellow "G" for Greg/Goodrich;)

Here's how my project shook out:

Super green frosting that covered most of my shirt and the kitchen floor...oops.

My many "secret" ingredients for success:

Martians in the freezer to make sure the frosting will "stick"

My little green man as a finished product!

This was truely a messy but fun project. Greg had a good laugh, and I kept myself occupied for an evening.

Good game Redbook!

More to come,

Nicole

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2008-05-14T14:31:00.000-04:00

Last month marked two interesting occasions in my life 1.) the night I slept on my bathroom floor and 2.) my bachelorette party. Oddly enough, they occured on the same evening.

Friends traveled from other cities, counties and in a couple cases out of state to make it. We had a great time thanks to the detailed plans of my BAMF MOH and BM's. Special thanks to all my girls who made it: Trisha, Rachel, Amanda, Jenny, Margaret, Jennifer, Bryn, Nicole B., Melissa, Lisa, Kristie and, of course, Jennifer!

We started out the evening with a delicious dinner Jennifer cooked up in our new kitchen, played some flipcup on our porch, had a pure romance party and got in the 14 passenger van to head to Royal Oak for a night out at Skybar, Memphis Smoke and Vinotecha. The best part of the night was having all my favorite people (or most) in one spot:)

(special thanks to Greg for giving the ladies the house and spending the night at Eric's)

*deep breath* Here are the photos from the night:

Since I told my sister phallic items were not welcome, she chose that as the theme for dinner as a joke..and there was a delightful mixture in the pitcher:)

Amanda setting up flip-cup on the deck..it begins...

More Flip cup...

Rachel and Trisha trying to figure out what positions the toothpicks were in...

Time to hop on the bus! The girls bond:)

Lisa and I celebrating!

All of us (most of us) out at Skybar in Royal Oak!

My sister and sister-to-be make faces....

Photos kinda dwindled towards the end of the night..but oh what a night it was. Thanks to everyone for making this a night to remember!

More to come!

Nicole

The Graduate!

2008-05-08T12:17:00.000-04:00

As a proud alumni, I'm happy to announce the graduation of my younger sister from Central Michigan University! She's one smart cookie, graduated Cum Laude and even managed to get a shout out from the ceremony speaker. For Greg and I (both CMU alumnae), it was a fun excuse to go up and visit our alma mater on a nice Saturday morning.

This post is short but sweet - I'm one proud sister.

Congratulations Jennifer! Here is the emcee calling her name:

Here's Rose Arena inside the Student Activity Center (SAC) where the ceremony was held...look at that lovely maroon and gold flying!

Like the photo freak I am, I crept up and took some paparazzi-style shots to catch how excited she was for the day:) She's so happy!

Greg and I waiting outside the SAC to catch up with Jennifer for hugs and photo opps!

Finally caught up with her...on the lovely windy morning to get a sister/CMU Alum shot!

In short, it was a lot of fun making the trek up to CMU and watching my little sister not be so little anymore and receive her college degree.

More to come,

Nicole

Mr. 3000

2008-04-23T15:37:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, the baseball team Greg coaches managed to accomplish a seemingly impossible feat: they won the Grand Blanc Tournament!

It was so exciting to see his kids meet this goal and exceed even their own expectations. Personally, I enjoyed going to watch the games and see it for myself. Most of the time, I get caught up in how often he isn't home and how frustrating it gets when he's wiped out from a long week of practice. Watching his games are always a nice reminder of what it's really about and seeing how much it means to him to be there.

I managed to get my hands on a couple photos from the day, the trophy presentation and the coach in his uniform.

The boys of summer and their coaches (Greg to the far left, his counterpart, Bob to the far right)

Greg accepting the trophy for the team from the Grand Blanc coach and former roommate, JD.

Coach and the trophy from the tournament. As you may notice, this photo was taken in our backyard...what you may not know is that he took that thing with him from room to room for the rest of the weekend. Proud but goofy.

I'm so proud of him and glad that I could be there to see it all happen.

More to come,
Nicole

A Little Help From My Friends

2008-04-23T15:09:00.000-04:00

It's funny how family morph into our friends and our friends can morph into family. It's also pretty amazing when people come into your life and have had nothing but obsticles and offer nothing but a smile and perspective. Brandon is one such person.

Brandon came into the Yelland's life several years ago when he was a student in the elementary school special needs classroom that Greg's mom works at. Now 18 years old, Brandon has grown into a kind, smart and truely inspriation young man.

I met him only recently after Greg's family had experienced a time period without him around. I won't get into details, but the circumstances surrounding his absence give this kid every right to be the complete opposite of who he is today. Now that Brandon's back he's become a younger brother the Greg and his sister, son to his parents. Aside from becoming family to me, he's become a constant source of laughter and reminder to take one day at a time.

During one of his visits to our house, Greg and I learned that Brandon was taking a trip to see his most favorite thing ever: wrestling. Wanting him to be as prepared as possible, Greg and I got him outfitted in a bandana and practiced flexing before he went. The below photos are my favorites:

Brandon laughing his cheeks off:

Greg and Brandon displaying their best flex among giggles:

Brandon's story is certainly one worth mentioning as it's one that has become an important to both Greg and I this past year and it will last a lifetime.

More to come,

Nicole

Ticket to Ride

2008-04-10T16:35:00.000-04:00

Spring is in the air...the snow is melted (for the time being)...and baseball has begun. How did I celebrate all of these things? I went to not one but TWO Detroit Tigers games opening week!

First, I took the day off with my old roommate, Amanda on Friday to go see the game thanks to her sister's, friend's dad's (with me, here?) season tickets he couldn't use. While the weather was a bit cooler than we would have liked and our team didn't win, we still managed to have some fun and were excited to be back in the stadium already this season! I must admit, there's something quite liberating about drinking a hurricane at 1 p.m.on a Friday afternoon.

Amanda and I in our fabulous (free!) seats on Friday enjoying a Tiger Stadium Hurricane

My ticket to the game

Next comes Saturday's game. My coworker, Nate had a friend doing a fundraiser for Relay for Life and selling tickets to the game. Naturally, I bought two tickets to the game (one for Greg and one for me!). We all met up at Greektown for lunch to take advantage of the free parking and delicious food before heading over to the Old Shillelagh for a beverage or two, then taking the short, green bus over to Tigers stadium...seriously, here it is:

and here's Lauren and I on the ridiculous bus:

All in all, it was a lot of fun (even though the Tigers didn't win at either game) and a great excuse to be outside watching baseball.

More to come,

Nicole

The Kitchen Challenge

2008-04-03T15:08:00.000-04:00

It's no secret Greg and I like to cook. It's also no secret we love a challenge.

Last weekend, we decided to combine the two and challenge ourselves to cook things we normally only ever would know to order at a restaurant or in a can. On the agenda: black beans, tortilla chips, creme brule and French fries. These were fun projects and the results were pleasantly surprising. The photos below are the finished products of our challenges and the delicious meal that ensued.

First up was Greg's project, tortilla chips. The guy simply loves chips and since the doctor recommended he lower his sodium intake, he's been schemeing a way to find chips he can eat. The answer? Make them! We used corn tortillas, cut them in to wedges and covered them with various (salt-free) spices and olive oil before throwing them in the oven and finishing them in a pan. Here's how they ended up:

Next up were the black beans, we bought the beans in a bag and never knew how long it took to make them. It wasn't super hard, but it did take 2 hours before we could eat them. Once they were ready, we paired them with rice and super spicy salsa below, I think next time, I'd just make the beans super spicy and eat them with Greg's chips.

Onto the next snacky food...French fries! These weren't hard, but it did feel good to make an "unhealthy food" healthier, we even found out the Heinz makes a salt-free ketchup and it tastes exactly the same! What a relief!

The end product turned out like the "house fries" we get at Mr. B's...big thanks to Jennifer for the awesome glass dish she got me last year for Christmas from IKEA!

This is all that was left!

Last, but certainly not least desert! Creme brule, it was a lot of little processes but I found a great recipe in the cookbook Matthew gave Greg and I that turned out really wonderful. To compliment it, we found a blueberry wine made right here in Michigan at the little grocery store I've become so fond of in Clarkston, Rudy's!

While I didn't have the correct dishes to bake them in, I remembered that the tea cups I have are actually stoneware and worked just as nicely. Here's the end product:

Overall, I have to say this was a successful and salt-free kitchen venture. I'll likely post these recipes to the blog Margaret started for our group of friends to share recipies on later.

More to come,

Nicole

A New Love: Corktown

2008-03-18T16:35:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday, I engaged in a first - the first time I've ever attended Detroit's St. Patrick's Day Parade in Corktown. One of my bridesmaids, Jenny recently moved to a loft with her boyfriend near old Tigers Stadium and invited Greg and I down to witness what can only be described as an event.

Now, I've gone to visit Jenny at her new place before. During these visits I've found that Corktown can only be described as a place lacking PR. The area is typically characterized by locals and media as the bad side of town ravaged by homeless and crimes. Yet, every time I go to visit, I am exposed to something new and fun - and not a mugging. From discovering a new restaurant to a new museum, every time I visit it's an incredible experience and one I would have never had if I stuck to the other side of the tracks.

This parade was nothing like what I described above. Greeted by a sea of green, irish-song-singing, jolly Detroit-ers, I fell in love with yet another Detroit tradition: St. Patrick's Day. As always, thanks Jenny for another eye-opening experience, the pictures below follow our day, sadly I didn't quite capture the aforementioned sea of green, but you'll get the idea.

Here's the view from standing on Jenny's side roof/balcony - old Tiger's Stadium with Greg happily posing:

Jenny and I in a partial sea of green during the parade. My favorite is the guy wearing the green avaition hat. If you looked closely, you'd see this savvy 80 year-old had glued Lucky Charms to it.

Greg and I smiling happily in the sea of green before I was pummeled with jaw breakers from the O'toole's float.

All in all, it really was a lot of fun. I'm hoping when my friends and family come to the wedding and have to stay in Flint (also an area plagued with a bad reputation), they are able to keep an open mind and have a simliar experience to ours in Corktown.

More to come,
Nicole

Final Destination

2008-03-12T13:01:00.000-04:00

We did it! Last Saturday, our moving crew of Greg, Me, Melissa, Jeff and Greg's mom packed up our remaining boxes and large furniture pieces, loaded up the truck and moved to Clarkston! This served as the least stressful move ever for both Greg and I (seasoned movers now, due to college,. post-college apartments and summers afar).

Jeff and Melissa were kind enough to borrow (and drive!) a family friend's moving van for us for the day. We started at Greg's parent's house, loaded up his things, unloaded at our house, went to my old apartment in Royal Oak, loaded up my things and made the final trip back to Clarkston.

My hands were full for most of the day, but I did pause to take a couple photos intermittently...

Melissa pausing to smile in between lifting giant boxes of books and freezing outside..thanks Melissa!

Jeff hard at work and moving mattress #1 of 3 down the hall...thanks Jeff!

Piles of boxes - this is just the living room, you should have seen the rest of the house

That's me, tired, sore and oh-so-pumped to begin organizing!

I'll have the after portion up shortly!

More to come,

Nicole

Grand Reveal!

2008-03-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

Patience has never been one of my strong suits, in fact, it's taken every fiber of my being to calm down and be patient with the house remodeling. Needless to say, I couldn't wait until Thursday, took a load of things to the house last night and snapped the much anticipated "after" photos of the kitchen and new bathroom. Enjoy!

Here are the "after" photos of our new kitchen. This is the dining room portion, we added hardwood floors, track lighting, low lighting, rugs, stainless steel appliances and a bistro theme!

Here's the actual kitchen part, I love how the paint turned out here and the new appliances are going to be amazing. Greg's mom, Paula helped a lot by adding contact paper to the cabinets, Greg's uncle, Greg helped us with all of the electrical work and Greg's dad....welll...let's just say the floor and appliances wouldn't be there without a hevty amount of his sweat. I cleaned like a mad woman. Again, and again.

Gotta love that new floor!

Ever onward, here are the pictures of the new bathroom. We actually found the design scheme in a paint swatch sample packet and feel in love with it in the aisles of Home Depot. This was by far the hardest project to date in the house, and is now, of course our pride and joy. This is the full bath. Here, we ripped out the lanolium, bathtub, old tub tiles, painted this pretty blue color, added tiles, a new vanity, marble double sinks, sliding glass shower door, new shower sides, new tub and all new hardware. I love this room!

Here's a good view of the new countertop, vanity and floor. This blue looks better in person, but you get the idea!
Beautiful new vanity and flooring.

You can see the new shower doors and trim Greg worked so hard on. It's been cool to see how similar our tastes are during this whole process too.

Last, but definately not least, here's the newly redone walk-in closet in the master bedroom. This is going to be amazing. Especially since the close alone is bigger than the bathroom in my current apartment!

So after all this work, what's the next project you ask? Well, here's the current living room...you tell me:)

More to come,

Nicole

"Before"

2008-03-03T11:19:00.001-05:00

It's almost here! After another full weekend of balancing house repairs/improvements and wedding planning, we're ready to move in! The appliances are arriving on Tuesday, the kitchen and bathroom are officially done and the boxes are packed. Thursday, Greg and I are doing a little bit of clean up to make room for our actual things and take the "after" photos.

With that, I give you "before":

This is the master bedroom, granted we haven't changed much plans are in motion for a little color and walk-in closet organization.

Here's the livingroom...it's quite different now!

The kitchen got an "exereme makeover" Tye would be jealous of the work we did without calling him.

Look forward to the "after" photos on Thursday!

More to come,

Nicole

Movin' On Up

2008-02-27T15:27:00.000-05:00

About a month ago my fiance, Greg and I purchased our very first home in Clarkston, Mich! It took us a long while to find it, but when everything was said and done, we found our perfect place complete with two bathrooms and a pool!

For the past month, we've been feaverishly working on improvments and getting everything just right.

From pulling up layers upon layers of not-so-tasteful lanolium to completely overhauling our bathroom, we're getting quite the education on home ownership.

It's about to all pay off when we move into the house in nine more days! It's going to be a lot of work, but you'll all be able to see the fruits of our labors at the house warming!

More to come,

Nicole

NW-LIFE Begins

2008-02-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

In today's transparent and digital society, I've decided to keep up with the times and start a blog of my own. Expect updates, photos and a general status on NW-LIFE until July ... when it becomes NY-LIFE