A Year of New: 2017

Posted in Blogging, Updates by meganandeggs

Hello all! I am officially back from my two month hiatus, and things are looking a little different around here.

After almost three years and a lot of ups and downs over here on Megan & Eggs, I decided it was time to throw in the towel and do a little face lift to my corner of the internet. And so Restless Retreat has been born. This is my little retreat from life. A place to get away and talk about everything I enjoy. All things travel, beauty, home and exploration.

2016 was a big year for me and my fiance Chris. Well for one we got engaged back in April and it was one of the most amazing weekend’s I have had. A few weeks later I left my job of 8 years and started a new career, at a new company, in a totally different field of work. Oh and then the next week we moved into a new apartment. The spring was just a little stressful but in the most exciting and happy ways it could be.

Now that I have been fully trained at my new job, I went back to my old job, part-time, to save some money to this wallet draining wedding weekend we will be having in 2018. But it will be totally worth it!

We haven’t traveled too much in 2016. In January we went to Connecticut to visit family but otherwise, we have been pretty local, doing small day trips, however that is definitely not the case for 2017. I like to think that you will spend the year the way you ring it in, so I was super eager to be traveling while we ring in 2017. So currently we are spending the weekend in amazing Scottsdale, Arizona and I cannot wait to tell you all about it in the next few weeks.

This year I have a few trips back to Connecticut planned as I celebrate a few of my closest girlfriends getting married themselves. I am also going to have a big girl’s trip to Las Vegas which I am really excited for since some of my friends from home still haven’t been out to Vegas. And of course, I am sure Chris and I will take our normal impromptu weekend trips throughout the year.

I am super excited to see where this year takes me in my first full year as a travel agent and also here now that Restless Retreat is up and running. I plan on being much more transparent on this here blog, and stepping outside of my comfort zone to make sure I do that. My plan is to do a lot more scheduled posts and series than I had before; like a book review once a month, a monthly round up, and tons of informative posts for you about different products I am using, places I am going, things I am cooking and experiences I am having.

17Aug2016

Engagement Announcements

Posted in Blogging, Entertaining by meganandeggs

I know I am a little late but four months after getting engaged we finally sent out our engagement announcements to some of our family members. We went back and forth about whether or not we were going to go old school & send actual announcements. We assumed that it’s 2016, hello there’s Instagram!

Well no. With both Chris & I being from pretty big families we decided the best way to get the announcement out to our aunts & uncles was a good old fashioned engagement announcement. We have family all over the country & I know it’s a little shocking, but not everyone goes to social media for their latest news on friends & family.

We were lucky to have an amazing photographer friend capture our engagement from a far. You can see some of our photos here. We took advantage of having those great shots, & an amazing deal on Shutterfly to share our amazing day with our family.

I for one am obsessed. I love the work Bryan did on our photos & nothing can hold me back from grey stationary with some amazing photography. I went back and forth about what photos to choose until I finally decided on a variety of a full body shot, close up & my favorite, a beautiful black and white candid. Let me know what you think!

Signature

20Jul2015

Baked Tomato Mac and Cheese

Posted in Blogging, Recipes Reel by meganandeggs

It rained!! Rain was falling from the skies in California! I am so excited. My car is excited, the grass is excited, the avocados and oranges are excited! Everyone is excited! Haha

When I was living back east rain was nothing but a pain in the butt! It meant I had to pull out my umbrella, the streets were going to get dirty, and my poor little car would have water marks on it. Now, living through this crazy drought the west coast has been going through for the past three years, everyone gets so excited when it rains.

We drove up to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with Chris’s family and during our drive up the storm rolled into downtown L.A. It was pretty cool to be downtown during a lighting storm. People were pulling over and recording the thunder and lightning with their phones and taking pictures of the lighting bolts.

This was actually only the second time since I moved to California that I have heard thunder and I think it was my first time seeing lightning. It definitely made me miss the summer storms back east. A warm rain shower was always the best, being able to go to bed with the window open and hearing the sound of the rain outside.

So now that you have the So Cal weather report, here is some blog news. I am finally starting to dive into Bloglovin’. What do you all think about it? Is it a good tool to find others and have readers find you? Follow me and let me know what you think about the site. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

This recipe I got from my cousin’s grandmother. I honestly can’t tell you the first time I had this but I remember as a child having it a lot. I don’t even know where. So last year I texted my cousin and said I needed the recipe. I was pleasantly surprised when she sent me it and it was even easier than I thought it would be. It sounds a little weird but it’s a great homey mac and cheese recipe. Enjoy!

1 lb elbow macaroni
28 oz whole peeled tomatoes
½ stick unsalted butter
12-16 slices of white American cheese

1. Boil pasta to time on box. Pre heat oven to 350˚.
2. Spray 8 x 8 glass baking dish with non-stick spray and layer ¼ of macaroni along the bottom of the pan. Top with an even layer of cheese.4 slices should cover all the pasta. Squeeze 1-2 tomatoes, depending on size, on top of the cheese breaking apart the tomato and allowing the juices to cover the cheese. Place tablespoon sized slices of butter on top.
3. Continue process until all pasta is used. Top later should have a layer of cheese. Pour remaining juices from tomato can on top.
4. Cover with foil and bake 40-45 minutes, until edges are bubbly.

16Oct2014

Blogging: First Impressions

Posted in Blogging by meganandeggs

When I first began blogging a year ago I did a lot of research. I was nannying close to 60 hours a week for two kids who went to school and a 2 year old that loved her naps so I had a lot of free time. At the time, I wasn’t happy where I was and knew I needed a change. I had gone to J school and interned at both a daily newspaper and a national monthly mens’ magazine, but I wasn’t doing anything with that experience . Writing is something I loved but it is also something that takes a lot of hard work and dedication to really make it big. So I started researching,

I looked at hundreds of blogs from all different niches. I scoured fashion, parenting, fitness, finance, and gossip blogs for weeks until I really narrowed it down to food and finance. Two things people have to deal with on a daily basis, and two things I am passionate about. From there it was time to dive in deep into other PF blogs and see what the market and audience liked.

There were some blogs that I looked at for the first time and thought, this is perfect! I loved the writer, I loved their story and it was easy to get around their pages. Then there were others who were just a complete mess. I am sure they had great information but I didn’t want to even stick around long enough to check it out. There are many things that I looked at when I started researching blogs and here are just a few of them. Continue reading →

15Oct2014

Why I Started Blogging

Posted in Blogging by meganandeggs

People always ask me why I blog. I work a full time job, I am going to school and trying to start up a new career in real estate while continuing to grow in my current company. Blogging is another added responsibility , yes, but I blog for a lot of reasons.

Job Change

I began reading blogs this time last year because in a way, I felt unfulfilled. I had spent four and a half years in college, graduated, had amazing internships and moved across the country. But I was a nanny. Not that there is anything wrong with being a nanny but I’m not the most maternal person. I’m not cuddly or comforting so it wasn’t the best fit for myself. I wanted to do more and writing was what I loved to do.

Finances

Beside not feeling completely fulfilled with my career, I also was sitting on a lot of debt. I was making enough money to get by, pay my bills and make some pretty amazing meals (no Ramen dinners for this girl) but I wasn’t paying down my debt. I didn’t know where to even begin. I said my bill each month, on time, and then used my credit cards again until they were maxed out again. I needed a change. A change in my job, a change in my bad habits, and a change in my daily routine.

Staying Accountable

One of my favorite things that attracted me instantly to PF blogs were the monthly goals everyone sets for themselves. I am one to have a great idea but then I tend to get a little lazy with things. Putting my goals and ideas out there for the internet world to see meant that I had to actually go through with at least a few of these goals I was setting. It also taught me that I don’t have to hit every goal every month. If I do then great, but if I don’t, that just means I am human and life happens.

I’m Not Alone

The most important reason I started blogging was because I finally saw I wasn’t alone. My boyfriend and I tend to surround ourselves with pretty “privileged” people. Many of our friends were living at home, rent free, grocery and utility free. Some even still had gas card from their parents. I felt like we were outsiders. No one could relate to what we were dealing with and when we said we couldn’t go out because of finances, our friends didn’t get it. When I started blogging and reading other blogs I saw that many of the bloggers are just around our age and in the same situations we are in… and it’s okay.