Cleshopaholic Travels to Put In Bay

This past weekend, N and I went to Put-In-Bay for a volleyball tourney-- well, he played. I sunbathed. And I got some SERIOUS tan lines.  There were 10 of us at the Island Club, and as is the custom in Put-In-Bay, we partied like we were 21. I'm paying for it today.

The ride over

Early in the night....

Some (well, one) of us, didn't fare so well...

The 9 am start was ROUGH!

A little slice of tranquility... 

Look who I found!! 

Saturday night bar hopping! 

Dueling pianos! 

And just like that, the weekend was over, and it was time to go home! 

I hadn't been to Put-In-Bay since 2004, and I was pleasantly surprised this time around! Its more than a little frat-party-like, but fun nonetheless!!

St. Paddy's Day Weekend

I had big plans for this weekend.

Saturday-- hot yoga, baby shower, Burning River Roller Girls, dinner, drinks.
Sunday-- Downtown at Allison's party, and then wandering out downtown and in Ohio City with N and loads of our friends....

NONE OF THESE THINGS HAPPENED!!!!!!!!! Why, you ask? BECAUSE I WAS STRUCK DOWN BY THIS GROSS VIRUS GOING AROUND CLEVELAND. I spent the weekend parked on my couch, watching endless episodes of Dance Academy, doing shots of cold meds, surrounded by Kleenex. I hold this ever changing weather 100% responsible.

Dance Academy. So addictive.

Is it Spring yet?

2013 Wedding Bells?

Happy 2013 all!! This year is getting off to a roaring start already! Hope you are keeping up with your resolutions/intentions/goals for the year... I'm sorta 50/50 on mine. Mostly good, but my 15 minutes of yoga every day goal is just not working out.  I did 3 sessions last week, and felt great after, so I just need to remind myself of that when I want to hit snooze for an extra 15 minutes!!

N and I had a great staycation break-- we did lots of things around the city that we always want to do, but never seem to find the time for-- I'll get into our activities over the next few weeks, but rest assured, we had lots of fun playing in the snow with these two...

Surprisingly for us, this holiday season involved absolutely zero engagement announcements via our Facebook friends. This is probably the first time since 2003 that this has happened, and I'm a little taken aback to be honest! That said, there is a wonderful event coming up in Cleveland for the bride-to-be in your life!

On January 20th, Something White, A Bridal Boutique is hosting their second annual Boutique Bridal Bazaar at smARTspace at 78th st. studios. You can find out more about the event here, and the wonderful ladies at Something White are generously giving away two passes to the event to one lucky winner right here on this blog!!!

You will have three opportunities to enter:
1. Leave me a comment with your favorite fictional wedding (from a movie, TV show, etc), or tell me your favorite flavor of wedding cake (one entry)
2. Follow me (@cleshopaholic) and Something White Bridal (@SomethingWhiteB) on Twitter and leave me a comment saying you did so (one entry)
3. "Like" the Something White Bridal page on Facebook and leave me a comment saying you did so (one entry)

The winner will be announced on Monday, January 14th, so please please make sure I have your contact information!


So, if you were engaged this holiday season or anytime in 2012 (Congratulations, btw!), or know someone who was, you should definitely enter this contest-- such a fun surprise for the bride-to-be!!!

The Holiday Spirit (or lack thereof)

If you're having a hard time getting it together to decorate this Christmas, might I suggest you visit Flower Child on Clifton Blvd? If you've never been, Flower Child is a vintage store, carrying an eclectic mix of clothing, home goods, jewelry and accessories from decades past. Tina and I stopped over this past weekend, and we had an absolute blast walking around. A word of warning- this is vintage retail, not vintage thrift, so you should expect an appropriately different price tag too!

I absolutely LLLUUUURRVVEEE how over-the-top Christmas this store is right now!!

A Thanksgiving Cocktail

I LLLUUUURRRVVEEEE Thanksgiving. Its my most favorite holiday of the year!! We always do Thanksgiving with N's family, and about a year or so after we were married, we started a new tradition of always bringing mac n cheese to Thanksgiving dinner. We've tried many different recipes over the years, including carbonara, but this year, we're going back to basics with The Pioneer Woman's Mac & Cheese recipe.

Over the summer I pinned a recipe for an Autumn Sangria and on Saturday, I decided to take it to our neighborhood party.

Source: kirantarun.com via cleshopaholic on Interest

However, I'm practically incapable of following a recipe exactly, so I modified it as follows:
1 bottle red wine (I used a tempranillo)
3 cups cider
3 apples cut in small pieces
1/4 c craisins
1/8th tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (which is what I did) or ideally overnight.

And here's what my final product looked like:

It was DELICIOUS!! Lets just say it didn't last very long, and there was definitely none left over!! I am definitely taking this over to N's parents on Thanksgiving day for pre-turkey cocktail hour(s)!!!

Do you make a special Thanksgiving cocktail? Please share recipes!!!

Labor Day Weekend Recap AND Tuesday Tunes!

Don't you just LUUUURRVEEE three-day weekends??? I hope you had a lovely weekend- I most certainly did!

Friday night, N and I decided to check out Barrio in Tremont for a low-key evening. We unexpectedly ran in to Wes and Danielle which made the evening just that much better. Lively conversation, margarita pitchers and tacos followed... A couple of comments about Barrio- it still looks a lot like 806, and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that. I ordered two tacos, and the first one was really good. The second one wasn't that appetizing, but that was totally my fault for putting together a bad combination. Like Happy Dog, I think they should offer some suggestions for those that are either stuck or just apt to go overboard with choices : )

Saturday, N and I took the pups to the beach- they had an absolute blast!!! Its so odd- they can swim, but they haven't figured out that they can! Clair tried to drink most of Lake Erie, and Otto was happy as a clam chasing his squeaky ball in the surf. After that, it was time for some pampering- JV and I have started this little tradition where we meet up about once a month for manis/pedis and catch-up convos-- I absolutely LURVE our little dates!!

Saturday night was time for Danielle's bachelorette party! We started off in the back room at Market Avenue Wine Bar where Beth turned the lovely space into one that was absolutely delightful!!

The back room-- flowers and candles everywhere. I can't wait to go here in the winter-- snow falling outside, a lovely glass of red... perfection!!

You might have been fooled into thinking it was all classy...umm not entirely....

The bachelorette!!!!

Sunday (post recovery) was time for our annual neighborhood Labor Day party. I'm so grateful that I live in a neighborhood where there are a LOT of really skilled home cooks! We feasted on authentic jerk chicken, cuban pork, black beans and rice, red beans.... mmm mmm mmm!!

Monday was time to burn off all the calories I consumed on Sunday, and what better way to do that than a double header at psycle and inner bliss? That was followed by some house cleaning to prepare for dinner with Wes and Danielle (we saw a lot of them this weekend ; ) ) -- I followed an amazing Nigella recipe for sliced steak, served with sundried tomato and goat cheese mac-n-cheese, caesar salad,  sautéed mushrooms, and garlic parmesan wax beans! If you're every looking to dazzle at a dinner party, Nigella's recipes are THE.WAY.TO.GO!!

I woke up extra happy today because the new album by Two Door Cinema Club (Beacon) was released today!!!! Two songs in, and I was pretty sure I was going to LUUUURVVEEE the whole album, and I most certainly wasn't wrong. If you're looking for some new music, I highly recommend giving this album a listen!!!




Whew, that was a lot to catch up on after my absence last week. I may be a little sporadic with my posts for the rest of this month- lots of travel for work!

Fun in the Sun

After two weeks involving lots of work-related travel, I was SO ready for this past weekend! Friday night, after a long hair appointment, N and I went over to our neighbors for drinks. It was supposed to be one glass of wine, and then it turned into two, and more neighbors came over, and the next thing I knew, it was midnight, and I had a serious pizza craving.  More wine followed, and luckily I didn't have to go far to get to bed.

Saturday started with a quick ride at psycle, which was necessary but NOT FUN AT ALL. I swear I was sweating wine. Its disgusting, a phenomenon my neighbor refers to as stigmata. LOL. We then headed over to N's parent's place, where our nephew was visiting. We took the pups, and its a good thing our nephew likes to share, because Otto and Clair TOTALLY TOOK OVER his pool.

Saturday night, we headed over to our friend Jon's yacht club, and had another late-ish night hanging out with friends.

Sunday brought yoga with Allison which involved LOTS and LOTS of sweat. We both headed to Einstein bagels for sustenance, where we ran into Alana and Dean. Later that afternoon, N and I headed over to Chagrin Falls for Blossom Fest, although I can't tell you a single thing about Blossom Fest since we spent it hanging out with our friends that live down there!! And even though we got caught in a thunderstorm, it did nothing to dampen our fun!

Monday brought more psycle, and honestly, it was so hot that I didn't want to do much besides hang out in air-conditioning. You would think that since I'm from India that I'd handle the heat better, but not so much. I caught up on sleep and some movies, and indulged in some Honey Hut.

Puppies like ice-cream too. Don't worry, its doggie ice-cream.

Overall, a completely satisfying and wholly enjoyable weekend! I could get used to this!!