It's My Birthday [& A Giveaway]

Source: sweetapolita.com via Angela on Pinterest

Today is my 28th birthday!

I can't believe this is my fourth year celebrating

my birthday with all of my wonderful blog readers!

Thank you to each and every one of you,

that takes the time to comment on my posts

and those of you that "lurk" in the shadows!

All of you are so special to me!

Let's start celebrating
and have a giveaway!

I'll select one comment {at random}

to receive a pair of
Kendra Scott 
Elle Earrings 

in the color of her choice!

Tiny Elle, the sister of the legendary Danielle Earring, 

adds a statement of color in a dainty yet bold way. 

This bitty bauble is a sure show stopper. 

Half the size, half the weight, just as gorgeous.

a small example of the colors offered! 

Please leave ONE comment for EACH thing you do!

1. Share your favorite birthday memory.

2. Let me know you follow or are a new follower.

3. Tell me what color earrings you would choose if you win.

4. Tweet about my giveaway and include @sweetteadiaries in the tweet. 

Come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did this.

5. Follow me on Instagram! I can be found by searching for Angela Lynn OR sweetteadiaries. 

Come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did this.

6. Blog about my giveaway on your own blog.
Leave the link in a comment letting me know you did this.

There are a total of 6 possible entries per person.

Please enter by next Wednesday, May 2.

Again, thank you for celebrating my birthday with me! Good luck, and remember:

[DISCLAIMER: Kendra Scott is not sponsoring this giveaway, and I will be paying for the winner's earrings with my own money.]

the countdown is on!

Hello Lovelies!

I'm sorry for temporarily disappearing from my blog again! In a ploy to get your forgiveness, I thought it would be fun to have a little birthday giveaway! My 26th birthday is this Sunday and I want all of you to celebrate with me!

I was so excited when The Preppy Princess herself offered to co-host this fun giveaway. You know that when TPP is involved, it's going to be awesome!

The winner will receive the following items:

jonathan adler ink pen

jonathan adler note cube


jonathan adler journal set

How cute and fun! Also, the winner will have her choice of design for all of the items!

To enter this giveaway:

1. For one entry, visit The Preppy Princess, browse the item selection, and come back to tell me your favorite item! This is required in order to enter the giveaway so be sure to do it.
2. For two entries, be a follower of Sweet Tea Diaries. Let me know you are please!
   
3. For three entries, you can tell me your favorite birthday memory or present that you've received!

You have until Sunday, April 25 to enter. I will pick a winner when I get back from my birthday vacation :)

A Belated Thank You

Preppy Paper Girl is the best. You all remember how I worked with her on one of my birthday giveaways? Well, she was so sweet to consider how it was my birthday and sent me a lovely package! I received so many wonderful happies - 2 notepads, 2 luggage tags, pink and green gift tags, and personalized chocolate wrapped bars! If you have any preppy gifts to buy, please consider Preppy Paper Girl. She is amazing to work with and so professional! I would have shown you how beautifully all of this was wrapped, but I was too impatient to see what was inside. Oops!

Thanks PPG! You made my birthday wishes come true!

Weekend Recap

Hi my Lovelies! I am TIRED! I had such a fabulous weekend - the only thing missing was my family and friends from back home. But I am incredibly grateful that my dear b.f. planned some amazing events for me and really, I hardly had time to think about missing anyone!!

After our amazing couple's massage we had very little time before our dinner reservations at Gyu Kaku, a Japanese BBQ place. So we rushed home to get ready and then back out again to the restaurant. If you've never been to a place where you grill your own food, you should definitely try it out! It was so much fun to cook at your own table!

You'll have to forgive me because I completely forgot to take any pictures Saturday night when we went to eat for my actual birthday. I did however, get a picture of my really cute birthday cake!

You probably won't believe this, but I am a huge fan of the Fast and Furious movies. Seriously. So when the latest one came out, of course I dragged the bf to see it with me on opening night. Okay, I'm kinda embarassed I just admitted that to 318 of you :)

And you may also know that my initials are not S.H. This is a funny little tidbit - the bf and I were picking on each other one night and he was saying that one minute I was cranky and the next I was all lovey-dovey. He nicknamed me B.P. for bi-polar (I'm not in any way making a joke of people that do have this disease. I know several people who do, including family members). So I decided to make him feel bad for being mean to me by being nice and calling him S.H. for Sweetheart. However, there is another less friendly name that S.H. could stand for and that is what he thought I meant! Needless to say, he didn't believe I really meant Sweetheart (even though I did!!) and decided to put it on my cake. Cute :)

On Sunday we had a lovely time at church. It was our first time to the early service and we enjoyed it much more than the later, more contemporary service. It's amazing how a sermon can speak directly to your heart and that is what Sunday's sermon did with me. Everything the Pastor spoke about was relevant to my life and what I'm going through right now.

Then last night, my bf's sister Danielle took us to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Delicious!

Needless to say, I have had a lot to eat the past 3 days. My jeans are a *wee* bit tight today, but it was all worth it! I'm not sure my WW leader will think the same though...

I'll be back later with an award to share!

My Favorite Birthday Present!

Look what I got:

That's right...a Schwinn Roxie beach cruiser! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I have wanted this bike for well over 2 years, but never got around to getting it. Granted, I haven't ridden a bike since I was approximately 6 years old (I fell off and busted my lip, subsequently swearing off bike riding for the rest of my life), but I have been obsessed with this one and know it's going to be sooooo much fun riding around California in it!

Oh and another favorite:

Many thanks to my darling boyfriend for the best birthday weekend a girl could ask for! And thank you to every single one of you who sent birthday wishes my way!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The day has finally arrived and I am now 25!

Thank you ALL so much for celebrating my big day with me. I love all of you for entering my giveaways, leaving me comments, caring about what I write, making me feel special, and so much more!

I am so very grateful that I dared to enter the blogging world. If I had known so many wonderful people were already here I would have entered a long time ago!

We may never meet in person or whatever, but I feel lucky to call all of you my friends!

So many of you have already been so kind as to wish me happy birthday so please don't feel like you have to again!! I just thought I would history for myself...after all, a quarter of a century is quite the milestone (eek)!

Celebrate!

These beautiful flowers were sitting on my desk this morning! They are from my lovely co-worker Linda! So sweet.

At work, we normally celebrate an employee's birthday with bagels or donuts. Sometimes if I like my co-worker (which I do like most of them) then I will make cupcakes! Last year, I was the only one to be different and request a birthday cake! These pictures are from my 24th birthday.

My Birthday LAST YEAR!!!

Sometime after my birthday (I think in July) I became the person in charge of employee's birthdays, but you can't throw your own birthday party...so my friend Paula took charge and here's what happened today!!

My Birthday THIS YEAR!!!

Same pose as 2008, just one year older :)
and skinnier (thank goodness for WW)

My yummy birthday cake!

Me and Nick

Me and Paula

Me and Brent

I am blessed to work with some really great people! Two of my co-workers even took me to eat at Black Angus today for lunch :)

my tasty lunch

Tim, me and Brian at Black Angus

What a great start to my birthday celebration weekend! Thanks to everyone I feel quite loved and special (that's what a birthday should be about) and FULL! Seriously, I am so full and sleepy...I'm hoping my boss lets me leave early today. Hey, he did it last year so here's hoping!!

Have a great weekend! Don't forget to enter the last birthday giveaway by 8 pm EST! I'll draw a winner sometime tomorrow.

thank you to 2 very special bloggers!

I have a final that I have to study for tomorrow, but I wanted to quickly say a huge THANK YOU to a couple of very special bloggers!

First, I won Lola Cupcake's giveaway and I received my package today. I love everything Lola included and must say the sea salt caramels were the first thing I opened...they are A-mazing! Not even exaggerating! She also put a cute cupcake candle that looks exactly like a real cupcake! But it has two little prizes hidden inside that are only visible after the candle is burned down!!! How cool - can't wait to see what's inside. Thank you so much Lola Cupcake! And if any of you aren't reading her blog yet, you really should head over there now and check it out :)

Then sweet Jules over at Chic & Pink sent me a birthday present! I was so excited to see an oversized latte mug, a notepad and pen, philosophy creme brulee 3-in-1 shampoo, shower gel & bubble bath, a perfect for summer nail file, and the best smelling candle ever!! She also included the most thoughtful birthday card. This was honestly the nicest thing ever and such a surprise! Thank you so much Jules - you truly have made my birthday extra special!!!

Do I not have the bestest blog friends??! Thank you to both of you for a wonderful end to my typical Tuesday!!

Oh and Miss Katie of My First Year as a Wallace , be sure to read this post!

I'm so glad it's Friday!

Hello my lovie dovies! I am so happy it's Friday. I haven't been able to get back into the swing of things since returning to work and school from my vacation. I'm walking around in a daze! I haven't even unpacked my suitcase yet...yikes! Hopefully this weekend I will wake up and realize it's time to get back to the routine. I haven't really been a very productive blogger either - sorry for the lack of comments! I am reading, but I'm too lazy to click out of google reader and comment. If only there was a way to comment from within reader then I would be a happy camper (if this application already exists, someone please tell me).

Tonight the bf and I are going to his sister's house to have pizza, watch a movie and let the dogs run around and play together. YoYo loves his cousin Roxy! They have the greatest time and wear each other out...which is great when it comes to bedtime! The bf has a very important job interview on Saturday morning so if you could be so kind and send some good thoughts his way, I would greatly appreciate it! In this tough job market it's going to be very competitive, but he deserves it and would do a great job!

Let's see, what else? Like I said before, my brain is mushy! Oh, remember how I said I wasn't entering any more giveaways?? Well, that might have been a small fib. Prep in the Big Apple is hosting a very unique giveaway in that the winner will get to choose a non-profit organization to receive an $18 donation. I think everyone should enter this giveaway because not only does it give us an awareness of what types of 501c3 non-profit organizations are out there, but also one of those organizations will recieve a much needed donation. Click here to enter by April 30. Thanks to MRM for hosting such a wonderful non-materialistic giveaway.

I also want to say thank you to all of my new followers! I really appreciate you taking the time to follow me! I hope you continue to find interesting things about my blog (although this post is definitely not one of those things) and stick around long after the birthday dust has settled. Which reminds me, enter my Birthday Giveaway #3 by tonight at 8 pm EST. The winner will recieve a number of awesome things from Preppy Paper Girl. I will announce a winner tomorrow! And I'm going to throw something in here as a little secret to see who is really reading - go follow Preppy Paper Girl's blog, come back and leave a comment on this post that you are, and I will give you 5 extra entries. Do it by 8 pm EST though for your entries to count.

Well well, let's see who is really reading :)

The Birthday Celebration Begins - Giveaway #1

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get this birthday celebration started! I have planned every single giveaway and I can't wait to reveal each one to you as the weeks get closer to my birthday!

Each giveaway will begin on Monday morning, end on Fridays at 8 pm PST and a winner will be announced on Saturdays. Get excited - I'm happy to be sharing my birthday with all of you :)

--------------------------

This first giveaway is perfect for all the spring and summer get-togethers you may already be planning! What says spring better than Lilly, cocktails, and parties? Not much in my opinion!

One winner will receive 2 Williams Sonoma martini glasses that have been expertly covered in Lilly Pulitzer fabric. The maker of these glasses uses non-toxic materials so not only are they USABLE and oh so chic, but you will never get your glass confused with someone else's again!

I'm also including the book, Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Entertaining. Now you will be able to throw all of your parties in swanky Lilly style!

And the winner will also receive these:

(Lilly Pulitzer Coasters in your choice of Cabanarama, Haven a Coctel or Juice Bar)

Enter by Friday, April 3 at 8 pm PST to have a chance of winning!

Remember:

1 entry for commenting
2 for following
3 for blogging about giveaway (you can simply add the link to the giveaway on your sidebar)
4 for adding my blog button to your blog (since I am hosting a month long of giveaways, simply add the button now and let me know for each giveaway you enter that the button is on your blog - if you have it up, you will get 4 extra entries for each giveaway you enter!)

So there is a possibility of 10 entries. You don't have to do each one and you don't have to enter each giveaway, but just be sure to let me know how many entries you are entitled to in ONE comment. I'm serious - please please please don't leave multiple comments! Since I don't use a random generator and rely on my hands to do the writing, it just makes it so much easier for me if you leave only one comment.

Good luck!

And don't forget that you can still enter to win the free head to toe blog makeover! Enter here by Tuesday night at 8 pm PST for your chance to win!

You also can enter my Tucker Blair Very Preppy Headband Giveaway on the post right below this one. Enter by Monday night at 8 pm PST.