Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Travel Tip Tuesday....AMAZING APP :)

The Pink Pineapple is now on Facebook! Be sure to "like" The Pink Pineapple Blog, today :)
There's nothing worse than being stuck in traffic on the interstate. If you're anything like me, you try to race your GPS to get to your destination. Ha! I know, I know, it changes based on your speed, but I still always seem to see it as a race and I get excited when my lovely GPS, Rose (yes, I named my GPS. don't judge) has to change her final destination time. Even if you're not a crazy who races her GPS like me, you still don't enjoy being stuck in traffic, not matter where or when.
This is what the icon looks like in the App Store :)
My friend, Melinda introduced me to this amazing little gem of an App last summer and I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of headache it has saved me when driving. It's the MapQuest App and it's FREE!!!
It works like a GPS, but what is so amazing about it is that is has a live traffic feed. You simply "ping" yourself and then you can zoom out and see what the traffic is like around you. If it's green it's moving well, yellow is a slight slow down and red means it's basically stopped. It constantly updates and you can even zoom in to see exactly which side of the road the traffic is located so you know if it's going to for sure affect you or not. It is SO useful when traveling

Example: When heading to SC for my bachelorette bash, we checked the app before we headed down into Jellico (if you've ever traveled through there you know what a nightmare it can be) and it was showing up "red".....for miles. So, we switched up the GPS in the car from quickest time, to shortest distance, and it took us on another route to Asheville. The route was about 30 minutes longer than the norm, but the delay was a 4 hours long. My roomie at work was heading to FL that same night,  got stuck in it, and it took him 6.5 hours to get to Knoxville from Lex. Holy stinkin cow.

When M and I headed out to SC last Thrus for my cousin's wedding, we checked the app before entering into the Jellico Monster and saw that there were no delays and decided to for-go our planned detour (we know they've been doing construction and assumed traffic would be insane).

A screen shot of the app from our drive to Asheville

It's seriously awesome and definitely a MUST on my list!

Happy Mapquesting,
Ash

Monday, July 9, 2012

Welcome to our "Vacation Home"

M and I are still living in a hotel and will be here for a few more weeks (if you're new to the blog, our house flooded 4 days before our wedding).
We are less than thrilled with State Farm as they really don't have it together; but, hatred aside, here's a tour of our current digs- the Residence Inn. This hotel, unlike State Farm, is amazing and I am SO pleased with it!!
We will be keeping everyone up to date as our house gets reparied (We are changing up everything and going with a costal cottage theme), but in the mean time, welcome to our little vacation home! Ha!


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Ixnk2qVsw&feature=youtube_gdata_player



P.S. This blog now has it's own page on FB in an effort to make it easier for people to keep up with new posts! Be sure to 'like' The Pink Pineapple Blog page today!! I'm hoping to start doing giveaway's via it soon, so spread the word!!


Sunday, July 8, 2012

Wedding PICTURES :)

Our final wedding images just arrived from our photographer! Here are a few :)
Feel Free to pin away, just please link all images back to this blog so that my awesome photographer gets the due credit he deserves!!!

Photography by Nelson Benton Photography. All images Copyright Protected.



























Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Super Easy July 4th Taco Dip

Happy 4th of July :) In case you are still looking for something to make for your holiday event, here's a super quick, and easy taco dip that was a hit at the party I took it to!


Ingredients:
-lean ground beef
-1 packet of taco seasoning
-1 tub of light sour cream
-1 packet of Hidden Valley Fiesta Dip mix
-shredded lettuce
-shredded cheese
-black olives
-tomatoes

Directions:
In skillet, brown your ground beef, then drain and rinse
Add packet of taco seasoning and water (follow directions on packet for how much water to add)
Let simmer
In separate bowl, mix the sour cream and Fiesta dip mix together

Now you're ready to assemble:
In an 11x13 pan, add beef mix to bottom layer
Top with shredded cheese
Top with sour cream layer
Repeat process for a few layers until you reach top of pan
Cover entire top of cake with shredded lettuce
Top shredded lettuce with cheese
For stripes, add cherry tomatoes
For stars, add black olives
Add tortilla chips around the edge of your "flag"

Serve! Although you may have to be the first to dive in- I had to at my party because no one wanted to mess it up! Ha :)


Happy Flag Dip Making,
Ash