Hi friends! We are 44 days into 2019, and what a 44 days it has been. Here are my favorite things right now.
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C+L Dinners // Without fail whenever Alicia, Ariel, and I meet there is some bomb food involved. Nothing beats when we cook a delicious homemade meal together, pour some wine, and laugh around the table. Sometimes we get fancy and light a candle and use cloth napkins. Sometimes we have our hobo clothes on and eat straight out of the pizza delivery box. It’s all about balance. But most importantly, it’s all about the company - and Alicia and Ariel are always great company.

White Chili // At some point within the past four years I started making White Chili in my crock pot. The recipe is slowly started evolving, and tasting even better every time I make it. Now it’s a crowd favorite. The best part about this recipe is 90% of the time I already have all the ingredients in my kitchen no matter how desperately I need to go grocery shopping.

So check it, at the start of your day you put a container of chicken broth, two or three seasoned chicken breast (I use salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, garlic salt, and onion salt. Really whatever feels right), chopped white onion, can of diced chili peppers, a can of corn, and a can of great northern beans (or whatever beans, I’m not here to tell you what to do, just make sure they’re white). Cook on low for eight hours, or on high for four-ish hours. About thirty minutes before you serve, mix in heavy whipping cream and softened cream cheese. Cook and stir until nice and thick.

Garnish with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, anything your heart desires. Look, I’m not the best at typing out recipes because I don’t measure anything. I just guess and hope for the best, because that’s the way I handle everything in my life.

Game of Thrones // Up until a couple months ago, I was probably the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen an episode of Game of Thrones (I haven’t read the books either). Anyways, GOT isn’t really a guilty pleasure, but it is something that has been occupying a ton of my time lately, and has been a good distraction from my daily responsibilities. I’m about halfway through season five, and really the only reason I keep watching is for Tyrion Lannister (I really really love little people, and his character is just awesome). Khaleesi and her dragons are pretty dope too. Also, I don’t want to give away any spoilers for the other 2% who haven’t watched the show, but King Joffrey is the biggest douche canoe ever. He’s actually King of the douche canoes. So needless to say I had a celebratory glass of champagne when Joffrey died. Oops, sorry, spoiler alert.
As an added bonus, I would like to share a GOT Drinking game with you! Because GOT wouldn’t be GOT without half of the characters getting smashed every episode.

** Take One Sip Every Time **
Jon Snow is called a bastard 
Littlefinger creepily hits on Sansa 
Cersei casually sips wine
Daenerys lists all of her titles
Someone mentions The Iron Throne 
Whenever Hodor says, “Hodor!”

** Take Two Sips Every Time **
Anyone says, “Winter is coming.”
Arya goes through her revenge list 
Bran’s eyes go white 
Anyone says, “King of the North.”
You see a dragon or someone mentions dragons 

** Take Three Sips Every time **
When a sword is drawn 
Someone says, “A Lannister always pays his debts.”
Someone is naked on screen
Gay sex scene 

** Finish Your Drink When ** 
Incest happens or is mentioned 
When you see a White Walker 
Whenever Joffrey acts like a major dick 
Dragon breathes fire 
A major character dies

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read my “What’s Good”. I am excited to share more good things with you this 2019! We would also love to hear your personal “What’s Good” So drop us a line, let's chat about it! In the meantime make yourself some white chili, put on Game of Thrones, and pour yourself a drink! You deserve it! 

​Warmest regards,
Mariah
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Photography // Marissa Irene Photography

Frugal // Lovely long walk together. Even better, bring your doggy friend(s). When you get home snuggle in with Chinese take out, get in your comfy jammies, and binge watch your favorite Netflix series. If you really want to add some cheesy romance - chocolate covered strawberries are very simple to make (and low cost!).

Local //  My boo and I LOVE breakfast/brunch. When we want to treat ourselves we go to Paul's Pancake Parlor, and indulge in all our favorite breakfast food. Then we go home and nap.

​Boujee // I have always wanted to ride a hot air balloon. So riding a balloon to a scenic remote location. When we land we find a beautiful picnic spread waiting for us. Along with a fine gentleman playing the harp. Also white doves.

Frugal // Due to the current winter Missoula is having... grab some sleds and a cozy outfit and hit the slopes. Don’t forget the hot cocoa and the peppermint schnapps if you're realllllly feelin' it. Then head home, get cozy, make dinner and binge watch your favorite show/movies.

Local // If you’re into brunch like I am, and in Missoula, head to the Catalyst, their cheesy potato casserole + the espresso bar are life-changing. If you’re not in a food coma from that, then make your way down to Jerry Johnson Hot Springs and relax. 

​Boujee // Ok since we are going allll out for this one here we go and buckle your seatbelts. Like really, we’re going on a private jet to Bora Bora, poppin’ the bubbly and staying in one of the overwater bungalows. While at our sweet bungalow, we’d obviously be jumping off our deck, enjoying all the paddle boards, and snorkeling in the crystal clear water.

A HUGE thank you to Of the Wolves for capturing these absolutely amazing pictures of me and my entire family. 

How it is almost 2019? I feel like we were just slipping into those sparkly gowns from our C+L anniversary shoot. This year has been a whirlwind both in C+L land and our personal lives. Even though life gets crazy, we need to remember to take a step back and reflect. 
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2018 has been a wild crazy ride for the ladies of C+L. We are so incredibly lucky for all of the vendors and C+L couples we have gotten work with this past year. Because this year has been so amazing we wanted to share our favorite moments with you all. 

​Strap in friends, this is going to have lots of pictures of pretty things. 

Last year we posted our goals for 2018 and now it's our time to tell you how we did! 
 
PERFECT OUR CLIENT PROCESS // First of all, is this ever perfect? The answer is no. We're constantly improving our client process whether that is noting down questions we need to ask them, budget templates, welcome guides, all the things. We're in a much more streamlined place than we were last year, but cannot wait to keep improving! 

STYLED ELOPEMENT // Level up: planning a Glacier National Park elopement for 2019! 

BLOG POSTS // Our goal was to have one blog post a month. Well we did have 15 blog posts, but we missed posting in March, June, July, and August...have you noticed that since we hired an intern, we've had more blog posts? #blessMaredith

NEWSLETTER // We started a newsletter last new years and had some great interactions! We chose to put this on the back burner while we worked on our client experience. Maybe we'll bring this back to life in 2019?! 

BOOKINGS // We didn't set a number goal for 2018, but we had ten! We currently have seven for 2019 and are completely content with that number. This year we're getting more large packages - our fave! 

NETWORK // 2018 was the year of networking. We have straightened our relationships with vendors we've already had and created new bonds. We hosted our second annual vendor appreciation with the help of White Raven. We ate delicious Clove Cart Pizza and drank festive holiday punches.

FOCUS ON OUR FRIENDSHIP // Boy, did we. The first year of C+L was all about hustle. We were stumbling along trying to figure out our new business and it's all we could talk about. This year, life happened for all of us. We leaned on each other more than ever. 

THANK U NEXT 2018!