Insta Lately

I may not be doing a great job at blogging consistently as of late, but one thing I am good at is Instagram. I may be slightly addicted to the little app, and have recently imposed restrictions as to how many times I can look at it daily (10).

My dad and I went to Lynd's Fruit Farm to pick some honey crisp apples before they sold out. Last year I had to fight (not kidding) for one of the last pre-picked bags,  so we made sure to get there on the first day they were available for picking. From what I hear the honey crisp were all picked out by the end of that day!

My favorite sweater for fall? This little gem from C.Wonder that has my two favorite prints all wrapped into one (perfect) sweater.

My brothers and I headed down to 'The Shoe' a few weekends ago to watch the Buckeyes absolutely stomp all over Kent State. I loved that it was unseasonably cold that weekend, so I was able to wear my Homage Script Ohio sweatshirt.

The Shoe - such a great atmosphere.

Last weekend I managed to get my hands on an iPhone 6 (read my review here). I was kicking myself for not pre-ordering so the day after they were released I went online and found I was able to pre-order one at my local Apple store for pick-up the same day. If you're looking to get one that's definitely the fastest way - you get to bypass that crazy line!

The Blue Jackets started their pre-season this past week, so Sam and I headed to Nationwide Arena to watch the Jackets battle the Pens. We also happened to match... in 'blue jackets' nonetheless.

Comment with your Instagram so I can check it out! You can follow me @emilydelong

#cbj

On Sunday I went to my only Blue Jackets game of the 2012-2013 season. 

Usually I make it to more games, but with the shortened season this year combined with the fact that I'm about two hours away in Oxford most of the time I didn't really have many opportunities. 

Unfortunately we lost against the Minnesota Wild the night I was in attendance, but the game itself was so. much. fun. I'm not entirely sure why, but somehow they really made the game experience more fun than it was in previous years. 

#1 thing I loved was the twitter hashtags projected on the ice - yeah, I really enjoy my social media, and I have to admit that I was kind of giddy over what a good marketing/branding idea that is. 

I was also so excited to see our newly acquired players on home ice for the first time. My friend who is a Rangers fan is still sick over the fact that we have Gaborik now :)

Lastly, I'm pretty much a sucker for a good opening video....the music in this one combined with all of the scoring footage pretty much made it for me

Tonight it's time to keep fighting for a spot in the playoffs when we take on St. Louis at home....we really need to win. Go Jackets!

York Design Co.

A few months ago I became acquainted with Laura of York Design Co. - Laura's shop sells personalized needlepoint cuffs in a variety of prints, patterns, colors, etc... 

One of my favorite items from her shop is the monogrammed cuff, which you're able to customize with the colors and pattern of your choice. I'm not sure if I'd really have anything to customize though, I'm loving the navy and pink as is. 

Laura sent me a red cuff with gold hockey sticks (for the many Miami hockey games I attend), and I can't get over how cute it is.  This will definitely be on my wrist at our next home hockey game...only one week from tomorrow!

Are you lusting over any of the York Design Co. cuffs?

The NHL is Back.

Today is the official start of the 2013 NHL Season! I don't even have the words to express how happy I am that the lockout has been ended and that we didn't lose the entire NHL season. Maybe my Blue Jackets can make a run for the cup this year?

{wishful thinking}

The Blue Jacket's start their season tonight against the Nashville Predators, and I'm hoping for a win! I'm also praying for a win from my Miami Redhawks tonight (we embarrassingly lost to Wisconsin 1-0 last night)....come on boys.

To celebrate the return of the NHL I may have to order some hockey swag...

 

Like this CBJ Tervis Tumbler to add to my collection, or the Sauce Hockey shirt I've wanted since the day it came out. 

Who will you be cheering for tonight?

2013 World Junior Champions

After beating Sweden in the gold medal game in Ufa, Russia this morning the USA is now the world champions! (Sweden took silver and Russia took the bronze).

credit: www.canada.com

Two hockey players from my school (Sean Kuraly and Riley Barber) were on the team, an ex-Miami hockey player was on the team (Tyler Biggs), and my friend's younger brother (Connor Murphy) was also on the team. 

credit: Twitter.com/USAHockey

To be selected for the WJC team you have to be 19-years-old or younger as of December 31.   The team is made up of players from all around the country including both NCAA players and non-NCAA players. Therefore, it is a huge honor to be selected for the team and is a really special experience for the guys to play on a team with guys they would normally be playing against.  

credit: Yuri Kuzmin, AFP/Getty Images

I found it fun to forget what schools the guys came from and just cheer for USA as a team, (although it was a little hard for me to forget Trouba plays for U of M  ....yuck). What can I say, rivals are rivals.

End the Lockout

The NHL lockout has gone on way too long.  I don't know how many of you are abreast of the current situation in the hockey world, but as of right now 526 regular-season games have been cancelled.  I go to a school where hockey is a big deal (the biggest deal in terms of sports), and a lot of our players go on to play in the NHL or the AHL, but what happens when there is no NHL - well that makes a college hockey player's dream of playing in the show that much more difficult to reach. 

Not only is the situation dire for hockey players though, its dire for the teams and the cities in which they are located.  I am from Columbus, Ohio (home of the Columbus Blue Jackets) - I love my Blue Jackets with all my heart, but let's be honest we aren't exactly the best team in the league.  However, this year was supposed to be good for us; we were going to have a restructured team, we were going to host the NHL All-Star Weekend, and we were going to work on getting better.  But as of right now we're not able to do any of that....

The fans are the ones who fuel this sport (or any sport for that matter).  It's amazing what a good fan base can do for a team - I've seen it first hand at Miami.  But, when the fans who spend their hard-earned money on tickets, jerseys, team paraphernalia, and hockey television channels aren't able to watch the sport it only can decrease that sport's popularity. 

So can we please end the lockout before the entire season gets cancelled?

(and if not let's at least show some college *cough Miami* hockey games on the NHL Network ?)

Please and Thank You - end rant.

Playin' with the Big Boys

 Last week one of my absolute favorite Miami hockey players got called up from his AHL team to play with the Boston Bruins. Everyone at Miami was so excited for him, he's been doing really well in the AHL and his former classmate/teammate Andy Miele had already been called up a few times to his NHL team so it was nice to see Carter finally get his chance.

I went on the Bruins' website and took a screen shot of his player bio - hard to believe someone I met and went to school with is playing with the current Stanley Cup champions.

Carter holding up the puck he scored his first NHL goal with. Pretty crazy he scored it in only his 3rd NHL game - it takes most players much longer than that.

p.s. sorry ladies he's engaged ( I know, I'm mad about it too)

Notice Carter is one of two forward from the United States and he's from OHIO. Currently there are only fifteen Division 1 hockey players from Ohio and to think this little guy is playing in the NHL is truly amazing.

So happy for him.

And to think, last year at this time he was celebrating his senior night here at Miami. It's truly incredible how much things can change in one year.

Miracles.

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the miracle on ice. I'm sure some of you have seen the movie based on this spectacular showing in the 1980 Olympics - Miracle. 

Miracle is my favorite movie for a few reasons:

#1 Being an athlete it's hard not to appreciate how hard they worked and the obstacles they overcame to win the gold medal for the United States.

#2 All of the hockey players on the 1980 Olympic hockey team were ammeters - that's right, all college boys. No NHL players were on the team.

#3 All of the hockey players in the movie were played by actually hockey players

#4 I cry every time when the goalie (Jimmy Craig) looks up and finds his father in the stands after they won the gold medal.

#5 It's all about hockey

What a great event for our country to be able to celebrate in a time when seemingly everything was going wrong.

Have you seen this movie? What do you think of it?

2012 NHL All-Star Game

This past weekend was the 2012 NHL All-Star Game. For those who don't know the All-Star game is when the best players from all off the different NHL teams come together to play one big, exciting game.

This year the game was held in Ottawa, Canada

The first night of the All-Star weekend is the Skills Competition. All the players wear their respective teams jerseys (an no helmets so you get to see their gorgeous faces) and compete in different skills competitions like hardest shot, fastest skater, shot accuracy, ect...

The only boy representing my Columbus Blue Jackets was Ryan Johansen....he's only 19 years old and this is his first year in the NHL (and on a side note I've hung out with him before) pretty crazy he got chosen to play in the All-Star game already.

The second night is the big game which actually usually turns out to be pretty boring, because they are all so good and aren't used to playing with each other.

The teams used to be put together based on which NHL team you play for...the teams from the East would play the teams from the West. But this year they used a draft and captains to choose the teams.

Overall, I think the NHL All-Star Game is a really fun way for the players to get to know each other and a great opportunity for fans to watch some of their favorite players all at once.

Next year the All-Star game is being held in Columbus, Ohio at Nationwide Arena where my Blue Jackets play...which also happens to be like 20 minutes away from my house. You can bet that I've already got my name on the waiting list for tickets!

A New Way to Scrabble

I'm an absolute sucker for anything personalized or just unique. Add that to my love of hockey and the result is this:

NHL Scrabble Hockey

I know, it's fantastic right? The board is a giant hockey rink and the letters are little hockey pucks. I feel like this would be a fabulous addition to the hockey collection I have started that currently only consists of two hockey movies and a jersey - lame.

Other welcomed gifts to add to my collection include:

Sauce hockey shirt/sweatshirt

Columbus Blue Jackets jersey (Ryan Johansen #19)

Phoenix Coyotes jersey (Andy Miele #21)

Mystery Alaska Movie

24/7 Penguins/Capitals DVD

Slapshot Movie #1

Am I the only girl out there who loves hockey? 

NHL Comes to Vineyard Vines

Ummm did anyone else get this e-mail? I am dying. We all know that I am an absolute hockey fanatic and love my Miami Redhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets, so as soon as I got this e-mail from Vineyard Vines I went straight to the website to check it out. 

And although I'm excited they came out with NHL ties I was bummed to discover that they didn't release any NHL Tote Bags.

They have Tote Bags for the NFL and MBA so do you think NHL bags might be on the horizon? I would order a Columbus Blue Jackets bag right this second, no questions asked if it was available.

So please Vineyard Vines, could I have a Blue Jackets bag?

Love, Emily.

Sauce Hockey

There is a hockey themed clothing line called "Sauce Hockey" that I had heard about numerous times on twitter but had never checked out until my friend Sarah e-mailed me a picture and description of one of their sweatshirts. They have a women's line and I'm kind of obsessing over it. I think my favorite part about the website though is the little stories/descriptions that go with each shirt.

Here's an example:

T-shirt Description:

 "No need for a job, you'll be spending your time taking care of the little rug rats and going to the gym every day. 5 PM roles around on game day and its time to get dolled up and head to the rink. Wearing heels half way up your thigh, designer jeans and a SAUCEY shirt from SAUCE Hockey, you head to the WIVES LOUNGE to take in the food spreads and hit the SAUCE. Hockey is just not the same without hitting the happy SAUCE and being sloppy drunk while watching your husband in a good ol' fashioned punch in the face contest."

It's Playoff Time Loves :)

So last friday my favorite boy (and newly signed NHL player) won the Hobey Baker award, which is basically the Heisman of college hockey. I am so proud of him both for winning the award and signing with the Phoenix Coyotes, even though I'm going to miss him being here at Miami.

Andy with the Hobey Baker Award. He is the first Miami player to ever win the award.

All decked out in his new team's gear

So now off to watch the Coyotes against the Red Wings. Sarah is a Red Wings fan so this playoff series will be interesting with us rooting against each other!

Happy Hockey Day

Today is National Hockey Day in America, and I'm really missing the NHL channel right about now. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some of my favorite NHL players....

Vermette - he plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets (my favorite team)

He scored in their game friday night and I had his shirt on - I was pretty thrilled.

Jared Boll - ahhhhh he's gorgeous. He also plays for the Blue Jackets.

But his shirt was sold out in every size but XL.

This would be a more realistic picture of Jared's usually activities - all the kid does is fight. 

Ryan Jones - plays for the Oilers....I follow him on twitter and he's pretty entertaining, and very kind. Plus, he played for MIAMI a few years ago when he was in college.

Tommy Wingels - plays for the Sharks....he was supposed to be a senior at MIAMI this year but left early to go to the NHL.

So if you don't usually watch hockey branch out and turn on a game today.

Give it a chance....it can be pretty addicting.

Hockey Room

One of my favorite home furnishing stores is Pottery Barn Teen.

My brother has been looking for a new bedspread, so for the first time ever I took a look at the boys section. And I like what I found.

This is going to be my boys bedroom. And if I don't have a boy than my guest bedroom may just have to be hockey themed. Wohooo my Columbus Blue Jackets are on it (top bunk hanging off the edge). The wall mural on the left is also made by PBTeen and would be a must.

Yep, even NHL sheets.

You can even add the kids number to the wall. How cool with that be? It's a little boy's dream room, hopefully my future kids and husband like hockey!