It's up to you....

New York, New York!! I have a red-eye flight to NYC tomorrow morning for work and will be there until Sunday afternoon. I could not be more excited as I really need to get the heck out of Dodge! I only have one appointment tomorrow, so I'm planning on spending the day wondering around the three B's + Saks with a very large cup of hot chocolate. Heaven.

Friday brings appointments all day {breakfast at Brasserie and then the treck down to the Financial District, where I always feel like a fish out of water} and Saturday is a black tie event at 3 West.

I need advice from you NYC ladies on what to do to fill the rest of my time. I need dinner/lunch/Sunday brunch recommendations {and any other fun things you can think of}! Any suggestions?

I have no business blogging right now...

{things are insanity at work} BUT....i HAD to share this. This discovery at the grocery store made my inner fat kid do a touchdown dance: http://edys.slowchurned.com/flavor.aspx?b=117&f=2377 yeah, i know what i'm doing to destress tonight :)

Swaps and Giveaways!

Hi lovelies! Weekend update later....this week is absolutely chaos for me. But I just had to let everyone know about the fabu swap Lou Lou in Lilly is hosting!! Head on over to her adorable blog and sign up....who doesn't love stationary?!

Also, ummm, hi, can we talk about The Tale of A Southern Belle's giveaway? I would not be telling y'all about it if it didn't get me another entry :) Seriously, it's that good.

Happy Friday

you're welcome.

It's Official

I have spring fever in a major sort of way. I'm not much of a cold weather gal to begin with, but the little taste of 65+ degree weather last week has me dreaming of all my spring favorites:

i am obsessed with cheery blossoms. they are perfection.

both the university i graduated from and the university i work for have very strong, proud lax traditions. i love tailgating at matches at my alma mater and taking the puppy boy to matches at my employer. as a friend's father said last year, lacrosse always has the prettiest groupies ;)

if you've never been, you don't understand. but this is college spring to me. and alumni come back every. single. year. the social event of the season.

and last but not least....spring break!!!!!!! since i mainly work with students and there's not much for me to do while they're gone (ha! that's what i'm telling myself), i'm treating myself to a spring break as well. key west will not know what hit it.

Wednesday Confessional

I have never been on a cruise.

The bestie and I made a pact when we graduated that we would take one vacation together every year and that it had to be something/somewhere neither of us had done/been.  Last year, we lived it up in Vegas for a week.  We discovered that we are not really Sin City people, but we had a ball anyways.

This year, all I want is warm weather and a beach.  Our original plan was to go to Key West, and while that's not entirely out of the picture, I'm starting to lean towards a cruise.  Just the hotel in Key West would cost as much as the entire cruise!

I don't want to go anywhere to spring break-y; I don't want a bunch of drunk high school kids ruining my r&r.  So to those of you who have cruised before, any recommendations?  Which cruise line?  How long? What part of the Carribean (Eastern, Western, Southern)?  Should we just skip the cruise and head to Key West? Help!

My first tag!

I was tagged by the lovely Preppy 101 over the weekend. Her blog is one of my favorites and she is a sweetheart (I wish she had been one of my teachers!), so if you're not already reading her blog, just scoot on over there and check it out.The tag is this:

1. Post a picture of the bag/purse/handbag/pocketbook that you are carrying! Now, don't you even think about going back there to your closet and getting that cute little clutch that you carried before you had children or the last time you went out.

2. Tell us how much it cost! I know what you are thinking - a Southern Belle neva discusses matters of money, darlin'. Well, yes, but today we are gonna break that rule and tell! Yes, tell how much it cost. We won't judge! This is for entertainment purposes only. And if there is a story that goes along with this purse, tell it.

3. Tag some other girls. It will be fun to see what everybody else posts :-)

Okay, here's mine:

(Sorry for the awkward picture...I cant find the usb cable to my camera, so I took this on my bberry in the car.)

I am in love with this purse. She is crocodile (if that's wrong, baby, i don't want to be right) with gold hardware and silk lining. Banana Republic limited edition. I carry her everywhere.

I think the bag was around $400, but I'm not 100% sure. She was a Christmas gift from my mama.

The only story is that my daddy calls this my Mary Poppins bag. She is HUGE and I have ton of stuff in there (Blackberry, two wallets, a clutch, cell phone, tissues, work papers, 6 lipglosses....the list goes on and on). Everytime I'm rifling through her to find something, my dad says he expects me to pull out a lamp at any moment. I prefer to think she's Mary Poppins-esque because she's practically perfect in every way :)

It was also a special Christmas present because my mother is the most frugal woman alive. I doubt she's ever paid more than 50 bucks for a purse and she thinks my shopping habits are downright sinful. The fact that she actually shelled out the dough for this purse meant so much to me, because it is SO not like her to spend money on anything like this!

Now I tag:
Amanda Joy
and
Where Preppy meets Hippie
Sorry for only tagging two people, but I don't want to exhaust my pool of followers with my first tag!

Happy Tuesday!

An Open Letter to The Bachelor

Dear Jason,
You are an idiot. That is all.
Sincerely,
Me

A Few of my Favorites

In an effort to help y'all get to know me a little better, I'm presenting a few of my favorite things. First off, two NEW discoveries this weekend that will be changing my life forever: ok if you are a pet owner and a neat freak like me, stop whatever you are doing, go to your local wally world or tarjay and purchase this little sucker immediately. (word to the wise: i found mine next to the dishwashing gloves....nowhere near the pet section. weird) it is AMAZING. seriously. i normally go through like a lint roller a week trying to get the puppy boy's fur off of my settee. this works 10,000 times better.

oh yes....you read this correctly. i am trying to be much healthier with my eating habits and i love these things. lots o' fiber, very tasty, and fairly inexpensive = perfect mid-morning snack. they really do taste like pop-tarts! the trick is to only eat ONE of the little things in the pouch.

Now for some of the old standy faves:oh yeah. don't act like you don't love them too. I could watch rerun upon rerun of this show for days. God bless Lifetime TV. Dorothy's slouchy boots and oversized Chanel earrings, Blanche's sluttiness....loooooooooove it. Best guilty pleasure ever, thank you 80s TV!

these three things combine to make my all-time favorite food. ever. fresh tomato sandwiches. i am VERY picky about these. it must be white bread (i prefer sunbeam). it must be duke's mayo (the best. don't argue this.) and it must be FRESH tomatoes (i am spoiled by the ones of an heirloom variety in my daddy's garden). you cannot eat this with out-of-season tomatoes. it's a sin. just add a little salt and pepper. NOTHING else. enjoy the pure heaven in your mouth.
do i even need to explain this one?

england. this is a picture I took from the patio at my favorite pub. I spent a summer studying at Oxford and it was the best time of my life. the English countryside is the only place I will ever leave the South for. it is a little slice of paradise, especially for all-things-bucolic loving me.

i'm cheating with this last one, as it combines two of my favorites. a) cupcapkes. they are perfect. i make a mean coconut cupcake. b) birds. not that i don't actually like the actual thing, but i love bird illustrations. i just think they're so whimsical and pretty and outdoorsy. i have them all over my house.

So that's a little bit more about me :)

All the Single Ladies...

Sorry, I just couldn't resist! I'm obsessed with Some Ecards. For the record, this is NOT what I will be doing tonight, although I would be lying if I said my girlies and I hadn't considered it :)
Hope this day (and every other day) is filled with lots of love and happiness for all of you...Happy Valentine's Day!

One more thing...

WTF? Seriously, wtf? G-dawg, I normally love you and want to be you (minus the fact that you seem kind of bitchy). But really...all the outfits and all the designers in the world, and you pick this? Not cool.

Picture Book

In honor of the fast approaching weekend (I get off work at 1 today!), a summary of my upcoming plans in words and pictures. All day today and tomorrow, I will be:

(my dream vaccuum...not the crappy one I actually have)

(i love me some swiffer products...i sing the blondie 'one way or another song' from the commercials while using them. don't judge; you do the same thing.)
(the only cleaning products i have found that don't make me nauseous and headachey-y after using. also, my liberal bleeding heart feels smuggly self-satisfied when i buy them. i am saving the planet, one toilet cleaning at a time. oh yeah.)

(and taking this little dude for a nice long run. he has cabin fever and is driving mommy nuts.)

(ingredients for the perfect single-girl valentine's day. this is not a complaint. i'm really looking forward to treating myself to these three of my favorite things. these are the times i actually really love being an independent gal.)

And for Sunday...

totally seeing this....

definitely shopping this...

and hopefully doing this :)

Happy weekend, loves!

Heart Hug

Yay for my first three followers!! Lots of blog love for a.little.bit.delirious, When Preppy Meets Hippie, and The Rangel-Carangui Family. So exciting to know that I'm not the only one reading this :)


Also, I have a bad case of the Mondays (and it's Thursday, so that should tell you something.) My heart needed a little hug and in case anyone else's did too, this picture is for you:

Have you all been to this website? I have spent a LOT of work hours on here. 99% of the stuff on here is just stupid ridic, but it never fails to make me crack up. Probably says something about my sense of humor, but whatevs....how can you not smile at this picture?!?

Happy Thursday (or College Friday as one of my old roomies would say...)!!!

Time to Redecorate!

So thanks to the child-rearing skills of my accountant parents, the only math skills I've developed are actually pretty handy: money management. I've been a good little worker bee the past year and put money towards things like paying off credit card debt and purchasing a car that's actually reliable (previous car was adorable, but had an obnoxious habit of dying to the tune of $700 whenever she felt like it. such a bitch.) and saving money. My parents were also generous enough to help furnish part of my teeny townhouse when I moved in last year. But since most of the things they bought me were for my living room (couch, TV, rug), most of my decorating budget went to making my downstairs pretty.


And then there's my bedroom....the most depressing room in my house and not just because there's no boy in it. I have literally done NADA with this room. No pictures, no pretty bedspread, no curtains, no paint, no frills, no nothing. Well, lovelies, that ends today. I have paid off my credit cards and have an expanded decorating budget burning a hole in my pocket. I am on a mission to make my room the most bee-yoo-ti-ful room in the house (and super girly to boot....I'm decorating for ME). Here are the things I have decided on thus far:So this is the paint color I've decided on. Yes, it's pink. Why? Because I can. I love the color pink and this is my room and likely the last time in my life I will get to paint a bedroom pink (I'm convinced I'm going to be mother to all boys). It's Benjamin Moore 'Love and Happiness'. House Beautiful describes it as ballet slippers pink with a touch of beige to make it modern. Good enough for me.

The bed. I currently do not have a headboard. I just have a metal bed frame (that's using the term loosely) on wheels. It sucks. And it's the opposite of attractive. But this beauty just calls out to me. I heart all things Chippendale and chinoiserie. And it's Pottery Barn.

Window treatments. Only I'm getting these in a chocolate, instead of the gold pictured here. I just love that it's buffalo check, which is such a casual woodsy print, but with tassels and in silk, which is so dressy. Plus they're dramatic and fun.

These four pictures are my inspiration. I know that none of them are bedrooms and one is a nursery, but I just love this palate(sp?) of colors. They're all soothing yet upbeat and fun at the same time. Jury is still out on what I'm going to do for bed linens. I already have PB Shams in the same style as the bottom picture with my monogram on them, so they will obviously be used. Any suggestions for the rest?

Happy Tuesday!