Happy Easter!!

I received this card via e-mail from my aunt Mary Margaret. MM is as big a Bama belle as they come. She drives a big ole white Cadillac, just like her mama, my beloved 90 year old Aunt Faye, and she lives for Auburn football, dirty jokes, and sangria.


I'll be spending Easter weekend in West Virginia with my wacktastic family, including my cousin in from Scotland! Hope your weekend is filled with spring weather and Easter joy!

Hi, my name is Belle...

...and I'm an interior-aholic.

It started out innocently enough. I just wanted to (re)decorate my bedroom. So I was browsing one of my favorite bloggers because I always think her rooms look so pretty. Which is how I discovered Tobi Fairley. Love, love, LOVE her! Can you say OBSESSED? Le sigh....if only I had limitless wealth and her number on speed dial. It's like my fantasy home(s).per-fec-tion.

Then I found Erin Gates through Tobi Fairley. Her blog, Elements of Style, has become my heroin. I seriously cannot stop clicking. I make it through a few posts, and then I have to click on all of the links in her posts, and then 5 hours has gone by. She is my interior design doppelganger {and in Boston!! My fave city!!}
umm...so needless to say, my bedroom decorating has taken on a life of its own. the walls are painted. the new window treatments arrived yesterday. I am selling a kidney saving my money to buy the new {queen sized!!} mattress and headboard I picked out. They are so yummy. And still agonizing over bedding choices. Don't even get me started on my plans for the living room and guest bedroom...my wallet will start yelling at me.

Happy Thursday, lovelies!!

Lou Lou, where are you??

Lou Lou in Lilly, my love, you have gone missing!!  I missed out on you going private and I miss reading your blog.  Send me an invite?  scg2b@virginia.edu

Bloggy Goodness

Giveaways!

*Sweet Tea Diary's birthday bonanza
*Making Lemonade From Lemon's FIRST giveaway

Enjoy!

it's the little things...

this is sad. the highlight of my monday was....yes, that's right....sponges. NEW sponges, to be specific. our kitchen at work has, for the longest time, been the best evidence of our cheap economically-minded director. we had the nastiest, dirtiest, germiest sponges EVER. which was a major problem for me, since i like to bring my lunch from home and i like clean dishes. so imagine my delight to discover not one, but two, brightly colored hot pink and orange! it's like they picked them just for me sponges sitting next to a brand new bottle of detergent at the sink today. joie pure. i need to get out of this small town....i think it's starting to get to me...

in other news....GO HEELS!! make the ACC proud!!

OBSESSED

Like pretty much everything in my life, I am uber-picky about candles.  I loathe Yankee Candles...if I want my house to smell like birthday cake, I'll bake a birthday cake and leave the oven open.  And I hate those cutesy pictures on the jars, too.

I like my candles clean and simple.  Nothing to heavily perfumed and i like a plain, glass container with zero graphics.  

While browsing around Williams-Sonoma, I stumbled up their new essential oils collection and this thing of beauty:

OMG I am OBSESSED.  The basil-scented candle is AHHHHmazing.  I bought multiples because I don't live near a WS and was terrified of running out.  I burn these from the moment I get home from work til the moment I hit they hay.  Drop what you are doing and purchase immediately.  You will not be sorry.

What-so What-al?

I have been a bad blogger, but I promise I have a good excuse. Here's my story. Fasten your seatbelts no pun intended. It's a long one:

So I had to go the doctor on Tuesday for a procedure to remove some precancerous cells {no worries, I'm healthy now}. My mom of course freaked out when I mentioned the word precancer so she insisted on coming to town for the day to come to the doctor with me. So off we go to the doctor. They do the procedure, wildly uncomfortable, but not really painful. No shots, no sedative, nothing like that. My doctor warns me there might be some mild cramping, tells me to take some Advil, and we're done. So I thought....

I get in the car, start it up, and pull out of the parking lot. I'm feeling fine, talking to my mom about where to go to lunch. All of a sudden it hits me: MAJOR cramp. We're talking the most intense pain I've ever felt. I tell my mom that I think I need her to drive and we look for a place to pull over as we're sitting at the traffic light. All of a sudden I get a very familiar feeling and tell my mom I'm going to pass out. That's the last thing I remember.

The next thing I know, I come to and I have no earthly clue what's going on. I'm in my car with my head on the steering wheel. I look up and all I see are branches. I can hear my mom talking and lots of sirens. So I did what any rash, sane person would do and started sobbing hysterically. At this point, my mom and the EMTs explain to me that I passed out behind the wheel of my car. My mom, stunt driver extrodinaire, grabbed the steering wheel and maneuvered us away from a) the front porch of a nursing home where old people were sunning themselves, b) oncoming traffic, and c) a telephone pole. We ended up in a tree/bush in someone's front yard. I get taken to the ER for my first documented case of vasovagal syncope. Which basically means I am a total wimp at the doctor's office. I always pass out around needles, but this is the first time it has been pain-related. So after a lot of poking and prodding and more hysterical sobbing from me, I was released from the hospital with this little tidbit: I'm not allowed to drive to/from the doctor by myself anymore, even for a check-up. Woot.

So I'm OK minus a whopping case of whiplash. My car is....driveable, but has to go to the body shop tonight for a helluva ton of cosmetic work. The bumper is literally sitting in my back seat. Oh, did I mention the people who own the front yard we landed in are TERRIBLE? They have been harassing my mom and I via telephone, even though I have told them several times that my insurance has their information and will be in touch.

So I'm feeling very lucky to be alive and walking and talking without any permanent damage and so blessed to have a mom who is super cool under pressure. I'm also really thrilled to have a car insurance agent who has worked with my family for 15 years and takes care of me {for a price, of course}.

That's why I've been so MIA. Apologies! I have lots of posts to catch up on in my Reader, so if you get an onslaught of comments from me this weekend, now you know why :) Happy Friday, lovelies!