Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Closets!


I love a well organized, brightly colored closet, I have saved pictures for years of ones I just dream about having...









I guess I kept thinking if I saved enough pictures it would inspire me to create one.

When I bought my house it had a converted patio that was turned into two rooms additional rooms for the house, an office and sitting room, neither are under air but since the living room is open and it has a ceiling fan the sitting room is fine, not so much for the office, too hot to sit in during the summers in Florida, so I started converting it into a closet since it was off my bedroom anyways. I have been doing it gradually, pretty half-hearted and not really putting much into it besides hanging rods and some handmedown shelves, but I decided that I will be doing it for real now.


I picked out the paint colors using Valspar's paint a virtual room and picked them up this past weekend. What do you think? They are a little bold but since most of the walls will be covered with hanging clothes and shelves and since its just a closet, I thought bold and bright was okay.

Then I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to find fabric for the curtain...of course the ones I like are the two week special order ones, so I will have to wait. So far these are the four I like...





*I started painting this past weekend, a little bright, but hopefully it looks good once everything is complete.
*Once I decide on the fabric I have to special order it and then create a cornice/curtain for the one window.
*Have to Refinish the handmedown shelves, and small dresser.
*Put up rods, wall shelves and shoe shelves and then get everything back in and organized.
*I already have two brown and teal ottomans/storage boxes from Target and some shelf bins I got for Christmas from Lowe's to help decorate and organize.
Hope it all comes together!

Monday, June 28, 2010

A little piece of my childhood


Everyday I listen to a playlist at work, since I am on the computer the entire day. On my playlist there are 2 Carole King songs, Where you Lead, which I came to love because of Gilmore Girls and So Far Away, listening to those the other day got me thinking about the Carole King sung special Really Rosie that I use to love when I was little, so I jumped on Amazon to try to find it and that got me started on a childhood books by back session that lasted three days searching for books that I loved when I was little and can no longer find. Because my sister is a teacher and has three little ones she got most of the children's books we had I think, but I was able to replace some of my favorites and even got a few videos, yes videos we loved. Here are some of the ones I got... The collection that inspired Really Rosie special by Maurice Sendack.


Two books, the cd, and the original video of Lyle Lyle Crocidile. I use to watch this all the time on HBO as a little girl, but never had the book. Danny had never heard of it so we will be watching the video soon.



Beatrix Potter Collection, I love the pictures in these, really any story with little animals in sophistcated outfits!


Strega Nona is such a great story!


Some Christmas Favorites, this one even has the scratch and sniffs that smell good still.


Saturday, June 26, 2010

Yummy Real Simple Recipe


I get the Real Simple recipe emails everyday and they always look so good, yet I had never tried to make one before, then I finally decided to try this one because it sounded so yummy and easy. I had never deep fried anything before and don't own a deep fryer, so Dan said I could use our dutch oven...


The balls of dough didn't really stay rolled up when frying, but the end result tasted good anyways.


My first time deep frying went well I think, Dan's Chinese spider worked great for getting them out and I didnt burn myself, yay!!


Yummy donuts!!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Perry Ellis Swimsuit sale on Ideeli


Super cute swimsuits and cover-ups by Perry Ellis are on sale right now on Ideeli, let me know if you need an invite. Bathing suits are around $39 and cover-ups only $27! Such great deals and very pretty summer colors, perfect for the cruise I want to take in August.


I got this bathing suit and two coverups.


I'm a little iffy about this cover-up, but luckily it was the only one that was able to be returned if need be.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy First Day of Summer!!

It's the first day of summer here in sunny Florida and guess whose AC broke!!


The AC guy said that it's only a part, the outside filter for the coil in the outside unit, which is only a year and a half old, but it corrodes more often since we are beach side, lucky us, but since there are new laws in place we cant just replace the part since they don't make our unit anymore we have to get a whole new unit, fun fun!

He is going to have us try one more thing before ordering the unit so Dan is pressure washing the filter tonight, meanwhile fans are a blowin...

Bonannos look alikes at Target

Check these out, I think Target is trying to copy someone, dont they look just like Bonannos...




Pretty cute and for only $19.99...I wonder if they are as comfortable.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Honeymoon: Part 3 Paris

We arrived on the train from Germany to Paris Sunday afternoon, since neither of us had been to Paris or even Europe before we were super excited to get there and take the whole city in, so much to see! Luckily we were staying there until Thursday!


When we arrived at the hotel and got to the room they had champagne and chocolates sent up for our honeymoon, it was amazing and so nice, we had a glass and then started walking to find dinner.


Its so nice that you can walk everywhere in Paris and see so much. We didn't ask for directions just wanted to wonder around, there are so many cute cafes any would have been great!



We ended up at Le Nemrod, nice wine, and food, I had steak with bleu cheese sauce and there was a little accident of Dan ordering sausage that was made out of tripe, ahhhh, Danny does speak French, but had no idea what the "AAAAA" meant, but we soon learned and saw it at every cafe practically. After dinner drinks of port and dessert of apple tart finished off the evening at Le Nemrod.


When we got back from dinner and our walk we enjoyed the champagne and the view from our balcony(which I didn't realize we had when we were in the room earlier, haha!)


The next day we woke up had a nice breakfast of chocolate croissants and baguette and cheese platter at the hotel and started to walk...



first to the fountain of St. Michel...


then to Notre Dame...










and then jumped on an open roof tour bus to see everything and get a feel for how the city was laid out.










We got off the tour bus at Notre Dame and walked back to Fountain of St. Michel area to find a nice place to eat, Danny had roast chicken and I had the Croque Monsieur, a walk down St.Germain to go back to the hotel to relax and to clean up and get ready for dinner at Le Grand Colbert from Something's Gotta Give.





We came across these gorgeous gardens at the end of the street where Le Grand Colbert was.




After a wonderful dinner of onion soup and roasted chicken for me, fish stew and rack of lamb for Danny, wine, port and apple tart once again and creme brulee for Dan...we went for a nice walk, just some of the gorgeous things we saw on the walk...











The next day we got up early to walk to the Hotel Des Invalides and to the Eiffel Tower. What a gorgeous view from the top, the line wasn't too bad and we decided to walk down, instead of taking both elevators down we only took one.






After the Eiffel Tower we went to Le Opera De Paris area and had lunch at Le Opera Cafe, Chicken in cream for me because it came with Dauphinoise potatoes which Dan had the night before and I fell in love with and a croque monsieur for Danny, after lunch some shopping at Printemps and some other small shops around the area a walk to the Louvre and then back to the hotel to relax.






For dinner we decided to ask the concierge for a recommendation and went to La Fregate, wonderful food, gorgeous interior, but they had weird Tibetan posters all over the place for sale that look funny with all the classical architecture. I had the beef bourguignon, onion soup and apple tart, Danny had kippers, steak au poivre, and chocolate mousse. A nice walk back to the hotel, a bottle of Domaine de Lucie Saint Amour and a relaxing night.



The next day we decided not to go to Versailles and to sleep in and stayed in Paris. We wanted to go someplace new, we had not seen, so we decided on Sacre Couer. On the way to Sacre Couer we passed Moulin Rouge.


Sacre Couer was just gorgeous, very different than any other architecture in Paris, breathtaking inside also unfortunately pictures were not allowed. We learned quickly as we started walking to findlunch the surrounding area was scary, we grabbed a cab and went back to the Fountain of St.Michel where we knew there was a ton of little cafes.


A nice lunch of onion soup , croque monsieur, croque madame, and a glass of wine for me, a glass of wine is cheaper than soda in Paris, so you might as well! I decided to do some shopping and Danny went back to the hotel to relax.



That night we decided to just walk around and enjoy our last in Paris, and decided to eat late with the Parisians and came across a very cute litte cafe, Le Rousseau on a side street away from everything across the street from the fish Market. Appetizer of shrimp and avocadoes with this wonderful cream base sauce, Dan had duck, I had this wonderful veal and rice dish, and we shared chocolate crepes for dessert.


A nice long walk taking the city in for the last time as we walked back to the hotel.


The next day we slept in, enjoyed a nice breakfast then grabbed a taxi to the train station to say goodbye to Paris and enjoyed the Euro Star train in the Chunnel to London.