Friday Favorites

DK Eyewitness Travel Guides

I love these books! I cannot go anywhere without reading one of these books front to back. I see people carrying these books around when traveling (I usually don't carry mine with me because they are very heavy). They give you so much information accompanied by PICTURES!!! Yes, I must have pictures. It really helps me to know if I want to spend precious time going to this place or if I want to pass it up. The pages are glossy and in color. I like to read these books just for fun even.
The books break the city or country up into sections and then it shows you all the places of interest. For some of the bigger attractions, the guide will break down that attraction giving you a lot of visual detail. These books make great gifts as well. You can supplement these books with other travel guides or articles from the internet for more in depth study, but nothing beats this travel guide for visual excitement.

www.Polyvore.com

My latest obsession is this fashion website. I am not a creator, but I can copy! I often get overwhelmed when shopping. I find pieces that I love, but am not so great at putting it all together. This site has many items put together by others that are so good. The great thing is, you find something that you like, you click on the picture, and it breaks down the picture item by item and tells you how much it is and has a link on where to buy it. When I first found the site, I found I was attracted to very expensive things. In the picture above, the dress is $500, the shoes are $700, the purse is $300. What I found is you can recreate this look for less with a little polyvore research. You can go to shop and put in black and white dresses and a whole slew of dresses come up in all price ranges. When you click on that dress, not only does all the details of that dress come up, but it shows you collections that others have made using that dress. Of course, there are much less expensive collections to see and all different kinds. I've printed out some of my favorite looks and I'm going to take the pages shopping with me to help keep me focused on what I want and need.

So, I've seen a couple of movies...

On Saturday, the Handsome Husband and I went to see The Book of Eli. It was a great movie. There is plenty of action and I loved the story line. Eli is protected by God as he travels across a 30 year post nuclear US and heads west to deliver the Bible into good hands. He doesn't know exactly who or where to deliver the Bible but he has faith he will know when the time comes who to give it to. He crosses a budding town controlled by an evil, educated man (everyone born after the war is not educated, due to destruction of most books) who is in search of the Bible to use for evil purposes. Eli must escape him and his violent goons with his Bible. Exciting stuff. The ending was a little generic for me, as a Christian, but I liked it non the less.

Denzel Washington

I took a Wednesday afternoon and went and saw An Education all by myself. A first for me! I loved it. This movie was hard to find as it came out in October 2009 and I don't remember hearing anything about it. It is a coming of age story about a 16 year old girl who is conned by an older man in the ways of love. It takes place in 1961, in London and Paris. It is not a heartbreaking story, but an eye opener.

Carey Mulligan does an excellent job playing the smart, driven, and naive Jenny. She shows us how love is blind and you're willing to look the other way when things don't quite add up.

I loved all the clothes and the scenery in this movie.

Peter Sarsgaard plays the older (40ish) David. You have to wonder what kind of weirdo he is that he is courting a 16 year old. He wins over the parents with his smoothness and lies, but is eventually found out to be the scoundrel that he is. Jenny is humbled and regroups and realizes her dreams with a more mature outlook.

Friday Favorites

See's Candy

I'm sorry, this is one thing the french do not make better than us! I will take a box of See's Candy over Godiva or any specialty chocolate store's candy ANY DAY!!!! We always make our own box of See's Candy, that way you don't get chocolates that you don't like. See's candy is only sold in the Western United States and Hong Kong. It is delicious. Here our my families three favorite:

Almond Truffle

Milk Chocolate Butter

This candy also comes in dark chocolate. We gave a chocolate butter and a scotchmallow as wedding favors at my daughters wedding and there was not one left! All the boxes were open and the candies were eaten. They were not saved for later.

The Scotchmallow

The two shown directly above are my two personal favorites. You can't go wrong with these. If you wanted you could make a whole box of just these!

Chanel Bronzer

I love the color of this bronzer, it gives you a kissed by the sun look. I use it alot on its own with no blush. It lasts a long time and I apply it using a Kabuki brush.

Kabuki Brush

Chanel calls this a La Petite Pinceau, but the make-up artists call it a kabuki brush. Perfect for applying bronzer.

Fiskars Paper Cutter

I use this to cute all paper. I use it make cards, scrapbooking and my children use it for school projects. I couldn't have make half the paper goods at my daughters wedding without it.

Cucumber Melon body lotion

I love the smell of this lotion by bath and body works. I keep a small bottle in my purse for my dry hands in the winter and on my desk when I worked.

Its Raining, It's Pouring...

Nothing takes the wetness out of the rain like being prepared. Here in California, we barely have 5 days of rain a year. We have had 5 days of pouring rain and flooding this week alone and more in the forecast. We live in a desert and a dry one at that. So most of the time when it rains we are not prepared. We run from our car to our destination in canvas tennis shoes, light sweat jackets and a bag over our head. Our kids come home from school soaked totally through with wrinkly toes and fingers and sopping wet hair. I bought rainboots for my daughters a couple of years ago and they won't wear them to school. They like to play in the gutter with them while racing goldfish! All you girls and guys from the rest of the world (where you have "weather") will probably laugh at this, but I'm serious, I have never had all the right gear. The most I've invested in was an umbrella.
Having the right "Equipment" makes all the difference. I love a good strong umbrella. You can let your personality really shine through with these great accessories. You can tell everyone who you are. Are you flashy or conservative? I tend to have both tendencies.

I recently bought a nice raincoat from TJ Maxx that looks beautiful but at the same time repels water. Imagine that! To top it off, it really worked! I did not get soaked through. I could stand in the rain and my clothes did not get wet. Amazing!
Rainboots are another area where your personality can really shine. Target online has 4 pages of rainboots! They range from 15-36 dollars. Every look you can imagine is represented. I'm usually jumping from high spot to high spot trying to avoid all the puddles while my children are seeking out the deepest puddles to step in (in their canvas tennis shoes).

It doesn't take much money to build a defense against the rain and it is definitely worth the investment. I couldn't believe the difference just having the right gear made. Put your work shoes in your bag and put on those boots!

Fancy Nancy

I just bought two of these incredible Fancy Nancy tutus for my friend's daughters on Etsy. They are so cute. I wish I had something like this when I was a kid!

Friday Favorites

Life Beautiful

Some of the best things we find are through our friends. Recommendations of things they have tried and they like and they pass on their knowledge to you. Here are a couple more great things I have discovered.

Life Beautiful mission statement:

Life:Beautiful is a national, inter-denominational, Christian lifestyle magazine that celebrates an active, integrated faith. Built on a foundation of biblical teaching and encouragement for spiritual growth, Life:Beautiful offers relevant information and community for Christian women.

The pages of Life:Beautiful showcase everyday experiences and activities, such as parenting, cooking, decorating, teaching, working, volunteering, resting, traveling and offering hospitality—all of which can be used to share the joy of the Lord.

Chanel Make-up remover

I've tried so many makeup removers and this one is by far the best. It is non greasy and light, takes off every last smudge of mascara and eye make-up.

Martha Stewart Glitter Pack

I like to just look at it, shiny and colorful. It covers all your color bases. You can find it at Michael's and you can use your 40% coupon. Win-win!

Keurig Coffee Maker

I have to say that I scoffed at my husband when he wanted this for Christmas of 2008. I thought it was just another gadget, we had a fine coffee maker. This coffee maker is the best! It takes 40 seconds to make a cup of coffee or in my case, tea. Perfect temperature, perfect blend, and fresh. The down side is if you drink a pot of coffee a day, this would not be very economical. My husband and I each drink two cups and it is perfect.

To go along with the coffee maker are the k-cups. There are many, many different kinds of flavors of coffee and tea and they are sold in packs of 18. They have a Newman's Own brand that is sold at Costco in a pack of 80 k-cups. This, fortunately, is my husbands favorite.

The Garmin Navigation System

A must have for any trips that you take out of state or out of the country. This saved our driving life when we drove in Spain in France. Being in a foreign country, you can't always read the signs. This little gadget gives you step by step driving directions in English (or any language that you speak) in the foreign country thus getting you to your destination without fights amongst yourselves as you debate the map and miss your turn off!

Unusual Peacock

This wonderful and unusual peacock was found at Anthropologie. I can't decide which I like more, the clothes or the beautiful arts and crafts! It was made out of paper mache and pages from a book. I would totally sign up for any art class they offered. They could make a fortune every quarter teaching all of us how to make their wonderful display items. I wonder where they find this stuff? If they go to local art schools or if they have their own talented team? I always look forward to the seasonal change so I can be mesmerized by their window.

Hot tip! - Clarisonic Mia

Clarisonic has come out with a smaller, more travel friendly size. Wonderful skin care system now made more affordable. I've seen it priced from $123 - $145. Check this Sephora link for details. It comes in pink too!

It has ARRIVED!

I've been trying to find a pearl necklace and have been searching all the stores. I found this wonderful website for handmade jewelry called Karen Sugarman Designs. I drool over her jewelry about once a week. I didn't see anything made with pearls in her regular collections, so on a whim, I decided to check out the Bridal Jewelry. And, TADAH, there it was. She was having a big sale of 25% off. (She also provides lay-away for up to six months). I purchased a beautiful pearl necklace, just my style.

Today I ran to the mailbox and there it was. When I opened the shipping box, I found this wonderful pink and black box waiting for me to open. I was soooo excited, but worried. Would I like it in person as much as I liked the photo on the internet?
No worries! It is amazingly beautiful. More than I could have dreamed! I LOVE it. The craftmanship is beyond compare. Every detail is stunning. It fits perfectly.

So Happy!

Kooza - Cirque du Soleil

On Saturday night our family headed out to the Grand Central Park to watch Cirque du Soleil perform Kooza. Santa brought everyone tickets, so it was a great family affair. Expensive, but worth every penny and you definitely have to see a Cirque du Soleil show once in your life. We didn't see alot of little kids, it was more a grown up affair and everyone was dressed up for a change.
This was considered by all of us to be the show-stopper. Just watching these guys made your palms sweat. They really did some amazing stuff. They ran on the inside of the circles, performing jumps and such, but more heart stopping was what they did while running on the OUTSIDE of the circles. The Handsome Husband was really impressed and loved every minute of this show.

These guys were our next favorite. They were truly amazing. Such balance!

These two did more on a unicycle than most people can do standing still. They were incredible. He tossed her in the air, spun her around his shoulders multiple times and they both rode the unicycle as one.
This girl was also amazing. She let go of that swing and did flips, hung by her legs and flipped herself up into the sitting position and so much more. It was an all around entertaining and good clean fun show. There wasn't a bad seat in the house because it was a small intimate theatre and they seemed to play to all sides of the stage. Facing the front is always best though. Be aware that if you sit in the front row or along the aisles you are going to be used as part of their gags. All in good fun though and no harm done.