Sunday, October 24, 2010

One Month Later...a Blog Award!

So before I let a whole 'nother month go by (& where on earth has this month gone, I ask you?!)...I must thank Katie at Southern Style&Living for sharing an award with me! If you are looking for class&style w/ a Southern accent, Katie is your girl! Go check her out!


Rules...

*Share seven things about yourself.
*Tag three blogs with the award.


(via: One by the Beatles)


(Reagan Chair in Cinnabar at Pier 1 Imports)

When I was a kid, I loved finding new little "nooks" to curl up in & read. The more hidden away, the better. For a period of time, I got to sit under the desk of one of my favorite teachers.

But perhaps my all-time favorite spot was behind my pawpaw's recliner, in a corner. His recliner was placed catty-corner in my grandparents' living room; & I would curl up behind it with a pillow & a book, & just "hide." Of course my grandparents&mama knew exactly where I was, but it felt like such a

secret,
special
little

world.

Now that I reflect back on it, I wonder if that was the subconscious inspiration for my insistence upon catty-cornering my "grown up reading chair," which is my beloved cozy oversized armchair that is upholstered in an almost-madras-in-style fabric. It is in our living room today.




Now that Bobbi Brown is available at Sephora (yippee!); the only beauty brand that I must have, that I cannot buy at Sephora, is MAC.

"What is it that MAC does so much better?" asks my gal at Sephora one relatively recent afternoon. Well, since she asked...:

(especially the blushcremes),
...& their nail lacquer is the only nail lacquer I buy that deviates from my rampant OPI addiction
(93 colors in my personal OPI collection & counting!).

Oh!, & MAC does the most fun collaborative collections each season!



I can't quit

real,
glossy,
turn-the-pages

magazines.

I've been reading them since I was a kid. The first magazines I remember reading were my granny's&mama's copies of:

McCall's,

I remember buying a few copies of Tiger Beat here&there in about the sixth grade (mostly for purposes of decorating my very first locker), but I preferred Sassy & Seventeen magazines (at what was probably "too young" of an age).

Then in high school I "graduated" to InStyle magazine after my best friend & I spent a week in Florida with my best friend's cousin Merry, who seemed too cool to really be an adult. Merry had about eight shelves in her home office devoted to her carefully organized magazine collections.

(She also had the coolest house&job ever!)

The magazines of hers that intrigued me the most were Architectural Digest & InStyle, but I had a hard time finding AD after returning to my small mountain town in Alabama.
Now, my must-have subscriptions are:
Um, & I've actually edited my subscriptions in the last few years. Clearly it may be time to address another edit.



Reading so many

blogs,
books,
& magazines

means that I don't have time to watch much television at all.

Not that I mind. I've never been a big television-viewer.

Nowadays my only real "must-watch" programs are:
Wow, perhaps those need an edit, as well! ;) But really,

those aren't all on during the same season;
& I generally DVR them,
& watch maybe an hour of television at night.

So, doesn't feel like much...& is not much when you look at it that way!




Drawing back on my sorority rush days, I sometimes sing the Greek alphabet to myself when I need to calm down or get my mind off of something...

...& I can't help but end it with, "Gooo Greek, everybody now!"



I have been inexplicably drawn to any&everything patchouli-scented for as long as I can remember. I have also been inexplicably repulsed by any&everything raspberry-flavored or -scented for as long as I can remember.



I don't listen to mainstream radio of any genre, but I find new music by

browsing iTunes on my own,
finding music from commercials & movie soundtracks,
& listening to the singer-songwriter channel on SonicTap.

(I am always a bit smug when some song that I've been listening to for months suddenly "hits it big" on mainstream radio. ;) Silly, I know. But I get my kicks where I can, ya know?)

Blogs I tag:
(& to be perfectly honest, I might be blogging more often these days if Blogger was auto-saving like it is supposed to...this is the *fourth* day I've had to work on this one post!)

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Love Y'all!

Thanks, y'all, for being so patient with me while I've been bloggy-neglectful.

I don't think two weeks-ish is the longest I've ever gone without posting - I was pretty sporadic when I first began blogging - but it is certainly longer than I am accustomed to!

So there I was on that last Wordless Wednesday, thinking I had this big, long stretch of fall break ahead of me. I envisioned spending exciting, fun mornings with Pretty Little Bare Feet, playing & taking day trips...& then catching up on blogging&laundry while she caught her afternoon nap zzz's each day.


Ha!

(BTW, that is not my child. Just a random cute vintage photo!)

During the fall "break" from her Montessori nursery school, Pretty Little Bare Feet determined that she was ready to begin potty-training. Let me just tell you - I was not ready! But more than one of my wiser momfriends (& my own mama) assured me that I would be a fool to discourage Pretty Little Bare Feet's eagerness, or put it off if she was ready. So I've spent the majority of the last couple weeks in the bathroom, at least when we've been at home.

& while Pretty Little Bare Bottom Feet has no problem with me glancing at my MacBook or a magazine, she does seem to take offense if I actually try to type anything in her pottying presence. So I've done quite a bit of catching up on your blogs, but I apologize for the lack of commenting!

For added fun, Pretty Little Bare Feet has also gotten it into her head that she no longer needs a nap. She is twenty months old. Thus, this no-napping thing is ridiculous.

Now, I have to be honest...I am perfectly rested & ready to function at full speed on an average of six hours of sleep a night or so. So Pretty Little Bare Feet does come by this "I don't need no stinking sleep!" thing honestly. But she has a history of occasional night terrors (as do I), so she needs to nap. & besides, I need her to nap! There are a lot of things I can get accomplished in the afternoon that I am just plain too exhausted to attempt by the time we put her sweet toddler tail to bed.

So, in addition to these blessed hurdles in toddler parenting...

(Which y'all may not even care to read about!)

...we've been busy with:



road trips to visit old colleagues&friends;


a day trip to the zoo;

(& how excited am I?! that Pretty Little Bare Feet also loved the flamingoes best! They are my favorite!)


preparing for a 5k that I'm running on Saturday;

(This girl is a treadmill-conditioned "runner" - & I totally get that all of you outdoorsy runners are superior to me. That's fine - you can have your ragweed & your snakes. I prefer my access to bottled water, iPod speakers, & the latest issue of Town&Country magazine! ;))


(via: Piewacket)

birthday parties galore;

(I swear it seems that almost every friend Pretty Little Bare Feet or I have was born between October&January!)


Pretty Little Bare Feet's first ever field trip to a pumpkin farm;

(Great fun!)


&...I am taking on the task of bringing my very favorite children's trunk show line to our area, as a representative!

(If you are interested in the details on *this*...please get in touch with me by email or through a DM on Twitter!)

So we've been quite busy around here, but ya know what? It's always busy around here, so no excuses from me. Just got to learn to manage my new time-consuming tasks with all of the other ones!

Oh, & by the way...I haven't completely "not been blogging."

(Please excuse that double-negative!)

Now you can read my weekly fashion post at Southern Mommas!


I am very excited about it! It is an honor to be sharing such a special space with such classy&talented fellow "Southern mommas." So please do check it out & let me know what you think!

I promise to be more accessible - & a more interesting read! - in the upcoming weeks!