My First Award of 2011?

So, ages ago...

(seriously, like about two whole months ago, though I can't figure out where these two months have gone)

...Kay, whose fabulous blog is Sweet Preppy in Pink, was sweet enough to award me with the Stylish Blogger Award. Now I don't know if I've done her justice, it not being all that stylish to be so late in acknowledging her kindness ;), but I am so grateful that she thought of me! I've had this post on my "to blog" Stickie on my MacBook all this time, but I swear the number of to-do lists I've been neglecting lately is at an all-time high.

(My pregnant brain is mush, & my pregnant body just gives out on me by 9pm every night. Not great for productivity, since the late-night hours used to be exactly when I found the time to tackle all the things I didn't get done during my day of full-time attention to Pretty Little Bare Feet. & should I even mention that I started this post on Tuesday?!)

Anyway, a big thank you for the award, & y'all please be sure & go check out Sweet Preppy in Pink. =)

Rules:

• Thank, & link back to, the person who gave you this award.
• Share seven things about yourself.
• Award fifteen recently discovered great bloggers.
• Contact these bloggers & tell them about the award.

1. I am addicted to those online flash/sample sale sites.

I think I have a membership (& get the daily emails) for nearly every single one of them, but the ones I frequently buy from (& recommend!) are:

Billion Dollar Babes,

Ideeli,

Rue La La,

& Zulily.

I have had a couple bad experiences (think sites that rhyme with "BoatCook" & "Dotsee")...but overall I enjoy the whole combination of

anticipating a featured designer you love,

logging in to see what's being offered,

& cheering when you find it in your size & get it into your "cart" fast enough...

...or chalking it up to fate that you didn't find it or get it fast enough, since you didn't need to spend that much money anyway!

& of course the savings can be really great - I do usually try to buy enough items at one time to offset the higher shipping costs that most of these sites charge.

(via: Hostess with the Mostess)

2. I love parties.

All kinds of parties.

Baby showers,

birthday parties,

holiday parties...

...I even like lame office Christmas parties.

I love cake (especially wedding cake!). I love decorations&invitations.

It's rare that I won't make an effort to attend pretty much any party I am invited to...& sometimes I attempt to make an average Monday morning playgroup more festive by coming up with a silly themed menu. =p

I also love party blogs. Some of my favorites are:

Birthday Girl,

Hostess with the Mostess,

Kara's Party Ideas,

Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas,

& the TomKat Studio.

3. I get up at 6:15am most mornings.

My Prince usually gets up at about 7am. Pretty Little Bare Feet usually gets up at about 7:35am.

I need my sleep, but those 45 minutes of quiet time first-thing in the morning can be vital to my having a good routine going for the rest of my day. Before I became pregnant again, I would go ahead & get in my first daily Coke Zero (of many) during that period of time.

(Now, unfortunately, just a sip or two of any dark, carbonated beverage makes me nauseated.)

But I like to take a hot bubble bath, rather than a shower, especially if it's a morning that I am not washing my hair. I like to do a quick email check & read an article or two from a magazine.

&...I am also blessed that My sweet Prince often lets me "sleep in" until after 8am on Saturday mornings, while he dozes on the couch & Pretty Little Bare Feet eat cereal & watch Saturday morning cartoons.

(via: Mom's Crafty Space)

4. I love my daughter's Montessori nursery school.

I am a room mom for Pretty Little Bare Feet's classroom, & it actually hasn't entailed as much work as I initially thought I was getting myself into. It's been nice getting to know the other parents, several of whom have become friends of both mine & My Prince's.

I love seeing all the cute little sleepy-morning faces & their cute little nursery school wardrobes.

I also love when I arrive early enough to catch some of the sweet playground action before I go inside to sign Pretty Little Bare Feet out & wait for her to come greet me in the hallway (always with a grin, a run, & a big hug!).

I love the artwork that Pretty Little Bare Feet brings home for us to decorate the kitchen (& My Prince's office) with. I love doing

book orders

& classroom holiday parties

& field trips.

I am so fortunate to be able to be a stay-at-home mama that can really participate fully in my daughter's private nursery school, which encourages so much parental involvement.

(via: Sheek Shindigs)

5. At some point very soon, I am going to have to come up with a suitable "blog alias" for the baby boy that will be joining our family this summer.

I am also going to have to be sure that a new header for this blog includes him!

6. I frequently put myself into "food ruts."

I've done this for as long as I can remember. I can go for months at a time eating the exact same breakfast&lunch, only changing it up at suppertime. I can't explain it, & I don't know what the underlying psychological cause for it is (oh, I'm sure somebody would tell me that there is one).

Examples?

In college, I went pretty much an entire year eating the exact same lunch from our campus dining: half of an omelet with cheddar, ham, & mushrooms.

My senior year, when I lived in an apartment & didn't have a meal plan with campus dining, my lunch was almost always half of a grilled tuna sandwich with a side of broccoli salad. I would eat it at my desk in the office where I interned.

In my second year of law school, during which I had an hour commute (one way), I subsisted almost entirely off of Coke Zero & cookies&creme Pop-Tarts...at least during the daylight hours.

I am also one of those people that always orders my "usual" at restaurants.

But I am actually a pretty adventurous eater. I love to cook & try new recipes. We usually eat supper as a family. & I am often much more clever&creative in fixing different breakfast, lunch, & snack options for Pretty Little Bare Feet.

Still, I personally tend to get "in the mood" for something, & then I'll just sort of keep going back to it by default until I move on to my next meal phase.

7. My "signature" drink is a Sapphire&tonic.

• 1 part Bombay Sapphire gin
• 4 parts tonic

*Pour ingredients over ice in a tall glass.

*Garnish with a lime wedge.

Fifteen stylish bloggers I'm awarding:

• All Things Southern&Preppy
• Biz & the Bungalow
• the Classic Preppy
• Classy from North to South
• the Entertaining House
• Living Well
• Miss Janice
• Natty Michelle
• Painted Preppy
• Pink Cashmere Cardigan
• Pink Champagne
• Pink Preppy Lilly Lover
• Preppy Girl Meets World
• Preppy in Pittsburgh
• Preppy Little Dress

Preferred Catalogs: Arthur Beren

Well, here it is, another Sunday afternoon, & I'm again behind on:

my blog

& my email

& most everything else, it seems.

My OB appointments are more frequent now, which involves a bit of travel, since I opted to use the same hospital&OB that I used with Pretty Little Bare Feet. We also moved Pretty Little Bare Feet from her crib into a twin bed last week, so sleep has been an even more valuable luxury than usual around here. I had been thinking there was either not enough or too much to blog about...& my obsession with bracketology & all things March Madness didn't seem to be nearly interesting enough for my readers. ;)

But here I sit again,

with the week's mail that has gone unopened until now,

& there are lovely catalogs galore!

Do y'all adore catalogs as much as I do?

(Do let me know, & if they bore you to tears, I can always share my love of brackets with you in the next post. ;))

It's sort of funny, how I arrange our mail:

catalogs in one stack;

bills in another

(I admit, My amazing Prince is the one that tackles that stack...I can calculate, but it's definitely not something I do quickly, & I feel like I have to triple-check everything!);

magazines in another;

& then I immediately open anything that looks like a calendar or event announcement or party invitation.

(Of course, junk mail is disposed of immediately, as well.)

& there have been a lot of party invitations lately! In fact, we're missing a birthday party this afternoon because it was scheduled right in the middle of naptime. I'm surprised, actually, by how often this happens. I mean, isn't 1-3 in the afternoon pretty much a standard naptime for this age group? I'm not so rigid about naptime that I can't ever alter it, but actually interrupting a good nap is a big no-no here - Pretty Little Bare Feet has never been a good napper & needs all the sleep she can get!

Anyway, I digress.

Like most ladies, I love handbags&shoes. I particularly love handbags&shoes when I'm pregnant, as (knock on wood) my shoe size didn't change with my first pregnancy, & it hasn't with this one either. & obviously a fabulous handbag can be carried during any weight gain or loss.

My freshly pedicured toes are just itching to slip on a new pair of spring sandals from the Arthur Beren catalog, & there have been a wealth of other great handbags&shoes featured, as well! The one thing that bugs me about Arthur Beren, however, is that rather than sending one or two fat seasonal catalogs with all of the new offerings, they send frequent almost-brochure-sized catalogs that often only showcase one designer at a time.

(& on a completely unrelated side-note, was anybody else incredibly annoyed by my beloved Anthropologie's little "photo" catalog they did for this spring? Beautiful spreads, to be sure, but who wants to flip back to the opening pages every time they want to see the details or price of an item?)

Bigrose Sandal in Orange Jelly by Stuart Weitzman

Air Jasmine Gladiator Sandal in Beige Nappa by Cole Haan

Navajo Mid-Wedge Sandal in Black Croc Patent by Jack Rogers

Giveable Flat in Pan Nappa by Stuart Weitzman

Igea Hobo Bag in Tan Canvas by Salvatore Ferragamo

(all available at Arthur Beren)

(& now I'm off to begin completing my three brackets for this year's March Madness! Go Xavier!)

Preferred Catalogs: Home Decorators Collection

As I've mentioned at least once or twice before, I am not one of those environmentally-conscious folks that shudders in horror at the exorbitant waste of paper every time I find a catalog in my mailbox.

(Although I have tried to ensure that we don't receive catalogs that I don't actually want to look at...still, there are a number of catalogs that I quite enjoy looking at!)

Of course most of these retailers have great online sites that have even more to offer than the catalogs themselves, but there is just something about turning those glossy pages that makes the whole "shop-at-home" experience so much nicer than just mindlessly browsing on the ol' MacBook.

I've been a bit of a catalog junkie since I was a little girl, hoarding away my own little stack of my mama's&granny's catalogs,

to peruse at my leisure...

...or play "store" with...

...or eventually cut "paper dolls" out of.

But now I just keep my favorite, preferred catalogs in their own special rack, editing out the "old" editions as soon as the new ones arrive. Sometimes I'll feel ambitious enough to actually mark favorite items with a Sharpie...

(particularly if there might be a holiday coming up! ;))

...but I usually just make mental notes of my favorites, & then try&recall them if I happen to be doing some online shopping at their sites later.

Anyway, I just recently mentioned a favorite or two from a couple of my very favorite catalogs, Lilly Pulitzer & Vineyard Vines. So let's look at something completely different today!

There are probably at least a dozen or so home catalogs that I receive that I enjoy looking at. I love to mentally redecorate...

(don't you?!)

...although there really are some areas of the house I should actually roll my sleeves up for & get to work in. But until that "nesting" phase kicks in, I'll just share with you a few of the things that struck my fancy in the most recent Home Decorators Collection catalog!

Monogram Double Old-Fashioned Glasses

Monogram Acrylic Serving Tray

Argyle Accent Table

Reflections Collection Executive Desk

Vintage Eiffel Tower Wall Art

(February is gone...& with it, hopefully, my lack of motivation for checking email, updating the blog...& well, I won't be so optimistic as to hope that I'll actually become more active on Facebook or Twitter...but you never know! ;))

Spring Fever

Thank y'all for bearing with me for a couple chaotic weeks! Trunk show season is over, & hopefully all the little sicky bugs going around have run their courses & are gone for good. That means I can get back to my routine & back to the blogs! I've missed y'all!

I am sure that things will be chaotic in a few months when we get closer to the arrival of our next little one,

& I'll probably be intermittently blogging sometimes...

...but I didn't really get this blog going until my sweet Pretty Little Bare Feet started taking a regular routine afternoon nap,

& I have always tried to be up front about my commitment to focusing all my attention on family first.

So a big, huge THANK YOU to all my sweet loyal followers that hang in there with me when I disappear for a few days, or when I haven't gotten a chance to catch up on your blogs for a couple weeks. Y'all are the best, & I know there will again come a time when I have more time (& energy, for that matter!) to really take advantage of our fabulous community of bloggers.

So, what's been on my mind, you ask? Well, I'd bore you to tears &/or overstep my "this isn't a personal blog" credo, if we went into all that.

So let's talk about the weather.

(Ha! ;))

Well, really...it's finally warming up! That silly groundhog led us all astray trying to convince us that we could pack up our sweaters & get ready for sunny days. Who was he kidding? We had another snow day in Alabama last week!

However, we had a fantastic sunny Valentine's Day.

(& yes, I did get to have a wonderful romantic dinner date with My charming Prince.)

Although I am aware that it is not yet foreseeably clear enough skies to pack up all the winter wear...I am feeling bright&sunny enough to get excited about spring wear!

(& that fantastic spring catalog from Lilly Pulitzer that arrived in my mailbox yesterday...well, it mostly made me sad that I am too pregnant to wear any of the darling new offerings...but it was also a fresh breath of bright, sunny air that confirmed to me that spring is indeed coming soon!)

Shauna Dress in Classic White by Lilly Pulitzer

My favorite item in the new spring catalog! I love a little white dress almost as much as a little black dress, don't you?!

Short Shelbee Dress by Tory Burch

Lots&lots of lovely offerings from Tory Burch this spring, as well! Think I love that dress best!

Linen Easy Cardigan in Marigold by Plenty at Layla Grayce

I love that you can now buy fabulous fashion from one of my favorite beautiful catalogs, Layla Grayce. Very Anthropologie-ish, which I love. I suppose I could buy myself a cardigan to wear for a month or two...unbuttoned...over my maternity things. ;)

Featherweight Cashmere Short-Sleeve Cardigan in Radiant Orchid at J. Crew

I was delighted to see this bright burst of color amongst the new arrivals at J. Crew. Of course it's available in quite a few other colors, but it's almost spring! So let's break out the brights!

Basic Button Down Dress in Pink&Green Vine by Kayce Hughes

Like Layla Grayce, Kayce Hughes used to be in my bookmark folder for Pretty Little Bare Feet...a place I looked at for little girl things. But it seems that now that I can't shop for myself (at least not in the traditional sense), I keep tormenting my pregnant self by looking at these cute things I can't wear! ;)

Little Girls' Maypole Shorts in Vineyard Navy by Vineyard Vines

& of course it's going to be springtime on the nursery school playground...how excited am I that Pretty Little Bare Feet can finally wear a size 2T?!

(Well, in some things, anyway. It will actually probably be questionable whether she can hold up 2T shorts. But she can wear 2T dresses&tops pretty well now!)

It's a Boy!

Wow, where have I been the last couple weeks? A bit of everywhere.

I survived the grand celebration of Pretty Little Bare Feet's second birthday. We had a fantastic turnout to a fun birthday party at a children's museum.

(via: Lifeguard's Press)

I did some slight variations on a theme using the Taboo print by Lilly Pulitzer.

Since that particular print has been discontinued from the Lilly line of party goods, I had to bring in lots of other coordinating touches - which ended up being kind of fun!

(I did find the Taboo invitations & some of the Taboo party tableware at the Preppy Princess. If you are not familiar with this fabulous shop, or the delightful blog authored by the Princess herself - you are really missing out! You'll want to be sure & add the Preppy Princess to your blog&shopping bookmarks!)

We also had a fabulous bakery create a customized cake, using the Taboo napkin as a guide.

Cute Candy Damask Elephant Appliqued Long Sleeve Tee by Oh Sew Cute Designs

& Pretty Little Bare Feet wore a precious little pink elephant top I found on Etsy, that coordinated well with our little "theme."

Anyway, I can't believe all of that was only one week ago, because then it was such a whirlwind week! I've been drowning in

appointments,

emails,

meetings,

schedules,

etc.

& then this weekend we celebrated my birthday!

(I turned twenty-one for the eighth time...that makes me twenty-eight, if you're not in the mood for math. ;) I figure I can keep getting away with "twenty-one" for as long as I receive comments such as the one made recently by our neighbor, telling My Prince that I didn't look old enough to be a mama, & asking him to "say hello to your teenaged bride." Ha!)

But the big update is that we went & had our "big" ultrasound done on Friday - & we were (pleasantly) so surprised to find out that we are expecting a baby boy in June!

& although this is not a personal blog...

(so I won't be getting all TMI about baby names, belly photos, & heartburn!)

...this is a blog where we love to talk shopping! & I am entering a whole new realm of baby boy shopping! =)

Big Pony Polo in Bright Lime by Ralph Lauren

Collared Bodysuit with Sailboat by Hartstrings

Denim Dungarees by Burberry

Ombre Slub Stripe Romper by Splendid Littles

Tee Me Up Scottie Soft Soles in Sand by Robeez

Ooo, I am going to have so much fun!

Hope y'all have a fabulous week!

Pink&Green Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Happy Pink&Green Thursday! I can't believe it's been so long since I've participated in my favorite link-up! But now that my dear Ms. Trishy is back to hosting it regularly, I think it's time that I am back to joining in regularly, don't you?!

(via: Wildfox Couture)

Sooo...won't you have a seat, please?

(Or as Pretty Little Bare Feet would say, "Sit down!...please?" ;))

(via: Vogue)

(via: Veranda)

(via: Alice Lane)

(via: Jonathan Adler)

(I'm a bit obsessed with Jonathan Adler lately...)

One-of-a-Kind Berr Armchair in Flourished at Anthropologie

(Also a bit obsessed with Anthropologie lately...but that's not as novel as the Jonathan Adler kick...I periodically fall from like into love with Anthropologie!)

I Get a Little Warm in My Heart When I Think of Winter...

Well, I only blogged a little bit about the miraculously white Christmas we had here in Dixie. & here we are, miraculously snow-covered again!

Can I be honest with y'all, though? The truth is I am a bit of a snow grinch. I went to college in Ohio & saw more snow during those four years than I ever cared to see. One of the reasons I moved back home to Alabama after graduating college was to get back to the climate that I considered "normal," where snow is a rare, fleeting sight. So although I can appreciate its beauty (from inside my warm house), I mostly find it inconvenient&messy.

Also, while I'm being completely honest with y'all, I must shamefully confess that I've become a bit of a snow snob, as well. Although I've spent a total of twenty-four of my almost-twenty-eight years living in Alabama, those four years in the snow belt of Ohio created a seasoned pro who didn't think twice about bundling up to trudge across icy sidewalks to class, or shoveling the car out of a snowbank to drive it through a blizzard to work twenty miles away. So now, if a snow flurry falls a hundred miles north of here, & I arrive at Target only to find that the pharmacy is closed because of the "impending, inclement weather," I find myself parodying the "Really?! with Seth&Amy" segment from Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. You know, "Really?! Does the pharmacist commute all the way down here from some mountaintop in the Smokies? I managed to get here just fine. Y'all call this winter weather? Why, when I lived in Ohio..."

Annoying, right? My Prince thinks so, too.

& yes, I totally get that "we just aren't prepared for it" down here the way regions that routinely receive snowfall are. But there were a lot of days that the college town I lived in in Ohio didn't bother to "re-salt" the roads after a fresh snowfall, & you know what? It's pretty simple...drive slowly, & avoid hitting your accelerator or brakes when going around curves or over bridges. Pump your brakes gently when coming to an intersection or stopping. & yes, sometimes accidents still happen - just like they do on wet roads or in everyday driving conditions.

Don't get me wrong - I hated driving (& walking) in it. But I had no choice. They didn't cancel classes or close businesses because a new batch of dangerous ice&snow had landed on the roads&sidewalks. & the South gets enough of the winter stuff every year that would it really be that much of a drain on our city budgets to stock up on a supply of salt to keep the roads passable in these random instances of ice? Surely it wouldn't be more of a hit to the budget than the costs of closing government offices & schools every time a meteorologist spots a flurry traveling in our general direction?

Anyway, so I suppose that's why I didn't blog much about the white Christmas of 2010 or the little dustings of snow that came in 2009. Yes, I appreciate the beauty & the novelty of snow. But overall, I'm a bit of a snow grinch & a snow snob, so I find it better to just be quiet about it - rather than sounding like the grouchy snot that snow turns me into.

(I don't want to come across as a ranting pessimist, really I don't. I'm embarrassed by my attitude!)

However, I have to admit that the silver lining to my snow cloud comes in the form of an amazed, delighted little toddler. She goes back&forth between the windows of the house, watching the snow fall & exclaiming, "Snow!" She will play in it for as long as we will let her. & unlike my grumpy grownup self, she doesn't mind bundling up in layer after layer, if it means getting to play in the snow. When she falls down in it, she giggles instead of groaning.

Pretty Little Bare Feet doesn't have a to-do list that can't get done if she can't get out on the roads to go anywhere. She has

her mama

& the White Dog

- & bonus! Daddy gets to stay at home from work, too!

She has a steady supply of

apple juice,

Cheerios,

& Greek yogurt.

She has books to read & toys to play with.

So today I shall blog about snow...

We have snow! In Alabama! It's pretty, & we're "snowed in!" We're going to play in it, & we're going to make snow cream.

(I'm even going to share the recipe with y'all...it's delicious.)

I have a Snuggie. ;) I have a MacBook. I have books to read. We have power. & most importantly, I have a sweet family that enjoys&loves the snow, so I will enjoy their happiness & love them for their love of snow.

(Well, except for the White Dog...she hates the snow, too. Mostly because she's so tiny that she gets lost in it easily, & it's cold&wet on her dainty little paws.)

(all photos via assorted Alabama news&weather blogs)

snow cream

(yield: 8 to 10 servings)

• 8 cups snow
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Place snow into a large bowl.

*Pour condensed milk over & add vanilla.

*Mix to combine.

*Serve immediately in bowls.