Stylish Blogger?

Apparently, I have been tagged with the stylish blogger award. Now, my first question is: how can you win a stylish blog award if the blog for which you are blogging about winning the stylish blogger award is the only blog post you have composed in the past two months? Well, folks, it happened. Along with the receipt of this award, you get to hear 10 "fun facts" about little ol' me. Aren't you excited?? I choose to use my 10 "fun" facts to share with you 10 of my current obsessions (in no particular order)**:

1. Le Creuset Dutch Oven in Purple: (Married much??)

2. OPI Nail Polish "Pirates of the Carribean" collection:

3. Cate Blanchett's gown at the Oscars last night by Givenchy Couture--stunning.

4. Large arm jewelry of any kind. It's obvious I love Fossil watches. My latest purchase (thanks fam for the Christmas monies!) is similar to this one except in yellow gold as opposed to the rose:

Amrita Singh is one designer that has relatively inexpensive bangles with an Indian twist. Here's one of my current faves of hers:

Amrita Singh

5. Covered back porch outdoor fireplaces. Call me Southern, but whenever Graham and I can ever consider settling down and buying a house, a deal breaker will be a covered back porch with space to build an outdoor fireplace. Mmm...you can feel the outdoor winter coziness already.

6. The new Michael Kors line of "take-everywhere" tote bags. This Edie Large Shoulder Tote in Peanut is my current fave:

7. Dos Rios Cantina and Tequila Lounge in downtown Des Moines. They make your guacamole fresh in front of you at your table to your preference (chunky, mild, spicy, cilantro, etc.). Enough said.


8. The Band Perry. Went to their concert this past Thursday night and was blown away--seriously. Much better than expected. I mean what more could you ask for when the perform great covers of "Amazing Grace (the "my chains are gone" version)" and "Fat Bottomed Girls" back to back. Two of my favorite songs of all time. Random, I know--don't you worry about it.

9. Discounted items on "last-minute" websites. If you aren't familiar with these, you really should be. But caution, they'll have you addicted and you'll be logging on everyday without fail.


Here's a few for you:



http://www.ruelala.com/ (you have to be invited to this one, so if you're not a member, I'll send you an email invite!)


http://www.gilt.com/ and along with it, http://www.jetsetter.com/


And, finally, if you're into outdoorsy things, check out http://www.steepandcheap.com/, but beware: this one has one sale item that refreshes every 30 minutes, so you'll be downloading the app in no time to make sure you don't miss anything! (Yes, there'a an app for that.)


10. Thai Chopped Chicken Salad at Panera. With only 390 calories in the full-size portion (I mean, who would be able to fill up on anything smaller??) it is a great way to eat healthy for lunch or dinner and feel like your being bad. Seriously, you should go try it. Right now.

It's Been A While!

Hello again blog world--it's great to see your face(?) again! I am so happy to actually have a late afternoon off from work so that I can catch whoever it is that actually reads this thing up to speed. I really only have one question: Did 2011 start already?? Man. What a whirlwind the past couple of months have been. Honestly I think I will make a list because it will just take too dern long to try and summarize what we've been up to these days!

1. Went home for Christmas (yes, I am legitimately bringing you back that far....). See! I have proof:

I made the girls book page wreaths for Christmas. Talk about some QT with the hot glue gun!

I also made some nut wreaths. Basically the hot glue gun and I are now BFFs.

I missed my little Maggie girl!! (Told you my hair was blonde.)

Spent some long overdue QT with some great friends.

And with our wonderful family.

2. I came back to spend New Year's Eve working (we had two...count 'em TWO wedding receptions on New Year's Eve at Sky Event Centre, my humble work place) until about 11:11pm from where Graham and I sprinted to a friend's house to count down the new year. (Don't worry, we made it! I think they would have waited to start the countdown if we were running late, right??)

3. I was informed that I was going to be taking on the task of planning the First Annual Wedding show at work. When I say I was informed, I really was just that. Told that this is the way it's going to be so ready, set go! I'm glad I had some gasoline left in this nearly empty tank of mine to say I think I can, I think I can, I think I can all the way up to this past Sunday when the Wedding Show was officially complete. Phew. Can I go to bed now?? Check it:

It was actually such a blast to find all of our vendors, plan the specialty linen tables (it was like I got to get married all over again!!), entertainment, timeline, hors d'oeuvres (I have written hors d'oeuvres so much lately I don't even have to look up how to spell it. sad.), etc. It isn't every day that you get to plan an entire wedding show from start to finish! Very cool experience. Now you finally have a couple of pictures of where I work!

4. I've been coaching a USA Volleyball Cedar Falls 15 year-old team since November. We have had 3 tournaments now, and while I am realizing the stresses of being a coach, I am having a blast with these girls! If you're reading this and you were once a coach of mine: "THANK YOU!" I had the girls over for team bonding sleepover fun at our apartment. Hilarious. I totally kicked Graham out for the night and this is what I woke up to in the morning:


5. Graham and I were able to go out to Colorado a couple weekends ago to meet some of our long time high school buddies for some quality time. It was definitely a weekend filled with firsts, heart to hearts, traffic, skiing, laughs, traffic, the Coors Brewery, traffic, missing our flight back to Iowa, traffic...did I mention traffic already? Believe me, when it snows in Colorado, you do NOT want to be heading toward the mountains. You want to already be there to "lay the first tracks" as it were. We were not. A simple 2 hour drive turned into a 5.5 hour drive and a change of plans for night skiing and some sweet talking by my high school bestie's fiance to get us a place to stay close by for the night. Don't worry, our sweet digs were complete with Native American art, brown shag carpet and dreamcatchers. Definitely no nightmares to be had that night! Send our regards to the 70's.

I love besties.

6. My amazing hubby gave me the sweetest Valentine's Day gift yesterday, SEE:


Complete with everything anyone who absolutely knows me to my core would provide:
1. The Hangover. Classic.
2. The Time Traveler's Wife. I have been begging Graham to watch this with me for ages so maybe I'll convince him to actually do it tonight...who knows!
3. Tickets to see The Band Perry next Thursday. I hope this girl's voice is as angelic in person as on the radio--so excited! (We are also going to see Miranda Lambert here in Cedar Falls next week too! Here's to getting our fill of country music!)
4. Praline Pecans. If you're from the South, you love praline pecans.
5. Lemon Drop Martini Mix complete with Mixer. Yum-bola. (Don't think yum-bola is a word? Ask my mom.)
6. A $5.00 Starbucks giftcard. Can't wait to snag my non-fat no-whip white chocolate peppermint mocha one day this week. (Don't worry, I'm a girl so I can order these such things.)
7. A single red-stemmed rose, classy.
8. And last but certainly, not least, a 60-minute massage. Please and thank you. I've never had a professional massage before so I couldn't be more excited. The best part is, I got Graham a couple's massage for his gift, so I'm going to be feeling really good here pretty soon.

7. Brad finally kicked Michelle off the Bachelor last night. Can I get an AMEN sista??