Category Archives: French

Blessings & Birthdays!

Whew!!! It is officially the end of Friday and these past two to days have seemed to be a whirlwind of fun!!

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving at Jason’s mom’s place and we had a blast. Unfortunately my camera has crapped out so I was able to get 0 photos – BOO! HISS! Oh well, maybe I will just have to ask Santa for a new camera so that I can keep up with my hobby of photography.

So yesterday it was my job, along with my 7 year old niece to make the deviled eggs. What I was not aware of, however was that my niece LOVES hard boiled eggs and has the life philosophy that if, as she is pealing an egg, and it should break, then they are no longer deemed worthy of the deviled egg plate – hence she can just eat them to put them out of her misery! Cute, but NO!!! She ended up breaking sooooo many eggs that at dinner time she actually passed on the deviled egg platter as it came around because she had already eaten something like 4 whole eggs! Gotta love my girl!!!!!

After dinner, most of us managed to go for a quick walk in the neighborhood, which was good since the group was seeming a little cooped up. Then a few of us adults hung around to play the game Mad Gabs – WHAT A HOOT!!! That game is so much harder than it seems – I may have to pick this up, so I always have it on hand – could be fun at dinner parties!!!

To say the least – we had FUN!!!

As for today, it is my Sweetie’s 35th birthday and we literally spent the day doing WHATEVER he wanted to do! FUN!!! I won’t go into all of the details here, but we did a lot of walking around downtown checking out all of the French/European stores, made a pit stop at Great Harvest Bread Company – Yum, checked out this great kitchenware store for some supplies, and eventually made it back to Bentley’s for an absolutely DIVINE dinner!!! All-in-all, a damn near perfect day!!!

Happy Birthday my Love!!!! I love you more and more every year!!!

(And Daddy, keep your spirits up – you are in my prayers!!!)

Have a FABULOUS evening!
~Christina 😉

Dreaming of Someday!

I am sitting in my craft studio day dreaming about my ideal future. I dream about one day making a living doing what I truly love; being surrounded by beautiful home accessories and home furnishings. Ok, that may not sound very romantic, but I imagine working with all sorts of fun and creative people,  who both create and are on the hunt for the perfect and unique treasures to help give their homes a special je ne sais quoi. Fabrics, textures, feathers, cashmere, all things sparkly, girly, and absolutely FABULOUS!!! I can hear the French music playing throughout the shop, and how I would ADORE taking a yearly trip to Europe to shop for new furniture and other home accessories! OH!!! Just the thought of it makes me SOOOO EXCITED – I wish I could just snap my fingers and make it my reality now!!! I am not sure exactly I am going to make this dream come true, or what it will ultimately be in the future, but, for now – it is such a beautiful sight in my dreams! I just have to stay focused on that, and ultimately it will be mine! I hope you will all be there to enjoy destination, as well as my journey!

With that, here are some pictures that are inspiring my dream business ideas!

I know these all seem very random, but to me they represent something like vintage girly, glam!!! Oh what a sweet life!! 🙂

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Still Brainstorming Name Ideas!

I am brainstorming a business name for my FABULOUS dream career – a home furnishings/home accessories/interior design service boutique! I did have one idea that I thought was extremely fantastic, but unbeknownst to me, it was already taken – DANG! Anyway, I have a two names so far that have made the top 10 list!! My girlfriend Dawn, who is a genius wordsmith, is helping me come up with some other ideas to add to this list. Anyone have any ideas???

WORLD!!! IT IS TIME TO LET MY INNER DIVA OUT!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Format Change!

Today is a good day to change things up a bit.

This has been a GREAT weekend, although I really haven’t see n too much

of my Sweetie this weekend, which is a little sad!

HOWEVER, I got to spend some quality time with some of my girls yesterday!! First shopping for treasures with my sis-in-law; later out to coffee and then dinner with my girlfriend! It was a VERY good day!!

I even had a chance to check out a new little chic boutique downtown and picked up this sweet little two-sided pillow. Isn’t it darling?

Anyway, I thought it was the PERFECT start to my Christmas season this year, and my Sweetie first thought was that it was a new pillow for the bedroom – Go figure!!! 😉

Have I told you that I am officially brainstorming starting a small business? I am passionate about helping women live the life of their dreams, and I feel that the foundation for living the life of your dreams is creating a home that truly represents your innermost self.

You should be surrounded by treasures that remind you of special people, places, memories, and all that represents the very best of you. That is what I LOVE hunting for those one of a kind treasures, and HONEY you have to know that I have ABSOLUTELY run out of room to store ALL of those treasures in my place, so I want to share them with you!! More news to come – but my next step is trying to figure out a business name!!! 🙂

I am off to go enjoy the rest of my afternoon!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

 

All Things French!!

Bonjour!

I have had a FABULOUSLY lazy day today!!! YUM!! I Really needed that!!!

Normally I am awake at 7:30 like clockwork on a Saturday morning, that is as late as I can make myself sleep in!! Well, this morning I was SHOCKED when I saw the time when I woke up this “morning”; the clock read 12:30 PM!! WHOA!!! Because of the extra temperature outside, my sweetie had insulated our bedroom window with a heavily quilted blanket, which has caused our room to be VERY dark!! I can’t say that I am complaining, I really haven’t slept well all week, and I feel like I am finally caught back up!!!

Anyway, I have been hanging out with my Sweetie this evening, and reading blogs that have to do with anything French and just collecting some REALLY SWEET pics!! I thought I would share a few with you! ENJOY!

These pictures makes me long to go to Paris, and bring back a whole horde of furniture and accessories, have them reupholstered, and open up a French Boutique!!! Ooh La La! That would be a dream come true!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Damn Near Perfect Day!!!

TODAY has been a DAMN NEAR PERFECT DAY!!!!

First of all my Sweetie and I are experimenting with co-habitating 4 nights a week. LONG STORY, but one, I think that will have a VERY HAPPY ending!! 😉

So, to begin my damn near perfect day, I woke up next to my best friend!!! 😉 early, without my alarm clock – UNHEARD OF!!! Anyway, I spent the fist hour and a half reading one of my new romance novels, which is turning out to be a pretty good mystery!!

At 9, I woke up my Sweetie, and we proceeded downstairs to a FABULOUS breakfast of le Tartaines with butter and strawberry jam, and hot caramel cream cocoa – YUM!!

Le Tartain - a typical, and super delicious French breakfast

Next Jason split my Saturday morning cleaning chores, and they went by in a BREEZE!!!!

Next we raced up the stairs to see who get ready first, and I lost – AS USUAL!! LOL! 😉

and then we were on the freeway heading over to my sis-in-law’s place to watch New Moon one last time before Eclipse comes out this week! BTW – YEAH!!!! I CAN NOT WAIT!!! Anyway, I am breathing, and we are moving on!!! HAHAHA!

I had a fun visit with Alexa, she is one of my FAVORITE cheerleaders!!! I have already decided that I need to get that woman some pom-poms!!! I am a VERY LUCKY girl to have her in my life!!! She is one of my soul-sisters!!!

After our movie watching, I went next door, to my other sis-in-law’s place. The plan was that her, her 2 kiddos, her new boyfriend, and his 2 kids, plus another friend of the family would all be coming over to my place to go swimming. Throw in “Uncle Jay-Jay” AKA “My Sweetie”, and HONEY, YOU HAVE A PARTY!!!

Anyway, we had sooooo much fun!! and what a non-exercise feeling, way to spend 2 + hours exercising!!! Plus Michael and his boys are sooooo sweet, I can already tell that we are going to be fast friends!!! 😉

After the GANG left, Jason and I headed upstairs to read in bed, one of our FAVORITE pastimes, among other things *WINK*! and before either of us knew it, we had fallen asleep and was taking a well-deserved, hardly ever indulged in NAP!!!

We woke up, and I was having a craving for a well barbecued steak, I know – the perfectly cook slab of beef might be the way to my heart!! HAHAHA! So, my Sweetie heartily agreed to barbecue us some steak, while I sauteed some sweet onion, mushrooms, and we steamed a side of baby red potatoes and green beans!! OH, BLISS!!! 😉

Rounding out our Damn Near Perfect Day, was a fun chick flick of “While in Rome”, which is what we are about to watch next!!! I hope it is good!!!

Now, I know that you are all jealous of my Damn Near Perfect Day, or maybe not. 😉 but, THE BEST PART ABOUT TODAY is that not only am I going to bed with my Sweetie tonight, but I am waking up with him tomorrow morning, AND it is SUNDAY!!! Which means NAKED SUNDAY!!!!! WHOO-HOO! but I guess that is ANOTHER posting, possibly TOMORROW!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening – I know I will!!! 😉

Friday Night Movie Night!

It is Friday night movie night, and I just enjoyed a most enchanting movie, Coco Before Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou.  This is a French movie subtitled in English, so there will be no multi-tasking during this movie, which I am prone to do.

The movie opens in 1893 where little Gabrielle, aka Coco,  is dropped off by her father at an Orphanage; and we proceed to watch Coco’s life before she actually becomes the fashion extraordinaire that we all know and love, Coco Chanel.

Coco Chanel was a woman who although from a distance seemed to have everything; she was a woman who lived a hard life, went against the grain during an age when women did what was expected of them, and she fought and labored to acquire all that she had. The most tragic part of her life is that what she most desired was unavailable to her – her one true love.

Watching this movie, one can’t resist falling in love with all things French. French fashion, French architecture, French interior design, and the French landscape, etc. What I wouldn’t do to be able to walk into the movie screen and just take it all in for a day. Hmmm…Sounds scrumptious! This movie truly is a feast for the senses.

There was a quote that seemed to resonate with me that was spoken during this movie, so much so that I had to replay the section in the film just to make sure I wrote it down correctly. This line is spoken to Coco by the love of her life, Boy:

“An exceptional future awaits you. You’re like no one else. You have to trust yourself”

Isn’t that a message that we could all benefit by taking away with us?

Coco Before Chanel is simply charming, and will be a movie that I add to my video library to watch again and again for all things inspirational. Click here to watch the movie’s trailer.

Have a FABULOUS evening!

This New Weekend!!!

Bonjour mon ami!!!

It is Saturday morning and the old me always used weekends as 2 days of eat-whatever-the-hell-you-want-because-you-have-done-GREAT-all-week-and-you-deserve-to-live-a-little nutritional NIGHTMARE!!!! It is amazing what one is willing to do to one’s body in the name of “You deserve this!”

REALLY???
This is what I deserve?????
Bloating?
Emergency bathroom breaks????
The inability to TOUCH MY TOES????

WHAAAAA???? There has got to be more to life than this!!! Well, thankfully you are now dealing with the NEW Christina!!! I am planning my day, not around food and meals, but my day is about GETTING OFF OF MY BUTT and having some real fun with my life!!!

Today, I am going to have a very French breakfast – Les Tartine, which is about a 1 foot section of baguette, sometimes toasted, and is buttered and jellied!! It is soooo delicous!! This is about 1/2 of the length of an American baguette and equals about 5 points. After adding my 2 tablespoons of whipped butter, and 2 tablesppons of sugar free fruit preserves, the total points of this breakfast comes to only 7 points!!!! WHAA-HOO!!! 😉

I will pack some crudités with me to go out shopping with one of my girlfriends, and make sure to pack my water!! one can never get enough hydration!! I think a deli sandwich for lunch – heavy on the veggies, please – will be a very satisfying lunch!!! Finally for dinner, tonight it is homemade, which is ALWAYS EASY to be both healthy AND DELICIOUS, which I love!!!

Alrighty – I am off for the day! I hope everything is going well for each of you – I can’t wait to hear how you are all progressing!!!

À bientôt
– Christina 😉