Category Archives: Shopping

An InStyle Evening!

Good evening!

I have had such a better day than I have had in quite a few weeks! What does that mean? As you probably know, work has been SUPER-CRAZY-WHAT-THE-HELL-IS-GOING-ON-AROUND-HERE-??? for probably the past 6 weeks!! but today our entire team rallied together to work through any and all issues that we had, and took a HUGE chunk out of all of the problems we were having!!! WHEEEEEEW!!

So, on the way home tonight, I decided to break my moratorium and purchased a magazine! EEEEEK! It wasn’t just ANY magazine, it was INSTYLE!!!!

THE MAGAZINE OF ALL MAGAZINES!!!

Did you see the heavens open up and hear the angels start to sing? Ah-Ah-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! 😉 This is the magazine that causes me to drool over every outfit, every hair-do, every made up face!!! Oh how I wish I could have one of these stylists show me how to put my random clothing pieces together!!! I would LOVE to be able to walk out my front door looking tres chic at a moments notice!!!! I will have no choice, but I will have to PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!!!

Anyway, I have a lot of catching up to do in my personal life!! I have been working so many crazy hours, that I am not sure how my sweetie even knows what I look like any more!! 😉 My sis, Alex is moving in 2 FREAKIN’ DAYS!!!! I have got to get my booty over there and see her!!! My house is SPOTLESS – except for my office, which has kind of gotten the brunt of my negligence, and I have got to get crackin’ on getting that straightened again!!! Reading has gone by the wayside, but I am planning on starting a new book tonight called, The Best Year of Your Life, so that should be at least a good start! and I haven’t called my family in weeks!! I need to make sure I reach out and touch someone!! HEE! HEE!! 😉

Oh, and I am dreaming of taking a REALLY SA-WHEET vacation with my sweetie!!! I am not sure where yet, but I am thinking someplace, quiet, cozy, and romantic!! I deserve it for all the CRAZY work I have been doing, and Jason deserves it for being my rock and support!!! Ok, off to plan, and dream, and sleep, and dream some more!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Wednesday Work Prep Evening!

Good evening!

I feel well rested and so much better after two lazy days off!!! I am back to work tomorrow, and I think that I will be able to handle any stresses that may come my way much better than I was on Monday!! Our team still has a lot of work to do, and I am sure that we will still have a lot of challenges coming our way as we implement this new process over the next few weeks, but I know that I will be able to be a better team mate, and I am sure my co-workers will appreciate that!!! GO TEAM!! 😉

This evening, I have been dreaming about Spring, and getting back out into nature!! Planning my first camping trip of the year with my sweetie – that is ALWAYS THE BEST FUN!!!

Diane Von Furstenberg says that your clothing should comfort you, flatter you, and make you feel your best, just like best friends!! Which got me to dreaming about what “friends” I would like to see in my Spring Wardrobe! Would you like to see??

Do you think it is possible to own too many dresses??? I am starting to believe the more the merrier!!! 😉 Are there any pieces that you are dreaming would join your Spring closet?

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Vintage Dreams!!!

Good morning!

After going clothes shopping with my girlfriend, Dawn, yesterday! All I can think about is ALL THINGS VINTAGE!!! I REALLY need to learn to sew, so that I can re-create some of these for me!!! OH DELISH!!! And although I have A LOT to do today to get ready for my week, I just COULDN’T HELP BUT SHARE!!! 😉

ALL of these LOVELY fashions were found online at Dorothea’s Closet, a FABULOUS site that I recommend you visit often – there selection is ALWAYS changing!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Hanging with My Peeps!

OK, actually, I hung out with one peep, not plural – like the title of this post implies! 😉 My girlfriend, Dawn and I met this morning to get together for coffee so we can spend some time catching up! We have a lot going on right now, and we don’t always get the chance to keep in touch like we want to, so our coffee dates are IMPERATIVE to our friendship!!!

After coffee we did some walking around downtown and did some window shopping – one of our FAVORITE NATIONAL PASTIMES!!! 😉 She has THE BEST fashion sense so I always have fun perusing the latest clothing wares with her! Of the two of us, I am the decorator, and she is the fashion stylist – that just works for us! She helps me, I help her, and that makes us the most stylish girls on the block – ok, maybe in our minds, but we love each other and have a TON OF FUN!!!

I remember, when we just 12 years old, I would spend the night at her house as often as possible, and would play dress up and I would beg her to do my hair and makeup!! SHE IS JUST A NATURAL!!! 😉

We did happen to go to one of my favorite home accessories shops downtown, Olivia’s. The owner there was very gracious to let me take some pictures of her goods! I could take almost literally one of EVERYTHING and they would fit BEAUTIFULLY in our place!!! I would LOVE it, Jason might go a little into sugar-shock, but I am sure he would let me decorate however makes me happy!!! What a lucky girl I am!!! 😉

Here are those pictures I took at Olivia’s:

Isn’t her place just divine??? I really do LOVE ALL THINGS FRENCH!!! 😉

Anyway, I had so much fun going out with Dawn today, and ALWAYS look forward to the next time!!! I love you, Dawn!!! You are DA BEST!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Sunday Evening Update!

Today has been a pretty good day! Got up, rallied the troops and then went out and did a little shopping – ok a lot of shopping!!! Went over to my sister-in-law’s and helped decorate a Christmas tree for her and the kiddos. The colors were rich chocolate, medium brown, gold, and burgundy. I was a little worried about the chocolate brown, but it turned out looking GORGEOUS!!!

Anyway, after decorating my sweetie and I headed home, I hopped into my jammies, turned on my Christmas lights and snuggled up on our couch!! I am pretty happy that I at least got out of the house, having been sick for the past 2 days!

Anyway, I have a long week of work ahead of me this week, and a lot of last minute preparations to get ready for our Christmas trip down to Roseburg.

So with that in mind, what are some things that I can do to help me have a Level 10 (as in perfect)???

  1. Take my i-pod to work, fully charged, and rock out to music while I work.
  2. Take time out of my work day to go for an energizing walk.
  3. Have plenty of ice water on hand – maybe even cut orange slices to give my water a little flavor.
  4. Pre-plan my work day the night before. Make sure my to-do lists are already created and ready to go.
  5. Get to bed on time every night this week. Sleep is your friend.
  6. Take a 10 minute meditation break at ;east once a day to help ease stress level.
  7. Make sure to pack healthy breakfast, lunch, and snacks to stave off hunger and to keep blood sugar level.
  8. Keep telling myself, “You are blessed” over and over again.
  9. When all hell breaks loose, PRAY!
  10. Remember that you can’t control everything that happens, you can only control yourself. Decide to have a good day!!! It’s A CHOICE!!!

On that note:

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Back Home & Taking It Easy!

My sweetie and I are back at  home, from a quick weekend down to Roseburg. We went to support our little sisters with their Christmas bazaar! I am just so proud of them for all of the hard work they had done, and for all of the goodies they were able to come up with. The booth had all sorts of goodies for sale, ornaments, heating pads, i-spy pillows, gift baskets of bath goodies, advent calendars, etc. It actually was a little slower than my sis, Jennifer would have liked, but she really did do such a GREAT JOB!!! They all did! This was the first time that I can remember them stepping out of the box and do something that caused them to use their bravery muscles! I AM SOOOO PROUD OF THEM!!! I love you, girls! More than you will ever know!!!

On another note: I am longing for my farm today – I know it is out there somewhere, I just pray that we will find each other someday. I am really dreaming about growing my own fruits and vegetables. Sharing our goods with neighbors and friends, and canning our deliciousness away to be enjoyed year round or given as gifts – OH THAT WOULD BE THE LIFE!!! 🙂

While I go and dream some more,

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Day with the Aunts!

One of my FAVORITE days of the year is my annual Christmas AUNTIE DAY!! This is a day that myself and my two favorite Aunties – Alice, and Flo (HEY GIRRRLS!!) get together to do some window shopping, having lunch, chatting, laughing, and ooing and ahing at all of the Christmas sights!!!!! These ladies are such a strong support system in my life, I don’t know what I would ever do without them!!! Well, yesterday was NOOOOO exception!! We spent the day on 23rd street in Portland, and HONEY, we had SOOO MUCH FUN!!! I came home with more treasures than I actually expected – I did a little more actual shopping than window shopping this year! 😉 An oversized Gaudy-Fabulous ring, a chocolate brown hat with a flower/brooch, a couple of goodies from the MAC store – I just LOVE that place, and some other miscellaneous baubles!!!!

With that said, during our lunch yesterday one of the topics of conversation was my insane addiction to collecting stuff and the show Hoarder’s! Ok, before you get the wrong idea I am not THAT bad, but I did do a self-analysis last night and realized that if I wasn’t careful, I could be!! SO, today I have spent a LARGE portion of my day posting DVDs and books up on E-bay! I am not sure if any of it will sell, but I have to tell you that opening up my mind, I mean REALLY opening up my mind to the idea of getting rid of the excess and I realize that as I started posting objects, it just got easier and easier and actually quite…what’s the word???? FREEDOM!!! Ok, let’s not go too crazy here, I only posted 31 things – that does not a full decluttering make, but it is a GREAT start, and I can feel the momentum growing!! I will be on the lookout for more things to get rid of, and hopefully get some of this out-of-control-ness in control!!! 😉

I will keep you posted!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

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 😉

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!!! 😉

Happy 4th of July!!

I love the 4th of July! It is the one weekend a year that my husband and I can always count on to get away from it all and spend a quite weekend together to celebrate our anniversary. We were married July 1st, 1995, so that makes this weekend our 15th anniversary!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???? This year we decided to spend our anniversary out at the beach house! and we have been having a VERY RELAXING time!!! We got out here Thursday evening, and we have spent time treasure hunting, book shopping, watching glass blowers create all sorts of beautiful and interesting art, sitting at the ocean the ocean, walking around the outlet mall, visiting coffee shops, trying new little restaurants, and reading. Did I mention we have been spending time reading??? I have read 2 books from cover to cover since we have gotten out there, and I am close to finishing a third. I am reading the Percy Jackson series, and it is a very good read. It is a young adult series that is about some kids who are half human, half gods – as in the Olympians – you know, Zues, Athena, Aphrodite, etc. It is a fun read, and one that I will have to look for the series in hardback so that I can add it to my collection.

Anyway, Jason and I are sitting in a cyber-cafe right now, and there is new age, mystical music playing, which is not usually my style, but it is very soothing. It is making me want to take a nap – I didn’t sleep well last night. I can always tell when my mind is starting to get concerned about having to get home and go back to work. My job really stresses me out; on one hand, I want to do the absolute best I can do while I am there, on the other hand, I know that my job is not what I was put on earth to accomplish, so I am torn. I think this past weekend has really helped me decide what I want to be “when I grow up”. It is going to take a lot of work, and a lot of penny pinching and money saving, but I think ultimately it will be such a blessing to LOVE what I do!!!

Anyway, I think I am rambling! I know it has been a while since I have last blogged and I want to make sure that I do now get out of the habit of writing – even if it happens to be some ramblings from a tired woman who is on vacation!!! 😉

Jason and I will be heading home tomorrow, so I will be writing again from home!!

Have a FABULOUS and safe 4th of July!!!