Wordless Wednesday

I have a NEW set of keys!

*Please note that while I LOVE getting emails from readers I am not able to respond at this time as I am on overload. I will reply to your emails once I am moved and settled!

Short Break

I have a BUSY week ahead which consists of a closing, a move and a wedding! I will post intermittently until next Sunday. Until then I will leave you with a sneak peak of the moving announcement I am thinking I need to order:

It is perfectly pink and green and so me I think. Love at first site if I do say so myself!

Have a lovely week! I will be busy with last minute packing and some "renovations" of bar carts, tables and plant stands and of course a move in this EXTREME heat. Until next week dearest readers!

Samples

I have been busy exploring samples. Not sample sales or food samples at Costco, but paint samples!

I found the perfect pale pink for my bedroom (Behr "Be Mine") and a delightful hot pink that will look DIVINE with blue and white plates hung on it for the kitchen (Behr "Tutti Frutti"), but the living/dining room is another story...
Blues are so much harder than pinks. While I want to walls to coordinate with some furniture I already have, blues can be very finicky and look totally wrong when the light hits them and of course the size of the room is another factor too. Tomorrow I am off to Sherwin Williams to check out recommended shades of blue and hopefully I will have made my decision come Monday. Stay tuned for before and after shots of the rooms. I certainly have my work cut out for me when it comes to decorating :) In the mean time I will just keep my favorite song of the moment on repeat:
Billy Currington's "Love, Done, Gone"

City Guides

I am a long time fan of Henri Bendel and was thrilled when they opened their Dallas store a few years ago. The first time I popped in I was given a very cute "guide" to Dallas. The guide highlights trendy restaurants (one of which I just so happen to be going to over restaurant week and others I love and frequent) and a hotel just down the way from me. It also has a fun, pink map of all the major through fares that get you to and fro each posh venue. While the Dallas guide is of course my favorite I have loved reading other city guides from from Bendel Girls. They provide a fun twist on each city and are a great thing to look at before you travel. Each city that has a map of course has a Bendel store too! So, hop on over and see if your city or a favorite destination has a guide




!

Christmas in July

Christmas in July is just around the corner. What is Christmas in July you might ask? Well a reason to get a head start on my Christmas shopping of course! Retailers across the web will make down items for a day or two so you have to act fast. I was thrilled to find out my beloved Graphic Image would be partaking in Christmas in July this year. Not only are they partaking, but they are going ALL OUT. Think above and beyond. Starting at 10am EST on Wednesday, July 20th, 2o11 everything (yes, you read that correctly, the ENTIRE site) will be 50% for just 24 hours! There is no limit to how much you can spend and absolutely everything will be marked down for this event. Talk about almost too good to be true...but thankfully for us it is true!
I just love all their leather accessories and books as you know. I have NO idea what I am going to do when I log on Wednesday morning and it is all on sale. I am eyeing far too many items (many for Christmas gifts), but here are a few of my favorites:
Slim Design Card Case ($36)
This can be used for more than just business cards. Place your gift cards in one to keep them all together or use it for credit cards in a clutch! This proves that small can be good!
Playing Card Holder ($66)
While card games sometimes seem old fashioned I still love them. Keeping them nicely stowed can be a feat, but thanks to this nifty card case you can now keep things organized in style.
Wire-O-Notebook ($132)
Every student deserves to take notes in style. The Graphic Image notebook holder in refillable and comes in a wide array of sizes and colors. Get a different color for each subject or simply switch out your notebook. Stylish supplies make studying easier, right?
World Shopping Journal ($55)
I LOVE this journal and have given it as a gift numerous times. It is always a hit as it is packed with useful information. Not only are there shopping tips, but also phone numbers and conversions you might need when far from home.
Bride's Notes ($28)
This is the perfect engagement gift for the bride-to-be. This size is dainty, but perfect for your purse and the price is certainly almost too good to be true!
Laptop Case ($216)
Why throw your laptop in your bag when you can store it in style? Like my favorite Graphic Image iPad sleeve this laptop case can also be personalized. You will never have to worry about someone trying to snag your computer in airport security ever again!
What are you eyeing?? Whatever it may be, be sure to mark you calendar and visit Graphic Image for their blowout sale!

Another GREAT deal that coincides with Christmas in July is the One Kings Lane Groupon. If you are not yet a member NOW is the time to join. You can purchase a $60 OKL gift certificate for just $30! Buy it and shop away today!

GiltCity Kickoff

I am a long time fan of Gilt Group. I love a little luxury in my life and you cannot beat a good sale. I also love to support Gilt Group because on of the founders actually went to Taft. You have to love the one degree of separation!

While I love a good material item sale I am all about living life to the fullest in my city. In the past I have always checked out the deals in NYC and Chicago on GiltCity and hoped they would launch a Dallas GiltCity. Well, yesterday my dream became a reality! Not only did did GiltCityDallas launch, but they pulled out all the stops! Thankfully, I just so happened to be at my computer when I got the "welcome" email and clicked on over. I certainly lucked out in that nothing had yet sold out so I RSVPed for a movie screening and also bought the $10 voucher for a floater, blowout and canapes at my beloved DryBar. You know I cannot pass up anything DryBar related nor did I want to miss the "first official" GiltCityDallas event.

The event started at 6pm so I arrived a few minutes before and was so excited to see an acquaintance was running the show and checking people in. She quickly got me settled with my stylist and then off to the sinks we went.
While I was getting my head massage champagne was placed at my seat. Throughout my blow dry food was also brought around. Lisa Garza did the catering; her goat cheese pastry was phenomenal!

Though I have been partial to the "Southern Comfort" style for months I decided to go more sleek this time around. I choose the "Manhattan" which is all about the straight and not so much keen to volume. I LOVE how it turned out; straight is the way to go for me this summer!

GiltCityDallas and DryBar did not let us leave empty handed. Not only was I treated to a fantastic blow out, a beverage and canapes, but I was also given a box of red velvet cake balls to enjoy!

Last night was so much fun and perfectly put together! I am so thrilled that Dallas is finally part of Gilt Group and cannot wait to see what other fantastic deals they feature in the coming weeks and months. A little birdie told me to be sure to check back often because DryBar was just the beginning of the affordable luxury they will be offering, they will only get better!

You Know You Live in Texas When...

There is fried avocado on the menu!

We were not even at the state fair...aka the home of fried food.
However, considering how delicious this was it just might be the next fried food to hit Fair Park come October!

Let Them Eat....Macarons!

In honor of it being Bastille Day we are going to Paris tonight to enjoy some of my favorite things! So grab your best outfit and your tres chic scarf and let's hop on the jet and well, jet set!

We will enjoy an early lunch and dessert at Laduree. I will have the Laduree Club, a pot of caramel tea and the passion fruit and raspberry tart. Of course we will not leave empty handed...boxes of macarons will be making their way out with us!


We will stroll along the Seine and pop wave to the gargoyles atop Note Dame. Perhaps we can even run into Shakespeare and Company.

After a quick run into the Louve it is time to hit a rue, Rue St. Honore of course!

Let's start down by the Ritz so we can end at Hermes. Does that sound like a plan? Of course when in Hermes we will be certain to ask for the latest "How to Tie A Scarf" booklet and perhaps if we are extra chic and behave they might even take us into their musee!

Of course before we hop back on the plane we need another treat (we have to save those macarons for the plane ride home) so off to Poilane we go. No day in Paris is complete without a pain au chocolate from the famous bakery!

If only life were this easy. I will only be going to Paris in my dreams tonight, but a VERY happy Bastille day none-the-less!

*What are some of your favorite places in Paris?*

Sarah's Key

Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of attending a premier screening for Sarah's Key. The movie is actually based on the gripping book written by Tatiana de Rosnay."De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down."Lucky for us the author of Sarah's Key just so happened to make an appearance at our screening! It was Tatiana's first time in Dallas. She lives in Paris and is the epitome of Parisian chic. So was so eloquent and we loved hearing her opinion on the movie as well as other details about her career and life.
A special perk for attending this premier screening was that each attendant received a copy of Sarah's Key!

Southern Vogue and I were so excited about this. Not only did we get to see the movie before it comes out, we met the author and took a copy of the book home!

Though the movie was incredibly sad it was EXTREMELY well done. The child actress that plays young Sarah is phenomenal as is Kristin Scott Thomas. The movie was highly emotional and brought a horrific event to the bring screen. In today's day and age I think many people have forgotten how terrible the war was for the entire world. Though we take history classes in school it is easy to put things at the back of your mind, but this movie served as a great reminder that lives were forever changed by the war. Homes were ransacked and abandoned. Businesses were lost. Many families lineages just ended in concentration camps. People of all ages suffered and died. Sarah's Key is fabulously done and truly gripping film.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Please pray for baby James and his family today.

James's mother is the college roommate of one of my best Dallas friends (and she is also in Junior League with me!) and they need your prayers today. Just two weeks after surgery to remove a brain rumor the family was given the news that James' tumor has entirely grown back. They now face two options: take James home or start chemo. Even with chemo they have been told no child in their hospital has ever survived this tumor. Please lift the Sikes up in prayer today!!

*Be warned that if you are at work this story and the two most recent posts are sure to make you weep. Heart wrenching.

Oreo Balls

I have to say that while I LOVE to make cake balls I 110% disagree with what I read on most blogs...they are NOT easy or simple to make. While the end result is a taste of heaven, getting there is a LOT of work and extremely time consuming. However, I have to satisfy my sweet tooth somehow so HELLO Oreo Balls!

Unlike cake balls, there is no real baking involved in Oreo Balls. You only need three (four is you use sprinkles) ingredients and these take 1/3 as long to make as cakeballs.

What you will need:

One package of Oreos

One container of cream cheese

Chocolate

Sprinkles (optional)
Crush your Oreos (I put mine in a Ziplock bag and use a rolling pin) and pour them in a mixing bowl.

Add in your cream cheese and mix until combined.

Mold mixture into balls.

I always freeze my cake balls and Oreo balls for at least two hours before dipping them. It makes the process MUCH easier.

Melt your chocolate (I used milk and white with a few candy melts mixed in) and dip your Oreo balls. I use a fork for dipping and then "tap" off all the extra chocolate.

Add on sprinkles if you wish and let chocolate harden. You are now ALL done (sorry for the ghetto finished project photo- I forgot to take one before we went to town trying the treats), wasn't that easy?!

While the cream cheese was DIVINE I am thinking of trying of possibly using peanut butter next time. Stay tuned; I will be certain to post about my experiment!
Oreo balls do NOT disappoint. They are SO delicious and you can literally just eat spoonfuls of the batter. One batch does not make as many balls as a cake ball recipe, but they are more rich so fewer is better I think. Enjoy!

Book Club

This weekend I met with my book club (organized by Southern Vogue...she supplied me with the following photo too). This was our second meeting and we read Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush.

It was a wonderful book as many of you know. The stories were so detailed and I loved reading about Mrs. Bushes childhood in Midland. I loved reading stories about people I have met or whose paths I have crossed. I feel that I am also lucky to read all this in my personalized copy of the book from Mrs. Bush. Every time I open it, it makes me smile.

While the book was wonderful the very best part of our meeting was the company of course. We meet at a different house each month and enjoy dinner, conversation and lots of laughs. I think we are all already gearing up for next month. We are reading One Day and plan to see the movie together as well. Fun times ahead!

Are you part of a book club? If so, how does your work and what are some of the best books you have read?

The Help

Last night, I attended a screening of The Help with Southern Vogue. I love going to the movies, but am often let down by books that are made into movies. They never seem to follow the same plot line and major parts are left out and then weird things are added in that were not part of the book. The Help however, did NOT fall into this category and blew us away.

I laughed so hard that I cried and then I did cry. The movie brought out so many emotions (in a good way!) and actually followed the book for once. No odd things were added in and all the major parts of the book were carried out on the screen. The scenery was stunning and the costumes were to.die.for.

Hilly left me wanting to yell at her, numerous times (some people at our screening were yelling at her...), but man did she have a killer wardrobe and a pretty house! Whoever made the final call on casting should win an Oscar, they did an AMAZING job. Even down to the children in the film, it was all just perfect.

This movie is everything I hoped it would be and more. I will be seeing it again on the big screen and will be pre-ordering the DVD. Yes, it is THAT good. Buy your tickets today for the August 12th release, you will not regret it!

The Straight Debate

While I have very thick and curly hair I am lucky in that I am able to style in numerous ways and it holds the style. All through the majority of high school and college and my first year in Dallas I wore my hair straight. It just suited me during that time. One day, not long after I started my blog, I decided to blow dry my hair with a huge round brush again and fell in love with the result:

I only have to wash my hair once or twice a week. When I blow dry my hair it holds the body for that entire time and I personally think it looks better than when I go to the salon and have them do it. Even my beloved Dry Bar had nothing on my hair styling technique. I have it down!

While everything was fine and dandy with my hair I have had a recent change of heart. In St. John it was way too humid to blow dry my hair. It was just pointless to waste all that time for it to look terrible the moment I stepped outside. I thus decided to straighten it one day when it was raining... I have not looked back! Straightening is just so much easier for me in the warm and more humid months. When you "sculpt" your hair putting a straightener to it to fix the kinks and eliminate the frizz ruins the do. However, when it is straight from the start you can just keep flattening it out. Since I returned from Virgin Islands I have been using my Solano Sapphire (only the BEST straightener ever to grace the planet, the Chi does NOT compare) day in and day out and am loving the look.
So now my great debate is straight or not straight?

Summer Loves

While there are hundreds of things to love about summer I always have a short list of my favorites. My list tends to change with the months, but this year it has been pretty solid.

Pinkberry!

The salted caramel topped with Heath bar is a must at the end of a HOT July day!

Fun in the water. Whether it be a week at the beach, a day on the lake or laying next to the pool for a few hours I love bronzing my skin and cooling off in the water.

When you spend too much time in the sun (even when wearing SPF 80+) you need to rehydrate your skin. Aquaphor is my newest obsession for skin hydration.

Sonic Happy Hour is near and dear to my heart. Now they have Coke Zero so my go-to drink is a large Coke Zero with extra vanilla. DELISH!

Last, but not least, summer TV is a great way to keep cool in the later afternoon. My very favorite summer show is Pretty Little Liars. Childish, perhaps, but do not put it down until you watch an episode. It is like a new age Nancy Drew, but better and way more suspenseful!

What are a few of your favorites this summer??

Pink and Green Meets Chinoiserie

I love just about all things pink and green (shocking, I know!) and I adore anything Chinoiserie...so naturally I love anything of that combination too. I was recently searching for a particular tulipiere and somehow ended up searching the above combination and fell in love with a few rooms I came across and just had to share. None of the below are over the top, but a great mix of my favorite color combination with elements of chinoiserie throughout...enjoy!

The above wallpaper might seem too bright to some, but the darker table and chairs tone the room down. It is a great mix of colors as well as elements and would certainly be a lovely place to dine!
If you follow me on Pinterest you have seen this oldie, but goody before. The colors are perfectly pale and that fretwork is divine. It is almost too good to be true!

This was the first photo I came across in my original search. This room just works. The pink walls and the blue and white and the touches of green throughout cross paths in the right way. However, unless that is a fake fern on the upper right it would certainly be difficult to water it each week!

This is my very favorite room of all- everything works together in this room and it is sheer perfection. I love the three poofs placed around. Not only do they add pops of color, but they provide additional seating as well. Again, the bright green walls work and pull everything together here. Divine design at its' best!

Bridal Celebration!

I hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July and enjoyed their long weekend! I had a SPLENDID time not only celebrating this great nation we call home, but also celebrating my favorite bride-to-be!

On Friday afternoon I hit the road and headed down towards San Antonio. We were booked at the JW Marriott which is on the North side of the city (aka closer to Dallas and requires less time in holiday weekend traffic-phew) and "in the country". I arrived just in time to enjoy a fabulous Southwestern meal with everyone at Cibolo Moon.
We called it a night after dinner; we all wanted to be well rested for our day by the pool which began the next morning. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast in our suite before heading out the the adult pool.

The view from our chairs was divine. Texas is so unique in that you can be in the country, surrounded by plains or drive an hour and be in a metroplex or drive a few more hours and be at the beach or take yet another drive and be in the hill country. We were spoiled with a view of a top golf course and the hill country all day on Saturday.

After about six hours in the sun (it was mixed with a few trips down the water slides and trips around the lazy river) we headed back indoors to get ready for our celebratory dinner. Before dinner we enjoyed a glass of champagne on our patio.

We headed to the steak house on the resort grounds and were met by our very own version of Bevo! This is not exactly what I would put outside a steak house (he was so sweet it made be a tad sad to be ordering a cut from his possible bff), but it did not stop us from enjoying a divine meal...with lots of meat. Almost everyone ordered the filet mignon and we shared delicious sides...creamed corn and spinach of course!

Post dinner it was time for a shower and then Table Topics back in the room. We had such a fun and relaxing time and are ready for Andrea's big wedding at the end of the month!

On Sunday morning we all got up (and turned on the Casey Anthony closing arguments and Wimbledon) and gathered all our things. We wanted to hit the road on the earlier end to avoid any possible traffic and this also allowed for everyone to stop by the San Marcos outlets before they got packed. I headed towards downtown before leaving SA to meet my best friend from Hollins (sadly we forgot to take a photo). We had not seen each other in SEVEN years, but picked up right where we left off and have both decided not to wait another seven years before getting together.

It was a fabulous weekend spent with wonderful people! If you are ever in the San Antonio area I would highly recommend the JW Marriott. The accommodations are lovely and it is a great family resort. There is lots to do and the food is wonderful too!