WILW

And I'm back.

I'm linking up this week to kick off my blogging return with Jamie for a good old fashioned "What I'm Loving Wednesday" . Couldn't think of a better way to start my day.

I'm LOVING.....

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Essie's Sand Tropez makes me squeal.

I normally am a very dark polish girl but this neutral really does the job for summer.

Where has this been all my life? You spray, let dry a minute and comb through. It is the perfect boost after a long day when I don't feel like showering again. It gives volume, shine and a little pizzaz if I do say so myself.

I've been sporting purple lined eyes for a few days and I'm definitely loving my Chanel violet smoke eyeliner. Its a gray/purple so a little smudged around the line with some mascara has been my go to in the mornings. 

I'm loving my Trader Joe's hydrangeas are still blooming and making my dining room happy. 

I'm beyond loving Cooking Light's peach, gorgonzola, chicken and balsamic pizza. Sounds bizarre, tastes like heaven. Cooking Light kinda goes out the window when you eat 3/4 of the pizza yourself. Whoops. In fact, I make no apologies.

Ina Gartens Roquefort Souffle. Enough said. I made this just for me for dinner one night when hubs just wanted chicken. By the time I bought the ingredients, ran out and bought the right size souffle dish and whipped it up, I had spent about $60 bucks on this one dish. IT.WAS.WORTH.IT.  

I'm loving that I dug my jean jacket out of the closet and sported it to work the other day with a long black maxi. It's California, anything goes.

I get to see this gorgeous gal for dinner Thursday while she's passing though. On her way to HAWAII. You can throw her a pity party later, but since we are sistas I'll pretend I'm not jealous. But I am. 

I got Christmas Company Special Events for my JL placement. Super pumped. Super excited. Super jazzed. Do you super get it? Regardless, I'm ready to dive in and get this gala rolling.

And Finally, I'm LOVING  LOVING that my job is taking me to Paris for a healthy part of December. A little work, but mostly play. Who are we kidding, I'll be too busy eating baguettes with cheese at cafes and drinking wine. You know, being Parisian.

Around 2 weeks to enjoy...

Walking the cobblestone streets..

..marveling at the architecture

...taking in the City of Lights

Christmas time in Paris? A dream come true. Seriously. I smile about it everyday. You know what makes me smile even bigger? The fact that J gets to go with me :) 

Happy Wednesday Lovelies!

A novel length catch up

I feel like I've been to the edge and back.... a whole month with NO BLOGGING.  Let me explain, it's been a crazy ride.

I'm sitting in my half-clean house, door open, ocean breeze blowing and I'm starting to feel normal again.

Here's how it happened. Let's call it the longest month in review.

Easter came and went.  So much fun. So much family time. So So much wine. To say it was a blast would be an understatement. What's not to love about strolling across to the beach , coffee cups in hand, bundled up because it's slightly chilly, chatting and laughing with family on Easter Sunday? Not to many things at all. 

Easter faded and I put on my " parent planning mode" to make sure everything would be ready for their visit the following week. Too busy to blog. Too excited to sleep. It had been months since I'd seen them. That on top of the j-o-b about sent me into a spin. When I got home, if J got to come home before 5 am, all I wanted to do was spend some time with the couch and a bottle of vino. When your husband is as cute as mine who can blame me?

That Tuesday I get a call that my granddad is fading fast. My parents can't make the trip to Cali that Thursday, he won't last much longer. They can't in their right mind board a plane to the other coast. COMPLETELY understand. Completely bummed about the trip and my granddad. Start to look into flights for next few days so I can head home if the worst happens. 3000 miles away.

Make it through the weekend. Have a great weekend actually. Hubs does everything in his power to take my mind off things. Monday, granddad is stable, I'm feeling pretty good. I call my mom at lunch, she sounds funny but I shrug it off. I get a call at 7 PM. One of my aunts has died. My dad's sister.  She just didn't wake up that morning. That sudden. Seriously? I panic, try to figure out how to get home. Listen to my parents talk about logistics about getting all my sisters to Savannah for the funeral and fast. My mom waited to tell me until I was with J at home. Thank God for that. 

I board a plane at the crack of dawn Wednesday, fly into Atlanta, meet my sister at the airport. I get to see my nieces for a night before we head over to Nevils, GA to meet my family for the funeral. It is beyond tragic and beyond sad. Open caskets are horrible. She was buried in the dress she wore to my wedding. Devastated is the only word to describe it. Seriously devastated. The whole family is in shock.

Still reeling from the funeral, we get in the car to head back to Richmond so I can see my granddad, 8 hours away, while I'm on the East coast. We learn, when my mom returns the 6 missed calls from her brothers and sisters, that he's died that morning. While we were at my aunts funeral. Looks like I need another black dress. 

We head straight back to Richmond, re-group and head to Lynchburg to be with the other side of the family. My dad is still in Savannah trying to help my grandmother deal with my aunts sudden death. We see family, visit with my grandmother and get things ready for his funeral. My dad meets us at home Saturday. The viewing was Sunday, funeral Monday. We visited with family and hit the road to the Richmond airport Monday night. We flew through the night into LA in the early early morning.

Now we are home. After the longest whirlwind of my life. Two funerals in 5 days, 2 cross country flights and 15+ hours of coastal driving. I'm tired and sad and trying to get back into the swing of things. I got caught up after taking 5 unexpected days off work and things are slowing to a normal pace. I'm coming back to blogging. I'm attempting to do some laundry and I'm ready to sit on the beach all day Saturday and re-group. Yep, thats my plan.

xo

T2T

Today's top 2 Tuesday is a light and fun one over at Taylor's fabulous blog! 

Head on over and link up and tell us what your fav top 2 drinks are!

 I thought I'd do a few of my fav summer treats!

{1}

My year round all time, can't live without, can't make it through the day without one drink. Pardon my flair for the dramatic today, I'm not feeling well.

Fountain Diet Coke. Preferably with pellet ice. Preferably with pellet ice and a large straw from McDonald's. Too bad that combination doesn't exist but a gal can dream right?

{2} Blue Lagoons

I have no idea what these frozen concoctions are to be honest. All I know if it's too strong we cut it with Diet Dew and my sweet father in law scoops it out of a huge magical bucket out of the freezer. How can you not love that? A summer celebration at my in-loves, as I like to call them, is never complete with some great convo outside around the table with some blue lagoons. Pure heaven. 

 ( P.S  Milly if your reading, can't wait to see you guys in July! xoxo)

{3}

Frozen Mint Juleps

We affectionately refer to this as " the mint drink" in my household. Oh my stars are they unreal. It's a southern staple frozen to Margarita consistency. My dad and brother in law spent the Friday afternoon of my rehearsal making buckets of these beauties for us to enjoy on the trolley downtown after our ceremony. It was an amazing way to get the party started for sure! One of my fav memories.

1 can of frozen lime-aide, 1 can Vodka, 10-12 mint leaves, blender full of ice. You'll thank me later.

This is what mint drinks do to some fam! 

 So Cheers! 

and have a happy Tuesday lovelies!

Misc Monday!

It's Monday and there's not much else to say but I hope your weeks are fabulous!

I checked my work email last night, had 36, so I  promptly shut off my computer and prayed they wouldn't be there this morning. It didn't work. Luckily, this week should be be filled with pretty low key nights which is just what I needed after my busy sched last week!

Onto Misc. Monday with Carissa over at lowercase letters.

The reason I don't bring my husband with me to the grocery store...we came home with ice cream, gushers and double stuffed Oreo's? Seriously? I will admit I have indulged in all of those purchases but wasn't happy about it :)

We had the best dinner out on Saturday at a local fav in the neighborhood. I tried a new flat bread with truffle oil, mushrooms, fennel and a 7 cheese spread. I just about died. In a good way.

Trader Joe's had a Cab Franc ( J's fav wine) today and it was a Deb's pick for $ 6.99! Hubs was so excited he looked like a kid on Christmas. Too bad he got called into work and our wine and steaks had to wait :(

While watching Extreme Coupon-ing, I heard one woman say that by using coupons she has saved $40,000 in the past 2 years?!? Maybe I do need to jump on this bandwagon.

Hockey is my new favorite sport ever. J got awesome firm seats for a Ducks game last week and apparently I'm a huge fan. The second the helmets came off and they started to brawl I was the first one up screaming for a fight. It was such a fast paced blast! When the blood hit the ice though  I quickly stopped screaming but boy was it fun. We are getting play off tickets and I can't wait to go back.  

I promise I'm a nice person and don't normally cheer for violence.

The past week I had so much great gal time. It's so funny to see how much things have changed in 9 short months of living here. Even though I really miss my cronies on the East Coast, I have a new great group of girlfriends that I can have drinks with, have some dinner, relax and even volunteer with. What a blessing!  

Hope your Monday's are quick and painless!!

WILW

Is it Wednesday already??? I love it!

 I just got home from stuffing 1,152 Easter eggs for the JL hunt this weekend. I'm not going to the hunt so I offered to help stuff the eggs. Of course it was an " egg stuffing happy hour". Geeeesh. Unfortunately, my method was stuff one, eat a piece of candy, stuff one, eat a piece of candy  and so on :Mid way through I had to uncross my legs because my skinny jeans were getting a liiiiitttle too skinny if you know what I mean! 

So since it's Wednesday it's time to link up with one of the cutest gals around, Jamie, for What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm LOVING.....

...this Emerson Made table runner. Isn't giving thanks what it's all about?

...this Halston, in this color. I love the pleats and the shape.

....the naps I could take riiiiiiight on one of those swings.

...the amazing turkey burgers we've been grilling. Plus, the amazing weather that's perfect for it.

....the 4 packs of Easter egg dye I got at Target. Can you tell I was getting nostalgic about my childhood?

.....all the light, french doors, flowers and marble in this kitchen

.... THAT tub. Plus some bubbles.

..... the fact that after working multiple 17 hour days in a row hubs and I are headed to a hockey game to chill out and hang out. He works so so hard and I know is so so tired at the moment. A little one on one time where he can have a beer and watch sports just might do the trick.

And one final thing...

Have a great one!

T2T

Today's another Top 2 Tuesday with Taylor!
Head on over, link up and tell us what your jammin' to!

Top 2 Songs on your Ipod.

 I've gotten a little tired of my Ipod so I've been streaming Pandora on it constantly. My top 2 stations this week are.....

{1} 

"Adele"

I'm on this bandwagon and I'm loving whatever she does. The great thing about her station on Pandora is it gives you other things  that you might like. It's pretty smart.

{2}

"Beach Boys"

Can you tell I'm ready for summer? It's the best station because it plays all the beach music that makes me want to hit the sand.

Hope everyone's having a great start to their weeks!!

Misc!

Happy Monday!

I'm linking up with Carissa for another round of Misc Monday. Gotta have something to brighten your morning right?

 My little blog got a little botox over the weekend! Not that I didn't love  my blog design before or  my gorgeous friend that created it, but I saw a Sweet Simplicity design by Lindsey on Saturday night and before I could harness all my happy feelings it was already installed for me! I checked my own blog compulsively yesterday, knowing that there was nothing new to read or anything I wanted to post, just to take a look at the new design. Genius. 

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If you haven't already discovered this website, you have to subscribe to their emails NOW. You've Got Supper sends you weekly healthy and fast menus plus the according grocery lists. They have so many great recipes up their sleeve and tips to boot. It was started by two moms who needed to get out of a dinner rut. We've all been there. Not only are the recipes fantastic, but the gals are the cutest ever! I know Susan and she's a rockstar inside the kitchen and out. 

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J's playing in a charity golf tournament tomorrow with some other attorneys from his firm. I'm so excited for him because he's really missed playing. We went to a golf superstore and got him some new digs and accessories to get ready for tomorrow. I'm sorry, not accessories, very manly golf equipment?

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I scored some great finds at forever 21 on Friday. It's not my fav store because I'm 5'10 and everything fits like a shirt, even if its a dress. BUT, I did get a great bag and some tops

the modern silhouette top. I wore it to dinner with some gals Friday and haven't taken it off yet. It's Sunday. That's how much I love it. 

Amazing oversized, perfect for summer nights cardigan

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I went on a Kindle downloading spree the other night. I'm currently reading The Pioneer Woman's book 

" Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" right now. Say what you will, it is fantastic. 

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I watch way too many episodes of Criminal Minds. I can't help it, I love it. I know I have a problem though when I'm home alone and convinced the mailman is a predator. Seriously? 

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Related to Criminal Minds, I spent a good 30 minutes researching if you really could be a profiler in the BAU. That lead into what it took to be in the FBI. I picture my interview would go something like Elle Woods Harvard law school interview...

 " A fashion major?" " Well sir we've never had one before and aren't we always looking for diversity?" 

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Ok lovelies, I think that's enough Misc. for one Monday. Busy busy week but thats how I like 'em!

Spring is here!

Well, I guess in California its almost spring year round! Tomorrow the temps are hitting 80+...The beautiful thing about living on the water is no humidity. My walk after work was pure heaven, sunshine, the smell and sounds of the ocean and tons of people out and about enjoying it all!

Speaking of work, I've been listening constantly to the " Somethings Gotta Give" soundtrack and I've changed my google browsers, etc to French. It has made my afternoon of online shopping interesting. I've gotta start buckling down and really learning the language I work in everyday. Countless times, I have answered the phone and a lovely person is on the other line speaking only french. It makes for interesting challenges at the office. On the plus side, language barrier aside, I'm loving the marketing campaigns we've got going right now, thank you very much. 

What I feel like at the end of most days!

On to fancier things...

I am frantically obsessing over what table scape I'm going to put together for Easter. I'm just so dang excited! Here is some possible inspiration...

I think I'm going to go for a shabby chic, mismatched, vintage, pastel scheme.  hahah got all that? 

My husband without a doubt will read this and come home from the office rolling his eyes and shaking his cute little head. Boys just don't get the need for some good table decorations.