Monday, June 28, 2010

Time Out

I'm pretty sure if this TIME OUT chair had been at our house growing up things would have been much different.....


I blame my well-behaved childhood on lack of a designer Time Out Chair.

Stylin'

We had a bad storm last night which knocked my cable out of commission for the evening. My Netflix suggested I watch Risky Business, a movie I've somehow never seen before. It finally clicked where RayBan's "coolness" came from. I guess I'd totally missed the boat on that one!
Reguardless of where the craze came from, who wouldn't want to rock a pair of these this summer....



I can't help sharing this picture of another fashion staple...

This is JJ on our camping trip this past weekend. He slept on top of my hat and I told him he had to find a way to "reshape" it. His solution was to wear it all morning and then the whole two hour drive home. Such a stylish man!

Friday, June 25, 2010

A sign of the times

Nearly one in five American women in her early 40s is childless...

A very interesting story about the rise in childless women compared to the 1970s was printed in the Washington Post today. I think this is definately a sign of the times. Check out the story here.

Love List II

Since my crappy landlord is raising my rent by $125 starting August 1, I have decided to bring you another edition of my Love List. We can call it "Love List II" if you'd like. Or, if you'd like it better, we can call it "Friday Eye Candy." You choose.

Fontaine Maury Monogrammed Tray:
I can just imagine JJ bringing me breakfast in bed with this very tray! I'm sure the LKB is supposed to stand for "Lover Knows Best." Remember that, JJ!















Nate Berkus Hexagon Coctail Ottoman:
Who knew the Home Shopping Network had a website? And, who knew they sold Nate Berkus furniture?
Rose Shaped Earrings:
Something about seeing flowers everywhere outside makes me want to wear them anywhere I can. I think these little rose earrings are precious!














Paper Flowers:
Style Me Pretty featured a DIY flower tutorial similar to the beautiful EmersonMade flowers I've been coveting. The best part is that you can make them out of any kind of paper and put them anywhere you want. I particularly love their idea of putting them on a big cardboard letter- like so...


















Glittery Toms Shoes:
Nothing says drama like glittery feet! Plus there is the added bonus of one pair getting donated to children in need for every pair bought. It's possible that I'm not cool enough to pull these off.













Ceramic Owl Umbrella Stand:
Both Suze of Dwellers without Decorators and Jenny of the Little Green Notebook featured this recently and I flipped over it. As you know, I have a large (and by large, I mean creepy) owl collection!




















P.S. I'm not sure why all of these things are white. It really is just a coincidence. Maybe I'm getting sentimental about losing my last name.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

This was yesterday's quote of the day on the Free People website:

“Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you. The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

I love that! I think this is so true about most things in my life.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Wear your Lilly Day

It has just been brought to my attention that today is "National Wear Your Lilly" Day. Lilly Pullitzer that is.

Few people in the midwest truly appreciate Lilly Pullitzer as much as the southerners so I decided that "Wear Your Lilly Day" can translate to "Have Your Bed Wear Lilly Day." Who's with me?


And just in case the floor feels left out of the holiday...


All pictures from Garnet Hill

Picture Purple

Like all good daughters, I went home to visit my family for Father's Day. I took it upon myself to wake my parents up at 6:30 am on Saturday so we could jam-pack our day full of activites. The first of my planned activities included scouting out garage sales. For a dollar we bought this Polaroid camera which I thought I might be able to use somehow at the wedding. I figured I could buy film for the camera for cheap from Ebay. False. Basically I can either afford to buy film for my $1 Polaroid camera or afford food for the next 6 months.

I still feel like the garage saleing was a success becuase I found an astroturf golf hole that JJ can practice putting with in the hallway for $3. Holler!We also walked through the local farmer's market, toured the Parade of Homes, got pedicures, hiked the Linear trail and made fish tacos from scratch.

Also, I couldn't help but notice this little vignette as I walked out the laundry room door:

Ignoring the mess (since my Mom was unaware I was taking this picture), can you believe the ridiculous amount of purple going on here? This one adult couple has a pair of purple crocs, a purple dress, two purple hats, three purple polo shirts, and a purple tshirt in a two foot radius.

Butter me up before a weekend of Sin

"My boyfriend" set sail for his bachelor party over the weekend. I would like to think I did an excellent job of not imagining the worst. As long as he doesn't come back with anything that requires prescription medication then it will be fine.

He made an effort to butter me up before he left for his weekend of sin. I ran to Walmart to pick up a frozen pizza for him to have for dinner and when I came out back to my car this was tucked under my windshield wiper:


It's the small things....

Friday, June 18, 2010

Don't miss this EmersonMade Giveaway!

Remember when I posted about my love for Emersonmade awhile back? Well, Sarah from Fourish Design +Style is doing an Emersonmade giveaway!

Head on over to her site and enter the giveaway! Plus, I recommend staying awhile and devouring all of her posts about design and style.

Monday, June 14, 2010

I did a bad thing

I neglected to mention yesterday that I did a bad thing this weekend.

While on my way from one eating establishment to another (which is what I did most of my trip to Memphis), we passed a sign that said "Good Dog Adoption Day." The smart thing would have been to keep driving but unfortunately I am not smart. And, wouldn't it be my luck that the most perfect little dog was waiting for me inside needing a nice home!?

Little Maddie was a Pug-Beagle cross and she was perfectly wonderful. She already knew all the tricks that I paid a small fortune for Watson to learn in doggie classes and she is house broken. I had already let the lady call my references before I realized that driving a dog eight hours back to Missouri to live in my tiny apartment was a bad idea.

So I've decided to enforce a new rule: I am not allowed in any establishment that has dogs for sale.

(photo: not actually the Memphis dog.)

Memphis Shower

I'm just going to tempt you all by saying that this weekend I bought my wedding shoes (which I've been hunting for months) and received "sneak peek" pictures of the jewelry bouquet. It is looking fabulous! I'll be wearing as much bling as a rapper's teeth.



I spent the weekend in Memphis with all of JJ's extended family. We were in a heat advisory the whole time so I'm sure I left a great (sweaty) impression. Good thing I packed deodorant! I was a terrible travel companion for JJ during the 8 hour drive to Memphis. The whole time I was either sleeping, playing brickbreaker on my phone, or talking about how much I wanted to sleep or play brickbreaker.

My sweet friend Courtney drove all the way from Ol' Miss just for the shower. All the pictures I have of her from the weekend are blurry so you'll just have to see pictures of me. Sorry.



This second picture is priceless. The first one involves cake, and YOU KNOW how I feel about cake.


I am taking some of the girls from the children's charity where I work to the soup kitchen to volunteer tonight. I think the experience always does me more good than it does them. Having the opportunity to serve people who cannot feed their families puts me in my place really quickly. I suppose I don't NEED that $325 dress Sara Jessica Parker wore in Sex and the City II.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Honeymoon Red



It was almost as if Zeus and the other gods of coincidence were pulling me towards my purchase of "Honeymoon Red" nailpolish at Walmart last night. Hours after painting all my nails, JJ and I booked tickets for our honeymoon.


We will be spending a week at a resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

 
We did run into one "speedbump" while booking the trip: what last name I should use on my tickets. Officially, I'll be married so my name will change but my passport will still have my "old" last name. So we came up with the perfect solution. We hyphenated it: Elise White-Bennett. I'm not kidding.

I'm a tad late seeing Sex and the City

I went to see SATCII (that would be Sex and the City, II) a few nights ago with a good friend from college.

Oh Carrie Bradshaw, what has happened to you? As beautiful as they are, I think these women are just a tad too old to be playing characters targeted at 20-somethings. None the less, Sara Jessica Parker can do no wrong in my eyes.

In fact, Sara Jessica Parker is now the CEO of the Halston Heritage clothing line. She wears pieces from the line multiple times in the movie, including on the movie poster. This dress can be found here at Nieman Marcus for a mere $325. If that wasn't most of my paycheck this white beauty would be in my closet.


I also can't stop drooling over Carrie and Mr. Big's new digs. Join me in the drooling:



Friday, June 4, 2010

Adorable Eco-Friendly

There is obnoxious eco-friendly (like using a diva cup) and there is adorable eco friendly (like having your wedding invitations be made out of wildflower seeds). One of my best friends from Kansas is most definately adorable eco-friendly.

Her wedding invitations can be planted in the ground and will grow wildflowers. What a brilliant way to have your special day keep on giving!




There are tons of places online that sell this paper like, the Botanical Paper Works. Or there are a few tutorials so you can make your own. I wish I was this thrifty.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Warren+White

I received a postcard in the mail today from a clothing store letting me know they now carry Warren+White cashmere. I wonder if they are aware that my Dad's name is Warren White?


I'm secretly hoping my Dad is a secret clothing designer who collects fine cashmere in his down time. These dresses are so beautiful. Dad, why have you been holding out on me?!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A little more Tan and much more Relaxed

Since I'm so important (ha!) and have so many important tasks to do during the day that stress me out, I took a cruise to the Bahamas to relax. Ok, it is mostly to celebrate my Mom and Sister's birthdays but I soaked up every minute.

Within my first hour on the boat I had made a mental map of all of the pool-side bars and had scheduled a massage and facial. We spent a day at Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas- this is seriously the picture on their website. I have never seen a place like this before in my life! I think the highlight was swimming with dolphins. If I can figure out how to use my scanner I'll share a picture of me giving one of the precious dolphins a kiss. We also spent hours in the lazy river which they called the "Rapid Lazy River." Kind of an oxymoron? They weren't kidding about the "rapid"- I lost my bathing suit top at one point!

Oh and did I mention that I made sure to take full advantage of the 24 hour seafood and ice cream!

And as a perfect finale to the trip, we stopped at Universal Studios in Orlando on our way back to the airport and ate lunch at Emeril Lagasse's restaurant. Heaven in my mouth!
Now it's back to reality. I came into my office on Memorial Day to catch up a little bit and I had 600 emails....