Happy Monday!

A few things catching my eye lately...

1. This sweet wedding. i love the vintage touches, and i am REALLY loving her short flouncy dress with those shoes!! {All picstures from www.stylemepretty.com}



2. The Dalai Lama and Karl Lagerfeld on Twitter!

3. This interesting New York Times article on yoga for bigger bodies.



I haven't decided how i feel about it... but i think it's a great idea in theory to create a safe space for those who are uncomfortable practicing with a bunch of tiny peeps. I'm always the fattest girl in the studio, and lemme tell ya, it does not do good things for my self-esteem. But i've learned to turn inward and ignore everyone else, and i'm usually feeling pretty good by the end of class. (P.S. I've made it to FOUR yoga classes in the past week and a half!)

4. PINK moleskin notebooks!! i thought they were a myth, but finally spotted them at my local Borders (and apparently you can get them from Barnes & Noble online). HOLLA!! You'll never find me scribbling in boring black again ;)



5. The idea of creating a 30-Before-30 List. i first read about it on Lauren's fabulous blog and have since skipped to Suz's blog to get more info. As i approach my 26th birthday (August 11!) i'm thinking this is a WONDERFUL idea. I love goals and making lists so why not?

What's catching your eye lately?

i can see the light

Bonjour, mes amies! TGIF, n'est ce pas? This week has dragged by for moi...

Last night i had one too many glasses of vin and biere (is this the French word for beer?) and may have spiraled into a mini depression/panicfest about my life. You know, the is this really what i'm doing with my life/i'm wasting my youth/will i ever be happy/i want to be fulfilled kind of crisis that all 20-somethings go through at least once. (i seem to go through it much more often than that...) Woke up this morning feeling pretty low, but my day has quickly improved. Had lunch with a dear colleague (one whom i decidedly could not work here without), caught up on some tweets/blogs, and am basking in the knowledge that today is finally FRIDAY!!

Even more exciting is that i have nothing scheduled for tonight. Absolutely NADA. This week has been filled with evening engagements (fun! but exhausting) and next week is even busier! So tonight i am happy to go home and do whatever the heck i want.

Well... actually i have a lot to do. The cleaning crew is coming over tomorrow to deep clean my apartment (with GREEN products), and i want to go through every cabinet/pantry/box/etc. before then. My fruit/dry fly situation is still under debate (maintenance did something yesterday that seemed to help, but i'm not convinced it's a permanent fix), so i'm also going through the apt in order to eliminate any other possibilities. Still i plan on making tonight as fun as possible - breaking open a bottle of bubbly, dancing to Britney Spears, playing visually stimulating movies like Marie Antoinette, noshing on healthy eats, and of course, spending quality time with my darling Lola.

Saturday night i've plans with a friend to (finally) watch Slumdog Millionaire. It's been sitting on my console for weeks! Our menu for the evening includes: fresh guacamole, tex-mex queso (aka velveeta + rotel, gross i know but it tastes goooood), white wine sangria with oodles of fresh citrus and berries, roasted veggies (b/c we need some sort of healthy item in here), and something tasty for dessert (haven't figured out what. any suggestions??).

Oh - i also hope to crack open Jen Lancaster's latest - Pretty In Plaid.

What're your fabulous plans for le weekend?

P.S. Want to learn how to say "pink" in French? Head on over to a la Parisienne for today's French lesson!

My Hump (Day)

Today was a good day, i think. Well... it had its ups and downs.

The UP's:

- making it to 6:30 vinyasa class! yay moi!!


(photo via Hip Tranquil Chick)

- wearing these sweet nude Colin Stuart wedges to work (elongated my legs like crazy!)



- dining on a delicious bento box and (ridiculously overpriced) green tea @ lunch


(this was not my bento box, but it was tasty/pretty, too!)

- admiring my pretty purple tulips



- carving out some quiet time for afternoon tea + biscuits



- late night trip 2 Tarjay :)



- getting a shoutout from my #1 girl crush Kimberly Wilson (i'm giddy!)




The DOWN's (no pics for these b/c duh, they are the downs!):

- VERY slow @ work, which makes the time drag by... not fun.

- the rapidly multiplying fruit/drain/whatever flies that have infested my apartment (yes it's that disgusting and yes i kind of want to die b/c i'm so grossed out). If my apartment doesn't fix this problem soon, i'm checking into a hotel.


- getting duped into paying $3.50 for the aforementioned cup of green tea, which consisted of hot water + tea bag

- gross flies

- not adhering to my 10 p.m. bedtime (as it's currently 11:38 p.m.)

- did i mention the nasty flies?? ok ok, i'll shut about them... for now


Clearly the UP'S outweight the DOWN'S so i can't complain! Soooo glad we are moving towards the weekend :-) Tomorrow we have a special Associates happy hour starting at 4:30, and then afterwards i think i'm going to hit up a delish tex-mex place downtown with some colleagues.

How was your HUMP DAY?

Going Veggie

One of my goals is to cook more, as doing so will help me eat healthier and save money. I recently made the decision to reduce/eliminate my meat consumption (chicken, beef, pork aka bacon... tear). As such, i've been cruising the web for some delicious vegetarian and seafood (i'm still eating it!) recipes to try. Voila a list of my future conquests:

1. Melissa Clark's Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp



2. Braised Winter Greens with Chickpeas, Onions, and Garlic from Orangette



3. Angel Hair with Asparagus, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts from fresh365



4. Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan from Orangette



5. Spicy Two-Cheese Penne with Garlic Thyme Breadcrumbs from fresh365

P.S. i HATE plugging Starbucks, but i recently purchased this awesome cup from the Starbucks in my building and well... i love it!! It's double-walled so no sweating, the straw can't fall out, and i foresee using it a LOT as Sbux's iced passion fruit tea is one of my summertime faves...

Sleep Don't Weep

I apologize for my lack of blogging this week. I'd like to say that i've been swamped at work or finally decided to sit down and write that book or, ya know, found a cure for cancer, but... no. Mostly, i've just been sleeping. And oh - it's been heavenly.



I woke up at something like 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning completely drenched in sweat and sitting in the middle of sweat-drenched sheets (gross, right?). What was the deal? My entire body was burning up like mad. Note: I. hate. fevers. After ripping the sheets off my bed, changing my shirt, and downing some advil, i attempted (with little success) to go back to sleep. My alarm went off around 7, and i felt like i might die if i had to get out of bed and function. So i called in sick, shut off my phone, and went back to bed.

And i slept.

And slept.

And finally woke up around noon to get some water, more meds, and figure out what the heck was wrong with me. (Note: self-diagnosing is a BAD idea all around. Especially when the only thing on anyone's minds these days is SWINE FLU.) Fast forward to Thursday, another day off work, another day spent sleeping a lot. Honestly today i felt 85%, which was a vast improvement. I had an appetite, i could walk around without immediately wanting to go back to bed, and i even took Lola for a little walk. Whatever bug got me down was on its way out - hooray! But, um, my employers apparently don't want me to risk spreading any kind of SWINE FLU around the office, so I was told to "stay home and get some rest tomorrow." Well, i wasn't going to argue with that.

Soooo... i have tomorrow off! Which is why i'm up so late. (Can't sleep b/c i've been doing so much of it the past 48 hours). I'm hoping i'll feel 100% tomorrow as i have to drive to Dallas to see some friends and play with Momma for Mother's Day. Plans include: fun dinner, lots of girl talk, Saturday morning yoga and Northpark shopping with my dear friend A, afternoon tea @ the Ritz with darling L, and of course more eating and talking with my parents. I'll probably snooze in my mom's ultra luxe king-sized bed on Saturday night, attend Korean church service, eat more of my Mother's delicious food, and then head back to Austin late on Sunday. Since getting home late the night before a full week of work is never a good idea, i'm hoping to get my apartment ready for Monday morning tomorrow. I mean, what else am i going to do? Try not to sleep until noon - that's what!

I borrowed my friend Lauren's genius Mother's Day gift idea and filled up a jar of notes for my Mom. The notes include remember when's, things i love about her, and a lot of thank you for _____'s. It was really fun to make, and i think she'll love it. Plus, it was almost free! Which is good b/c her REAL present is about $500 bucks worth of Pottery Barn bedding. Uh huh. Ridic. But what're you gonna do? The woman birthed me. Sans drugs.

Anyway, here's my pretty jar for Mommy Park! Cute, huh?


As a final touch, i tied a cute ribbon around the jar. Can't wait to see her face when i give it to her!!

I hope y'all have a lovely Mother's Day and a relaxing weekend :-)

May Goals

In the spirit of Melita, i've finally gotten around to making some May Goals. I've never done goals by the month, but i really like it, as it's not as overwhelming as yearly goals. Much more doable, n'est ce pas? Anyway, in case you can't read the above, my May Goals are:

1. get my yoga back on!

2. rediscover artist dates (a Julia Cameron term)

3. make morning smoothies (made one this morning for the first time in months.... holllaaa!)

4. start BAR trip scrapbook

5. document life more with cameras (aka take more pictures, esp. with my new Holga which i have not yet received :-( )

6. drink more tea, less coffee (even bought some green tea this past weekend, not the biggest fan of green tea but working on it as its health benefits are vast)

7. PRAY

What are your goals for May?

Seeing Double

BLOG CRUSH ALERT!

Only this time, it's even better, because today's blog crush features not 1, not 2, not even 3... but 4 bloggers!!! OK i take that back - it's actually 2 blogs of 2 adorable married couples, but 4 sounded better than 2, no?

ANYWAY, i'm featuring these two blogs together b/c: (1) i majorly *heart* both of them, (2) the similarities between them are uncanny, and (3) 2 is better than 1.

With that being said, allow me to introduce...

Chris and Stacey Sargent of Love and Photographs; and




Josh and Naomi Davis of The Rockstar Diaries!



Now, although these are couples blogs, it's mostly the chicas doing the posting, and as adorable as these hubbies are, it's mostly the ladies with whom i've fallen in love. I first found Stacey's blog a few months ago when she won a contest over at Cupcakes and Cashmere. I instantly fell in love with her adorably perky outlook on life, her Anthro-inspired vintage style, and her killer bangs. (I think i even told her that her bangs reminded me of Erin's from The City on MTV.)



One of the things i love best about her? How much she loves her family. Stacey is married to Chris, and it's so obvious these two are head-over-heels in love with each other. And instead of being overly sappy and annoying, it's endearing and sweet. :-) Aren't they cute?



I stumbled upon Naomi's blog just last week (i think was so overwhelmed with work that i took a mandatory 20-minute blog break). Oh *SWOON* wow, is this girl stunning or what? Like Stacey, Naomi's got a vintage style to-die-for and yes, killer bangs!



Naomi is a Juliard graduate (where she was a dancer - how cool is that??), has an insatiable lust for all things Pinkberry and McDonald's (another thing i LOVE about her), and like Stacey, is completely smitten with her hubby.



A few more similarities... (and reasons you should love them, too!)

1. S & N both have great style. The best thing about it, though, is that they manage to come off as beautiful, sweet, sexy thangs without being half-naked. That's a rarity in this day and age, and i fully respect them for that.

2. They're both obsessed with Polaroids.

3. They're both obsessed with FOOD! (me too - can you tell??)

4. They both have doting, adorable hubbies who are fine examples of what hubbies should be.

5. They've both Mormon.

6. They both love taking pictures, and their blogs are full of eye candy.

7. They both have big families and sisters galore (my fave!).

8. They both make you want to be a better person.

9. They both have Etsy shops featuring some fabulous headbands (i would've bought some, but my freakishly large head won't have it).

10. They are both quality BFF material. :-)

And last, but not least... I commented on Stacey's blog after i discovered Naomi's and told her that i found this chick whose life seemed so oddly similar to hers that she had to check it out. Well, guess what?



They already know each other!! Ha, of course they do. They used to dance together way back in the day and have reconnected via the blogosphere. Adorable. Perfect. My two blog crushes are friends! Doesn't get any better than that. Aren't they gorgeous?

P.S. I can't say THANK YOU enough for all the wonderfully supportive, sweet, kind and compassionate comments on the last post. It's people like you that make it easier to be honest and open on my blog, and i'm so SO grateful. Don't you wish we could all have a big bloggerific party and build a giant fort and eat cupcakes and sip champagne??