Been M.I.A. today...

...and she's the reason why. My new little cousin and goddaughter...she is perfection and I am in L-O-V-E. I was so tempted to steal her and keep her for myself ;)

Lydie Marie Josephine
03-31-09
7 lbs., 11 oz.
20.5 inches

Yellow Doors

I looooooooove the look of these bright and cheery pops of yellow in the form of painted yellow doors:

See more at Megan's blog, Lovely Happenings

I've always been a huge fan of yellow, and it seems like it's been everywhere lately since Pantone named Mimosa, an uber-cheerful orange-y yellow, it's color of the year. My ideal color scheme for my future home is a balance of cool (creamy whites) and warm (chocolate, cognac, tan) neutrals, with bright pops of yellow to liven things up. I love the idea of a yellow front door...so quintessentially summery. I just wonder how well it would jive later in the year with Christmas decor. Hmmm...

Coral Clutch

Okay, so maybe it's more orange than coral, but either way, it's adorable! :) So perfect for spring/summer with a fresh white sundress and tan or metallic gold sandals. $65 at JenniferLadd's Etsy shop.

A lovely quote...

"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning, a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." - Bruce Lee

Found on Brown Button

Kitchen Re-Do Magic

A fabulous and inspiring kitchen transformation from Holly of Life in the Fun Lane. She and her husband took the kitchen in their first home from this...to this......with just $400 and a lot of elbow grease!

Pantry storage

How cute are these etched jars for storage in the pantry? The best part is that they're totally DIY. Originally found on The Kitchn, with instructions from none other than Martha, of course. I daydream of a pantry full of these canisters for all of my dry goods :)

I feel like chicken tonight!

Three great chicken-related posts from The Kitchn:

Garlic & thyme roasted chicken with crispy dripping croutons. Yummmmmm.



Jamie Oliver's recipe for chicken in milk and lemon. Sounds so freaking weird, right? But the blogger goes as far as to say that it's the best chicken he's ever had in his life. And the pictures are enough to make a believer out of me...the meat looks so moist and fall-off-the-bone juicy. I need to get brave and try this one day.


And after you've finished one of those amazing recipes, eight great ideas for using leftover chicken. Leftovers are not always the most appetizing meal options, but if you find a way to dress them up, as lettuce wraps or chicken pizza, for example, they take on a whole new delicious life of their own. Gaby and I are not great at using our leftovers and sadly we do end up throwing away a lot of food. This is something I want to change, and recipes like this inspire me to do so.

Heads up...

Absolutely gorgeous spring-inspired computer desktop wallpapers available here.

This will be mine eventually, when I'm ready to move on from my current background:

Happy Weekend!

Mixed Media Collage Print from DollFace Design

Hope everyone is ready to have a fabulous one! Gaby took the day off work today so we've spent the day so far being bums and lazying around the house...caught up on Season 2 of "The Wire" which we're currently watching on OnDemand. This is our first unstructured weekend in forever so we're enjoying not having plans and being able to do whatever we want. We'll likely take some time out to give our condo some much-needed TLC in the cleaning department, but besides that, the rest of the weekend is an open book waiting to be filled :)

Too cute for words

thanks so much to JennyLo for posting this adorable video!

Come to the dark side...

My friend Monica recently got me hooked on white kitchens. I have a huge file folder in my computer full of gorgeous images of white kitchens that I hope to use as inspiration for my future home. My husband, on the other hand, hates them. He thinks the only reason they look nice is because they're staged for the photos and thus perfectly clean. He's convinced that in a real house, they'd get dirty and dingy immediately. Not to mention the fact that he's a dark wood fanatic. I saw this beautiful kitchen today on Alkemie, and it's the kind of thing that could make me give in to my husband's ways and go dark in the kitchen...

The Pioneer Woman cracks me up...

Any of you who are not already familiar with Ree, a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman, need to run, not walk, to her blog immediately and begin to catch up. She is a hilarious, red-headed, displaced city girl living in "the middle of nowhere" on a cattle ranch with her husband (Marlboro Man) and four adorable kids. She is an amazingly funny and inspiring writer, and a kick-ass cook. I would say at least 20% of my favorite bookmarked recipes come from her. Anyway, she never fails to crack me up, and today was no exception. She is blogging about a meatball recipe, and she shows this picture with this caption:

"Start with 1 1/2 pounds ground beef. This is home grown, baby. His name was Alfie."

OMG. LMFAO. So horribly offensive and irreverent to vegetarians everywhere, yet so deliciously hilarious at the same time. It reminds me of this t-shirt...

I apologize in advance, vegetarian readers. I hope I haven't offended you and driven you away from this blog for life.

Soooo me...

You know when you come across an item that is "sooooo you"? That's how I feel about almost everything in the Etsy shop of rennes-le-château. Her gorgeous leather pieces are so me! I am NOT the kind of woman who has a million purses in her closet and is always switching around depending on the outfit. I buy one or two good bags every year or every other year, usually a big and a small, and I stick to those and switch around amongst them. For bigger bags, I gravitate towards simple, unfussy yet luxe leather in neutral colors. For small bags, I also stick to neutrals or metallics and go for small clutches. I believe I first came across this particular bag on Bryn's blog, and it was love at first sight:

I love, love, love it! It's just so me. Although this pinkish neutral is darling, the bag also comes in this gorgeous cognac-y brown:

Swoon! This version is not available in the shop right now, but I hope it will be again. Because the next time I'm due for a new bag, this is the first place I'm checking.

P.S. How freaking adorable are these iPod cases?

"Filimangos"

That's what I used to call flamingos when I was little. We had a Little Golden Book about Mr. Zookeeper and his daily routine. He would go to all the different areas of the zoo and feed the animals. I wish I remember what it was called! My brother and I loved that book, and I think we asked my mom to read it to us every single night for years. If I close my eyes, I can still vividly picture some of the illustrations. My mom got a kick out of the fact that my 3 year old, bilingual self insisted on referring to the pink, long-legged birds kept at the zoo as filimangos instead of flamingos.

I love these dishes! If I'm ever lucky enough to own an apartment on the beach, I'd totally deck out my china cabinet with these...

Found through Thoughtful Day, available at Bailey Doesn't Bark

Nap time?

I'd like to dive head-first into this comfy-looking bed in this soothing white room...

Guestroom at a gorgeous French Bed & Breakfast...From Alkemie

From the Archives

My "archives" are the several months' worth of fun blog posts that I have been sharing with my dear friends and fellow Google Reader addicts, Steph and Monica (be sure to check out Steph's blog...you're in for a treat). Part of my inspiration for starting this blog was how much I enjoyed sharing all these fun links with these girls. Whether they were inspiring, practical, or just plain cute, I wanted Stephanie and Monica to get something out of these blog posts the same way I had. The idea of this blog is just that, but on a more widespread level.

Check this one out, from December 4, 2008:

from Cute Overload

This little guy knows exactly how I feel today, battling my cold and sore throat. Don't you just want to scoop him up and cuddle with him?!

My current computer desktop background:

Found courtesy of the wonderful Mangonett
Originally from Blah, Blah, Blahg

Not just a bad Sex & The City episode...

Last Thursday, one of my worst nightmares came true...my trusty, year and a half old MacBook completely crashed. No one was able to give me a good reason of why it happened. I really thought Macs were not supposed to crash. Apparently my hard drive got fried somehow...according to the tech at the place I took it to, my hard drive was almost full (which completely boggled my mind).

Anyway, I was given a 50% chance of losing all my data...close to 2 years worth of pictures, video clips, music, and Word documents (school and work related). NONE OF IT was backed up. Needless to say, I was an emotional wreck and was barely able to function until I knew what was going to happen. I dropped it off on Thursday afternoon. Like Carrie in that "My Motherboard, My Self" episode, I was a nervous wreck. But I gotta give her props for remaining semi-composed. I was a MESS by the time I reached the repair store. I had called my husband from the car on my way over, and when I started to tell him everything I stood to lose if the data could not be recovered, I burst into full-out sobs. The front desk guy at Computer Village got to see my splotchy face, Rudolph-red nose, and swollen eyes while I pleaded with him to PLEASE SAVE MY DATA, as if any form of begging would make a difference. On Saturday morning, I got the phone call saying that - THANK GOD - they were able to recover everything.

I feel like a huge moron for not having backed up any of that stuff and I can't believe I came so close to losing it. There was really no reason for me not to back up. It was just out of laziness and ignorance (I really thought Macs were immune to crashing). I think it's just one of those things that you know you "should" do, but you just never get around to it until you or someone close to you gets burned.

So now I am in the process of saving EVERYTHING. I ordered a 500 GB external hard drive from Amazon, and everything will go there. On top of that, I've uploaded ALL my photos onto Flikr - I paid the $24 yearly fee for pro membership, which is great. You get to load unlimited photos in their original size. Video clips are going to Flikr as well (the smaller ones) or to YouTube. All my documents are going on Google Documents. MP3s will be burned on CDs. I don't want to risk ever being in the position to lose my data again...consider me the BackUp Queen from here on out.

I just keep thinking about what would have happened if I had lost all this stuff...pretty much every recorded memory of my first year and a half of marriage. Most of my dogs' "baby pictures" and priceless videos of them playing for the first time together. The sad part is, if this hadn't happened now, I probably would have gone along my merry, un-backed-up way for years. Imagine if this would have happened to me several years down the line, with a few years worth of my future child's baby pictures on my hard drive! Horrible.

So yeah...the moral of the story is: don't be a moron like me. Back up your work!

Sick.

I woke up this morning with my throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper, runny eyes, and a runny nose. Ugh. I was just sick in January! I though I'd paid my dues for at least several more months.

Nice dog!

From this Apartment Therapy post

Love the couch, love the dog! Gaby has always wanted a bulldog. Since I met him, whenever the topic of dogs came up, he'd reference his future bully, Rocco. Well we are maxed out right now in our condo with two dogs, and they are most definitely not bulldogs. I think bulldogs are cute (especially the puppies!), but the thought of owning one scares me. #1, that slobber...ick. And #2, they are infamous for suffering from a lot of different health problems. I know how emotionally and financially taxing that can be, and it's a big detractor. Still, it's always been Gaby's dream, so who knows. Maybe once we have a house with a yard we can look into a little boy bully rescue to join our girls.

The picture was prompted by a question sent into Apartment Therapy about where to find a "modern, but not too modern, leather couch." This describes my aesthetic perfectly..."modern, but not too modern." Our dark brown leather couch is the centerpiece of our living room (with its wear and tear of doggie destruction and all), and G loves it. As much as I love the look of elegant, cream-colored, slip-covered sofas, I think we'll always be "modern, but not too modern" brown leather couch people.

Obsession of the Week

O...M...G. Best ice cream EVER!

Blue Bell is new to South Florida. For several weeks now, I've been hearing them run a ton of ads on local radio advertising it as available in Miami supermarkets for the first time ever. Just from listening to the commercials, I figured it would be good. Their ads conjure up images of a lazy summer afternoon in the countryside, with a big family gathered around a picnic table or on one of those huge, plantation-style wrap around porches, enjoying bowls of thick, creamy home-churned ice cream. When I had the opportunity to try the product, it did NOT disappoint.

At last Sunday's Family Dinner (more on those later), my uncle, who knows what a strawberry fan I am, insisted on walking to his house and coming back with a half-empty bucket of their Strawberries and Cream flavor. It was to die for. Then last Thursday, my good friend Lauren offered to bring dessert for a girl's night dinner. So glad she did, because she brought the yummiest brownies I've ever had, along with a delicious pint of Blue Bell's Homemade Vanilla. The combination of the warm, gooey, dark chocolate brownies, with the cool, pure flavor of the vanilla was orgasmic, to say the least. My husband Gaby had been away on business on the night of the girl's dinner. When he arrived on Saturday, I told him about the leftover brownies and the vanilla ice cream in the fridge. He took one spoonful of the ice cream and quickly declared it the BEST vanilla ice cream he had ever had in his life. It was so good, in fact, that he was hesitant to mix it in with the brownies and continued to eat the ice cream by itself...and this is a man who LOVES brownies. Ever since he tried the ice cream, he's been obsessed with it, repeating over and over again how he never thought plain vanilla ice cream could taste so good.

I made a quick run to the supermarket this afternoon and called G to see if there was anything he needed that I might forget. He begged me to bring home a small container of Blue Bell chocolate, "just to see if it's as good as the vanilla." Mind you, we're both supposed to be watching what we eat, especially on weekdays. But believe me, he didn't have to twist my arm very hard for me to give in. I went practically straight to the freezer aisle and was so disappointed when I saw that they didn't have any smaller pints of Blue Bell, nor any chocolate. Not so disappointed, though, that I didn't go with plan B - buying the big half gallon tub of a different flavor. I opted for Candy Jar...reminiscent of a Cold Stone concoction, this baby features their signature vanilla ice cream (cannot stress how delicious this is) chock full of mini peanut butter cups, chocolate chunks, peanut brittle, chocolate crisp pieces, and swirled all around with ribbons of caramel. To die for, I tell you!

The irony in this post is that later this week, I plan to blog about my favorite weight loss tool, "Lose It!". HA! A post about ice cream and weight loss in the same blog, much less in the same week. I'm a walking contradiction.

Testing the waters...

I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while now, and over a year ago, I did. After one post, I realized that no one wanted to read about my boring life and I quit. However, since that time, I have become much more "active" in the blogosphere - and by "active," I mean an actively passive reader. I am not one to comment a lot on blogs, but I savor them, reading every word and enjoying every picture. I'm a diehard Google Reader addict, and I currently subscribe to 146 blogs.

One of my biggest qualms about starting a blog was my worry that I wouldn't have enough original content. I'm not a talented photographer (though I'd love to learn), I love to cook and bake, but not enough to do anything fancy or blog-worthy on a regular basis (we keep things simple around here), and although I'd like to think I'm a pretty funny person, I don't know how well that would translate in this format. My life is beautiful and blessed, but fairly ordinary and unexciting. However, from time to time, things will happen to me and I think to myself, "This would make a good blog post."

The more I've gotten into reading and appreciating blogs, the more I've realized that original content doesn't really make or break it. Some of my favorite blogs are all about inspiration. It's about sharing great ideas or beautiful images. And if I'm anything, I'm a person who is very easily inspired. It's amazing how a simple but gorgeous image can make my mind race and inspire a million and one new ideas that I can find a way to apply to my everyday life. So that's what this blog will be about: INSPIRATION. I can't promise that it will always be funny, I can't promise that the material will always be original or exciting, but I promise that I will do my best to share with you some of the hundreds of inspirational ideas, links, articles, pictures, etc., that I come across weekly on the Internet. Whether it's decor, fashion, pop culture (movies, TV, music), food, or something more nerdy and boring, I'll share what inspires me in hopes that it might inspire you too.

Welcome!