Here We Go!!!

Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for! Shane and I leave for Miami. We are really excited to see our long lost friend, the sun! We are heading to Miami and spending Sunday and Monday with family. Monday afternoon we leave on Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas for a five day cruise! Saturday we attend cousin Katie's wedding, and Sunday we head home just in time for the Super Bowl.

Please excuse my absense next week while I am basking in the sun!

Love Story in a Photo

You can practically see the love in this photo. Isn't it adorable? Her style is so put together, and he is obviously head over heals for her.

(via Sally Michelle Colton)

Claude Monet has made an appearance in my apartment...

Ok Ok, just his paintings! I am a huge fan of Monet. He has painted some exceptional pieces of art. As I'm sure you're fully aware, his water lilly painting are world famous and are his masterpiece. On my recent trip to Paris, I was able to not only visit the sancuary where his water lily murals live (The Orangerie) I was also lucky enough to visit a Monet exhibit at The Grand Palace. It was the biggest exhibition in France of Claude Monet’s work in over 30 years and contained more than 200 paintings on display from French as well as foreign museums. The exhibit would only be there for a few short months, and it sold out in minutes. Luckily, I was able to wait to see it behind all those that had pre-purchased tickets. While waiting in a (very long) line to get in, I met and talked with many Europeans who had flown to France for the sole reason of viewing this exhibit!  It was truely breathtaking to walk through this huge collection and I felt lucky to be in Paris during the exhibit. I bought several replicas in the gift shop and have finally gotten them up in my apartment. What do you think? I'm proud to say I did it (almost) all by myself, with a little help from Portland Art Media on the custom matting. I apologize for the poor photo quality...I am not a photographer!

The Woman with a Parsol in the garden and Monet's Poppies, near Argenteuil where he lived for a portion of his life. The Poppies are his Impressionist style, not a landscape but the impression of one. I love these.

 

My favorite...this is in the water garden, the Japanese foot bridge

This is how it looks hung over my closet. I love the white on white.

Thank you for looking! I have a couple of other pieces of art I brought back from Paris that I hope to share with you soon.

Portland Chocolate Festival

I never thought I'd say this but.....I may not eat chocolate for a very long time! The Chocolate Festival this weekend exceeded my expectations and probably expanded my waistline. We walked into a room full of chocolate vendors and sampled from pretty much every single booth! There were all kinds of chocolate: from chocolate bars to brownies, cookies and marshmallows...even chocolate kettle corn! My favorite was the heavenly brownies, pictured below with lots of chunks of chocolate.

They even had chocolate Martini's

And fabulous chocolate sculptures!

We've pretty much made it a tradition to attend the Chocolate Festival every year with our good friend's Sulton & Maya. This year we had an addition to the group: Their adorable son Zach! He tasted more chocolate last year than this year, as he was just a little bun in the oven last year.

Note how Shane towers over me....he's 6'7! I think this is the first time you've seen my love on my blog! I'm glad I finally introduced you to him:)

On another note, countdown to our winter vacation in Florida and The Bahamas....5 days!

Chocolate Fest Weekend!

TGIF! It's Friday and I am excited to start off my low-key weekend. First up I'll be making dinner since my lovely boyfriend has been on the road for work all week and eating in restaurants. Even though I'm itching to eat at a cute cafe, I'm going to homecook something super healthy and yummy for us.

On Saturday, we'll hit the gym for a little spin class we enjoy going to and then probably try a cafe for brunch. Also, I'm so excited to attend Portland's Chocolate Festival! Shane and I attended last year with some friend's and we plan on going again. It will be a yummy time, since they sample almost everything! It will also be a great time to purchase some Valentine's Day gifts.

On Sunday I will probably run some errands, like heading back to Ikea to exchange a frame I purchased last weekend. I finally got most of my portraits from France custom framed and they look fabulous! I have several Monet's and a couple of the Eifle tower and Notre Dame. Just one more to go and I will be feeling great in my apartment with my new, classy art. Pictures to come.

Lastly, just one week until we leave for our tropical winter vacation! We will be going on this cruise and I just can't wait for some sunshine!

Portland Food Carts

Here in Portland, we are super lucky to be part of a food phenomenon known as food carts. There are hundreds of these restaurant on wheels type businesses and they have been known to be exceptionally delicious. Sometimes I wish I worked downtown so I could enjoy these hot spots more often for lunch, but then again I can't complain about my awesome job, even if it is in Beaverton. I had the day off today in honor of Martin Luther King so I called up some old friends and we headed out. We decided to try Big Ass Sandwiches because we heard they were voted number one by Portland's Willamette Week. The Big Ass Sandwich comes with your choice of turkey, roast beef or ham, french fries (IN the sandwich, not on the side!) and cheesy spicy sauce on a ciabatta roll. We all opted for roast beef and man...these really were some big ass sandwiches!! It was comparable in size to a Chipotle Burrito, equally as filling and probably just as unhealthy. The verdict? De-lic-ious-ness. We loved it. A+ to this food cart!



Lucky Me!

My sweet readers, I am so excited to tell you that I have won my first giveaway! I follow several blogs that do amazing giveaways and have not been lucky until now! Let me share with you my prize, from a company that I think is SO COOL!

Sea Lillie is a sister-in-law team that creates beautiful jewelry with lots of dainty detail. They created Sea Lillie as a means of expressing their passion for God's creation. They also selflessly donate to the Give Life Project. Visit their Etsy store here and see the necklace I won here! Or check out this picture below. The detail is amazing....I especially love the pearls on the clasp.

Woo-hoo! What a great way to start my lazy, me-time Sunday!

Turquoise Earrings

Aren't these turquoise earring to die for? I just purchased them from Brideblu over on Etsy! I saw them on Joanna Goddard's blog, A Cup of Joe. She is doing a giveaway to Brideblu jewelry, but I couldn't wait!! I am so excited to wear them:) Do you shop on Etsy? What kind of goodies have you found?

Wish I was Here Wednesday

I'm playing along with Olivia over at For Me today! I wish I was in the Bahamas soaking up the sun. The good news is that I will be there in about 3 weeks for a winter getaway with my boyfriend!

Where do you wish you were today? Play along with Olivia by grabbing this button below.

lazy recipe hunting

I love cooking and baking. The part I hate is shopping for the ingredients. I usually find myself spending more time trying to locate a yummy recipe online that I already have all the ingredients for than it would take me to run to the store to pick up a couple of items. I keep a pretty well stocked pantry, but they are usually 1-2 items I need for a Rachel Ray or Food Network recipe that I am just too lazy to go and get. So I find myself substituting or leaving things out. Sometimes I call my boyfriend when he's on his way over and ask him to stop and pick-up something, which he always does because he is the world's greatest boyfriend:) I think my solution needs to be meal planning. I should pick out several recipes that I'm going to make in the near future and do one shopping trip to get everything I need. That way, I'd be set! How about you? Do you meal plan? Do you eat out more often than cooking?

I LOVE MY DUCKS!

A duck, born and raised, lived in duck country (Eugene) for four years, lived through the most amazing basketball years at Oregon (2004-2008, the era of Ernie Kent with Aaron Brooks, Tajuan Porter & Ray Shafer). I never missed a home football game and personally know that it never rains at Autzen Stadium. Today is quite possibly the most exciting day in Oregon football for me: The ducks are in the National Championship! I am counting down the hours at work so I can get over to my fellow former Oregon classmates house for a huge Natty party! Go Ducks!!!

Autzen Stadium

A few of the ladies I will be watching the game with....we go way back!

Snapshots from Paris!

Happy Monday! I am posting just a few of my favorite photos from my recent trip to France. My BFF Caitlin and I spent a winter week over Christmas & New Year's in Paris and we had an AMAZING time!

We took this one from the top of the ferris wheel!

An espresso a day (or two)

Waiting outside the Catacombs

Our afternoon snack. Bagette, cheese & wine!

Crepes!

At the Louve. We saw so much great art!

Ice Skating on the Eiffle Tower!

Monet's Waterlillies at the Orangerie Museum. AMAZING! You literally feel like you are "in" the garden when you sit in the middle of this room.

Eiffle tower during the day

We had such a great trip and are looking forward to many more travels together in the future. I have some videos that I'd like to post soon as well, so stay tuned for that!

TGIF!

Hello sweet readers! I must say my first thought waking up this morning was "It's Friday!" Although the week has flown by, I am excited for this weekend. I am ready for some time with my boyfriend, time with my girlfriends and some "me" time. First up on the agenda is dinner tonight with Shane at Isabel Pearl, a fantastic and adorable restaurant in the Pearl district that offers Latin flavor and Asian accents.

We are going to bring along a bottle of Pinot Noir from Lemelson Vineyards in Carlton Oregon, that we picked up on one of our last visits there. It is one of our favorite vineyards.

Tomorrow morning I am trying a Airobics class with some of my best girlfriends at Sky High Sports in Tigard.
I have never heard of this before, but apparently cardio on a trampoline is all the rage these days!

Sunday I will have some "me time" (making good on my New Year's resolution) and maybe run some errands, like getting some frames for the artwork that I brought back from Paris.

What do you have planned?

Perfect New Year's Dress.....a week too late!!

I'm OBSESSED with these little numbers I found over on Bun & Borough.

I'll just have to keep them in mind for next year's New Year's Festivities!

Recently Read

I've just finished the longest book I've ever read! It has been on my "to-read" list for ages and I finally decided it was time. Pillars of the Earth is a wonderful historical tale about building a cathedral. It is rich with architecture and actual historical events woven into fiction and complimented by a love story. This book is wildly popular and sells about 100,000 copies a year. So I had to see what all the fuss was about!




At just under a thousand pages, I was worried I may not be able to get into the book and take an excessively long time to finish it. But I was wrong. I read the book in less than a month and usually found myself thinking about the next time I could sit down and read it. It was compelling and rich with eye opening experiences about the past. I'm glad I read it and will now move on to one of the next books on my "to-read" list, which is far too long for me to imagine finishing in 2011!

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! I am back from Paris---pics to come soon, I promise! For now, I wanted to share my New Year's resolutions with you. Actually writing them down and sharing them with you will help me to keep them.

1.) Be more positive. I will see the good in every situation. It's easy to complain or make a sarcastic comment, but it's much more rewarding to be cheerful.

2.) Me time. I will put more downtime aside for myself. Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing! I absolutly love sitting down to a book and hot coffee. I have been known to stretch myself very thin among my different groups of friends. Having something scheduled every day of the week can be exhausting, so I vow to make myself less scheduled this year!



What are your resolutions?