California Dreaming

I've been seeing a lot of state-specific things recently, and am loving it!

I bought a shrinky-dink necklace many years ago at a little boutique in San Francisco - it is California in pink with a little heart over the bay area.  I love it.

And, am loving the other state things I'm seeing:

Minted has some amazing foil-stamped art.  The Husband and I recently got this print:

Dogeared makes some dainty, adorable little necklaces.  I'm digging the state ones (in gold and silver tones):

BaubleBar has a similar state necklaces with little crystals in them:

This little California Bear necklace in rose-gold by Poshmark is adorable:

In the DIY arena, I've been wanting to try something like this string art - nails and string - presto - a super cute piece of art.

For the baby in your life - what could be cuter than a wood engraved state-shaped rattle?  Etsy, of course.

All kinds of cute stuff out there to show your love for your state.

Ahhhh, another set of Dapper Animal plates!

Be still my heart - there is a new set of Dapper Animal plates at West Elm!!!

And, to my surprise, when showing them on-line to the Husband, he said, "Let's go to West Elm this week and pick up a set."  And he was serious!  I think he's getting into these plates and loving them too!

Can't wait!!!!

Nail fun

So, I've been having a ton of fun with my mani pedis lately - why pick one color when you can have multiple?

My favorite nail technician always gives me a little bit of a hard time when I hand her multiple colors, but so far she hasn't fired me!  I think she was tempted to when I gave her 10 different glitter colors for my Christmas pedi - a different glitter on each toe.

My most recent mani:  Manicurist of Seville (OPI) and a nice gray from Essie (I can't remember the name of the color though)

And, my most recent Pedi:  My Pal Joey (OPI Hello Kitty collection) and a multi-colored glitter from OPI (I can't remember the name of the color though)

Metallic gold - Essie

Turquoise and Gold Glitter - opposite order on each foot

Pink Ombre

Red/Burgundy ombre - opposite order on each foot

Gray and fuchsia

Hot-pink to blush ombre

Green Ombre

Have fun with color!  It's the best!

Ahhhh, more animal plates!

So, I think it is clear that I am gaga for adorable animal things.

West Elm is at it again with these cute little animal plates - not the Dapper Animal plates that I love - but something equally as adorable.

Meet the Painted Animal Plates - how cute are these?

Some other adorable animal stuff of late:

Sir/Madam Fauna Grand 2-sided mugs (West Elm) - they are on-sale right now and all are not currently available, much to my chagrin.

Wild Wanderer Planter (Anthropologie) - I got the Giraffe one - it is ADORABLE!

Narwhals (CB2) - I got the small and large - LOVE LOVE LOVE them!  And, can't beat the price.

Wheee! Animals!

Be still my heart... More Dapper Animal Plates!!!

Hello sparkles!  It's been a while.  But I still love sparkles.

At work today, I was talking with a coworker about animals and other cute things - it was a slow Friday afternoon.  I remarked that I saw a little tan fox scurry across the road on my way home from work earlier in the week.  Then we talked about a chipmunk (or squirrel) I saw last week on the side of the road near the golf course either eating a rat (are chipmunks/squirrels carnivorous?) or holding a baby in its mouth.  Then she shared with me a link to a super cute fuzzy Shar Pei dog named Tonkey - so cute.  Then I shared with her Theo & Beau.  The somehow I mentioned my first round of dapper animal plates, and how the Husband chuckles each time I pull a plate for breakfast not knowing which I will pull.  I love them all, but definitely have my favorites.  Then a second round came out, and of course we got them.  Then a third round came out around the holidays, and sadly, we didn't get them.

So, the Husband and I spent the late afternoon together sipping some iced tea from Philz and walking around University Avenue in Palo Alto.  One of my favorite spots is our local West Elm store.  We sauntered in to take a little look.  As we were making our way through the store, the Husband points out a new dapper animal plate!  And, lo and behold, there are 6 new plates.  SIX!!!!!  And, of course we got them: Moose, Bear, Puffin, Wood Pecker, Lynx, and Llama.

Was my chat with my co-worker foreshadowing our dapper animal encounter later in the day?  I don't know.  I don't care.  I love our newest Dapper Animal additions!  YEAY!

Not generally a fan of Fine China...

Hello there fellow sparkle lovers...  A quick little post for this evening since I haven't posted in a while.

I got married a year ago last weekend, and when the husband and I did our registries, we knew instantly that we weren't "Fine China" people - I mean, we live in a small apartment, have very little storage, and don't have a place in our lives for plates that we would use at most once per year, and have to store the other 364 days.  So, we opted instead to register for nice every-day plates - a huge upgrade from the old plates my family used when I was a kid that I inherited, and the Corelle plates the husband had in his bachelor pad (unbreakable). 

We really like the plates (dinner plates, salad plates, and bowls) that we got - Noritake Colorwave collection.  So far they seem sturdy, they look nice, and we've mixed in some other dishes that go with these but aren't too matchy-matchy.

We picked up some little bowls "Potter's Workshop Bowls" from
West Elm that are super cute (and were super on sale) that are similar to these but more turquoise in color.

We also added in the "Dapper Animal Plates" from West Elm and as much as the husband doesn't want to admit it, he loves them.  I've written about them and other adorable animal tableware here.

Begrudgingly, the husband told me about the new matching mugs that go with the plates.  I LOVE them, but after seeing them in person, they aren't quite big enough, and I also already have mugs that I love (from Anthropologie - Monogram Mugs).  However, if we had a bigger kitchen, I'd surely get these adorable mugs.  I'm certain of that.

This past weekend, we had a leisurely Saturday afternoon bike ride to a local Farmers' Market, a nice lunch, and a stroll through our local West Elm.  I always like looking at things in that store - the furniture is so lovely, their lighting is so pretty, love their tableware, and I just really like looking around at the pretty stuff I would love to own.

And, on this stroll I became a fan of Fine China.  I am seriously salivating over this China.  Had these been on the market when we made our wedding registry, they most definitely would have been on it.  I covet these.  I want these.  I love these!!!  The Guilded Dapper Animal collection (plates and mugs and gold-rimmed plain plates) is everything I love - animal stuff, gold, cuteness.  I don't do "tablescapes" but I would tablescape the shit out of these!  If I see these on sale, I'm sure I will find a place to store them until I get my dream kitchen with plenty of storage.

Talk about sparkle...

So, the husband and I got back a few days ago from a little jaunt to Paris, Florence, and Rome.  What an experience!  Friends of ours got married in Paris, thus the main reason for our trip.  Neither of us had ever been to France or Italy, and man, did every place blow our minds!

I thought I wouldn't really enjoy Paris, but I was completely wrong.  Completely.  I LOVED Paris!  What a city.  Completely magical - from the Eiffel Tower, to the amazing museums, to the food, or rather the pastries and crepes.  YUM!  There was a little street crepe vendor down the street from our hotel that we visited a few times for ham, egg, and cheese crepes, and banana and nutella crepes.  Heavenly.  We picked up some pain au chocolat at the Saturday flea market, and ate it on the rooftop terrace at the Musee d'Orsay.  It was so good!  The hot chocolate was pretty spectacular there too.

We went on an adventure to get macarons.  One of the husband's friends told us about his two favorite places in Paris for macarons.  One - Ladurée, created in 1862.  Unbeknownst to us, we actually ate dinner there (at the Champs Elysées) the night before we found one of their other outposts for macarons (at 21 Rue Bonaparte in the 7th).  Our dinner was pretty good.  Their macaroons were AMAZING!  We got chocolate, vanilla, lemon, strawberry mint, salted caramel, and pistachio.  

The other place that was recommended was Pierre Herme at 72 Rue Bonaparte in Paris.  Also in the 7th, this place definitely had a different vibe than Ladurée.

Where Ladurée seemed more "ladies who lunch" and antique, Pierre Herme was more modern and streamlined.  They had many other desserts and pastries in addition to their macarons.

We got chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio macarons, and we got one of their specialty desserts: Ispahan - a rose cookie with lychee filling.  It sounded slightly strange, but the person who helped us at Pierre Herme, said it was one of their most popular desserts.  He wasn't wrong.  It was delicious.  We ate it about 2 days after we bought it.  It was our last day in Paris, and we planned to visit the Louvre.  We toted the cookie, in its lovely square box, with us to the Louvre, and shoved it inside my purse while we walked around the museum.  It was with us when we saw the smirk of the Mona Lisa, and when we saw the lovely Venus de Milo.  Then when we were finished looking at amazingly beautiful art, we dug the cookie box out of my purse, and opened it to find a delightfully smooshed and sad looking cookie.  But it tasted amazing!

Aside from the spectacularly delicious pastries and desserts, one of my favorite things in Paris was the Eiffel Tower.  We have all seen pictures of the tower in movies, magazines, etc.  But nothing really prepares you for seeing it for the first time in person.  It is magnificent.  It is absolutely gigantic.  I loved it!  The top of the tower was one of the first things we saw after ascending from the Metro on our way to the hotel from the airport.  We turned around and saw the top peeking out from amongst other buildings.  Love at first sight!  We dumped our bags off at the hotel, got some food, and walked toward the tower.  When we turned the corner in the Champ de Mars park, and saw the Eiffel just standing there - I couldn't help but smile and stare in awe at the magnificence in front of me.  We stood there for a time just pondering the tower.

A few days later we took a guided tour of the Tower (with Viator tours).  Our guide, Victor, told us all sorts of interesting things about the Tower.  Apparently, it was constructed in such a way that it is extremely light for its size.  If you put a canister around the tower, and sealed it off, the air inside the canister would weigh more than the tower itself.  It was constructed for the World's Fair in 1889.  The French government held a contest for the building of a monument to anchor the World's Fair.  It was open to everyone, and the 2 caveats were that it had to be 320 meters high (double the size of the Washington Monument) and the winner of the contest had to pay 80% of the construction cost.  One of the entries that wasn't picked was a 320 meter guillotine.  Another was a 320 meter tall sprinkler.  Obviously they made the right choice when they picked Gustave Eiffel's design.  Gustave was smart enough to negotiate that his tower would need to stand for 20 years, and that he would get all of the profits from entrance fees for the tower for that time.  He paid himself back for his initial investment in only 6 months, the remaining 19 years and 6 months were pure profit.  Victor also told us that the tower sparkles every hour on the hour for 5 minutes starting at 10pm and ending at 1am.  He told us that the 1am sparkling is the best because they shut off all of the other tower lights and just let the sparkles sparkle.

So, a few days later, we found ourselves at 1am at the Eiffel Tower reveling in the sparkle.

Boy does it sparkle!

I now know why Paris is considered the City of Love!  I can't wait to go back!