December 2010

I truly love the way my in-laws celebrate the holidays!  My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and Husband are all from Reading, England (accents and all) and we celebrate the holidays with this insanely wonderful, British charm.   We slept in until 8 AM, and then I was greeted by strong, French press coffee and Cadbury covered-shortbread biscuits.  [...]

Home, sweet home! Funny how excited I get whenever I return to Florida.  I grew up in Miami, moved to Pittsburgh when I was 18, moved back to Orlando when I was 23, and left for Charlotte when I was 26.   Whenever I see the flat, swampy plains and tall, thin palm trees, I can’t [...]

We were suppose to leave for Florida two hours ago, but there’s no use in getting stressed out.  It’s Christmas Eve! We’ve had a hectic morning.  The reindeer Husband packed the car, and I prepped the house.  We had an early AM visitors, too! My college BFF Megan is in town and she’s house sitting [...]

We spent the evening dashing around like maniacs trying to get ready for Christmas.  I have this thing about cleaning the house prior to leaving so you return from a holiday feeling organized and relaxed.    All the presents are wrapped and ready to be packed in the car! In addition to finishing a chapter [...]

Get in my belly!  I think I am entering holiday treats overload.  Eating white chocolate chip pancakes at 1 AM put me over the edge.  I’m at the point where I don’t want any more Christmas cookies (ask me about this again tomorrow).  All I want to eat today is really simple, really wholesome food.  [...]

Last night was one of those nights.  Now I really feel in the holiday spirit!  I have to work today but it sure feels like vacation has begun.   Nicole, Isaac, the Husband, and I went to a bar bar called The Wine Loft.  We had a gift card! Before we left, I got a [...]

It seems like everyone is coveting the top knot, as illustrated by my favorite fashion blogger.  The problem with the top knot is it doesn’t look very good if you don’t have thick hair (which I don’t – it’s long but not thick).  However, I have a handy little trick that makes your buns look [...]

As you may know, I’m currently writing the second Operation Beautiful book, which will be geared towards tweens and teens.  As I did for the first book, I’m running a contest to encourage people to send in creative and fun notes within the tight deadline (plus, you get to be in the book!).    If [...]

It’s a joke among food bloggers that we’ll put our plates in some weird locations to get the best light.  Especially at night. (I need a new bulb!)   I put my dinners on the floor of the hallway in between our kitchen and living room.  Normally, I can just put my dinner down and [...]

I am pretty home-y.  I don’t mind domestic duties.  But I hate – HATE – unloading and loading the dishwasher.  It is the bane of my existence. I would rather walk the dogs, scoop poop, take out the trash, and scrub the toilets twenty times over than unload the dishwasher once.   My dishwasher hatred [...]

Clear my mind? Lately, I’ve been on an unsubscribe warpath, mercilessly removing myself from every mass mailing list my e-mails somehow got attached to.  I realized yesterday that I get upwards of 20 spam emails each morning, so I’m hoping that by clearing my inbox, I can eventually increase productivity a smidge.   Huge annoyance:  [...]

I went to hot yoga today looking like an octopus wrapped me up in a great, big hug.  :) My back was killing me – killing me – so the Husband did some acupuncture and cupping on my back.  It went from being a 7 to a 3, and then I went to hot yoga [...]

I received a truly awesome Christmas present in the mail today from Spa Bettie! She made customized Maggie and James Christmas tree ornaments.  Is that not the cutest thing EVER?   See the resemblance?  Wink, wink!   And: I think Kristina is going to do a step-by-step post tomorrow on how she made the doggie [...]