A "Freeze" In!

It's FREEEEEEEEZING out!!!! I have such a long list of Monday To-Do's, but I am going to focus mainly on the things I need to get done "inside" since its so darn cold out today. Blogging is one of those things, he he.

We had a pretty low key weekend, but we did get to go see our house!

I can't believe how FAST the contractors are moving!

They've come so far since we signed our contract less than 2 months ago.Its crazy that we saw our lot when it was just a big hole in the ground, then we saw the framing go up, then some exterior walls, and now its all sided! SO EXCITED!

I absolutely love how the house is looking right now. Originally the little wooden scallops on the peaks were going to be painted white, but since we are using a darker stain for the garage and front doors, I decided the peaks would look so great stained to match. (They are not stained yet in these pics, but soon!). I can't believe this is OUR HOUSE!

Even though we are picking out most of the finishes and details of our house, it's still a little nerve racking and very exciting to see things as they are being completed. I am probably most excited about seeing the how the kitchen turns out. It was definitely the room that gave me the most agita LOL.

Along the way, I've found so many great pictures for interior inspiration. I think my favorite of the kitchen is this one. This is pretty much our color scheme and fairly close to our cabinetry. We will have a dark espresso island, however. I also asked our kitchen designer to see if he could configure a built in window bench, and he is making it work for our space. I really really really can't wait to see how it all comes together! AHH!

Keep ya posted! STAY WARM!

Dawg Days of Winta!

Today is the perfect example of why I created this blog. To give me something to do when there is nothing to do. No customers to be helped. No clothes to be hung. No facebook updates to be made. It's bloggin time! I had a blast this morning trying on some of Bella Ro's amazing new Spring arrivals. Got a great start on my Spring wardrobe! Wahooooo! Heres a couple of my favorite items that scream "Vanessa" :) Didn't have my camera today, so these are not so great cell phone shots!
These are so cute! I love romantic styles with rosettes, especially in creams and pale pinks, my fave! This skirt is TO DIE! I plan to wear this for my sister birthday celebration next month... perfect for a night out!

Amazing. All the things I love in a top. Light, airy, pretty, fits great. It's a keeper!


Although these rainy, slushy days stink, all these beautiful clothes keep my spirits up!















On another note...A very sad thing happened during or New Orleans trip, I ruined my most favorite shoes ever.

If you know me, you know I have an obsession with nude and camel colored shoes/boots. These BCBG nude suede shoes were my lifeline, ha! They were with me through thick and thin. Unfortunately, they met their doom in the streets of the French Quarter. They were literally peeling apart, unfixable. So, with much despair, I tossed them.

Queue "New Nude Suede Shoes" mission :) Well, didn't take long. I was flipping through People Style Watch and saw a covetable pair of Nude Suede Sandals by Charles David... LOVED! Took a quick trip to the store to try em out, but they weren't in stock yet. However, they had a very similar pair to the ones in the article, and they were 25% off. Turns out, I actually liked them better and they were so comfy! Yay! New Nude Suede Shoes! Can't wait to debut them! What do you think? YUM!

Jambalaya, Hurricanes, Biegnets...OH MY!

I go to sleep every night thinking, gotta add a new post! Time flies, doesn't it? Well here it is :) New Orleans was a BLAST. What a great group of people we had on this trip. It was short and sweet, and tons of fun! One of my favorite cocktails in the world is a frozen margarita from the bar Fat Tuesdays. Anywhere I go, if they have a Fat Tuesdays, I HAVE to get at least one frozen margarita. It's literally the perfect margarita for me. Not too sweet and so refreshing. So needless to say, I was super happy when I saw a Fat Tuesdays on Bourbon St. Had to get my marg on! Wahoo!




Our 1st day in NOLA was awesome. We meet up with our friends Noah and Marcie after checking into our hotel. We met at a place called Tropical Paradise, which is known for the infamous "Hand Grenade" drink. Its like a Gatorade on alcoholic steroids. Not a drink for me, but I was happy when we took a stroll to Pat O'Briens for a N'Awlins fave, the Hurricane. Loved it! We walked Bourbon St. and then met up later in the night again to do some bar-hopping... lots of fun that night! I loved seeing Bourbon St all lit up at night. So pretty. It's amazing to think of what this city went through with Hurricane Katrina, and see how its come to be a thriving and exciting city once again. Amazing, actually.





On our second day, we decided to hit up some of the main culinary attractions of New Orleans. We had breakfast at Cafe Du Monde... DELOOOOOSH! Biegnets were amazing and I love the iced Cafe Au Lait... I drank that in about a minute and a half... yum. Then we met up with the crowd and toured Decatur St, making our way to The Central Grocery to order some Mulfulettas. On our way, Chris and Frank were brave souls and decided to try Alligator on a Stick. Go them. They said it tasted like chicken. HA.


The Mulfuletta were so good. I love olives, so it was definitely a treat for me.

After a full day of touring the city, we all went back to our rooms and relaxed a little before getting ready for our New Years Eve dinner. We ate at an authentic NO place called Pierre Maspero's. I tried chicken Jambalaya and Gumbo, LOVED the Jambalaya. Yum. Hope to try and replicate it at home soon!
After dinner, we strolled Bourbon St, taking in the craziness and bead throwing :) All the ladies picked up beautiful carnivale masks, which we donned after dinner. It was so festive! I think the masks made the outfits, right?! We stopped in a few places, danced a little and then headed over to Jackson Square for the big countdown to 2011. However, we never actually heard the countdown.
There were sooooooooooo many people in the square that we really couldn't hear much of anything. The explosive firework display (LOVED!) gave it away that it was time to toast to a Happy New Year. It was really cool to see the city all lit up and so many people having such a great time. I would say this was definitely one of my favorite New Years celebrations ever.


How cute are these two little girls with their beads?! They were such fashionistas in training, AND they gave me my 1st set of beads! SO. DARN. CUTE!
We only had a few hours on New Years day to grab a quick brunch and bid adieu to the lovely city of New Orleans. We had a nice brunch at Cafe Pontabla, complete with Mimosas and Bloody Mary's, of course.





Hope all of you had a great celebration and wishing you all the best in 2011!

XOXO ,Vanessa

A Very Merry Christmas... and SNOW!!!

It's been such a GREAT Christmassy LONG weekend! We kicked it off with a very awesome Christmas Eve at our place. We had such a nice night filled with lots of food, love, and gifts! And of course, lots of laughs as well!

Jeff and I had a nice, quiet, Christmas morning. We had the breakfast of champions, leftover cookies and peppermint mocha coffee :) We exchanged gifts and lounged around. Love Christmas morning with my love!

Jeff was ecstatic about his infused tequilas. He threw his new robe right on! I was shocked to see that he actually remembered stocking stuffers for me for the 1st time in 11 years!!!! I got some great gifts, but my two favorite were an awesome wine glass from pottery barn and a body pillow (always wanted one of those).

We Spent Christmas Day at Jeff's parents house. Another really awesome day. I ate WAYYYYYYYYYy too much. My stomach was killing me all day and night. But it was worth it, the food was DELISH! We hung out and open gifts by the fire... it was so nice! My mother and father in law gave us the "Emma" collection of dinnerware from Pottery Barn... soooo pretty! Can't wait to use them in our new house. We got lots of great stuff for our move. It was definitely one of the best Christmases yet!

Now, we are SNOWED IN! We got over 2 feet of snow and I decided to close both stores today. I love the snow. Sad we will miss a day of pre-NYE business, but I don't think anyone is going out in this weather! Enjoy, stay warm, and go make some hot cocoa! I think I am gonna whip up some "Loco Hot Cocoa" for Jeff and I!

Last Minute Lucy

What a crazy day. I always seem to save SO MUCH for last minute each holiday season. I spent all day finishing up my Christmas shopping and then did some food shopping and then baked and wrapped presents and AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I need sleep, lol.

Last night, I whipped up some more of Grandma's Cookies and took a stab at "Dough Balls", which I read about on the blog Carrots 'N Cake (so awesome, check it out!). DELISH. But it doesn't take much to make me happy when it comes to sweets :)

I learned two things about myself tonight... I am starting to love taking pictures to document my little projects and baking etc... and I LOVE shrink wrap bags. So cool. They always make gifts look so good. I worked on a gift for

Jeff tonight... homemade infused tequilas. I did this for him last year with vodka, what a hit! I thought I'd change it up and try with tequila this year. They look so pretty! I wrapped them all up and then put the package in a Trader Joe's bag and hid it with some other stuff for tomorrow so he doesn't sneak a peek!

Tomorrow is going to be so much fun!

I am falling asleep as I type, so that's all for now! Night!

Moment on the Lips, Forever on the Hips

Well, lemme tell ya... all those darn delicious treats made me feel like a beached whale today. It's funny how a weekend of "bad" eating always creeps up on the following Tuesday. Blahhhhhhh, feel like crapola. Even worse off, I received an order I placed with one of my fave online sites http://www.asos.com/. I was so psyched to get it, in hopes I would have some new holiday outfit options. It's sometimes a little difficult to order the right size because it's a British company with UK sizing... yes, they have the US conversions, but I still don't think its exactly right. Needless to say, the one dress I was planning to wear for NYE was a tad too tight. Trying it on today, after continuing to snack on brownies and cookies all day, was not a fun experience. I shimmied my butt into it, but still felt like it was a little snug. I am gonna try it again on Thursday and hope I deflate a little... he he. This is another dress that I ordered that I really love. Fits pretty good and I love the one shoulder. I think it's a keeper!

We are going to be spending NYE in New Orleans with some of our closest friends and family. I am thinking maybe this navy scalloped dress has a little more "N'Awlins" flair, but we shall see!

I also got this really cute chiffon swing top for Spring... I can't believe I bought a Spring style, but I couldn't resist... it's So Me. I LOVE girly, ruffly, chiffon and florals ;-)Going to tackle a little gift wrapping... long work day tomorrow then finishing up my holiday shopping and prepping for Chrismtas Eve. Can't wait till Christmas! XO

Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve

This weekend we held our annual "Christmas Eve Eve Eve". Its a fun night with my family where we get together, eat, hang out, and sing Christmas carols. It's SO FUN! I spent most of the week preparing lots of yummy treats. On the list of things I made were Mini Peanut Butter Pies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Peppermint Cheesecake Brownie Bars, Tomato Basil Garlic Quiche, Mini Mac n Cheese Bites, Mozzarella & Raspberry Jam Paninis... along with a ton of yummy apps from Trader Joe's. Notice how I started with the desserts... ha ha. The Feta and Caramelized Onion Tarts were a crowd favorite. Along with my sisters Pepperoni Bread. MMMM, I'm getting hungry thinking about it all! My sis also made mini Eggplant Parms and cookies. Deloosh. Our tree looked so pretty with some presents finally underneath it!

One of the best gifts I got was a T-shirt my sister made for us and our cousin. It is so cool. It's our favorite verse from our favorite Christmas song from when we were all growing up together. Loved it... *~*~sniffle, sniffle~*~* Good job Snick.

What a GREAT night filled with fun and family. I always feel so blessed this time of year. We had a blast singing the same songs we've been singing our whole lives. Everyone loved the cookies and hot cocoa too! I even kept on my little apron for most of the night, it just felt so festive ;) Which, by the way, is the best apron everrrr. Its from Pier 1! I was searching for a cute one but couldn't find anything under $40, which I thought was a lot. I got this one for $24! Woo!



Can't believe Christmas is 4 days away! I still have lots of gifts to get. Ughh, the STRESS! We are having our families over for Christmas Eve. It's another amazing night with loved ones. Christmas day will be so relaxing, I am dreaming about doing nothing at all for a whole 24 hours. :)

Hope everyones holiday season is off to a great start! Back to my weekly chores... see ya soon!