Gracie Update~ She's So Cute!!!

Gracie's nanny wrote this update.

Gracie is now ten months old. She came to our blue room on December 23rd. Gracie has a good appetite and sleeps well. She loves laughing and has been recovering well. She responds when you call her name. There are lots of things that she can do. She can hold things, pick things up, grab things, and hold her feeding bottle. Everybody loves her. She looks for things when she hears something. She will scream when she wants attention. She had several bites of rice when I fed her this afternoon. Gracie doesn't talk much, but you can always see her smiling face. She can crawl slowly and sit for a while without any help. She always lifts her head up, and looks around when she is lying on the floor. She will give you a big smile when she sees the other kids playing, and she tries her best to crawl up to them. She can use her hands to grasp toys. When she meets a stranger, she just stares at them. She likes people to talk to her, and she gives them a big smile. Her appetite has been very good. She falls asleep very quickly. She wakes up good-naturedly, and never makes any tearful scenes. She loves lying in her baby bed, and loves watching Peter in his bed, which is near to hers. She will give you a big smile when you hug her.

The Letter Game

I decided to play the letter game at Vineyard Vogue. If you want to play along, just leave a comment on this post letting me know. I'll leave you a comment and assign you a letter. Post ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on. My letter is “S.” Thanks Amy and Joe for brainstorming with me.

Sushi

Shoes

Scattergories~ Nobody can beat me :)

Seashells~ Yu Mei collecting seashells on Beach in South China. I love her black hair... so pretty!

Sunglasses~ my "Jill" glasses, my favorite!





Sun Dresses~ I found this image online and I really have this dress. Yay!

Sipping Margaritas~ The ultimate Texas cocktail

Sisters

Shabby Chic

Sunscreen~ Don't even get me started :)

Honorable Mention~ Saturdays, Storms, Sugar Cookies, Snap Shots, Sleeping, Sanrio, Snow cones. For the record, snow cones are the only good thing about Cancun. Jana G., you might be the only person who gets this.

P.S. I'm working in New Mexico this week and my hotel doesn't have Bravo. However, the hotel has FOUR sports channels. Ugh... why? Seriously, thank goodness I have a DVR at home and I won't miss The Real Housewives of O.C.!

I had a couple of questions on my last blog post.

The Cups are from Swoozies. LOVE.THAT.STORE. They’re called the "Stadium Cups." I’ve also seen napkins and koozies with the same saying, “If I keel over in Wal-Mart, drag my body to Neiman’s.” I shopped at Swoozies on Saturday with my sis and I didn’t see them but I wasn’t looking for them either.




Kolaches are a Czech pastry. I would describe them as a soft, warm, somewhat sweet bread roll filled with meats, cheeses, or fruit. A kolache is usually served as a breakfast food. I like the ham and cheese and sausage and cheese. One of my favorite places to order them is the Kolache Factory in Houston. You can order them online and have them shipped! The Kolache Factory also has a few lunch kolaches. I’ve never tried a lunch kolache but I’m sure it would be delightful.

The Weekend

My sister and I had a fun and busy weekend. Jenn arrived on Friday afternoon. We took an hour and a half power walk through the museum district. It was a great workout. My legs and feet were in pain. For dinner we had Greek, one of my favorites.

Saturday morning we picked up Kolaches for breakfast (not on weight watchers). Every time my sister comes to Houston, she wants Kolaches. Apparently, you can’t get Kolaches just anywhere. I never knew; they're really good! As we ate our breakfast, we drove around a historical district of Houston and looked at the homes. Here are some of our favorites. The pink house in the top left corner is my favorite.

After breakfast, we shopped (what we do best). After shopping, we came home for lunch and crafts. I made Panini’s. If you don't have a Panini maker, I highly recommend one; I use min all the time. I purchased it at B*d, B*th, and Bey*nd. I think it was $40-$50 and I used a 20% off coupon.

For our craft, we decorated Paper Mache wine bottle holders. I purchased the wine bottle holders at Hobby Lobby. We painted them and added scrapbook paper with decoupage. I forgot to take a "before" picture. Saturday night we were going to see Revoluti*nary R*ad but it was sold out. So, back to the mall! We picked up the grilled veggie salad from Calif*rnia Pizza Kitch*n and watched The Notebook. It was a great weekend. My sister used to have a blog; it was so funny. I'm trying to get her to start blogging again. Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Happy Weekend

I had a couple of questions on the headband post about where I buy headbands, especially headbands that don’t hurt. I keep it cheap! The most I’ve ever spent on a headband is $20. I have purchased most of my headbands at Forever 21. I also found a couple at Claire’s, which really surprised me. I don't usually shop at Claire's. Etsy is a good place to shop for headbands too. I recommend trying them on before you purchase them. If it’s slightly tight, it will hurt! Although I do try on headbands before I purchase, I’ve a few that hurt BAD.

I LOVE this headband. It's metal and HURTS so bad. I've endured the pain and worn it twice because it's cute.

These are really great options. They're soft and don't hurt
I don't' remember where I purchased the blue headband. The gray one is from Forever 21.

I also wear scarves as headbands. However, depending on the fabric of the scarf I sometimes have to use bobby pins to keep it on.

I hope y'all have a great weekend. My sister and niece are coming to visit this weekend. I'm so excited. Happy Weekend!

Siblings~ Jenn, Jarrett, and Me. Can you guess our birth order?

My Niece, Daisy

Thanks!

Thank you The King and I for this award.

Thank you Balancing Act in Heels and The Shiny Penny for the Honest Scrap Award.

Here are the rules of the award:
~Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
~Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon .
~List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

Hmmmm..... what haven't I told y'all??? I feel really boring right now.

1. I turned an entire room in my apartment into a closet. I live in a really old building and the actual closet is barely big enough to hold my vacuum and suitcases.

2. I have wood floors and despise cleaning them. :)

3. I'm doing weight watchers.

4. I want to move to another city, not sure where yet or if I will.

5. I was born in Houston and grew up in Conroe, TX. My parents moved to San Antonio in 2000.

6. When my dad told me they were moving, I sobbed like a baby.

7. I'm having crab stuffed ravioli for dinner~ 6 points.

8. I have cleaned out every room in my apartment except the closet. I'm dreading it.

9. I live in walking distance to great museums and the zoo.

10. I'm addicted to medicated chapstick.

I find many blogs brilliant in content or design... too hard to pick winners. So I'm passing this award to all my followers.

Thank you Pretty in Pearls for The Friendship Award.

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I pass this award to...

1. Chic and Pink

2. French Kiss

3. In this Wonderful Life

4. The Brocks Rock
5. The King and I

6. The Love Affair

7. Miss Musing

8. Authentically Me

My Favorite Accessory

In my quest to clean out and reorganize my apartment, I decided to tackle my headbands. I think I have enough headbands for a while. :) I just love wearing them.

A Fabulous Giveaway!

Check out Monogrammed Teacher's blog for a great giveaway. She is teaming up with one of my favorite blogs and shopping destinations, Monogram Chick. The prize is a super cute monogrammed tote! I have a similar bag from Monogram Chick and LOVE it. My sister saw my bag and loved it so much so put it on her Christmas list last year (and she got it). The totes are so great and they hold all kinds of stuff!

I'm Bored

I was tagged by my sweet blog friend, Treasure Ann. Here it is...

~Open the book closest to you; turn to page 56.
~Find the 5th sentence.
~Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
~Don't dig for your favorite book, a cool book, or an intellectual book! Pick the closest.

This was the closest book to me. It's a beautiful photography book of little girls in Chinese orphanages. No words but none needed.

Check out Danielle's Blog for a fabulous 400th post giveaway.

I'm so excited for The Real Housewives of Orange County tonight.

The last few weeks I've been cleaning out my apartment. It’s not fun! I need to get better at putting things where they belong immediately; I'm so bad at this. For example, if I have an expense report to file I just put it on top of the filing cabinet. I let the pile get huge before I actually take the time to file it, (not that it takes that much time).

I have a small trunk where I keep sentimental items. It contains mostly cards and letters but I have saved a few other things as well. I was putting my most recent cards in the trunk and decided to look through it. It's so interesting and funny what I've saved over the years.

A "Thank You" Plaque from the City of Jinjiang in Fujian, China.

They gave everyone in our group this plaque for volunteering at an orphanage in 2006. Very Sweet.

My 30th Brithday Party Invitation and Tiffany's (BFF) 30th Party Invitation

Playbill from Phatom of the Opera in London


My Sister's Wedding Program, Save the Date, Bridemaid's Luncheon Invite,

Letters, and Thanks You's. I just love how she did everything~ Cute, Classy

and most important Sweet.

I laughed a little because I saved the Newsweek Special Edition honoring JFK Jr. right after he passed away in 1999. JFK Jr. is the best looking man I’ve ever seen. My mom think so too! If I tell my mom about a guy I've met sometimes she asks, "Does he look like JFK Jr.?" :) I remember where I was when his plane crashed. I was in Chicago for the weekend visiting a friend. I was really sick to my stomach about it and I kept saying, "They’ll find him. They'll him find him." My friend said, “Well, it’s not looking good.” I was so sad! I referenced JFK Jr. in this post too! So, who is the best looking man you've ever seen (dead or alive)?

Pottery, The Real Housewives of OC, and Croutons

Pottery~ Today I picked up our finished pottery pieces from Saturday night. Check out how cute everything turned out.

Jana's Coaster Set

Lindsay's "Bobby Jindal 2012" Chip and Dip

Stephanie's Texas Longhorns Chip and Dip

My GOP Chip and Dip

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The Real Housewives of Orange County~ Tuesday nights episode was SO good; my favorite episode so far. I watched the dinner party scene 3 times. I know the women don’t always behave but that’s what make good television. If they were perfect and sweet, it would be boring. If you watched it, what did you think of Gretchen?

My two favorite lines from Tuesday are from my two favorite housewives, Tamara and Vicki (pictured below in the middle).

“At the dinner table I gave a little warning to Gretchen about Ryan because he’s a man whore.” ~Tamara (Ryan is her son)

“I think the most obvious pot head is Lynn. Lynn just seems way too carefree to not be high all the time.” ~ Vicki

I laughed SO hard!

Croutons~ Today I worked from home (and took a shower). I decided to make a salad for lunch. I was trying to eat really light because I might have dinner tonight at Smith and Wollensky. I LOVE S&W. My salad was boring… veggies, fat free feta cheese, and spray dressing. I decided to make some homemade croutons to spruce up my salad. I really like this idea because I can use whole grain bread and spray butter instead of oil. Well, for some reason I thought I knew how to make croutons. I turned the oven on to broil and popped my chucks of bread in the oven. Next thing I knew, the smoke alarm is going off. Oppps! I decided I should Google the recipe. My next batch was much better. Y’all probably know this but when making croutons you’re supposed to set the oven at a low temperature… 225-250 degrees.

Cute Project Idea

I just mailed a Valentine’s Day package to Gracie and Olivia at the Foster Home in China. My sister and mom always want to buy things for the care packages, so sweet. Jenn made the cutest coloring book for Olivia. Gracie is a baby and can’t color yet but when she can… watch out. I thought I would share Jenn’s really cute personalized coloring book idea and the directions. It’s a great idea for your little one for Valentine’s Day or for a rainy day. If you decide to make one, let me know how it turns out.

You’ll need~
2 double-sided sheets of scrapbook paper or 4 single-sided sheets of scrapbook paper (Jenn purchased the Hello Kitty paper from Michael's)
Decorative edge crafting scissors
Rubber Cement or glue stick
Stickers for decorating the cover
Hole punch
Ribbon
The Internet and typing paper

For the covers~ Decorate the first sheet of scrapbook paper any way you’d like. If you purchased single-sided paper glue the two sheets together to create an inside and outside. Jenn used scrapbook stickers for Olivia’s name and scrapbook paper for the hearts on the inside cover. You can also decorate the back cover.

For the inside~ Jenn went to this website to print her HK coloring book pages. You can also try this website, which offers many different themes. Jenn printed the coloring book pages half of a letter size page. Once they were printed, she cut the edges with decorative crafting scissors.

Final Product~ Stack your front cover, inside pages, and back cover together. Punch two holes at the top of the pages and add a ribbon to keep everything together.

The artist...

In NYC with Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes

Resting in Central Park

Odds~n~Ends

Thanks to Danielle for my "transition" blog design. I thought I should probably take "Merry Christmas" off. :) I can't wait for my spring design! If you want a really cute and unique spring design head to Blogs by Danielle. You won't be disappointed.

I received this incredibly sweet award from Boo and Hooties Mom. Thank you so much!

To my fellow Houstonians~ we're getting a Sprinkles Cupcakes this April in Highland Village.

My blog friend Andrea Leigh from My Chihuahua Bites is hosting a Valentine's Day Swap. If you're interested, head over to her blog by Monday, January 19th to sign up.

I have a confession, I love trashy TV shows. I’ve been really excited because my DVR is full of new shows! Here’s my line up… Trashy TV at its finest!

Sunday- Desperate Housewives and The Girls Next Door
Monday- Gossip Girl, The Bachelor, and The City (I’m not loving The City but still watching it for now)
Tuesday- The Real Housewives of Orange County and 90210
Wednesday- Top Chef
Thursday- Nothing. I’ve never been a fan of Grey’s. Gasp, I know.
Friday- Nothing
Saturday- Nothing

My favorite TV show right now is Gossip Girl and my favorite reality TV show is The Real Housewives of Orange County. They're just so interesing! What's your favorite show right now?