Paris In Spring

Nooot reallyyy...

But, a girl can pretend when she has the Saint James Galathée tee in a bevy of Spring colors like frosted aqua...

 Bright celery...

 Caribbean pink...

And, good ole navy paired with her capris...

Since it's, fingers crossed, on the verge of getting too warm for their nominally heavier weight Minquiers III tee...

I stopped myself at two. Annnd, here's hoping they stay folded til October...

Kindness of J. Crew for offering up the Saint James tees because, woman can not live in popovers alone...XXOO

The Endangered Two-Toned Varina

I was operating on two and a half hours of sleep, shins throbbing from my Concourse D to Concourse B in Jack Rogers sprint when I spied them walking past in the distance; navy Varina's with a red cap toe...

And, if I hadn't been tied up behind the velvet rope of Delta Customer Service trying to resolve my missed connection, there would've been, at the very least, a pic to go with this tweet. At most, a tackle...

Although I have searched Google high and low, the Red/Black Raffia and Patent... 

Along with the sighhh Black/Toast combo, are the closest I've come to finding the obviously endangered two-toned Varina. I think I could learn to make do...


Kindness of anyone who may have any intel on the navy and red cap toe Varina I think I saw through my haze of missed connection tears and rage for piping up before they're totally extinct...XXOO

Green Monster Smoothie

I recently repinned Iowa Girl Eats' recipe for Green Monster Smoothie from QBS's li'l sis, Molly Holzem and, it has turned out to be a healthy, low-cal, deeelish winner even earning a thumbs up from the très picky Babe...

1 sliced, frozen banana

1 T peanut or almond butter

1/2 c non-fat Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt

1 c Unsweetened (couldn't find) Vanilla Almond Breeze

4 c baby spinach leaves

Toss all the ingredients into a blender and mix. Easy peasy...

340 calories, 10g of fiber, 21g of protein (per Iowa Girl's calculations)

It's especially a snap when you prep ahead including, washing and spinning the spinach leaves...

Once I've spun all the water out of the leaves, I lay a couple paper towels in the bottom of the spinner to absorb any remaining moisture and just pop the spinner in the fridge for easy storing...

I also pre-cut the bananas, lay them on a baking rack (fyi, they're an absolute PILL to get off a flat surface like a plate or cookie sheet once frozen) and stick them in the freezer til mostly frozen...

*my mother just advised me that laying wax paper between the sliced bananas and a flat surface may help eliminate the sticking...

Then, individually bag each banana and toss back into the freezer for convenient grabbing in the morn...

Once your prep work's done, all that's left are a few simple measurements once smoothie making time rolls around...

Perf post Insanity workout fuel...

Green smoothie, green tea, pink straw. It's the new yummy breakfast of champions around here...

Kindness of Iowa Girl Eats for sharing the original recipe, Molly for pinning so I could poach it, and MPM of The Pink Clutch for my swanky bday cup and straw. Spinach never looked so preppy...XXOO

Watch Out World

I had a slew of comedy of travel errors getting to Greenville on Friday beginning with the smoke detector screaming for a new battery mere hours before my 4am wake up and ending with the police at my hotel room after my pinkie accidentally found thee one out of 22 buttons on the phone for 911 while reaching for a magazine. Insert delayed flights, 45 minutes circling a closed runway, a missed connection, the wrong gate, shin splints from sprinting in Jack Rodgers, a lost boarding pass and a face perpetually frozen in that juuust about to cry scrunch...

But, it was all worth it to see Emma, and her bff Sally, graduate from Furman...

And, even though I was on standby to selflessly absorb it should it not have been well received, the gift from Babe, the Ti-Babes and moi was a big hit...

Youknowwho was taking copious notes for next year...

A few last minute sisterly adjustments...

Then one final walk down the lawn...

One final adieu to Furman...

Before Lucy and Ethel head out into the world...

Watch out world...

Kindness of Emma and Sally for always being great sports. Also, Emma and Hilbils for picking me up and dropping me off at the Greenville airport even though it included an ever changing pick-up time and a 4:45am wake up. Bet it was all that racked up good karma you earned and not those baby blues that got y'all out of that North Carolina speeding ticket en route home...XXOO

R 'n R Needed

Mama just flew home from Greenville and, since we feel we were jipped of a family weekend, we're salvaging what we can and keeping her to ourselves for the night. We'll let you have her back tomorrow...

Kindness of Babe and the Bips for holding down the fort while I attended Emma's graduation. There is nothing, and i mean NUTHIN', like walking in from a long weekend of travel on bare minimum sleep to a house that's been vacuumed for you. Annnd, you thought Hermès was the key to my heart...XXOO

Five Six Things

K, I usually try and limit it to five but, Meg Carter debuted her Spring/Summer 2012 line and I couldn't choose between the Curtain Bluff Triple in amazonite...

And, the Coral Triplet tiny necklace in lavender. Both pleaseee... 

EAS gets the credit for the Polar Bear Coolers find. This is gonna be one of those "couple" situations where I'll have to default to a boy color so, I'm thinking I may have a pink 6 Packer riding piggyback on the order for my Diet Coke beach travel...

A big ole thank you to @AgathaMChristie for the heads up on the Charted Monograms for Needlepoint and Cross-Stitch book. And, at a bargain basement $5.95 to boot...

If I can only get one more Lilly item this season please God let it be the MarieKate dress in New Green Go To Batt. OBSESSED...


Babe and I are huge Tony Robbins fans and his Breakthrough with Tony Robbins show, Mondays at 10pm on OWN, has recently taken the pole position from Million Dollar Listing New York. Sorry Fredrik (said with a Svvvedish accent and a high kick)...


Kindness of Meg Carter for the pre look-see of her Spring/Summer 2012 line, EAS for sharing JCW's cooler pic and @AgathaMChristie for the great book find. Jeesh, I barely have to leave the house to find trouble...XXOO  

Kiki Slaughter

A few months ago I stumbled upon C'ville artist Kiki Slaughter in the The Scout Guide and within minutes had a couple of her pieces cooling their heels on a wishlistdisguisedasa Pinterest board...

Azure

42x42 inches.acrylic and oil on canvas

"The many shades and layers of blue in this painting give it depth. A glossy finish makes the colors glow. This piece reminds me of the horizon between ocean and sky."

Coral Beach

42x42 inches. acrylic and oil on canvas

"This painting is inspired by Coral Beach in Bermuda. It reminds me of the signature pink sand, turquoise ocean and cliff lined beach. Makes me want to take a trip!"

Aquamarine

42x42 inches. acrylic and oli on canvas

"A glossy finish makes the various shades of blue and green in this painting even more vibrant. It reminds me of the colors of the ocean."

Smooth Sailing

42x42 inches. acrylic and oil on canvas

"I love the soft, muted shades of color in this painting surrounding the slightly bolder strip of blue." 

Fancy
42x60 inches. acrylic and oil on canvas
"I titled this painting 'fancy" because the shiny finish makes the surface glow. The specks of gold are reminiscent of glitter. In this case, shiny equals fancy!"

"Ocean"..."beach"..."pink sand"..."gold"...that is music to our sea loving, lamé bikini wearin' ears Kiki. And, Lolly and I have just thee spot for such a sure to encourage sweet dreams of summer piece...

So, when Babe and I found ourselves with an extra day in C'ville recently and, an email led to an invitation to Kiki's home for a private viewing, we jumped in our Papa Smurf rental car and hustled right on over...

An online vantage point is one thing but, seeing art up close and personal annnd getting to know the artist is quite another...

We were totally smitten. With both...

"She pours, scrapes, layers and otherwise manipulates the paint on the canvas to produce works that are rich in both color and texture" is the kind of intel Dr. Fancypants likes to cull from such a meet, while my notes read, she incorporates beach sand into some of her works, sahhh-weet! One of those s'il vous plait...

Not only did our visit reveal multiple mutual friends, ships passing at the same wedding and, the fact that we once attended a brunch at her parent's house but, Babe and her husband Hunter also bonded over his recently launched app SynkMonkey. So while, they traded biz talk Kiki and I traded C'ville scoop..

...Schedule plan by combining calendar + mapping + group messaging functionality in one step...have y'all been to the Local Restaurant in Belmont yet? Omg, it's right up there with Duners...syncs across users calendars, has a map for directions, and allows group message exchange...Cullen's new black lab puppy is sooo cute...   

All that SynkMonkey talk also afforded me extra time to expand my Kiki Slaughter wish list and Lolls and I just this morn staked our claim on some wall real estate for one of her Rotundas. That oughta teach Babe to talk shop...

Kindness of Hunter and Kiki Slaughter Murchison for inviting us into their home and studio on such short notice. With all our path crossing it was only a matter of time before we star crossed beach and, yaaawn, biz lovers formally met...XXOO