A Special Day, for a Special Friend

This past Saturday, I traveled up I-71 to Northern Kentucky for the wedding shower of my best friend, Christa. At first I was worried I wouldn't be able to make it up there - Louisville got a few inches of snow and I figured Cincinnati probably got hit much worse. Imagine my surprise to learn that they didn't get one flake of snow! The hardest part of my trip was just getting out of my neighborhood - from there, it was smooth sailing all the way to NKY.

What a lovely shower it turned out to be! Christa's mom and aunt did a wonderful job coordinating everything. The shower was held at the Tousey House, a beautiful historic home that has been renovated and is now a restaurant. If you are in the NKY/Cincinnati area and are looking for a neat place for a shower or other gathering, this is your place. About 20 women attended, many of whom have known Christa since she was a little girl. As her friend, it was so wonderful to help celebrate Christa with women who love her and adore her just as much as I do. We had a wonderful day, with lots of laughter and just a few (sweet) tears.

Speaking of sweet, the dessert consisted of 3 cakes from The Bon Bonerie - hands down the BEST bakery in all of Cincinnati. My personal favorite is Chocolate Opera Creme cake, and it tastes as divine as it sounds!




Before we dug into the cake, we played a couple of games - I'm not usually a big fan of shower games, but this one had me rolling! We divided the ladies into 4 teams, handed them a roll of toilet paper and a roll of tape, and instructed them to pick a model and design a "wedding dress" in 5 minutes. I loved recording their frantic dress construction!




The beautiful bride-to-be, enjoying the game:


After time was called, we held an impromptu runway show - I'm sure the other individuals dining in the Tousey house just LOVED this!





We enlisted a couple of the men who worked at the Tousey House to serve as judges (who got a little help from Christa's aunt!).



In the end, they picked Bride No. 1 - I think the strategically placed silver bow was the clincher.


Christa received some very lovely gifts, including a very special poem written by a kind woman who has known Christa since she was a very young girl. There were a few tears, particularly when Christa read the poem, but there was also some silliness:


This is how I looked a good portion of the day, trying to capture everything:


I took this picture to capture some of the beautiful historical details of the home, and ended up capturing myself as well in the process! Can you spot me?


A couple more pictures of the day...here's Christa with her aunts...


Donna, Christa's sweet and beautiful mother:


Christa, I can't wait to serve as your Matron of Honor at your wedding in just a few short weeks! And finally, there's one belated gift I owe to you, dear friend....

At one point in the shower, Christa opened a card from one of her aunts that included a photo of a Valentine's card Christa had given to her when she was 11 or so (and how sweet that her aunt kept that card all these years?!). Well, I might have gotten a WEE bit carried away in my laughter when I saw the picture. I thought it was adorable, of course, and Christa looked as beautiful back then as she does now - it was just I couldn't get over her bangs! In retrospect, though, I thought that I probably shouldn't have laughed quite as hard as I did and have felt terrible about it ever since - I would rather walk across fiery hot coals than cause one ounce of pain for my good friend. I felt it only right that I share my own embarassing photo since I know Christa will read my blog - and of course I am sharing it on the world wide web! I called my mother and asked that she pull up one of my awkward and embarassing photos from my pre teen years for my father to scan, and they did not disappoint. This picture is hands down the least favorite picture ever taken of me for a variety of reasons, take your pick:
(1) Baby weight
(2) Bangs I cut myself
(3) The fact that my sister and I are holding hands like we are in some cheesy prom photo.

So without further adieu....Christa, honey, this one's for you!


AGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I'll never live THAT one down!

"The Notebook? Again?"

So asked my husband tonight. Is it my fault that Grey's is a repeat and the only thing I could find on the television that was worth a damn was The Notebook on ABC Family?? Yes, I know, I've probably seen it at least a dozen times now if not more, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for this movie! Is there a movie you find yourself watching on TV whenever it comes on? Mine are The Notebook, Steel Magnolias, What Women Want, Thomas Crowne Affair, and a handful of others.

Ryan swore to me tonight that he has now seen The Notebook in its entirety, just from seeing bits and pieces of it when he enters the room while I'm watching it time after time. When I challenged him on this, he was quick to recount the story line in his own special way - one long run-on sentence stated in one breath (starting from the moment when Noah sees Ally in the window in Charleston, right after she gets engaged - which was where I was at in the movie tonight when he entered the room):

"He sees her, she's engaged to someone else, he goes home and goes crazy and builds a house, she tries on a wedding dress and sees him in the paper, faints, goes and finds him, they stare longingly at each other a lot, she says, 'Letters, what letters? Momma, did he send me letters?' Momma says, 'Yes, here's his letters, I'm sorry', she chooses him, they get old, she forgets and they both die, the end."

As I sat there laughing hysterically, he gave me a smug grin and said, "See? I told you I had seen the whole thing!" before going upstairs to watch ESPN or something.


Will you see the new Nicholas Sparks movie, Dear John? I imagine I will at some point since I've seen all of the others ... The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, Nights in Rodanthe. I've even seen the TV movie version of Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, arguably the saddest of all Sparks books. I just don't know if I have it in me though to get caught up in a love story only to see a heartbreaking end to said romance - I haven't read Dear John but I'm sure someone dies. Nicholas Sparks can't seem to end a book without someone dying. Can't he just let some people live happily every after?

Tea for Two

And Two for Tea! She is too young for it right now, but I'm sure Alexandra will be interested in having tea parties one day with her beloved baby dolls and Sesame Street plush dolls - and her mommy will be well-prepared!

I picked up this cute Alice in Wonderland teapot for a steal a couple of months ago at the "Teej" (one of my co-workers' nicknames for TJ Maxx).


And today, I bought these cute heart-shaped teacups and saucers from Haute Look, just in time for Valentine's Day.



Looks like we will be ready for tea time!

My Idea of a Good Tuesday Night....

...would entail the following:

A stash of home, regional and fashion mags:


The Bachelor on DVR from last night (I have no idea why I continue to watch this show, it's like a train wreck and I can't divert my eyes):


And watching these two kick ass on The Biggest Loser, on DVR from tonight (watching on delay):


Looks like a mentally stimulating evening, don't you think? Incidentally, isn't DVR one of the greatest inventions? I can catch up on my TV viewing at my convenience, and I can fast forward through Chris Harrison promising "The Most Shocking Rose Ceremony in Bachelor History" for the ten-millionth time.

Are You Ready For Some Football??

Yeah, I know - those are probably not words that you would expect to find on this blog! While I do like some sports, you will most likely not find me joining my husband on the couch during the weekend, flipping amongst 10 different channels covering 2-3 NFL games, a golf championship, college basketball, etc. He recently informed me that, one day, his plan is for us to have a wall of televisions in a designated man cave where he can just watch all of his sporting events at one time...um, great. I might see my husband once a year if that idea comes to fruition.

With all that being said, I do enjoy attending sporting events in person. For instance, I always thought baseball on TV was like watching paint dry. While in law school, though, I attended a lot of Cincinnati Reds games and was surprised to find myself enjoying it. So when we were offered the amazing opportunity to attend the AFC championship game this past weekend in Indianapolis, we jumped at the chance (to my husband, it was like he was a kid again and it was Christmas and his birthday, all rolled into one!). One of the other attorneys in our firm is married to an ex-NFL lineman who played for the Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, and Pittsburgh Steelers. He still does some color announcing for the Colts and they invited some of us to be guests in a suite on the 30-yard line. Let me tell you, they set the bar entirely too high! We had a great view of the action - here are the Colts heading out to the field:


The unfurling of the American flag - this was so very cool. Members of the armed forces held the flag which covered the entire field. While Jordin Sparks sang the National Anthem (and boy did she sound incredible, it gave me cold chills!), an eagle was released to fly through the stadium. The crowd went wild!



The jersey of our gracious co-host:


The girls (heinous picture of me, but I knew I needed to include it!). Ashley and I weren't exactly addressed in sports attire (I've never seen so many grown men wearing jerseys in my life, it was kind of disturbing), but as you'll see she sported some festive blue tights in honor of the Colts!



Our view of the end zones:



We had such a great time and I found myself cheering with everyone and giving high-fives to the strangers, just call it a mob mentality. Best of all, the Colts are headed to Miami for the Super Bowl!


What made it that much sweeter was watching Pierre Garcon, the Colts' rookie wide receiver (who had one helluva game), proudly hold the flag of his native Haiti and offer words of encouragement to those back home.


As you can see, we had a great time and I'm so happy we went - rest assured, however, that this does not mean that I by no means now consider myself to be a huge sports nut! This blog will now return to its regularly scheduled programming of Alexandra updates, observations of a working mom, decorating and fashion...

fun little finds

while we're on the subject of my new office, i want to share with you a few of the fun little things i have found for my new space to jazz it up a bit...you'll be surprised, i doubt these things are typically found in a law office! the cool thing though is since we're all "girls" in the office, we're throwing caution to the wind and really decorating our offices how **we** want, tradition be damned! (can't you tell how much fun we're having??).

i love the girls from sex and the city, and when i stumbled upon brooklit's beautiful sketches, i knew i had to have the illustration below framed in my office:


i just love it - all of the ladies in the outfits from the original movie which were brooke's favorites. i also got the next two images - the first one kind of reminded me of me with the curly blonde hair and traditional black dress. the second one is just fun and sassy (kind of reminds me of my sister), and i love the black and white striped dress.



brooke's fabulous work can be bought here. she also has a cute blog which i know you all would enjoy.

i love this colorful desk calendar from dabney lee - you can get it personalized with your monogram (there's tons to pick from) and i know it will add some fun color to my office (as if i need it with that deep purple wall!)


i love using dry erase boards to jot down notes, phone messages and to do lists. this one is practical and fashionable at the same time! this etsy seller has lots of fun white board decals to pick from, as well as chalkboard decals - here's the one i picked up:


finally, though i haven't gotten them yet, i'll probably end up using the "keep calm and carry on" and "live what you love" letterpress posters. yes, these are all over the internet, but i think they are fitting and inspirational messages for an office. here's a couple that i am eyeing, that can be found here and here:



i realize that this is a random assortment of mismatched things, but i really do think it will all go together and am so excited to get started working on my girly office!

divine design intervention

hello world! sorry for the absence over the past couple of days...i was in chicago for a deposition and very much enjoyed my brief jaunt to the windy city. a couple of days in advance, i checked out the proximity of the deposition to the key shopping areas on michigan avenue (only a couple of blocks, very sweet) and had already picked the stores i wanted to hit up. i landed in chicago a few hours before my scheduled deposition, so i had the cab driver take me directly to h&m - which unfortunately was not open as it was only 9am chicago time! i decided to treat myself so i slipped into the ghiardelli's bakery and had a chocolate croissant for breakfast - yummo. i then headed over to filene's basement and scored a cute leopard print scarf and an unbelievable pair of prada sunglasses that are so huge my husband asked me when i got home if i thought the paparazzi was tailing me and i needed to hide out. i then did a nice amount of damage at h&m. i had intended to do more shopping after my deposition, but ended up catching an earlier flight - my wallet was eternally grateful for that decision. all in all, a nice day which included some great deals and an uneventful deposition, plus i made it home in time to tuck my daughter in for the night - always the best part of my day!

i headed downtown this morning to our new office space. our relatively new little firm has been in temporary space for the past month, waiting for our permanent space to open up. we're so happy with it, it's just gorgeous and was worth the wait! now the problem becomes trying to decide how i want to decorate it. in the past, i haven't given much thought to decorating my office, other than to hang my diplomas on the wall so people would know the legal advice i was handing out was legit. this time is different though - this new office deserves a beautiful new look, i'm just not sure what to do with it!

most of our house is somewhat traditional (not queen anne furniture traditional, more along the lines of what you see in southern living - updated traditional, for lack of a better description). i'm wanting to go completely different with my office - something modern (though not **too** modern) and feminine. really, i do not want this office to scream "boring lawyer" - which entails reds and blues, lots of brass and dusty books. as you might have guessed from the title, i'm a big fan of divine design with candice olsen so i'm thinking along those lines.

my office has two huge windows that are almost floor to ceiling, with a dark gray carpet. One of the three walls (the fourth is the wall with the windows) is a deep royal purple - believe it or not, i actually kind of like it and believe i will keep it. the other three walls are a orangish gold - the colors together are pretty bright and not exactly what i had in mind. i'm thinking of painting the yellowish walls a very light gray but am not sold on it just yet. The blonde furniture stays, which i'm actually okay with. While i'm not a big fan of blonde finishes (well, except on my head - my hair dresser can attest to that), this stuff is pretty nicely made as far as office furniture goes. the guest chairs, however, are going to get the boot.

here's some pictures so you can get an idea - any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! oh, and i apologize in advance for the quality of the photos, they were taken with my iphone.

the beautiful double windows looking out over downtown:


the infamous purple wall:


gold meets purple - not a fan:


the desk set-up:


the blank, vast expanse of gold behind my desk:


and lest you forget that big bright spot of purple, here it is again: