Fashion Lover

I have always, in some way or another, been into fashion.  Interested in what the stars are wearing.  What shoes, what purses are being carried, what jeans, what sunglasses are "in".  Which designers are popular. That kind of thing. And how I can get it for myself...usually I've had to be creative about that, given the fact that the most popular stuff is not cheap.  I LOVE a good sale.  (Remind me to tell you how I got my first pair of Marc Jacobs shoes, haha.)  I also feel like I end up watching some of the trashier reality shows (you know what I mean, the Housewives of everywhere) to pretty much see what the ladies are wearing.  Housewives really don't dress that way, I'm pretty sure.  But it's like watching a fashion show each week!!   
So it makes perfect sense that I am totally addicted to a new show...it is sort of a reality show, sort of a game show...not really sure how it's classified, but I don't care.  It's Fashion Star! 
I admit that, despite my love of fashion, I am not super fashionable.  I try...well, I used to try more.  My closet is full of super cute shoes and some cute dresses, tops and other items (I could probably buy our groceries for six months at least if I decided to sell my purse collection and I would probably maybe cry if Sophia ever broke a pair of my sunglasses).  But it's a lot tougher now, as a mom (or maybe just as a responsible adult), to be as fashionable as I might want to be.  I still love it, but we have a lot of other things to spend our money on now (which I do not mind at all spending every dime we have on Sophia, she's definitely my little princess) and being a 'fashionable mom' isn't the most important thing to me.  That being said, I still will try my hardest and stress over my appearance and clothing choices whenever I have to leave the house, haha.  Old habits die hard, I guess!  I'm glad I have a little girl to hopefully share my love for fashion with.  I'm excited to teach her all about some of the designers I love...I am sure Michael does not share that same excitement, hahaha!
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. 
I was excited to hear about the concept of Fashion Star before it started.  If you haven't seen it or heard about it, here is the gist of it.....up and coming wannabe fashion designers make three pieces to parade in front of the three mentors (Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson and John Varvatos) and then they give their opinion of the pieces.  After that, they turn around to face the buyers, from Macy's, Saks 5th Avenue or H&M.  If they get a buy, they are safe.  If not, they are at risk to go home.  From those that don't get a buy, three are chosen as the lowest of the bunch.....the mentors can save one from going home and then the buyers send one packing.  Each week the process repeats.  I love it!  Also, if a store buys a piece, you can actually buy it from their store after the show on their website.  (If you want to watch, the show comes on Tuesday nights on NBC I think)
Even Sophia likes watching the show with me, when the clothes come down the runway they play dance music and she boogies down.  Michael watches too, for the buyers aspect, of course.  He may not have wanted me to share that, haha.  But I like that it is our family show!  We all like to watch it, for different reasons.  It is fun and upbeat and not trashy reality (like possibly some of the other shows I may or may not watch) and I feel like even though I might not rush out and buy the same pieces that the buyers are scooping up, at least I can say that I know what the trends are for the season....just in case I do want to update my wardrobe (Lord knows it sure does need to be updated).
I must say that I feel like I mostly end up liking the dresses the most.  I am never going to look good in some tall person trouser pair of pants with a long stripe up the side or never ever going to look good in a one piece body suit so those items never catch my eye (even if they do the buyer).  But a dress...oh yeah.  I find that I am often hoping that Macy's or H&M will make a buy of something I like...mostly so I can afford it, haha.  I love Saks...in theory.  But I really can't afford to shop there and on the occasion that a super cute dress has been snatched up by Saks I will check it out on their site...and sure enough it's priced at over $200!!  Yikes.  But good for the fashion designer.
The show has been going on for a while now, only three shows left (I think they are down to 7 or 8 designers remaining) so soon a winner will be chosen and I am interested to see what the fashion "star" will ultimately win.  I feel like each designer that gets a buy each week is sort of winning....and being on the show has to help them out in some way....giving them exposure for sure.  I am excited to see who comes out on top.  I feel like more than just rooting for one person, I am rooting for the designs that I like...and that seems to change each week.  But there are certainly designers that I like less than the others.  It's not that I really don't specifically dislike someone just because they don't make a design that I am interested in.  Which makes it a very interesting show for me.  There are no clear 'bad guys' versus 'good guys'.  Each week can change my opinion, based on what designs are brought to the runway.  I definitely hope that this show comes back for another cycle...the way Celebrity Apprentice does or Survivor or Biggest Loser or some of those shows that I have watched and watched and watched....cause I am totally hooked on Fashion Star!!

Trendy Nails??

I don't normally polish my fingers, they get ruined too quickly and grow out too fast so it's not usually worth it.  I do always keep my toes polished though.  :-)  Anyway, I have seen this look on two different Housewives (one in Atlanta and one in the OC...so you know it's cool then, right??!! Haha) and also a friend of the family came over Easter weekend with her nails painted this way (ok, she's in high school, whatever) so I thought I would try it out.  I think it looks pretty cool, what do you think?!  Yesterday my mom said, 'hey one of your nails is painted the wrong color'....I guess she doesn't 'get it'!!  HA!  (Full disclosure, I did have Michael look it up on the internet to try and find out what in the world it means....no luck, except that I am super slow on picking up on "cool" trends...it's been around for over a year!!)

Hmmm....

I'm not usually at a loss for words but lately I haven't really had much to say, blog-wise.  I will think of some topics, but then think they aren't really blog worthy and so I won't write anything.  So that is why I haven't blogged in over a week.  I surely have been pretty busy.  I have been working out every day (with one off day).  I have done a lot of chores (wow, that was even boring to type).  Nothing super exciting that I felt like rushing to the computer to share.  I am in a blog funk I guess. Until I can get back into a writing groove, I will post some super cute pictures of my super cute girl from last weekend when my sister (and nephew and bro-in-law) were in town....

Titanic, Plus a Hundred Years

It has been a hundred years from the maiden voyage for the Titanic....unfortunately, she didn't make it very far and...well, we all know what happened!  I must say I've always been a little bit obsessed with the Titanic (even before James Cameron made his famous movie...we'll get to that, don't worry!)....the stories of people who made it off the ship and survived, those who didn't, the magnificence and opulence and every detail of every single item on board.  Some that have been recovered and some that remain at the bottom of the ocean and probably will forever (if they haven't been eaten by some sea creature by now).  Anyway, I find it all pretty interesting. 
So when 1997 rolled around and James Cameron released his mega blockbuster about the ill-fated ship, I was on board.  So to speak.  And I might have seen it -cough, cough- a few times.  Ok, so actually I possibly may need two hands to count the number of times I have seen it (but probably not every single finger on both hands...I don't think).  We're talking in the theater.  I'd rather not guess how many times that I have watched it since, but I will say this....if Michael sees it on the guide that it is on he will do any and everything in his power to make sure that I do NOT also see that it is on TV.  I need to teach Sophia how to read the word Titanic so she can tell on him if he tries to pass it by when I'm not looking.  He swears he likes the movie, but I am skeptical.  I don't know why he doesn't like it...it has everything...romance, drama, action, tragedy...it's the perfect movie.  In my defense (of seeing it so many times in the theater....still working on a defense of why I feel the need to watch it every time it comes on TV), I did go with different people to see it.  Ok, well, really just my sister and my friend Tracey, maybe a few others possibly, but definitely more than once with those two.  But sometimes we would see it when I was home from college, and sometimes we would see it when I was at college and they were visiting me.  Is it my fault that the movie ran that long in the theater??  My most memorable time was when Tracey and I went to see it at the theater at GA Southern....someone brought their very young kids (possibly older than Sophia's age, but probably not much...totally inappropriate) and not surprisingly, the kids were loud through the whole thing.  Sure, we had seen the movie already, but Tracey was NOT happy.  We ended up complaining to the manager (read SHE ended up complaining, she is way better at that stuff than me, but I've learned from the master and can definitely handle myself now, haha) and got free passes to see it again!!  So you know, we sort of had to.  Besides just being an awesome movie that begs to be watched over and over, it does have some good eye candy...in the form of Leo Dicaprio.  Yum.  Like a fine wine, the guy just gets better with age.  I was almost hoping that James Cameron was going to do a little rewrite on the script and let Jack live...just so Leo could reprise his role.  More like if the Jack of today was on the Titanic this time around he wouldn't just push Rose's tush up on the door and hang on while he froze to death in the water...he'd push her aside and figure out how to make both of them fit on it so they'd both survive....maybe he'd cuddle close and use their body heat to survive until the life boats returned (ok, so this might be more of what I would've been suggesting had I been the one on the door...but whatever, I wouldn't just let my man die in the freezing water if he was looked like Leo Dicaprio, geez!!)....something like that.  I do love me some Leo Dicaprio, that is for sure.  Just makes the movie that much better to watch over and over and over again.  Oddly, I don't mind Billy Zane.  For a villain character in the movie, he isn't too bad on the eyes either.  Ok, so maybe the eye candy reason is a fairly shallow reason to watch a movie repeatedly but I'm sure guys watch movies with hot girls in them over and over so I think that one is a draw.     
I was super excited to hear (months and months ago when Michael read an article about it...I wonder if he was scared to share it with me for fear that he would have to go with me, hahaha) that James Cameron was planning to re-release the movie (in 3D no less) for the 100 year anniversary.  I pictured myself going to see it at least a couple times, you know, for old times sake.  And it did almost turn out that way.  When Soph and I went to Birmingham last week, my sister and I were planning on seeing it one night (even though it was just a short trip).  But it was playing pretty late and we were both pretty tired so we ended up skipping out.  I was bummed, but figured that it was ok since I had a girls night planned with Tracey and one of our other friends for the 14th (the night the Titanic sank...cool, right?!) to go and see it.  Well, stupid Atlanta, you suck cause apparently Titanic is only in limited release in the theater all over the city...and the limited release ends on the 12th.  :-(  SO disappointing.  Especially since it only came out on the 4th.  Way to screw your die hard fans, James Cameron (or whoever decided that...I can only hope that he was much more greedy than that and argued it but just lost the argument).  Oh well.  Or so I thought.  I even planned on just being lame and going to the movie on my own.  Hoping the 3D glasses would obscure my identity and that no one would know that I was all alone I guess.  Michael offered to go with me, but it looked like it pained him to even offer and that he could think of about 85 other ways to spend 3 hours of his life.  So I let him off the hook and said that he could just play with Sophia and have some quality Daddy/daughter time.  He seemed relieved.  :-) Then, all of the sudden, more dates opened up.  The 14th was totally an option and on top of that, we found out that there also was a very cool Titanic artifacts display going on in Atlantic Station as well....right next to the movie theater that just released more showings of the movie.  Score!!  Perfect girls night!  Well, more like girls late afternoon that leads into late night...perfect Titanic 100 year anniversary celebration! 
I am always going to love this movie.  It was sort of the Hunger Games/Twilight of the late 90's....except it was about something 100% real, even if the story about Jack and Rose was not real.  (Completely another post, but that is why I can't get into those movies/books...they are about made up/fantasy stuff and those things don't grab me)  I feel like the whole younger generation of kids didn't get to experience the Titanic craze the way I did, which is partly why I wish it was in theaters a bit longer (and ok, also so I could see it a few more times), and maybe that time is over but because the sinking of the Titanic was such a tragic event I guess I just wish there was a bit more focus on it.  A little more fanfare (no, that doesn't seem like the right word....recognition, remembrance...something like that).  Apparently there might be some kind of celebratory stuff going on in Atlantic Station but I haven't heard much leading up to it...there have been a few shows on TV that we have tivoed...not as many as I was expecting though I guess.  I can't wait until Sophia is old enough to watch the movie with me and I can start telling her some of the interesting facts about Titanic.  I know she is too young now....maybe next year??!!
Happy 100 year anniversary Titanic...even if you are at the bottom of the ocean!!! 

Easter Sunday

Usually every Easter we go to brunch at the 1818 Club, the same place that we held our wedding reception.  We skipped one year, the year I was pregnant, I can't remember why, but went to brunch at Mimi's Cafe.  Anyway, brunch, then back to my parents house to relax and play games and stuff with the usual crew.  This year, we all decided to skip out on the pricey (wow, I didn't realize how pricey it actually was at the club....I know it's nice but I can't eat that much food in a week) brunch and went straight to my parents house...with tons of food there of course.  And the usual crew, minus my sister and her family this year.   

The weather was perfect.  All the food was perfect.  The day was just perfect.  It ended up being a relaxed day of hanging out, eating, chatting with everyone, some of the group played basketball, some took a walk, some watched the Masters, the little kids played and played and then had a fun Easter egg hunt (my brother did a great job hiding the eggs), topped off by the usual Trivial Pursuit game (of which I have no idea who won...I wandered off to follow Sophia around halfway through it).  The Easter egg hunt was hilarious.  Since it was outside, it was a tad different from the one we had the day before in our living room.  Sophia wasn't the biggest fan of traipsing through the tallish grass and kept making a beeline for the driveway (where there were no eggs, haha).  Also, we would all kind of corral around an egg and then try to lure her over to it....and finally she would come over and find it and pick it up.  And if she got any grass on her hands I would immediately have to wipe it off.  I guess my girl is a little Miss Priss!!  And she was in no rush at all to find eggs, despite the fact that it was somewhat of a contest (versus only her searching for eggs the previous day).  We spent most of the time just trying to keep her on the task of hunting the eggs!!  Maybe next year she'll be more interested in egg hunts.  But all in all it was a totally perfect Easter.  I got loads of great pictures of Sophia....she had a blast the whole day...I figured we'd just see how the day was going with her not taking a nap.  Well my Mom pushed her stroller on the walk while I stayed behind and when they came back she was out.  I mean, totally passed out.  And she stayed that way for a good couple of hours, through a noisy basketball game and even a bit after my brother and I hefted her heavy stroller into the house and wheeled it right into the living room.  She was one tired girl!  But boy does she love to party.  I'm glad, I love that atmosphere myself so she can be my little party animal sidekick.  :-)  Well, nothing else really to say about the day except how great it was...oh and to post the pictures, of course!!

 Sophia with her Uncle Dillon

 Sophia and Mommy

 Love this one of Sophia and her Daddy!

 Sophia helped Gampa move the car out of the garage...very Britney Spears of my Dad, haha!

 Sophia found an egg...yay!!

 High stepping towards the driveway, haha

 Happy to be out of the grass, haha

 She found a way to egg hunt from the driveway...very clever!

 She didn't mind the pine straw...but wasn't too sure about reaching into that bush for the egg!

Happy girl!  It was a very Happy Easter indeed!! :-) 



Easter Saturday

We decided to have our Easter bunny come on Saturday afternoon this year.  Sophia doesn't really know anyway and since we had originally decided that we were going to go to 9am mass, we knew we wouldn't have time to do the bunny thing in the morning, plus let her play with her stuff, plus get ready for church and get out the door.  So while she napped, we set everything up. 

Last year we went waaaay overboard.  We tried to not do that this year.  Even the larger present in the back we found on sale and also used a 50% coupon we found in a target ad.  I was also very excited to make a Shutterfly book for Sophia about her first trip to Disney....for free!!  We don't give her hardly any chocolate so the plastic eggs and the Elmo heads in her basket are filled with Easter shaped marshmallows...her favorite treat!  Michael found a couple coloring books at the dollar store too...lately she has been loving to color.  Once Sophia finally woke up, she was very excited to see her basket!

Sophia really enjoyed pulling each thing out and checking it out.  She usually wanted it open right away, haha.  And as soon as she figured out the marshmallows were in the eggs...they went right into her mouth!!

Looking at the pictures as I am loading them, it does seem like we still did get her a lot of things...but we really did spend a lot less than we thought we were going to and everything we got was a sale or some special discount in some way.  Guess we do love to spoil our girl though.  :-) 

After she went through her basket, we told her that the Easter bunny had hidden some eggs and she had to find them.  She didn't really understand, haha.  So we led her around the living room and slowly but surely she started to find the little plastic eggs that were sort of hidden and then she realized what was going on and had so much fun on her little egg hunt.  She got so excited when she would find one and then she would immediately open it up to see what prize was inside.  (Sara, thanks for the tip on getting little treats at the dollar store...we found some that were a hit and fit right inside our little eggs!)

I'm so glad we decided to do our Easter bunny fun on Saturday.  It was much more relaxing than trying to rush her through it on Sunday (very early) morning.  She had more fun and got to enjoy it a lot more and we were able to enjoy it with her.  Holidays (weekends or sometimes even regular days for that matter) can feel so rushed sometimes and I liked that we were able to do what we wanted and still get the enjoyment and family time out of it.  I know that eventually she will know that the Easter bunny is supposed to come on Sunday...but while she is young enough we can take advantage that she doesn't know!  





Quick Visit To Birmingham

On Wednesday Sophia and I packed up the car, kissed Michael good-bye and drove to Birmingham for a quick visit to my sister, nephew and brother-in-law.  The main purpose of the trip was Cooper's program that was happening on Thursday morning...but we hadn't seen them in quite a while to hang out and the kids really missed each other.  Michael had to work, since it was in the middle of the week, and unfortunately couldn't go with us.  Dillon was already there, since it was his spring break, and my parents were also going to be there for Coops program. 
I was a little worried about how Sophia would be during the program.  I pictured her running up to him while he was trying to sing or yelling out Cooper-Dooper through the entire thing.  Here she was before the program.....

I put her paci in (which we really only let her have now when she sleeps) thinking that might keep her quiet...turns out I really didn't need to...4 year olds can sing much louder than a one and a half year old can yell to her cousin!  But Soph actually was SO good during the show.  She danced around and sat between me and my sister (who was next to me on the end keeping an eye on her class) and loved the music.  I think she is going to LOVE pre-school.  It was funny to see which kids on the stage I could picture her acting like during a program and which ones I knew she would definitely not be, haha.  Coop did so well!  I took a video of a great song he did but here are some of the cute still shots I got.....

He is definitely not the shy guy he used to be!!  After his program we had a great lunch (while it POURED outside) and then went to look at a couple houses that my sister and bro-in-law are interested in.  I really liked the first one we went to, could see them living there, the back yard was definitely awesome.  I mean, if they can't move to Atlanta, that is.  Jay could always just commute to and from work on the company private jet each day...that would be the best case scenario, but if that isn't an option and they are definitely going to stay in Birmingham for a while then I like the first house we looked at.  :-)  I am sure they will keep looking at houses, since they really just started, but it was fun to join in the house hunting efforts.  Maybe someday soon they will get to join Michael and I in a similar hunt around these parts.  I can sure hope.  :-) 
Later that day we were able to go to a really nice park close to Sara's apartment.  Sophia is so funny when we go to the park.  She likes to climb...but that's about it.  Swings are out, she isn't a fan.  Teeter-totters are a no.  And for some reason, she didn't want Coop do partake in these things either.  So for a while, her and Gamma walked in the giant space of green grass. 

Then my Mom must've been exhausted because they came back!  Aunt Sara-Ow Ow (what Sophia has been calling my sister these days, haha) finally got Sophia on to a swing by pulling her onto her lap and saying weeeee, weeee over and over and Sophia actually liked it! 

The same tactic worked on the teeter-totter.  Grab her and put her on.  My Mom had to be the other side though, hahaha.  Whatever works!  She loved it. 

Since Sophia had been telling Cooper no to most of the things on the playground he had run away to play on his own and was having a great time doing all kinds of fun things.  Apparently so was Grampa!

After a few "races" down the slide (Coop kept saying he won...Sophia didn't care at all or maybe didn't even know they were racing, haha) we mentioned food and Sophia was ready to eat, so we left the park.

After dinner we were all pretty exhausted.  So it seemed like an early night but by the time we got the kids to bed it definitely felt much later.  Plus it had been a long day!  But definitely a fun one.  The next day we let the kids play while we got ready and then had lunch at Cracker Barrel.  After that it was already time to head home.  It was a short trip, but I am very glad we decided to go.  Sophia talks about Cooper-Dooper every single day.  She misses him like crazy.  I'm glad they got to play together, even for a short time, even if she drove him crazy, and I'm glad we will see them in a couple weekends when they come here for more family fun!! :-) 

Strange Encounters

It is always interesting when we take Sophia out...anywhere.  She is not a very shy girl at all and will smile or talk to pretty much anyone.  We will seriously need to work on stranger danger with her.  There is the rare person that she doesn't want anything to do with and will cling to us or whine a bit, but like I said, that is rare.  And there are a lot of people that smile and say hi and wave and talk to her.  I totally appreciate that complete strangers can see how cute my little sweetie pie is (I mean, she is a cutie!) but as if shopping isn't hard enough with a one and half year old, it can be pretty challenging to focus (or get the job done) when well meaning (or just plain weird) strangers feel the need to chat with your child.  Or about your child.  Or about their children. 

Michael and I were at Babies R Us on Saturday afternoon.  We only really had a few things to pick up and decided to just let Sophia walk around and see what she was interested in (plus running up and down the aisles would hopefully tire her out, haha).  We were maybe half way through the store and a very tall dark haired gentleman saw her running away from me and Michael and was like "oh, she's so cute, she reminds me of my boys".  So we said thanks, blah, blah.  Soph stopped and smiled up at him and walked back over to me...at least at this point she does stay somewhat close to me when strangers are around.  We figured he'd just go on his way.  No such luck.  He went on to say he has two twin 22 month old boys and is a stay at home dad.  Ok.  Michael and I kind of looked at each other since we weren't sure where the conversation was going.  The guy asked how old Sophia was and we told him.  Then he handed me a business card for his wife (she was shopping somewhere in the store he let us know) who is a child speech pathologist, just in case we ever needed those services.  Wha???  He said that she works over off Holcomb Bridge and at that point I started to mentally shoot Michael a command to NOT mention that we happen to live near that area.  My ESP worked for the time being, haha.  The guy then goes on to brag about his kids a bit, he taught on the guitar already and the other one the harmonica (Sophia is giving him the side eye by now, ha!) and he can also tell that Sophia is smart...even though she hasn't uttered a peep, not that he has let her, or us for that matter.  He even whipped out his phone and showed us some pictures of his boys, convinced that Sophia looked like one (twins...they both looked the same to me).  Finally he started talking about some park they go to all the time and Michael blew the lid on the general locale of where we live...oops. But it seemed that by that point (I mean, we are talking a good 10 to 15 minutes later...well beyond the typical 'your daughter is cute' stranger chat) he was losing some steam and shook our hands and said bye to Sophia (complete with an I love you....SOOOO weird!!) and moved on....to the restroom.  Guess his bladder couldn't handle any more chit-chat.  Michael and I probably couldn't have handled any more awkwardness. 

We shopped for another good half an hour, not that we needed anything else, but maybe more to avoid any more meet-ups with our new 'buddy'.  And sure enough, we walked out just before him and his wife did and were able to make an escape to our car.  Michael and I both decided it was probably the strangest encounter we'd had so far, brought on by our cute little outgoing Sophia!!  Can't say she had too much to do with this one, though, haha.  And I'm sure this will not be the last of these weird encounters!!