Paris, the USMC Dog

For those of you that don't already know my hubby has a USMC background. We've recently found that our doggle, Paris likes the USMC too. One of the chants that's often associated with the USMC is OOH-RAH. To see how the Marines do it go here .

Now, let's see Miss Paris do her best impression.

You know it's hilarious! Got to love my little doggle.

I'm sure your all also wondering why we haven't posted house pictures yet, promise I will soon but it must be perfect before pictures can be taken! Look for updates in the next few weeks.

xoxo

Hey Pier 1, You Really Pissed Me Off.

Well, we're in the house, at least all of the boxes are. We got the last bit of items out of the condo earlier today and are officially completely in our new home. It's a good feeling except for the fact that boxes are everywhere. I don't feel like we are getting too far with the decor aspect either. This may not be to "womanly"of me but i despise decorating and shopping for the house. Maybe it's because we aren't having great luck, you should see the pile of returns we have to Home Depot.

One thing that has gone semi-okay was the purchase of some chairs for our living room. I found this beauty at Pier 1.

It honestly looks 10000x better in person, it's a burnt orange color which will look killer in our living room. I really wanted two of them since I'm the queen of being cohesive, but hubby insisted on getting another chair with an ottoman {as i refuse to purchase a recliner}. So, we found this one also from Pier 1 in a color called Cinnabar which is the perfect match for the other burnt orange in the chair we loved- and comes with an ottoman.. or so we thought!

Here's where things went south. The girl helping us at Pier 1 didn't check stock in the system. While we already knew it wasn't in the store and would have to be ordered, the chair and ottoman were discontinued. We managed to get the chair, but no ottoman. So here I sit on a Saturday night calling Pier 1 stores around the country in search of the damn ottoman. This sucks! Looks like we may get a leather one that matches the color of the couch.

We're Home!

We FINALLY closed on our house :) I'm going to be taking a blogging break until we're all moved in.. so hopefully just until this weekend!

Don't worry, Miss Ginger & Paris are doing their help with packing!

xoxo

Things That Scare The Crap Out of Me!

I'm sure by reading this title, your thinking it's going to be the basics like death, fires and nightmare on elm street movies. You may think of me a little differently after reading these, but it's the truth! These are the top
4 things that scare me shit less that the normal person wouldn't even think twice when they saw.

1.

Tellebubbies.. Horrifying



 2.

I STILL can't watch this movie. 



 3.

I always cried during the parts with the Monkeys

 4.

I forced my mother to fast forward EVERY time I watched these cats.

Yikes!

My husband just reminded me that I haven't blogged lately, what a stalker! Just kidding, love you Justin <3 I must say, we finally have our closing date on Tuesday {I'm doing back flips!}. We've been busy attempting to pack and to find chairs.

The ones I posted from World Market were a huge FAIL. Any of the ones I found were discontinued. Major bummer. We spent today shopping around to find nothing.

Ordering online scares me. Not really in regards to clothing, but furniture- YIKES. Thankfully Overstock has amazing customer service and a killer return policy. I ended up finding these little beauties and I think they will match beautifully.

We only ordered one set, because then if I do hate them, I won't have to ship back all of them. I'll keep you posted on a review once the arrive. I must say I'm beyond excited I could type in our new address for them to be shipped!

Next decor stop, finding bath mats and towels for our master bedroom! Any recommendations?

Back to eating junk food and packing. XO

Let's Decorate!

Let's celebrate our Tuesday closing with a little decor! FINALLY, this process is almost over. I've been on the hunt for a table and chairs, and found one at a wholesale furniture place in mt. pleasant. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it, because it was in a catalog. That's the other problem- you order it, you get it, you hate it- too bad. I just can't fathom that thought of being stuck with something I hate. For my poor husband's sake, I've kept looking.

I found this fabulous contemporary piece at a fabulous little furniture store The Sitting Room in Mt. Pleasant. It's even on SALE! Whoop. I will say, the picture doesn't do much justice because the base looks huge, but it's really, really fabulous in person!

It's an espresso food finish and will look fantastic with anything you put with it, including fun chairs! To start, I'm going to get 4 nice leather ones. I found these at World Market , again on SALE! The actual chairs are a little darker in the legs and doesn't have the rolled back, but you get the idea.

I'm thinking I'll then do a few upholstered ones to throw in the mix in a more fun color since we're keeping the walls pretty neutral. The table seats a total of 8, but I'll probably just do 6 for the time being.

Hubby must approve, so he's going to swing by tomorrow.  I'll keep you posted. What do you think? Too modern or just perfect? The good thing is, we won't have anything we really need to match it with..

Things I'm Loving

Let's talk about something other then my new home {or soon to be new place}. This entire process is so draining, I can think of a million other things to do {that I hate} and would take over this process.

So let's take a breather, here are a few things I'm loving at the moment.

Smoke Room Polish from Ulta

Refresh Tea from Starbucks it's minty and delicious

Charleston Junior League Cookbook, this little beauty is crammed with every southern deliciousness recipe out there. I'm a proud new "provisional" member and excited to start testing some of the recipes out {after all I'm a southern wanna-be} Get your copy here Cooking In The South it's way reasonably priced and makes a great gift for yourself or the impossible to shop for. Keep reading and you'll see some tested recipes on this blog.

These little lovelies make life so much easier. Want to eat healthy and don't have tons of time on your hands? Smack on the grill mates to a piece of chicken and pop on the grill on in the oven, delicious and EASY!

Sucker For Sparkle

Obviously. I'm a sucker for sparkle. Last night, I watched bits and pieces of the Golden Globes to check out the gowns, but was actually drawn away from them to look at this year's set. It was all sparkle! If I could use this as an inspiration board for my home, I would. It rocks!

I found some deets from Sacbee to share with you all:
They used 30k crystals in decor {swoon!}
The production of this set was inspired by the ballroom's signature chandeliers

Crystals even hung overhead to create a 360 sparkle.



Dear Brian Stonestreet, would you like to come interior design my home?

Ode To The Hair

You'll soon understand my deal with hair. I change it, often. Cut, color, style. I get bored easily. Here's an ode to the hairstyles and colors I've had since 2006 up to my most recent.

December 2006

November 2007

January 2008

May 2008

October 2008

April 2009

October 2009

May 2010

December 2010

January 2011

So, do you think I'm crazy? What's your favorite? 

Time For A Change

So many things in my life are changing, I figured what else could I do? I'm a spontaneous person. Last night I had the idea to change up my look. For those of you that don't know, my grandmother was a hair dresser. I've had every single cut & color EVER. I'm so not like my Mother at all, as it's rare she took advantage of the fact that she could have the latest color and style whenever she wanted- I on the other had took complete advantage.

First thing this morning I called my fabulous stylist Michael at A Stuart Lawrence Salon to see if he had any openings for today, tomorrow or Saturday. Luckily I'm in today at 4 :)

Here's my color inspiration.



Cut yet TBD. I guess we'll just say, it's up to Michael. I suppose we'll do a "before" with the most recent picture I have with my hair actually styled & down.

Welcome to my spontaneous life / what I do when I'm stressed. Perhaps tomorrow I'll do a photo montage of my different looks + my new look for 2011.

Until then. xoxo

I Have A Sweet Tooth

The more you follow this, the more you will realize I have the biggest sweet tooth ever. Occasionally I'll get the urge to make something spur of the moment. Lucky for you, I'll post these recipes and they are easy & unplanned, with items normally found in your kitchen {or mine}

Let's call this one Nutell-amazing

What you'll need:
Puff Pastry Shells {frozen}
Raspberry Jelly or Preserves {seedless}
Nutella

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place Puff Pastry Shells on Baking Sheet and Bake for 20-25 Minutes {I baked for 22}
Remove from oven and let sit for 2 minutes

Remove "tops" of pastry shell.

Use one teaspoon raspberry jelly to fill in cup.

In the meantime, heat two tablespoons Nutella in sauce pan. Once smooth, spoon out and layer on top of Raspberry Jelly.

Place "top" back on Pastry & Drizzle with extra Nutella. Pour yourself a nice glass of bubbles too, you deserve it!

Enjoy. I'm Francesca: the daughter of a chef, I'm obsessed with Nutella & Champagne, & I rock at life.

It's been stressful.

I'm beyond stressed out right now. Work is insane, plus the whole "waiting" game for the house is making  me insane!

Right at my breaking point I signed on to facebook to bitch about my awful day, and there it popped up. Fan of the Week!

This is why I love my hubby. He wrote to Dunkin Donuts to be fan of the week because that's how we met. Justin, if you're actually reading this.. Thank you for making my day. I love you! xoxo

The Search Continues..

I can't find a shower curtain that I'm quite as obsessed with. Pathetic, I know. I'm blogging day 3 about shower curtains. I guess it's the only thing that's getting me through the stress of the mortgage process. Fingers crossed, we're suppose to close next week {but we're still waiting on the date!}.

Here are the new contenders, with keeping the same color palate of Plum on the walls and Grey bath accessories. Both i found at Urban Outfitters.

or



What do you think? Or do you think I'm just crazy?!

Bed Bath & Beyond LIES!

I'm so annoyed. I finally came up with a color scheme based upon the shower curtain I found, and loved!

I went into Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase today so I could start color swatches for paint and hunting for bath mats and towels in the grey color I thought was the perfect combination, and the color ISN'T grey. It's tan. WTF?! Doesn't that look grey to you, or am I color blind?

I suppose worst case scenario I could get this curtain and add grey accents, but I now officially feel like I need to get on the hunt to find a plum and grey accented shower curtain. Any ideas where to look?!