Murfee + Originals

Just posted on the Lilly website. Such a great deal, I thought I would share! Ideal for a Mother's Day present, or if you are still needing a Murfee for yourself!

Digging In The Dirt

All of my flowerbeds have been in need of lots of TLC. My Mimi came a couple of weeks ago to help me weed everything, which was a huge task! It all started with two ferns yesterday, then Mom and I headed to a nursery this morning and came home with a car load. We bought geraniums, marigolds, petunias, lantanas, and so many other flowers that I cannot name them all. The front porch is completely finished and looks very nice. The flowerbed by the back gate is finished in my opinion, but Mom doesn't agree. The huge flowerbed that backs the pool looks ten times better, but still needs a few more plants. Everyone agrees that it all looks very nice!

Of course Ivy felt the need to come inspect all of my work after I was finished. Actually I will say almost finished, because I still have to have everything mulched. Last year she was on top of me as I planted all of the flowers and shrubs.

On the front porch I planted dark red geraniums and airplane plants in the four planters leading up to the front door. Two huge ferns will flank the front door.

Deep purple petunias.

Tomorrow I will finally get all of my veggies into my garden!

Smellin' Sweet

When all of the flowers begin to bloom in the springtime, one of my favorite things to do is to pick and smell their sweet blossoms. I am a flower girl. If Bryan picks a wildflower from the side of the road, it means just as much to me as a beautiful arrangement from the florist. Aside from breathing in the pollen, I love the smells of spring.

In college, I was never much of a perfume-wearer. Occasionally I would use a spray of my roommate's this or that, but never thought much about it. I think Emily got me into perfume. (Emily tends to get me into a lot of my habits!) Here are three of my favorites.

A good twist from Chanel No.9, Chanel Chance is much easier to wear on a

day-to-day basis with its light aroma.

Burberry. Original. Classic. I have more Burberry perfumes than any other. This one is my all-time, go-to classic perfume. Before getting married, I read an article about how important scents are, especially on your wedding day. A bride is always her most beautiful on her wedding day, and all little girls want to be her. The article went on to say that at least one little girl who leaned in for a hug from the bride would remember the radiant white dress and scent she smelled while gazing up with eyes as wide as the moon. I wore this on my wedding day.

Miss Dior Cherie is my most recent favorite perfume. Such a sweet smelling smell that makes me purely happy and in a cheery mood!

With spring in the air, there is no better time to start smellin' sweet!

Nautical News

L-O-V-E all of the nautical clothing that I am finding right now. Don't want too much of it, or a wardrobe that screams it, but a little here and a little there is just right. I don't have a picture of it, but last week I wore a super cute "Nautical Outfit." Some white flowy pants from Scarlett, navy 3/4 sweater with little anchor buttons on one arm from Beyond Cotton, gold sandals and a gold sand star necklace that belongs to my mom. Might not sound like anything fabulous, but I liked it. Oh, and I did give in and buy some J.Crew "critters" shorts that are yellow with navy anchors. Below are some of the cute things I've seen lately.

Since it is classic, I will start with Chanel.
B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

Adorable dress and shoes-great combo!

Must-have earrings. I could use these to spice up any outfit!

Adorable shoes. All I can say.

What I really like about this necklace from Anthropologie is that it is not blue and white or red and white. Such a variety of colors that make it very versatile!

Milly dress. I think it is from Saks, or Neimans. You can never go wrong with Milly.

Another cute set of earrings. Marc Jacobs. He does a great job at things nautical.

If you're going to do nautical, you must have a straw bag or clutch in there somewhere. This Tory Burch bag is a summer staple.

Rolled up jeans, striped shirt and flats equal a comfy, cozy nautical look!

Happy sailing!

Lilly Animal Crackers

Nabisco partnered with Lilly Pulitzer to transform their traditional Barnum's Animal cracker boxes into fun, preppy boxes in support of a good cause. In honor of 2010, the Year of the Tiger, Nabisco will donate $100,000 to the World Wildlife Fund, which supports tiger conservation. One million of these special edition boxes have been produced. They started hitting stores in late March, and will be available though the end of April (all depending on how quickly they sell out).

I have been searching for these high and low ever since I learned of their arrival in stores. I found them for sale online, but shipping was $12!! I never go down the cookie aisle in Wal-Mart, but I had to get Vanilla Wafers to put in banana pudding, and just happened to stumble upon them!! Very excited, I grabbed some for myself, for Emily, for my mom....for a few friends....then looked to the shelf and decided to be THAT GIRL and hoard them ALL into my cart!! I will not tell you how many I bought, but I will let you know that I got every last Barnum's Animal Crackers, Lilly Pulitzer edition that my store had to offer.

Barbie In Tibi

Last year Mattel celebrated 50 years of a global fashion icon...Barbie! At NYC Fashion Week they collaborated with 50 designers to put on a full-out runway show. I randomly stumbled across some pictures from this event earlier today. Of course we all know how fashion-forward Barbie has always been, so I was not surprised at all to see Tibi among her wardrobe! Looking stylishly chic, here is a picture that Tibi recently posted of Barbie wearing an ensemble of their designs. I am a fan of anyone who is a fan of Tibi...not that I have ever not been a fan of Barbie, but this just gives her an even higher boost up in my book!

Forks, Knives and Spoons, Oh My!

So many things have happened in the past week, and I haven't had a chance to blog about any of them! Most importantly, my parents came home!!! We had not seen them in eight months-the longest they have been gone. We are so glad they are here!!!

Back up to last Thursday. Bryan and I had Friday off for Good Friday, so we decided to go camping. Our new tent arrived on Wednesday and we were "good to go," or so we thought. Here is a picture of Ivy, very proud of her new tent.



We arrived at our destination late afternoon, got the tent set up, and headed out to fly fish for trout. Bryan had never fly fished prior to knowing me. I was the one who bought him his first rod, waders, boots, etc. I am the one who used to get to skip school on my birthday when I was little to fly fish. I am the one who has fly fished in Colorado multiple times. Do you notice that I am the one between the two of us who has all grand knowledge about this sport? I'm not sure at what point in the past couple of years the transition has happened, but I'm afraid to admit that I am no longer the expert. No matter what I did on Thursday I could not catch a fish. We would switch rods and Bryan would catch a fish with the rod that I had been using in the same spot. He would catch a fish with a certain fly, I would switch to that fly and I would not get a bite. You get the drift. Norman Maclean's quote about his father from "A River Runs Though It" sums up the way I felt after a while. "If our father had had his way, nobody who did not know how to fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching it." I was very out of practice and very frustrated and felt that I did not deserve to catch a trout. Very frustrated, tired and moody, we quit fishing around dark. I will not bore you with the rest of the painful story, but will merely make a few notations of the trip that we realized throughout the course of the rest of the night and next morning.

**We had no light, lamp, lantern, flashlight, nothing to see with except Bryan's headlamp
**We had no forks, spoons or knives except for Bryan's Gerber tool knife
**We had no water to drink or use except one Nalgene bottle
**Only two plastic wine glasses and a bottle of wine to drink
**Bryan had no Therm-a-rest
**We had no spatula to use to cook
**No paper to start a fire (this was really a no-biggie since Bryan is the expert fire builder and needs no paper)
**No coat hangers to use to roast my marshmallows for s'mores
**Luckily I am married to an Eagle Scout who is very resourceful and made chopsticks for use to use in place of forks and even a slightly larger "spatula" (both were made from what I think of as switches--got lots of spankings from those)
**The propane cooker which we received as a wedding gift would be thrown away if it were up to me. Supposedly it was this "really nice" thing that had two burners and a grill that could be used at the same time. WRONG. It took 30 min for the Gerber-cut potatoes to even start to feel warm and the bacon we cooked for breakfast too so long that it was hard. Burner and grill cannot be on at the same time. I finally wrapped the potatoes in foil and set them on coals in our campfire. Please note that the stupid thing wouldn't cook anything in less than two hours, except it did burn the toast that I put on top of it for a whole 20 seconds.
**We awoke to rain
**Nothing to put into my coffee at breakfast the next morning except for marshmallows and chocolate, which were both placed in the bottom of my plastic wine glass
**The water for the coffee took about an hour to heat up on our fancy propane cooker

You get the drift. I did end up catching trout on Saturday and somewhat convinced myself that I deserved to catch them. Even though I can be slightly moody when things don't go the right way, the trip as a whole wasn't too bad and we had fun.

After I finish typing this I will finish up gathering all of our gear for our second camping trip. Tonight. Woo hoo!

Months ago, mostly as a joke, Bryan entered my name in the turkey draw with the Arkansas Game and Fish to hunt on WMA land. Lucky me, I was the only one out of everyone he and his brother know that got their name drawn! Tomorrow, opening day of turkey season, I will be in prime location to knock one of those gobbler's heads off. Just a couple of notes about this adventure.

**Bryan called me on the way home from work a couple of weeks ago. Said he got me a surprise. Have I ever said that I LOVE surprise gifts? Should have known not to get too excited when I knew the only place he had gone was to Wal-Mart. He bought a turkey seat for me.
**Yesterday he called and said he had gotten me another surprise. Still LOVING surprise gifts I got excited. A pair of olive green mucky yucky knee boots. I noted that I had a pair of "farm" rain boots (medallion ones from Ballard Designs)--not good enough to use for turkey hunting. I commented to my mother that I supposed it was probably a good idea that I got some plain green ones to use because the turkeys wouldn't be that impressed with my Burberry rain boots or that I could wear a matching scarf. She howled in laughter at that.
**I will note that I am an excellent shot. Hannie Oakley. The only way I will come home without a turkey is if my husband doesn't call one in for me.

-Gobble Gobble!!!