Tease!

Just a lil tease…

stay tuned for upcoming blog posts about:

• Adventures in traveling
• Fooooooood
• Dating
• Tuesday thoughts
• Small triumphs

I know, the suspense is torture 🙂

 

A (Marketing) Dream Come True!

Ahhhh, that moment when one of your dreams (personal or professional) comes true!  I’ve had a LOT of great things happen in my life (and yes, I’ve also had a lot of really really really crappy things happen). This week, add another great thing to my list!

Back-story: for the last 3 or 4 years, I have to admit…I watch The Bachelor/The Bachelorette on Monday nights.  For a few reasons:

1) It’s cheaper than therapy.  Just when I get down on myself or sad, I watch the show and think ‘nah, I’m good.  REALLY good,”

2) I would meet up with a dear friend and we would swap stories, eat yummy food and drink a few bottles of wine.

3) Particularly, over the last year, I came to know that @HuffPostWomen would do a recap on Tuesdays featuring various tweets about the show. 

Enter my goal – to have one of my tweets about The Bachelor/The Bachelorette included in that roundup.

Ladies and gents, Tuesday 1/14/14, the day one of my tweets was featured!  Not only that, but my twitter handle was included in the first 5. MAJOR.

You can read it here 🙂 Or for your viewing pleasure…

 

Now, on to my next dream (get one of the celeb crushes I follow on Twitter to notice me….oh wait, that may be in progress). Stay tuned!

A Little (or a LOT) London Love

First, I must apologize for the delay (ahem, 2 months late) for this post.

Second, I’ll try not to bore you with all the fun I had and make you jealous.

I recently had to go to London for a work conference.  Granted, I had been to the great city 10 years ago. Albeit for only a weekend as a poor college student studying abroad.  However, now that I was going for a work gig (hello – dream come true!) and I had (some) money, I decided to extend my trip and enjoy some personal time.  Well, personal time turned into my mother and Aunt joining.  In efforts to keep you interested – unless you would like to see my 4 page Microsoft Word spread sheet itinerary –  I will do just the top 10 highlights of my trip:

10. Sightseeing!  There are so many wonderful things to see in London.  Upon landing, all jet-lagged, I opted to do the double-decker tour bus.  Really, it’s a fabulous way to acclimate yourself around the city and it allows you to see every tourist sight you could imagine (and then some).  I had purchased tickets ahead of our trip from The Original Tour.  I swear, I could have spent 3 days just taking advantage of everything they offer. I highly recommend this company.  And to prove of everything we saw, here are some photos:

Big Ben and Parliament

Westminster Abbey

London Bridge/Tower Bridge (technically, London Bridget isn’t fancy, it’s the Tower Bridge that is iconic)

and Crown Jewels (we couldn’t take pics of the Jewels so I got this guard outside instead)

London Eye

Red phone booths

Kensington

 

9. Afternoon tea! I’m Italian, so coffee runs through my veins.  But, while in Britain…do as the Brits do and indulge in afternoon tea.  I opted to go big and fancy (and pricey!) at Brown’s Hotel. It. Was. Worth it.  Never ending finger sandwiches and desserts and who would have thunk, that I’d enjoy some white tea.  I highly recommend it (see what I did there, HIGH…tea…)

8. Dirty Dancing! Musicals are not in my top 10 things to see and do, but we were staying in the theatre district in London.  Surprisingly, the one show that my mom, Aunt and I all wanted to see: Dirty Dancing.  PHENOMENAL.  Plus, there were drinks.

7. Day trip to Brussels! I had originally intended on doing some sort of day trip.  We considered Bathe and Stonehenge – both about 2 hours away.  Also, Paris.  Granted….going to Paris is practically on everyone’s dream list, buttttt I’ve visited. Twice. So the next foreign country within 2 hours – BRUSSELS.  I hadn’t heard much about it – that could be good or bad.  I thought – beer, chocolate and waffles. Count me in.  I wasn’t necessarily disappointed, but I won’t make a special trip back to visit.

6. Buckingham! Our hotel was literally a mile down ‘the mall’ (it’s just a really long road).  There weren’t any tours available to go inside, so we had to settle for admiring from passing by.  And I passed by – twice daily – to and from my work conference. Here are some snapshots:

5. Changing of the Guards! While at Buckingham, of course we had to see the Changing of the Guards.  It was a lot longer than I recall from 10 years ago, but we lucked out and got front row seats!

That, that would be a horse’s ass.  The bobby on horse patrol was working.  Like I said, we had front row seats!

*There was a little incident the day before (some random guy with a gun tried to enter…) so security was intense!

4. Food! I didn’t remember the food being all that wonderful.  Not to mention, after living and visiting Italy I knew what good food was.  Surprisingly, it was alllll good!  I actually even really liked the Italian food from a local chain, called Prezzo. Convenient too since it was located directly across the street from. We also found an adorable cafe within immediate walking distance called Embankment Cafe. Cute, good food (and coffee!), and affordable.

 

Also stumbled upon a typical British pub near the hotel – The Sherlock Holmes. The door men and service was great, fish and chips and even a scene dedicated to Sherlock Holmes!

3. The Hotel!  The work conference was being held at the swanky London Hilton on Park Lane.  We did have the work conference discount but we opted to stay elsewhere.  At Club Quarters Trafalgar Square.  Awesome location, nice rooms, affordable, secure.  Can’t complain!

Views from our room!  That folks is Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column

 

2. Shopping! I wish I had more time do SHOP!  Even the grocery stores are awesome-sauce.  Of course I went into vacation mode and hit up the souvenir shops – where I got my now favorite sweatshirt and tshirt. Perhaps the greatest discovery: TK Maxx.  So we have TJ Maxx in USA and TK Maxx in Europe.  What’s next…TL Maxx?

1. David Cameron! And the number one experience (random at that) was seeing the Prime Minister!  Upon returning from a work reception, we exit the black car and see black private town cars and about 4 police officers standing outside.  Of course my instinct was that something had happened.  I ask if it is ok to enter the hotel and one female officer said

“oh absolutely.  You are in the safest part of London right now.”

Me: “oh, why is that?”

Her: “The Bravery Awards are going on right now – 300 officers from across Britain are being honored.”

Me: ” Um, what are the Bravery Awards?”

Her: “Exactly what it sounds like – example: a cop ran into a burning building to save a family.”

Me: “oooohhhh.”

Her: “And the Prime Minister is in there as well.”

My Coworker: “Oh Laura, you should go flirt with him!”

Her: “I’m not sure Mrs. Cameron would appreciate that very much.”

Me: (bows head in embarrassment) “Great ok let’s go in and have a drink now!”

So I made my mother and Aunt indulge in a drink in the hotel bar while I casually (ok that’s a complete understatement) awaited for Mr. Cameron to exit.  My mom thought I would be arrested for stalking but I just said I’m being American.  Boom, after 30 minutes he walks out, hastily, but I was ready with my cell.  Here is the half blurry photo from the unexpected spotting of the Prime Minister!

*That’s my Aunt Janet’s right eye.

After the whirlwind experience, I was sad to leave.  London, you now have a special place in my heart.  Who wants to buy me a plane ticket to go back? Or better yet, Prince Harry….call me!

Mani-Monday (and bonus pedi)

It’s my final mani (and pedi) of 2013!

Here’s my understated holiday-ness:

Cherry red nails with gold chevron accent (this goes well with my NYE dress).

For my toes… Silver with black French tips. A subtle twist on a classic design.

So grab your nail polish bottles and get ready to paint your 2014!

Tuesday Thoughts

Tuesdays are…blah.  It’s the day after Monday blues yet still have 3 more days until the weekend.  Sigh. I’m going to force myself to post every Tuesday – of my random thoughts.  Without further ado….

• If there is ‘Elf on the Shelf’ for kids, then I’m suggesting the adult version: ‘Liquor on the Shelf’
• We have heaters in cars, heated blankets, even heated mugs…then why, I ask, aren’t there heated jackets/coats?  If there are, I haven’t seen them!  I live in Chicago.  It’s friggin cold. Come on people, it’s an invention based out of necessity. 
• Copper Mugs for Moscow Mules – why are they so gosh darn expensive? 

And with that, my friends, are my Tuesday Thoughts

Mani-Monday (and bonus Holiday pedi)

It’s mani (and pedi) time!

It’s the season, so to get a lil festive (and trust me, this is a lot for me… Just call me Miss Scrooge), I opted to do some Santa on my toes!
Red base, some white lines, black belt and silver belt buckle. If you can paint straight lines, you can go this!

As for my mani, I had 4 varying shades of shimmering golds/browns/bronzes. A quick nude base coat, a makeup sponge and quick application… Ta-da!

Mani-Monday

Well, now that Dancing with the Stars is over (don’t EVEN get me started on Derek), I have more free time to spend on this here bloggy thing. Just until the next season of The Bachelor begins….oh Juan 🙂

I digress.

This week for my handy-dandy mani (see what I did there!) is rather simple since I was returning from the holiday weekend. Just a base coat of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in ‘Commander In Chic’ which is a twist of grey/mauve. Now of course I didn’t stop there…oh no. TIS THE SEASON FOR MAGICAL MANIS (sense my excitement).

Glitter tips…oh yes.

Not the french-mani glitter tips, and not the 4th grade glitter nail polish. Oh no. I’m *cough* 30 something and use adult glitter polishes. Like this one from Ulta (Chic Peek…and the name BE any awesomer?!)

Taaaaaa-daaaaa! Enjoy and happy polishing

Mani-Monday!

It’s my weekly ritual… Watching Dancing with the Stars and giving myself a mani. (Don’t judge…. Ok, ok… judge away)

This week I opted for an appropriate dark maroon color, but for a lil WOWSA factor, painted one nail gold with a thin cross. Subtle. Sexy. Cool.

Enjoy and go eat some turkey and taters and pie!

Mani-Monday

Good-day folks! It’s been a while, I’m crazy busy… Which means I’ll have at least 4 blog posts to be writing! Alas, I’ve painted my nails. So let me present to you this week’s mani:

Two-tone green French mani (say that 3 times fast!) as you can see, the base coat is a fresh, minty green… Accented with a bright, Gumby-like green tip. Not exactly fallish, but I like to break stereotypes.

Enjoy…

October is SIDS awareness month

Strength – you never know how strong you are until strong is all that you can be.

We’ve all dealt with unfortunate situations (and trust me, I’ve had my fair share in 2009 – that’s a separate blog post to come). One of my best friends growing up – from preschool through high school graduation – Ashley, had to endure the pain that comes with losing a child. In January 2013, her precious sweet baby Aden passed away.

Flash forward to October 5th, 2013 and her strength helped co-planned the area’s first annual 5k run and walk for SIDS Awareness with the help of SIDS of Illinois. About 300 supporters showed up to participate, raise awareness and honor the memory of those who are no longer with us due to SIDS. Here is an article, from the area newspaper recapping the event.

I urge you all to:

• Follow SIDS of Illinois on twitter: @SIDSofIllinois
• Like their facebook page: SIDS of Illinois (Safe Sleep)
• Donate, spread the word, support and volunteer at SIDS events

On a lighter note, there was this mini car that as a grown woman decided to try to fit in…yes, that would be me. My only question was “where are the cup holders”!

Also, it was held at my high school. I probably haven’t been back since I graduated. Shhhh, let’s just keep that year a secret for now! Shout out to Hall High School.

Here is a photo of Ashley with her husband, her son Owen, and baby on-the-way 🙂

Always in our hearts, in memory of Aden.