Bonne annee, les amis !

It’s hard to believe another year has passed us by. No big parties for us this year. DPE and I will spend NYE with friends (to me) and family (to him). I’m looking forward to it for several reasons:

1. I found a cute sparkly skirt from that store Aerie. No worries their marketing target is about half my age. See Exhibit A:

I’m also super excited to wear those fabulous Frye boots for the third day in a row (Christmas gift courtesy of DPE.)

2. We’ll be eating well this evening starting off with the below meat and cheese plate:

Meat and cheese appetizer

For tonight, we chose a simple mozzarella, a tangy goat cheese, a creamy St. Albray and some nice salty prosciutto.

3. We’ll spend the majority of our evening at Brewer’s Art, a restaurant and bar that has the most gorgeous chandelier in the dining room. No pictures on the website, but will post tomorrow!

I hope you and yours have some nice plans that fit you just right for tonight! Have fun, be safe and see you all in 2012! Meilleurs voeux, les amis.

Les Amies

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Cinnamon whiskey

Happy Monday almost-being-over! Last weekend was mostly relaxing apart from a not-too-late night out. Drinks I love include: red wines, mostly Malbecs and Burgundies; white wines, mostly Sauvignon Blanc; vodka soda with limes. Drinks I do NOT love include: any dark liquors whatsoever. After a couple vodka sodas with friends this past Saturday, I was convinced into tasting the below whiskey:

As I held the drink up to my lips, I winced and grimaced in fear in what tastes awaited me. After tasting, I found myself entirely shocked at the pleasant, cinnamon-y taste that overtook my senses. As claims the label, it was yummily reminiscent of those fireballs we all used to eat when we were tikes. No matter your feelings for whiskey, try this! I promise it will be enjoyable. Stay tuned for a list of our favorite holiday (or any time) wines and party drinks. Sante, les amis !

Amazing snowflakes

Incredible snow shot

All I can say about this week is that I am glad it is over. Overly antsy students looking forward to winter break make for unhappy and exasperated teachers. Here’s to our four day week next week going smoothly and off without a hitch. I did nothing this week except sleep some restless winks, huff about my day to poor DPE (whilst he was sick thanks to me) and complete my work duties. I have never been so happy to come home, admire the Christmas tree and (out of the ordinary for me) watch Dr Phil. Not overly interested in Dr. Phil, I found myself perusing Pinterest and then moved on to my fave blogs. Let me tell you, I could not believe these incredible images I found on the Anthology Magazine blog. They are truly amazing – real-life snow flakes that, when magnified who knows how many thousands (millions?) of times look just like those we used to make in grade school. Hope you enjoy as much as I did. TGIF, friends. And, as Ellen reminds me daily: Be kind to each other!

DPE and I had a great weekend prepping for the holidays. He likes to pretend like he is a Grimpus (Santa’s Mr. Hyde); however, he is as cheesy as I about the tree, surprises, Christmas cookies the whole shebang if you will. I shared a bit about our shopping on Saturday, but to start off your week, take a peek at the surprise that awaited us at Stop #2 for extra Christmas lights:

As we entered Watson’s nursery on York Road (for an extra guirlande of Christmas lights), I noticed an oddly out of place outdoorsy smell (even for a nursery, friends). As we turned the corner, we happened upon these sweet alpacas, calmly chewing their straw whilst observing Mary and Joseph doting on the Baby Jesus at  the Nativity. Amusing and unexpected. The perfect artsdevivre moment!

Gift ideas for little ones

Today was the official start of my holiday shopping. Lists have become shorter in the past couple of years, as my family draws one name in an effort to de-materialize the season a bit. For fear of revealing surprises, I can’t say precisely what I purchased; however, my niece is but ten months young, so I felt I had to share this sweet set of alphabet blocks with you:

Old-fashioned wooden blocks

My mother suggested them months ago as the perfect gift for my favorite (and only ) niece. As you can see, they are colorful, easy to hold and a great way to begin letter recognition. As you cannot see, they are affordable and have French vocabulary on them. I can’t wait for FRH to start using them and share some artsdevivre moments.

The rest of the shopping day cannot be revealed; however, DPE and I had fun browsing through shops like aMuse, where I could hardly resist these keys-for-babies:

Baby friendly keys

. We also wandered through 10,000 Villages and Su Casa, holder of some fabulous Paris wall art that I have not yet managed to hunt down online. I left Fells Point feeling a bit accomplished and knew I was really meant to be productive when I pulled up to the area generic mall and proceeded directly into a parking spot front row, adjacent to the Nordstrom entrance. As I finish this entry, I’m about half way done with my shopping, and looking forward to hunting down the rest of my treasures to share with family, friends and others.

Home on vacation

Last week was a brutal one, so Thanksgiving vacation already seems eons ago. Vacation was packed full of wedding celebrations, qt with family and friends and of course lots of cooking, for our family and others. Whilst taking a break one day, I looked to the wall and was so tickled by this shadow

 

of my cat Lily, the window pane and sketchy almost-winter tree branches perfectly reflected on my living room wall. What a sweet and peaceful picture, no? I savored the moment with my earlier-than-normal glass of red wine (when on vacation…) and enjoyed actually being able to enjoy my sunny and cozy home during the day. Here’s to another break in just a couple weeks!