Friday FIVE

Can you believe it??  I am actually posting twice in 1 week!  I promise I will keep at it.  This week has been a roller coaster, but the weekend has finally arrived and I am hoping it brings some much needed peace and sleep!

My 5 are all over the place which pretty much sums up my week!

1.  Easter Baskets, or should I say Backpacks
Each year Mini K's school "adopts" kids for Easter.  We always try to choose a child that is the same age as Mini K.  This year we actually found a 7 year old girl and Mini K and I had the BEST time shopping, packing and wrapping the backpack.  We filled it with candy, a stuffed lamb, school supplies and fun little toys.  We hope she enjoys it half as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

2.  Candy Grams
I have loved these since I was in high school and I think I have successfully passed that love onto Mini K.  Today her class celebrated her teacher's birthday and we had to make a candy gram!  If you haven't made one, you need to change that this year!

3.  Crossing Things Off My List
I have been waiting 3 weeks to hang our drapery rod in the living room.  For 3 weeks, I have seen the item on my list and been itching to cross it off, but my schedule has been insane and I haven't been able to be home to tell our contractor where to hang the rod and Mr. G has been out of town so he couldn't hang it for me.  Well today, the stars aligned and not only is the rod up, but so are my draperies!  That item on my list now has a kelly green Sharpie line right through it!

4.  Summer.
Or the thought of summer.  Okay, let's be honest, I would settle for spring at this point.  The high tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 30's.  I am praying global warming arrives or people stop claiming that just because Virginia is below the Mason Dixon line it is the south as the weather feels more like Boston.

5.  A Gel Like Manicure
I love that a gel manicure lasts 3 weeks.  I do NOT like that I have to soak it off and my nails feel weak afterwards.  About a year ago I joined the Julep Maven club and have loved every SINGLE box.  I tried Birch Box and wasn't impressed...everything was sample sized, it was all over the map and it just wasn't me.  Maven is great, you can select your profile, change it monthly if you want and you receive FULL SIZED polishes and beauty products...at least 3 in every box.  The boxes cost $19.99 a month, but you can get your first box for FREE when you join HERE and enter in code: FREEBOX One of their newest products is the Polymer Top Coat.  You simply apply your favorite polish and then this topcoat and wait 5 minutes.  It dries your nails completely to a gel manicure shine and strength.  I am HOOKED.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you do the Friday FIVE as I want to pop over and check it out!

Happy Friday!

Wednesday Wants

***UPDATE***  So I thought I had scheduled this to post at 8p.m. and realized, I had entered the WRONG date so better late than never!

I disappeared again.  Life has been insane between spring sports starting for the kids (yes Baby C is now in swim lessons and soccer!), co-chairing the auction at Mini K's school and trying to get the house furnished before we start construction on my new office in a month!  Then it hit me one night, around 3a.m., the time I think my greatest thoughts, that I miss blogging.  I have been reading blogs but not commenting and missing my blog friends who in many cases have become in real life friends too!

SO I am back and decided to start the Wednesday Wants.  Full disclosure, the Wednesday Wants are either things I have wanted and now own or things that are still on the wish list, I do have a birthday in less two weeks so a wish list is okay right?

I am not much of a make-up person.  In fact, my make-up bag, monogrammed of course, contains 3 tubes of mascara, a tweezers, band aids, Neosporin, a safety pin and 8 different lip balms, glosses or lipsticks.  When I find a lipgloss I like, I stock up.  When my Chanel helper at Neimans told me Glossimer 105 was being discontinued I purchased 7 tubes.  Well this summer tube number 7 was emptied and I was in a panic.

Then I discovered Three Custom!  Friends, this was a LIFE changing moment.  Pathetic to admit it, but it's the little things that can cheer you up, make you deliver a kick butt presentation or just keep you going and a good lipgloss is one of those things.

Essentially you send a sample of your color and they will custom make it for you.  Two wands of lipgloss or two tubes of lipstick are $60.

I placed my order in October and was concerned about if the lipgloss would look and feel like my treasured Glossimer 105 and let me tell you I was one happy camper when my replacements arrived!

So if you have been searching for a new favorite, you might not need one after all!

Fabric Frenzy

Yesterday they started predicting MAJOR snow for today.  8-12" they warned over and over and over. It was going to be so bad they closed schools and city governments for today before 6p.m. last night.  Mini K was actually looking forward to art today so she wasn't exactly happy about school being cancelled but she still woke up excited and came running in and informed us that it was raining.  Surely it couldn't just be raining.  We are in the middle of a sequester in D.C. which means only essential employees are at work....this would mean an ESSENTIAL, read senior level, NOAA forecaster would have been the one to originally sound the alarms for 8-12" of snow in D.C.  I will let you decide how essential the weather men and NOAA "experts" were from the photo below.  Can you believe we survived a snow storm with this rare form of brown snow called rain and mud unharmed?

So while Baby C slept and Mini K read I cranked out a few conference calls, more emails than I can count and then turned my attention to my to do list.  It is shrinking in size, but not fast enough for my taste.

We put the finishing touches on Mini K's reading nook & installed her tooth fairy door in her room before her tooth falls out.

I finalized my lucite drapery rod order for the den panels.  These have been a process, but I am so excited to see them installed.  I love the plaid silk with the heavy fringe and look forward to seeing it all together.

Mini K help me put eye screws in 20 drapery rings so we can hang these lovely panels after our contractor installs the rod tomorrow.

We went over the last minute trim details for our sectional to join these panels early next week.

Our stack of pillows and fabrics have been sorted by what needs to be monogrammed and what can go to E so she can work her magic stitching them up.

I still think there is magic in crossing something off of your list with a Le Pen or Sharpie.  I did add my need to purchase this lovely to my list, but it will have to wait until I after I survive a field trip to the museum with Mini K's class tomorrow.

Monday Madness

I am saving last Friday's Friday FIVE post for this Friday.  March 1st was my 10 year wedding anniversary and Mr. G surprised us with a weekend away at the Homestead.  It is our happy place.  We spent 3 days skiing, skating, swimming, hiking and as Mini K and baby C call it:  smoring.

And while I loved the weekend away, I have returned to orders, putting the final touches on our new spring additions, a mountain of laundry that is staring me down and a to do list that I plan on owning by the end of tomorrow!  The weathermen are also predicting a MAJOR snowstorm of 4 inches.  I have to say that when I first arrived in D.C. the "locals" made fun of me for thinking 4" of snow was a big deal and now years later, panic sets in like it is 4" in Dallas.  Today's mail distracted me from my to do list I will admit.  I mean who does NOT like FREE money?  Today was BIG FAT CHECK delivery date.  If you know me I am in love with Ebates and if you don't well you now have picture proof of why I love Ebates.  It is FREE to join and you can join HERE.  You simply give them your email and mailing address and click through to your favorite sites from Ebates and the cash is deposited in your account.  Love Josh and Main, well shop from their parent site Wayfair and get FREE shipping, cash back and pretty much the same prices if not lower.  Have a love affair with Kate Spade or Tory Burch, they both will give you cash back on your purchases and when do Revas or flip flops go on sale?  Need to have new pillows or window treatments made?  Order your fabric from Fabric.com and get 40% off retail prices and cash back and FREE shipping.  I couldn't go on and on, but seriously just check it out, unless you don't like FREE money.

Tuesday Tasks

My stairs have been my pick me up today.  They bring me joy.  They are a reminder that a project is complete and I am blessed to have a husband who I am quite sure is not a fan of them, but knew the animal print runner would make me happy and didn't object.  He is calm and steady and on days like today a good reminder that sometimes I take on too much.


Today was one of those days, it wasn't a bad day, but as I sit here at 9:19p.m. I feel like I should have gotten more done.  I started the day with a LONG list and a sharpie and I wanted to see only Sharpie lines by the end of the day.  Am I the only one that gets a jolt from crossing things off my list?

37 orders were wrapped and shipped, Mr. G's 10th anniversary gift arrived and is now wrapped, more new products than I can count have been photographed, 6 conference calls were completed, more emails than I want to remember were sent, but then it was 6:15p.m., the kids were home and NO I didn't have a menu for dinner planned so we went to the club, came home, read a little and off they went to bed.

So the list has been moved to tomorrow and I am resolved to wake up and get it all done WIT.  WIT in our house is what we say when we are behind, focused or being silly, it means:  WHATEVER IT TAKES.

I have to say as a working mom I really on it as a mantra along with:  Hope is not a strategy.  Let's be honest, life can be crazy being single, being married, having kids, and if I have learned nothing else it's that I refuse to participate in the debate between working moms and stay at home moms as I think ALL women work hard.  Some of my single friends make me feel completely unproductive so I do not think any one group has a lock on working hard.

Today was just one of those muddy days where I probably put too much on my shoulders.  So please excuse my venting.  I am now sitting in front of a steaming mug of caramel tea and I am starting last night's episode of Biggest Loser to escape my to do list and end the night on something that will not stress me out!

Friday FIVE

It's 10:51pm so this is still technically Friday, even if I only have 1 hour and 9 minutes to go!  This week has been crazy, this weekend I have 3 clients in town and meetings, meetings, meetings, but the reward is waiting for me next Friday and I love my clients to life is good!

This week's list is random and might seem simple and boring to some, but to me it's the little things during a hectic week that make me smile the most!

1.  Dry Bar
Some people want a chef, but I would love to out source blow drying my hair and NO I am not joking. The weather in D.C. was cold and rainy today so I squeezed in a visit to the Dry Bar and as always they did not disappoint!  Jasmine, once again had me in and out in 35 minutes and my hair is immune ot the weather!

2.  Unexpected Packages and Letters
I have gotten 3 postcards this week from friends on travel and it doesn't matter how old I am, I LOVE mail!  I took advantage in between meetings today and mailed some cards to friends just because.  This year I am dedicated to paying it forward!

3.  A catch up conversation with a dear friend that I feel like we have been having via texts for weeks.  It was so nice to actually talk on the phone and I cannot wait until tomorrow to finish the conversation.  CALL YOUR FRIENDS--no amount of texts take the place of hearing your friend's voice.

4.  A grande Starbucks blonde roast coffee in a venti cup.  Seriously, you have no idea how happy this makes me.

5.  Ebates
Now Mr. G would just say money, but this week was BIG FAT CHECK week and I always feel like a winner when I open the mail to find a nice big check for all of my cash back from the last quarter.  I am convinced Ebates becomes an addiction.  Once you sign upwww.drybar (IT'S FREE!!!) you give them your name, email and mailing address and simply log into your account and click through to your favorite sites.  You would be shocked to know how many sites I shopped via Ebates during our home construction:  Kohler toilets, sinks and faucets-CASH BACK
Tile- CASH BACK
Ceiling Fans- CASH BACK
Mattresses- CASH BACK
The above doesn't include a little fun (C.Wonder, Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus).  I mean Incircle Points and cash back?  Thank you.
You can sign up HERE.

SO that's it for this week!  Stay warm!

Tuesday Toss Up

Is it me, or does the first day back after a long weekend always feel insane?  I was able to cross a lot off of my list, but I am sitting here wondering how it is already 9p.m.?!?!

Last week, I picked up Baby C's needlepoint from the framer.  I had every intention of picking up Mini K's today, but didn't make it in time so it will have to wait until tomorrow.  I refuse to talk about how long these took me to make, because looking at them all framed I LOVE them.  Needlepoint is my therapy.  I zone out and just focus on one stitch at a time.  Mr. G spoiled me with a stack of Barbara Bergsten canvas ornaments and thread for Valentine's day.  I am pretty sure freshly painted needlepoint canvases and thread are the adult version of school supplies.

I also got 2 emails today that I thought I would share with all of you.  C.Wonderwww.cwonder.com is having an amazing flash sale:  think monogrammed mugs for $2.99 and tassel key rings for $6.99.  If those deals aren't enough to make you click over, C.Wonder is now on Ebates and they are offering 10% cash back on your purchases.  If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know I am an Ebates addict.  For those of you that are new or still haven't joined, what are you waiting for?  It is easy, you supply your mailing address, email address and name and simply log in to your account BEFORE you shop and click through Ebates to your favorite stores and shop as usual and the cash back is deposited into your Ebates account.  Ebates will mail you a check every quarter or you can have your cash back deposited into your paypal account.  You can join HERE.

Now I am off to show that pile of laundry who is boss, and let's be honest, I am hoping I win the battle.