Moved...

For my new blog with voice and purpose, visit me here : Gal On the Go-Go for all things travel!!

The New Year is Coming Up Roses

Purple Roses That Is.
The TCU Horned Frogs played in the
"Granddaddy of Them All" New Year's Day, 1/1/11 and
I was blessed enough to be in attendance.

Of course, the Frogs won the hard-fought game, becoming the first non-AQ school to win the Rose Bowl. THAT was amazing. The whole weekend was an experience to never be forgotten and a fabulous beginning to the New Year. Fabulous friends, family and an americana tradition rivaled by few. That weekend is going to be my inspiration for the year: enjoy and celebrate the small moments with my sweet friends and amazing family. My parents were the perfect side dish to the meal that was Rosebowl weekend. Learning to love them as people and not seeing them as just my parents as been one of the sweetest struggles of my adulthood. SO lucky to have them, party with them, drive across the country in a Lincoln town car with them, all the while learning even more about myself and life from them. Corny but oh so true. I hope this weekend brought them some fun too, because goodness knows, they deserve it and I had a blast with them.

So, like a forgotten fire,
a childhood can always flare up again within us.
- Gaston Bachelar

I hope that I was a bellows to their fire this weekend, and I hope I never lose the childhood fire and will promise to live it out every time it rises in me.

Hammer Time

Everyone knows Baking Soda is one of those "must have" items to have in your house. Cooking, Cleaning, Deodorizing, it is pretty much an all-around awesome product. I have recently experienced yet another benefit of this amazing concoction: bug bite zapper. If you mix the baking soda with a little water, rub the paste on your pesky bug bit, viola!, bug bite cure. I guess it is because it draws the bug poison (ick) out and absorbs it, note really sure, all I know is that it works. Take it from me, I am a mosquito favorite and have dealt with my fair share of bug bites.

No more itch for me!

Light Up the Night

My Favorite Time of the Year!
Yes, Fall of course, but more specifically the week before Halloween.
Carvings pumpkins, decorating and of course, costume making.

This year's inspiration - These Bad Boys
How awe-inspiring, whimsical and altogether magical are these fireflies?

What a great reminder of the glory in the beauty of the world around us.

Cannot wait for next week and my costume!

firefly image courtesy of gardenmatters.com

Fall for it All

Who doesn't love fall? The warm colors, the crisp air, the leaves, the pumpkins, the scarves....oh don't worry, I could go on and on.

I love fall, probably because as a child of the desert, I was deprived of this season entirely for the first 18 years of my life.

Here are my favorite fall snippets of the week:

Apple Cider in Apple Cups
Are you kidding me, how fun are these?!

Glam Carved Pumpkins

Gorgeous and Festive



Happy Falling!


Apple Cider Cups via Busy Mom. Beautiful Pumpkin Carvings courtesy of Martha Stewart, of course.

Joieful

Citizen Hotel - Sacramento, CA
photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

Oh my GOSH!! I have been working with Joie de Vivre hotel group for the past week, getting ready to help them send out their first Chip's Picks newsletter tomorrow and I am browsing some of my favie Conde Nast Traveler blogs and what do I see???? A shout-out to the very newsletter I am helping to facilitate!

Check out the article HERE!

Go sign-up for Chip's Picks and you will get a chance to receive some hotel deals that are pretty much the bomb.com

Seriously, such an amazing hotel chain to work with and the hotels are the among the best in boutique elegance in California. I love to feel like I am part of something bigger than myself. In this case, it is a pretty sweet marketing campaign. Yes!! Major discovery for the day.

Read It and Weep

Who doesn't need and love some "me" time. No silly, not time with me! Alone time. Time to think, evaluate and enjoy being you. A little alone time goes a long way, I don't care who you are, One day I hope to create my own little "me time haven", a magical place stocked with my items of wonder. Designed , cared for and lived in by yours truly. It will be filled with quiet and light, and of course comfortable seating and chandeliers.

A glimpse into my dreams of this place:
The heavy, carved, wooden doors creak open as you walk into the room, closing behind you with a soft and comforting thud. You take a deep breath and the crispness of a room closed off from the rest of the world fills your lungs, while the musty smell of knowledge rushes towards you from the book lined walls. The shelf-lined walls lead your eyes upward and eventually end where the unreachable ceiling begins, leaving you with a child's starry eyes. The smooth and knotty wood beneath your bare feet soothes your tired feet as you're beckoned by the fat velvet of your worn chaise lounge. Wrapped in thick chenille, you sit and gaze out the expansive wall of window panes, pouring their ethereal light all around you. Warmness and comfort fills every part of you and yet, here is where you feel so free. Your heart twinges with happy longing as you glide to your beautiful, ebony Model D. Your fingers brush the keys and their light voices bounce off the walls, a sweet companion to the calm room filled with stories. A glass of iced tea sweats in your other palm as you take in one more deep breath and smile with all of your heart.

I could go on of course, but why don't we let some pictures do the rest of the talking:

Wonder, Hope and Dream.