Sparkles and Lattes

Friday, October 5, 2018

Friday Favorites and Happenings

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And just like that we are already through our first week of October. Time is flying by. We normally have dance class for the girls tomorrow, but since it is Fall break at the schools here, they don't have class tomorrow. So we are hoping to go to a Fall Harvest Festival tomorrow. That is if the weather holds up. We also have a football game on the agenda. Oh how I love Fall!!

ONE. I want to start this off by saying this isn't a favorite of mine, but more of a happening right now. A blogging buddy of mine (one of my first followers) passed away Sunday after complications during the birth of her baby girl, Presley. Leslie had an emergency c-section due to placenta abruption and died from the complications. Her baby girl is currently in the NICU fighting for her life since her oxygen was cut off for a period of time. Please say some prayers for her family.

This just hits so close to home for me. If you are a newer reader then you may not know the birth story of my twins. I went into pre-term labor and had an emergency c-section with the girls. After they were born, they had a hard time getting my uterus to contract, plus my placenta broke inside of me and had partially detached from my uterus. They couldn't control the bleeding and I lost a ton of blood. It took an amazing team of doctors to get my uterus to contract and stop the bleeding. I am lucky that they did otherwise I would have lost my uterus or my life. It was pretty sketchy. And now the same thing happened to my friend. Just devastating.

TWO. The shopping bug got me again this week. What can I say, I just love a good bargain. But I did control myself. I could have bought all the things at the Loft sale, but I bought one. This sweater.

Loft Speckled Sweater

I also bought a beautiful green top on Vici that I have been on a waiting list for. Every I get an email that one is available, it is gone by the time I click the link. But I got one this week. I can't wait to wear it this Fall and Winter.

Green Acres Tie Blouse

THREE. Last week Biana recommended a lip gloss by Kopari and since I needed to go to Sephora for some make-up setting powder and eyeliner, I decided to grab a thing of Kopari. And guess what, I love it. All of the reviews rave about it and I can see why.

Kopari Coconut Lip Gloss

FOUR. I wanted to share a big favorite of ours this week. We bought Room on the Broom (recommended by Lizzie) and have been reading it each night. The girls loved it. They got even more excited when I told them a movie related to the book was on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. We plan to read this again (probably everyday in October) this weekend and then watch the show. Seriously, such a cute book. And it was only $5.59 for the paperback.

Room on the Broom

I am linking up with April, A Little Bit of Everything, Meet @ the Barre and Cup of Tea.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Europe Trip Part 1

I finally sat down and edited my photos and sorted through them to show you what I did while I was away. Now I obviously can't write about my work day, but just know, I spent the first week in an office and the second week in meetings. What I will write about, is my weekends and evenings. The good, bad and ugly parts of traveling. Enjoy.

I flew to England on Friday, September 7th, but did not arrive until the early afternoon on the 8th. Once we got to our hotel, only a few of the rooms were available. Those of us who had rooms, showered, unpacked and then met everyone else later. I was one of the people who had a room available. I want to show the pictures of my hotel room because it was amazing, but I can't. Just know that the hotel was an amazing place. And if you want to know more about it, send me an email or a DM on my IG.

That evening we walked from our hotel to Trafalgar Square, past Westminster Abbey, to Covent Garden and into The Chandos for a beer. We took in the crowds, people watched and then went to dinner. Dinner wasn't memorable AT ALL and I tried to erase it from my memory. The food just wasn't good. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest.

Westminster Abbey

Sunday we were able to sleep in and then met downstairs to head to the Tower of London. I have been on this tour along with my boss, but the others had not. It had been 10 years since my tour, so it was fun learning about the Tower, the history, the torture chambers and seeing the Crown Jewels (so beautiful!).

The Tower of London had a food festival going on that day and it was included with entry, so we had lunch after our tour.

Torture Chambers. You can faintly see how a person was crouched down inside of this contraption.

A person would be stretched on this.

Tower Bridge

They have a ravens area. They eat blood soaked crackers and meat each day.

Where the crown jewels are housed. Sorry no photos allowed inside.

After our Tower visit, we headed back to the hotel to rest and then headed out to dinner to Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecote. This was a French Steakhouse and it was good. The green sauce they put on their steaks is so yummy.

Since we were in the Covent Garden area, I took my co-workers to my favorite spot, Laduree for macarons. I had macarons twice while I was on my trip and I would have brought some back if I ended my trip in London.

Monday there wasn't anything notable.

Tuesday we went to Bone Daddies for dinner which is a ramen place that was amazing. It was so good that we went back the following week.

Wednesday there wasn't anything notable.

Thursday we grabbed salads for lunch and then walked around the office's neighborhood which was basically next to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Thursday night, my co-worker and I met our friend and her husband for dinner at Christopher's Martini Bar. We had martinis, sliders and fries. It was a cute place and it had a pretty good happy hour.

Friday we tried to go to several places for dinner, but we needed a reservation for the 6 of us, so we ended up splitting up (after walking what felt like 100 miles) and my co-worker and I went to Cicchetti. We had bruscetta, arancini balls and pasta bolognese. It was amazing!

Saturday was our day off, so we went to the Mithraeum. This is a museum with ancient Roman ruins that were found in London. It is a free tour and it was worth it.

Since the Mithraeum was close to St. Paul's Cathedral, we made that our next stop. We did a self guided tour and one of my co-workers and I headed up to the whispering wall. You can supposedly whisper into the wall and hear it on the other side if you put your ear up to the wall. Then we climbed more steps to go into the dome. We climbed 525 steps up and then down after taking some amazing photos. It was well worth it and something I had never done before. I wouldn't do it if you are afraid of heights. I am not, but it still got to me a little bit. One of my co-workers just sat down inside and waited while we climbed to the top. Note: I don't have any photos inside as you were not allowed to take photographs, but believe me, it is breathtaking inside.

Overlooking the Thames

After St. Paul's Cathedral, we went across the Millennial Bridge and came up to the Shakespeare Theater.

Then we walked to Borough Market for some lunch and shopping. This market is full of amazing food, chocolates, beers, honey, a farmers market and shopping. I opted for the Pad Thai and it was AMAZING.

After shopping in the market, we headed to the Cheshire Cheese Pub where we met two other co-workers. After having some cider, the girls split off from the guys and we went to Lush for some bath bombs (since we had amazing tubs in our hotel), Harrods for some chocolates and then to meet with some of our other co-workers at their hotel. We walked to MeatLiquor for dinner, but there was a 40 minute wait. One of my co-workers and I went to the Disney Store which was around the corner and picked up more gifts. Then we headed back and had dinner at MeatLiquor which was a grunge burger joint. These pictures don't do it justice, but it had a cool feel to it. The service was eh, but the food was good.

They had a free picture booth which we did not go into, but the stickers up top were funny and I had to snap a photo.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. I should note that there were many nights that I woke up at 2 am, so I could talk to the girls. It was far easier to talk to them during the weekends, but we made do.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Weekending

I haven't done a weekend update in a long time, so I thought I would share a little of our weekend with you today. Like usual, I didn't take enough photos, but I blame that on actually being present and enjoying ourselves this weekend.

Friday after work, I got a much needed pedicure. My feet were looking rough after travel and summer time sandal wearing. Now I have a pretty autumn color on my toes. After a pedicure, I wanted to grab a quick lunch, but nothing too filling, so I went to a new acai place and got myself an acai bowl. It was really good and I need to start adding them back into the rotation.

After lunch, I headed home so we could go pick up the girls from school. We got the girls, headed home to unload everything (all their weekly school gear) and change to go to Food Truck Fridays. It was the last one of the season and I am so happy that we went. We live pretty close to Food Truck Fridays, so we put the girls in the stroller and walked there. We all got something different from different trucks, but it was nice to have variety and try each others picks. After Food Truck Friday, we walked home, bathed the girls and got them ready for bedtime. Then Rory and I watched The Sinner after he walked Walter.

Saturday morning we got up and the girls ate some cereal while I went out for some coffee and pastries. Then we got ready for the day. I took the girls to dance class which was a lot of fun. It is amazing to see their progress in just three short weeks (I missed 3 classes). Then we changed and met Rory for some lunch. Then we headed home for naps which the girls did not take. They maybe slept for 30 minutes and that is being generous.

After naps, we headed out to Petco and Total Wine. Then we went to a local Italian place for dinner. We were going to go to Mexican, but after seeing how much they charged for a kids plate, we opted for Italian instead. The rest of the evening was like the usual...put the girls down for bed, watch a show and then go to bed.

Sunday morning we got up, got ready and headed out. We wanted to go to a Harvest Festival, but they are not open on Sundays, so we decided to take the girls to the Animal Ark instead. But first, we went to a new donut place that serves specialty mini donuts.

Then we made the drive out to the Animal Ark. Now I wasn't too sure of this place because I get sad over holding animals in captivity. But this place rescues animals that were injured, dying or something was wrong with them. They rehabilitate them and put them back into the wild. Unless that animal won't survive in the wild or was born in captivity. After going there, I felt so much better about the animals there. They were not in small cages, but big spaces and were very well taken care of. I will let the pictures do the talking. I am only sharing a few of the photos as there were a ton of exhibits.

We arrived in time to watch a Black Bear have his feeding.

A Lynx

The cutest twins

A Sleeping Mountain Lion

Desert Tortise

A Wolf

The girls arm span in bird terms.

After the Animal Ark, we headed towards home, but wanted to pick up sandwiches first. When we got there, we ordered our sandwiches and were getting ready to leave, but Rory's truck would not start. So what do you do when that happens? Call your Dad of course because he can fix it all. I walked home to get my car (only a mile away) and then came back to pick up the girls. I took them home and got them ready for their naps and my dad jumped Rory's car. Turns out his battery died. Makes sense since his truck is almost 5 years old. My dad tested his alternator and other things to make sure it was just the battery. They had it fixed and replace in no time. And the girls got to see their Papa.

The girls went down for their naps and I went to the grocery store and Costco. Then I came home and we got ready for our steak dinner. My sister came over to watch the girls and we went out for a little date night.

We brought our own bottle of wine (hence the Total Wine trip) and then dined on escargot as an appetizer, steaks with potatoes au gratin and saute'd veggies, a sorbet and champagne palette cleanser and finished our dinner off with cherry cheesecake with cherry gelato. I was beyond stuffed, but so happy.

My handsome date.

Steak with potatoes au gratin and saute'd veggies

Rory drove us home (hello wine) after being there for almost 3 hours and we relieved my sister of her babysitting duties. Then I went to bed and Rory took Walter for a walk. It was a pretty great weekend.

How was your weekend?

Monday, October 1, 2018

TBB Asks - Fall 2.0

It's time for another round of The Blended Blog Asks and this month's theme is, you guessed it, Fall. I love Fall and everything that comes with it. We get cooler temperatures, amazing foods and yummy drinks, football, leaves changing and so much goodness. This is definitely one of my favorite seasons.

1. Favorite Fall color? Orange. I love when the leaves change to orange. I love orange pumpkins and incorporating a little orange into my wardrobe.

2. Apple cider hot or cold? Hot!

3. Caramel apple: yes or no? I LOVE caramel apples. I eat them at every football game that we attend. They are soooo good and such a Fall favorite treat.

4. Pumpkin doughnut or apple cider doughnut? Both, haha. I love both donuts, but if I had to pick one, it would be apple cider doughnut. I love them from Apple Hill.

5. Long or short cardigan? I love the long cardigans and I can't wait to start wearing them daily.

6. Favorite football or fall party food? These spicy meatballs.