5 things . . .

Here are 5 things I would feel guilty about withholding from you any longer:

(1)  Anthropologie-inspired spray painted paper mache letters.  What a genius idea.  I am always amazed at what you can spray paint.  These would make a great gift!     

Source: 346living.com via Emily on Pinterest

(2)  Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies.  Make these.  Now.  They are super easy to make and are some of the best cookies I've had in a while.  Make sure you have a cold glass of milk handy.    

Source: divine-baking.com via Emily on Pinterest

(3)  Revlon ColorStay Eyeliner.  Seriously, I can't tell you how many eyeliners I've tried -- they all end up either fading away or smudged under my eyes or on my eyelids (or both).  I've even tried the fancy $18.00 ones that the folks at Sephora recommend (Too Faced and Urban Decay) with no luck. 

So while at Target the other night, I decided I would try Revlon ColorStay.  And for only $5.00, I wasn't going to be too bummed if it didn't work.  But it works perfectly!  I get home from work and my eyeliner is still exactly where it is supposed to be.  I've even been going up to Justin and having him look too so that he can be impressed!  Boy is he thrilled.  

(photo: target)

(4)  The Brazilian Peel (a glycolic acid facial peel -- not to be confused with the waxing)!  I splurged on it a couple months ago and will definitely buy again, especially with Sephora's Friends & Family Sale starting soon.  

I don't use it every week as recommended because that's just ridiculously expensive.  Instead, I use it about every 3 weeks.  It really does brighten my skin and makes it so soft.  I have super sensitive skin too and I've had no problems.
 

(photo: sephora)

(5)  Shellac.  Specifically, the color Rock Royalty.  I've been a Shellac fan for sometime now and this color is going to be one of my go to darker colors.  Shellac is a gel manicure that lasts 14+ days with no chips, which is especially key with dark colors.  In the picture, the color almost looks metallic-y, but it's not.  My nails are just super shiny after coming home from the nail place.

And how funny is Riley?  He saw me holding my phone taking a picture, and I swear he thought I was taking it of him!  Too cute.

Have you discovered anything that's too good not to share?

Trip Recap: Cinque Terre.

I'm back with another installment of our European vacation recap.  After Paris, we headed to Cinque Terre, Italy.

We were originally supposed to fly into Genoa, but Air France cancelled our flight and re-booked us for two days later.  Yeah, not cool.  We found out that the day we were flying into Italy, there was a general strike there affecting flights, trains, and all other public transportation.  Just our luck.  We finally figured out a way to get to Italy on the day we were supposed to by flying into Pisa later in the day.  Instead of getting to Cinque Terre in the afternoon, we got there at 9:30 at night.  This incident was the only hang up with traveling during our entire trip, so not too bad.

It was pretty amazing in the morning to wake up to what our hotel overlooked that we couldn't see at night.  I jumped out of bed and ran to our balcony to see this . . .

Beautiful, right?

We stayed in Manarola. As a little background, Cinque Terre is on the coast of the Italian Riviera. It translates to "The Five Lands" and is composed of five villages:  Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. (Thanks, wikipedia.) 

(photo: here)

You can hike in between all of the towns.  We hiked in between Manarola and Riomaggiora (the Via dell'Amore) and between Corniglia and Vernazza.  The trail in between Manarola and Corniglia was closed because of a landslide.  We went to all of the towns, and if we didn't hike to them we took the train.  Then on the way back, we took a boat from Monterosso to Manarolo.  From here on out, I will let the pictures do most of the talking and will just note which part of the trip they were from.

On the Via dell'Amore:

From Corniglia and Vernazza:

The view from the top of the hill overlooking the Corniglia train station, after we walked up 382 steps.
 

Looking back at Manarola on the hike.  As you can tell, it was very cloudy in the morning.  I guess I am thankful that the clouds kept it a little cooler during the hike, but some of the pictures look a little dreary as a result.

This is a shot of the town of Corniglia during the hike. 

The trails were a little rough.  You definitely had to watch were you were walking. 

It took us about 2 hours to hike to Vernazza.  We stopped a lot for pictures and took the time just to enjoy the view.  The trail was steep in places and we were a little worn out by the end, likely because we are out of shape (and I also chalked it up to eating way too many macarons and crepes in Paris).  But it was totally worth it.  We saw some of the most incredible views.

Here's what we saw once we finally got there . . .

 

The Vernazza beach:

Then we went to Monterosso via train.  I loved the umbrellas at the Monterossa beach.  I didn't see Meagan had "tagged" me--or whatever it's called on pinterest--in this pin until after we got back.  But this picture is pretty darn close to it! 

I am so glad we took the boat back to Manarola.  It was cool to see where we had hiked and you can't get the same views any other way.  It was also great because the sun was shining by then!  And of course, Justin repeatedly sang the song "I'm on a Boat" (previously blogged about here). 

Back in Manarola:

And what do you reward yourself with after a hike?  If you answered gelato, you would be correct!

Shortly after I polished off my gelato, we hopped on a train to Rome.  We had a whirlwind day in Cinque Terre, but it was well worth it.   I saw some of the most amazing sights I've ever seen before. 

I was going to try to recap Italy in one post, but that's not going to happen.  Ciao for now.  I'll be back with my Rome recap. 

Guest Posting.

This was supposed to post this morning, but for some reason the scheduling function didn't work.  Thanks, blogger.  Any who . . .

I'll be guest posting I guest posted over at Sadie + Stella on Wednesday as part of their "Favorite Room" series.    

Go check out which room I picked!  And while you're over there, take a look around their site -- it's great.  Any blog named after dogs (complete with dog silhouettes) is an immediate winner in my book!

It's Raining, It's Pouring.

We finally got some rain today! It was wonderful waking up this morning to the sound of rain (and thunder and lightning). I almost forgot what it was like, it's been so long. We got 3 inches of rain, which is the most it's rained in a single day since July 2, 2010!

(photo: here)

Did anything exciting happen in your neck of the woods this weekend?

5 things . . .

Here are 5 Fall related things that I'm loving . . .

I feel slightly ridiculous posting about Fall when it is still in the 90s here, but maybe it will help cool things down a little! 

(1) Scarves (and stripes).

Source: weardrobe.com via Emily on Pinterest

(2) Dark nail colors.

Source: polishchanges.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

(3) Sweaters. Bonus points if they have elbow patches.

(photo: nordstrom)

(4) Almost anything in the color burgundy (including wines from there).

Source: issuu.com via Emily on Pinterest

But it's not all fashion related . . .

(5) Using up some of the canned pumpkin in my reserves.

Source: lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Happy October, friends!

Trip Recap: Paris.

We've waded our way through a lot of the pictures. Up first, the Paris pics!

Despite what it may look like based on the sheer number of pictures in this post, it really was so hard to choose my favorite photos to share with you -- I loved them all.  I seriously loved every single second of Paris. I would go back tomorrow if I could. There was just so much about the city that captured me -- the people, the food, the architecture. It was all amazing. So without further ado . . .

We pretty much hit up all the major Paris "attractions." We ran out of time for Versailles and the Musee d'Orsay, but we just kept saying we will go there next time.  

 

Other fun random pictures:

We frequently rode the Metro.  Justin was the master of the train system and totally had it figured it out -- we didn't get on the wrong train once.  Quite impressive. 

But we also did our fair share of walking too -- and it was needed after all of the amazing food we had.  It's hard to pick a favorite between the bread, cheese, macaroons, tasty glace (ice cream), and steak/frites, but the thing I still crave the most are the lemon and sugar crepes.  Seriously, yum.   

A pigeon had the nerve to beg from me as I enjoyed my delicious macaroon from Pierre Herme in front of St. Sulpice.  The pigeons even know how good they are!    

Don't worry, Justin enjoyed the food too.  And the drinks.  Our first night, we went to Harry's Bar (the oldest cocktail bar in Europe and where the Bloody Mary was created).  You can read an interesting write up about it here.

And what's Paris without shopping?  We checked out Merci -- I could have spent hours there.  They had some amazing things for the house and beautiful jewelry.  I picked up a couple of souvenirs. 

We also went to Les Puces de Saint-Ouen (the huge flea market).  I ended up with just a couple of things -- a letterpress H and some French vintage books.  If I could have packed mirrors, chandeliers, and furniture, I would have left with a truckload.  But I wasn't disappointed -- I loved walking around and just looking at all of the beautiful things. 

One of my favorite parts of Paris was just walking the streets and being surrounded by the beautiful architecture.

I quickly became obsessed with the doors and now have the desire to paint our front door a glossy teal blue.

Of course a Paris trip recap wouldn't be complete without pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

The view from the top of the tower:

People always ask what my favorite part of the trip was.  It's so hard to just pick one favorite, but Paris would definitely be up there at the top.  I'm already thinking about our return trip there.  Stay tuned for the remainder of the trip . . . Italy is up next!  

Au revoir!