France Photo Recap

As many of you know, the hubby and I recently celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in France.  As promised, here is a photographic recap of some of our trip details.  I took nearly 1,000 photos over the 2 weeks we were away (what can I say, I love me some pictures!!) that I certainly don't expect all of you to comb through, so I'm including the highlights here.  I hope you enjoy!

(Click on photos to enlarge)

One of my favorite parts of the trip was...

Yes, that's a Nutella crepe (the first of many) and it was DELICIOUS!  What a way to say "Bonjour Paris"!  Equally tasty was this gelato...

and the famous hot chocolate at Cafe Angelina:

Y.U.M.M.Y!!!  Besides the heavenly desserts, pastries and breads, we enjoyed an abundant selection of wine (of course!):

and fresh roses everywhere we turned, like these beauties:

Speaking of gorgeous views, check these out:

Paris

Paris

Provence

Provence

Provence

Provence

Eze

Eze

Eze

Eze

Monaco

We started in Paris, then took the high speed train to Aix-en-Provence before finishing the trip in Eze.  Aix and Eze were lovely smaller towns with French countryside charm.  We didn't have any set itineraries for either destination, but rather took each day as it came and explored whatever we came across.

In Paris, there was a lot we wanted to see, so we were up early every day in an attempt to accomplish as much as we could!  We visited a bunch of famous landmarks and museums:

Champs-Élysées

Notre Dame

statue in the park

the famous Mona Lisa

Louvre Museum

Musée d'Orsay

Rodin Museum

Invalides

Arc de Triomphe

The Opera

Versailles

Sacre Cour

And of course...

Eiffel Tower, 5/23/2012

All in all, it wasn't the most relaxing trip we've ever taken (thanks in large part to a couple unwelcome home-related events we had to face both before and during the trip - more info on those later), but it was soooooooo very nice to finally get some time away together.  France has been on "my list" for a while now, and I'm thankful to have gotten the chance to see it with my sweetheart.  Happy 3rd anniversary, hubby, and cheers to many more to come!!!

Well, that's all for now - thanks for coming with us down memory lane!


All photos are the property of This Is Life At Our Home and are not to be reproduced in any form or otherwise used without prior permission.

Sunday Evening at Home

This evening, something doubly unexpected happened...

I cooked dinner:

while my handsome hubby installed hooks on the inside of our hall closet doors:

How's that for a quick dose of Sunday evening surprise!?  ;)

We're baaaaack!

Bonjour!  We arrived home from France to this:

this...

and with about 4 loads of laundry!  Shockingly, our flight landed almost an hour ahead of schedule (how unusual!) but the wait for our luggage and our cab and the traffic on the way home made up for that bit of good luck.  ;)  Unfortunately, the video wasn't working on the flight entertainment systems, despite the many number of times the attendants attempted a reboot and we did hit a few patches of turbulence, but we made it home safely.

Oh, it's good to be home!  I'm not usually one to enjoy returning home after a vacation... after all, Shep has had to pull me out of various hotel closets on several occasions and force me to return home.  But this time, I was ready and so happy to come home.  Could I be... gulp... growing some love for our new apartment after all?!

Apologies for the lack of posting I've been doing over the past several weeks -- things were hectic leading up to the trip and I haven't quite gotten back into a routine yet, but I promise that (backdated) posts and photos are forthcoming!

I won!!!!

I read a lot of blogs.  I love looking at the pretty photos and reading about other creative projects and exciting things happening in lives of perfect strangers out there on the world wide web.  A bunch of the home blogs I read frequently host contests, which I always enter and usually never win.  Until now that is...

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I was shocked and simply giddy to see my name announced as the winner of the One Kings Lane gift certificate on House of Turquoise the other day!  I drool over One Kings Lane on a regular basis, so to think I now have $100 to spend on anything I want is beyond exciting!!!  If you aren't already a member of One Kings Lane (it's free to join but you have to join to see the sales!), click here to sign up and get $15 off your first purchase!

I wonder what I'll buy with my winnings?!  The possibilities are endless...

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Dinner is Served!

Those who know me know that I very rarely cook.  I can count on my own fingers (possibly on one hand) the number of complete meals I've made.  I'm lucky enough to have married a wonderful husband who enjoys cooking and I really don't mind cleaning up (call me crazy but I find dish-washing sort of relaxing) so we make a good team in the kitchen.  Well, tonight I got home first and was starving so I decided to make dinner for a change.  Want to see what I made?

Veggie burger on wheat bread (topped with mustard & bell peppers)

Steamed broccoli

Butternut squash souffle

Baked potato wedges

What do you think?  It's not the most elaborate meal, but it was easy to make, relatively healthy and pretty tasty!  Not too shabby for a Tuesday night dinner if I do say so myself!  ;)

Green Thumb

Spring is in the air and the warm sunny weather had us wanting to add some new greenery to our home, inside and out!  I'm not a great plant caretaker - I sadly once all but killed a coworker's prized plant when he left it with me for several months while he was overseas.  I swore it was the lack of light at my desk but it might have been the sparkling water I was using because the little thing perked right back up soon after I passed it on to another colleague who sat right near me.  In the spirit of "getting back on the horse", I decided to try my hand at plants again.

I got this little parsley plant from my company for Earth Day.  It definitely looks less green now than it does the day I brought it home (boo!), but it's also grown a lot since then (yay!) so I guess I'm not doing that bad  of a job with it...

This is a really cute boot pot we received for our engagement party several years ago (thanks Aunt Beth, Uncle Chick & Maggie!)... now it finally has some fresh dirt and a houseplant in it!

The boot also came with a matching watering can!  We had these cheery items out for display in our old apartment (sans the plant inside) so it's fun to finally see the boot actually fulfilling its plant-holder destiny in our new apartment.  :)  I just love this set, and it looks great on our built-in shelves near the dining room table and balcony door!

But that's not all!  We also planted some marigolds outside in the baskets attached to our balcony:

According to the flower expert: "Marigolds can grow in full sun to partial-shade, but it is preferable to plant them in sunny locations as shading may have an adverse effect on flowering.".  We get very bright morning light, which turns to shade during the latter part of the afternoon as the sun settles behind our building.  Hopefully the morning and early afternoon sun will be enough to keep these little buds blooming!

There you have it... our new little green friends.  Wish us luck keeping them alive and growing!  ;)

Parlez vous francais?

Well, neither do we but that's not stopping us from flying to France to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary this year!  (Gosh, where does the time go?!)

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We're still planning our itinerary, but we'll begin the trip by spending several days eating croissants, sipping wine, visiting cafes, and strolling the romantic streets of Paris while taking in sites like the Louvre and Eiffel Tower (not necessarily in that order) before venturing to Provence and the South of France.

I've been wanting to visit Paris for some time now, so I'm incredibly happy that the time has finally come!  Shep's been to Paris, but many years ago, and, like me, has never been to the French countryside so that will be a new adventure for both of us to share!  Although we're both a tad behind in terms of research to be done and planning left to do before we take off, it's something very exciting to look forward to!  We've both been working super long hours over the past couple months and have spent what little free time we've had unpacking boxes and trying to get our apartment in order, so this will definitely be a nice break and a much-anticipated treat.

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Vive la France!  Here we come!!