Doing nice things for nice people = MITZVAH!

Every feel like her?

I sure do... I personally have a love hate relationship with housework. I am a complete clean FREAK and love my house to look like a staged home (oh shush, I know those of you with kids are just rolling your eyes and laughing at me right now and saying just wait till you have kids, bye bye staged home, but we shall see!)! I don't always have the time or desire to get down on my knees and scrub the toilet or shower, especially after a long day of work when I still need to work out. So as long as I'm a working woman, with a commute and a need to look HOT, my hubby has agreed to let me have a housekeeper come once a month. Not totally sure why he gets a say in this, when I'm the one paying for it and do majority of the cleaning, but I'm not one to pick a fight. Especially since once a month seems reasonable enough to me!

At any rate, a few months ago our friend Brooke referred the sweetest house keeper ever. She's my very own Mary Poppins. She's so thorough and does a job that even I'm satisfied with. I don't even have to straighten the towels and re-dust stuff once she's been there (yes, I'm that anal). There are totally more than one type of clean-there is mine and then there are most people's idea of clean!

It was Miny's day to clean and she was asking for referrals and I thought man, I'd love to help her, but how? I asked if she had business cards that I could give to friends and acquaintances in the neighborhood and she said no. The light came on, I emailed my husbands graphic artist and came up with the logo above to use on some rather darling business cards if you ask me. Prior to getting these she was writing her name and number on sticky notes which I'm sure people would lose or throw away.

Can't wait to see her next month and see how things are going!

Moral of the story- it's nice to do nice things for nice people and if you ever need a printer, screen printer, embroiderer or anything to advertise your own business USE my husband.

www.captureink.com

The end!

XO,
S

Susie's Monkey Bread = OH SO YUMMY!

Yesterday we had a small little going away brunch Amy who's moving to London.
Although I'm trying to watch the weight for bikini season, I couldn't help but whip out Susie's Monkey Bread recipe!
It was my first attempt and boy was it OH SO DELICIOUS!

Here's the recipe:

2 Pillsbury Tubes of Buttermilk Biscuits - cut each biscuit into quarters (with a scissor)

1 c. butter melted (do it in a glass measuring cup and microwave for about one minute at a time, stirring until melted)

Mix 1 c. sugar with 2 tsp. Cinnamon

Spray a bunt pan with non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Dip each biscuit piece in butter and then roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture
(be generous when doing this part, you want them to be covered)
Then put the pieces into the sprayed bunt pan.

Bake for 30-45 minutes, mine took a little less, depends how your over runs.
When they are ready, let rest for a few minutes and dump onto a plate.
Let cool, if you can resist eating right away and then try not to eat it all!

P.S. We'll miss you Amy and LA will always love you!

XO,
S

You know what they say...

... when the husband's away...

SHOP!

Sorry for the hard to see picture.
I found this Jewelry Tree at Pier 1 Imports (For only $24) and just had to share!
I thought my first jewelry tree rocked until I soon realized that I stack way too many on each branch and were still getting tangled.
I like to believe I would wear jewelry more if it wasn't such a pain to find matching earrings and untangle necklaces.
This tree is HUGE and really keeps them organized, plus I love the little bird on top
and Anthropologie looking style of it.

A while back I posted about darling silver nesting bowls from Pottery Barn and well BOO, they sent me a store credit with a letter saying they were sold out. :(
So I went another direction and started collecting little bowls from various home stores
Sur La Table, Cost Plus... All were relatively cheap (under $10) or as my mom likes to correct me, inexpensive and I'm so happy with how organized and handy all my earrings and rings are!

Stamp this!

Do you love old fashioned letters or thank you notes?

Are you lazy or not crazy about your hand writing?
If you replied yes, then you need one of these (plus they are just so CUTE)!

Personalized stamps can be costly, but I went to my trusty favorite website and found this adorable stamp for a fraction of the cost of other sites offering the same thing!
(only $20 with shipping instead of $40 +)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/tickledpinkpaperink

This makes a perfect house warming gift or little prezzie for yourself.
Like I said, if you have not visited ETSY.com, you are missing out!

With that said, I must say thanks to Rachel Golden and give her sweet shop a shout out!

Gotta show off my sweet hubby (looks like a natural) holding Baby Peyton Peykoff,
modeling a Sew Cute original initial bib.
This bib was ordered in LA LAKER purple & gold because the Peykoff's are HUGE fans!

Check out her site for yourself
http://www.etsy.com/shop/goldenshop

Happy Shopping!

XO,
S

Nicolas Sparks...

So I'm not much of a reader, but as of late I've been trying to read more.

Recently I've managed to finish two Nicolas Sparks books that I thought were FANTASTIC!

The Last Song

and Dear John

Both were easy reads, great to relax with while traveling. Now I'm headed to the theaters to see if the movies do them any justice. You won't find a Miley Cyrus hater on this blog.

Meanwhile, Shane is reading some book about the economy and tried to tell me about it on the plane when I cut him off and said, babe we should Biore your nose tonight. While he learns, I escape into la la land. I love him for loving me!

XO,
S

This Lady is 80!

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma Wanda!

Shane's grandma is truly one of the sweetest woman I've ever met.
All she wanted for her birthday was a crab sandwich from Nick's with her family!
She even made up a little ditty about her turning 80 and the sandwich.
This lady is 80 and she's getting a crab sandwich...

Nick's did not disappoint and if you are ever in Pacifica,
you must stop in and enjoy one of their famous crab sandwiches!

Tried to find a pic of the scrumbtiousness, but nothing did it justice!

While in town, we got to celebrate Mother's day with a few of the special mother's in our lives.
Although I missed my momma, it was special to spend this day spoiling other mommies that deserve to be recognized!

...now it's back to the grind and I couldn't be happier to be home. I missed our new little home and even work! There's something to be said about routine, at least for me! This week has been all about catching up so far. Shane's off to Jason Rose's bachelor party in Scottsdale this weekend (which there probably wont be pictures of, there never are). And I'm set for a relaxing girlie weekend sprinkled with a bit of celebrating Olga's graduation from USC Marshall School of Business, Congrats! And a little goodbye brunch for Amy who's moving to London to join Joey in a few short weeks.

PS. Ady just moved to the Westside! Welcome Bestie, I couldn't be more excited to have you close!

XO,
S

We're BACK!

The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs

The 2010 Leaders Summit at the Broadmoor = SUCCESS!
We had a great variety of weather and really got to experience the beauty that
Colorado Springs and the GORGEOUS Broadmoor has to offer.
From fine dining to entertainment, live bands, a sing along bar, beautiful golf courses, the spa and more...
we were not disappointed!

Ramoni and I with the East Course behind us

HBW Events Team (aka. Barney's ladies)

Glen Eyrie Castle

Garden of the Gods (i.e. stunning natural landscape and rock formations)

One tequila, two tequila... NO MORE!
The Golden Bee is an old fashioned pub with an organ player that everyone sings along with.
You're even given a book with all the words to your favorite songs (Shane's favorite part).
A must go to if you are in Colorado Springs or staying at the Broadmoor!

Feeding the Giraffes at the Cheyenne Zoo.
Just a quick journey up the hill leads you to hundreds of animals that used to roam the property of the Broadmoor.

I was fascinated by this gorgeous Peacock (never seen one spread their feathers)
BLOGGING Q: Help, I must have took a dozen pics, do any bloggers know how to attach pics, so your visitors have the options of visiting them, rather than posting on the main stream??

Hope you enjoyed our visit as much as we did!

XO,
S&S