Le Petit Chic

For All of You Coach Girls...

For reasons* unbeknownst to me, Jonathan is considered a preferred Coach customer (ooh, fancy!) and was sent a coupon to receive 25% off his total Coach purchase starting May 17th through May 27th.  Last night I wistfully asked him, "Honey, do you plan on buying me a Coach bag before the end of the month?"  His snorted "Ha!" was not quite the reply I was looking for. 

Here's where my misfortune becomes your good fortune.  If you would like this coupon, leave me a comment by noon on Sunday, May 18th and I will randomly pick one of you, my lovely readers, to mail the coupon to.  For fun, tell me your favorite vacation destination.  You know, in case Jon and I win the lottery and can afford to quit our jobs and travel all over the world visiting those places. 

If I had my way, this is the bag I would have bought:

((SWOON))

*Reason being he's only ever bought me one (ONE!) Coach bag in the almost 4 years we've been together.  How does that make him a loyal Coach customer??

One More Week!

Oh my holy heck, it kind of just hit me that we leave for Europe in exactly one week!  This time next Wednesday, I'll probably be sweating through my shirt as I count down the hours until we leave and worry about the impending 9 hour flight to Frankfurt.  Have I ever mentioned that I'm a travel lover who hates to fly?  Well, I am.  I never used to be scared of flying, but the older I get, the more I become aware of all that could possibly go wrong.  Every peculiar sound or slight bump sends me into a white knuckle panic, as I gasp to Jon, "Oh my god, oh my god!"  Thank goodness for the free alcohol on international flights, as I will surely need something to calm my nerves!

In the past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to wear for our trip to give myself plenty of time to find and/or buy whatever it is that I decide to pack.  I've also done some googling to determine exactly what I should and shouldn't wear so that I don't blatantly look like an American tourist.  Sure, once I open my mouth or pull out my big camera, my secret will be spilled, but I really want to just blend in with the locals since I'll be doing a lot of my daytime touring independently.  The verdict?  Skirts.  Lots and lots of skirts.  Especially in France.  I don't mind this at all because a) skirts are super easy to pack and b) I love wearing skirts.  I really like the Ruffle Skirt from Gap, because it's the type of skirt that looks better when it's a little wrinkled, which is just perfect since it will be living in a suitcase for almost 2 weeks. 

I also figure that I can pack several of those skirts (I already own a few similar ones) and plan to re-wear them.  I'll just pack a lot of different shirts and tank tops to mix and match with them.  The weather for both Germany and France looks beautiful, low to mid 70's, so I don't think I'll need to pack many warm clothes.  Of course I'll pack some jeans and a few long sleeved items, but I think I'll be able to successfully pack light, which is really my main objective.  I looked up our hotels online today and I'm fairly certain that each room will have a hairdryer.  The hotel in Nice has one for sure and our hotel in Koblenz just opened last month so I think it's safe to say that it will have modern amenities.

Whew!  So much to think about!  I'll probably post my final packing list, and maybe pictures, once it is done.  Not sure if you all will find it interesting, but I love to see what other people deem as "necessary objects" for their getaways.  It can tell you a lot about a person! 

P.S.  Here's a view from our hotel in Nice:

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How gorgeous is that?!

Exposaroonie Challenge - Bad Habits

The Exposaroonie Challenge this week was to photograph your bad habit.  Initially, I thought this one would be easy.  But when I really got down to thinking about what my bad habits are, it was surprisingly hard to come up with any!  Sure, I don't floss every day and I do enjoy the occasional breakfast at McDonald's, but those things aren't that bad!  For the most part, I exercise regularly, eat healthy and have good hygiene. 

So then I thought a little harder.  Ah-ha!!  My bad habit is so obvious that I'm shocked I didn't think of it earlier. 

Go ahead, take a guess:

Give up? 

My bad habit is SALT!!  Whereas most women tend to be sweetaholics, I adore salt.  Take a gander through my snack drawer at work (yes, I have a whole drawer of snacks!) and you'll find mixed nuts and pretzels and pita chips and Kool-Aid singles. Okay, so the Kool-Aid singles aren't salty, but oh man, do they bring me back to my childhood!  I don't go crazy pouring salt on my food, but that's usually because the food I choose is salty to begin with.  Give me a soft pretzel over a scoop of ice cream any day.

To take this picture, I poured some salt on our granite countertops, very close to the backsplash. Since our granite is Uba-Tuba, it is very dark (almost black) and has great reflective qualities.  You'll be happy to learn that I've stopped using auto settings on my camera (actually, I stopped about a month ago) and I've been venturing into the scary world of manual.  I can't really tell you what the settings were, because I tend to just fool around with them until I get a shot that I like, but nonetheless, it was manual!  And I even made my arms and shoulders hurt from the weird position I was in to get this shot.  (I tend to take about 50 shots of the same thing!)  Hooray!