Monday Lovelies

How is the weather where you are? Over here, it's pretty close to amazing. I'm dreading the Texas summers, so I'm trying to enjoy this weather while I can.

Last week we had professional landscapers come out and re-design our front yard flower beds. Yesterday we spent many hours outside planting new plants, repotting old shurbs and weeding. It was fun but a lot of hard work. I'll share more pictures soon.

Here are couple of Monday lovlies I've come across while searching the wide web. ;)

• Love, love, love this quote.
• I came across this simplistic and lovely red string, and 100% of the proceeds go to Japan. Love that. Will be ordering one soon.
• Wondering what my life is trying to tell me about seeking personal growth this year. This post hit home on so many levels. Thank you, Tara.
• Adorable.

What the Font?!

ee what happens when I have insomina?

I start looking at all kinds of things on my Blackberry and Twitter and just can't stop. Heaven help me if I venture over to Facebook.

Which leads me to the first edition of my {hopefully not re-occurring} Southern Insomniac's Find o' the Night! I found this sweet website while blog hopping. Scrolling through my tiny phone screen wasn't enough so I had to get out of my warm bed to see it up close!

nter graphic designer, Jessica Hische. Each day on her website, Daily Drop Cap, she gives us one super cool decorative initial capital to beautiful our blogs with. Ummm, love. her. seriously.

I think graphic designers and typographers are some of my creative heroes. And the ones that give away their stuff for free, well, I just want to marry them. {Ahem, Kevin and Amanda. love you, too.}

credit: Jessica Jones

o check her out and I promise you'll heart her just as much as I do! :) Hopefully it's a much more sane time of day that you're scrolling through her beautiful work. As for me, I'm gonna give the sleep thing another shot. Night!

PS- Don't forget to sign up for my latest giveaway! Enter here: Mend Mark of Love bracelet Giveaway.

 

Crunchy Chic

I'm getting crunchier by the minute, I swear.

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I have a slight addiction to beautiful leather purses and expensive J.Crew driving moccasins. You'll also be aware of the fact that I adore animals and am a proud card carrying member of Peta.

Can someone say contradicting interests much?

In my effort to de-Kate Spade myself, I've been trying to find animal friendly purses. Still on a high from the cuteness that is this preppy headband, I perused American Chic and found a super adorable purse!

Not only is this bag adorable with a capital A, but it's animal friendly, too! No leather in sight! When I got the bag in the mail, it came in its own dust bag and everything. I'm a sucker for the details. :) I was a bit skeptical at first, thinking it would be really obvious that it wasn't real leather, but this bag did not disappoint. It was made very well. Can't wait to do the whole 'to do' that is the changing of the purses. ;)

Now, I just had to take care of the shoes...

I was so surprised when I found out that Endless had a vegetarian shoe section. Eeeek!

Now if you're thinking animal friendly isn't chic, look at these babies!

Oh, how I love flats! And what I love even more is the philosophy of olsenHaus. Cruelty free fashion. Loving it! Y'all know I'm snatching these babies up just as soon as Lent is over!

I'm getting really excited to find that I can be stylish and still be conscious of my animal friends. :) And check out Alicia Silverstone's blog, the Kind Life. She has some great fashion and foodie inspiration. Totally wanting her book, too!

While I'm nowhere near where I want to be on this journey, I can feel myself becoming more and more conscious of what I put in and on my body. You have to start somewhere, right?

So, what are YOUR best cruelty-free finds?

xoxo

Want a preppy Burberry Headband?

Want an uber cute and chic Burberry headband?

Yeah, me too!!!

Want to pay $95 for it?

Yeah, me neither.

I'm SO loving this headband that mimics the infamous Burberry Nova Check. And I'm OH SO loving the price. Ummmm, $14.95. I'll take one, thank you very much! Throw in a 10% coupon code, and I may be sweet and get one for my preppy sissy, too! {{ prep10 }}

The good folks at American Chic were so kind and they sent me one to review. It's been a rotating staple in my wardrobe ever since. I love it! The quality is divine and it fits like a glove. And no one knows I spent under $15 for it! I love when I look good. And I love when it fits my budget. :)

xoxo

Cambria Cove $100 Giveaway!!

There's no better feeling than getting a surprise. The thrill and excitement that builds as you unwrap something unexpected can almost be too much to bear at times!

That completely explains the way I felt when a mysterious packaged arrived at my door. I immediately tore into it and unearthed a gorgeously gift-wrapped package. I couldn't imagine what surprises lay in store if the box was this beautiful!

I was not let down.

Chris, over at Cambria Cove sent me some absolutely gorgeous tools for entertaining. Between the Mercado Table Runner, the match yellow napkins, the festive napkin rings, and the green hand etched pitcher, I was ready to throw myself a fiesta! (It didn't take too long to get some yummy sangria in that baby to test it out! ;P )

(Is it too early in morning for sangria?)

I was absolutely thrilled at how beautiful and colorful these items were. I'm a sucker for Mexican decor, as my great great grandparents were from Mexico and I've got all kinds of Mexican inspired pieces scattered around my house. It was like Chris had full access into my decorator's mind! Loved it!

After browsing online, I discovered that their expertise didn't stop at entertaining. From jewelry to stationary, Cambria Cove has it all. (I'm a sucker for date books. How elegant were those calendars!?) A combination of Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Bath and Body Works, this site literally has it all. And girls, they've got preppy covered! :) I feel some Christmas wish-list-making coming up real soon...

I could seriously go on and on and on showing you all the awesome stuff they have but I just don't have that kind of time. You simply MUST go over there and see all the goodies for yourself.

And why not do some shopping while you're there?! It will be easy with the ...

$100 Cambria Cove wants to give you!!

Here's the 411:

* To enter, leave a comment telling me your must have item from Cambria Cove. You know, the one that is going on your Christmas list! lol

* For a second entry, twitter about it, linking this post to it. Here's the tricky part- you MUST leave a separate comment for that entry. (BTW, to copy your twitter post to the comment section, click on the time stamp. It doesn't look like you can click on it, but I promise you can!)

* For a 3rd entry, become a follower! Or tell me if you already are one! (Again, make sure that this is another separate comment)

* And finally for TWO MORE entries, blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post. That's a total of 5 entries! :)

* The giveaway ends September 29th at 11:59pm Central time. I will draw a winner on the morning of the 30th to announce on my blog. If you do not have a blog, please make sure to leave your email.

* And I have to say this one more time, leave a separate comment for each entry! This makes it a million times easier for me to count them up fairly. Unfortunately, I will not be able to count them as valid entries if they are not in separate comments.

That's it!

Cambria Cove is a treasure trove of gifts, whether it be for you or your friends and family. Promise that holiday wish list will be full in no time! :) Good luck y'all! Ok, I'm heading back over there right now. Or maybe I'll take a break and try to figure out how to explain all these new American Express purchases to Southern Hubby. If you give me a good lie, maybe I can count that as your 6th entry??? Hmmm.....

(okay, I was just kidding about that one, but I had to try!)

Happy shopping!

xoxo Y

Southern Finds: Headbands

I've been a headband girl since way back when, so when I saw a gal who's blog name was Headbands and Handbangs, well, duh- I had to check her out! She is super cute! And did a fab giveaway I just missed- it was for a darling headband with a side bow. Right now, I'm all about the side decorations on the head.

I found a couple of cute ones on Etsy, too.

In love, in love! This red floral headband would look great with the fall browns and creams coming up next season. And this one would look great on both blondes and us hottie brunettes! ;)

And this one, I have to have. So, so chic and romantic! I want, I want!! I haven't quite decided if I want to pay almost $30 for a headband, but isn't it fabulous!?

I often wonder if I could pull off a feather headband. It's very chic, but a little bit too on the Carrie side and not the Charlotte side, which I tend to wear. What do you think?

If you're in the market for one, I'd make a stop at Plume and Bloom. Oh my goodness, the headbands in this Etsy shop are to die for! So elegant and beautiful, but I can totally see myself wearing one in a casual outfit with jeans, too.

Since it's terribly hot here in Texas, I like to let my hair dry curly. I get lazy and don't feel like blowing hot air on my head, so I just take the easy way out, put some Phytodefrisant Balm in my hair, scrunch, and go. Seriously, it's that easy. I've heard mixed reviews about Phyto. I've never had any problems with it. Sometimes my hair will get frizzy despite this balm, but it's normally when the humidity is super high.

When I go super relaxed like this, I like to dress it up a bit with a cute headband or clip. It makes me feel less frumpy, even if my hair is thrown up in a loose bun. And with this heat it normally is. Heck, I'm lucky if I can get some make up to stay on longer than an hour. The sweat just runs it all down my face. It's so sad. And such a waste! :(

And speaking of makeup, I'm thinking about doing a post on what I use. I had a girl ask me about it a long long time ago and just never got around to it. We'll see...

Don't forget to sign up for the Ame & Lulu giveaway- the belt is too precious to pass up!

Happy headband-wearin',

xoxo Y

Southern Finds

Sometimes I stop by some really delightful blogs that really get my attention. A lot of the times, they aren't the most visible blogs, but are sure to be up and coming. Here are a couple I saw this week.

With the summer coming to an end, I've really been in the entertaining mood. Southern Hubby and I are thinking about throwing a Labor Day party. Sounds like fun, but I know me- I'm going to start worry about making this party perfect, which obviously does not exist. I guess this is why this post written by Sandy Toes, really caught my eye. I think I've missed out on so many fun moments in my home because of my perfectionism. I'm not Martha Stewart, and my guests don't expect me to be.

If I ever become a mother, I hope I'm just like Ms. Melissa Lester from A Little Loveliness. She realizes the important role she has as head creator of making special memories for her family. One of the ways she does this is by making entertaining her family just as important, if not more, than all her adult parties. In this post (which made me a devoted reader) She disguises this normally unwelcomed dinner of leftovers as the setting for 'Mom's Cafe.' She gets in the character of a waitress with her husband and the cafe cook. The kids loved it and didn't once mention anything about leftovers. I know those kids will store that night in an overflowing treasure trunk of memories, all made with family.

If you are at all familiar with the preppy blog club, you already know about Miss Janice. Our resident ettiquette expert is also a fabulous and gracious entertainer. Her porch parties must be legendary. But the party I love the most is the one she did for her husband to celebrate the Masters.

The detail put into this simple meal undoubtedly made her husband, as well as guests, feel very special. And after all, isn't that one of the main reasons we entertain? I have been on Team Miss Janice since the beginning and her creative genius keeps me coming back for more!

****************************************

Ok, I *think* this is it gals. I finally got my schedule to where all can see it. (knock on wood) I did many things which did not work and after a couple hours, I just had to do a screen capture, save it as a jpeg file and then upload it to Photobucket. Fancy schmancy. Didn't you know I had some crazy mad computer skills? Unfortunately, you can't download it and edit it make it your own, but I did include a quick tutorial that should help get your going. Fingers crossed this one works! Click here to head there.

Happy entertaining your entertaning ideas!

xoxo Y