Early Fall Centerpiece Decor

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Well, I’ve started to put away Summer and decorate for Fall.  I’m not quite ready for decorating with pumpkins just quite yet, but I think transitioning into Fall colors is a good idea.  

I put up some harvest nutcrackers… the wine maker and the sunflower nutcrackers as I think they go well with the harvest theme.

 I just love how the fresh sunflowers pop against the Mackenzie Childs courtly check teapot and candlesticks! Don’t you think it looks nice?

 I like how the brown dog, teapot, and acorn wreaths all go together too. I am really enjoying this centerpiece that sits on the island in the kitchen.  I have some string lights that are little leaves that you can kind of see in the picture.  They are more noticeable at night!

Are you ready for Fall? I’ll admit… I baked some pumpkin bread yesterday. It was delicious!!

Did you check out my announcement yesterday?  I’m having a Pumpkin Week… ends with a pumpkin themed link party Sept 18! Check it out here

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com

linking up at: amaze me monday The Scoop!  2 Bees in a Pod,  Metamorphosis Monday’s Inspire Me Tuesday Wow us Wednesdays! Creative Ways  Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsTablescape Thursday’s Your Turn to Shine The inspiration gallery Home Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Foodie Friday & Everything Else Best of the Weekend Sunday’s Down Under

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Announcement: Introducing Pumpkin Week!

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Guess what?! I had this really exciting idea!  As you may or may not know, I LOVE pumpkins. I love pumpkin patches, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin shrimp (j/k). So I thought, why not host a “PUMPKIN WEEK”?

Pumpkin Week will start Monday September 14 and end Friday September 18. I will feature pumpkin recipes, decorating with pumpkins, and even more pumpkins!

Pumpkin Week will end with a big finale on Friday September 18 with a pumpkin link party where everyone can link up their favorite pumpkin-themed links! Doesn’t that sound like fun???

Additionally, I’ll be pinning EVERY SINGLE POST at the linky party to my new “All Things Pumpkin” Pinterest board! That means more social media exposure for you!! Help me spread the word out to #pumpkinlovers 

Spread the word on Twitter:

Tweet: Visit Pumpkin Week Sept 14-18 at http://bit.ly/1C9bvrw ends with a #linkyparty on Sept 18 #pumpkinweek @LePetit_Macaron

Follow the new Pinterest board:
Follow Peonies & Orange Blossoms’s board All Things Pumpkin! on Pinterest.

I’m excited!! Are you??

sums up #pumpkinweek 

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Friday Favorites – #12

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It’s Friday!!  I saw this little meme and thought it was funny… 

Dior and I

Have you heard of this documentary? It premiered this year. It’s about Raf Simons’ debut designing for Atelier Dior.  He was in a new position at a new company, and he had to design an entire haute couture collection in 8 weeks.   The documentary goes through the process while narrating excerpts from an autobiography of Christian Dior.  

I really enjoyed this film. It was interesting to see how a concept turned into a reality.  If you like Project Runway, then you will love this documentary. It’s like Project Runway, but for real, with a much bigger budget! 

I wanted to share with you some pictures of the famous floral walls from the haute couture show of that season.  Raf had an entire apartment covered floor to ceiling in fresh flowers. Can you imagine how it smelled?  

Paris Maps

This week I received in the mail “Paris Maps”.  They are these pretty hand drawn and watercolored paintings from Carol Gillott, an ex-pat living in Paris.  Also, she runs a cute blog, Paris Breakfasts.  While they are only copies of the original art work, every month she has a new issue. It’s so much fun getting them in the mail! Additionally she includes little business cards from Paris… so you can pretend you were there! You can purchase both Paris Mail and Paris Maps here.

Fall

I was at Homegoods this week and couldn’t help myself.. I bought this cute table runner and little pumpkin candles. I haven’t decorated the rest of the house yet (as when it’s 106 outside it’s hard to think it feels like Fall!) but I am starting to get in the mood. I will admit I will miss the long Summer evenings.

Mackenzie-Childs Wallpaper

Did you know MC came out with wallpaper?  While I’m not too sure I would use it, I certainly think its cute. I really like the polka dot paper! What do you think?

Hope you are enjoying these last weeks of Summer… while I know the start of Fall isn’t ’til the end of September, in blogland Fall starts around… now!

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Fresh Fruit Frangipane Tart

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I have never tried to bake a tart before but I have always wanted to give it a shot! Well let me tell you, this was a bullseye! They were delicious!!

Fresh Fruit Frangipane Tart Recipe

 Now, I know some of you are wondering, what is “Frangipane”? Frangipane, pronounced fran-gee-pah-nee, is an almond pastry cream.  It is really good!  If you’ve ever had an almond croissant or a bear claw, it is the filling that is inside of those things!

I was playing around with my tart pans and made them in two different sizes.  I also topped them with assorted fresh fruit: raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries! My husband’s favorite was raspberry and mine was strawberry.

Fresh strawberry frangipane tart recipe


Fresh Fruit Frangipane Tart Recipe get the printable version


French Pastry Tart Dough (from David Leibovitz, you really must read the recipe on his site, it is really quite entertaining!)


90 g (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

150 g (5oz, or 1 slightly-rounded cup) flour


Preheat the oven to 410º F 

1. In a medium-sized ovenproof bowl, combine the butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt.

2. Place the bowl in the oven for 15 minutes, until the butter is bubbling and starts to brown just around the edges.

3. When done, remove the bowl from oven (and be careful, since the bowl will be hot and the mixture might sputter a bit), dump in the flour and stir it in quickly, until it comes together and forms a ball which pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

4. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch (23 cm) tart mold with a removable bottom and spread it a bit with a spatula OR transfer the dough to your mini tart pans. It doesn’t matter the size of your tart pans. Save a raspberry size piece of dough and set it aside.

5. Once the dough is cool enough to handle, pat it into the shell with the heel of your and, and use your fingers to press it up the sides of the tart mold. 

6. Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork about ten times, then bake the tart shell in the oven at 410F for 15 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown.

7. Remove from the oven and if there are any sizable cracks, use the bit of reserved dough to fill in and patch them.

I find it best to pinch off a small amount of the reserved dough, roll it gently between your fingers to soften it, then wedge it into the cracks, smoothing it gently with your pinky.

8. Let the shell cool before filling.

Frangipane Filling 


85g (or 6tbsp) unsalted butter, soft

100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar

75g (3/4 cup) ground almonds or almond flour

1 egg plus 1 egg white

2 tsp all purpose flour

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

Assorted fresh fruits for garnish


Preheat the oven to 350F

1. In the bowl of your food processor, combine butter and sugar. Pulse until smooth. 

2. Add the almonds and blend until well combined. Then add the flour and cornstarch and combine again.  Next, add the egg and egg white and combine. Finally, add the vanilla and salt and combine. 

3. Spread the frangipane into the cooled tart shells.  You will likely have frangipane left over depending on how full you filled your tarts.

4. You can either garnish your tart now and bake the fresh fruit in the oven, or garnish with fresh fruit once cooked. Up to you!

5. Place the tart or tartlets onto a baking sheet. Bake until the tart crust and frangipane are golden and set, approximately 20-30 minutes for tartlets or 45-50 minutes for a 9 inch tart. 

6. Cool on a wire rack. If you hadn’t garnished with fruit and baked them, now add your fresh fruit. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

raspberry frangipane tart recipe; blackberry frangipane tart recipe

Now, I photographed these still sitting in their tart pan because they were still slightly warm and popping them out of the pan made a bit of a mess.

Making the tart dough is usually the most daunting task for a tart – and David Leibovitz’s version was really easy. REALLY.

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com
linking up at: amaze me monday The Scoop!  2 Bees in a Pod,  Metamorphosis Monday’s Inspire Me Tuesday Wow us Wednesdays! Creative Ways  Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsTablescape Thursday’s Your Turn to Shine The inspiration gallery Home Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Best of the Weekend Foodie Friday & Everything Else Sunday’s Down Under

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Friday Favorites!

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Is it Friday ALREADY?! Where’d the time go???

Going to the Ranch
You know what I love about Summer? Going out to the Ranch.  Just about 10 minutes from us is a large farm operation that grows a multitude of vegetables… including fresh corn!  They pick truck loads and just dump it in the back (as you can see). We’ve been eating this corn all Summer long. We’ve slowly watched their corn crops come down as the Summer carries on.  We get most of our fresh fruits and veggies here. It’s really fantastic! This isn’t just “buying local” this is like… micro local! ha!

A Cute Box

I got this cute Quimper box in Napa not too long ago. It was full of Breton shortbread cookies.  Honestly, I bought the cookies for the box. Do you ever buy things for the box? I admit, I have a box problem. And a bag problem. Why can’t I get rid of my designer shopping bags??

Fall is Coming
I’ve noticed that Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma now have sneak previews of their Fall inventory.  I was flipping through a Bethany Lowe catalog that was mailed to us… I thought these two things were cute: an owl lantern and a “Boo” garland with vintage Clapsaddle characters

New Shoes!

I bought a new pair of shoes… these pretty Christian Louboutin pumps! I don’t know why that red heel is so alluring, I guess it’s called good marketing!  I am hoping they fit! They’re supposed to arrive this weekend! And yes, I am aware these shoes are insanely expensive – that’s why I found them used. It’ll be our little secret.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Did you catch the meteor shower that started this week? Every summer, the Perseid meteor shower occurs.  The night of August 12 and August 13 produced the best conditions because there was a moon-less sky!  My friend, husband, and I sat outside here in the country and did some star gazing for several hours.  I think we saw approximately 30-40 shooting stars! It was amazing!  If you missed it, it still continues tonight. So look outside after sunset! While star gazing, I also use this cool iphone/ipad app called SkyView… it shows you constellations, satellites, and planets! There is a free version and a paid version – I received the paid version for free as it was one of Starbucks’ gold members perks – if you are a Starbucks gold member, check it out and download it for free! (I was not paid to write about this).

not my photo, someone took a cool time-lapse of the meteor shower!

Well, that’ll do it for this week! See y’all on Monday… where I’m going to talk about eating in Paris!!

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10 Favorite Beauty Products

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10 Favorite Beauty Products

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

I thought I’d put together a list of my top 10 favorite beauty products that I use (almost) everyday. I like reading other top 10 lists from people, so I hope you enjoy this one!

1. Clinique Superdefense daily moisturizer spf 25 – I have fair skin.  What I love about this moisturizer is that not only does it help my splotchy dry skin, but it also has sunscreen in it! The sunscreen is not oily. I have been wearing this everyday for years! You need to wear sunscreen to help prevent skin cancer and wrinkles!

2. Clinique Even Better Eyes – My biggest beauty problem is dark circles under my eyes.  To start, I apply this product which has a little makeup tint to it but also contains a moisturizer for the next step. It also helps reduce puffiness and redness.

3. Bobbi Brown Color Corrector – I have two different concealers from Bobbi Brown for my dark circles under my eyes. I work long hours and at all different times of day.  On top of that, I have chronic allergies that add to the dark circles under my eyes.  I first put on this concealer under my eyes. It uses a pink-peach base that neutralizes the blue under the eyes.

4. Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit – after I put the color corrector on, I use the creamy concealer kit. It contains another concealer that you use around more of your eye (not just the dark spot) and then you seal it in with a pressed powder.

5. Nars blush color in orgasm – this has been my favorite blush ever!! This is also Nars’ #1 seller in blush color because it looks great on most people. It has a little bit of shine to it so if the light hits you right you get a nice glow to you!

6. Clinique High Impact Mascara – I love this mascara. I like that it goes on a bit heavier than some other Clinique mascaras, but it is not chunky. It goes on smoothly. This is great for an everyday look. I often find a lot of other companies’ mascaras are too chunky for my eyes.

7. Aveda Phomollient Hair Styling Gel – I have been using this styling gel for years. It helps tame fly-aways, gives my roots a little volume boost, and smells good too!

8. Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe Sea Salt Texturizing Spray – I love this sea salt spray. It’s the cheapest sea salt spray I’ve found and works well for the messy beach hair look.  You can spray it to your curls to help them relax a bit. Oh, did I mention this spells like a coconut tropical paradise??

9. L’occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream – this, hands down, is the best hand cream I’ve ever used.  My hands are constantly dry and this hand cream works wonders. Creams are more hydrating than lotions. This one has a nice scent to it too. I think I’ve been using this beauty product the longest out of all of them!

10. Jo Malone Orange Blossom Cologne – My favorite perfume/cologne for the moment. It’s so nice and refreshing. I just love how refreshing all of her perfumes smell. I also use the nectarine blossom and honey scent too!

What is your favorite beauty product? Leave a comment!

*Post contains affiliate links.
Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com
linking up at: amaze me monday The Scoop!  2 Bees in a Pod,  Metamorphosis Monday’s Inspire Me Tuesday Wow us Wednesdays! Creative Ways  Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsTablescape Thursday’s Your Turn to ShineHome Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Foodie Friday & Everything Else  Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything,Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM Best of the Weekend

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Fresh Strawberry Mixed Greens Salad

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I thought I would share with you today one our favorite salads! My husband and I eat this salad frequently and I thought I’d share it with you all today! We used to eat this salad at our favorite lunch spot in St. Louis – Companion Bakery… but when we moved we couldn’t take the salad with us… so we copied it!

This recipe doesn’t have a lot of measuring… if you need more you add more. Just add until it looks “right” to you. Usually each person gets 1-2 handfuls of salad mix.

Ingredients – serves 4

  • several handfuls of Spring salad mix (or spinach tastes good too)
  • 6-10 fresh strawberries, diced (number of strawberries depends on size)
  • crumbled blue cheese – as much as you want
  • diced pecans – as much as you want, if you’re feeling decadent you could caramelize them!
  • 1/4 red onion, diced (to decrease onion taste, rinse chopped onion in water!)
  • Brianna’s strawberry vinaigrette

Directions (there aren’t many)

  1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix! 
  2. Add a few of the extra toppings on top for looks. Done!

Fresh Strawberry Mixed Greens Salad

Yes I know, it’s another salad recipe. I know you don’t want to eat salad. You came here to read about MACARONS! Not salad. Salad is for rabbits. 

But I wanted to give a shoutout to this salad dressing which tastes REALLY GOOD on salads with strawberries in it! It’s a blush wine vinaigrette and it’s amazing. FYI I wasn’t paid to rave about this dressing. I just like it.

Think you’re going to give it a try? Do you have a favorite salad recipe with strawberries in it?

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com
linking up at: amaze me monday The Scoop!  2 Bees in a Pod,  Metamorphosis Monday’s Inspire Me Tuesday Wow us Wednesdays! Creative Ways  Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsTablescape Thursday’s Your Turn to Shine The inspiration gallery Home Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Foodie Friday & Everything Else Sunday’s Down Under

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Weekend Whimsy

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Before I include the links for this weekend, I have an important READER ANNOUNCEMENT:

I have noticed over the past several weeks readership of weekend whimsy has significantly declined.  The other posts of mine are doing just fine 🙂 But I don’t want to keep spending my time on something if you aren’t interested.  I am partially wondering if the decline has to do with the fact that everyone is busy on the weekends because it’s Summer and the weather is nice out.

I think what I might do is just put this weekend whimsy on hiatus and resume it in the Fall when the weather sucks and more people are inside on the weekend!

French journalist parodies high fashion by copying their looks in the real world– it’s kind of amusing.

Some photographers show how birds see our world... it’s really neat.

Check out this beautiful wedding in Rome – that cathedral! WHOA.

Tour this beautiful Provence guest house!

How online retailers predict your perfect outfit

… and that will be it. Weekend Whimsy shall return this Fall.

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Friday Favorites!

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This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

grumpy cat on Monday and then on Friday! hee hee.

Zinnias!

The zinnias in the garden have been blooming like mad for the past month. I shot a few pictures with my iPhone this week.  Aren’t they so pretty?? I want to cut them and put them in my tulipiere but then I won’t have any zinnias in the garden… so I’ve left them outside!

New oven & Baking
We got a new oven and new stove this week.  Our previous oven here sucked. It ranged in temperature from 250-350 degrees even though it was set at 300!  The old stove only cooked at hot and hotter… there was no “simmer”.  This week my husband made a dutch baby pancake in our new cast iron pan in our new oven!  Doesn’t it look delicious?

Now, can someone tell me, why are there 3 names for this pancake? Dutch baby. Swedish pancake. German pancake. Which one do you call it?

My new Favorite lotion

This here is my new favorite lotion: black honey by archipelago botanicals. It smells so heavenly!  I love it! Check it out here

Little French Bud Vases

Everytime I walk by the table and see this little bud vases I bought in Paris it reminds me of my trip over there this Spring.  Aren’t they cute??  I wrote about my favorite places to shop in Paris this week, you can see that post here.  

Mango Black Tea Lemonade

I tried Starbucks mango black tea lemonade this week (with half the sweetener)… it was really good! It was really nice and refreshing!

Well, I saw this meme and thought it was kind of funny…

Thanks for stopping by!!!

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Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

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French Empire Picture Frame

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When I was in Portland and went to the antique show this past July, I did find *one* thing to take home with me.

I took home this cute French picture frame with pink Moire silk!  Isn’t it cute?  I had never seen one of these antique French empire picture frames with pink silk before.  Usually these picture frames go for a lot of money… this one was a fraction of what they normally cost! There is a little bit of damage but that’s okay with me.

I like how the sides and the back of the picture frame are in the pink moire silk as well!  The picture of the little girl was already in the frame.  Most of these picture frames were made around 1880s-1910… right around the time the camera became in fashion.

I put the picture frame above my dressing table in the bathroom next to my other French picture frame.  I love the yellow gold one of the left.  In the days where we take thousands of pictures on our phone cameras, displaying a picture in an ornate picture frame really makes it seem like something special.

A search online found some other fabulous picture frames from the same era and genre.

This one below looks pretty similar to my new pink one, but a little more ornate with the wreath on top.

I love the one below, wouldn’t it look cute on a wall? 

Now this one is the most ornate out of all of them, but how pretty!!

This pretty green one below could display a lot of photos!

 I found this other pink one… but it was 10 times the price of the one I got!

I also quite like this pretty green picture frame below…

 What do you think of these picture frames?  I think it’s nice displaying a little picture in a pretty little frame these days…

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com

linking up at: amaze me monday The Scoop!  2 Bees in a Pod,  Metamorphosis Monday’s Inspire Me Tuesday Wow us Wednesdays! Creative Ways  Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsTablescape Thursday’s Your Turn to ShineHome Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Foodie Friday & Everything Else  

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Weekend Whimsy

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A tour of Van Gogh’s picture perfect French Village

Here are 15 beautiful places in California that are on my list of places to visit!


Do you have a plethora of peaches like me?  Check out what The Pioneer Woman does with them— serves them grilled with pecans! Sounds delicious.

Disneyland turned 60 this month. Here’s a look back of the past 60 years of magic.

I thought this was funny because it happens to me… being “Hangry”. When you’re hungry it makes you angry (and cranky).

How to get authentic French style – tips on decorating your home

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Friday Favorites

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It’s Friday and I’m back with some more Friday Favorites this week! Can you believe July is over?? I can’t. It was a big month for us. Moved from SoCal to NorCal.  Both of us started new jobs. Big things happening over here.
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French Pastries
I have a French pastry problem. The problem is… I love them and can’t stop eating them.  These pastries are from Craftsman & Wolves in San Francisco.  The one of the left is a raspberry eclair and was delicious! The one of the right is called a peach twinkie.  It is nothing like a twinkie!  With the edible flower blossoms and fresh peach cream inside, it is a delight!  If you are heading to San Francisco, I recommend going there.  I wrote about them in a blogpost here.

Honey
This honey from the Savannah Bee Company is one of the best honeys I’ve ever had. It’s an orange blossom honey and it actually tastes like orange blossom! I’ve many other orange blossom honeys but they never actually taste like orange blossom.  But this one does! As you can see, we already used half the bottle!

Pumpkins!
We planted pumpkins on July 1 when we moved it and this was them earlier this past weekend. We planted them from seed. There are 6 different varieties.  I’ve been outside cackling around like a witch… grow my pretties!  While they look really big, they need to started growing like mad if we are to have pumpkins by Halloween!

Pretty Tile
This past week we were playing at the San Francisco Design Center and I saw this pretty tile design on the wall.  Wouldn’t you love to have this… in your kitchen, bathroom, or outside, or anywhere? It’s so beautiful!

 Liberty London at Nordstrom
This past week when we went to the downtown San Francisco Nordstrom’s we checked in at Liberty London’s pop-up store!  If you’ve never heard of Liberty London, LL is actually a department store in London that sells really cute products!  They are known for the cute floral prints! They have no current store in the USA, so Nordstrom struck a little deal with them.  Nordstrom is exclusively selling their merchandise for 1-2 months.  If your local Nordies doesn’t have the pop-up store, that’s okay, you can get everything online.  I purchase the gardening gloves on the bottom right – they are soft and cute, and long to protect my arms from the rose thorns!  Here are some of the other things I eyed as well… oh, did I mention they give you a free cute little shopping bag if you buy something?

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Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of EverythingMomfessionals, and Grace and Love
Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .
Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

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Weekend Whimsy!

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I almost forgot about weekend whimsy this week!  I’m quickly writing this before I head into work…

A tour of some of England’s Stately Homes… I love this! 

While this is technically a baby shower, I do love the French theme of this party!

Kate Spade announced plans for a new line of activewear, home goods, and baby.  Save your money now!!

As I still have a bunch of peaches, I like this recipe for peach iced tea. This will be nice for next week when the high is near 110!

The Converse chuck taylor, one of my main shoes that I wear, is getting a redesign for the first time ever.  Nike is adding softer inserts to it. 

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Happy 2nd Blogiversary!

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You’re invited to…. my second blogivesary party!  Last year we had a little blogivesary party like Marie Antoinette in Versailles (and then for my 30th birthday in real-life!).

This year we are going to a nice little dinner in Napa on some private grounds…

First you will enter through the gates below…

then drive up this tree lined driveway…

You’ll then stroll along the pretty private grounds hearing the pitter patter of the fountain…

 …and eventually find this beautiful affair…

 …where we would dine under the vines with lights dancing like stars above our heads…

…we would feast on some dinner under the warm evening air…

 …before diving into this beautiful cake for dessert!

Hope you all enjoyed my little pretend soiree in Napa today! I can’t believe it’s already been TWO years since I started blogging.  I have had a lot of fun continuing to run this blog. 

I love everyone’s comments; sometimes it takes me a little while to respond because I do work a full-time job “in real life”.  If you’ve never left a comment here and enjoy reading my blog, leave me one today! 

Thank you for reading my little blog! 

If you aren’t following me, you can follow me here : bloglovin, instagramtwitterpinterest, and google plus.

I am going to highlight some of my readers’ most viewed posts from the past year!

You loved the Laduree Paris Tea Room Review…

You liked my Paris packing list ideas…

 You loved the orange blossom macaron recipe…

 You loved the taupe, greige, and grey kitchen round up…

 You liked this French country lavender table..,

And most recently, this blackberry peach galette with cinnamon ice cream!

And lastly, you agreed last Fall that Starbucks’ pumpkin scones sucked and were curious why they were recalled.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!  Also, I won’t be doing a Friday Favorites this week since I did this post instead.

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FitBit Charge HR review

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I have had my FitBit Charge HR for a month now and am ready to write my review!

There are several different FitBits available.  I purchased the Charge HR.  What that means is that it tracks steps, sleep, miles, calories, and my heart rate.  The heart rate monitor was essential for me… I can track calories burned during exercise more accurately.

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FitBit Charge HR review

Here’s a look at the home screen…

 It tracks and trends your steps for the week.  I love getting the 10,000 steps!  However, it doesn’t happen every week like it did on this one.

 It also tracks floors climbed.  As you can see, I don’t climb a ton of floors.  I live in a single story house.

It tracks your exercise too… You can do biking, walking, running.  Here I did my PiYo and walking.  If you use it while on the treadmill, it will NOT count your steps *unless* you have your arm swinging down at your side. If you arm is not moving the FitBit assumes you aren’t either.

 What’s cool with the charge HR model is that it lets you track your sleep.   It shows you how many times you were restless and how many times you woke up.  As you can see, I like to sleep at lot and sleep pretty solidly through the night.

 It also tracks your sleeping pattern over time.  In the screenshot below, I was working various shifts during various times of day.  As you can see, it totally messed up my sleep. I mean one night (which is actually when I slept during broad daylight) I only slept 3 hours.  People who work night shift and swing shifts have chronic sleep deprivation… You can see that evidenced below.

 … then I went on vacation.  And had a normal circadian rhythm like the rest of the world.  Check out how I consistently slept the nearly the same duration every night!

Here is a sample of a work out I did on July 4th. I went bike riding this day.  You can see how my work-out truly went. It measures your heart rate during your work out! It calculates your target HR based on height, weight, and age.

 It also takes resting heart rates when you sleep.

If you have friends or family with a fit bit, you can add them as a friend and challenge them! It’s kind of fun (if you’re winning!)

It can also do calorie tracking with food that you enter manually into the system.  I haven’t done that (yet). 

I sync mine with my iPad and iPhone without any problems.  I find the battery lasts about 4-5 days.

PROS

– It helps me exercise. I like getting 10,000 steps!

– It allows me to better calculate my burned calories while exercising.

– It lets me know how I am sleeping which helps me with my night shift planning

– did I mention it motivates you to exercise? I think that’s really the biggest plus and is worth mentioning again.

– It lets me measure how far I walked!

– You can sync it up to other apps and map your runs

– the battery life is long and can be easily recharged

CONS

– it did cause a rash on me one day. To avoid this, I recommend taking it off right away after exercising and cleaning it regularly. 

– if you do swimming for exercise, it doesn’t count it

– it’s not 100% accurate.  My mom’s fitbit and my fitbit will measure different steps for the same distance, which is expected that there will be some variation but it shouldn’t be a large difference.

At first I thought the fitbit looked really ugly and I would never wear it… but now that I’ve been wearing it around I barely notice it on my arm!  I got it in the black because I thought that would be the least annoying of all the colors.  The color selection is below…

There is a wide range of FitBit products.  The fitbit flex is the most popular and allows you to change arm bands with Tory Burch accessories!  But for me, the heart rate monitor was necessary and was only available on the two fitbits on the bottom right of the picture below.  FitBit also makes a scale that syncs with their program.  Here is a comparison of all the different models!  I considered other tracking devices but thought this one delivered the most bang for the buck!

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