Honeymoon Tour: Paris - Day Three

We set our priorities for Paris like this...(1) Eiffel Tower, (2) fabulous food, (3) champagne, (4) sightseeing. By Day Three we had already accomplished the first three things on our list and it was on to the sight seeing portion of our visit. It also rained (and I mean RAINED) on Day Three so it was the perfect day to spend sightseeing indoors, not that we escaped the rain 100%.....you'll see.  

We started our day at Musée de l'Orangerie, which is located near the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde. It's not a very large museum and we spent about an hour ogling impressionist and post-impressionist art. If I sound like I know something about art...I don't. Don't be fooled. I'm just good at reading signs and informational pamphlets.

We did see some of the most beautiful Monet pieces, including many that spanned whole walls!

We then stopped by the Musée d'Orsay....or M|'O as the sign said...

Musee d'Orsay was a particularly neat museum because it is built in the former railway station, "Gare d'Orsay," which was built between 1898 and 1900. That explains a lot about the architecture, right?

In addition to the artwork, this museum also had the coolest clock I have ever seen.

After the Musee d'Orsay we took a break from museums and ventured outside for some sightseeing at the Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame. Here's a photo of the Arc, the tunnel passage to it, and Andrew doing something on his phone while I ham it up for the camera. Don't worry, I got a good one of both of us in this same spot. I just think this one is funny for here on the blog.

The Arc de Triomphe was especially fun to get to because you couldn't walk across the street to get there (or I guess you could--you would just get hit by a car!). You had to take an underground passage and then pop up under the Arc. This is what you see when you pop up.

Then you can go up the stairs to the top. So. many. stairs. This is actually a photo from the top looking down so you can actually see the steps.

Good thing I'm decently in shape.....not. I was winded.

It was worth it though because the views from the top were pretty spectacular, even in the bad weather.

I spy with my little eye, Monmartre and Sacre Coeur!

After the Arc de Triomphe we wanted to refuel and ended up stumbling upon a cafe I found on google maps when I was just looking at the city one day. I saw a random location called "Honest Lawyer." Naturally, because I'm a lawyer and all, I wanted to go. But I wasn't sure we would actually do it. Turns out it is about 10 minutes walk from the Arc! And let me say this...it's authentic! And by "authentic" I mean it was not a tourist trap. It is supposed to be an English pub but the waitress only spoke french and the lunch time crowd was mostly French businessmen so I think we found a good local spot. I was so excited to try out my french ordering and we managed to make it through the whole meal without a problem. Plus the food was delicious! How funny is the sign??

After le dejeuner, we headed to Notre-Dame Cathedral. At this point it was POURING. We spent plenty of time walking around inside the cathedral safe and out of the rain's way...

But we knew we would have to brave the rain in order to go to the bell tower. Luckily, we made good use of our raincoats and my mini travel umbrella and managed to stay somewhat dry. Mostly I was just concerned that my good camera was getting wet in my bag, which it was, and Andrew ended up putting it under his raincoat. Yes, my purse was water-resistant but NOT waterproof.  We took some quick photos outside and then went into the bell tower. Like the Arc de Triomphe there were so many stairs...but we finally made it to the top. You can see Andrew's hair is wet here but overall we look in good spirits. This is when we were walking around the top with all the gargoyles.

And check out the tiny door to the bell tower! Now I know why Quasimodo was a hunchback!

Notre-Dame was so so so beautiful. You hear about the stained glass windows all the time but to actually be there and to see it in real life was a really special treat.

After Notre-Dame we wanted to get back out of the rain so we headed to the Musee du Louvre for the rest of the evening. It is open late on Wednesdays so we had quite a few hours even though we showed up around...2 or 3 pm?  I was so worried I wouldn't get a photo in the pyramid because we entered the museum from underground. 

This entrance is much less cool. Although we did get a photo with the inverted triangle...

Luckily, we exited that way at the end of the night (the Louvre was open late on Wednesday) and I grabbed my selfie then! Still raining...

Did you know that the Musee du Louvre is actually a part of the Louvre Palace, a former royal palace that was originally built as a fortress in the medieval period? It because a royal palace in the 14th century under Charles V and was used as the kings of France's main Paris residence from time to time. In 1793 the museum part of the Louvre opened....which has expanded to be most of the building now. Fascinating, no??

We made sure to see the highlights. Like the Venus and the Mona Lisa, of course!

Everyone always told me how small the Mona Lisa was but I impressed to see if was not as small as they led me to believe. It was protected by super thick glass...and four security guards. Sheesh! 

Afterwards we headed back to the Eiffel Tower briefly before calling it a night. 

If you're not tired of me yet, join me next time to see what we did on day four of our honeymoon!

Swatch: Zoya Moxie

Today's post is a swatch of an oldie but goodie from my collection. I reach for Zoya polishes when I'm short on time because their formula is super pigmented, has perfect application, and dries really quickly, even without the assistance of  my Seche Vite quick drying top coat. I have so many Zoya polishes but I found that I have been disappointed with some of their new colors I purchased--did they change the formula?! Hope not! Today's nails are Zoya Moxie, a brilliant berry pink that is wonderful for the crisp fall weather we're having. I'm not yet ready to pull out the dark blues, deep purples, or grays of winter but this color is perfect.

Ugh, look how wonky my thumb looks. Can you believe it has chunks of gel polish from two months ago still? Yup. Still going.

Did I mention how much I like this polish? It truly is the perfect berry pink.

'Tis the Holiday Season: My Wishlist

Now that Halloween is over and we are well on our way in the second week of November it is officially HOLIDAY SEASON and I guess it's time to start thinking about....gifts! To be honest, I already have all my family's gifts planned out so I already feel super accomplished. I'll be sure to avoid the holiday-crazed mall this year. In addition to my gift list for my nearest and dearest I like to keep a running wishlist of items so I can choose a holiday treat for myself, too. Is that totally selfish or just a tiny bit selfish? A girl has a right to treat herself to something nice once in a while, right??  Keep reading for my current wishlist! Who knows, maybe it will inspire a gift idea for someone you know!

"The Transport" Leather Tote by Madewell. $168

I know, I am so late to this party. If you follow literally any amount of fashion bloggers or fashion instagrams you probably ran across this beauty at some point a long time ago. I'm a little slower on the draw and just recently found it. I really like the quality of the bag and I actually really do need a camel colored bag (all my bags are gray or black apparently). The price point is a bit higher than I would hope (which is why I have not yet made the decision to buy it) but it's not completely outrageous compared to other bags. *cough*Chanel Classic Flap*cough*

The Necole Pump from Mix No. 6 (DSW) $34.98 (on sale!)

I must be in a brown/tan mood right now because the next item is also partly tan. I really like these pumps and I think I could get a lot of use out of them for work. How good would they look with black pants and a tan sweater with a long necklace? I have to admit though, I am the worst at buying shoes. I buy a bazillion pairs of black flats and wear the same five pairs of boots into the ground before replacing them. I always see cute pumps and heels when I shop online but I can never bring myself to actually add them to my cart. Why? I guess it's because I always think to myself hmmm, maybe that's better in theory than actual practice and I convince myself I will not wear them enough to make it worth it.


There are also a few Pandora Charms I have my eye on! ($50-$95)

In reality, I have two Pandora bracelets. However, one was given to me by my now husband and he had already filled it with some charms that made it like really nice so I don't add to that one because it would make it off balance. My second bracelet is the one that I'm building, although I only have like...four charms on it so it's a slow process. I really want to add one for the wedding this year and I like both of the options above. I like the "Our Special Day Charm" because it's a wedding dress with a similar neckline to mine. The "Wedding Heart Charm" is also super cute but I'm not sure I like that it says "just married" on it. Although we are just married now, this is a charm that will be around for a while--so I'm not sure I'll like the "just married" when we've been married 10 years. Who knows. My favorite one was the "Romantic Union" one which was two gold rings on a pillow but it looks like that one has been discontinued. Bummer!

Speaking of jewelry--the Forward Y Necklace from Swarovski ($129) is super cute too.  I love a good long necklace! I also think it would look really nice with the bracelet my sister gave me for the wedding.

KitchenAid Mixer ($386.99 on sale!)

I'm sure this doesn't surprise you since I love to cook and to eat. We don't have one of these yet and I have been dying to buy one for so long! Perhaps this is the year!

And lastly, nail polish of course! I love OPI's Iceland collection and would love to pick up a few new polishes. I love Reykjavik Has All the Hot Spots, Aurora Berry-alis, Icelanded a Bottle of OPI, and Turn on the Northern Lights! They're all

Are there things on your wishlist??

This Past Weekend - Gettysburg

This past weekend ended up being a girls' weekend! Andrew couldn't join because he was traveling for work so my buddy, her wife, and I headed out to Gettysburg to meet our other college buddy. We set off on our road trip on Saturday morning but it started with a bit of unwelcome excitement first. I was on my way to pick up my friends when she called me telling me that they were rear-ended at a red light. And the guy drove away without stopping! WTF?! They were fine and the damage was minimal so I waited at their new house while they spoke with the cop and got all sorted. After that hiccup we were on our way as planned. I may have taken the delay as an opportunity to selfie and photograph my nails. I also noticed that my scarf and nails matched -- which was only somewhat intentional...

It's the little things! Anyway, we ended up getting there for lunch and we went for sushi at my buddy's go to place, which was delicious. I went with my standard avocado, cucumber, and salmon rolls. Yum!

Then we headed out to Gettysburg to walk around and see the battlefields. I haven't been there in years and my friend has never been so it was really fun, and it was such nice weather!

It was really neat and somewhat sad to learn about the history. But I have to say, I made a really really good tour guide while we were doing our own auto-tour.

After the auto tour we headed to the Gettysburg outlets to do some shopping. Then we headed back to  Gettysburg for a ghost tour...in the POURING rain. Oh my gosh, we were drenched by the end! So we returned to my friend's apartment, grabbed some quick take-out dinner, and had a game night. Overall, successful weekend I think.

Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween bloggers!

One more Halloween design for me for this year, this time inspired by a quick Google search of "Frankenstein Nails." I think it's super cute and perfect for Halloween...just maybe not the office. I wish I added a bow to my index finger's hair, too. 

Apologies for the coloring in this photo -- does it hurt anyone else's eyes?!

Halloween Nails and Jack o'Lanterns

Today's weather was absolutely gross--it rained the whole entire day. Luckily, I knew it was going to be bad outside so I brought home some work. I'm still catching up on work (read: billable hours) from the honeymoon so I welcomed the nasty weather. It gave me a great excuse to bury myself in my cozy zebra blanket and do some work. I also ended up breaking out the slow cooker for the first time this fall and made some turkey chili for me and the Mr. (spoiler alert: it wasn't that good). 

Once I finished the work I wanted to get done and got the chili started we decided to finally carve the pumpkins we bought about two (maybe even three) weekends ago. I also painted some Halloween nails and we watched Hocus Pocus! Overall, pretty productive for a rainy day!

Here are my Halloween 2017 nails:

Other Halloween nails I've done include a ghost, more candy corn, orange/black, some mummies, Inspired by Halloween movie, spooky bats, and spooky cats.

Speaking of cats, here are our pumpkins for this year! I made it a gif so you can see it in light and dark. I LOVE how mine turned out. I think they both look so good--and they were freehand!

Can you guess whose is whose?
Other pumpkins have included Eiffel Tower, Tinkerbell, and a bride and groom!

30 Flirty & Thriving: Happy Birthday Sis!

Despite my nails currently growing out what might have been the worst gel manicure I have ever gotten, I have a very special nail post to share with you! Earlier this October we celebrated my sister's 30th birthday! Her and I spent Saturday in NYC stopping by a few *must try* food stops in the East Village and Greenwich Village. They're not the same, right?? Before we get into what we did, let's check out the nails!

These are in fact inspired by part of the design I did for her 23rd birthday in 2010. She celebrated with her husband by going to the Disney Food & Wine Festival in Florida and I had major food FOMO thought it was perfect to work in the design again.

On our NYC trip we had lunch at Raclette NYC, a restaurant that has been on our To Do lists ever since we both tried raclette while we were in Paris. If you don't know what raclette is (I didn't until Steph told me about it) it's similar to fondue but better! Can you get any better than melty gooey cheesey goodness? No. I didn't think so.

After eating ALL THE CHEESE we decided to head for some dessert at Dō, a cookie dough shop serving all kinds of cookie dough to the masses. It's sort of like Coldstone....but with cookie dough. And it was delicious!

We spent the rest of the time walking around the city, shopping, and people watching. Three of our favorite things! It's always fun when we get to #sistersinthecity! It's so weird she's in a different decade than me now! I suppose my brother and I will have to hold down the 20s now!

Let's get some nails up in here, right? OPI Russian Navy

Today's post is a pause from my trip down Honeymoon Lane and instead I'm bringing a LONG awaited nail post! I think I mentioned before how the nail salon I went to before my wedding ruined my nails, right? I decided to get a gel French manicure -- on a second thought I should have just done it myself. Eh, hindsight is 20/20.

Anyway, the gel went on fine enough and it did last through the two weeks we were away without so much as a tip wear. But then we got home and I was ready for a change. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I kept a polish on for two consecutive weeks.

So I sat down to soak my nails with pure acetone (I know, no bueno) and turned on the TV to catch up on my shoes. I soaked for 10 minutes. Then 10 minutes more. Then 10 minutes more. And nothing. The gel would not come off. I waited for bits to get loose and then I started picking at it (again, no bueno) but there were huge chunks left on each nail. I tried filing and buffing and although it did get rid of some of the gel I was too afraid that I was getting too close to my real nail.

So I left it alone, chunks of gel and all, and just painted over it. And that's what I've been doing for....one month and three weeks or so. Can you believe there is still some gel on my nails?? Even though I used a dark polish you can still see some of it in the photo above. See the line on my ring finger nail? Yep, gel. AKA Satan's material. I used OPI Russian Navy because the color was dark and Halloween appropriate. This is an old polish and I don't reach for it as much as I should!

And a photo holding an apple because...#teamcleaneats. I'm really doing well on the whole clean-eating thing, minus this past weekend. Lol. I'll tell you WHY in an upcoming post!

This Past Weekend - College Reunion and Renaissance Faire

Sometimes it's nice to just pack a bag and get gone for a weekend, am I right? So this weekend presented the perfect opportunity to pack our mini luggage and have a bit of fun. On Saturday, we met up with my two college besties for our five year college reunion. It was Family Weekend/Homecoming Weekend at the college and they threw an "Oktoberfest" for all the alumnae. The food was delicious, let me just say.  We had a great time walking around the campus and seeing all our old spots. Not gonna lie, it felt like old times. And I didn't know how much I needed that.

It's exciting and a little unbelievable that we have been out of college for five years already. So much has changed yet so much is still the same. E (on the left of the photo) and I also caught up with a few of our favorite psych professors. It was nice to tell them all that we had accomplished since our college days!

Then on Sunday, Andrew and I went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. I know there are three categories of people when it comes to the faire: (1) those who LOVE it and go all out and get dressed up in costume, (2) those who just go because it's something to do, an (3) those who think the faire is super geeky and would never go. We fall into category two --although really we go just for the giant turkey legs.

And maybe some of the performers. One of our faves this year was Circus Stella, which was a two performer team that did aerial silks, tightrope walking, balancing acts, and even some acts with their five dogs. It was also pretty cool because both performers have been on Ellen (the TV show)!

Now I can start the countdown to my next turkey leg. One year to go...

Honeymoon Tour: Paris - Day Two

On day two in Paris we woke up (I felt like I got hit by bus--thank you jet lag) and headed downstairs for our hotel's breakfast. I swear I am telling the truth when I say that the maid/waitress ran out and picked up fresh croissants from the cafe down the street every morning for all the guests. I told you it was a small hotel! So every day we had a delicious breakfast of croissant, jam, some deli meat choices, and of course, some cheese! I'm sitting here and my mouth is watering as I remember all the delicious morsels we had while in Paris. It was the perfect amount of food before our day's adventure. We took the train to Epernay, also known as "Champagne region," which is about an hour and a half outside of Paris. If you like champagne, you'll LOVE Epernay! Also, just a brief interruption--as I'm writing this I am watching a program on Versailles IN FRENCH (it's on the channel TV5MONDE) so that is sort of funny. I would try and write this post in French but I am not that skilled.

The train was not bad at all. We departed from Gare d'est (is that right?) and took the train straight to Epernay. Along the way we saw some adorable French country towns that I want to run away too now that I'm thinking about it. A short walk from the train station was our first stop: Moet & Chandon! We were visiting the Champagne house for a tasting and tour of their champagne cellars.

We arrived a bit early for our tour so we hung out inside the champagne house and had a walk around the store. Is there anything fresher than champagne sold at the actual champagne house?! I don't think so! How cute is this display? It's all the different sizes of champagne that is sold. No, I promise I did not buy the ginormous one all the way to the right. I did buy some minis though for us and my sister.

Once it was time for our tour we met our guide, Alisa, who gave us a brief tour of the main level of the champagne house. How beautiful this? It's the courtyard to where private events are held.

After our history lesson and education of the Moet and Chandon families we headed down into the refreshingly cool cellars. The cellars all were illuminated with very yellow light -- it's better for the delicate champagne since sunlight can ruin champagne. Quelle dommage!

Moet & Chandon has over 17 miles of cellars across multiple levels underground. And in the cutouts throughout the cellars are stacks and stacks of bottles of champagne. The sign at the top of each stack tells you how many bottles and the year of the champagne in that stack. 

See what I mean about the yellow lights?? I also learned that Moet & Chandon acquired Dom Perignon. There is an entire Dom Perignon wing of the cellar. Here's a photo of me just chilling with an entire wall of MANY bottles of Dom! Who is ready to pop the cork??

After the tour of cellars was finished we walked up to the tasting rooms. For the tasting they opened a few bottles of the 2008 Vintage. Fun fact, it is up to the cellar master to decide if he or she would like to create a vintage. Vintages are typically made when the grapes are particularly good. Another fun fact, there was a vintage made during my birth year of 1990--I was destined to be a champagne baby! Lol. They poured us each a glass of Moet & Chandon Vintage 2008 rose and Moet & Chandon Vintage 2008 brut. Don't ask me to tell you which one I preferred...they were both delicious!

Overall, we learned about the champagne region, types of grapes, champagne-making process, and history of the house. Did you know that in order to be "champagne" the grapes must be picked by hand ONLY. The harvest lasts about 2-3 weeks between August and September and it was just about over when we visited but you could still see it happening if you walked up into the hills.

Then we walked around the town, which was STUNNING. We must have been walking around when school let out because next thing you know there were a bunch of french students (that were much cooler than us) hanging out around this building.

Picture perfect, right? When there got to be too many school kids we walked to Georges Cartier for another champagne tasting and then headed to dinner. I highly recommend Chez Francoise! I had just the right amount of champagne to order completely in French like a pro. I ordered ratatouille...because it's French, duh!

That champagne went down soooo easy let's just say we bought a few bottles!

Then it was back home to Paris for some more twinkling Eiffel Tower, macarons, and sleep. Join me  next time and see what we did on Day Three in Paris won't you?