Under the Covers

Hello to all my readers... all 2 of you :) I'm sure you've been wondering where Ive been, I know you have both noticed my absence these past few days. Cue a tummy bug.

Yes - for the last 24-48 hours I have been fighting a most annoying and generally yucky tummy bug. Sleeping, drinking Schweppes & big mugs of chicken noodle soup have been my life - not fun. Also not much to talk about. Steve has been strong and supportive in my time of need but of course he woke up this morning with a queasy tummy so he's on the "clear liquids" diet for tonight.

Mind you - our chicken soup doesn't look like this. I wish it did!

On to more exciting things - we have finally received word that our things are going to be delivered.... the day before we leave for a three day weekend. Thank you Mr Murphy (family joke - google Murphy's Law)! On Friday Steve and I are headed on our first international trip since we arrived in the UK. We are going to Belgium for my school's 50th reunion. I'm over the moon since I haven't been back since 2001, my freshmen year of high school. Plus we're renting a car so we'll get to drive which is really exciting - except for the who's driving fight we will be having all week.

Back to our stuff - sometime on Thursday a moving company will be pulling up to our building and unloading our two pallets of stuff! As of right now the goal is to get the house as clean and organized as possible before we add all of our things to it. I've built our 4 new IKEA bookcases so we have places to put stuff. I will clear out our spare room tomorrow of all our our laundry racks so we can put boxes & storage in there while we unpack. I'm so excited to have our pots and plans as well as more clothes (I feel like I've been wearing the same 10 outfits for 7 weeks) & everything else we've simply been doing without for 7+ weeks.

Wordless Wedding Wenesday

This may be the beginning of my bridezilla tendencies (says the women without a wedding date) but I want my wedding to be a surprise. I don't want everyone to know ahead of time all the little touches I've done, the traditions I am using and the ones I'm not. I don't want all of it to be on pinterest so people compare my wedding to someone else's. In spite of that here are some things I know you will see at my wedding... whenever it is.

Steve got my the earnings for valentines day so I just need the necklace for the honeymoon

I'm not a big into flowers but I love the look of these chandeliers 

I love this photo - I just image myself cheesing into the mirror

Steve likes to drink & so do I so signature drinks are a must have (along with an open bar)

No ring bearers at my wedding, for my diamonds I need top notch ring security

Sometimes I feel like this should be my blog's tag line

You know if you follow me on social media I'm a hashtag fiend!

We need these now :)

These are just some of my many wedding ideas. Were you/are you like me? Don't want to reveal too much before the big day? Have any wedding planning advice for me? Leave me a comment below!

The Play's The Thing

If you know me personally you know I am a total theater geek. Ive loved it since I was a little girl and that love has never left me. I studied theater in college, though I never made a career out of it  - regret of mine? Possibly, but that's another day & blog post. As much as I love the small, dark theater with a show and actors no one has ever heard of there is nothing that compares to the swelling of passion and emotion you feel in your chest as you leave a West End theater on a chilly London evening.

Unfortunately living in the US I didn't get to see much theater, not like I did when I was young. In college I was never interested in the shows the students were doing and driving to Atlanta for a show was too much.  In high school my theater teacher would buy group tickets to popular shows and I signed up for 95% of them - plus she was a close family friend so if she saw something more avant-garde she would let me & my parents know so we could get tickets.

After college I rarely saw shows. I worked 2 jobs so free time was at a premium, money was tight and I rarely had anyone to go with to see it. I was also out of the loop of what was showing, aside from the big name shows at the Fox.

Now that Steve and I are a stones throw from London we have access to some of the greatest shows on earth, yet having been here 6 weeks we haven't seen anything. Steve isn't the theatre lover I am, he hates Webber (blasphemy!!) and classics like Oklahoma! so I know I have to ease him into the world I love so much. In order to do that I think we should start with big, colorful musicals that you know are box office hits & are easily recognizable.

Both Steve & I really want to go see the Book of Mormon. Only problem is everyone else wants to see it too so I imagine tickets are hard to come by.

Follows a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get. 

Steve wants to see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - he loves the movies, not sure if he's read the book. I love Roal Dahl so I'm happy to see it. 

The mysterious Willy Wonka is opening his Chocolate Factory for just one day, and for Charlie Bucket it promises to be a mouth-watering chance to feast his eyes on sweets beyond his wildest imagination. 

 I am over the moon this movie has become a musical. I can't wait to see it!

Inspired by a true story and based on  the Miramax film written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price who has reluctantly inherited his father's Northampton shoe factory. Trying to live up to his father's legacy and save the family business from bankruptcy, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola. A fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos, Lola turns out to be the one person who can help Charlie become the man he's meant to be. As they work to turn the factory around, this unlikely pair finds that they have more in common than they ever dreamed possible… and discovers that when you change your mind, you can change the world.

Have you seen any shows on the West End? Anything we must see or should skip? 

Wordless Wednesday

Living overseas means travel. Lots and lots of travel. Over the years I have found some things that I can't live without. Here is my list of must haves for a weekend trip.

Good walking shoes - mine are Chacos but look a lot like theses

Extra phone battery - mine only lasts 5 hours or so

Clinique acne solution - must have if you have skin like mine

My LL Bean rain coat - because you never know when it's gonna rain

My planner, to keep everything organized

Splenda can be hard to find so these tables save my life when I'm traveling

Perfect pink polish, easy to give myself a quick mani on the go

My clarisonic - can't live without it 

Longchamp luggage, light weight, perfect carry on size. Fits Steve & my clothes for a weekend trip

My overnight Kate Spade tote - its perfect carry on size & looks enough like a purse that the airlines call it a personal item. 

My IKEA backpack, perfect for day trips and it folds into nothing

Kate Spade cross body - big enough for the basics & not too heavy when its full

Bath & Bodywork's lip gloss, I stocked up before we left

Costa sun glasses, no matter where I am they are perfect and if they ever break they will replace them

Cant live with out my Younique mascara, perfect for day eyes & dramatic night eyes

My DSLR. I rarely leave home without it - have to document my travels for my blog

My chaco sandals - perfect for day trips in the warmer weather

Those are my must haves for travel - what can you not live without when you travel? 

When in Rome...

No, we're not going to Italy, not yet at least. Though I wish we were - I could use some sunshine!

Now that we live in England there are a few things I feel like I need to catch up on, or in this case return to. A few days ago I decided I needed to to up to date on Doctor Who.

 I watched 3 or 4 seasons a while back, before we moved. Not sure why I didn't watch all of the episodes on netflix but I didn't, but since now all I have is time on my hands I figured why not go ahead and watch all of them. I'll still be a season behind but I should be able to get it on DVD when it comes out here.

Right now I'm with this gorgeous man:

Gotta love a Doctor in glasses. 

The other thing that I need to do is finish a very important & famous English series. Maybe you've heard of it? 

Yes, I am one of the last people my age (mid 20s) who hasn't finished this series. I was a super fan in the early years and a purest - I only read the English prints, not the American ones. Unfortunately by the time the last book came out I was in college & I was so overwhelmed with transferring schools & making friends etc I just didn't get around to reading it. About a year ago I decided I would re-read the series and I found out Steve had never read it so I made him read it along with me. Guess who finished the series and guess who got too busy with changing jobs? I didn't finish again yet Steve did. So this week I am headed to some local used bookstores to try and find the books yet again. 

Bank Holiday Weekend

So Plymouth didn't happen. Steve & I woke up in terrible moods Saturday morning because we we're both dreading going to Plymouth, with bad weather and not much to do we decided not to go. We cancelled our reservation & got a refund on our train tickets. Instead we decided we would head down to South Hampton.

If you're a new reader, you might not know but we recently moved to the UK. We brought a few suitcases with us on the flight but the majority of our stuff we shipped. It takes 5-8 weeks for our pallets to arrive. Guess what is now in the same country as us? OUR STUFF! Steve got the email last Friday that our stuff has landed, in South Hampton! Unfortunately we couldn't get it or even see it as it has to go through customs etc but it was nice knowing we were in the same city even just for the day.

The biggest reason we went to SH is this:

Although we do live in a furnished apartment, making it feel like home is hard. We bought a TV and a small desk for Steve but that's about it as far as big items. With our stuff arriving soon once we unpack it we have no where to put anything. No bookshelves, no china cabinet, no banquets, no kitchen island. And that all adds up to one thing, we needed to hit up IKEA. The biggest thing we didn't want to do was buy a bunch of stuff that would only fit this apartment as we don't plan to be here too long (no parking, 1 bathroom etc). Without a car IKEA can be a bit of a daunting task so we just took a bunch of photos of tags and are going to go with the home delivery option. Although it means another day of sitting about waiting on a delivery but once it comes I'll get to build it all. 

After IKEA and breakfast (and a beer at 10am - don't judge, it was actually pretty good) we decided to walk around the city for a bit. Being so near the coast I figured it would be a bit more like Brighton, touristy, lots of historical significance, big things to see. Unfortunately it wasn't quite so grand. 

Rain Rain Rain... So Much Rain

**note: I am not being paid or compensated for this post**

As I'm sure everyone knows that England is a wet place. So far we have been really lucky and haven't had a lot of rain, but even on days that the weather channel says its not going to rain it comes down in buckets in the afternoon. Living here the one thing I knew I had to have was a rain coat, but one of those Columbia outdoorsy rain coats just wasn't going to cut it. Mind you, I own a rain pullover that's the typical rain jacket. I knew I needed something more class, more sophisticated, that I could wear to dinner as well as on a walk in the country.

Que desperately googling a week before we left the US. I checked all the usual sites - North Face, Columbia, Eddie Bauer, Target & Lane Bryant. Of course I couldn't find anything, being it was April and everything out was for summer. In a panic I called my mom & asked her where she used to buy her rain gear back when we lived here before. Of course she suggested Barbour but that's way out of my price range, so she suggested LL Bean.

Presenting the Easy Care Mackintosh:

I have it in blue, though the yellow is super cute, and I can tell you that this is one of the best coats I've ever owned. It's perfect for spring & early fall. It is lined, so its not all sticky and yucky on the inside. It looks nice, like I could wear is to Ascot or a show in London in the evening & it wouldn't look out of place. 

Now the big coat here in England in the Barbour jacket - super stylish and waterproof & warm but they're out of my budget & they're only made up to a ladies XL.

So instead I am going with this lovely coat from LL Bean. Its not exactly the same but it has the same sort of "British" look and for a much more reasonable price. 

What's your go to coat for different seasons? Have I missed anything?