Have a Spooktacular Day!

Happy Halloween! May your day be full of treats and no tricks!

Photo via

My very own Pirate Cupcakes

Today is our Halloween party at work (I work at an amazing Elementary school in Gilbert, AZ) and so today will consist of our monthly Pride Day (School Spirit Assembly) followed by a staff pizza party and our school costume parade this afternoon. I just love seeing all the little kids in their costumes with their beaming smiles.

For our staff party I made cupcakes as I LOVE cupcakes and its really the only thing I could say I am good at when it comes to baking. I used these black and on black swirl cupcake liners from Target. They are cute but I should have known better that when making devils food cake cupcakes that the black on black pattern would not show up very well. Oh well..

Arrrr the pirate toppers

The final product!

For really cute baking decorations and holiday party inspiration check out the tomkatestudio! I love how creative her designs are and best of all she is a local gal!

Candy Corn Martini

I love candy corn but am not a big fan of Martini's so when I saw this I was like hmm.. this could be worth trying. Yes/ No?

Recipe via here

Spooktacular Desserts

Still in need of what to serve for your Halloween parties look no further...

images via

Vintage Book Purse

I love this purse! Too bad I don't have a crafty bone in my body otherwise I would be buying out the Vintage book store in town!

via
PS: Sorry Lisa that I am not talented enough to make this otherwise I think this would make the perfect Christmas gift for you!

Meaningful Monday

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice relaxing weekend. I wanted to share this fun photo that my husband took while we were in a stationary store in Paris- {with permission of course}

May yellow remind you of what makes you happy

May pink remind you of what friendship means to you

May the greens remind you of what to be thankful for

May red remind you to release what is upsetting you

May the blues remind you of what you are wishing for

May the purples remind you of kindness

Have a great Monday! xoxo

Reims Cathedral

Isn't this Cathedral just beautiful? I love the Gothic feel it has. This Cathedral is in Reims, France and was built in the thirteen hundreds. This Cathedral used to be where they would crown the Kings of France.

My husband and I both have lost a parent so it has been nice to light candles in their memory, when we can {photo below}. During my past European travels I have seen a lot of amazing churches. I have to say this is probably one of my favorites.

What I really loved besides the amazing architect is how much sunlight comes thru the stained glass windows and instead of pews they used thatched wooden chairs.

Have you ever traveled to a place that made you stand back and had you wonder what it must have been liked to live during that era?

Rodin Gardens

Our Friday adventure entailed seeing the Rodin Gardens which I really enjoyed doing. It was a cool day outside with rain off and on but nonetheless we still had a great time! The gardens were full of fall colors and surprisingly there were still some rose bushes in bloom.

Far shot of the Thinker
another Rodin Sculptor
We ended our Friday adventure with buying some yummy French cookies to bring home and had a nice dinner at a small Italian restaurant that was near our apartment. Yes, I said Italian, not French.

Then it was off to pack as our flight left at 9:30 am on Sat. morning.

I have some fun, random shots that we took that helped captured our travels that I am wanting to share. I will share those with you all next week.

Have a fabulous weekend!

I heart Champagne

Our Thursday adventure last week entailed heading out to the champagne countryside of France. It was so much fun to escape the hustle and bustle of Paris and of course drink champagne all day long!

Mmmm Macaroons

This is what Paris is all about! Laduree Macaroons- the Tiffanys of all desserts!

and this is what 12 Macaroons, $30.00, and 5 minutes later look like!

Our Wednesday adventure in Paris

Our Wednesday adventure in Paris was a great day! We went to the Arch mid morning and then spent some time walking down the infamous Champs- Elysees. The best part was stopping by Laduree (Which will have is own special posting) and then we had an evening date at the Louvre. My husband and I are not big art people but we felt going to the Louvre was one of those things we should do. It was nice being there in the evening as there was no line to get in, it was cheaper, and we had a lot of the exhibits to ourselves. It was a great weeknight date night!

Enjoying the grounds at the Louvre

A sunset view coming through a window at the Louvre

Luxembourg Gardens

Our Tuesday adventure last week entailed the Luxembourg Gardens and strolling through the Latin Quarter. There was no better way to take in the fall colors than to walk around the Luxembourg Gardens! It has been five years since I have been able to experience a true fall season. Oh how I miss having four seasons.

What is your favorite thing about the fall season? Is it the trees changing colors? Getting to wear boots and sweaters, making and eating carmel apples, or having cozy nights in? Can you tell I am a bit sad that I was only able to enjoy fall for a week?

Paris recap Sat, Sunday, Monday

Last night we were able to go through our photos (took almost a 1,000 photos) and are left with 100 some. Crazy how something can look neat to the eye but then you look at the photo and you think to yourself "Why did I take this again" and yep a lot of them were of lamp posts and doors! I had a bit of an obsession of these items which I will save for a later blog.

We flew Continental Airlines and they were fabulous! We had flown Continental two years ago for our honeymoon but at that time we did not have individual TV's that allowed you to play video games nor watch TV/ Movies when ever you wanted. The food was pretty good, we arrived early to our destination, and there was no lost luggage! Yay!

On our first day we were up for 36hrs. It helped that we had an overnight flight out of Newark but we were both def. ready to crash Saturday night.

One of our favorite things we did was the Fat Tire Bike Tour. We did this on Sat night. It was a five hour adventure of riding through the streets of Paris (8miles of riding), stopping for ice cream outside an apartment building that Johnny Dep has a place at, and then going on a boat tour on the Seine. It was the perfect way to get our adventure started.

On Sunday, we slept in and spent the day walking around the Marais area. (On Sundays they close a lot of the side streets so you do not have to worry about cars and can freely walk wherever you want). I was able to get my eclairs from Miss Manon! It was heavenly!

After eating at Miss Manon's we strolled over to Place de Vosges. It was beautiful with all the fall colors. That evening we attended Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral.

On Monday, we went and explored some more. We went back to the Eiffel Tower and did the whole tour. It made for a very long, cold two hours as it was a very windy day while we waited in line. I will never forgot how it felt to see the Eiffel Tower for the very first time on Saturday night but then to come back and take in the views from being on top was neat. Afterwards, we went to Sainte Chappelle.

Sorry for the long post but as you can see our days were busy, busy, busy.

Hope your Monday is off to a great start!

Oh Paris

We are back home and I am beyond tired. The week literally flew by and I can not thank my wonderful husband enough for making this dream of mine come true.
(He was fortunate enought to have visited Paris when he was in high school) It has always been my dream however to go to Paris as a couple (before we start having a family) and I am so thankful we were able to make it happen.

This is one of my favorite artistic shots that my husband took on a random side street near the Louvre.
I will be sharing more about our great adventures in the coming days.
Missed you all! XoXo

Bonjour Paris

Paris here I come! In some ways it hasn't really hit me that I will be leaving on a plane in a few hours and will be spending a week there! I can't wait for the yummy macaroons, walking the cobblestone streets, picnics in the various parks, visiting the Champagne countryside, and living like a true Parisian for a week. (We are renting an apartment in the Marais district). Not sure how often I will be able to blog but I will most definitely be excited to share my adventure and photos when I return! xoxo
{Via weheartit.com}

Love Collage

sending some love your way

{via weheartit.com}

Happy Writing

Seeing this fun address return label makes me want to send all of my friends a card. This address label along with other stationary needs may be found at Avie Designs on none other than etsy.

Fairytale Pumpkins

Who doesn't love a fairytale?! I am in love with these fairytale pumpkins. I think my front door may need one!

{Photo via flickr}

Packing for Paris

This pretty much sums up what my week will entail..packing, packing and packing! I have a late work meeting on Wednesday, on Thursdays I help with an after school tennis program, and then we fly out Friday morning for Paris. So needless to say I don't have a lot of free time to pack. Though with these good intentions of getting a head start on packing I am sure I will be scrambling around on Thursday night debating on what to pack. Wish me luck!

{Photo via audrey hepburn complex}

Fall Inspiration

I love decorating my home with white pumpkins {photo via flickr}

If only I had steps to my front door.. love this

Home made apple pie.yumm

Cute, cozy sweater. Hmm. this could be cute for my trip?