It's time to think INSIDE the box

How many times have you come home at the end of a hard day, or really any day at all, and thought "Oh, I  would love a glass of wine" ?  You proceed to crack a bottle and at the end of the glass realize that you don't want to waste the rest of the bottle.  Clearly, you should just drink the whole thing.  DOH!


This is where the genius Trader Joe's Block Red comes in.  It's 4 bottles of an Australian Shiraz in a box!

This glorious creature allows you to have one glass of wine or 4 bottles and no one is the wiser!  It has a dispenser at the bottom so you can just have some delicious red on tap.

(Please disregard the dog leash and dog toys, I couldn't be bothered at the time. Too excited about my box-o-wine)
Granted, it's not Stag's Leap or Chappallet, but it is decent.

Perfect for a party of one.

There is nothing better than a local cocktail

Recently my travels took me to London.  Generally, I am a creature of habit...however this time, I decided to venture out.  A Mayfair local suggested I have the Vesper Martini at The Duke Hotel.  Needless to say, this did NOT disappoint.  There are all sorts of fun little facts about that particular haunt, as Sir Ian Fleming wrote "Casino Royale" there whilst drinking this particular libation. It's a must!

Love,
Katie

My husband played this for my kids and now they keep calling me Lewis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNkp4QF3we8

Love,
Kristen

Christmas cards

This thing we do every year called Christmas cards haunts me.  It's expensive, time consuming and getting the shot takes years off my life.  We start with the outfits.  Then the placement of the children on the front porch at the right time of day.  At least one starts crying.  That's when my husband gets involved.  This year he juggled, threw things at me and at one point had a diaper on his head to make them laugh.  We got a few good shots but the winner will always remind me of my husband dropping clementines behind me like I was "going potty" and they all laughed their heads off.  Merry Christmas!  Mommy's pooping!

Love,
Kristen

The blogs I follow

Please take a look at the bottom of this page.  Just a few links to some of the best food, gossip, humor and loveliness that I can't go a day without.  I visit so many amazing blogs and plan to add to the list, but these are exceptional.

Love,
Kristen

Stay tuned...

I have made my Christmas list and aside from the No.6 shearling clog booties (I'm serious.  I like ugly things), I  have a new camera lens on my list. I want to start doing a suburban street style post and if I get this lens then this will start happening.  Will keep you posted!  Hahaha. Did you see what I did there?

Love,
Kristen
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Update.  I did NOT get this lens for Christmas.  Or the clog booties.

Parent teacher conferences

I wish I could say this post is about my kids or being a parent but, no!  This one is also about me.  I am a pleaser by nature.  And am quite nervous around authority figures.  But, I've been through the conferences before and my second graders teacher is 20 years younger than me so I felt pretty good going in.  That one went well.  We didn't even need the allotted 20 mins.  I didn't start sweating.  But the second one got away from me...

My first graders teacher is older.  Elderly.  Older and wiser and the boss of me.  I was fine at first, still feeling the confidence of the previous conference.  After fifteen minutes I felt we had covered everything so I started packing up my pen and notepad*.  She sat back in her chair and smiled.  Oh, I thought, this isn't over until she says it's over.  That's when I got weird and started saying things like this.

"Well, she sure loves to learn!!"  And, "She just keeps growing!!  Everyday!!"

And she blank stared at me.

I went on and on.  I think I said something about our whole family being "school lovers!!!".  She had nothing to say about my daughter after the initial fifteen, in hindsight I think she was just wanting to hang out and chat.  When will this need to please people that just makes people uncomfortable ever leave my body?

Love,
Kristen
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*No I didn't take notes.  It was my Christmas list, I just didn't want her to think I was a slacker.