To-Do List

My To-Do List:

1. See Petra

2. Climb Machu Picchu

3. Concert at the Disney Concert Hall

4. Sky Dive

5. Hot Springs on Deception Island / Cruise to Antarctica

6. See all the Cirque Du Soleil shows in Vegas

7. See the pyramids, Giza

8. Explore Jerusalem

9. Go inside a Parkside penthouse in New York

10. Watch a taping of SNL

11. Hike the alps, see the Matterhorn

12. Ride a donkey in Santorini

13. Explore Athens

14. See everything in the Louvre!

15. Notre Dame

16. Cross an ocean on a boat

17. Sunbath in Nice

18. Ride a gondola in Venice

19. See the David

20. Sistine Chapel

21. Parthenon

22. Eat Deep Dish in Chicago

23. Bungee Jump in New Zealand

24. Attend some kind of entertainment awards show

25. Be on National Television

26. Hang Glide

27. See St. Basil's cathedral in Russia

28. Visit Hong Kong, Tiananmen Square

29. See the Cristo Rendentor in Rio

30. Tango in Buenos Aires

31. Visit Stratford upon Avon / Sherwood Forest

32. Ride the eye of London, meet a royal

33. See Journey in Concert (only if Steve Perry is the lead)

34. Go on an African Safari

35. Audition for a reality TV show

36. Go to a rain forest

37. Drive a sports car on the autobahn

38. Stay in a high-rollers' sweet in Vegas

39. New Years in Times Square

40. Write a book

41. Have my book made into a movie ;)

42. Whale watch

43. Learn a second language

44. Ice skate in Central Park

45. Attend an Olympic event

46. See the Taj Mahal

47. Run a half marathon

48. Stay at a house in East Hampton

49. Participate in La Tomatina festival of Bunyol, Spain

50. Holi color festival

51. See an LDS temple in China

And more to follow I"m sure. What are some of yours?

Tea Time

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of joining my Culture Club ladies for the Afternoon Tea at the Grand America. It was so fun to see these lovely ladies, but the ambiance and incredible hats and gloves (thanks again Beth) just made the whole affair that much more authentic and memorable. Any occasion to wear bright red lipstick is fine by me.

Bethany started it off by presenting each of us with an adorable little packet with our own lipstick and white gloves, chocolate or mints, a white doile, and a CD. Then we got to choose one of her Grandmother's vintage hats to wear, which were all incredible. She had some great style!

All the credit must be given to this lovely lady on the left, who was also the organizer and photographer. She is so incredibly talented and creative she could easily take over Martha Stewart's job without skipping a beat. I wish I could say I took these pictures, but alas, it was all Bethany. You can see all of Bethany's photography on her website and blog.

As for the menu, we got to choose from such tasty delights as spiced plum, creamed chi, and raspberry tea. Personally, I went for the coconut almond hot chocolate, on Kate's recommendation, which was divine. Then we sampled finger sandwiches like smoked salmon, cucumber, turkey cranberry, and more and had fresh scones with devonshire cream, lemon curd & rasberry jam. We topped the afternoon off with a choice between three french pastries or a slice of either chocolate mocha cheesecake or coconut cake with strawberries and cream. I opted for the pastries and sample a fruit torte, strawberry crumble and a lemon canoli. It was delicious and so much fun!

Thank you ladies for such a fun afternoon! I loved people-watching and chatting with you all about the upcoming year.

In LOVE

I am head over heels in love with this dining room. Everything from the cast stone fireplace, the gorgeous pedestal table, the elegant upholstered chairs, and the pièce de résistance...the AMAZING chandelier (which is actually electric despite how realistic and wonderfully rustic those "candles" are).

It's perfection.

Nieces & Nephews

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking some holiday photos of my sweet nieces and nephews at Gardener Village.









Aren't the adorable?!

New Addition

My sister Lacey had her baby this morning! Miller Nathan Page came in at 8 lbs, 20 inches long and looks like he might be a cute little red-head!

Some favorites

It has been quite a while since my last post... but alas, the holidays are over (except new years of course) and I am ready to rejoin the blogging world. I will have lots of fun holiday pictures and stories to share in good time but for now, I wanted to share some of my favorite new websites for clothes. Some of you may already know them, but they are new to me and I really love some their stuff.

• Modcloth can be a little overwhelming with the volume of items available but they have some really cute stuff and a lot of their selection is reasonably priced

• Ruche is a more comfortable price range for me, and they too have some adorable pieces. Their shoes especially are really cute and completely affordable

Well I hope you all had a lovely holiday and I wish you the best for 2010!

New Moon....New Low

New Moon is bad. No, really. It's honestly the most ridiculously cheeseball and over-the-top melodrama I may have ever seen. Megan and I were giggling through a lot of it. It's just so blatantly horrible-romance-novel dialogue (about 10 too many lines of "You are my only reason for living") and between the shirtless underage boys, predictable smell-the-fart acting from Edward and Bella, and Edwards floating head through most of it, it's just embarrassing. And I actually liked the first movie--I didn't love it--but I liked it.

Perhaps the reason I didn't like New Moon is because I don't love the books. So if you like the books, the movie is a pretty accurate portrayal. It shows a really weak teenage girl who apparently can't be happy unless she has a boyfriend. Oh and she literally can't survive unless she has a guy there to protect her. And my favorite aspect, the only way she can be happy is to change herself to be like the guy she loves. A really great role model for teenage girls...

Anyway, back to the movie...It wasn't all bad. I really liked the soundtrack, and the sequence with Victoria was really cool. The werewolves are a nice balance to the vampires and bring a little more warmth to a lot of the scenes. Charlie was good. Dakota Fanning was probably the best actor in the whole thing but she only had a few lines. The scenes in Italy were a nice change of pace and there were some funny moments--mostly provided by Bella's high school friends. And it was just fun to be a part of the hype and fanfare. But there were a lot of really bad moments. The scene where Edward is about to reveal himself in the square and you can see that they had to use makeup to give him muscle definition, and the absolute pinnacle of cheeseball was a flash-forward moment from Alice--I honestly thought I might have fallen asleep and was dreaming because no one in their right mind would show that and not be joking (you'll know it when you see it). I think the idea behind the Twilight series is great. A girl falling for a vampire, it's creative and fun. But I guess it's just the fact that the central relationship drives me crazy is why I can't wrap my brain around why this is so popular.

Sorry to offend anyone, to each their own. I'm sure sitting next to Megan, who was laughing about half the time, didn't help :) I know plently of people in my theater really liked it.