Steal

For 6 months, I've been eyeing a pair of Christian Louboutins but just not bring myself to pull the trigger.  There are several ways that I can spend $795 - new microwave/oven (since our microwave just went out and they're attached), new sofa, new front door - all very practical things. However, my obsession with these shoes would not go away.  Aren't they beautiful???

Well, this weekend I popped into Off Broadway just to browse and I found a pair almost exactly like it but a much better price point... and they were 40% off of that!!! 

Granted they don't have the signature red sole but I can definitely live with that while saving multiple hundreds of dollars!!

Happy Monday!

New Shoes

A few weeks ago, Michael and I both returned home really late on a Wednesday.  Poor Winston had been alone for more than 16 hours all by himself.  Instead of just greeting us with a happy face and tail wag, he decided to destroy a pair of my shoes to demonstrate his disdain.  Clearly, I was in the wrong because I left them in a place that was easily accessible.  While I was upset, I'm sure I wasn't nearly as upset as he was for being left for that long.  And, luckily, the shoes were not an expensive pair and are easily replaceable.

So, the pair he destroyed were my everyday black patent leather pumps which I do wear almost everyday.  I finally succombed and bought another pair today.  Have you ever shopped on PiperLime.com?  Because it is amazing!  It was very hard to only buy one pair - but I stuck on target and here's what I ended up with:

I think the studs give it a little umph!  I dunno - too dominatrix?  The thing is that all my pants are so long that I have to wear high heels - I actual prefer heels to flats.  Anywho, we'll see when they arrive in 5-8 business days!

Winston's Surprise from Aspen

Forgot to post these pictures on my Aspen post...

Guess what I brought back to Winston from our trip...  a camo rain jacket!

Now, you may think this is ridiculous; however, it could have been a lot worse. I could have bought him a fur lined parka! :)

Aspen

Aspen is such a wonderful place!  Michael and I joined our friends, Neil and Mandy, on a long weekend in Aspen this past week.  Our flight out there was completely uneventful - we landed on time and were at Ute City for dinner by 8 o'clock sipping cocktails.  Neil and Mandy had a more difficult time.  Our flights were supposed to get in at the same time but their flight out of Atlanta was delayed by many hours, then diverted from Aspen to Denver where they then took a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride to Aspen.  They ended up getting in about 6 am the next morning, sans luggage.  Luckily, their luggage arrived later that morning and they were skiing with us on the slopes that afternoon - what troopers!  Don't feel too bad for them, they already planned on staying two extra days so they definitely made up the time!

We ate at some wonderful restaurants, skied (yes, even I skied!), shopped, Apres skied, sat in the hot tub, watched the X games (on tv even though they were right down the street) and relaxed!  I would definitely recommend Aspen! 

Cocktails at La Cantina on Thursday night:

Main Street Bakery for Breakfast on Friday

Ski Bunnies

Mandy and Neil

Top of Ajax Mountain

Friday Apres Ski at Ajax Tavern and Dinner at LuLu Wilson

Saturday Apres Ski at J Bar

Dinner at Matsuhisa on Saturday night (where we saw Shaun White - the Flying Tomato)

Our Condo

View from the Hot Tub

Sunday - Skiing at Snow Mass, Lunch at Sneaky's Tavern, Apres Ski at the Condo, Dinner at Little Annie's, Capped off with watching the Grammy's at our condo

What Michael did on Monday (cause why wouldn't you work while you were on vacation in Aspen?)

Dinner at Su Casa on Monday Night

What a bummer to have to come back to work... we had such a blast and can't wait for the next trip!

Weekend in Monteagle with the Kitties

Last weekend, the kitties (minus Towbin - we missed you!) headed to the mountains for a relaxing weekend sans kids, husbands, dogs and significant others.  It was wonderful!  We rented a beautiful home, ate tons, drank tons, watched movies, went on a hiking adventure and of course had a dance party!  Here are some pictures from our weekend away...

First drinks of the weekend... Lindsey making delicious strawberry margaritas.

The end product...

 

Annie sipping her crown while keeping her feet on her lightbox.  You'll have to ask her why.

For some reason every time I opened a door the doorknob fell off.  Whoops!

Post margaritas, popping the champagne...

Moving on to red wine...

Table centerpieces for the weekend.  Who doesn't like a little strobe light action at the breakfast, lunch and dinner table?

And the dance party begins...

The night ended at about 3 am... So needless to say we were not feeling so well the next morning (except Miller of course), so we decided to get our blood pumping and take a hike.  What was supposed to be a 3 mile, easy trek through the woods turned into 5.26 miles, 2 hours 15 minutes and a mountain climb to get us back to civilization.  Everyone was such a trooper especially 6 months pregnant Miller who took it all in stride.

The starting of our hike overlooking Monteagle mountains.

Everyone's feeling pretty good at this point... 0.6 miles in - what we didn't know is that there was another 4.66 miles to go!

 

These are funny... it looks like we were on a teambuilding excursion.

Like little kids, everyone wanted to stop and poke at some leftover ice.

I think this is about half way.  Everyone's still smiling here.

Post mountain climb to get off the trail and on to an actual road...

Saturday night, we were all spent.  We cooked all the food we had, vegged out, put our PJs on and watched the Hangover.  

Here's a picture from the porch of our cabin Sunday morning.

It was a great way to spend some quality girl time.  Of course, we all had to get back on Sunday to reality but we're already planning our next getaway!

National Champs!

Michael is having a great year so far... he was admitted as partner to his firm AND his favorite football team won their 13th national championship!  I got a Julio Jones (#8) jersey for Christmas but he told me time and time again that I was not allowed to wear it during the game. "We can't jinx the jersey," he kept telling me.  But, not 5 minutes into the game, Alabama was doing terrible - so I was asked to go put on my jersey.  As soon as I did, Colt McCoy (QB for Texas) was injured and sidelined for the rest of the game.  Some say, he's just a fragile football player - not me.  It was totally the jersey.  So, needless to say, I'm sad that football season is over, but happy to have my husband back.  AND, already looking forward to next season. Roll tide!

Michael made Partner!!!!

My wonderful husband hit a huge milestone in his career! On December 22nd, Michael found out that he was named as a Partner in his firm.  See the article in the Nashville Post:

http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2010/1/4/babc_names_four_new_partners

Congrats Michael!