photo Charming_zps24b0f6e3.png

6.30.2011

Happy Hour

Happy Friday my dear, dear friends! I hope you all had an absolutely beautiful week, and I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend as well! It’s Friday, which means that it’s {obviously} time for some yummy drinks. What are you all drinking tonight?

Wednesday was my best friend’s birthday, so we are celebrating with dinner, drinks, and some delicious banana split cupcakes. Banana is her favorite, so my husband has come up with a banana birthday cocktail for her. 


This weekend we are heading down to OC for a very full weekend, full of friends, family, and lots of food. We are coming back for the fourth and grilling some steaks, just for the two of us {and maybe a little bit for our Olive}, but no fireworks. We don’t want to leave the little one all on her own. 

But someday I’ll have a backyard, and lots of kids to fill it.  When that day comes, we’ll have our very own party for the fourth, and this is what we’ll do. 

Red, white, and blue Jell-O shots? Yes please!





Until then, I can at least dress up for a backyard BBQ.  

{all images via Pinterest}

Be sure to link up with {av} for Friday’s Fancies today! And be sure to link up below for Happy Hour. 

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We do happy hour all day on Fridays. Because it's five o'clock somewhere, right?

What are you drinking today?

Happy Hour is my weekly blog party, where we get to meet new friends, find new blogs to read, and destress from our week.  We're all busy ladies and sometimes we just need to get out with some friends, chat, and have a drink.

How to enter the party:
  1. Must be a follower of Love is Home to participate. If you aren't already a follower, just click that "follow" button over there to the right.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of this post and click on the link to enter. 
  3. Add your blog's information and button. 
  4. And you're done! 
And if you want, you are welcome to use one of my buttons in your post!











Much love, 

6.29.2011

I Have a Fashion Crush

She doesn’t even know who I am…but I still felt the need to share her with you. Even though you probably already know of her.

I’m going to stop babbling now. And just show you the amazingness that is Bee @ Atlantic Pacific. Seriously, this girl is fabulous.

174

bee 8

bee 33

bee014

bee 66

I obviously have a {somewhat ridiculous} obsession with all things nautical, as epitomized by my new boat shoes, navy striped blazer, and the little red bows I insist on wearing in my hair every day. And she epitomizes this obsession.

PICK 2

{all images via Atlantic Pacific}

Love.

I’ll try and refrain from posting nautical inspired outfits in Friday’s Fancies this week, but I can’t promise anything. It’s a problem. I admit it and fully embrace it.

Who are your blog fashion idols?

Love you.

6.28.2011

{Virtual Coffee}

Paging Dr. House.

It's Tuesday, and if we were actually having coffee today, I would tell you how much I wish Dr. House were real. He would be able to fix me.

My stomach hurts.

My legs hurt.

My joints hurt.

Other parts of me that are inappropriate to talk about hurt.

And I'm So.

Freaking.

Exhausted.

My doctor can't figure out what's wrong with me. My specialist can't figure out what's wrong with me. And since Dr. House isn't actually a doctor {just a very good looking Brit with a charming British accent}, I'll have to settle for the next best thing.

UCLA.

Seems a bit intense, but I'll go for it. If they can help me. Which I desperately hope they can. I'll keep you posted.

If we were actually having coffee this morning, I would tell you that I'm getting kind of overwhelmed with this little blog here. Don't get me wrong, I love this blog. Like love it. A lot. But I never imagined that I would ever get so many followers, or that so many people would ask me to guest post or look at their blogs. It's overwhelming, especially when I work full time and am trying to start my own business. That being said, I'll also tell you that I try {honestly, I try very, very hard} to respond to each of your comments and to visit your own blogs. But it's impossible. I'm just not that talented.

But I appreciate you. I promise I do. This blog is a very bright spot in my life, one that makes me so happy that it's difficult to explain. My life is good right now, actually good, and I like to think that this blog has something to do with it.

If we were having coffee this morning, I would tell you how much I want to establish a routine at home. I want to wash my linens on Mondays and iron on Wednesdays and go grocery shopping on Sundays. But with this whole sickness, and unexplainable exhaustion {no, I'm not pregnant, even though I'm going to bed at nine and getting up at 6:30}, all I want to do when I get home from work is lie in bed with my pup and watch Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives {I'm obsessed}.

Domesticity is a process. I just need to remember that.

But with this whole "domestic plan," I've gotten my very first product to review. It's an organizational tool, one that is extremely comprehensive {and a bit overwhelming}, so I'm still in the process of using it for myself. But as soon as I realize it's full potential, I am ready and willing to share it with all of you.

Someday, we'll actually have coffee together. I mean, if you live in the greater LA {Ventura} area, email me and maybe we can meet up sometime! Until then, feel free to visit Miss Amy's blog and get some Virtual Coffee for yourself.

Love you all.



6.27.2011

Wordpress?

Do you know of anyone familiar with Wordpress? I've decided to use it as my platform for my event planning website. I bought a custom template, but I have no idea how to install it. I also don't know how to use the domain I purchased (www.acharmingoccasion.com). In fact, I don't know how to use www.whereweloveishome.com on this blog either.

So, if you can do these three things, let me know how much you would charge. Or, if you know someone who is familiar with Wordpress (blogger), please send them my way.

I'm desperate.

xoxo,

Weekend Confessions

I saw Midnight in Paris yesterday. If you haven't seen it yet, you probably should. It's kind of amazing.




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Do you need to make a quick and easy appetizer?


*     *     *     *     *

I need your advice. 


Thoughts?

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I love this.

{images via Pinterest}

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

6.23.2011

Happy Hour

Another week down, another weekend to look forward to. My mom is coming up tomorrow night. I can't tell you how excited I am to spend the weekend with my mommy, and how excited Olive is to meet her grandma {just go with it mom...you gotta get used to "grandma" eventually...}. I have a fun weekend planned for her, filled with yummy food {fish and chips for dinner tomorrow night and our favorite restaurant for breakfast on Sunday}. Tonight, though, Robert and I are staying in with our new little baby. And tonight I'm drinking my new favorite drink.


What are you drinking tonight?

Anyway, I just want to tell you all how much I appreciate all of the kind words that you left on my post on Wednesday. It really touched me to know that I have so much support out there, and to know that there are so many other women out there who share the same ambitions that I do is truly amazing! And it's made me realize that I want to share all of this with you. Because if I can figure it all out, maybe I can help someone else out in the process.

I have a lot left to figure out, but I am definitely on my way to becoming organized. Hopefully I'll be able to share with you soon my secret weapon.

But until then, here are a few things that I'm loving this week, home edition.

These pretty dishes.


This beautiful nursery.


This incredible pantry {my organization role model}. 


This gorgeous living room. Love the orange and green!


This yellow space. I love yellow!


This sweet sign. 

{all images via Pinterest}

All of these things are inspiring me to figure out what I want to do with my home and life. And when I do figure it out, you'll be the first to know.

Hope you all had an amazing Friday. And here's to another incredible weekend.

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We do happy hour all day on Fridays. Because it's five o'clock somewhere, right?

What are you drinking today?

Happy Hour is my weekly blog party, where we get to meet new friends, find new blogs to read, and destress from our week.  We're all busy ladies and sometimes we just need to get out with some friends, chat, and have a drink.

How to enter the party:
  1. Must be a follower of Love is Home to participate. If you aren't already a follower, just click that "follow" button over there to the right.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of this post and click on the link to enter. 
  3. Add your blog's information and button. 
  4. And you're done! 
And if you want, you are welcome to use one of my buttons in your post!
 









Love you all.

6.22.2011

Another Picture and a Confession

Olive's first vet visit was yesterday afternoon, and I'm happy to report that she is in perfect health! Everyone at the vet's office was completely smitten with her, and they were all so sweet. We are so very happy that we have a healthy {and absolutely adorable} little dog.

{favorite picture of Olive so far...}

Anyway, what with these past few crazy days, my routine has gotten kind of off track. And so when we got back from the vet's office at about 6:45 last night, I got out the ingredients for a pretty simple dinner of macaroni and cheese {from a box, don't judge me...it doesn't happen often} and hot roast beef sandwiches. You can imagine my surprise then, when at 7:00 exactly, our doorbell rings. We live about a half hour away from most/all of our friends, so our doorbell doesn't ring very much without me knowing exactly who is on the other side of the door.

Standing on our porch were two of our dear friends with a pie in their hands.

I had completely forgotten that I had invited them over for dinner last night. I felt like an idiot, standing there in my white socks with holes in the them and my hair all over the place. Thank goodness they weren't too offended by my absent-mindedness. Robert entertained them on the couch while I threw everything on our dining room table into the office, chopped vegetables furiously for a salad, and ordered pizza over the phone. I even got out my cake platter for the pie and set out cloth napkins, just to make myself feel better. And with a bottle of wine {of which I drank four glasses, again trying to abate my intense embarrassment* over the situation, which probably just increased the spectacle I was making of myself} it was like the dinner was completely planned.

*Even more embarrassing than last night is the fact that I still can't spell "embarrassing" without looking it up in the dictionary...

For some, the above impromptu {can it be called impromptu if I invited them?} dinner date probably wouldn't be such a big deal. For me, however, an aspiring domestic connoisseur, it was a huge deal. And it made me realize a few things.

I don't like to talk about my domestic ambitions. For one, I have this completely irrational fear that women {read: feminists} will think less of me because I want to have the perfectly groomed home. I'm still trying to rationalize this goal within myself. And again, it's just kind of embarrassing. I mean really...what twenty-four year old dreams of cooking for her husband every night and having the perfect cleaning schedule? Well, that would be me.

Hi everyone. My name is Joelle and I want to be a homemaker.

There. I said it. I want to be a homemaker. I want to spend my evenings ironing my husband's button down shirts. I want to spend my Sunday afternoons making homemade bread and peach preserves. I want to throw elaborate dinner parties with beautiful flower arrangements that I make myself {this will need to wait since our dining room table seats exactly six people without anything on the table at all}. And I desperately want to go to this.

It's because of all of these things that last night was so difficult for me. They saw my messy bathroom and the piles of mail and the dirty floors. This isn't how I want to present myself to people, even if they are my friends.

Now, I know that I'm not perfect and I can't keep my home perfect all of the time. But I also know that I haven't tried nearly hard enough to do this. I'm procrastinating, trying to get everything done at once. I want to be the perfect homemaker now...I don't want to have to wait. But that's unrealistic. Doing these things is a process, one that will take time to learn and master. I just need to accept that fact and figure out the steps to get me where I want to be.

It will happen eventually. I hope.

Thanks for listening. And thanks for your support. And thanks in advance for any advice or resources you have about homemaking. I really appreciate it. Truly, I do.

xoxo,

6.21.2011

July Must Haves Giveaway

Since July is only nine days away {what?!?!?!}, I figured it would be the perfect time to introduce my next giveaway in my Monthly Must Haves series.


I can't believe that on July 23rd of this year, my husband and I will have beed married for one whole year! That being said, July of 2010 was full of new and exciting things. At this time last year, I was finishing up wedding plans and getting ready for my big day. And that included plenty of massages, gym trips, and hair and makeup trials. Not to mention one very sweet lingerie shower put on by my girlfriends.

Anyway, it didn't take long to decide what I wanted to do for my July Must Haves giveaway. I found so many amazing beauty products last year, while trying to be the most beautiful bride that I could be. And now I want to offer to all of you, three of my favorite beauty products, of which I discovered in July of last year, and of which I seriously don't think I could live without today.

First up is the Drenched in Pink Sweet and Flirty lotion from Victoria's Secret. I seriously love this stuff. I've tried a lot of lotions in my 24 years of life, and this is by far my favorite. It smells amazing and makes my skin so soft {perfect for wearing with that lingerie I got at said shower last year...don't tell my mom}.


Next is the Coolfix Gel Lotion from Sephora. It's supposedly an aftershave for men, but let me tell you something...this stuff is incredible. I noticed less razor burn and bumps in my armpits and bikini line {TMI? too bad} after only two days! It smells really good too, and my husband has been known to sneak some every now and then. I only have the trial size on this list, but it really goes a long away. As in, I've had the same bottle since last year.


Last up is the Lavendar Eucalyptis Sugar Scrub from Glen Ivy Day Spa. A week before my wedding, I decided to splurge and get a full spa treatment, including a body scrub. Glen Ivy is a really nice spa in the Southern California area, and if you have the chance, I would highly suggest you go. Anyway, I have always loved the smell of eucalyptis, maybe because it really does smell like the spa to me {most of Glen Ivy's products have eucalyptis in them}, so when the woman doing my massage used this stuff, I was kind of in heaven. As soon as it was over, 90 short minutes later, I knew I had to buy my own jar.

{that was seriously the only picture they have on their website...sorry it's so small!}

I have a seriously intense sense of smell, and I can get really nostalgic just by smelling something familiar. When these three things go together, I feel like I am almost taken back to my wedding day {and night...}. That being said, all three of these products, as cheesy as it sounds, really are very special to me, and I am so excited that I can offer them all to one lucky reader!

There are a few ways for you to enter my July Must Haves giveaway:
  1. Be a follower of Where We Love is Home.
  2. Follow me on Twitter.
  3. Tweet about this giveaway.
  4. “Like” Where We Love is Home on Facebook.
  5. Blog about this giveaway.
Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. I will choose the winner on June 30th at midnight.

Good luck!

6.20.2011

Weekend Confessions

I made peach preserves yesterday, and they are kind of amazing. Like, I want to just stick a spoon in the jar and eat them all, amazing.


That's the only picture I took. 2 pounds of peaches, and I got one jar out of it...I'll probably finish it off by tomorrow too. I guess I'll have to make more soon...

* * * * *

On Saturday, the Duff family became a family of three. We still haven't really gotten over the high that came over us the moment we met her {I feel like I'm talking about a real baby or something...}.

I didn't mention this in my Saturday post {I wanted to keep that one short and sweet}, but I like to think that it was kind of fate that brought us to Olive {don't laugh at my obvious cheese-ness in that last statement}. You see, we had already been to four different places {Petco, Petsmart, etc.}, and we were on our way to one more before getting lunch. On our way, though, we passed by a hidden Petco and I made the last minute decision to turn around so we could look really quickly.

Robert picked her up from the pen. And then she put her head on his shoulder and kind of just looked at me.

Pretty sure my heart melted right then and there.



And then yesterday, it melted a little bit more.

She's already queen of the house. She has made every blanket in our little apartment her own, including the blankets on our bed. She loves to cuddle, and would rather sleep directly on top of your chest than on the blanket next to the couch. And tonight we are taking her to the Lazy Dog Cafe, so that she can meet her extended family. Even though we've only had her for two days now, she is already so well behaved that we can bring her out in public. It's pretty awesome.

Oh, and thank you so much for all the sweet words of congratulations. We truly are over the moon about this little girl, and I am so happy that you think she is as precious as we think she is.

* * * * *
 
Robert and I met three of our good friends for dinner at Woodranch on Friday night, and it was kind of delicious. Tri-tip, baby back ribs, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, baked potato, and asparagus? Okay! Oh, and then we topped it off with apple cobbler at the end. Yum.

I made a pretty awesome dinner last night, of fettucine with homemade alfredo sauce, sauteed shrimp and salmon, and a nice big salad with olive oil vinaigrette. Double yum.

We watched four episodes of Lost this weekend, and are almost done with the second season. All I can say is...WTF?

Hope you all had an amazing weekend as well. And here's to another {hopefully quick} week!

xoxo,

6.18.2011

So, I have someone for you to meet…

I’d like to introduce to all of you,

someone very special.

Miss Olive Duff

Olive1

Olive is a Chihuahua and Italian greyhound mix, a little less than a year, and is just about the sweetest dog on the face of the earth. We have had her for over seven hours now, and have yet to hear her bark once. We got her from Petco, from a local adoption agency. She was turned in by an animal hoarder, and raised by a foster family. She’s crate trained and (almost) potty trained.

We love her.

Olive2

photo

I promise, I won’t become one of those bloggers that only posts about her dog. But you’ll have to endure a few pictures now and then.

We love you Olive.

6.16.2011

Happy Hour

Happy Friday friends! Can you believe that the week is almost over? Time has just been going by so fast these days, and it's kind of scary. Last weekend couldn't have been almost five days ago...could it?

Anyway, tonight I'm going out to dinner with some of my dearest friends. My best friend is taking her comprehensive exams tomorrow to get her Master's in Public Policy and Administration, so we are wish her good luck with a yummy dinner at Woodranch. That means that I'll probably be having a nice glass of wine with my tri-tip. Yum.

Like I said, these week has gone by very, very quickly. We didn't do too much, just dinner with friends {as usual} and shopping last night for some nice work clothes for the husband and makeup for me {I only wear MAC makeup}.

Tomorrow we are going to start our search for a puppy! Robert and I live in a decent {and decently sized} apartment in a good area, and we definitely make enough money to afford a dog. I contacted the Humane Society today though, and they told us that they wouldn't adopt out to us because we don't have our own fenced in yard! It doesn't matter that Robert works from home 3 of the 5 days of the week, or that we have a nice courtyard for the pup, or that we were going to get a petsitter/dog walker for those other 2 days that nobody is here, they basically told us no right then and there! I was very upset, but when I realized that the process for adopting through the humane society takes about 3 weeks anyway, we decided to go through the county shelter, who is much easier to work with. They still make sure that the dogs are healthy, up to date on their shots, and spayed/neutered, and they are less expensive to adopt from! So wish us luck!

Our entire weekend is pretty much dedicated to a dog, if we get one. We have no other plans for the next two days, which is probably a good thing. Our office is almost ready to be the dog's room, we just need to pick up a few more things and set up it's bed and crate, and it will be done! I'm so very excited, and I just don't know how I am going to make it through today...I'm so anxious!

Anyway, I'm linking up today with {av} at Long Distance Loving for Friday's Fancies. Last week was a nautical theme, and I guess I'm still in that mindset because I came up with another outfit this week that has navy and white stripes. But I really love the yellow! What do you think?


And here are some pretty flowers to help you get through your Friday. Don't you wish you had some of these on your kitchen table right now?




{all images via Pinterest}

Hope you all have a beautiful Friday!

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We do happy hour all day on Fridays. Because it's five o'clock somewhere, right?

What are you drinking today?

Happy Hour is my weekly blog party, where we get to meet new friends, find new blogs to read, and destress from our week.  We're all busy ladies and sometimes we just need to get out with some friends, chat, and have a drink.

How to enter the party:
  1. Must be a follower of Love is Home to participate. If you aren't already a follower, just click that "follow" button over there to the right.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of this post and click on the link to enter. 
  3. Add your blog's information and button. 
  4. And you're done! 

And if you want, you are welcome to use one of my buttons in your post!











Much love friends,

6.15.2011

2011 Summer Bucket List

I'm linking up today with Miss Jillian over at Cornflake Dreams with my 2011 Summer Bucket List. My list is pretty short, but it's good!




{images via Pinterest}

What's on your bucket list?

{Oh, and I might have news about number one as early as this weekend...}

Love,