Life Lately

These past 2 weeks have hands down been pretty awesome!!

I spent 5 days in Miami on a girls tennis trip, but we managed to eat and drink like queens as well.

There were 40 girls from across the US and Canada (8 from my team in STL) to play some tennis, and yes did we play some tennis, 7-8 hours every day!!

my doubles partner in STL



The 40 of us were split into 4 teams and in addition to lessons we had a championship match,  my team snagged the title

it was not all work

I like to consider myself a foodie, I am constantly on the hunt for the latest and greatest wherever I am in term of restaurants.  Well, if you are ever in South Beach you MUST go to Tom Colicchio's (remember him from top chef) restaurant Beachcraft.  This will go down in my book as one of my best meals of all time!!

We also had to check out the scene at Fountainebleau

Everyone there was either a Miami Heat player, a Kardashian wannabe or a tennis player from STL


It was such a fabulous extra long weekend,  I spent most of the time laughing which is exactly why we go on girls weekends!!

2 days after I got back my oldest child turned 16, yikes!!

have to admit I kind of am loving having a driver



then we had Halloween

and now we are just enjoying the beautiful fall weather

This weekend we have an auction

I love waking up the morning after and realizing I paid 2 times the value of something I never wanted in the first place.



I blame the champagne towers

Have a beautiful weekend!!

Girl Friday

I cannot remember the last time I thought "this was the longest week ever,"  Every Friday I think, this week just flew by, and today is no exception.

Tonight the hubs and son have a basketball game, so I am going to take my girls and a friend for a little girls night out

Saturday is the Great Gatsby Auction, I LOVE auctions.  I love the thrill of bidding against others and not knowing the outcome until sometimes the last second.  I have my eye on a few things, I hope I come home a winner.  I at least have my dress

Sunday is going to be cold with the possibility of more snow.  I plan to watch the olympics (the hubs and I are obsessed with curling)

and make this for dinner

Have a beautiful weekend!!

Got my Life Back

The auction is over, and it was a huge success!!  My weekend was so fun and so exhausting.  I am still dragging my feet today.

Saturday morning I was at the hotel by 7:30 am to get started on the ballroom.  This was a fund raising event so we had a very small budget.  I think we did a good job with our $500 for 27 tables.

We finished up by 1pm so I had just enough time to meet my friends and get my hair done

then run home and get ready

The doors opened at 5:30 and we were ready to bid away.  This was our first year doing everything electronically, when you walked in you got your bid pal and everything was done with a few clicks

This is great for raising more money (don't have final numbers but what I did see was amazing) but I am not going to lie, you do feel a little anti social...you are constantly checking to see if you are still winning, have you been outbid etc.  I was in a conversation with people and doing exactly what I tell my kids they are not allowed to do, check their phones and not look at people when you are talking to them.

By 9:30 the auction was officially over and the band was setting up

 I grabbed my dancing partner (no, it is so not the hubs) and watched while the band set up waited for the fun to really begin.

My feet are still aching today, I wonder if I can play tennis this morning in my Uggs.

Boo!!

Happy Halloween!!

Today I am going to try and not do one thing for our auction on Saturday and enjoy the holiday with my kids!!

The Louis Vuitton purse had been bought and ready for the raffle

the flowers have been ordered

and we did a trial run of what the centerpieces will look like...

because Friday night I am getting together with my friends and we need to make 30.

The menu has been ordered and is ready to go

and the desserts are ready for pick up

Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that this all comes together on Saturday.   I feel like I am planning my wedding reception all over again, but I am fairly certain I am not leaving for Turk and Caicos on Sunday!!

The Bling Ring

I am co-chair of my daughter's school auction in a couple of weeks, and one of my first jobs was to come up with a theme.  This was a no brainer for me "A Night in Paris".  This auction has kept me so incredibly busy this past month, but a good/fun busy.  In sticking with the French theme I came up with a really fun game of chance on auction night that I am so excited about!!

L'anneau Bling

(The bling ring)

To start, we will be selling 120 bling rings auction night.

The cost of each bling ring $50, and you get to wear your flashy diamond all night long.

Now this is where it gets good!!

One lucky girl will pick the winning ring.  I wanted the prize to be something French and something absolutely fabulous, my obvious choice...

A Louis Vuitton Bag (eek)

Tomorrow afternoon I am picking up the bag.  I have full discretion on the size, cost, material, everything.  I decided that we should definitely go with the classic monogram and have narrowed down my options...

I mean you can't go wrong with any of these choices but I am definitely thinking which one would I want to win.

Scenes from my weekend

You know you're in for a great weekend when it starts with flowers from your hubby...

and drinks with your friends...

Saturday was the big auction...

I don't typically take these pictures but I just loved loved loved my dress.

Saturday night was fun but my only complaint was that the entire auction was done via your phone. The sheets of paper where you fill in your paddle number and amount are long gone and have been replaced by iphones.   Now from a fund raising perspective this is a great way to increase bids/revenue.  From a guest perspective we spent the entire night checking our phones to see what to bid on and if we had been outbid and I kind of felt a little anti social.

I did however find time to switch hats with my friend...

and this was the only photo of the night I took because I had to keep checking my bids!!

We had a snow storm come through STL this weekend and Luna was one happy pup...

She sat outside like she was the keeper of the castle and just watched the snow fall.

I will admit I did not watch the Super Bowl, I saw Silver Linings Playbook (Loved it and Bradley Cooper totally deserves an oscar) but this commercial that aired during the game was phenomenal and brought tears to my eyes.  The beautiful Budweiser Clydesdales  live here in good ol STL...

Girl Friday

Not only has another week flown by, I cannot believe it is February!!

Tonight I am having some friends over for a little salad and a lot of wine.  These are fellow moms at my son's old school, I have not seen these ladies in awhile so we have some catching up to do...

Saturday we have another auction...

this one is at my son's school, and the theme is "Kentucky Derby"...

because of the theme, ladies are encouraged to wear hats.  I have a hat, I am just not sure if I want to wear it.  First off it is 20 degrees in STL, maybe it is just me but I think of the big derby hats as something you wear in the summer, and second I look ridiculous in the big brimmed hats so I ended up getting more of a fedora looking hat.  There was a "hat lady" who came to the school, she had hats you could buy or she would make one to coordinate with your outfit, I was going to skip the whole hat idea but she convinced me to get the fedora.  I am just not a big "theme party" person unless of course it is Halloween.   

I am however, excited about my outfit...

This is a Rachel Roy and I must admit she is becoming one of my favorites, all of her pieces seem to have a little something unexpected!!

Sunday is a big day for football but instead I am going to dinner....

then to the movies with one of my girlfriends...

Bon Weekend, mes amies!!