Shutterfly Steal of A Deal!

I'm on this website Klout and I recently received a Shutterfly perk. The deal until September 16th is for a hard cover 20 page 8x8 book for a shipping and handling fee of $7.99. That is it. I got mine for $8.55. This book is normally $29.99.

Here is the coupon code to get it yourself!!!!

Your code: A6KM-3CTU-CBG5-7WU7R9

Seriously run... go put together a book. This is a great deal. At first I was going to make my book of our family Mexico vacation but apparently we didn't take enough photos.  So I then turned it into my vacations in 2011 and 2012. I have my Siesta Keys Girl's weekend trip, family Mexico Trip, New York trip for HBA Global, Vegas Trip for Cosmoprof North America and finished the book off with my recent trip to New York for the Elements Showcase.

  

My New Favorite Perfume

Good Morning! Yesterday at work a member of our organization sent each of us ladies at the office one of their perfume. I took a photo of part of my dresser this morning. My good friend Julia made the lamp and jewelry bowl for me! Can you see the gorgeously romantic bottle of perfume? The packaging is fabulous and I love the antique puff ball to squirt the perfume.

The company is called Royal Apothic and the fragrance they sent was Holland Park. I seriously think it is my new favorite perfume. I have been in love with Be Delicious by DKNY for probably five years.

Holland Park is light, refreshing, and not overly sweet smelling.

The website explains the scent as: This soft white floral features top notes of lemon, magnolia and peach, middle notes of jasmine, orange blossom, and muguet, over a base of powdery white musk.



I love office work perks! :) Do you get any perks at your job? Samples, gifts, catered meals, trips?

Receiving this perfume is really getting me excited to represent ICMAD at the Elements Showcase this Monday and Tuesday in New York. The tradeshow is for up-and-coming fragrance and men's skincare companies.

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This is what the tradeshow will look like. This was from the January 2011 tradeshow.

I fly out Sunday Morning and come back late Tuesday night so will be my last post until Wednesday or Thursday.



That Is So Me!

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Anyone else feel like this? I feel so exhausted every morning. I need to look into sleeping pills or natural energy pills.

An old friend from college popped up on my news feed and it got me thinking about how I have been living in Illinois for 4 years now! Four years! Where has the time gone since college? I've been at my current job for a little over three years. Time is just flying past me and there is still so much of Chicago I want to see and experience. I can count on one hand the number of times I have been to Wrigleyville. That is sad!

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I love inspirational quotes. What is one quote you love and have or want to have hanging on your wall?

Love: Hibiscus Flowers

Did I write a blog post about how much I love Hibiscus Flowers? Yes? Well then here is another one. No? Well then I LOVE hibiscus flowers. I drew up a hibiscus tattoo idea when I was 16. It was the flower and then a Chinese symbol. My mom told me to get my bellybutton pierced instead. So I never got a tattoo. I slightly altered my tattoo design and have it sitting on my desk. I look at it every so often or show the picture of it on my phone to people who mention they have tattoos.

This is my sketch. I still really like it. I've just never been able to decide where I should put it. Plus I am a pansy for pain and I'm not sure I would be able to do it!

Ok well this wasn't supposed to be a blog post about wanting a tattoo... whoops off track a little. Hibiscus flowers- my love for them.

The Reasons why I love Hibiscus Flowers
1.Bright colors- pink, yellow, red, orange, and purple
2. The large flower petals and lines in the petals
3. That they are grown in tropical locations
4. How even on a simple drawing you know instantly that it is a Hibiscus Flower
5. You can eat them!

Yes it is true. Hibiscus flowers taste like raspberry. I'm not a coffee drinker but while I was in Las Vegas for the tradeshow I stopped into Starbucks for breakfast and saw their latest drink- Starbucks Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher!



It is amazing! Light and refreshing with berries and green coffee extract for a natural energy boost! I've had it a few times since being back from Vegas. Has anyone else tried this amazing drink?

Website on Wild Hibiscus Drinks

Bon Appetit Recipe on Hibiscus-Flower Enchiladas

Hibiscus Marinated Leg of Lamb

Hibiscus Ice Pops

Hibiscus Berry Sundae

(Wow! Look at that dessert!)

Hibiscus Loaf Bread

If I knew how to cook, or knew someone who was a chef, and actually had the guts to try it- I would love to open a restaurant in the city that everything we served had flowers in it. It would have to be in a large city like New York or Chicago. Where people are more open to trying different meals, and go for the look and presentation.



Wedding Guest Book

As promised yesterday here is a sneak peak of a project I worked on over the weekend. Can you guess what it is?



Months ago I saw an image on Pinterest of a Thumbprint guestbook wall art idea. I loved it and showed the image to my friend Julia. Since she is having a small outdoor wedding I thought this was a neat idea.

This is the image I saw on Pinterest:

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More examples:



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Ok so you get the idea. Super cute, personalized and artsy. My mom gave me a large autograph picture frame to give to Julia. With it having a large 8x10 picture cut out of the middle I knew we wouldn't be able to do the tree look, but I came with a different idea.

This is the picture frame before:

After:

Ready for the August 25th wedding day to have people put their thumbprints down. Her wedding colors are granny smith apple green, silver and white. The flower she has on her save the date and wedding invites are hydrangea flowers. So my big idea to incorporate the "tree look" was to use the hydrangea flowers. The flower petals will be the thumbprints.

This is part of their "Save the Date".

Which is the image I looked at when drawing out the hydrangea's on the picture frame.

Close ups and in pictures during pictures:

 

I drew thumbprints so people know where to stamp.

My watercolor paint matches perfectly to the stamp pad I found at Michaels!

What do you think?

I will post photos after the wedding of the completed flower thumbprints.



Window Drawings

Happy Monday! I have been super busy since I returned from Las Vegas. I have a wedding project to show you tomorrow that I worked on over the weekend. But for today how about some cute drawings on windows! Apparently they have a sweet name of "Windoodles".

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Same site as above.

My favorite of the day!

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Have you ever drawn on your window at work with dry erase markers?

I bet you want to now! :)

I'm going to go look for markers. BRB.

My fast monkey sketch.

Please comment with your sketches if you do any I would love to see them!