10 years on

In July, my other half and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We decided to go to Belle-Île en Mer.
The hotel was called the Citadelle Vauban and was absolutely gorgeous. Here's a photo taken on the grounds.



View of the port from the hotel



View of the ocean from the hotel



View of the coast from our room

September Sunset

As cliché as it is, time really does fly. I really can't believe it's already October. Saturday I noticed the leaves have already started to change. I must get to the park and get some photos before the weather starts turning too cold. In the meantime, here's a photo of a sunset from earlier September. My husband used HDR for it.

Blogtober?

I miss blogging. I really do. But, the truth of the matter is that once you get out of the habit, it's hard to jump right back in. So I was thinking that Blogtober was a good way to start. Now, to be honest, not sure it will be everyday in October, but my goal will be at least 3 post per week all this month. This should definitely help ease me back into things. :)

No Fireworks for Bastille Day

Despite it being mid-July, the weather has been rainy and a bit chilly. Our barbecue held up, but it rained shortly after dinner. So, in place of fireworks photos, here are a few photos from on of the art displays from Voyage à Nantes

Photos from Lyon

Yes, I have a bit of catching up to do. Here are a few photos from our vacation in Lyon last year.
Pont Winston-Churchill



Théâtres Romains Les Minimes



Place Belcourt



Mur des Canuts - the largest fresco in Europe



View of the city as seen from Arc en ciel Bar on the 32nd floor

Promenade in the Park :)

July was an extremely raining month. It was nice to be out between rain showers. :)
We tend to go for walks in a different park, but hadn't yet gone to this particular park in a while. It's called the Parc Floral de la Beaujoire. Very beautiful! :)










The roses were gorgeous. Some of them were especially fragrant and there were prize-winning varieties as well. :)
The weather has been kinda weird this week. Sun, rain, clouds, storm, sun, clouds, sun, rain, etc.

Mmmmm!

Here are a few highlights from my anniversary dinner. We always celebrate by going to a fancy schmancy restaurant. :)
The photos were taken with my husband's smartphone and although the quality is pretty good, it definitely doesn't do the food justice.


The menu :)



Hubby's 1st course



My main course



Hubby's dessert



L'Abélia

Tables

After a thorough search on my hard drive, I was able to find the table settings from Christmas (at my MIL's) and Thanksgiving (with friends and very belated).


My MIL and I got the decorations and decorated the Christmas Eve dinner table together :)




























I got some extra of the clear balls since I liked the idea so much and used them for my Thanksgiving table. Silver and fuschia were definitely a first for Thanksgiving. :)

Happpy Independence Day (USA) + Small Update :)

Happy 4th of July! :D


(This photo is actually from a July 14th (Bastille Day), but that's when I tend to get my fireworks "fix" living in France. :)


I thought I'd also take this time to update on a few things that are going on:

First, I'm having a sale over at Spicey Creations. You get 30% off your order with the coupon code SOLDESETE11. :)





Secondly, after an extended hiatus, I've re-opened my Etsy shop, http://Spicey.etsy.com. I've only got a few items there, but I'll be adding things on slowly. There's also a discount code ETE11 there, too, to save 15%.





Third, and lastly, I've added my Heartsy referral link to the side bar. If you use it to sign up, we both get a $5 voucher to use on the site. Feel free to ask me any questions about it if you have them. :)

That's all for now. The weather has been amazing so I hope to take lots of photos to share. I did have a request to show some more table settings and I never posted the ones from Christmas or Thanksgiving so I'll try to get those posted this week. :)

Stuff I didn't have

Unfortunately, I was under the weather and didn't have any of this, but it looked soooo yummy



Actually, this little chocolate guy is still in one piece. :)



Dessert from my nice's christening/baptism. (You can see it's raining through the window. These photos were taken last weekend and sad to say, the weather has not improved. :/ )




My other half's dessert plate. The strawberries were fresh from the vine brought over by the strawberry farmer whose a friend of my SIL. :) They were delicious!

3 Photos from March

From a lamp shopping trip (we came home empty-handed)




A tree from a walk we like to take




A sunset in springtime

Happy Valentine's Day! :)

Happy New Year! / Bonne Année !

Fyrinna order

Here's my little order from Fyrinnae.com:

Without flash


Aztec Gold Loose Eye Shadow
Dressed to Kill*(free sample w/order)
Fluff
Pixie Epoxy
Dokkálfar Loose Eye Shadow
Avenging Salem Loose Eye Shadow


With flash


This isn't a review so much as an overview. Just know that I'm really pleased with my order! :) I got mini sizes of everything to try out. The colors are absolutely gorgeous! (I love how the sample color goes so well with what I ordered.) I haven't really tested fluff much yet, but will soon.
Pixie epoxy is AMAZING! I've been using it with all my loose and mineral shadows as well as wet/dry shadows and any that are a bit powdery.
Big thanks to Sirvinya for reviewing the pixie epoxy! Her youtube review is pretty complete so check it out here if you are interested in the product (and if you use loose and/or mineral eye shadows, you should be). Also, you only need the tiniest amount so it lasts ages.
But, I'm still going to place another order soon for some more pixie epoxy to be sure to get mine before the holiday season starts. :)
(I took these photos ages ago so sorry that it doesn't do the products justice.)

August and September

Oudon in August



Trentemoult in September

Follow up: About Face mineral eyeshadow

I actually had a couple questions about my About Face order post so I thought I'd give a heads up on the clearance sale going on the new site Heatheresque of About Face colors.
There are grab bags available as follows:
A 10 pack for $15.00
A 20 pack for $30.00
A 30 pack for $45.00
Click here to find them.

The downside is that if you fall in love with a color, you won't be able to re-order it. :/ But, it is a great deal! :)

P.S. I decided not to use my other blog as I'd rather just post in one place. :) I'll be posting a couple things I ordered from Fyrinnae and Lumiere Cosmetics. Also, a some new website pretties, and a few photo posts, including some food posts, coming up soonish. :D

Photos from Passion Japon

One thing I love about where I live is that there always seems to be something interesting going on. This past weekend it was "Passion Japon" so we went to check it out.

Oddly, we didn't take many photos. There are none of the sushi demonstration, but then, it was all we could do to actually see what was going on. Lots of interest in the Japanese themed. :)

Here are a few highlights:


Japanese-styled Fountain



Drummer from Taiko concert



The group playing (it was really hard to get a decent photo with all the people there)



The artist who did these was also doing people's names in Japanese. Unfortunately, no photo of him, but he was really nice.


Some people really got into the spirit.

Look! It's Pikachu! ;)

A few vacation photos

We picked one of the worst weeks weatherwise to go on vacation. Oh, well, we did manage to get some decent weather at one of our stops, Saint Gildas de Rhuys.














We saw this parked at the beach :)

Better late than never?

Unfortunately, I can't remember who wanted to see my About Face order. Nevertheless, here it is:

Without flash


1. Free of History
2. Far too fabulous
3. Acidic Reign
4. ZELDA'S REVENGE
5. PERISH THE PANSIES
6. Lucky Charm
7. BUBBLE AND BURN
8. MOONLIGHT AND MIRACLES
9. SASSY SISTER
10. ART OF NOISE

With flash



Unfortunately, they are sold out/discontinued and have been since shortly after I ordered. :/

Mmmm, pizza

It may seem strange, but when I saw this recipe for Lamb's Lettuce pizza
I knew I had to try it.



I'd never had cooked lamb's lettuce before, but it was very good! I think this pine nuts are essential for anyone curious about trying the recipe. but since it's pizza, it can obviously be fiddled with. It's definitely not a combination I would have come up with on my own. So, thanks Isabelle. Yay for trying new things! :D


Recipe found at http://cuisine.palats.org/coinblog/index.php?post/2010/03/10/Pizza-a-la-mache-Lamb-s-lettuce-pizza (The blog is in both French and English :) )