Home From Italy and Happy Birthday Hermes!

Hello Friends!
I am home from my Italian Holiday. It was a lovely time, but as with all long trips--I am happy to be home. I adored Tuscany and I learned a lot and saw a lot in Rome.
This top photo is the beautiful Ponte Vecchio in Florence over the Arno River. The Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge in Florence to not be destroyed by the Germans in Word War II.
This is "The Outdoor David" located in the Piazza della Signora/Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The original David is in the Accademia Gallery and you are not allowed to take photographs of it--yeah right. Everyone was sneaking photos. Seeing the statue of David in the Accademia was one of the most breathtaking moments of the trip. Simply majestic. Thank goodness my husband got all our tickets to most major sites, galleries, and museums from the computer before we left--the lines/queues for everything in Italy can be quite long. I highly suggest getting all tickets beforehand.

September 2007 marks the 70th Birthday of Hermes!!! There were celebrations all over the world during the month of September for this globally adored and revered brand. The hotel we stayed in while in Florence- The Westin Excelsior, hosted a fabulous birthday reception in honor of Hermes. I was lucky enough to get to experience the beautiful reception and it was fabulous and dreamy and everyone was gorgeous.

Above is the catalog from the party. I could not let the month of September go by without sending birthday greetings to one of my favorite fashion houses--so-- HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMES!

More photos of my Italian Holiday coming soon.

I hope everyone is enjoying Fall so far.

Oh and by the way, my dear friend Neela recommended the Westin Excelsior in Florence and it is fabulous. I cannot rave enough about it-EXCEPT it is located by a church with LOUD bells that start ringing every morning at 7:00am -and they ring at about 15 minute intervals till around 9:00 am--oh my goodness. Not good for a jetlagged and dehydrated Americana. Other than that, the hotel was awesome. Thanks Neela for the great information!

(all photos property of MonkeyPosh LLC)

Arrivederci Amici!

Ahhh Fall, one of my favortie times to travel abroad. Less crowds, better weather, less dehydration and heat stroke-- oh wait, maybe that is just me, but it kills me to be out in summer heat all day long...I digress.
I am off on a trip to Europe. Most of our time will be in Italy, but we are going to try to throw in a couple of side trips to see other places. Part of the time I will be traveling sans husband, so that will be a little scary. I am not sure if I will be able to, or have time to blog...so it may be safe to say that MonkeyPosh will be on a small hiatus....but you just never know what opportunities may arise.

The person watching our house has offered to blog for me, but I am not sure about that. I told her she may offend my readers (as she can be quite snarky and makes fun of things I consider fashionable) and she said "Oh please, no more than you do." HA!

I am excited to get away for a while and I hope to see tons of art, churches, beautiful people, Italian fashion, AND PASTA AND GELATO AND WINE!!

Have a wonderful September!

(graphics from travelitaly.com)

Skinny Beyotch and The Chicago Way

I have been reading this book, Skinny Bitch by Rory Friedman and Kim Barnouin and I am not quite sure what to think of it. It has been on the best seller list for a while because I guess all females want to be thin, and all of us love a book with cussing in the title....don't act like you don't.


The authors of this book have very strong opinions about food and the FDA and the government and the meat and dairy industries. They bring up interesting points, but I am not sure of all their "scientific research". Some of it seems pretty far fetched. If you followed all their rules, you would indeed be skinny, and you would INDEED be a bitch.


If you have a weak stomach skip the book all together because they go into graphic detail about how meat, poultry and dairy are processed and manufactured.....from the slaughterhouses. EEEEEKS!


Barnouin and Friedman want you to eat totally organic and vegan. No soda, no coffee, no alcohol, no sugar, no white flour, no fun. In a perfect world we would all eat healthier, and most of us know that sugar and diet soda are not particularly good for us, HOWEVER we are a culture of food. Food equals social gatherings, holidays, memories, etc.


Long story short--I do not like the book. My motto is everything in moderation. Enjoy life. Being a skinny bitch is not on my list of goals. Moving on......

Another book I am reading and totally enjoying is The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey. It is a very good read, but a typical cop mystery. Murder, creepy stuff, obligatory side love story, you get the idea. It takes place in Chicago as the title indicates and it is a murder mystery page turner. I really like reading books that mention places I have been and I know exactly what they are talking about. I am easily entertained like that.
If you like a cop book/mystery, I would totally recommend The Chicago Way.

Have any of you read any great books lately you would care to share?

Happy Reading, and have a great day!

Thanks Tracy, Space NK, and Monkey Nail Dryer.

Today is hump day and I am feeling the hump....like I am on the bottom of the hump and trying to get myself over. I have not been sleeping well lately and sleepless nights make for very long and trying days. One bright spot in my week was that a nice blogger named Tracy at : TRACY's SIMPLE LIFE nominated me for a Nice Matters award. According to Tracy's blog , the Nice Matters Award is to honor nice people who inspire good feelings and those who are a positive influence on the blogging world. WOW--someone thinks I am nice. That makes me happy. Once you have been honored, you are challenged to honor 7 more nice bloggers--I am short on time, so I will honor 5 fellow bloggers. Please note that I love all my friend's blogs and these 5 are only a sample of blogs I would love to nominate. Here they are in no particular order:

SWIRL FAMILY-CHRISTA --Christa has been my friend forever, and has always been one of the funniest and nicest people I know. She blogs about her gorgeous family and their various happenings and sometimes their mishaps. She never fails to make me chuckle! Love you Christa!

What's In My DASH -MISS S. --Miss S. and I have been friends forever also. Miss S. writes a blog about living with the neuro muscular disease, Fredrichs Ataxia. Her blog is an autiobiography about her life --childhood, diagnosis, teen years and into adulthood. Miss S. is a very kind and spiritual gal and I cherish our friendship and our 2 hour phone calls! Love you Girl!

LAST PARISIAN COWBOY --I nominate this guy because he makes me laugh and he is a WEALTH of information about Paris. I happen to love Paris, so I love his blog. He has a very witty and irreverent way of writing that I love. Some may say he is not necessarily positive, but when I need a Parisian fix, his blog comes on my screen and it is positive indeed--at least to me.

KAREN'S BEING BOSSY --I am not sure how Karen and I found each other's blog, but I am so happy we did. Karen posts tons of pictures of her gorgeous child and she has the coolest taste in music. She updates her list of fave music of the moment on her blog regularly. Such cool and ecclectic taste! She also has a FOX icon on the right side of her blog with the word FOXY by it. Click the link for a plethora of eye candy. Karen has great taste in men and the random cute guys she throws in totally makes me laugh! Glad I found your blog Karen!

THIS JUST IN --I found this blog through Fightin' Mad Mary's blog ( see post below for her link). GNight Girl is the author of this blog and she is working on something called TOYS FOR TROOPS . Click the link to find out how you can send toys to our soldiers serving our country for them to distribute to the children in their areas. What a simple yet profound way to spread goodwill. Can you imagine how scared the children in those countries are? Gnight Girl is for sure using her blog to help the world. Please click her links to find out how you can too. Oh and you can also send care packages to the troops. Things they need that we totally take for granted. Check out her blog and be inspired!

In other news, one of my favorite Notting Hill beauty stores , SPACE NK has opened up it's first US location in Soho in New York City. It is located right between Prince and Green Street. If you cannot make it to Soho then you can order from their awesome website here: SPACE NK . They carry a wide variety of niche and hard to find beauty products. Give them a try.

I also found this oh so MonkeyPosh nail polish dryer at 8TY8 BEAUTY . It is just hilarious. I love it. Seeing something this cute, totally makes my hump day better. 8ty8 beauty carries tons of things for the nail polish obsessed fashionista. I LOVE nail polish so I visit 8ty8 frequently to check on the latest trends and the latest releases from the major nail polish companies.

Here is hoping everyone has a great hump day!

Who can turn the world on with her smile? MARY!

This past Thursday I got to meet fellow blogger, Fightin Mad Mary from THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT . She is even more lovely, funny, warm, stylish, pretty, and FABULOUS in person than she is on her blog. I have been reading Mary's blog for over a year now. She writes about restaurants (she lives in L.A. so she has access to all kinds of cool restaurants), makeup, Trader Joe's, her dog Day-Z, consumerism, stores, people who spy on dog walkers, Toys for Troops, Runyan Canyon, clothes, fragrance, all her delightful friends and family, nail polish, etc ---which just happen to be all things I love to read about. Mary is in Chicago for work, so I was so excited to get to meet her.

This is Mary and me in the Signature Room Lounge bathroom...yes bathroom. It is serioulsy one of the best views of the city. I would live in that bathroom if I could. The Signature Room Lounge is on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building and has sweeping views atop the city of Chicago--the bathroom is all glass so the view is incredible. This photo has a strange green cast, and is slightly blurry, but it is the best out of the bunch. A very nice girl visiting Chicago from Canada took about 5 photos for us and they were all blurry and not good. Not that I am saying people from Canada are bad photographers, I am just sayin'.

Here are 2 other photos from the Signature Room Lounge taken about 3 weeks ago. I took these photos and they are not blurry. Not to state the obvious, but I am not from Canada--again--I am just sayin'.

Mary and I laughed and laughed and visited and visited. Mary has a very cool and interesting job so I had tons or questions for her. I hope I did not annoy her with all my queries. We also had a couple of lovely libations. The Signature Room Lounge is known all across the country for their award winning Sidecar Martini....or Sidebar Martini depending on how many you have consumed.

The Sidecar Martini is a delicious drink--very refreshing for a late summer night. Here is the recipe courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis which she got from The Signature Room Lounge when she visited last year.

SIDECAR MARTINI

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1 lime, zested

1 lime wedge

10 ounces cognac (recommended: Hennessy)

4 ounces Triple Sec liqueur (recommended: Cointreau)

4 ounces sweet and sour mix

4 ounces Limoncello 2 ounces lime juice

Ice

Instructions: Chill 4 martini glasses. In a small shallow dish combine the sugar and the lime zest. Run the lime wedge around the rim of each glass. Dip in the sugar and zest mixture.

If you try a Sidecar Martini, I hope you get to enjoy it with someone as great as Mary.

Thanks Mary, I had a wonderful time. Enjoy the rest of your time in Chicago!

Lovely day to all!