Monkey on the road (and in the air for 16 hours)

I am off on a journey. I came down with a horrible virus right before the trip, and I was too sick to even blog. I will be gone and busy until the 3rd week of May, so here is wishing everyone a beautiful Spring and wonderful month of May.

Photos and report upon my return.

G'day Mates!

(photo from Sydney Visitors Bureau)

*Oh and while I am gone I will miss some special things so: Congrats on the wedding Misto and Happy Birthday to Cousin Jess and LeAnn!

On up in my crib

I love to decorate my house, but it does not come easy for me. I am always second guessing what looks good. I wish I could just be confident in my taste and run with it. I wish I could just hire Nate Berkus to come make my house fabulous, but I do not have Oprah's money.

I have been toiling over a chair for my closet for some time. I am a nervous Nellie when it comes to picking out furniture, because 1. Furniture is expensive and 2. I know I will be stuck with whatever I pick out for a long time. I wanted something chocolate brown and sleek--is sleek the right word? Maybe I mean plain. I wanted a plain, brown chair. Nothing fancy. This is the chair I chose. I wish it were a darker shade of brown, but overall I am pleased.

I have also been trying to organize some of my jewelry. This is a shelf in my closet with some of my jewelry. I love the tree thing for necklaces. I found it at Homegoods. I also saw something like it at Urban Outfitters.

This is another jewelry tree I found at Pottery Barn. It is hard to tell what this one looks like because it is so bogged down with my tacky pink gumball necklace--but I love this jewelry tree. I think it can still be found at POTTERY BARN .

Today I will continue with Spring Cleaning and trying to spruce up my crib. It seems to be a never ending job. I have a bit of Spring Fever, and I think I am just ready to move.

Lovely day to all!

(all photos from MonkeyPosh LLC)

Summer Sandals

In anticipation for Summer, I have been looking for great Summer sandals. So far, I have purchased the cool Patchwork Sandal by Chie Mahara. I love Chie Mahara's unique styles. These are more interesting to me that plain brown sandals. I got mine at Nordstrom.
I am also loving these strappy Ness sandals by Calvin Klein. I think these can add some edge to a little black dress....and you know me, always looking for an edge-HA
I found these at Bloomingdale's, but you can also get them at Zappos .

Now all I need is some warm weather and a fun reason to kick up my new heels!

Have a wonderful day!

(photos from Nordstrom and Zappos )

Monday Obsessions

Happy Monday.

Today is a good day. It has been fairly sunny and warm around here , so that is very good. I have been working on trying to organize all my makeup and beauty items and sadly this will require buying another shelf to put it all on. Between purchases and freebies I am feeling a bit knee deep in the hoopla. I am fortunate to have a lot of stuff to play with though--and like my husband says--all the makeup and perfume keeps me entertained and out of the bars. He is a funny, funny man. Please.

To celebrate our lovely, albeit rare weather, I wanted talk today about some things I have been obsessing over. Please induldge me for a moment if you will.

The Real Housewives of New York. I am not sure why, but I just keep watching it. The Real Housewives of Orange County were much more fun, but these East coast ladies engage me.

Alex--WHATEVER. Such a poser. Sadly I know someone very much like her who lives outside New York City. So pretentious. Her co-dependence on her husband skeeves me so bad. Do people really act like that? I almost think Alex and Simon HAVE to be acting for the cameras.

The redhead-what is her name? Everytime I hear her on TV I think it is Joy Behar. Me and Bawbby this .....me and Bawbby that.

Ramona--good at tennis and has a cute husband and cute daughter.

The Countess--she seems really fun, but saying a service person is like a child and they must address her as Mrs. Delesepps (or however you spell it) is so snobbish. Who knows, if I were a Countess maybe I would be the same way, but I sure hope not.

Betheny--she is the only one I think I could stand. Betheny came by all her success through hard work, and not a wedding band. She seems fun and she is gorgeous.

Tomorrow is the season finale of this season, so I am sure Bravo will have a marathon tomorrow during the day--HOORAY!

Obv I spend WAY too much time watching Bravo. Whatever. Tacky cable television keeps me out of the bars too.

I am love love loving this John Frieda Frizz Ease Night Formula. You put it on dry hair before bed....sleep....then wake up and wash your hair and it is wonderful. It seriously helps my frizzy, pourous, unruly, red heap. I know I talk about my love/hate relationship with my hair a lot on this blog, but please allow me a query of my friends and readers-- What do you, gentle readers think of highlights on red hair? I have had highlights for over a year and I am thinking seriously about getting rid of them. My blogging buddy Jamie has the prettiest, most vibrant, natural red hair. After meeting her, I really lamented my highlights. Another thing I have been obsessing over is Karen Elson's hair color.

I have seen her in person, and her hair is beautiful. I think I want to get rid of all my blonde and go bold and red again like Karen and Jamie. Anyone know a great hairdresser who can do this red? I have had red done wrong so many times. I am also obsessing about this Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper. I am not sure if I really like it or not, but I am low-carbing so ANYTHING with the name chocolate that has ZERO carbs is worthy of massive obsession at this point in the game. To me, it tases like a liquid Tootsie Pop--you know the suckers with Tootsie Roll stuff in the middle. I never really loved Tootsie Pops, but I cannot quit drinking this stuff. Three weeks without carbs can make you a freak.

Another obsession this week is the new Jo Malone Dark Amber and Ginger Lily perfume. I cannot find a photo, but it is amazing. I will do a full review a little later, but it is limited edition so if you sniff it and you like it, I would suggest getting it.

Care to share any of your obsessions this week?

Lovely day to all.

(photos from asseenon.com, http://www.johnfrieda.com/ , http://www.style.com/ , and I do not remember where I got the other one--sorry.)

Diamancels are a girl's best friend!

'Tis approaching Spring and I do not know about you, but I am so ready for sandals and flip flops and pedicures and letting the air hit my feet. My tootsies are tired of being cooped up in socks and shoes during this long, cold winter. This time of year, I am loving my DIAMANCEL FOOT BUFFER to get my feet in shape for Spring and Summer!

One thing I cannot stand is crusty heels. You have seen them..... in the checkout line at the grocery store, at the pool, lurking in various shoe stores, etc. It is all I can do not to offer vaseline to these flaky footed folks. I know there are some health issues that lend themselves to dry and cracked heels (diabetes to name one), and please know I am not referring to anyone with any of these ailments. I am talking to those people who are just too lazy to pay a little more attention to their hooves. Vaseline or baby oil can work wonders--and they are both very inexpensive. Before bed, apply vaseline or oil to dry feet then put on socks and sleep through the night then *voila* wake up to softer and prettier feet. I happen to use Vitamin A&D ointment (without zinc) and it is very inexpensive and works like a dream too.

In order to keep your feet in tip top shape, you must exfoliate the dead skin off. In the past I had always used a pumice stone after I had soaked my feet, but with the Diamancel Foot Buffer, you can file away on dry feet. It seems industrial strength and it REALLY gets the dry skin off. I would adivse to put a towel under your feet to catch all the dry skin--EWWWWW --I know, but seriously there will be skin....dry, unsightly skin.

I was introduced to the Diamancel Foot Buffer when I got a pedicure at the BLISS spa in Chicago. It is a little pricey, but it is worth every penny--especially when you think of the money it could potentially save you on professional pedicures. If you are like me, you will get pedicures anyway, but the Diamancel can truly help in between pedis.

So if not for yourself, do it for all the innocent bystanders who must look at your feet this summer! Just kidding--but the Diamancel is wonderful!

Happy Exfoliating!

(photo from http://www.diamancel.com/ , and you can find this product at http://www.biss.com/, and http://www.amazon.com/)

The WINNER--and things that make me happy this week

I will start this post by saying that one of my cameras is not working and I cannot find the other one--so I have no cute photos to accompany the announcement of who won the Stella perfume...so let's cut to the chase---

I had 13 entries on the blog, then 17 e-mail entries ......I put all the names in a hat.....shook the hat hard as to be fair and the winner is........

*CAROLYN from THIS hilarious blog--Hooray!

I have never met Carolyn, but I thoroughly enjoy her witty blog--when of course she is posting and NOT procrastinating. I really wish she would post more because she is truly funny.

I know from Carolyn's blog that she is witty and beautiful and her hubby is very cute. I also know that she loves to travel (shout out Italy last fall), she loves gelato, and perfume, and she has horrible luck with car stereos. Carolyn also did a great review of "Lars And The Real Girl" on her blog. I have yet to see it, but I am horrible with movies....more on that later.

I wish I could just meet up with Carolyn to give her the Stella, but I believe she lives very far from me so it will go in the mail to her early next week.

Thanks to everyone who entered and congrats Carolyn!

I also want to talk about some things that are making me happy this week.

First up, I am trying to eat very few carbs and no sugar. This is very hard because I think my sugar addiction would be like that of a drug addict....only not illegal and less expensive. The more sugar I eat, the more I want, so I am off cold turkey for over a week and I think I have just about quit shaking and sweating. My "lithium" so to speak this week has been Kozy Shack NO SUGAR ADDED Rice Pudding.

SWOON! They come in individual serving sizes and each serving has only 90 calories. I put cinnamon on mine and it is really good. I am happy I found this because I usually hate low carb treats. Kozy Shack can be somewhat hard to find, but I got mine at my local Meijer.

I am also in love with the Davines line of hair products lately. Have you tried DAVINES ? It is AMAZING. I purchased a shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner and some honey gel and I love all of them. It can be hard to find in salons, but AMAZON carries a lot of the products.

I know I am WAY late to the "Atonement" party and my friend Pat over at DOODAD KIND OF TOWN is cringing because I rarely watch a whole movie. Pat writes a great movie blog and when I see her I always feel like a dope because I do not know very much at all about movies. I always see things like a year after they come out. Whatever--I loved "Atonement" and I loved the performances of James McAvoy and Kiera Knightley.

I have loved James McAvoy for a long time. He is in a movie I watched a few years ago called "Rory O'Shea Was Here"...in Europe it was called "Inside I Am Dancing". It is about a young man with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and a young man with Cerebral Palsey in modern day Ireland. Rory is the boy with M.D. and he is played brilliantly by James McAvoy. I am very partial to that movie and to the performance because since I was 17 years old I have worked on and off with the Musuclar Dystrophy Association. I was a camp counselor for years and I have known a lot of young men with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and James played the part flawless. The movie is great and portrays with dignity some of the real struggles (physical as well as social) of a person with a physical disability. The beautiful Romola Garai plays Rory's caretaker in the movie and it just so happens that she played the 18 year old Briony in "Atonement".

I am also loving L'oreal Collagen Remodeler. It is marketed for use on the face, but I have been using it on my hands at night before bed and I swear my hands are softer and smoother. I am always searching for new hand creams, but hey if it is good enough for the face then surely it is wonderful for the paws. This product can be found at just about any drugstore. I got mine at Target.

Care to share anything that makes you happy this week?

Have a beautiful day!

(photos from http://www.peapod.com/ , http://www.davines.com/ , IMBD, www.l'oreal.com )

To Celebrate Spring: Another MonkeyPosh Giveaway!

To celebrate life and Spring and just because giveaways make me so very happy, I am giving away a BNIB (Brand New In Box) beautiful 1 ounce bottle of Stella Eau de Parfum by famed designer, Stella McCartney. I am sure most of you readers and friends already know all about Stella, but here is what the SEPHORA website has to say about it:

Stella

A fragrance based on the contrast between the freshness and softness of the rose, and the dark sensuality of amber, Stella is a sophisticated scent focused on an intense sense of femininity.The concept of the Stella McCartney bath line is based on an ecological and organic cosmetology, selecting the best natural raw materials and capitalizing on vegetal extracts based on organic agriculture and on extraction methods that respect and protect the natural life force of the plants.
Notes:Rose, Peony Flower, Mandarin, Rose Absolute, Amber.

Style:Sensual. Intense. Feminine

Stella is one of my favorite fragrances for Spring/Summer and by far one of my favorite rose scents all around. It compares slightly to Lancome 2000 ete Une Rose which is also very unique and a beautiful rose for Spring.

My other all time favorite rose fragrance is Fleurs de The' Rose Bulgare by my beloved Creed. To me, it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Please leave a comment with your blog link, e-mail address or another way I can get in touch with you if you want to be eligible for the Stella....or you can e-mail me at MonkeyPosh@yahoo.com .

I will leave comments open till Monday evening.

Thanks and have a beautiful day!

(photo credit from http://www.ulta.com/ )