The newest trend and some fabulous spring photography!

So while at work today at girl came in to hand out a flyer and had what looked like feathers going through her hair. It was not crazy but just a few small ones. It was so beautiful i just have to try it, especially with my long hair. I hope it can work :-D Here is how you apply them!

Step 1- pick out your feathers

Get some crimp beads

Crimp tool

Step 2- Get some floss and string through crimp bead creating a loop 

Using floss, pull hair through crimp bead

Step 3- Slide feather up through crimp bead with hair. Then use crimping tool to squeeze the bead tight so it will stay in as long as you want it.

Feathers can be washed, dried and curled! OK, now go be fabulous!

Now for some looks of spring! A little bit of photography and fashion :-D 

Love this spring calf by "you and amen photography"

True Love- by "you and amen photography"

Love this necklace!

And for spring 

so sweet

would love to have this for a vanity when i finally get one!

Is anyone else as energized as i am about spring and creating/ redecorating things?? Well i hope you enjoy my post :-D this is just a little bit of what i explore in internet land!

Check out the store i work at, LuLu Bleu on facebook! We have a lot of great spring fashion!

<3 Nichole 

Who is your dancing with the stars pick?

This season on dancing with the stars is going to be interesting. I havnt figured out yet if i think its going to be as good as the previous ones; however, there were not really any bad dancers this season. Here are a few of my favorites and the ones i look forward to watching!

Chelsea Kane & Mark Ballas

I think these two have the potential to go far. Don't really know chelsea that much but she is a cute girl and i think her personality will take her far. :-) 

Kristie Alley & Maksim Chmerkovskiy

What is not to love about this couple? Maksim...well no need to say how much us ladies love him and then pair him with kristie just makes for a fun show. She is hilarious! 

Mike Catherwood & Lacey Schwimmer

Well i absolutely love Lacey, no matter what her hair color! Her personality and feistiness makes her fun to watch no matter who her partner is. Don't really know Mike, but i think he is funny and will be fun to watch these two!

Romeo & Chelsie Hightower

I think these two will bring some fun to the dance floor. Chelsie kind of looks like an olsen twin in the picture. Anyways, i think Romeo (no last name...too cool for one i guess) will have some fun moves to show off. 

Last but certainly not least...

Kendra Wilkinson Basket & Louis Van Amstel

Go Kendra! By far my favorite! Kendra has the best personality and is so fun to watch. I hope she wins because she has so much energy and is so fun to watch! You never know whats going to happen with Kendra! 

I would love love love to be on dancing with the stars. I looks like so much fun! I am reading Brooke Burke's book, the naked mom , and she talks about her life as mom, actress and host of DWTS. She talks about how hard DWTS was and how she and derek hated each other. So crazy huh? Who would have thought? That shows us that we really have no clue what is going on behind closed doors. The producer even made the two do counseling to continue the show and then they end up winning it! Just goes to show you that reality TV is not reality. Duh.

Now on with regular life :-) So i have lost my camera cord and i am super bummed. I am going to search my house for it so i can upload some pictures of my latest adventures with redecorating and getting ready for the big 2nd birthday party! I am so excited! I am also going to share with you the growth of my flower garden. It is the first one i have done and i am anxious to see how it will turn out. We will see if i have a green thumb after all! 

Crafty ideas to come...

Now i just need to find a great fabric store and i can't wait to create these!

Fabric Bracelets 

Fabric covered magnets- how fun!

Absolutely love these organza flower pins. Must have for this season!

Awesome headband :-)

Why haven't we always accessorized our shoes?? Genius. 

So now that i have all these ideas, i have a not so pretty weekend coming up and it looks like it is going to be the perfect time for crafting some fabulous things! How does a ladies weekend sound? ;-)

Thats all. More to come once my etsy purchases arrive! I can not wait any longer!!!

<3 Nichole

~Taste The Rainbow~

First, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Come by Ruka's to see the band 4118! 


Something to start your morning off with. This is a must in my book!

Arnold Palmer ~ Iced Tea and Lemonade~ The perfect couple

(Don't sweeten your tea, Lemonade has enough sugar!)

I ordered some really cute things from Etsy the other day and i can't wait to show you! I am patiently waiting for them to arrive before sharing! I am also planning a full day of events tomorrow for Tallyn and I. Here is the list.

1. Kindermusik

2. Lunch with grandpa

3. Go to a craft store for supplies

4. Park

5. Home to clean & craft!

I am beyond excited for my weekend to start at 5 pm today! It's probably going to go by in a flash though because i have so many things to attend. 

Well, my blog is going to be cut short today. We just got a few boxes in here at LuLu Bleu and it's time to unpack and put out all the new things! Check out our facebook for pictures of the new stock! Bye Bye for now!

Nichole

Sun & Fun

So i know it is only wednesday but it is a start to a beautiful weekend! Tomorrow the sun is really going to start shining and by friday its supposed to be 71 here on top of the mountain! I am so pumped! Tonight is going to be exciting too. My husband is going to be coming home from a business trip, he has been gone all week. We are going to make taco's tonight and i am going to make my famous guacamole dip! Soon we will be able to have dinners on our back deck! :-D Oh i love warm weather!!!

Watching "daygo"

So anyways, while my husband has been gone it has been crazy keeping up with all the extra stuff he normally does. I think i will finally be done by 6 pm tonight and caught up!  I am excited for him to come home not only for me but because Tallyn misses her daddy sooooo much! Every morning when i went up to get her out of the crib she gets all excited because she gets to come lay in bed with mommy and daddy and watch daygo (go, diego, go). Her normal routine consist of jumping on the bed looking for the mote (remote) and then when she finds it she puts it in our face and says go go go, daygo. This is baby language for i would like to watch diego please. When we tell her to say please she says bee and then tank too. It is so sweet! But the past couple mornings since daddy has been gone she has sat down on the bed and said where da-ee?? where da-ee? I have to continue to tell her he is at the beach because i dont know how to explain he is off tasting things for the restaurant 50 minutes from the beach. Then she will say uh oh very seriously and then whered dough??? She does this also when i pick her up from preschool. It's so sweet and sad at the same time! 
NOTHING is sweeter then a toddler yelling your name in a high pitched voice with excitement when they see you after a long day or trip away. As they run and jump into your arms just squirming around all giddy nothing else in the world matters. I can not even begin to tell you how blessed i am.  I must have done something right!

Love my daddy!

These two hold my heart!

Another thing i am going to do tonight is break the news to my husband about my wild ideas for a craft room down stairs. He thinks it is going to be a man cave because he is over run with women in the house. Don't let him fool you, he told me he would rather have all girls then all boys and no girls at all. He has no idea..... hehehe I am happy with whatever! So i have still been searching for ideas for my craft room and i think the first step is picking a color scheme. I am pretty sure i am going to do some shade of green maybe like a charcoal green or a charcoal blue. Not positive yet.

I love mason jar lighting. I have a few ideas of my own though...

This would look great above computer

I like something like this for above the center craft table.

I think i really like the Blue Ball antique jars best!! Love this one

Anyways, hopefully you can get a feel for the colors i would like to use in my craft room :-) Wish me luck getting my husband to ok it!! hehe im doing it!

xoxo Nichole

Tech Junkie

Hello rainy tuesday. Even though it is nasty outside i find myself full of energy. I have so much motivation to work on advertising for all the restaurants..... if i only knew how to do some things haha. I have been scouting out other restaurants that i love and am in awe with there marketing. I think i could create a job itself in keeping up with blogs for each restaurant, twitters, facebooks, etc. Also, whoever is in charge of spell check needs to add facebook to the dictionary. It is a word we all use since at least 2005. Get with it people, im tired of seeing a red squiggly line under it when i type. (yes i know you can tell your computer it's a word, but still) 


So back to what i was talking about. I think i am going to create a job for myself on top of my other jobs. There are so many things going on with all our restaurants that i would feel selfish if i did not share it with the world. For starters i need to create a calendar of events because we are going to be crazy busy with them this summer. Our latest event coming up is this thursday at Ruka's Table. For St. Patrick's Day we are having the band 4118 play all night. They are a great band that is crowd pleasing to pretty much everyone.  There will be great drink specials, maybe even a green one if i can come up with something fun, plus an endless amount of great craft beers to choose from! Craft beer is probably one of the coolest things i have come across in this industry. I personally don't even care for beer but learning and tasting different beers with food has become an interesting adventure for me. I think i enjoy beer dinners more then wine dinners now. Call me crazy but i think having a hoppy IPA with some spicy food and then finishing desert off with a milk stout with some homemade ice-cream is indescribably awesome. There are so many flavors to experience in these dinners its unreal. I highly recommend trying a beer dinner, even if you don't like beer. Trust me, you wont regret it.

A list of beer dinners we did last October at Ruka's

Some of the craft beers on tap (They change as they run out)

Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout. One of my favorites from their beer dinner!

Now we have some other really cool things coming up but they are top secret! So you won't find out until maybe next week. Stay tuned... :-D I think i am going to have to create another blog just for the restaurants. Ill get on that, don't worry. Until then it will be combined with my personal blog. 


Along with all of this marketing stuff i have tons of other things going on. I have a birthday party coming up in may that i am doing major planning for. I have already ordered the birthday outfit! So excited! Now i am searching for crafty things to make invitations. Its about 9 weeks away so hopefully i can get these done in the next few weeks.  I also have earth day and easter to prepare for. This is probably my most favorite time of year. I love spring, it is a constant reminder of what is to come. WARM WEATHER AND OUTSIDE PLAY! I plan to do a lot of outdoors stuff this summer, especially with a 2 year old. I can't wait!

Last summer during a walk we picked flowers!

Playing in the dirt and getting kisses!

Now before spring officially gets here, and i decide that based on how many flower i see blooming. I plan to clean out my down stairs and create a timeline for finishing it in. We have enough space down there for me to have my very own craft room! When the craft room is finished my blog will be blowing up. Just wait, all i need is space and a little time. Meanwhile i have been searching blog world and everywhere else for crafting room ideas. I think a trip to ikea and pottery barn will be much needed! This is what i like...

Very cute for crafts and office work (blogging :-D)

I <3 this one! Great storage

A must for birthdays and christmas!

Love the colors in this one!

So my mood today = Determined! 

xoxo Nichole 

Happy Monday

Today is a great day! Started my morning off with a walk through the neighborhood with my husband, toddler and two dogs.

 It was very entertaining taking the toddler and two dogs. Here is a mental picture for you. One dog is a Rhodesian Ridge-back, Boston, and full of energy so he staying in front the whole time. I actually think he has too much energy. He is constantly running in circles and into the woods then out and back in and behind us then back in front. He could run all day i think.

Then there is wrigley (wiggles) . Oh wrigley..... Wrigley is a great dane that weighs about 200 lbs. He is solid black with a white star on his chest and a few white spots on his toes.  He is the biggest, laziest, whiny-est baby you will ever meet. During our walk he is always walking by your side if not behind you. If he feels you are going too fast he gets in front of you and tries to slow you down while his tongue is hanging out his mouth and he is breathing extremely hard. He will trot to get in front then stop to turn around and look at you, while being completely in the way of the stroller or person walking. When you try to move him out of the way he whines and whimpers. If it were up to wrigley he would spend his mornings laying on the couch relaxing and sleeping. (wrigley is still sort of a puppy- only 3)

Please don't make me get off the couch!

So as we continue on with this walk i stopped to grab a stick to hopefully keep wrigley out of my way and to poke him if he got to slow. See, another thing about wrigley is that he loves attention, any kind at all. My idea of poking him with the stick to get him to move or to scare him out of the way backfired. Wrigley was just happy to be touched, even if it was just a stick. Now what!? So long story short, i got more of a workout trying to get wrigley out of the way or keep him from leaning on me while walking up the hill, the whole time while my toddler is giggling in hysterics. She thinks the dogs are the funniest things ever.

Now as my day goes on i sit at work sipping on my mango smoothie, my fav! Along with some watermelon gum which makes me think of summer. I am searching for toddler birthday ideas for Tallyn and yummy dinner recipes for tonight. I think i am going to make a cheesy chicken dish a friend told me about once. Ill post pics tomorrow if it is a success..... In comes my husband with a handful of papers and a huge smile because he knows i know he is up to something and i have to help. So of course i get a list of things to do for him. ( The joys of being a restaurant owners wife.)

Now, moving on to my evening i am extremely excited to watch the final season of the bachelor. I really hope he picks Emily and if he does not then i want her to be the next bachelorette! Emily is such a sweetheart how could america not love her? Plus she's from NC! Go Emily!

Thats all for today! Happy Monday

xoxo Nichole

Snow today, really?

Today is the first day of my blog-life. The weather is acting crazy and it just doesn't make since.... it was so warm this morning and then all of a sudden its a down pour of snow. Whatever. Today i am focusing on green, the color, the smell, heck just the thought of green. With st. patty's day coming up i am trying to figure out what i will wear, as well as what my lil stinker butt will wear.


A few ideas for preschool...

Pot of Gold (Jello)

Taste The Rainbow

Tie Dye ice cream 

I found the accessory i need for green day!

Both from Etsy!

 I am also trying to think of ideas for decorating tallyn's room. She will be two in may and i am going to give her a big girl room. Here are some ideas of what i want to do....

I love this room by pottery barn... Owls are my favorite!!

Will replace Hayley with Tallyn :-) Also love love the trees!

Wall stickers are the best...although my toddler loves to pull them off wall! :-)

Well, that is all for today! <3