Family Photo Days
By Laurie | November 5, 2011
I generally hate most pictures of myself. Either I don’t like my hair, my outfit, or maybe it’s those three chins that are staring back at me. It’s also expensive to pay a professional, and sometimes the time just gets away from us and we don’t make it. This year we’re going to take the easy route and are using a picture from Paris as the photo on our holiday cards.
| I really do miss when we used to have professional family portraits taken every year, especially with our dogs. We would always coordinate clothing (usually black and white) and it is fun to look back at them every year. It was always an adventure trying to get both Peanut and Brownie to look at the camera. This photo was taken the year after we got married, so even though it’s not my absolute favorite it is still special. |  |
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Shutterfly also feels my pain and understands that a lot of people don’t like making personalized cards because they don’t have the right picture. That’s why they have created Family Photo Days where they will offer advice and inspiration for getting the perfect photo to use on your Christmas cards. Some of the planned activities are an online digital toolkit, Facebook tie-ins, and House Parties that prompt sponsors to create family photos at their homes. They are also holding a photo contest with five winners, so if you have already taken a great holiday photo share it with them for a chance to win. |
I’ve also browsed their selection of cards and it’s HUGE. I like this, and this, and the idea of doing this. It is going to be hard to choose! What are you doing for your holiday cards this year?
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. I have been a customer in the past and ordered our holiday cards from them last year. I was not monetarily compensated for this post, however I did receive a code for complementary cards. The opinions expressed are my own.
Topics: Tid-Bits | No Comments »
A Diamond Chevy Traverse is a girl’s best friend #chevygirls @chevydfw
By Laurie | October 25, 2011
You may remember that I participated in The North Texas Chevy Dealer’s Girlfriend Getaway program last year and drove a Chevy Malibu around Dallas/Fort Worth the entire month of December. I was certain nothing would ever top that, but I was wrong.
Earlier this month Chevy invited me to the State Fair of Texas. It didn’t take much persuasion. I mean fried food and free cars? Obviously I was in! Free cars you say? Myself and 34 other local bloggers were presented with a 2012 White Diamond Traverse to drive for two weeks! That’s right! I arrived on the DART and drove away in a Diamond. Quite the step up!
Once I was handed the keys, I have to admit I was a little intimidated. The Traverse is pretty large compared to the size of other cars I have driven in the past. It seats up to E-I-G-H-T. Yes, you read that right. It has a third row of seating in the back. No, I don’t have kids. I do however shop, and holy crap! This baby has plenty of room for all my stuff, and probably yours too.
I really enjoyed driving the Traverse to work. I have a really long commute, and the XM Satellite Radio, Bluetooth technology, and OnStar service were awesome. Those features certainly provided me with ample entertainment, daily hands-free calls to my husband, and turn-by-turn directions. Other things I loved? Nitrogen filled tires made me feel more safe, and heated (cloth!) seats and remote start were some of my most favorite things about the experience.
Honestly there wasn’t much I didn’t like about the Traverse. I will say my fellow Dallasites probably didn’t appreciate my numerous bad-parking-jobs all around town. It took me at least a week to get used to the extra length of the vehicle, but I was pretty much a pro by the time I had to give the car back to the dealership last Wednesday. Sad face. It also cost over $50 to fill the tank each trip to the gas station, but to be fair the Traverse holds a lot more than my car does so I didn’t have to gas up as often which was a definite plus!
Guess what? Now that you have read all about my experiences with the Traverse and Malibu, you can also take a test drive at your local North Texas Chevy dealer! To further reward you, they will also treat you to a $40 SpaFinder gift card when you take a test drive between October 24 and November 19. A manicure with a Malibu? Perfect 10 toes with a Traverse? It’s your choice, so get pampered.
Each participant made a series of videos, so here is one of mine. You can also browse some of the other videos from my fellow bloggers and find out what they loved about the 2012 Chevy Traverse. I definitely discovered that a Diamond Chevy Traverse is a girl’s best friend!
Disclosure: The Chevy Traverse campaign is being sponsored by the North Texas Chevy dealers. They provided me with the use of a vehicle for two weeks as well as a gas and spa gift card. The opinions expressed in all related blog/vlog posts are completely my own.
Topics: #ChevyGirls | 2 Comments »
Paris – Day 3
By Laurie | October 14, 2011
| It’s was our 7th wedding anniversary on Sunday, and I woke up early and excited for another adventure. We had spent the first two days traveling non-stop by foot and metro, so today we decided to try the Batobus (which is essentially a hop on hop off boat that takes you to eight different sites of Paris along the Seine). |  |
We continued with our ritual of grabbing a quiche from one of the vendors in Rue Cler and heading on to the ATM down the street. We took our second walk down to the Eiffel Tower and noticed it was crowded with runners, and quickly discovered some sort of marathon was taking place. I noticed their bibs said Paris-Versailles, and later discovered that this is an annual event where runners make their way from the tower to the palace. Quite impressive! It was a very different experience at the tower than it had been on our first day when I was surprised how few people were there. The roads were somewhat blocked off and people were everywhere getting ready for it to begin.
We finally made our way across to the Seine and the Batobus booth and purchased 1-Day passes after I posed for a few photos with the beret Nikki had gotten me for my birthday. We didn’t really have an exact plan, but our main idea was going to sites where the museum pass is accepted since the passes were only good for four consecutive days from the date we purchased them. We knew that the boat would give us transportation to D’Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and Notre Dame all of which are covered without additional fees beyond the initial cost of the pass. We figured we would make our way around the circle and get off at each stop to experience that area.
Musée d’Orsay was first, so we got off with a small crowd of people. It wasn’t too far from the water, but was a small walk up a cobblestone hill and down the street. We took the opportunity to take a few photos before hopping in line. One of the benefits of the pass is that you get to “skip the line” at some places. It wasn’t really obvious which line was for what, so I left Dave to see if I could find where we should go. I found the special shorter line, but we still waited quite awhile outside before being allowed to enter. We listened to some other Americans in front of us compare their experiences and talk about restaurants and bike riding which made me a little bummed that we didn’t get to do the night bike ride I had originally planned.
This museum did not allow photography, but most people seemed to ignore that, though I didn’t take any photos inside so I borrowed this painting image from the Internet.
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D’Orsay was previously a train station, so the venue itself was very pretty and interesting to look at. It holds 19th century paintings by Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoior, and van Gogh among others. When I was in high school I went to an special exhibit at the Kimball in Fort Worth, and many of these painters were included. I personally found this museum much more enjoyable (and less crowded) than the Louvre.
I thought this painting (Dante and Virgil in Hell) was very striking and was one of my favorites. We were amazed with the size of many of the paintings both here and at the Louvre, and later at Versailles. They literally took up an entire wall floor to ceiling and were quite stunning. |
Our feet were tired and we saw pretty much everything there was to see over the course of a few hours, so we decided to head back to the Batobus. Saint-Germain-des-Prés was next and not far, so we didn’t get to rest for very long. From my previous research, my understanding was this was an affluent area with many high end shops and I had learned that the church was the oldest in Pairs and holds the tomb of philosopher René Descartes (I think; therefore I am.) It was very pretty although very small inside, and had some lovely stained glass windows. It was quite a long walk from the boat to the church, and also very warm in the sun. Being Sunday, most of the shops along the way were also closed. This was also the case for my second chance at a Louis Vuitton trip, which seemed not meant to be.
After standing in line and walking the entire D’Orsay as well as the adventure to this part of town, I was tired and hungry and we couldn’t decide on a cafe to go to for lunch because everywhere in the area was crowded and had a wait. We gave up and headed back for the boat and decided we simply did not have any more sites in us and chose to save Notre Dame for another day. We finished the full circle of the boat tour, but it took quite awhile. I wouldn’t recommend it as a fast way of transportation (we also waited a long time for them to return to pick us up), though it was fun to experience the city by water for one day.
Once back where we started at the Eiffel Tower, we bought baguettes filled with ham and cheese (and ugh… more fries) and had a picnic on a bench near the river. We fed leftover fries to some pigeons and watched them shake them and try to fly off. It was entertaining and nice to finally be off our feet. We made the walk back to Rue Cler and stopped into the local grocery store to replenish our supply of water, cookies and other treats for the room. We had reservations up to the summit of the tower that night, so we had time for a quick nap before we had to head back over.
Our reservation was at 9:30 PM and we were early, so we bought an ice cream cone from a vendor and did some people watching on a bench. We took a few more photos of the tower and a nice Italian couple asked if we would take their photo and they did the same for us. We still had time to buy a few souvenirs from the “official” shop and then we went to queue at the North Pillar of the tower a few minutes early.
Since we had reserved tickets (I bought them a few weeks before we left home), we got to skip long ticket buying lines. There was still plenty of waiting though to take the elevators up. The view was nice and it was fun to do, but it was hard to walk around and really enjoy it since there were so many people. After walking around the 2nd level, we made our way to the line for the lift to the summit which also took quite awhile. Once there, we celebrated the achievement (and our anniversary) with a €15 glass of champagne from the bar. We enjoyed the view from the very top, and waited for the tower to twinkle (which it does for the first five minutes at the top of the hour at nighttime). C’est magnifique! It was special to experience it, and another of those wow– I am really here moments even though I had already seen so much of the tower the previous days.
| On our way back to the hotel, we realized that we never had dinner. Most everything was closed since it was very late (we never felt unsafe or in danger by the way), but we made our way to Rue Cler and stopped for gelato at Amarino. It was yummy, and they shape your cone or cup into a flower. You can also have a bunch of different flavors at once (I had strawberry, mango, passion fruit and coconut) which makes the presentation even more impressive. Quite a sweet ending to another memorable and special day. To be continued… |
Topics: Paris | 1 Comment »
Paris – Day 2
By Laurie | October 13, 2011
If you know me I love to sleep. Anytime and anywhere. It’s only fair since I normally get up at 5:00 AM every morning to drive to work. While in Paris my body naturally woke up at 5:00 AM local time, so I’d lay in bed and greet the Eiffel Tower each morning and nudge Dave to let him know that in fact it was still there and that yes… we were actually in Paris. This also worked out perfectly because I was able to hop in the shower and start getting ready while he slept in. I really felt like a Parisian in the Rue Cler neighborhood. There are lots of little shops, bakeries and grocery stores a few steps out the door of our hotel. We began a ritual of going to the local ATM to get cash for the day and then picking up a quiche at a nearby shop to nibble on during our walk to the Metro.
We decided to tackle the Louvre on our second day. My research told me that there were two important things to do to avoid crowds when going to the Louvre. #1: Buy a museum pass somewhere other than this museum and #2: Do not attempt to enter via the Pyramid entrance because the lines are long. Instead underground entry via the Carrousel Mall entrance right off of the Metro is the best secret for “those in the know”.
Naturally we ended up taking neither of those pieces of advice. We accidentally got off on the wrong Metro stop (my fault), but decided to exit to the street anyway instead of going back. Once outside, we didn’t see the Louvre and had no idea where we were. We thought, well we’re in Paris… and there’s suppose to be a pyramid… so it will present itself. We wandered around Rue de Rivoli (which we nicknamed Rue de Ravioli… so original, I know), sat down on a bench in front of an old church and tried to see if we could see it in the distance, and eventually moved on to a cafe and tried to pull up a Google map. It ended up being the relatively plain looking building we had been staring at across the street from the church.
We learned an important lesson that became even more apparent the longer we spent in Paris and London: they don’t really believe in signs pointing tourists in the right direction. We finally stumbled across the pyramid entrance, which was very cool looking. I’m kind of glad that we ended up getting to see it, take photos, and enter through it even if we had to stand in line for a few minutes. We were still pretty early, so the crowds were not as bad as they could have been.
Once inside, we still had to purchase our museum passes, but as previously mentioned there were no signs to point us in the direction of where to do this. We awkwardly walked around, asking the regular ticketing window and information booth and essentially were told to check “over there on the right.” Once we finally found what ended up being a little office where there was not another soul present, we forked out €100 for our passes. The Paris Museum Pass gave us 4 days of unlimited entry into a particular list of the city’s sites and museums.
| We sat down in the Starbucks across the way to fill out the passes. We decided our strategy would be to make a beeline for probably the museum’s most popular resident: The Mona Lisa.
Clearly that was the strategy of every other person there too. On the plus side, there were signs (for once) pointing us in the direction. We followed the crowds and found ourselves in front of the very small painting (about the size of a place mat), covered in Plexiglas, and surrounded by hundreds of other tourists all vying to take a picture of it. When in Rome I thought… so I jumped in the mosh pit that was the “line” to see/photograph the painting. Unfortunately you had to be quite aggressive, but eventually I made it to the front. |
With that task checked off the mental must-do/experience list, we wandered around and looked at the paintings in the surrounding rooms. We admired some statues including a room of Caesars and of course Winged Victory. Everything in the Louvre was labeled in French, so honestly that lessened the enjoyment for me since I had to piece together what each one said in fragments. It was pretty exhausting and several hours had already passed so we decided to try to find some lunch.
My “dream idea” was to enjoy a picnic in the nearby park, but we strolled through the mall connected to the Louvre and eventually found the food court. Out of curiosity we wandered over to the “McDo” to check out the menu and see if there were any differences. Embarrassingly enough we actually ended up ordering. Le sigh. In my defense, I did order a sandwich that we do not have in the United States. On the other hand, I was sitting in Paris eating lunch at McDonald’s. Oy.
After lunch we decided to head back over to the Louvre where we took on the Egyptian Antiquities area as well as the Medieval Louvre which features the remains of the moat and keep of the original fortress. Both were interesting and took some time to go through, but afterward we decided we’d had enough culture for one day and headed back to the Metro and our hotel for a nap.
When we woke up we changed and got ready for dinner and an evening out. We truly had no “plan” and decided to head over to the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre area to take photos and walk around. We exited the Metro and there it was– the famous windmill! It was another wow moment for me, given how many times I have seen the movie and imagined what it would look like in person. I immediately wished we had gotten tickets to a show there, but I had read that it was a tourist trap and not worth the money.
We wandered down the street observing the interesting crowd of people and started reading menus of the cafes on the street. One of the waiters greeted us in English at Cafe de Luna, so we allowed them to seat us on the street and we continued to people watch. We ordered wine, escargot, salmon, duck, and creme brulee. I thought everything was fantastic, and was the most French thing we had done since we landed. It was a little pricey, but was probably one of our more memorable meals of the entire trip. The French take their time with meals, especially dinner. We literally sat there for more than 2 hours, not necessarily by our choice… but that’s what you do in Paris, so we did it! We watched other American couples get upset about the wait time and slow service, but not us. We were an easy-going French couple for the day!
It was dark by the time our meal was finally over, and the Moulin Rouge was all lit up as we headed back up the street the way we came. Again, magical! More photos! More regret at not taking in a show!
We continued on and up the street to the funicular (a cable car that ascends up the mountain to the Sacre-Coeur). The views were amazing, and I was especially surprised to discover that this was quite the place to hang out in Paris. There were people everywhere sitting on the steps listening to what we think was a soccer game on the radio and generally just enjoying the night and the view together. It was an especially cool moment. We took a few photos, looked around, and headed for the souvenir shop. It was after 11:00 PM, and we had already had a really long day.
We walked down the massive set of stairs in the dark and made our way down the street through the shops toward the metro picking up a nutella crepe to share from one of the vendors. Another perfect ending to another perfect (and tiring day).
To be continued…
Topics: Paris | 7 Comments »
Paris – Day 1
By Laurie | October 12, 2011
We have been back from Paris and London for a week, and I know some of you are eager to hear all about it. I plan on sharing a post and photos about each day of the trip, so it may take me a few weeks to finish up a recap of the whole trip. I hope you enjoy a little glimpse of our time in Europe, and that you feel a little of the magic I felt while there.
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I have been dreaming about going to Paris for over half my life, so when departure day finally arrived I was of course excited. It’s hard to describe because there is a lot of planning and saving that goes into taking a trip like this (at least for us), and even when you are actually dragging your bags through the airport and checking in to your flight it hardly seems like it is real.
My parents were nice enough to drive us to the airport and keep Brownie while we were gone (a well-deserved mini vacation for him too), so there was little stress or worry on that front. We had economy seats in the back of the plane, Dave on the window and me on the aisle. First class would have been nice for such a long flight, but those seats were not available by the time we finally took the plunge and booked them. |
The 9+ hour flight from DFW to CDG was painful due to a toddler who cried non-stop two rows in front of us. Her mother let her run up and down the aisles screaming the entire flight when she wasn’t screaming from their shared seat. I don’t think either of us got much sleep which was initially the plan since we were arriving in Paris at the beginning of their day. About an hour and a half before we landed, we were served croissants for breakfast which seemed fitting.
We arrived in Paris around 9:30 AM. The airport was smaller than I had pictured, and very simple compared to others I have been to. I was surprised that we did not have to fill out any forms or do anything other than present our passport to a man at a window who barely glanced while he chatted on the phone. Even more surprising were the soldiers (or guards) with machine guns who stood blocking certain areas of the airport.
After collecting our bag, we were out the door to the taxi stand. After presenting our driver with a piece of paper with the address of our hotel, we were immediately swept off in the direction of Rue Cler in the 7th. I looked around for a credit/debit card machine in the car, but did not see one. We asked the driver in French if he accepted cards about 10 minutes into the ride, and he said no (though I initially thought he said yes). Clearly the language barrier was already an issue! We started to get nervous, but enjoyed the ride looking at buildings and signs– recognizing IKEA and lots of billboards for Identité Secrète (Abduction in the US). We chuckled to ourselves because we had seen a sneak preview the week before at home.
| Our driver drove fast, honked and cursed. It felt a little bit like New York. I tried to brush up on my basic French language skills from high school and college in the months before we left (most of which are many years lost), and Dave picked up some basics too. We practiced a sentence he could use to indicate he was sorry about his poor French (that’s a nice way of saying it), and he took the opportunity to use it on our non English speaking driver who had quite the chuckle about it with us. If he was annoyed he hid it well. |  |
We drove by the Princess Diana memorial and the bridge where the accident had happened, and then the Eiffel Tower was in full sight from around some buildings and trees. Magical to see for the first time in person! After a few minutes he pulled us right up to the Relais Bosquet on rue du Champ de Mars. We confirmed again that nope—this taxi did not accept cards. I got out to ask about the nearest BNP ATM (Bank of America’s sister) and the helpful staff came to my rescue presenting me with a €50 bill and even came outside with me to settle the fare. He said, “Don’t worry, you are home now.” And from that moment I knew I was in already in love with Paris and the staff at this fabulous little hotel.
We took time to unpack our clothes and got acquainted with our room, the view, and free Wi-Fi before walking the short distance to the Eiffel Tower. I imagined a lot more people would be there, but we had no trouble walking right up to it and sitting down on a nearby bench to appreciate its massive size. We stayed for a little bit and just soaked in the fact that we there and had no agenda for the day before deciding it was time to grab some lunch.
We headed back toward Rue Cler to explore, and ended up enjoying some rotisserie chicken and fries (which are apparently served with everything in Europe) in a little cafe facing the very charming street. We sat there enjoying the surroundings and watching a cat crawl out of an apartment window and jump from awning to awning until he got tired and went back inside. After lunch we decided we were ready for a cat nap of our own, so we went back to the room for a few hours of much-needed sleep.
When we woke up I discovered I had forgotten to pack my makeup, so we mapped out our first metro trip to Sephora on the Champs-Elysees.
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I have to admit that I was nervous about figuring out the Metro, but it was easy to ask for/buy the carnet of (10) tickets and with the MetrO app (free by the way) it was simple. I cannot recommend this app enough whether you are first timer or regular user of the Metro or Tube. There is an Android version also. We used it in both Paris and London and simply got everywhere we wanted to go with no guess work. A few times we needed to pull up a Google map to get our barrings if our destination wasn’t right at the metro’s exit, but overall we emerged and voila!
I have never seen such a huge Sephora before, and I have to admit to feeling a little like a celebrity walking down the huge red carpet into the store with employees everywhere offering to assist and spray us with various yummy smelling fragrances. Ooh La La! |
We peeked into other shops and enjoyed strolling down the street. Louis Vuitton had a line outside, and as we approached they told us they were closed. I was quickly consoled by macaroons from Ladurée and forgot all my worries. We sat on a bench and enjoyed a few while enjoying a group of dancers battling and interacting with the audience that had surrounded them. We also observed a couple who kissed in the street for what must have been 15 minutes straight!
We slipped into a little Italian cafe and split a four cheese pizza for dinner (with stinky French cheese) and some wine. The profiteroles for desert were awesome. I accidentally left my macaroons hanging from my chair, and the waiter chased after us to return them.
We walked down to the Arc de Triomphe to take some pictures, and enjoyed watching the traffic go in circles around it as the sun set from a nearby bench. After a little while we walked back toward the metro and got our first glimpse of a twinkling Eiffel Tower.
Back at the hotel I laid in bed staring out the window onto the street with the top of the Eiffel Tower in the distance (short shaky video below), feeling the cool breeze on my face and loving every minute of my first perfect day in Paris.
Topics: Paris | 3 Comments »
