Only angels have wings?

Not any longer. The fashion world has angel fever and wings are appearing on clothes, purses and in jewelry.

I've been wanting some wings ever since Jennifer Aniston sported some throughout the film The Break Up. So, I just ordered a very pretty Guardian Angel gold plated necklace ($16.50) and earrings through SimplyMyStyle.com. They also have them in silver, but being Italian I love gold ;)

 

The founder of SimplyMyStyle, Angela Blair, says The Guardian Angel set is also a favorite of hers. The site has many new jewelry styles at reasonable prices and the personal customer service that I experienced when ordering was really awesome and the set came in a cute plastic Chinese take-out box. 

I was sent

these lovely flowers, which arrived at my office from my sweetie. They are an assortment of tulips & roses, and have crab apples on sticks and floating at the base of the square vase. Definitely original and eye catching.

This is actually my first ever Valentine's Day that I'm not single. It brings the card giving "friendship" holiday to a new level. When coworker jokingly said she hated my boyfriend when she saw my flowers and another said they loved him. Hehe. I love getting flowers at work. Now I'm crazy flower lady instead of package lady.

We actually had went out for dinner yesterday though at Border Grill, because it was also our one year anniversary since our first date, which works out because we didn't have the dinner crowds due to VDay. Tonight we're chilling at home with some red champagne that we got from our trip to Temecula in December.

I wasn't the only one to get flowers this week though, I sent my mother two dozen assorted roses in a red vase. I only hope they make it to her door in the current bad winter weather on the East coast. 

Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone. 

The pirates life for me

My mother’s dream vacation of sailing the virgin islands unfortunately started off with a few hitches. My mom and stepdad arrived two days before us to stock the sailboat with supplies and food, but found the boat had a flood in the engine and generator which needed immediate attention. Not good. My stepdad spent the next three days working hard with an electrician and boat handyman to fix it so we could get up and running. As a result, our sail was delayed two days even after we arrived, but the last five days made up for it and there are worse things than being “grounded” in St. Thomas anyway ;) 

Once the boat was up and sailing without worry of a fire or other such difficulties we sailed to a new US and British Virgin Island each of our five remaining days, mooring at Jost Von Dyke, Marina K in Tortola, Norman Island, Peter Island and St. John. We snorkeled almost every day and sometimes even twice, we also went kayaking and did some light hiking and exploring. Once we started sailing though we were probably on land less than 5 hours total our entire trip, since we lived in the water and on the 47 foot boat called We Be Jazzin. Each night it would rain and we’d wake up to close all the hatches on the boat and suffocate until things cleared up which luckily it did each day.

I think I must have picked up a little head cold on our seven+ hour plane ride to Puerto Rico and jump over to St. Thomas though since I had a sore throat and runny nose throughout our trip and even passed it along to my mom and boyfriend near the end. Luckily, being in the warm air and beautiful islands it was hard to stay sick, I only really felt it at night as I tried to sleep.

At Norman Island we re-visited Pirates (formerly Billy Bones), which is a fun bar where everyone writes on the ceilings and walls. Unfortunately my scribblings from 1998 had been painted over with newer graffiti. However, I found a free beam to write/advertise the following:

I wonder if anyone will visit here because of it? I spotted someone else had done the same and wrote stickfiguremusic.com up in the rafters and I just checked it out, so who knows. Would be interesting to have someone spot it and then come to see what I'm about. 

Overall I’m rested, tan and had a lovely vacation. I’ve never seen such clear waters or such amazing reefs. Everyone got along well, I held my own in Scrabble competitions (came in 2nd), finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and even got to swim with a turtle. I also bought a big bead necklace that looks like this one offered at Newport News but in red and chunkier like those Hawaiian beans. Here are some photos from the trip:

Crazy package lady

That's me. Or at least what my coworkers think of me. The reason for this is a combination of four things.

One, it's safer to have packages sent to my work, so I do. Second, I just moved out here and shipped a lot of stuff instead of hiring a cross-country mover and my mom still sends me things that I left back home and am in "dire" need of. Third, I have no problems using my credit card on the internet or ordering from a catalog, thus I'm more likely to buy stuff online then go to an actual store. I even use drugstore.com to order hand soap and once a Swifter Wet Jet. Oh, and I'm also addicted to eBay. Finally, It was just Christmas and my birthday and so my family was sending me stuff too. 

All of these reasons account for me receiving at least one package a week, which then causes comments and jokes from my coworkers. 

For example, I just bought the following L Shaped Shelves from The Company Store. They are on sale for 50% off. The box it arrived in at my office though was huge, due to all the packaging materials inside. The elevator operator who likes to also point out that I get a lot of stuff sent here, called out  that morning that I had a big package waiting upstairs. Thanks. Sometimes he'll deliver my boxes himself and then ask prying questions about my stuff.  Grr. 

 
The shelves came with a lot of screws and were a bitch to hang, but I think they look modern-retro in a fun way. Whatcha think? 

 

What friends do

...when you are passed out from drinking half of a key lime martini. hehe I'm sorry K, but I had to. The establishment which served the lethal-to-some drink was the Liquid Kitty on Pico.