Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  

Lil Petunia has "Trunk or Treat" and a Halloween party at school today, so she is allowed to wear her costume to school.  It is such a fun day for her and she gets to enjoy wearing her costume a little bit longer.  She dressed up as Cleopatra. And yes, we even painted her nails.  They came out pretty cool-looking with OPI's Russian Navy polish.  Hmmm....I think I may even paint my toes with it!

I received this e-mail today and thought the sentiment was really sweet.  Plus, it pretty much defines my life story! I'm not sure that everything happens for a reason, but I guess I'd like to think that it does.  I haven't quite figured it all out yet.  What do you all think??  (Don't pay attention to the chain mail part where you must pass it on for something to happen.  I don't believe in that!)

          Subject: You are one of my balloons!:

Life is too short to wake up with regrets.

So love the people who treat you right.

Forget about the ones who don't.

Believe everything happens for a reason.. If you

get a second chance, grab it with both hands.   If it

changes your life, let it.  Nobody said life would be easy,

they just promised it would be worth  it.  

Friends are like balloons; once you let them go,

you can't get them back.  So I'm gonna tie you to

my heart so I never lose you.  Send this to all  your  

friends including me and see how many you get

back.   Send this balloon to everybody you like.  You

may also return it to me.   If four balloons are

returned to you, something you have been waiting

for a long time will happen!!!!   Believe me...... It

really happens!  Send a lot of little balloons to

your friends!!!

iLove

iKnow, iKnow, ....you're tired of hearing about the iPhone.  Well I just had to tell you that I had been having a problem all weekend receiving calls.  I thought..."Oh, no!!  What I have heard from some people must be true--it gets terrible reception and drops a lot of calls!"

So, while at the mall today I visited AT&T ready to give back the phone because I was so frustrated.  The salesperson just pressed 2 buttons to "reset" the phone and now it works good as new.  Calls are back to normal and crystal clear.  She said that if it happened again that I should come in because sometimes a phone has a bad SIM card and that they would replace it.  But the reset seems to have worked and I can make all of the calls that I was dropping the past 2 days.  WHEW!!!!  I was so worried for a minute there! 

Look--a pink Juicy iPhone case!:

favorite things tag

Landlocked Mermaid tagged me to list my favorite things in these categories:

• favorite store -- not easy to choose, but this is my most frequented store.
• favorite city -- It will always be home for me.
• favorite sweet -- anything chocolate, but specifically flourless chocolate cake comes to mind!
• favorite music -- classic rock, 70's, ...
• favorite TV show -- I really don't watch TV, but when I catch it I like this show.
• favorite movie -- a friend just sent me the DVD and even after seeing it 10 times before--I LOVED it!
• favorite workout -- What???  Shopping is too a workout if you cover enough ground!
• favorite drink -- Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng by the gallon in my fridge.

• favorite coffee -- none.  I don't drink coffee!
  

I tag:

 Still Thinking..., Life of a Southern Belle, Pretty In Pink Megan, & Muffy Martini.

{good things}

I just love the lines of my perfume tray.  It makes for a pretty picture.  

Enjoy your weekend!

iPhone obsessed!

This is how I am feeling:

Yes, it must be my wonderful hubby, sweet daughter, fabulous friends & family and sweet bloggy friends making me feel this way!  And it could be this silly little iPHONE that I am completely obsessed with!!!  I want to carry it around in my hand like a security blanket everywhere I go!  I knew this little thing was going to be trouble.

Then when I am at home I am browsing iTunes for the cutest ringtones so everyone can be assigned one of my favorite songs.  I am slightly irritated, though, because "How Sweet It Is" by James Taylor is not available in a ringtone and I wanted that one for hubby!  And I want the original "Mamma Mia" for my best friend who happens to be 100% Italian--that one is not available either!  C'mon Apple--help a girl out here!  I guess I'll have to surf through hundreds more songs to find just the perfect ringtones.  Thank goodness they had my precious Van Morrison!

A little iPhone humor:

And as if there wasn't enough to keep me busy, you can access FACEBOOK directly from your iPhone and enjoy all of the features!  I have all of this to do, and my job is really eating into my precious iPhone bonding time.  ;-)

Lilly-opoly!

A Lilly-loving friend in New Zealand sent this picture to me today.  I had been dying to see the new Lilly-opoly up close and couldn't find a good picture of it anywhere!  I want it!!!

dramatic dining rooms

Oh, I know I was going to keep this house light and monochromatic throughout, but I just came across this photo (HouseBeautiful.com) and I am LOVING this new paint color from Benjamin Moore!  It is so pretty.  I also love the fact that it is in a matte finish.  I do not like sheen or shiny finishes on walls anywhere.  This is from BM's new Aura collection of paints and is called Caponata #af650.  I want to paint it somewhere now!

Unfortunately I think it would be too much in my dining room.  I don't have a picture of my DR downloaded on this computer, but will try to post one soon so you can see what I mean.  I have a large expanse of wall to cover.  Then again, maybe this would be an intersting idea and a way to do something with all of that wall.  Hmmm....   ???

I also love this Peony pink paint.  This raspberry color would be fun in little Petunia's bedroom or maybe the playroom!  

decor inspiration

Because I have several more rooms to decorate in this house I am devouring home decor periodicals right now.  I get little ideas here and there and keep either just single pages or the entire magazine if it is a really good one.  My favorites are: Veranda, Southern Accents, Traditional Home, Florida Design, and Coastal Living.

Southern Accents and Coastal Living share the same publisher and have a great website from which to aquire ideas while perusing some beautiful rooms.  Here are some of my favorites:

stinky-poo word verification

Please join in the campaign to end word verification on the blog comment pages!

  Oh, how I hate word verification!  Half of the time I can't read the letters I am supposed to type,  and I have to do it over and over.  Half of this time I just give up.  Arrrgh.  I want to comment, but don't want to spend all day trying to decipher crazily written smushed together letters!  I have never had a spam comment.  Even if you would get a spam comment, all you would have to do is hit the delete button!  

  Personally, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my readers who are kind enough to comment.   It's very easy to just go to your comment settings page and disable this annoying feature. 

Oh, yeah....and by the way....it is a royal pain in my patootie to try to enter word verification when I am reading your blogs on my iPhone!  LOL!!     ;-)

iPhone ringtone!

Okay, so I've been playing with the iPhone every day this week (even at work...shhhhh!).  There was no way I was going to be happy with the mortorcycle ringtone, or the barking dog ringtone...yes, the ringtones are unusual.  But, that is what iTunes is for!  (Hey--Apple has to make a buck somehow---LOL!)  It's actually so cool.  First you go to iTunes and purchase your favorite song for 99 cents (it won't work on a song that you download from one of your CDs)  as long as that song has the little bell icon by it (signifying that it can be turned into a ringtone).  Then you can custom make your ringtone from your favorite part of the song and--for another 99 cents-- download it into your iPhone.  Voila!  Gee--can you guess what my favorite song is??  C'mon!  You know what it is!

Lilly Resort Collection

The Lilly Pulitzer Resort 2008 collection is available for viewing!  Do we like it so far??  I like the colors and the prints.  Some of it is not easily recognizable as Lilly.  Hmmm ....as usual can't wait to see it in person!

surprise!

Hubby & I stopped after work today and picked up our new iPHONES!  Woo-hoo!

It didn't take too long for me to master the proper texting technique--it just requires a light touch.  We aren't really huge texters, anyway, so we decided to go with the iPhone.  We are like two little kids with new toys right now!  The iPhone is so much fun--we love it so far!!!  

The only weird thing is---what's with the ringtones they give you???  They are all totally weird!  Um, yes, ...I'll take the barking dog ringtone, please.....NOT!  

Oh, dear, I think we are going to be up all night playing with these things!

i *heart* Jake Ryan!

Sixteen Candles finally arrived in the mail, so we watched it on this rainy afternoon. We fully enjoyed! Lil Petunia and I then made our own little video of the best 3 minutes from the entire movie, with Lil P making a cameo at the end!


from Petunia In Paradise on Vimeo.

SATC, Charlotte York, Hair, and Shoes!

So, a girlfriend and I watched Sex and The City tonight at my house. Am I the last girl on Earth to have seen it? Well, it was pretty predictable and I was bummed that they made my favorite character--Charlotte--a tad boring with not too much of a part. All in all it was pretty good and we did have quite a few belly laughs--especially at Samantha's naked neighbor!

I must say that I did NOT like the ever present polka dots they fashioned for Charlotte to wear. I don't like polka dots, so I just think Charlotte wouldn't like them so much either, at least not these large polka dots all over her huge belly!:

This is how I envision Charlotte!:

And for those who inquired about my hair quandary, coincidentally I chose the Charlotte York look (I already had a version of it, but just went shorter and darker.).:

Now, for the shoe update, I ran by The Shoe Gallery and my camera wouldn't work!! (Dead Batteries!) But they have a very limited inventory and PLD--no Lilly JR's in your size at this moment! :-(

I will be obnoxious though and go back with my camera. They had some new prints that were so cute!!!

Landlocked Mermaid has given me an award! Thank you!

Characteristics for the Smile Award:
1. Must display a cheerful attitude.
2. Must love one another.
3. Must make mistakes.
4. Must learn from others.
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world.
6. Must love life.
7. Must love kids.

I would like to pass this award on to some of my favorite bloggers--2 girls & 2 boys!

Pink Cashmere Cardigan

The Epic

Darrin Defined

Chez La Vie

Hollywood hair makeover fun

I am going to get my hair colored this Thursday, but couldn't wait and had 3 inches cut off today. :-O It feels so much healthier. I was looking around for some color inspiration and found this website where one can try on celebrity hairstyles--you just download a head shot of yourself. Kinda silly, but fun!

You, too, can picture yourself with new tresses (and waste lots of precious time) at INSTYLE Hollywood hair makeover.  

opinions, please...again! (and 2 dilemmas solved)

Since we bloggers are of the slightly opinionated sort, ...I know you all wouldn't mind giving me your opinion on yet another pressing matter. You see, I have a hair appointment next week and although I know I shouldn't, it's hard to refrain from thinking about changing my hair again. No, I'm not going short. I can't carry off short hair. I'd look too much like a boy! It's the color. Should I:

a. ~~stay the same color (my mom would say yes here b/c it's my natural color, and God created my hair color to match my eyes, and blah, blah, blah...)
b. ~~do highlights again (this can get scary and I could end up looking too blonde like in 2nd photo from 2 years ago)
c. ~~go a little darker--I call it Blackest Brown. Very dramatic. (No pics of this one)

a.

b.

X

And YES I finally received my GG handbag on Tuesday. I ordered the 2 stap satchel and carried it for the first time today and it was perfect.

Regarding my other dilemma--we played with the iPhone and the Blackberrys today while out, and my current opinion is that the iPhone is way too difficult for me to use. Lil Petunia was already surfing the internet at her favorite children's website on the iPhone next to me, while I was still trying to spell H-E-L-L-O on the keypad. Yikes. We went over to the Blackberry and I was texting away within seconds. I told Hubby he can get the iPhone if he wants, but I'll take a Blackberry. Now, which Blackberry? I heard they are coming out with a new one in a few weeks. Hmmm...

Silly Lilly

Some people are so silly! I love a sense of humor and whoever sent their picture in to Lilly Pulitzer here evidently has quite a good one. hee-hee!

Also, I recently saw this on Bloomingdale's website:

LILLY PULITZER JUBILEE TRUNK SHOW
October 23, 2008 (on different dates at different Bloomies)
10:00am - 9:00pm
The New View on 2
Join us as we celebrate Lilly Pulitzer's 50th Anniversary with a trunk show of the Jubilee Collection. Lilly Pulitzer's Jubilee Collection will be a collection of limited-edition cut-to-order dresses, pants, tops and tunics, featuring new, yet vintage-inspired styles and new and elevated signature prints and colors. This merchandise will not be available off the rack. Prices start at $375 and each piece will be tagged with a special gold Jubilee tag. Orders can be placed during the proposed event, and orders are expected to be fulfilled for pick up on or after November 12, 2008. At the time of pick-up, customers will receive a special gift ~~ a signature Lilly Jubilee garment bag and a pair of McKim sandals.

Anyone rushing in this month to order their very own Lilly Pulitzer Jeep Wrangler??

There is this cute little shoe store near me (I have forgotten the name, but will come back and fill it in as soon as I think of it) and they sell these custom made Jack Rogers sandals made from Lilly fabric. (I took this pic a while ago, so the fabrics may have changed, but they still have some similar.) They are the cutest!! I am in general partial to my Stephen Bonannos, but just had to show you these!

Semi Precious

I love turquoise.  It comes in a wide variety of shades and veining patterns making each stone unique.  It is my birthstone and when I was little I was sore about this because I thought that I had been gypped!  I wanted diamond or pearl or ruby or sapphire--and how I love Aquamarine!-- to be my birthstone.  I wanted a precious stone, not a semi-precious rock!  Well, over the years it has grown on me, although Blue Topaz is also the birthstone for December.  Blue Topaz was believed to have many healing powers, among them the ability to cure insanity, asthma, weak vision, insomnia, and other ailments.  Hmmm...maybe I should have been wearing Blue Topaz all along because I have been known to have 1 or 2 of those afflictions--no comments from the peanut gallery here!!

This bottle of Ralph Lauren's Pure Turquoise parfum is so pretty.  The parfum is described as:  an exotic floral mystery of dewy cassis, night blooming cereus and earthen patchouli; packaged in a collectible crystal parfum bottle topped with a one-of-a-kind piece of real turquoise.

Above photos courtesy of Ralph Lauren.

Rock crystal is becoming very popular in home decor, such as this pretty lamp by Chelsea House which would look lovely on a bedside table:

I also like the way these Selenite tealight holders by Z Gallerie  have a little glow to them.  They look very organic.: