remember when...

I went on vacation?  I mentioned a little something about it here.  Well, here's a little recap over at the Trashy Diva blog.  Enjoy!

yup, the vacation indeed involves a camel

Hurricane Europa

Goodness it has been a while, and quite a whirlwind -- which explains my absence.  A week after moving into our new home, I flew back to the US for my best friend's wedding, which was an absolute blast.  When I returned on July 21, Mr. Bama had already left for his year of being gone for work. While I have missed him terribly, I haven't had too much time to dwell on his absence -- our household goods arrived a week after I got back to Germany, and a day later I finally had internet set up (after a week of dealing with German T-Mobile and being hung up on 9 out of the 10 times I called them).  The very next day one of my best friends from home flew into Germany with a friend from business school and we began a 10-day  breakneck-speed tour of Eastern Europe. So the next few blog posts, combined with my upcoming guest posts for Trashy Diva, will be a recap of our adventures in Salzburg, Budapest, Prague and Munich.  So stay tuned for some European goodness!

With my friend Laura on the Charles Bridge in Prague

Drive-by Clothing Eye Candy

I have a really quick post today -- Been busing wrapping up a bunch of stuff and prepping for our house hold goods to get moved on the 25(so.not.ready.).  But I still have time for pretty clothes!

pretty clothes like the spring 2011 Trashy Diva prints

Olivine:

the 1940's dress.
source

  Slap and Tickle (hehe)

The Doll Dress.
source

I tried both of the prints in their respective styles over the past few weeks and the Olivine is amazing.  I WANTED the Slap and Tickle to work soooo badly, but it just looked blah with my skin tone.  I'm waiting until after the move to pick up my dress, just because moving is proving to be SO expensive (an understatement)

So heres hoping i get a leg up on the moving to do list and that you have a great Monday!

Marching On

Happy March!  Yesterday marked the beginning of a new phase in the Bama family - pre -moving mayhem intermixed with Mardi Gras insanity.  My keep-my-brain-from-overloading-and-exploding check list for the next few weeks:

- Have my passport name changed from maiden name to married name.  Kinda forgot to take care of that already - whoops.  So this overly tedious process has begun.
- Get Bear Euro chipped.  The thought of him sitting in quarantine breaks my heart.  I'm also trying to find an animal transport company -- him sitting in cargo in a trans-Atlantic flight scares the bejesus out of me.
- Obtain a copy of my medical records.  I thought I'd have this taken care of yesterday when i went to the Dr to have my follow-up visit on my back (yay, clear bill of health!). However... I found out that they cannot find my records. Yeah.  After all of the terrible experiences I've had with this clinic, I think this immediately filed into my mind as "it figures."  I didn't even get mad when they told me they couldn't find them.  Just a laugh (le sigh)
- Take photos and make an inventory of all of our home goods.  Apparently those overseas moves have a bad habit of going terribly at times.  I'm covering my bases.  You loose my T-D dresses (esp those with prints that are old) and you will pay.
- Figure out what is staying and what is going.  Bye bye American 110v appliances - Where we're going you don't work.  So I must leave my amazing Kitchen Aid Mixer, my Kuerig Coffee Maker, etc.  Still don't know how the computer/printer are going to manage over there.  Also staying -- the vehicles.  If gas is $3.20 here, I can only imagine how expensive it's going to be over there.  Me thinks we will find a cheap 1990s Beamer to used as a daily driver.
- Find someone to take our bottles of liquor and our perishables.  Can't be shipped, but i dont think this will be tough.  Maybe as a Mardi Gras Parade gift.  However, I'ts going to be hard to find someone who is interested in such organic items as "whole wheat soy cheese ravioli" and "blueberry juice concentrate."  Any takers?
- Learn my new language.  I suck at languages.  Really.  I took Spanish and French before I gave up and decided to take Latin in HS & college because it's not spoken.  Even then i couldn't manage to grasp a dead language.  However, I'm set up w/ Rosetta Stone and I'll be attempting to be at least not a complete tourist in my new home.

I'm sure theres more, but above is actually an insanely overwhelming list within itself.  Exciting and tedious all at once.

Oh and about where we're moving, here are some fun facts:

1. English is not the primary language (see last point listed above)
2. it was the world's number 1 exporter of goods until 2008 when that title was taken by China
3. it has a bad habit of trying to take over the world twice during the early 20th century.  Not the case anymore, (it has a much more warm and fuzzy reputation) but still, tsk tsk. 

any guesses?

On another note, yours truly is featured on the Trashy Diva Blog - one of my faves, Misa from Park & Belmont, as well as my little sis makes an appearance.  While I officially had my last day Monday (sadness....) I'll still be working in conjunction w/ them remotely - so yay for that!

Our Other Weekend

While it seems as if Bear-drama consumed our weekend (only kinda sorta), it was also Mr. Bama's Birthday.  We decided to go low key, unlike last year, and just have a nice dinner at our local fave Italian restaurant.  Mr. Bama was showered with gifts (a basket Louisiana fave food stuffs from my rents, a 6 pack of beer of Mr. Bama's choice from Bear, just to name a few)

the happy birthday boy w/ his Louisiana bounty.

My gift to Mr. Bama was 6 months to Ancestry.com.  He's always had an idea where his family came from (Arkansas), but nothing too deep past maybe the late 1800s.  I also thought that I'd be able to mooch off of his subscription and find my family on my mom's dad's side of the tree - the one no one ever talks about because of a big family blow up in the 40s, name changes, etc.  Some really touchy stuff apparently.

So off we went finding our families.  Turns out when you talk about American, you mean my husband.  He traces 3 of the 4 main branches of his family ALL the way back to Colonial America (theres a relative from the1630's in there!).  Pretty amazing.  Even more amazing is that at least 2 of them were from Virginia - so no more comments from him about Virginia not being a southern state, since that would mean he's not a southern boy (and for him thats the equivalent of  telling a child there is no Santa).  The one branch that doesn't go back to the 1700 only goes back to the 1830s.  Darn.

So then I start trying to find my family.... and that quickly ended in the late 1890s.  In all. four. branches.  Apparently I'm so much of a mutt that no one I'm related to lived in America pre the 1870s.  Whats even worse, is that the names were soo butchered when they came over that its impossible to tell who is who.  So while my husband can trace his entire family back to the infanthood of our country, mine is just one giant dead-end.  Guess I should have purchased the "Global' ancestry package, at least I know 100% for sure that I'm an Italian, German, English, Scottish mutt whose families came over from the old country at sometime in the late 19th century, which I knew before my Ancestry.com adventure.  Awesome.

On another note: Today yours truly did a guest post over on the brank spankin' new Trashy Diva Blog.  I'll be posting about every other week, so take a peek and tell me what you think!

Home for the Holidays

Shame Shame on me.  Wow,  I really must admit that I've been a terrible blogger over the last month.  I would attribute my absence to being a full time and then some worker - I'm now at TD 5 days a week manning one of their divisions (whoop!) in addition to being in full blown designing mode (there's been a lot of  "hey can you get this design rushed to me?" around here lately - ah Holidays) and still running the house.  No time to get in trouble I guess.

So heres whats been going on since I last was around:

- One of my friends from Arch school and her boyfriend came to visit us in NOLA, which was wonderful since the last time we saw them was our wedding.  We did the French Quarter Circuit, complete with breakfast at Brennan's and drinks and the Carousel Bar & the Sazerac.  It was fun playing tourist in our city for a weekend and a blast hanging out with great friends

Aggie Arch Grads in a pretty Vieux Carre Alley

- We went to Alabama for Thanksgiving.  I amazingly didn't take any pictures during our week-long stay, but Mr. Bama's camera happy Aunt did -- If she snapped any of us, I have a feeling it would feature me stuffing my face with turkey while Mr. Bama downs a brewski or a sazerac (I distinctly remember bringing a new bottle of Sazerac Rye Whiskey down with us and it being absent from our goods on the way back).  Turkey Day just isn't the same w/out good family, great friends, carbo & tryptophan loading as well as a continuous source of  libations.

- The day after we got back from Bama, I came down with a NASTY head cold.  To douse the fire in my throat my life for a full week consisted of OJ, Theraflu (AM and PM), a whole bag of Ricola throat drops and a whole box of Throat Coat Traditional Medicinals Tea. Thankfully I had an amazing Mr. Bama to be my nurse, so we nixed the sickness before it became anything serious.  PS - how cute are the Trader Joe's tissue boxes below?  Almost makes me wish we had a TJ here, but not soo quick.

(source)

- In some excitement, TD has had some A-MA-ZING new silk dresses come in recently. They are part of the designer/ store owner, Candice Gwinn's, new "Candice Gwinn - New Orleans Collection" label.   Truly drool worthy, and here are just my fave of the new collection:

Rosalind Dress in Dragonfly/Black

Joan Studs Dress in Black. 
Badass and Flirty all in one dress

Sadie Dress in Dragonfly
Art Deco Beading!? Oh love.

You can see the entire Trashy Diva Silk Holiday Collection here.  Also, a new store blog has been started, so make sure to follow the updates of so many of the new company developments at http://trashydivaclothing.wordpress.com/.  Who knows, maybe you'll see yours truly making an appearance?

- Decorations abound in the Bama household.  After last year where we were moving during the holidays and had no time to get a tree, nonetheless actually decorate, we went all out this year! We went and found a great pre-lit, artificial tree - with all of the Bear hair in the house, the last thing I need to do is add pine needles to the mix.

Mr. Bama putting the "star" (really its a snowflake) on the tree

all glittery and pretty

Somes is rightfully very pleased with himself

TaDA!

Bear approves of the new tree.  That is, until he
tries to eat it or he pulls it over onto himself

So now its crunch time, between getting Christmas cards out for myself and clients and surviving the madness that surrounds getting everyone's gifts and then shipping them.  So let the races begin and be sure to take some time to step back and observe the magic of the season.

Yipp-ee!

I mentioned in a prior post that a wonderful development had come up with work recently and that I would mention it in a future post.  Well this is the post!  My day job has given me a promotion - and the best part?  I'm being moved to the new office location, that just happens to be 4 blocks from my house.  As in walking distance.   I have never in my life been a practical walking distance from where I lived to anywhere decent - not school, not the store, not work, until now.   I guess thats the beauty of living near Magazine Street.  Even better: No more cursing at slow drivers or the random Garden District tour bus I'm stuck behind while trying to get from one side of the city to another in time for work.  I'm absolutely thrilled!

I Spy

Super quick blog post today - but something came to my attention that I thought I should share.

Who here is a fan of  the Vampire cheesiness that is True Blood?  If you tuned in this past Sunday for the Season Finale, you would have caught this part, near the end where Vampire Queen Sophie Anne visits Bill's home.

Dark, broding vampire goodiness.  pic courtesy of perezhilton.com

What is that lovely ensemble that the Queen (Evan Rachel Wood) is wearing?  Well non other than Trashy Diva's own Courtney Coat Dress in Black.  I posted about the cobalt one I scored for my birthday in a previous post.

The Courtney Coat Dress - it doubles as a coat, a dress and best of all?  It's cotton. 

 So whether you plan on being your favorite True Blood character for halloween or just want to look like an absolute knock out this fall & winter, check out www.trashydiva.com.  The coat comes in classic solids such as Black, cobalt & red, or for those who want to spice things up, black & green mid-century and leopard.

now back to being swamped with invitations. Is it Saturday yet?