La Fenice

If you go to Positano, you MUST stay La Fenice.  Private pool, private beach, ahmazing food, need I say more?  Positano has a bad reputation for crowds but at our hotel we felt that we were at a private resort.  It made the trip.

 the breakfast area

Neill's face says it all.  Heavenly.

Capri

We took a day trip to Capri one day.  You can travel to and from by boat, which takes about 40 minutes, but due to frequent stops for swimming it's more like 2 hours.  Capri was quite crowded and ridiculously expensive, like an Italian 5th avenue.  To be quite honest, you could skip Capri on your trip to Italy and never miss it.  However the boat ride was positively lovely, swimming in the Mediterranean was so refreshing and really a highlight of our trip.

 Peace out Positano!

Capri 

 heavenly gelato

That night we were pretty beat so we just stopped at some grocers and bough a nice assortment of meats, cheese and wines and ate on the deck of hotel.  Perfect ending to a perfect day.

Wordless Wednesday: Positano

Naples & the Amalfi Coast

It's only 3 months later but I'm finally sharing photos from Italy this summer.  Updates are already scheduled to go up all this week! :-)

 When in Naples, one must eat pizza.  The Condurro family has been making pizza since 1870,
this present location has been open since 1930.

 A true magherita pizza, rated a perfect 10.
This is the same pizza shop featured in Eat Pray Love.

Drive along the coast 

 Alison & Neill

 his cart may have been cheesy but his granita was AMAZING

oh hello Positano

gigi

So I've always thought Gigi Hadid is awesome.  I never watched Real Housewives (which features her Mom), I've only known her as a model - any girl hot enough to be a Guess girl automatically achieves all star status in my book.  Snaps to her latest instagram post.

Keep doing what you do girl. 

Five Things Friday

We made it to another Friday y'all!  After work, I tried to make it to Pure Barre but with the rain, the traffic was so out of control it clearly wasn't happening.  So I headed home and instantly fell asleep on the couch for about 3 hours. :-)  pure bliss.

1.  My brother got engaged!

Here's a photo of Steven & Lisa in Iceland from this summer.

Lisa has a 3 year old daughter, Audrey.  Here she is with her (future) cousins.  

Welcome to the family!

2. Michelle Obama in Vera Wang at the China State dinner

Wow.  Just wow.  #goals

3.  Fragrances

Do you have a signature fragrance?  For the past couple of years, mine has been Marc Jacobs classic fragrance.  It's features floral notes like gardenia and honeysuckle mixed with white pepper.  Clearly, I got that from the website, not my nose ha!  My nose tells me it's a sweet yet spicy fragrance, which I like, it's not too feminine, not sickly sweet.  I just got a new bottle in mail after taking a little while off just because it's not cheap.  Excited to re-embrace this fragrance!!

4.   Tips on Getting Organized

Have a lot of clutter and not enough time to read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up?  Get the skim list here.


5. Skin Food

Hyaluronic acid is a chemical found naturally in our skin that helps hydrate and plump our skin.  It helps reduce inflammation and is especially good in keepy oily skin moisturized without increasing the oiliness.  I started using Hydraluron by Indeed Labs about a month ago and I love it.  It's affordable, easy to use, and keeps my skin hydrated.  It doesn't replace your moisturizer, you can simply add it to your routine.  Try it - I bet you'll like it!

What do y'all have planned this weekend?  I'm thinking cleaning, maybe wine and dinner out Saturday and some football Sunday (if you know me, you it's crazy I'm saying this but hey, there will be food).  Take care!!!

Alison's Birthday

the London/Italy photos drag on lol...should be only 3 updates left :-)

On our last day in London we celebrated Alison's birthday.  We visited this unique food market which was this amazing place of outdoor vendors selling all types of ah-mazing food.  It kind of changed my life.  If I lived in London, or if we had that piece of heaven in Raleigh, I'd be there every Saturday.  It blows every food truck rally out of the water.  Seriously.

 hard to see, but Aaron's getting a cone filled with saucy chicken

steak frites <3 <3 <3 

 Alison's friend showed up to surprise her!

After the food market, it was basically a mad dash to get home and shower because up next was Alison's surprise party!  She had no idea Neill and her friend Ben had been planning for months to throw a party for her 30th.  Her parents were in town and requested to go to the golf club to grab drinks before we all went out to dinner.  She walked into the golf club and surprise!  There was everyone.  It was a fun night of tabbouleh, mock television game shows, drinks and karoke.  It was so much fun I didn't get any decent photos, they're mostly blurry cell phone pics.  Here's a few of us playing tabbouleh and a mock version of Going for Gold, a British game show that Alison actually competed on before!  Yes, I'm friends with a British TV celebrity.   It was so touching seeing all of her friends and family band together to celebrate 30!