confession...

i have a confession to make. i love chain restaurants. are you horrified? so you can imagine my excitement when i came across the copycat & clone recipes on pinterest today of all my favorites...

via outback

...bring on the fat girl jeans!

two blondes in morocco...

after a few transportation blunders along the way, we have finally arrived home from our mother/daughter trip to morocco. we started the first leg of our trip in frankfurt, germany- if you haven't been, don't go. there's very little for a tourist to see & do there and we spent a majority of our time in our hotel room watching movies...

we finally arrived in marrakech a few days later to the most wonderful riads (hotels) i've ever laid eyes on. meet the riad noir d'ivoire...

 

it was like our own private oasis within the medina walls. the staff (especially the managers) were so inviting and kind, and you really felt like you were coming home after a long (emotionally & physically) day of exploring the city. the rooms, the food, the hammam, the resident felines...i just loved everything about this place and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting marrakech...

our days were spent exploring the medina, shopping, learning about the culture...

 

if you're ever in marrakech and you somehow stumble upon maktoub by max & jan defintiely go in... it's definitely not authentic marrakech market shopping, but i loved everything in this store nonetheless.

and of course we did a little eating... dinner at dar moha & lunch on the rooftop of cafe arabe...

and do you like my very high tech moroccan currency calculator?..

on our way back from marrakech we came back to germany,  but this time mom suggested we take a train ride to cologne for the day. it was a lovely ride along the rhine river, spotting long forgotten castles  on the hilltops. and when we arrived to the main train station the most magnificent cathedral towered just outside...

and of course we did a little exploring and had a very authentic german lunch...

while i have always wanted to go to morocco, i have to admit i was a little underwhelmed. i think i may have over romanticized it in my head...to many books and design magazines are probably to blame. am i glad i went and built a memory with my mom? yes. am i dying to go back? no. germany on the other hand may have a future visit in store...preferably a ride down the rhine river to hit up all the christmas markets...i smell a mother/daughter trip on the horizon!

marrakech, here we come...

via

we are leaving for marrakech (by way of frankfurt, germany) tomorrow for 10 days...i am feeling very overwhelmed by the prospect of this trip. i've never been to a place like morocco. i have a feeling i am going to go into sensory overload, or better yet, my wallet is going to go into spending overload. i packed an empty suitcase within my suitcase, that's the kind of trip i'm anticipating...lord help us all.

valentine's day...

...bat shit crazy alright...

gurgle pot, yes please...

i've been on the hunt for a good water pitcher. i thought i wanted a pretty cut glass one, but then i saw the gurgle pot...and now i NEED a gurgle pot. how did i not know about these things before?...

lovely lighting...

remember how i was obsessing over the lights that were hanging from the ceiling at the mumford and sons concert last week???...

BAM! I found them at target for super cheap so I asked the one near me to put their last 6 boxes on hold...

i've always loved this photo of the lights strung up outside, so i'm going to ask one of the guys at work to make me a few cedar posts with hooks so i can string them around my back yard. they'll be the perfect lighting once i get the backyard patio done (it's on my summer wish-list for this year)...

bad commute= heavy weekday drinking...

i am sooo making myself one of these today after work...the 2 hour commute to go 6 miles the last two days is reason enough for me...

thank you a beautiful mess for this recipe today...i'm drooling at my office desk.

blizzard girls..

aside from a very big trip i have coming up with my mother to morocco (yikes!), i have exhausted all my 'girls weekends' i had planned, and there have been many, many so far in 2013...and i'm sure many more to come.

this past weekend, during the blizzard nemo, i headed north to portland maine with two of my bestest girlfriends from high school. no blizzard was going to keep up from this weekend we've had planned for months, and so the hotel staff affectionately called us the 'blizzard girls'...

despite dumping nearly 31" in portland, we still headed up to the outlets on friday morning for a little (or a lot, in my case) shopping...

then we did a little snacking followed by a little napping in our hotel beds wrapped in our special girls weekend bathrobes...

and that night we ate at my all time favorite restaurant...

saturday we pretty much forgot about the snow and enjoyed our ENTIRE day at the spa being rubbed, scrubbed and moisturized. a.m.a.z.i.n.g. and then saturday night erin and i decided to have a little dessert war over her brownie sundae, it was an epic battle... she's very serious about her desserts...

i have to say, portland did an incredible job cleaning up after the storm, i was pretty impressed. and even though we had to come home to a mess of snow, i have to thank my sweet friends, neighbors & bf for clearing my driveway for me...

and thank you, erin & steph, for being my blizzard 'bitches' this weekend. i'm so happy we made the time to head out of town together. quebec in 2014?!?!?!?