{sneak peek} project in the works

just wanted to pop in to show you a little sneak peek at something that i'm working on, it should be ready just in time for summer!  but that's all i can share for now...

hope you love the color combos, i know i do! =)

{101 goals in 1001 days} goal no. 47

so a little while back i posted about the 101 goals in 1001 days that i'm doing and here's my first official post about one of the goals i've accomplished... this isn't my first of the 101, but this is a quick post so i thought i'd throw it out there for you all!

as some of you may know, i was wanting so very badly to get my hands on an ipad 2... 

....well yesterday was my day!

after quite a few days of calling the apple store when they opened to check to see if they had stock and hearing "No" everytime... and after calling Walmart, Best Buy, AND Target almost daily checking to see if i could avoid a really early morning waiting in line at the apple store... i set my alarm for 5:45, yes that's AM for those of you who know i don't enjoy mornings =) it felt like Christmas morning so i shot outta bed, got ready, grabbed my laptop and a jewelry order to work on and headed to the South Coast apple store to wait it out with lots of other folks. i said a prayer as i walked in the mall around 6am that went something like this: "Lord, i know this is a really silly prayer, but it would make me so happy to only have to do this once, and please let it be your will that i get the one i want." 

... real mature prayer Blair...

the apple crew rolled in around 7am for their daily Fed Ex shipment inventory, then came out and proceeded to go down the line with these cards that corresponded to each unit they had in the store that morning... i was about 30 people back so i figured i was sitting pretty....

not so... they ran out of these cards at the couple in line right in front of me... i was about ready to flip my lid when a man got out of line handed the above card back in and the apple dude gave it to me... it wasn't the unit i wanted, but i was back in the game!

at this point everyone behind me in line had gone home and didn't know they could've lingered and potentially snagged a forfeited card!  so then about 10 more minutes go by and another guy pieced out of line and gave his card back, the apple dude looked at me and said, "it's your lucky day" it was the exact model i had wanted and in white too! WAAHHOOO

here's my little card, or answer to prayer as i'd like to think of it!  i know it was a silly request, but i do have to say God is good, and He did answer mine and my hubby's prayers.

after this happened, i called J at home and told him what had happened and that he had a happy wife, and he then told me he had prayed the night before that it'd work out for me... 

such a silly thing, but so neat to know God's there and dialed in, and understands how powerful of a business tool this little ipad will be!

Goal no. 47 - check!

since you've been gone.... may i introduce the 4 hour body

i mean... since i've been gone =) it's been yet another whirlwind month of client orders for my other biz - Joie de Vie Design, and mixed in with those orders i've taken some much needed personal time to tackle some cleaning and organizing projects around our place {with a lot more work left to be done}.  another fun challenge that's been thrown into our everyday life mix is that a few weeks back my hubs and i decided to make a huge lifestyle change, i had been reading tim ferriss' book the four hour work week {which was recommended to me}, along with ferriss' newest book the four hour body... which the hubs and i have both been reading and a week and a half ago began the journey to a huge lifestyle change for us!

not to bore you all to death with the details, but i think there comes a time in most people's lives when they aren't satisfied... not satisfied by a job, not satisfied by your lifestyle, not satisfied by your health {or lack thereof}... you fill in the blank.  well, we decide that we had grown a little complacent in the way we eat and the overall lack of a healthy lifestyle.  needless to say we started reading the four hour body and realized we needed to make the lifestyle change it talked about...  so now we are living the "slow carb" life!  if you're interested in knowing more about the four hour body diet and lifestyle here's a blog that we enjoy and find really helpful.

this is probably boring some of you at this point, but i feel that posting this is a means of accountability for me and a few posts ago i shared with my readers the 101 goals i hope to accomplish in 1001 days, this new lifestyle change is what i hope will be the means to accomplish a few of my personal lifestyle/weight loss goals.  to show you little of what this change entails here are some photos of a few slow carb meals...

pork chops w/ asparagus and zuchinni

rotisserie chicken {from costco} w/ red spilt lentils and asparagus

the costco chicken makes dinner super easy and quick

and in honor of st. patty's day today...

a corned beef brisket {in the crock pot}, some cabbage and carrots... this is one of my favorites!

basically the rules are as follows:

• nothing white - no flour, no sugar, no rice, no processed carbs period!
• eat as much protein as possible - eggs, egg whites, chicken, pork, beef, fish {organic when possible}
• eat as many veggies as you want {we happen to love asparagus, carrots, baby spinach, celery, green beans, brussel sprouts, and cabbage}
• eat slow carbs - beans, lentils, edamame, any kind of legume {really helps with filling you up}
• drink tons of water, have limited diet beverages {such a killer since i'm a diet coke addict}
• follow these rules 6 days a week
• here's the kicker - make one day a BINGE DAY, yes i said binge day! you can pig out on anything and everything you want, sugar, carbs... you want it, you eat it {sounds like a dream right? if you do it right it will leave you with a killer food hangover that makes you yearn for the clean eating of the other 6 days}

and that's it folks - doing this for a month and you can see great fat loss results... which is what i'm testing right now....

and to bring this all back to my point in sharing this with you all... i'll be using myself as a guinea pig to test this "diet" or as i like to call it "lifestyle change" to hopefully be able to recommend to my readers and the brides out there following along!

ps. if you'd like more insight into the 4 hour body lifestyle, here's another great post about it!

{featured} by Hostess with the Mostess

if you haven't seen it yet, yesterday BBE was featured for our design contributions to the ever so fabulous Kacee Geoffroy's baby shower for sa deuxième fille {her second little girl}... just a little of my high school french skills for you! =)

anyhow, i was so thrilled to see that the shower was featured yesterday over at one of our FAVORITE event hosting blogs - Hostess with the Mostess... thanks Jenn!

kudos go out to all the other wonderful vendors who worked on Kacee's shower, the vision really was pulled together beautifully and seamlessly by everyone, and of course Alice Hu Photography's images made the event look picture perfect!

feeling so blessed to have been apart of Kacee's special party!

{vendor team}
:: photography ::                  Alice Hu Photography
:: catering & cake ::             Jay's catering
:: floral designs ::                 Floral Elements
:: fragrance station ::            Kamilyin
:: design & paper goods::    BBE & our sister co. {Joie de Vie Paperie}