Bjork for breakfast please.....

The other day, whilst I was driving through the beautiful English countryside. My Ipod suddenly played an artist, whom I forgot that I hearted to death. Miss Bjork.

Back in the day of my being a struggling student artist, this bitch right here inspired me, captivated me, and kept me sane during my heavy sessions of finals, and brainstorming.

When she popped up on the speakers in my car the other day, those stressful days of creating soon re-visited me, and again, I was inspired, captivated, and sane. I like to think of this lady as OG. I mean, nowadays, someone like Bjork would just get lost in the sea of "expressive" artists. Since you have people like Lady Gaga, Peaches, Kesha (who actually is just straight trash), Riahnna, all people who express themselves with all sorts of unique fashion pieces, unique ways of performing, and even having the most unique music videos. Bjork, I believe was the first person to express herself in a way that made people so quizzical, and questioned her fashion choices, with styles such as this
                                        
                                                       Her infamous Swan dress...my fave

Anywho, I just wanted to share what has going through my noggin this sunny English morning. Also, I'd like to share this video of her. This one is called Hyperballad. My most favorite song of hers. I would have shared the official video, but I enjoy Bjork when she performs live. Her stage performance is absolute amzaeballs!!!

My favorite Vintage

As I was walking out of a newly discovered Antique shop in a town not too far from my hood, this sight caught my attention and made me gape with awe.  The way that this green vintage car was parked so perfectly in front of this house with a red door, made me all excited and shizz.  The hubby, however, just thought I was insane for getting all juiced over something so simple.  

To me, after such an amazing time spent in an amazing antique store, I thought this sweet little vision was the perfect end cap to such an experience.

I also wanted to share these pictures with you to kind of warm you up for my next upcoming blog.  Kinda wanted to set the feel and mood for the type of feeling I get whilst walking through rooms of great treasures and finds.  I'm currently obsessed with discovering all sorts of antiques, and I can't wait to share it with you.  Till then....cheers!

Bon Appetit

As I am sitting here on this slighty sunny English weekend afternoon.  I am eating cheese and tortilla, and realizing, that it's not doing justice for my very demanding high maintenance taste buds.  Now my mind is flash backing to my previous galavant to sweet Paris...and my mouth is now beginning to produce an unstoppable amount of dribble.

Oh sweet Paris....how you inspire me.  Fascinate me.  Entrance me.  Style me.  Feed me. Mmmmm....I love  me some french food.

As I am reminiscing about the first dish we had there.  To start off....the restaurant served us this drink that had no sexual innuendo whatsoever.

 Then these foreign speaking men in bow ties brought these bunch of pleasantries right here, I was thinking about how not only did it make my eyes pop open so wide, my eyeballs could have easily fallen out and joined the dish, but my mouth almost messed up the delectable pieces of edibles by my constant drooling of the mouth.

Every. Single. Piece. Of. Food on this dish was heaven sent.  I mean, I almost forgot I was married and was about to run off and have a crazy and wild affair with this dish because it was so damn sexy in my mouth.  When I finally looked up during those moments where I had to chew, it was then where my memory came back and remembered that I was married, and I was supposed to be having a romantic V-day dinner with the hubby.  So I looked up, smiled, said," I love you," looked down, and had an affair once again.  I literally almost cried when I brought that last crumb into my mouth, but those tears where soon dried as soon as the next course arrived, and the whirlwind affair continued.  After repeating this pattern for 5 more courses...and producing a food baby through this yummy love....coffee was served,

 the bill was paid, and I had to unwillingly leave the restaurant to sightsee and then later sleep and dream about what else will be invading my mouth the next day.

So the next day, we are off to see Paris.  Sights , sounds, history, yada, yada, yada.  Let's get back to the good stuff.  Before leaving, I made a list of all the MUST eats for the trip.  Pretty much all my favorite food::

My wonderful Creme Brulee, WHICH I might add,  I was super disappointed with.  See, a few years back I travelled to Paris alone mainly for the purpose of shopping and eating an authentic Creme Brulee.  Well, being that I was alone, afraid, and knew no speck of French, when I ordered my creme brulee and discovered I ordered what looked like a flan, I figured that I probably ordered the wrong thing.  So, on this trip, I wanted to redeem myself and get a REAL one.  Well....being that I was more confident, and I actually read the sign this time, I ordered my favorite dessert, and came up with the same thing I had a few years ago.  A flan.   I guess, this is the real thang.  Eh.  I'll do with an American version please.  But the"flan" was pretty good though.

Ok, next item on my list was this.  French onion soup.  No disappointment here.  I didn't care how many times I burnt my tongue eating this.  It was totally worth it.  Again, my married life soon escaped my mind whilst sipping on this handsome little devil.  I licked this bowl dry down to it's core.  I didn't care how I looked to the fellow French people dining in this same cafe, I just thought of it as me helping out the dish washing person in the kitchen.

Next dish I wanted to feast on was Priority on my list.  Sorry animal activists.....But Foie Gras was my numero uno thing to much on.  I couldn't get enough of this.  Just the way this buttery pate' melted in my mouth, with that yummy duck essence escaping and dancing on my hungry tastebuds.  I never wanted the experience to end.  After I finished the whole pate....I found myself, again, licking the knife that I was using and licking it in such a way, I had to have my own movie rating to be seen by the public.  Sigh....I feel bad for that poor duck, but thank you also poor duck for making me a happy fat girl.

Alrighty.  SO those were the main dishes that got me all happy and shizz...but I did eat other ones as well.  Take a look

A yummy crepe.  Although it only contained ham and cheese, this crepe was amazing.  I dunno what they put.  Maybe they had their own type of french MSG that made it taste good.  IDK, whatever it was...standing ovation.

Of course, being American, me and the man couldn't resist the urge to buy nachos.  And yes, it did taste as good as it looks.  Cheesy, juicy, flavorful, and crunchy.  Perfect requirements to make the perfect nachos.

Being that I don't understand a lot of French, I ordered this dish in a restaurant.  Salmon and a bagel.  It was AOK.  What was better were its friend...Le French Fries.

So towards the end of the trip, our wallets were soon running dry.  So being that we had to do the cheap route, we decided to dine on some good ol' fast food.  I must say, no fast food hamburger had made me cuss out of amazement ever.  The French, no matter how un-elegant the food may be, the taste will never let you down.  This hamburger was so good in my mouth, I almost melted in my chair.  Sigh.  Why can't I cook like the french?  

And then there were the foods that were there to just please your eyes.  

I wanted to eat the whole store...including the structure that housed these edibles.

Except for this fella...I just took it's picture because it was pretty impressive to look at.  But I was rather intimidated to pop this one in my mouth.  *wink*

And then of course, everything that I ate was then topped off with a coffee

I had to keep it french...minus the ciggy hanging from my fingertips.  

Sigh.  I love Paris.  Thank you, for making my belly a happy belly.  Till the next meal....

My first Treasury

Ch Ch Ch Check it out!

Being an obsessed user of Etsy, I have created a treasury, which features items from various sellers.  The Treasury has to have a theme, and all the items have to be related to eachother and the theme.  

The theme of my treasury is called

"BUCKLE UP!"

Take a look see::

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d8a3ee50d726d91c4d7c4cb/buckle-up

One of my items is also included in this Treasury as well....naturally...

And while you're there, feel free to browse my shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PRETTYrubbish?ref=pr_shop_more

He's so cheeky

As I have just previously posted, I mentioned that I had been looking for a little garden gnome fella for quite some time.  Welp, low and behold, as I was doing my daily charity shopping, a little round moon caught my eyes.

This little sucker

His name is Mr. Cheeky.  Say hello.

Of course, being that he came from a charity shop (that's thrift shop to us fellow Americans), he has some wear and tear spots.  But it's OK, I still love the little fella just the same.  

This is my heaven

So Mr. Love of my life has had the last 4 days off from work.  Which, he has been using some of that time to study for his rank.  Welp, between his studying time, we get some quality time.  And during our quality times, we have gallavanting time.  And during the gallavanting times, we create adventures.  And through one of my adventures is born a blog post.  Hence, this one coming up right now.

During gallavanting time yesterday, me and the lover journeyed over to good ol' London town.  Our main mission in London this time was to hit up Harrods.  We never took the energy to take that extra train ride there, but this time was an exception.  My lovely Brother and Sis-in-Law kindly gave me and the hubby a gift card to this wonderful department store over the holidays.  So, me and the the hubby thought, "Extra train trip to Harrods?  Gift card?  Why Noooooot???"

BTW, I would just like to take this time to thank Tony and Phi for this wonderful gift.  If it weren't for you two, I wouldn't have known what heaven was like before death, and this blog post would have never been born.  THANK YOU from Rick and Amy!

Onwards.

I must tell you, this little gift card that fit ever so compactly in my wallet, created such an amazing experience, I wanted to break down and cry.  I'm serious.  I take my shopping quite seriously, thank you. So anyways, being frugal shoppers that we are, we quickly stopped off at Camden and bought a cheap little meal that could fill us up for days, hence allowing us to avoid spending 50+ Pounds at Harrods.

5 pounds....Holla!

After filling our hungry bellies, a brief glance and rekindling my love for Camden once again, we hop on the train and bear the stinky riders that tend to sit so close, they might as well sit on your lap.  So we hop off the train, go up the escalator from the Underground....and low and behold to my right is.......yup....A ZARA!!!!

Then to my left, Harrods.  Right away, this was going to be a good sign.  I knew, however, that I had to sustain from being lead into Zara, because as soon as my eyes grew to the size of golf balls, Rick's head began to shake profusely, and I sensed a hostile husband/wife environment right then and there.  So, with all my might, I turned left and through the green doors we went.

Oh, My, goodness...As soon as we entered this ginormous place, it was, "Zara, who?" And I swore I heard Angels singing whilst playing harps.  I was in heaven.  There were designer bags everywhere, designer shoes, designer clothes, designer kitchenware, designer garden sets, and designer chocolate....whaaaaaaa???  Yeah, that's what I said.

So here I am strolling through prices that only exist after 3 digits, touching and gawking as though every item were a celebrity.  I also, discovered, that when I talk to other people around expensive items, I tend to whisper....I just feel that everything is so sacred and that my voice means nothing...it's amazing.

So the first thing me and the hubby do, is head straight into the food area.  Naturally.  Actually, it was all my doing, I saw an episode of Samantha Brown where she was at Harrods, and when she was in the food area, my heart was pounding, and my mouth was an open fire hydrant whilst watching her on the telly.  Well gee, in person, Gawd, my eye sensory went on overload...then my nose sensory overloaded, soon after my mouth sensory overloaded as well.  After passing through the sweets section, where all kinds of cakes, chocolates, fudge, cookies, macaroons lived, we then worked our way through the oyster bar, deli bar, sushi bar, to then the meat section, salad section, produce section, pizza section, water section, and finally settling down at the ice cream section.  It was here we dined on Spaghetti ice cream for almost 20 dollars.

 That's US dollars.  Was it worth it?  Eh, a toothpick would have made me happier.  BUT, what did make me a little happier, was the receipt we got.  I'm a sucker for paper and all kinds of media....but this receipt was awesome!  It was on thick white paper, with a smooth matte feel.  You know, the type of receipt you usually get when you buy designer items?  I felt so regal right then and there.

So onwards to spending our lovely gift card.  First stop, Mr. Vuitton's store.  We were trying to re-enact my close to purchasing a certain bag moment that we had in Paris, but we found that things in Pounds don't make our wallets as happy as it were spending in Euro.  Onwards.  We, continued to other handbags, where I found my dream bag, that will never be in my permanent presence, at Chanel....sigh.  At least I touched it and had a moment on my shoulder.

Then we moved onto smaller things...like shoes.  Lordy, we walked through brands like Miu Miu, Jimmy Choo, Hogan...and then I found myself  falling in love with some sneakers.....but couldn't justify spending 210 pounds on something that I knew would be walking through bird poop.  Onwards to clothes....again,  I felt as though I were in a movie full of celebrities.

 Didn't your heart just stop looking at those wonderful logos?  Well....I almost fainted.  And I was so scared to touch anything.  I felt like a peasant and my dirty hands would only taint these beautifully tailored threads.  I unwillingly trudged on to the next department.  My money was too lower class for these yummies.

We then proceeded to find a department that better suited our social status.  THE TOY SECTION!!!!!  Yeeeeah!  It was here I was happily skipping and speaking at normal voice level.  I was touching everything and tossing things that were priced under 2 digits with a snobby flair.  Also, these huge Teddy Bears that guarded this floor were so fluffy and soft I was geegling with delight!

 After picking up a few little souvenirs, we travelled to the garden section, in hopes of finding a garden gnome.  Yes, a garden gnome.

Don't ask me why, but I've been obsessed with trying to find one for our garden for the longest time.  But to no avail....

Also, still searching for my gnome during this Harrods trip,  but still to no avail.  BUT, I found something that made me want it so bad, I was willing to chain myself to it.  Check this bad boy out...

I. WANT. THIS.  

Seriously, I as soon as my eyes met this beautiful piece of art, scenes of how I was going to tuck this away in my purse started buzzing through my head.  But unless, I was Alice in Wonderland, that mission had to be aborted.  Then I tried the next option, maybe I could buy it?  So I looked at the price.  Oh, my Lord, I almost flat lined!  Can you please guess how much this cost????  Ahem...ok sit down and prepare yourself :: 5,060 POUNDS.  Yes, POUNDS.  I didn't even want to try and convert it to US dollars, I already heard my wallet deflate.

So after the hubby unwillingly dragged me to the next department, I finally came back to life and continued with the spending. Kitchenware.  SO it was here,  where the Harrods gift card was put to use.  Oh my, I was grabbing things left to right like a mad woman.  My most favorite purchase was a lemon squeezer by the designer Alessi

Purchases made, bags in hand the hubby and I decided to do one of our favorite past times.  

 and recapped about our day.  

I would say this was a perfect ending to a perfect day, said the shopaholic.

Harrods, I love you.

PRETTY English rubbish

  Just wanted to FYI you guys about new items that I have been listing and discovering since I have touch foot on British stomping ground.  Despite the fact that we have no internet at the heez, we do, however have a dungle....which only allows me to list ONE item per day.  Our internet is that slow for the time being.....hence my lack of blog postings.

SO, with that said, please do not take these new postings for granted, a lot went into it's uploading....so please....ENJOY with tons of gratefulness.  Thanks!  :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PRETTYrubbish

Prayers...

As most of the world knows by now, a HUGE tragedy has occurred in Japan...and may soon effect other pieces of land on the Pacific.  I'm crossing my fingers that nothing else will happen.

I just want to use this blog to send my sincerest regards to all those effected in this tragedy in Japan, and that they are in my prayers.  No one deserves this.....

A little bit of Paris

Hello again....due to the fact that we currently do not have internet access at the homested, I'm using this opportunity in this internet cafe to catch up as much as I can.

Ok, so Valentine's day had come and gone.  I was ever so happy to be spending it with the lover, after no such bodily contact for 5 months.  I was ever HAPPIER to celebrate this Valentine's day because this couple right hur, spent it in the city of Amor.  Paris.  I mean, WHY NOOOOT????

Yes, me and the hubby got all romantical  for 4 days in Paris.  We swooned, eskimo kissed, crossed arms to feed eachother during a candle lit dinner, spoke sweet nothings in eachother's ears, walked with our hands in eachother's back pockets, and stared dreamily at eachother and spoke with no words....only our eyes.  HA.  HA.  HA!  Oh HELL no!  Me and the hubby love he eachother very much, but we are sooooo not that type of couple.  Heck, if we tried doing any of those things, we'd bust up laughing.  Sorry.  haha  But we did act romantical and snuggled here and there.

So anyways...I'm gonna make this blog a little summary of all that we experienced in this city of love.  I have tons to say, so I'm going to break them up in later blogs, mixed in with other blogs.....Paris is so worth it.

First thing I must say about Sweet Paris is this....You have got to be a freakin millionaire to experience everything without seriously injuring your wallet.  That place is mad expensive.  I swore I saw Rick's hand quivered whenever he had paid the bill.  And at the arirport on our way home to the UK,  I could've sworn I heard his wallet whimpering.  No bueno.

But other than the fact that we donated tons to Paris' economy, the sights and sounds were enough to make up for that fault. Literally, everything took my breath away.  Now, a few years back, I did a bold move and traveled to Paris all by my lonesome.  So I knew what to expect when I came back.  Well, I expected it, and the dang place took my breath away once again.  Paris is like that the one gorgeous woman you meet, so breath taking and beautiful and you hate her, yet envy her for it, and when you meet again, you try to play it cool and prepare yourself  to experience her beauty again.  When you see her again,  the playing cool leaves your mind, your knees buckle with admiration and awe, and you can't stop staring.  Paris is that beautiful Bitch.

OMG, the sounds of accents that tickled my ears made me tingle with jealousy at the fact that I couldn't speak with the same accent or even speak their language.  I was also jocking their ways of dressing.  No matter how hard I tried to dress all chic and cool, I still felt like I was wearing a bean bag.  AND the food.  Oh, my, LORD.  I may have to create 2 blogs for that subject.  Cuz, honey, my tummy had never ever been happier in it's 30+ years.  The food was FAB-U-LOUS!

Ok....well....let me share  few pictures with you to visually connect these rambling paragraphs....ENJOY!