Playing catch up, I promise.

So much has happened since the last time I posted a blog post. Like most my posts, they start to form in my head way before they make it onto my computer screen and I have had tons of ideas and several nearly completed posts but since they are still in my head they aren't very useful to anybody else. I promise this week to start getting them out and catching everything up. In the mean time, I wanted to celebrate my love for all things retro with these awesome skates.

I have been threatening to buy a pair of roller skates for several years and these just may be the ones that push me over the edge. I would definitely be the coolest mom at the roller rink with these on my feet.

Wedge Sandles Needed

My trip to Vegas and the WWDMAGIC show is now just 11 days away and I still don't have the shoes that I am looking for. Shoes aren't something that you can buy last minute as they need to be broken in first and while I want to have on great shoes for the show I also don't want to be in pain and end up walking around Vegas barefoot carrying my shoes (did that once and it’s not really something that I want to repeat, although they were very cute shoes and the blood stains did come off eventually).

#1 on my crush list if a pair of either brown or black leather and cork wedges, 70's style. I am looking to get a new pair of wide leg jeans and at 5'3" I need some serious platform height to pull it off. I also need them to go with maxi dresses, short sun skirts, and cut-offs to carry me thru the summer. I think I am trying to justify an investment piece. Here are my favorites so far.



Volatine "Sling Shot" Sandal



These are the most affordable at $49.95 and I like the idea of the elastic straps but worry that they might stretch out over time (sounds like a sprained ankle waiting to happen). 

Kork-Ease 'Bette' Wedge Sandle



Talk about a flash back to the 70's, this company has been making these same sandals since they were the new thing and not just the new trend, safe to say they are back with a vengeance. I love the contrast of the suede and the leather plus the bronze color is just fun. Unfortunately at $144.95 they are not 70's prices but definitely could be worse.



Pour la Victoire "Jaclyn" Wedge

 These are definitely a big more of an investment piece but could be justified at $269. I love the contrast of the jute and the leather with the brass buckles, very nautical and 70's at the same time. Two trends with one stone or shoe as it were.

Tory Burch 'Leslie' Cork Wedge

Tory Burch is known for her great mix of classic style and comfort and these sandals definite embody both of those plus they have a 4 1/2" heel height a definite bonus for me. These ones are $295 and would be worth every penny.  

Checkerboard Floor

Checkerboard floor? Yes please. I am so excited I can't even tell you, the kitchen floor started to get laid last night. I couldn't believe how much faster it went than the bathroom, I guess it really does help to use 12x12 sheets of tile instead of 1/4" tile. With some help from my loyal helpers and tile cutters, the Foreman and "C" we got about 2/3 of it done last night. I have wanted a checkerboard floor since I first fell in love with the 50's decor idea in about the 5th grade and it seems very surreal to finally be getting one. I am quite sure it will be a pain to keep clean and I will probably break everything that I drop on it but I don't care at this point. I didn't think anything could top how much I love the tile in the bathroom but I was wrong.

The 1st row being laid down.

I can't wait to get back to my house and finish laying it all down tonight, I will keep you all posted as it comes along.

Mistake #2 - Bathroom Floor

The floor in the bathroom had been an issue from the start, first we had to decide what the material was that was on there currently and if it was safe to rip up then figure out what was underneath it and if it was in good enough shape to leave down or if it too had to be replaced. The tile that I picked out for the bathroom was absolutely perfect, like all other decision with this project I knew the minute I saw it that I wanted it. It was a beautiful ¼” hexagonal tile in white with black in there. This tile wasn't completely period appropriate (c 1942) but it was very close and more importantly it was something that I really loved.



Tile is much thinner than we had originally anticipated

 We ended up having to rip the floor down to bare beams and went back and forth on what size backer board to use in there, our gut told us to use the thicker one but there was the worry that would be a small weird lip between the bathroom floor and hallway plus I wanted to put down radiant heat in that room which required a mat with coils to go down under the tile. I won't even tell you how many times I was sent back to Home Depot to exchange the backerboard for the other size, ok I will tell you 3 seperare times plus that stuff is heavy to be pulling in and out of the car and into the store and then from the store back  into the car, etc.. and it was 15 degrees outside that night, not that that really has anything to do with anything I just wanted to complain. We ended up using the thinner backer board against our better judgment and trying to make up the difference by using more thinset to build it up. We were about halfway done with the floor when we realized that this wasn’t going to work, between the thinset being so thick and the coils of the heating mat the small tiles  did not dry evenly. 

What we found when the floor was taken up



New backerboard is put down

  The decision was made to rip out what we had done already and start over. This required another trip back to Home Depot to purchase more backer board (the correct size this time), we had to throw away the heating coil, and wait almost 2 weeks for more tile to come in, of course it was special order from the east coast and ran into some weather delays.

2nd time is a charm

The 2^nd time it went in beautifully and looks wonderful, I was however informed by the Forman that the radiant heat wasn’t going to work and if I wanted heat in there that he would buy me a small radiator. I’m glad I decided to stay with the tile and I will absolutely appreciate how even the floor is every time I walk on it. Plus as long as I am trying to be positive about this experience the delay in the bathroom gave me some extra time and I was able to strip the kitchen cabinets down to bare wood before re-painting them.

Finished Project



Shower Curtains

Ok now that I’ve picked my favorite color combos I have to find a way to express that in my bathroom. I will start by trying to find a shower curtain and then will find towels to match. I found a statement Over at Squidoo they sais "an average shower curtain is over 70" x 70" -- Any item that covers that much space in your home should be perfectly beautiful!" I love that statement and have to admit that my shower curtain wasn't something that I had put a lot of time or energy into in my previous homes. That is definately about to change, here is what I found so far that I love.

Black & Ivory



Rosewood Black and White Shower Curtain by Nicole Miller



Dwell Studio for Target® Baroque Shower Curtain



Design Index "Chandelier"

They range in price from $19.99 - 99.99 and each one has a different feel to it but all would fit and make a great addition to my small room.  

Denim for the People

I came across an article today in NY Magazine and found myself really wanting to disagree with what it had to say.  Their tag line read, “The $300 dungaree is dead (or at least dormant). Long live the cheaper, stronger, and still-great-looking blue jean.” But after I read it I found that I was agreeing with what they were saying. Their general idea is that now that the masses have gotten a taste of what designer denim looks and feels like the cheaper (more affordable) brands have stepped up to the plate and are designing styles to compete with the department stores. Just this weekend I purchased a pair of William Rast jeans at Target for $24.99 that I love just as much as the pair that I purchased from Nordstrom last year for $190.

William Rast for Target Skinny Jeans

Being a jeans girl thru and thru I don’t see myself ever completely giving up my designer denim but I can definitely appreciate the need to supplement your closet with a variety of price points. I have been known to mix a pair of $300 designer jeans with a $5 t-shirt and vintage boots from a second hand store, now maybe the whole outfit will get more affordable, or more likely it will just leave me with more room in my shoe budget and probably more jeans that I know what to do with, 23 at last count.

Pantone

I am proud to say I spent my Saturday night playing on the Pantone website. Now at first glance it may appear that I have way too much time on my hands but that is actually the opposite of what happened, I just saved myself hours of randomly searching thru cyberspace. I have been grappling on what colors to use in the bathroom, I wanted something to go with the mint green and that was somewhat era appropriate but that was still fun and had a bit of my own personality infused in it. Maggie the wonderful owner of The Shanty (mentioned here ) showed me a color board on the Pantone website that she thought would make a great bedroom color combo and wanted my opinion on it.

I instantly had a light bulb moment, I had forgotten all about the Pantone website and being a visual person I love inspiration boards and have made them for almost every room in the house so why not look here for possible color combinations. Granted this is meant for weddings but it gives you a great idea of how colors go together plus inspiration can come from anywhere if we are looking for it.  Here are a few of my favorites, I am definitely noticing a pattern emerging here. 

  

Green/Grey

 

Firecracker & Clover



Black & Chartreuse

 



Hint of Green





Mistakes to learn from, #1 Bedroom Floors

Like any do it yourself home improvement project we have run into our fair share of Oop’s and setbacks. I don’t like to linger on the mistakes but to learn from them instead but I do want to touch base with the idea of remembering so that we don’t repeat them and hopefully somebody else can learn from them and avoid making the same ones.

Mistake #1 – Wood floors in the bedrooms.



Two of my workers



There are two bedrooms upstairs that are connected by a small hallway. In one of the bedrooms we had taken the carpet out about 15 years ago and finished the wood floor for my grandmother, the other room we had just ripped up the carpet that weekend. We did everything you are supposed to do, we rented a sander to bring them both to bare wood status and had the same two people do both rooms staining and wiping them. But unfortunately something went wrong, one room turned out a perfect Dark Mahogany color the other turned out almost black and splotchy. We tried adding more color to the lighter room and stripping some color from the other room but in the end the foreman ended up just sanding room #2 back down to bare wood and starting again. While there is still a difference in colors it turned out much better the 2^nd time.

Half way between the two coats

Master bedroom after finished and sealed

We aren’t really sure what caused the difference, one opinion is the can of stain didn’t get mixed enough in the 2^nd room, another is the wood that had been covered by carpet drank up the stain easier than the wood that had been exposed already, but whatever it was it put us back over a week and reminded us to go slowly and don’t take anything for granted.

Look back at Birthdays

Well the last of the Holiday activities just wrapped up for us this past weekend, “A’s” birthday is the end of January so I usually clump it together with the rest of the season, after all Christmas and New Years are barely over when I start working on the festivities for his b-day party. This year we did something a little different (more on that in a later post) but I wanted to look back over each special day and remember the awesome events that they were.

Birthday #1 – It was pretty typical as far as 1^st birthdays go, planned for later in the day so that a nap could occur (of course it didn’t), more adults than children and lots and lots of pictures. What I remember the most from the special day is the very hard lesson that I learned, I was working as the manager for a store at the mall and had to go into work the morning of his birthday because somebody else called in sick, I was so devastated that I might miss his big day that it helped me realize that I needed to get out of retail and do something that was more conductive to raising a family and didn’t come with all kinds of crazy nights and weekends. I turned in my resignation the next week, this was the 1^st step I made towards going back to school and it’s a decision that I haven’t regretted at all.

My other favorite memories from that day include him eating the small cake I made for him, he didn’t like how sweet it was and he cried when the frosting got on him, he did however pick off all the rainbow sprinkles that were on top of it. We put him straight into the kitchen sink, clothes and all to get some of the frosting off of him and he passed out in his playpen right in the middle of the party. I also remember my cousin laying on her stomach thru the entire cake ordeal snapping tons of photo’s for me so that I didn’t have to worry about that and could just enjoy being there with him. One of the many reasons I love her and my little sister who drove 8 hours home from College just to be with us for his birthday.

Birthday #2 –Nemo Theme - and I really went overboard. I bought a large round aquarium to use for punch (which of course was made to look like water and even froze Swedish fish in ice cubes so there was fish swimming around in it). I made and hung orange fish from the ceiling with lots and lots of green crepe paper to look like you were under water. I even purchased a bunch of goldfish and gave them out as party favors to the guests. We still have a lot more adults than kids but everybody had fun.

Birthday #3 – Superhero Theme – He couldn’t decide between a Spiderman theme and a Superman theme so we just made it a general superhero theme, the catch though was that everybody (kids and adults) had to come dressed as their own personal superhero, or who they would be if they were a superhero. People were pretty good sports and participated for the most part. The big kid activity was decorating cookies, a good idea until the red frosting got everywhere, all the pictures of the kids they all have red all over their mouths. Still more adults than kids but getting a little bit better.

Our "Super" family

Birthday #4 – Pirate Theme – The first of many obsessions he had, he was obsessed with all things pirate for a good 3 years and even made people call him Jack Sparrow (from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”). He thought all pirates were good and didn’t like the cartoon movie “Peter Pan” because it portrayed the pirates as the bad guys. This was a easy theme to do because the movie had just hit it big and there was pirate stuff everywhere. I sent the invitations out in plastic bottles, had people come dressed as pirates, did a treasure hunt, made a pirate ship cake, and did all pirate themed snacks. The really big thing for this birthday is I found a guy who did impersonations to come and pretend to be Captain Jack Sparrow. Andrew has seen him that fall at the fair and was absolutely enthralled with him, it took me 3 months and every contact I had at the news station (I was working there doing an internship for their radio department) to find him but it was absolutely worth it. He knocked on the door and the look on Andrews face when he opened it to Captain Jack was worth all the work and stress I had put into the event. The guy was truly amazing and did an incredible job, he never broke character and to this day the kids who were there still talk about it.

Birthday #5 – Pirates Theme (again)

Birthday #6 – Transformers Theme – This was the first birthday party that wasn’t at my parents house, so that brought a new group of stresses and chaos to the plate but it was also nice to not have to spend the entire morning setting up and then the entire night cleaning up. We went to the local roller skating rink, it was a ton of fun and almost everybody skated. My niece and nephew (technically my cousin’s kids) were so impressed that they both had their birthdays there as well. I made an Optimus Prime cake that turned out really well. Kids to adult ratio is finally starting to balance out a bit more.

Birthday #7 – Indiana Jones Theme – Now I’m in love with the ease of which you can have a party somewhere besides your home. This one was at a place at our local mall that acts as a kids drop center where they can play while mom and dad shop and on Sundays it is only open for private parties to reserve. They have a air hockey table, a climbing and tube crawl area, video games, a movie area, dress ups stuff, and tricycles to ride so kids of all ages were able to play and participate. The only bad thing about this was that it was so broken up that I didn’t really get to visit with everybody. Andrew was supposed to be Indiana Jones for Halloween this year but woke up with the chicken pox that morning so he got to wear his costume to his party instead. I made all the invitations and even made and sewed little whips onto each one, a great idea but a ton of work. This was also special for me because a little girl, well not so little anymore, that I used to babysit for and who was supposed to be a flower girl in my wedding way way way back when, works there and had just found out that she was pregnant with her 1^st baby. There is more kids here than adults because we invited a lot of kids from school.

Birthday #8 – Hockey Theme – This was his first year playing on an actual hockey team so of course we had a hockey theme. We had it at a local place called Jump-n-Play, it’s a large warehouse that has 5 large bouncy things plus a toddler area. It’s safe to say that the adults had just as much fun if not more fun than the kids did, some of us still have scars from that day to prove it, who knew you could bleed from a large inflatable slide. It was such a hit that we had my nephew Josh’s 3^rd birthday there as well as several other kids who were there that day. Kids outnumber the adults, finally.

Invitation that I made for the party

Birthday #9 – No big party for all our friends just a long relaxing weekend spent at a hotel/waterpark with our entire family. It was just what the Dr ordered to be sure.

1942 Frigidaire Oven

The holidays have not been good to my poor little house, what I mean by that is with all the activities that tend to go along with this exciting and busy time of year not much progress has been made. I am not upset by this, it is by choice, it was an easy decision to make, the painting will still be there but I will never get another Christmas with my son being eight so I am going to enjoy it every opportunity I can get. This was also a huge relief and help to my family, they didn’t need to feel guilty that they weren’t working on the house every time they attended a Christmas party or got together with some friends. Now that the holiday are over it is time to turn my attention back to the task at hand, the house. We have 3 more projects to complete before it will be move-in ready.

1.       Tile the Kitchen floor

2.       Rip out the carpet and re-finish the living room floor

3.       Remove wallpaper and paint living room

One major thing that did happened this week was we got the oven working. The oven is original to the house and has always been one of my favorite things about it however it wasn't currently working. The burners worked but the oven itself wasn’t working on my beautiful 1942 Frigidaire oven. Trying to track down parts or a mechanic who could/would work on it was a real challenge and the idea of getting rid if it was not even an option. I love to bake so not having a working oven has been a major point of stress for me the last few months. My foremon suggested that we have the electrician who was doing some other work for us look at it, and a great idea it was for sure. It took him less than 20 minutes to get it back to working order plus he was able to check all the wiring and confirm that everything is safe to use. So now not only does my oven work but so does the task light, the timer, the clock, and the 110v outlet on the front. It still needs a little TLC but at least now it works.



How is that for the best post-Christmas present ever?

Fashion Week - Vegas Style

I have an exciting announcement to make, I will be heading down to Las Vegas for a week in February to go to market with Maggie, the wonderful owner of "The Shanty" the greatest little boutique in Newport Washington. When I heard the news my mind immediately went to what would I wear? Since it is January and its kind of hard to get spring and summer inspiration around here right now (it is currently snowing out my window) I went straight to the internet for inspiration. Besides all my favorite fashion blogs (here, here, & here) I found this great post from the Singer 22 blog, its their top 5 pics on what to wear to NY Fashion Week (ironically the same week). Of course Vegas and the west coast style is definitely different from NY style but I got some great ideas from here non the less.

I will do many more posts on this subject I'm sure so stay tuned and tell me if you have a favorite fashion blog.

RIP Mickey Mouse

It occured to me today that while I blog a lot about fashion (here, here, & here) and the progress of the house (here) I haven't done much on what I am really passionate about, my son, also refered to as "A" on here. I was reading the blog "Surving Motherhood" by Alli  (a former a high-heeled wearing, cell phone slinging, Associate Art Director at a national magazine. Now a snot wiper and poop checker to two boys full-time) and after reading her story (here) was reminded of this funny incident when "A" was about 2 or 3.

We had only been in our new house a little over a year and Cam and his friend were hanging out there one day while I was at work and saw a mouse, so like the men (aka overgrown boys) that they are they grabbed a hockey stick and chassed it around the house whacking at it but finally losing it. There day continued on they forgot to tell me about the incident.

The next morning I was standing in a coma state watching the coffee pot brew, one of those morning when you are just waiting until there was a cup full to steal out of the pot when "A" came up to me in his little pj's crying and  holding a dead mouse. I didn't really handle it that well and totally screamed like a girl (scared my poor little guy pretty badly too). I appologized for scaring him and said I was sad too that there was a mouse in the house and he said, "No mommy this is Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse is dead.", truly one of those moments when you realize the difference between a 3 year olds mind and that of an adult. Cam was very appologetic for forgetting to mention the mouse thing to me later that day but the damage had already been done. It took us several years and a trip to Disneyland to convince "A" that Mickey Mouse was indeed not dead.

One of my favorite thing about blogging and reading other peoples blogs are those reminders that you are indeed not alone out there.

Hot & Cold Hooks

Last Wednesday night I had the wonderful opportunity to have dinner with my little sister and her son, we do spend a lot of time together (especially now that we are all living under one roof) but its usually with the rest of the family so some time to ourselves was a wonderful treat.  The four of us went to Josh's favorite, Panda Express, sometimes its just easier to give in than deal acting his age (he's 3) somewhere else. :) We were enjoying our rare sister time so much that we decided to go to the TJ Maxx that was right there and hit up their clearance sale where I am excited to say that i found the most wonderful set of shower curtain hooks ever.



Restoration Hardware "Hot & Cold Shower Curtain Rings"

 I had seen this set before Christmas as Restoration Hardware for $24 but made the mistake of not grabbing them and have regretted it ever since. They are fun and kinda quirky while still giving a kick back to the 1940's theme I seem to have going on, plus they match my sink and shower handles perfectly. So when I saw this set on clearance for $4 I grabbed them immediately. While there are some slight differences between the two the general idea is definately there. I still do not like the idea of hiding my awesome tile behind a shower curtain but at least now I am excited to hang these.


Now I just have to find a rod and a shower curtain, any ideas?

January Clearance Sales

January can sometimes be a hard month, there is always the let down that comes after Christmas and you still have 3 or 4 more months of bad weather to look forward to but there are 2 shining lights that get me thru this dreary month, #1 is A’s birthday & #2 is all the clearance sales. I have had pretty good luck so far and I’ll probably share more later but one thing that really stands out in my mind are these great little jeweled flats. I have had my eye on the Steve Madden version since early fall and at $79.95 they were a pretty good deal but when I found them on clearance at Target last week for $4.95 I was extremely excited.

Target version for $4.95

Steve Madden version for $79.95

I wore them to work the very next day and got tons of compliments, a great way to dress up a simple outfit without being too over the top and all for the cost of a cup of coffee.

New Year's Eve Wedding

As I mentioned here we had yet another wedding to go to this winter, this one was on New Year’s Eve and once again the bride had a photo booth there for all the guests to enjoy, and enjoy it we did. This time I think I walked out of the wedding with about 10 of those little photo strips. It’s fun to look thru them and see the evolution of the evening. In the first couple we couldn’t even manage to get all of our faces into the photos and by the end we had a large amount of people in there and were just being silly.



Can't quite seem to find the lens but apparently we all went to the same hairdresser.



7 girls, thats a lot of poeple in a small space



Little sister and brother in law even made an appearance


All in all a great way to kick off the 2011, surrounded by family and friends, in a small photo booth.

Plosive

It is no secret that shoes are an obsession for me so it was a no brainer when I found these while shopping for a baby shower gift; ok so I had wandered a little ways outside of the baby section. To say it was love at first sight is an understatement, I saw these Plosive by Wild Diva over the racks and they called to me across the store. I actually ran over another woman in my haste to get to these.

What’s not to love,

·         pretty pink color, check

·          Lace, check

·         Perfect heights, check

·         Platform style, check

·         Can be worn with bare legs or with tights, check

·         Great price, $19.99, check

Wild Diva is know for their great details and attention getting styles, plus how can you not love a shoe called "Plosive". Maybe its my 80's child coming out, these are definitely reminiscent of early Madona, but whatever you want to call it, another match in heaven has been made, thank you shoe gods for looking out for me once again.

Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

Love this little girl, this is just too cute not to share and the pink bathroom is just an added bonus. If you ever need a little pick me up just watch this and your mood is guarenteed to get better.

Remodeling Retro Style

Lets start off the series with the remodeling genre as that seems to be the one that sucks up the majority of my time and energy at the moment, One of my favorites is  “Brooklyn Limestone", it’s written by a young couple who purchased a 100+ year old home in Brooklyn NY and have spent the last few years renovating it and bringing it back to its former glory. One of my favorite things about what they have done is having been able to add modern touches and conveniences while still staying true to the bones of the house, I can attest as to how difficult this can be at times and I am trying to be very intentional in my decision for the house for this exact same reason.  It makes it feel like the home is truly theirs and they are the homes. I really hate when people try to force a style or certain aesthetic into a space where it truly just does not belong and vice versa people who are so determined to re-make something into exactly what it was originally that it isn’t conventional as a modern day home.  While they have done a lot more extensive remodeling than I have done so far I still love seeing all the before and after pictures (here) and will admit to being extremely jealously.  They also have a great contest going on right now so this is a great time to pop over to their site and check it out.


Found this pic after I was pretty much done with our bathroom and was super excited to see that we had made some of the same design choices. (Brooklyn Limestone upstairs bathroom)

My other favorite hands down in the remodeling genre is “Retro Renovation”, Pam has given hope to thousands of homeowners across North America that they truly are not alone in their dream of bringing their homes back to their original mid-century glory. With greats posts like  “Save the Pink Bathroom” and links on where to find everything from design tips, to products and even where to find the best reproductions and lot and lot of pictures this is a must see blog to be sure. She is also very good at regulating the reader comments and always encourages her readers to renovate safely. While I have never met her I feel like she is a friend whom I can call on anytime with my design question and am working with her currently to get my kitchen featured on her blog to hopefully get some design help from her readers, I’ll keep you updated as to when that happens.

1st Series

Blogging is strange new world to be sure and it sucks you in. As I mentioned before (here) I have certain blogs that I check on a daily basis and I know without fail that there will be a new post up every morning and I completely envy their discipline to do that although ironically enough those are also the ones that their blog is their full time job, coincidence? Probably not J . While others post a bit more randomly and it is always a wonderful surprise when something new pops up. Looking at the list of ones I am currently following I found them divided into certain categories’, my friends & family, fashion, house (retro renovation and remodeling), and parenting. With this in mind I am going to do my first series of posts showcasing some of my favorite blogs in each category. Some of my favorite blogs I found as links from other blogs so I hope you enjoy this series and will hopefully find something that you also love.

New Years Staycation

Stay-cation is a word that was on everybody’s lips this year so it was fitting that we spent the last night of 2010 having one ourselves. With the economy struggling and people just glad they even had jobs; there was a definite trend to staying close to home for your vacations this year. Because of the new house we didn’t go anywhere this year and I was definitely feeling the need to go somewhere even if just for a bit. We had some friends that got married on New Year’s Eve at the Davenport Hotel so I took that opportunity to book us a suite at the hotel for the evening. The Davenport is one of the nicest hotels in town, and it feels so decadent to stay at a hotel like that, even if just for a night.



Davenport Hotel

We valet parked the car so we didn’t have to worry about trying to find parking and I got early check in and was able to get ready for the wedding in the room and even ordered room service for a light snack to share before we went down to the reception. We went to the wedding, attended the reception, had drinks afterwards, and watching the midnight fireworks display all without leaving the building. After a busy night nothing beats enjoying a leisurely morning after sleeping on a great bed, a Starbucks coffee stand in the lobby, and a late breakfast.  While it is only about five miles from my house it absolutely feels like you are somewhere else completely and I am definitely looking forward to doing another one soon. All in all a great way to kick off 2011.