Back to the Grind

warning: extra long post!!

I'm back to work after a fabulous 3-day weekend, with a special Valentine's Day mixed in.  I hope all of you had an extra sweet V Day with those that are near and dear to you.  The hubby treated me like a queen and we tried out a new restaurant we've been wanting to try for a while now, J. Gilberts.  It was pretty darn good and the ambiance was perfect for V Day. 

Saturday morning I spent with some lovely ladies and very sweet elderly people at a nearby assisted living center.  We hosted a Pretty and Polished event and gave ladies, and a few misters, a manicure.  It was a humbling and fun experience, I'd love to do it again.  I met a sweet man, Grady William Mallone, to be exact, that was the first person to visit us and was the last person to leave, he stayed the entire time.  He spent the morning telling myself and another girl about his life as a retired Army Major and spelling out our names and his with heart letters, over and over.  Sweet, sweet man that reminded me of my papa.  He was the funniest thing, he refused to take picture with any of us but he loved taking pictures of us.  The cutest thing was him taking pictures, bless his heart he didn't realize there was a screen that showed what he was taking a pic of so he was holding the camera up to his eye and glaring at it up close, as if there was a lens.  Nevertheless the pictures actually turned out nice.

I had two special packages arrive from other lovely bloggers.  I opened the first box and found this pretty little box.

Inside was the beautiful pearl and jade necklace I won, courtesy of Natasha Grasso, from the Bon Bon Rose Girls' blogiversary.  Thank you Kristin and Megan, I absolutely love this piece!

This picture so doesn't do it justice.

The second package was from Southern Cinderella and was just in time for V Day!  I opened the box to find a  festive card from Lindsay and V Day tissue paper.

that revealed all these goodies

Look at the cute valentine from Lindsay and Chloe!  Can't wait to try out the recipes in the chocolate chip cookbook!

Thank you ladies for the wonderful gifts, you're too sweet!!

After P&P, I dashed over to the catch the last couple hours of the Fornash warehouse sale.  I definintely picked up some goodies including

a champagne colored boa scarf (one of Oprah's favorite things for 2009!)

The Annapolis sale is this Sunday, February 21st.

The Mongram Chick is hosting a fabulous giveaway until tomorrow night so be sure to sign up and check out her store and blog, she has fabulous things, all monogrammed of course!  Be sure to tell her I sent you! ; )

As you can probably imagine I'm just a little behind after having 4.5 days off so I'm out for now.  Exciting stuff coming in the very near future, stay tuned! 

Happy Mardi Gras!! Anyone doing anything to celebrate?

cBv