Planner-palooza

Posted on January 5, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

If you’re like me, congrats! You must be awesome. But also, whenever you make an appointment, schedule a meeting or plan a date in advance, you know that typing it into your Gmail calendar, writing it on your wall calendar and updating your smartphone calendar is SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH. You must also enter the event into your day planner.

I know I’d be lost without my planner. And by lost, I mean I would feel an enormous void in my life where a fancy, adorable paper product should be.

I have yet to pick out my 2012 planner, which means I’ve been planner-less for five whole days! Help me decide, won’t you?

Here are the options:

Jonathan Adler Agenda – Flame

Waiting for Tomorrow Day Planner

Cavallini World Map Weekly Planner

Persimmon Datebook

Barbara Wiggins Leather Diary

The gold one at the end is my favorite, but it’s more of a diary than a planner. Also, the price on the website is in Euros, so that just makes things more math-y and complicated. But I can’t get away from the idea that every girl deserves to have a magical gold book in her purse…

Tea for three

Posted on January 3, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

One great thing about working at an ad agency is that we don’t have to work the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s. So my days last week were spent shopping, going out to lunch, watching movies, catching up with friends and doing other activities of a similarly awesome nature.

Ahhh last week… those were the good ol’ days.

On Wednesday, my mom, my sister and I had afternoon tea at The Drake Hotel like fancy ladies. We did fancy lady things like eat scones and tiny sandwiches with no crusts and stick our pinkies in the air. It was wonderful, I tell you, just delightful!

After tea, we strolled Michigan Avenue, did some shopping at Nordstrom and enjoyed an early evening cocktail at Fleming’s. In short, it was the perfect day and I want to be a fancy lady forever.

Anyone know where I can purchase a mink stole?

Celebrating in style (and football helmets)

Posted on January 2, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

Our New Year’s Eve involved good food, great company, fancy drinks, poor lighting conditions (for taking photos, apparently), grapes (a tradition!), football helmets (don’t ask), Penny Can!, a sleepover and LOTS of fun.

Hopefully yours was equally as memorable! I don’t know about you, but I have a good feeling about 2012…

A New Year’s Eve message from Gatsby

Posted on December 31, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

Well, 2011 was awesome, just like me. I’m now a big city dog, so you better recognize. I destroyed approximately 30 pieces of mail this year, which I believe is a personal best. In 2012, I hope to destroy the actual mailman. I’m already drunk, but when do I get to break into this champagne? Get me off this f@%$ing table.

Happy New Year!

Sparkling wine at The Poison Cup

Posted on December 30, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

So many reasons to celebrate, so many sparkling wines to choose from!

New Year’s Eve is fast approaching (like, tomorrow!), and since sparkling wine is my drink of choice no matter what the occasion, I plan on drinking it all. night. long.

This may seem like a dangerous, hang-over-inducing proposition to some people. But worry not, my friends. I’m no amateur. It’s all about pacing. And really, just the mere act of holding a glass of sparkling wine in my hand makes me feel a little more festive.

In the spirit of New Year’s Eve and sparkles and wine and feeling festive, I went with some friends on Wednesday night to a sparkling wine tasting at a cute little wine shop in Lincoln Park called The Poison Cup.

Unlimited tastes of ten different sparkling wines and the bonus of good company? Heaven, is that you??

We had a great time, and I ended up buying a brut cava to drink on New Year’s Eve. Can’t wait to pop that cork!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all an e-card!

Posted on December 23, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

Welcome to our Christmas card!

Most years we send cards in the mail like normal people. But this year, thanks to poor timing and a husband-imposed budget, that just wasn’t in the cards. (HA! Cards. Get it? Oh man.)

Instead, I decided to use Paperless Post and send them as e-cards. A little annoying. Kind of tacky. I know. But better than nothing, right?

The only problem is that we didn’t have email addresses for some of our friends/family members. So as a disclaimer, I’d just like to note that if you didn’t receive a holiday e-card from us, it’s because we don’t have your email address. Or we just don’t like you like that.

Also, I’d like to thank everyone who sent us holiday cards in the mail this year! You, your children and your pets are all gorgeous/adorable. (Even though some of you have bite marks on your faces or got your heads entirely ripped off thanks our mailmain-loathing dog who clearly has anger management issues.)

Even though we now have much less counter space, receiving each and every one of these cards was definitely a bright spot in my day!

I’m probably going to sign off for a few days to enjoy Christmas in the ‘Lou (aka, St. Louis – You can call it that if you’ve lived there). So I hope everyone has a very merry/happy/joyous holiday-of-choice!

Cheers and cheer to you and yours! 🙂

Happy Birthday, American Girl!

Posted on December 22, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

Apparently, it’s the 25th anniversary of American Girl. These girls don’t look a day over eight!

I’m proud to say that I grew up in the Golden era of American Girl. Back then, there were only three dolls to choose from: Kirsten, Samantha and Molly (in ascending order of historical era).

Receiving the catalog in the mail was a monthly highlight, no mega store/restaurant complexes existed, and the educational historical background of each “girl” was the convenient angle we used to convince our moms to buy these ridiculously expensive, glorified Cabbage Patch Kids. Their hair accessories alone probably cost the equivalent of several Pogo Balls and a Skip-it.

When I was finally allowed to get an American Girl doll for my birthday (after a speech about how important it was to take good care of her), I naturally chose Samantha. She had the best hair and the best clothes. I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose either of the other two. Kirsten had weird braids. And Molly had glasses and braids. Ew.

A few years later, once Felicity (from the Revolutionary War) and Addy (a slave) came out, I asked for an Addy doll for my birthday because like most 12-year-olds, I was a big advocate of diversity. But being a sucker for large hair bows, I always loved Samantha more.

I still have both Samantha and Addy. They are currently sitting on a shelf in my old bedroom at my parents’ house. Getting very, very dusty.

Maybe someday I’ll be able to power-wash them and pass them down to my own kids who will probably think they are gross and lame and won’t know what to do with toys that don’t have touchscreens.

Someday…

(Images from here, here and here.)

One night in Paris Club

Posted on December 20, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

Last Saturday, three of Will’s friends from Belleville were in town and one of them just happened to have a pretty awesome connection at Paris Club.

You know what that means: VIP status baby! We were poppin’ bottles and takin’ names!

Actually, the night was way more classy and less douchebaggy than I just made it sound. We “popped” one bottle.

But it was awesome! I gorged myself on the frites frommage and the more adventurous people at the table (NOT me) even gulped down some escargot (while I winced and looked away). They said it was delicious. I’m not completely convinced.

After dinner, we even got to skip the insane line at Studio Paris (the club upstairs), where that line between classiness and douchebaggery blurred just a bit, along with our vision and memory of that part of the evening.

It was a great time. Thanks to Mo for an amazing night!

Hey, I tried

Posted on December 19, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

This year, I tried to get all crafty (and environmentally conscious, mind you) by wrapping Christmas gifts in brown paper grocery bags and sprucing them up with some colorful tape.

So if you receive a gift from us and it smells like cheese, deli meat, toilet paper (not used!), or tampons (not used!), then I apologize. And I’m not judging, but what kind of weirdo smells gifts?

Anyway, hopefully the old saying “it’s the thought that counts” also applies to the gift wrapping – not just the gift.

The morning after

Posted on December 16, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

“If anybody is REALLY hungover, people are meeting in the lobby at 11:45am to go to Mr. Beef on Orleans. FYI.”

That was the first line of an email sent out to all of the creative staff at my agency this morning.

Explanation: our holiday party was last night.

I might be dragging a bit thanks to a few too many glasses of prosecco, but at least I actually came to work today, which is more than a lot of people can say.

I’m going to go ahead and assume that this is going to be a pretty low-key workday.

Happy Friday!