Week in Review

I'm sure you can guess what my week was full of. Packing & moving!

It's so weird to think that next week's review will be filled with pictures of our road trip & sights of our new home & new town.

My heart is heavy today thinking of all the goodbyes that are soon to come, this being our last day here.

We leave bright & early tomorrow @ 6am.

I'll definitely be facebook-ing, so if you want, you can find me on facebook: Nikki Mans. Just let me know you're a blog fan so I know who you are. And I'll blog everyday too, via my iPhone, so there will most likely not be pictures. But I might be able to figure that part out.

After the house is sparkling clean I'll be running last minute errands & organizing our suitcases & 'to-go' bags.

Busy, busy.

I'm really excited about the road trip & adventure we're about to go on. I could not be more thankful that my parents will be traveling with us. They're fun people & I'm happy to share this portion of our adventure with them.

Gotta run. The cleaning crew is arriving soon (which includes Tia, my mom, my aunt, my grandma, my girls & me). Bring on the dust bunnies, dirt & grime!

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play.

♥

Leçons de Séduction No. 52

Blogging

Oh blog of mine. How I've missed you. I hate being sick and busy. I shall return. I promise.

The lowest aspect of theatre ...

sigh ...

Hate to admit it ...

... but I don't want you to hear it from someone else ...

I am now a contributing drama critic for a theatre website.

That's what happens, I suppose, when you associate with some of those people for awhile ...

I mean, what can I do? Are there shots you can take for something like that?

(I guess the only saving grace is that I'm doing it under another name,)

Whew!

jb

{the last supper}

Still in my p.j.'s & packin' the kitchen with my mom. Little Zoey, in the background, has been ready to help in any way she can.

Tonight was "the last supper" with my family. We gathered at mom & dad's & had takeout from my favorite local bbq place. We played a few games of Wii bowling, tennis & baseball & had apple crisp for dessert. And then it was time to say goodbye to my brother & his family. I hugged my little brother & just lost it. I never thought it would be this hard to say goodbye. Really, I haven't had time to even think about the "goodbyes". And it just hit me hard tonight. I hugged him real good & just wailed & bawled & weeped. It just suddenly came over me. But my sweet brother is a sensitive soul. Which meant that he was wailing & bawling & weeping too. We were a pair, he & I. It wasn't pretty at all.

And then, on the sidelines, mom joined in.

♥

Eve's Apples Celebrates Two Years!

As many of you know, Eve's Apples is celebrating our "Two Year Anniversary" today. Two years ago, our first blog posted, fueled by Eve's love of luxurious lingerie. It's been a wonderful time, meeting new people, discovering designers, interviewing lingerie entrepreneurs, and so much more. Now, we're on the verge of launching our new online lingerie boutique. As always, we continue to be dedicated to bringing you, our dear lingeristas, gorgeous lingerie to help you look and feel your best.

In honor of our Two Year Anniversary, we are reposting one of our favorite, most talked about blogs, "Priceless Panties: Mood Lingerie." After all, this is where the inspiration all began.

Enjoy! We look forward to many more years with you!

xo

~ Eve

PRICELESS PANTIES: MOOD LINGERIE

An old boyfriend once told me that nothing is more attractive on a woman than confidence. I say, "Nothing is more attractive than a confident woman in luxurious lingerie."

For me, wearing a beautiful matching bra and panty set in a sumptuous fabric against my skin makes me feel sexy any day. It's never mattered to me whether or not my boyfriends ever knew that I was wearing special lingerie or not, or even if my husband does now. What has mattered all along is that I've known!

The right kind of lingerie will set me up for the day. If there's a day where I feel like hell warmed over, I'll look though my precious, color-coded lingerie drawers only to find my mood lifting. Once I slip the silk over my body, the decision is made. Today is going to be good!

Over the years, I've noticed, that I tend to gravitate towards certain colors and sets based upon my moods. The following is what I've found according to my mood:

Bra Color & Mood

• white = fresh, new beginnings
• black = meow, confident, nothings getting past me today
• red = sexy vixen, sassy, watch out
• pink = sweet, loving, tender, kind
• blue = calm, mellow, steady
• green = grounding
• brown = stylish, serious
• orange = artistic, creative
• flower print = girlie
• stripes = fun-loving, sporty

How I feel about lingerie reminds me of the time I tried on a $250,000 necklace at Tiffany's. The ladies with me were encouraging me to try on the necklace. I thought, "Why? I don't even like diamonds." I begrudgingly tried it on, only to be shocked at how such a small, delicately crafted piece could immediately alter my mood.

Once it was on my neck, I felt it...the feeling can only be described as a symbiotic blend of craftsmanship, beauty, and elegance. And I hadn't even I looked in the mirror yet. I can still feel the light, countless karats effortlessly draping over my collar bone and the polished metal gliding over my skin. It was as if the necklace were made just for me. And when I saw it on myself...well, I don't have to say anymore. It was a priceless experience. In that moment, I finally knew why they say, "Diamonds are a girls best friend."

The right lingerie can have the same mood altering affect. Although, for a lot less money. Whew! Lingerie can make me feel as if this beautiful creation were made just for me. It can enhance parts of my body that I never knew could look like that! What it does for my confidence, even if I'm the only one who knows it, is priceless!

("Thankful" photo {image top} is courtesy of Heather Bullard. Also thanks to Iffer's Little Nest for posting the photo.)

bear masked

still working.. :)

bear masked

still working.. :)

i ♥ not packing.

This picture pretty much perfectly describes my day. The sepia tone really makes it special I think. The girls sat in front of the computer most of the morning & watched/listened to books while me & the Mr. put in a long day of pack-a-rackin'. (Tomorrow we finish!) Tia stole me away in the early evening for some coffee & shopping & I couldn't have been happier!

And I'm happy to say that the Saran Wrap has almost completed its mission. I hate that stuff. And I hate Mr. WhiMSy love talking about it. I threatened to wrap him in it while he slept. He'll wake up a plastic sheeted burrito, just you wait & see.

The highlight of my day? (Besides not having to help with the saran wrapping anymore?) I got an iPhone!!! A sweet prezzie from an even sweeter person. I feel so lucky! And it means I'll be able to blog/facebook/twitter while I'm on the road! Yahoo!

The first app I loaded was for facebook. {I'm cuckoo for facebook now!} The second one was for a rotary phone app. I LOVE it! It really works like one of those old rotary phones too. I got it from iRetrophone.com

In this photo I'm playing with my new toy while Tia, in the black coat, waits for our pizza dinner.

I'm thankful for friends who are superheroes & rescue me from all the madness.

♥

GYPSY GOLD

Gypsy Gold does not chink and Glitter. It gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark.

Attributed to the Claddagh gypsies of Galway. That'd be the ponies they're talkin about.

A father and son at the end of time

Few movies are as relentlessly disturbing as John Hillcoat’s post-apocalyptic nightmare The Road. Cannibalism, barbarism, suicide, mass extinction of the human race, rape, infanticide … this is not material you usually leave your Thanksgiving dinner to go see.

But amid all the grisly nihilism and stomach-turning hopelessness is one of the most heart-warming, tender and significant relationships of the movies of 2009. We have a father and a son, and the love they share brightens a screen that starts (and ends) in a pitch-black turmoil so thick it seems to drip from the screen like sludgy ink.

The Road, an exquisitely accurate adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pultizer Prize-winning novel of the same name, stars Viggo Mortensen as a man with no name. He wanders the burning plains of a destroyed world with his young son, also nameless. The movie makes no attempt to explain the disaster, although nuclear war, famine and disease are likely culprits. Calamity is everywhere: Fires are sweeping through the countryside, all vegetation has stopped growing, electricity is long gone, cars are parked where they ran out of gas, most houses are tombs for their last owners, and roving bands of cannibals terrorize the few survivors.

In an early scene in the film the father and son look for food in a barn. Hanging from the rafters are the corpses of a family that could no longer bear the world. Notice the young boy: he doesn’t flinch at their decomposing bodies. The Boy, young and innocent, has grown up in this chaos and it does not shake him easily.

Man and Boy are instinctively traveling south to the ocean from what might be the Carolinas or Virginias. They scrounge for food where they can. A can of soda makes an unexpected treat. The road they’re traveling on is worn and overgrown, and occasionally they meet other travelers, who they regard with caution.

Because the only real plot point in The Road is getting to the ocean, the movie is very episodic in nature. It skips from event to event, like a highlight reel of Man and Boy’s travelogue. They wander the road from hamlet to hamlet, passing under collapsing overpasses and through burning forests dislodged from the topsoil by unnerving earthquakes. They meet Ely (Robert Duvall), an old man who blindly shuffles along the crumbling road. They are robbed by a harmless thief (Michael K. Williams). They find a bunker with stockpiled food. They bathe in a beautiful waterfall spitting grey water.

They cross paths with cannibals fairly often and the movie does not shy away from the reality of the horrific device — disemboweled torsos, amputated victims, discarded heads and bones — although it stops short of the book, which had a glimpse of a baby roasting on a spit. Was the film exaggerating the cannibalism? I’m not so sure. People will do most anything to stop the hunger pangs.

But not the Man and his son, who live by principle even if the world does not. And that is the point of The Road: In a world with no humanity, love and compassion can still exist. This movie teaches that goodness is inherited from good people. “Papa, we carry the fire, don’t we?” the Boy asks. “Yes, we carry the fire,” the Man responds warmly. The Boy was born into this madness and he was taught right and wrong by a father who was not obligated to teach such things. The Road is also about the goodness of children. The sparkle in their eyes. The innocence of their questions.

McCarthy, the reclusive author, has said in interviews recently that the dialogue in his book — dialogue that’s been brought over into the movie — was based on actual conversations he had with his own son, whom he dedicated the book to. Put into the context of his post-apocalyptic vision and it becomes heartbreaking. “Are we the good guys?” the Boy wonders. The film knows where our heartstrings are, but doesn’t strum them unnecessarily. It doesn’t pander to our sentimentality. It simply speaks, and we listen.

McCarthy should be proud of what Hillcoat (The Proposition) has accomplished with his version of The Road. The film understands the source material, even as it changes it (with the addition of a mother, Charlize Theron) and condenses it. And the producers must be applauded for keeping the film as dark and hopeless as the book, which is a brave declaration of the sanctity of McCarthy’s original work.

Really, though, what is this movie? It’s a movie for fathers and their sons. Very few movies speak so loudly and proudly about the powers of fathers. The day I saw The Road I had been helping my own father rewire electricity in his home, the home I grew up in. We had been working on it for more than a week, and we had bonded tremendously during those days of hard work. That time is priceless to me. I knew that before seeing The Road, but the film magnified it further.

Someone once said that parents raise children to replace them. It’s the truth. A good father only wants his child to grow up to be wiser and kinder than he is. And this father is no different with his son, be it the end of the world or no.

Friday Video: Glass Pear, Wild Place

Happy Gratitude Weekend Internetland. Spread the love...

Wine By Mail

An article in The Sun by Laura Smitherman indicates that the Maryland General Assembly will consider changing the law to allow Marylanders to order wine and beer from other states and have it shipped here.

Currently, the law strictly prohibits this practice. You cannot go to Barboursville Wine's website and order this great bottle of Merlot. If you have ever been to Wine.Woot.com, you cannot order any of the great deals that they have if you live in Maryland. Their website states:

Thanks to stick-in-the-mud buzzkilling state legislators, wine may only be delivered to the following states:

- and Maryland is NOT on that list.

Morality-legislating elected officials have claimed that the law protects minors from obtaining alcohol by mail. Anyone who didn't grow up under a rock knows that children do not order $45 bottles of wine from Napa Valley. They have older friends or siblings who buy it for them. Tell me that's not what you did.

I'm not sure if this will impact any of our elected officials' alcohol desires, like Montgomery County Delegate Kumar Barve who was arrested for DUI, but whose charges were mysteriously dropped, or Baltimore County Council member Sam Moxley, who was not arrested once, but twice, for driving under the influence. Perhaps the law can be written so that only non-elected officials can order alcohol from outside of Maryland.

Regardless of our elected officials' reckless disregard for the laws they pass, let's hope they get this one right and allow adults in Maryland to order fine beverages and have them shipped to our state.

Contact your State Delegate or State Senator and tell them to vote for this! Don't know you your elected officials are? Go here.

100.7 The Bay Returns

If you haven't noticed, Baltimore's only classic rock station, 100.7 The Bay, finally got rid of those 2 old jokers, Bob and Tom, and they play classic rock in the morning again. Thank, God! I had begrudgingly switched to 102.7 Jack FM in the interums since they actually play music. Unfortuatnely they play a lot of crap from the 80's.

Thank you 100.7 for coming back!

Lingerista Lifestyle: Papaya Pumpkin Facial

After a day of festivities, including succulent turkey, herb infused gravy, savory stuffing, potatoes, pies, wine and ports, your body is in dire need of detoxing. No one likes to fit into sexy lingerie after a day of gluttonous gorging on delicious holiday treats. Use some of the local harvest to make a pumpkin (and papaya) facial that is a great way to give your face (and body) a fresh glow after Thanksgiving.

PAPAYA PUMPKIN FACIAL

• 2/3 c papaya mashed
• 15oz can pure pumpkin
• 1 egg beaten

Apply for 10 minutes. Refines skin, making it smoother and giving you a softer complexion.

Thanks to Glamology for the twitter facial recipe.

May you have a relaxing, refreshed holiday weekend of recovery, my dear Lingeristas.

Roll Me To The Couch, Please.

As is tradition on Thanksgiving: I ate too much. It's a lovely kind of "full", though. A happy sort of "stuffed". 21 of us gathered at my parent's house & it was the usual Turkey Day procession: Loud kids. Lots of yummy food. Too many people gathered in a cozy house=hot. Football on the television. Piles of dishes needing washed while I find some excuse to avoid helping out- such as a Wii bowling competition. Little ones getting tired & cranky. Time to leave. The End.

I left my camera at mom's house, so no photos this time around. How weird. I feel kinda naked.

More tape & moving paper will be purchased tomorrow so we can continue on with the packing. No, I didn't complete my goal of getting all packed up by Thanksgiving. But, we are ALMOST done & that is awesome! I feel like this is such boring stuff to talk about, but since I closed up my Etsy shop until December 7th & all my crafty things are packed away, I have nothing much else to do or talk about now.

Oh, I DID create a fan page for WhiMSy love on Facebook. A lot of you were asking about that. So, yeah, become a fan! It's in the beginning stages & I really have no idea what I'm doing. I want it to be a collaboration of happy & crafty. I'm not sure how to build upon that theme yet, but I'll learn as I go.

4 more days left to soak up time with my friends & family.

♥

WE GO TOGETHER LIKE BREAD AND BUTTER

A london youth portfolio shoot i did for Twin.

Photography Mel Bles www.melbles.com

BEARSVILLE

Shoot I did for Twin in Bearsville Upstate NY.

Photography Dan Martensen www.danmartensen.com

CHRISTOPHER KANE RESORT

Christopher Kane resort shoot I did for Twin

Photography Carlotta Manaigo www.carlottamanaigo.com

Happy Thanksgiving, Lingeristas!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our dear Eve's Apples Lingeristas on this wonderful day. We wish you the joy of friends, family, food and festivities!

Photo curtosy of My Sweet Savannah. Thanks to Iffer's Little Nest for carrying this image and its website, full of inspiring photos.

*sigh*

Mr. WhiMSy love is obsessed. He's gone crazy with this oversized roll of saran-wrap he purchased. In fact, he purchased two. You can buy these GINORMOUS rolls of clear plastic stretch-wrap for moving. It's a moving accessory really. {It goes great with anything. Plastic sheeting is the new black, so I hear.} You use it by wrapping large pieces of furniture so that drawers & cupboards don't fly open & spill out while you're trying to load 'em onto the moving van. Well, he'll wrap YOU if you stay still long enough. In fact, the photo shows proof of this statement. Almost every piece of furniture in this house is wrapped in that stuff. It doesn't matter if it has a drawer or a cupboard. It doesn't matter how big or little it is. That stuff makes him happy. Me, not so much. In fact, I had a meltdown late this afternoon.

 I've had ENOUGH of packing. (And ENOUGH of monster rolls of plastic wrap.)  We have gotten SO much done. But when I think about how much there STILL is to do, I get overwhelmed. So, I had a good cry. And then Mr. WhiMSy love tried helping me out by walking me from room to room so I could see all our progress. After I looked past all the shiny things covered in plastic I noticed that some of the boxes had been "tagged" with portraits of a giraffe...or a flower...or other drawings. My girls were walking around with markers in their hands on an official box decorating expedition. And stuff like that makes me happy.

 Well, I better head to bed. Although, I'm not tired. And I keep thinking, while everyone else I know is probably preparing for tomorrow's holiday meal or visiting with their families that have arrived from out of town, I'm in my lonely, dark & quiet house, surrounded by smelly cardboard boxes & this empty room echoes with the typing of the keyboard...

*sigh*

♥

bear masked nail bitting little lady

i want to get lost in painting

bear masked nail bitting little lady

i want to get lost in painting

I'm One of the Cool Kids Now.

Guess who joined Facebook? Yep, I gave in. I was gonna keep it on the down low, but I'm

having so much fun with it!

In this photo Tia & I are hanging out on our last Tia/Nikki date at a coffee shop. She's showing this newbie the ins-n-outs of Facebook. Oh, & quirky little sidenote: Sarah Palin will be signing books at that coffee shop/bookstore this Sunday! I think that's pretty neato.

♥

The Valiant Jim Smith

In a ongoing display of showmanship, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith valiantly announced that he was not going to accept the recommendation of an 8% raise for his elected position. On Tuesday November 24th, the Personnel Salary and Advisory Board recommended an 8% raise for his position and a 2% raise for the county council members.

Jim Smith must think that we are all idiots. It certainly looks suspicious to me that when the County Executive is gearing up for a run in the State Senate and he gets to show off "doing the right thing" and rejecting a huge pay increase. Did he have a hand in getting them to make the recommendation in the first place with full intent of rejecting it?

I once got my kid to recommend to me in front of my wife that we buy a really huge television, to which I promptly replied that it would be irresponsible in these tough economic times and we should do without for now. Of course, I looked like the responsible husband in front of my wife, but in reality I was just doing it to look cool and to get bonus points later down the road.

Mr. Smith, does this sound familiar?

No reference

Anatomy study, I try to remember without learning the medical terminology or references:

 

Head doodle, the same, trying to obtain an acceptable head without references :

No reference

Anatomy study, I try to remember without learning the medical terminology or references:

 

Head doodle, the same, trying to obtain an acceptable head without references :

La Perla Commercial Banned

In the United States, you won't see this La Perla commercial on t.v., considered too sexy for the U.S. viewers.

To see the Banned La Perla Commerical, click on the video below.

Vintage Lingerie Ads: Part 28

Circa 1940

Secret secrets of THE SECRET revealed

Seriously, both this guy's sense of humor and his accent make me need a cigarette...

A Sausage Press For Two

Okay, here’s my two cents on The Secret and the Law of Attraction. The Secret is a very simplistic, cliff notes view of a spiritual principle that is one of the things that I was not able to toss out when I decided that All Things Spiritual = All Things Bullshit.

The Law of Attraction, the belief that we create our own reality, does not exist to just get us cool stuff. It is not about having hot red sports cars and diamond tiaras drop from the sky merely because we think about them. It is about being conscious of our thoughts and feelings and being the masters of our inner worlds. When we really achieve that, miracles happen because of what we have chosen and what we have changed internally.

We get what we put out – if we are kind and loving and generous we get more of that in return than not. We are what we think – if we are positive and joyful we’re going to have, and be, more and more of the same (good luck having a positive and joyful life if you are a grumpy asshole). And we attract people and experiences that are in alignment with who we are allowing ourselves to be – if we insist on living a certain kind of life we just won’t tolerate or, after a while, even notice anything different.

It’s not magic, it’s just the way things work. But, to me, the results that occur from truly changing one’s emotional make up, one’s inner life experience, can only be described as magical.

Example: The Relationship. The act of making space in our closets, putting up a pair of candles in our bedroom, maybe sleeping on one side of the bed IS NOT going to make the partner of our dreams magically appear. What it IS going to do is raise our relationship comfort level and create room psychically to actually allow a partner in when they do show up. We will be a little less selfish, a little less afraid, a little less apt to allow our screaming committment issues to overwhelm and sabotage. We’ll be a little more ready and a little more willing to see something we might otherwise be blind to had we not done a few simple things to change our minds and hearts about being alone.

It’s not about visualizing a physical thing and… BAM! There it is. But, oh how I wish it were. That sausage press trick totally kicks ass.

bear masked

beginning to add color, still moving around other areas, working on the eyes.

bear masked

beginning to add color, still moving around other areas, working on the eyes.

Goodbye Surprise Party for Me!

I feel so loved. And surprised.

I thought I was going out to dinner with Tia tonight & then we get to the restaurant & the hostess leads us to a table of some of my gal pals! I had no clue. Awww, I feel so special. Thanks girls for a great night!!

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play.

♥

Foto Set of Inside The World's Largest Cruise Ship

The Oasis Of The Seas , the new cruise ship from Royal Caribbean International, is also the world's largest ship. What do you think? In the light of the global recession, is this luminous luxury or idiotic extravagance? Are you dying to get on board or would you rather row?


Oasis of the Seas: The Finnish built 225,282-ton ship owned by Royal Caribbean International has a capacity of 5,400 passengers and is set for its debut voyage in the Caribbean Dec. 1, 2009. 15 decks house 4 main swimming pools, a park promenade, surf simulators, rock climbing, and miniature golf.


The Room: A two story crown loft suite with 2-story window and balcony on board.


The Elevator Bar: An elevator bar floats up and down between 3 levels on the ship.


Putting Practice: Crew play golf on board.


Pools on the ship: One of the pools on board.


Surf Simulator: Royal Caribbean sports staff member Colin Kerr tries out one of two surf simulators on board.


Lots of Balconies: Some of the balconies on the ship.


Floating park: Live greenery, trees and tropical plants are among the features of Central Park, a football field sized promenade on board.