Wordless Wednesday- Paris

View from the Place de la Concorde.

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone for all of your well wishes and congratulations. I am so happy that I am still on Cloud 9! Sadly, I have to leave England tonight and am currently in the throws of last minute packing. (At least I get to leave on a high note.) Thank you to everyone who entered my luggage tags giveaway.

And the winner is:


Desperately Seeking Seersucker!

Congrats girl! Email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com.

I have another giveaway coming up very soon, so stay tuned for that one!

What's meant to be will always find a way, she's gonna marry that boy someday

For anyone who doesn't follow my Twitter, I have some BIG news for you!

TLS and I got engaged last night!

I promise to post more details later, but now I am still too delirious and happy and giddy and shaky to write more than this!

TLS and I were talking about this in the car today and we think it's so cool how my readers got to view our relationship from the very beginning and down the road, this blog can serve as a record of our early years.

Right Now I'm Obsessed With

Strawberry Pocky:
This is a Japanese snack that has biscuit sticks dipped in strawberry yogurt. They are absolutely delicious not to mention the color is so cute! They sell it at the commissary for $0.70 a pack, and somehow, whenever we go there, we always end up getting more Pocky than real food. (Except for that one time when I walked into the commissary and walked out with 25 limes. Whoops.)

Dior Creme de Rose Lip Balm:
I have to admit that the price tag ($25) is a bit steep for a lip balm, but it is a price that I was more than happy to pay. I generally despise all things that are Rose scented or flavored, but one sample of this balm proved to me that to every rule, there is an exception. The flavor is light and not at all overpowering and leaves your lips so soft and happy. I have had this baby for less than a month, and it is already about halfway gone. I will be picking up another one at Harrods tomorrow. ($25 at Saks)

My Hermes Clic H Bracelet:
I had been lusting after this baby for a while, so for Valentine's Day, TLS took me to the original Hermes store in Paris and got it for me. I have worn it every day since. A friend asked me why I didn't choose to get it in white or a more neutral color so that it could match everything in my wardrobe? When will people understand that in my closet, pink is a neutral.

(I have the pink one at the top of the photo, I wasn't able to find a picture of just the pink one.)
Stella & Dot Starfish Earrings:
I love Starfish and have a few starfish-related items around my house. To me, Starfish just scream "summer!" When I saw these online, I knew I had to have them. I am not a fan of dangle or hoop earrings and prefer nice studs and combined with the fact that these are 1) starfish, and 2) in another one of my favorite colors, this was just fate! ($34 at Stella & Dot)
Lilly Pulitzer LeSportsac Mini Round Umbrella:
My cute pink umbrella went MIA somewhere in between all of my traveling and needed to be replaced before the rainy season ASAP. When I saw this cutie-pie online it was love at first site and I knew I had to make it mine. I hate black umbrellas and always opt for brightly colored ones because I feel that they bring a bit of cheer to an otherwise dreary day. Not only is one one pretty and fun, but it also collapses to a small size (shorter than a standard-size Hershey bar) and can fit into just about any purse or even a jacket pocket. ($25 at Lilly Pulitzer)
My Mason Pearson Brush:
This is something that I have wanted for a few years but just could not justify the price tag of. On one of my trips to England, after the pound had fallen in our favor, I decided to go for it and purchase one at Harrods. At £49, it was still pricey, but a significant savings over what one of these would cost in the U.S. It truly is an amazing hair brush and leaves your hair incredibly silky soft. If you have the opportunity to get one of these, I highly recommend that you go for it!
White Whale Basket from Pottery Barn Kids:
I stumbled upon this item completely by chance last night when a sorority sister tweeted a picture of a whale bank that she registered for her baby for. I decided to do a search to see what other whale items they had, and when I saw this little guy, I knew I had to have him. I don't care that it costs $119. I don't care that it's from the kids section. He. Will. Be. Mine. Imagine how cute he would look holding a monogrammed fleece blanket or a bunch of socks. I have already named him Neiman (yes like the store) and I don't even have him yet. I never knew that a basket in the shape of a whale was an item that I simply positively could not live without, but apparently it is. ($119 at Pottery Barn Kids)

Sweet and Spicy Wings Recipe

I should start this off by saying that I am not a recipe person. Whenever I start cooking or baking something, I always have to have a recipe with me as a safety net. Halfway through, I abandon the recipe and just do my own thing. "Oh this calls for 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, yea let's do 2 tsp." I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

With all that said and done, I got a few recipe requests for the Sweet and Spicy Wings that I made for dinner last night. This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. It is delicious and really easy to make and you can make it well in advance and freeze it.

1 lb. chicken wings cut in half
11 tbsp. soy sauce
1 small can (6 oz.) size of pineapple juice
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2-3 cloves minced garlic
dash or two of ginger
Tabasco sauce- as much as you can possibly handle.

Boil the soy sauce, pineapple juice, brown sugar, and ginger. Add in Tabasco to taste. TLS likes Tabasco a lot so I always end up putting a lot in. Don't make it too spicy to the point where you can't taste the sugar and juice though. Add in two cloves of minced garlic. Arrange wings on a pan and pour marinade over them. Marinade for 24 hours. Bake at 350 degrees basting every 10 minutes. Enjoy! (And serve with a lot of napkins as these are very sticky.)

You put the lime in the coconut, shake them both together

I love cooking but since I live by myself, I hardly ever do it at home since cooking for one tends to get tedious and expensive. Whenever I'm up visiting TLS, I always go all out and make dinners just about every night so I can cook and the boy can know what a home cooked meal tastes like. I found a great recipe for lime chicken that I just had to make. It called for 3/4 cup of lime juice. Instead of just buying lime juice in a bottle like a normal person, I had the brilliant idea to squeeze my own. I bought 6 limes thinking that will totally be enough, right? Dead wrong. At this point, any normal person would have just given up and bought bottled lime juice. But not I. In the epic battle of woman vs. citrus, I was determined not to let citrus win. Last night, TLS and I went to the commissary at the big base so I could get Lilly Pulitzer animal crackers (dead serious) and I stocked up on 25 limes (again- DEAD serious). TLS was like "are you sure you really need all those limes?" Of course I'm sure. Yea, I really didn't need all those limes. I don't know if the ones I bought the second time around were juicier or what, but I got my 3/4 cup of lime juice quite easily, and there are about 22 limes taking up residence on our kitchen counter. As one of my friends pointed out to me, there is absolutely no chance of my boyfriend getting scurvy whatsoever. Because nothing scares the Air Force more than scurvy. Nothing.

Needless to say, we do not have the space or use for 22 limes and I am now trying to come up with a quick and tasty way to get rid of them all. I am going to bake lime cookies so that TLS can bring them in to work for his unit tomorrow, but that will still leave me with oh, about 1.5 dozen more limes than I desire. If anyone has any good recipes involving limes, can you please post them here or email them to me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com. On behalf of the Citrus Grower's Association and our kitchen counter space, I thank you in advance.





Oh and in case anyone was wondering- no they did not have the Lilly Pulitzer animal crackers at the commissary.

Wordless Wednesday

My favorite page. I hope that one day they can all look like this.

It's Giveaway o'clock somewhere

In order to celebrate my blog's new look and properly break it in, I am doing a giveaway to celebrate.

Since all I seem to be doing lately is traveling, I have gotten to be really obsessed with luggage tags. I have a bunch of ladybug and ASA ones, and a few of the Lilly Pulitzer ones. I am about to spread the love here people. One lucky reader will win a set of all four Lilly Pulitzer luggage tags from one of my favorite readers, the Preppy Princess.


This giveaway will close at midnight, EST, on Sunday, March 28th.

Leave a comment on this entry with for one entry. Become a follower for a second entry. Blog about this and place my new button on your blog for a third entry (you must do both to get the extra entry). Follow me on twitter and tweet this giveaway mentioning me (@whaleflipflops) for a fourth entry. You can get one extra entry for every person who enters and says that you referred her (or him).

Good luck (from TLS)!

New home, new look!

I have been searching and searching for a new look for this blog for about a month now. I have seen a few sites whose previous looks I liked, but nothing that was quite me. I loved *kimmie*'s blog layout so much I had to ask her who did hers. When she told me that she made it herself, I asked her to create a layout for me. She nailed it on the first try and I could not be happier with the finished product! I now present to you the new, improved, and clutter-free Preppy Girl Meets World. Much love and gratitude go out to *kimmie*, be sure to visit her blog if you don't already.

Please grab my button and post it on your blog. I will be doing a giveaway soon to celebrate the new look.

Personal shopping

TLS's brother is getting married in Nebraska in April. It is on a Saturday afternoon and goes into the day. April in Nebraska means that it can be either 70 degrees and sunny or a snowstorm. This means that finding a dress will be fuuuuun. Add to that the fact that I have a hard to shop for body. I've been spending a lot of time shopping online and have not been able to find anything that screams "MRM buy me." I don't wear black dresses, I can't wear anything that's halter or strapless, or anything that essentially can't be worn without a bra. I am debating making a personal shopping appointment for after I get back from England. It's free and sure beats me scouring rack after rack endlessly. I have never worked with a personal shopper before. Have any of you had a personal shopper before? Would you recommend it? Advice? Pearls of wisdom?

To change or not to change, that is the question

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always known that if I were to ever get married, I would not be changing my last name. Not to offend anyone who has done this since many women do, but I have always thought the practice to be a little old-fashioned and offensive to women. It's like by getting married, you are losing a part of your identity. Also, it annoys me when married women get mail addressed to them as "Mrs. Husband's First Name Husband's Last Name." It's like not only do you lose your last name, but now you have to lose your first name too.

TLS grew up all over the South and Midwest and is very traditional. He definitely wants me to take on his last name and this has been a point of discussion for us. My thoughts on this topic are:
*I like that my initials are a palindrome. Palindromes make me happy.
*If I were to change my name, my initials would be MRS. Mrs. MRS is a little too much for me.
*I am an only child and there are no boys in my family. I have a very unusual last name and don't want to essentially kill it.

Yet, with my unusual name comes a lot of baggage. Those of you who have sent me mail know that my last name can be difficult to pronounce and is 13 letters long! While this was great in identifying telemarketers before the days of Caller ID and Do Not Call, it gets really annoying when not a single person I meet can pronounce my name right away and always has to spend about 5 minutes mispronouncing my name and then makes some lame jokes about it. My name is German in origin and the thought of spending four years in a country where everyone can pronounce my name without trouble sounds so appealing. It's another reason for why I was sure I wanted to keep my name. Of my last three friends who got married, only one chose not to keep her name. Yet as I sit here filling out my parts of our marriage application and all the paperwork that goes along with it, I start to wonder if it would just be easier to start over with a 5 letter name and I don't know what I want to do any more.

For those of you out there reading this that are married, did you keep your last name or take on your husband's and what were your reasons for doing so?

Reservations

I got this question posted on my formspring page and since it's one that I've been dealing with a lot lately, I decided that I wanted to answer it on my blog.

What is your BIGGEST reservation about moving overseas?
This is a tough one for me because I have so many. While I am excited to move and start a life with TLS I'm scared that I won't fit into the military culture and won't make friends. I'm scared that I won't get a job. I don't know how to drive and am scared about not being able to get around on base. I'm scared of not knowing any German and having a hard time adjusting. Most of all, I think I'm scared of becoming unimportant and irrelevant to my friends. I had to step down from one of my volunteer positions in my sorority because it involves chapter visits and I won't be able to do that from Germany. I may have to miss a sister's wedding this summer, and I am unable to attend my sorority's national convention this summer. I am scared that when I come back to the United States after 4+ years of living overseas, my friends will have moved on and forgotten about me.