The Many Hats of the Princess of York

Do you remember how much I loved the hat Princess Beatrice wore to the royal wedding? Imagine my glee when I found this gem on Facebook! A whole page dedicated to the antelope hat! Or octopus as one site compared it to. Seriously, though, I think it is more antelope-ish. Like I want to go hunting. Right now. Pull!

Oh, and don't worry. I'm not completely obsessed with the royals....well, maybe I am. This is as close as I get to watching soaps! But, I will be going back to my regularly programmed drivel shortly.

Back to Princess Beatrice. Apparently this royal has an affinity for bizarre headgear. So I found some pictures. And I'm going to share them with you! Yay, right!?!?!? Um, hello? Is this thing on?

Okay, so crazy hat number 1!

It seems as though this House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg (for reals, ya'll, look it up) royal fancies black and white chapeaus. I found several pictures of her with hats of those colors. This one looks a little like an alien head to me. All it needs is a pair of green, glowing eyes.

This next hat boasts sky-high netting and a Saturn ring! It kind of makes me want to throw basketballs at her head. Luckily, I was never very good at basketball so the Princess is probably safe.
I honestly thought this next picture was photo-shopped. And I'm still not convinced it isn't. Google is a reputable site, right? Even still, it is too good to not include in this post! Hey, look! It's a monarch with monarchs on her head! BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And last, but not least: my favorite! A gravity defying, ginormous white rose blooming out of the top of this rose's cranium. It's seemply gawgeous, dawling, gawgeous!
I sure am knackered after all of this jiggery-porkery (as the British would say).

4:00 A.M.

That was the time I got up this morning so that I could watch the Royal Wedding! I wouldn't call myself obsessed with the Royal Wedding, but I am definitely interested. I know there are a lot of haters out there that think this shouldn't be news at all. I disagree. Queen Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of the Commonwealth Realms which includes 16 realms and 134 million people. So this marriage doesn't just pertain to the United Kingdom. It also pertains to Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. The fact that this is a big deal to such a large amount of people makes it a big deal for the whole world. Plus, who doesn't like a fairy tale wedding!?!?

My mother had a magazine when my sister and I were little that had the weddings of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in it. My sister and I looked at that magazine a million times. We wore it out! It is just fitting that we both had to watch the Royal Wedding live this morning (albeit in different parts of the country).

I've enjoyed looking at pictures and reading articles about Prince William and Princess Catherine since their engagement last year. I've really loved looking at designers sketches of what they would choose for the Princess. I envisioned Kate in something simple, yet elegant. Something a little Princess Grace-esque. On the Project Runway site, there are several pictures of gowns designed by the contestants of the show. Of those, I chose these two as favorites for Kate:

The second dress was almost spot on! The sheer lace at the top and the sleeves are exactly what Kate wore!
And she did a fine job of wearing it to! She was spectacular! I think I stopped breathing for a moment when she got out of the car to go into Westminster Abbey.
The princes were quite dashing in their dress uniforms.
The ceremony was beautiful...well, what I watched anyway. I fell asleep about halfway through and woke up in time to see the recessional. Oops! Oh, and Kate got William's names in the correct order unlike a couple of other royals!
My favorite part was the horse drawn carriage. I loved seeing how much the people love Prince William and their new Princess! And I loved how much Prince William and Princess Catherine love the people, too!

Another favorite of mine is watching the guests and wedding party and what they wore! I love the elegance of weddings like this! Everyone dresses to the nines. The U.S. couldn't pull something like this off. As my sister said this morning, someone would wear flip-flops.
In this section, I just have to mention Pippa Middleton. She was gorgeous as Princess Kate's maid of honor. Her white sheath dress is exactly like something we would see Kate in! I also liked that, as gorgeous as Pippa looked, it did not take away from the bride! You never want to upstage the bride (something I was actually expecting from Victoria Beckham), especially a Princess Bride.
Queen Elizabeth II. I expected her to wear blue. She did look darling in her yellow, though. My sister disagrees with me. She hates yellow.

Another thing that I don't think the U.S. can pull off is the amazing hats! Yes, the Kentucky Derby has women in hats, but they just aren't the same as British hats.
The lady in blue is socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. My favorite hat of the day belongs to the lady beside her. I can't seem to find a picture that says what her name is. I saw this hat from a couple of angles, but I can't seem to find the other picture I saw earlier. It is a beautiful hat. A little elegant and not too extremely crazy.

These girls are Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Apparently their mother, Sarah Ferguson, helped the Princesses pick out what they wore. Oh Beatrice, how I wish you had been talked out of that hat.

Like I've said a couple of times, I don't think the U.S. could pull off something as elegant as this wedding...
Well, I stand corrected. Wading in the fountain at Buckingham Palace is not elegant. Those are probably the American tourists, though.

I loved watching the Royal Wedding. This is my very favorite picture of the morning. I love how the little bridesmaid is grinning from ear to ear!
I really do hope that Prince William and Princess Catherine's marriage is a long and happy one.

Boys names for girls

I try to keep up with naming trends in the U.S. and right now the trend is to name girls with names that are traditionally used for boys. I can't say I love this trend, but I do think it's interesting to think outside the box. That being said, I want to share a few of the boys names for girls that I love!

Spencer - I love the name Spencer for a girl. I read this in a magazine a long time ago and I fell in love with it. Her full name is Spencer Kate. I love the whole thing!

Hadley - I love this name for a boy or a girl, but especially for a girl. I hadn't thought about naming a girl Hadley until I saw it on a list on a blog. I love it!

Michal - I actually know a girl named Michal (I'm not sure how she spells it because she goes by her middle name), but I first loved it when I read it in my Bible. Michal was the name of Saul's daughter who loved David (1 Samuel 18:20).

Noah - I've never met a girl named Noah, but I still like it. This is another one that I read in my Bible. Numbers 26:33 talks about a man who only had daughters and one of them was named Noah. I think it is very cute for a little girl!

So what names do you like that are traditionally used for the other gender?

Don't forget about the giveaway! You can still enter through Monday!

My Recipe Box: Chicken Enchiladas

Russ and I love Mexican food and we are instilling that love into Chloe Jo! When we go to big town next door once a week, we love to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. We don't hardly ever go anywhere else. I try to only make Mexican for dinner once a week, but sometimes I can squeeze another one in there and Russ won't say anything. I have a few favorite Mexican recipes and this is one of them.

Chicken Enchiladas (doesn't that look yummy!)

Ingredients:

1 lb cooked and shredded or diced chicken breast (I get the already cooked prepackaged and it works great)

1 can rotel tomatoes

1/2 cup sour cream

small warm corn tortillas (I'm going to start making mine with flour because Russ and I prefer the flour. My corn tortillas (even warmed) have been breaking on me the last few times anyway.)

1 large can of green enchilada sauce

8 oz. shredded cheese

Cook chicken in skillet (or warm in skillet if you get precooked). In a bowl, mix chicken, sour cream, and rotel tomatoes. Spoon mixture into warm tortillas and roll. Place in a greased baking dish. Top with green enchilada sauce and cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes until cheese is melted. Cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

I love serving Mexican with a can of Green Giant Mexicorn.

Enjoy!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Link up here!

I'm loving having our front door open during the day time. I love our glass door and being able to see out!

I'm loving that Russ blew up the kiddie pool on Saturday!

I'm loving the giveaway that is going on right now! If you haven't entered to win, you still have through Monday! There aren't very many entries so you have a really good chance!

I'm loving that my car is equipped with turn signals (when I'm driving at least). There are so many cars that don't have these!

I'm loving strawberry season! I'm hoping to go out to a local farm to pick strawberries soon and then make some slurp!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo and I finally used her finger paints! She loved it so much and I loved that she loved doing it. I hope she loves crafts and art as much as I do.

I'm loving our sweet little family. The infertility depression has been knocking on my door lately and I am trying very hard to not let it in. I am so blessed to have my family and I need to be thankful for them! I don't know why CJ decided to stick her tongue out here. Silly girl.

I'm loving game night! I have loved the game of Life since I was a little girl! I will never grow out of it.

I don't love how the game mocks us. You see we have no children in the game!?!?!? Too much like real life here.

I'm loving Paul Rudd. Can he be any more adorable!?!? I remember thinking that when he was in Clueless and I still think that. I might like him more than I like Bradley Cooper.

I'm loving felt flowers! I'm going to learn how to make these. They have been on my list for a while now.

What are you loving today?

Rainy Day

It has been a rainy, stormy day here. I think we are finally getting some of what the midwest has been getting for the last few days. I was disappointed when I opened our back door to find this:

It is raining in the picture, though you can't see it very well. I was all ready to take Chloe Jo out to play in her pool. We set it up Saturday and she played in it that afternoon and yesterday afternoon. But not today. The rain is ruining a few plans. Russ was going to mow after work. I guess that will have to wait until Thursday. Our yard really needs it!

Since we have been having to stay inside, we've been reading books and we had an easter egg hunt in the living room. Chloe Jo liked finding the eggs, but she didn't like it when I made her stay in her room so I could hide them! I was trying to think of something to do after lunch and realized that we hadn't used the paints CJ got for her birthday, yet. What a great day to finger paint!

And Chloe Jo did great! She loved it!

I showed her how to finger paint, but she wasn't having any of that! Too messy for her. She opted for a brush.

I love my little clean freak! There wasn't a huge mess at the end to clean up.

She insisted for me to paint, too so these pictures are our works of art.

Since she liked this so much, I know we will be doing this again!

My precious girl. She had so much fun!

We hope you are staying dry this week!

And don't forget to enter the giveaway! You have through next Monday

It's A GIVEAWAY!!!!

As promised, I'm having a giveaway this week to celebrate hitting 50 followers!!!

This is a big milestone for my little ol' blog and I'm super excited about it!

I wanted to make something in order to say "thanks" and this is what I decided to do:

I think it turned out cute and I'm happy to be giving it to one of my followers!

I hope you guys like it as much as I do. It was hard for me to decide what to do. I had so many ideas.

The rules of this giveaway are:

1. You have to be a follower.

2. You can only enter this giveaway one time.

3. You have to have an address in the United States (I'm very sorry about this if you live outside the U.S., but international shipping is waaaaaaay crazy).

So, if you like the picture, leave me a comment saying you want to win! If you don't have a blog, please leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. You can enter through next Monday. I will announce the winner on Tuesday, May 3rd!

Good Luck!

A Hippity Hoppity Easter!

Our family had a very fun Sunday! Chloe Jo loved her easter basket!

I'm sorry about the quality of the next few pictures. Some little girl got a hold of my camera and I didn't realize that she had changed the settings until I had taken a few pictures already.

After morning worship service, we went over to a friend's house and had a big Sunday dinner! Yummy! We hid easter eggs after dinner and let the kids find them. Here are the 3 *ahem 4* kids waiting to go find easter eggs!

Chloe Jo was so excited to have another easter egg hunt! This time, they weren't just scattered in the yard. She actually had to hunt for them and she loved it!

Except for the egg that was in this tailpipe. When she got it out of there, it had black dust on it. It got on her and she didn't like that one bit so she put it back. HA!

And like a big ol' slacker, I didn't get a family picture. Bad Mommy/Blogger!

We hope you had a great easter, too!