Welcome Charming Elizabeth

I am delighted to welcome as a new sponsor Nancy Nikko's newly launched web store Charming Elizabeth. When deciding on new business cards, I was so excited to discover her beautiful line of specialty papers brimming with Chinoiserie designs. This is my card below. Charming Elizabeth offers personalized calling cards, business cards, bookplates, stationery, wine labels, kitchen labels, and more in designs based on historical period style from medieval to Elizabethan to Art Nouveau to Chinoiserie. I have shown my Chinoiserie favorites here, but there are many choices whatever your taste and style.

She also offers wedding wine labels, custom table number wine labels, and labels for anniversaries, birthdays, or any special occasion. Please visit Charming Elizabeth here. You will also find her link in my sidebar.

Back to Business

What. A. Day! First, WOW. Overwhelmed with the traffic on the site. That is a screen shot of how many visitors were showing up per minute yesterday morning. Um, I die. 

I want to give you all a massive hug! 

Thank you for your patience as we continue to get things back on track and running smoothly. Due to the large volume of orders, items may not ship until Friday, February 8th. I know I know, how can you possibly wait that long for your goodies?! I wish I had the staff of J.Crew or DVF, but we only have a few sets of hands around here {and lots of the time they're holding babies} so we are working as quickly as we possibly can. Thank you, thank you, thank you for understanding. 

Side note I must share: My team and I were up at midnight working on the transition, I got back in bed at 4am, and was back up a few hours later to get ready for breakfast with Paul Ryan. Of course, the SF chaos morning comes when I have an opportunity I cannot possibly pass up! 

{Made for a fun, last minute HIWI snap shot}

I was blown away by his brilliance, his depth of knowledge on numerous topics, his kindness, but most of all his passion for helping the United States, and more importantly, compassion for Americans themselves and the need to get our country back on its feet. The people -- and the American dream -- make our nation great, after all. Kind of made me want to get into politics and work on the youth and women's vote...but for now, back to the business of brights.

By the way, how cute does this mama to be look in her Eloise Dress in Blue Ikat? Picture perfect!

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part IV

In this post, I'll follow up on the last post with a discussion two more important factors that can affect energy homeostasis and therefore our food intake and propensity to gain fat: age and menopause.

Age

Although it often isn't the case in non-industrial cultures, in affluent nations most people gain fat with age.  This fat gain continues until old age, when many people once again lose fat.  This is probably related to a number of factors, three of which I'll discuss.  The first is that we tend to become less physically active with age.  The second, related factor is that we lose lean mass with age, and so energy expenditure declines.

Read more »

Kate on Chinoiserie Chic - Styling the Chinoiserie Bar Cart Inspiration Board

Here are my picks for styling the Chinoiserie bar cart. For more of my tips on bar cart styling click here and to follow me on Pinterest click here. Have a great weekend!

Update from Beth - Check out my new February Houzz Ideabook on Styling the Chinoiserie Bar. You can find all my Ideabooks by clicking on the Houzz link in my sidebar.

The Hayworth Bar Cart

Gold Zag Tray

Twig Tongs

Tortoiseshell Ice Bucket

Tortoiseshell Martini Glasses

Faux Bamboo Straws

Greek Key Cocktail Napkins

Elephant Shot Glass