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Sipping glass of white wine. HVAC guy is here checking furnace before we head into my fav season, FALL! I could live perpetually somewhere that was Fall year round. Glorious smells and feel and sounds to the season. Harvest is the bomb, in my book. I love the food (cobbler, butternut squash bisque, hearty flavors) I love the scents (the air when it goes crisp, the wood burning and wafting) and I love the sounds (kids trick or treating, crackling fires, the roar of football touchdown cheers). Must be the Midwest in me. I find it a very pensive, cathartic time. It's a time that makes me ponder life and simplicity and soul and transition. And Fall never lasts long enough for my liking. One of my fondest memories of Fall is going to see barnyard animals with my niece Sloane, and then riding a tractor into the apple orchard. And way back when, this was me, in a witch costume made by Mom, on Halloween...

That said, I clearly suffer from multiple personality disorder because I am getting ready to leave on my belated honeymoon with Joe to Italy/France, and I cannot wait to bask in the sun, the pool, the warm, the wine, the bees buzzing around Italian vines, and the Italian boats floating off the coast. We are going to Portofino, and then Paris. And Joe has reminded me that even though we are only married 4months, since this is our honeymoon, we are required to cuddle and kiss and be annoyingly affectionate the whole time. (You want to hurl, right?) Which makes me smile and laugh because my husband, for all his burly 6'4"ness, is a walking squishy heart with arms and legs. I have not been to Paris in 20 years since I was a student in Geneva, and took a weekend trip by train with friends, to run around the 'city of love'. We plan to scale the Eiffel tower (though the lines and heat will likely melt our enthusiasm) and enmesh ourselves in the Louvre (Mom just sent me horrendous article about how pick pockets are taking over the museum.) and I simply want to bathe in the smells of 6am croissants and baguettes baking. I think I was European in a previous life.

As for packing, hideous chore. I remember back when my brother lived in London and I would visit.

I was young, broke, unemployed, and was convinced I needed to pack everything possible, in the unlikely event that I happened to bump into someone from the Royal family, and they invited me to dinner or the Royal Ascot. (I clearly live in a fantasy world, but it works for me.) For this trip, Orthaheel are def going, without question. They are truly the only way I can sightsee and spend vast amounts of time on my feet. A few scarves (because the last time I was in Italy, I got caught short trying to tour the famed Duomo church, with bare shoulders. In European churches, that's a no no). My fav pair of platform sandals (because there will be a night or two where we live it up and dine like newlyweds) and my sunhat (Isaac's is my fav and it folds up easy peasey for traveling). And it occurs to me while I dish on my packables, that I am going to miss the 9/14 Accessories Event day which feels like a cardinal sin, given my show "Shawn Says Accessorize". Life does have its unique sense of timing though so I have bent ears and arms to find out what's on the day in my absence...I can tell you without hesitation, that the following are, so make sure u tune-in, these are just not to be missed: My all time #1 fav Skinnytees are back in all colors; BB tshirt bra (yes a bra is an accessory because saggy ta ta's are not!); DB Logo Lock hobo (gave it to my sis in law for her bday, one of my favs) and the Clarks driving Moc (a total staple in Italy incidentally, those tiny Fiat pedals are where the driving moc was born) 

In other news...My BFF Jenny turns 40 on Sept 1st.

I have known her for 25 years. She lives in Alabama and she and I went to Italy last year for my 40th. Incidentally, her bday falls on my husband Joe's, so there is no chance I will forget. I gave Jenny my "Hear your soul speak" pendant when she was here. She's already attached it to her necklace with other keepsake charms.

She just recently went through a difficult relationship time, and she is caring for her Dad who has Alzheimers. All the while she is mom to twin 6yr olds, and she tries to stay sane holding down a demanding job. She is a remarkable lady. But what is so great about Jenny, is that after 25yrs, she knows me in and out, warts and diamonds, and she is truly like a sister. Why is it friends like that, are so much harder to meet and cultivate in adulthood?

Has begun to rain. I love rain. It gives you permission to slow down and stay inside, and just be...instead of running all the time. It's good cocooning weather. Not however, good hair weather. Speaking of hair, in fact beauty, Tuesday Night Beauty...I have some new addictions and favs to share. While Jenny was visiting, I began using a flat iron, er, I guess we call them styling irons now...and I am in love. My fav is the FHI one on QVC. and my TRIA is working awesomely. Some pesky hairs on the lip and chin are growing in so much finer. I am also using the Me Elos under my arms. I just bought Nick Chavez's Argan hairspray, because it's crazy good and good hairsprays are hard to find. And I have discovered the WEN texturizing balm which is exactly what my short hair needed to give it that piecey look. (Considering getting one of those smoothing Keratin treatments done too. In the meantime, I have been using CHI's Smoothing Keratin Spray.) Plus, I just sent Mom, Tarte's new undereye primer/highlighter duo...and the eyeshadow palette that I am taking to Italy and loving right now - Mally's "In the Buff". As per usual, I bathe in Dr Gross's GLOW pads every night and they will become more essential as summer fades, Fall arrives, and pale-prone skin strikes. So these are my current beauty loves, just saying.

In other news...I recently saw the movie Jobs and left the theater feeling like a complete failure that I have not invented something that completely changed the world. Seeing 'Saving Priv Ryan' tonight for first time bc Joe wants to visit Normandy while we are in France. And I leave you by sharing with you something you may miss if you are not on Facebook with me. Every Wednesday we share good news. Everybody has a story. Some small, some big. Some make you cry. This is a picture of Sharon, she is a 'friend of a friend', who battled breast cancer for 6yrs, lost her boobies to it, and now, after surviving and going into remission...this week, Sharon got new boobies! And she smiled and celebrated up to the last minute they put her under, even wearing her tiara into the OR.

Here's to the brave ones...October and breast cancer awareness month are not far off. Did you get your mammo this year?

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