One World One Heart

Hello and welcome to Indigo Star Fairy! My name is Nicole and my blog title says 3 things about me right off the bat! I love the color indigo, stars and fairies. I live in Wisconsin where it is cold and snowy right now. It is God's country. I am a create at home mom to an almost 4 year old sweetheart and a little business, My Pepita's Magic. I make handmade art cards and custom invitations, jewelry and a whole lot of this and that. I like to eat great food, drink red wine and travel. I look forward to visiting your blogs and meeting you! This is my first year (and I guess the last since this is its final year) that my blog is participating in OWOH but I bounced around the last 2 years and found some cool blogs to visit. OWOH is open to all bloggers as a way to network and meet new people.

On to my door prizes! There may be a few more goodies but I will be choosing (at least) 2 winners as a thank you for visiting my little blog.


Winner one will receive an indoor plant star stake and a set of custom note cards (once I know your name...).


Winner two will receive this coral, turquoise and sterling silver bracelet and a set of custom note cards.

Like I said before, you have to have an established blog and a way for me to contact you! All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. The winners will be chosen February 17, 2011 and I will email the winners.

Thanks again for stopping by and good luck! :)

The it's Friday, I'm in love series...

Brought to you by Summer at B is for...

Our new bedroom set! Except the nightstands aren't in yet so our old ones are still in there. I found a different bed that I loved but I hated the dresser and nightstands and of course they didn't have any other options in that stain. And Steve liked this one as well which was good. And it was on sale. And I got free delivery with a competitor coupon. Score!

My bear friend sitting on the bed is named Bearister and Steve gave him to me when we were dating. I sleep with him every night curled up in my arms when I am at home. I miss sleeping with him when we are traveling. I thought the name was pretty clever, since Steve is a barrister! ;)

And the beautiful quilt was made by my mom. We have had it since October but finally it is not drowning out the bed! It is called Coffee or Teal. Yeah, my mom is clever too. Although, it took me a month to get it... One day it just dawned on me.

My new specs! Aren't they super cute? I never wore my glasses before- now I don't want to wear my contacts! They are Kate Spade. Sorry the picture is so crappy (taken with my iphone) and my hair is a mess... That little one next to me is cute too.
I don't know what I'd do all winter without Aveda Hand Relief and Foot Relief. I bought the gift set for myself. I deserve it. ;)
And Paul Mitchell Spray Wax! LOVE! This stuff instantly picks up limp locks and adds a little pow! Only drawback it makes your hands so sticky. I use this whenever we go out at night and my hair looks lame all day and after this stuff is in it looks like I just walked out of the salon and had a pro (K-dog!) do it. I could have used it before I took the above picture! Ha ha!

Do you feel fly?

One World One Heart

I am participating this year! It starts on Sunday and I can't really post about it until then but click here or the picture to find out all details! A ton of bloggers in one (sorta) spot! It is a fun blog event and the network of blogs is unbelievable!!

All You Need Is Love Swap

I entered this swap courtesy of Neely of ...some days just are... A Complete Waste of Makeup, Courtney of Chaos Theory & Sam of A Careless Man's Careful Daughter. Thought it would be fun. Found it from Summer of b is for... A little Valentine's Day Heart-y treat. Sign up by Friday though to be part of the action!

What can I say but I love swaps! :)

1154 Lill Studio

Remember how I told you I custom ordered the below purse for my birthday in July? Well, I didn't love it (it was way too big for me) so I sent it back for a refund. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to get in its place though so I just hung onto the gift card.
In December, they were running a special for $20 off an order of $100 so I found Molly and dressed her up in Ophelia and I love it! I wish I could have found one that slung but this one is so cute!! And I only had to pay $2.83 after my gift card! Yay!
1154 Lill Studio can be found here.

The Packers are going to the Super Bowl!

The Packers were victorious! Yay! It was a nail biter too! So Wisconsin has had a good year- Badgers at the Rose Bowl and Packers at the Super Bowl! Hopefully the Packers will have better luck than the Badgers did...

images from here

This is what I love and hate about the Bears-Packers rivalry- the players are friends and the fans are enemies. Why is that? Why can the guys playing the game go out and congratulate each other and be genuinely excited for the winning team despite losing yet the fans have to continue to go on and on about how much they despise the other fans? The Packers won and I am happy but if the Bears had won I would be happy for all my friends that are Bears fans. When TCU won the Rose Bowl, I emailed Ryan (the only person I knew who went to TCU) early the next morning to tell her congrats and that it was a good game because it was. TCU played well. Better than the Badgers. She emailed me back with a very nice note about how she was thinking of me and how it was nice to know someone on the 'other side'. There is such a hatred that comes from some fans. I don't care about the ribbing that goes on between friends (or strangers) that is harmless and fun. It's the fans that take the games and players and ribbing so personally that they get downright mean. I am not singling out Bear fans because Packer fans can be just as bad if not worse. During the game I kept checking my facebook wall to see what was being said and it was mostly 'Go Bears' or 'Go Pack' but after the game it was much more fierce. I don't even want to comment at all when people are like that.

In the end though, isn't it really just a game?

Packers vs Bears: The Midwest Super Bowl!

images found here...

It's the duel of the century this Sunday afternoon! Who will go home victorious? I am sure hoping it is the Packers! Being that I am from Chicago but went to school and live in Wisconsin this rivalry is huge. Dad is a Bears fan but his dear daughter is a Packer backer. But he also cheers on the White Sox and I am a Cubs fan. My facebook home page is littered with the trash talk between my many friends from both Wisconsin and Illinois. It will be interesting to say the least.

Mid-Season Lineup

I finally finished watching all the episodes of Boardwalk Empire on my DVR this past weekend. This series is fantastic! Everything about it.

I especially liked Kelly Macdonald's character, Margaret Schroeder. She was crafty and subtly conniving. Michael Shannon's Agent Nelson Van Alden was wonderfully played as well.

This dude just freaked me out. Jack Huston is a tremendous actor though! And actually pretty hot (minus the mask...)! He has a Johnny Depp/Jared Leto look.

I added Shameless on Showtime to my list of must watch shows this winter. Fantastic thus far! Emmy Rossum should get an Emmy.

I am going to try Fairly Legal out on USA tonight. I like USA shows- Psych, White Collar & Covert Affairs. They are fun and a little bit lighter. We'll see...

Greek is back! Woohoo! Love this show!! Casey, Evan and Katherine are in law school at CRU while Cappie, Calvin & Ashleigh find their way. Dale is rushing Omega Chi! Rusty is bitter about it.

Big Love is in their final season and I hope it is as intriguing as the first 5. It is time to end this one though. It is great but I am ready to move on.

White Collar and Mr. Easy on the Eyes (Matt Bomer) are back. Love me some eye candy.

Pretty Little Liars has to go and screw up my DVR. I became slightly addicted to this over the summer when little else was on. Who the hell is A? I am sucked in too far now not to find out!

And Life Unexpected is over. It was a nice ride. They keep saying 'Season Finale' but apparently Shiri Appleby confirmed that it was over on Facebook. The season finale was definitely a series finale on Tuesday night. They jumped ahead 2 years at the end and wrapped it up which was nice not to have a 'I wonder who they ended up with...' feeling. The only one I couldn't figure out was who Math's pregger wife was- Abby? Alex? Can't tell those two actresses apart anyway. I find it odd though how their lives after being so messed up were nice and tidy and together 2 years later. I won't say what happened in case you haven't watched it yet though.

The Granddaddy of them All!

We went to LA and the Rose Bowl and we had a fabulous time! Of course it would have been better if we had won the game but hey...

We drove up this curvy, basically 1.5 lane road up to the Hollywood sign and the houses hanging off the side of the cliff were pretty cool. I don't know how they live up there- parking for parties would be impossible, driving that road at night would be scary and the mudslides? Can't imagine! My high school friend, Emily Bergl, gave me the directions. Emily plays Beth right now on Desperate Housewives.

This picture is one of my favorites! We rarely get pictures together but there was a woman from Tennessee with her 2 daughters up there who was happy to oblige and took many pictures for us.

The view to smog city.

We were hiking down this road to go behind the Hollywood sign but I think we went down the wrong road. Oh well. We had plenty of other things that we wanted to do on Friday anyway!

Santa Monica Pier. There was lots of red there. But Santa Monica Pier is lame. Had it been warmer and the beach piled with people, maybe not as lame. I wanted to see 'da pretty muscle boys lifting da bikini clad girls' (spoken like Hans and Franz...) at Muscle Beach but no such luck. Bummer. (Body building to the extreme gives me the willies!)

I have to get rid of that stupid balloon string!

New Year's Eve dinner at Ago in West Hollywood. We met up with 2 other couples there. This place I have to complain about. Now my 3 readers won't go there. Robert DeNiro co-owns this place, it's supposed to be trendy, a celebrity magnet and the regular menu looked pretty good. The NYE menu? LAME! I didn't expect to see any celebs (although our friends saw Sheryl Crow at Bubba Gump's the night before on Santa Monica Pier). They are known for their peach martinis. They were really good. They use fresh peaches and I could have put back a few of those easily. Not at the price they were though. I don't know how much they were because someone bought it for me. We get the menu and it is limited like most places do but the prices are also jacked up $6-13 more. I had heard that the Caprese salad here was awesome and it was. But regular menu- $14, NYE menu- $20. All the salads were at least $16. I ordered a pasta with artichokes that was basically noodles, artichokes and a little garlic and olive oil. Pretty boring. $25 though. I could have made that at home but it would have been better. Everyone had dessert and we had 2 bottles of wine. I have definitely had better meals in Wausau which is not known for its haute cuisine. The thing that absolutely drove me crazy about this place was the smarmy waiter that added on our tip to our bill. Jerk added 33.3%!!! I would have said something but I tend to be a little (ok, a lot) bitchy and irrational about things like that so I let it slide until another day when we could call them. But it still bugs me! One of the guys in our group tried emailing them the Monday after we got home and I don't know if he got a response.

Go Bucky!

Keith, Chris and Steve are pumped for the game!

Karen, Keith, Chris, Kristi, me and Steve before the game.


Jumpy, Jumpy!Bucky is pointing at ME at the Alumni Pregame Tailgate Party!

The game. Full of RED!

Steve still has a smile during 5th quarter after the Badgers lost. It was a good game. We were exhausted! I gotta hand it to the TCU Horned Frogs- they played well and hard. It was kinda nice to 'know' someone on the other side as well, my blog sista, Ryan from AmericanBridget Jones! I know she was excited!

On Sunday (after a good night's rest!!), we went to The Getty Museum of Art which was super cool. Wish it would have been warmer so we could have seen the gardens in bloom. We ate at the best little Italian place- Bravo Cucina in Santa Monica (3rd Street Promenade) for lunch. I could not get enough of the pomodoro sauce! The food at this place was WAY better than Ago!!I would recommend this place to anyone. Kinda a hole in the wall but sometimes those are the best places! We stayed in Burbank at Hotel Amarano which was nice because it was in a residential neighborhood and very nice. The staff was very friendly and helpful. LA is really spread out and you have to drive everywhere which I am not a fan of. I like to be able to take a cab or subway while in the city. Overall, it was a great trip to LA but I don't know when (or if) I will go back!

Great News!

We have been moved to the active pool for our second adoption! We are so excited but scared at the same time. I just received the call that our home study and book for birth parents needs to be done soon. We have been on the waiting list to get into the active pool for 2.5 years!! So this call was very welcome! :)

How I know I live with a preschooler Tuesday...

Picture taken December 2009 but he has the same jacket in a bigger size and wears this same hat. He hasn't changed that much since this picture!

Yesterday we were playing in the snow and we live in a wooded area with a hill in our front yard. The hill is big enough to sled down and not have to seek out someplace else, especially for my almost 4 year old. So we sled down the side and go into the woods a little ways. He says in wonderment, 'Where are we? The jungle?' And then he proceeds to bark like a dog because you know that dogs live in the jungle... What a goof!

I'm back with a funny tidbit.

See all this snow? See that sled in my hubby's hand? Well, well, well. On this day (by the way, this was our Christmas photo- cute, huh?) we got 12-15 inches of snow. It was beautiful and fun to play in which AJ and Steve did all morning. Shortly after this pic was taken they came inside but left the sleds in the yard. Well by that time we had only gotten about a quarter to a third of the snow we were supposed to. So the sleds were buried. A couple weeks later AJ and I are playing outside and I am looking in the garage for the sleds... Not there. I go tromping around the yard and find the toboggan but not the saucer. I think on this particular day I had to shovel the driveway because the snow blower wasn't working. So I call my hubs at work and complain to him that I can't find the sleds and thanks for leaving them outside because that is what good wives do, right? Nag their husbands? I admit, I do it well. Sometimes too well that Steve needs to leave and go to the Y. We got some more snow this past weekend so Steve decides he is going to try the snow blower again to see if it works. No. It is not the engine though. And he can see what is wrong with it. This shield from the snow blower is blocking the blades. Five minutes later he comes back in the house to tell me he found the saucer sled... mangled in the blades of the snow blower! How do you NOT notice that you just hit a big chunk of plastic and that it got eaten by the snow blower? He got it out, using the pruners to cut enough of the plastic so that he was able to tear it out. Men. At least it made for a funny story. Can you imagine if we had brought the snow blower in to be serviced? Those repair guys would have been laughing their asses off!

I will start blogging again. I promise.

But I just did 26 posts in 4 days on my family blog. I need a day or two. :)