René of the Day // 11.6.11 // A Scottish Wedding

Congratulations to my Scottish lassie, Pinzi Lou, who was married yesterday!!! What a beautiful bride she made. So sad to not have been in attendance but it just seems like yesterday we were giggling as we went to bed at Andi's house in England in August, discussing the potential of when her engagement would come. It all happened so fast! (Lyndsey "Pinzi" and I met the summer of 2007 when we were camp counselors in the woods of Connecticut. She rode all the way home to Cincinnati in my Civic at the end of our adventurous summer and was a wonderful friends as I arrived home to hear my grandmother had passed away the night before... And she came back to visit two years later with her lovely friend Jenna. Then she flew from Scotland to surprise me in England this summer!)

Cannot wait until I get to meet Mr. James Carter when they visit Cincinnati on their trip around the world next year, before moving to the oil town of Perth, Australia to settle. Now MR and I have one more reason to go down under (visit the east coast and the west with our friends in Byron Bay.) Ever so happy for this couple - very few people can make me laugh the way Pinzi can. James is a lucky lad - congrats!

How beautiful and traditional :)

René of the Day // 9.1.11 // Happy Birthday, L~ers!

Happy birthday to one of my best friends, Lindsey! Many of my best college memories are with this gal. {Wake up, wake up, wake up, it's the first of the month!}
We celebrated her birthday over a few Dude vodka cocktails at Becca's house then went to nada and enjoyed my fav mango chile margarita - tangy, sweet and spicy - perfect! From there we walked to Mainstay, met batman in front of The Palace and drank big ass beers upstairs to the "Betty Bar." After that I split off with Julie to meet up with some of her radio personality pals who were quite the characters and hit Skyline in Clifton - I wished the other girls were still with us because all my memories there are SO college! As we get older (gasp!) it's more and more difficult to get the whole kit-and-kaboodle together so it was great to go out together.

The next morning Lindsey and I had brunch at Enoteca Emilia - a fantastic new Italian tapas and wine restaurant in O'Bryonville. We had wonderful service and loved the proscuitto, pear and goat cheese flatbread sandwich, "cheesy" bread (a little loaf, sliced, with cheese oozing through all the cracks) and little fried balls like beignets or donuts, dusted with powdered sugar and served with chocolate sauce and an orange marmalade. Divine! I'm really looking forward to going back for dinner and Sunday brunch.

Wishing a wonderful 25th year and avoidance of the quarter-life crisis to my favorite lil veggie!

Mango chile margarita at nada

René of the Day // 8.20.11 // Happy B-Day, Baby Stan IV!

Today was a very special birthday - the first for Baby Stanley LeRoy McCoy the 4th! Not only is he the most charming and adorable little man, but our families have a special bond. His dad, Stan III, and my sister grew up together since kindergarten with birthdays just a few days apart. My dad and his dad, Stan Jr. have been best friends since high school. My grandfather was good friends with Stan Senior and they worked to established the Loveland Youth Football league back in the day. And Baby Stan's mom, Christina, has been one of my close friends since grade school. So his party was a hoopla of old family friends who I've known my entire life and my hometown girlfriends. The McCoy family is huge and perhaps local royalty in Loveland. They are so much fun to spend time with and they have great love and connection. Little LeRoy is so blessed to be born into this loving family. I have so many summer and holiday memories with them, especially in the years after our parents divorced, all of us kids would just go wild playing in the huge treehouse, playing mud ball and swimming in the pool from noon to midnight. We even discovered that Stan's sister Shannon's husband is a very close friend of MR's family. What a super small world it is!

The Blue's Clues theme was so cute - he dove into his cake, face-first, coming up with blue icing hanging out of his nostril like boogers - hilarious! He just kept going in for the kill without his hands. Way to be! I'm looking forward to watching him grow up - he looks identical to his daddy!

Happy 1st birthday, Stan!

René of the Day // 7.29.11 // Featured Friend: Andi

So how I met my British bestie... Once upon a time, I was a 13-year-old student ambassador with People to People and spent 3 weeks traveling through England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This trip around the UK was many things - my first out-of-country adventure, the longest I've ever been away from home and a time when I met two friends who are still very near and dear to my heart.

We learned of our assigned homestay families in Ireland and England a few weeks before the trip. Mind you, this was 1999... we still paid-per-minute for AOL usage, dialed up and hoped the crackling sound would connect to a ::ding:: and "You've Got Mail!" and not everyone had it yet. The Bond Family and their daughter Andrea sent me an email through their friend Craig who had email and we chatted a few times before my arrival.

Thirteen years later, I am honored (ahem, honoured) to serve as her Chief Bridesmaid (as the Brits call the Maid of Honor) on August 1. It's always funny because I'm so girley and she's more of a tomboy - I chatter without coming up for air and she's a bit quiet - we balance each other well. Hell, she convinced me to spend a summer in the woods of Connecticut during college! It makes me feel terrible to think that I'm only now returning, but it is quite expensive to travel from this side of the pond to that, as compared to the other way around. Absolutely thrilled to meet her fiancé Alan - my parents met him in Barcelona with the entire Bond family last year and he seems like a fantastic "lad." I am also thrilled that she's arranged for one of my good friends from Scotland to come spend a day and night with us! It's going to be an unforgettable trip with 50 bottles of wine awaiting consumption... Cannot wait for a proper English breakfast and Sunday roast! There will a few posts coming from the wedding and our adventures over the next 10 days.

It's mind-blowing how now we can easily chat every day via Facebook, Twitter or text via the What's App on our iPhones. Oh how that times have changed - for this I'm ever so grateful.

Ta-ta for now!

My British sibs - Andi & her brother Stevie

René of the Day // 6.15.11 // Featured Friend: Emerlu + SENATE

Disclaimer: Honest to goodness - I didn't plan to post so many "Featured Friends"so often... I just happen to have some incredible people in my life and when they deserve recognition, they get it NOW, dammit. ;)

I had a hell of a time last night with my friend Emily... we've been close since Mr. Partin's sixth grade social studies class at Loveland Middle School. She'd come over after school and we'd make peach oatmeal or order LaRosa's pizza and eat it on my bedroom floor. In college, we both spent the summer of 2007 interning in NYC. Em lived in the NYU dorms above Union Square and I lived in the East Village. We'd walk the 10 or so blocks to each other's places and check out the dive bars in between... and one of the coolest things I did that summer was the Live Earth concert with her at the Giant's stadium - talk about an amazing show - Damien Rice & David Gray, Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys, Roger Waters to name a few. A truly unforgettable day.

After college, Emily moved to Santa Rosa, California to join AmeriCorp - I admired her so much. I dreamed of joining the Peace Corp and scared myself out of it by thinking I'd come home at 26 without a connection to my friends, single forever, jobless and broke. After two years of incredible connections with her students, countless amazing photos of the vineyards and all the beauty the left coast has to offer, she moved to Portland. A year later and she has completed her Masters in education - super proud of her! Emily is a sensational dancer, intuitive photographer, is wonderfully artistic (she made me the painting hanging in my apartment, pictured in the album linked in the Live in Hyde Park! post) a skilled writer and a great friend - I can be more goofy with her than anyone I know. Since college, we have continued hand-written correspondence - letters, postcards, photos, even as we communicate via text, Facebook and email. Her parents still welcome me to dinner at their home and her older brother Clint has become a good buddy to grab a beer with at the local pubs around Hyde Park.

Although I miss having her here, I think our friendship is so special because of how we stay in touch and our visits when she comes home to Cincinnati a few times a year. I can't wait to visit Portland - hopefully this fall.

Last night I took her to OTR to see how our city is transforming and that we may not be Port of Land but we have some cool places popping. First we had a beer at The Lackman then hit Senate for another beer and a bite. Em is now a vegetarian so the hot dog named after my pal Dan Korman was perfect for her - red callini bean & Turkish lentil sausage with sun-dried tomatoes, shaved fennel, arugula and goat cheese was perfect. I loved the Lindsay Loahn (who she happens to be obsessed with, ha) - all beef hot dog with arugula, goat cheese, caramelized onions and balsamic - and truffle fries with aioli, of course!

Our outstanding meal at SENATE

So cheers to Emily - and many more years of friendship and letters and laughs!
xoxo

Em & I lunching at the famous former Tavern on the Green in NYC 

René of the Day // 6.11.11 // Featured Friend: Elise

She's actually my cousin - but of course, my friend too! Today she graduates from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a minor in Spanish with a focus in photojournalism and public relations. Here's to wishing her great success in her career and building on her passions - very proud of you, Lisey Belle. When I graduated, I placed her into my hostessing job at Carlo & Johnny and also gave her a lead for her internship with the Cincinnati Reds so if I can help her with her job search, I'm happy to! Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/elisemichelle, or check out her photography here or read her blog, Belle Bombshell here. Our grandmother would have been so proud of our family's fourth Bearcat alum!

Congratulations, Elise! :)
xoxo

Né

Cubs vs. Mets at Wrigley Field - visiting our fabulous Aunt Kiki.
One of our fun sports vacays in college - who can forget the Sugar Bowl in NOLA?! ;)

René of the Day // 6.10.11 // French Strawberry Torte & Friends

Isn't this French Strawberry Torte from The BonBonerie absolutely divine? Last night I had a delicious dinner at Stone Creek Dining Company with my mom and her cousin Colleen and two of her friends, Janey and Amanda, who have become good friends of ours over the past few years. It's quite hard to schedule an evening for the 5 of us to get together but it was successful! First of all, the bottle of Coppola Claret I shared with Mom was so nice - well balanced with fruit, smooth tannins and I loved the tobacco aroma. I ordered the Applewood Bacon Wrapped Salmon with lime teriyaki glaze and napa slaw and had to have sweet potato fries with aioli... it was all fantastic!

After dinner, we went to Janey's new home (well, we've been trying to find time to celebrate the new home for a few years lol) and it was so adorable; she is the most gracious hostess. She has fantastic taste; I felt like I was walking through Pottery Barn with great pops of color. And I had some serious kitchen-envy of her cool backsplash and Sub-Zero fridge. The best part was her stinkin' cute little red head Elise came down to say hello in her ladybug pj's.

We enjoyed wine and the cake by candlelight on the screened in patio and it was just so nice to relax, chat and laugh - they're all hilarious, successful and gorgeous women and I hope to learn from all of them for when I'm a wife and mother. I am so blessed to have such strong, smart and funny women in my life to model myself after. I truly wish we can find the time to see each other more often. Cheers, ladies!

René of the Day // 6.2.11 // Featured Friend: Findlay

My dog is really stinkin' cute. That is all.

René of the Day // 5.18.11 // Featured Friend: Kristin

Today I'd like to send love to one of my dearest friends, Kristin. We just spent the evening together shopping for outfits for the weekend - I hate shopping but Kris has fabulous taste and is the best personal shopper. I can't wait to wear everything she picked out for me... 

We met in high school; she actually graduated 2 years before me, with my sister. At the time, everyone thought *we* were sisters. Petite, long blond curly hair, big smiles... the little girls at cheer camp swore we were twins. She drove me to school every day and we'd sing Jewel & J. Lo at the top of our lungs :) I always adored her and loved visiting her at OSU when she went off to college. I was thrilled when she moved back to Cincinnati from Florida 2 years ago and even more so when she was an hour late after her birthday dinner because the handsome love of her life, René (that is Mr. René - naturally I am referred to as Ms. René) proposed!!! 

Now I'm counting down the days until I wear my pretty purple dress and stand at her side as they exchange vows in October. It's really special to have a friend with whom I've grown up and shared so many experiences with. Even her family members have become my good friends. She always makes me laugh (see photo), is a fantastic listener, has great taste in wine and has a heart that is plump with love. And that is why she is my first "Featured Friend" post!