Carolina's....

Well we are finally back home in SF from our amazing 10 day trip to the Carolina's. It's always hard to come home again when you are finally getting adjusted to life away from home but as soon as we flew over the bay I was happy to be here and come back to the new apt! It's been a beautiful day and because of the time difference we were still able to enjoy most of our Sunday. I spent the day at the gym and by the pool because going on a 10 day Carolina trip full of southern cooking and then some is never a wise choice two weeks before you have to fit into a bridesmaid dress for one of your best friends weddings!! I won't do a super long and wordy post about the trip because I could go on and on, instead I will share a few pictures that sum up the trip! I hope you enjoy... Oh and on a side note, Mr. Jones and I made a quick two day trip to Charleston SC while we were there...which totally desrerves a post all it's own..but that will just have to wait..I'll sneak a few pics in here though of my new favorite city!...

We were so lucky to spend just about every day doing something with family..whether it was celebrating a birthday, having a BBQ, or just hanging out we relished every single moment with them and came home feeling so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives...

Miss. V, my sister Steff and my cousin Gabby

My brother Julian and Cousin Michaela at our 16th annual Family Pizza Party



Celebrating my Granny's Birthday


While out to dinner at a small local restaurant for Granny's birthday we saw the famous race car driver Richard Petty!! He lives in the area and was kind enough to take a quick pic! It's a little blurry but I didn't want to bother him for another! We have been to his race car museum also in the area quite a few times over the years so it was pretty cool to see the legend himself in person..

Paw-Paw going through old family photos...


My precious baby cousin Vincent


Mama Lauren and Vincent

Grandma V and Julian

My amazing GREAT Grandma Flo....

Uncle Pat, Aunt Robyn Mr. Jones and Myself...

Uncle Mike, Gabby and Steff

On a quick side note, Uncle Mike and his wife Lauren both compete in Fitness (Lauren) and Bodybuilding (Uncle Mike)... while we were there we found out that my Uncle will be going to Mr. Olympia in Sept. !! And.. Lauren scored highest place in her fitness competition as well and is on her way to getting her pro card! I am so impressed with their dedication to fitness!! As our family says...Go Team V !!

And on the topic of fitness I thought it was a good time to transition into food..hahah... Mr. Jones and I exercised our stomachs during this trip ...

We ate... a lot... and that is an understatement... here is a food montage...just to get you nice and hungry at the end of your day ;)

Grandpa V making his famous meatballs! Having Italian and Southern roots in my family is dangerous to the waist line...

My favorite hot dogs! The Carolina dog and the Wrightsville dog!


Uncle Pat our grill master and Julian hamming it up for the camera..

We also did a lot of relaxing..whether it was in the country at Granny and Paw-Paws or on the beach in Wilmington and Charleston..we soaked up the sun...and enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of city life for a little while..

Granny and Paw-Paws garden...nothing is better than fresh vegetables...

I love Carolina beaches...they remind me of summers with my family and I loved sharing them with Mr. Jones ;)

Toes in the sand...warm blue water...and a good book..h.e.a.v.e.n

I'll end with a few quick pics of SC, we stayed in Charleston for two days and made a pit stop in Columbia on our way back to NC we had a great time and have found two new favorite cities ...

Heading into downtown Charleston..

Shopping district...

Five points shopping district in Columbia SC

And because we were right next to the college we found the Greek Shop where I "made" Mr. Jones pose next to the AXO section! Made me want to live in the house again and decorate my room in ALL AXO stuff ;)

And this is how Mr. Jones felt about the camera by the end of the trip...

Ok I'm exhausted sharing all of that with you so a huge pat on the back if you actually made it to the end...we had an amazing time and can't wait to go back ... Glad I could share my "Carolina" with all of you

North Carolina...

Well we've been in North Carolina for a full two days now and have been going non stop! We've spent each day visiting with family, celebrating, relaxing and stuffing ourselves silly. I'll do a longer post after we return but just wanted to share a few pictures of today and what we've been up to! It's already going by way too fast and I have had to take care of a few school details since being here..which defeats the point of a vacation, but.. that's ok. I'm getting pretty excited to meet my 22 new Kinders in one short week!

Here are a few shots from this evening, there are many more but trying to type this quickly before Mad Men begins! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Went to an outdoor concert that the Greensboro Arts Council hosts, my adorable grandmother is a member and helps to organize the events over the summer!

A packed crowd, bubbles, hand fans, fried chicken and Carolina Beach music... we are now officially in the south!


Spending lots of time with my cutie pie brothers and sister...

Cousins doing the "model pose"...


trouble... ;) my sister and cousin


Mr. Jones ...taking it all in ;)

Just Because....

Just because the sun went down and I have to do a double take every time I walk into my living room and see this view... I take back every mean and evil thing I said about SF today and it's blasted below freezing summer temps and fog... because this skyline just takes my breath away and reminds me why I love this city...

Makes me want to be all romantical and drink wine and listen to jazz... so cheesy I know!

But as cheesy as that might be... it's exactly what I'm doing.. it's helping me unpack the horrendous amount of "stuff" that still needs to find a home...

XOXO- Miss. V

Let's Celebrate!

So I'm blogging from my brand new bedroom! Very excited to have internet again, even though it's been only a few short days between the chaos of moving and not having internet I feel like I opened my inbox to about 9485764587 new messages and had about that many to send out, so last up is updating the blog and then I can rest! (well sort of...I still have unpacking, decorating, packing again for our trip, and preparing for the new school year) but all of these are minor details right?

In any event here I am to update all of you on what I've been up to! This past weekend we celebrated the 40th wedding anniversary of Mr. Jones' parents! They hosted a huge party at their house and it was a fun day of family, friends, sunshine (which SF seems to be lacking!!) and most importantly love! "Dad" Jones and his band were the entertainment for the evening which resulted in lots of sing-alongs, silly dancing and a great time!

"The Classics" Here's the band rocking away!

The Lovely Couple! Happy 40th!

A packed house full of family and friends!

Here are the "JoBros" and family friends. Far Left: Alex Jones, Center: The Handysides and Far Right Mr. Jones and I

We had a wonderful time and always love hanging out with this crowd they are truly all like family to me and I was so touched by the amount of people that came up to ask me how I was doing with my family moving so far away. I am so thankful to have the Joneses in my life and feel so comforted to know that I do have "family" from coast to coast!

We pretty much spent Monday and Tuesday finishing up our move and are semi settled into the new place, I have a few photos to share but won't dare show you everything because well...it's a mess!


I'll start with a "before" picture of the place:

Before: Living/ Dining area...yep...that's not even half of our stuff..

After: Or I should say Transition : Living room, we haven't committed on art above the couch but we were playing around with options when I snapped this...

Kitchen/ Dining area: The other half of this room is the disaster zone, so you'll see that portion when we're finished..

Bedroom: Almost there....

Well folks that's all you get for now I'll upload some more later, we have incredible views of Giants Stadium, the water and downtown as well so when I have another free minute I'll add those and hopefully when we get back from our trip and are more settled in I'll add finished photos! We are loving it so far and are so excited to call this home!

We also hosted our first guest for a meal today my brother (who is still here until Dec) so I'm not totally orphaned yet... ha! Looking forward to many more guests and hopefully a fun housewarming! Ok off to unpack a few more things!

XOXO- Miss. V

A New Chapter....

Well, yesterday was the final goodbye for Mom and Dad. They are well on their way now on their cross country adventure and although there were a lot of tears there was also a lot of excitement and a feeling of it's going to be alright. They have decided to do the drive cross country and at the last minute a pang of regret hit me, and for about a second I thought maybe I should just jump in the car with them and just go for it...that feeling quickly subsided when I thought how much more relaxing it would be to make the 5 hour plane flight with a glass of white wine in one hand and the newest US Weekly in the other... so I think I'll stick with the original plan and just see them very shortly in October. Besides, I guess I should help Mr. Jones move all of our stuff this weekend... ;)

After we said our goodbyes, (which actually totaled in like three because of course I forgot my wallet and then my planner at their house, and each time my dad tried to pass off more stuff for me to take that they could not fit in their car..) I finally hit the road and went to get my hair done because with all the new changes going on in my life I thought what better way to just start completely fresh than with a new hairstyle... HA! I'm a wimp and I have been loving having my long hair now for too long so I just had a trim, but it was a wonderful opportunity for me to FINALLY go to the brand new VJONES Salon owned by the amazing Mum and Dad Jones Family (as in my Mr. Jones!) Lucky me! ( and no the V in V Jones Salon has nothing to do with me...that's a whole nother post).

The Beautiful VJones Salon

Very Clean and Modern...in LOVE

My favorite part... the hair washing stations...and yes I do require a pillow...my Blog isn't titled "Short" and Sweet for nothing...

And here is my other favorite "Mr. Jones" working the front desk!

It's truly a beautiful space and my pictures don't really do it justice, I had been there before when it was in the process of being remodeled but having been there as a client was wonderful and my stylist was a total sweetheart as well. I would post pics of the "Do" but like I said I just had her trim it up and I'll get some pics this weekend, it's the 4oth anniversary of Mum and Dad Jones and they are throwing a big party to celebrate.

Ok I've gone on too long I have to help the Mr. pick up the U-Haul and get the rest of our things over to the new place today! I'm not sure if there is internet at the new apt. yet... (ehhhh mini panic attack) but hopefully I can update you later this evening on the JOYS of Moving...


XOXO- Miss. V

Birthday Girl...

Tomorrow marks the birthday of someone that I love more than words can even express...my "roomie" Mere. Obviously we no longer are roomies, she lives in LA with her Mr. and I'm here in SF with mine..but before either of us made the big step of moving in with our significant others we were roommates... best friend roommates at that.

Here we are right around the time we moved in together...Obsessed with eachother obviously..

Just me & my roomie...

Although I love living with Mr. Jones and pretending to be a domestic goddess, baking, decorating, and just all around "beautifying" our home...it was with my roomie that I had my first real practice.. I burnt many a cookie and biscuit all for the love of her on a Sunday afternoon. We lovingly decorated our apt. all thanks to her.. (I didn't even own a towel) ...we built an amazing movie collection together, half of which I still have, classics such as, every Mandy Moore movie ever made, bargain dvd's from the now bankrupt and defunct Hollywood Video, and classics such as How to Lose a guy in 10 days...which we had multiple copies of, because well every serious movie collecter has several of their favorites right?

Together through every hair color...

Every length, and style...we tried it all...

We both started our 1st "Grown Up" jobs around the same time, learned how to use public transit, explored the city together, went on roadtrips, spent endless hours trying on, debating, rating, and then changing our minds about outfits, shared closests, dyed our hair a new shade every other week, cut bangs, grew out bangs, chopped off hair, grew hair out, curled hair, straightened hair, and pretty much between the two of us in a matter of a year had about every hair do imaginable. We laughed uncontrollably, we danced in our apt. to Bowie, INXS, and even a Destiny's Child here and there just about every weekend, and just loved eachother immensly every step of the way.

Love...

We even started taking on the same facial expressions as seen here...

Sometimes it breaks my heart that our time as "roomies" was so short lived, but I truly believe that we were both put in a situation where we were meant to live together at that specific time for very specific reasons, we both have grown immeasurably since then and we needed eachother to get to the places we are now and where we are headed. She made me realize the person I could be when I couldn't see it, and still does whether she knows it or not. She means the world to me and I love her with all my heart, so here's to you roomie, happy birthday, love you always with every ounce of my heart.

There's a million more of these "couple shots" but I'll try to keep the embarassment at a minimum in honor of your birthday roomie..

XOXO- Miss. V