Wishing You Blissful Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Miami Beach!

Lost at the Beaches!

The cutest lifeguard station...

sandy architects....

care to put your toes in this silky water?

welcome to my backyard...



how can you leave this perfection? so hard every time!
I have separation anxiety and I live here!

Bird Bath- Party?



Ready for a drink? Here is good!

Living architecture... you are always surprised.

You can wander off the beach and stop here to watch the cruise ships depart...

Put your feet up...

Perhaps stop by this oasis in the Keys...

Tiki umbrella...perfect spot for shade...

Enjoy the tropical sunset today...


and tomorrow... back to the beach!

Are you staying warm? Hope this warmed you up a bit if you needed it.

xoxoxxo
-Miss Bliss

Hot off the Presses: Your next book...

Jane Lund, via here.

Today in Miami my local independent bookstore, Books and Books, is having a reading from this new book! Later this week they will have Elizabeth Gilbert, the writer of Eat Pray Love. She has a new title, Committed, out...

Looks like wonderful reading to start of 2010. What is on your reading list? Don't forget to stop it all and enjoy a good book... ;) -Miss Bliss

Driving through Tropical Skies

The clouds felt like being poetic that day...is there a heart there???

Join us on a drive from Miami Beach over to Miami...we love this bridge,

and on this day the skies were full of tropical billowing clouds.

Tropical clouds engulfing a very high high rise...

like driving toward celestial spaces...

brings new meaning to "over the top" ;)

a huge blanket of clouds filling the skies



These clouds made cars and billboards look like toys :)

The clouds held center stage over the Miami skyline...

blanketing the backdrop... you can hardly
see our skyscrapers, or were they cloudscrapers that day??? ;)

Tropical clouds...what a great day for the beach!

Palms, clouds, blue skies, what a wonderful commute!

Don't worry, Mr. Wonderful was driving and I was taking the pictures.

We have a good system.

:) -Miss Bliss.

When are you coming to visit???

Bliss continues...a little soul nourishment!

Yesterday the gang stopped over at Key Biscayne, picking up sushi and fruit and drinks at the "hidden" Winn Dixie over there--the ultimate beach prep stop. Then we found the perfect spot to eat our picnic under a shady palm tree, read our books and luxuriate in the warm waters. I gathered some sea shells--Key Biscayne has some really cute ones...

After soaking up some sun and water and r and r, we ate at a must-stop for guests in Miami: Versailles Restaurant on Calle Ocho in Little Havana... bring on the mojitos!!! I love Versailles trips, you have to bring home some guava pastries for breakfast the next day.

Yesterday was my TWO year anniversary of being married to Mr. Wonderful. Time does fly when you are having fun... it only feels like two months, max!

The boys are taking one of them back to the airport in a little while, but we get one of them for a few more days, so the adventures will definitely continue.

Forget the rain!

All the doors are open, windows to! Breezes are 82 deg and palm trees are swaying, the smell of Dunkin Donuts coffee is on the breeze, and dinner plans are in the works.

I've been working on adding links to my column and finding the other columns I normally read and like. The list in down the right column.

Now I need to go back and add all the links to my Miami Beach haunts.

Back to work!!!

deciding on joy: a love story just beginning

Philly Sunday School troublemakers circa 1984!

Miss Bliss writes:

We can't control a lot in our lives, but Mr. Wonderful and I keep refocusing on the joy. Mr. W and I went to elementary school (and spent all of our childhoods together) near Philadelphia, and parted ways soon after when my parents split up.

Although we only saw each other periodically in our teens, for *some reason* he stopped off in the midwest to see me on his way to California for the Coast Guard right out of high school. (now we joke about how I should have just jumped in the car and joined him for the trip across the country...that would have saved a lot of trouble for us both for the next 17 years!)

We would not see each other again until our early 30's. When our little school had a reunion, I flew from Miami to Philly to attend. Sadly, Mr. W. was not attending since he was busy moving to Colorado.

Still, he invited me to visit in Colorado, and I accepted, never dreaming I was about to have a most wonderful reunion and be visiting my soon-to-be husband.

I flew from Miami to Denver this time of the year two years ago, and he says he knew when I crossed the street where he was waiting for me. We were married two months later, and I moved to Colorado. (the orchids on the right are his photo from our honeymoon!)

Now we are in Miami, and open to adventures, of course.

I get caught up with worrying, sometimes, and he reminds me, we aren't going to worry about any of that stuff...

We consider ourselves "two years old" in love, that is. We are embracing life, and relearning to see the world fresh... so much joy to be felt. When we first hugged, he said, "Where have you been?" I knew what he meant. We had finally come home to each other.

top photo credit: zazzle