Guilty Pleasures...

When things get a bit rough round here (which they do every now and again) I am no different to anyone else on this planet in that I have my very own guilty pleasures I turn to.  

The other day I was trying to think of just one which I have held on to my entire life, but in fact my little pleasures have changed through the years just as much as I have.  

Factors like age, available funds, and loctaion certainly have so much to do with that...

High School

Uh oh...Spaghetti O's.  

Gross I know, but I still have fond memories of sharing them with many a friend.  Most likely would not be the culinary delight as I once thought it to be, so I shall leave this one in my teens... 

University

 Simply said. 

The Ballyhoo Tavern.

Best job I have ever had.  I truly loved every minute I spent there - and there were a lot.

Pageant Years

Heels.  

I loved the way I could feel in an amazing pair of them.  

Heels really made me feel as though all was right with the world when I was towering over girls and on par with the guys...

Post-Miss USA 

I have not stepped a foot into a McDonald's in nearly 13 years, but Taco Bell...they get me every time.  

If there was one here in Italy, I would have been in that drive thru every single night when I was pregnant!

Italy...first few months

I ate tonnnns of the stuff.  

No wonder I gained 20 pounds in the first 6 months.

Pre-Baby

Who am I kidding...Prosecco has made a rather smooth transition into Post-Baby as well...

Pregnancy

There is an old Italian wives tale that whatever a mamma craved in pregnancy came out in the form of a birthmark on the baby...called a "Voglia".  Liv has a red strawberry-shaped birthmark on her leg.  

Comes as no surprise, I ate at least an entire punnet a day!!

Which brings us finally to the present...

These two guys come from the Officina Profumo - Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella in Firenze. 

It is seriously the most wonderful place on earth.  

Take THAT Mickey Mouse.

The Tabacco Toscano products (there are not too many of them, the candle and the soap are what I get my fix off of) are the most comforting, rich and lovely scent you could ever want.  

The first candle I bought I held in my little paws and pretty much smelled it to its death.  

I take looong luxurious showers using the soap and wash my hands during the day so many times that I think I am starting to become OCD...but not about cleanliness, oh no, but about sniffing my hands.  

Weird huh?  Well, get yourself some of this gold, and you will understand.

Even better, get your butt to Firenze and experience the magic first hand.  It is the most amazing shop/museum.  I took my mother, auntie and cousin there not long ago and I fear that they now think I am mental.  I was like a kid in a candy shop.

Isn't it amazing how your tastes - food and otherwise tend to grow with you through the years?

  

Who would have ever thunk it that a little midwestern girly sucking down canned pasta, and dousing chicken tacos with Fire sauce would be crazy as a bag of hammers for luxury Italian soap and candles?

Certainly not me...

Post-shopping bliss - Mom and I in SMN...I shamelessly sniffed the bag all day.

So...fess up...what is your guiltiest pleasure???

xoxo sjkh