girls night in

Didn't accomplish much of anything Saturday, but was definitely very girly from beginning to end. Ella and I had one of our lovely mornings in the bath. Its the second outpost of Les Bains du Marais, I think. I brought a big cup of coffee and she brought her Dora figurines (yep, those ones)and we played in the bath for ages, scrubbing with the pumice stone and going through one soap/mask after another. Then we spent a good hour or so blowing our hair, putting on lotion, and playing with make-up. She is such a girly-girl its unbelieveable.

In the afternoon, we played in the park for a bit and then while she napped, I baked (a very average apple pie, sadly). The sky was steely grey all afternoon and so it was lovely to have no where to go and nothing to do. Also took the chance to get going on some Christmas projects. Must admit that I didn't get much further than dragging out all my embroidery things and some fabric, but the wheels are turning. I am hoping to be struck by inspriration today.

Saturday night, I had been invited over to a friends house for a bit of a house-warming party. I am missing the actual party next week since I will be in the States and her husband was out of town, so I popped round thinking it would be a quick drink or two, but turned into a very boozy dinner that finished up around 2 am. We were going to be very well-behaved and then we got it in our heads that we should do a bit of a Champagne Desgustation since we had each bought a bottle of our favorite champagne. (My new fav is Heidseick and hers is Mailly- a blanc de noirs. Was lovely and chocolate-y compared to mine which was very very fruity. Am writing off this hangover as a necessary part of of the learning experience.)

Their apartment is really lovely and the best part is that they have a fireplace in the living room. We lit a fire and settled into the sofa with a (few...) bottles of champagne for a nice chat. Then, all of a sudden, my friends cell phone rings with an SMS- some girl had apparently given out that number as her own and so we spent the next hour sending naughty 'how can you not remember our steamy night of passion?!!' textos to some poor hapless Thomas. Felt like we were 15 and had broken into our parents liquor cabinet while they were out of town.

This friend is also one of my few girlfriends who is married and is also American, so we have very similar ideas about things. Sometimes its nice to be able to compare notes with someone who is on the same page as me. We're about the same age and she's quite independent so I think she understands my mind set a bit better. I can't moan too much about my husband to my single girlfriends because they either can't understand why I put up with certain things or can't understand why I would complain since I have attained the Holy Grail which is a ring on my finger. My French girlfriends who are married don't seem to enjoy complaining about their husbands as much. And lots of my mommy friends are too involved with their kids to be able to take out a whole evening for drinking and gossiping, it seems like. If I had managed to get to bed before 3, it would have been the ideal night out. Might just have to slip back into bed when Ella takes her nap this afternoon...