F.B. & I decided to have a little "staycation" getaway. Saturday into Sunday we checked into the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square section. The hotel was just two blocks down from the Academy of Music. I found a nice rate on our room on Agoda.com

Check in was at 3pm on Saturday. We took the train down to Suburban Station. We got downtown around 2pm, so we decided to walk around a little bit. We checked out The Shops at Liberty Place. It's a small mall right near City Hall.

Glass dome roof inside Liberty Place

City Hall

Our Hotel

There was a Starbucks downstairs inside the hotel! They also had a Tiffany & Co, Williams & Sonoma and some other shops downstairs.

Our room!

We headed to dinner after checking in. We ate at Ruby Tuesday at Liberty Place. Then walked around a little after dinner. And I got some Starbucks when we got back to the hotel, hehe.

Sirloin steak, broccoli & mashed cauliflower

Top shelf long island iced tea

Mojito

F.B. with our chocolate lava cake for dessert.

Art school across the street from the hotel. We could see ballerina's practicing in the studio from the sidewalk. :)

Academy of Music was 2 blocks from the hotel.

Light outside the Academy of Music.

Starbucks & Chocolate back at the hotel!

Courtyard out our hotel window

 Check out was at 12pm. I forgot to take pictures of us when we came back to the hotel after dinner, I was tired. lol. So that's why my hair is wet here.


We checked out shops on Chestnut Street & Walnut Street after checking out. Walnut Street has a bunch of high end shops. The one I really wanted to stop at was L'Occitane!

My loot from L'Occitane! Almond soap, Verbena soap, Almond oil body wash, Verbena hand lotion, Almond lotion, Rose solid perfume.

We decided to head to 30th Street Station to take the train back home. It was sunny, but very cold and windy out! We walked from Broad St all the way to 30th Street Station.

Comcast Center

Church on 17th Street, I liked the red door.

Bridge near Schuylkill Ave.

Oh hi work... see you Tuesday...

30th Street Station, Amtrack building in the back.

Bridge near Schuylkill Ave.

30th Street Station

I got a cute Philadelphia tote bag for work and a metal city souvenir from the book shop inside 30th Street Station. Yeah... playing tourist in my own city again, lol. Ever since my office moved downtown back in December 2010 and I've been riding the trains. I've definitely been checking out more of downtown Philadelphia than ever before.

F.B. tired on the train home.

Me waiting in the car, while F.B. get Wendy's for dinner!

We had a really nice weekend. But boy with all that walking, we are exhausted!

P.S. This was the note F.B. left on my coffee cup and I found when I got to work Thursday morning. (I make my coffee at home in the morning and my travel tumbler goes into my work bag until I get to work).


Other Philadelphia Adventures:

• September 2011:  Philadelphia Trip: 8/31-9/1/2011  
• July 2011: Philadelphia Zoo
• May 2011: Hot Day in the City! 
• December 2010: The Nutcracker  
• April 2009: Playing tourist in my own city

I've ordered quite a few times from the Ninja Polish store, but I've never tried their own brand. My last order I got two Ninja Polishes & a Layla polish.

I ordered Ninja Polish Caribbean Reef & Strawberries 'n Roses. And Layla The Butterfly Effect.





I was a bit disappointed with Layla The Butterfly Effect. I thought it would be more purple-ly in person. The formula is very thin so I think it's best for layering over polish. It's a very dark purple in person. It has pretty flakies in it that shift from gold, red, orange & green. I think my favorite though was layering it over Layla Hologram Ultra Violet.



I'm going to do an updated blog post of all the polish I have in my collection, whenever I receive my 3 free Zoya's. :-)
 
P.S. I won these really pretty Wet 'n Wild eye shadows from Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom Blog. She has a lot of contests going on this month!


*All polish was purchased by myself.

Christmas tree at 30th Street Station, Philadelphia

F.B. & I exchanged gifts Christmas Eve. We're poor, so we just got each other 1-2 gifts each. I got F.B. The Dark Knight Trilogy Dvd & 84 mini bags of Herr's Potato Chips!

My not so creative Christmas and New Year's nails. I had wanted to do red/white candy cane stripes on my ring fingers, but it turned out looking more like a bloody mummy...so yeah... I just went with something simple, lol!

These aren't new polishes. The Sally Hansen Celeb City I've owned since 2010. And my ring finger has China Glaze Make A Spectacle layered over the silver.


One of my new favorite polish brands is Zoya! I first bought three of their 2012 Holiday collection. Blaze, Aurora & Storm a few months ago. And then with the $20 Amazon giftcard I earned from Valued Opinions, I bought two more polishes.


Just a quick bit of info about Valued Opinions. I like it better than Swagbucks because you earn money faster. You do online surveys, some you may qualify for and some you may not. I joined for free in September 2012 and I earned my $20 by December 2012, so not bad at all! Even better when I claimed my $20 giftcard from Amazon, the code was sent to me instantly through email! So I got to buy my nail polish on Amazon that same night. (You can also get a Visa card, or Macy's, Itunes Giftcards, etc.)

And Zoya Roxy. Zoya Roxy didn't want to photograph correctly. But it's a magenta jelly polish with silver sparkles in it.



Disclosure: Valued Opinions did not ask me to write this blog. I wrote it because I enjoy doing the surveys & earning giftcards. The two polishes below were purchased with my $20 reward from Valued Opinions. The rest were purchased with my own money.

  

 

Rockwell Handmade is now called: From Lebow With Love.

This pretty little winter ballerina is from Rockwell Handmade. A shop started by one of my childhood friends Leah. She makes handmade dolls, bowties & whatever else strikes her fancy, from pretty vintage fabric she finds.

You can even customize your doll orders with what colors you prefer. I wanted our ballerina doll to have black hair. :-) And she is so gorgeous in person! And much larger than you would think. She is approx 17" tall.
 
I ordered the Winter Ballerina for my little one year old niece Zia in the Philippines. (My Sister in law's blog.). So we will be shipping this dolly off in the New Year as a belated Christmas gift.