February Favorite Things

The list is a bit short this month, haven't been on the path of great discovery lately, but there are some things worth mentioning.....

1)  JAMAICA - SANDALS RESORTS!!!  If you're like me and every year you plan to use your tax returns to pay off your credit cards but instead go on an over the top vacation, then high five!  Dave and I figured that we would scratch our plans for Spain this year for a group trip with friends.  We figure everyone is quickly growing up, spreading out, and acquiring more responsibilities, so we all need to vacay pronto before any kids come out.  Via Facebook we all settled on going to Jamaica during the week of Memorial Day, and now that all the planning is over, I am counting down the days til I'm in paradise....ahhhhhh.  Who knows if Sandals is hurting from the economy, string of bad hurricanes, or is putting up good deals for those brave enough to travel during the off season, I don't care.  It is fairly affordable for the two of us to go for five days and with our flight included in the all inclusive price, I'm happy to take advantage of the bottomless drinks and blue water beaches...just this one time.  We will take a more intellectual / stimulating vacay another time. 



2)  Shutterfly.com makes it soooo easy to order prints, cards, and photobooks...I'm. in love.  It took me a few weeks to put two books together, but only because I had a gabillion pictures from Oregon.  Shutterfly will take an album and chronologically organize it into a book for you, and all you have to do is choose the layout / style, and insert your captions!  I got two 8 x 8 books printed in hard back and they were shipped for free in about a week.  (you can also view e-copies of Vol. I and Vol. II).  Prices for books are discounted now and start at $11 (includes 20 pages and additional pages are 0.50 each), can't beat that, and the pictures looks great, not grainy and blurry like I thought they might.  After I ordered my books they also gave me thirty free prints, and those are in the mail now (or you can pic them up at a local printer of your choice), and I plan on making another book for my sister, and book of my India pictures so they don't spend an eternity on my laptop. 




3.  LOVE LOVE LOVE Mila Kunis' dress at the Oscars this weekend.  I wasn't in love with all the red hot and sleek silver dresses that dominated all the ladies and I really was not a fan of Anne Hathaway's wardobe / over the top bubbly / smiley persona, but dammmmnnnnn Mila Kunis made me lust all over that flowey purple dress:

 Also worthy of mention, Cate Blanchett, LOVE it:

4. New blog:  Under the Table and Dreaming is about decorating and design like many other sites, but I really love the diy projects and the organic style in Stephanie Lynn's crafts and ideas.  Not to mention she does some amazing things with paper that make elegant pieces for the ol' house. 

 4.  In the same line of thinking...check out this awesome antiques shop on Morningside and Central, C. Dimery's Morningside Antiques.  If you are at a loss of what to do on a Sunday afternoon, go in and look at the amazing collection this guy has.  There are multiple rooms organized by time period and you will find everything from mid-18th century furniture, silverware, jewelry, clothing, books, to retro furniture and art work, all resotred and displayed beautifully.  Granted, I don't know much about the costs of these things, but compared to prices of furniture at Target or JC Penny's Homestore, I think their pieces are SUPER fair and I don't know about you, I'd much rather have an antique with history and character, than some fiber board veneer crap.  Even if you don't plan to buy, it's like walking through a museum and all pieces are tagged with a full description and history for your reading pleasure.  IT MAKES ME WANT A HOUSE SOOOOO BAD so I can fill it with all of these beautiful things!!!

5.  Bathing suits at JCrew.  I know, it's way too early, but it's the same concept as a hanging that polka dot bikini in your room as motivation to shed those extra pounds...except times 100, and on the internet.  Love them, but damn!  why they gotta be so expensive!  shiiiittttttttt



6.  What else...what else?  Nothing really.  Feb. was an ok month.  It was short and I didn't really do anything too exciting. But when thinking back, my family has been my main focal point this past 28 days and I've gotten some perspective on how much I really really love them.  My parents are really special to me, my sister and I have gotten closer this month, whereas before I felt like our relationship was a chore, now I am enjoying the comfort of having a big sister in my life, my nephew is nuts and freakin adorable at the same time, my little brother is the coolest 19 year old I know, and my older brother turned 40! yesterday and I plan to use the occasion to open the lines of communication between us that are fairly non existant at the moment.    So sappy, I know.

July 2009

Things to look forward to in March:  Dave's 28th Birthday!!!! and Our 6 Year Anniversary!!!

Monday Monday Monday

Here we go again... another weekend goes by and here we are the start of another....la dee dah.

Friday night after work we had a bottle of wine and watched "Despicable Me" (ehh kinda cute). 

Then on Saturday we relaxed all morning and drove down to 4th and Osuna to get some brunch at the Calico Cafe and David broke my #1 rule:  if you don't talk about it, it won't happen. Or if you do talk about it, make sure you knock on wood.  YES WORLD!  I AM A LAW BREAKER, A NON CONFORMIST, AND NO!  MY CAR IS NOT REGISTERED!!!  I can say that in my head allllllll I want, but blabber mouth David started asking me, "Why haven't you registered it yet?  When are you gonna do it?"  and of course the universe heard him and put a Bernalillo County Sheriff right behind me.  Thanks Dave.  So yeah, I have my first court date scheduled on March 9th and I will be reunited with my very polite officer.  I was laughing at the whole situation, I knew it would happen eventually, and the cop seemed surprised that I had zero excuses when I kept repeating "I just haven't done it.  Just haven't.  (shrugging, smiling, shrugging)  No reason, just haven't gotten to it."  So yeah, if you want to shake the hand of a law breaking rebel, shoot me a text.

Next we ate a sub-par breakfast (all that trip for nothing) picked up some things at Lowe's and relaxed at the house.  Then, out of nowhere, David brought home some flowers and cooked an awesome dinner, all by himself!  Turkey burgers with mozzerela and red peppers and some cracked pepper spinach soup.  Perfect!

On Sunday, Dave had allergy / cold junk and it was awful, cold and windy outside so he made some yummy red chile and we stayed inside.  It was also my day to babysit and luckily Narayan slept a whopping 3hrs and 45 mins.  When he woke up he was ssssuuupppperrrrr hyper and ready to play and later he and my sister stuck around to eat dinner and watch the Oscars with us.

Lola had to be right next to Narayan at all times

 

Exciting, I know. More exciting news is yet to come!

Belated Weekend Re-cap

What did I do last weekend?  Well thanks for asking! 

On Saturday David went snowboarding with some friends and since I would be staying home all day, I offered to dog sit their new white lab.  He's a handful...to say the least.  He's like a 100 lbs big boy puppy who wants to play / hump all the time.  Of course he finally chilled out and I thought I would run to Costplus real quick to pick  up some Vday presents, so I put him in Lola's crate and ran out the door.  When I came back, who greeted me at the door?  yep, 100 lb Modus/Houdini escaped from the crate, without even opening the crate door.

 

 

Then on Sunday, I babysat my nephew.  I know, such an exciting life right?  He was a good boy.He had fun following Dave around all day and then took a whopping 3.5 hour nap.  Evidence:

 

THEN, I had Monday off to 'celebrate' Valentines Day.  I thought I would do something nice for D because he is really good at surprising me and being thoughtful, and I'm not.  I cleaned house and made a cheese platter, steamed artichokes, and oysters baked with bacon and blue cheese.  And, inspired by the latest trends in forts seen here and here, I built this beauty: 

 

 

 

 You know, lots of string, a couple of sheets, some xmas lights, and our futon.  It was a hit.  D was super surprised (I kept the living room closed off until we went in there and all the candles and lights were lit).  We ate our dinner in the fort, and then cuddled up and watched Steven Speilberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."  I wanted to keep the fort up for a while, but alas, it had to come down when David had people over the watch the Lobo game last night. 

So that's about it!  Exciting, I know. 

The final bonus is that my work week was only 4 days, and that I'm almost through it and on to another weekend.  Holla.

dreams of emerald, cerulean, aqua, sapphire, turquoise, cobalt, azure........

In an effort to plan our Caribbean vacation I've been scouring EVERY site on the net for a good deal and  have fallen in love with views of the beautiful sky and ocean, in the process.  HOLY MOLY!  it all just goes on for forever.  Sky and sea, sea and sky.  White sandy beaches.  Lush tropical rainforests and bright vibrant flowers.  mmmhmmmm:  heaven.

And of course all these resorts websites make it sound like the most amazing experience of your life...and I have a hard time doubting them. (snorkeling, swim up rooms, unlimited drinks, 7 restaurants, volcanoes, private islands, spa treatments, private cabanas on the beach?  yep:  heaven).

And although this vacation seems far away (beginning of summer), it will be here in a mere 3.5 months.  Like I'm so excited NOW, how will I hold all this excitement in for three more months?  It's all I can think about.  I'll be working working working, and then drift away with a little smile on my face and imagine the sounds of the water, and the pina colada in my hand as I lay on the beach. 

So without further delay, here are some images to spark similar moments in your own work day:

Hopefully this will be me...

Jamaica:  also know for rum, sugar cane, bobsled team, Rastafarians, reggae music, and a cool green / black / yellow flag

thank you Sandals for your awesome 65% discount that is making this all possible...middle class people have never been so happy!

So to get to point B, I need to save la cashola and never eat, ever again, starting yesterday.  :D  or instead just eat lightly and abstain from beer and bread products :D

Baby It's Cold Outside

Holy crap it's freezing cold outside.  I trudged into work yesterday thinking I would leave early, but instead stayed late.  From my little cubicle I saw the parking lot go from wet slush, to bright white icy frost in the hour after the sun went down.  It NEVER gets this cold in NM.  Craziness.  When I drove home, the roads were in good condition, but there was a super strong wind and at some points I felt like I was drifting and thought I was sliding, but instead I was being blown off the road!

Lola and Luka had a ball running in the snow yesterday, chasing eachother and drawing figure 8s in the snow.  I think Lola loves the cold because of her homeland roots in Alaska because she could care less about going outside on a normal day, but all of a sudden she can't wait to get out there.  Brrr, no thanks.

Last night when I came home we turned up the heat, burned the pellet stove, and had a raging fire (our first of the year).  It was awesome and warm and bright.

let's have a quickie

pervert.  not that kind of quickie.  Just a quickie recap of the wonderful weekend. 

Weekends come and go and most Mondays I feel like where did time go?  Did anything productive come out of it?  and this Monday I can confidently answer YES.

Friday night David was in Wolf Creek so me and los perros just relaxed and watched tv and googled in search of our dream engagement rings late into the night. 

Saturday I slept in and later my college room mate Sarah came by the house to meet Lola and we went off to brunch at The Range.  I haven't seen her since her wedding (last June) and so we had lots to catch up on.  It was wonderful.  She is trying to affordably furnish her new house so we went furniture shopping HERE and found some great things (and everything is always 20% off).

Then I met up with some friends at Coaches to watch the last few minutes of the Lobo game (a great win!) and came home to walk to the dogs.  We got the park right at dusk and it was still warm.  We played ball (Lola likes to drop the ball halfway up the hill and then chase it as it rolls down to the bottom, again and again -- she's very good at entertaining herself) and walked home in the dark. 

David came home shortly after (with a sunburned red nose) and we met some friends for dinner at Il Vicino for pizza and beer.  He crashed out shortly after we got home and I watched some interesting documentaries on PBS. 

Sunday morning my sister called and canceled my babysitting duties for the day (!) and so D and I got some burritos and Starbucks and took the lucky dogs to the dog park (our new weekend routine) and my mom met us there with Lily.  Fun was had by all dogs and after we went to Petsmart to get Lola her own real dog food bowl so she doesn't have to eat out of tupperware anymore.  Later at home I took some photos with the afternoon sun and then went back up to the heights to meet my friend Lindsey for coffee.  She has been going through the crazy process of applying to some prestigious grad schools and I got some good advice for taking the GRE and finishing my application.

On my way home I stopped by my mom's house and helped my sister plant some onions before the sun went down (for some reason my butt is really sore now).  While I was at coffee, D went to Costco (my least favorite place) and Sunflower and we finally have  full fridge again!  I'm glad he took the initiative.  Then off to dinner at his mom's house and took a dip in the hot tub (at the house he watches) on our way home.  Finished off the day by watching "The King's Speech" and it was awesome (we have an illegally downloaded copy -- don't tell). 

So there it is, all rambled off.  A full weekend, but still was very leisurely.  It was perfect.  This is how I'm gonna do it from now on.  Plus I can check off one of my "new year, new things" list:  spend more time with friends.

Home is wherever I'm with you

So I'm feeling very nesty lately.  I've been thinking about all things home, cleaning, building, organizing, DIYing, prettyfying...  things are really great with me and Dave and our little family of black dogs and this song just really brought all these feelings together for me today.  It is super hippie, like beyond hippie, so open your hearts and give it a good long listen. 

"Home is wherever I'm with you." - Home

I just want to stay home and make babies and paint walls and read books.... sounds like bliss.

It's like some kind of punishment to listen to this song all day while I'm strapped to my desk, glued to my computer, thinking of my dream life as a domesticated stay at home hippie mom.  yarg.

Thank you Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros