It's turning into birthday month...

Another bonus to going up to San Jose a few weeks before Thanksgiving, is that my birthday gets celebrated early! I was showered in birthday wishes and fun gifts all weekend long.I got a spending spree from my wonderful parents from which I bought this super comfy top from Banana...
... these sassy wool cropped pleated pants from J Crew....
... this super cute polka dotted cardigan also from J Crew...
... these faux-suede heels I've been looking everywhere for from Urban Outfitters...
... and these cute patent mary jane flats by Marais USA also from U.O! The last four I ordered online so hopefully they'll come soon!
Sue gifted me these gorgeous books which I spent the car ride down reading. The one on the left has SO many good recipes, I think I'll make a few for the party next week. The gardening book is so informative and is really getting me jazzed up about starting our garden. We'll have Sue to thank for our huge bounty of produce and beautiful flowers next year!
How cute is this?? Grammie was so sweet (with a little hinting from Sue!) to get me an Anthropologie gift card. And look at the cute little sewn monster it came in! I love him. I can't wait to spend it!
My sister-in-law Jennifer made this for me, isn't it crazy?? It cracks me up every time I look at it. If my status as crazy cat lady hasn't been solidified yet, this will surely do it.
Thank you so much for spoiling me so! I love you all for giving me such a happy and fun birthday month. :)

Happy 90th Abuelo!

Our trip up north this past weekend was great. Jan cruised us up and down in his borrowed Honda Odyssey (I snuggled up in the very last row of seats and stretched out and read most of the trip while Jeff was up front with Jan) and we got a lot of family time in. My aunt Margarita and cousin Diana came out from Miami and it was so nice to spend time with them. We also hung out with Sue and Grammie, Max and Kate, Matthew and Kellycopter, and Jeff's friends in Campbell. We packed quite a bit into our trip as usual, but came back early enough on Sunday so as not to feel completely spent. It was a great trade-off doing this trip instead of the drive over Thanksgiving, and might be a tradition we'll continue.

We celebrated my grampa's 90th birthday in San Mateo at a favorite restaurant, La Fonda. I always think of Lafawnda from Napoleon Dynamite when I hear it but they couldn't be more different if they tried. The food was deelish and the company even better. Here are some pics:
The whole group at La Fonda's. That's Abuelo at the end playing the role of Jesus in this Last Supper-looking photo we took.
Jan and I with Abuelo.
Oh Mom. I'm starting to think she does this on purpose.
My cousin Diana and I with Abuelo at his home.
The family out shopping at Santana Row.
This was Jeff''s gift to Abuelo. A painting of a German Shepherd with a painting of Willy Mays on the flip side. My gramps is into dogs and baseball.

Hope you had a happy birthday Abuelo! We love you!

Present!!

I have Veteran's Day off today (thanks University!) so I'm curled up with my laptop drinking a cup of tea and browsing through my Google Reader. I came across the lovelydesign blog and Sharilyn posted that her address files were now available again in walnut. I've been coveting these suckers since I first saw them and was dying for one but they sell out faster than she can make them. Everything is handmade. The wood holders used to be made by her dad and now she locally sources them, and all of the address cards are cut by her from found and collected papers. The dividers are letterpressed and you can tell the amount of time and care put into each one. I think they're a steal at $65, considering that you can use it for life (more than you can say about an address book where you can't pull out entries), and the level of craftsmanship that go into them. I'm such a stationary dork too, anything to do with papers and wax seals and labels and I get giddy. My parents are giving me some fun monies to play with for my birthday so I'm pre-spending, and hoping it will arrive before that holiday weekend so I can spend it transferring addresses in time for Christmas cards. *Soooo happy*....

Coolest... puzzle... EVER!

I'm not that into puzzles but this one is so amazing. All of the puzzle pieces are crazy shapes, like a pegasus, or a boy on a bike, birds, craziness! Really cool. From Anthropologie of course.

Lily Mae fix

I think she wants to come with me to San Jose...

Ugh, just give it to us already!

Still waiting on the bank. So in the meantime I'm fantasizing about painting the kitchen. The kitchen in the Golden house is super nice and completely remodeled, but it's small and has a ton of cabinets. That's a good thing, except it's a whole lot of wood for the eye to take in. The countertops and backsplash are beige Corian, the floors are refinished wood like the rest of the house, and the appliances are stainless steel. I think painting the upper cabinets a different and lighter color from the bottom cabinets helps to make the kitchen seem not so overwhelmed with cabinetry. I'm thinking maybe an ivory for the uppers and a darkish gray for the lowers, and a light green-blue for the walls. Lily Mae's colors! Here's an inspiration photo:

I got really excited when I saw this Ryobi painting tool that pumps paint straight out of the can into an edger and a roller which would make painting SO much faster I'd think. All of my joy was lost though when I read the reviews about how crappy it is, and how everything clogs and breaks. I guess we'll be doing it the old-fashioned way... provided we eventually GET the house...

Meow!!

Jeff and I went to our friend Scott's 30th birthday party last night in Valencia. Matt and Jana helped Scott's parents throw a surprise Mardi Gras themed costume party, and it was crazy. I'm so surprised Scott didn't pee himself when he stepped out into the backyard and a group of 50 people dressed in crazy costumes and mardi gras masks jumped out and screamed "SURPRISE!!". It was a lot of fun, and really nice to go out and celebrate such a nice person. Jeff made our masks while he was teaching that afternoon out of some paper dinner plates. His was a roughed up tabby cat with a notch out of an ear and scraggly whiskers, and my mask was a prissy and prim Siamese cat. Wonder where he got that idea...

Skinny Bitch

I just finished reading this book that I picked up from the library yesterday (it was a quick read! I'm not a speed reader.) and enjoyed it a lot. The authors are really funny and tell it like it is. I like reading health and wellness books (NEVER diet books, those suck) and always come away with a few new healthy habits that I try out for awhile (and sometimes keep!). I'm going to switch up my morning coffee for this loose-leaf hot green tea with fruit flavor which I think will be gentler on my tummy than the acidic coffee I'm used to. I'm also rarely hungry in the morning but could easily eat a piece of fruit, to put something in my belly and knock out one of my daily servings. I read in several places that eating an apple wakes you up and energizes you quicker than the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee. So maybe that apple will help with my coffee withdrawals.

I also try to buy organic food and beauty products whenever I can but I know I can do better. The price difference of 60 cents will usually give me pause to go with the organic, but good lord, it's 60 cents for something SO much better for us and the earth. I'll suck it up next time I go to the store and will make better choices. I'm also switching to organic red wine now. Jeff and I buy the cheapy stuff because we're not oenophiles by any means, and we think it's tasty enough. In addition to it being organic and a better choice, it's also very likely to be more expensive, which will force wine drinking to be more of a treat for us. It's pretty easy to fall into a glass of wine with dinner habit, but the more I read about alcohol intake and health, the less it's looking like 7 glasses a week is a good idea.

I also borrowed the Skinny Bitch recipe book, so that's the next read. They're all organic, vegan, and healthful recipes. I need to start making a few trial dishes for our Thanksgiving feast, and maybe I'll find a few in it.

*Insert sigh of relief*

On Thursday we found out that the home buyer federal tax credit was extended past the original November 30th, 2009 deadline to April 30th of next year. Score! While we're getting close, we're still not in escrow yet (the bank is in the last stage of approving our offer, once they do, we're immediately going into escrow which is a 30 day period) so we wouldn't have been able to close escrow by the 30th. We had a feeling that they would extend the credit but it was nerve wracking not knowing if we'd be getting $8K in April! Phew....

Happy Birthday Liv, love Anthro.

I mean really. How can you not love this store? I got a birthday card from them yesterday. With a gift. It's an adorable little candle necklace and when you wear it into the store, they give you a 15% discount on your whole purchase! Just lovely.


I bought a pair of ivory sweater stockings specked with little rainbow flecks. Cozy!


If you're not on the Antho list yet, get on it. It's free and they send you fun little surprises in the mail.

copycat!

I'm going to try to make this. I would buy it, but they sold out plus I think I could save $30 and pretty easily make it myself. I need a zippers and pockets challenge anyways. Pretty ingenious though, especially for quick trips out or when we go biking and I don't want to take a purse. This will be perfect until fanny packs make their big comeback. From: http://www.wintercheckfactory.com via Design Milk.

Graffiti

This is awesome. I don't mind big street art graffiti pieces but the crap that's just scribbled on buildings and fences etc makes me angry. Adding a sewing needle to the spray paint scribble turns it into art.

via World War Won

Halloween 2009

BOO! Mandy and Seth invited us over to help pass out candy to the 483 kids that came trick or treating at their house. It was a lot of fun, we all wore costumes, drank Mandy's orangey fizz surprise, and played Apples to Apples and ate ghost brownies that I made. I'm glad I brought them because we ran out of candy! Too many kids, seriously.
I went as a garden gnome again this year, this time with a better beard that I made out of felt.

Jeff came home from work about 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave for Mandy and Seth's so he went as Unibrow Man.
When we got to their house, Jeff was intimidated by Mandy and Seth's awesome costumes and so Mandy made him up as a zombie. He makes a good zombie face.
This was so great. Seth went as 70's Adam West's Batman. Mandy made the costume!!
Mandy of course went as Catwoman and of course made her costume too. Meooooowww!
Matt and Jana came as vampires and couldn't get their teeth off at the end of the night. I bet they're still wearing them actually.

Happy Halloweeners!

Butts-Up!

Mandy is terrific and sent me her photos from Jeff's birthday party. She took some pretty great ones of the Butts-Up game. My mom thought it was a drinking game when she first heard us say it (I guess it does sound like that!), but it's also known as Wall Ball in some states. The point is that you chuck a racquetball ball at a wall, someone tries to catch it on the bounce back, and if they miss or if it falls out of their hand, they have to high-tail it for the wall and try to touch it before someone else grabs the ball and chucks it at the wall. If you don't make it to the wall in time, you get a B. When you spell BUTT, you have to assume the position on the wall and the person that got you out gets to chuck the ball at your butt. It's awesome, and lots of fun. Just a little pain. Pictures!!!
Me & Ed's pizza parlor. It was live piano night and the piano player took requests! Jan was super impressed with their pizza, and he's a connoisseur when it comes to pizza so we enjoyed.
We were so lucky to find this perfectly lit, legal butts-up wall. We thought we might have to just find an elementary school and use a building wall, but that would have involved hopping fences and possible breaking and entering charges. And it was right around the corner from the pizza parlor!
I thought we might have too many people for the game but it turned out great. The game kept moving with so many people and everyone was running and playing. The game totally brings out the third-grader in you.


Jana got Jan out so she got to peg him in the butt. Look at that wind-up!
Jana and I both got out at the same time so we had to take it together.
I think he was aiming for a boy in this shot. Jerod's a gentleman, and lobbed the balls at the girls and fired them at the boys.
Yup, he was aiming for Jeff. Jeff was helping by pointing out where the ball should hit. He shouldn't have done that.
After butts-up, we went to the Puka Bar which is right down the street from where our new house will be! It's a super cute, Tiki-themed tropical bar, and we had a really good time there. The DJ was awesome. With 5 professionally trained artists at the table (Jeff, Matt, Kurtis, Seth and Jan), you know someone was going to bust out a pen and start drawing. Matt kicked it off with portraits, this one of Jan cracked everyone up.
Birthday boy!
I made a confetti cake for Jeff (his request) and made a vanilla frosting/marshmallow icing dyed booger green (also Jeff's request). It was really yummy but SO sticky. We left marshmallow fingerprints all over the Puka tables and chairs probably. Oops...

Good times! Thanks for coming out friends!