Since it’s in my blood to help decorate and craft I had to make a few things. The color scheme was based on some napkins that were bought by another girl, so somewhat primary colors (minus green) + teal and pink. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the actual shower, so the pics of the decor will have to do :)

{supplies for the decor}

{making the pennant shape}

{garland}

{the sign we put in front of the popcorn station}

{little pennant pics to place in some of the food}

Excited to meet baby Kate in a few weeks!

And by exciting I mean we did pretty much nothing. And that’s almost like crazy talk around here. I’m constantly asking Matt “what are we doing today??” so I feel like I need to write about it to remember just how fantastic it was. (But, sssssh, don’t tell Matt because he might encourage these weekends more often.)

My acceptance of the lazy Sunday might have had to do with the fact that I was out of town 3 out of 4 weekends in April, but it also had to do with the birthday day-drinking-turned-night-drinking party we went to on Saturday. Also, it was gloomy and rainy outside, so it made for a perfect stay-inside kinda day. A perfect storm if you will, no pun intended, thank you very much.

We didn’t get out of our pajamas until 2pm. 2PM!!! Can you believe that, people? TWO PM! We made it out of bed to the couch, but lasted there for quite a few hours. I napped (because doing nothing and being awake for 2 hours already was obviously exhausting), we watched TV and Matt worked a little.  It was sort of glorious. Eventually our stomachs let us know it was time to make a move and eat. We got burgers at Slaters 50/50 and they were absolutely delicious. Then, we decided to get a couple Red Box movies and park ourselves back on the couch the remainder of the day/night.

We watched “Life of Pi” and “Silver Linings.” Well, we watched all of “Silver Linings” and parts of “Life of Pi” since the disc was scratched and stopped at around the 1 hour mark. Very annoying.

Hope you all had some margaritas + chips & salsa for us :)

None of us live in Houston, but it was relatively easy for us all to get there, so that was the destination this year. We all realized quickly that Houston is a LARGE city that is very spread out. They have many beltways (I still don’t understand why every city doesn’t call these roads by their proper name: freeways) with a lot of traffic on them at all times. The weather was pretty mild except for the gigantic, huge, monstrous tropical thunderstorm that blessed us with its presence- and buckets, and buckets, and some more buckets of water- on Saturday afternoon. We saw some cool stuff, ate some good food, went to a fun play/musical “The Spelling Bee” (much to my embarrassment, I became part of the play) and went on a self-guided, free Visionary Art Tour on Sunday.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Segway tour. My mom has a love for Segway tours and she loves going on them in different cities, so it was only fitting that we go on one in Houston. Have you ever been on one?! They’re actually very fun and a great way to see a city. What gets me though is all the people that stare at you while you’re on them. The segways might look a little strange, but people stare at you like you’re on something from Mars- as if they’ve never seen these modes-of-transportation before. Maybe things take a while to get to Houston.

{my sister and dad on the boat tour of the Port}

{The Houston Water Wall. See that couple in the bottom right? They didn’t let go of each other or stop gazing out of each others eyes the entire time they were they. Had they broken apart, perhaps I could have gotten a picture without them in the shot (the other people moved).}

{me. mom. sis}

{my sister and some swordfish outside the aquarium}

{us}

{us + another Segway-tour-goer + 1 instructor}

{The tropical storm as seen through the living room window. I’m no storm expert, but I think this storm should have received a name. Water was completely covering the street, sidewalk, and creeping up the yard. The truck in the background shows how high the water was. And no, the truck wasn’t lowered. }

{Checking out the Beer Can House. Brilliant way to never have to paint your house and to save on electricity bills- perhaps our first home will look like this too….}

{Insane cars with the craziest decorations- seashells, pearls, dice, vacuum pumps, baby dolls, silverware, etc. You name it, it was probably on it.}

{Just hanging at the car art museum.}

{My parents at The Orange Show House. Such an awesome, quirky venue. All the seats were tractor seats.}

It was a great weekend and, as per the usual, it went by way too fast. And now we wait months to see my family again :( The upside is that we get to put another pin in our travel map!

A couple weeks ago I went to Northern California to visit my friend, Moranda, and her family. Her daughter Kaelyn was our flower girl and she is the freakin’ cutest thing ever. Our wedding was 10 months ago and I don’t know where our little flower girl went because she has become this grown up girl. I was blown away by her conversations and her personality coming out more and more.

Moranda and I had an amazing spa day on Saturday and the next day the three of us got pedicures (perfect pampering weekend, by the way). Getting a pedicure through a toddlers eyes is similar to seeing Christmas through a toddlers eyes. It makes you appreciate them so much more.

{picking out her color}

{anticipating her pedicure}

{mini Havianas and painted toes = adorable}

{taking a break from watching the duckies after lunch}

This was the 6th Annual CityBeat Festival of Beers, but our first time attending. I’m sure it’s gotten much larger over the years as the craft beer market has grown very quickly here in San Diego. I am blown away by all the breweries that are here in San Diego. I feel like I hear of a new one every other week. My favorite beer of the day was this concoction: tangerine juice + beer made with water that was in a wine barrel that was used to make wine, so the water had the wine flavor. Is your mind blown?? It was unbelievably delicious. Now I need to figure out how to make it at home. I think I’ll start with tangerine juice and good beer and forgo the whole “water from wine barrel.” I’ll report back with my results.

Because I’m a responsible lady, I didn’t drink all the beer that I was poured.  I would pour a little out and truthfully I felt very bad about this and I’m sure some of you reading this are thinking “You freakin’ (insert noun). Why would you do that?” Well, you see, alcohol doesn’t always agree with me, so I drink very moderately or not at all.  Since my palate for beer has really been taking off lately I wanted to try as many different beers as I could and by “try” I mean take  2 sips of each beer. Except for that tangerine beer. I could have stood at their booth the entire day and kept having my min-stein refilled.

{our mini steins}

{so many beer tents up and down each side}

{enjoying the sun and beer}

{beer shenanigans}

{In my professional opinion, this cart won for best beer (the tangerine concoction) and best display/keg/pourer}

{Matt slanging Uber}

We’ve covered a lot places, mainly the states, but if there’s anything this map has made apparent it’s that we have A LOT MORE international travel to do. Matt’s been all over Europe (I’ve never been) and I’ve been to Africa (he’s never been), but man oh man. We have some traveling to do.

We are currently in the process of narrowing down a vacation spot for our summer trip (yes, I realize it’s almost the middle of April). After having this map up in our hallway, I’m obsessed with going somewhere we’ve never been, or at least where one of us hasn’t been. It’s a little difficult because most of the places are off the east coast and are further away which won’t work for a 5 day vacation which includes travel time. Luckily there are lots of places to see off the west coast that neither one of us has been to so (hopefully!) we’ll get to put another pin in our map.

{Supplies: map, cork board tiles, spray glue, pins + pliers}

{gluing the cork tiles to the map}

{cutting the pins down}

{Lots of world left to see}

{our legend}

{Maybe we just need to live internationally, so it’s easier to get  to some places on other continents ;)}

(Our map is 36×24, so 6 12×12 cork tiles worked perfectly)

As I was driving up I realized that I hadn’t been up to see her for almost 2 years!! She’s been down to San Diego in that time so I’ve definitely seen her, but me-driving-up-there was definitely overdue. It was great spending time catching up with her, people watching and shopping on the Promenade, meeting up with some friends and being introduced to amazing Robata skewers and dinner.

She has such a great group of girlfriends that I’ve had the privilege to get to know while she’s lived up there. Since I haven’t been up there for a couple years, I hadn’t seen these girls in the same amount of time so it was great to catch up with them too.

Here are some lovely iphone pics of the weekend.

{hummus and falafel balls at the Hummus Bar*}

{best people watching at the Promenade}

{sushi at Bambo Izakaya with the Megan’s}

{Sonoma Wine Garden with Mary Beth, Amy and Megan}

{rooftop decor never goes unnoticed by me (@ Sonoma Wine Garden)}

*I love the concept of a Hummus Bar. I just wish they had a variety of hummus types and you could pick and choose what types you want and then you could pair it with amazing flat bread. Now THAT would be a hummus bar.

1. Fancy Kitchen Gloves- If you have to do the dishes, you might as well do them in style. Am I right, or am I right?

2. Larabar- In an effort to know all the ingredients in what I eat, these bars pass with flying colors.  The ingredients vary by bar, but for the ones I’ve seen I know exactly what the ingredients are and some have only 2 ingredients (i.e. cashews, dates)!! Obviously these bars have fat, calories, and sugar, but it’s all natural and “good for you” stuff, so these are a great on-the-go snack. They’re also great when you have a sweet tooth.
(I’ve found them the cheapest at Trader Joe’s).

3. Wen- I started using these shampoo/conditioner “system” at the end of December and I’m sold. I don’t know that it’s making my hair healthier, stronger and longer like the commercials claim, but I love the process. You make sure you don’t have any tangles in your hair when getting into the shower and then you massage the product into your hair and onto your scalp and massage the product through your hair with it wet and straight. You don’t pull all your hair up to the top of your head and jumble it all together and get it all tangled up. At least that’s what I typically do and when I brush it out, I lose about 1/3 of my hair e.v.e.r.y time. This process eliminates all the tangles and I enjoy keeping all my hair.

4. Lululemon attire- My sister has bought me all the Lululemon attire that I own (tank tops, jackets, etc.) for birthday’s and Christmas’s. I absolutely love Lululemon. It’s pricey, but soooo worth the investment. Especially if you work out a lot- you want to be comfortable and wear high-quality workout clothes. Anyways, she recently sent me 2 Lululemon pants that she “didn’t want anymore.” Um, yes please. Don’t worry, they aren’t the ones having the see-through issue. Although that would have been funny, huh?! She asks me if I want these pants and I get soooooooo flippin’ excited and can’t wait for them to come in the mail and when I receive them, they’re see-through! Luckily she’s not cruel like that :)

5. Hunter rain boots- My sister (again… isn’t she awesome? I’m glad she has good taste.) got these for me ON CLEARANCE AT THE ZAPPOS OUTLET FOR $45 (67% off retail!!!). Now, if it would only rain…

6. Loreal self-tanner- I tend to get spray tans when I have a fancy event to go to since I’m typically very pale from staying out of the sun and just naturally pale from my Irish heritage.  However, after discovering this self-tanner I don’t think I’ll be getting spray tans anymore. I use this a couple times a week (more if I really want to look tan for an event) and it’s great. Using it a couple times over a 3-4 day period allows for an even look and less chance for mistakes and streaks.

7. Olive oil + lemon + sugar scrub- I’ve had these annoying little bumps on my legs for quite a while. Previously, I’ve gone to the dermatologist for them and have been given a prescription lotion that did nothing. SO, instead of paying for a doctor visit, taking time out of my day to go to the doctor and paying for a prescription that isn’t effective, I decided to try a home remedy. I’m definitely not one for making beauty items from kitchen items, but desperate times call for desperate measures. My legs feel so silky and smooth after scrubbing this on my legs for a few minutes and then shaving. Warning! Be careful to make sure there isn’t oil residue left on the shower- I wash with soap after using this sugar scrub and that seems to do the trick. The ratio I use is: 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup olive oil and a few tbsp of lemon juice.

Being that this was our first Easter as a married couple it was only fitting that we matched in our attire. We did this on complete accident, but I loved it. I think I’m going to make us match more often. Yes, we will be that annoying couple that matches.

Anyways, we had an awesome Easter weekend filled with wonderful weather, friends, family, church + a taco cart (Saturday night) and celebrating the fact that Jesus has risen :)

{us matching in our mint green}

{Matt’s Easter basket*}

This is the first year that I’ve gotten Matt and Easter basket and I must say- it was so fun to put together. Obviously we don’t have kids, but  it seems that for every holiday there are so many “kid things” to do and/or buy, but I realized that when you put some thought into it, you can find fun, creative adult-things too :)

*Details on his “basket” (aka: 6 pack of beer):

- 3 Stella Artois beers (I chose this beer b/c they have pretty white tops, perfect for bunny ears)
- argyle socks (he loves argyle socks)
- beef jerky
- gum
- fruit flavored tic tac’s
- sports themed Easter eggs filled with skittles

I made the tissue paper garland and glued it to the sides of the 6-pack to fluff up the basket. Oh, and don’t worry, he gets to drink the other Stella’s too.

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend, too!

We sold our too-big-for-our-living-room coffee and end tables last summer. I’m still on the hunt for the “perfect” coffee table and end tables, but it’ll be taking a lot of Craigslist searchin’, garage sale huntin’ and flea market perusin’ to find them all. Until then, we got a cheap (in price and quality) coffee and end table set.

I seem to constantly be looking for little ways to update our place while trying to ignore all the big things I can’t change for the time being (i.e. furniture, flooring, wall color, curtains, etc.). I love the look of nail head trim and thought I would try it out on these tables. I figured they were cheap anyways, so if I didn’t like the way it turned out, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. It wasn’t like I would be ruining beautiful, expensive furniture.

This project took all of 20 minutes (to do all three tables) and I LOVE the way they turned out.

{Before}

{Nail head trim + hammer}

{Although the trim is easy to work with, at first it was easiest with two people.}

{cutting at the end}

{It bends easily around corners so you’re not left with any awkward edges.}

{After!}

I tried the “real” nail head trim look on a nightstand, here. It turned out okay, but was a complete pain in the butt wasn’t much fun to do. Each mark had to be measured and marked and it still didn’t turn out looking all that even. I cheated with the lampshades, by using thumbtacks. The nail head trim (found on a 5-yard roll at Joann’s) is SOOOO the way to go. Easy to work with and looks great.