My cup runneth over...

Wow...I mean I knew I had pretty wonderful family and friends, but this birthday, I have been shown over and over just how amazing they really are! My super awesome sister made dinner for our family last night and everyone was there (except for the hubs...he was sad), and this morning she made me coffee and a smoothie! Then she brought balloons to me in my classroom (I have a great sis), then my husband had a gorgeous bouquet of flowers delivered to me...I mean wow! Not to mention the countless texts and phone calls I've gotten today from all of my girls and my auntie and gma, and mom, and dad, and sister in law, and cousins! Oh and then I got some adorable little gifts in the mail from my sis in law and Melissa and Ali! Then my kids have been singing happy birthday to me all day (most of the time they are little boogers but today they are being sweet). This day has been amazing! I am so truly blessed and grateful for everything! Thank you so much to everyone for making my birthday honestly the best one yet! I am so thankful for all of you in my life! I love you all so so much!!!


I hope you all see the irony in this cake...please don't bake this for me...ever...I will cry.

Birthday Wishes...

So Friday is my bday...the big two seven. Holy cow. I feel a little on the old side. But anyways, here are all of the totally out of reach items I would buy if I had tons of moolah to spend frivolously. And no this is not a hint to anyone, because I would pretty much be mad at anyone who would acutally spent this much money on me...It's just a chance to share some super cute stuff with you...all 3 of you.

I have been lusting over since last spring, and well...if I ever come into some money...like $300 to be exact, I'm buying these Current Elliot Boyfriend jeans. Love them.

Keel's Simple Diary $15. I really want this, and I think I might buy it because it's not that expensive. I read about it in Vogue, and because I'm a big fan of journaling (ever since my mom took my to see Oprah at USC when she was big into the "gratitude" journal) I would love love this little item.

I would love to get a Brazilian Blowout. It's quite costly, but lasts for like 3 months...I would love to be able to just air dry my hair and it look like this. Nicole Richie is a big fan of these...she told me yesterday when we were having coffee together.

And the most awesome gift of all...that I am actually getting...my amazing husband is taking me to Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite for the weekend! It's such a beautiful place and now with all of the snow it's going to be just awesome! We're going to go ice skating, and on a horse drawn sleigh ride, and bake ginger bread houses, and eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough, and then we'll have a tickle fight...sorry that's not all true, Elf was just taking over for a moment. We are going ice skating in their outdoor rink and on a sleigh ride though, and Embers restaurant there has the most delicious food ever! So Excited!!! so tomorrow I will have to write about all of the cute winter stuff I will wear this weekend in the winter wonderland!

So this morning as I drove to work, I looked to the East and saw the most beautiful sun rise. It was seriously amazing. The air was clear and the snow-capped mountains were backlit with the rising sun. Then painted all across the sky were pinks, oranges, and yellows. It was one of those moments I like to saw outloud, "Dear Jesus, thank you for that." I'd like to think he's giving us a little gift to start our day off right, especially when you may not have really slept the night before because your husband is out of town for work, and you live out in the country..the very dark country where no one will hear you scream. But I digress...the point being that it made me think about how each new day starts off so fresh and new with so many opportunities to leave behind the ugliness of yesterday and bring beauty to today.

So now that I've gotten all philisophical on you, let me enlighten you with some other little lovelies; something a little less profound, but none the less intriguing and could quite possibly all be re-created by you.

anthropologie.com

This is wallpaper...but it has the entire script of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" written on it! How neat is that! And at only $698 a roll what a bargain ; ) It's a joke...if I ever want an entire Shakespearian play written on my wall, I'm going to be writing with a sharpee. I'm not going to lie though, I think it's a pretty cool idea.

anthropologie.com

This mirror is beautiful and I feel like I could make something similar to this somewhat easily and it would be pretty inexpensive. It would look great on that wallpaper : )

glow for me

So yesterday was not my best day. Let me begin by telling you what I awoke to. With the exception of my smokin' hot hubby nestled up next to me, it wasn't good. I started rubbing my eyes before I had actually got out of bed, and I noticed that they seemed a little tighter than usual. Hmmm, either I've started using a new eye cream and that sucker is working overtime, or something might be awry. I stumbled to the bathroom, turned on the light, and suddenly I thought...who the heck is in my bathroom?! My eyes were almost swollen shut and it looked like I was wearing red eye liner...not really a good look on me. Needless to say, I apparently had some kind of allergic reaction and quickly called in sick for the day...there was no way I was going in public looking like this. So I took a Benedryl thinking the antihistamine may reduce the swelling, this was my second mistake. All it did was force me into a 4 hour coma. I literally woke up from a three hour nap and couldn't actually move any part of my body. So then I thought, ok, I need to get myself a little pick me up from all of these debacles, so I let myself have a few gummy bears...there's my third mistake. As I was chewing, somehow my bottom tooth came up and chipped my top front tooth! Seriously, I felt my tooth crumble in my mouth. At this point I was just thinking, really? really!? So anyways, I was a hot mess...actually scratch that, there was nothing hot about it.

The one positive thing that came from all of this was that I did venture to Sephora yesterday. Yep, I did, puffy pikachu face and all. Normally one would visit the doctor in a time of medical query, not me, I'd like to ask the 20 year old at Sephora what she thinks about my bloated eyeballs. So anyways, I discovered this little gem... Laura Mercier Illuminating tinted moisturizer. It's super light wieght and adds a dewey glow to your face...I'm wearing it right now and I love it. I also discovered something else that I thought was pretty great. Her name is Kandee Johnson and she is a make-up artist. She has all of these great little videos on Youtube where she shows you how to do all of these fun little make-up tricks. Maybe I'm just lame, but I thought they were useful. She also has a blog... kandeethemakeupartist.blogspot.com tell her I sent you...maybe she can give me a shout out : )

sephora $42.00

Have I mentioned that I love Christmas time? I'm pretty sure I have, but just to make absolute certain, I'll say it again...I love Christmas. The decorations, the presents, and of course the parties. And what exactly do I love about the parties? I love putting together my outfit, and of course...the food! All those delightful little appetizers...I could nosh on those all night long. Here are a few of my go-to Holiday party recipes...easy, fast, and super deelish!

creamy pesto spread:
1 pkg of goat cheese
1 block of cream cheese
1 container of pesto

Mix this all together in a food processor and serve with rosemary and sea salt Focaccia Sticks.


carmelized onion tarts
1 yellow onion
cremini mushrooms
reduced-fat gorganzola cheese crumbles
whole wheat tortilla's

sautee onion until carmelized with mushrooms in olive oil and salt and pepper.
place on tortilla's and cover with crumbles. Bake in oven until the tortilla is crispy and gorgonzola has melted slightly.


Champagne cocktails
Sugar the rims of the flutes and pour champagne
add a dash of red currant syrup and a few cranberries for garnish

Lululemon Love

I was in San Francisco this past weekend for one of my best friend's bachelorette parties. We had so much fun...it was not even funny...actually it was really funny. We had a private party at S Factor, which is an amazing workout consisting of pole dancing and lap dances...what could be better? Then we saw Beach Blanket Babylon...most awesome show ever...and ended the night with chocolate covered penis macaroons (I'm referring to shape not taste). Anyways, while I was there I was reunited with an old friend...named Lululemon Athletica. It was a quick trip, so there was no time to shop, but as soon as I got home I jumped on the laptop and went to the website. That's where I found these little babies. They are made of cashmere...seriously. I have them in my possession now, and I would really like nothing else then to wear only these for the rest of my life...and maybe like a shirt or something.

Dance Roll Legging $128 lululemon.com

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

So in light of my recent nuptuals, my husband and I (hehe) will be leaving for our honeymoon in the Mayan Riviera in one short week. A montage of celebrities caught off guard in aiports looking incredibly put-together has been running through my head for the last few days. I know it sounds so ridiculous, but I've been having quite the delimma with planning my perfect travel outfit...that is until I visited Anthropologie's wesbite today. Ever since I have made it part of my after lunch routine to check in with anthro just to make sure everything is going alright, I have noticed that the universe just runs a little smoother, or...maybe it's just that my wishlist has multiplied out of control, I forget which one. So anyways, here are some delectable travel outfits for all of your holiday excursions.

I really hope someone gets me this book for Christmas....It's so cool and Pride & Prejudice is my fav!