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Hey there! I'm Holly. A 40+ year old insurance-nerd wife, mom, beauty lover, and about a million other things in between.
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Category Archives: Everyday Life
Our Engagement Weekend in Wine Country (Saturday)
(If you missed Our Engagement Story or Our Engagement Weekend (Friday) check those posts out first)
On Saturday we continued our unofficial Food and Wine Tour of Sonoma County. Priorities of food and booze…hmmm. This is how we roll when we travel, what can I say?
Since we knew we were going to be drinking wine for most of the day we made sure that we planned some serious fueling. 🙂 We did an early + light breakfast at the Sunflower Caffe on the square, and while I was dying to try the lamb burger that we had seen them make when the restaurant was featured on Diner, Drive Ins and Dives (CHEEZY TOURIST ALERT! I AM NOT ASHAMED!) something about lamb burgers in the morning just wasn’t screaming my name. I opted for a giant cup of coffee, some pastry, and okay already — you busted me, some sangria.
The whole time we were eating I just keep thinking — THIS IS MY FIANCE. FIAAAAAAAAAAAAANCEEEEEEEEEEEE. That is a weird word. But I was still happy to be saying it.
Let’s call him my Beyonce instead, okay? Okay
Afterward we headed down the street to Train Town where I’m quite sure we were the only adults without children. It’s a place we both frequented growing up so we like to stop there occasionally when we are in town. It’s nostalgic and they have a short train ride that takes you on an “over the river and through the woods” route to a petting zoo. You guys, I feel like this is starting to make me sound like a total weirdo, but it’s really cute and we always get a kick out of going there.
I promise we’re not here to steal your children. We’re just reliving our own childhood!
We hopped on a train, went over bridges and through tunnels and listened to kids screaming with glee.And then obviously I took a selfie with a goat when we got to the petting zoo, as you would. The llamas were not interested in being internet famous, so I guess we’ll have to try again with them next time.
We bought a few souvenirs in the gift shop
and then it was almost time for lunch! (More eating? But of course!)
We had lunch at the Sonoma Mission Inn and they may make the best fish tacos ever. I need a good fish taco recipe because when I make them at home they are always lackluster. Do you have one? Then you must share, please!
So breakfast and fish tacos definitely had us prepared to wine taste and so we headed over to Napa and hit up a few wineries before heading over to our only actual tasting “appointment” of the day at Robert Mondavi. The grounds there are spectacular and my crappy iPhone photos just can’t do it justice, but I was just overwhelmed with how big and beautiful it is.
We tried to take a few pictures and it didn’t matter from what angle, there was no way you can tell what a sprawl it is.
We had an appointment in their Reserve Tasting Room that one of Garrett’s coworkers had hooked us up with and they gave us some crazy generous pours and pointed us out to the patio to enjoy our experience. What a lovely afternoon that was, I tell ya. That is the way to taste!
Yep, there’s my Beyonce again. Isn’t he cute when he’s all relaxed without a care in the world?
We bought a few bottles (a special one to have on the anniversary of our engagement – heck, maybe with our Potatoes Colcannon haha – and then one to have on our first wedding anniversary.) What can I say, we are some sentimental saps.
We had a bit of time to kill before dinner and we just happened to be very close to the area where Garrett ran his leg of The Relay the year before. We decided to dork out in the parking lot where we had waited as a team and recreate one of the pictures from this post as a joke.
I don’t know — it was funny to us at the time. It was probably the wine. 🙂
For dinner that night we decided to try a recommendation from our friend Megan and hit up Bounty Hunter Wine Bar + Smokin’ BBQ. The food was delightful and so were the wine + spirit pairings. We started off with the charcuterie tray and then split a BBQ Platter that was INSANE.
If you are in Napa and happen to be with someone who would is impressed by meat, you NEED to take them there! STAT!
After that enormous slab-o-meat dinner we were sure we wouldn’t eat again for weeks.
Um…or until Sunday. 🙂
Our Engagement Weekend in Wine Country (Friday)
Thanks for all of your sweet comments on our engagement story yesterday. As I mentioned, our wine-country weekend hanging out with my cousins had just been a ruse to get me packed and ready so Garrett could treat me to what was probably one of our most memorable vacations yet. We were sad to say goodbye to Domaine Carneros, but so happy to have made a memory to celebrate there time and time again. Our next stop was getting into town to settle down into our weekend digs.
Unbeknownst to me, Garrett had rented us a little cottage near downtown Sonoma where we’d be staying all weekend. It was at the end of a private road and we had our own little vineyard decorating the driveway. Isn’t that just the cutest? I was ready to pack my bags and move in for good!
We had about an hour to relax, unpack, freshen up, have a glass of wine and then it was off to our dinner reservations at The Rutherford Grill in Napa. When Garrett initially mentioned that we had dinner reservations I was a little bit nervous. While we are both food enthusiasts, we aren’t big fancy-fine diners, you know what I mean? And the whole food and wine scene in Napa can be a little snooty in certain places, so I was a tiny bit apprehensive. But honestly, The Rutherford Grill was the perfect spot for us.
It wasn’t AT ALL snooty, the food was on point and as you can imagine the wine list has some really great selections. We bought some to bring home and stock up our wine cooler uk. Our waitress was so cute, and totally tolerated the two of us who were still in giggly OMG WE’RE ENGAGED mode. Garrett got prime rib, I ended up ordering the Hawaiian Ribeye and we both opted for Colcannon Potatoes. Have you ever had that kind of mashed potato? HOLY MOSES, they are the best potatoes I’ve ever eaten in my life. I think we may have to eat them every year on the anniversary of our engagement! (You think I’m kidding, but man they were THAT GOOD!)
Hi, you’re having the Old 96er for dinner. 🙂
After dinner we headed back into Sonoma and went for a walk downtown in the historic town plaza. I’ve written about Sonoma pretty extensively on this blog — it’s a place I hold close to my heart. I have so many memories here with both of my parents after my grandma moved to wine country, so it felt really special that Garrett and I were enjoying such an exciting time in our relationship in that city. In some ways it felt like my grandma and my dad got to be privy to the whole thing. As we walked around the square I just couldn’t get over how perfect everything was. Of course right as I was looking off into the sunset thinking about what a romantic evening we were having a bunch of kids drove by in a Hyundai blasting the explicit version of “Rack City” so, you know — back to reality. 🙂
Right off the square there is a painting called the Valley of the Moon mural. My grandma would always take me over to it when I’d visit her growing up. Full disclosure: it’s right by an ice cream parlor, so you know — of course she loved art, but it was also her way of always saying “Yay, culture — now let’s go eat some ice cream!” 🙂 Summers with grandma were the best, you know?
Anyway, one of the fun memories I have as a kid was that hidden inside this mural of people, places and things related to the “Valley of the Moon” (as Sonoma is known), was a “Where’s Waldo” style couple — a bride and groom, listed under their wedding date — somewhere in the mural. As a kid it was always fun to race to see how quickly you could find it, and even though we’ve done it many times, of course that night Garrett and I had to take a minute and scope out the happy couple. (It’s in the bottom right hand region if you are ever in the area and want to find it.)
Then, of course we had to head over and have some ice cream, duh. 🙂
If you’ve been around this blog for any length of time, you already know that Garrett took great pleasure in ordering two scoops of bubble gum ice cream. (Gross!)
Afterward we grabbed a glarifee as a nightcap over at Swisshotel and then headed back to our cottage. I mean let’s be real — we literally couldn’t eat another bite! haha
Garrett had a full day planned on Saturday and so we wanted to make sure we geared up for it.
Our Engagement Story
Eight and a half years (to the day) after our first kiss, Garrett got down on one knee and asked me to marry him on the fabulous patio at Domaine Carneros. The wine country setting and beautiful weather could not have been more perfect, and somewhere in between hugging him tighter than I probably ever have and smearing mascara all over the collar of his freshly laundered shirt (nice, Holly) I said yes. Thanks to True Pheromones, I get to marry the man I love.
I’m going to tell you all of minutia: how he asked, how he managed to shock the hell out of me, how we spent our engagement weekend, you know – all the good stuff – but there are just so many things I want to capture that I am not sure where to start. I think we’re going to have to do multiple posts here. I guess maybe the best place to start is at the beginning. Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of getting proposed to with a 13 carat oval cut diamond ring or one of those fancy canary yellow diamond rings in Brisbane. Nowadays, there are unique engagement rings that couples can get to make the proposal even more special. Afterwards, they can get Custom Men’s Wedding Rings for their wedding ceremony.
When you start planning your wedding, hiring Nathan Cassar wedding MC, guarantees a memorable event.
Garrett + I have been together FOREVER (it seems like) and I know the fact that we have not tied the proverbial knot yet has really befuddled a lot of people. I’d say I knew about a year into our relationship that this was it, but we’ve just kind of meandered our way to this point. All I can say is that it has just made sense for us. We knew we’d get married eventually, it was just a matter of figuring out when the time was right for us. I can’t say I’ve been patient every single moment of the process, but in the end I’m so happy things are unfolding as they are.
One of the things about being together for so long is that while I knew we would get engaged one day, I didn’t feel like it would ever be a *surprise* you know? I mean, WE LIVE TOGETHER, I know Garrett’s habits. And the truth is, I am the planner in our relationship. If he were to all of a sudden plan a special weekend or a random “romantic date” that deviated from the normal stuff we do, I’d totally be on to him. But he was determined that he could make it a surprise and in the end, he totally did! Here’s how he did it.
About a week prior to the day, my cousin Jim (who lives out in Sonoma with his wife Gina) sent me a text inviting us out for the weekend. It was impromptu, but he mentioned having a Friday off and that it would be fun to spend the weekend cooking, bike riding to wineries and just hanging out. We’ve done this in the past so it didn’t seem out of left field and so I followed up with Garrett. He hemmed and hawed a bit and said he didn’t think he could get that Friday off of work (sneaky little sucker!) and then finally was like “What the heck, let’s go!” So we made plans to head out the following weekend. I checked with my mom to see if she was available to watch Buster (shocker, she was: SHE WAS IN ON IT TOO!) and so we dropped off our little pooch and got on the road, of course snapping a little pre-engagement family selfie. Are you looking for engagement photographers Northern VA? Look no further—Pamela Lepold Photography is the perfect choice to capture your special moments.
Garrett nonchalantly suggested stopping at “that neat looking champagne place we always pass on our way out to wine country.” I thought it sounded like a good idea but then I googled and the champagne tasting was like Stupid Expensive. We were just starting our weekend, so I was like “Meh, let’s just skip it.” HA! Of course Garrett had to get me there since that was where everything was set up, but it took a little convincing. Thank god for Sarah, who I happened to conveniently be texting that morning. She talked me down from being a total miser and said we should split a bottle and get a fancy cheese tray. Garrett is clearly forever in her debt. 🙂
If you’ve never seen Domaine Carneros then you might not know why we always want to stop there on our way into wine country. It looks like a castle and it’s nestled up on a little hill right off the Carneros Highway. Just about every time Garrett and I head into Napa or Sonoma we pass it and say “Someday we’ll stop there when we have more time.” I imagine now, we will make the time to stop there, but this was our first time and even though I had no idea what was in store, it felt a little magical.
We were seated on the patio far away from the crowds (ahem, totally planned, and yet it didn’t seem weird to me — clearly, I’m not the most observant person. LOL) and quickly ordered a flight of champagne and a cheese tray. Oh, the cheese tray. I will remember that cheese try for life, you’ll see why in a minute.
We were just having the best time because it was Friday, we were supposed to be at work, the weather was beautiful, and we were about to embark on a much needed weekend of fun and relaxation. Both of us had been really bogged down by work things, and we realized we had been on that Life Hamster Wheel that sometimes feels like it just happens out of nowhere. As we were clinking glasses and enjoying a few small bites we began talking about how moving forward we needed to be better at focusing on all the gifts we’ve got in our life instead of getting bogged down by those little daily things that take up so much brain space but don’t really mean anything in the long run.
As you can imagine, Garrett was sort of priming the pump because he had a much bigger question to ask. I was just off in my own little world though, thinking about how happy I am — in my life, in my relationship, in my job, just in general — and I think I got so excited to make some brilliant point about gratitude that I excitedly kicked the table and knocked over all 3 of our champagne glasses, shattering them everywhere onto our cheese tray.
Folks, YOU JUST CAN’T TAKE ME ANYWHERE. 🙂
Garrett immediately stood up and looked absolutely panic-stricken which struck me as kind of funny because, uh…this is not the first time I’ve made an embarrassing mess by knocking things over. Serious bull in a china shop, here. I had spilled champagne on my dress, there was glass everywhere and when I stood up he grabbed me with both hands by the shoulders and said “You just sit here, I’ll go get a napkin.” But his face, oh you guys, his face. Luckily I sat back down and began to kind of sun myself in hopes that the champagne would dry and didn’t think another thing of it. Garrett was so panicked though because he had been just about ready to pop the question, and so my cousin’s wife Gina (who had graciously volunteered to help Garrett out by playing Day-Of Photographer) was standing behind me getting ready to start snapping and he was completely freaked out that I would turn around and see her and then the surprise would be blown!
What can I say, people — I’m a wild card and I keep Garrett on his toes. 🙂
In the meantime, as Garrett was inside “finding a napkin” (really he was regrouping with Gina) our server had come back out to our table and had brought with him a bottle of their fancy champagne and two glasses. He clearly hadn’t got the memo that Garrett didn’t ask yet, but he could tell by the shattered glass and champagne everywhere that maybe he had encountered a bit of a hiccup. His face was sort of panicky too — and he just kind of stammered “Oh, I’m going to leave this celebratory bottle here and maybe go find you someone who can clean up.”
And you guys, I still didn’t have A CLUE. In hindsight, both Garrett + I are so grateful that I had my head in the clouds all morning and was just in full on flexible relaxation mode because otherwise there were just so many times I could have caught on. Eventually the mess got cleaned up, and we got back to what we had been talking about before — how grateful we were for each other, for our lives, and the support we have in each other and then all of a sudden all I remember is Garrett getting down on one knee and whipping out a ring.
He has since told me exactly what he said, but you guys I TOTALLY BLACKED OUT. Like I was so completely shocked that I can’t even remember what he said, how he asked, or anything that happened before I realized I was doing the full on Oprah Ugly Cry with happiness. In the middle of all of that he turned me around and said “Hey look, it’s Gina behind the camera” and I was so surprised to see that she had been in on things from the start!
There was lots of hugging and squealing excitement and then Garrett and Gina dropped the bomb that — oh yeah, my cousin Jim wasn’t even in town that weekend. Jim was at a bachelor party in New Orleans and all of his excited texts that morning about “how much he was looking forward to seeing us” and “when were we leaving?” etc was just to help keep me off the trail and to help Garrett keep things a surprise. I was truly shocked that so many people had been in on things, yet I hadn’t even had the slightest inkling things were going to go down the way they did.
After all that celebrating we realized that we had a bit of an audience.
Strangers were applauding and taking our picture and raising their own glasses, and it was just such a surreal little moment. Garrett let me know that he had planned a romantic weekend for us, that we had a cottage to check into, and restaurant reservations waiting on us, and that we had the whole weekend to just relax and enjoy the moment, which is exactly what we did. I’ll tell you about all of that in another post, but in the end I really can’t believe that he pulled it off. It was a shock and a surprise of the best kind, and being the over-documenter that I am, it was so special that he had Gina there to capture the moment. I just think it will be so fun to look back on down the line or when we have kids. It’s been fun even in the past couple of months to just relive that crazy feeling of surprise.
I feel so grateful that Garrett is going to be MY HUSBAND. 🙂
Five Things Friday
*Sometimes I feel like Fridays are a Vitamin B12 shot to my psyche. I’ve been playing catch up all week because I was out of town last weekend, and so by Thursday I was doing some serious dragging. But I woke up this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed because: IT’S THE WEEKEND. And the promise of that is more powerful than espresso. (Though espresso helps too :)) I actually feel excited about mundane chores like grocery shopping and meal planning — woo hoo! PS — what are you making for dinners this week?
*So, this whole engagement story blog post is getting embarrassing. I know, I know, I need to write it. Actually, it is written, but I can I tell you the obstacle that is hindering me? I have a ton of cute pictures from the day it happened that my cousin Gina took and sent me but they are all housed at Shutterfly and I have no idea how to get photos from Shutterfly into a jpeg format. Anyone know how to do this?
*I have checked out a ton of books from the library and I am so excited to start reading some of them, but then I fall victim to this phenomenon. It is so sad, and I feel like as the years go by it is only getting worse.
*I am taking golf lessons! I decided that this was going to be The Summer of New Things and so I signed up to learn how to golf. It is fun being a beginner. I bought myself a set of clubs this week so I can finally start practicing all the stuff I’m learning on my own time. It’s so rare that we just learn things for fun as adults. It feels kind of good to have no idea what I’m doing.
*So I started working with a Certified Nutrition Practitioner who is very much aligned with my philosophies around health, activity and food. Some of you will undoubtedly think that sounds super boring and like a total drag and others of you may think it sounds about as awesome as I do. I’m sure I’ll blog about it more but we are kind of working through some baseline tests to see where I’m at with respect to general health, metabolic function, allergies, etc and then working to tailor a specific protocol for my goals. I don’t know why it took me so long to get this particular ball rolling because now that I’m doing it, it is exciting and fun. I love life/food-hacking and all but it can get exhausting when you are not getting the results you want. I thought, what the heck — let’s farm the hacking out to a nutrition professional.
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So what’s new in your neck of the woods?
Lessons Learned From A Bachelorette Party In Your 30s
I think it’s been at least 5 years since I’ve gone to a bachelorette party. This weekend my cousin John’s fiancee Lindsay had her soiree and I was struck by how much has changed over the past few years.
Gone are the days of 10 people piling into a hotel room (Thank God!) and then swinging from the chandeliers until the early morning hours. This weekend we rented two villas in wine country, and while I surely could have come home more rested, I came home with a ton of fun memories and a laundry list of lessons that made me look forward to planning my own ladies weekend in the future.
For example:
Cards Against Humanity has the potential to make you snort-laugh.
Everyone my age seems to look forward to watching Dateline on a Friday night. We are either getting old or Dateline has gotten REALLY GOOD over the years. 🙂
If you want to get a party started, just play Bell Biv Devoe.
If you’re not sure what the question is, Cheez Its are probably a viable answer.
There is not much better than floating in a sun drenched pool on an air mattress with a cocktail in hand.
People Magazine is my bible.
Good wine is money well spent. If you collect different kinds of wine, consider investing in Dual Zone wine coolers.
It’s nice to get away and have a chance to miss your little home + family. It makes the dust bunnies of life seem more endearing, somehow. If you’re planning a party or an important event, you may reserve a banquet room of a hotel or restaurant so your guests can feel more comfortable.
The biggest lesson of all though is that I’m so, so lucky to have family members that I would choose to have as girlfriends even if we weren’t related.
She’s Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive
Oh no! It appears we have reached that awkward amount of time away from the blog where people have started to worry about me.
Man, I hate when I do that. 🙂
Popping in though to say that I am just fine. Better than fine, actually — still VERY EXCITED to be engaged, and fully immersing myself in the act enjoying summer!
I am also sort of swamped with life though.
Work has been busy (good, but busy!) And of course there are considerations like sweet little dogs who like to be walked, podcasts that want to be listened to, friends to visit, new babies to snuggle (not mine! LOL), BBQs to be had, relaxing nights at home on my couch, meals to cook, sunshine to enjoy and weddings to plan.
You know how this works.
So while I may have temporarily lost my ability to find time to blog, I have not actually lost the urge.
My brain is full up with stuff to write but I have to find my rhythm again.
I’m working on it y’all, I promise.
Let’s talk soon?
Fun Things To Read On A Friday
Happy Friday!
We made it! Garrett and I are still living out of suitcases and climbing over piles of laundry after our weekend away, but this coming three day weekend should go a long way to getting us caught up. I’m going to work on some cleaning projects (my closet, yikes!) some cooking projects (Hooray for new recipes! I’ll share the good ones) and I definitely plan to write a couple of blog posts including telling the story of our engagement because honestly, you guys, it is so awesome and hilarious and US! I just couldn’t be happier than I’ve been this week.
In the meantime, since I’ve been working and climbing over laundry, I’ve been doing more internet reading than I have writing. So will you indulge me while I share some links? Here we go:
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*Well this is just about the sweetest/saddest story ever.
*Superficial Alert! 5 Fuschia Pink Polishes to Try For Summer. Twist my arm!
*Pro-crastination vs. Pre-crastination: What an interesting concept, right?
*Reading about the difference between how men and women view work/life balance kind of made me feel ragey.
*Continuing on the ragey train: this roundup on Monica Lewinsky.
*I made this with dinner three times this week. YUM.
*Do you block schedule? Is it helpful? Tell me more, please…
*Beth is offering up some awesome menu planning inspiration lately. I want to eat everything in this post.
*A round up of Paleo Summer Salads — this is perfection!
*Here’s a great bookmarker: 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism. Reading material until the end of time.
*The Daily Routines of Famous Writers was fascinating!
*Busty gals, this post is for you.
*Tangentially related: It’s not you, it’s the clothes.
*This seems like a delicious and quick lunch recipe.
*I know I’ve said this before, but weightlifting completely changed the way I viewed my body. Love this post on the benefit of barbell sports.
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Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! See ya next week!
Affirmative
So our weekend in wine country ended up infinitely more magical than expected.
I have so much to say but for now, in case you missed it on Instagram and Twitter: HOLY GUACAMOLE WE ARE ENGAGED!
It feels exactly as I thought it would, yet completely different all at once.
Today may be the best Monday ever. 🙂
More to come.
The Juggling Act + Life Lately
If I had to make a loose list of the things I juggle in my everyday life it would read as follows (in no particular order):
*My Job
*My Workouts
*Meal Planning
*Cooking
*My Dog + My Man (both: attention whores, I tell ya! 🙂 Juuuust kidding!)
*Family
*Friends/A Social Life
*This Blog
*Errands That Keep My Life Running That I Haven’t Outsourced (Grocery Shopping, Trips to Target, De-cluttering, Car Washes, Oil Changes, Dentist Appointments, you know what I mean right?)
*Down Time
*Alone Time (which is not necessarily the same as Down Time)
*And I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff
As it turns out, at this point in my life, I’m only skilled enough to juggle 3-4 of those things at a time.
This is a sad realization for me, but it is an actual FACT. Another important fact: “My Job” and “Errands That Keep My Life Running Which I Haven’t Outsourced” are sort of non-negotiable. This is the part where we all acknowledge the bitter truth of adulthood.
Of course adulthood also comes with perks like: eating froyo for dinner because we feel like it, and planning impromptu weekends in wine country BECAUSE WE CAN, so it’s not all bad. 🙂
Anyway, juggling those two things doesn’t leave a lot of extra time for all of my other interests/priorities lately despite finally removing things like “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” from that bulleted list above. That’s a long winded way of saying: Hi friends, it’s been a while! Let’s catch up.
Here’s a random assortment of things we’ve been up to around here:
1. Summer has basically arrived, it seems. Spring was in and out with a quickness. It’s 100 degrees today, and I feel like it’s time to just buckle in for the heat. I’m using this as motivation to tackle a large closet reorganization project that I’ve been desperately putting off, and I’m kind of feeling excited about purging and adding to my wardrobe.
2. I’ve been a meal planning BOSS and have been relatively successful at incorporating more fish into our diets. I don’t know why this feels so hard, but I’m just so much more comfortable cooking chicken, beef or pork. Anyway, we’ve been branching out but if you have a particularly awesome seafood recipe (we love the shrimp and stuff around here too) that works well during summer (ie: doesn’t involve baking at 400 degrees and heating up my whole freaking house, sigh!) pass it along, would ya?
3. I’ve become obsessed with plants, flower + candles. This happens to me in phases. There are times when there is nothing alive or fragrant in my house and then there are times where I am like “Hmm…would this candle layer well with this candle? Maybe I should pick up peonies this week instead of tulips? SUCCULENTS FOR EVERYONE!” And I’m definitely in the latter phase.
4. One of the things I do when I have a lot going on and I’m feeling like I don’t have a lot of “Me Time” is buy myself things I have no business buying, but that make me happy. Do you do this? Tell me you do this? Lately it has been in the form of lip products. Glosses, balms, chapsticks, lipsticks — I’ve bought A TON and it’s made the whole “getting ready in the morning” process feel like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. It’s amazing how a lip color can change your outlook in a day.
5. I scored the best pinterest patience bargain the other day and I’m so happy about it. A couple years ago I pinned these shoes but sort of rolled my eyes at the price and knew I would never buy them. I found them the other week at Nordstrom Rack for half the original price, and conveniently had that EXACT amount of gift cards, which meant they were FREE TO ME! My patience had paid off, I still loved them, and I happily brought them home to live with me. You know I love a good impulse purchase, so it felt mighty victorious to get such a good deal because I waited.
6. We’ve seen a ton of friends lately, we had family visit last weekend, and we are visiting family out in Sonoma this weekend. It’s been a whirlwind of social activities and cocktails (and pork belly — OMG the pork belly!) and it has really felt nice to have some good long visits.
7. I took Buster to be professionally groomed for the first time ever, and not only did he actually love it — he came home looking like the floofiest puppy ever. It was so damn cute I want to take him every week! I know it’s not reasonable, but seriously — had it not been 100 degrees out I would have made him sleep in our bed just so I could snuggle with him. He was like a fluffy stuffed animal.
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We are headed out of town this weekend to Sonoma, which is basically one of my favorite places on the planet. I’m looking forward to some much needed relaxation, catching up with family, riding bikes around town, wine tasting, and just enjoying what will hopefully be a bit of a cooler climate. I probably won’t be back here until next week, but I’m going to try and include juggling this blog in my 3-4 priorities next week, so here’s to hoping that works out. Anything new and exciting with you? I’m all ears to hear YOUR random assortment. 🙂
Wednesday Bullets
Should we talk about some totally random and unimportant things?
Excellent. I thought so too! 🙂
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*FOR STARTERS: Do you have a juicer? Do you like it? Do you want to recommend it to me? Here is some backstory that you might find useful: I am actually not really a “juice person.” I don’t mean to get into a huge polarizing debate about whether juicing is the NEXT! BEST! THING! FOR YOUR HEALTH! or whether it’s COMPLETE! HOGWASH! AND PAVING THE WAY FOR DIABETES! (These seem to be the two major camps that many people fall into with respect to juicing) but I am tip toeing around the idea of getting a juicer.
It is not because I want to cure any health problems, or because I want to pave the way for diabetes by drinking all that fiberless sugar — I mostly want to buy a juicer because Garrett + I REALLY REALLY REALLY like the kale, cucumber, celery + pineapple juice they sell at Whole Foods and it is SIX DOLLARS PER BOTTLE which happens to be the exact price of HIGHWAY ROBBERY. Did you know? So it occurred to me the other day that based on the number of bottles we have purchased in the last two months, we frankly could have already have bought a Centrifugal juicer. Now it’s just economics, ya know. 🙂 Why not get my own juicer?
Like I said though, I’m not really that into juicing and I don’t plan to do it everyday or anything, and I’m not really dying to spend hundreds of dollars (uh, at least on an appliance, I guess. Since I’ve probably already spent that in juice. DAMN. Maybe I am willing to spend hundreds of dollars. Feel free to try and convince me.) Anyway, juicer education/recommendations: I am inviting them!
*So while we are talking recommendations — can we talk about salads? (Spinach and Taco Salads are always in the rotation over here, duh.) And lately ALL I WANT TO EAT is salad, but I’m getting a little bored with the salads I’m making. It’s the same romaine, cucumber, tomato, pepper, avocado mix and I just switch up the dressing/protein and ohmylord I am falling asleep just thinking about it. I need some motivation to go out and buy radishes or something, you know? I want to hear about the BEST! SALAD! EVER! Help me get out of my rut, would ya?
*I read the other day that Kurt Cobain has been dead for 20 years. And then I went searching for my AARP card because, WHAT?
*Internet, I feel like you have been holding out on me because none of you ever mentioned Tuna Melts My Heart. Now all I do all day is refresh my Instagram feed hoping for a Tuna update.
*It’s almost the end of April and if you’ve been around this blog for a while you know I generally get the itch to change my hair in spring and in fall. YEP, THAT IS ME SCRATCHING. But surprisingly I have zero desire to cut it short. My last haircut was just…well, it was too short for my life. The gym was a pain, styling it was a pain, everything was a pain and so now I’m in that phase of growing it out where it is just barely long enough to get in a ponytail (YAY!) but doing nothing at all interesting. WOE IS ME. Maybe I need to bust out my curling iron or rock a little braid action or something. Why is hair so complicated?
*I think we are going to go Maui around Christmas/New Year’s and now all of a sudden I would like to drink ALL the mai tais. Anyway, it has made me think about traveling and souvenirs and I got to talking with friends recently about what constitutes a souvenir as you get older. How do YOU commemorate a trip? I have friends who always buy a nice handbag or pair of sunglasses on a vacation (so they have the memory, but also something practical they’ll use.) I have friends who make awesome videos/scrapbooks/photobooks. I have friends who collect sand and do other pinterest-y things. What do YOU do? I always like hearing these kinds of creative ideas.
*I bought a workout dvd. I don’t even know the last time I bought a workout dvd, mostly because I hate working out alone and in my living room. But it was $6 on amazon and when I bought it I was having a hard time juggling evening workouts and it was Bob Harper and he CrossFits so I thought it might be CrossFit-esque and well…it isn’t necessarily. But it’s still kind of enjoyable. So if you are looking for a workout dvd, I recommend!
*So hey, do you ever feel like you are being watched? 🙂 HEH
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Happy Hump Day, y’all!
