Happy Monday!

I know, I know, it has been a long time since I posted. But I just got back from a much needed vacation, and as soon as I kick this cold that I came down with on our last day, I'll finally feel up for a regular posting schedule again!

It's amazing what spending 10 fabulous days sitting here can do to rejuvenate your lack of motivation!

Happy Monday all, hope you all had wonderful weekends too!

Happiness Is: Friday!

Really, that's all it's taking to make me happy this week, just the fact that it's finally Friday!

For some reason this week has seemed really long, probably because last week was a short week. I'm looking forward to happy hour tonight with some lovely bees, and a productive weekend doing exciting things like cleaning and doing laundry. And maybe I can convince my husband to venture out to get new cell phones, our contract was up for renewal last month and I'm dying for a new phone, since my G1 is getting sloooowwww!

Happy Friday everyone!

Happiness Is: A Catch Up Weekend

Oh, hi there! Anybody miss me?

Yep, I've been slacking all week on blogging, but this weekend we finally have nothing planned! No concerts, no trips, no activities, nothing!

Ok, well, not really nothing, we do have a lot to catch up on around the house, since we've been so busy lately. But I'll be back next week, refreshed, caught up, and with some more posts on all we've been up to lately, plus some easy new recipes I've tried.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

(Hiking near Falls Lake, North Carolina, last weekend. Photo taken by me.)

Happiness Is: My Husband Being Older Than I Am

Today is this guy's birthday!

(by Shoot Me Now Photography)

I love that for the next 5 months I can give him crap about him being "so old." That is, until my birthday in April, when we'll be the same age again.

The hubs wanted me to combine his birthday and Christmas presents this year, to get him a new laptop, so he won't be getting that until Christmas. However, I did get him a useful, but joke gift, to open this weekend. Fans of Always Sunny In Philadelphia might be able to guess what it is....

We've got another jam-packed fun weekend planned, including a party, a bee meet up, hiking, and lots of other fun activities. I can't wait to share next week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful first weekend of November! (Wow, can you believe it's already November?!? Where did this year go?)

Sometimes You Just Need a Break

Or, why, for the first year ever, we didn’t do anything for Halloween.

Basically, we were tired. That’s pretty much it! We’d gone out in San Francisco Friday night for a friend’s (non-Halloween themed) birthday party, and we’re also going out tonight to a concert. (I know, another concert, right? This is the 4th concert we’ve been to in 3 months, but this will be the best one, because we’re seeing my favorite artist for the 3rd time, Ingrid Michaelson!). And both days this weekend the hubs had to work about 6 hours, so we just relaxed Saturday night and watched movies, and I handed out candy to about 20 kids who came by on Sunday night.

It was really nice to have a low key weekend, actually. Especially considering we haven’t had one in months. I had time to go grocery shopping, make an awesome dinner of crab cakes and cheddar bay biscuits, do some cleaning and had time for some last minute Halloween decorating. I even found a way to reuse some of our LED lanterns from our wedding, by turning them into jack o’lanterns with cardboard!

I guess I'll be saving my naughty nurse costume for another year. I put very little effort into shopping for it anyway, and had no time this year to actually make a costume, so I wasn't too bummed about not getting to dress up. I haven't had a creative costume idea since two years ago when I sewed this Captain Morgan costume.

The only notable thing from our weekend? At our friend’s party Friday night we got to try the culinary wonder that is ‘chicken fried bacon.’ And it was glorious. I really wish the picture I took had turned out, but I didn’t want to carry my purse in a sports bar all night, so only had my crappy cell phone camera. But basically it was bacon, battered and fried like chicken fried steak. Amazing, artery clogging, bacony goodness!

We also hit up the photobooth there, because I wanted to prove to the hubs how cool it was that I saved us $1000 by not renting one of these at our wedding, and just going the DIY route. Afterwards he completely agreed that our set up, with lots of space, a monitor to see your poses, and the fact that it was really inexpensive, was way more awesome than the old fashioned booth. I still love our pics from that night though!

Oh, and that night I also discovered that I have somehow retained my skee-ball skills from 20 years ago when I used to play it at Chuck E Cheese. I was undefeated all night, and people were begging me to be on their team! :)

Have you ever NOT done anything for Halloween?

Happiness Is: Halloween

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween weekend! I didn't carve a pumpkin this year, but if I did, this is what it would have looked like:

{Pumpkin image from Google Images, Weddingbee bee image poorly drawn in Illustrator by me}

I still don't know if or what we're doing for Halloween on Saturday, but I've got a (boring, store bought) costume. Tonight we have a friend's birthday party to go to, that's not Halloween themed, and Sunday we'll be giving out candy to the 30 or so kids in our neighborhood. It will be the first Halloween in a couple years that we'll actually be home to hand out candy!

Have a safe and fun weekend!

Happiness Is: Mountains!

I still need to write about our amazing trip last weekend, to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. But in the meantime, here's a teaser...just look at those mountains and those clouds, just a gorgeous part of our country!

But instead of blogging this weekend, I'll have the privilege of attending the Perpetual Party Planner's wedding, which will be amazing. I'm so excited to see all the little details of her wedding come together, after all, I've been following her blog for over a year now! And on Sunday we have a concert to attend with our wedding officiant friend, and I'm crossing my fingers that the 30-40% chance of rain this weekend doesn't happen, both for Kim's wedding's sake, and the fact that the concert on Sunday is outside!

Does anyone else have a busy weekend planned? And please keep your fingers crossed for Kim that there's no rain on her wedding day!

Happiness Is: A Day Off Work!

I'm sure this is how I'm going to be feeling all day, because I have the day off! (You're jealous, I know.)

{Source}

Much needed freedom, because I've had a really rough week. The good news is that I think my hair is ok now, and I'll be sharing pics soon, once I have a chance to take them! In other good news, we have a jam-packed fun weekend ahead, and I can't wait. I promise updates on Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happiness Is: Gettin' My Hair Did

I can't even tell you how excited I am to go to the salon this weekend for a much needed cut and highlights.

I usually go every 2 1/2 to 3 months, but this time it's been almost 4 months--since right before our wedding! My schedule has just been too crazy to fit it in. But my roots definitely need some love, and my hair is always less frizzy after being colored, as you can see from these pics.

(This is after being blow dried straight, straightened with a wide curling iron, and then curling the ends under. Still kinda frizzy.)

(My roots bug the heck out of me, but actually aren't that bad. I always get 3 colors of highlights put in, 2 shades of blonde and my natural light brown, so the grow out looks more natural.)

And no, I won't be doing a "post wedding chop." I love my long hair, even though it takes a lot of time and products. But I think I'll get my layers trimmed up a little higher than normal. That way it will look more wavy in the back when I curl it, instead of the curls just concentrated at the bottom like it is now.


Did you do (or will you do) a post wedding chop? And does anyone have anything more fun than a haircut planned for this weekend?

Happiness Is: Escaping

I wish I could be here again today--an escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday.

(Nepenthe terrace, Big Sur, summer 2007)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and that you are able to carve out a little "escape" time for yourself!