Prego: Kelli & Garrett!

It's logical enough that if I maintain the blog long-term, it will eventually turn from wedding world to prego land. What I didn't expect was for it to happen so soon! This is my second pregnant friend blog in a row--madness.

A couple weeks ago, Kelli, a good friend from work, announced that she and her hubby, Garrett, are pregant! I'm so excited to watch her grow!

We all met up for pizza at Mountain Mike's in Danville tonight to support a Relay For Life fundraiser. I love that Kelli, Gina, and I (even Raf!) showed up matching. I guess the first day of rain brings out everyone's grey sweaters!

Unexpected Guest

I got the most wonderful, unexpected phone call yesterday morning. It was my friend, Val, calling from San Jose. Not too exciting, right? Except Val has lived in India for the past 6 years! She's doing the rounds visiting friends and family for a few weeks, and I was fortunate enough to make the list.

Val came over for a home cooked meal of Rigatoni with Roasted Pumpkin and Goat Cheese (watch out, 2 slow food meals in a row!) and a long night of catching up on wedding planning and pregnancy. It's so much fun to have a prego friend--she's the first person close to me experiencing this wonderfulness!

It was SO great to see and catchup with you, Val! Enjoy the rest of your time in the States. I can't wait to start seeing some photos on your blog! :)

Happy Birthday Jules!

As usual, I'm a day late on my birthday wishes, but at least I was early too! We celebrated Julia's bday in Walnut Creek on Saturday and had a grand ole time. Happy Happy Birthday, Friend!!

Picknik Photo Fun

You may have noticed a little something new decorating the blog since the weekend. Yes, I'm referring to my super awesome new header!

While doing my blog hopping this weekend, I randomly found this post on Maya*Made, which introduced me to Picknik, a rockin (free!) photo editing website. I do a bit of basic photo editing in Picasa regularly, so that part wasn't very exciting--what was exciting was seeing the super cool sample banners she made with graphic titles. I've been wanting a cool banner forever, long before I ever posted a word, but I just couldn't quite justify the investment in Adobe CS3 (now 4?!) software without enrolling myself in art school (which I have considered). Amazingly, I didn't have to invest a dime to create my kickass new header. I love the internet.

Go check out Picknik and let's see what you come up with!

Macaroni & Cheese

It was an exciting night in Apt 345--we made macaroni and cheese from scratch for the very first time! I'm sure this doesn't sound very impressive to most of the world, but I LOVE mac n cheese. I was raised on at least 2 boxes a week (what's a single dad to do?!) and always order it at upscale restaurants if it's on the menu. In other words, I do not discriminate when it comes to M&C! I love it all--quick and cheap or fancy schmancy. However, I've never attempted anything outside the box at home.

Lately I've been thinking I should try making something a little more grown up, and a little less processed and powdered, so when I got a Martha email with a whole list of mac and cheese recipes, I knew it was time. Here's the one we chose. It was looking pretty boring until we added the ham--then it smelled amazing! It turned out super yummy and had the perfect crunchy crust, just like at the fancy places!

So, the million dollar question: have I eaten my last box of orange mac n cheese? Not likely, but I'm stoked to have a go-to recipe for the good stuff!

Collections: Patron Bottles

While staying with Nena and Dana in SLO recently, I've been smitten by their everyday centerpiece idea: flowers displayed in Patron bottles! I'm totally planning to steal the idea for our table centerpieces at the wedding. So clean and simple, I just love it. And don't worry, Mother, we'll take off the labels so we don't look like complete alcoholics!

I took the pictures below our during our first planning trip to SLO; the last time we were there, the Patron bottle was full of Gerber daises--one of my faves! Pretty much anything you put in it looks adorable.

So, here's your assignment, friends: start drinking good tequila (Patron, please!) and, for the next 8-10 months, gift your empty bottle to us! Have a good friend who's a bartender, or frequent the local taqueria a little too regularly? Even better! If we're able to collect 20 or so bottles without having to drink them all ourselves, that would be ideal (for our wallets and livers!)

Thanks friends! (Who wants to throw the first Margarita night?!)

So Excited!

I was SO excited to see this new post on my sister's blog today! As well as the ADORABLE card she made above. I can't wait for our Annual Cardmaking Weekend (just 2 short weekends away)! Unfortunately, rusty doesn't even begin to describe my current creative cardmaking status. Fortunately, I can copy (and/or just steal) Jordan's cards; the pace at which she whips out cards seriously peeves me.

OPW: Magda & Manny

Remember this post from last month, when I told you about our day of OPW madness? Well, I finally got pictures from Magda of their big day! I was so excited to look through them, since I didn't get to see any of the actual celebrations myself. Mags looked gorgeous and the church where they had their ceremony was huge and incredible. Here's a shot of our reception-prep supervisory handiwork!

I also had to share this awesome action shot--Magda's QUICK!

Congrats you guys! I'm so happy to have been part of your day, and hopefully to have provided at least a bit of last minute stress relief. And trust me Mags, I'm sure I'll be calling for some payback assistance in our own 11th hour!

Seattle is Calling

I fell madly in love with Seattle during our first (and only) short visit 2 years ago. The city made such an impression on me in those 4 days that I go through withdrawal periods multiple times a year that include job and home searches. (I'm so not kidding.) I realized recently that Seattle is calling me back. Here's how it's sending it's message; within one week's time...

1. Kate randomly found me. Kate lives in Seattle.
2. My old buddy, Bradley, just moved to Seattle and made contact about connecting.
3. In one day I heard from two totally unrelated (and often long lost) friends, Jeffrey from the Quijano Clan, and Miss Kaylie K, both who were visiting Seattle at the time. Kaylie even rubbed in that she had just eaten at Purple, our favorite accidental restaurant find (it's amazing, we highly recommend it to all Seattle travelers!!)
4. Grey's Anatomy is back on, and we finally watched our first couple Tivo'd episodes. (Call me lame, I don't care. Every time there's a Seattle skyline shot on Grey's, I melt.)

If this doesn't prove that Seattle is calling me, I don't know what will! If nothing else, next month will mark the 2 year anniversary of our last visit. I seriously don't know how I've gone this long without visiting, but it's no longer acceptable. Considering the next year of wedding travel madness, I really shouldn't be spending the money or using the vacation time, but guess what...I DON'T CARE!

Raf: Consider this post to be my public way of peer pressuring you into booking a flight already! :) We're considering NYE, how fun would that be...

Campaigning Kids

It's been forever since I did my blog rounds, catching up on what friends are posting about, so I decided tonight was the night. While visiting Lindsey, I followed her link to the fun eye candy blog of Elizabeth Williams. (Btw, Lindsey mentions how she visits this blog often just to listen to the music--best tip ever! Loving it.) Elizabeth's most recent post is about "kid art" and she shared this picture from her neighbor's yard:

So awesome. I especially love the kid logic of clarifying "not McCain". It totally reminds me of this campaigning kid art, found in my uncle's driveway during the primaries:

The story behind this chalk campaign art is seriously adorable. Evidently my aunt came home one day to find their lawn signs gone--she vented her irritation aloud, thinking someone had stolen them. In retrospect, she thinks the campaign was just picking them up to use in the next city, but my 7 year old cousin took this offense seriously and went out and created her own Obama signs--ones no one could steal! (At least not without a hose!) Freaking adorable. I love my family.

Late addition: I just checked out Elizabeth's Etsy shop. (If you've never visited Etsy before, allow me to introduce you to your new best friend! Do the world a favor: Buy Handmade and support individual artisans!) She makes some very sweet jewelry. Here are my faves: