The first day of Fall. Tuesday, I came home with an armful of new library books to discover a fire in our fireplace (intentional, that is) and a husband saying “Happy Fall!” Then we ate some delicious Thai food. Plus, it was my friend Julia’s 28th birthday! Yay! Happy Birthday, Julia!
My birthday bonanza weekend! You can read a little about it here, but I still have loads of fun and gorgeous photos to post, along with recipes for the tasty treats we enjoyed and other fun little details.
Having family in town. This will be two weekends in a row that we’ve had special familial visitors in our house. My brother came up this past weekend for my 28th, and husband’s cousin gets in town tonight and will be here for the weekend. I’m so excited to hang out with him this weekend! We’ve got some fun plans, too – mexican food, checking out new brunch spots, playing Risk, and of course, just hanging out. Hangouts are the best.
chocolate covered pop rocks! it’s like a party in your mouth, for real. • falling back in love with board games & puzzles – I can’t get enough! • adding another quilt to the bed because it’s so chilly at night now • the way the fireplace smell lingers for a few days afterward • getting a chance to learn more about all our new community group friends – an amazing group of people, it seems • finding cute, new, under-the-radar restaurants (one of the best things about life in LA) • starting to plan a baby shower for my bestie back in Virginia – so many fun little things to pick out and get creative on! • realizing that two weeks from today, I’ll be back in my hometown with the people I love, seeing people I haven’t seen in years • on that note, looking forward to flying Virgin America – best airline ever! • lavender chamomile tea • my new book • “Who’s the cutes in the Zelda boots?” • being smooshed between a husband and a cat all night – the only time it is ok that I’m feeling a little smothered • Google Calendar • successful brainstorms • the word ‘brainstorm’ • chips & salsa • feeling like a grownup when I run important errands and accomplish things like getting life insurance • really, really, really irresistibly cute pugs named Lily • animals in general • getting the “new Twitter” – omgosh – aren’t I so cool?
That’s all I’ve got time for right now, ladies & gents. I’ll be back soon with more goodness! In the meantime, post some of the things that are making you happy so we can share the inspiration.
I had so many plans and things to accomplish today. Sadly, very few of them have been accomplished, aside from work tasks. Oh work, it always gets in the way. Regardless, I owe you some links, and I am going to deliver! Sorry there aren’t as many as usual – believe it or not I hardly went online this weekend at all. AND, we didn’t turn on our TV once. Not once! It was actually quite wonderful, I highly recommend it.
I really, really need this baby deer notepad. I feel like it would make my to-do lists much more exciting/cute.
My goodness, I’ve only been away a few days but it feels like forever! A big fat thank you to all of you who write/tweeted/commented wishing me a happy birthday. I had such an amazing weekend celebrating with friends & family and can hardly believe I am 28 years old. This feels like the perfect age, though, and I think I’d like to stay here forever, thankyouverymuch.
To explain the wonderful weekend in detail is just not possible, so instead I think I’d like to do a special little “things I love” about this weekend’s birthday bonanza.
Surprise Sprinkles cupcakes from my coworkers – they tricked me into thinking I was having a Friday afternoon meeting. Evil!
Romantic dinner date with my Hubs
Waking up to a billion texts and voicemails with birthday wishes – this is what happens when you delete your Facebook!
Traipsing around Larchmont Village with bagels & OJ
Spontaneously deciding to go buy a bunch of board games
Spending more time than I’d like to admit doing a 1000 pc puzzle (am I 28 or 82?)
My new presents! My husband has great taste.
The incredible, outstanding, magnificent Phoenix/Grizzly Bear/Girls show at the Hollywood Bowl thanks to Cesca!
Birthday wine (aka Sofia minis in the pink cans! With straws!)
Coming back from the bathroom to find the entire section singing Happy Birthday to me – magical!
Spotting an old coworker sitting just a couple rows behind us!
Walking home with my beau (and him getting his first ever street dog!)
Preparing and cooking all the food for my bash on Sunday afternoon – so much work but it was so worth it! And it all turned out delicious!
Having a super long, relaxed party in our courtyard with people coming & going so we had a chance to talk to everyone.
Projecting our wedding photos onto the building behind us when it got dark outside – this was so cool! Such a great idea (thanks Hannah!)
Ending the night with an epic game of Monopoly (we are on a board game kick, FYI)
The photos! My in-house photographer did an amazing job. You can see a couple of them in this post but I’ll do a separate post with all the photos & details of the food & decor.
And of course, having my little brother (who is actually quite tall) in town made everything so much better. He’s my first best friend and I love him so much!
Now I’m off to get my year started off with a bang. ♥ ♥ ♥
Everyone loves a good stop motion video, especially when you’ve got a clever kick back to classic arcade games. The video below is the work of French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond of the GAME OVER Project. This giant game of Pac Man was played by 111 human pixels that has moved from seat to seat during more than 4 hours. FOUR HOURS!
My birthday! I’m such a dork for birthdays. I love celebrating, having friends over, laughing, eating sweets, looking back at how far I’ve come since my last birthday, and saying “hello” to another wonderful year. This weekend I turn 28 (yay for even numbers) and I’m super excited, because 1) we’re going to see an amazing show (Phoenix/Grizzly Bear/Girls) at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night thanks to my sweet, sweet Cesca and 2) we’re having people over for a quaint little autumn-themed party in our courtyard on Sunday afternoon – complete with apple dumplings, sweet potato skins, caramel apples and more delicious fall treats. I love fall! I’m also really excited about opening the present Julian has been hiding from me! Eternally 5 years old, that’s me. 27 will be a tough year to beat, seeing as I had a sweet surprise party, got engaged, married, traveled to Paris (Berlin too, but Paris was better), and started a new job all in one year, but I have a feeling 28 is going to be even better. Yay for birthdays!
Waking up to my best friend everyday. I am SO grumpy in the mornings and absolutely hate waking up 95% of the time, but it makes it more bearable having a super handsome human alarm clock. Our conversations first thing in the morning are always hilarious and usually involve him trying to wake me up sweetly and gently and me responding with threats and/or accusing him of cheating me out of extra sleep, i.e., “was that really 5 minutes?!” I’m glad I have someone that doesn’t mind me being a total brat and can laugh with me about our a.m. exchanges later on.
Other happy moments & things:
treasure-hunting in discount stores like ROSS • having shorter hair that doesn’t weigh a thousand pounds! • getting the October issue of Real Simple in the mail • gummy cola bottles • wearing skirts on a Saturday • Barefoot Wine pinot grigio • Skype, for making it possible for me to video chat with Julia and her cuter-each-day newborn baby boy, Trey • Making fantastic plans for while we’re in Virginia visiting family – DC trips, the Fall Jubilee, Shenandoah hiking, grill outs, and spooky trials. Oh yes, and my high school reunion too! • enormous traffic spikes thanks to husband sharing one of my posts on his Fan page. Hi to anyone he sent over that may be reading this! • “champagne and wheat thins?” • J’s willingness to peel the nasty pork casings off of chicken sausage when I make jambalaya or some other sausage dish • Sweet Leaf raspberry tea! Only $1 in the vending machines at work! • smart, powerful, confident and loving lady bloggers • meeting lots of new friends at our first home group of the year – and choosing my name – “Sarah Sparkle!” • dogs in onesies who strut around the office – an overdose of cute! • clean sheets on the bed • Julian’s new haircut • free screenings of Catfish (tonight!) • In ‘n Out’s fries • getting a shipment of leftover wedding stuff from Nashville and discovering we now have approximately 33 different varieties of tea • living within walking distance from three different grocery stores, a Target, and an amazing Mexican restaurant • finishing my book • getting to see sneak peeks of J’s new videos before anyone else. Muahaha!
Hi friends, it’s me again. I have a quick favor to ask. You see, my very favorite LA animal rescue non-profit, Kitten Rescue, is currently in the running to win free cat litter. Yes you read that correctly – FREE CAT LITTER.
I’m sure each and every one of you share my passion for helping homeless animals and therefore, will have no problem with taking a second to click on the little button below (or in my sidebar) and voting for Kitten Rescue.
Thanks in advance, pretties!
How is everyone? I am currently beside myself in excitement over my birthday, which is approaching at warp speed and will be here in only three short days. Until then, however, I’m busy busy busy, working, preparing, planning, you know – taking care of business. In between it all, I’ve been saving these links JUST for you. I hope you enjoy them!
So many people turning comments off on their blog lately, it seems, the latest being the lovely Gala Darling. What do you think – is it a good idea? Not that I get loads of comments anyway!
Lately I’ve been daydreaming about what our home will look like when we are at the point in our lives when we can actually settle down and have in fact, a home, rather than an apartment. This post on The Pioneer Woman got me thinking about how lovely it would be to be able to embrace your natural surroundings and decorate your home from the outside in – in this case, gigantic windows with incredible views.
No, not exactly feasible for most, and typically reserved for vacation homes, but if you happen to live in a part of the country with dumbfounding views, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t replace every wall possible with huge windows (privacy aside). This has just become part of my “must-haves” list for our future home (along with a huge kitchen with an island, a porch swing, and a backhouse.)
I’m sure there are much more beautiful photos out there, but here are just a few I found.
Today marks the ninth anniversary of 9-11, a dark spot on our nation’s history that will not soon be forgotten. This is one unique effort to remember, restitch and preserve the compassion and unity that will forever be felt by millions nationwide.
“The American flag that flew at the World Trade Center and was shredded on 9/11 will travel to 50 states, where 50,000 firefighters, policemen, and many others who lost family members in the attacks will each sew a stitch to repair the tattered flag. NBC’s Roger O’Neill reports.”
Wonderful, you found my blog! I'm Sarah, a writer, runner, RVT student, believer, lover of pretty things (and cats.) I'm also a newlywed, which I'm finding quite enjoyable. To learn more about me, just click here. I hope my blog brings you a little bit (or a lotta bit) of happiness today.
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enlarge it. i dare you.
