Happy New Year

Uh, yeah. It's January 31st. I'm a bit late with my Happy New Year wishing, but I do mean it! Life has been a huge blur lately. Not that I have much to show for. I've been busy living it, trying really hard this year to be present in each moment. Instead of just snapping photos. Which is leaving me with very few photos to scrap. Which is ironic since I decided to give Project Life another try. Such is, right?

I do have a few things to share, starting tomorrow. Tomorrow is Technique Tuesday's Studio AE February stamp set release. I'll be sharing a project here. And it's also Lawn Fawn's Valentine's Inspiration week. Lots of amazing cards this week over at the Fawn blog!

But until then, I thought I'd share some of my Maui photos. These are my favorites, in no particular order.

The weather wasn't the best, and the water was pretty cold. But it was amazing to spend a long week together, relaxed, just enjoying each other's company, not thinking about homework or housework. I'm so blessed, and very thankful to be able to travel.

Thank you for stopping by today. Please come by again tomorrow!

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Weekend In Photos: Birthday Edition

We were in Palm Springs this past weekend for a little late summer/birthday holiday. It was my birthday last Friday, and we also really needed a break from our daily routine. So we booked ourselves a three-day weekend in a spa with a salt water pool and off we went.

It was a total success. We basically did nothing all day, everyday. Total relaxation. Well, I did go shopping on my birthday, but ended up buying nothing. It wasn't for the lack of shops. There were plenty there. It was because of the temps. At least 110F every single day. Not exactly inspiring me to buy Fall fashion.

But hey, we had that salt water pool and our poolside cabana. Hello, lap of luxury. It had a nice big bed, a cooler filled with ice, drinks, and fruits, and Nick, the poolside attendant who came by every so often to see if we needed anything else. I reclined on that bed for half a day, flipping through September's issue of Vogue. It takes half a day to do so. Have you seen that sucker? It's at least 700 pages.

And now, we are back and ready for the back to school season. Kind of. (The truth is, we are dying to go back there. But during a cooler month.)

I'm usually a super light packer. But when traveling by car, I can bring 4 dresses and a few blouses for a 3 day trip. Right?

Walking down El Paseo in Palm Desert. HOT!

We ate a lot of chips and salsa.

And tacos and iced tea too.

A blurry selfie in Anthro's dressing room. Tired, sunburned, but happy.

The view down from inside the gondola.

We watched a storm roll in from the mountaintop. Then went back down, and got rained on. For about 30 seconds.

Just about everything blooms in Palm Springs. Stuff that doesn't normally bloom around Los Angeles. Is it because of the crazy amounts of sun + copious watering?

More random flowering bushes.

Cabanas! Nice! (Yes, Jenn Olson, it came complete with a cabana boy. No, he did not look like Taylor Kitsch.)

They are happy!

More happiness.

1 pool + 3 boys = water fight.

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WIP: Weeks! In Photos.

I've been busy. Really busy. But I've been trying to take more photos. Not that I actually documented my past few weeks well. I tend to take photos in spurts. Dozens one day, and none for a week. But I'm trying! So here's a quick rundown of what's been going on:

Teaching at CKC - Houston. I lucked out and no one had rotten tomatoes to throw at me.

Siblings + significant others + nieces + Tex-Mex food + ginormous Texas-sized iced tea = heaven!

Going from point A to point B, I kept thinking those clouds looked like cotton candy. Just like I used to when I was five. Some things never change.

My cousin was visiting from Taiwan, so we played tourists for a whole week. Roy Rogers had teeny feet.

Everytime I see this hotel, I think of Royal Tenenbaum manning the elevator.

Lily Bee booth being set up. The new collections were even better in real life!

First night of CHA with old and new friends. We stayed until we were thrown out. So you know we had fun! (From left: Jenni Hufford, Cindy Liebel, Suz Mannecke, Keshet Starr, Lexi Bridges, Valerie Mangan, Jenny Larson, me, and Lisa Day)

Finally met Jen Jockish. I knew I'd like her, and I did. So much!

Cindy, making out with the Jillibean Gnomie. Lucky Gnomie! At one point, he found himself inside her shirt...

Had great chats with Marnie Flores and Emily Pitts (and Emily knew all the good lunch spots!)

How much do I love the Jillibean girls? Thiiiiiiiiis much! (From left: Kimber McGray, me, Laina Lamb, and Summer Fullerton)

Flying home, thinking about how much fun I had, how awesome it is to see a sunset while in the air, and how much I missed my family. And surprisingly, how much I missed LA. I think I finally love living here. All in all, a good two weeks.

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Weekend In Photos: The Washington DC Edition

As we count down our days on the East Coast, the kids are getting more and more frantic about the things we "must" do before we move to the left coast. On top of their lists: eat a last cheesesteak at Tony Luke's, eat at Banana Leaf, eat at Classic Diner, and go to Washington DC. To eat. Of course. These are my kids after all.

So off we went to DC. Although I was sneaky, and managed to get a girls' day out for myself with Cindy and Keisha. So fun. And so bittersweet.

Keisha was pretty determined to get some Georgetown Cupcakes. They have their own TV show! Who knew! Well, apparently everyone but me. They had moved from their teeny storefront on a small side street to a much larger location on M Street. Again, I had no idea. But we could tell where it was located from the ginormous line wrapping around the block. NUTS! No, we don't love cupcakes that much. Especially after having some really nice pizza for lunch. Add to the fact that it was raining and hailing. So we ducked into Paper Source, and bought more paper goods than we needed. Then into Lush and got very nice smelling bath bombs. Then, and only then, we went to brave a cupcake line. Not at Georgetown Cupcakes. Not at Sprinkles (I mean, one can get Sprinkles anywhere else in the country, even if they are good.) But we went to Baked and Wired, which was pretty amazing too. Plus the place was just cute. And the lines were shorter. I'm going to recommend the Fresh Strawberry, the Cherry Blossom, and the Razmanian cupcakes. Not that I ate all three by myself...

And then we had to say goodbye. I'm going to miss Cindy and Keisha so much. We will see each other again. But the get togethers won't be as spontaneous anymore.

My family and I stayed overnight, and we ate ate ate. We did take a little eating break to go visit the zoo (they had baby lions) and say hi to the pandas. And visited Mt Vernon. Of our 20ish trips to the DC area, we had never been to Mt Vernon. It was about time. So fascinating to see where George Washington lived. And to learn more about his accomplishments. Everyone knows about him as the father of our country, but I knew very little about the farmer and husband.

And now we are back to school, work, and packing. At least I won't have to clean the house this week. YES!

Food paparazzi!

Crazy line just for cupcakes. Look past the end of the line. It wraps around the corner down the other street.

We had to settle for a photo on the outside.

Inside Baked & Wired. So cute. So yummy!

Stumptown coffee? Please. And yes, I tipped really well.

RED VELVET! It was good too.

Love those girls!

There was this and a huge thing of Korean bbq. The kids ate it all. I had to fight for a few scraps.

Those cherry blossoms. So pretty. So allergy inducing.

I couldn't stop thinking "someone needs to wash those panda butts."

Love how they pose nicely for photos.

We do love Thai food. Can you tell?

A super nice Japanese lady forced us into a family photo, and then praised my children to the skies. I love her already. Oh, that is George and Martha Washington with their grandchildren Washy and Nelly behind us.

The mansion at Mt Vernon. The other building to the right is the kitchen.

And thank you for the love re: house sale and Jillibean. You guys are awesome. I mean that.

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