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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Catching Up!

I suck at blogging, but I'm the worst during the month of November! Last year, I dropped off the face of this blog at the end of October, and didn't resurface for four months. Oops. Since November is coming to an end soon (yikes!), I thought I'd do a super quick photo recap. Super quick.

We celebrated our 20th anniversary in Kauai. We went sans kids. So yes, it was so very nice!

My little brother got married in San Francisco, and this was the view from the reception in Sausalito. As the sun sets, the East Bay (to the left) gets hit with the diminishing sunlight, and it just glows! So pretty!

Bryan and I used to live in San Francisco before we had children! How we miss it. Hey, I just noticed I posted three photos with water. I love the sea!

One little photo with humans! My kids and my parents ready for the wedding. The littlest was the ring bearer. A job he's quite good at, having done it twice in the past year.

And one little project I want to share!

This card for Lawn Fawn using Winter Owl. Love that stamp set. LOVE! So adorable! I used markers to color in the owl, the speech bubble and the hearts. Cut them all out and used pop up dots to adhere them to the patterned paper background (Lawn Fawn Fa-La-La collection). Used a little bit of May Arts burlap ribbon, and that was it. Have I mentioned how much I love that owl? Cute!

Thanks for dropping by today. Let's hope I post again before the month ends! Ha!

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Weekend in Instagrams + Giveaway Winner

First, the winner! Random.org picked:

Kate, aka stinkydudette

Your username had me cracking up. Love it! Kate, please email me? Thanks! (use email button to the left, please)


So this past weekend, we took off on Friday afternoon to San Diego without a plan. No hotel was booked ahead of time. No guidebooks consulted. No Yelp research. Nothing. Which is so unlike me. I like to have at least a few restaurants in my must see eat list.

The Del from the beach.

We took off, and holy crap, the traffic was insane! It took us over five hours to cover the 120 miles that separate Los Angeles and San Diego. So I had a lot of time to find us a hotel. And we lucked into the Hotel Del Coronado. Also known as The Del. It was built in 1888 by the developers of Coronado Island. Which really is not an island, more of a peninsula, but what do I know!

My view from the poolside chair.

Our room was right off the pool, which was warmed to a 82F night and day. The kids were in love! We were also a few steps from the beach, but it was very overcast and blustery the entire weekend.  So we stuck to the heated pool, ate a lot, walked around the teeny village, took in the sites.

Nighttime, all lit up.

Inspired by all those his+hers drink shots. Him = cool microbew. Me = tap water.

Really really good pork belly noodle soup at Leroy's.

Cute paper store at night. I didn't get a chance to visit it while it was open.

My oldest wanted this shirt. What can I say? He's 13. I didn't buy it.

Love weekends spent as a tourist. I usually come home so inspired to cook, scrap, and travel some more. Currently plotting a trip to Ojai!

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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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