26 down and ....? to go

Work has been IN. SANE. since the holiday. I worked 63 hours last week and I've already hit 50 for this week! Makes for little time for blogging, but luckily I made some time for my Birthday party!!

I had a bar in the Haight, that I had never been too but walked by a few times and it looked fun, hold a table for us and asked everyone to join me there for some delicious drinks, followed by dancing.  One of my worst fears. Seriously, worst fears is throwing a party that no one comes to. I know it's crazy irrational, but it's what I have to deal with. Needless to say lots of people came out and we had a great time! I have to say this bar was AMAZING. Their drink menu had to be one of my favorites in the city. San Francisco has a lot of "snobby" drinkers (and eaters, and 'fashionistas' and generally snobby people) and most of the nicer bars don't have 'bartenders' they have 'mixologists'. They make great drinks, but mostly all of them have something to do with bourbon and an orange slice. They're delicious, but they get old.  This place and drinks with Bourbon, Tequila, Rum AND Vodka!! I don't mean to sound like a lush, but the variety was appreciated.  Afterwards a few of us headed over to a different bar to shake our booties until it was time to go home! Had so, so much fun. One of my best birthdays by far!

Although, I ended up having to suck it up and make a facebook event, I still sent out these, more personal,  invites from Paperless Post. So. Cute.

Since I don't live anywhere near where the bar was, I invited people who lived near by over before for cupcakes and champagne! Then we all got cabs over to the party spot! When I make cupcake's I usually make Paula Deen's Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting, but since I had to work Saturday Funfetti from the box had to work. It was still DELICIOUS! {funfetti may or may not be one of my guilty pleasures}

Myself and my former roomies at the bar. We've known eachother almost 4 years, 1 of which we lived together and NEVER had a picture together so I had to post this!

Finally, my birthday gift to myself! Monogrammed 2013 datebook in orange. The day it came in the mail I looked down at my desk and almost everything I had on there was orange. Never knew I liked it that much! 

Wednesday Wisdom

At first glance, this might seem sad. But for a type-A hyper control freak it's really a breath of fresh air. A girlfriend once told me, relative to guys of course, 'have standards not expectations' and it was so profound to me...and applicable to all areas of my life. Yes, not having expectations can be the defense mechanism to not being let down or hurt, but it also allows you to stop and enjoy the moment a little more. You see the good things and appreciate them as opposed to comparing them to what you 'wanted' or how you thought it 'should' be. Having standards just allows you to stay true to yourself at the same time. So stop. Don't have any expectations for today. Just let it happen.

Thankful Thursday

Now that the season of giving {and receiving} is over it's time to be thankful....aka write thank you notes! With all these new fangled forms of technology, you might wonder what is the most appropriate way to go about thanking someone for a gift.  Emily Post's most recent etiquette guide says a phone call or e-mail is completely acceptable now and, if you open your gift in the presence of the giver a verbal "Thank You!" suffices.

In my personal opinion you can never go wrong with a hand-written note. Especially since it's even more appreciated as hand-written correspondence is  becoming an antiquity.

Mrs. Post says you should write thank-you notes for holiday gifts as soon as possible and suggests a good standard is to do so before New Year's day. .....Well, I've officially failed at that so I'm hoping to get them out by this weekend!

Now come's the tough part....with so many darling Thank-You cards out there, which one do you choose?

Sugar Paper - Delicate Thank You in Pool

Sugar Paper - So Sweet of You

Kate Spade - Letterpress Check-it-off Fold Over Card

Minted.com - Chic Graffiti Thank You Cards

last, but not least (sorry I just couldn't resist)

Etsy "Creatively Engaged" Funny Christmas Story Inspired Cards

Operation Crafty Christmas

In between holiday parties, baking, work, shopping, Junior League and not blogging I some how found time to throw together my parent's Christmas present.

My mom is not really into pictures, or at least archiving them in something other than a shoe box or random drawer. They've lived in their current house for a little over a year and their walls are empty so I thought it'd be nice to spruce them up and document our family's growth and locations. We moved a TON growing up. 9 times for me and going on 11 for them.

When I saw this on Pinterest I thought it was the perfect gift idea.

I had my Grandma's scouring their collections for the pictures, but the scanners turned out to be too much of a challenge for them so I had to turn to my brother. He was able to snoop around my parent's house and find some gems. We found enough frame-ables, others didn't make the cut but were just plain hilarious.

My mom and I circa 1989

My brother and I circa 1997

My brother and I and our cousins circa 2001

Parents circa 2004

When I was planning to do this myself I bought an old school Rand McNally book and scanned in the states. My brother was actually able to take those and photoshop, tint and make perfectly proportioned "cut here dummy" lines for me to match up the maps with the Matting. With the help of an X-Acto knife (and the company printer) I cut them out and glued them to the mattes.

When it was all said and done I had 9 frames! In order from top left:

Huron, Ohio (1984-1985): Wedding Picture
Minneapolis, MN(1985-1988):  my parents and I in front of our house before my baptism
Hudson, WI (1988-1990): My parents, my sister and I & My brother, our dog (Reggie) and I
Grants Pass, OR (1990-1993): My parents, my brother and I on the Rogue River
Wausau, WI (1993-1997): My brother and I with the Wausau Woodchuck mascot
Walnut Creek, CA (1997-2001): The fam at Skipolini's Pizza
River Forest, IL (2001-2005): The fam & the dogs (Sparkles and Miss Mama) in front of our house
Oak Park, IL (2006-2009): The fam at the Capitol One Bowl in Orlando
Madison, WI (2010-2013): All of us at my cousin's wedding

Back in the Swing of Things & January Goals!

Diving back into real life after an extended vacation is always hard. It's even harder when it feels like you've been living a different life. I moved away from "home" right after college; well, actually it was before the end of college. I was living the life of your typical college, sorority girl on Friday and the next Monday I was suddenly a young professional on the other side of the country. My 2 lives have never really linked up. My friends have met my friends here and my family has come to visit, but I mean in the way that the way I spend my time at home is a lot different than the way I spend my time in  in California.

In real life stuff happens, like I get bored. I watch crappy TV. I find time to workout. I need to sleep-in on weekends to maintain my lively-hood. I cook. I make my own decisions.  At home, mostly because I have to see a lot of people in a short period in time, but also because a little bit of that college sorority girl comes out, I feel like I'm ALWAYS going and there's always something going on.  Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it's weird to go from go, go go to Kardashian marathons and pajama pants over night. It brings up questions like "What am I doing with my life?" "Should I be going all the time?" "Am I wasting my time right now?" "Is the fact that I'm asking myself these questions mean that I'm living my life wrong?" "What's your 5 year plan?" "Maybe I should move back home and work at the Starbucks?" Really you just have to tell those questions to shut it, but sometimes you have a moment of weakness and buy a plane ticket to go back in 2 weeks........oops.
All in all I miss college and I need something else to focus on!

Thus my January Goals!

1) Budget Better {no, SERIOUSLY}
2) Write Christmas Thank You notes by  January 11th
3) Blog Twice a Week
4) Find a new workout routine that doesn't cost $250/month {see goal #1}
5) Plan an awesome, Belated 26th Birthday Party!
6) Finish Decorating My Room
7) Be A Kick-A** Social Media Manager for the Fashion Show
8) Practice These:

Friday Favorites {2012 version}

2012 has been the fastest year of my life. Seriously, I don't even know what happened. Last thing I remember is sitting in my living room in January, with my roomie E fantasizing about a European Vacation that would probably never happen. That trip was 6 months ago now.

I refuse to let 2013 go by so fast!! I've decided my resolution is to live more in the moment & stay positive about it! In the mean time, I wanted to honor some of my favorite moments of 2012.

1) MLK Weekend Roomie Vacation to Disneyland
It was last minute to help me forget about boy's and their (some how always) false promises and it definitely did the job!

2) Visiting Kingsley in Tennessee & participating in normal TN weekend rituals, like trips to the gun range!

3) Trip to Carmel with Katie!

4) Last minute, 48 hour trip home for Mom's birthday
(and reading the entire Fifty Shades Darker in the 4 hour plane ride)


5) Spain & Morocco (duh!)

6) Lakehouse on Labor Day!

7) SF Thanksgiving!

Can't wait to see all the adventures of 2013!!!

Happy {lucky} 2013!

Happy New Year everyone!!
Sorry I've been away so long, life has been busy with Holiday prep and vacation. Lots of exciting posts coming soon filling you all in, I promise!

One of my favorite things about the new year is new datebooks and calendars!!
My personalized 2013 datebook is on its way. It's tangerine, which I realize is sooo 2012 (per the pantone institute), but whatever.

I've updated my phone with Ashley Brooke Designs sparkly January 2013 calendar! And this adorable printable calendar from The Twinery is Going up on my office bulletin board ASAP!