Well, we are off on our epic adventure to Vegas (GO CATS!) and then Durango. I'll catch up with you all on the flip side of Christmas unless I have some sort of amazing thing to share with you and I find a way to do so!
Have a Merry Christmas, everyone.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Merry Christmas!!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Let's color correct the web!
So, because of all that, I just have a short tidbit to share with you instead of an entire blog entry and that is this: You just can't trust online shopping sites for true-to-life garment color. I prefer to shop online but how do you ever know that what you are getting is the color you want?
For example, this:
can't trust computer screens by Jelitan
These are my exact sweater and bag for today. Would you have ever guessed by these online store shots that they are almost exactly the same deep gold color??? Didn't think so. One looks bright yellow and the other looks pale gold...
And that is all... I'm so useless today! This entire entry was inspired by me searching for the sweater I'm wearing today to see if it came in other colors because I love it. :-)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Holiday Road Trip
This year, however, between UofA making it into the Las Vegas Bowl (I don't even want to tell you how long it's been since we have made it to a bowl game) and Mike's family's destination Christmas in Durango, we have a pretty significant road trip planned for the holidays.
How far do you travel for Christmas?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sunprints and embarassing childhood foibles

More amazon awesomeness
There is another feature that I've been using off and on but never really realized that it's a really good idea. That is the gift organizer function.
Check this out. This is my Dad's page. When I buy something for him, I mark that it was a gift for my Dad in the drop down and now I've linked it to his wish list too. So, I just go to the gift organizer and click on "Dad" and a bunch of good gift ideas pop up, either from his wish list or suggestions based on presents I bought in the past. Genius! Go check it out on your amazon page.
I don't know if you can tell what my Dad's interests are from seeing this. They are obviously extensive and varied. :-P
Monday, December 8, 2008
Santa Labels

Friday, December 5, 2008
Beautiful books - what more could you ask for?

And now I'm old, too
The second factor that compounds my neurosis is the structure of my firm. Associates constantly move upward in rank and responsibility throughout our career so we are hiring new staff members and interns at least twice a year. The problem is that people in my particular rank can be of many different ages so apparently the new staff just assume that I am older than I actually am. I had one staff who went to the same University as me go on and on about "oh, I don't if that professor was teaching way back when you were in school..." (yes he said 'way back' - more than once!) until I finally stopped him to discern the difference in our ages. I was undergrad class of 2005, he graduated in 2006 - I am ONE YEAR OLDER.
And, of course, when I told a different staff the first story about the teenagers she said "oh, did you try to sound hip?" and then laughed. I am hip, goddamnit! And not as in a broken hip.
Anyone else have this problem? I find it quite frustrating. It's right up there with people making assumptions about my interests and personality because of my work clothes (we have a dress code!!), or that the fact that I'm married means I want to have kids right now (no way!!), or that I'm a girl so I couldn't possibly love sci fi (I'm a geek!!), or that I'm boring because I'm an accountant.
Please, share an assumption someone made about you that really pissed you off! We can rant together.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
So much for not phoning it in...

Monday, December 1, 2008
A very merry un-birthday to you


In addition, they are recycled vintage teacups that have been hand-painted - the seller refers to it as 'vandalizing vintage.' As if I didn't already love them enough.
More Faux Disposables
Eco-Christmas - Start With the Card

Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
100th post: business as usual
Whew.
So, that being said, I have a couple of goals for blogging in general:
1) More regularity in posting - this will be accomplished with weekend posts. My google reader statistics show that people read and write blog posts less frequently on the weekends but it is actually the best time for me to write them. It doesn't matter if people don't read them until monday!
2) More writing - Though I love to share little mini posts about items I have discovered, I think my creative writing muscles could be flexed more. I'm going to work on that. Also, I want to put more even of myself into the blog. Working on that too.
3) More commenting on other's blogs - I must appreciate and support my fellow bloggers! They are working so hard and are incredibly creative.
That's all for now. Tell me what you think!
And, just in case you were completely bored by this post, here is an adorable etsy item that I found today.
These custom napkin rings just might be the perfect thing to motivate us to eat at the table with cloth napkins everyday - not just special occasions!! We are horrible users of paper napkins, a problem that goes unnoticed for some reason even though we try to be as green as possible in so many other areas of our lives.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
A bit of travel
I was thinking about what to post about. There are tons of travel-savvy sites that have wonderful packing tips like onebag and sites where you can find pretty and practical travel accesories like flight001 (shouldn't have gone there, I just found a few things to add to my Christmas list!)
You can check out those links about but I really want to share my "never travel without" list. A lot of things can be easily replaced on a trip. These things are slightly more difficult.
Never Travel Without...
1) A book - I personally don't really go anywhere without a book. If your flight is delayed, you can usually grab a paperback from a convenience store at the airport but there have been times where I was stuck on the plane for several hours, not taking off. I would have hated to be without a book then.
2) A camera - this one should be self-explanatory. I can't believe that I used to go on trips without a camera. Since one of my goals became to chronicle our life more effectively, I never travel without it.
3) A swimsuit - this doesn't really apply to the business trips I've been going on but it works for basically any other trip. You might need to drop by the hot tub after a long day of wandering around an amusement park, exploring an art museum, or skiiing. Plus, we all know how painful these things are to shop for. Do you really want to try and go find one if an opportunity to swim presents itself?
4) Sneakers - lots of hotels have workout rooms that you might want to take the opportunity to use and they are a great backup when you can barely walk after the unsupportive "cute flats" you wore all day at Disneyland destroy your soul (pun intended).
5) Extras of your "unique items" - for me this is an extra pair of contacts and my glasses as well as any meds and chargers for my blackberry and ipod. These are things you definitely do not want to be without far away from home.
And there you have it, my random travel wisdom. Aren't you so lucky to have it bestowed upon you? ;)
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Eco-friendly items made to look disposable

Saturday, November 8, 2008
Etsy find: onegarnetgirl
So, I did what any sensible, aspiring indie shopper would do, I etsy-surfed for stacking rings and I came across these gems (no pun intended) from onegarnetgirl.






Halloween polaroid fun
1. nice hair, evan, 2. boys, 3. no press, 4. trading costumes, 5. josh ghost hunting, 6. remnants of our childhood, 7. hang on to your hamburgers, 8. dork, 9. waldo and carmen, 10. party mascot, 11. Velma and Shaggy, 12. Hamburgler, 13. the passed out CPA, 14. velma investigating the cave, 15. jeff the "cpa", 16. fry husband
Here are some great polaroids of our friends from our halloween party. The Carmen Sandiego, Waldo, and Velma costumes were the most fun to photograph as they were the most colorful. Man, I love polaroids.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Just a reminder!
Please go out there and make a difference today!
Arizonans, please remember to vote NO on Prop 102!!! Californians, please remember to vote NO on Prop 8!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Halloween Party of Doom - the Decor
~ Click on the mosaic for links to the individual pictures.
The decor for our party was really fun, though very time-consuming! We had our usual over-the-top outside decor with jack-o-lanterns, spiderwebs, pumpkin-shaped lights, screaming skulls, thunder and lightning machine, fog machine, gravestones, hanging ghost, and haunted mirror.
Final count: 40+ trick-or-treaters, 4 kids cried, 2 wouldn't walk up the front steps, 1 girl ran screaming down the street. Yeah, we're those people. Also, this is all from our decor alone, we don't dress spookily.
Inside, we had many decorations as well. A few I haven't photographed yet, I'll get to it! We had glowing portraits and pumpkins along the stairs. We painted frames with fluorescent paint and spookified portraits of friends and family and printed them and cut out fangs and fake blood. We then backed the portraits with fluorescent paper so they glowed. Pumpkins were also painted with fluorescent paint and set on the stairs. (all Martha Stewart's idea from the halloween issue of MSL)
(I am planning a feature blog post in a bit on the wine labels so I can give full credit to the person who created them!)
Centerpiece was a glittered skull and pumpkin on a black-painted doily on a cake plate.
This was surrounded by "blood" martinis with 1 green "olive" floating candle. These were just made using giant martini glasses from Michaels (left over from our wedding candy buffet) filled with water and food coloring (and dry ice when the boys got silly).
We used dollar store martini glasses and wine goblets and added warning stickers (also martha) and glittery bug stamps to individualize them. We also had a bowl full of tonic water ice cubes (tonic water glows under a blacklight). The only ice cube trays I have are the fancy ones I bought at ikea on a whim and had never used. As a result, our "spooky" ice was in the shapes of triangles, hearts, and puzzle pieces. A tip for those attempting this at home - use flat tonic water. Bubbles only cause problems. I tried to make floating glowy hands with rubber gloves and all the fingers fell off because of the bubbles leaving cavities in the ice!
In the bottom right corner, you see "Velma" in a spooky bat cave. This was just created by using Martha's silhouette kit from Michaels and then adding branches in vases on either side.
More elements of our spooky party to come. I am posting all of this after halloween so I wouldn't give anything away to my guests! I'll hopefully re-post next October so you can steal anything you want!
super mario cupcakes
Look how cute these mario cupcakes are (by hello naomi)! These would be great for a party or wedding.
hmmm.... they kinda remind me of someone's groom's cake... ;)

Anyone else having Halloween withdrawls?

Friday, October 31, 2008
Living vicariously through photographs
As a desert-dweller, lately I've been living vicariously through mainemomma2007's flickr photostream. Talk about some BEAUTIFUL fall foliage. Plus, her photographic technique is truly wonderul. Click on the picture to go check her out!
Pass it on
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Get me to the Ranch on time!
Brad and Jen’s wedding was on Sunday at 4:30. I dropped Mike off at their house to do best man stuff the morning and went back to the hotel. I got my dress steamed, made the “Just Married” sign made for the car (badly), and did a super quick flat iron job on my hair (I bought an emergency $15 flatiron because Mike forgot to grab mine while packing – needless to say, it was not my chi iron). I headed out to the mall after that to meet my friends and have lunch. I had a moment where I considered throwing my dress, boots, and other items in the car just in case I was running late but I thought that would be silly. I would have plenty of time to run back to the hotel and get dressed and put makeup on. **cue ominous music**
So I’m driving away from the mall about 15 minutes later than I would have liked (our waitress was a bit slow) and I get about a block away and I hear a HORRIBLE clanging noise. I pull into a church parking lot and look at the back tire. HUGE FRAKKING BOLT sticking out of it. HUGE. There is much hissing as the tire rapidly deflates.
I call Mel and ask her to come meet me and then I call AAA because 1) I don’t know where the spare tire is or the jack because it’s my husband’s car 2) I have a wedding to go to and I don’t want to arrive completely gross and nasty from changing a tire 3) It’s sort of dangerous to change a tire so I only do it if I absolutely have to and 4) they are fast, reliable and I pay for the AAA anyway so I should use it!
Mike offers to send Chris (another groomsman) for me but there is no way any of the bridal party is going to miss the ceremony because of me! I decide that the best thing to do is send Mel to my hotel room and give her a massive list of everything I need for the wedding including my brush, makeup, flatiron, sign, and clothes.
While she is doing that, I pack up everything that I’m going to need from the car including cameras, cowboy hat, and Mike’s computer because the wedding is out a bumpy dirt road and driving on the donut tire would be bad news - especially because it’s not like we have another tire hidden around somewhere. AAA comes and changes the tire no problem and I’m ready to go. The solution to the problem of how I am getting to the wedding is now for Mel to drive me with all of my stuff. She comes back with everything I need and more. I told her to look for a specific white tank top in my suitcase and, just to make sure I get the right one, she grabbed everything white she could see!!
So I’m laden with stuff and we head out (did I mention it’s about 15 min until ceremony start time at this point and it’s a bit of a drive?) and the only way I was going to be there all put together is to change in the back of Mel’s car (a ford focus). So Mel drives me to the ceremony and I put on my tights and boots and dress in the back seat (my legs were so swollen from running around in the heat so I could only get my boots on with the tights!!!) Also, did I mention I’m pretty prone to car sickness and that I had to pee when we left the restaurant? Awesome.
So Mel and I finally pull in at 4:29 and (thank goodness) there is an issue with the place where the FOB parked that they had to deal with before the ceremony started. I bolted to the groomsman changing room and got myself sort of together before the ceremony (the bladder issue was paramount at this point). Then, as the bridal party was lining up, I cut in front of them to go grab a seat. Of course, I forgot that at a Jewish wedding, bride and groom’s sides are switched so I went to the wrong side at first and looked like an absolute idiot turning around and going for the groom’s side. I finally spy a seat (in a really sunny spot, probably why no one was sitting there) and my phone starts ringing. I say SHIT quite audibly in front of the guests and fumble in my purse for the offending phone. I turn it off and grab my camera as it’s time for the music to start. Whew. Made it. I also managed to sneak back to the groomsman room again to fix my hair and makeup before cocktails but man, it was an adventurous day.
I think it was karmic payback because the bride (who was also the S/O of the best man at my wedding) couldn’t find our ceremony site on our wedding day and ended up hiking along the creek in her heels until she found it. We both had our adventures on each other’s wedding days.
Mazel Tov!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
More Geekiness: Star Wars USB Drives


For all my geeky readers :)
Let the geekiness commence.
**Also props to Ashley, who also posted this on her blog because it's just so frakking funny**
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
wwmTVww - Lauren Graham

Lauren carried Gilmore Girls through many spectacular seasons (and even some not so spectacular), through the beginning before Alexis Bledel learned facial expressions, through that one season where she decided to talk through her nose, (love you Alexis!), through the super dramatic one where they didn't talk to each other, etc., etc. The only faults I have ever found with her character were the result of writing and directing mistakes and changes, and never Lauren Graham's portrayal. If you haven't seen Gilmore Girls yet, where have you been? Go rent it now! Please don't subject yourself to Because I Said So though, that's like torture.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
All the halloween inspiration you need, even a shopping list!
Confused and/or exasperated over your halloween costume? There is a really great halloween costume contest going on over at polyvore. Entrants put together collages of great costume ideas.
Go create your own or scope out some inspiring looks. In a polyvore collage, each image links to the website it came from so if you find a great concept, you can even go buy the pieces! The invented concept costumes are great but it's the updated or unique takes on classic figures that I think are the best ;)* I wish that I could say I was doing something creative like this for my own costume. Mine this year has me really focused on looking as close to the actual character as possible (to the point of driving me a little nuts).
Who else has ideas? If you enter the polyvore contest, post the link in a comment to share!
*Meghan gets credit for the basic idea of the costume above. I just put together the pieces.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Bliss & Mrs. French.
Lately I feel like my blog has been an advertisement for amazon, apple and other such companies that would need no help from me. Time to focus back in on the indie artists!
I know that Mrs. French has been very popular in the blogosphere of late, but I just have to throw my 2 cents in as well. She takes absolutely goregeous photos and I wanted to share them with you.
The colors, textures, everything is so wonderful! Please go look at her flickr photostream, blog, and, of course, her etsy shop. Go now!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Yay pumpkins
I had so much fun in Prescott over the weekend. It was always a family tradition to go to the Young's farm pumpkin festival every year since we moved to Prescott. It was so disappointing when the farm closed.
But now, new life has been breathed into the pick your own pumpkin tradition this year. There are 2 pumpkin festivals in Chino Valley.
I also had a lot of fun with my polaroid camera there. Click the link for my flickr photostream above to see more of my Prescott weekend through its lens.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Another ode to fall

The Haunted Pumpkin Patch, originally uploaded by Solitaire Miles.
I hope you are enjoying wonderful fall weather! Enjoy also this haunted pumpkin patch. Kudos to the photographer.