Ladies that Dine Christmas Extravaganza!

I hosted the official "Ladies that Dine Christmas Extravaganza" on Monday night - you can tell by the pictures it was a very fun and crafty night. On the menu was broccoli soup, bruschetta and garlic bread, and mini pumpkin pies.





After we ate, we opened the gifts we made for each other. I made the rule a few months ago (to give advance warning), that we should make gifts for each other this year....I was met with resistance until the very end, but the Ladies stepped up to the plate and created some wonderful gifts:







It was like Christmas pooped all over my house, it was so festive!

Cookie machine!

In anticipation of my book club tomorrow and holiday parties this weekend, I spent last night baking away! I made multiple batches of spritz cookies (yum!) and a HUGE banana bread that's to die for. And I even cleaned up after myself after I made a mess!




I just realized I didn't take a picture of the final product. Whoops!


I'm in love with our little 3 foot tree...

Crafting away...

I told myself back in September that I need to start crafting things for Christmas. And while I've finished a few things, the heat is on for trying to complete gifts for the Ladies that Dine dinner next week! The girls weren't too thrilled when I mentioned we should make gifts instead of giving in to the consumer culture, so it'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

Alot of my favorite bloggers/websites are posting fun crafty ideas for the holidays. Hope some of them inspire you to make a homemade gift!

Fun felt stockings at What about Orange

Fun old-school, kindergarten inspired holiday decor at AlphaMom

Downloadable baking gift tags at Everylittlething. Too cute!

My ideal Holiday House (at Posie gets Cozy)

Happy crafting!!

Engaged!!

Yes my friends...most of you probably all know this, but Paul proposed to me the day after Thanksgiving, and I said yes! It was such a memorable event, and I (and Paul) are so happy! He proposed to me at the New York New York Hotel in Vegas, and the following day we went on a helicopter ride down to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful, amazing, and exciting! Here are a few of my favorite pics from our trip. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

San Antonio

I didn't get to blog the entire time I was in San Antonio, due to the fact that my ancient laptop died a sudden death. Or got a virus, I'm still trying to figure that out. Anyhow, here are some quick highlights of the trip. I will post a full-on recap when I return from Thanksgiving (Vegas baby!).

Highlight #1: More teachers than I've ever met/seen in my life. They were so stoked on life, on teaching, on the NWP. They were amazing and inspiring. I loved it.

Highlight #2: LIVE BULL RIDING. Yes, I said it. It was indoor. It was at a place called "Cowboy Dance Hall". There were 2 live bands, 2 step, and poker. And chain smoking and lots of 10 gallon hats. It was pure heaven.

Highlight #3: Hanging w/ my favorite co-workers. Piano bars that played amazing covers. A dive bar called the Gulch, where a round of 3 Bud's cost $6. Burgers, beer, and no-whiner dinners at the hotel bar. Awesome.

Highlight #4: Taking an old fashioned picture with Spike (see Highlight #3). Will post as soon as I get it scanned. Let's just say the roles were reversed (I had a bolero tie, Spike was in a southern-belle dress).

Time to pack for Vegas. Thanks, San Antonio, for the great time!

Weekend recap + trip details

So, many of you may know that I organized a 50th birthday party for my mom this past Friday night. It started off with a lovely family dinner at my aunt's house, complete with photos of my mom (when she was a youngster/awkward teen up to her marriage photos). She loved the decorations and theme of the party - it was "country in the city"...

After that we headed down to the Saddlerack bar - for those who may not know of the notorious Saddlerack, it's a country bar/club in this weird warehouse area in Fremont. My parents used to frequent it in the late 70's when it was located in San Jose. At any rate, there were about 20 of us there, honky-tonkin' it up! I caught my mom on multiple occasions on the line-dancing floor, trying to keep up with the cowboys that were strutting their stuff. It was an AWESOME night.

For her birthday present, I got us tickets to see Carrie Underwood on Saturday night (a little selfish, I know, since I wanted to see her as well!) It was a great girls night out - we got dressed up and took BART to the Oakland Arena. We had incredible seats, I was so excited! (I had bought the tickets in August, so I didn't remember where we were sitting). Anyway, Carrie put on an incredible show. I mean, really, that girl can sing! I didn't know what to expect, since sometimes seeing people live is disappointing. Her show was the exact opposite - upbeat, fun, loud, and she's a very humble person. All of those people that rag on her should really recognize how great of a singer she is, no matter how she got there, or what kind of music she sings.

So now, I'm packing up and heading to San Antonio tomorrow for NWP's Annual Meeting. It's going to be an exhausting 6 days of work work work! I'm hoping to at least catch a glimpse of the Alamo, and hopefully see the world's largest cowboy boots (pictures above). I'm also crafting like NOBODY'S business, trying to get gifts ready for the upcoming holiday season! The next month and a half are going to go by soooo fast!

Sleepover

This past weekend, Cadence came over for a sleepover at our house. She's growing up soooo fast, it's pretty unbelievable! We mostly just hung out, she ate lots of bananas, and chased the cats around the house. It definitely calmed down my thumping uterus...(which I think Paul is very happy about!)

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom turned 50 years young yesterday. When I spoke with her yesterday morning, she was a little groggy from "honky tonkin" the night before. Wish I could have been with you to celebrate, mom! Luckily for her, my family and friends are throwing her a country-inspired party this Friday night, complete with dinner and dancing at the Saddlerack club in Fremont. Here's a few photos of the mom-ster as a young-ster!

Life is GOOD

I've been battling a sinus infection, thus have been MIA on the blog, and also haven't "really" been able to celebrate appropriately. But, damn....am I (finally) proud to be an American!

Get out the vote!

Ahh, my friends....the most important day in the history of elections is upon us. There's such a great energy in the office and outside...I think it's a mixture of nervous energy, hope and excitement. I'm trying my best to have good thoughts, to not think about what could happen if McPain gets elected. My stomach hurts just thinking about it.

Well what are you waiting for?? Go vote!

Frobama Nation

Paul came up with a brilliant catch phrase for the election: "Frobama for President". Granted, others thought of the same phrase as well, but couldn't come up with a good logo to go with the phrase. Lucky for us, Ernie (the graphic designer extrordinaire) created a pretty spectacular one:



Now I have a pretty rad mug, and Paul has an awesome t-shirt. If you want one of your own, please let me know - I'll be making another order soon!

Logo-ing

You may notice that I'm always changing my logo. I'm unhappy with what blogger provides, and I'm not creative enough to come up with one that I really like. Anyone have any ideas and/or suggestions??

Broccoli Soup

Mmmm....fall is definitely here in the East Bay! These days, the fog stays longer than normal, and there's a chill in the air at night that makes me want to stay in my bed forever. I know it's nothing like living in the East Coast, but you can definitely tell that the seasons are changing. Some of you may not know this, but fall is my favorite season...it makes me feel all warm an cozy inside, and I just want to burn candles and bake things and snuggle. I also love to make soups, so I tried my hand at a simple broccoli soup, courtesy of Martha Stewart. It was very simple and there were no crazy hard-to-find ingredients necessary. I topped it off with some crustini's for a nice yummy meal.



p.s. the color of the soup is my favorite part. Doesn't it remind you of St. Patrick's Day or something?

Wedding fun!

My whole SC clan reunited for a wonderful and fun wedding this weekend in Santa Cruz. Jen and Mike threw an AMAZING party (wedding!) at the Chaminade. It was a perfect wedding in the perfect setting. And there was even a photo booth there to capture all of the hilarious moments. I'll be posting more pics soon, but here's just a sampling....

Happy Halloween (again)!

I have yet to post the pictures from our Halloween party last weekend. It was a small, intimate group, but we had a great time carving pumpkins, drinking beer, and watching Jazzy attack the hand in the bowl. You'll know what I'm talking about after you watch this:

Obama carbs

Who doesn't love bread? And really, who doesn't love Obama? After seeing an article about Alameda's "Feel Good Bakery" making Obama (and McCain) loaves, I couldn't help but get one to share at the office. Of course, it was a hit!

Happy Halloween!

I stitched up these Halloween superhero capes for my cats...they aren't too happy about wearing them, but aren't they awesome??

New Ray!

Ray's new album, Gossip in the Grain comes out today. I'm so excited! He is by all accounts my favorite singer. No question about it!

Homemade Raviolis

I had some amazing butternut squash sage ravioli's at Denver's Venice Ristorante, and after returning home, I thought I could make them myself:

Making the dough...


The filling...


Assembling the ravioli's....


The finished product!


They turned out a little more dough-y than I liked (I hand-rolled out the dough, and I don't think it was thin enough), and I could work on the filling a bit. I think they turned out pretty good for my first time! And, Paul loved them, which made it worth it :)

I can't help it

In the midst of the political season, I can't help but post these hilarious cartoons. I mean really, times are tough, and we all could use a laugh!

Brilliant

...more stories, pics, and thoughts to come. Until then, enjoy!

Will you be my blog friend?

...On facebook. Check it out here

Fall update

Can you believe it's already the end of September? Where did the summer go? (I'm still wondering this myself). Last night, Paul and I were out playing tennis in an Alameda park, and I could just smell the fall breaking through. It was crisp and cool and I got all excited for scarves, falling leaves, and baking things.

Anyway, October means it's time for a visit to Denver (for work), which I'm actually really excited about! I'll be there for 4 days, and I'm hoping to do a bit of exploring in between the 2 meetings that I'm supporting. Perhaps I'll sneak in a trip to the cowboy store to get an outfit for my mom's upcoming 50th birthday party (to be held at the Saddle Rack...whoohoo!)

That's the update for now....happy fall!!

Update - Alzheimer's Walk

Just a shout out to EVERYONE who supported me and donated money to the Alzheimer's Walk. My family and I had a great time walking with a few hundred (or thousand maybe?) people in support of Alzheimer's Research. We raised over $2,500 overall, and I think we were in the top 20 because we had our own "Team Fulton" table. Grandpa Homer was even there for the walk which was pretty awesome.

Enjoy the pics!

Frida Kahlo

Last Sunday I was able to see the spectacular Frida Kahlo exhibit at the SF MOMA. If you don't already know, I LOVE Frida. It was a pretty intense exhibit, but I loved it nonetheless. Here's what I wrote in my journal while perusing the exhibit:

I am inspired, impressed, a little sad, (a little annoyed at all of the crowds), but ultimately inspired by her amazing portraits and also the photos of her. After reading much about her and loving her work, it is a bit surreal to be here. I wish that there weren't so many crowds, so I could stay for hours and stare at her portraits, the brush strokes, the color. Almost as if I were in my own home. In some weird way I feel connected to Frida - it must have been her spirit, enthusiasm, love for social justice, her personal tragedy. To be a person that is able to convey their feelings with any type of art is remarkable - for it to be so real - so purely real is the only way I can describe it. I think seeing the actual photos of her was almost more striking than seeing the portraits themselves. It's like the portraits say something about how she was feeling, but the photos show her - her face, her expressions, her dress. The way she looks at Diego is interesting - with their tangled history, I wonder what she's thinking in those pictures. And the ones of her suffering with the bandages on her head after multiple surgeries...they are equally as intense as they are disturbing....

Work work work!

I've just returned from my fabulous staff retreat in Half Moon Bay, CA. What a time we had! To be honest, I was thinking it was going to be really boring, involve a lot of reading, and nooooo fun time. But it wasn't! There was plenty of time to chat with my fellow NWPers, but also enough alone time for myself. In that respect, it truly felt like a "retreat". The theme was "Writing in a Democracy" - a pretty applicable topic, no? There were readings associated with the theme, which allowed for some pretty interesting conversation by all. It was great to be able to talk with people in my organization thatI don't usually talk to - especially about current events and the work that we do. All in all it was a pretty fantastic retreat. Now I back to weekend meetings.....blah!!!

Who writes this stuff?

I'm not sure, but I LOVE IT!

Labor Day Camping

emigrant gap 001
Originally uploaded by whereisshannon

Here are some pictures from our super fun Labor Day Camping Trip. 25 adults + 5 kids + 2 dogs + lots of beer = an unforgettable trip. Sure, the toilets were stinky, and the water was cold...but the company was great, and the food was delicious! I can't wait until next year!

Help me raise $$ for Alzheimers Research!

Many of you may know that I'm walking with my family to raise money for Alzheimer's research on September 20th in San Jose. My grandfather has the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, and my great-grandmother had it as well, so it's definitely an issue that has affected my family. Check out my webpage and donate if you can (any amount is surely appreciated!)


Click here to visit my page!

p.s. Labor day pics/details to be posted soon!

Flickr pics

emily and zach 003
Originally uploaded by whereisshannon

Check out the rest of the pics on my flickr account....

Zach and Emily

Here are some pics from the wedding I helped coordinate over the weekend in Aptos. I was soooo happy to help out Zach and Emily on their special day, and everything was perfect! Really, I couldn't have imagined it turning out any better. I was pretty proud of myself at the end of the day....making bouquets, boutinerres, decorating...all very fun, but very exhausting! The fam gave me huge props, so maybe I should think about making this a career??

One of the bridesmaids bouquets

Homemade I Do brew!

The happy couple

Jenny's photo table creation

Cherry Lake

I had the chance to kayak with my mom and Reggie at Cherry Lake this weekend. The weather was beautiful, the water warm, and the company, amazing! Thank goodness for 3 day weekends - they really feed my soul!