Year of the rabbit

It's not surprising that this year is the "Year of the Rabbit" in the Chinese calendar. Seriously, people are having babies like bunnies this year! I already have 2 friends and a sister-in-law that have given birth within the first 5 weeks of 2011, and about 5 other friends/acquaintances that are due this summer. Not to mention all of the celebrities that are pregnant. It's in the water, I'm telling you!

This all means that it's time to get busy on baby projects (and by that I mean presents - not the baby making process) I already have 1 quilt in pre-production, and a few other small items in the works. My favorite piece so far is this cute onesie I "designed" online from this screen shop in Cincinnati (of all places). The graphics were limited, and since I don't have photoshop, I couldn't put anything fancy together. However, I thought the generic rafting clip art and the funky 70's font make it a fun and festive addition to the little guys wardrobe. Let's go rafting!

Sorry for the poor quality photo (I need a new camera!)

Wedding Love

Between the 2 of us, Paul and I will have attended 7 weddings this summer. Seven! They have all been very unique and special to me in very different ways. The following are a few shots from my dear friend Season and Isaac's wedding, which took place a few weeks ago in Shasta. Seas and Isaac are my dear ARTA friends, who I've known for many years - rafting weddings are the best! The weather wasn't fully cooperative (rain came and went), but the bride and groom took it in stride - dare I say, embraced it? I LOVED doing the flowers for this wedding - Isaac's mom grew most of them in her backyard. How cool is that? I love these guys!

Montana: Round 2

I returned Monday afternoon from an incredible trip to Hamilton, MT for my dear friends Heather and Jeremy's wedding. The whole weekend was incredible, from the flower picking, to the dive bar dancing, to the harmonica playing and the emotional wedding ceremony. I truly don't think I've had that much fun at a wedding in a really long time!

Luckily for Heather and Jeremy, their friends Liz and Shrevan are amazing photographers, and they have already posted some of the incredible photos of the day. A few are below, but check out Liz's blog Zested for more (and for all of her great work!)






Congrats Heather and Jer!

A piece of Portland

Here are a few fun photos from my trip to Portland last month. I got to hang out with my favorite family, the Chaps. Our first stop was the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden . Little M had an awesome time feeding the ducks and chasing the geese. At one point we were surrounded by about 15 Canadian Geese! It was pretty scary because they were honking really loudly, but Nate had a great time chasing them off.





Next stop was Uwajimaya, the ultimate in Asian food, drinks, and gifts! I got myself a few little treats: A new bento box, Yan Yan, some candies in a tin, and grapefruit sours. They had an awesome collection of crafts books and mags, but they were all in Japanese :(



As you may remember, I was in Portland also attending NWP's Urban Sites Conference. One of the activities I participated in was writing about the Japanese Internment in the Pacific Northwest, and we visited a museum and waterfront park in Portland dedicated to this issue. Here's my favorite quote, written on a rock in the park:

"Sure I go to school. Same as you. I'm an American."

I had such a great time visiting my friends!

So long...farewell....

Tonight I'm attending a very special going-away party, for my very special bestest friend Jenny (one of my oldest college friends, Boston roommate, knower of all secrets, and co-founder(s) of LTD). She's leaving town next Tuesday on a great new adventure - Buenos Aires, Machu Pichu, and everywhere in between. I'm going to miss her a lot, but I know she's going to have a wonderful time there!

Happy weekend, everyone!

In Remembrance

Though my 2010 has been off to a great start, my heart has been especially heavy these past few weeks. This is because I've been thinking a lot about my friend Brooke, who suddenly passed away a year ago today.

I'm still sad, and I'm still in shock. As we all try to keep her spirit alive, it's days like these when I get sad; whether it's a dreary winter morning, or if I hear "Smile" on pandora...I see Brooke everywhere.

I hope that the Day of Remembrance for Brooke will get easier as the years pass. I do know that I will always think of her on January 21st, and have a smile on my face (as she always had on hers...)

The Wine Road

Last weekend was a very special treat - I ventured up to Sonoma County to visit some friends, a new baby, and drink lots of wine! My friend Season won tickets to this event called the "Wine Road." Basically 40 or so wineries were pouring their wine and pairing it with food. YUM. Isaac so graciously was our designated driver (though I'm not gonna lie, he did get some tastes in). I think my favorite place was Mill Creek. Their dessert wine was AMAZING! We even made it out to Korbel to do some champagne tasting. I guess I've never really had good champagne before, because man this stuff was great! In my semi-buzzed state I bought a nice bottle in celebration of meeting Mr. Jack Jeffery Busick. But...I'm jumping ahead.

So, after the Wine Road we made it back to Sebastopol, and Season started cooking up a feast. I made a yummy cheese plate, and some other ARTA folks came over for a mini-reunion. The real pleasure was meeting John and Angi's new little one Jack. What a doll! It was so hard to put him down, he is such a beautiful baby. Definitely got my uterus thumping. The next morning I was pretty incapacitated from all of the wine, so needless to say I did nothing all day. I can honestly say it was the first weekend in MANY months that I got to relax, and didn't feel like I had to do anything. It was great!

Now onto this weekend - nothing planned so far, but the weekends ahead are quite booked. I leave for Philadelphia next Wednesday for 10 days (NWP Annual meeting + Thanksgiving with the in-laws = fun stuff!)






Jack!

A few shots...

...of John and Angi's wedding this weekend. I realized after the fact that I took, like, zero pictures. At least I got a few of the beautiful decor. Ang did such a great job decorating!

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

Summer eats

I'm not sure if I've told ya'll about the other blog I keep:

Ladies that Dine

Some of you may know that I have a weekly dinner with 3 of my bestest friends in the Bay Area (Erin, Jenny, and Marcelle). We decided to keep a blog where we could post our dinner dates, pictures, and recipes. I'm the editor of it, so between this blog and that one, I'm a bloggin' maniac.

Anyway, check it out! We've made a lot of tasty things throughout the past year, and the list keeps growing. And if you're ever in the Bay, come on over!

Kris and Dave's wedding

I'm back in the East bay recovering after a fun filled week of visiting friends and family...and 1 spectacular wedding! I had such a great time on my mini-vacation and got to hang out with some pretty fun people. Check out my slideshow of pics from Kristin and Dave's wedding (the highlight of my vacation). It was definitely one of the best weddings I've ever been to! I was so happy to be a part of their special day. Now it's back to the grindstone for me...but congrats again to the happy couple!!

Babies and the beach

If you live in California, there's no doubt that you spent yesterday outside basking in the sun! Marie, Cadence and I took advantage of the hot, sunny weather and headed west to Stinson Beach. I couldn't believe how many people were there, and how hot it was! We met up with some of Marie's friends (I was the only one sans baby) and played in the ocean, drank beers, and soaked up the sun. Yes, I do admit that I may have soaked up too much sun (nothing aloe vera gel can't make better!) Of course I was the resident photographer and was able to capture the many times Cadence ate sand (much to Marie's dismay)