Easter Plans

It may come as a surprise to some, but Easter is my favorite holiday. Yes, Christmas is a very close second, but even as a child I always loved Easter the most. I think it has to do with the changing of the seasons - flowers are blossoming, gardens are being planted, the sun is finally shining. And there are crafts involved with Easter - dying eggs, making treats for baskets, and creating yummy spring food. This Sunday we'll be hosting Easter at our house for the first time. I have so many ideas in my head for decorations, food, and of course, an egg hunt for the kiddos. I might even get a few baby chicks for the occasion! (I was planning on getting some soon anyway). Here are a few things from around the interweb that are inspiring my Easter plans...


Easter basket card from Two Brunettes

Egg toppers from Potter and Butlerr

This Easter table scape from Styled

Must Make

Felt peeps for Easter - aren't these the cutest? Made by Megan.

Happy Valentines Day

Whether you think Valentines Day is a Hallmark sham-holiday, or whether you think it's the perfect occasion to tell the people in your life that you love them, I hope you have a great day! Paul and I celebrated early with a nice homemade dinner - on the menu was surf and turf with ice cream and berries for dessert:








Then, Paul surprised me with a few fun presents:

Hairpins from my favorite Benicia boutique

Egg holders for our soon-to-be-fresh eggs!

A new cookie cutter

New addition to my S&P collection

I got Paul a bottle of Cazaderos Anejo tequila and a few limes. Because he loves that *almost* as much as he loves me....

p.s. I'm in love with the Retro camera app on my phone. I don't think I'll ever take "ordinary" pics again!

More valentines ideas

Now this is something I'd like to make for Valentines Day....


ManMade's Chris Gardner shows you how to make a custom fingerprint piece of art for your Valentine this year.

What do you think? It's not too tacky-lovey-mushy, but heartfelt and cute. Paul probably could care less if I made it or not, but I think I might make it for myself..errr..."us".

The Season of Love

I love this Valentine Inspiration over at Eat Drink Chic. Makes me wanna start making things for the people I love. There are lots of fun tutorials on the web for Valentines gifts and crafts. My favorites are here, here, and here. And this lovely cake, just for good measure.

My favorite gift

I got a few really cool things this Christmas, but none of them compare to what Paul got me. A commissioned painting of my cats (our cats?) from his artist friend in San Diego. This picture is from my camera phone, so it doesn't do justice to the size of the painting. It's 3 feet x 4 feet! I really wish I had a camera to record the look on my face when he gave it to me. It went a little something like this:

Paul: "Merry Christmas!!!" (holding the painting)
Me: "What....is.....that?" (starts laughing uncontrollably)
Paul: "It's your kitties!"
Me: "I know it's my kitties, but on a painting? You are so random! I love it!"

Okay, maybe that's not the best reenactment, but let's just say I was confused, amazed, and heartwarmed all at the same time. This is a huge gift, considering it comes from the man who doesn't really like my cats. (Scratch that - he likes Jazzy, but not Uintah). Anyway, if you ever need a custom piece of artwork, let us know and we can hook you up with a great artist!

Wrap Up

Hehehe...I crack myself up sometimes. Anyway, first I showed ya'll my mantle, and now it's the gifts...gift wrap, that is. This year I tried to use paper, ribbon, and adornments that I already had stashed away. The tags were homemade (tutorial here), the bakers twine I already had, and the paper was left over from previous years.




If you still have presents to wrap, you can find some inspiration here, here and here. Happy wrapping!

Christmas wishlist

Soon I'll be posting pics of Paul's awesome birthday party and my awesome early Christmas present. In the meantime, here's a collection of savory treats I'd love to find under the Christmas tree from Oh Joy!...


1. Williams-Sonoma herbs of provence ($18), 2. Terrain pink himalayan salt ($12), 3. McClure's pickles ($14), 4. Golden Star white jasmine sparkling tea ($12), 5. Dean & Deluca cheese of the month ($165 for 3 months), 6. Jme rosemary olives ($25).

On the 15th day of Christmas...

I'm finally posting pics of our decorated house! First stop - the mantle. I've always wanted a mantle to decorate for the holidays, but in the past have had to do with a make-shift mantle/bookcase. And now, I have one!I've seen so many posts on decorating mantles in different themes (2 of my favorites are here and here), but this year I thought I'd stick with a traditional look (and stick with what I already have on hand to save money). Here's what it looks like (sorry for the crappy cell-phone pics). No matter, it's awesome! It's cozy and lovely and homey. Can't wait for folks to come over for Paul's party this weekend to see it in person.

Paul's Birthday

December is not just about Christmas at our house - it's also about Paul's birthday. My husband was born on December 24th, and you'd be surprised to know that he loves that his birthday is the day before Christmas. He says that he gets great combined presents, and that he loves the fact that his family is around for his birthday (and that they don't forget it!) I'm always trying to do something different for Paul's birthday so it is distinctly "not Christmas" - this year we're having his friends and family over for a birthday/holiday cheer party. So far we're expecting about 30 people, and I'm beginning to plan the menu and decor for the evening. Paul wants to barbecue (even though rain is forecasted)...it's not my birthday so I'll let him do what he wants! However, I do have a few fun tricks up my sleeve (and he doesn't read this blog, so he'll never know). This year, since it's his 29th, it's going to be an "almost 30" party. Everything will have this image on it:


This is a school photo of Paul's from 1987 (kindergarten, perhaps?) Anyway, can't you just imagine the things I can make with this cute photo? You'll have to wait and see next week, after the party....

In search of the perfect tree...

One thing I love about my husband is that he loves Christmas. Not in a consumerism-buy-everything-in-sight kind of way, but in the traditional, let's-get-a-real-christmas-tree way. And this my friends, makes me very happy. It's not that I'm against artificial trees, I'm just pro live trees. Ones that you can cut down yourself, ones that you can smell the moment you walk through the door, and even the ones that leave needles everywhere.

This Sunday Paul and I went searching for the perfect tree. We were just going to go to the Christmas tree lot in Vallejo, but our great neighbor Mark told us about this "cut your own" place in Martinez. After hearing that the place was a mere 20 minutes from our house, we immediately looked at each other and knew this was the way to go. It was raining, yes - and we were both in the clothes we had worn the day before (late night in the City) - but that didn't stop us from trudging around the Alhambra Valley Christmas Tree Farm . There were lots of families there as well, braving the rain in search of a perfect tree. I was brought back to my childhood, when my parents and my aunt and uncle would load up my cousins, my brother and I and head to the Santa Cruz Mountains for a tree. We would make a day of it by drinking cider and eating sandwiches. (I still wonder what was in my parent's thermos). Those are my fondest Christmas memories.

And so, it only took us about 10 minutes to find our perfect tree. That night, our friends Martin and Emily came over for Sunday dinner - Emily helped me decorate the tree. New house, new tree - 2010 was a great year for us. Isn't she gorgeous?

Christmas overload

For products go here
I won't go on and on about how much I HATE the fact that stores and the media cast Thanksgiving aside for Christmas before it even happens. I hate hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I don't want to think about hanging lights the day after I stuff myself with turkey. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and everything about the holiday season - but I enjoy savoring November as well.

It's no wonder that on this eve of December, I've already seen about a thousand Christmas decor posts in blogland. Many are too foofy or chotchsky for me. However, this inspiration board from Eat Drink Chic fits my Christmas style pretty well. What do you think?

To card or not to card?

I can't wait to have kids - mostly so I can design fun photo Holiday cards! I kid, I kid. Last year, I decided to make a photo card because we had some awesome shots from our wedding that I had to share with our friends and family. After checking out the different options, I ended up using Shutterfly for them, and they turned out great! (in fact, I still have one hanging on our fridge, where it will remain for a while).

This year, I'm thinking about taking a photo of Paul and I in front of our new house. I mean, it was definitely the biggest thing that happened to us this year (and we're so proud of it!) A few of my favorite holiday cards are:





One thing that I look forward to this time of year is receiving a photo wall calendar from my in-laws - Marie also makes them on Shutterfly, and they are so fun to look through! I made a few last year with wedding photos for my grandparents, and they loved them!

One more thing that I like on Shutterfly that I'm considering getting for my brother and sister-in-law - a pewter ornament with their wedding photo in it. Wouldn't that make a great "1st year of marriage" present?

I can't wait to get to ordering...first up though - Thanksgiving!!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! Sign up!

Happy Easter!

We're heading up to my parents this weekend for some Groveland/Easter fun. I had the inspiration to make Cadence a little Easter present last night while watching The Office reruns. I think the chickie turned out pretty cute!


Wish I had more time to make some cute cookies like these ones. Happy Easter everyone!

from Prudent Baby

Almost St. Patty's Day project

I'm loving this arrangement made by Melissa at Bolt. Check out her tutorial here. I might even be able to pull this off before Wednesday!

Heart You

Here are a few special deliveries that went out to friends this Valentine's Day...




The only time I get flowers from Paul is on Valentines Day. Luckily, he goes big!

Mmmm...chutney....

I think I've only had chutney once or twice...but this homemade version (courtesy of Elise Bauer and Craft Mag) looks really good! The recipe looks pretty simple, and you can dress up the jars in any way your heart desires. The ingredients include any combination of fruits (apples, pears, mangos), raisins, currants, or cranberries, sugar, spices, and vinegar. Mmmm...how about some mango chutney on crackers with goat cheese?


This definitely gives me an idea on how to use the extra jars I have left over from the wedding...

Christmas ideas...

It being December 1st and all, my favorite craft blogs have started to roll out their DIY Christmas ideas. I stumbled on a great wrapping paper resource today on Creature Comforts (one of my favorite blogs!) How fun would it be to get a present wrapped like this?


photo courtesy of Creature Comforts
I wouldn't want to open it!
Check out the full tutorial here.

Happy Halloween!

...a few days late, I know. I've been suffering from an ear infection for the past week (hence the no posting, among other things!) However, I did feel good enough to dress up for Halloween. When we were in Maine on our honeymoon, we heard "Addicted to Love" on the radio and thought, "why don't we dress up like that for Halloween?" Well, it happened. We recruited Marie to be a backup singer along with me (and she definitely looked the part!) I think it turned out pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself....

Memorial Day wedding prep

Practicing our poses
Paul, George (Paul's brother) and I spent our Memorial Day weekend up at Red Tail Ranch (aka my mom's house/where the wedding will be). On Saturday, the boys dug holes and worked on some plumbing stuff while my mom and I picked wildflowers and counted the number of vases I've been collecting (about 30 so far!) Sunday was another work day - Paul and I shoveled rocks for a while, trying to create a pathway in the backyard. Paul jokes that my mom's favorite form of landscaping is using rocks - and that it better not be mine! All in all it was a very fun and productive weekend (even though I came home with wicked bad allergies and poison oak). Ahh...well!

The ceremony site

Some vases

We did take a break and went on a horseback ride...