Happy Birthday, Hubs!

I'm a day late posting but wow, we've been busy this weekend! I hope your birthday was as productive as you wanted it to be and as relaxing as you needed it to be! Sorry we didn't have party hats this year... but we did have BBQ!
I love you so much and I'm glad you were born!

May, 2010 (Birthday #30)

Cake, (for Birthday #31)

A 30th Birthday Hoedown

The forecast was rain and the day dawned wet and dreary... but that didn't put a damper on our fun! Last Saturday we hosted a little hoedown to celebrate my 30th birthday. Despite the rain, we had one heck of a day! Bandanna banners, cowboy cutouts, friends playing horseshoes, and lots of sweet tea - doesn't get much better than that!
Here are a few pictures of the day -

A Birthday Girl and her Dog

A Cowboy Couple - my sister helped make the awesome cutouts! She outlined them the weekend before the party and then we painted them using random paints I had around the house from a previous project. They were a hit!

Yeehaw! The party is here!

Waiting for all the candles to be lit. There were quite a few! 


My mom made sure I got the slice of cake with the '30' on it. 
And I even blew out all the candles on the FIRST try!

Sheriff Dad, who came early to help. He and the hubs set up the photo-op tent, and he made the fantastic bandanna banner on the front of our house. Then he played photographer all day!

Yeah, this picture was all the Hubs. I had nothing to do with it. Sammi did make a new friend, named Dakota. Our friends recently adopted her from a local shelter. Isn't she sweet? I'm not sure how she felt about this whole picture thing...

 
Aren't my parents darling?

The hubs was so amazing with everything he did to get ready for the party, we promised to lessen the reward for his arrest. And to keep him alive... as much as possible.

Sweet tea tastes better with stripey straws in mason jars.

The rain meant a few people bailed on the party but that also meant we had enough room to move the party indoors. We cleared out the sunroom (thank goodness for a garage that will hold all our furniture...) and set up tables inside. My mom had the fantastic idea to use bandannas as chair covers. Genius!

Get some grub!

 













And be sure to snag a slice of cake. My amazing friend, Christina, brought us Texas Chocolate Cake from Jeannine's Bakery in Santa Barbara. It was perfect - looked great, tasted even better! (Wow, that's a lot of candles...)

Don't forget to grab a favor on your way out! Little bags of gold for the road.

And with that, have a rootin' tootin' Thanksgiving weekend! Yeehaw!

Sneak Peek...

More to come!!!

Happy Happy Birthday

To my 'little' brother!!
He's not so little anymore but that just means there is more to love.
He's under the sea somewhere, helping keep us safe, but we're singing some birthday songs and might have a few cupcakes in his honor later today.
LOVE YOU, BUD!!

Most of The Happy Family, at the Happiest Place on Earth

I love that he's not above posing for silly pictures

Christmas, 2009

I could barely walk when we got out of that teacup! Little brat.

Real men wear plaid.

I wear tank tops. I have tats. I'm cool.

Superhero Nate.

A Countdown

It's not too long until I turn 30 (!!!) and I've been receiving some fun little cards in the mail! My mom is so awesome - she's sent me little notes with pictures from when I was a baby.
Here I am with mom, dad, and my older sister at about 7-8 months old. Don't you just love my sticky-uppy hair??

The hair pretty much poked up all over the place for a few years.

But by age two, it had grown out a bit and was relatively flat. And thus it remains...

This is one of my favorites pictures so far - me and my Grandma Pat. She passed away far too early when I was a senior in high school and if I grow up to be even a smidge as classy as she was, I'd be lucky.
I also wouldn't mind if my hair turned that gorgeous silver color someday!

I have a feeling I'll be receiving a few more cards in the weeks to come!

I'm fairly certain...

... that this was not the birthday dress the hubs had in mind when he promised me one.
But oh. my. heavens. *swoon*

  




Image via bcbg.

I have decided.

I caved under pressure.
Pressure from the hubs, to be specific.

There will be a "30 on the 30th" birthday party of some sort.
The hubs has promised me twinkly lights, a pretty cake, and a birthday dress.

I think I can handle that...

Letterpress: Round Two

A few weeks ago I promised to keep you posted regarding my letterpress class - and you haven't really heard anything since! My apologies! I was thinking I would wait until after our second class session so I had more interesting things to share but then last Monday's class was canceled. So, today is my second class!
The class is really more of a 'workshop' and since all the other students have taken the class at least once before (I'm the only newbie!) I did a lot of observing, asked a lot of questions, and then had the difficult task of deciding what to make.
Today I should learn how to set type and will spend quite a bit of time digging through drawers to choose and set the font I want. If I'm lucky, I might run a few things through the press but that depends on how quickly I figure out what I want to do.
This time, I really do promise to update you!
Happy Columbus Day, and have a Fantastic Monday!

They're here! They're here!

Linda & Harriett have released their 2011 Letterpress calendar and it's gorgeous. I'm not buying one (yet) because I'm really hoping that someone (*cough* *cough* hubs!) gets me one for my birthday or Christmas.
But you better order now because they sold out by Thanksgiving last year! (hint! hint!)


And while you're at it, you might as well get one of their limited edition "To/From" stamps - they're absolutely darling and there aren't very many of them.
Please, pretty please!

Images via Linda & Harriett.

UPDATE: Stamps are sold out. :-(

P.S.
Dear Hubs, I'm absolutely serious about this huge-o-mongous hint. Buy them now and you're done with Christmas shopping for me! And it's not even September! How awesome is that! :-)
xoxo, me.

You're never too old for a birthday hat.

Or, "You're never too old to request your favorite meal from your mom on your birthday. And cake."

Short story: We spent time with the in-laws. Dogs got dressed up. Hubs likes ribs. Party hats. Photos!

Sammi got a birthday bandana from Grandma Bobbie - all dressed up for a party!

Hubs celebrates his birthday with his two favorite foods: Ribs 'n Root Beer. Happy man.

And cake, "decorated" by yours truly:

Forgot I had the camera on manual focus for this one.
Or maybe we need to lay off the root beer...
Regardless, they're cute. And silly.

Warning! Smooches below. Happy Birthday, hubs!

The Birthday Boy gets a Birthday Weekend

Since my hubs was gettin' all growed up and turnin' 30, we kicked off the birthday weekend in style - at Disneyland, of course.
We've been to Disneyland many many many many (times a bajillion) times but this time we explored the Disney Kennel Club because we had Sammi with us. I was quite impressed by the Disneyland kennel and would definitely recommend it for those of you who find you must travel with your four-footed friends.
I also got to take a survey in a secret room off Main Street that they say used to be Walt Disney's room! Or office. Or something. He spent time there. How special am I?! My favorite question was when it asked how many times I'd visited Disneyland since it opened in 1955. I chose the last answer option: 50+.
Then we spent 4 hours traversing what is normally a 2-hour drive thanks to a fuel tanker that caught on fire and may have overturned but that definitely closed a freeway and routed traffic all over and around in a congested fashion, sometimes at a complete standstill. On a holiday weekend when traffic is already bad. Nice, fuel tanker. Real nice.
Anyway, here are some photos to remind me of the happy times:
Hubs driving like a crazy man - a crazy OLD man, I guess I should say:

Turns out I'm not a King. And I don't have big muscles. Darn.

Obligatory awkward Matterhorn photo (Note the birthday button! If you're ever celebrating something at Disneyland (birthday, anniversary, etc.) be sure to stop by the information booth and ask for a button! The button lady said I was so nice to find my hubs a birthday button that I was awarded an "Honorary Citizen of Disneyland" button. Hubs was going to argue with her about how nice I was but I told him to be quiet because I've always wanted to be an Honorary Citizen!):

Hubs and his "I'm getting older" contemplative face with wildflowers in the background:

Cute couple on the Casey Jr. Caboose:

A Birthday Challenge

Question: What do you get for a woman who lives in a mud hut in Madagascar, who loves frilly tops and high heels, biking thousands of miles solo, and can salsa dance like no one else you know?
Answer: Durable khaki pants. And you make something!

My sister moved to Madagascar a few months ago with Peace Corps and her birthday is right around the corner. It made no sense to buy something "fun" and "frilly" so I made her a birthday banner to hang in her hut!
Simple triangles cut from scrapbook paper with tiny clothespins and baker's twine make for a cheerful birthday decoration, even for a simple mud hut in the middle of nowhere.



p.s. The natural-colored tiny clothespins are from Olive Manna and the red ones are from Paper-Source. Have I ever mentioned that I love mini things? Even my dad said they were super-cute!
The green stripey baker's twine is leftover from a pack I bought by Martha Stewart way back at Christmastime.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

I'm a little bit late in the day with this post but needed to pop on and give a shout-out to my dear old dad - he gets a little bit closer to being ancient today and is half of the reason I was borned.
Dinner is on me next time. Love you, dad!!

A Garden Party

We set the table and brewed fresh iced tea as the fog rolled away to reveal a gorgeous sunny day. The weather was perfect, the company delightful, and the pie fantastic - as always - for my sister's little birthday celebration.

The party started when a large plane flew overhead, right over the house! It was probably just buzzing the Long Beach Grand Prix but I like to think it was really in Molly's honor:

The lanterns were hung...

And the table was set (for six guests, then eight, then seven, then back to six...):




My partner in crime, who filled in all the holes I missed and who always has another awesome idea to try. It took two tries, but we finally got the fluffy noodle things to fry up right for the salad... I heart my mom!

All in celebration of this darling girl who we love so much...