save the date

The cutest Save the Date card came in the mail this week for my friend Steph's wedding. I've seen this photo booth idea before, and I love it! They had it printed like a bookmark, with tons of info on hotels, etc., on the back. It's the perfect preview to what I'm sure will be a super fun wedding this summer! Can't wait and Congrats Steph & Dale!

e is for elijah

Such an exciting weekend ahead. Today I'm *cleaning our apartment (my craft area is a disaster!) *enjoying sweet sunshine *finishing up March projects for the girls at Creative Juices * getting highlights in my winter-blah hair *packing, packing + wrapping a little something up for Eli {our adorable new nephew} because we're flying to St. Louis to meet him tomorrow! I am 100% in love with aunthood. It's been tough restraining myself from urges to buy every adorable baby accessory in sight. If this is already an issue, I have no idea how I'll cope with my own first pregnancy...But that's still a far off dream. As part of Eli's little spoils, I tried my hand at embroidering his little initial on an itty bitty blue cardigan. I'm such a novice at embroidery, but I think it turned out sort of cute. :) E for effort? Anyway, I'm completely giddy about our trip and to see my fam again! One of my favorite things about flying is packing fun things to do during boring airport/airplane down time. In my carry-on:
*New iTunes: Amy Winehouse {I'll admit, I love her despite her shenanigans} and Regina Spektor
*Twizzler's Nibs (My favorite travel food because they can't really melt or stain, and I eat them too fast for them to dry out!)
*Kiehl's lip balm
*New books: The Memory Keeper's Daughter {two chapters in and so far-so good} and Eat Pray Love {I hear it's amazing, but I'm remaining skeptical...I already hate the fact that she left her husband.}
*My March Domino mag
*Not in my carry-on: a Nalgene bottle filled with free, ice cold water from my own faucet. Remember the good old days of flying?
Anyway, cheers to a fabulous weekend, a Happy Leap Year, and a cute new nephew. Can't wait to check in and share a million more pics. It's hard to get sick of baby pictures, right!?

bring on the rain

I bought my first pair of adulthood wellies in January, and I'm pretty sure they've changed my life. I now feel sassy and invincible as I plow through puddles each time it rains. In fact, I've come to look forward to rainy days just so I can bust them out! Target now has dozens of beauties like these and all for a decent price. :)

snail mail

February nearly over, already? Leap year or not, this month has flown! Each February, our mailbox fills up with almost as much snail mail love as at Christmastime. We celebrated both of our birthdays + Valentine's day all in one week! To show off all of our lovely cards, I strung a little clothesline underneath our bay window in the living room. {Also a great excuse to whip out the mini clothespins!} I had to share a quick pic before it's time to take it all down.

spring is in the air...

Spring is most certainly in the air. Just spotted these new ballet flats here in all the right, bright & juicy colors.

work hard:play hard

Sheesh! I feel like it's been forever. Sorry for the bit of a breakie, it's just that I've been working hard and playing harder this past week! My darling friend Gretch came to visit and we had a whirlwind of wonderment and fun. I just wanted to share a few of her pics. I never get tired of playing SF tour guide and rediscovering the city through another's eyes. I love trying new things and sharing old favorites! It's like taking a vacation without ever leaving home. We had absolutely gorgeous weather, with just a few intermittent rain showers. {Not enough to spoil the fun!} Biking across the GG was a first for me...And certainly will not be the last. Seriously, this is the absolute *best* and brightest way to enjoy the bridge, provided that you've got flawless weather and zero wind. We rented bikes for $7/ hour here and biked from Fisherman's Wharf to Sausalito. We did a little fine dining on the shore and were too full to pedal back up the hills...No worries, we just returned to SF via ferry!

Oh, and did I ever mention that Robbin Williams lives just a few blocks from us?? Yes. A quirky house for a quirky man. Don't you think it suits him?

happy birthday, jeff!

Wishing you the happiest of days and the happiest of years, my sweet best friend/tall, dark, handsome husband!

welcome

Welcome to the world, sweet nephew Elijah!! We're so happy that you were born on Tuesday, healthy, perfect, and adorable. I wish we didn't live so far away, but we can't even wait to meet you, cuddle you, and read Curious George books to you. :) In the mean time, keep doing what babies do best and make sure your mom & dad take jillions more pics.

Love, Auntie Jessica XO

reflections on a happy valentine's day

I hope you, dear reader, had a perfectly wonderful heart day, filled with nothing but love!! As I've said before, we have a non-trad, unconventional take on V-day. I love roses dearly every other day of the year, but just not on Valentine's day. Too gimicky, too spendy, too generic for me. We've also never been big on the whole restaurant scene on Valentine's day. It seems like no matter where you go, it's too crazy busy and distracting, when we'd rather just have sweet, quiet, quality "us" time. I was at my witt's end after a hectic day at work yesterday, but fortunately I have the best husband in the world who always manages to make my stressed out, freak-out moments melt away. While I was out, Jeff managed to plan an adorably sweet & special evening. For starters, he went out and bought us a Weber grill...Something we've always wanted but never got around to acquiring. :) Only in Cali can you grill out on February 14th! He also shopped around for the perfect ingredients for cozy winter's night BBQ...A tiny bouquet, delectable braided bread, Sun Chips {my fav!}, watermelon, a fancy red wine {duh}, and tasty steak & veggies for the yummiest kabobs! The manly-Jeff-menu still makes me smile. My heart cherry pie above was intended for dessert, but I waited 'til my day off today to make it. {Putzy, sticky pie crusts, and cranky tired girls don't mix!} In short, our heart day was perfect and the sweetness hasn't ended. I hope it never will.

love

Happy Love Day! One little method of celebrating: I stuck hot pink Post-Its all over our apartment before leaving for work early this morning with sweet, random messages & hearts for Jeff. I would post one for you too, but I like this scrappy paper heart a little better. :)

happy day!

I had an absolutely delightful birthday yesterday. Thank you, thank you everyone for your sweet comments, facebook messages, cards, calls, etc. I felt so special! Oh, and for the record, I have the most talented, crafty, gift-giving girlfriends and family in the history of the world!
Exhibit A: My awesome friend Amy has really outdone herself. She crafted this freaking adorable journal for me using an old sweater and a chopped up American Eagle T. I nearly wept for joy when I opened this gift! Reduce/Reusing/Recycling at its best!
Exhibit B: My mom and SIL Katie are crazy card-making machines. These are the handmade B-day cards they sent me this year. If the card isn't handmade enough, my mom gave me a beautiful framed cross-stitch piece (it's a picture of a bride w/ our names and wedding date) as a belated wedding gift, because apparently life's a little busy when your daughter gets married. ;)Exhibit C: Becca is turning into a pro-sewer. She made this cute apron for me out of one of her chef aprons, an embroidered pillowcase, and butterfly appliques. It has 3 deep, handy pockets inside the pillowcase front. Almost too pretty to use! (Bek, I hope you don't mind I swiped this picture from you!)

productivity

Phew, a clear day for scrapbooking really paid off yesterday! I managed to finish our entire honeymoon album, exactly 1.5 years after the fact. I'm getting a little bored with standard 12x12 pages lately, so for this book I decided to be a little non-trad by flipping an 8.5x11 book horizontally. I had a great time making horizontal pages, but I think next time I use 8.5x11, I'm going to switch back to vertical! Anyway, back to yesterday, I had a little extra motivation moving me along... First off, I was determined to complete my challenge l/o for our new crafty adventure: Creative Juices. I used all of my kit components in the page above. More details about the techniques/embellishments here. And sorry dear readers, since I'm no pro, I never pay attention to the products I use...So no credits available! For my birthday, sweet Jeff got me a subscription to the Scarlet Lime kit club. Lucky me, my February installment came yesterday just in time for my scrap-athon. The flower page above is my first crack at my gorgeous new supplies. Very exciting!

23rd year

After a fun afternoon at Chrissy Field yesterday, Jeff made these devil's food cupcakes to celebrate my Bday {today}...Well, I sort of helped frost them and had a little input with the sprinkles, but still, what a guy. This morning he woke me up with yummy scrambled eggs and waffles. Why can't birthdays be every day? Today I've got nothing but rare, wonderful me things planned. A hike on the coast, tea+cupcakes, a few new iTunes, and an afternoon glued to the craft table. Oh happy day!

sf dreams

This weekend has been nothing short of absolutely gorgeous weather and makes me love, LOVE living in S.F.! (Sorry dear friends/fam reading from the Midwest...Hopefully this post will be impetus for paying us a visit or at least give you a glimpse of the Spring to come!)

On this perfect day to be alive, Jeff & I & our new baby Nikon took a family stroll around Pac Heights. The trees in the park were blossoming...in February!I have a laundry list of dream homes here in the city and this neighborhood is dripping with the sort of things I have in mind. In fact, just about anything built circa 1900 will do. The blue beauty above has me salivating at this very moment. Even if I won't be living here or there anytime soon, dreaming and collecting snapshots are free for now! :)
After our leisurely hike & photo shoot we can't leave the 'hood without stopping for treats at our beloved La Boulange bakery. I couldn't help but snap this one of Jeff inhaling his raspberry tart. He was even nice enough to save me a bite. Delectability=100%

Hope you're also finding some sunshine in your life this weekend!

la vie en rose

Edit: Thanks for the heads up! The links below are now working. :)
When I think about February, I think about love. When I think about love, I think about warm, fuzziness. When I think about warm fuzzies, I think about the color pink. When I think about the color pink, I remember that it's my most favorite color in the whole wide world and it makes my life really beautiful.
1. Thrifted Pink Gooseberry Pyrex, 2. sunflower*love, 3. pink tulle gown, 4. think pink, 5. Pink Rose, 6. my favourite pink doll shoes, 7. Pink Squares, 8. Um ano de Pano p'ra Mangas, 9. pink gadgets

show a {little} love

Ever since we began dating (over 7 years ago!) Jeff and I forged a few laws about Valentine's Day. Since it's nestled in between our birthdays, it makes for a very exciting, celebratory, & expensive week! Instead of going over board with token roses, crowded restaurants, and excess gobbily-goop, we've always agreed that V*day should be a verb, should be small, and should be full of thought and meaning. Allow me to share a few of my favorite {little} ideas for spreading the love next week:1. I made him this itty-bitty scrapbook filled with pictures of us and a bunch of little things that I love, appreciate, admire, & adore about him.

2. I'd like to craft a few of these sweet, tiny heart bookmarks

3. Bake up these delectable mini chocolate raspberry tarts.

momentum

A quick list of the little things getting me going this week...
:Our fancy-schmancy new Nikon+lens has finally arrived and I'm itching and scheming to share its bounties with you!

:The Creative Juices Challenge. My friend Bek's brain child, it's a crafting challenge/club for us to stay connected and inspired while miles apart. Each month one of us will be authoring a challenge and sending a standard padded manila envelope to the others, filled with crafting supplies and a notions. We've designed this blog to facilitate the creative process as we go along, keep the inspiration rolling, and show off the fruits of our crafting endeavors. Feel welcome to check in, cheer us on, and even craft along! The first challenge envelope is due in my mailbox soon and I can't wait to get started!!

:The blogger house party that'll be unveiled later this week at decor8 sounds like it's right up my alley. I can't wait to see the results!

:Discovering the fabulous website{Fun Cheap SF}. I'm confident that it has many a great date idea in store for us...

:Receiving and consuming an early Valentine full of chocolate from Jeff's parents

:Making some delightful+amazing new blogging friends

:Feeling patriotic, awaiting the results of Super Tuesday and thinkin' this is a pretty helpful website.

:Getting my PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) certification. More than a little ditty for the resume, it's empowering to have the tools/skills to give better care to my little patients. :)

super tuesday

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