come on mail, man!

I'm SO excited to get these boots in the mail. I ordered them on Wednesday...and I'm "patiently" waiting 4-7 business days to jump up and down with joy.

Along with the boots will be this coat (which I payed$25 less for on the website I got it from, rather than at Urban Outfitters online).

I'm also WAITING for my tax return! I've heard I'm getting about $1,200 back. That's going straight to my new car that I'll be looking for next month. I'm thinking....a Tahoe :)

Victoria's 1st Birthday!

Look at Victoria's cake that I made :)

Look at all those gorgeous gifts for 1 year old Victoria. The party was held the weekend before her birthday, which is ON St. Patrick's Day. Aw, how special :) Here she is with momma, showing off some festive green.

The theme was pink and green ladybugs for Kasia's little "love bug" so I made some sugar cookies to match.

Here's the mini-cake just for Victoria. It's tradition for her to get her own to dig into, which signifies her "first" cake or sweet. I think it came out pretty nice for being so rushed.

She's so lovely. I'm glad I made it even if it was for less than an hour. I was baking and decorating the treats all day, it took MUCH longer than I had expected. I was crazy late for a very important date.

Mustashio Bashio!

For the past few years, my good friends Joe and Stephanie and I have celebrated our birthdays together since we're all March kids. This year, the theme was cocktail attire while wearing mustaches. I'm a loser, I didn't get one. But plenty other guests did to make the night pretty interesting. We look sharp..us before heading out.

We started off with dinner at Buca de Beppo, party of 24!

I'm always trying to get a smile from him in pictures...i never have any luck. I probably wouldn't have to take so many if the first one is a success.

At the end of dinner, the 3 birthday guests got a giant candle in a jar and a loud song :)

I made my popular Red Wine Cupcakes (with cream cheese frosting) and some tuxedo sugar cookies (that went with our fancy theme).

Afterwards, we were supposed to head over to Pop, a cute champagne bar but I guess they never got the word on our party coming so they were close to capacity and couldn't accomodate us. Instead, we partied at Vive which was only a few doors down...thanks to Dom's friend Shax, who knows the owner and got our now party of at least 40 in for free (instead of $15 cover). We quickly got our own little lounge area set up and ordered 2 rounds of bottle service (Greygoose and mixers). Vive later gave us 2 buckets of free beer as a thanks, I guess. Check out this sign that was over our seats...and Brian enforcing the law :) The left picture is of my favorite mustache of the night belonging to Alain...and yes it's real! I was so excited to see him, I had no idea he was coming. I thought he was still traveling through New Zealand. Great surprise:)

A few other great surprises were seeing a few of Dominic's friends there. I had invited them, but didn't know or think they were coming. He kept it a secret from me. I told him I thought he was pretty awesome for doing that. Hippo (top pic) came up from San Diego.

I borrowed Reno's stache for this photo op. The bottom pic is of the birthday threesome, Steph, myself and Joe (who came down from Chico).
Here are a few more mustaches. Brian (top left) is sporting real facial hair, Reno (top right) made hers herself and came up from San Diego with her fiance, Ryan. My brother (bottom left) improvised his stache and left his disc golf tourney in Yucaipa to party for a few hours before driving back that night. Steve (flew in from AZ) and Alain (bottome right) were also wearing real staches as well :)

Here we have one of my BEST friends, Jason (left pic, who drove from San Diego with his GF, Marissa) wearing what he called an "awesome undershirt"...it lights up and blinks to the beat of music. Another good friend of mine, Art (right pic), drove up from San Diego and then back again that night..or I should say morning. I think he left around 3am after sushi. Crazy yo!

My lovely Kasia accompanied me on the dance floor a few times and was the contributor to our first round of bottle service. She said it's cool, she'd regret it in the morning. Thanks love!

I honestly couldn't believe how many people showed up and I was so happy that everyone I love was in the same room celebrating me and my 2 friends. It was our night and everyone had a blast. I was on cloud 9 almost the whole night...until I fell hard at the end.

I ended up in tears after saying some nasty things to someone I love because they had offended me so much. I couldn't believe the night ended the way it did...it was shocking. The person I wanted there the most, wanted to leave before the night was over, without me...and instead was selfish and wanted to put their needs before mine..on MY night. I would NEVER have done that, not even considered it. It was and still is hurtful. Another birthday (it's been 3 weeks since the last) that turned ugly.

After all the drama, I met a few friends at Wokano for some 2:30am sushi and to wind down.

The next day, Kasia, her baby and I went to meet Jason and his gf at the farmer's market and for a little Mexican brunch. The day was beautiful and we were all recovering from the night before. Kasia and I split and tried to do a little shopping, no such luck...but Victoria kept us entertained by trying to climb all over the shopping cart and sticking her finger in her nose. She was definitely in a silly mood and she helped to keep a smile on my face.

THANK YOU to everyone who came and made the night so special and for reminding me how lucky I am to have such amazing, hilarious and loyal friends. I love you guys!

XO

Initiating...year 27

Let's back up a few weeks to Sunday, March 7...my birthday!
It was a pretty crazy, stressful weekend. The first celebration came on Friday after work. Kasia had planned a dinner with me after work...little did I know that she had arranged a little surprise get together at Los Gringos Locos with a group of co-workers. Tricky girl. Well, because I had NO IDEA...i had some dramarama go on before and I ended up being 45 min late to dinner. The guests had already gone through 3 bowls of guacamole and their first round of drinks. Kasia blindfolded me on the ride there and into the restaurant. I felt so bad for not being on time and I looked all teary eyed and upset. I tried my best to brush it off and have a good time, starting with a giant fish bowl sized margarita. Kasia gave me my first bday gift, a Bob Marley puzzle! It's so rad, and she knows I'm into puzzles, and Bob, and would need a little distraction that weekend. THANK YOU KASIA! I love it :)

We then went to Fat Dog with about half of the people that came to dinner and..yup, got drunk :) That will happen after a few shots of tequila, jager bomb, and a few jack n gingers. A little more drama sneaked into the bar, but I really did try to forget about if for the night. I have some pretty great co-workers that know how to have a good time. I've never had a surprise party before...It felt pretty special having the night dedicated to ME.


Saturday, I had a nice little hungover breakfast with my brother in Glendale...his treat ;) It was nice catching up with him. That night for dinner, I went to Trader Vic's in Los Angeles with my brother and parents.. It's a Hawaiian infused restaurant that's known for great food and even better drinks. The drink menu takes longer to read through than the actual menu. It was a lovely evening, I ordered lamb for the first time. For dessert, the waitress brought out a special treat for mine and Chris' birthdays. Very cool :)

Sunday, my actual birthday, was not at all what I had hoped for. I was supposed to go to Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. Instead, I had a lonely and really upsetting day. I think it was the worst birthday I've ever had. I did get some new perfume from my mom, though. And she made a nice breakfast for me..waffles with strawberries and bananas and some scrambled eggs. The night ended a little better than it had started, with an unexpected trip to FroyoLife with Dominic. I'm glad that weekend is out of the way.....

...and now I'm ready to PARTY!!!....this Saturday night at my birthday party (3-way bday with Joe and Steph)! It's cocktail attire, dress to impress. The dress and heels will be on and I can't wait to see all my friends that are coming out from far and wide! (Arizona, San Diego, Chico)
Time to celebrate the right way :)

My brother's birthday...party

Here are a few pics from my brother's 25th birthday party at his new home. I was impressed how clean it was for a house of 4 guys. He had a pretty good turn out, especially with all the rains we were having then. Kasia, Dominic and I went together and stayed for a little bit...we were the oldest kids there :) Here is a table they had lit up underneath and covered it with a plastic sheet for everyone to sign for Chris.

Chris snapped a few pics once he saw my new camera and became amazed by it. "Whoa, the flash pops up FOR YOU??!!"

It was chilly. Not only was this fire lit up inside, but 2 other fire pits were going on outside.

My brother and Kasia :)

Happy Birthday!!!!

Mr. Green Thumb

Last weekend, the rains let up and left us with a perfect day to garden. I know that Dominic's been wanting to plant veggies, fruits and flowers like CRAZY and has been running out of room in his yard. I don't doubt it's been in the back of his mind to expand the garden, but as soon as I took a look around, and before I could even get all the words out of my mouth, "Hey, why don't you use all this extra yard space to..." he was ALL OVER IT. "Yes! Let's do it. Now you've done it, now you've got me going." :) That's exactly what we did. He put up more fence, we pulled old roots out from the soil and began the initial planting. Notice the stepping stones in the first pic? Yeah, I put those in ;)

The large plant in the bottom left corner is an artichoke! Mmmmm, love em :) And here are 3 out of his 4 chickens. I like watching them move around, especially when they run. I can't help but laugh :)

homemade jerky

These pics may be out of order, but I don't feel like rearranging :) Dominic and I made our first beef jerky! This was something that HE really wanted to make with his new dehydrator so of course, I was down. There were a few trays full with the meat.

Ok, I KNOW this may look gross but it's a ground beef jerky recipe. You mix all the spices and meat together in a food processor and then use one of those icing tubes to squeeze it out into links. They bake for a few and then dry them. I swear they taste better than they look.
This was Dom's choice. I believe it's Cajun Jerky. Here it is raw, covered in spices and waiting to be dehydrated :)

beautifully Kahn

Here are just a few of the latest art projects I completed with my 1st graders. They learned about and recreated their our own pastel versions of Wolf Kahn's unique landscapes.

I also introduced the concept of adding light to objects/figures in their work. This is shown by using some white to highlight a side of their trees.