On Friday, Annie, Adrian and I drove up to my parents cabin in Tahoe. It snowed the whole weekend, which was perfect for us to get some fresh powder. When we had gone up at Christmas, it had looked a little bare and brown.
The new snow transformed everything into a sleepy wonderland. We slept in, made tasty food, and watched the Winter Olympics while it snowed. Later on Saturday, we played in the snow, had snowball fights, sledded down the the hill in the backyard, and built some funny looking snow-women, in our case. Annie and I made Dwight, a two-headed dinosaur woman complete with a spiky tail. Adrian made a handsome Kirby. Huyson joined us later in the day after we rescued him from not one, but two sticky spots on hills.
On Sunday, we got in some time on slopes at North Star, and treated ourselves to a tasty lunch at the Chocolate Bar. Mhmmm.
All in all, it was a perfect little weekend. Exactly what this girl needed!
Now I just have to make it through till Saturday, when my family and I leave for the Grand Cayman Islands. I am so looking forward to some sunshine, warm air, laying out on the beach with a good book, and those drinks with the little umbrella’s. I can’t wait to feel some sunshine on my face.
It’s almost Friday! How is your week going? Are you as ready as I am for this week to be over?
This cute little thing just came in the mail! I always love getting new Kiel James Patrick boxes, because they come with the cutest packaging!
I was able to knock 7 things off my 101 in 1001 list. Wahoo!
1. Inspire someone to write their own list (Yay)
2. Go wine tasting with friends or family (Napa Valley was so beautiful)
35. Organize my Itunes
39. Find my signature cocktail (Lemondrop, oh so yummy)
63. Buy a plane ticket with frequent flier miles only (the Santa Fe trip in March)
98. Get a hammock (Given to me by the lovely Maureen!!)
Done and done!
I have a few more items I plan to cross off in the works for February, so it should be a great month!
It felt like every weekend in January was jam-packed, from going to Napa, having friends over for fun cocktails, to babysitting basically every day of the weekend. February looks to be as busy as January was, complete with a trip with friends to Tahoe and a family trip to the Cayman Islands (eeek!!). This may or may not have contributed to the radio silence here on the blog.
Work is going well, and teaching full-time makes for a busy day, but I have been slowly carving out gym time, which has been good to get back in my life. I have a dinner date set up with Annie and my favorite old proff to discuss the masters program at SCU for this fall. I’m both alternatively stoked and dreading going back to night classes.
I finally set up a savings plan so I now can look forward to one day having a fancy-pants camera and a KS watch sometime in the next year or so.
Oh, and February is my no-spending month, so wish me luck!
We had such a grey, rainy, perfect for snuggling with the pups weekend. I babysat for a lot of the weekend, but did manage to get in a few hours working on my quilt. It was a great way to finish out the week.
On Saturday, the Roomie, my brother, Alex and I drove up to Napa and enjoyed some wine tasting at two lovely vineyards. I had never been to Napa, so I was pretty excited to explore the area and see some new sites.
It was a cold and misty day, but that did not diminish our excitement or trip in anyway. It was a lovely drive, winding up through the City and I snapped a few photos to document the lovely day, as wine tasting was on my 101 in 1001 list. It has been so much fun to cross things off my bucket list!
We stopped for breakfast at this charming little red cafe, called Boon Fly Cafe, after which we enjoyed the first vineyard, William Hill. We tasted a few wines, and then wandered over to ZD Wines. It was a dark and gloomy day, so it was fun to sip some wines, sit indoors and chat away.
Today I ran a bunch of errands, and got in a bit of shopping with the Roomie & Grant. Last night, I watched West Wing while cuddling with the pups. It was a busy weekend, but filled with fun things.
How was your weekend? What was your favorite thing you did all weekend? Have you even been wine tasting?
Last Friday the family, Roomie, my brother’s best friend Alex, and I drove up to Tahoe. On Saturday, our good friend Shannon joined us, and Gabe and Amy joined us on Sunday. We have been enjoying a lazy few days here in Tahoe. We have been taking long walks with the pups, playing lots of wii, and watching too much television. We eat yummy meals and sleep lots. In short, Tahoe is all about taking a break from life and work.
We are going to start cooking a delicious steak for dinner, along with a few other things. We plan on playing Settlers of Catan or Citadels in front of a roaring fire after dinner until the New Year rings in.
Earlier today, Amy and I took a short walk and I snapped a few photos. I hope everyone has someone to ring in the New Year with!
The weather has been warm and sunny, although I wish there was fresh snow to sled and play in. While there isn’t much snow, the pup has enjoyed finding the small patches and rolling around in them.
I’m inspired by Mackenzie of Design Darling (which, if you don’t read, you totally should!) and Carly of College Prepster in creating a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. 1001 days, which is 2.75 years, is the enough time to do things without it being a total bucket list.
I stole some ideas from their lists, and then added a few of my own!
I’m officially starting mine on January first so my end date is September 28th, 2016.
Completed Items: crossed out.
In progress items: Italics.
101 in 1001
Inspire someone to write a list of their own (Maryah in Jan 2014)
Go wine tasting with friends or family (Jan 11th, 2014)
Learn to play an instrument
Go hot air ballooning
Make cake balls
Invest in a food processor
Climb a tall mountain
Go sky diving
Visit a new continent
Go zip-lining (I’ve got my eye on your Mt. Hermon)
Build my dream closet
Upgrade to a DSLR camera
Go to a taylor swift concert
Buy a house/car/condo/boat, something!
Visit the Anne Frank house
Get my own puppy
Run a marathon (the San Francisco one in July maybe?)
Spend a day at a spa
Visit a castle (ideally this one: Neuschwanstein in Bavaria, Germany)
Take a tour the white house (planned for July this summer)
Fast for three days (March 2014)
Visit the Harry Potter World in Florida
Tour Hearst Castle (on our road trip hit list this summer)
Visit Canada (on our road trip hit list this summer)
Donate money on Kiva
Go paint balling
Send a message in a bottle
Buy a large jewelry box for all my bangles and earrings
Invest in Tory Birch boots
Take photos under the hollywood sign (planned for this June)
Take photos with lit sparklers
Learn to shoot a bow and arrow
Order business cards
Invest in a classic handbag (Frank Clegg/Tory Birch/Coach/Kate Spade)
Organize my Itunes (January 1st, 2014)
Send out christmas cards on time
Throw a surprise party for a friend
Buy my first piece of furniture
Find my signature cocktail (January 13th, 2014) Lemon Drop
Attend a horse race or polo match
Track my spending for a month January and February 2014)
Drink 8 glasses of water (50 oz) every day for at least one week.
Buy personalised luggage
Throw my first sunday brunch party
Blog for 30 days straight
Top up my emergency funds for a total of one year’s rent money (almost at 6months)
Get a mani and pedi that match (scheduled for June 2014)
Set up a photo shoot for the whole family
Meet a fellow blogger in real life
Find a set of china that i love
Don’t eat out for one month (February 2014)
Write a guest post for another blog
Buy all the Gilmore Girls DVD’s (Yay!)
Invest in my first piece of tiffany’s jewelry
Learn the sock bun successfully(I plan on asking Brandy/Amy)
Cook dinner every night for a week (0/7)
Buy myself flowers every week for a month (0/4)
Go one month without buying Starbucks (February here I come)
Invest in nice undergarments
See a second Frank Lloyd Wright home
Purchase or make a bar cart
Complete a jigsaw puzzle by myself
Buy a plane ticket with my frequent flier miles only (Santa Fe Tickets there & back)
Come up with a way to organize ALL jewelry
Take an Instagram photo errr’day for a month (in progress!)
Do a “no spend month” (February 2014)
Create a gallery wall (in my classroom January 2014)
Ps. If I inspire you to write your own list and you DO, email me either your link or your list.. and I’ll link it to my list and get to cross one off.. Thanks!
On Saturday, we invited a few friends over to bake cookies and have a chili cook-off. We made two chili’s, a coworker of mine brought a white bean chili, and two family friends brought two other chili’s. We had two different types of cornbread, and enjoyed one tasty meal! We tasted all of them, and then voted. My dad’s house chili won hands down! I was so proud.
Our Chili Cook-off Group
On Sunday we baked our family breakfast pastry, called Nuthorns. They are amazing. My brother and Roomie tackled making a gingerbread house to beat all houses. Being an engineer and math teacher, they created a structurally sound but still beautiful house.
We had a tasty dinner last night of raclette, and enjoyed dinner just as a family last night. Today we had aunts, friends and neighbors stop by to exchange presents. I lucked out this year! More on that later.
Now we are preparing dinner for the group of us; honey mustard salad, grilled kebobs, potatoes au gratin, an onion grape tarte, lemon sorbet and apple pie! I am looking forward to a yummy family dinner.
I hope everyone is enjoying time with their family, I know I am. We played lots of wii today, and hung out with four pups!
I wanted to thank everyone for all the lovely notes on being nervous about my dentist appointment. It went well. :]
This week I took a hiatus from the blog, because I wanted to focus on family time, relaxing with the pups, and taking a breather from school/work. I also have realised that my computer sucks me in, and then it’s four hours later and I’m still on pinterest/bloglovin’/keep. I have been trying to stay more grounded lately, and less time on my computer. I love to snuggle up with the pups and a book, and that happened a lot this week.
Anyhoo, Thanksgiving was awesome. It was a small group this year, but that did not mean our menu was any smaller. In fact, I believe this year we topped out with the most recipes in a long time. The final number was 12 by the way. We made so many tasty things, but I managed to try a bite of everything!
Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two occasions where the family goes all out, and I really enjoy hearing the family stories about the carving tools, glassware and old family traditions.
Prosciutto and Pears Appetizer
Our yummy cranberry cocktail
Maryah sitting at the head of the dining room table
My favorite part of our thanksgiving meal.
On Friday, the Roomie, her brother and I got up before the crack of dawn (2am, to be precise) and went to the mall. I had never gone shopping on Black Friday, and I wanted to try it, at least once.
Most of the shops had opened at 5-8pm on Thanksgiving, and the rest at midnight. We arrived at 3 and it was busy, but certainly not insane. We shopped, and the John was a complete dear. He even met up with us, and carried our bags to the car! Maryah treated him to a Jersey as a thank-you for being so kind about the whole day.
I made out like a bandit, but some were Christmas and birthday gifts for other people. More details on what I got tomorrow!
My Black Friday shopping haul.
This year I was very thankful that everyone was here for Thanksgiving. I know some families aren’t able to all be together on Thursday, but we were, and it really meant a lot to me. In the past, with both of us away at college, it was tricky to get all four of us together. Thanksgiving and Christmas Day are the two that I have the fondest family memories of, and I really do treasure the time we have together.
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksiving, and enjoyed some relaxed family time.
Six months I had only a limited understanding of how awesome Instagram was. In July, one of my friends pushed me into getting an Instagram, and I have totally fallen in love with it.
I love photos, and Instagram fills the time waiting in line, for people to arrive, the few minutes before staff meetings, basically anytime. I love that people have their own unique style in how they style their photos, from the framing to the filter. Recently I’ve been pushing myself to take more photographs, and having a place to post them in addition to my blog has been a lot of fun. I also really enjoy looking at other peoples photos. Its kinda an addition
Here is how my last week end from my Instagram account, which you should totally follow: Foreverclassyandfabulous
You might notice a continuing theme of yummy treats, sweets, the pups, and shopping.
Creme Brulee- from dinner with Dad
How I ended my Sunday evening-with macaroons
How I started my sunday-with a pumpkin latte, pumpkin muffins and a cinnamon roll
At the Los Altos Holiday stroll there were horse-drawn carriages
How I started my three day weekend-with Tory Birch and macaroons
Nala begging me not to go to work on Friday
My extreme love of anything peppermint-including popcorn.
Anthro dress I’m drooling over. Want.
Sunday with the parents=hedgehogs and chocolate.
Nala’s bored with my #ootd photo shots.
Artwork at Raft from two weeks ago.
How was your last few days? Do you like to view life in photos?
It had just been one thing after another this week! Last Sunday, I picked Annie up and we made some tasty things with my new Kitchen Aid Stand mixer.
My new mixer.
We munched on dim sum while we baked and I had a lot of fun. We made an orange bundt cake, cranberry orange bread, pumpkin bread, spicy cinnamon pumpkin muffins and blueberry muffins,
Our baking results
Work was busy this week, with two rounds of testing for the teens. We often get home around 6 and often I just want to crawl straight into bed with the pups when I do finally get home.
On Thursday a few of us grabbed italian food for dinner. We got grand total of 3 trick-or-treaters. Quite frankly, I was disappointed we didn’t get more at our new place. But the three that did come, we loaded them up with candy!
My students were sleepy and off task Friday, which was a bummer for them since a lot of work was also due. I stayed later than planned at work getting ready for the next round of CAHSEE next week.
I met up with Annie at ValleyFaire and we shopped! With payday on Thursday I wanted to splurge a bit! I had picked up a treat for myself last weekend, but when I finally opened the little brown Kate Spade bag (most of you know exactly the bag I am talking about!) my new bow bracelet was twisted/bent! So our first stop was Nordstrom’s, where a nice young lady switched it out for a new sparkly one. This is my new bauble!
My new bracelet.
I tried on a pair of Uggs because my old pair is so old and well-loved and really not fit for anyone outside of the pups and my roomie’s eyes. Of course, they did not have the correct size for my giant feet, so I settled on ordering them. (Thank goodness Nordstrom’s doesn’t charge for shipping!) Can’t wait for them to arrive!
We wandered over to Sephora,where I picked up a Smashbox eyeliner cream I had been eyeing. I use their Photo Finish Light primer, and i love it!
My primer.
It makes my make-up last, and it seems that it make my makeup stick better. I’m normally a warm person, and halfway through the day my make-up is gone. But a friend had recommended this brand, and they are my go-to primer now. I had also heard good things about the eyeliner cream, so we played around with it. I convinced Annie to try some of their products as well, since we have similar type of skin.
Next stop on our shopping spree: shoes, shoes, shoes. I always think of this Kirsty MacColl song that my dad and I listen to. It is called In These Shoes. It is really a fabulous song. You should listen to it.
While Annie got sucked into trying on lipstick at Chanel, I looked at shoes. With my giant feet (and toes) I often have to order shoes, and pray to the shoe gods that they fit. More often than not, I end up returning them because they gape, pinch, or otherwise look odd. I found a pair of Corso Como heels that I liked, and also ordered a pair of black boots by them in the hopes that they fit as well.
The new heels
The new boots.
Currently some of my work shoes are not as comfortable as I would like. I am looking forward to having some happier feet.
Sorry for the lack of posts, I was having issues with my laptop suddenly shutting down randomly. I had my tech guy at work do his magic and it seems to be fine now. I hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday!
I swear, as I am getting older, my memory is getting worse! Remember when I talked about making lemon bars for my friend’s wedding? Well, Robert came over and took some photos of me both in the backyard and getting the lemon bars prepped.
I completely forgot that he had sent me the final set a few days before my New York trip. Silly me. Here is another example of how ridiculously talented my best friend is. #bestfriendsforlife
In case you missed his other shoots, they are here and here.
The mornings are crisp and cool here in California, and mellow into a beautiful sunny 70 degrees by early afternoon. I love being able to pull on my boots and a cardigan in the morning, but still enjoy the sun on my face as I leave work.
Classy and Fabulous 
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