Cutest Pregnancy Ever?

I am in LOVE with this most adorable video documenting this gorgeous gal's pregnancy.  Dad and writer is a photographer, and blogs Pacing The Panic Room.  You can see the series, as well as the stories and the video there, every week, they did a photo shoot of her wearing American Apparel and I wish I was a skinny as she was, but love the idea of NOT buying maternity clothes.  Way to go you two, this video is FANTASTIC.


Magic- A Belly Grows from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

Love Week: Love Letters

One year for my Birthday, Andy wrote me a sonnet.  We had only been dating a month, and it was that new relationship predicament, of what to do. He typed it on a piece of his new "signature" stationary, which was part of becoming a "new man in San Francisco."  It was perfect and sweet, and still hangs above my dresser, where I see if every morning as I'm putting on my jewelry and getting ready for the day.  A simple love letter, to me, about me.

I love letters.  I'm extremely fond of the hand-written note, more so than email or even the telephone.  I love the time it requires to be set aside for the purpose, set aside for the person to whom the letter is being written.  I love being able to say what you want without interruption, and the patient anticipation of one being returned.
Do you send love letters?  To a long-distance love?  A note tucked in your sweetheart's pocket?  Even just to friends?

Love Week -- Flowers

Flowers are something special.  Years ago I worked at a flower shop, and it's a different place.  You know all the town's secrets, who has a mistress, who got elective surgery, who's getting married, who appreciates their secretaries, who comes into and out of this world. It's funny how we find such an answer in flowers.  There's a value with them, spending such money on something so temporary, because someone is worth it, and because flowers have the ability to bring such joy, and brighten up a day, a space, a memory.

They're also so traditional that we just can't get away from them.  Weddings, dates, proms, funerals.  I like spring flowers most, daffodils, peonies, and then dahlias all summer and fall.   Don't we just love?

Valentine's Day Breakfast

We celebrate holidays with food in this house.  I love you Valentine, and hope your days starts out savory, and ends sweet.

In case you're wondering, -- it turns out that chickens in love lay heart-shaped eggs, who knew!?

Love Week: Romance

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope there is romance in your day today, even if it's a-typical (perhaps your sweetheart is cleaning the bathroom for you, perhaps your sweetheart is cleaning the bathroom so they can set up a lovely bath for you, perhaps your dentist is "romancing your teeth out of your jaw bone" as mine put it).

We'll be celebrating by ordering takeout, lighting a fire, opening a bottle of wine, and playing some scrabble.  It's Andy's treat to me, my ultimate date these days, takeout and spending quality time together.  I'm sure every newly married couple thinks they have it the best, but we're pretty certain that no one has as much fun together as we do, and that's our version of romance, caring for each other.  What's romance to you?

Love Week -- wedding details

I was updating my portfolio, and reminded how much I enjoyed making all the pieces of our wedding. I'm dying for another event to make for, and wish we could get married all over again, or have another super fun party to create things for.  I'm pretty sure our paper suite was my favorite part.  

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm going to celebrate love all week!

Let's do it again.

Domino

  I have a confession.  I've been holding on to a copy of Domino magazine for three years now, saving it for a time when I'm in serious need of a pick-me up.  Domino was the best magazine ever to grace the stands, in my opinion, and the day it came in my mailbox was even more exciting than now when the day House Beautiful comes is the best day of the month.  Perhaps the only magazine I've ever read every issue cover to cover, and when they folded three years ago, I was heart broken, as if it had been my name on the masthead that was no more.  So, the February 2009 issue came, and I didn't read it, saving it to savor it, wanting to allow the right amount of time, of attention, and state of mind to devour it. And then I just kept saving it, and saving it. I laughed when I moved and placed it, still in it's unopened plastic mailing cover, first in a moving box, and then into the bookshelf, waiting for that day that would be just right.

UNTIL NOW:   They are making a new one, on newsstands April 17th!!  It looks like a one-off, "Quick Fixes."    I'm having my wisdom teeth out this morning, and taking this news combined with that pain and reading my ever-old copy whilst I recover.

P.S.  It turns out I'm super nerve about getting my wisdom teeth out today, so much so that I didn't sleep at all last night.  Eeek!!  Here's hoping for quick and easy recovery!

Central Europe 2011 Part III, Austria

After our stopover in Czesky Budjrovich, we continued on and crossed the border into Austria, and stopped off in Salzburg.  Not the highest place on our list, we only planned one full day in Salzburg, but it turned out to be our FAVORITE place!  We talk dreams of moving there to have babies and live a small perfect life.  We rented bikes, bought picnic goods and spent the day riding around and tracking down all the sights from The Sound of Music, and fulfilling the fantasies of the 7-year-old girl inside of me, singing the songs and dancing around. We had nice weather for the first time, and loved every minute of the day.

An Alpen in her natural habitat 

Maria's Church! At her Abbey! Nonnburg Abbey 

The FRONT Von Trapp mansion, can you believe they used two different ones, a front view and a back view??  We picnicked across the lake looking at the back view, where the kids fall in the water in their play clothes! 

the 16 going on 17 gazebo, and below, is Andy indulging me in my 7 year-old girl fantasy of being Liesl when she dances around with Rolf, leaping from one bench to the next!

Seriously. Favorite Day.

The next morning we got up, rented a car, and drove to Vienna.  It was an amazing drive, the Austria I'd been longing for -- huge Alps, expanses of lush green grass, and those hunky brown and white cows with big bells on!  We packed our left-over picnic food, bought a map, and hit the autobahn! We made two significant stops along the way, in the tiniest ever town of Hallstatt in Salzkammergut, and to take a gondola ride and hike a mountain top.  Hallstatt is built on this teeny tiny bit of land between a huge mountain and a beautiful lake, not even room for roads, so everything is quite literally on top of each other.  It's charming like crazy, full of incredible views on all sides, and home to the Kirche und Beinhaus, which is the Bone House church.  No space to live, and no space to die, they didn't have room to bury their dead, so instead, they placed the cleaned, dried out, and decorated skulls and femurs in a chapel, a bone house. The year of death was painted on the skulls and they go back to the 1800's.

Onward to Vienna, but not without finding a gondola to an alpen summit!  We took a ride up two gondolas to the top of this crazy mountain, and hiked out to a view point where there were all these paragliders, and "relaxation couches" where we ate our little lunch, and watched people jump off the side of the mountain and sail over the lakes and valleys below. Dream life. We continued the trail to another overlook, and tried these five "fingers" -- little planks that extend over the cliff and give you five different thrills, before we had to head back and catch the last ride down the mountain or be stuck there overnight!

 Andy and our rental:  a Ford Fiesta

Last stop, Vienna!  Where, we didn't take many photos it seems.  Which might be because I left the plug converter in the room in Prague, and we ran out of camera battery and were unable to charge it... but I can't remember.
Vienna: we discovered that the same operation that we rented bikes from in Salzburg, was in Vienna, where we were already set up! You pop your credit card in a machine, enter your password information, and it unlocks a bike for you to rent by the hour, seriously, why is this not in San Francisco (and for a euro an hour!)??   So we tried to see Vienna on bike, but got lost, and had an unsuccessful day.  We made it out to the Danube, and saw a much more real-life side of Vienna then we maybe needed to, but we capped off the night with our favorite dinner treat:  a sausage served "hot dog" style, meaning they take a long roll, like a sour dough roll, cut the top off and make a little hole and stick it on a spike. Then in the hole that the spike makes, they pump in mustard, and then shove in your sausage!  It's all perfectly contained in the bread, and is all the sausagey perfection I could ask for. YUM!

The next day, we had tickets to see the Lipizzaners at the Spanish Riding School.  They only had performances on Saturdays, which we weren't there for, but they sell tickets to their morning practices on some weekdays.  Oh MAN, soo great!  Word of caution, the arena is indoors, and if you're allergic to horses, like me, it's pure misery.  You're not allowed to take pictures, and I obeyed.  We then toured the Hoffberg's palace, Schlas Schonnbrunn, and got wine on the canal in the Palace Urania.

Schonnbrunn Palace

ein Sachertorte und zwei cappuccino

And then we flew forever, got delayed on the runway for four hours and missed our connection in Boston and got a wonderful nights sleep at a hotel courtesy of the airline, before giving up our seats the next morning and getting a $700 voucher! And then we're home. Whew! Can you believe it?

2000 Days of Matt & Audree

Stop Motion Wedding Invite 2000 from mattandaudree on Vimeo.


This wedding invite video is so fun.  I love it (and Hall & Oates, you just can't go wrong).  My gosh, people are just so stinking creative.  And talented! I just love it.

You can view their gorgeous Malibu wedding here & here via 100 Layer Cake.
ps. another video wedding invite

Today is my grandfather's Birthday, or would be. At 92, he lost his battle with prostate cancer last year, the day before our wedding.  A man like they don't make any more, my grandfather was heroic.  He was noble, kind, generous, and full of integrity, and full of life. He was proud of his family: of his wife of his children, of his grandchildren, of his heritage, of the life he lead. He built homes with his hands, and a home with his heart. He served in the military, in the home, in the church, in the community.  
My life was spent learning from him: learning cards, dominoes, German, our family history, and all kinds of life lessons.  He paid each grandkid $20 to read Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation because he felt it so strongly represented him and what he lived through, and was so important that we know about those times.  He cut articles out of the newspaper he thought we needed to read and mailed them to us;  we would have to initial them, and then send them along to the next grandchild to do the same. He cared so much that we make good decisions and do the right thing. He was an amazing father, and a terrific grandfather. We still celebrate you Grandpa, and are thinking of you today especially.

Pick Ben F.!

I'm embarrassed to say how very into The Bachelorette I am.  It's more than a guilty pleasure, it's a guilty obession. I'm so excited  that I squeal through it, and am sad when each episode is over and I have to wait another week to see what will happen next.  

I am, OF COURSE, pulling for Ben F., the winemaker from Sonoma (who also grew up in San Diego!).

photos:  abc.com

Video Wedding Invite

How amazing is this wedding invite??  I can't even imagine how long that took, and I love every second of it. I wish I was as creative as some people!

(Via A Cup Of Jo  (Via Gangsta Bride))

Nothing to do with space after all

Last month we spent the weekend in Seattle to watch and celebrate my littlest brother-in-law graduate from college.  My two brothers-in-laws live together in Queen Anne in this darling little house, and the whole fam shoved in for the weekend. Tons of fun, we went out and shopped downtown, bought a bunch of crabs and cooked a big crab dinner, we went out on the town; we played and celebrated all weekend!  Congratuations Matt, and a big well-done. Next up: putting it to use.

(cutest ever, and taken by Sarah Mannus.)

Upswept hair and a beige lace top seem the perfect re-entry to the week after a lovely weekend away in the woods.  This week will be spent in very un-sensible heels before doing it again in a different set of woods next weekend, but what fun it was to walk in the giant trees, wine taste in the tiny city, and take a dog to swim in the just-right lake, and be in love.

Happy Father's Day to all the great dad's out there, especially to these two:

Mark and Mike, you have been incredible sources of encouragement, guidance, support, and love. We are who we are because of you.  

Thanks Dads, and happy Father's Day!!  Beware of banana slugs and barking spiders.  We love you!!

110,000 to 0

In October we will be heading across the seas for two weeks of adventure, starting in Berlin, then Prague before Vienna.   30, you're not what I thought you'd be, but you're starting to look up.

promises, promises

I just found my vows to Andy in the handbag I used yesterday!  I almost thought they were gone forever, along with our guest book pages-- all those special words from friends-- and so many other things from our wedding that we never got back. I hand-wrote them and tore the page out from my journal (so was only carrying a single folded paper in the pocket of my wedding dress); I didn't have another copy.  I had resigned to the fact that I had said them, promised them, meant them, and that those words would live on in practice, if not in physical form, but I see Andy's every day hanging on our kitchen message board.  Now my words will join his again, in holy matrimony, in our kitchen. 

I love how this One-For-One thing is taking off

Warby-Parker, Spex club, and now this from Tom's:

These are my choice:

Get them here.

Way to go Team.

shoe closet heaven

Moving makes me wish I owned nothing. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being. It does, however, serve as an excellent period of refocusing my wardrobe into what I love, need, and find myself actually wearing. The looming beginning of sharing a closet that in no way resembles the closet heaven pictured above, in an apartment that is probably similar to the size of the closet above is driving me to re-think every attachment to every single item I own.

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

--William Morris

Thanks Will, don't you just know.

Lucky.

I am a girl in love with a lot of things. Lucky for me, number one on that list is my fiance.