as addicting as Etsy?

Thank you {and curse you!} apartment therapy for introducing me to Ruffled!  Ruffled is the place where all the junk you 'favorited' {but didn't act quickly enough} in Etsy went--Mason jars, doilies, milk glass--that you can now claim!  Although geared toward brides and other wedding participants, Ruffled has a ton of cool stuff that doesn't have to be used for nuptial-ness {?}.

Clearly best suited for a wedding gown, but I am loving this Temperley dress for special occasion!

These rose garlands would be adorable in a girl's nursery or birthday party. Or, um, my room! Sorry Gabriel.

And these vintage crates are super handy and versatile for around the house. I have one storing tp in our newly remodeled bathroom {still no post on that--procrastinator!} but could use a few more on my bookshelf in my office to store craft supplies.

Check it out and let me know what you think!  I haven't gone through all the listings yet, but I'm inspired to get my dresses I wore as a bridesmaid cleaned and post them for sale.  Tiffany blue is still hot, right?

honing the wardrobe

Today's outfit is a perfect example of my true style and how I wish I dressed everyday.  Why don't I dress the way I want to everyday, you ask??  The answer is simple: I don't know!  I suppose laziness has a lot to do with it, but it could also be that my work environment is not conducive to arriving in my ideal ensembles. 

I finally found the perfect {read: doesn't make me look butch} denim jacket and black knit maxi skirt!!!!!  Both have been on my shopping list forever, so it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood when I got to check them off.

 

 

jacket Lucky Brand, sweatshirt J.Crew, maxi skirt Express, necklace vintage {gift}, gold ring Express, gold bangles Love Culture, gold and black friendship bracelet Express, leather "Bowie" cuff custom, nail polish OPI's a good man-darin is hard to find

I was so comfortable and happy with my outfit, that I didn't bother styling my hair or putting on makeup.  A quick blow-dry and some chapstick and eyebrow gel {daily essentials!} and I was out the door.  You can't see my shoes, but I'm wearing my coveted Camden brogues from J.Crew and some J.Crew mauve trouser socks.  All these pieces are super versatile, and this skirt is so cozy I want to nap right now.  I also bought a longer maxi with a less casual waistband from Express to wear with heels.  Love!

spring is here. officially.

Gabe and I spent all day Saturday 'Spring cleaning,' and oh man what a difference it made!  We're not completely finished, but already our home feels lighter, happier, refreshed, and it begged to be redecorated.  Seeking inspiration yesterday, I grabbed my bible and started absorbing.  I can always count on domino to pull through for me. Always!

One piece in particular I was hoping to learn how to liven up was my IKEA Docksta table {ya know, the Eero Saarinen tulip table lookalike}, because where I had it placed was not working.  While reading the chapter on entry rooms, it hit me.  I decided to swap my beloved vintage heavy green chest {an old craigslist find from Iceland!} that was next to my front door with the Docksta table I had in the dining room.

Voila!  The chest--which stores all of our games, wine corks, and candles--works fabulously as a buffet, and looks pretty sophisticated with the extra dining chairs flanking it.  And the green next to the red hutch is so gorgeous. 

The Docksta in the front room works beautifully.  Although it is wider than the chest, it feels like it takes up less space.  Most of the pieces in this room are rectangular and boxy--including our new chaise from IKEA {a major score last weekend in the As-is section!!}--and the round table breaks up and lightens the overall room.  I just love it.  Now all I need is a few bulbs of fragrant paperwhites in the tall cylinder vase on the green chest, and a short and full bouquet of fresh spring blooms in the entry way.  Hubby, are you reading this? ;)  Oh, and I can't wait to find better lampshades for both the lamp on the chest and on the entry table because I don't love the current ones. 

I have been coveting this bed since its debut, so yesterday I finally sprung for it.  After brunch, Gabe + I braved the weekend crowds at IKEA and picked it up, along with an adorable outdoor patio set {but that's another post}.  To my surprise and excitement, the bed only cost $99!  For some reason I had thought it was twice that, but no.  Only a bill.  Sweet! 

We didn't buy the slats that support the mattress, so we used the boxspring from our guest bedroom, which made our bed super tall and hotel-like.  I am not sure I love it being so high, although I always said I wanted a high bed, so I am living with it for a week before I decide whether or not to go back, get the slats, and ditch the boxspring.  And one of these days I will have matching, or at least coordinating, bed linens like a grown-up.  lol

Still haven't unveiled our master bath renovation, because the decorating is taking longer than expected...soon, I'll post some before + afterish photos. In other big reno-news, we ordered all new dual pane energy efficient windows and sliders for our whole house!  This is our next big project that will definitely produce major results.

What's the last thing you did to make your home happy?

reconnecting with my city

Although I love daydreaming of living in far away lands, spending weekends in nearby destination spots, and every book I have read as of late is about traveling, I really enjoyed staying locally this weekend. 

Friday kicked off with dinner at home with our friend Abby, which was a delight.  She just returned from a quick trip to NYC and brought us back some goodies from Mario Batali's Eataly!  We stayed up til after midnight gabbing and drinking wine, while Gabe kept the fire stoked and nodded off a few times... ;)

Saturday started with a baby shower for our friend Jill, who is due with her first baby {a girl!} in February.  The party went by pretty quickly, but there were good people, good food, great gifts, pink everywhere, and entertaining kids.  I was really bad and ate both a slice of super chocolaty cake and a strawberry cupcake.  Oink.

After I returned home from the shower, since it was still early in the day and I was all cute and stuff, I asked Gabe if he would like to go see a movie.  While he showered and got ready, I browsed the in-theaters titles and found nothing of interest.  Plan B.  We decided instead to park in the hub of downtown and take part in Sacramento's Second Saturday festivities on foot.  So fun!  And, while Gabe was putting together his outfit, he said to me, and I quote, "I can wear my Jack Tack!"  He too loves EmersonMade.  So, we both wore a Jack Tack.  Prepare to gag from cuteness:

here

The streets surrounding the main J St. were bustling with people; musicians played on street corners, artists peddled their goods, the weather was perfectly cool, and we could feel the holiday cheer in the air.  On various streets were vendor booths, one of which had handmade art from Ghana, where we picked up this number:

 love my Eataly tote! {thanks, ab}

Ten percent of the proceeds help fund the building of orphanages in Ghana, which made the painting even more special.  It now hangs as part of our growing collection, framing {read: distracting from}our flat screen.

We also scored a ton of CDs from this seriously bad-ass new music store.  Musician hubby even thought it was bad-ass, so you know it's good.  Yes, we still buy CDs; no I don't think they're old school.  Gabe was thrilled to find Nick Drake, and also picked up Cream, Sonic Youth, and Tom Waits.  I got The Helio Sequence, The Black Keys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and two Grant-Lee Phillips albums.

The guys running the place were totally cool {a refreshing change from the depressed emo clichés found in most other stores around downtown}, and thanked us a bunch for checking out their store.  Dude even gave us a muslin tote for our goods!  We'd picked up a flyer for this store a couple weeks ago at a downtown cafe and then kinda forgot about it until we walked by--and we're so glad we stopped in. If you are local, you have to check out this place.  They told us they get new stuff in all the time, so we're planning a budget to see when we get to go back...their prices are awesome...we just go a little nuts in music stores.

All this shopping made us hungry, so we discussed our options.  We wanted to be able to walk to a restaurant, since it was only seven o'clock and the weather was so nice, and wouldn't you know it, before crossing the street from the crowded rainbow district corner, we were handed a booklet by a woman wearing a large sign.  She told us the booklet specifies great vegetarian/vegan restaurants in and around the city.  Amazing.  She was like our vegan fairy!  We talked to her for a bit, about how we had just adopted a plant-based diet only a month ago, and she encouraged us to check out the Vegetarian Meetup Group because they have a great forum and do monthly events like potlucks and movie screenings.  I already had joined Sac's Vegan Meetup, but her group seemed better connected, so I will have to check it out. 

We crossed a few blocks, rounded a few corners, and made our way to Zócalo restaurant.  The place was so alive with a live band playing right inside the entrance, people seated at every table and swarming the giant bar, so we initially thought there was no way we were getting a table.  Wrong.  We were sat immediately and served quickly. 

I love this place.  The food is so delicious {consistently!}, the service is awesome, the decor and lighting are very warm and inviting, and it's just an overall hoppin' place.  We ordered a couple of beers and the guacamole to start.  Our server also brought us their housemade trio of salsas and beans with chips.

For dinner, we ordered what I thought was their only vegan dish besides the guac: a vegetarian burrito without cheese or sour cream.  {Note: as I am typing this and linking the restaurant's website, I found this article; good to know for next time!}  Since we were splitting the burrito, the kitchen had sliced it on the bias and placed each half in separate bowls, with fresh pureed salsa pooling at the base of the bowls. 

It also came with cilantro rice and black beans that we added to our burrito bowls, and heaped the remaining guac on top.  Seriously yummy.  Our table was located right next to the bar, so we were surrounded by large groups of friends meeting up, and even ran in to a few friends of our own.  We had clearly picked the right place to dine that night.

We were thankful for the long walk back to our truck after dinner.  The weather was still nice, albeit a bit chillier, and on the way there was still music playing at open-door shops and shoppers shopping on every street.  Second Saturday in Sacramento sees police officers strolling and chatting in small groups with coffee cups in hand, dogs {we saw a husky!} on walks with their masters, teenagers being loud and obnoxious in equally loud clothing + hairstyles, the smell of mj wafting through the air, music, food, and art...We need to go more often.  There's no excuse for not going.  It's free.  It's local.  It's fantastic.

Luckily we have a five disk CD player at home, because we couldn't decide which album to play first.  Since I loaded the player, I got to choose.  The Helio Sequence.  Blasting. 

Gabe made a fire in the fireplace and we both passed out in the living room next to it and the furry children. 

It's fun to go out, but it is always nice to come home.

We were the typical married couple on Sunday:  Gabe cleaned out the garage and emptied the pool while I lazed around the house, only getting around to washing one load of laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and surfing the web.  Leftovers for lunch and dinner.

And now it's the start of the work week.  Happy Monday, friends!  How was your weekend spent?

our halloween party: continued

I'm on to a new {major!} project that is taking up all of my free time outside of work, so it has taken me a week to post the photos I promised you...a week? I know!  That's an eternity in Blogland.

Our party was surprisingly low-key this year.  More kids than young adults {our age}, which gave our party a different kind of energy, but a good different.  Kids bring their imagination and ability to entertain themselves, which in turn, entertains the adults.  They participated in our games and turned the area underneath our bar into a 'secret fort,' providing shelter from their make-believe enemies.  It was great.

The games we had this year went over well:

blindfolded pin-the-widow-on-her-web

kids' fort

 

I made the spider web out of green duct tape, and bought a couple packs of Martha Stewart's paper spiders with sticky dots.  There was a little table set up by the web where the kids could write their names with silver sharpies on the black spiders, then I would blindfold them {with a quick DIY blindfold made from Gabriel's pants legs leftover from a recent cut-off-shorts-craze he was on}, spin them around once, and well, you know how to play.  At the end of the night, I gave out three prizes to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners who got closest to the center of the web.  Since we had a garden theme for the party, two winners received a cute gardening apron and a set of gardening gloves, tied together with Halloween ribbon, and the third winner received a small gardening shovel and two pots of vegetable garden kits, also adorned with Halloween ribbon.  Since all the winners of this game were girls, it worked out well.

The pictures I took of the other games unfortunately didn't come out.  We had a large mason jar with live earthworms that guests had to guess how many were in there.  Gabe used a large jar to mislead people, and it worked.  Looking on the sheet, since the worms only covered the bottom two or three inches of the jar, people were guessing around ten worms.  Only one kid {again, imagination!} guessed the correct number, which was sixty!  Remember Dino?  Yep, he guessed it, so he won a pack of all-black playing cards and a pack of golf balls.  He was ecstatic.  Not exactly garden-related gifts, but they were cheap and I was impulsive on my last trip to Michael's craft store...

There was also a kids' table set up with like twelve mason jars in varying sizes, filled halfway with warm water for the kids to drop little capsules in to grow spooky Halloween sponges.  This was the first place they all ran to when they got to the party.  There was also a coloring book and planting pot of crayons in case any of the younger kids wanted to color, but I think there was too much excitement for a dedicated task like coloring.  Some of the teenagers were glued to the couches, too cool to join the little kids' adventures, so I threw them a tube of glow sticks  and told them to crack/assemble/scatter them around the house.  This actually worked!  They were actually fighting over them.  Funny kids.

We also had the electronic dart board set up and of course, the costume contest voting station.  The three categories this year were as follows:  Sexiest, Most Bizarre, and Most Creative.  I included these categories on the invitations I sent out early in the month, to help guests decide on their costumes if they were trying to win the contest.  Some folks need competitive inspiration, you know.  I just look for any excuse to dress up, personally, and could care less if I receive any recognition.  But with these categories this year, I was secretly hoping people would put more creative thought into their costumes and perhaps DIY rather than BUY. 

And the winners were...

 Most Bizarre:  my pop.  an insane asylum patient all dressed up for the party

 Most Creative:  Dean.  a Pan's Labyrinth faun

Sexiest:  Me. a plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament. However,

I didn't want to recieve a prize, so I awarded the second place {secretly!}

winner:  new sister-in-law Sarah.  a 'sexy bitch'

My favorite costumes are the ones that involve face and body paint.  We saw a wood-nymph, Tony Stark/Ironman, retired leatherhead, retired cheerleader, and a kitty.  

The food was a hit.  Everything I made and bought was given a garden name, and I even used real garden tags to label the food.

 

We had:

• pruners puffs  -  green olives rolled in puff pastry and baked; they looked like eye balls in puffy sockets, and were actually delicious.
• compost cookies  -  homemade chocolate chip cookies with pretzels and tortilla chips shoved in the tops {inspired by these}
• potting mix  -  chocolate pudding cups topped with crushed Oreo cookie crumbles and sour gummi worms
• harvested hummus  -  just that, hummus
• pumpkin seeds  -  again, just roasted pumpkin seeds that Gabe made using the guts from our friends' pumpkin carving party
• overgrown vines  -  red vines
• bones of the garden  -  my new obsession; Snyder's hot buffalo wing flavored pretzel pieces {seriously, try them.}
• cultivated chili  -  homemade veg chili
• compost tea  -  Kool-aid, ginger ale, + water; mixing grape and orange flavor packets together makes a brown/black colored drink

And others brought red velvet cupcakes, chips/bread, spinach + artichoke dip, and wine.  We had plenty of grub and plenty of libations.  There was vodka that the adults could add to the compost tea {although the vodka remained unopened, surprisingly}, lots of wine, sparkling water, and lots of beer.  We still have beer leftover, which is an entirely new experience for us after a party.  {P.S. We are not responsible for that bottle of Sutter Home white zin you see in that first pic. Just gonna throw that out there...}

Here are a few randoms from the night:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, our furry children also wore garden-themed costumes.  Bowie was our evidence-hider, and Ziggy was a pinwheel, which I made for her in about two seconds out of post-it notes and a thumbtack at my desk.

All of our costumes were pretty simple to make this year.  The only time-consuming piece was my flamingo wings.  I converted a set of fairy wings using 'pink flamingo' duct tape for the feathers and lemongrass for the feathers' spines {?}.  The third photo in my last post shows the green duct tape grass blades I made to wear around my ankles, suggesting I was stuck in the grass.  I bought the pink bodysuit from American Apparel, since I didn't have any luck finding one at thrift stores, and the tights I picked up at Target, and look forward to wearing them again this winter cuz they're cozy sweatery tights.

I attached an elastic band to a wig that matched Gabe's hair perfectly for his garden gnome beard {a friend + I picked it up at a yard sale years ago, joking that one of us would dress up as Gabe for Halloween one year}, and removed the white fur from a Santa's hat we picked up at a thrift store and made his gnome hat with a little added support from a thick-paper junk mail flyer.  The turtleneck and pants were also thrift store finds, and he already had the belt and boots on hand.

Regarding the first and fourth photos from my last post, I made little party favors for the guests to grab on their way out using  toilet/paper towel rolls, spray paint, a silver sharpie marker, and candy!

They looked like little bats with pointed ears. 

We handed out the leftovers to trick-or-treaters.

Gabe's decorations inside and outside of our house were, as always, the talk of the party and the town.  Literally.  On Halloween night when we sat outside and handed out candy, we heard several parents who were taking their kids around tell one another that they drive by our house everyday and slow down to look at all the decorations.  We go all out for this {and only this} holiday. 

 

 

Gabe made the Martha-inspired spider sacks out of nylons, batting, expando-foam, and fake spiders.  He also made the raven perches using chain, spray paint, paper rolls, and some leftover paper ravens from last year's party.  And, he made that silhouette of the girl {me!} holding a pair of garden shears out of foam board and spray paint.  On Halloween night, he set up a strobe light that flashed behind the silhouette, making it look like it was moving, which scared the hell out of both kids and teenagers that walked by our house.  Everything else we decorated with inside and out was junk we had on hand.  We hardly spent any money and had an excellent response.  That's our kinda party!

We probably would find our true calling in a town like Salem, Massachusetts.  Who knows?  Maybe we will someday...

...Now, back to my major project.  Have a splendid weekend!

Monday morning. Gas tank on E. Happy.

This past weekend was a blasty blast.  Gabe + I spent the whole weekend together, complete with a party, yard sale hopping, garden grilling, bike riding, UNO, Korean BBQing, and a trip to Sonoma for brunch + hiking!

Friday night we went to our friends' house for their son's 2nd birthday + his cousin's 5th birthday = a ton of people: kids, family, friends, etc. It was fun seeing all the kids with their party hats on, playing with their new toys, and the guys huddled in the kitchen, keeping in close proximity to the beer-stocked cooler. 

Saturday we had blueberry muffins + coffee for breakfast, then hit up the good neighborhoods for their yard sales.  We didn't find anything really worth sharing, except a food processor with all the original attachments for $2.50!  Oh, and a vintage leather Kenneth Cole satchel for $3.00.  I guess those are worth sharing.  Mid afternoon is when people started packing things up, so we headed home for a late lunch using goodies from  our garden {tomatoes, squash, zucchini, herbs, cayenne peppers} and from others' gardens {tomatillos, herbs, fennel}, plus Parmesan, feta, cheddar cheese, kalamata olives, BBQ sauce and flour tortillas to make garden pizzas on our pizza stone on the grill. 

Oh my goodness were those delicious.  After lunch we packed our new {yard-sale find} knit blanket + UNO card game, grabbed our bikes and rode across town to a park we had a picnic at years ago near the duck pond.  We had the whole park to ourselves most of the time, and I was kicking his ass at UNO.  Good times.  After a couple hours, we rode back home, showered, and got ready to go eat a late dinner at a new place: Oz Korean BBQ. 

 

In all seriousness, this place is now my favorite place to eat in Sac.  Gabe + I have been excited to try Korean bbq and soju ever since watching Zane Lamprey on Three Sheets in South Korea.  Did any of you ever watch this show?  It used to be on the Mojo network, then moved to Fine Living, but we only watched the seasons on DVD.  It's the best travel show on television.  Anyway, this restaurant was like party central + we can't wait to gather a big group of friends to go with us next time.

Sunday was just as fulfilling.  We drove to Sonoma Valley and enjoyed an amazing brunch at the girl and the fig {one of my fav restaurants!} of eggs benedict + mimosa for me, and steak and eggs + coffee for Gabe.  In the photo our server took of us, I somehow came out looking four times larger than Gabe {the wrong angle maybe? hopefully?}, so I will only share with you the photos I took of our plates.  Much safer.

Poached eggs are my new favorite food.  And I believe I will eat anything that is covered in hollandaise.  Good hollandaise, that is.  And trust me, this was good hollandaise.  After brunch, there was no way we were in any condition to just start hiking, so we strolled around town for a bit.  The square was packed with people, ducks, and limos.  On a Sunday?  Really?

 

 

 

That male mallard was so perfect, he looked fake.  We must have taken a few dozen pictures of these ducks, but when a dude came up next to us toting pro camera equipment, we took our leave.  {Note: I'm asking for a nice camera + lenses for Christmas. Cross your fingers I get my wish so you'll be able to look at better quality photos on my blog}. 

The state park Gabe picked out for us to hike was about a twenty minute drive from Sonoma's bustling center.  The drive was surprising in that one minute we went from passing well-kept farmhouses on dry acreage to custom homes nestled in lush green foliage.  It was insane.  Gabe kept asking, "What do these people do for a living?!"  I wondered the same.  And also wondered if we could weasel our way into becoming best friends with a couple of them.  Possible, yes. Likely, no.  The most surprising home looked like an impressive replica of Frances Mayes's Bramasole in Cortona, Italy. 

 

 

Wow.  If you lived here, you wouldn't need to go on vacation. 
Just up the road from this home was where we stopped to hike at Sugarloaf Ridge, to a place called Bald Mountain.  The trails were a combination of lush greenery providing ample shade and stale hot sun-drenched spots where temperatures were a good 10° hotter than in the shade.  We hiked for a few hours, although, thanks to my asthma, we didn't make it to the top of Bald Mountain, but we did get a good view of it and understood the reason for its name.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't so much the exercise that piqued my interest, but rather the breathtaking views and gnarly tree- and lizard- sightings.   The only sounds around us were the rustling of leaves as the lizards hid, the nearly dry creek, and gun shots from a yonder shooting range.  The gun shots definitely broke our peaceful enjoyment of our natural surroundings, but admittedly added a jolt of excitement.

Upon returning home, we grabbed the dogs and headed over to Gabe's dad's house for a cousin playdate, since we were taking care of his two dogs while he's on vacation.  They swam, play-fought, swam some more, and wore themselves out.  We stopped by Blockbuster on our way home {yes, they still exist} and picked up three random movies.  Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn turned out to be surprisingly good.  New York, I Love You was good, but not as good as Paris, je t'aime, which we own and really enjoy.  We finished both before passing out, and have yet to watch the third movie we rented, 9 by Tim Burton.  We both are big fans of Tim Burton, and something about October puts me especially in the mood for his artistry.   

If I would have elaborated on each meal and movie, this post would have ended up ten times as long.  Did I mention the hollandaise?  I believe I did.  I'll stop there.  How was your weekend??