Farewell 2010

Last picture of 2010!

Well guys, I couldn't leave the year with my last post being about Halloween.

Just didn't feel right. This year's end has been so full of 

new things, new blessings, new people and love. I'm not going to

apologize for my absence but only say that I hope to 

do a little bit better this next year with updating more. I love

having a blog but it most definitely comes second

when life is a bit crazy. I'm so thankful for the all of the good, 

the trials, and the learning that 2010 has brought our way. I look forward

to the new year and everything that will be coming up. 

May the L-rd bless you and keep you.

May the L-rd make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.

May the L-rd lift up His countenance upon you, and give you Shalom peace.

Happy New Year! 2011! :)

Last little family picture. :)

Happy Halloween?

I am probably going against the masses in saying this buuut....

I'm not much of a Halloween person. At all really. 

I enjoy going to the parties and stuff to see everyone

else's costumes but as for me dressing up,

not so much into it. Same with all of the Halloween

home decor, not for me. I love fall so much

and pumpkins and weathered leaves.. mmmmmm baby. But 

not the spooky stuff. Sorry if that makes you 

sad. Hehe. :) In spite of all that, Paul and I went to a 

party on Friday and dressed up as burglars (because

we didn't really have to buy anything new, just 

wear all black) and had a really great time with some of my 

closest friends. We wore black masks,

I carried my airsoft gun and 

Paul had some of my pearls and gold neclases

hanging out of his pockets. :) 

Anyway, I hope that you are all having a fun, safe

Halloween weekend.

Must. Travel.

I have been feeling this intense desire to travel these past few weeks. More 

than the usual "I've got to visit somewhere pretty right now" thing.

But why does traveling have to cost so much? Such is life.. I despise money.

It's okay though because I live in a really pretty house, on a great street

with a big window to look out onto. I will travel soon. And I want to go here..

I want to breathe in cold, crisp air, I want to see trees that have been

there for over 100 years, I want to eat fantastically delicious, fresh food,

I want to feel the chill of the wind on my skin and

just be still there. 

Maybe this spring. :)

Well..

I was going to start out this post by saying sorry again for my absence..

but then I decided that I need to stop doing that. If I am able to blog,

then I will and if I can't because I'm busy living my life, then I won't. Easy, simple. 

I'm not going to feel guilty whenever I think about this thing,

knowing I haven't updated in a while. Done. :)

Here are a bunch of random things that have been happening
as of late in a list because I don't feel like
using complete sentences.. hehe. :)

-busy with work(s)
-in September, my love and I celebrated 6 years together

-my sweet friends, Chelsea and Brandon, got married -- and I danced for hours

-remembered, partook in and celebrated a few High Holy Days

-got a perm.. yes, I really did
-became very afraid of the perm
-perm relaxed.. A LOT
-fell in love with the perm and became a little too obsessed
-friendsies visited and stayed with us :)
-moved from brewing sun tea to hot tea
-have been successfully shopping, cooking and eating vegan for the past month or more
-feelin' well, eatin' well
-my love is moving to a new position in his job in two weeks
-listening to Christmas music for the past week and a half (I can't help myself)
....
I think that's it. :)

Before I go, I wanted to share this video. I am a huuuge lover of music
and one of my favorite musicians is Feist and she just so
happens to be coming out with a documentary in the next week or so.
I'm pretty excited. Very excited. Are you?

Bulletproof weekend.

I didn't realize that I haven't blogged in two-ish weeks, that's a long time. Yeesh.

So here I am, blogging.. but ironically enough, I don't know really

know where to start. I've been pretty busy. School is back in session which is 

good and not so good. Good because we have new five year old chicken 

noodle babies that are cuter than you can imagine and they 

have rejuvenated me and given me a new purpose in my job and not

so good because (even though I love my job) I'd really like to be doing my own

thing at home. It's selfish but completely honest. Sorry. 

Last weekend was Chelsea's bachelorette party in Las Vegas. It was my first real

time going to that huge crazy city and I think it's totally right on for

me to say that my mind was fully blown there. Such a loud and crazy place 

and I really loved it. Not to mention the good company that I was with

made it all the better. I didn't know if I was going to mention this

but since the bride herself has openly come out with it

on Facebook.. I will tell you here. The first night, all of gals got dressed up and 

went out. We at sushi, we walked all over the place, we danced 

to our hearts' content, laughed until make up was running down our faces 

(mostly just my face) and walked back to our hotel. After we got

back, we thought it would be a good idea to dance some more to some

fun tunes in the hotel room. Chelsea and four other girls got

on the bed and were jumping and dancing away...

...the four girls landed..

..and petite Chelsea was launched off of the bed..

..hit the wall..

..hard, with her little noggin..

..and spent the night in the emergency room with a concussion.

The end!

Haha, just kidding.. that wasn't the end. Chelsea was such a 

trooper and I can gladly report that she 

has since recovered but let me tell you (!)... that was one crazy night

and one crazy weekend that I will never forget. I haven't

had that much nonstop, 3 day fun in a long time. 

Thank you girls. And in honor of Chelsea's little noggin and

big crazy concussion, I will leave you with thee

song that will forever have a special place in our hearts and minds..

..the song that we were dancing to BCF (before Chelsea fell).

Enjoy. :)

"This time babyy, I'll beeeeee BULLETPROOF!"

Marcel, the shell with the shoes on.

Hi. This is so adorable and funny and adorably funny, that I had to share it with you..

and it made my Thursday. 

P.s. Today is 09.02.10 .....

90210! Haha, I think that's very funny.

Last day of freedom.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work with the school district..
and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I am excited
to see the kids but not excited about the
daily grind of working and all. I really have enjoyed my
summer vacation. So since today was my last day of
summer, my darling and I decided to spend the day in our
favorite place: Pasadena. It was the perfect day. I'd say it was
almost comparable to this day. The weather was completely
out of the norm of this past week, so cool, clear and breezyyyy.
Loved it. We enjoyed lunch at Noah's Bagels and coffee at
Peet's and then went to the happiest place on earth,
Anthropologie. (Did you think I was going to say
Disneyland? Hehe.)
We spent a great deal of time in there. I'm glad that
Paul likes to look at everything too and sit and
read their books. Remind me next time NOT to try on
pretty clothes that I don't intend on buying -- bad idea.
I did buy myself a little something though and got to use my
15% off birthday coupon, yay! That made me happy.
We then walked around and shopped in some other pretty stores
and then sat in Barnes and Noble and read for
a while. We love doing that. :) It was so relaxing.
We came home and I made us dinner and we enjoyed a glass
of wine and we talked. And talked. We talked deeply
about our future, the L-rd and what He is doing for us,
and what we want to see happen in the months coming.
My husband is a very deep thinker and I love to hear
his mind unravel. It's so beautiful.
Then Chad came over for a visit and talked about school,
girls, jobs and his life.. I love when I get the
big run-down of what's been going on in his life since we
last chatted. He's pretty great.

And now it is time for bed. The summer is officially over.
G'night.

Fried Zucchini Flowers

These beautiful little sweeties are in my top 3 most most most favorite foods.
They are incredibly easy to make, it's just a shame that they are so
hard to find in regular grocery stores. You can find them in specialty food stores,
we get ours at Claremont's farmer's market. I have to be sure to get there
early because they go quickly in the morning, they are quite
the popular item. Now, these pictures aren't very fancy or good quality because I hadn't
really intended on taking pictures. But in the midst of making them,
I decided to whip out the camera so I could share them with you because they are
just that tasty.

Fried Zucchini Flowers

• Fresh zucchini flowers
• Flour, 1 cup
  
• Cold water, 1 cup
  
• 1 egg
• Veggie oil, 2-3 cups (extra virgin olive oil will do just fine as well)
• Salt

Heat the oil in a pan. It needs to be hot enough to be able to fry the flowers to a golden brown color. (I like to toss a little piece of bread in before to make sure it's at the right temp. If it floats to the top and starts frying nicely, you're there. But if it starts to burn right away, turn the heat down...I guess that's kind of obvious. Hehe.) Pull out the stamen from each flower before dipping in the batter (this takes a few minutes). Wisk together the flour, water and egg until smooth, no lumps. Gently dip the flowers in the batter, letting the excess run off into the bowl. Put into the oil and let fry 2-3 minutes on each side. When they are ready to come out, put them on a plate with a paper towel to drain the excess oil. Salt immediately! And enjoy. :)

There is so much you can do with these flowers. They are great just
by themselves with salt but they also taste great dipped in ponzu sauce or soy sauce.
You can also put a small block of parmesan cheese in the center of each
flower before frying, yuummmm... or any kind of cheese mixture. Make a tomato
dipping sauce too! Paul and I have enjoyed them many times and look
forward to asking the farmer every Sunday, if he has
any flowers left.

Flowers in the Window.

These white lisianthus are also from the Claremont farmers market. (I kind of love
lisianthus.) Pretty cute with the pink tips.. and they lasted so long!

That's Mr. de Partee in the background, watering the lawn. Cute.

P.s. He texted me this today:
"6 years ago today I was in class and wrote a letter telling you that I loved you.:)"
He never did give it to me. He took me to Pasadena and told me a month later...to the day.
:)

Yesterday.

Paul worked yesterday, which is not normal for a Saturday, he normally has weekends
off.. so that left me with the day to myself. I woke up late, lounged around the
house, read, gave myself a manicure, got ready and took myself
to the movies to see Eat Pray Love. Just me, and it was perfect, the perfect day.
I felt like the picture looks up above: alone, peaceful, free. The
movie was exactly what I was in the mood for, almost two and a half hours of
pure goodness. I want to go to Bali. I almost feel like I need to go to Bali.. the movie
makes you feel like you do anyway. I hope that you go see this movie,
and that your mouth waters over the food in Italy the way
mine did. I'm trying to think up a time that I can go watch the movie
again.. but this time, I'll take my husband.

Happy Sunday to you. :)

Better late than never.

This little card was sent to my parents' house for me, for my birthday.
I look forward to my birthday card from Anthro every year
because they always write something sweet and cheerful and include
a little gift (like this birthday candle necklace). Now I have to figure out what
I'm going to buy.. 15% off... that's pretty good if you ask me. :)

The weekend is over.

This weekend was so busy but so so so so fantastic. Mal drove down Friday
and stayed with us for the weekend, which is always the highlight.
Saturday was Chelsea's bridal shower. It was a bridal wonderland and
I can't believe how beautiful it was. It was a lot of planning
and hard work but it was so worth it to see her face when she walked
in. I'm honored to be able to stand by her side on her
special day. The day (and the weekend) went by so so quickly. It was
great to have everyone together. Mal and I went to the movies
on Saturday night and drove around in the late evening,
going to places that we used to frequent in our late
teens and early twenties (I say that like I'm 45 or something, but it
felt so nostalgic, fun, exciting, scary...). Then, Sunday morning
breakfast in Claremont and then we waved goodbye and Mal
went back home. Paul and I had a relaxing afternoon/evening, watching
Netflix, napping, grocery shopping, playing with
the doggies, etc. It went by so fast and the new week is almost here.
Tomorrow is my first day nannying at my new little
part time job. I'm pretty excited, a little nervous too.
Here are a couple of pictures from the shower on Saturday.

The beautiful outdoor living room.

Chelsea underneath the paper pom poms. (I made 15 of them, with a little help from
my friendsies.)

And this is the before picture. We were in the midst of taking
silly pictures (because we always do) and we didn't notice the spider on the back
white pillow.. do you see it?! It's a monstrosity.

And this is after.. once someone pointed out that it was in our midst, about to pounce.
By far, thee best picture of the day.

Happy Monday everyone. :)

Venticinco

I turned 25 a couple of days ago.. and I feel different. Every other time

I heard someone say they were 25, my initial thought was "Whoa, old". So when the day

came around for me to turn 25.. I'll be honest, I wasn't thrilled. In my own head

and heart, I still feel like a 15 year old girl in high school. (Can anyone relate?.. Pretty please?)

Now that I'm here, I feel good. I celebrated the day with my closest friends (missing

Mal and Jonathan of course), with family and my love. On the evening of my

actual birthday, I came home to a candlelit picnic in the living room

and a homemade dinner prepared for me by my love. It was beautiful, romantic,

lovely, yummy and everything I could have asked for.

So, all in all, 25 is feeling pretty good right about now. I am blessed.

Flowers in the Window.

These purple lisianthus were from the Claremont farmers market. They

have great deals on their flowers and a wonderful selection.

There were about four blooms when I brought them home and almost 15

blooms by end of their time in the window. Lovely!

June 18th

My darling husband turned 29 in June, he's so handsome.. .. .. Anyway, the day

was incredibly beautiful: the weather, the breeze, the sky. I planned a surprise outing

in L.A. (Los Feliz area) and did the things he loves most. We went to

Skylight Books, have you ever been there? It's worth the trip out there to visit.

There is a beautiful tree that grows in the middle of the store

that you can sit around and read. Paul is a major bookworm, so we really

enjoyed exploring the store, grabbing books off the shelves and sitting under the

tree to relax and read.

We walked around and shopped a bit and then headed down the street for dinner

at Alcove. I think this was the highlight of the day. Originally, Alcove

was a duplex built in the early 1900's that was completely renovated into this glorious

restaurant. There are so many little details that we both really appreciated

and their food was so yummy. We think about it often and want to go back real

real soon! Oh, and their baked goods... Oh My Gosh!

I was really bummed that we didn't get a 29. :/

After dinner, we got a chocolate cream cupcake and coffee to go for later. We

drove around the hilly neighborhoods and looked at the massive

houses and picked out the ones that we liked best. When we were done, we

headed over to Griffith Park to enjoy our dessert.

That was our nice day.. and I want to go back.

Praying for Daisy

A while back, I posted something about a little girl named Daisy with cancer.

Her dad is Britt Merrick who is the pastor of Reality Carpenteria,

and I have grown up listening to him preach. Less than 2 months ago, Daisy

was declared cancer free and she and her family rejoiced. Last week,

they discovered that the tumor was back. The above video is Daisy's journey in the last

10 months. Please watch it, you will cry, but that's okay. She is now back in the hospital and needs prayer, for her and her family. My heart breaks for them

and I am asking that you join us in praying for this sweet little girl. The video

below is a video of Britt's latest message about what G-d is

doing in their lives. It's long but worth the time to watch.

Flowers in the Window.

When I first stepped foot into the living room of this house, my imagination
sent me on a flash forward to Christmas and I clearly pictured a
Christmas tree in the window. I love this window.
I think it's my favorite thing about the house. I knew I couldn't cover it up
with furniture or a t.v., there always needed to be something
pretty in front of it, something dainty. The decision was easy, fresh flowers
please. These white peonies were from Trader Joes.
Did anyone else notice that they carried these lovely things for about a month?
I bought two more bouquets after this one died. The farmers market
has had a great selection of flowers that I can't pass up,
so every Sunday morning, we come home with a new bundle of fresh flowers for
the front window.

Hi guys.

You know the feeling you get when you've been away from blogging for so long
that it makes it harder to come back to writing again? Well that was me,
for close to two months now. Unacceptable. I'm sure that I have been long forgotten, but
I hope that you will take me back... whoever you are. :)

We have lived in our little pink house for a little over a month now and we are
in heaven. We love it so much more than I can say. We are
pretty settled in, still hanging pictures on the bare walls but things are
coming along. The picture above was taken over a month ago and since then,
we have gotten a big area rug and hung some pictures on the walls. I'll
have to update with new pictures soon. So much has happened
but all I can say is that we are so so happy with where we
are. If I could extend my arms and wrap them around this little house,
I would immediately. I feel so blessed by what G-d has
given us and I don't want to take it for granted, not even for a minute.

I have decided to compile a short list of what has been going on in the past couple
of months:
we moved (obviously)
dinners in the backyard
Mal and Jonathan stayed at our house for 3 whole days
Paul turned 29 :)
BBQ with great friends
countless nights spent out on the porch
Dad's birthday dinner here
Father's Day in Claremont
Cheese Cave opening (and many visits since then)
bocce ball in the backyard
enjoyed the air conditioner
summer school (bleh)
spent the day in Los Feliz, ate at Alcove
family visited
went to Vegas for the day
4th of July BBQ fun with friendsies
Claremont farmers market every Sunday morning
and finally found a home church where we regularly attend every Saturday morning (!!!)

And that about sums it up. :)

It's a beautiful Sunday, the farmers market was nice this morning and we
decided, instead of spending the rest of our day inside, we are going to go to the beach.
I hope that you are all having a great weekend. I'll be backkk.

I don't even have enough time to write this post.

Tonight is the last night in our first home. We have been so busy with moving boxes and packing things up and going back and forth to the new and old house. We are so so excited to live in the little pink house that I haven't really thought about leaving the old and it made me a little sad. I took the day off today from work and my mom is going to help me finish putting contact paper on all the shelves and drawers. We have pretty much everything moved over except for the big furniture. We need more man power than I can give so tomorrow morning, some lovely fellows have offered to help.. and we are so grateful. :) We haven't set up internet in the new house yet (too busy to think about it) so I don't know when we'll be up in running again but I have been making sure to take pictures so I have some before and after photos. Hope you all have a lovely Memorial Day weekend. :)

Beer Batter Bread

This is just too easy not to try. I tried this recipe because my dear friend Jonathan Clark tried it first and found it to be successful. He got the recipe from from the William Sonoma Baking Cookbook. I have made this 2 other times and it was just splendid, super yummy with just butter or a little bit of strawberry jam. :) So here it is..

Beer Batter Bread

• 3 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
• 3 tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 bottle (12 fl oz) beer, unopened and at room temperature
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for serving

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. In a bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Open the beer and add it all at once and it should foam up. I used some orange creme beer because that's what I already had in our fridge and it turned out well. Stir the batter quickly until the ingredients combine. Your batter should be a little lumpy. Pour into the greased loaf pan and drizzle with the melted butter.

Bake until the top is crusty and a cake tester comes out of the center clean, about 35-40 minutes. Let the bread rest in the pan 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut a big ol' slice of that thing and dress it up with butta' and some jam. Jonathan mentioned that the left overs were just as good as the first slice. I can't say that we would know that seeing as our bread magically disappears the day it's made (with the help of some friends).. so no left overs for us.

I hope that you try it, love it and tell me all about it. :)

Afternooning

Freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade. "Yummy in the tummy" as my grandma would say.

Agenda for the weekend:
-Going on a date tonight with my Love. We're going to see Babies (please watch the trailer if you haven't already)!! I feel like I've waited forever for this to come out. :)
-Lily's 3rd birthday party. <3
-Packing for days and days.
-Hang out with some good friends.
-Watch Paul write his 15 page research paper (that is due Monday - oye).
-Finish reading my Real Simple magazine.

That's it. Happy weekend. :)

I'm growin' some scallions in our kitchen and they are coming along! This picture was taken 2 days ago..
you should see them now. I'll try to update on these little babies. I'm proud of them. Grow grow!!

I have not been a good mother to my blog child.

Has this been the longest lull in my blogging history or what? I think it's been days... weeks even? Yikes. Well geez, a lot is going on. I finally have pictures to post from our anniversary trip and pictures of food and recipes to put out there but for now I will start with just a short update. April and the start of May have been filled with work, school, Brother's 22nd birthday (gaijadgadfhi!!), hang outs, a tea party, concerts, a trillion loads of laundry, Mother's Day and.. oh yea.. we're moving! The latter is the most exciting for me. I cannot describe the feeling or say it enough. We aren't moving far, not far at all actually -- 6 or 7 blocks away to be exact. :) We will still be living in Lincoln Park Historic District but instead of living in a 1 bedroom duplex, we are going to be living in a 2 bedroom house (built in 1930) with a big backyard, a porch (!!), garage, ranunculus in the front and a big beautiful quiet street. I am going to do a separate post once we move in because I am just that excited, if you couldn't tell. We prayed diligently for our future home and G-d blessed us beyond what we could have imagined. We so don't deserve it.

So anyway, that's what has been keeping us busy and crazy these past few weeks. Our living room is full of boxes and I can say that I am definitely ready to be settled in.. but not for a couple more weeks. I vow to blog again very very soon with pictures and all.

Oh.. um p.s. The new house.. it's pink. Like powder pink. And before you make a face, I love it.

Sun-dazeeee

It's Sunday, the day that I have the house to myself and the day that I (normally) get things done around here. In going to bed last night, my plan was to sleep in and then get started with my day and my chores. There was laundry to be done, counters to be wiped down, dry dishes to be put away, a new Martha Stewart magazine to be read and my brother's birthday painting to be finished.. but but but, here I sit on the couch, at 3pm, in the very same place I have been since I woke up. What a shame. And all I have gotten done today is read my magazine and baked a new loaf of bread (and ate two slices)... oh an watched 10 Things I Hate About You, My Best Friend's Wedding and Man vs. Food. -- and I have enjoyed every moment of it. But the time has now come to get myself up, start the laundry, jump in the shower, clean things up and get ready for my darling husband's homecoming. I like him. :)

It's a short update, but it's all I got right now. The weekend is almost over.. hope you've had a good one.

Guys..

I'm feeling anxious about my lack of blogging lately. You know when you've been away for a while, not for any particular reason but just because life is happening, and there's always this little thought in the back of your head reminding you.. "you're blog.. is ... waiting.."? Well I've been feeling that and have thought that I need to sit down and crank out a totally awesomistic (that's a made up word circa 2002) and tubular blog post filled with pictures and witty things to say but but but, the pressure is just too much. I have yet to upload pictures from our San Francisco trip because our computer is confused so I think I'm going to have to do it at my parents' house, which is so tedious. All that to say, I'm sorry for the delay (I feel funny even saying that, as if there are peoples' lives in complete turmoil due to my absence .. ha) and I will be doing something soon. I have pictures to upload and lots of recipes to post, but, all in due time. Happy Tuesday? :)

Hi. Hello.

This has been sitting on my coffee table for close to 4 days now.. still unread.
--I hate being sick!

This is about the fourth or fifth time that I have started to write this entry, but I have had to stop or delete it because my body could not sit in the upright position any longer. That is what the stomach flu will do to you.. or to me rather. Blehhh.. bleckk.. barff.. barf. I'm home sick (again) from work today and I'm hoping that it will be my last day. I have so much to write about and it makes me sad that I haven't been able to. Right now, I'm feeling a little better and so I'm just doing a quick update to say that I am here and alive (barely) and will be back in full swing as soon as I can be. San Francisco was perfect and I want to tell you all about that and show you my pictures too. But for now, I will show you this little picture that I took with my blackberry.. because it's all I have right now.

We spent a good amount of time in the Yerba Buena Gardens because it was quite beautiful
and this was a picture taken while we were sitting behind the fountain.

More pictures and stories to come. I hope that you are all having a nice, healthy week. :)

We're going flying in the rain.

I can't even believe how long I've been away from the internet. I haven't sat in front of my computer in over a week.. Which I think is a record for me. I know I always talk about how busy life is but, truly, this has been the busiest time of my life with bachelorette parties, friends visiting from far away, weddings and very important Holy-days. Right now, I'm in the car with my husband (blogging from my blackberry..lame?) on our way to the airport. We are going to San Francisco for 6 whole days and 5 whole nights to celebrate our year of marriage. We are so excited to have some time away from this busy life and spend time together looking at tall buildings, eating amazing food, seeing old friends, sleeping in a fun hotel, walking in the park, shopping and going to the Jewish contemporary museum (woo!).

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely week, as I know I will be doing the same. Stories and photos to come. :)

Flowers, For Me?

Paul has been working a lot of overtime the past few weeks, which puts him home much
later in the day than I'm used to. Last week was a stressful week at work for me
(and for him) and with Paul coming home later, it kind of bummed me out.
Today, he was supposed to be getting off work at 6 (starting at 6am mind you),
and so my plan was to run all of the errands I needed to do, in time for his
homecoming. Well... at 3ish, I was in the kitchen doing some dishes
when unbeknown-st to me, the front door opens and in comes walking
my darling husband with a lovely bouquet of flowers, just for me.
Yellow ranunculas and wax flowers.. I just love them. I could not have
been more thrilled at that moment. He told me that he had canceled his overtime
that morning and wanted to surprise me tonight. We ran our errands together
and then treated me to sushi (my favorite!) and Golden Spoon. Now we are back home
and are about to start a new (for us) episode of Heroes. And I am really happy.
I just love this man.

Spring Time

I love spring time and all of the blooming flowers that it brings. Our peach
and apricot trees have budded and blossomed in our backyard, along with
the pink and red camellia trees on the side of our house. It makes life
feel new again and with the new season brings a new list of goals,
hopes and dreams. For this season, I pray for..
...a refreshed attitude and frame of mind.
...a simpler, less materialist life.
...more late night drives with my husband.
...a thankful attitude for the jobs we possess.
...more of Jesus everyday.
...our time to be spent reading and creating new things.
...lots of deliciously cooked dinners.
...a clean house. :)
...more walks in our neighborhood and naps in the park.
...lots love and time to be shared with our family and friends.

(photo via waterproofvalentines)

What songs can do..

Music has an intense ability to make me feel and think deeply.
This has been one of my favorite songs since the moment I first heard it..
and listening to it today is endlessly satisfying.

The weekend is almost here, I can feel it.

Israeli Cous Cous with Leeks and Tomatoes

This has quickly become my "go to" meal when I don't have a lot of time and it also has become one of our favorite dinners. It's really easy to make and super good for you. I concocted this one night in my kitchen a while back and have been able to successfully recreate it. :)

Israeli Cous Cous with Leeks and Tomatoes

• 1 Leek, finely chopped
• 2 cups of grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 of a lemon
• 2 cups Israeli Cous Cous (I buy mine from Trader Joes)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
  

Cook cous cous to package instructions and set aside. Coat the bottom of a saute pan with olive oil and heat over medium low heat. Saute leeks until translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add tomatoes and lemon juice and cook over medium low heat for 1-2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and add it to the cous cous. Fluff with a fork and mix it together. And that's it. I like to top it with freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

I hope you enjoy it. :)

P.s. I hate this heat.. and I know it hasn't even begun!

Eagle vs. Shark

"I guess I've got to keep creating

or I'll just die."

I completely agree.

Our carrots are in love.

Upland has started up their farmer's market again and this past Thursday was the first night. We made a date night out of it and had a really nice time. I wrote about Farm Fresh To You a couple posts back and about how we get a shipment every other Friday morning. Well, we realized that it doesn't last us the full two weeks so we had to stock up on some veggies. We bought some really beautiful asparagus, swiss chard, red lettuce, cherry tomatoes (the farmer told us that they never had to plant these on his farm, they just grow wild and they are delicious) and carrots. Paul wanted to pick out the carrots because he is the one who eats the bulk of them and when he came back, he had two big bunches with their pretty greens still attached. He showed me one of the bunches and said that he had picked it because of the two carrots that had grown together to look like a heart. I thought it was too cute and I just had to take a picture, and here I am sharing it with you all. It made me really happy. :)

I trust that you are all having a nice weekend and I hope you are enjoying the rain and the sunshine.

Pretty Day

This day has been really nice. Not for any particular reason, just because.
This video definitely adds to the niceness. Happy Tuesday.

(via Daydream Lily)

Mr. and Mrs. Steven Nelson

Seriously stunning.

Paul and I had the pleasure of standing next to our dear friends while they got married this past Saturday, and it was a perfect. Brittany Ann was a vision of beauty and grace and I caught myself (and everyone else) staring at her several times throughout the day. Steven was handsome and calm and when I asked him what he thought, he said, "I didn't know she could get any more beautiful"... so true. The day was stormy outside which made it all the more romantic and close-knit inside the church and reception. We ate, we drank, we laughed and we danced until they kicked us out and my feet are still sore (seriously). Brittany even had the DJ play mine and Paul's first dance song from our wedding to recognize our one year anniversary, she's so sweet. It was lovely! Right now, Brittany and Steven are in Santa Barbara, enjoying their honeymoon. Congratulations to our newly married friends! We love you. :)

Farm Fresh To You.

We received our first shipment of fresh, organic produce this morning from Farm Fresh To You. Everything looks scrumptious and I am so excited. We heard about this through a friend of ours and we thought that it would be worth it to try once, and if it was good, then we would keep going with it. In the past, we have bought our organic produce from farmers markets or grocery stores but as we all know, it can be pretty costly. What Farm Fresh To You does, is they harvest seasonal fruits and veggies from local, organic farmers and distribute them to their customers by delivering it to their home. You have the option of having it delivered every week, every other week or once a month. There are four different size shipments that you can choose from and you can see what they will be harvesting. We chose the second size to be delivered every other week, since it is only the 2 of us, we don't go through food that fast. At first, I didn't know if it would work for us because I really like picking and examining my own food to make sure I am getting the best but, again, I thought it would be worth it to try once (it can be canceled whenever you want). After looking though our produce today, I can see that it is definitely something that I will continue to use. Everything looked so so yummy and perfectly picked (with the exception of one blood orange that looks like it got dinged on one side). So, what did we get?

• Cameo Apples, 3
• Fuji Apples, 2
• D'Anjou Pears, 2
  
• Blood Oranges, 3
• Hass Avocado, 1
• Eureka Lemons, 2
• Broccoli, 1 crown
• Chard, 1 bunch
• Collard Greens, 1 bunch
• Leeks, 1 lb.
• Celery, 1 bunch
• Romaine Lettuce, 1 head
• Beets, 1 bunch
• Yukon Potatoes, 2 lbs.
• Red Onions, 1 lb.

And with our order, came a newsletter and four recipes. I'm pretty darn excited about this. How convenient it is to have our fresh fruits and veggies placed on our door step? Lovely. We pay $31 a shipment that comes every other week. We are going to see how it goes, and if we need to up our order, we will. If you are interested in this too, when you sign up, use code 6164 and type Paul de Partee and you will receive $5 off your first shipment.

I couldn't get all of the veggies in one shot but this is some of them. Yum!

Pothole Gardens

One of my favorite blogs brought these lovely pothole gardens to my attention, and I'm fascinated. And inspired. And can't stop looking at them. Pete Dungey is the mastermind behind it all and he said, "If we planted one of those in every hole, it would be like a forest in the road", and I just think that is beautiful.