Welcome to the good life.

Happy Hour!

After much convincing, I was finally able to try out a new restaurant (Cucina Enoteca) I'd had my eye on for a few months! We met friends there for happy hour...very fun.

Love Cucina's outside patio. So pretty with lots of twinkling lights. Another trip in the summer is a must!

The inside of the restaurant is very eclectic. Very different. But very cool with lots of fun things to look at...weird wall paper, interesting lights and chandeliers, burlap chairs...the list goes on and on. On top of that, the food was very good. I enjoyed a delicious glass of sangria and Tuscon toast with hummus. We split a cheese and pepperoni sausage pizza. Very good! And we had to end the night with an amazing chocolate salted cookie.

Cucina Enoteca is great for happy hour and date night! Enjoy!

I Love Books

We've been doing a whole lot of reading in bed with our relaxing weekends. And oh boy, it sure feels nice. Nothing quite like snuggling in bed with coffee and a good book!

I have a serious weakness for books. Or maybe the issue is more of finishing books. I probably finish 50% of the books I read. Why only 50%, you ask? Not sure...but I have a serious phobia when it comes to commitment. I find it difficult to stay focused and committed to just one book. So, I'm currently reading (or have started reading) these books, some in hard-copy and some on my Nook:

• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
• 50 People Every Christian Should Know by Warren Wiersbe
• As I See It by Greg Laurie
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
• Six Secrets To A Powerful Quiet Time by Catherine Martin

Until I finish most of these books, I am committing to not purchase any additional books. Need to enjoy the ones I have! And maybe once I've accomplished this, I'll start re-reading the Harry Potter series.

Enjoy 2012

en·joy

1. To receive pleasure or satisfaction from.

2. To have the use or benefit of: enjoys good health.

 

3. To have a pleasurable or satisfactory time.

Synonyms for enjoy:

adore, appreciate, be entertained, be fond of, be pleased, cotton to, delight in, dote on, drink in, eat up, fancy, flip over, freak out on, get a charge out of, get a kick out of, get high on, go, have a ball, have a good time, have fun, like, live a little, live it up, love, luxuriate in, mind, paint the town, rejoice in, relish, revel in, savor, take joy in, thrill to

Symbols for enjoy:

-Sun

-Bird/Swallow

My favorite enjoy quote:

"It is not how much we have, but how much we ENJOY, that makes happiness." -Charles Spurgeon

I finally started my One Little Word project last night. I've been gathering ideas for my cover page and also trying to wait patiently for the page protectors to arrive. My Amazon order has been canceled like 3 times...ick. So, instead of waiting for the page protectors I decided to just start OLW. I journaled some ideas and finally put them on the printable journaling cards. Love this project so much already. And I'm loving my word, ENJOY.

Take a Deep Breath.

Am I the only one who needs to be reminded to take a deep breath? I hope not! So often we have busy weeks and weekends and the days start to blend together. Now, I do love a busy fun weekend with family and friends...but I also love unplanned time. Time to breathe.

Over the weekend, Jon and I went on a small 4 mile hike. It was nice to talk. And breathe in and out fresh cold air. And to just be in awe of the beauty around us.

So nice to get out and get moving.

So very beautiful. Thankful to be able to enjoy days like this.

It's Begining to Look A Lot Like...

...a three day weekend! With everything that has gone on in the last week, we decided to make zero plans for the long weekend. Lots of relaxing, T.V. watching, and scrapbooking (for me!).

I'm making good progress on Project Life 2011. This project fell off my radar mid-year so I've been doing a lot of catch up. I'm starting on December today and should be finishing it up today. Its been fun documenting the year and remembering all that we celebrated in 2011. And it makes me excited to stay on top of Project Life 2012.

I also need to do some serious organzing of my scrapbooking goodies. Paper, chipboard, and glitter...oh my!

And a happy welcome to my newest additions...my Slice by Making Memories and pink ATG. Must haves! 

Enjoy the day, friends!

Gratitude.

 

Oh what a week. It started off with Jon's grandmother suffering a serious stroke-seizure-brain hemorrhage which had her hospitalized. We had hopeful news and we had discouraging news. On Friday, Jonathon and I arrived at the hospital...less than fifteen minutes later, his grandmother passed away.

After a few days of tears and reminiscing, I can say that I am grateful. I'm grateful to have made it the hospital in time to say good-bye. I'm grateful to be a shoulder for my husband and family. I'm grateful to have known and loved this amazing woman. And I'm most grateful to have the joy of knowing that one day, we will be reunited in Heaven. And for that, I have gratitude today.

One Little Word 2012

After much deliberation, I've chosen my word for 2012. This will be the first time I have participated in One Little Word. Needless to say, I'm excited to embark on this word journey. Twelve months of reflecting on my one little word. 

My word for 2012 is ENJOY. The word ENJOY spoke to me...and nagged me when I was considering another word.

I was inspired to start compiling my thoughts (thanks to a good friend!) in my Smashbook. I wrote about the purpose of One Little Word, a to-do list, and supply list. I've also included the definition, symbols, synonyms, and special quotes for the word ENJOY. Just writing about my word made me excited. And I had to include color/paper ideas...also speaking to me is Amy Tan's paper by American Crafts. Very ENJOY-like.

I'll leave you with my favorite quote specific to ENJOY:

"It is not how much we have, but how we ENJOY, that makes happiness." - Charles Spurgeon

Winter Favs

Just a few of my favorite winter items:

Long and comfy sweaters. Cute with everything. Especially this one.

I've been obsessively wearing Master Plan by Essie. I adore this nail polish so much that my incessant nail biting has slowed down. Just plain pretty.

Loving stacked rings from Kohls. And mixing different sets of stacked rings. Elegant and so easy, breezy.

Dark grey and black leggings. Perfect for relaxing at the house and running errands.

One of my best finds this winter...an open top beanie. I usually don't wear hats, but this one was too adorable. It's like a scarf for your head. Most importantly, it doesn't mess up your hair!

Something I've been living with recently is my Satin Lips Lip Mask. Not sure if its my age or weather but my skin has been super dry. Nobody likes a dry pucker!

Boots. I've worn them like crazy. Cozy and stylish.

What are your winter favs?

Food For Thought

December Daily Update

December Daily + Journal Your Christmas has been quite the process. Overall, I've loved documenting December with photos and journaling. I started off by making the foundation pages before December, which really helped speed up the process. All I had to do is add photos and journaling. I chose to keep the pages simple.

I still have journaling to do. Will complete that as soon as our printer is functional. Please ignore my yellow journaling post it notes :)

The opening page includes the Christmas Manifesto from JYC. It was a good reminder about Christmas. And I also included a print out of our December calendar...what a busy month!

I tried to include as many December mementos as possible. From gift tags, our Christmas card, a Starbucks gift card, ect. Love collecting fun things to include in my book. 

I took a whole lot of photos in December and decided to try to include as many of them as humanly possible. To incorporate these pictures (in such a small book), I've added many pockets and envelopes. The envelopes were a great way to stash photos and journaling.

...had to include pretty Christmas-ey transparencies and tags.

I printed my photos through Scrapbook Pictures. Love their size options, 2x2, 4x4, 1.75x2, and so much more. Good service too.

The book ends with a picture of us reading on the couch, the best way to have ended a crazy-fun Christmas day.

I still need to complete the journaling. After that, my December Daily book will be officially done. I'm very happy with how it has all turned out. And very happy to have documented my favorite time of year! I'm already looking forward to next year!