Welcome to the good life.

Belated Wine Wednesday

Happy belated Wine Wednesday!

We enjoyed a little happy hour last night with my dad at our favorite place, Bacchus Secret Cellar. My dad loves this place too. There happy hour menu was delish! We enjoyed caramelized onion dip and gorgonzola dip with kettle chips, pretzel chips with spicy mustard, and flatbread pizza.

Jon drank craft beer while my dad and I sipped Rombauer Zinfandel. It was by far one of the best bottles of wine I've ever had. Ever. I'm a Zin fan and this tops my list. It was full of flavor, lots of sweet berries...just very luscious. This is not a dry wine by any means. I'll definitely be adding a few of these bottles to our wine collection!

Happy Thursday, friends!

Memorial Day Recap!

Wow, was it just me or did you have a nice Memorial Day weekend?!? The weather was beautiful here on Monday and it was pretty darn nice to have a day off work.

We spent the morning by Back Bay, they have the prettiest road for jogging and cycling. Nothing beats staring out at the sparkling bay. Perfection. I was still sore and tired from the previous days of running (so out of shape!) but was still able to get in 4 miles or so.

Along the way, Jon noticed a trail that went up into one of the bluffs. We decided to take the trail...it was beautiful. So many natural plants and streams. Off that trail, Jon found a ridiculously steep trail to climb up. I made it up most of the way, he went to the top. Crazy boy!

We spent the afternoon at the pool. I've been sucked into the Fifty Shades series, currently reading the last book, Fifty Shades Freed. So freakin good. Also, sipping Skinnygirl white peach margarita. Yum!

Leanne made this incredible Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip and I had to have the recipe. I love blue cheese and buffalo sauce! Its cooked in a bread bowl and eaten with crackers. So easy and yet so delicious. You must try it!

After stuffing ourselves with dip, we had to have a little BBQ.

It was a great weekend that went by way too quickly. Did you do anything fun for Memorial Day?

Back At It.

Yes, I'm back at running. And its been painful. And challenging. And fun. After taking time off during our vacation (and the week after), I am back to training for the Corona Del Mar 5k next weekend. With so much time off, I'm not expecting amazing results. I'll just be happy to enjoy the scenery.

Have a nice Memorial Day, friends!

One Week Ago

...we were relaxing in the Bahamas. Oh, how I am missing the island life. To relive my most favorite memories, I am scrapbooking the many (40+) instax pictures and mementos from our trip.

I had planned to scrapbook on the trip using the contents from my travel kit. The thought was good but I definitely wasn't able to keep up. I guess that means I was just having too much fun! I was able to keep the instax photos in order and I wrote a small snippet about what we did each day.

Side note- my Instax camera was a huge hit. To the non-crafty world, the camera seems weird. But it was such a fun way to document our vacation. Jon calls it my "Fisher Price" camera due to its bulkiness! And the Sandals' staff (who kindly took a few pics for us) thought it was awesome too!

Just going through the pictures and tickets/receipts/brochures makes me happy all over again. What an amazing trip. So thankful to be able to document all these great memories. Once my mini is complete, I'll share photos!

Of course, in the background I'm watching Real Housewives of Orange County Season 5 on DVD. Many thanks to my brother for the DVD set as a birthday gift!

Happy Saturday, friends! And happy Memorial Day weekend!

Our Caribbean Escape

Our Caribbean Escape in pictures:

It was such a beautiful vacation filled with sun, laughter, strawberry daiquiris with rum, rain, paddle boarding, lobster, sunscreen, friends, champagne, bug bites, romance, sunsets, crystal clear water, and relaxation. It could not have been a better 8 days.

And I'm already counting down the days till our next Caribbean vacation!

Ready. Set. Go.

We are packed and ready to go on vacation! Its going to be a nice week filled with sun, relaxation, friends, and rum.

Bon Voyage!

A Week of Randomness

Its been a week of randomness. Lots to do before we leave on vacation...3 days to go!

Finished up shopping and wrapping for our Mother's Day gifts. I really enjoy shopping for Jon's mom...she loves anything and everything from World Market. I put together a cute little basket filled with fun kitchen gadgets, pretty cloth napkins, napkin rings, and coasters. I had to wrap it up in cellophane with a washi tape covered tag.

We enjoyed some yummy hand rolled sushi by Handa Rolla Masta...so yummy! Love when the food trucks visit our apartment complex.

This week was my last Virtue Bible Study. I've been studying the Psalms weekly on Wednesdays since October. Can't believe my study is over...time flies by. Our small group questions was "what would you have missed this year if you had not been committed to this study?"  Wow, great question. I would have missed so much. Fellowship and time with women, who became good friends. Time spent worshipping and learning God's Word. Just so much.

Looking forward to the Girl Talk Study.

It was also my last week volunteering for the Junior Achievement program through work. Its been so much fun spending time with the First Grade class, it amazes me how smart kids are. The class made me this darling book, filled with drawings are notes...oh it makes my heart swoon!

And I have been doing a ton of reading. Skinny Dipping was supposed to be for vacation, but I guarantee this book will be finished very soon. And $100 Start Up was just delivered. I'm already digging into this one.

Happy Thursday, friends! We've almost made it to Friday!

Be Silently Drawn.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Sometimes There Are No Words...

And this is one of those moments. Meeting my favorite Orange County Housewife (Gretchen!) and boyfriend Slade. It appears that I am speaking in these pictures...what was being said, I'm not really sure. Best day ever!

Thankful Jon was there to capture my craziness via iPhone.

Busy Bee

Last weekend was quite busy. The kind of busy I enjoy. I had a list of projects to work on for NSD. With vacation stuff to do. A little bit of running. Reading. Spending time with Jon. Laying by the pool. Just fun stuff overall. And it didn't help that we had beautiful weather.

Scrapbooked another layout. Worked on Project Life and got all the way to April. Will I ever just be up to date? I don't think so.

Organized my travel kit. I'm taking these lovelies to the Bahamas with me, along with my new camera. Its sort of like scrapbooking on the go!

Finished AC's album. Finally. I find it to be stressful working on someone else's album and with someone else's pictures. Once I got going, it turned out good. I'm happy to have this finished now.

And I had to package it up for AC using a bit of washi tape and a tag with her name. Done.

Saturday we made time to celebrate Cinco De Mayo at Back Bay Bistro. Jon had Pacifico while I opted for a margarita. It was a beautiful day in Back Bay!

 

Less than 7 days till vacation!