photog wannabe

rachel and i took a little tour of downtown memphis this evening, and i took some pictures to donate to the drury university beaux arts ball and art auction. here's the outcome... hopefully some people will be willing to shell out a few bucks for these photos.

totes-ma-gotes

oh what a glorious weekend!! i tend to forget how much fun my college friends are when i'm stuck in memphrica. just as i expected, we had a fabulous time. the weekend was filled with eating, talking, drinking, lounging, laughing, hugging, and reminiscing. and i loved every minute of it. i always have such a great time that i don't even mind the 5 hour drive each way.

more than anything, i think my trip up there always reminds me of how precious friendships are, and how even 2 years time and 300 miles distance can't weaken the ones that mean the most to you. if anything, it makes the reunions that much more enjoyable.

i love y'all.

gearing up for a girls' weekend!!

i'm super-duper excited for my weekend trip!! i'm driving up to springfield, mo tomorrow for a girls' weekend, and a wedding thrown in there somewhere :) one thing i always love about going back to spfd is that it always has a bit of a "college reunion" feel to it. several of my very close college friends are still in town working, so i get to see them. i think we may take in a movie, definitely some sushi, lots of wine, and girl talk. ooo it's been too long and i'm so excited! oh, and how could i forget the "woody p. snowmonster" at andy's frozen custard??? i would SO blow my diet for that delicious dish. in fact, i plan on it. here are just a few of the things i'm looking forward to:

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU GIRLS!!

(looks like a good time, huh? yeah, i know you're jealous.)

tis the season

so i've got a couple of weddings coming up... and i'm already thinking "what to wear?" i bought one dress at old navy a couple weeks ago,

and i'm trying to decide which dress to recycle from my closet for the other wedding. i'm leaning towards this one although i'm afraid that my lady curves don't agree with it as much as they did six years ago when i bought it. i suppose that i could use it for the may wedding, which would give me some extra time to trim some select areas :) yeah, that's probably a good plan. and some spanks.

anyway... so i bought this belt at New York & Company to add some definition to the dress. but the color is slightly off, and it just doesn't quite mesh well enough.

so then i thought maybe i should use a belt that would offset the dress, bring it down a notch... you know. eh. even i don't know.

any advice would be great. oh, and shoes. suggestions, please.

don't mess with madeline

ahh today was glorious. rachel and i took her dog madeline to overton park. they have this large open area that is legitimately dog friendly. people let their dogs off leashes and these dogs just miraculously wander around exploring but not really bothering anyone. it's amazing. poor little maddie is a little more of a, shall we say, free spirit. so she stayed on her leash. i think she had fun anyway.

as we left the park, a guy stopped us to ask about maddie and show us a picture of his dog. while he searched his phone for a picture, maddie most definitely charged him and head-butted him in the groin, sending him to his knees. my guess was that she didn't care much for his "f*#k you" belt (seriously). it was amazing and hilarious and after apologizing we left as soon as we could.

and THEN we perused the oak court mall, and found some fabulous shoes at payless.

and i got home to find my bathing suit had arrived from j.crew!! this was the BEST DAY EVER!!

OOO!! new items on Etsy

http://lifechanging.etsy.com

another present to myself

the new ipod shuffle just came out, so i will use this opportunity to get myself the "old" shuffle at the discounted price. a little slow on the uptake, i know, but it will be PERFECT for working out.

i love obama

so i got a $44 check from the government... and my weekly check was supposed to be, well, MORE than that... so i went to my local unemployment office to inquire about the check and i discover that this money is from president obama's stimulus package!! i don't know if this is a weekly check or not, but it makes me smile to know that my president is thinking about me :)

AND here's my order from j.crew!! i've finally purchased my bathing suits for this summer- YAY!

and for a little variety...

and for those of you thinking "so, uh, she's buying j.crew swimwear and collecting unemployment??"... i have two words for you:

GIFT CARDS.

i love it.

oh, and happy st. patrick's day...

... i hope you got to drink some good beer today. like this guy.

hello again!

well, i'm home from a fabulous weekend in nashville!! it was so nice to get out of the city for a bit and see some different sights. we ate A LOT (peter's sushi, pm, urban flats, fido, midtown cafe, marche... and if you can believe it, i feel like i am leaving something out) and went to all the fun little neighborhoods. i loved "living" the nashville life for a weekend, instead of having the tourist experience that i've had before there. thanks to rachel, her parents, and her friends for showing me such a wonderful time!!

now... because i ate so much, it's time to get back on the workout train (for the millionth time). when i woke up at 7:00 this morning was reaaaally foggy outside, but seemed to have subsided by the time i went to run. i drove to mud island for my run today, and as soon as i turned onto front street, i saw that fog was still blanketing the river, and entire memphis waterfront. the bridge across the mississippi was completely hidden. and it was 10:30!! on island drive, i couldn't see 50 feet in front of the car. once i parked, i took the following pic with my phone:

creepy, party of one?? seriously. i couldn't see the river, any other people, or even across the road... i felt like will smith in i am legend. minus the mutant human animals trying to eat me. and the multi-million dollar paycheck. ugh, if only. but i digress. by the time i finished my 3.5 mile run, it was sunny and clear. and i noticed that the river seemed to be getting higher... i hope it floods again, just like last year!! because it's so fascinating!! here's a pic from the same vantage point as the one above, but from last year's flooded river. and this is before it even got REALLY high!!

this has been a very random post, and for that i apologize.

gettin' outta town!!

i'm headed to nashville tomorrow morning with rachel... be back on monday! yay for long weekends!! well actually, lately i cannot distinguish between weekdays and weekends so... i guess just- YAY!

i'll wait to update you on the weekend until i get back. i'm taking SO MUCH STUFF (!?) that there's no reason for me to take my computer. but if you're curious about some of my weekend events, please see rachel's blog - 23 - where she has so graciously outlined our plans for food consumption. oooooweeeee i cannot wait!!

time to read my guidebook. goodnight!

go buy this NOW

i just finished the best workout dvd ever.

Women's Health: The Wedding Workout

(side note: the back of this dvd said that it can also

be used for other "special occasions" such as a high school

reunion or beach vacation. so there. i SWEAR i'm

not a wannabe bride. i just wannabe hot for mexico.)

i have MANY dvd workouts. and a problem i have always had with each is the inability to customize the workout. so you can guess what this one does :) THAT'S RIGHT!! EEEK! here's how it works: you have 2 initial options: pre-built workouts or custom workouts.

with the custom workout, you can create your own program from 11-12 minute segments of cardio, upper body, lower body, and abs & core. you can arrange them in any order you want, repeating each as many times as you want. there's also a 4 minute warm-up and 3 minute cool-down that you should put at each end of your workout.

the pre-built workouts are split into two options: the strapless dress workout (emphasis on upper body) and the short/hiphugging dress workout (emphasis on lower body). the beauty of this is that each "workout" gives you a weekly plan with the segments i mentioned before split up between each day of the week. for instance, on monday you do cardio and upper body, and on tuesday you do abs & core. each day is something different. and while the segments are the same, the order they come in keeps your body guessing.

the cardio is the only thing that i feel is "lacking", but you can easily substitute running or another dvd cardio workout for that. but if you're just looking for a quick cardio session to move around a little, this is perfect.

target, $7.99 SERIOUSLY WORTH IT.

moving on.

i had another fun experience today- i went to the public library to renew my library card and checkout a book on nashville for my weekend trip! i also got a 2009 book on mexico for some more tips for riviera maya. and i think the favorite book that i got is a monograph of the sculptor, Richard Serra.

this is Joe. we saw it in st. louis at the pulitzer museum and it was amazing. such a dynamic and engaging sculpture. i perused the art and architecture section of the library today and almost gave up on finding anything i was interested in when i saw SERRA on the thick white spine of this book. i immediately grabbed it and went to checkout. i'm looking forward to some time with my library books and learning more about nashville, mexico, and richard serra. and i'm excited about renewing the library's presence in my life. it's been too long and i spend too much money at bookstores. $1 for a library card and i can have all the books i want for free. seems like a good idea to me.

food for thought

this week has been mildly intolerable. i have been bored bored bored and very restless. i cannot seem to occupy myself with anything. today was a little better, but i am DEFINITELY looking forward to this weekend. i'm going to nashville :) taking a little road trip with my friend rachel!! should be a great time. i think it would be fun anyway but considering my daily boredom, i think this weekend is going to be amazing!!

the highlight of my week so far was the dinner i made tonight. i had planned to make corn-cheese quesadillas from one of my cookbooks. the only problem is that i forgot which cookbook i saw i it. ha! so after i spent 10 minutes unsuccessfully looking for the recipe, i decided to be creative and do something myself. we'll call it veggie and cheese quesadillas. (so creative, i know.)

1 green pepper, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 package frozen whole kernal corn

1 can black beans

1 tbsp vegetable oil

ground cumen

4 burrito size tortillas

pepperjack or cheddar cheese

i heated the oil in a medium skillet and sautéed the first four ingredients. meanwhile, i drained and rinsed the black beans. i just added the beans to the sautéed mixture towards the end to heat them up. add the ground cumen to taste. set the sautéed veggies to the side.

butter one side of each tortilla. briefly heat a large skillet, and when warm, lay the buttered side of a tortilla onto the skillet. immediately place the cheese of your choice onto one half of the tortilla. spoon the veggies onto the cheese and fold the other side of the tortilla over. when the bottom side of the tortilla is golden brown, flip with a spatula and brown the other side.

tonight, this recipe made about 5 quesadillas. you can stretch it farther if you put less veggies on each tortilla. i think at minimum, this would make 4 quesadillas. it's really great because you can personalize it and use as much or as little veggies and cheese. and i'm sure if sean was home, he would top it off with a scoop of light sour cream.

delicious and relatively healthy!! yippee!!

i'm semi-proud of myself :)

springtime in memphis

springtime is here!! three things i want to do RIGHT AWAY:

one. go to the botanic gardens and feed the koi fish!

two. go to the "blossom - art of flowers" exhibit at the dixon gallery.

three. play another round of golf with my dad!

new items on Etsy!!

i've added several things to my Etsy shop over the past few days, but my favorite was this morning... go buy them!

#1

#2

happy birthday weekend to me :)

it has been a fabulous day. the weather is un-freakin'-believable and i cannot believe that less than a week ago there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. i am sitting in our backyard blogging. on the deck, with the dog by my side. how incredibly lovely.

sean is taking me out for my birthday tonight (my bday isn't until sunday) to the tower room, which is at the top of this building:

yes, please! we tried to do this restaurant for valentine's but, as you can imagine, reservations filled up quickly.

earlier, sean's sister and her boyfriend came over for a couple of drinks. we sat out on our back deck with the dog, the cat, and some beer and had a grand ol' time. it truly feels like spring... and that makes me immensely happy :)

i love birthdays that flank the weekend, because then you really get several days to celebrate. tonight is our romantic "just the two of us" night, tomorrow is girl's night (i think mollie fontaine's is the plan), and sunday is family night (special dinner, cake and ice cream! yay!). I LOVE IT. maybe things will change as i get older, but i love birthdays and i loooove making them last as long as possible.

cafe eclectic

sean took me to a new (to me) restaurant last night: cafe eclectic. i had never even heard of it... and that's a shame, because it is super cute. and delicious. just another reason why midtown memphis is so great. it has live jazz and other musical delights on the weekends. and really good roasted potatoes. and the overall ambiance is very very nice. i think it's one of those places where i could spend an afternoon sipping coffee and surfing the internet. just take a look.

entrance

interior of cafe

roasted potatoes!!

i am loving this brick corner detail.

check me out

i have setup a shop on Etsy.com, a wonderful website where people can buy and sell all things homemade. the website is fantastic, but i think you should check THIS PAGE out. :)

so far, i have posted some homemade cards in the shop. i will be continuing to update the shop, with different pieces such as custom magnets, coasters, and paintings. i have SO MUCH FUN doing all of these little projects, and more than anything else i love sharing it with other people.

so check it out- i hope you find something you like!!