The Best Gift Ever July 1, 2008

Yesterday was our (Yarbs - the sister, and I) second installment of Craft Monday - and we made tag books!  They came out great - ’twas a lot of work, but do-able in 1 day - just need to make sure you do a little prep work and at least have all the photos printed out that you want to use.

My tag book is a year and a half late bday gift for a friend in Richmond.  I would love to get this as a gift (am tempted to keep it, but I won’t) so I hope she loves it as much as I do!  I doubt that she even remembers that I told her that I was making her something 1 and a half years ago, but that will make the surprise that much better!  And who doesn’t love getting packages in the mail?!

I really love the faux bois paper (Martha Stewart, of course) that I used for the cover and back.  And all the fun ribbons on the ring!

I would have never gotten this done so quickly and so well without Yarbs.  She also brought a bunch of embellishments that were fun to use!  We are trying to use up the supplies that we have, since we both have way too much stuff!

Yarbs made a tag book of the Austin Marathon / Half Marathon that Boom and Josephine ran.  I loved how it turned out!  I was trying to get her to give it to me, but she did not.  Oh well, I will just have to make my own.

Next Craft Monday (not this coming Monday but the next one) we will be doing some fabric crafts.  We are alternating between scrapping and fabric crafts, as Yarbs is the SME (subject matter expert) on scrapping and I am the SME on fabric crafts.  We’ll be making coasters and napkins.  Fun times!

“Craft Monday… June 25, 2008

… makes us tired!”  but was totally awesome!  As part of the new regime of being down here, Craft Monday finally got fully realized for the first time this past Monday.  It was great - we ran errands in the morning and organized my photos, had lunch, then crafted - hardcore - for the rest of the day!  Yarbs did 3 (!!!!!) scrap layouts for me (yay!) in 4 hours - that is really amazing.

Here she is with one of the layouts.  The theme was before and after or really, old photo and now…  Very cute - she did one of us (Yarbs and I), one of Boom and I and one of my first cruise (back in 2001) and my last cruise (this year!).

I was working hard on a birthday gift for a great friend back in RIC.  Which I finished yesterday and will be sending in the mail today (and who doesn’t love to get snail mail?!) - I won’t post any photos for a few days, just in case she may be popping over to this blog and I don’t want to kill the surprise.

This year, I am really goingto try to only make gifts for people, esp. people that are important to me.  I need to use up all the supplies I have collected through the years - paper crafting, fabric stuff, etc.  I have lots of materials to use, just need to execute!

Here we are at the close of our first ever Craft Monday.  Next Monday we are doing Tag Books!  I love spending time with Yarbs - and being creative at the same time.  ‘Tis a very good thing.

Happy Birthday! May 20, 2008

To the greatest sister and friend I could ask for - happy bday, yarbs!  The big celebration was on Sunday at Berry Hill (the gay one, where a DJ starts to spin at 4pm - very fun!).

A ton of her friends came out to celebrate - which was great!  I had met most of them before, but Boom hadn’t so he really enjoyed meeting them all.

I had the great idea of getting Yarbs a Patron tequila shot - but since I hate doing shots, I forced Boom to be the instigator.  He wasn’t that hard to convince.  I figured, since it was her bday, she should be drunk!

Before

After!  Don’t let that face fool you - she loved it!

Boom was a little apprehensive, as Josephine kept saying to Yarbs, It was Boom’s idea, and, It wasn’t my idea, and things to that nature.  But it was all in good birthday celebratory fun!

Today we are going to go to lunch and then I’ll see her tonight to watch some DVR’ed shows:  The Bachlorette (a guy I went to high school with is one of the guys - Brian W. from Texas, looks like he made it through the first cut!  and wow, he looks different!), Gossip Girl (yay!) and then the Idol finale.  Just so glad that I am here and able to spend lots of time with Yarbs - making up for all those years we lived so far away!

A Taste of the Future April 16, 2008

Yesterday, Yarbs and I met for lunch. It was great! Just to be able to see her, for lunch.

We’ve just never been able to meet up like that. In the past, it’s always been one of us visiting the other (or on a trip), so never just having lunch during the week. It really is an excellent treat to live in the same city as my sister!

Her workplace is about 2 miles from the area of town where we are focusing our house search - so once we get settled, she can come over for lunch! and she has Mondays off, so we will be scrappin’ and doing crafty things together! I hope we can spend every Monday together, at a min YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Friday: Ramblings & Photos February 23, 2008

Yarbidy sent me cds with photos of Thanksgiving and the Austin Marathon - I got them today. The best part is she included them in a super cute handmade card! and she rarely makes cards…

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I was at Macy’s the other day looking for drinking glasses (we have gotten rid of all our plastic glasses, as they possibly leach bad things when put in the dishwasher) from the Martha Stewart Collection. I didn’t end up buying glasses there (got them from Kmart - their Martha Stewart Everyday line - I heart that line! It is great - tho Kmart is totally ghetto. I guess I am lucky we have Kmarts in Va… don’t think they exist in TX) but I did end up getting a cute glass container (supposidly to be used for snacks, but would be a huge amount of snacks…) with a turquose top and matching towels with a turquoise accent on them for my downstairs bathroom. I think the towels are actually bar towels, but they look cute.

Part of why I love her stuff so is the clean and attractive packaging. Not a good reason, I know, but I am the type to buy something just to try based on it’s packaging…

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I cooked up the rest of Ruby’s pumpkin, as part of her veggie dog diet. This time it was a little odd - as the pumpkin was still the one that Ims and Gretty gave to us, but I had frozen the extra. So I thawed it out, and it was already mushy from defrosting, and then steamed it. Ruby knew exactly want was going on, and was very excited!

Here is the cooked pumpkin.

Mashing it.

Full container! This should last a week or so…

I give her a heaping amount of pumpkin with a scant 1/2 cup of dog food on top for each meal. Makes her deuces orange and big, but she does love it!

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As we are using up our conventional cleaners (and paper products), I am replacing with cleaners that don’t contain toxic chemicals (paper products that are unbleached and recycled) - which is better for us and the earth.

I was a little wary of using this Seventh Generation dish washer detergent, as our dishwasher is not the best. Has left food and stuff on the dishes in the past - so I had to go from using the water miser mode, to the full water mode.

Anyway, this stuff works great! and I can use the water miser mode again. Seventh Generation promised to get our dishes sparkling clean, and they did! I am quite pleased.

Hey Cupcake! February 19, 2008

We had an excellent weekend in Austin - though getting there was a little painful - connected through Chicago to get to Austin…

Boom looking tired on our very early morning flight.

Friday we tooled around South Congress, where Hotel San Jose is located, got some last min marathon supplies for Boom and also did some fun shopping for moi at Kick Pleat, a super cute boutique that my friend Cubby recommended. That night, we met up with a college friend of mine, KK, and her hubby, R, and their new bebe, Kirby. We at at Enoteca Vespaio, the more casual side of Vespaio, and it was excellent. The babe was really good, as well! Great to see KK, she seems to be very happy, which is awesome.

Saturday, Boom and I ventured out to find some brunch - after driving for about an hour, we finally stumbled across Magnolia Cafe (orig location), highly recommended by JS, though with some reservations: “Magnolia Café on 2304 Lake Austin is a total dump but DELISH. Weird people who haven’t showered in days are the waiters but the food is great.” She was right - our server, Mike (a girl), had grey teeth, but was nice enough and the food was delish. Randomly we saw YaYa there with her friends!

Yarbs and Josephine came into town Sat afternoon, so we met then at their hotel. Yarbs and I went to some cute local boutiques while the boys got their packets. We then drove the course - it took a LONG time to DRIVE 26.2 miles! Josephine is the most uber prepared racer ever. I am quite the opposite from him. The course will be there and I likely won’t get lost with folks in front of me and course marshals all around, so sometimes I think driving the course (for me) is not a good thing. Makes me realize how LONG a marathon really is…

After that we ate an early dinner at Brick Oven, then called it a night. Too bad our rowdy neighbors were partying it up - Sat night in Austin, though, so we couldn’t say anything.

Sunday, very very early, Josephine and EE came to get up to bring us back to their hotel (they were in walking distance to the start line). Joesphine, of course, had a whole spread of food. Which he very generously shared with Boom, which was very nice. Yarbs and I donned our SUPER CUTE #1 cheerleader shirts (love the shirts!!!), but were unable to unveil them to the public until later in the day, as it was extremely chilly in the morning. (Yarbs took most of the really good race photos, so will post once I get them from her)

Boom did GREAT! The course was really hilly (guess that is why they call Austin the Hill country) and it warmed up quite a bit. He, of course, wished he had trained a bit more, but I have never ran a race over a half marathon that I didn’t wish I had trained more… Direct from the horses mouth: “I was well ahead of pace through 10 held onto the necessary pace through the 20 mile mark, but miles 20 through 26 went by pretty slow.” Still, I am soo proud of him - he is so super busy with work, but yet he still managed to carve out enough time to train for a marathon! Quite a feat!

Sunday afternoon was sunny and beautiful! We sat outside for most of the day, to soak in the sunshine and warmth before we left the next morning.

We had a great weekend, so awesome to see Yarbs and get to hang out with her and Josephine. She is the bestest ever and I am lucky to have her as my sissy! And Boom, he is the greatest ever as well. I love that man more and more each day. Cheezy, but true.

Here are some parting shots of Austin:

We’ve decided that our next 2 dogs will be named “Cookie” and “Cupcake” - two of my favorite things.  (Coincidentally, Cookie was also the name of my first dog ever - a German Shepard / Husky mix. )

Fashion Week January 22, 2008

Since Fashion Week 2008 is soon to be upon us, I thought I’d post my experience of Fashion Week 2007. It was AWESOME! I bid on Oscar de la Renta and Michael Kors tickets in the fall of 2006 at the Richmond SPCA’s Fur Ball (their big fancy fundraiser). I took Yarb, as her Christmas gift - and we had a BLAST!

We were one of the lucky ones - you can’t BUY tickets to Fashion Week and we were going to be inside the famous tents at Bryan Park…

Our first show was Oscar de la Renta.

This was the mass chaos before the show started.

The models at the end of the show.

Some famous people at the show…

And Oscar himself!

I’ve retrived the emails I sent from NYC to my friends post show:

today was the oscar de la renta show - it was just FABULOUS! so awesome! here is what socialiterank.com (unfort, this website is no longer active) has to say:

TOP FIVE SHOWS TO BE THOROUGHLY INFESTED WITH SOCIALITES:

Oscar de la Renta: He’s grasping 10021 between his magical fingers and he’s not letting go. For the society, this is THE show to score tickets to. The ladies will gasp, cheer and applaud at every look in a beautiful, privileged unison.

- and -

Right now, the real 10021 divas are gracing the front-row seats of both the Carolina and Oscar shows.

it was totally unreal - the whole experience! the paparatzi was there in full effect - barbara walterspiper perabo were the main famous peeps that we saw. the creative direcor of Elle was there as was the editor of Elle Decor. lots of socialites (i am assuming, since the photographers loved them and i didn’t recognize them!) and that was all before the show started!oscar’s evening wear was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! i loved most all of his dresses! the models were sooo thin - and tall. the dresses were simple, classing and yet modern at the same time. lots of fur trim - gorgeous pinks and also black and a lovedly taupe dress with a tulle skirt. new trend - black hose / tights with everything!

i was literally sitting on the edge of my seat the entire show! it lasted around half an hour. our seats were pretty good - maybe 4 rows up - so definately peeps sitting behind us and the standing room was at the very top. the music was also really great - somewhat techno but still melodic. i really, really enjoyed the whole thing! all the socialites were carrying HUGE bags - i feel like i need to get a new, and REALLY BIG bag.

we ended up wearing skinning jeans and sweaters. it was much better to be dressed as we were, than to be one of the ones “trying too hard”. and we fit right in!

anyway, i’ll write more after the micheal kors show!

xoxo

p.s. scooter - full length puffy jackets are all the rage here in nyc! you are so cutting edge!

And our second show was Michael Kors:

Here is what I emailed after the show:

i just got back from the Micheal Kors show - INCREDIBLE! that is all i can say - it was effing INCREDIBLE! lots of star sightings, so let’s start from the beginning…the first celeb we saw was Anna Winter (Editor-in-Chief of Elle; the character that “The Devli Wears Prada” is based off of…) with her was her Editor-at-Large of Elle, I dunno his name, but he is a really tall, African-American man. He was also at the Oscar show on Monday. She is super thin and stylish, as one would expect.

the next celeb spotted at the show was the Dutchess of York, Fergie. She looks just like she does on tv. seemed very friendly - some random peeps were going up to her to talk to her!

the bald guy from “what not to wear” and “fashion police” was there - in a bright orange jacket. he was also at oscar’s show.

the next celeb we saw was jane k., the secretarty from ally mcbeal. she has a lot of blone hair! and is quite petite.

so… the next star was a biggie - jeanne’s lookalike Kim Catrall from sex in the city! she looked great! ee got some great shots of her after the show when she was talking to the media. i’ll send them out once they are downloaded.

the donald was there with melana - he looks exactly like he does on tv! she was wearing a huge fur hat - and looks very glamorous!

both this show and the oscar show was in the main tent, there are smaller shows in the salon and another smaller tent. this time we sat on the other side of the tent than we did for the oscar show.

the music was much more pop-ey than at the oscar show. mainly “groove is in the heart” and some gwen stefani. and sportsware made up most of his pieces. he did have some male models as well. neutrals were everywhere - and lots of fur. the few colors that did show up in his clothing were orange and blue. but mainly just grays, khakis, browns, blacks, golds and silver. he also had patents leathers.

large bags were everywhere. on the models and spectators. i am coveting a chanel black patent leather bag - huge! i went to saks to see if i could just hold it and check the price, but they had none left! i saw no less than 5 ladies carrying that bag!

for you richmond gals, tinsley (mercer) mortimer was there - and she is ranked #2 on socialiterank.com (the last ranking time frame she was ranked #1).

i didn’t wear a drop of make-up the entire time i was in nyc! i didn’t even shower for this show (i did for oscar) - just call me pigpen the ponytail is quite in, which makes me happy! and so are skinny jeans / pants. i felt out of style when i was not wearing skinny pants - even the men are wearing skinny pants!

i am headed home in a few hours - hopefully i’ll catch up with you all in person soon!

xoxo

And here are other random photos from our fun 5 days in NYC…

Yarb & I in Bill and Juan’s apartment (they took 2 apartments and made into one, very Sex in the City-esque)

Yummy - cupcakes! I have always loved them, and then they became so en vouge!

Here is all of us - this was a Sun or Mon night - we went to dindin and then out DANCING at a gay club. Very fun. I felt like such a city gal!!!!

Thanks, Boom, for letting Yarb and I go up yo NYC. It was the experience of a LIFETIME (though I’d love to do it again… and I hear SCAN has gotten their hands on some Fashion Week tickets to auction off at the Progressive Dinner event…).

Yarborough! December 8, 2007

So Yarbs called and said she was at a Billionaire Babes Sample sale (!) and asked if jewelery was ok for my Christmas gift - OF COURSE!  I can’t to get my gift!!!  But now the pressure is on - as I dunno what to get her.

I told Boom if we lived in Houston I, too, could go to sample sales.  He was unimpressed with that argument, since he doesn’t really like Houston and would like to discourage me from buying anything.