passing

(Sweet notes from ashley)

So yes, most of the reason for my absence on the blog (and in life) was my dissertation proposal and gearing up for its defense. After I passed (holla!) much celebration was had.  

Immediately after, we went out to Kipos for lunch and drinks.  

Then the next day, Jonathan planned a little surprise for me, gathering our friends at my favorite brewery, Big Boss! 

I then had a few days to relax and prep for Christmas before heading to Cali to celebrate with my friends and family!

xoxo

a wedding in arkansas

Ok, so this is even older, but back in the very beginning of November, two dear friends of mine got hitched back in Arkansas.

Jonathan joined me for a weekend in my old stomping grounds and got to meet my arkansas loves.

We stayed with Jake and Emmy, who of course loved us:

Emmy with her bow tie

The wedding was beautiful and in the Chapel of our College 

After the ceremony we gave Jonathan a tour, Megan and my handprints are still by VZ!

The reception was so much fun, filled with dancing, cocktails, adorable centerpieces,

and of course, a photo booth!

May I just say, they did this the right way: each visit to the photo booth produced two copies so you could keep one and then the other was put into a scrapbook, which you signed for the bride and groom.  So smart.

It was a lovely wedding and so great to see everyone.  

Congrats Mac and Amelia! 

We are so happy for you.

xoxo

and my birthday

The day after thanksgiving was my birthday. I love being a thanksgiving baby, it feeds my pumpkin persona. 

This year was a big one too, 25. Well, bigish, it is my quarter-century mark.

Since Ashley was going to be in Texas, she made me a pre-birthday brunch before she left. Of course it was awesome in every way.

Knowing that it would be such, I did a fancy braid: one over the top and the rest pulled to the side and braided down.

Chloe was excited to be a part of this ladies brunch, can't you tell?

Ashley made pumpkin cinnamon rolls!!! I mean really people. 

On my actual birthday Jonathan and I spent a lovely day relaxing.  We took Chloe for a long walk, played ticket to ride (a birthday addition), and ate at poole's diner, which was delicious.  The drinks were fancy, the food was tasty, and the dessert was flipping amazing. 

Also, the boy got me a lovely california apron, absolutely perfect.

It was a lovely ringing-in to my next year.

xoxo

canada day, a little late

So, we have a canadian, Yuna, who we love.  And we needed to show her a little canada love, so Ashley hosted a (very) belated canada day party. 

What made it canadian? 

ketchup chips (the spicy variety)

canadian beer

a canadian! 

and maple cookies

and yes, evan is using his shoe as a drink holder...

America + Canada = Love 

Period.

xoxo

settlers of cake-tan

It was Jonathan's birthday and so of course I made a cake.  A while ago he asked if I could make a settlers of catan inspired cake, so clearly this would be the time to make it happen. 

He also requested a funfetti cake so 2 become 1... 

oh sorry, not time for spice girls, back to cake.

One box of funfetti makes two rounds. 

I made the frosting:

12 T butter, 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 t vanilla, 1/4 t lemon juice

I kept some of it white and added sprinkles to keep the funfetti going and used it in between the layers:

 

Then I cut off the sides into the appropriate hexagon shape,

I added some blue food gel to the remaining frosting and coated the cake a few times:

Finally I made some royal frosting (I just use the recipe on the back of my meringue powder), colored it  the colors of the tiles in the game, and got to work making many mini hexagon pieces for the top:

ta-da!

(yes there are both initials and the name because i originally didn't think i would have enough frosting, but then i did...)

xoxo

nashvegas for the win

So, we finished the core exam and needed to hit the road, so Ashley, Shira and I set out for the lovely, Nashville.  

It's actually a good eight hour drive for us and unfortunately we couldn't take that much time off, so we had a short adventure.  After getting in we set out for the main point of our adventure: 

hot chicken at Prince's. 

Hot chicken you ask? oh yeah.  basically really spicy fried chicken. No really spicy. And so delicious. 

After being overwhelmed with joy we had a fancy drink at patterson house. It was pretty awesome after a we got passed the snooty host.  The service was awesome and the drinks were delicious and fancy.  A recommended location for an intimate cocktail experience.

And who doesn't love a spherical ice cube??

We rested up and then took Nashville by storm on Sunday, starting with brunch at Mad Donna's, which was filled with delicious food and the best bloody mary bar ever.  ever, people.

Post brunch, we headed back to the center of town and to the country music hall of fame and museum.  It's not a cheap way to spend an afternoon, but a pretty excellent one. If you enjoy some bluegrass and/or country music, it's a must-see.

Some of the awesome posters from Hatch Show Print:  

And some love for Dolly, of course:

As well as a little bit of everything else:

Really, it's awesome.  You should check it out. 

After a few hours of soaking it all in, we explored the rest of Nashville, including the Historic East End with records, vintage shops, and ice cream.

Yeah, some old bike pedals, if you need them:

And of course, a butter lamb mold!!! I can't handle it.  This is our thing apparently...

Unfortunately, it was only half of a mold, so we passed it up.  I'm pretty sure we will run across another one soon enough.

Some of the fun flare of Nashvegas:

And awesome ice cream of course:

After the afternoon fun, we stumbled into a good old townie bar and happend onto some good live bluegrass.

We then headed to a fabulous bar, no. 308. 

We loved it here.  Way too much.  Five hours with great new bartender friends, two-for-one drinks, shots (i know), and some food, because that seemed like a good idea...

Oh yeah, just look at this place:

I could kind of live here.

Oh and then we decided we had to leave while we still could and headed to find some more music at the station inn.  A good old local bar where people just play some great music, in a straight-forward bar:

Monday we grabbed some coffee and hung out at Hatch Show Print before driving home. I want a job here, fyi.

Yes, it was a lovely brief getaway and introduced us to the lovely city of nashville.  

xoxo

ps. see you soon nashville, very soon please.

but first

casey, ashley, jonathan and i have been known to have many a fabulous outing.  and of course we've had a list of some things we wanted to do together.  having a picnic was one of them.  

but casey had to leave us and move to DC for grad school, or something silly like that. so suddenly we were running out of time to do the things on our list.  so we had our picnic, 

with ashley's fabulous picnic basket,

and the boys cooked because they are so sweet and we were crazy stressed with studying for the core,

and made a fancy cocktail, in a beautiful jar,

and it was all so delightful.

xoxo

the fourth

where everyone plays along with the theme and wears red, white, and blue.

What better way to celebrate america then with friends, food, drink, games, and fire? Ashley, Casey, Shira, and Huck hosted everyone for all that and more. And it was fabulous.

And we had two flag cakes!!!

We should really do this every week. 

I'm just saying.

xoxo

derby de mayo

Derby de mayo happened.  You know the rare event when the first saturday of may (the day of the kentucky derby) falls on the fifth of may (cinco de mayo). aka derby de mayo.

part 1 of the party was the derby with mint juleps, betting, and watching i'll have another win, just as i predicted.  Though i lost to jonathan in the end due to another bet he made. ridiculous. 

part 2 transitioned to cinco de mayo festivities with food, pinata, and margaritas. 

the night was fabulous and booze filled. as a result there are limited pictures, except for this:

all that remains after a serious batch of mint juleps. 

out of control, per usual.

xoxo

shower season

the party variety of shower season has begun.  And we kicked it off with a library baby shower for Lauren.  Jade and Maggie did an amazing job putting the day together. 

To start, it was a library shower, so I got to go through all of my childhood favorites to pick out a couple for the future reader. Though the ones below were some of my absolute favorites, I ended up going with the all time great, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Love You Forever. Such winners!

As for the shower itself, Maggie made all of these garlands from an old encyclopedia and colorful paper to make pendants and mini books, that now resides in the baby's room!

Not to mention this library card station where we wrote messages to the future literary genius. 

And the ladies outdid themselves on the food - waffles, hash browns, fruit & yogurt, and cupcakes -

A delightful brunch indeed!

xoxo