Friday Five

1. It's summa, summa, summa time! Which means I'm craving my favorite treat on the daily. I heart fro-yo. I especially love all the yogurt shops that let me put my own toppings on- as much or as little as I like! I'm a tart yogurt with berries, sprinkles, granola, & chocolate chips kinda girl.

2. Hats make me Happy - I'm especially loving fedoras.

3. Game of Thrones- Season 2 finale ;(

lord tyrion, need I say more?

4. Scarves - not just for winter. I think they are so cute with a t-shirt or a tank.

It's the new summer accessory!

5. Garfunkel & Oates- my new favorite peeps!



Friday Five

1. One word- Obsessed.

2. Make these asap! I made these delicious oatmeal lemon bars for Easter and they are my new favorite dessert. Hint: Double the lemon juice- I did & it was the best decision I made all week!

3. Ombre hair. I want it.

4. This little thing melts my ♥

5. Words to live by...

B is for Boy

Last weekend I threw a baby shower for my friend, Julieanne, who is having a a baby boy next month. Julieanne and I work together at the U and ever since she told me she was pregnant, I knew I had to throw her a shower. Watching her through this whole process has been so much fun & we talk on the daily about babies (okay, okay...I'll admit it, it makes me a little baby hungry). Most of my girlfriends either had their babies 10 years ago or have not yet ventured into that part of their life so it's been nice to have Julieanne give me all the deets on everything that's going on inside & out.

For the shower, I ordered the most adorable invitations from Etsy. It was so simple, I just chose the design I liked, purchased the image and the seller created a custom invitation with my information. The image was sent to me in a .jpeg & .pdf format which I threw on a thumb drive and took to OfficeMax for printing. It was easy-peasy and I was thrilled how they turned out!

My mom has a perfect house for entertaining and she was nice enough to offer up her house for the party. I was really happy with the way everything turned out- good food, delicious beverages, great guests, amazing gifts for the baby, and some adorable favors. Julieanne was so excited and I'm glad we had such a great turn out. Successful party = happy host!

Paper lanterns & Pom-poms

Beverage Bar

Yummy Food

Sugar cookies given as favors for the guests. I ordered stars & baby chicks- they turned out super cute!



Martha, my lovely co-host, modeling some of the awesome gifts.

Glowing mom-to-be & proud papa-to-be

Three hosts & a pregnant lady

Very Pintersting

My husband asks me everyday if I've seen anything "pinteresting". He thinks it's so funny. Pinterest. It's my latest obsession- actually...I think it's every girls latest obsession. It's a virtual dream for anyone who loves to craft, cook, decorate and dress up. I find myself getting sucked in- oohhing & aahhing over peoples abilities to create and hoping I can recreate the same for me.

I've tried several of the recipes I've found on Pinterest and I've used a bunch of the organizing and cleaning tips I've seen. I have hundreds of home decorating ideas pinned and lots of sewing and crafting projects I'm dying to try. Here are a few I hope to be trying out real soon:

Chevron wall- I've been dying to paint an accent wall in our house since the day we moved in. I go back and forth between colors but I can never seem to choose. Then I came across the recent trend of the patterned chevron wall. I like the subtleness of the tones and I think the pattern adds and element of fun to the room.

*inspiration from www.sabbespot.blogspot.com

Pom pom & lantern decoration- I hope to recreate this next Saturday for a baby shower I'm throwing for my friend, Julieanne. She's having a boy so I will  be using blue, white and pops of green and orange.

*inspiration from www.perfectlyimperfectblog.com

Hooks on reclaimed wood- I want make this for our bedroom. Between Cardy and I we have a million hats. Okay, not a million, but a bunch. This particular set of hooks is from Anthropology- it's a fortune (for hooks anyway) and oddly enough it doesn't come with any hardware. Weird. Cardy has skills and I'm sure between the two of us we could easy come up with an Anthro knock-off (plus who doesn't love reclaimed wood?).

These three are just the beginning- I have many, many pinteresting creations to try. I will definitely post any projects I attempt- I'm super excited! Thanks Pinterest for providing such a great place of inspiration!

Off site business meeting

Wednesday afternoon conversation with my manager (& friend)-
Me: "Marth, what's your schedule like tomorrow?"
Martha: "Ummmm, pretty open. I might have a meeting but I'm not sure if it's tomorrow or Friday. Why? What do you have going on?"
Me: "Nothing, wanna go skiing? It's supposed to be beautiful."
Martha: "I'll schedule the meeting for Friday."

I didn't have to twist her arm at all!

Empty parking lot in the morning, nobody on the chair lifts, and slopes all to ourselves (mostly). Solitude is right!

Sunny and beautiful all day- couldn't have asked for a better Thursday away from the office.

Always a reason to celebrate...and eat.

I love to cook & entertain- it's like a match made in heaven. I find it so much fun and very satisfying to make a meal that everyone enjoys. I will find pretty much any excuse to have friends over to eat. Zombies, vampires, football, birthdays, holidays, you name it and I'll make a shin-dig out of it. Lately we've been meeting up on Sunday nights with Devon and Caroline to watch whatever TV series we're hooked on at the moment. Caroline & I usually take turns hosting and making dinner for the four of us. It's so much fun to have a friend who enjoys cooking and trying new dishes to share. I'm always begging Caro to make one of her delicious pizzas or something we've been drooling over on Pinterest.

Of course, using any reason to make a big dinner and have friends over- we had to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. To be honest, I'm not even sure who St. Patrick is...but I sure love corned beef and all the fixins!

For Saturday's dinner I made corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread served with apricot preserves, and tartiflette (a delicious potato dish with bacon, cream & cheese- made by Caroline). For dessert we had chocolate stout cupcakes with Bailey's cream cheese frosting with our Bailey's & coffee.

On Sunday we got together for the Walking Dead season finale (amazing!) and had Reuben sandwiches and roasted asparagus. I had never made Reubens before but I tell you what, next year I may just skip corned beef & cabbage and go straight for the Reubens. Holy cow, they were delicious!

Holiday Ramblings

Holy cow! I can't believe its been months since my last post. I'm always amazed at how quickly time passes me by. I'll give the short, short version of my holiday season:

-Thanksgiving came and went. I pretty much survived the month of November on anything pumpkin-chocolate chip. I did lots of cooking and I took my very first cooking class with my friend, Carlee. We made roasted cornish game hens and a curried butternut soup. I immediately decided it's imperative to own an immersion blender for soups galore. Cardy and I also continued our tradition of roasting our own turkey, stuffed with our delicious home made dressing, a blend of both our mom's recipes.

-Christmas was wonderful, as usual. December is always a busy month- working, shopping, decorating, wrapping, Christmas parties, etc. Cardy took note this year and I received my beloved immersion blender.

- We spent New Years Eve with our closest friends, Devon & Caroline. We had a fabulous dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Check out these ballers. They both won their fantasy football leagues. Champagne was in order.

  - I had my first Sundance Film Festival experience. Cardy and Devon were dying to see Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie. Me? Not so much. But...being the awesome wife that I am, I signed Cardy and I up for ticket time slots (a benefit for locals) to be sure we scored some tickets.

Devon, Caroline, Cardy and I braved the snow to catch the first Salt Lake showing at the Tower Theater. The movie was pretty much what I expected- I'll leave it at that- but we had a really fun night.

Caroline and I being good sports before the movie