holiday fever...

I am baking! Baking like a crazy fool. I am making gingerbread cookies, puppy chow (crispix covered in chocolate, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar), peppermint bark, white and milk chocolate covered pretzels, pecan pralines, and peanut butter scotchies (corn flakes covered in butter scotch and peanut butter).

Carly came over to assist with the pretzel dipping and did a swell job!

The kitchen smells great and has a nice layer of treats on every surface. I am just beginning the gingerbread cookies which will take forever, but I am ready to get started. I truly love using cookie cutters, but the process is ridiculous.

I thought I would watch something festive for the holidays, and since I already watched White Christmas last night, I chose Die Hard for tonight! It's not the most conventional christmas movie, but it works. We also watched Scrooged with Bill Murray to really boost our spirits.

Off to make the gingerbread mens and ladies...

with hard times, come movies...

With my life being so stressful in the last year (just in case you havent been following thats 2 car break-ins, a burglary and a stolen car in 12 months), I am really finding it hard to be cheerful or even thankful this holiday season. I am usually the first to get xmas cards into the mail, but the thought hasnt even crossed my mind this season. I know it sounds cold and almost stupid to let "things" get me down this way, but it is a hard time right now and I am trying to get through it.

I have a very strong friend whose mother died 4 months ago and just today she told me that no matter the loss, great or small, it is still a loss and it requires grieving. I really needed that. She lost someone very close and special to her while we lost things that were sentimental and special (and some that were neither). Although both are vastly different, in a small way we are both dealing with it in the same way.

I have such wonderful and amazing family and friends who have been so supportive and helpful in any way they could. But truthfully I am most thankful for husband. We have truly been put to the test in our first year of marriage and we are nothing but stronger than we were before. Not a single thing has changed except we know we are there for each other through thick and thin and we know we can make it work.

So, I will do my hardest this holiday season to wish good tidings upon others and I will try to feel the joy, but so far I just feel blah, to say the least. The hardest part is to work very hard everyday to pay bills and eat and have a good life and then people keep ruining it for us by taking it all away. I hope this is the end and we can get back to enjoying small things instead of dreading opening the front door to find the house a wreck!

WOW! DONE! (thanks for letting me vent!)

On a much much MUCH lighter note... I have been passing time with crafts as usual and of course with movies. I have watched quite a few in the last few weeks. Some were great and others so-so. I will only let you in on my favorites!

Dirty Harry 1971. Clint Eastwood in a classic bad-ass cop movie. There are great one-liners "do you feel lucky, Punk?" and really fantastic 70's music. I really liked this movie for the clothes, music, feel, and great San Francisco scenery. I liked the plot since it was loosely based on the Zodiac killer from the 60's. I do like a good serial killer. My favorite part is when he eats a hot dog and then takes out a bank robbery while chewing his food. Awesome!

Up 2009. Man, this movie is very touching and pretty funny. I think kids would like it, but an adult would like it a lot more due to the beautiful relationship the whole movie is based on. I think I liked the beginning scenes the best, but the rest is very sweet. My favorite visually pleasing scene are the beautiful colors the balloons produce onto the ground below.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 1988-1999. Damn, this show is hilarious. If you have never heard of this show I highly recommend it. A guy and 2 robots are forced to watch terrible movies for science experiments... that's it! The greatest part is their hilarious comments on these terrible movies. Just rent it or check it out. Funny. Always.

Silkwood 1983. Not only does this movie have Meryl Streep, but its set in Oklahoma and made in 1983. Why would I NOT love this movie? This is the age old story about worker V. huge bad company. A kind of Erin Brockovich for the 70's. It is a true story about a woman working for a plutonium plant who becomes subsequently contaminated and then tries to make the company realize the plant needs safer work regulations. It is a great movie and of course Meryl is fantastic. I love anything the woman touches!

Star Trek 2009. Could they have cast this movie any better? Every single person was perfect for their role. I really enjoy learning about how characters in movies might have met and this was very entertaining. The action was great and the special effects/sound should definitely get an Oscar nomination, as least! This is how a good action movie should be.

Being There 1979. I saved this for the last, because it is one of my new favorite movies. First off... Shirley MacLaine and Peter Sellers. Enough said. This is such simple story about a simple gardener just telling the truth to the world as he sees it. It is funny, witty, touching, and brilliant all rolled into one. I honestly didnt know what it was about and there were so many great twists I never saw coming, it is impossible to explain all the crazy happenings if I wanted to! There arent very many movies that leave me smiling and totally happy at the end, but this did it. Get this movie if just for the hilarious outtake during the credits!

My last 2 suggestions of the post...
-Lost (the tv show) is sucking me in and is very exciting. Thanks to Hulu.com, I am watching from the first episode. Check it out.
-New Moon is WORSE than Twilight. Do not check it out or waste your time. (Unless you wanna see Edward and all his chiseled goodness. OMG!)


Go forth and watch great movies! Oh and Happy Holidays!

busy little bees...

I have been pretty busy lately. Obviously. Since I haven't written in quite a while.

I will give you a good overview of the last three weeks. Ready? It's long...

oct 25-30
One of my oldest and best friends came to visit for the whole week! Anneliese and I met in 2nd grade at a friend's birthday party and in 4th grade she transferred to my elementary school. We have had a trillion sleepovers together with barbies, crafts, Fish Food ice cream, and movies. We have partied, traveled, cried and laughed together. We went totally separate ways after high school, but have kept in touch all these years. Even if its a year between our chats we can catch up just like it was yesterday.

She arrived on Sunday and left on Friday night. We had a very eventful week, minus the huge blizzardy storm that made us house bound for a full day.

We shopped at Cherry Creek Mall, Nordstrom's Rack, Target, Park Meadows Mall, Joanne Fabrics, and Halloween stores. We went to Lookout Mountain and Golden, CO. We cooked a few meals, did some crafts, cleaned house, decorated for the party.

The big Halloween party we had been planning for months on Wednesday the 28th, was of course ruined by the crippling 2.5 foot snow storm that started the night before and ended Thursday night. Luckily we had cooked and cleaned all day. We had 5 people at the house already; Tony, Matt, Carly, Anneliese, and me. Our neighbors stopped by with carmel popcorn and the one other guest is our friend Adam. A total of six people partied in the snow and in the garage with the keg for hours and hours!

We had sooooo much food for the 6 of us. We made...
72 mini cupcakes
chex mix
peanut butter cup cookies
sausage rolls
Rotel and Velvetta cheese dip
9 layer dip
cranberry bread
little smokies with bbq sauce
and we got a keg!

Ultimately we had a blast and I fully understood why people didn't make it out for the party. When it snows 2+ feet there aren't too many people that wanna drive to go drinking at a party! Shocking!

oct 31
Work. Blah. Cruddy Halloween.

nov 1-5
Work done by Wednesday morn. Because of the storm last week we threw together an impromptu Post Halloween party to attempt to finish the keg.

I cleaned the house all day to perfection because I knew people were actually coming this time. I asked people to dress-up in hopes of recreating Halloween.

The first couple of guests showed at 6. Then 6:30 Carly showed up. Soon after that, more and more people were appearing at the party. There were some really great costumes; M&M, Russian mail-order bride, Mario (from Mario Bros.), sexy cop, zebra, catholic priest, and more. I think there were about 20 folks in our little house/awesome garage.

We not only had pitchers and pitchers of keg beer, but some girls brought wine, champagne, and vodka. All in all there was a lot of drinking going on. The party went on until midnight. Seriously a fun time and I drank A LOT!

Thursday I probably did something important, but now I don't remember. Oh packing for our weekend vacation!

Later that night, I had a friend's birthday party to attend downtown. I got all dressed up and told myself I wouldn't spend any money or drink. I spent 25 cents on parking and of course there were free drinks.

Someone made me a drink and we danced to the music. We requested some Cyndi Lauper and the DJ said "who?" I then asked for 80's music and he said "what does it start with?" OK. Great!

nov 6-10
Friday morning, Tony and I got up super early to head to the airport. We were headed to Portland for the weekend to visit my dad. Elizabeth flew into Denver earlier that morning to meet our flight out.

Amazing rainy events in Portland...
friday
*Ikea. good shopping, good food and now Tony is in love with the store too!
*Bonneville fish hatchery to watch the spawning salmon in action jumping up the fish ladders
*Multnomah Falls. basically a double waterfall nestled into a lush green forest.
*Kell's Irish Restaurant and Pub. Tony and I love the Seattle location and we had been telling dad about it for years. It didn't disappoint. Corned beef and cabbage with good Irish beer and soda bread ::drool::
*VooDoo Doughnuts. If you go to Portland you have to have VooDoo. The old dirty bastard is AMAZING!!
*POWELL'S BOOKS. That's all I have to say. The best bookstore I have ever been to. When you need an obscure book like Red Dragon first edition or Angels and Demons Illustrated Edition... it's there.

saturday
*pouring rain, actual flooding
*Saturday market. It is a weekly outdoor craft show which might be great except for the cold wet rain.
*back to Kell's for a warm-up drink.
*a beautiful vintage store with Chanel suits and a Karl Lagerfield jacket and much much more. I almost died until I looked at the prices and we left :(
*powell's books again. I just can't get enough.
*Bridgeport Brew pub. Seriously what other kinds of sight seeing are you supposed to do in the pouring rain?
*more vintage stores but in our price range. new patent leather lace up shoes!
*chili for dinner at Dad's house. Nice dry warm evening with family.

sunday
*Elizabeth was supposed to leave, but got really sick in the night so we got one more day with her!
*basically football all day. hmph.
*downtown Vancouver, WA. Thrift stores, antiquing, and more vintage stores.
*Blind Onion Pizza. delicious.

monday
*Tony and Elizabeth left today to go back to work.
*Pittock Mansion. A beautiful house built in the early 1900's. So much history and a fantastic view of the rivers, the mountains, and downtown.
*Powell's one last time :(
*McMenamins on the river for dinner.

tuesday
*home.

Wow. The last couple weeks have been crazy, and now there is just work. Darn. I dont think the next couple weeks will be exciting at all, even though Thanksgiving is right around the corner!!

Here's to the next posts and lets hope they are shorter!

new books (continuation)...

Just to let you know, after writing the last post about the book, The Hunger Games, I finished the book because I couldn't put it down and immediatly bought Catching Fire. I found out there will be one more book to round out the trilogy. Love it!!

new books...

On the airplane, I get really bored. I am constantly scouring the plane for good magazines (Time, Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair), bad magazines (people, in touch, us weekly), and any kind of books.

I read a great article in Time magazine recently about a new young adult book series, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins...

I used to tell my daughter stories about a family of mer-cats--kitties with fish tails--who lived in the East River and how they were persecuted by a mean purple octopus. I spent considerable time and effort coming up with nonviolent ways for the mer-cats to defeat the octopus at the end of each story. Finally one night I asked my daughter Lily, who was 4 at the time, how she thought the mer-cats should handle the problem. She chirpily replied that the mer-cats should find a sharp rock and then stab the octopus till it died. Ha, ha, ha! Kids.

If the time ever comes, Lily might do pretty well in the Hunger Games. As described by Suzanne Collins in her young-adult novel of the same name, the Hunger Games are an annual spectacle in which a group of children are forced by the government to fight one another to the death on TV. A sequel, Catching Fire (Scholastic; 400 pages), will be out on Sept. 1. The Hunger Games is a chilling, bloody and thoroughly horrifying book, a killer cocktail of Logan's Run, Lord of the Flies, The Running Man, reality TV and the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. But it inspires in readers a kind of zeal I haven't seen since the early days of Twilight. Stephen King is a major fan. So is Stephenie Meyer.

The Hunger Games is set in an unspecified future time when things have gone pretty spectacularly badly for humanity. The world, or the bit of it we can see, is dominated by a ruling caste who live in luxury in a city called the Capitol. The rest of us live like peasants in 12 districts that are strictly cordoned off from the Capitol and one another. Life in the districts sucks: it's mostly hard labor--mining coal and farming and working in factories--in dismal conditions.

To make things even dismaler, once a year each district is required to give up two of its children, chosen by lottery, and enter them in the Hunger Games. The kids are dropped into an enormous arena strewn with traps and hazards, with a heap of weapons and supplies in the middle. The last child alive wins a lifetime of luxury and celebrity. The action is filmed and broadcast to the entire world.

We experience this ordeal through the eyes of Katniss, a resident of District 12, a harsh, cold region mostly given over to coal-mining. She is a passionate 16-year-old who hates the Capitol and is devoted to her family; she volunteers for the Games to take the place of her sister, whose name came up in the lottery. Katniss is a skilled hunter and sheer death with a bow and arrow. She doesn't like to kill. But she doesn't want to die either.

Whereas Katniss kills with finesse, Collins writes with raw power. After a life spent in freezing poverty, Katniss experiences pleasure--warmth, food, pretty clothes--with almost unbearable intensity, and that's where Collins' writing comes alive. (Not sex, though. The Hunger Games isn't just chaste, like Twilight; it's oddly non-erotic.)

Likewise, Collins brings a cold, furious clarity to her accounts of physical violence. You might not think it would be possible, or desirable, for a young-adult writer to describe, slowly and in full focus, a teenage girl getting stung to death by a swarm of mutant hornets. It wasn't, until Collins did it. But rather than being repellent, the violence is strangely hypnotic. It's fairy-tale violence, Brothers Grimm violence--not a cheap thrill but a symbol of something deeper. (One of the paradoxes of the book is that it condemns the action in the arena while also inviting us to enjoy it, sting by sting. Despite ourselves, we do.)

Katniss survives the first novel, and the second finds her back in the arena, where she will try, in her words, to "show them that I'm more than just a piece in their Games."
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire expose children to exactly the kind of violence we usually shield them from. But that just goes to show how much adults forget about what it's like to be a child. Kids are physical creatures, and they're not stupid. They know all about violence and power and raw emotions. What's really scary is when adults pretend that such things don't exist.

- Time Magazine

I was so excited to find out about a great new series, as they are my favorites (Harry Potter, the Hannibal Lector series, Chronicles of Narnia, Twilight, the Dexter series). I immediately put it on hold at the library and apparently everyone else had the same idea. I was number 120 on the hold list and there were only 40 copies of the book. I was sure it would take forever, but it only took a couple weeks. I just got it a couple days ago and am already halfway through. I am loving it. I love Katniss and Prim and Gale. The entire world of Panem is very creative and someplace I hope never to live in. I cannot wait to see what will happen to Katniss, so I better get to reading! Oh, and I really can't wait to read Catching Fire!


I am also in the middle of another book, which I found on the plane. It is so completely opposite from The Hunger Games. It is about Queen Elizabeth I. It's called I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, a novel told from Elizabeth's perspective. I read The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, last year and just love all the drama surrounding Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, and Mary Boleyn. I, Elizabeth is basically a continuation of this story, but by a different author. It is a really great story of a girl born a princess, considered the daughter of a whore, and sent off to live outside the castle. She was hated by the public because of her mother, but when she could actually speak her own mind, then the public finally loved her. It's a great book. I enjoy reading books based on real life events and history and especially in different time periods. The language is so romantic even though the events of their lives are very hard.



I recommend both of these books. Happy Reading!!!

HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

In honor of Tony and I celebrating our one year anniversary of marriage, I thought I would put together a photo montage of our 7 years as a couple!

We met in August 2002 in our photography class at the Community College of Denver. He said "I like your shoes" (pink suede pumas) and I told him "I like your watch" (a beautiful silver watch with 2 faces). We were obviously made for each other right from the very start.

We began dating officially on September 9 and have been inseparable ever since. We have been through wonderful times and very difficult times in the last 7 years, but it has only made us stronger. We have lived in 5 different locations, added 3 pets to our family (RIP Hampy), gotten tattoos and piercings together. We have lost loved ones and celebrated new additions. We bought our first house and a car last year. We have survived car break-ins and a burglary. We both have had every haircut and color possible between us. We love art, crappy comedies, good food, drinking, spending time together and with our animals. We both hate driving and our jobs. He puts up with my crazies and I put up with his fancy-pants cravings. We both love the Broncos, Rockies, and the Avs but especially attending games. We enjoy rain, fall, Halloween,

We have traveled to many places (but plan on tons more); Alaska, Seattle, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wyoming... and someday we will actually take a real live honeymoon.
































Obviously these are in reverse order. They begin with our first road trip together. Tony drove me to Oklahoma the day before Thanksgiving to surprise my mom. She was so excited and impressed that all her friends heard about my wonderful new boyfriend! And little did she know he would be her future son-in-law.

We have been through so much together and we have wonderful memories and tons and TONS of photos to prove it all!

I am so very very lucky to have my husband and my best friend all rolled into one. He is such a kind compassionate and caring person. I love you Tony and can't wait for many many many more years to come!!

Bacon Corn Chowder with Crab...

Oh you know you want it!!! I have been craving this recipe all year and now that fall is finally upon us... its soup time. I love making soup. Maybe because they are easy and delicious, but they are good for what ails you!

This one is particularly good. The corn and milk make is sweet. Bacon and crab make it salty and hearty. All the veggies make it very well rounded. I think I will have to finish off the soup with some beer bread or even Irish soda bread for dipping. YUMMY!!!


BACON CORN CHOWDER w/ CRAB from Rachel Ray
serves 5-6

Ingredients:
-8 ears of corn, kernels removed (reserve 4 of the cobs)
-1/2 cup celery leaves, chopped
-2 cups water
-1 cup chicken stock
-1 tablespoon EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-1/2 pound (about 8 slices) bacon, coarsely chopped
-3 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
-1 medium onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, grated
-3 stalks celery, chopped
-1 small red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
-2 small bay leaves
-4 sprigs fresh thyme
-1 quart milk
-1 teaspoon (or more) hot sauce, divided
-1 cup crab meat, picked clean (optional)
-2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning (optional)
-3 scallions, sliced on the bias

Preparation:
Place a large pot over medium-high heat with the four reserved corn cobs, celery leaves, water and chicken stock. Bring liquid up to a bubble and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer and reduce broth until about 1 1/2 cups remain, about 10 minutes. Keep warm until use.

While broth is simmering, place a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat with 1 turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Cook the bacon until crisp and brown, 4-5 minutes. Remove bacon from pot with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the drippings from the pot and add the potato, onion, garlic, celery, red pepper, bay leaves, thyme sprigs and corn kernels to the pot. Sauté over medium-high heat until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add milk, hot sauce and corn broth and bring to a bubble. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer chowder until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

If using crab, place into a small bowl and toss with Old Bay seasoning. Serve chowder garnished with crab, a pinch of scallions and some of the crispy bacon.


Give this recipe a try this weekend!! Bon appetit!!

road trip, wedding, birthday, national parks and family time...

All in one week!!

Starting Wednesday, September 23rd at 5:00am we are heading to the great north. To Eau Claire, Wisconsin for the Strozinsky-LaFollette Wedding. Our great friends, Phillip and Alicia are getting married and my husband is a groomsman. Matt and Carly are flying out to WI while we are driving and they are road trippin back with us.

This morning we were planning on running errands when the car wouldn't start. Yes. The very car we are taking TOMORROW for a 15 hour road trip! JEEZ! But, thank goodness for AAA and their roadside assistance for jumping our car and getting us back up and running (literally) for the big day!!!!

Today, I stocked up on great road trip snacks: trail mix, beef jerky, fruit, water, and other sundries. We already got The Lost Symbol (the new Dan Brown book), Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Utopia, and The Great Gatsby all as books-on-CD. We are gonna be getting our read on, or listen to, while we drive.


9.23.9
We are starting in Denver (obviously)
EAST through ALL of Nebraska
NORTH through Iowa
to Bay City, WI (really Red Wing, WI) to visit Matt's (Carly's husband) parents.

9.24.9 - 9.27.9
NORTHEAST to Eau Claire, WI for the wedding and all that entails. Dinners, wedding celebrations, breakfasts and Phil's b-day!

9.27.9 - 9.28.9
WEST to Minneapolis, MN for some IKEA time!!!
Then WEST to Brookings, SD to see my mom for the night. Pork tenderloins, Geoffrey, and homemade sugar donuts!!!

9.28.9
WEST to Rapid City, SD to visit the Black Hills, the Badlands, and Mt. Rushmore. I have been to all 3 places but Tony, Carly and Matt have not!

9.29.9
WEST to Wyoming
SOUTH to DENVER!!!

WOW! Its gonna be a really long week with too much car time, but it will be so great! I must say that I truly love road trips. ANYTHING to get me off a plane every once in a while!!

More than anything I am soooo excited to spend the entire week with my husband. Sadly it has been a while since we have had a week together and it will be fabulous.

Here's to wedded bliss, great friends, family, and a safe car ride. CHEERS!!!

what i want...

I am in a very strange place in life. I have this wonderful husband, house, dog, cat, car and yet I am never home to enjoy any of it! I am terribly unhappy with my job and currently looking for something to do instead.

Also, I have finally decided what I actually want to do with my life and I am having a hard time figuring out how to start. I have applied to Emily Griffith Opportunity School to study Fashion Design and Sewing with plans to start come spring. This all depends, of course, where I am working. I have to work full time and would like to school full time, but somehow I think this is impossible.

I really do have plans for my life, even if I am rediculously boring right now and I haven't done much in the last few years to show for it.



These are my goals for the future, near and far. I plan on working hard to get them all done...
*I want a new job. I need to be home everynight bc right now its killing me. I could absolutely cook several dinners a week then get to wake up next to my husband every morning. It has been almost 4 years since I have done either!
*Go to school, soak up every bit of information, do well, and graduate before I am an old lady
*Start my own label. I am not asking for fame and riches, but just to be able to make and sell clothing that I love while making a living at it.
*The true dream would be to open my own store or at least have my clothes in boutiques around Denver.
*Continue reading great books and watching wonderful movies. I love to be entertained.
*Add-on to our house. We have such a small house that we need to add a dining room, master bedroom and bath, and double the size of the garage.
*Begin a real live career by working for myself. I want to be busy and stressed and happy with my job!
*Help Tony with his school and let him help me with mine. We both dropped out together and now we want another go.
*Visit my grandparents, parents, and sister more. I want to have more family memories every year.
*Save money!!! Life always happens as we learned the hard way this year, and I want a nice cushion to fall back on
*Save money for a huge European trip!!!
*Be a better friend, daughter, cousin, sister, granddaughter, wife by doing more little things to show people I care. I currently blame my job for not being able to keep up with b-days and special events since I can't keep track of the date. I always know the day of the week though!
*Start working out on a regular basis, no matter what it is. I feel so blah lately.


I know I can accomplish all of these if I work hard and stay at them.

Breckenridge or Bust...

This weekend is the big Barrett family reunion! FRI, SAT, SUN, MON, and TUE!!! Thank god for a weekend off!!!


All the aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and parents are coming in from Oklahoma, Colorado, Oregon, and California. There will be 17 in all in one very large house. Luckily there are 6 bathrooms!

We just happened to plan this on the 150th anniversary of Breckenridge as a town! There will be street fairs, fireworks, bands, time capsules, and much much more. I cannot wait!

My sister, Liz, came in town last night so I thought I would throw a dinner party! We had some other friends in town, Nic, Kirsten and baby Daphne, so they were also invited. And like always Matt and Carly were here too!

We had grilled shrimp, grilled corn on the cob, lemon-butter pasta, and angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. We ate every bit of the food with no leftovers. The marinade for the shrimp was fantastic! Way to go Food Network!

Today, my dad comes in at 2:30 and then we are off to the mountians. He is bringing me his old Pentax K1000, (a film camera if you remember those) to replace the one that was stolen, and some lenses! Tony got his new camera yesterday, a Minolta Maxxum 9. We are so anti-digital. I feel like this weekend we will take SEVERAL rolls of film (too bad our hobby is so darn expensive). But we may get some beautiful shots in the mountians, on a hike or just in town.

I will report of the weekend activities once its all done...

Fashion and new blog...

http://www.emilylaurenrodriguez.blogspot.com

That's my new blog. I thought I would share my fashion favorites and maybe someday include things I have made.

Enjoy!!

our one year anniversary present...

I haven't been in the posting mood lately and it's been a very long time!

I wrote all the details of our burglary on a very long and very detailed post, and never posted it. I think I was venting or releasing our bad kharma into the universe. I thought anyone who read it would think "those poor kids" or "my god, I hope that never happens to me" or even "oh that happened to me." But I finally realized that it just seemed sad and depressing.

So I am not upset, anxious, depressed or stressed now, so here I go...

One year ago today we purchased our very first home! Our first year in our home was stressful, hard, and completely perfect and wonderful.

It's hard to believe what has happened to us in a year... New car, marriage, garage flood, burglary, grown-up-furniture, and our newest adventure is a DOG!! He is our house gift to ourselves!!!

Kafka is actually a guard dog for us but we are in love! He is a 5 year old German Shepard/Australian Shepard mix that we got at the Denver Dumb Friends League last week. He plays fetch, sits, drools, loves walk and car rides.

This is Tony and I loving our beautiful yard and happy anniversary at our house!!!

We spent the day with Matt, Carly, Elena and Shannon at the Rockies/Diamondbacks game getting sunburned and sweating. After naps, we rolled in the grass, ate pizza, and took Kafka for a walk.

Now time for bed in our very own house. Life is good again!

My Top 5 Favs...

I just love making lists. I thought I would share a few with you...

TOP 5 FAVORITE...

movies...
1. Titanic
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Rebecca
4. Amelie
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

tv shows...
1. Friends
2. Sex and the City
3. HIMYM
4. Scrubs
5. Law & Order SVU

songs...
1. Glycerine - Bush
2. Twist & Shout - The Beatles
3. Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
4. Carry on Wayward Son - Kansas
5. Take On Me - A-HA

books...
1. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audery Niffenegger
2. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
3. Harry Potter books - JK Rowling
4. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
5. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

food...
1. Crab legs
2. Steak
3. Asparagus
4. Fondue
5. Hot Dogs

drinks...
1. iced tea with mint
2. dirty martini
3. milk
4. Mexican Coke
5. Kokanee (Canadian beer)

famous fellas...
1. Jared Leto
2. Brad Pitt
3. Daniel Craig
4. Brandon Boyd
5. Gavin Rossdale

famous ladies...
1. Gwen Stefani
2. Keira Knightley
3. Katherine Hepburn
4. Edith Head
5. Diane Kruger

colors...
1. gray
2. aqua
3. sea foam green
4. pink
5. black/white

places you've been...
1. Seattle
2. Sweden
3. NYC
4. San Fran
5. Yellowstone National Park

random things...
1. pandas
2. photography
3. movies
4. crafting
5. my house

scents...
1. rain
2. fresh cut grass
3. laundry
4. Lovely perfume by SJP
5. fresh cut cilantro



please feel free to share your own favorites!!

NO DOUBT!!!

YAY for birthdays!!! Although its still a month away, Carly got me No Doubt tickets for the big day! I have been working like crazy and the concert was such great break. 5 days gone, one day off for the concert and another 5 days on starting today.

The concert was such high energy and so fantastic. They sounded even better live. I saw Gwen by herself two years ago and it was magical as was the No Doubt concert. They only played things from their older CDs and they are hoping if the turn out was good enough they will put out another album. Well, since the concert sold out in the first hour, I am positive they are back with a new CD. And you better believe that I will be there at the next concert!!!

The Sounds, one of my favorite bands, and Paramore, suck-fest, opened for No Doubt. The crowd was such an odd mix of No Doubt fans, Gwen fans, Paramore fans, Twilight fans (Paramore's single played in the movie) and the parents tagging along. It was mainly girls, and since all three bands have women lead singers, it fit the bill.

GOD they were fantastic!!! I would go see them every night!!!