{everything yellow}

who DOESN'T love Target?

Especially when you can find awesome pieces like these for a whopping 75% off!!!

  

I'd been eying these items since springtime and found them several days ago on clearance. I've been soooo good about not shopping "just for fun", and decided for my hard work and these prices, I couldn't pass these up! I have the hurricane pillars out on the table now with fall berries wrapped around the base of each - I still need to take some pics, but am waiting until I have everything else around here completed.

One of my favorite things about shopping at the END of a season is pulling out stuff the next year that I have completely forgotten I'd bought on clearance the year before - this wreath is totally gonna rock my world next spring when I remember that I purchased it, and for so little! Gotta LOVE those little red clearance stickers!

Going through the same excitement right now with my Halloween stuff - I got some great deals on spooky platters and glitzy knick knacks last year. I LOVE Halloween and am thinking since it falls on a Friday this year, we might need to host a party...

...and then it was fall.

Well, not technically fall yet, but it suddenly is and feels like September.

Maybe it's the unseasonably cool last couple of days we've had, or the merchandise changes in all my favorite stores. One way or another, it's time to think about trading in the flip flops, iced teas and trips to the farmer's market for long sleeves, cider and football. (Not to mention the fall lineup of our favorite shows - only three weeks until Grey's and the Office - not that we're counting!) :)

I am first and foremost a summer kind of gal, but I do have a special place for fall. I love the colors, the smells, and the anticipation of holidays just around the corner. I find that I have to focus very hard on loving fall so I can forget that blustery winter and bitter cold are sure to follow once the leaves have fallen.

We have decided to stay put on 88th Street for another six months. We didn't find anything we loved while looking around, and in the end, we decided we just weren't up for the hassle of moving right now. It will be a great endeavor for the month of March where there is little else to do.

That said, I've let myself dive in and start decorating our current home for the changing seasons. I was going to just skip that part this year in anticipation of packing everything up, but it will be nice to just relax and take in the new season without any major stresses.

This time last year, we were doing bachelor and bachelorette parties, settling into West Des Moines life, changing jobs, planning last minute wedding details, and taking a honeymoon. It was a fun and exciting time, but I am thoroughly enjoying the slower, more predictable pace we have going this year. The two words that keep coming to mind are settled and content...good things to be.

I have a little extra motivation for getting all the "house things" done that I want, accomplished. I've wanted to start a book club for a long time, and finally jumped in and got a group together! We'll be meeting monthly for wine, food, and lots of chatting and since it was my suggestion, I figured I should offer to host first. We'll be starting in October, so that gives me a few solid weeks to get some things done around here before we all get together. At the top of my list: swap out summer to fall décor, find a new floor lamp, and put up window treatments.

Here's to fall decorating! :)

weekend layouts

"Vino at Gateway"

"Take Me Out..."

"Golf" - a work in progress. Thinking I'm going to add a column of light blue brads down the right side, sort of "pointing" to the word Golf.

The scrappers hard at work...

...and the aftermath of scrapping. Not TOO bad, since we only brought "a few things" up to do a couple of layouts. :)

gotta love a three-day weekend.

Warning: Excessive photo-taking and posting.

We headed out Friday night for Galena to hang with my parents, brother James, and his fiance, Han. The only one who couldn't make it was my littlest brother, Adam. I hadn't been up to the house since Memorial Day and Page hadn't been since last winter, so it was time to get up there for some R&R. We don't do much besides veg when we're at the house - eat in or out, watch movies in the theatre, the guys play video games and pinball, and my mom and I scrapbook. (layouts to come in another post!)

The big event for the guys this weekend was finally putting up the basketball hoop that's been sitting in the garage for a year. It takes "four able adults" to assemble, so with only three of them, it was interesting! They got creative and since we don't have a tall ladder, Page backed up our Xterra and used the bumper to stand on while they hoisted the backboard up and into place. Nice work, boys ;)

The girls were very little help while the boys built the hoop, so we decided to have a photo shoot. I was trying to be as cool as Han with my "peace" sign. This picture is misleading - Han is actually several inches shorter than me, but was wearing crazy high heels! One of my favorite conversations from the weekend was my brother making fun of her for being so short, and Han said, "I am not short! I'm Asian!" :)

 

The photo shoot started to get out of hand when I suggested my mom pose "senior picture style" around the trees in the yard.

Little known fact: My mother used to be on the syncronized swim team in high school! Go Sequins!

This picture makes me think she is channeling her inner syncronized swimmer :)

After which, Mom suggested I pose on her car LOL. The BEST pics are of my mom demonstrating the poses I should do, but I believe most of these are on her camera - more to come in future posts, I'm sure :)

We went to dinner at a place we had never been to, but has been recommended several times, Durty Gurt's Burgers on Main. When you walk in the front entrance, there is a breezeway with lots of (non-working) toilets to sit on while you wait for your table. Of course, we took advantage of the photo opp - the owner of the restaurant said we weren't exactly the first ones to do this...

 

and perhaps my favorite picture of the entire weekend haha...

(these two are always busy looking good...)

Overall, lots of just hanging out - Han challenged the boys to games of chess, and held her own from what I heard!

Mom and Page and I took some time to chill to her new iPod on the deck...

Sunday morning, we went to brunch at the hotel we were married at, almost a year ago. We were able to walk around the Point Patio where they were taking down items from a wedding that took place the day before. Seeing the tent and chairs all set up brought back lots of fun memories :)

 We've made it a year! Phew! :)

Mom and Dad (Mom, I think your camera has the better pics of everyone after we rearranged in the shade - that sun was bright!)

 James and "Won Ton" as we now call her :)

Hope your long weekend was relaxing and fun! Here's to a short work week!!

goodbye to summer.

I am always so sad to see summer come to a close. I am a warm weather girl, through and through.

Beloved pool season, you will be greatly missed.

Wishing a safe and happy Labor Day weekend to all. 

my joanie. thank you.

August 2008

Joanie is my freshman roommate from college. I'm not sure you could have put two more opposite girls in the same dorm room...but somehow it worked. We are so very different, and yet have just clicked since day one. When I transferred to Iowa and decided to rush, Joanie (the anti-sorority girl) sent me her mom's chocolate chip banana bread in the mail with a note that said, "Good luck with Rush and I hope you get into a good house. I love that we are so different but still such good friends."

Don't "aww" just yet - this is also the girl who has never hesitated to put me in my place :) Once when I was acting particularly spoiled, Joanie said to me, "I feel like someday you will sit on a throne and just tell people, 'bring me things'." :) I guess you could say I return the favor. At breakfast when she was visiting, vegetarian Joanie didn't want part of a friend's pancake on what had been the bacon plate. While other friends at the table looked for a different spare plate, I told her to "frickin' quit whining and get over it". Ah, friendship.

Despite our sarcasm, I do love this girl. Have you ever met someone who is just good at EVERYTHING and in general, makes you want to be a better person? That is totally and completely what Joanie is and has always been to me. The girl with her dry humor and quirky sense of style makes her own clothes, her own jewelry, is a cross-country runner, paints, plays in the orchestra, writes her own songs, plays the guitar, cuts hair, and so much more. Joanie has spent time abroad in Ghana, and recent years in DC, working in an AIDS shelter for women. Treat yourself and check out her amazing photography from her adventures.

In sharp contrast to her many talents, Joanie was handed me - a flighty roommate from CR who chatted on the cell or IM constantly, often decided not to attend classes, and is still to this day trying to decide what she wants to do with her life. (I've long since given up on trying to measure up to her and I am totally okay with that). :)

Today, Joans is impossible to keep in close contact with, since she takes forever to answer emails or facebook messages. (It will be at least a month before she checks my blog and reads this). I am terrible about phonecalls, or checking voicemail more than a couple times a week. I don't get to see her very often (this month was the first time in almost two years), and we certainly aren't what you would call "great" at keeping in touch, but she still means so much to me. I know for a fact that I have gotten so much more out of our friendship than I have given back.

To Joanie: Thank you. Not only for putting up with the less-talented, fashion-princess, often shallow and ditzy girl you were assigned to live with six years ago, but for being my dear friend to this day.

freezer staple for fall meals

I've been meaning to make this recipe for quite a while - Turkey Meatballs from Real Simple. I searched their website for the online recipe to link here, but without any luck. These can be made and kept frozen for up to 3 months - perfect to throw in with some spaghetti (like we'll be doing tonight!) or heating in some barbecue sauce and putting on a mini bun for a football game appetizer. The best part is they're guilt-free; Ground turkey instead of beef, and made with whole grain bread crumbs.

Turkey Meatballs:

3 slices of whole grain bread, finely grated in food processor
1 egg
2 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley (I used 2 tsp dried flakes)
2 small garlic cloves, minced
3 scallions, finely chopped (no scallions on hand - 1 Tbsp dried green onion flakes)
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds extra-lean ground turkey
1/4 c. milk (skim, 2%, whatever you have on hand)

Blend bread slices in processor. Combine crumbs and milk in small bowl and let sit for at least 5 mins. In larger bowl, combine turkey, egg and seasonings. Stir in crumbs and milk with fork.

Line an edged cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll meatballs between hands to make rows on the sheet. Meatballs should be about 2 heaping Tbsp each. Put cookie sheet in freezer for one hour to let the meatballs hold their shape.

Store meatballs in airtight container in freezer . To prepare, saute in olive oil, bake in oven, or add to crock pot until cooked thoroughly, depending on how you will be serving them.

Bon appetit!

Edited to add: My meat-guru, picky eater of a husband, officially gave these two thumbs up last night - so they've passed the ultimate taste test!

east coast visitors!

We found out on Monday that our good friend Dee and his girlfriend, Christine, were coming into town Friday for the weekend! Dee is about to start a big engineering job with long hours, so he wanted to get out to see us before he signs over his life to his new job :) It was our first time meeting Christine, who he met at Virginia Tech and has been dating since about the time of our wedding, so we were very excited to finally meet the famous Christine!

After THREE different flight changes/cancellations/delays, they finally made it into town early Saturday morning. Never fly through Chicago if you can help it, I've decided Chicago is the land where time stops and all flights are delayed. I have NEVER flown through there without a delay or cancellation! We picked them up at the airport and headed straight downtown to catch some Farmer's Market action - just in time for breakfast burritos!

After the market, we headed home for some much-needed power naps, then hit the pool for a bit before heading over to Gateway Market for some wine and cheese and then dinner on the patio.

We had planned to try out the new dueling piano bar, but after finding it was a LONG wait just to get inside, we met up with Rob, Emily and Tori at the Funny Bone and were able to score some of the last tickets to see Margaret Cho from Comedy Central. HILARIOUS show!!

Waiting to get tix...

We had excellent seats right up front!

On Sunday, we took the East Coasters to Scheel's to score a souvenir shirt :) Dee models his below:

The weather was PERFECT yesterday afternoon, 75 and sunny, so we hit a nearby park so the guys could throw around a football and frisbee (a throwback to their college days) and Christine and I worked on our photography skills. (Eventually we each gave football a very brief try...)

After hitting Los Cabos for lunch, we headed home to get a head-start on dinner - fresh corn from the farmer's market - a must if you're going to visit Iowa in the summer!

Matching t-shirts and matching beers :)

Cheers! Hope your weekend was just as fun!

creating.

While watching the Gymnastics Gala last night, I managed to get a couple simple layouts done of some summer events. I think my style is changing a little - I'm less about the "stuff" using maybe one or two minimal embellishments and instead focusing more on the title and fonts. I'm trying to break out a bit from the 90-degree angles and perfectly up and down elements - tilting more and off-centering things. I'm pretty sure this fireworks layout is the first time EVER I've let my letters do a wavy-type thing...but I experimented anyway and ended up loving the result.

  
"Flowers From You"

"Lazy Days at the Pool"

 

"Firework Fiesta"

(Also re-discovered my pop dot stash - not sure why I ever stopped using these! Hard to tell in this pic but the whole wavy bottom of the fireworks layout is pop-dotted to be dimensional.)

PS- Typepad is only letting me upload these if they're teeny tiny files. Layouts can be seen larger in my "artsy things" album to the right!

I Got Soul...

I have been firmly planted on the couch the past week and a half watching as much of the Olympics as possible. Aside from the incredible athletes, a favorite part of the broadcasting has been the inspiring commercials. If you've seen even 15 minutes of coverage, you've no doubt seen the Nike Courage commercial featuring the song, All These Things That I've Done by The Killers.



Almost makes me want to go and train for a triathlon. Almost.