Legally Blonde!

I forgot to mention I saw Legally Blonde the musical Wednesday night with my mom. I loved Legally Blonde the movie - maybe because I was a sorority girl myself. But I have to say the play was hilarious! I really didn't expect it to wow me, but I was laughing out loud! I mean, I'm always a fan of musicals, but this one was actually hysterical in parts. I highly recommend seeing it if it comes to your city!

Back in the Day

Haha, a delightful card for that mother/father, or "elder," who doesn't share the same generational letter as yourself. Ideal for someone who starts their stories with "back in the day..." Back in the day when giant squids ruled the high seas...

image/etsy-mitchellanddent

Travel Dreams: If I Went to Amsterdam...

...I'd stay here. The Dylan Hotel in Amsterdam looks like a nice little place to lay your head while touring this bustling city on a bicycle. I visited Amsterdam for a few days in Summer 2005 with girlfriends, and we forfeited much of our adventure to jet-lag being it was our first stop in Europe.

If I go back, I'd love to stay at a swanky place like the Dylan, sip cocktails in the ivy clad courtyard, and hop a bicycle and trek the city to its fullest.

images/dylan

Sweet Succulents

Can you tell I've got a thing for succulents? I forgot to mention, I made a trip to my local nursery last week and picked up a handful of lovely little succulents for my window boxes in addition to some other pretties like herbs and pansies.

Seattle's "faux Spring" has lent us some warm weather which allowed me to plant these little guys earlier than usual, since they're typically not a cold weather plant. Now I'm just hoping they live to see Spring. Anyone have any experience planting succulents?

via/erineverafter

Dinner Last Night: Tagliatelle with Truffle Butter

I've been wanting to make this Ina Garten recipe for a while now - Tagliatelle with Truffle Butter - but couldn't seem to find truffle butter at a reasonable price-tag. I first heart about this recipe via Barefoot Contessa, where she claimed truffle butter was a mere $5.00... I beg to differ because I have scoured Seattle and the cheapest I found was $10.00 at PCC here in Seattle.

Thankfully the purchase was worth it as this dish was delicious! I mean who doesn't love truffles anyway, but I'm glad the flavor held up throughout!

image/foodnetwork

To the Nines

Sorry...more posting about our fab hotel - The Nines in downtown Portland. I just didn't feel I communicated the sheer shishi-ness of this glamor goddess hotel in words - so I google searched some pictures. I admit, I have a new appreciation for wallpaper after spending a night here, the silvery wallpaper amidst Tiffany blue furniture was quite the eye candy. Hopefully my constant swooning is an indicator that I will return soon...

P.S. Isn't the rooftop deck awesome??

images/concierge

Viva la Portland

I'm back from a splendid girls weekend getaway. The Northwest weather delivered, and it was a sunny, 60-degree, blue-sky day in Portland. We arrived around noon, shopped til we dropped, then headed up to happy hour on our rooftop deck at our swanky downtown hotel, The Nines. I would highly recommend staying here, this hotel was super cute and girly - our room was outfitted in silver and Tiffany blue! After gussying up, we headed out to a delicious dinner and then went out on the town. All in all - an awesome girls getaway!

images/armillas

Getaway Weekend

Happy weekend! I'm off to Portland Saturday morning for an overnight getaway with my girlfriends. Looking forward to an afternoon/evening of shopping, sipping cocktails, chit-chatting, and enjoying each others company! Cheers!

image/weheartit

My Top 10 Chick Flicks

I was intrigued and inspired by Lindsay's Top 10 Chick Flick movie list for Valentines Day over at La Belle Vie, so much so that I created my own list of chick-flick faves. Now of course, this is only a tiny fragment of the chick flicks I have seen, rented, or actually viewed in the theater. But these are the most memorable (in my humble opinion).

10. Serendipity - it's all up to fate in this movie. The will they/won't they find each other story line gets me every time (even though I obviously already know the ending...)9. Center Stage, I was never a ballerina, but this movie made my friends and I wish we were!

8. Bridget Jones Diary7. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
6. The Thomas Crown Affair
5. One Fine Day - I loved this duo (Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney)4. The Notebook - great book and a great movie3. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days2. The Cutting Edge, I LOVE this movie. Love, love, love! Also makes me wish I'd pursued a career as a professional ice skater (a little)...

1. Dirty Dancing "No one puts Baby in a corner!"

What are your fave chick flicks? Did I name any of them?

Happy Pączki Day

Yes, you read that right, Happy Pączki Day...well belated because technically I was flying home from Mexico on Fat Tuesday, which is also known as Pączki day in Polish culture. Despite all the consonants in the name, pączki {prounounced poonch-kee} is a customary Polish sweet treat and indulgence before Lent.

What exactly is a pączki, you ask? Well, technically it's a deep-fried piece of dough flattened and filled with a sweet filling and usually topped with powdered sugar, icing, or dried orange zest. My 100% Polish, mid-western sweetie grew up celebrating this day, so I thought I'd post about it for him. Unfortunately there aren't as many Polish bakeries out in Seattle as there are in Michigan it turns out, so we've discovered pączkis are hard to come by... If anything, food for thought, happy pączki day!

image/strykowski

Blog Schmog

Hello blog friends - I am back from Mexico. While I wouldn't call myself tan per say - I'm definitely a little less pale and perhaps a little more freckled, feeling well rested and relaxed...The boy and I splashed in the ocean, floated in the pool, wriggled our toes in the sand, drank plenty of margaritas, walked the beach under the stars, all in all it was an amazing getaway - just wish we could've extended it longer (sigh).

And in case you were wondering about my random blog post yesterday, I was indeed still in Mexico, and I'm confident the last thing on my mind was lingonberry jam...haha I'm writing in response to some curious blog comments questioning my sanity about blogging on vacation! (FYI - I typically write my blog posts on Sundays and post-date them for the coming week). I must've been in vacation mode early as I seem to have scheduled that post to air during my vacay. I did NOT blog while on vacation, just wanted to clear that up.

Here are some pics from our weekend getaway...
Missing the sun already...

Lingonberries

I had my first experience with lingonberries. I was housesitting and came upon lingonberry jam in the fridge. Anyone ever heard of this kind of berry before? Apparently they're pretty popular in Scandanavia and Novia Scotia - I on the other hand went, "What kind of berry??"

The lingonberry, which is red and acidic, has a flavor similar to a cranberry. As a spread, they're surprisingly good, sweet but a little on the tart side (which I personally like in a jam/spread). Now that I've made this discovery, I've come to find lingonberry jam isn't particularly easy to come by, so I'm off to my organic market Friday in search of some.

Au Revoir

I'm off to Mexico tomorrow!!! So excited for some R & R with my numero uno. Love to blogland as I take a few days off to soak up the sun...Happy early Valentine's Day!

image/googleimages

Homemade Valentines

In case you've forgotten, Valentine's Day is Sunday - which means, in-school Valentine's Day party on Friday!! Woohoo, so excited. As an elementary school teacher, this is my favorite party of the school year. Tomorrow we're making and decorating Valentine mailboxes with little red flags.

I just love these homemade Valentines I saw over at Blonde Designs. I always strive to make homemade Valentines but this year there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. Hopefully next year, I'll make some felt ones like these for my students (hearts for girls and arrows for boys) - so sweet!
images/blondedesigns

Sydney!

My sister made it safely to Sydney! Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts. Lucky for us, blackberry messenger works across continents, so she BBM'd me when she landed. Still holding onto the slim hope that I can visit her during my school's Spring break. All I need now is for my finances to cooperate...

P.S. If anyone catches wind of any fabulous travel deals/steals from Seattle to Sydney - please let me know!!

Tea Submarine

I've recently become a tea enthusiast, my current fave is Seattle's own Cinnamon-Orange Market Spice. Isn't this little tea sub the cutest? It submerges tea leaves to the bottom of your cup, creating the perfect infusion of your favorite brew.

image/monkeybusiness
via blackeiffel

Yellow

I've really been into the all things yellow lately...not sure if it's my wishful thinking that Spring will come early, or just I've been seeing bursts of yellow in storefront windows and I'm feeling inspired. Now let me preface by saying, yellow is not really my color. Blue and green are my go-to colors. If I find a top I adore, I'll usually pick it up in one of those colors because on my fair coloring, it works. Yellow on the other hand, often does not!

As I was collecting these pictures I pondered, I really don't own many pieces of clothing with yellow in them. Now that I mentally count, I can think of well...3. But lately I've been really intrigued, inspired, and motivated to try on all things yellow.

What is your go-to color?

images/anthropologie

G'Day Mate!

My little sister leaves for Australia today for Spring semester study abroad. We are going to miss her lots, especially since she'll be gone until July, but excited that she gets this incredible opportunity. Keeping her in my thoughts today as I wish her safe travels and plenty of excitement as she begins this amazing adventure.

image/googleimages

Dinner Last Night: Sweet & Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder

I always get excited when my latest copy of Real Simple arrives in the mail - simply for the abundance of easy-to-follow recipes that result in deliciousness. My mom gave me a crockpot as a housewarming gift months ago and I finally cracked it open to make this - Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder. Despite the 7 hour slow-cooking time, it was incredibly easy, and turned out quite tasty!

image/realsimple

My Weekend

My weekend was low key, just as I'd hoped. Friday night, my boyfriend and I had date night out at Serious Pie renown for it's inventive, delicious pizza! I went for the truffle cheese + chantrelle mushroom (heavenly), and he had the housemade salumi and spices. With drinks, 2 cannoli and 1 gift card later, we ended up paying less than $15 out of pocket - sweet!

Saturday I cleaned my house from top to bottom while watching a childhood fave movie - Troop Beverly Hills, tell me you've heard of it! Beverly Hills, what a thrill! Beverly Hills what a thrill! Ah it brought me back to sleepovers of years past.
After some of my teacher friends came over, and we got ready together for the annual benefit auction for our school. One 6-course meal and hours of mingling later, I was exhausted.

On Sunday I joined a new gym, had coffee with a friend, and enjoyed myself at a Superbowl party before jetting over to my parents for my little sister's goodbye party - she leaves for Sydney, Australia for the semester on Tuesday! So excited for her! All in all - an eventful but low key weekend.

Mexico in T-Minus 5 days!!!