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Parks and Paintings

August 8, 2013

I took Greg down to the San Jose airport on Sunday cause they had better times and also cause this lovely lady lives there and I was wishin upon a star that she could hang out. And she could!!! I love hanging out with my sister probly more than anything except Jesus and Greg. I always leave feeling like the funniest, most talented person in the world (she is the only human being on earth that catches and laughs at all my jokes, plus she’s the most encouraging person I know = treasure friend). We went down to the park to take pictures to possibly paint one day but ended up mostly trying to take a decent one of both of us, found ourselves failing badly, and promptly turned to the who can make the ugliest face game. Those will remain in the vault of trust. We both had some good ones but I just showed Greg one of mine and he said yup that’s pretty bad, so I say I win. Anyways, she’s the sweetest and took me out to dinner and we had the loveliest time. I really miss hanging out with all my friends on a regular basis. Hopefully when we move to LA, we’ll get a good clan goin. They really make all the difference in life.. in my opinion.

So Greg’s been gone for the last three days and I have had the funnest time painting madly. My momma came up on Tuesday to hang out and have a slumber party which was unexpected and oh so fun. I love having these people all to myself : ) I picked Greg up from the airport last night and since he came in around dinner time, we got to go to dinner in the city!! It was extra fun and spontaneous. I had the most delicious coq au vin and Greg had a freakin incredible coconut soup I think it was. Delicious delicious. I love good food. If that wasn’t clear yet.

Today I’ve just been painting away – I think I’m almost done with my lady! I call her Karen. I think Greg is finally realizing how messy I am when I paint. I always tell him to stay away cause the “paint magically will jump on you” but no, he took his chances and now has paint on his shirt as previously warned. It really is amazing how it gets everywhere. Yesterday I cleaned everything up and just before I walked out the door I noticed big paint footsteps tracked across our carpet. I tell you, it’s magic. I swear I have a paint ghost, subtly adding bits here and there around my house and all over me. It could be very frustrating but I have learned to embrace it and just look like a paint covered homeless woman for the day. One time, when mom and I went to a painting workshop in Tennessee, I brought my paint clothes as I know how messy I am and instantly felt out of place in the class.. but the real shock was when we took a lunch break and went to KFC, a couple of street workers came in and gasped at how dirty I was. You know you’ve crossed a line when laborers are horrified by you.

Anyways, here she is so far. I’m going to wait a couple days and see what else she needs before adding the dreaded signature. Cheers everyone!

Happy Saturday

August 3, 2013

by hillywoohoo

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home / paintings and progress

This morning as I was talking to Greg, I noticed he had glowwwyyy ears! He was sitting in front of the window and the light coming through them made them glow red. I thought to myself, I wanna paint that! so out they came. Luckily Greg had to work a bit today so I had a nice hour or two to paint his focused face (which surprisingly changes quite a bit when he’s thinking). But I had the best time painting my silly little portrait sketch and remembered how much I love painting from life. It’s just getting people to slow down and sit for you for hours and hours is the tricky thing : ) I also got excited about taking some more classes soon. It finally clicked in my head that I know nothing about painting and I just make it up as I go along and it mostly turns out muddy and kinda boring so i’m excited to let people in to help me : D Another thing I’m trying that’s actually new is showing people my stuff which I hate doing unless it’s in a spot that I’m confident about. Hence the progress pic the other day and this one today. I guess I’m trying to break down my pride bit by bit and hopefully grow from it. So, here’s to pushing ourselves and continuing to learn. Happy Saturday everyone!

^^my makeshift studio complete with handsome model

^^ someday I’ll have one like this : ) : ) : )

Best. News. Ever.

August 2, 2013

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home

Not really, but we did get some great news last night. We’ve been wanting to have our landlords down for appetizers and cocktails for a while (they are the sweetest older couple that live above us) and we finally had them down last night. I was kinda nervous about it cause, well, what exactly is appropriate to talk to your landlords about? But we had the greatest time! They were so complimentary of our place and said they had always hoped someone would fix it up like we had and they just loved each thing we had done…. which made me kinda nervous about the news we were going to tell them… that we were moving at the end of the year and possibly even before… but when the subject came up, they were so supportive! (wait is that a bad sign?) They said if we needed to, we didn’t even have to finish up our lease which was a huge relief for me with planning and timing and stuff. AND they loved what we had done so much, that they asked if when we are ready, if they could show potential new tenants our place just the way it is because they think it would sell it better : ) I took it as the nicest compliment. So, that is our wonderful news that gives me such a peace about moving and being able to take our time (sorta) to find a place down there. Funny enough, Sue was on a diet so she couldn’t have any of the appetizers and neither of them could have one of Greg’s fabulous cocktails – apparently Don’s allergic to hard alcohol and Sue again with the diet.. but they brought a wonderful bottle of pino and told us all about how they met and how Don proposed on their second date. It was really sweet. Greg asked how long their engagement was and Don replied “18 years.” We had a really nice time and i’m really so glad Greg pushed us to have them down. We were really blessed with wonderful landlords. Also, yesterday was the first gorgeous sunny day in a month so that added to the happiness. In other news, I’ve been inspired by some wonderful art, so I’m off to painting! Yes Lory, I will be fixing the ear (hopefully) : )

we may have finally had our cocktails once they left…

first sunny day in a month!

Oh happy day

July 31, 2013

by hillywoohoo

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home / paintings and progress / wedded bliss

I’m glad I’ve been keeping this blog because if it were up to my memory, I’d say it’s been gray and windy all summer. Really it’s only been a month but it feels like it’s been forever. Greg says I should pray for sun but I’m hesitant because this is making me excited to move : ) BUT in other news, there are so many happy things happening! Greg’s paycheck came in today which means I get to get groceries!!! Yesterday I remembered the coin jar and was able to scrounge up enough to get us some cream and two of the tiniest zucchinis I’ve ever seen but at least we had some sort of vegetable! The guy at the store made fun of me for paying with coins but whatever. I came home and made a quiche for lunch and some “pasta” alfredo for dinner since we were out of the fettuccine. I’ve had the funnest time trying to come up with things we could make with what we have. I even made some homemade focaccia for the first time which ended up being quite tasty. We’ll be eating bread for days.

Lately I’ve really grown to love doing dishes which is great cause I feel like I do them all day. I think it’s because I love my alone time and since I don’t get much of it anymore with Greg working from home, it’s the one time I can put on my music and be in my own little space in my own little world. I just have to worry about Greg coming around the corner and seeing me dancing like an idiot. My iPod is usually on shuffle so I get to feel a nice range of emotions from super happy to so very sad. Lately I’ve been obsessed with Bocelli’s song “Era Gia Tutto Previsto.” It’s so wonderfully sad it makes me want to weep from it’s beauty : ) also Josh Groban’s “To Where You Are” and Sarah Brightman’s “Puccini: Turandot – Nessun Dorma” – that song I used to listen to on the way to work and I’d always arrive with smeary eye makeup. Apparently I’m going though a sad classical phase… anyways mostly I stand in there washing away with a happy heart, so thankful I don’t have to work at a job I hate anymore. Minus my days of selfishness and self pity, I love being a non stressed little wife : ) It’s the most wonderful “job” in the world. People often ask me when I’m going to get another job but making a happy home is really my #1 priority and something I really enjoy doing – I’m hardly ever stressed anymore and I love what I do and Greg loves not having to do housework so it works out for everyone. And when I get everything done, I get to paint which is awesome! Anyways, here’s our little but happy little kitchen. Yes, that is a window into the bedroom. There is very little privacy here ; ) but it does make it nice to look out on something whilst washing away since our bedroom windows look out on the bay!Here’s my lady I’m currently working on.. I painted over a swirly landscape I was doing (hence why it’s so bumpy) I’m trying a new method to train my eye and it’s much harder but it’s quite fun too! I dunno.. I may paint over her too you just never know ; ) In other news, I finally got health insurance so mom, you can stop worrying : ) Aaaaand I finally found inspiration to work out on a regular basis. Just watch a Victoria Secret video and you’ll get up off the couch real quick. The dogs are fighting outside our window (We look out on a roof where they like to hang out). We call him “white dog” but I’m convinced his name is Herold. He always answers when I call him that. Happy Hump Day!

Poor Little Newlyweds

July 30, 2013

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mmmm meals / wedded bliss

We weren’t home long yesterday before Greg declared there was no food in the cupboards! I try to get rid of everything before we go on trips and I don’t like to keep too many snacks around or else I eat them : D *no self control* so this wasn’t new news to me. I was planning on going to the store that day but before I knew it, it was 1:30 and I was getting angry hungry. This is the part where I felt like a rockstar wife: IIIIII created a nutritious lunch from empty cupboards!!!! This was no peanut butter sandwich… This was delicious puttanesca with tomatoes and capers and fresh parsley that still happened to be good in the fridge and each thing! I was so very proud of myself hence why I’m telling you about it now. And then as I sat down to see how much we had to spend on this weeks groceries, I had the wonderfully romantic realization that we are broke newlyweds! Greg spoils me so much I’ve never noticed but as we’ve been cracking down lately to stay in a tighter budget, this was a big wakeup call that I found oddly romantic. So, as we stared at the big goose egg that represented what we had allotted for food, we got out the puttanesca again for dinner – this time with less sauce and less excitement. But we did make some delicious negronis that made up for some of our disappointment and later some freshly popped popcorn which is probably my favorite snack ever so I was happy. I guess it made me smile because even though we are poor at the moment, I couldn’t be happier or more content and we have so much to be thankful for and many more opportunities to try to be more creative and make things stretch which always excites me. Andddd I finally got my budget figured out which makes this nerd ridiculously excited. Happy Tuesday everyone : )

^^our poor little meal puttanesca round 2

10 Highlights from the week : )

July 29, 2013

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family days / terrific trips

Last week was busy busy busy but so much fun… here are our highlights:

1) “Cocktails” at the Burkes!
>>My cousin and her hubs invite us over to see their adorable new place.
>>My dad asks if he and my mom could come too.
>>I drop the ball on communicating that we would like to come over for cocktails and would like them to come over for dinner.
>>We arrive and Lauren asks if anyone would like water.
>>Mom responds that she would “prefer wine.”
The awkward moment you realize you have forgotten to mention the little bit about “cocktails at your place, dinner at mine.” Confusion on both sides ensues. Oh the embarrassment.

But look what a beautiful spread they turned out! Pina coladas all around! They’re the sweetest : )

2) Part two of the night – Lauren and Sean come over for delicious rib dinner and we make homemade pasta and get to visit with our beloved friends. 3) Celebrating Taywad’s Birfday
Monday, Taylor took the day off cause it was HER BIRTHDAYYY!!!!! We had the most relaxing time laying on the lawn at this place and later did some shopping. We went into the giant Pottery Barn at Stanford and it made me increasingly excited to someday have bedside tables.. I’m starting to make a list of things I can look forward to when we move so I’m not so terribly heartbroken. So far I’m up to having bedside tables, being able to control our own heat, and having doors that shut easily. Oh also having more three pronged outlets and outlets in general around the house. It’s the little things! : )

4) Rolling down this hill

5) Heading to San Diego and bike riding around Coronado Island with these favorite people and all my aunts and uncles. We were part of the “adult” group : D

6) Going on a walk with Taylor and having her pick up a cactus only to find 7 tiny splinters magically appear in each finger. Apparently pain gives us the giggles. Also, meeting the big horse at the bottom of the hill.

7) Taking this picture and then falling from this wall into the sand. Greg hates sand but I couldn’t stop laughing. It hurt. There it is again… pain and giggles. Maybe it’s like nervous laughter but painful laughter? …..

^^the little wall that seems bigger when you’re falling backward from it

8) Spending ample amounts of time sitting by the pool and reading.

9) Greg’s favorite moment was apparently watching me trying to do sit ups in the car.

10) But hands down, this one takes the cake for both of us:

Taylor checked her bag in at the airport only to see it slowly going down the conveyer belt with a pocket open, gradually emptying her dirty underwear as it went. I’ve never seen her face so very red. Luckily they were cute undies and the lady said she could hop over and get them : )

I hope you all had a happy week with lots of laughs!

Lunch and a Tasting

July 21, 2013

by hillywoohoo

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mmmm meals

Today we spontaneously left our house at 2pm with hungry stomachs in search of a late lunch and ended up here:

^^LOVE those chunky yellow glasses : )

That’s right, Napa – my favoritest place on earth (not really but only sometimes). Perhaps to reward ourselves for saving SO much money last week, we decided to blow it all on just one meal. Just kidding but seriously, this food was amazing and such a contrast to what is being offered on the frozen food aisle.

^^ : )

^^Greg’s delicious lemony chicken

^^My kickin pork with killer mashed potatoes and deliciousness all around

^^aaaand thats what you call a lemon meringue pie. Pretty sure it was 7″ tall

^^they have the most wonderful edible garden in the back : ) fresh fresh fresh

^^and then we went off to find just one tasting room that was open past 4:30

^^and ended up here at Gerard

^^and just for the heck of it, have YOU ever seen a gas station with red checked table cloths and flowers!? Now that's when you know your in a dreamy place : ) ...or that you are paying too much for gas...

^^and just for the heck of it, have YOU ever seen a gas station with red checked table cloths and flowers!? Now that’s when you know you’re in a dreamy place : ) …or that you are paying too much for gas…

Happy Weekend!!!

Dear Mother, prepare to be horrified

July 20, 2013

by hillywoohoo

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mmmm meals / why do i act like a child

I would not want to deceive you by only including stories of fun and tales of adventure. No, no. I am much too honest and highly too immature to keep that up. Greg has been working incredibly hard this past week catching up on work stuff consequently leaving his oh so needy wife feeling awfully neglected. We are talking 14 hour days here (actually we are currently approaching 17 hours as we speak, poor Greg!) Now, communication is a fun thing in marriage.. somehow, in the mind of an über sensitive artist type faced with confronting a logical technical type, it gets thrown out the window to resolve problems, quickly being replaced by elaborate schemes of revenge for not understanding the poor lady’s unspoken feelings. Throwing food seems to be a common reaction among other wives I’ve talked to but I haven’t come to that yet : ) However, I did march straight to the grocery store to “pick up some food for dinner” only to return angrily with *insert shocking gasp here* a weeks worth of frozen meals. Yes, if you have not noticed our love for food yet, this. is. a. TRAGIC. consequence. and pure evil from the knowing wife. Needless to say, I felt guilty as soon as I got back to the car and saw my dear husband, still sweetly working, not even suspecting the weeks worth of awful meals coming his way. And no, I did not get the delicious pot pies or lasagnas, I got the inaccurately labeled “healthy” options which really just consist of three itty bitty broccoli florets and quarter sized pieces of chemical mystery meat. Now, as these things tend to work out, Greg happily enjoyed leftovers from last week and seemed to adequately enjoy the few meals he did have and yes, I was the one suffering profusely from flavorless cardboard creations. But, we both lit up when we remembered we had the ingredients to make the pizza intended for last week but not executed because of the 18 hour rise time for the dough that happened to slip my mind as dinnertime rolled around.. but oh my! It was so nice to actually make a real meal that required more than venting plastic and pushing a button. I love cooking but mostly I looooove cooking for my husband because I see how much it blesses him and he is always so appreciative. So, my darling Greg, I’m so sorry for the week of dud meals followed by the week of edible cardboard… but here’s to hoping next week turns out better! : ) I have never looked forward to going to the grocery store so much in my life and actually having real fruits and vegetables again. But hey! $27 for a week of groceries for two people aint so bad…. no no, there is something terribly wrong with that…

Big Sur Bound

July 18, 2013

by hillywoohoo

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terrific trips

The strangest thing happened this morning: Neither Greg or I have been sleeping well lately so thankfully we got a full 11 hours! last night and woke up very discombobulated. It was foggy, but there were no obnoxious fog horns to be heard. We had run out of coffee so we walked down to the Starbucks in town to find not one boat out on the water for as far as we could see! Not one giant cargo ship, not one tiny sailboat, not even any kayakers! It was very odd but strangely quiet and peaceful. And there is your tid bit from today : ).. Anyways, Greg took me to the most adorable cabin in Big Sur this last weekend. He had been looking at the 10 greatest baths in the world or something (sweetly feeding my obsession) and this one had made the list. It came with two outdoor baths by a fireplace underneath the redwoods. This sounded amazing since we both have a very different idea on what the perfect temperature of water is (apparently mine threatens our future children). Sounds awfully romantic but my dear husband decided to do just a couple chores before we left and ended up pulling his back out from the twisting and bending position that shower scrubbing calls for. (Hence the reason I never have enjoyed cleaning showers : ) …but he was scrubbing with a toothbrush so he gets big points) Nevertheless, it may have not been how we pictured the weekend going in our minds, but it was still so much fun to get away and eat and talk and eat and talk and talk and boys love to talk. : D

Although we didn’t get to take advantage of any hiking or adventures, we did get to play Table Topics (aka the game we found in the cupboard)! It sounds rather cheesy, but it was actually really fun! We found out a whole lot about each other and Greg said he was impressed with me so of course I liked it. (Compliment hog)

We had a fire in the back, and a fire in the front. I think we both liked the front fire the best because it looked over all that green in the first picture and we could hear the rushing river and seemed to be the perfect place to have our evening cocktails anddd our morning coffee : )

Give me good food and I am a happy girl. And that he did. I don’t know if I was just happy to take a break from cooking and cleanup or what but everywhere we went was really delicious. The first place we went was Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn which was pretty adorable aesthetics wise which always makes me happy and the food was pretty decent. I’d probably go again : )

It was pretty funky and precious as things seem to be in Big Sur. I got a horrible case of the hiccups which Greg claimed was his favorite moment in marriage. He was frightened by the bunny with the pink dress and the crazy hand behind me. We had a very riveting discussion, oysters, good wine, good food, and coffee. Ah! And good bread pudding but not as good as my mommas : )

The next morning we went to the Big Sur Bakery which was also pretty precious. The guy did fancy latte art which I’m always a fan of, and I convinced myself a puffy piece of bread loaded with sugar was a nutritious breakfast choice. We had a good display of people watching and decided once again that Europeans will always dress better.

Naturally, we came home to play a stimulating game of Jenga. We had a stash of cold wine bottles in the fridge to rotate for Greg’s poor broken back. I had a hard time believing he was in so much pain until nighttime would come and he would writhe all night with no one to give him attention. Then I believed him and I felt oh so bad. Luckily, we could take relaxing baths in the daytime..And the nighttime..

I have never taken so many baths in all my life. I’m surprised they didn’t provide us with a boatload of body lotion to balance out the pruney skin and scales..

We got some deliciously overpriced burritos for lunch and headed down to the river to see if Greg’s back could handle the precarious rock (we ended up eating at the picnic tables like normal elderly folks).

^^This beer was giant in real life. Hence why we bought it, hence why we took a picture.

We had dinner at a new restaurant that had opened just two weeks before (they didn’t even have a dessert menu yet!) and oh my. THAT was the best food I’ve had in a long time. I got steak and creamed spinach and I’m pretty sure it was a deep fried biscuit with honey butter that came from heaven.. and Greg got the healthy choice of salmon with perfect beets and tomatoes and healthy stuff… I could see him eyeing mine so we offered bites and ended up both liking the others more : ) Very very delicious. And then we headed home on that eyesore of a drive! Greg had to work the morning we headed back so he took me out to lunch in Carmel to make up for it.. that was also delicious. I’ve noticed our life highlights revolve strictly around food.

In other news, not one of my nails chipped all weekend. I was thoroughly impressed.

Wemember Wednesday

July 10, 2013

by hillywoohoo

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date night / terrific trips / wedded bliss

I was going to use “Turn Back Tuesday” until I realized it… was already Wednesday. Where has this week gone?? It’s been full of dud meals and sporadic sobs for no reason (gotta love being a woman) so let’s remember the better things shall we : ) Actually, Greg’s been wanting me to put this up for you, Lory, since it seemed to have slipped his mind when he told you about our LA trip.

A month ago we went down to San Diego for our friend’s beautiful wedding and stayed with the wonderful Michael Klein in LA for a week so Greg could work at his new office. PS if you haven’t checked out his new employers website, check it out! I’m a bad wife and only just looked at it for the first time yesterday but I was very impressed: http://madeinhaus.com/ The place of white at the end of the picture reel is his office which looks pretty sweet in my opinion and no it’s not cause I have an obsession with white… well maybe a little but still.. Look!! Anyways, part of my Christmas present last Christmas was to go see Bocelli at the Hollywood Bowl (which was AMAZING) which happened to be a week after the wedding hence the real reason we stayed down there in the first place.. ANYWAYS all that to say, Greg took me to one night at the Sunset Tower Hotel!

Here’s where the fun part comes in. He had called ahead and asked if there were any upgrades so when we got there the lady said she was “very sorry, we had to upgrade you to the Penthouse.” After we had picked our jaws up off the counter, we giggled our way to the elevator bumbling along with our goofy worn out luggage and pushed this button (making sure to take a picture as this probably won’t ever happen again until I make us our millions).

And walked into this room. We had the goofiest grins on our little faces and kept spinning around pretending we were extremely wealthy. I don’t know what it is, but awful British accents usually make an appearance in these sort of circumstances.

We felt so rich that Greg even let us eat and drink things from the minibar! So we enjoyed a lovely small bottle of champagne and the most delicious nuts out on this wraparound patio that overlooked all of West Hollywood. It was gorgeous.

There were so many options of where to sit, it was hard to just pick one! So naturally, we sat in them all. What started it all was my desire to go somewhere that “just had a bathtub.” We don’t have one at our place so it’s always such a treat to go somewhere that does. And this place did. Oh my. This was the most amazing bath I’ve ever been in. If I am rich one day, and I intend to be ; ) , I will seek out this bath and buy one for my own self. It was HUGE and deep and oh so comfy AND they had the most delicious smelling scents and REAL candles and it looked out on a beautiful patio with lovely flowers. It was so dreamy. And there was a couch in the bathroom which is always fun : )

We went down to the Tower Bar for cocktails and appetizers before going to see Bocelli. Here is one of the many reasons I selected Greg as my life partner : D His ardent attempt at the Welty “ssss”

It was a really cool old place with lots of pictures of past starlets and lots of neat stories about the famous folks that used to live there. Bocelli was amazing except in my opinion, he seemed rather shy but quirky and the other performers tended to talk for him or over him.. I would rather have heard his shy comments more than their funny ones. But, he had an incredible voice and I was honored to be able to see him live thanks to my wonderful husband.

Oh! One more thing! The next morning, we went down to our complimentary continental breakfast which was also incredible. I didn’t bring my phone or else I would have taken a picture of the preciousness. The had greek yogurts in tiny little mason jars with burlap cloth wrapped over the top. They had berries in sweet little woven baskets and delicious pastries and coffee and each thing but everything was so beautifully presented, it was a delight. While Greg was away getting his treats, a group of British women sat down directly beside us. Of course he comes back talking with his horribly fake British accent to be met with the death stare of stop now or else these ladies will murder you. It was a wonderful trip and we are so blessed to be given such lavish and entirely unexpected treats from above. He is so good to us. : )