happy halloween!

these pictures aren't actually from halloween. they were from an 80s cover band show we went to 2-3 years ago (we were the only ones dressed up. haha!). but it's the closest we've come to dressing in costumes together!

we dream of, some day, dressing up as these two:

(margot & richie tenenbaum)

anyway, happy halloween! we're eating pumpkin pie and going to our neighborhood's howl-o-ween dog parade to celebrate!

a sneak peek

i was hoping to share some of my bridal shower with you guys today, but, alas, work is getting the better of me.

i will share the bridal shower invitations my sister sent out though! you all know how much i love coffee, so it was only fitting that my bridal shower had a coffee shop theme.

the front:

the back:

i love them!

it's funny; she actually put the wrong address on the back of the invitations and had to send out a follow-up notice with the correct address. nobody shared this with me until a couple days before the shower. haha! smart girls! they know me well.

on the fridge...again

i seem to have done this before...i just really like everything on my fridge i guess!

levi was recently digging through the pocket of a jacket he never wears, and he found these two items:

they're from a wedding we went to two & a half years ago.

(he also found some altoids in his pocket, fyi.)

my copy of the photobooth photo has been in a frame for a very long time, so it doesn't matter how crinkled his is.

but the best part is the unfinished guest book entry that levi started,

"jessica & jesse, i am so happy"

hahaha! it cracks me up every time i see it.

and it's true. we really ARE so happy.

5:30-6:30

i've been so busy and frazzled and stressed and stretched-thin lately that sometimes emotions just come bursting out of me.

seemingly from nowhere.

but we all know that they're coming from somewhere.

busyness hides issues and unhappiness. it covers it all up and makes you forget about them for the most part.

but that doesn't mean those little demons have gone anywhere. they're still right where you left them.

lurking. waiting. scheming. plotting.

i have to schedule time to have chats with these little demons of mine. specifically thursday afternoons from 5:30-6:30 with my beautiful counselor, holly.

it's nice to have a time and place to stir up the thoughts, feelings, and deep-rooted fears that i'd rather just push down to the very depths of me.

it's nice to have accountability.

it's nice to have a place to cry.

it's nice to be able to say anything i'd like.

in any way i'd like to say it.

i am very blessed and very grateful for that one hour every week.

olivia.

on sunday, levi and i headed up to santa monica to meet up with olivia (from everday musings).

olivia & i have been "blog friends" for awhile now...well over a year at this point...so i was very excited to finally meet her.

it's funny. i've met bloggers before, and i've always been a little bit nervous beforehand. but with olivia, i wasn't nervous. just excited! well...maybe i was a teensy bit nervous. but seriously, just a little teeny tiny bit.

olivia is seriously amazing. she's soooo sweet and really fun to talk to. she's very easy to be around, you know? she puts you at ease and makes you feel comfortable. and she's drop-dead gorgeous. so beautiful.

she was out here because her boyfriend and two other friends had just completed a 4,000 mile bike ride across the country to raise money and awareness for darkness to light, an organization that prevents child abuse through education. you can read more about pedal for prevention and their amazing journey here.

we really enjoyed the afternoon we shared with them all over drinks and incredible mexican food. i hope olivia comes out again soon! one afternoon was nowhere near long enough!

getting dressed: week four, my bridal shower

my bridal shower was on saturday, and it was amazing. perfect, really.

i'm going to do a post on it later, but for now, i'll show you what i wore! it was very special. :)

top: forever 21

skirt: 1950s vintage cocktail skirt

from the vintage collective in long beach

shoes: j.crew via ebay

necklace: my great great great great grandmother's

wedding beads from 1830

my mom bought the skirt for me. i found it two days before and knew that i had to wear it to my shower. it was perfect. my shower was perfect. perfect perfect!

craigslist date

a week or two ago, levi and i drove up to echo park to get some quilts we saw on craigslist (we're using them for our wedding ceremony - details here).

we decided to make a little date out of it and headed to MILK for a banana split.

oh yummmmmmm.

(action shot - levi couldn't wait to dive in.)

we had ours with vanilla bean, strawberry, & nutella ice cream. my mouth is watering just thinking about it. their ice cream is sooooo creamy.

if you're ever in LA, you should probably pop into MILK for some ice cream.

something old...

i now have my something old, something new, and something borrowed! as soon as i get a something blue, i'll be all set. i'm thinking shoes...or perhaps, underoos!

my mom bought me this gorgeous necklace as my something new.

i love it. it's so delicate and sweet. it will be perfect.

my something old is also my something borrowed. it's the prettiest little gold watch. my grandma got it as a gift from her parents when she graduated high school. she gave it to my mom, and my mom is loaning it to me for my wedding day. i'll post pictures of it after the big day!

if you happen to run into my grandma, please don't tell her! it's going to be a surprise for her at the wedding. she's going to love it.

did you do the whole something old, something new thing at your wedding? or do you plan to? what did you use? isn't tradition fun?

our little party

our little dinner party on saturday night was a smashing success! we had my family over for something we dubbed the "welcome, fall" party (aka a reason to clean the house and put up autumn decorations - i'm thinking about having welcome parties every season, if only to get the house clean).

i made beef stew, featuring lots of potatoes and carrots (we all favor the vegetables), in the crock pot. since i doubled the recipe, the crock pot was stuffed to the brim, and it wasn't ready when it was supposed be...oops! we were all starving, so we walked down to 2nd street for pre-dinner coffee & cupcakes. it turned out to be really fun, and i was proud of myself for not getting too bummed out on things not going exactly according to plan (it's good practice for the wedding!!).

for dessert, i served individual orange spiced pumpkin pies in mini graham cracker crusts. they were quite tasty and very cute.

here is a peek at our home and the fall decorations i put around the house:

pumpkins & candles on the steps leading up to our front door.

i put apples in a large glass vase to decorate the table. our dining room table is an expandable two-seater. we moved it into the living room to fit everyone and used the couch for seating.

this is where the table usually goes.

the photograph on the left is over a hundred years old. it's of an aunt and uncle on their wedding day in 1907.

i just put that little tiny elephant greeting card in a frame. i think she's so cute! you'll probably notice that i have a thing for elephants.

my pretty little persephone has found her home.

pie!

my momma...we didn't really take pictures of humans that night. i swear we had people over! :)

the only picture of me!

getting dressed: week three

i wore this on a sunny, blustery day.

dress: american eagle

cardigan: j.crew via ebay

headband: j.crew

sandals: urban outfitters (for $1.99!)

sunglasses: same as always! :)

singsingsing

i love to sing. i'm probably singing or humming something during about 50% of my waking hours...and i swear i sing in my dreams, so you could probably throw some of my sleeping hours into that statistic too.

i have favorite driving songs ("let's get it on" and "sexual healing" - strange, yes), favorite cooking songs, favorite getting dressed songs, etc. but, i think we'd all agree that, the best place to sing is in the shower. therefore,

my top 3 favorite songs to sing in the shower are:

1. "son of a preacher man"

2. "a change is gonna come"

3. "oh, holy night" (??)

if you were stranded on a desert island (i know this doesn't make sense; just go with it) and could only choose 3 sing-it-in-the-shower songs to have with you, what would you choose?

happy fall weekend!

photos from the week:

his & hers

bed head - some mornings it really makes me laugh.

spider web

gnome home

we're throwing a little party this weekend for my family (levi keeps laughing at me for calling it a party since it's just going to be my family...who we always hang out with, but i think it makes it more special & fun to call it a party). it's going to be a fall celebration with a hearty meal, something pumpkin-y or apple-y for dessert, fall decor, and some kind of craftiness (or maybe just a walk - we'll see). i'm excited!

i will also spend a good portion of the weekend tearing apart my closet and trying everything on to find an outfit for my bridal shower next weekend!!

do you have anything exciting planned? even if you don't, i think you'll still have an exciting weekend. there's something in the air...

a little date

levi and i both happened to be home and not working at the same time yesterday, so we went to lunch together.

i love dates that are planned and anticipated, but the unexpected, impromptu ones might be my favorite.

it was a beautiful day, so we took a walk down to a little italian deli that makes the best sandwiches. it's called angelo's, but, for some reason, we always call it anthony's.

(world's best sandwich - spicy calabrese, bleu cheese, pesto spread, buttery baguette)

(i've loved butter cookies since i was a little girl. these are the best i've ever had.)

("hey there. i like your fake smile. wanna get married?")

what are your favorite surprise date activities?

getting dressed: week two

remember when i returned some boots to j.crew after having them for a few years?

well, i found something worthy of using my gift card on!

i bought this pretty little skirt and wore it for the first time over the weekend.

shirt: gap

skirt: j.crew

sunglasses: a.j. morgan

blue suede shoes: steve madden

pumpkin: whole foods

wedding chores

our sunday consisted of:

mashed potato making

pumpkin pie baking

family dinner eating

invitation addressing

yesterday, we went to a coffee shop to start addressing and labeling our wedding invitations.

and today, we're going back for more!

(i had to be very careful with these photos so that i didn't accidentally show too much too soon! i cannnnnnot WAIT to show you guys the invitations that kathleen designed for us. they're amazing. also, can you tell how serious i was about not making any mistakes on addressing the envelopes?? i'm so tense and hunched over!)

what did you do this weekend?

a happy monday to you all!

if i had to be sick, at least it rained.

this was my view from the couch for the last week:

there will be no getting dressed post this week...unless you want to see pictures of me wearing huge pajama pants and levi's shirts.

i finally left the house yesterday after coming down with some sort of mystery ailment on saturday night.

man, was i bored! and then complacency set in. it got to the point where i didn't even care if i left the house...or the couch. all i wanted to do was lie around watching bad movies and playing cooking dash, wedding dash, and diner dash on levi's iPhone. (i'm scared to think what will happen when i get an iPhone of my own.)

also, all i ever want to eat is junk food when i'm sick. sweets and fried things. bad movies, bad food. it's all bad.

it's nice to be free of my couch prison!

in other good news: i got a promotion AND a raise at my job! i am now an editor. i like the sound of that! i start next week.

annnnnnd in even BETTER news:

i'm going to be an aunt!!!!!! actually, i'm going to be a tia. :)

(my sister-in-law is half peruvian.)

ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.

i'm beyond excited. i'm already looking into car seats and strollers and playpens. levi says we don't need our own, but i say rubbish to that!

it's shaping up to be an excellent weekend.

p.s. super fun new series in the works. i'm hoping to start it up next week. stay tuned!

love & s.w.a.k.,

tia jasi

or maybe

auntie jasi

sweetiebabyhoneybear

pet names.

love em?

hate em?

use em?

i remember the first time levi and i called each other, "baby." i felt so awkward and self-conscious at first.

now, i have to make an effort to call him by his real name...especially at the grocery store when he's at the other end of the aisle, and there are a lot of people around. i doubt they want to hear me hollering for "baby."

we call each other pet names and nicknames too (some are secrets only for us), but baby is our go-to name of choice for each other.

what's your pet name of choice?

brain fever

levi and i are sick, so we spent all day yesterday laying around the house.

which means i had a lot of time for weird dreams (about glee characters and twin babies named after wrestlers), random thoughts, bad movies, and playing cooking dash on levi's iPhone.

illness-induced random thoughts:

isn't it funny that everyone has the same words available to them, but we all use them so differently?

the secret to life might be learning to enjoy awkward, uncomfortable, & unpleasant moments.

i seriously hate shaving my legs and tweezing my eyebrows. what do i have against hair removal??

i was serious about those bad movies. has anyone else ever seen my fake fiancé starring melissa joan hart and joey lawrence? truly awful. levi was horrified.

alright. that's all i've got for today. i'm gonna go try to get better.

getting dressed: week one

i'm going to try something new, starting today!

i am by nooooo means a fashion blogger, but i do like my clothes a whole lot...even if i don't have that many.

the problem is, i fall into ruts...constantly. i work from home and dance three days a week, so sometimes i don't really have a reason to get dressed. also, i sort of dress like a cartoon character - as in, i wear the same outfit for days at a time, and people probably wonder if i own anything else. (btw, did you ever see the episode of doug where he picks an outfit from his closet and it's full of the exact same outfit?)

so in an attempt to utilize more of my wardrobe and get (properly) dressed more often, i'm going to do outfit posts once a week.

first up!

(my outfit posts will probably be full of silly poses. they're more fun that way.)

shirt: ric rac from anthro

skirt: bdg from urban

bow: h&m

sunglasses: a.j. morgan

gold flats: aldo

p.s. happy october! i just put a pumpkin on our front steps yesterday!