Kim's Birthday and Sabrina

Over Memorial Day weekend, Kim celebrated her birthday. And we celebrated with her by joining her at a screening of Sabrina at Hollywood Forever! For those of you who don't live in the LA area, Hollywood Forever is a cemetery. During the summer, they screen movies on an open lawn. Everyone brings blankets, picnics, and lawn chairs and settles in for a movie under the stars. It's pretty cool! Levi and I had never been before, but I've wanted to go for ages.

We both love Kim (and her boyfriend, André) so much, so it was great to celebrate with her! Seriously, they are the NICEST people I know... I'm not sure how they do that, but I should take some lessons from the two of them. ;)

André baked a big cake for the occasion and packed little goodie bags with potato chips and chocolate chip cookies. They also had wine and yummy cheeses for the non-pregnant to enjoy... let me tell you, I was jealous. I even took a big long whiff of Levi's glass of red wine. Mmm. Smelled so good!





My photos didn't turn out so hot (it was getting pretty dark by the time we arrived), but you can check out the photos André took here.

Now that those two are out of school for summer, we hope to be seeing a lot more of them!!

We Are Young Thursdays

A few weeks ago, Levi and I started a weekly tradition called "We Are Young Thursdays." The idea is to do something on Thursday night that makes us feel young and spontaneous... planned spontaneity! ;)

Our first week, we met up with a couple friends at a wine bar, sipped champagne, made friends with strangers, went out for a late-night snack after the bar closed, and stayed out really late. It was awesome and exactly what I needed! The next week, we went back to the wine bar. This time I smuggled in our own cheese plate, consisting of roquefort, red wine jelly, and dark chocolate raspberry hearts. I even stuffed an entire baguette into my purse. We shared. It was fun.

Last week, we decided we absolutely could NOT go back to the wine bar a third week in a row. Getting stuck in a rut would have been a slap in the face to the essence of We Are Young Thursdays. So instead we went to the movies, which I thought sounded kind of boring and not exciting at all. We ended up having SOOOO much fun. We saw One for the Money because I found a coupon to purchase tickets for like $5. It was absolutely, 100% horrible. So bad. We went to the 10:00 showing, and there was only one other couple in the theatre with us. They left about a quarter of the way through. We stuck it out and made it more bearable by making fun of the movie and talking through the whole thing. We got out around 11:45 and decided to go to the midnight showing of The Secret World of Arrietty. We neverrrrr go to movies this late, and we never see two in a row. It was awesome! We loaded up on snacks before the second movie just to feel extra young (and kinda irresponsible). I'm so glad I went along with Levi's seemingly boring plan of going to the movies. He was right. We had fun.

I love this new weekly tradition and look forward to Thursdays every week. I really need adventure and spontaneity in my life (I'm an "Energizer" according to this awesome personality test) and having a night where we focus on that is making us both more adventurous during the rest of the week.

P.S. No pictures for this post because We Are Young Thursdays aren't about capturing the moment; they're about living in the moment. ;)

high rollers

on saturday night, we went to congregation ale house to share a burger and drink some beers.

i enjoyed a glass of framboise (one of my favorites) and the dark, gothic décor.

overall, we really liked this place, and we'll be back! all the food was great, except for the dessert. ugh. it was AWFUL. we ordered a chocolate molten tart, and i swear the brownies i make out of the box are better. not good at all. but the burgers, fries, and pretzel were delicious.

and after that, we decided to really go hog wild. we went to target. 'cause that's what cool people like us do on a saturday night... go to target... and take pictures of themselves...

(ahhh, gotta love how the fluorescent lights in target turn everything a sickly, jaundice color.)

yeah.

(this is what i look like when i'm reading, on the computer, or concentrating on something. terrifying, right?? i look like i'm trying to bore a hole through the pages with my laser beam eyes.)

but seriously, target on a saturday night is my favorite. it's not busy, but the people who are there are always interesting to watch. we actually spent an hour there on new year's eve last year.... and it was hilarious and so much fun. i highly recommend it.

so that's what a couple of high rollers do on a saturday night. take notes.

ivy, the birthday girl

my little sister, ivy, turned 19 on monday!

we both have mondays off, and levi was in north carolina, so we were able to spend the whole day together. we didn't really do much, but we somehow managed to have A LOT of fun.

we did all the things that make a day good:

1. we ate good food.

2. we shopped.

3. we tried on clothes we couldn't afford just for fun.

4. we drank good coffee.

5. we talked.

6. and talked.

7. and talked.

8. we discussed the merits of beards.

9. and we laughed.

10. and ate some more...

i think my favorite part of the day was laying out by the fountain at fashion island in the sunshine. it was so pretty and warm... you couldn't help but feel content.

her birthday present still hasn't arrived in the mail yet, but this is what i bought for her:

it's a 5-year diary that asks one question every day. i bought one for myself too, so that we can do them together!

happy birthday, ivy! thank you for letting me spend your day with you! i love you!!!

**update: the diaries are available at anthropologie. i bought mine on amazon for cheaper, but they're really expensive on amazon now.

the myerses' first v-day

since we've never really acknowledged valentine's day before, we turned it into an all-day affair. we had to make up for lost time after all!

i think if i had to choose a favorite meal, it would be breakfast. maybe. or dinner. no breakfast. NO! dessert! well, don't make me choose! but i really do like breakfast A LOT, so we started our day with a delicious breakfast at pain du monde at fashion island.

(we just like that wall.)

we went all out with a macchiato AND orange juice. and we shared a chocolate croissant as our appetizer and an omelette as our entrée. it was so yummy.

(you know a chocolate croissant is good when you both have chocolate on your faces in public but carry on happily eating anyway.)

(our omelette should have been called the jasmine omelette - it had goat cheese, sun dried tomato, spinach, mushroom, basil, and avocado. delicious.)

(mmmm. baguette toast.)

after breakfast, we walked around fashion island enjoying the pretty day. we visited anthropologie (duh!) and a few other shops. then we went to the pet store to say hello to all the puppies. of course, i met a beautiful little 8 week old french bulldog puppy who i fell in love with. she was so sweet. she really wanted to come home with me. but at $2,900, it's just never gonna happen. i asked levi if we could visit the animal shelter and try to find a dog, but he said no. he sounded like he might be warming up to the idea of a dog though. we'll see. i don't want to do it unless we both want it and the timing is right.

anyway, next up was chocolate time!! we visited teuscher where we stupidly thought that we could each get a dark champagne truffle (my absolute favorite). boy, were we wrong!!! i'm sure they sold out almost immediately that morning.

it was really hilarious to see all the men in business suits frantically picking out chocolates on their lunch breaks. ohhhh, men. they crack me up.

after a little more wandering, we left fashion island and headed over to kean and SusieCakes. as soon as we walked into kean, we saw my mom and my sister!!! it was so random. we got a big table and hung out together for awhile.

levi shared a mini raspberry cheesecake with my mom and sister, and i unsuccessfully tried to eat a shot of cream cheese frosting with a spoon... it really needed the cake.

(unattractive action shot! haha!)

after saying goodbye, levi took me to my surprise of the day - gnomeo and juliet in 3d!!! i'm the total nerd who loves 3d movies. i know they're not for everyone, but i'm like a child when things pop out at me from the screen. i totally reach out and try to touch things. i love it! the movie was really cute... definitely not amazing, but it was enjoyable.

we ended our night with dinner at home - framboise in champagne flutes our neighbor gave us for our wedding and domino's cheese pizza topped with salad. so random, i know, but i really like salad on top of my pizza.

it was the perfect valentine's day. simple. fun. and not one teeny bit stressful.

i love my valentine.

an impromptu date & the perfect cupcake

on saturday afternoon, the sun was starting to go down right when levi was on his way home. it was gorgeous. i felt super antsy as i waited for him because i wanted us to enjoy the last bit of sunshine together.

the second he parked our car, i grabbed his hand and we took off for a walk to our neighborhood coffee shop. i felt like we were chasing the sun as it fell from the sky.

beautiful sunsets make me feel close to God.

after we said "good night" to the sun, we picked up a cupcake and took it to the coffee shop.

this is the perfect cupcake. it's a chocolate raspberry cake with raspberry buttercream. you can taste the fresh raspberries throughout the entire thing. it is amazing. frosted should really keep them around permanently.... maybe you should call and tell them that! ;)

after coffee, we started walking home. on our way, we passed a restaurant. the food inside smelled so good that we decided we should get a table and have dinner.

we capped off our evening with licorice laces and magazines at barnes & noble.

it was such a fun night, and i love that we didn't plan a single second of it. we were just living in the moment, and it happened. this is something we're trying to do more often. the other night, we had a little talk about trying to live more spontaneously between now and the time we have children. if we don't get good at spontaneity now, it'll never happen when we add a few babies to our family.

so i guess you could say we have a plan to be spontaneous.

it's a start.

you know what's fun?

when your whole family piles into one car for a little excursion to LA, but there's more people than seatbelts, so you get to sit in the way back, with your fiancé's iPhone, a blanket, a donut, & a redbull.

and all your childhood fantasies come true.

it's on its way!

somehow we ended up at michael's again right in time for all the fall stuff.

it's so weird because we only go to michael's about twice a year. go figure.

anyway, we just had to play with the all the fall foliage and paraphernalia.

after all, it's tradition.

ohhhh, i can't wait for fall!! we really don't have seasons here in southern california. there's no fall smell. the weather doesn't really get much cooler (in fact, it will probably get warmer since we really haven't even had summer yet - i still haven't put a bathing suit on). and the leaves are nowhere near as glorious as they are in the rest of the country.

but there's still something so warm and cozy about the idea of fall - pumpkin spice everything, back to school shopping, family, notebooks, pencils, sharpies, plaid, tights, you've got mail, orange, yellow, candles, cinnamon, baking, and the promise of christmas.

i just love it.

and fall means that we're this much closer to our wedding day.

tickled.

tonight levi's putting pink in my hair!!!!!!

it will look something like this:

(photo from a few days after levi chopped off all my hair)

but BETTER. and BRIGHTER.

if you can't put hot pink in your hair during the summer when you work from home, then when can you? i'm sure i don't know.

i kinda wish school was cancelled today too...

it's back to school for me today.

i really enjoyed my extra day off.

we spent it:

- finishing off that bag of kit kats that the trick or treaters left me with. stupid delicious kit kats.

- walking through ikea for over an hour and failing to buy anything

- eating see's candy. my favorite (at the moment; it's always changing) is the lemon truffle. yummy. what's your favorite?

- being a little freaked out by the christmas decorations that are already up at south coast plaza. i love christmas, but it seems a little premature. levi is just plain stressed out by this. christmas, in general, stresses him out. i'm not sure that he can take 2 months of it. i am making a silent vow to myself to not mention christmas to him til we get home from our thanksgiving trip to san francisco. but just between us, i've already got about a thousand things planned.

- playing dress up. i think we make pretty cute sharks.

- getting late night in & out vanilla chocolate milkshakes.

sounds like a pretty good day, doesn't it?

it was.

change of plans

our weekend didn't go exactly as planned.

we didn't get to go apple picking.

we got a flat tire (again. 3rd this month).

we decided to skip the pumpkin patch since they don't even grow the pumpkins there.

my camera broke again, and dropping it didn't work this time. (these pictures were taken with the camera i don't like.)

and we haven't seen where the wild things are yet (maybe tonight).

we did:

watch away we go (loved it), hang out with my family, make hot apple cider, and carve pumpkins though!

my pumpkin:

jasi

{cupcake}

levi

sometimes things don't go quite as planned, but you can still have fun anyway.

and that's the moral of this story.

he's crafty.

levi doesn't want to go out tonight (as in simply leaving the house), but i do, so he's manipulating me with sad faces saying that gretel needs us.

that's low, levi. really low.

do i need to remind you of the quote we saw on the back of that classic car the other day?

oh, i do?

okay, here it is:

"we do not stop playing because we grow old. we grow old because we stop playing."

(you can read it if you click the photo to make it bigger.)

so come on! let's go!

tutorial: bottlecap magnets

some of you expressed interest in how levi and i made our bottlecap magnets, so here's a handy little tutorial for you!

supplies:

- bottlecaps

- magazines or other things to cut pictures out of

- x-acto knife

- cutting board

- mod podge glue

- magnet tape (we got a role at michael's for $1)

instructions:

1. save bottlecaps.

2. create a stencil by tracing a bottlecap onto a thick piece of paper or cardboard and cutting just inside the line with an x-acto knife (make sure the top of the bottlecap - the part with the writing on it - is facing down).

2. find pictures you like and that would look good in tiny size on magnets.

3. suggested step - if you're cutting things out of magazines, glue or tape them to thick paper. we didn't do this, and some of our pictures bubbled and words showed through from the other side.

4. use an x-acto knife to cut out your picture on a cutting board, cutting just inside the line of the stencil.

5. place picture in bottlecap and fill with mod podge glue until the picture is completely covered.

6. remove any glue boogers that may be inhibiting flow of glue.

7. wait approximately a thousand years (well, more like 2-5 days depending on how much glue you put in) for the glue to dry.

8. cut a small piece of magnet tape and affix to the back of your magnet.

9. stick it to your fridge!

ta-da! homemade magnets!