Table for Two

Shirt: Inherited from grandfather

Shorts: H&M

Stockings: Beverly Hills Hosiery

Loafers: Thrifted

Jacket: Stolen from Colin (originally from J. Crew)

Hair ribbon: Hand cut

My outfit from Sunday for a lovely day of shopping and eating!  What could be better than that?

And of course, as has become a tradition of mine, Hipstas to document the momentous meal.  Turkey burgs from D-town are God's gift to mankind.  There's no way a little gluten will stop me from indulging in this heavenly creation.  And the hand-spun chocolate milkshakes?  To die for.  Definitely worth the impending stomach ache my lactase-deficient body will inevitably endure.

Is your mouth watering yet?

In my phone...

Neither here nor there

Footage by Pacific Coast Skydiving

Here it is, as promised, the footage I'm sure to be blackmailed with at some point in the future by at least one of my family members.  The music--except for Over the Rainbow--was chosen by Colin, and is an especially ridiculous compilation of songs.  It pretty much sums up the whole experience itself, which was riddled with intense pangs of varied emotions that ultimately left me confused and inexplicably lethargic (I immediately passed out in the car on the way home after the whole ordeal).  

To maximize your entertainment experience, keep an eye out for a couple of things:

1. My diving buddy gave me a laundry list of instructions right before the big jump that I immediately forgot after our sudden evacuation; watch me frantically grab for him as we leave the plane.  I was specifically instructed not to do this.

2. Colin's landing.  It's hilarious.  He was scared that he'd mess up his ankle (he injured it about a year ago and it has yet to fully recover) so he stuck his legs out in front of him as he landed; he ended up in a bush just off the landing path and got prickles all over his hands because of it.  

**Thanks for being so patient this week while I was sick!  I've vowed to religiously take my allergy medication when I know I'll need it most, so hopefully that won't happen again anytime soon.

Tootsie roll

Cardigan: Inherited from grandfather

Checkered Button-up: Stolen from Colin's closet

Jeans: Hand-me-down from Jess

Shoes: Secondhand 

Bow: Craft store (I've worn this ribbon in my hair so often, but I don't think I've ever mentioned where it came from!)

I had a real, cheese-filled Valentine's Day this year!  

Colin surprised me by taking a half day of work on Monday, and the first thing he said when he came through the door was "Pick a number 1 through 5."  So I picked 4 (obviously), which was an awkward picture of a couple jet skiing.  But we decided it was a little too cold for jet skiing so I picked another...  

...which was unfortunately Segway-ing and there was No Way I would be caught doing that.  

So he flipped over the pictures of all the options and I decided to go tandem biking, even though our last attempt at tandem biking ended pretty badly (it turns out you have to communicate well with your bike partner for it to work, something we aren't particularly good at, especially when we aren't looking each other head-on).  

I had the brilliant idea of putting Mabes in the bike basket, an idea I had gotten a few days ago when I'd seen a frenchie of her stature doing the same thing with her owner.  So I stuffed all of Mabel into the basket and off we went.  

And I think you can guess what happened next...

Mabes decided to evacuate from the basket while we were peddling full speed on the pavement.  Luckily she flung her body to the side of the bike and rolled (several times) to safety.  She popped up from her tumble looking like a tootsie roll, painted black from the dirty street.   

Luckily she wasn't hurt. You'd think a dog who's afraid to jump off of the couch wouldn't even dream of jumping from a moving bike.  But then again I should never underestimate her stupidity.  (She's a little thick sometimes)

Mabie before the "Incident":

And Mabie after:

Just kidding.  

I happened upon this dog while pretend shopping for another Boston.  If you're into sad, geriatric looking dogs you should adopt this little guy.  Help put a smile on his face, will  ya? Adopt here.

Colin's Gin Journal turned out pretty well.  I made a cucumber gimlet that evening, one of the many recipes I included in his book, and it was DELICIOUS!!!  I made... uh, a few?... of them that evening, and then sloppily went to bed.  I think I've found my new favorite drink.  I encourage you to (responsibly, of course) try it out for yourself.  Here's the recipe:

2 oz fresh cucumber meat (muddled)

1 oz fresh lime juice

2 oz gin (Hendrick's is my favorite)

1 oz simple syrup (we make our own using 1C sugar and 0.5C water; stir over heat until the sugar dissolves)

Shake everything together, and WALLAH!  Heaven in a glass.

A little photo for you of his valentine and his journal:

I'm working on getting some more clothes put up in the shop so hopefully you'll see some fresh items up by the end of today (if not today, by tomorrow)!!  And, as always, I will upload merchandise photos on the blog before posting them on the shop!

Hurray for Fridays!

Lucky in Love

Sweater: Borrowed from sister

Belt: Thrifted

High-waisted shorts: Thrifted

Leggings: American Apparel

Oxfords: Borrowed from sister

My hairdresser convinced me to keep my hair longer, so I ended up with just a trim.  Tomorrow I'll be dying my hair a darker shade of brown (almost black, if all goes well).  It'll be the first time in a long time that I'll be dying my hair with color from a box and I'm more than a little nervous; the last time my hair was home-colored was in middle school when my sister tried to put red highlights in my hair... it was a disaster.

Mabel and her sister are very groggy from their surgery but they should be back in shape by tomorrow.  Unfortunately, the vet found out that the puppies have fleas (probably the California kind) so we'll be spending all day tomorrow disinfecting the entire house.  Ew.

Today's outfit was "librarian who knits in her free time"-inspired (I hope it shows).  I got a lot of compliments on my hair by many elderly women while out thrifting.  :)  I think that means I got the "knitting" part of the look down by association...

The Life: My Weekend

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This weekend consisted of booze, making new friends, sleeping, Mad Men, booze, making new friends, sleeping, baking, and walking along the boardwalk.  It was quite enjoyable to say the least!

Yesterday I drove to AZ to shadow some teachers this week to see if teaching is possibly something I'm interested in.  Today I looked in on a seventh and eighth grade science class.  Wednesday I'll be shadowing at the high school.  We'll see how it goes...

Here are some photographs from the weekend:

Colin's giant sandwich. We needed to refuel halfway through the three hour long walk we'd taken along the beach.

My outfit that day.

Our view from the boardwalk.

Sassy/lazy Zeena

My sister's dog, Onion, with evidence of digging all over his face.

Tomorrow I will definitely have an outfit picture up!  Today I wore boring-ish work clothes and I didn't want to document an outfit that I wouldn't be particularly excited about viewing if I were a reader.  Please forgive me!

Please, indulge yourself

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We just got back from Vegas, and I am very happy to be back!  It's a very peculiar place.  A lot of the people we had seen were a bit terrifying, walking around like zombies from casino to casino (the crowd probably would have been much different if we hadn't gone during the middle of the week), some with children in tow in the wee hours of the night.  It's a city of shameless indulgence, that's for sure.

I was pretty excited to take a crack at gambling, but I've found that it's definitely not my thing.  We played the penny slots one night and I did manage to profit $3.20, but I was way too nervous to seriously gamble any of my hard earned (and hard to come by) money.  

"O" was pretty incredible though.  I found "Love" to be a bit more moving because the music was so entirely consuming, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless.  The acrobatics were crazy and the stage mechanics were a marvel in themselves.  (Depending on the scene, the floor would either disappear to reveal a diving pool or resurface as if the water never existed)

Here are some pictures of the trip:

Colin at Caesar's Palace (I think).  He got many compliments on his blue polka dot bow tie, which I bought him as a gift.

My first penny slot winnings.  I won $0.70!  

For lunch on Thursday we went to this delicious tapas restaurant called Firefly where we had some of the most incredible drinks I've ever had...

...Colin had a berry-infused vodka martini and I had a mango mojito.

Colin's adorable little outfit for "O."  He's decided to forgo hoodies for cardigans, a switch I fully support.  :)

All in all it was a pretty fun trip, but I don't think I'll be heading back to Las Vegas any time soon.  Unless of course I end up going to graduate school there...

**Colin's making dinner tonight (hot and sour soup with shrimp) and he's just informed me that we forgot to pick up egg whites at the store.  "Can you make them yourself?" he asked me.  Oh silly boy.  He's learning so much!

Greetings from Sin City!

Hi All!  We are heading out the door to see Cirque du Soleil's "O" (we splurged to buy the tickets), but I have much to tell you tomorrow about our trip when we get back to San Diego!  I hope everyone is having a good Thursday :)

With love,

Ellana (and Colin... oh yes, and Zeena)