we got some really great and special gifts for our wedding.

here's one:



another gift that we really loved came from jeff and shauna.

they put together a bag of six wines for us. each wine was labeled with a suggested pairing. it was a lot of fun (and special) to drink the wine together in the months after our wedding. (there was this one time though that i did have a girlfriend over and we decided we wanted wine and we did drink one of the bottles. shhhh!)

we've since used jeff and shauna's idea a couple of times ourselves. some very sweet people got married a while back (ummm, like 5-6 months ago) and this weekend we finally gave them their gift.

it's a fun gift to put together. and easy, too.

i purchased six bottles and paired them with: meat, fish, picnic, celebrate, cheese and pasta. (i actually didn't decide on the wines. i asked someone who knows much, much more about wine than i do to do this. i just told him i wanted one for pasta, one for meat, etc. and he picked the wines.)



then i made a label for each bottle, suggesting what to pair the wine with.





the last step was finding a bag that would hold six bottles of wine. unfortunately, i could only find the bevmo! bag. if i had more time i would've ordered something from here.

mozzarella

recently i was visiting my folks and i wanted to check my email.

my folks constantly have internet-related problems. mysteriously, their computer "deletes all their emails," and they constantly have a virus.

anyway, i asked my dad what browser they use to get on the internet. he told me, "just use mozzarella." he meant mozilla firefox.

can't believe it's been a week since i last posted. things have been really...busy. not bad, just busy. big changes at work and just lots going on.

today ollie (kinda) said, i love you. it sounds more like "i you," and i'm sure he doesn't know what he's saying but still. he breaks my heart all the time.

jewelry love

arielle de pinto is amazing.

available here.

1st of the season

i love summer

cheese

the hamburger poses for pictures and says, "cheese!"

salty slurp

i've cut myself off and i can no longer purchase anything that requires a frame until i've framed what i have.

these are tempting though. very, very tempting.

from here.

from here.

happy mother's day to all the mamas

the one who made me a mama.

i always stay up too late on thursday nights and you will gain suffer because of it:

• elizabeth turned me onto beth spotswood's blog. she cracks me up. i would like to go to dinner with beth and elizabeth sometime. (i'd link to you, e, but i'm not sure if you want to be linked to?)
• we finished the wire last night. i feel sort of empty. thank god that the city and the hills started last week. not really -- i never thought i'd say this but i just can't do it anymore.
• i am enjoying nine by design on bravo. and, i'm looking forward to starting treme.
• i'm a big fan of amy bloom and was told i'd love her newest book, too. can't wait to buy this.
• i fell in love with golden gate park all over again this week. shit, i fell in love with san francisco all over again this week, thanks to the sunshine.
• finally, cupkate is supposed to be amazing. i have plans to find out for myself.

urban farmgirls

a dear old friend was in town a few weeks ago. i've known this friend since we were sixteen.

my friend only comes home about once a year. i always admire her juggling abilities when she's home -- so many folks to see and things to do.

while she was in town visiting, my friend and her parents had our family over for lunch.

much like my friend, her mother is a very kind person. when we were in high school my friend's mom kept diet coke and fuji apples on hand in her fridge for me. when ollie was a couple of months old we went and visited my friend's mom and she was so kind and comforting about all my worries about ollie. not only did she listen to my fears, she wasn't condescending and she didn't make me feel silly for worrying.

i wanted to bring a little something for my friend's mom. i bought a pretty little succulent from the farmer's market, from urban farmgirls.

she also sells amazing succulent wreaths. i'm dying to buy one but i think i'd kill it pretty quickly.

photos from the urban farmgirl facebook page.

my hamburger