the beauty is in what isn't said

we went back to milk. we couldn't resist. plus, we had to introduce it to theo.

this time, we ordered actually food. everything we ordered was pretty awesome!

amy and i split a chicken dish. the mashed potatoes, which are under the chicken, were delicious and had bacon in them! yummm.


theo had a turkey BLTC (BLT + cheddar). best sandwich ever.

more desserts (and a ton of them, again):

tried a coffee toffee ice cream sandwich. mmm...


milkies, aka bonbons (the name "milkies" is adorable, in my opinion)


banana creme tart. SO good.

i was kinda obsessed with this cute bag. actually, i was just obsessed with the stamping on it. i want some milk stamps! lol. i love their logo.


we then headed to my sweet cupcake. amy had sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago, saying that she went to a cute little cupcake shop, and they had strawberry shortcake cupcakes - cut in half with whipped cream in the middle. she even sent me a picture, and i was sold. unfortunately, they were out of them, but the shop was adorable. it had this sign -


and i loved this mirror, especially the "you're sweet" thing under it. and you can see the decor in the background.


we took the cupcakes to a nearby park, and had a little picnic.


with jamba smoothies...


theo brought her doggies, and we had fun playing with them...



we hung out...


and i climbed a tree. sort of.


today, i met up with linda and chased around her family with a camera...


baby oli is just too adorable for words!


more to come when i finish editing the seemingly never-ending mountain of photos i currently am wading through.

have a good one :)

look alive, see these bones

a recap of my day today:

1) a couple weeks ago, amy started talking about milk. when i saw the pictures of all the desserts, i immediately knew i HAD to come here.

we split a soup, which was in a ginormous bowl.


we both had a red velvet popper (mini cupcakes).


(i like how it matches my nail polish, lol)

then, we split an ice cream sandwich.


we saw these strawberry shortcake bars in the display and decided we HAD to get one...so we split one of those, also.


i got one of these blue velvet cakes to go (their specialty, i believe).



2) later today, i met up with another amy and judy, for ramen.


3) we grabbed some frozen yogurt, and sat on these kiddie chairs.


4) we went to the dollar store for some prop for pictures. judy ended up finding these ridiculous grills, and we spent a good half hour posing like this...


we may be ridiculous, but this is why i love my friends.

a normal photo to close out the night...


have a good one :)

nowhere, going nowhere, in the fake yellow light

i came home to so-cal on sunday and will be here for the next week. it's not as hot as i expected, so except for the fact that my allergies have been flaring up and making me miserable, i'm a pretty happy camper. it's been fun catching up with people - got to have lunch with my friend kate (whom i haven't seen in 2 years!) this afternoon - and looking forward to some more festivities in the coming week :)

anyways. these photos are from the berkeley rose garden...the boy and i had lunch (me) and coffee (him) there the other day. lots of pretty flowers...some of them don't look like your typical roses!







also finally got to go to blue bottle coffee, which they say has the best organic coffee in san francisco. i have to say that i agree! you bet i'll be going there more often!



have a good one :)

it's always better when we're together

first of all - thanks for all the crockpot recipes! i can't wait to try them out :)

secondly (apparently, the term "second of all" is incorrect, LOL) - pictures from my birthday week! (warning: picture heavy post ahead!)

we played an insane amount of scrabble. and with more than 2 players. i still lost, although i did come awfully close.


there's a canoe at the house that we never, ever went on when it's just me and the boy. but theo and linh wanted to go on it. and then a lot of us followed. canoeing = harder than it looks, but kinda fun. it's cool sitting out in the lake on a boat.


linh's facial expressions were priceless. and check out those raindrops! (yes, it decided to rain on the first day everyone was there. i was NOT happy, because i was looking forward to swimming. HMPH).




elaine steered me into tree branches. TWICE.

a few people went hiking in big trees (in the rain!). the rest of us went wine tasting at stevenot in murphys (the weather was actually slightly better over there). the boy and i have gone wine tasting in murphys a few times, and i have to say that stevenot is probably my favorite winery over there. it's also located on some really pretty,




near the parking lot sits this old, abandoned truck. i've noticed it a couple of times, and thought it would be a cool prop for photos. to not pose with it would've been a sin, so i made everyone stand there for 20 minutes posing for photos.

i'm sure he's just THRILLED with me right there. but seriously, i looooooove the sunflare here.


these girls drove allll the way up from LA (a 7 hour drive!), and arrived at 3 a.m. the previous night. as the boy said, "they must really like you." <3





then, the boy found this little area which was marked "for wine club members only." but we ignored said sign and took pictures there, anyway.





walked around the grounds some more - such cool rock formations! and then we also took a little walk around downtown murphys, and had some ice cream.



we all came back to the cabin, hung out, had dinner, and played a bunch of board games that night. my cranium team lost :( hmph. the next morning, some people cooked us breakfast -

had that with whipped cream and strawberries. YUM!

the LA group left early so they could wander around san francisco for awhile, and the hiking group went out to lake alpine for a few hours. when they came back, we took the canoe out again...had dinner + some beers and watched the lakers game (btw, BOO HISS magic), and they left. we got lonely. lol. the next day, the boy and i also headed out to lake alpine.

(okay, seriously. snow in june. IN CALIFORNIA. we tried to do the trail that the others did, however, this was the entrance. we decided that we couldn't deal with the snow, so we turned back and walked around the lake instead.)



on our last day, we went back to murphys and had a picnic on the ironstone vineyard grounds. also very pretty. we've been going on picnics there the last couple of times we've gone to the cabin, and it's become one of our favorite things do up there.


the week went by soooooo quickly. i really did have a great birthday, though. i really am lucky to be surrounded by such great company.

you bet all these pictures are going to be on a scrapbook page soon! :)

come on sweet catastrophe

this was my dinner tonight:


chicken tortilla soup. i got a crockpot for my birthday, so i broke it in tonight. the recipe is here (i've had it saved in my bookmarks forEVER!). i halved it and modified it a tiny bit, adding a beans and corn, and a tad more salsa. it was delish, and easy peasy. i'm happy i have a bunch of leftovers!

so now that i have a crockpot...anyone have any good recipes to share? pretty please? :)

it's a beatiful day...don't let it get away

we've had the most perfect weather here the last few days. gorgeous blue, sunny skies, perfect temperatures.

i had a shoot out in golden gate park today. i decided to go a few hours early to take advantage of this weather...i brought along a blanket and my ipod, and planned to read for a bit, but just ended up snapping photos and napping instead :)








it's days like these when i feel sooooo lucky to be living here.

(will post more photos from the cabin soon!)

anf they'll just think it's just 'cause we're young

i have way too many pictures from the past week, and a lack of time at the moment.

but i just wanted to say that i have the best friends ever:



and the best boyfriend ever:


i also have one of these now!


it was a good birthday :)

more later.