Elise Blaha :: enJOY it.

i hope...

...the months that we spend together last as long as the months we spend apart.

cupcake truffles.

I got home from California and there was a tin of cupcake truffles from Southport Grocery in Chicago waiting in my mailbox. These are unlike anything I've had before and are now my most favorite candy. They actually taste like cupcakes. In bite-sized chocolate form. And they're too cute.

Thanks Melanie. See you in April.

this year's list.

Another year, another list. I find it interesting how my list making criteria changes every year. When I turned 23 and made the first list, I didn’t put too much thought into it. I just came up with 23 things that I thought would better my life. When I turned 24, I knew that getting everything done was difficult so I went with what I thought were easier challenges. (As it turns out, some were not - I’ll show what I crossed off next week.)

This year, I picked things that were not necessarily easy but most are possible to accomplish in one day. No long events or repetitive events. I have a big list of hard tasks (find a church), easy tasks (have a picnic), expensive tasks (buy bikes) & inexpensive tasks (play with chalk). So many of the 25 goals are things I want to do in our new town. I will be living in San Diego for nine months of this birthday year and that opens up many new opportunities.

I have decided to document the progress on this list in a digital scrapbook.

I am going digital for a few reasons. First, it’s different than last year and right now, changing things up sounds inspiring. Second, my 24 book is lacking in stories. It has plenty of ephemera, but no real words to help remember what I did and why. Third, I can type up the journaling in Microsoft Word (or on this blog) as I go. When I have the chance, I can copy and paste into Photoshop and add photos & design. I think this will make it easier to stay active in the documentation process. (Basically, I don’t want to do a year’s worth of catch up at the end.)

I will be making 8.5x11 (or maybe 12x12? The square format sounds fun) pages in PSE, printing the completed pages and keeping together in an album. I will try to share progress as I go. (Hopefully much better than I did with the 24 list.)

So here we go. To a new year. To a new list. To 25 exciting tasks.

PS : Here is a look at the only other digital scrapbook I have made.

wedding wednesday : a bridal shower.

Saturday was my first bridal shower. It was thrown by my maid-of-honor, Kristen, and two of Paul's mom's friends. There were sixteen guests, including some that traveled far to be in town (thank you veronica, Erin, Katy & Heather!).


There was lots of orange and gray of course. (I adore that gray table cloth and need to find out how I can get the same for the wedding.)


The shower was over brunch and we ate quiche and different salads, drank mimosas and had orange serbert for dessert.

During the gift opening, we played the best shower game ever. I went to a wonderful bridal shower last spring where the bride's sister had come up with a sequence of questions and recorded the groom answering them. During the shower, the bride was asked the same questions. We heard the bride's answer and then watched what the groom said to see if they paired up.

I had told Kristen about this game and she secretly did the same for Paul and me. Because Paul is up in Seattle, the whole thing was filmed via video chat. It worked out really well. Each guest at the shower read a question (EX : What was your first date? How many kids to you want to have? What job would Paul want if he wasn't going to be a doctor? etc...). I answered the questions and then we saw what Paul had to say. For most we were pretty dead on, even in our phrasing of the answer. I told the other wedding guests they'd know their significant other pretty well to if they lived alone on the opposite coast from everyone they knew. :)

Overall, it was a perfect afternoon. I was overwhelmed with sweet people and wonderful food and beautiful gifts. Today is two months until wedding time. We are nearly closer to the wedding than the year 2009 and that is beyond exciting.

Thank you, Kristen, Stephanie, Janet and Chris. And thanks blogland for listening to the stories.

flowers everywhere.

Tomorrow is my last full day in California for awhile and I have a feeling that all the natural signs of spring will still be hiding back in Maryland. I love that stores are doing their part to push the spring message along. These little ones were made of different pieces of frabric and hung from the ceiling on strings in an aerie store.

what we did.

I spent my birthday day with my mom. We shopped and ran wedding errands (when I am home all we seem to do is wedding errands) which was fun to do and nice to get out of the way. We then met my dad for dinner  at The Grange which is the resturant in the hotel where our wedding reception will be held. That tented area shown above is where our reception will be held. Hopefully minus the plastic windows.
The food was fantastic, the coversation wonderful. Overall it was a very good way to embrace 25. I have such cool parents.

++

Coming soon : my bridal shower photos and stories, a wrap up to my 24th birthday book, my new list of 25 things to do at 25 and our completed wedding invitations (they got mailed off yesterday - WHEW!).   

25 is the new 24.

thanks for the love starbucks.

flowers from plastic bottles.

...in the window display at Anthro.

magic flowers.

 
Hi, spring. I see you.