a few things.

1. i added a nice camera app to my iphone, hipstamatic. it has 3 different lens settings that make all the pictures look yellowy and old. i like it lots.

2. we really like capitol hill living. and making good friends who treat us to pizza and lots of laughs and business ideas. thanks n+j!

3. i got another haircut. i am slightly obsessed. 12 inches in 3 weeks, yikes! i danced home from the salon and threw on an edith piaf record and pretended i was a french girl. bonjour!

the beforethe after

i'm ready for summer now!

this weekend is going to be great. making curtains with my sister and seeing her new house. TH is working on our house. we get to go to a piano concert with our pretty and witty friends. and lots of other fun activities. trying to keep it relaxed this weekend, we've been busy for much too long.
have a great weekend!

perfect days.

last sunday was perfect. like put it down in the books perfect.
church. sun. QT with husb. dinner with family. walks around our neighborhood.

looking for a repeat this weekend. hear that, sunday weather?

my heart is home.

turns out a 3.5 hour train ride to nyc makes for a nice short 2 day trip.

working during the day, but a night out shopping and eating with my bestie last night made for an unforgettable 24 hours in nyc. i really miss jess and it was so good to see her! she hung out with me on wedding day and made me laugh all day. i love her lots.

what i ate in 24 hours:
lunch at defontes near gramercy (italian tuna sub). they have the best bread!
shopping in soho at muji and uniqlo.
2 mini cupcakes at baked by melissa - cinnamon was heartbreakingly good.
dinner at red bamboo. their chicken tastes like chicken. it's weird. and awesome.
dessert at eileen's special cheesecake. the best cheesecakes i've ever eaten.
breakfast at absolute bagels, my fav bagel spot. again, heartbreakingly good.
quick lunch at a pizza spot before taking off on the bolt bus.
but not before grabbing some cookies from levains! (and now i'm hearing all this buzz about their cinnamon rolls, too. i'll be checking it out soon.

yes, the diet starts this week, my friends. if you ever need food recommendations, don't ask me unless you are taking me with you because i get super depressed to know other people are eating my favorite foods.

but let's not kid ourselves, i really, really, really miss this city.

can i move back now, please?

good good weekend.

long time friend, El blodgie came over friday for a few hours of girl talk and catch up. girl talk is really the thing that solves everything, especially when it's someone who has known you for 15 years. tortilla coast later with TH on friday - just a block away - we thought it could become our spot, but it was gross and we felt robbed. $35 for 2 enchiladas and diet cokes is not ok. and i forgot how young the crowd is there. i don't mean in age, but like the excitable people that i can't handle. snobbish much?

saturday we had brunch at le bon cafe, yum! strada and egg sandwiches were really good there. then we headed to 14th street, aka furniture world. we picked up 3 side tables at miss pixies, my new favorite vintage furniture store. much more affordable than its neighbors, and a very wide variety of things. and also some really nice farm tables in the back of the store that if our apartment were bigger, we'd definitely pick up.
we went to a friends wedding reception, lit sparklers and sent them off, and called hannah and robbie to go to see Date Night with us. oh man - really really funny movie. and i had too much popcorn and got sick, story of my life. but really great to hang out with friends and enter somewhat back into normal society. we've been a bit of cave dwellers as of late.

sunday was church, brunch at cafe montmarte in eastern market, then home for a long nap. we met TH's family at union station for dinner with sister-in law visiting from baltimore. so fun to see everyone and hang out on a sunday.

the weather was beyond amazing this weekend and i thought, gee i really like being married to TH. he's pretty great.

today i'm working from home today and tomorrow because nuclear summit is shutting everything down in DC. i might head out of town just for tonight...but where?

friday.

the view from our hotel in guatemala at lake atitlan.

dying to be back there right now. we had a fantastic honeymoon and were worlds away from anything else. with the crazy weather right now (i'm hot! i'm sneezing from the pollen! i'm pouring down rain!) i'd love to be poolside, bathing in the sun again.

have a great weekend dears! we're being home design mavens, and going to a wedding reception. and going to church at our new building for the first time since moving - we're really excited to meet new people living near us. crossing my fingers i don't make a fool out of myself.

kisses.

money burning holes in our pockets.

TH jokes that everytime we leave the house we spend $500. in all fairness, most of the time we end up taking things back and not really ever spending $500. BUT we have discovered that furnishing a house from nothing is pretty expensive. we've found some good deals, and already rotated 2 rounds of furniture through the house and back out the craigslist door. but last night i think we made some honest progress.

we went to pick up an old mid-century modern desk and it was scribbled all over - it needed to be refinished in a bad way. not about to throw down a lot of money on what will turn out to be a huge project (and would likely never happen anyway). so we scrapped it and went to west elm, bought a rug and a small parsons desk (it's so teeny and cute!) and picked up a bookshelf from another craigslister. and sold some of our furniture last night on craigslist. this post is a commercial for craigslist, i know, but i love me some good deals on old furniture. and i found the cord for our record player last night and i played some rhapsody in blue and danced for TH. i am a graceful dancer, just ask our neighbors beneath us - they probably thought we were having an elephant tap dance. womp womp.

so this saturday we are on the hunt again for some smaller furniture (end tables, nightstands, side chair, etc) and then we can start filling in the holes with accessories. house accessories. i think my sister and i are getting together next week to make curtains for our new houses (they just bought a house in manassas). so, things are moving along. i am happy.

making a house a home is HARD work! i hope we can make it work. i'm tired of clutter.

spiders! we have a plan!

so, as promised, The Hill is Home featured my spiders question on their blog today. besides completely freaking me out (a mama spider crawled in and laid eggs during the winter?! get out mama! get out!), it seems like we may be able to do something about it.

see the answer here, in the Ask Nichole segment. Thanks Nichole for the help!!

in other news, our apartment is starting to come together ever so slightly.

2 news items that do not go well together.

the blog The Hill is Home is going to feature my spiders question tomorrow, so I'll link it then. Stay tuned for what I hope will be good advice! At this point, we've killed about 15 spiders. 2 on the inside of the car. *Shudder*

Also, I just heard that Dangerously Delicious Pies is finally open on H St! They have sweet and savory pies and are open till midnight during the week and 3:30 am on weekends!!

weekend review.

allergies? i have a headache. probably slight allergies because EVERY single plant in DC is in bloom right now. It's beautiful, but making me stuffy nosed and headached. But I think worth it. The other night we were walking around at night and cherry blossoms and dogwoods and magnolia trees were in full bloom everywhere, and tulips bright and beautiful - it looked like a movie set for Spring. it did not feel real, but i felt really lucky to be living here!

this weekend was completely different than what i thought it would be. we were planning on getting our apartment fixed up a bit. instead, we had breakfast with friends, my dad showed up after seeing the cherry blossoms and we all went to eastern market for the afternoon to check out the flea market and eat pickles from "in a pickle" (yum!), and then TH and i just slept and were lazy the rest of the afternoon.

we had such beautiful weather this weekend, but there was one problem. friday night i realized that our car is being taken over by spiders!!! my literal worst worst fear in life is now encapsulating the car i drive. it's awful. TH thinks they are just banana spiders, but i'm worried they are aggressive because one of them was standing up on its back legs like it was trying to intimidate me. i was freaking freaking out. we got a car wash friday night to get rid of them, but didn't work - we found 3 more last night. what are we supposed to do?? TH says to just wait it out - they will go away - but i say we dip the car in spider-be-gone and then burn it and buy a new one? that seems to me the only logical choice.

oh and also we played candyland with lizzie yesterday and then we made her answer questions and she had the funniest answers like:
what's your favorite food - "soup"
who is your boyfriend - "ernie"
what color are your eyes - "black"

but we made her answer the questions while doing funny things like standing on her head or sticking out her tongue. she is a lot of fun. thanks for having us over, family!

full bloom.

today is the day to see the cherry blossoms. or yesterday, but unless you have a time machine it is too late (ps if you do have a time machine, let's talk). they are out in full bloom, and so are the tourists (aren't you glad we have beautiful weather, tourists? rain just drives the tourists inside to stores and restaurants - there is nothing worse than crowded stores with soggy people.)

last night we had to pick up TH's bikes from my old house and ride them to DC. i forgot how much i love riding bikes in the city! we went super fast with the sun setting, and took a short walk around the tidal basin. i'm now convinced - there is no better way to travel around dc. bikes are the answer...i just need to get one that i fit on!

Have a fabulous weekend! We'll be getting internet at home, going to a party at an old grad school buddys house, crepe party, lots of conference watching, and possibly some purchasing of home decor for the apartment. maybe paint, too!

enjoy this video that has nothing to do with the cherry blossom festival.

april.

really? march is over? that was fast.

my mind is all a jumble with renewable energy, home decor, cybersecurity, how to be a wife, budgeting, etc. i'm kind of having trouble getting started. i guess this goes back to me thinking that once i cross something off my list, everything will be so much easier. like when i wanted bangs and a goldfish, and i thought life would be just perfect once i got those things. well i cut bangs and they are ok and i got a goldfish and it died. and i was never that much happier to be honest. i'm so naive, but i thought after the wedding was over and it was just me and TH, things would be so much easier. but life doesn't stop and guess what - it is kind of hard to meld two lives together! i love living with TH and being married, but there are some things that are hard to get used to. like snoring and the exponential daily growth of the laundry pile.

work is crazy, too, and if i can just finish this paper i will be eternally happy and my woes will be no more...you know, until the next big project comes along which is already metaphorically sitting on my lap. i think what i need in my life is a saturday. so...2 days to go. i think i can manage.

ps i have made peace with the brown couch. thanks for your suggestions, especially jay.
pps i am repainting the kitchen. i feel like i need a football jersey every time i walk in, that's how grossly blue it is. maybe something more like this...

bowtie and a haircut.

i feel so fancy today in my sparkly sequin bowtie. got this shirt at the laden showroom in the shoreditch neighborhood of london. great boutique store full of independent designer clothes!

and also, yes, i got a haircut. it's a little messy today, but you get the idea. i LOVE having short hair! easier to wash, style-able, and it's just long enough that i can pull it back in a little pony. it will be the perfect summer cut!

home wears.

we changed around a rug from the living room to the bedroom and now i LOVE the couch.

It just proves that after all these years, I am still a Person Who Loves Rearranging Furniture. I've been doing it since I was like 8 years old. I used to move around the couches while my parents weren't looking, move my bed to the other wall and the dresser kitty corner (caddy corner?). I have a need to keep things fresh, people. And figure out the best chi for my living arrangement.

Right now that involves purchasing a headboard, an ottoman, an armchair, and another rug. Craigslist is turning up all kinds of lame items as of late. Flea markets and vintage stores, here I come!

wedding video.

we have a wedding video, my dears. i am in love.

back home and DONE traveling.

still can't find my camera cord...think i lost it...but pictures are coming i swear.

oklahoma was ok. ha - those jokes didn't stop! but, really it was pretty fun to be around family i hadn't seen in a coons age. my dads family is awesome and totally funny. turns out a lot of us look like my grandma - i had never seen younger pictures of her - but she gave us all her cheeks and eyes. so cool! she was quite a babe in her younger years.

we played with babies a lot. and hung out with family telling jokes. and ATE. and watched a weird movie on hotel cable. and mary and clint tried oysters for the first time. mark had already eaten them and i'm sure felt like an oyster connoisseur, even though every time i tell him they look like boogers he gets a little sick and doesn't want to eat them. oklahoma was windy and rainy and beautiful. and on the last night, TH and i drove to sonic for route 44 strawberry limeades and tater tots. YUM!

glad to be home. now comes the hard part - organization.

weekend tripping.

was splashed by a car driving through a puddle this morning. don't care.
meeting with The Man this morning. don't care.
raining outside. don't care.

ok, maybe i care a little about the rain, but nothing can dampen these spirits! we're taking a weekend trip to oklahoma for a family event. i'm really so excited to see my family again and while it may be tough to be yet again away from home, at least we get to spend some quality time with my favorite people. laura and tony and babies you will be missed! and rob and jo and abby you will be missed! and apartment and big windows to spy on people - you will be missed!

next weekend will be another non-homebound weekend, too, with gen conference and family close by we are bound to end up there saturday and sunday!

have a great weekend. enjoy those 2 days like your life depends on it.

regrets.

what do you do when your first grown up couch you ever purchased turns out to be the bane of your existence?

what was i thinking buying brown couch and painting the walls white? we might have to remedy this somehow, unless you guys can help me figure out how to decorate around a brown couch. we have the 3 seater corona in cafe noir. maybe someone has magic up their sleeve?

married again.

TH got home early this morning after 4 days of being out of town. i told him that i had started dating again because I felt like I never even got married. we got married march 6th and had only been at our house for one night since then! but now it's all back to normal. yay.

my sister had her little bebe. 4 lbs 12 oz, and the most healthy small babe you've ever seen! she is pink and looks so strong. they named her evelyn sharon after our grandmother and her hubs grandmother. i love her so much already and can't wait to meet her!

i was late to work this morning because i had to hang out with TH for just a minute before we both left for work. we ate breakfast and here's what it was: 2 macarons from laduree, babybell cheese, and leftover brussell sprouts and pasta. it was the best breakfast i've ever had and now i'm wondering why i've only started to eat french cookies for breakfast now in my life? my day is off to a great start! did i tell you i ate a macaron every day in london? i would walk down to harrods, buy one macaron (rose and pistachio are the best!), and walk around south kensington admiring the architecture and gardens and cute babies everywhere. ahhh salivate. what was the point of this post again??...oh yes. TH is home. turns out i'm pretty happy to be married to him.

friends.

aren't friends the best? i love these ladies and miss them bunches!!! and with TH out of town it feels like i'm just living alone and i keep thinking - why am i not living with these girls? ha - TH i think it's time you come home before it's too late. i kid, i kid. but seriously - get back here!

warmer weather means outdoor games and fun is coming soon. can't wait to rent boats on the potomac and take weekend trips to the beach and stay up late taking in the warm summer night air with friends!

everything is changing.

you leave for 2 weeks and boy, things totally go nuts.

new husband.
new apartment.
new car (to me).
new last name (as soon as i make it to the name changing place).
new haircut (pictures to come. a london haircut.)

and it's not just me changing.

my sister is just about ready to have her baby girl! she isn't due until may 7th, but looks like she's coming early. i'm just praying so hard that everything goes smoothly and laura and tony can be calm and peaceful (which truly isn't hard for them - they are so relaxed and calm all the time!).

i'm fighting all urges to hop on a plane out to utah to help out and be with laura and her family. it's so hard being away from family sometimes!!

joshua brown photography.

joshua brown photography.
you'll be seeing a lot of his work on this blog. we are buddies from new york and he is a nyc based wedding photographer. the stars aligned and he was able to shoot our engagements and wedding day. he did some video work that i might include on here, too.

we are so happy with how everything turned out and he captured so many memories for us! plus we felt like movie stars the entire weekend with his huge camera and assistants everywhere. hooray josh, we love you!

back.

mostly, anyway.

we're back from london as of 5pm last night and what a welcome home - it was 75 degrees and sunny and coming from the 50 degree rainy london weather, i nearly cried. we drove home with the windows down and the music up, then walked around eastern market for awhile, just dying at the good weather. love love love.

i need to upload pictures along with a billion other things (i.e. 2 weeks of laundry, finish moving in, oh yeah open wedding presents), but just wanted to let you know we are back. and we are very very happy about it.

dc is wonderful and perfect for us right now. so glad we live here and so glad for all the lovely family and friends we have close by.

gah, ok and now it's raining outside, but i have no qualms. in fact, i don't even mind it. just so happy to be HOME and not living in hotel anymore. and now i get to start living with a boy. wish me luck. good sign is that he did the dishes last night and we watched 3 episodes of friends while eating Thai take out. so i can say that so far, so good.

xo

ha!

it all came together and in the end, nothing really mattered except the love particles floating EVERYWHERE. last weekend was the craziest celebration of love i've ever been a part of, and to think it was to celebrate the love I have for my dear mark!! (TH as we so endearingly call him here). our family and friends are the best - i'm convinced. i just don't know how i got so lucky to have them all in my life!

more recaps to come...

just back home for a day from warm and sunny guatemala, and leaving tomorrow for london.

cheerio, dahlings.

doing things.

last night was awesome. thanks to the lovely cristy, i found the perfect accessories for wedding day 2010. then we came home and made a good dinner and i treated TH to an hour of television. funny how much he gets a kick out of TV. i mean, sure jon stewart is hilarious, but i don't know. TH was so appreciative that he gave me a backrub without me even asking or begging like i usually do (pathetic, i know). anyway, i was quite pleased. he left at 10pm and i was exhausted. i slinked upstairs to go to bed, and because i normally come home at like midnight or 1am lately, i usually just push everything off the bed and crawl in. and try to ignore the growing piles of stuff on the floor.

but last night i was still coherant enough to realize i was living in squalor. so i stayed up past midnight throwing things away, hanging up clothes, and packing up to move my stuff in a couple days. and guess what? i still didn't find those gift cards! where are you, little guys? mama needs a new something for free, please!

i also started packing for our honeymoon part 1, and tried on some swimsuits. luckily it was one of the last things i did, because then i was able to crawl into bed pretending that i didn't just see myself in a swimsuit. then i woke up this morning and did 200 situps and 20 pushups and some lunges. cause you know, that's gonna make the difference in 3 days. gah.

ps did i tell you where we're going on honeymoon?
part one
part two

wahoo!!

holding breath.

A LOOK AHEAD

Friday shapes up similar to Thursday with partly sunny skies and highs in the low-to-mid 40s. A steady breeze from the northwest around 10-15 mph keeps things feeling kind of cold. Lows Friday night head for the upper 20s to low 30s Confidence: Medium-High

Nicest weekend we've had in a while. Plenty of sun should push highs to the upper 40s to low 50s on Saturday, and mid-to-upper 50s on Sunday. And don't forget there's an increasing amount of daylight time to enjoy the sun, with Saturday's and Sunday's sunset at 6:06 p.m. and 6:07 p.m., respectively. Saturday night lows dip to the upper 20s to mid-30s. Confidence: Medium

i lost my wallet this morning.

retraced my steps and found it laying on the sidewalk in front of a large apartment building.

i am stupid. i'm also glad someone is watching out for me during my moments of stupidity.

see, what did i tell you??

absent mindedness

in the past 2 weeks i have:

lost my keys twice.
forgot my wallet at home only to realize it had been in my purse the entire day.
worn my cardigan inside out for an entire day without realizing it.
bumped into a million things.
been incredibly distracted at work.
forgotten a friends name.
misplaced 2 gift cards (nordstroms? where are you!).
drove to the mall and couldn't find my wallet, so drove back home still unable to find it, then realized it was in the drivers seat.

uhhh...so i've been a little spacey lately. i'm hoping it's just because of all the wedding stuff, because if this is who i'm turning into, i'm getting out of here.

it's march. it's wedding week.

ok, well this really snuck up on me.

how does 3.5 months go by so fast?? it is march 1st, i'm getting married march 6th! so i'll spend the next 3 days crazy busy at work, trying to wrap things up before i leave for 2 weeks. and then family starts to trickle in wednesday night. wedding festivities start thursday and by saturday night, i'm going to need the vacation we're taking!!

this weekend was glorious, though. i spent saturday morning with two of my favorite ladies at the blue duck tavern for brunch and then to the kennedy center to see a matinee of the great gatsby ballet. with not only ballet, but a 10 piece jazz band with singers, and a tap dancer! it was so fun to hang out with the girls and be distracted for a little while from wedding stress. saturday night i met up with TH and we spent the remainder of the weekend working on the apartment. building ikea furniture, buying rugs, hanging shelves, hooks, and setting up the TV. it's taking a while, but i think we will have most of it done by this weekend. yay!

any last minute tips for enjoying the wedding week with out getting too stressed? also dieting tips are totally welcome.

the last supper.

ok, so the picture is kind of hard to make out, but good gracious.

we went out on our last hot date before marriage last night to Nora's in Dupont Circle. i'd always wanted to go there - the menu is full of savory American good eats and creative choices. well, it did not disappoint. we dressed up all fancy like, nestled down in a romantic, candle-lit table, and ate and ate and ate. and flirted. and mused on the wedding day and honeymoon and months and years after.

marrying this boy just might turn out to be the best decision i ever make.

i am still full from last night, so let me recap the menu while it's fresh in my mind.

i started with the salmon tartar and crostini, TH got the potato gnocchi and rabbit ragu.
next: the most delicious caesar salad i've ever had
main course: me - the black cod with snow peas and bok choy. him - the scallops with beets and turnips.
dessert: me - the meyer lemon tart with strawberries and ice cream. him - the local apple pie and ice cream.

GAH. everything was SO good. it's the nicest restaurant i'd ever been to in DC. we were probably the youngest people there, the rest of the clientele clocked in around 35-45.

when we were leaving, i thanked the hostess for giving us such a nice table. "we really enjoyed the dinner. it's our last date before we get married next week."
hostess freaked out, gave me a hug and expressed her excitement for us. then told TH he was lucky to have such a beautiful bride.

(between you and me i hate the word bride. but anyway.)

i was flattered. i was also drunk off love and calories.

we drove home to admire our new couch and coffee table. we are such adults. how boring. in a matter of seconds we were both asleep, only to be awakened by the damn metro that runs right outside our apartment and might be the death of me once i move into the apartment. but i digress.

here we are, 8 days before the wedding. things coming together. people are so kind. i'm touched by the kindness of friends, family, and strangers. weddings truly are a celebration and i can't wait to be with so many loved ones in one week!

summer.

remember when it was warm? hot, even? remind me again why i think i hate summer.

i would kill to be at coney island right now, riding the cyclone over and over again with TH. that was one of the best days i can recall.

what the hell, really?! i just read that old post and man - sounds like i used to have fun!!! we were nonstop adventure. coney island, brooklyn museum, di fara's pizza, hot jazz concert in brooklyn, dancing across the bridge over the BQE. i miss that "me".

anyway, all i really am dying for right now is the heat of last summer. it's so cold all the time.

home sick.

i'm sitting in the bed. legs crossed. bare-legged Hill workers walking on the sidewalks outside (somebody tell them about pants! or hose!). i was so sick this morning, so i just decided to have an at home day. plus the couch was being delivered today so it actually worked out pretty well - i just came over to the Cap Hill apt around 10:30 after i was finally able to get out of bed.

so now, we have a couch! it's so nice. thank you annie for your brilliant suggestion. and thank you couch movers for being super awesome and bringing that thing up the stairs and wedging it through the door!

i also went grocery shopping because poor TH had condiments, some leftovers, and 2 small potatoes. that's it. he is in for a rude awakening from bachelor fridge when i finally move in. i really like cooking at home but we are always so busy, we usually end up grabbing something late that we end up regretting. sob story.

now i'm listening to sigur ros and looking out the window at the birds playing in the trees. yes, i really do like this apartment. i wish it were warmer outside - all i want to do is hop on a bike a ride around the lovely neighborhood!

back to life.

this weekend was awe-some.

i'm mainly stating this fact because i was afraid of major major meltdowns this weekend. let's just say TH and I don't do well with tasky busy weekends. however! this weekend, we:

crafted for the wedding friday night
saturday morning we rented a truck
moved 4 heavy items from my house to cap hill house(bed, dresser, table, armchair)
lunched at dutch country market (fresh pretzels omg!)
helped my sister and her husband move to germantown
bought wedding bands
had one of most successful ikea trips ever (kitchen cart, dining table, shelves, coffee table, hooks, etc.) and also dinner at ikea.
watched one of most heinous movies ever (valentines day)
sunday went to church
met with leaders to get appropriate marriage paperwork (success), drove all over kingdom come to do this
put a few ikea items together, and didn't want to hurt people afterwards (success)
napped
ate sushi at sticky rice (yum!)
home.

sticky rice on H st NE.

SO MUCH DONE!!! i'm really so proud of us for doing all of this without any major fights. we've come a long way since the beginning. ha. good thing because we are getting married in 12 days.

this week: working hard, another ikea trip, a movie with friends, working out, and major date with TH. we have to fit them in where we can!

how was your weekend?

friday.

yes, dave adams weighs only 5 ounces and his toes have the strength of 10,000 armies. (this is for you, hanner.)

this was last weekend. painting the apartment. it was really fun - like a little party with very kind friends who showed up to have some fun and put their back into it. and the wall turned out a little more greenish than this after it dried. i think i like it. the jury is still definitely out. the blue in the kitchen also turned out a little more smurphy than i'd like. but i think i can work with it.

and now finally its the weekend again.

it was a rough week with work, but now moving onto the weekend! craft night for wedding tonight. watching the olympics. spending all day tomorrow with TH, shopping for the apartment, cleaning, buying wedding rings, running errands, maybe a date to the symphony?

it's going to be a hard hit for the wallet this weekend, but we have to settle into the apartment somehow! the couch is being delivered on tuesday. we're buying a closet system this weekend. also doing some major craigslist hunting. we'll be busy. but hello, only 2 weeks till the day.

hope you all have a fun weekend! i spent yesterday afternoon walking around DC and catching up with an old friend. it was fun, and i have to say there is nothing better than not being in an office in the afternoon! it keeps me sane, i think. just every so often.

xo

IT STOPPED SNOWING

praise be.

i can walk around like a semi-normal flabby person, i can take the metro to some above-ground stops, i can go to work!

i gained weight staying inside and baking cupcakes and watching movies and doing other laying around activities (minus the 4 hours spent shoveling snow - back muscles to prove it!). what's a bride-to-be to do? i'm supposed to LOSE 5 pounds before the wedding, not gain.

And a huge work meeting next week puts me out of commission for lots of working out. Then it's 2 weeks till the wedding. I've got a lot of work to do in the next 3 weeks!

Any tips for fast weight loss that doesn't make me drink lemon and spicy tea or other weird things? i know, i know, eat lots of big green salads, fish, and drink lots of water. oh yeah and work out. fine. i'll do it.

hurrah for the sidewalk showing through the snow!

digging out.

well, it stopped snowing. the sun is shining and i'm out to shovel. TH and i took a looooong walk last night to buy a shovel for our new apartment. it was only 9 blocks away, but felt like a lifetime with the wind and snow hitting our faces like a million prickly needles. but! we have a shovel and it was a good thing to go last night because they are all sold out this morning.

a few pictures from our walk last night (we now have somewhere around 30 inches on the ground. gah.)

i'm so so glad the sun is out. i'm so stir crazy and now it's time to put my back into it, and get rid of some of this snow!

ps i love being snowed-in in our new apartment, even if i am sleeping on a blow up mattress and TH is on the floor (sorry TH!). going to see about some furniture today...

pps don't worry mom, we're not living together yet

snow what? who cares?

more snow??

friday night a tree fell on our power line outside and we were left without power for 3 stinkin days. saturday we gave up on trying to stay warm and walked to annie's house - a 3 mile walk. we came back the next day, power still out, and walked to TH's house in DC. we walked across the bridge because no metros were running to his house due to the 1.5 feet of snow on the ground, so another 4 mile walk (it was really, really pretty though). the next day i went out to manassas to take a break from this city, and hung out with the fam. then ride back to the metro yesterday, took it into crystal city, then metro'd to TH's before the yellow line shut down again and i was stuck.

pros: fun time with family, friends, lots of food, picked out wedding flowers, did actually a ton of wedding stuff, government shut down so no work.

cons: cold, stressful to not be at home, no work so my days are totally unstructured, there are like 2 feet of snow on the ground.

anyway, we are making the best of it. we've planned out our honeymoon, talked with the florist and caterer, other wedding stuff, and settled into the new apartment a little bit. we've got big plans for this place. we'll be painting this weekend, then time to really focus on moving in!

the winds are up to 40mph outside, snow is falling quickly, and cars keep getting stuck on the road in front of our house. who drives in this weather? especially if you're a cadillac?







we get it, snow.

best of luck.

have a great weekend everyone!

i drove to manassas late last night to hang out with my fam for just a bit. dad was still up at like 12:30! we talked till about 1:30, then i looked at some wedding stuff online. went to bed at 2am. urg.

we woke up this morning and went to yoga. it was SO nice - i really miss yoga, my body always feels so much better afterwards. lizzie is funny as ever. she loved riding in the mini and wanted me to stay all day and watch shows with her. sad bomb, i had to go back home and work!

a conference call from home, and now i'm making these cookies. TH is on his way, and we're going to watch movies, do wedding stuff, and eat lots of good food this weekend.
enjoy being snowed in. hope you have a good stock of food, games, and sanity.

image found here.

another snowstorm!?

they are calling for another foot of snow this weekend.

i can't TAKE it. we're supposed to go to nyc on saturday and do wedding stuff. my time is limited, weather.

going for another run, you know - to clear my mind. then banff film festival tonight! if you can't beat 'em, join 'em i guess.

trim.

my walk to work this morning. the snow is so beautiful!

dad told me last night i should work out to stay trim, not to lose weight. i like the way the sounds. "stay trim". so, that's what i'm doing. i started my work-out "lose 10 pounds in month" regimen last night - you know since i have ONE MONTH until marriage. yeesh. here's the great part - my gym is like a half mile from my office, so i ran there and back. well, it had started snowing when i left the office, and i just put on a hat and gloves to run there and people were staring at me like i was crazy. and in my head, they were all thinking - wow, this girl is so dedicated! she doesn't let anything stop her from her "daily run". yes, well, hopefully this will become a daily run but yesterday was a good start - a run in the snow! i felt so free and empowered ( i am saying this at the risk of sounding uber lame), and my mind was clear.

i guess i forgot that exercise isn't only good for physical appearances. my brain was so happy last night that i sat down and watched 2 hours of the bachelor. aaaaand now i'm back to where i started. oops.

i'll try to post pictures of the new apartment soon - right now its kind of in shambles with TH's stuff everywhere and no furniture to speak of. he's sleeping on an air mattress for now, which i refer to as The Velveteen Mattress and i will be writing a childs book about it any day now.

moving day, moving day.

it was perfect.

TH loves it. i love it. we have a fun quirky new apartment. can't wait to paint and make it a home. but more importantly, i can't wait to fix the stairs that crumbled apart as we were moving in last night. the bricks literally broke apart as i stepped on them and i fell square on my bum. luckily it is winter and i was wearing about 4 layers of clothes, so i wasn't hurt too badly. but man, we need to fix it quickly!

we have a view of the library of congress from one side of the apartment, and a view of the park on the other! it's great. the bathrooms are a little quirky and the kitchen could be placed on the head of a pin it's so small, but we love our new little home. well, TH's home for 4 more weeks, then mine, too.

and so thankful to our brilliant friends, hannah and robbie for staying up late with us and suffering through the cold. and eating massive amounts of fries, burgers, and shakes at good stuff. well done, team.

weekend roundup.

the ballet was beautiful. i cried, as always. TH liked it, too. we left early though cause i was sick (womp womp).

my friends threw me the prettiest bridal shower, complete with teensy tea cups and teeny cookies and sandwiches and cheese and pretty blackberries. it was so special and so memorable! i am a lucky girl to know so many amazing women and even luckier to have them brave the snowy weather and bad roads to make it out! (but sisters, you were missed quite a bit.)

and that 2nd big snowstorm of dc this winter cancelled church - so we had our own church, "lord of the rings church". we gathered in annie's cozy house and watched like a bazillion hours of the movie, and it wasn't even halfway over when we stopped it. i addressed ALL the wedding envelopes, and we finished them all around 1am last night. hand still is sore from all that writing, but i'm so happy with how they turned out. this is TH printing some of them last week. (he printed some and i printed others. the crooked ones are probably mine. womp womp again)let's have another look at the tea party goodies. oh man.

i could eat a hundred of these little buttery cookies!

what a great weekend. and today is moving day, where TH gets to see the apartment for the first time. hope he likes it - i'm glad he trusts my judgement enough to sign a lease without seeing the inside. its gorge. can't wait to live there in 5 weeks!