Weekend Recap! :)

This weekend had it's ups and downs, and by downs I mean some big ones, but today we will focus on the ups!

On Saturday I was supposed to meet up with my good friend Katie and her sister Becca who was in town from VA, but plans changed and I still needed to take care of some things in the city -so off Josh and I went!

First Stop: The Westfield on Market St!

It was a beautiful day in the city! :)

They had a smart car exhibit inside! I just had to sit in one!

I love riding the escalators in this mall, the first few floors have curved escalators!! Josh on the other hand... not so much!

While we were there my main order of business was to stop in at Vera Bradley! I picked up a few birthday gifts and then got this cutesy for myself! It is the "Knot Just a Clutch" in the new Very Berry Paisley print - love it! :)

Then we decided to walk to Chinatown on a mission for the Fortune Cookie Factory!

The Chinatown Gate!

Thanks to my iPhone I was able to map out how to find the small alley where the place was!

Found it!

It is a little hole in the wall, but the cookies are so freaking good!

We got a bag of the flat ones and the folded ones with fortunes :)
Great Success!

Then we headed back to Union Square to the parking garage, and saw the cable car!

And Macys!

And Neiman Marcus!

Union Square!

Josh couldn't stop eating the cookies!

When we got back to town we went out to dinner in downtown Santa Rosa, and there was a Lucy on display!

Up close!

Then on Sunday we had our End of the Year work meeting! It was PJ Party Themed and we had a feast of slumber party food!

Such a great weekend despite the few hiccups, but I just keep telling myself everything is meant to be!

-Katie

Fun Weekend!!

On Saturday I had the Day off so Josh and I headed in to SF to do a little shopping! I haven't been shopping in forever and I wanted to get some new spring/summer clothes, plus my birthday is coming up this week but it will be raining, so we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather!

going across the bridge!

A cute little house on Lombard :)

haha couldn't help myself

We of course headed over to the Westfield Mall on Market St.

And I did quite a bit of damage - Happy Birthday to ME!

I got a few shirts at Aerie

A Vera Bradley Beach Towel - perfect for the gym!

A fun scarf from Old Navy!

And I hit the jackpot at Ann Taylor LOFT! I just love this ruffle tank and they were only $11 because they were having an additional 30% off sale! So I got one in every color! haha

So cute!

I also got two cute high waist skirts, this one is made of an organic cotton feeling fabric

And then this one is more silky and has pockets!!

After a brief spending spree, we headed home, but on our way out of the city some little butt wipes threw a firecracker at my car!!! I wanted to kill them, they are lucky it all wiped off!

View looking back at the city!

After we got back Josh and I went for a bike ride and then headed to our favorite restaurant Flavor!

On Sunday we had our Monthly Work Activity at our house, we had a pasta feed/game night. It was so much fun and we all laughed our butts off!

All in all, we had a WONDERFUL weekend! I hope yours was great too!

-Katie

Monday Funday!!

On Monday I had the day off, and as you know in my post on Sunday, I was contemplating if I should get the Ali Flap in Mahogany or not. The thing is, there was only one left in a store about an hour away and I was having a hard time justifying a)buying it and b)driving an hour for a purse.

So Sunday night I tossed and turned all night in my sleep and finally decided that I shouldn't go, I need to save my money and behave. Even though the bag would come down graciously in price to $160 with my discount from $398. But alas, I just couldn't justify it.

Monday morning rolls around and I decide to check out the outlet's website where the Coach store is that had the Ali, and I see that they are a Simon Brand Mall. Instantly a light bulb goes off in my head: I still have a $100 gift card to Simon Malls from my Mom for my birthday! After squealing with excitement and running around the house a few times I got ready and was on my way!

An hour of cruising in the Jetta to some sweet tunes I finally arrived at my destination: One of Two of the Flagship Coach Outlet Stores in Northern California.

Once inside, I introduced myself and let them know a friend of mine who works there put this beloved gem on hold for me:

With tax after my gift card I only had to pay $73 for this baby!! She is so pretty and the leather is SO comfortable. I get so excited every time I walk in the closet and see her! :)

With nothing but time on my hands during this girls day out with myself, I decided to drive around the rest of the outlet (because in all honestly it was too HUGE to walk around). Just as I think I'm going to get out of there cheap and easy, I see something that I had no idea existed- it was seriously like seeing a unicorn.

A Le Creuset Outlet!

I immediately pulled into a front row parking space and rushed in! The man who was working was SO nice and hilarious. He was about as gay as they come, and was dressed nicer than I was. He was so funny and was a great salesman. All in all and $198 later, I came away with 7 things!! I can only disclose a few of them because the rest are Christmas Gifts! Oh and the nice man gave me a BUNCH of coupons for next month - looks like I will be visiting him again soon! Oh and when I left he thanked me for talking and said he had a great time haha!

How cute are these little dessert ramekins!? I got two of these!

I also got the Le Creuset Cookbook that I have been wanting, a 2.75 Qt Soup Dish in a really cute green color, and some other great things. The prices were UNBELIEVABLE and they had first and second choice quality products. So you could buy second quality that would have a extra little cosmetic flaw, but was otherwise perfect. Knowing me, and my OCD I of course still got the first quality, but I mean really, it was such a great price I didn't mind paying a few extra dollars for the first quality!

When I got home I decided to tackle a craft project that I have had in the back of my mind for a while now. Let me explain my vision: Every time I got to American Eagle's Aerie store they tie my bag closed with a super cute ribbon. Being the weirdo that I am I have saved them all knowing I would find something to do with them. So one day it hit me: I should make a ribbon bouquet. I've never seen it before, so I totally just made this up as I went.

Cute Ribbons!

Wooden Dowels, some green wire sticks, and floral tape

I took the little wire sticks and put them through the back of the bows I tied, then I wrapped the dowels in floral tape, and used the tape to secure the wire holding the bow onto the dowel, thus making it kinda look like when people have those flower pens, but not - haha.

Up close of my ribbon bouquet!

I finished it off by putting some sand in the bottom of the cute Ikea vase!

It turned out to be the perfect decoration for my craft/sewing table!

After my crafty project I made a trip to the gym, and made a yummy chicken and pasta dinner in my new green Le Creuset!! It was a great day off and an excellent way to start the week. Today is my second day off for the week, so hopefully I can get just as much done today :)

-Katie

Busy Busy Weekend!

This weekend was my weekend off for the month from work, so Josh and I made sure to make it worth while!

On Friday night when I got off of work I headed to the gym, then came home and we had some yummy BBQ Chicken and Potatoes :) then we relaxed and watched some shows off of our DVR. Although it sounds uneventful and boring, it was probably one of my favorite parts of this weekend haha.

On Saturday we got up and got ready to go to San Francisco! I've been wanting to go for a few weeks now, but we've been too busy with all of the moving chaos. So we finally were able to go on Saturday!

It was pretty foggy driving across the Golden Gate Bridge!

When we got to SF we had lunch at Bistro Burger, which was Deeeeeeeeelish!

Then of course we had to make a stop at Vera Bradley! Can you tell how excited Josh is? At this point we had probably been in the store for almost an hour hahah

We walked around downtown a bit, visiting the essentials: Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel, and of course Bloomingdales!

:)

After our shopping adventure in SF we drove home [read: Josh drove home while I napped] and we went out to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner! On our way home we stopped by the grocery store and picked up some ice cream then headed home to have dessert, watch some tv, and do some laundry.

Sunday Josh had tryouts for a semi-professional Roller Hockey Team, so we spent half of Sunday at the rink. I read my book, and Josh got sweaty haha.

After tryouts we headed home to my parents to visit with them and to see our dog Bo, he had to have hip surgery on Friday, so I had to go home and see him. I felt so bad! He had a big cone on his head and was all zoned out on drugs :(

After dinner Sunday we headed home and went right to bed, seriously, after a long weekend, nothing is better than your own bed!

Hope you all had fabulous weekends as well!

-Katie

My 23rd Birthday Weekend!

Ok... get ready for a long one!!

Birthday Weekend Recap!

Thursday was my 23rd birthday, so Josh took me to San Francisco to go shopping!!! Since I've been unemployed shopping has been pretty non-existent, so I've been saving up for this special occasion, and had a little help from birthday money and birthday gift certificates! So we embarked on our journey first thing Thursday morning and the first thing we saw: A convoy of school buses! Where I grew up kids never took school buses to school, your parents drop you off, so to see a bunch of them all in a line was hilarious to me.

Bus Convoy!

Vrooom Vroooom!

Joshy and I in the Jetta on our way to SF!

There was a car with a video camera strapped on it! Josh thought it was dumb to have it on the outside because the lens will be full of bug guts!

Neat SF house with old car

Downtown San Francisco

The Westfield SF Shopping Center aka Heaven on Earth

Josh being deathly afraid on the escalators. I had to pry my hand from his death grip and run down the stairs to take this picture. I knew once I escaped he wouldn't chase me because he gets so scared on them.

The view of what scares Joshy

The main purpose of the trip was to go to Vera Bradley, one of my FAVORITE stores :)

I walked away with over $600 in VB for only $250!! Yay gift Certificates! I got:
-26" Expandable upright suitcase in Black
-Hanging Garment Bag in Cupcakes Pink
-4 Bow Cosmetic Bags in various patterns (they are discontinuing them!!)
-a SUPER cute Cupcakes Pink Coffee Cup
-Vintage Rose Wallet to match my Vintage Rose Purse

I think there was more but I can't remember it all haha. We loaded it all up in the suitcase for easy transporting, so it worked out perfectly! :)

Holding my bags downtown in front of Urban Outfitters.

A kind passerby offered to take our picture when he saw Josh taking a picture of just me. So here we are with the ATM haha

We also went to Old Navy where I got 3 really cute/really cheap sundresses! And of course we made a stop at Anthropologie so I could get the bag that I have been drooling over, courtesy of Josh's Mom and Sister as my birthday gift! Yay!

Then we made our way back home and went out to dinner at Flavor, which is my favorite Italian restaurant! It is right downtown in Railroad Square, so there are a lot of cute shops and trees and fountains, I just love it!

Josh and I in front of Flavor!

After dinner we picked up Allie and went to Brain Freeze for some birthday fro' yo'! Then we came home and packed because Friday we were heading home to Livermore to visit my family!

Can I just say I LOVE Smart Cars!! I know they are death traps and all, but they are so funny looking, that every time I see one I get super excited, so I had to take a picture of the birthday weekend Smart Car sighting.

Friday night I hung out with my good friends Sam and Nicole, we exchanged gifts because Nicole's birthday was the 18th, and then we went and got some dinner. It was great to see them and catch up! :)

On Saturday, we were going to celebrate my birthday, so of course, that means... BARBIE CAKE TIME!!

Here is my mom getting the initial frosting on Barbie's skirt. Then we had to put her in the fridge because it was too warm and the frosting was melting off of her!

While Barbie was chilling (ha! pun intended!) Josh, Kevin, and I went on a bike ride in the vineyards and then we ate my favorite dinner: BBQ'd cheeseburgers, homemade fries, and milkshakes, it was DELICIOUS! Then after dinner Clay, Josh, Kevin and I decided to go for a walk because we were so stuffed from dinner. The boys all decided we should dress silly for our walk....

Clay sporting his sweet fur hat and walking stick, Josh with a wooden sword, and Kevin in his Motorcycle helmet and gloves, while I was wearing a sweet straw hat (not pictured unfortunately haha).

Kevin got really into it and decided to race some of the cars as they drove by...

he almost won haha

After the walk we came home and I put the finishing touches on the Barbie Cake! Check out the sweet polka dots!

Work it Barbie!

Me and My Barbie Cake Masterpiece

This is what happens when you let your brother take your picture, he leaves your head out. Thanks Clay.

Sadly, Barbie wasn't fully cooked inside! We followed the directions exactly, but for some reason she was a little gooey! Whoops.

My Birthday and birthday weekend were AMAZING! I spent it with my family, friends, and my wonderful boyfriend! I had so much fun and ate way too much food! Oh and I came away with a LOT of great gifts :)

Yay For Birthdays!!

-Katie