'Tis The Season: December 2-10

Friday, December 2nd: Kelley & I spent our lunch talking about the start of the December album. Here she is playing with my Elle's Studio Tis the Season kit that I bought to help supplement my album. Aren't the numbers too cute?

I met Jessica, Bryce, Jamie, and Salad for dinner at one of my favorite local crepe restaurants. We grabbed dinner before heading to the theater to see Breaking Dawn. We waited a few weeks after it was released because of our hectic schedules.

I laughed during some moments I'm sure that weren't meant to be laugh out loud funny. I was entertained by the movie and really enjoyed the wedding sequence. I've become quite familiar with them lately-I photographed quite a few this past year!

Saturday, December 3rd: Scrap date with Kristi! She & I haven't been able to get together to scrapbook in a really long time. I have a habit of working a lot and packing my weekends with a lot of fun! It was so great to see my recently engaged friends and play catch up. 

 

I found a "I Love MJ" button the other day.

We kept our December tradition going with the Pillsbury sugar cookies too. It wouldn't be Christmas without these guys.

Sunday, December 4th: I've started working at Christmas by the Cove with the holidays quickly approaching. Its great because it gets me in the spirit and I get to shop while I work. I picked up these cute Shiny Bright glass blown ornaments by Christopher Radko. They come in two sizes so naturally I bought both!

Leo & Tiffany have the cutest interactive advent calendar apps on their phones and its so cute to watch them open each day together. Then I get to play with it after!

I bought a vintage shiny bright from our collection at the store. They are so pretty piled together that it took a lot of will power to just buy one. 

Monday, December 5th: My parents brought a tree home and I helped light it. My lighting theory is that there can't be enough lights on a tree! My general rule that Leo taught me: 1 strand of lights per foot there is tree. This works really well!

I also love lighting trees with a hooded sweatshirt. I keep the lights in the hood so the lights don't get tangled.

Our family tree all lit up:

Tuesday, December 6th: I've kept a Trader Joe's chocolate advent calendar in my car to make my commute more festive. Each morning I open a new window and try to guess what the shape is supposed to be.

My company had a special barista making gingerbread lattes and a beautiful holiday spread. I didn't wait in line for a latte but I did grab a few croissants and chocolate filled pastries. It was so fun to walk in and see first thing in the morning! 

Wednesday, December 7th: I busied myself in the darkroom in preparation for the photography final. I remembered why cutting mat board is so difficult...math and razor blades. I was so involved with that project that I only remembered to take photos as I was leaving campus. This is the view of the library:

Thursday, December 8th: Thursday was my comp day since I was scheduled to work the following Saturday. I desperately wanted to sleep in but it just didn't happen. I relaxed and updated my resume for a new position within my department. One of my packages arrived with a few of my holiday projects. I loved the presentation!

Lisa organized a girls craft night at her place. We all made food and had too many left overs. Emily brought this deliciously sweet fruit tart:

I brought my scrap supply to work on my December album from last year. Lisa worked on a beautiful ribbon wreath while Emily worked on a felt wreath.

Friday, December 9th: Ansgar took me ice skating to the Yerba Buena Gardens ice rink in San Francisco. It was such a different experience going skating with a ice hockey player. We both had our own ice skates and had so much fun racing around on the ice. 

We decided we need to skate more frequently. It was so convenient that he knew one of the employees working that night! 

I had forgotten how much I love to photograph the city at night. It made me wish I had my DSLR with me to capture the beauty of Yerba Buena Gardens. I love the patterns on the sidewalk with the church in the background. 

This is one of my most favorite colorful views, taken from the Yerba Buena Gardens bridge:

On the way back, we met up with some friends at Lucky 13 in San Francisco. It was a really cute place with a foosball table, chalk boards, and a modern day photo booth. I was thrilled to check it out since I fell in love with Lucky 13 in Alameda. 

Saturday, December 10th:  We attended a jam fest/ holiday party in one of the coolest venues I've ever been to. I love to scout locations so when I find a new one that I love, I get very excited! One of Ansgar's friends found Salle Pianos and rented it out for our holiday evening of music. Brian took clips from his favorite holiday movies and edited them together for projection onto one of the white walls. 

The decor was beautiful; Antique pianos, lits candelabras, gold gilded mirrors and an exquisite chandelier. 

Instruments littered the floor along with music stands and other audio equipment. It was a perfect night to chat with great music playing the entire evening. I met a lot of talented people and talked about photography and the environment (my job title always sparks that conversation).

I was so giddy when I walked into Salle Pianos with my DSLR. It was a magical experience and I hope I find myself there again very soon! 

Christmas and the fun after

I fell way behind on blogging so here goes...
Christmas morning felt like it was fast forward due to these two... They were off to Nebraska by 11am. I did finish my photo project in time for showing after they left. For the past couple years, Dan & I have been scanning old slides of my grandparents to help preserve them. This Christmas, I went through the first of many slideshows they had created and cleaned up the dust and color corrected them. Everyone was pretty happy with it. I still have to put it on a DVD for my family members. Oh how the to do list is never ending. :D

My cousins, Dan, and I played Wii for hours and then realized we had to get ready for Christmas dinner. We went to Novato for our evening festivities. My cousin always decorates her house so lovely. I could spend hours taking photos in her house.
Unfortunately, they had just renovated and removed all of their carpeting, which made it really difficult to see the step down into their sunken living room. My grandma Launa (my mom's mom) took a pretty bad fall as soon as she arrived. She spent the rest of the evening in ER with my parents & my aunt & Uncle. She fractured her upper right arm in two places. The family has been taking turns helping her get around and we are hoping for a speedy recovery. She is quite lucky that she won't have to have any corrective surgery.

The rest of Christmas was made up of the younger crowd from my family. We had delicious dinner & dessert. I was really excited to have the bread pudding. I didn't take many pictures though. I know how everyone loves seeing food!
We played apples to apples and I took up crocheting. Hoping to have that scarf finished this weekend and with its new owner. I just love the color. I took some photos around the house of my mom's Christmas decor:and my favorite "wiggly" trees:We spent the majority of the 26th over at my Aunt & Uncle's house so we could have more of a family day. It was so nice and relaxed. We played Wii again and again. I played some mini golf game and beat the pants off of everyone. I managed to work on my December album a little too with the help of my cousins. Dan's friend Melanie was out from D.C. visiting her Grandparents. We went to Max's diner and had a really weird experience. I am pretty sure we were the youngest people there. After I had a craving for ice cream so we went to Dairy Queen. We were 100% aware of how old we were when everyone from the local high school showed up.
We decided to go check out the houses in San Carlos that are famous for their over decorating. It was really cold so we spent the majority of our visit in the car. Isn't this house really neat?
I had a fun time with friends at Jared's surprise 21st birthday party. It was so weird being at that house two Saturday's in a row. I can't turn down all the yummy food. Jason got engaged since last week and we all caught up with our holiday stories.
I spent a few days over in Walnut Creek with my grandma. My parents took over on New Years Eve so I could go hang out with Kristi and Ethan's gang. We had a blast playing apples to apples. We had a nice relaxing new years eve. I was in bed before the clock struck midnight and I was okay with that. We spent New years day goofing off with the Wii and hanging out in our PJ's.

I have some jobs to apply for and some errands to run before heading to work, so I'll catch you later! Hope your weekend is lovely.

Happy New Years!

Jenna and I were known for waking up at 5:30am on Christmas morning because of how excited we were that Santa had visited. I remember that one friend of ours went to bed really early so Santa would come faster. As we get older we appreciate sleeping in a little more. This year we woke around 8am. We opened gifts with my parents and then drove to my Aunt Sandy's house for more presents and breakfast. I will have pictures of the presents in my next post. Jenna showing off her bling and new Hello Kitty flannel pj's at Sandy's house:


Dad didn't get off Christmas so he had to leave during our celebration to go to work at Oakland airport. I picked up Dan on the way back to our house and we exchanged gifts and hung out.

We went to Christmas dinner at our cousin Lynn's house in Novato (60 minutes North). My favorite part of the evening was when I broke out my friends trivia game and we all answered the questions until it was time to go home. I had a very relaxing holiday and I hope you all did as well.

Wednesday night I went to Tom's Christmas party with my mom and Dan. We are standing in front of his tree that has over 200 birds on it. From left to right: Tom, me, and Dan. I always look forward to Tom's parties because of the killer smoked salmon that he serves.

The Sundance Spas girls, plus me. From left to right: Kat, my mom, me, and Leah. You might notice that I am holding a Nintendo DS lite. I spent a bit of time that day searching for one and I was thrilled to successfully find a black one at game stop. I'm completely addicted to the game Brain Age.


I had Friday off for the first time in several months. Jenna managed to get her hand stuck in the car door. Next time we're doing the drive through! Jenna, Kelly, and I went on an adventure and arrived at the PEZ Museum of Burlingame, California.


The Museum is located at 214 El Camino Real in Burlingame. It is fairly small and costs $3. Its so small that the "tour" guide walks you back and forth in a tiny room to make the tour last longer. I did learn some cool things about PEZ!

PEZ was originally sold as a breath mint in 1927. It wasn't until the 50's that the Austrian company decided to produce dispensers with heads as well. The PEZ candy got the name from the Austrian name "pfefferminz" for peppermint. Here is a poster of the original PEZ dispenser.


Two PEZ vending machines in the museum.


The original neon sign from the PEZ factory. The owner of the museum won it from an Ebay auction. Ebay was founded so PEZ dispensers could be traded and sold on the internet. Can you believe how much its grown since Ebay started?


The rarest PEZ dispenser was the Super Spiel. It was supposed to be similar to Mr. Potato head but on a dispenser. It was recalled almost immediately because it was considered a choking hazard.


The biggest display of PEZ dispensers. I recognized at least 5 dispensers that I have from this display!


Friday night Dan surprised me with an XBOX360. We have Tetris and Need For Speed Most Wanted. I love Tetris! Guitar Hero 3 has shipped but we haven't received it yet. I was hoping we'd have it for New Years Eve but we'll be fine.

Saturday night we went to Jessica's surprise graduation party. I had a lot of fun and took plenty of pictures. It was nice to catch up with a bunch of friends too. I am so incredibly proud of your achievements Jessica. You are so strong and I admire you for it. Congrats on your BA! Left to right: Brian, Jessica, and Lily.


Then dance floor towards the end of the evening had really cool lighting. Hope you have a safe and Happy New Years Eve!

Let The Parties Begin!

The EBB Creations December Main Dish Kit is here! I had the pleasure of working with this gorgeous kit! I couldn't love the colors more. I haven't been able to scrap as much as I'd like to with this busy holiday season.

My first layout that I managed to get done is pretty simple. I had way too much fun playing with the stickles in the kit. Yummy!

Products added:
American Crafts Thickers
Silver Stickles
Snowflake stamp from $1 of Michael's
Uni-Ball Singo White Pen
Blue Souffle Pen
Embroidery floss

What have I been up to lately? A lot of working... I went to photo class since our finals are this coming week and I have been neglecting my lovely dark room lab. It was nice to make a few prints. I really must get back out to shoot black and white film and enjoy it while I still have that luxury.

I had a wonderful evening babysitting my sweet neighbors Constance (6) and Audrey (5) on Friday. I brought over some of my surplus crafts and we made Christmas cards for their teachers. I got so inspired by their creativity. We had Hello Dolly playing in the background. Constance and I danced to some of the scenes. I got some of the sweetest drawings from them.

Last night my family went to Lynne's annual Christmas party that we look forward to. Sadly Lynne was sick with the flu and it wasn't the same without her. It was still a beautiful party. Here is my Dad at the table of delicious food:

My favorite part of the whole party is the home made desserts. That chocolate fudge is to die for!


Here are a few of the women at the party. From left to right: Lois, Barbara, Mom, Lesly, and Jenna. Lynne has such incredible decorations all over the house. Notice the miniature house to the right and the wrapped frames above the women.

Dan took this really cool picture of their tree while I was falling asleep on the couch because of a long day of working, then shopping, and finally partying. Hope you are enjoying your weekend!