Sparkle Shoe Friday

It's Friday, which means sparkle shoes are in order.

And Happy Earth Day!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas traditions new and old are what make Christmas Christmas. Though we tried to mobilize many of our traditions during our Christmases spent in Oregon, I must admit that this year feels more like Christmas than the past few. It feels amazing to be Christmasing in NC, specifically in Carrboro, this year.

Here's a new tradition...walking to get our tree.

A hand delivered tree courtesy of husband

A New and Old tradition- putting this scarf on as many animals and people as possible in myriad funny ways.

Old Tradition- Edie smooches

Old Tradition: decorate the tree with Cold Mountain Winter Ale from Highland Brewery and listen to Sufjan Stevens' Christmas CD. Usually, I decorate and Jason makes peanut gallery comments

Newish tradition: making ornaments out of pictures and random pieces of cardboard. Since our movers lost all of our Christmas ornaments in our move to Oregon 3 years ago, we've had to slowly collect/make new ones.

Kisses in front of the tree, an oldie but a goodie Christmas tradition

Self (birthday) Love

I really love to buy myself presents, especially with birthday money (thanks,  family).

This year, without thinking about it, the theme was golden polka dots.

I treated myself to this this little Free People nightgown (also, why does saying the word "nightgown" make me feel like an old lady?) :

And this adorable Kate Spade planner that is 100% going to help me get my life together and stay über organized:

Long gone are the days of toys and candy. I'm 33 and a lady, so I use my birthday money for practical things. Happy Birthday to me!

33 will be a great year!

I had a great birthday doing some very Eugeny things like disc golf, running 3.3 miles (since I'm in no shape to run 33 right now), cooking hotdogs out at Dexter, watching the dogs romp and swim, and dinner and wine tasting at King Estate Winery. 

But the even better present is the idea that next year I get to have my birthday back home in NC. I'm happy to officially announce on the blog that we are moving back to NC...again...but this time for real!!

Bekah!

June 13th is a very special day because it is the day that my very special sister, Bekah was born. 

She is kind, compassionate, selfless, afraid of flying, hilarious, and a damn good writer. She's the oldest sister. The sister of reason and right. She is the successful sister. The sister who knows exactly what she wants, works hard every day for it, and gets it. What an inspiration!

I'm so lucky I get to call her my sister. 

Happy Birthday, Beeeeekah!

A grid for the woman who taught me about grids. Grids!

The Wine

When Jason and I got engaged our friend Mike, who we refer to as "Mike's Pick's" for his wine picking ability and wine knowledge, gave us a bottle of wine from 2005 (the year we got together) and instructed us to hold on to until 2015 when we had our 10 year date-a-versary.  For the past 7 years, we have carted this bottle of wine with us through several moves, across the country and back and back again.  And finally, the time has come to open it!

Last night for our 10 year date-a-verary we opened the wine and drank it. The whole bottle.

We thought it was good, but we also couldn't  tell if it was corked or not.  We think it was a relatively nice bottle of wine, but our limited wine knowledge left us wondering "is this good?" ,"is it bad?", "Is it corked?", "what kind of wine is this?", "am I tasking minerals and berries or rotten vines?".

Regardless of whether we knew if we liked the wine or not, we had a great time with this bottle for sentimental reasons. Not to mention how nice it feels not to have to worry about babying that bottle anymore. We're free!

We open it. Wonder, "is it corked?"

Those silver markers last a while...

Wine label 

Taste

Taste

10 years together

Today is mine and Jason's 10 year anniversary of being together. It's pretty crazy to think:

1) We've been together for 10 years!

2) 10 years has passed since that?!?

3) How did 10 years already go by?!?

4) Are we old?!?

In any case, despite the wonder at the passing of time and our desire to stay forever young, I can't imagine any 10 year span without my Jason.

I love you.

And to show it I made a grid with 10 frames, one for each year. Just think how tiny the pictures will be when we reach 20 years, 30, 40, 50...can one even fit that many pictures in a grid?!?

Happy Birthday, my love

You say poTAYto, I say poTAHto, you like to wake up at 4:00 am to carry couches up mountains on your birthday, I like to sleep in and eat good food on my birthday... PoTAYto! PoTAHto! Carrying couches!

You get the idea. 

For Jason's 31st birthday, he desired a good old fashioned misogi, which I'm still not quite sure what it is, something about waking up early and challenging yourself and your friends to do something really hard like carrying a couch 7 miles round trip up a mountain and back. 

So we did.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

A very special day

Ten (can you believe that? Ten?!?) years ago today the sweetest dog to ever touch the Earth was born. 

For a few years now, I've been hyping up her 10th birthday. Promising her hikes, cuddles, naps, and a very special treat: a cheeseburger for dinner.

I'd say Edie had the best day a dog could ever have.

We hiked:

She napped:

And for dinner, a cheeseburger:

Happy Birthday, my sweetness!

More fun from New Years

If you've been greatly anticipating my annual New Years reflection/looking ahead post, have no fear, it is coming.

But for now, more picture from when good friends come play for the new year.

We made a giant New Year's Day feast consisting of:

Fried chicken for health

Mac and cheese for good luck

Sautéed kale for wealth

Biscuits for happiness

And cobbler for kindness (yes, I realize that these are not the traditional New Year's Day foods, but it's what we wanted to make, so there)

We then drove an hour and a half to find snow and waterfalls:

It was a great couple of days. Yay for friends!

New Years Eve in the bag

I notoriously do not have "good" or "great" New Years Eves. Most often they are nights filled with questions of "what are we doing?", "Is it cool enough?" "Who's going to be there?", "When is it going to be midnight?", and "When can we go home and go to bed?"

This year was quite different and I must say I was due for a great New Years.

Bekah and her man-friend, Morrison (or James?) came up to Oregon and we all celebrated with hiking, tiny beers, tacos, arcade games, whiskey by the fire, Cranium, and some good laughs. I'm hoping last night was a foreshadowing of all the laughter to come in 2015. Quite a happy (and great) New Years indeed!

Bekah and her man friend:

Just kidding, this is Bekah and her man friend:

Bekah takes pictures of her tiny beers while I do:

Glasses: