Soooo excited!

We are off for a weekend in the mountain-y wilderness with some excellent company. No phones, no internet, no tv. Just the great outdoors, friends, food and probably some Boggle.

Have a good weekend! Catch y'all next week!

And...A Few More Favorites

I'm working on going through approximately one million photos so I can finally actually post about something crafty (did you know this is supposed to be a craft blog?) In the meantime, to keep this blog a-rollin', I'm going to share a few more favorites. I know you like it.

1) I just finished this book and I LOOOVED it. Read it. Did that convince you?

2) The summer heat is not a favorite. The summer produce is a favorite. The next many months are going to be a fiery furnace, but if it means we get delicious veggies out of the deal then it'll be worth the general misery.




3) My kickboxing and boot camp classes! I have never liked exercising. Actually, that's not accurate -- I've always DETESTED exercising. The feeling of my heart beating fast, being out of breath and sweating was my worst nightmare. But something has changed. Maybe it's the motivation I'm getting from seeing and feeling my body getting stronger. Maybe it's because I have so much more energy during the day. Maybe I've brainwashed myself. Whatever it is, I love it and I'm stoked. I actually look forward to my classes and that, my dears, is truly saying something.


4) Any and all news relating to this:




5) The Greek Style Fig Yogurt from Trader Joe's has been a passion of mine for about the past year. I had it for breakfast every single morning for months. And then when I got a little tired of that, I just had it for a snack or dessert at least a few times per week. It's been a good old stand-by and we had some really great times together.

Recently, however, I have not been able to find it in TJs. They had the honey and the apricot-mango but there was no sign of either the fig nor the strawberry (another favorite). I feared the worst.

Discontinuation.

I finally asked the dude at the desk and he confirmed that it has indeed been discontinued. I'm so distraught. How could TJ do this to me?

I feel so betrayed.

What We Did...

...in Utah in April.

Saw a parrot driving a truck



Attended my beautiful cousin's beautiful wedding
(which John photographed)



Sis-tahs!

Did some creepy things with non-creepy people

$10 if you can tell me where we are with Mr. Brick Pants. Another $10 if you'll ignore the fact that I look like I could ingest Sheena in a single bite.

Got snowed on?

This is me saying "Seriously, UT? Snow? In April?"

But really, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Went bowling with sibs


Somehow the end scores weren't all that surprising.

The baby-child got injured



Ate cupcakes. And a lot of Indian and Thai food.

Terrarium

My dad has a thing for junk. He has a lot of it. All kinds of things that no one wants or has a use for anymore. Old film projectors, spot lights, motorcycle parts, radio broadcasting equipment, pretty much anything you can think of (and things you probably don't realize exist). He has built an entire mini radio station in his backyard from mostly free stuff that other people were going to throw away. He is finishing a little camping trailer that he has built from other peoples' "trash". He is amazingly resourceful.

When I was growing up, he took an old vintage blender (you know, the cool futuristic silver ones) and turned it into an aquarium. With fish in it. It was incredibly cool. He also gutted a computer monitor and made it into a terrarium. It was the first terrarium I had ever seen and I have never forgotten it. And since then I've been a little bit obsessed with them.



Lately it seems that I've been seeing a lot of terrariums on the bloggernets and I've been wanting to make one for a long time. And thanks to the sweetest, most generous girl on earth, I finally have! I recently won a scarf give-away on her blog, and because she is so sweet and knew of my longing for some moss with which to make a terrarium, she included some moss and 3 adorable little mushrooms she made herself with my scarf (which I love!). I squealed many times in opening the package.




The other day, William and I finally put this terrarium together and I LOOOOVE it so much. Who knew 2 fish bowls, some rocks, moss and little mushrooms could bring so much joy into my life? Maybe I'm some sort of freak, but isn't it gorgeous?? And so easy! You should seriously considering making one of your own.

Oh yeah, and before the month is over I had to show you this page of my calendar. Doesn't that paper about kill you? Crap I love it. I need to do something incredible with it. The only question is WHAT?

Some More Favorites

1) I don't know what is up with the maple theme around here lately, other than it is a delicious flavor and why not? We tried these cookies from Trader Joe's and all three of us are now addicted. They are INSANE. In fact, John just ate one and said it was "retarded" it was so good. And William cries and cries when I won't let him eat any more.




2) I knew it would happen, but didn't do anything to prevent it. I finished the entire Outlander series 4 months before the next (last?) book comes out. And now I'm going nuts. I guess the plus side is that I can now do other things. They've been a little all-consuming. But I'm definitely counting down the days to Sept 22 when the new book will be released!




3) We finally got rid of the ugly, stinky, giant couches that were in our living room and moved our pretty couch in. I'm soooo happy. I just stand here and look at it with a smile on my face. It's so lovely and proportional and not-stinky. I want to squeeze its guts out I'm so happy. And now all I need is the perfect armchair, which I will hunt tirelessly for and blog incessantly about.


One of these days that fireplace will be finished and will no longer be a huge, gaping black hole.


And one more thing...

4) The cosmos must really love me. For there to be a place that serves three completely random and unrelated things, which happen to be three of my very favorite things on the planet, is just too much of a coincidence. I think it's a sign that I'm loved by some higher power. There's really no other explanation for something like this. Which also means that I must go here and consume said goods as often as possible. So let's go!




This weekend we're off to San Diego to go to the zoo and the beach with my mom and youngest brother. Can't wait! Have a wonderful weekend!

Just Some New Favorites

1) A certain little lady introduced me to this yogurt while we were staying at her house a couple of months ago. I can only find this brand at Whole Foods, but Trader Joe's also carries a maple yogurt that is just as delicious. It's like having dessert for breakfast, which is always a good idea.


And speaking of yogurt, I've been making these yogurt popsicles for William and he's nuts for them. I bought this Tupperware popsicle set probably about 8 years ago and have never used it. It's getting a lot of good use now, though! I just spoon yogurt (lately it's been the maple!) into the little molds, stick the sticks in and freeze. Since it's gotten so hot here, it's nice to have a healthy, cold snack for the kid (as opposed to that ice cream you see there).



2) Love my new water bottle. We've become addicted to bottled water around here and it's a disturbing trend. I got William a Sigg water bottle a year ago and we've loved it. This week I finally got my own. It's the greatest. Plus -- pretty!




3) The newest member of my vintage luggage family. Since my green one now transports my toiletries when on a trip, I needed another one for my sewing notions. I'm so lucky that the antique store near my parents' house always seems to have a good selection!



4) Taylor Swift. What can I say? I'm a little bit obsessed with her. She's adorable and her songs make me cry like a little girl. The song in the video below is like, unlistenable. I bawl my eyes out every time. Enjoy! Haha

New Iris and Light Wedding Film!

Oh yeah, this is what John was off doing last weekend!

Monica + Rhett Wedding Highlight from IRIS AND LIGHT on Vimeo.

For Reals This Time

Hello! Happy Day! Today is a great day in Cara Lou Land. Things are going my way and I'm feeling fine. The day is sunny and warm but not deathly-hot; I'm eating enormous quantities of fresh produce; I'm productive, active and working on my fitness like nobody's (no idea how that should be spelled) business. Things are great around here.

You may have noticed that I did not blog over the weekend. I ended up not having a computer after all because I was house-sitting. But no matter -- my weekend was terrific! William and I spent the weekend doing whatever we wanted, which was relaxing and fun. We went on lots and lots of walks, window-shopping, and to the park. We are very glad to have John home now, though. :)

So anyway, I've declared today Blog Day. I'm going to finally transfer a million pictures to the computer and get them processed and ready to post. I'm going to clean out my Google Reader (I currently have 398 unread posts). I'm going to finally respond to many peoples' emails and comments. I'm going to finally finish all of the half-written posts I have saved as drafts! I'm so excited.

Look out!

Where Have I Been?

I can't really answer that question. I've been around...but...just anti-technology, I guess. Once I finish working in the morning I want to get off the computer as fast as possible and stay off. But this weekend I'm being abandoned by friends and family and will have a lot of "me" time to fill and I'll show you some of the fun things I've been up to. :)

In the meantime, will you take a look at that kid up there? He's 19 months old today. Who in the what the? He is now in the second half of his second year and I'm a bit freaked out by it. Even though we are sad to see him get older, he just keeps getting more and more fun. He's such our little buddy now. Our little three-person family is having a blast being best friends. It just doesn't stop getting even more awesome! Sometimes I think I'll just explode into a million little bits from happiness.

Alright, I'm off to do some research on arm chairs. Which also makes me want to explode from happiness!