I had my engagement makeup trial yesterday with Maris Malone Calderon. She absolutely rocks and really listened to me and gave me a look that I feel still looked like me, just a much less flawed version!

And since my makeup was done anyway and it was the 1-year anniversary of our Drinko De Mayo celebration last year to rock out on our last days of consulting life (quit and never looked back, whoo!), we decided a date night at La Sombra was in order. If you haven’t been there and you’re in town…go immediately. It’s yummers.

Dress: Anthropologie on sale a few years ago – $25, Belt: Thrifted/Garage sale – $1-2, Shoes: Aldo Outlets – $14, Purse: Thrifted – $10

Have a wonderful weekend! We will be spending our time picking out tile…and carpet…and flooring…and paint!

Lately Bear and I have really taken stock of the people in our lives and come to the conclusion that we truly do prefer quality over quantity. We are putting all our focus and effort into the people who know how to be a true friend.

Luckily, we realized we are blessed with both quantity AND quality. So our gratitude this year revolves around the people in our lives that take care of us, are considerate and we really enjoy being with.

Here are some pictures from our first ever Thanksgiving potluck with the aforementioned friends. A real grown-up, sit-down dinner!

(looks gross but it’s from Greenberg, Oprah recommended it and it was/still is DELISH!)

Speaking of fabulous people, our weekend will be filled with family time, taking Trigger to Bear’s parents house, more leftovers and slowing down to catch up. Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Bear and I spent the last 5 days or so exploring San Francisco and Sonoma Valley (we did Napa last year for our first anniversary). It was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had! We had tons of great food, wine, company, weather and I had so much fun being with my love.

bracelet from Florence’s leather market, h&m scarf, sweater from ?

shirt from Old Navy, $3; jcrew jeans, sperry topsiders, hat from shecky’s girl’s night out

Broke my shopping ban at one of the largest H&M’s I’ve ever been in and got 3 things on my Necessary Purchases list as well as some other goodies. P.S. I’ve decided to just keep an ongoing Necessary Purchases list for myself and Bear in my phone and surprisingly haven’t felt an overwhelming need to shop much. But I will be thrifting soon with my girl Elia if anyone cares to join!

sweet poem found while browsing at City Lights Bookstore

view from Coit Tower

our hotel lobby

Had dinner with the most lovely Natira of Ooh, my favorite! I’m smitten. She even gave us a cute book about the city.

headband, shirt, purse and leather jacket from h&m (toldja Joanna!)

Saturday morning Farmer’s Market was fresh and delicious

sweater was $1.50 at estate sale, belt from urban outfitters, Toms shoes

of course we had to ride the cable cars

We happened to stumble upon Crown and Crumpets, which Caroline of Couer De La had featured here. It was as adorable and delicious as it looks!

what a good sport!

We were also lucky enough to catch Fleet Week and the Blue Angels from our seats!

We also spent some time out at the Academy of Science, which is a planetarium, rainforest, aquarium all in one. Coolest museum ever (thanks for all the recommendations Natira!). I even got to touch a starfish - which totally creeped me out by the way.

thrifted brown vintage shirt, YSL pants from garage sale, $50, thrifted purse

The next day we drove out to Sausalito to visit some family friends….how amazing is the view from their place? Totally jealous over here. We had a nice Italian lunch on a sidewalk patio then drove out to Santa Rosa/Healdsburg to start the wine-ing!

shirt form shecky’s girl’s night out

We had to stop by Bear Republic (appropo of course) to do some beer tasting since Bear needed it after all the wine. The guy next to us told us to tell the folks at Kendall-Jackson his name…and we got a free tasting! Then we were surprised with the employee discount prices of about 30% off! Needless to say we bought a case.

shimmery sweater, $2 at garage sale; YSL pants, h&m purse

We took restaurant recommendations from my Travel & Leisure magazine, one of which being ZaZu. Bear said it was the best meal from start to finish he’s ever had. It was amazing! And the best part is that the owner/chef is Dustie Estes, who is a contestant on the current show ‘The Next Top Chef’. She was nice enough to give us a free dessert for our anniversary and take a picture with us.

chambray shirt from old navy, tom’s shoes

Made a quick stop back to Mason Cellars (our favorite last year) in Napa just to pick up a case and happened to flip open to our entry from last year in the guestbook.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Now I must go and drink more wine.

BBQ With Friends: For no reason.

I bought this brand-new romper at a garage sale for 50 cents!

My wanna-be Kors watch ($60 from Citizen) that I’ve had for years now.

Fashion Lunch Two Weeks Ago: Have been meeting (almost) weekly with Austin Fashion Bloggers to talk shop. It’s been a blast!

BFF In Town: The lack of pictures is due to the fact that most of the time we were playing drinking games. Isn’t she GORGEOUS??

I’ve been obsessed with this lightweight French Connection dress I got at a resale shop for $1.99!

Friend’s Birthday: Too busy again to take pictures of the events but did get shots of the house they rented for the weekend.

The best part was this shower. there were three different places the water sprayed from and then a separate but included section for the huge bathtub. genus. i must have one.

Fashion Lunch One Week Ago:

D.C. To Visit Cousins:

For Bear’s 3rd Birthday/Father’s Day weekend we ate too much and now have a fridge full of takeout boxes.

First, the Etsy Craft party which was a ton of fun and had an endless supply of delicious food. I made Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

but I’m mad at myself because I forgot to put in the mini peanut butter cups in the middle! Grr.

Didn’t take a lot of pictures AT the party because I was too busy making cute things. But I did get pictures of my outfit before I left:

< shoes are Baker’s but I got them at Savers for $10; dress from Old Navy; belt  $2.50, thrifted; necklace from garage or estate sale; ring from F21, $4.50 >

….then a weekend full of

Fathers

homemade salsa

playing with the furbabies

and shopping for more hangers. Oops.

Ever since I told my parents that Bear will be in Vegas this weekend, they keep asking me what I’m going to DO. As though I’m incapable of being alone. How rude.

Well Mommy, Daddy…. tomorrow I will attempt to go out with some friends but considering that I can’t even muster the motivation today (yes, I am aware how lame I am), I will most likely be in one of these:

< have always wanted a stand-alone tub. how gorgeous is this black one?? >

with a glass or two of this

< don’t worry, Bear, i’ll drink the one you don’t like >

Then maybe a movie or two with the Tiger and 007 (who says I’ll be alone?!). Romantic comedy, natch. Have to make use of all the boy free time!

And lots of reading. I need to catch up.

Saturday I plan on a little downward facing dog (if I can still bend my body that way, it’s been awhile)

Then an overdue facial.

There will most likely be some shopping and cupcakes in there too because I heard that Sprinkles opened in Houston – Stacy, do you know if this is true?

Hopefully by Saturday night I shall be energized enough to hit the gay district with some fabulous boys.

Sunday morning is for the dogs at the HSPCA and then I’m off to pick up Bear at the airport.

Yes, that’s right, he’ll be back Sunday. Early afternoon. My parents are nuts.

What are your fun plans?

We attempted to spring clean our apartment quite a few times this weekend and got sidetracked by…

A gorgeous antique card catalog!

I have been wanting one for awhile now and Bear kept on the hunt till he found me one in a nearby town. It was a bit beaten up but still solid. Took a little elbow grease but now it holds so much stuff and looks great!

A spontaneous dinner invitation

I had never tried Vietnamese sandwiches before friends of ours called with a craving. We quickly abandoned our efforts.

< I am now a fan of Vietnamese sandwiches >

Then of course we had to get dessert

< It’s made with shaved ice, condensed milk and fruit. Strange but yummy! >

Beautiful weather, which absolutely called for some ice cream and shopping instead of cleaning indoors.

< We found a cute little bead shop in Rice Village and went nuts >

< More books. We are really running out of space. >

And for dinner we had crawfish but we were too eager to get there to remember the camera!

Brunch and strawberry-orange mimosas on Sunday morning.

Remember the cropped skinnies I was going to get? Got them and LOVE them.

< Nine West shoes I re-found in my closet, top was $5 at a consignment boutique, and AG jeans >

< found these fun earrings for 50 cents at a garage sale! >

And cupcakes with Stacy of Stacy Says!

In the midst of the gluttony we managed to get our spring cleaning done and the place looks fab now! Let’s see how long it lasts…