FREAKING OUT...

Who is staying up to watch the Royal Wedding????

umm... yeah... SO EXCITED. 

I am going to my parents house tonight and my friend Caroline is coming at 8PM. We are going to have champagne cocktails, take a cat nap, and then wake up at 1 for the "pre-game" through the wedding. My mom bought Prince of Wales tea and crumpets. 

THEN

On Sunday my friend Shanley is having a full blown party in which the gals are invited to wear their wedding dresses  or best bridesmaids dress and we are going to watch it all over again with cake and cocktails!

talk about a fabulous time!

UMM... the countdown has begun!

15 hours till showtime!!

Gracie... the jet setting pup...

So when we travel with gracie... we take her EVERYWHERE... whether it a spot that would typically be dog friendly or not. We just cant leave her in the hotel room. I mean hello... its her vacation too!

So here are a few photos of the pup in California this week! Before we headed to Carmel, CA aka where we are now, we made a pit stop in Palo Alto. Its a frequent spot for my family as my mom grew up there and my dad went to Stanford. Which is coincidentally where they met.

She is so ready for vacation...

Obviously ready for the long drive to California!

Lunch at Max's Opera Cafe

Nordies helping mom pick out my easter present...

Lululemon being very patient while I get a new yoga outfit.

She decided to take a nap while she waited...

Dinner that night at Scott's Seafood Bistro... she had some delish Bay Area sourdough! 

Tuckered out after a long day!

So thats our vacation so far! We have had so much fun... but most of all gracie has had the best time!!!

Before I sign off I want to thank Colleen at The Dashing Pearl! I did a guest post for her this week on  my favorite color combination- pink and turquoise. 

Check out my guest post! (aka click here)

and take a look or give a follow to Colleen at The Dashing Pearl. 

This week is a busy one...

My week just gets crazier and crazier... and I am not going to slow down till I leave for Carmel on Sunday!

I have fallen back in love with making lists to keep me organized...

But does this really look organized to you???

Yeah... so many to do lists, schedules, timelines, plans, etc. 

Its been a fun one though! :) 

Also attn. dieters:

Also a fabulous new snack that is only 140 calories and 8 grams of protein.

Mini wheel of brie cheese from trader joes - 70

1/2 slice of sour dough toasted and cut into squares- 40

3 medium strawberries cut up-30

YUMM!! 

Keeping me fueled through this crazy week!

Thats all for now!

a little love at the coffee shop...

Ok ... so the most precious thing happened to me today...

I up and at em this AM... out the door dressed and ready to go full make-up, hair, and sundress at 7:00AM!!!!!

So I popped in to Starbucks for my morning cocoa cappuccino... The line was no joke 12 cars long! So I popped out my laptop and conveniently stole wifi from the restaurant next door. As I am slowly making my way up the line and eventually to the front, the gal in front of me smiles and laughs undoubtably because she sees me being ridiculous and on my laptop while driving. 

I also laughed. 

THEN! I pull up to pay for my coffee and the woman PAID for my cappuccino and bought me a cake pop! How did she know I loved Tiramisu? Excellent!

I was dumbfounded by the hospitality from a stranger! It makes you feel so good!

I was SO tired and excited for that first hit of caffeine... which is amazing and then someone picks up the tab AND buys you a treat??

Complete STARBUCKS BLISS!!!

So tomorrow morning I am going to pay for the person behind me to keep those good vibes going!!

One more cute thing...

I found these this weekend at Safeway and had to share...

Lilly Pulitzer animal crackers???

Oh hey cutest snack ever!! Glad I found you!

Christmas came early for Giants fans... AGAIN! :)

Random musings...

I made caramel monkey muffins...

and they were delish...

It also wont stop raining... which is annoying to both me and Gracie who struggles with the rain...

My desk is all organized!!! Check it out... Love it. 

Thats all for now... just a quick one!

Robert Pattinson AND ELEPHANTS... yah... I think so...

Trailer 3

I mean... say what you will about the vampire trend, that actor is quite the fox...

...and I think everyone knows my position of Elephants.

Day 14: Today and EVERYDAY I am thankful for my wonderful, out of this world, amazing, and hilarious boyfriend Matt

What can I say... I love the man. He brightens up my day. He makes me laugh. My family loves him, my friends love him, I mean what's not to love? I am so grateful to whatever force of nature brought him into my life and whoever and whatever that might be... I cant believe I would ever be so lucky to be with such a wonderful person.

Now for the photo gallery...

Some days I want to pinch myself... 

So thats it! 14 days of blessings!!! For all of you who completed it, let me know! By the end of the day I will have an entire new page for this challenge so that people can keep doing it. I am compiling a list of all the bloggers who have completed the challenge and I will have it listed on that page a long with the award and the stipulations for any other bloggers who want to do it!

Hooray! Don't you all feel SO blessed??

Tomorrow is the Day!

Congratulations to everyone who completed the count your blessings challenge! To all those not quite finished... no worries! Keep it up and come grab your award when you complete it!

The Blissful Blogger Award will be available tomorrow along with my final blessings challenge post..

Can you guess who #14 will be? I will give you a hint... He makes me smile till my mouth hurts and laugh till I fall off the couch (or whatever I happen to be sitting on at the time)

Count Your Blessings Challenge: Day 11, 12, and 13.

Wow what a wonderful weekend. My entire family was in town! I spent some quality time with my extended family. Matt came and had dinner with us at our Country Club. Which was really wonderful because they gave us a private room because of the number of people that we were having for dinner. My mom thinks its because we are "the loud family" and the dining room cant handle it... and she might be right! So happy I was able to see everyone!

Ok lets get to it!

Day 11: On Saturday I was thankful for where I live.

It was so gread having my family in town. There was a lot of talk about how great the city Eugene is. My aunt Nancy mentioned to me that she loved coming to Eugene and that it made a great home base for our family even though a lot of them live in other states or in other cities in Oregon and it made me feel so thankful for where I live...

Here are some gorgeous shots of Oregon... I love living here!!!!

Haceta Head

PORTLAND!!

Bend

Multnomah Falls

and... duh... Black Butte. 

Day 12: On Sunday I was thankful for my dad!

Matt and I went golfing on Sunday with my father. It was so much fun. He gets so excited when we play golf and he really needed an outlet from the stress of the work week. So we drove up to corvallis and played Trysting Tree Golf Course. Matt wasn't having the best round of his life and I think that he was especially mad because he wasn't playing well in front of my dad. Of course my dad in turn blamed himself for Matt's poor playing because he must be "bad luck"... The two of them are so funny when they are together... Talk about best friend time. It made me really happy to be spending time with my two favorite guys!! I love my dad so much and even though he refused to complain I could tell his knee was "acting up"- The result of an old football injury from high school. He is not what I would call "a complainer". He takes care of everyone ALL THE TIME! He works 14 hour days, does the book keeping at the office, he does ALL my accounting, and also does a considerable amount of work at home. 

The guy on the right!!! :) LOVE HIM!!

Day 13: Yesterday I was thankful for Bakerella!! 

This makes me laugh... but as you all know I recently procured a Cricut Cake machine. I am pretty excited about this and I have gone on some websites, blogs, etc and checked out all the amazing projects people have done. Today I actually bit the bullet and purchased the machine I have been drooling over for 2 years. It FINALLY went on sale for the somewhat affordable price of $225. Which is still a lot... but in the color I wanted I hadn't found it for under $299 since it was released... Enough babbling!

This is what I bought...

how cute are you apple green kitchen aid??!!!

I was going to register for one when I eventually get engaged... but you know what? I want to bake NOW! 

Regardless of my insane shopping and before I get too off track...  yesterday...I was thankful for bakerella! Her projects are inspiring! WOW what a talented lady... 

Here are some of her projects/ideas :

I dont know what man would propose this way... but it would be cute for an engagement party.

Christmas spread

Superbowl party...

umm... can I just hire her to set this up at the front of my store every day??? 

SO CUTE!!!

How cute are you google???

love it... and the easy access of looking up anything whenever I want... 

Last thing I looked up on google: What is a herd of elephants formally called?

Answer: a parade. of course it is... cutest animal ever. 

Someone has been SLACKING (Day 8,9, and 10)

Thank goodness I didnt say you had to post what you are thankful for every day... just 14 posts... I find it so funny that I found a loophole in my own challenge... but the whole point of the challenge isn't to be disciplined... its to remember what you are thankful for... so lets play catch-up.

Thankfully I took note of what made me happy on these days so I can make up for my lack of posts!

Day 8: On Wednesday I was thankful for the musings of the morning!

On that day in particular I was driving around running my errands. I stopped at my favorite gourmet grocer for a little scoop of eggs, turkey bacon, and a small iced mocha (which are amazing as they make then with their own ganache). I stopped by my favorite bakery case to snap a photo of the creative baked goods that they have right now!

WOW! How cute is this easter bunny cake??

I totally bought some of those mini macaroons to put out in my shop- Our Logo is pink and green!

Happy as a clam after getting my coffee and picking up my supplies from office max... I saw that someone had bubbled the fountain downtown!! 

(Sorry for the shotty picture... I was driving when I took it. haha)

that whole 25 minutes of being productive, visiting the bakery, and the fountain was a great start to the day. What can I say... it doesn't take much to entertain me. 

Day 9: Yesterday I was thankful for my girlfriends :) 

I had girls night last night at Osteria Sfizio... perhaps my FAVORITE restaurant in town. It was fabulous. We all sat around eating delicious food and martinis and catching up. It made me feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. 

I am in the middle of planning a girls weekend to none other than BLACK BUTTE!!! For the Sisters Rodeo. I am not a huge rodeo fan... but its really REALLY fun to be there. We are going to shop, hit up the spa at the ranch, and lay out in the sun- hopefully if the weather cooperates. 

Day 10: Today I am thankful for my sister...

I MISS HER LIKE CRAZY right now!! I am really excited to see her when we go down to Carmel for easter!!! I am putting together a HUGE easter basket full of monogrammed goodies, candles, and other stuff from the store. Along with some gift cards... she is a sophomore in college who is far from the fam... Big sis has to spoil her. 

YAY!! I can't wait!

Have a lovely day everyone!!