Life Lately

Right now, I'm in Iowa City for the weekend.  Spenser and I went out to dinner and had some wild, delicious pizza.  It had a white sauce and apples and pecans and all sorts of things.  And yes, it was good!  The restaurant had a jukebox too.^^  Double score.

Earlier in the day, I toured a Montessori school.  If you are not familiar with Montessori, it is a method of teaching developed by Dr. Maria Montessori that emphasizes exploration and hands-on learning.  At one time, my mom was the directress of a Montessori school, but that was a long time before me, so this was my first experience seeing a whole school dedicated to the Montessori method.

In other news, I recently, finally celebrated Christmas with Adele. (gasp!)  Yes, I'm well aware it's April.  I'm not proud.  But she loved her gift and we celebrated at our very favorite Ihop, and that's what matters most.

I've been exploring and experimenting more with my telescopic lens.  Above is the results of my efforts.  As you can see the trees are still pretty bear...I can't wait til everything starts blossoming again. :)

My aunt got married!

My aunt Helen got married in a small ceremony this weekend.  She looked beautiful in her wedding dress and the small touches of cream and purple completed her wedding day look.  Both her and the groom have been married before and have adult children.  Thus, this is the second time around for them, but they couldn't be happier.  It has made me happy to see her so happy.  Plus, they seem to bring out the best in each other. :) 

 

It was a d.i.y. wedding with my aunt, the bride, doing most of her own work.  She put together the bouquets, crafted the table decorations, and even created a floral arch by hand.  It was simple and beautiful.  Therefore, it was neat to know that she had a hand in making everything so beautiful.

 

I am happy that I was able to come and be witness to their blissful day.

I wish them the best. xo. 

It's friday and a fun weekend is ahead!

Happy Friday!

I probably say that every Friday, but weekends are always greeted with happiness, right?

This weekend I'll be attending a wedding.  I haven't been to a wedding in quite some time.  I love weddings, though!  More people need to get married...so I can go and dance and buy them gifts and fun stuff!

 

P.S.  This tulip picture was super pretty before blogger sucked the quality out of it.  :/  Still don't know what's going on with it.

Snapshots from Geneva

Here are just a few pictures from a short trip to Geneva last Friday.  1) Those are tiramisu pancakes!  Yes, you read that right.  They came with a dollop of marscarpone cheese and drizzled in chocolate.  I need to try to make these at home sometime. 2)   "Dick Loves Sharon 7-20-10" was carved in the sidewalk outside of the restaurant we ate breakfast at.  I'm a sucker for little remnants of love like that. 3)  Sunlight hits a historic building downtown.  4) The prettiest alley.  5) First signs of warmer times to come-the flowers are in full bloom! 6)  It's no secret I love colorful chandeliers. ;)

Bridal Shower

This Saturday was my aunt's bridal shower/bachelorette party.  She is getting remarried next week, so to celebrate, her daughter and future daughter-in-laws threw her a shower.  The invitation instructed to dig out and wear an old bridesmaid dress for the occasion.  As much as it was a great idea, there was a slight problem for this family...my mom has long gotten rid of her old bridesmaids dresses and I haven't been a bridesmaid yet.  So no dress for us on either accounts.  :(  My mom and I were discussing options (borrowing, thrifting, etc.) and one of the ideas that came up was, "What if we get matching dresses?!"  How cute and funny would that be?  Now, how?  We went thrifting for matching dresses and as we went through the stores, we noticed that many of them have old prom/homecoming dresses.  We thought maybe we could find a matching pair of prom/homecoming dresses and pass them off as bridesmaids dresses.  Then, we did one better.

My mom found a dress that matched an old homecoming dress of mine!  They were different colors as you can see, but still oh-so-fun!  I wore the gray/purple dress I wore senior year to homecoming.  I was excited to have another occasion to wear it to.  (Because, seriously how many times do you get to wear those types of dresses?)  I was also excited we matched.  Everyone got a kick out of it.

 

My aunt's bridal shower and bachelorette party were a lot of fun.  I'd love to share more photos, but it was mainly family that were there and I don't want to expose them per se.  All in all I think everyone had a fun time.  Plus, this was the first bachelorette party I'd ever been to, so... there's that? :)