Revisiting the Best Day. Ever.

This week Josh and I revisted the best day of our lives...through our new wedding album. Our album finally finished and we are very pleased with the result. It holds such precious memories for us and as we flip through each page we can revisit our wonderful wedding. Thanks Kristen Honeycutt!

Let me show you how it turned out!

Here's the cover. It's a sage green and a textured fabric (not sure what the fabric is to be honest. Taffeta?).

 

The inside page, also known as the title page, has a vellum (semi-transparent paper) page on top of our black and white photo with our names, the wedding date, and location.

There are a lot of pages of pictures. I didn't count, but I do know there are over 50 pictures. Josh and I picked out most - giving our "must haves" - then Kristen, our photographer, picked the rest and did the layout.

Then the last page, the closing page, is our Hitched pictures (which I love - did you know I made that banner?). Again, with a piece of vellum.

Whenever you visit, I can show you personally. So Happy. Yay wedding.

Be My Guest

Before I write any further, please listen to this post's theme music: Be My Guest from Beauty & the Beast

Ok, now start the blog:

In this case, I'm actually the guest. So I could be Belle! And instead of it being a guest for dinner in a creepy castle where a beast lives, I'm a guest on another blog. A little less awesome than being a cartoon character in a song with singing candlesticks, but still pretty awesome.

Yes, I'm featured on my father-in-law's very cool photography blog, The Next Best Photo. Seriously, he takes the most beautiful pictures, so you should really explore his blog. My guest post, Emerald Seattle, is about great places to take photos in Seattle. The photos are my photos too! 

I hope that my being a guest makes you a regular on his blog too. Psst! And sometimes Josh and I get included in his posts. So read it!

Can I be considered famous now? 

Deck the Walls

Josh and I decked our walls this weekend. It's been a work-in-progess, and still is, but we made some stellar headway over the weekend. 

It all started with my want for a subway sign. I first saw these subway blocks at a local store in Ballard called Jax Joon. Everytime we walked in the store I ohh and ahh'd over them. They had cute sayings on them like "A True Love Story Never Ends." Or "Live what you Love." How cute is that? 

Josh didn't like these cute little sayings as much as me. So I put my thinking cap on. First, the next time we went to the store, I looked on the back of the sign and found it was a Primitive. Then, I started investigating on Etsy searching for primatives. Next I found out that the style I liked was subway. I narrowed my search more, and I came across a site that lets you personalize a subway sign. However, this wasn't a wood block. Gosh darn it, I want a wood block. I want a wood block with subway letters. It's GOT to be out there. You know when you get an idea stuck in your head? This was one of those times. This was officially a quest.

So I kept going next, next, next on the Etsy pages. Finally, I came across Expressions Wall Art. This Etsy seller had my blocks + it had my subway letters. So, I wrote the seller a message and asked if she personalizes her wood blocks. YES! 

Then Valentines rolled around, and what do I ask for? My Sign! And Josh being the loving husband he is agreed to get it. So this is how we ended up with this awesome sign on our wall. As you can see, it lists all the places Josh and/or I have lived (some of them together, some of them on our own).

Also, we got a very cool Seattle print from our friends Jeff and Melissa. We framed that and hung it up as well. It's from another Etsy seller called Anagram Press. Isn't our wall cool?

We intended to hang even more photos - to make one of those wall collages (or like this). It was taking forever to just get three things up though. So, like I said at the start, this is an on-going project. Some of the other photos that will eventually make it onto the wall are sitting on the table (you can see them in the above photo). For now, it looks great to me!

Green, Guinness, Shamrocks

Green, Guinness, Shamrocks --> Happy St Patrick's Day

No need to pinch me, I definitely wore my green today. And, I even though my last name has changed, I'm still an O'Neill on St Paddy's Day. That, and, it will always be in my blood. 

Josh and I are having  a low key St Patricks Day. I had a long week (which I'll write more about soon), so we thought we'd keep it easy. We started off getting crumpets downtown at The Crumpet Shop. Now, you might think, those are English treats, not Irish. Well, did you know St Patrick was actually born in England. Read up.

Then we got some coffee at Fonte, and cheese at Beechers cheese (yum). Why not, we were downtown?

After relaxing and doing this & that at home, we got some Guinness steak pot pie at Hilltop Ale House. It seemed Irish enough. Josh ordered some Guinness too. I just pretended to drink it. I really don't like beer, so a photo with it will do it for me.

 

This afternoon, I baked up some delicious Chocolate Mint Oreo Cookies. I searched at three stores for the mint green chips, but no luck. ( I guess my Irish luck was faulty). Instead, I bought some Easter M&Ms and picked out all the green M&Ms and placed them on top of the cookies before baking. And there was my touch of green.

Lastly, we are about to get a pizza delivered (mine half will have spinach, so it'll be green too). Then we're off to see John Carter - note: that's a Josh movie pick. 

Go Irish!

Breakfast Biscuit

This morning, Josh and I headed to Tom Douglas' restaurant cornucopia. It's a corner restaurant that houses both Serious Pie and Serious Biscuits. In the morning, it's all about the biscuits.

Now, you may have guessed, but I have a serious sweet tooth. That goes to say, I prefer my breakfast on the sweeter side. Muffins, pancakes, french toast; you know, sweet things. I was doubtful of going to a biscuit place because I register the word savory with biscuits. But, Josh loves biscuits. And he especially loves it if you can make a sandwich or pour gravy all over them, or both. So I decided to give it a try.

I opted for jam on my biscuit, to stay on the sweeter side. Josh got gravy. I have to say, these were pretty darn good. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. The jam, for me, added that sweetness that I love. Yum! And, of course, Josh loved his.

What makes this place too is the atmosphere. There is this big guy, the biscuit guy, and he's in the kitchen laughing and talking. He calls out the biscuits in a jolly voice. I guess if you work around biscuits all day, you're happy. And I liked the atmosphere. The used mason-like jars for your water, high, loft ceilings, yet still had a warmth to the place.

Maybe I'm a biscuit girl yet. Oh, and we enjoyed our coffee too. What's morning without a cup of joe?

National Frozen Yogurt Day

This is a big deal people. Big. Today is National Frozen Yogurt day [Learn more]. Finally people are "getting it" - taken them years to realize what I've known practically my whole life. Frozen Yogurt is the BOMB. (<--do people still use that phrase?).

Anyone that becomes my friend finally sees the light after my insistance upon the glory of froyo (and forcing them to go ALL the time). I've even created other froyo monsters along the way. I think my friends in Germany and Holland are mad at me because I got them to love the stuff and then they returned home and couldn't get it anymore. I'm glad I'm able to impart the love of froyo around the world. Perhaps that's why people call me the Froyo Queen (or, the fact that like 5 people send me the article about it being National froyo day).

In honor of National Frozen Yogurt day, I shall tell you about the beginning of my love for froyo. It started when I was in junior high. My soccer team had a pizza part in the Ralph's shopping center in Encinitas. Some of the team members left saying they were going to get dessert. I shrugged and kept at the pizza place. When the girls returned, I saw the deliciousness in their hands. I HAD to HAVE some. So I gathered some other friends and trip #2 to the froyo shop ensued. I got vanilla with oreo topping. Heaven in a cup. I remember the night vividly. The froyo shop was called Penguins. It's not there anymore, but it'll always remain in my memory. And now, in it's place, there are mega froyo chains: Menchies, Yogurtland, Red Mango, Pinkberrys (the last two are more tart, ehh, not quite the cookies n' cream brands that are my fav). Awesome.

Now do your duty and go get some froyo.

Down Low, Up High

On Saturday our bed went from being down low to up high. How? We got our bed frame!

You may recall back in early November I wrote about our new mattress (Comfy at 35 and 60). This was our wonderful Sleep Number mattress bed. Unfortunately, our mattress came before the frame because the frame was on back order with Crate and Barrel. Translate this to mean: we've been sleeping on the floor.

Okay, well it wasn't the floor, but the mattress sitting on the floor. Luckily, the mattress is pretty high, so it turned out to be a relatively a normal height. HOWEVER, now that we have the bed frame, that normal height isn't so normal. We are now sitting a royal 30 inches from the ground.

We sort of feel ridiculous being so high. If it were a bigger house and a bigger room, it would look very elegant. But being a smaller apartment with a smaller room, it's a bit tight. My feet dangle as I sit on the edge of the bed. I'm just fearful, I'll wake up in my usual slump to get out of bed, forget it's high and fall flat on my face. I can picture it now.

 

Take a careful look at the pictures. Look at the bed stands...see where they compare to the bed? Yes, my friends, that's how Josh & I roll, I guess you could say we're high rollers in a way.

Snows Hits Seattle

Before snow ever comes to Seattle, there is always chatter around town. You hear people talking, "Did you hear? We're getting snow." And then everyone starts to freak out--people posting stuff on Facebook (for instance, this video), articles in the paper come out, people get worried about our buses and streets. And while everyone who has lived in a city where snow is normal, laugh and chuckle, it's really quite a production when it snows here.

This snow news has been up and down since Friday. While we've been getting some snow everyday since Saturday (none of it really sticking, at least by us), we are all waiting for the "big day." The day we'll be bucketed with snow. And that day kept changing...Wednesday, no Tuesday, no wait it really will be Wednesday. Then, Wednesday, but not as much snow as predicted.

And Wednesday it was. Last night we got our first real snow of the winter. And the snow stuck. Not a huge amount, but a solid few inches here in the city. I do know that outside the city, there was quite a few more inches though.

While I'm in my cave (cough, I mean office), I look out and see swirls of snow falling. I also hear kids laughing since apparently folks have picked up sledding down the street. Even when I walked out at lunch to take a few photos, I saw a few teens with their snowboards walking up the street. Did I mention I'm still working today? No snow fun day for me (nor Josh for that matter). Jealous glare.

 Now let's just hope SeaTac is open and running like normal for my flight to Portland tomorrow.

 

O' Christmas Tree

My tree is decked out with all sorts of new and wonderful ornaments this year. I love them so much I had to share.

We got two "Our First Christmas" ornaments. The first is one I bought myself. I just was so excited about having my first married Christmas I had to commemorate it with an ornament. I ordered it from Etsy from Something About Silver. It's simple and light weight so it won't make the branches hang too low. Plus I loved the packaging it came in.

The other one is from my lovely new parents-in-law. It has a little picture from our wedding inside. A true Hallmark memory.

Then I got an ornament from my friend Beth. She got us this awesome Seattle Space Needle ornament. I just love it!

All my other ornaments are stored at my parents home in Encinitas. Some day I'll have an apartment big enough to store more Christmas stuff. Not to mention, figure out a way to transport them all up here.

And on the decoration-front. Josh and I also got this super adorable Christmas sign from Brown family member Julie. It's freaking cute.

Do all my posts about Christmas have you in the spirit yet?

Tis the Season

To be jolly...and boy, am I jolly. I just LOVE Christmas.

Yesterday we went downtown to catch some of the Christmas spirit with retail and shoppers. We also wanted to see some of the Seattle decorations. My favorite was the Santa drive-by. Pretty awesome.

As we roamed, we bought some hot chocolate at The Chocolate Box (sooo good). Then we walked down to Pike Place to see the decorations. I loved the reindeer pigs.

That's about it besides it being a beautiful Seattle day. There couldn't be much better than some vitamin D sunshine and Christmas spirits.

Deck the House

With trees and garland, fa la la la la la la la la....

I am just now writing about last weekend, but we've officially gone one week with our apartment all decked out for the holidays. Last Sunday we bought our Christmas tree and I decorated our place with boughs of holly. Well, not boughts of holly, but with garland and all sorts of red and green. 

To get a tradition going, we went back to the same Christmas tree lot as last year. However, this year we decided to upgrade on the tree size. I didn't want no dinky tree, I wanted a really, normal sized tree. So we added a few feet to the tree compared to 2010. It's about a five foot tree and it's absoluately beautiful. 

  

I decorated it with the few ornaments I have (the rest are with my parents until I have more storage). Then some fake (yet very live looking) poinsettias, as well as fresh baby's breath. Finished off with a healthy dose of lights. 

 

The rest of the house decorations mainly lie on our little IKEA cabinet that runs next to the kitchen table. It's got my singing Hallmark snowmen (from my mom), candles, and some other random things.

Now, whip out the Christmas music and get in the spirit...I certainly am!

Straight No Chaser

A few years ago, when Josh and I still lived in the Bay Area, we went to the San Francisco Symphony's Christmas concert. We have such fond memories of that evening. So much so, that every year we reminisce about it and say, "remember that year we went to the symphony for Christmas..."

This year we wanted to do something similar. That when I came across Straight No Chaser was playing this December in Seattle. Now, if you don't know this about me, I should say that I tend to get slightly obsessed with certain songs or artists. For about a month, I play that song or artist non-stop. I eventually get tired and move on to my next song or artist obsession. That's how my music goes. However, given Christmas is only 1 month, I generally don't have enough time to get it "out of my system" so Christmas songs and artists can just be terminal favorites. That's exactly the case for Staight No Chaser. I just love their holiday songs. 

In fact, I can remember hearing them for the first time. I was living in the Bay Area and I was working. I wanted to find some new music to listen to as I worked (because I love to listen to music as I work especially Christmas music). In my search, I came across the 12 Days of Christmas on You Tube by this a cappella group from Indiana University. I listened. And became obsessed. 

Sorry for the tangent; to get back on track...so when I saw they were in Seattle, I seized the opportunity. So yesterday evening we had a night with Staight No Chaser. Preceded by a little dinner at my favorite crepe place, Citizen. Perfect evening.

Here's some songs (they did some non-Christmas too) that they played...awesome:

• Madonna  
• Lady Gaga - Bad Romance with Poker Face
• Michael Jackson mash up with Poison 
• Coldplay Fix You
• Cee Lo Green & Jason Marz
• 50's  mash up
• Christmas Can Can
• The Grinch
• 12 days of Christmas
• Carol of the Bells

Listen to some of their tunes online!

 

His New Look

This weekend Josh changed is his look...literally, he looks out of his new glasses and sees more. Amazing what new glasses can do to your look. 

Josh has been sporting these babies since before law school. We got them in San Francisco at a place called Bjorn. We thought they were so cool, so hip. 

 

These new glasses are from a place at University Village called Market Optical. We think these glasses are so sleek and hipster-estc. 

 

What do you think? (Warning: this could be a trick question)

Devil in my Coffee

Okay, it wasn't my coffee, the Devil was actually in Josh's coffee, but the title sounded much cooler as "in my coffee." My coffee actually had a beautiful butterfly. Josh got a Devil, and I got a butterfly. HA - goes to show...

Anyway, I've gotta give it to this barista, totally awesome foam-latte art. Not to mention, he was sarcastically joking around as he did this art too. Now, there is talent. This was our Sunday morning treat before church at...wait for it...El Diablo. Well, now I wonder were the Devil idea came from.

Before I go, I just wanted to tell you, this is my continued way of saying my coffee tour is not over. I have gone to many coffee shops and just neglected to post about it. Sad, I know. I am still sinfully drinking coffee though (or should I say Josh is since he got the Devil?). Eventually, I'll get back on the coffee tour posts, but for now, fun coffee-share moments.

 

Apple and Pumpkin

One thing you should know about me: I love the fall. That is why we got married in the fall. I love the colors, the flavors, and the crisp feel outside (that's not yet too cold) that is intermingled with the smell of fireplaces. Ahh, sweet fall.

I get this super anxious feeling in the fall. Oh my goodness, so much fall food goodness and not enough time to make it all! Then I remind myself that it's okay to continue fall flavors into the wintertime. There is no law permitting my baking similar foods in the winter as I do in the fall. Whew, what a relief! But still, the "must bake everything now" mentality persists.

Two of my favorite fall foods is...you guessed it...apples and pumpkins. I start gathering recipes - Cooking Light, Real Simple, all my blogs, random Internet searches. I also start looking at old recipes that I could revisit. Then I print or tear them out and a stack begins.

My first recipe of the season begins with a Pumpkin oat muffin. I found it while at the Kauai airport waiting for our fight. I had just had a pumpkin carrot muffin from Kalaheo Cafe. And so this year's fall obsession began.

However, the Pumpkin oat muffins just didn't make the grade for me. It was somewhat bland and just not sweet enough. Where's the sweet spice (think chai)? Josh suggested I "play" with the recipes to see if I could tweak it into a better recipes. So I tried again. No luck. Trash that recipe.

After two failures, I had to have a success. I WANT MY PUMPKIN. I went back to a tried & true recipe. One that I had left in the binder for far too long. Why haven't I made this one in so long? It's from my freshman year of college. One of my floor-mates, Randi, had a loaf that she shared - her mom had made it. I asked for the recipe - bam.

This turned out much better. Much, much better. Oh so much better. Did I say it was better?



But let's not forget about the apples. Oh, I love thee apples. Such sweet and tangy goodness. For a savory dish, I love them with pork. Yum! But you know me, I love sweet things. One of my favorite recipes for apples is an apple cake that my sister got from a friend at Yale. Then she made it for us, and then I got the recipe. But I didn't make this recipe, I wanted to try something new - be adventurous. Who knows where the next best recipe lies?

I get an email every week from Gojee, a very cool recipe site especially for those on iPads. I think they did a good job of compiling food bloggers recipes in a very cute way. Check out their "thinking" phrases (when you click on something, and the computer is "thinking"). Anyway, I got a recipe for Chai Spiced Apple cake. Now that sounds delish. Now I just need an occasion to make it.

Well, Saturday Josh was going to a Duck vs. Husky football game with some friends. Before they had a BBQ potluck. Guess what I was asked to bring? Dessert! Perfect timing. So I make my new cake recipe. Verdict: A winner! The frost on topping just makes it sooo good.



 

Comfy at 35 and 60

I am talking about our sleep numbers. The numbers Josh and I have on our brand new Sleep Number bed. Yes, this week we became owners of a new bed - yippee! Our old mattress had seen better days. After 3 moves, the mattress had it-- sloping to the center, flattened pillow top, it was just plain sad.

Now, we have a high tech bed. Basically, you can adjust it to your level of firmness you desire on your side of the bed. 100 is the firmest setting, and 0 the softness. My number is 35 - cozy and soft; like sleeping on a cloud. Josh likes more of a firmed at 60 - like sleeping on a wood floor (okay, that's in the eye of the beholder--to each his own). Then, like a cherry on top, there is a totally awesome foam top so you sink down into heavenlyness.

Let me tell you, this bed is so great that the first night sleeping on it, I over slept! Yes, I over slept and had to race to get ready for work. Lucky for me, my commute is only to the next room or else I never would have made it on time. And, then it happened AGAIN, the second night. By the third, I was back to getting up with the alarm. Some crazy good sleep though for me.

To top off our wonderful new mattress, we got some new bedding. Our bed looks like something on HGTV or the beds at Crate and Barrel. We feel all grown up. We got the layer effect with the green coverlet and the many pillows (and it's stylish Marimekko). The only challenge: making the bed every morning!

We also are getting a new bed frame from Crate and Barrel, but sadly it was on back order until January. For now, we're bumming it on the floor. Check out the frame and join me in the wait.



 

Reality Bites

It's time. Back to reality. It BITES!

Back to work. Back to laundry. Back to groceries and cooking. Back to errands. Back to the grind. Grumble grumble grumble.

As you can tell, the wedding is over. The honeymoon is over. The party is over. Tomorrow it's back to work for Josh and me.

For you, this is good news...now that I'm not spending all my time preparing for the wedding, having the wedding, or on my honeymoon I have more time to write my blog. The next posts you'll see if more wedding and definitely honeymoon. However, I give you forewarning, I took 500 pictures on the honeymoon. I need to filter through and decide what to put on Flickr. I'm pretty sure you don't want to see all 500. I'm just horrible at narrowing it down. Luckily a lot of them are the fast, multiple shot function that we used for our zip lining. (hint on how my blog: I post pictures first, then write).

Sigh, back to regular life. But really, it's not all that bad. In fact, it's great...Josh and I are now offically starting our life together. It's really just the beginning (<-- that sounds really cheesy).

Last O'Neill Days

The Final Count Down....6 DAYS!

It's true. I'm living my last days as an O'Neill. Then I become a Brown. It's a weird feeling to know that your last name is going to change. You get so attached to it. And then hearing your name, Heather Brown...well, it sounds so different. Will I even respond to that? "Hey Heather Brown, wha'ts up?" And I'm still looking around like nobody said anything to me. Crazy.

Actually, I haven't had much time to think much about this upcoming change. My focus has been get through W #1 Work. Work has been capital C Crazy. And not just for me, but Josh too. Working like maniacs. And now it's Friday night at 11pm and I'm stressed and can't lie still, so I decide to say hi to my neglected blog readers...Hi, I'm still alive.

Seriously though, 6 days. That's less than a week. At least with the last name Brown there are no apostrophes to deal with -- especially with databases. I don't like being a Neill or O Neill or Oneill or ONeal or ONeil. See what I mean? Brown is straight forward and solid. I'm happy about it.

Although the Work W has been my focus this week, last weekend my mom and I did focus on the Wedding W  (not sure what I'm talking about with W's - read here). Mom and I created all the yummy favors. See us working:

Anyway, not too much longer and the fun begins!! Can't wait to see all my guests and enjoy a fun night with friends and family. And for my blog readers, more posts (and I'll finally write about the wedding - I didn't want to give anything away, wink wink).

The Skull

Josh and I got a sneak preview of Halloween with our coffee this morning. There was a skull in Josh's foam! I had heard that the barista's at Fremont Coffee can do this from Yelp reviews, but today we actually got one.

Scary coffee? No, scary good coffee. (Yes, it's actually one of our favorite coffee shops).



More about our uneventful Labor Day weekend coming soon...

Double W's

Double W's that is what I'm calling my life right now. WORK and WEDDING. Say Double W's 10x fast.

Work - Things are busy as usual with work. I've taken on a new program so I've been learning some new stuff. Isn't learning fun at work? Not stressful at all. What, you think I'm being a smart alec? Naww. You know my Grandma Norma called me a smart alec once and I got pinched! HA. I think I deserved it though looking back. Anyway, I always feel I cannot delve much into what I'm actually doing for work on my blog because then I'd be giving away our company secrets. Wink Wink.

Wedding - This might be of more interest to you than my work stuff. Every night there is something to do for the wedding - whether it's doing some emailing or working on a project. Whoever said planning a wedding is fun is a lair, or works in the wedding industry and wants to you think it's fun. Lies. All of them. It's like a second job. Lately though I have gotten to use the right side of my brain a bit and do some fun, crafty projects though. Like signs and decorations. I should do a blog, after the wedding, about my little DIY projects. I can't do it before, it'd give all the fun away for those coming to the wedding.  I can tell you this, it involves stamps, paper, string, and scissors.

I'm going to keep this short, but I wanted to let you know what I'm up to. The double W's. I feel like this was a boring post. More so since there are no pictures. Hmm.. Let's change that, here's a picture of the wedding dress shop (the suspense):