happy 4th!

this year we decided to stay local for the fourth. we slept in. we made yummy blueberry pancakes with strawberry toppings. we took our bikes out for a stroll. i ordered a double virgin margarita. i decided to get a little fancy with some festive cookies and we claimed our spot at the local park to take in some live music and watch the fireworks while we picnicked with some friends.

all in all this day was pretty grand.

independence rocks.

italy {best year yet}

this is happening this year. 

i'm most excited to:

eat pizza in napoli 

walk until my feet hurt

eat pastries at the cafes 

sit under a bright umbrella on the beach

listen to the little bambinos speak in italian

 and wear a sexy dress on a hot date with my husband

2012 is shaping up to be our best year yet and that's saying a lot considering we got married in 2010 and bought our first home in 2011. 

image via 

ornament party

over the weekend we had some friends stop by the house for our housewarming (finally!)/holiday/ birthday (it's my birthday!) party. 

the theme was, "bring an ornament and help us decorate our tree." this way, in lieu of gifts for us, guests could bring a gift for our tree so it would be full of creative and quirky ornaments hand-selected by our friends and family.  

i must say, this is probably my favorite theme party yet. we opened the ornament gifts individually in front of everyone and hung them on the tree. the mr. was in full effect hamming it up for the crowd and each guest got to check out the creativity and energy that everyone else put into their ornaments. after the big ornament unveil everyone voted for their favorite and the most creative ornaments. 

it was incredibly fun and now our tree is covered in friends & family love! 

holiday shopping

i successfully marked one of my closest friends off my list today. she's also one of the easiest people to shop for since we have very similar tastes. this shopping thing is terribly difficult when you keep running into things that you'd love for yourself, such as this super awesome print by berkley illustration