Our 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July holiday in Tacoma with Patrick's family. This year early in the morning on the 4th we joined in a little neighborhood parade which felt so small towny and quaint in the best way. Mylo and his cousin Kenedee had the best time marching around, playing with flags, and eating lots of donuts.

Holiday Nail Art

So I got a manicure yesterday for the holidays (above!) and I went a little wild by adding one fingernail of glitter to each hand. I've never done this before but I keep seeing it around town and I thought it would add a little cheer to my normal paint...and I love it! I might get even more brave and go for something bold like the nail art below by Black Magic Nails at Bang Salon on Capitol Hill. What do you think?? I love the long pointy style that is in right now but I know I would get a lot of comments.

Another Jimmy Fallon Mashup Masterpiece

Have you seen this awesome "holiday song" mashup from Jimmy Fallon last week? It stars the fabulous Rashida Jones and Carrie Underwood and had us all giggling on our way out to cut down a Christmas tree on Saturday. Enjoy!

Easter Memories

How was your weekend? We had unseasonably wonderful weather here with sunny skies and temps reaching 70 degrees yesterday, it was dreamy. After meandering the Fremont Market with my parents, Patrick and I headed down to Tacoma to be with family for Easter dinner. It was warm enough (in March!) that we all sat at a long table outside and enjoyed the spring flowers and fresh air. After being cooped up all winter inside it was so great to spend the whole weekend outdoors enjoying our beautiful city.

PS. I can't believe Kenedee, our little niece, is almost one year old!! Isn't she adorable in her Easter Bunny outfit? As you can see, Patrick and her are BFF's.

Happy Pi Day!

Today is celebrate-your-inner-nerd-day...ahem I mean, Pi Day! As you probably know, Pi is the mathematical symbol for the number 3.14159..... so naturally, March 14th is the perfect day to celebrate Pi Day!  There are tons of ways to get your Pi on, whether that's singing Pi Day carols, eating pizza pie, or baking the perfect homemade apple pie. In Seattle, High Five Pie is honoring the holiday with $3.14 Flip Side personal pies (soooo good, check them out).

Also, this video is AWESOME, and her name is Teresa!

(image)

St. Paddy's Link Fun

Do you have any big St. Patrick's Day plans? Patrick and I will be in Mexico so I just plan to wear a green dress and reminisce about when Jenny and I spent March 17th in Dublin itself. Here are some great links from around the web if you're planning to get into the Irish spirit:

Jenny, Laura and I -- Dublin 2011

Irish coffee cupcakes or something a bit more traditional.

The "color of the year" is perfect for St. Paddy's.

Lovely green cucumber margaritas and easy DIY cake toppers.

Great dinner recipes from one of Ireland's own.

These "cups" bring me back to elementary school (with a grown-up twist!).

This important PSA makes me chuckle every year.

How much do you know about Ireland?

If you're in Seattle this weekend this looks fun and sporty.





(image)

Happy Valentine's Day!

How do you celebrate(or do you?) Valentine's Day? Patrick and I usually go out to dinner and exchange cheesy love cards. Tonight we'll walk over to The Whale Wins and hope we are early enough to get a table without a reservation...wish us luck! At dinner, we have a little tradition of trying to remember all the places we have celebrated Valentine's Day's past in chronological order -- it's getting more difficult as this is our 7th as a couple! It's a great way to reminisce about falling in love and all the up's and down's along the way.

But here's my V-day confession: I secretly miss the days of celebrating Valentine's Day with my girlfriends! When I was in college and during the years I lived in DC I used to love hanging out with the ladies, eating tons of chocolate, drinking frilly cocktails, and watching Rom-Coms. Have you heard of the term "GALentine's Day?" -- I guess it came from the show Parks and Recreation and is all about celebrating the girlfriends in your life on Feb 13th. I love this idea!! Next year maybe I'll throw a little GALentine's Day party, who's with me?

Enjoy your day! Lots of love, Teresa

PS. How to throw a GALentine's Day Brunch -- hilarious tips from Parks and Rec.

Pancake Tuesday

In the US today is both Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras -- but in Ireland, Great Britain and Canada today is also Pancake Tuesday! Also known as Shrove Tuesday, the tradition of making pancakes the day before Lent came about because families wanted to use up their milk and eggs that were likely to expire during the Lenten season. 

When we lived in Ireland I was a part-time nanny for a 10 year old girl named Claire. She introduced me to Pancake Tuesday and all of the fun that comes with it! On this day every year Claire and most Irish children eat pancakes for breakfast (and sometimes lunch and dinner!) and I was in charge of whipping some up for her and the neighborhood kids as an after school treat. In Ireland, "pancakes" are actually more like what we think of as crepes here in the States, thin and eaten with jam or Nutella. But Claire always wanted me to make "American pancakes" which were extra thick and fluffy. Up until that time I had never made pancakes without a mix of some sort but cake and pancake mixes are nearly impossible to find over there so I learned to make them from scratch, which is actually very easy and saves money.

Here are a couple of recipes for everyone, courtesy of the Irish Times. I love the tradition of Pancake Tuesday, might have to be a new annual treat in our house!

Basic Irish-style pancakes: 

225g plain flour 

2 eggs 

1 pt milk 

3tbs melted butter 

A pinch of salt 

Sieve the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre, drop in the eggs and add the milk. Mix to a smooth batter then stir in the melted butter. Try to leave the batter to rest for an hour before you use it, or make it the day before.

American-style pancakes (with baking powder) a la Jamie Oliver: 

3 large eggs 

115g plain flour 

1 heaped tsp baking powder 

140ml milk 

A pinch of salt 

First separate the eggs, putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the yolks and mix to a smooth thick batter. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter – it is now ready to use. Heat a good non-stick pan on a medium heat. Pour some of your batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to look golden and firm. Turn over and continue frying until both sides are golden.

PS. More types of pancakes from around the world!

(Image and image) 

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

I'm happily spending New Year's Eve shooting a friend's wedding and Teresa is warm and cozy at a cabin in the woods. I hope have a wonderful night surrounded by family and friends. Happy New Year to you all! 

PS. Happy anniversary to our good friends Danielle & Chris, pictured above. 

Monday Motivation

Do you know what "Auld Lang Syne" means? 

Lets be honest, it's sort of weird to sing a song that sounds like it's telling you to forget old friends. This year, I found myself on the Auld Lang Syne wikipedia page looking for an answer.  It turns out, the song is based on an old Scottish song and "should old acquaintances be forgotten" is meant as a rhetorical question. 

"Auld lang syne" literally translates to "old long since", meaning long long ago. 

So it turns our Harry & Sally, in their twisty Nora Ephron wording of it, have it right. Remember old friends and memories as you toast the new year tonight! 

Christmas in Ireland

Two years ago we spent Christmas in Ireland. As I've mentioned, Patrick and I spent the 2010-2011 school year living in Dublin while he studied for his MBA. While we would have loved to have gone home,  ultimately we decided that flights were too expensive and we'd rather spend our limited funds on traveling within Europe after the program. But....we ended up having one of the most memorable and magical Christmas' I could have imagined! 

One of Patrick's best friends in the program, Christopher, invited us to join his family in County Sligo for the holiday at their 250 year old "farm home" in the country. That week before Christmas brought a very unusual foot or two of snow to Ireland and the country was a winter wonderland. We had a "picture postcard" experience on the farm, joining in all the Irish traditions and loving every minute of our white Christmas. We were so blessed to be embraced by a wonderful family. The photos tell the story better than words I think, thanks for indulging my walk down memory  lane. 

Christopher's family home in Co. Sligo, Ireland

A Christmas Eve stroll on the frozen pond and through the woods

Christopher and his mother and brothers

View from the living room on Christmas morning

Church we attended on Christmas day, this church has no power or heat and it was about 25 degrees. Quite and experience with everyone all bundled up in the pews!

After church we took a walk on the beach with my favorite dog, Tiffin! One of the older guys even decided to take a dip in the sea, brrrr.

Having some a "picnic" at the beach. I love this photo

Christopher and Patrick

Christopher's parents opening gifts - everyone wears a funny hat while opening!

Christmas dinner in their huge old dining room with a blazing fire. We all did "crackers" and wore our crowns.

Holiday Traditions With Friends: Little Women

Last week, I wrote about family Christmas traditions, but do you have any annual holiday traditions with friends?

For nearly 10 years Jenny and I have gathered with some college friends, family and whoever else is around to snuggle up and watch the best "holiday" movie ever: Little Women. I cannot get enough of this movie so I only allow myself to watch it once a year at Christmas (or if I'm really depressed once in the summer too) and it's always a fun treat to spend a couple of hours with Jo, Laurie and the gang. This year Jenny, Brittany, my mom and I gathered on a Monday night in front of the Christmas tree and a blazing fire to eat macarons, watch the March family, and make clove oranges.

Jenny came up with the fun idea of making designs on oranges with cloves! The whole house smelled AMAZING and we had a cute display afterward. Plus it felt very late 1800's New England of us. 

How do you and your friends celebrate the holidays?

(March photo and Laurie)

Holiday Gifts that Give Back

Here are some great gift ideas that are not only cute but give back to some great charities. Win-win!

10 cute mugs from West Elm - each one funds a different charity. 

Punjammies -- bright and beautifully patterned sari-inspired pajama pants made by girls who have been rescued from forced prostitution in a holistic aftercare center in India.

14k gold bracelet from Kate Spade benefiting Women for Women International.

100% of the profit from Viva Glam makeup products from MAC goes to help women, men and children living with HIV/AIDS.

Krochet Kids beanie hats made by women in Peru and Uganda who are learning a trade to bring sustainable income to their families.

One of our favorite local shops, Glassybaby, gives a portion of the profits from special candle holders to different charities. 

Kiehls limited edition Creme de Corps benefiting RxArts which fosters artistic expression for kids in pediatric hospitals. 

Love these owls from West Elm that benefit St. Judes Children's Hospital.

PS. Celebrities making a difference through holiday giving and Jenny's fair trade gift guide. 

Family Christmas Traditions

One of our Christmas Eve traditions since I was a little girl is to eat dinner at the round coffee table in my parent's living room. When we were kids it was such a unique and fun experience for that one day a year to have our meal sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the fireplace. We usually have salmon and shrimp as the main course and after dinner we go around the table and share our best and worst memories from the year before. This is always a special time of reflection, some years we can all share in the joy of one another's accomplishments or good luck while other years it's a time to comfort each other.

Next we open two presents that my mom gets us, one is pajamas and the other is an ornament for the tree. Over the years I have accumulated enough ornaments from my mom to fill my own tree because of this tradition! When we were little kids we used to have a dance party to Christmas tunes in our pj's before we went to bed. Those are some great memories that I'd love to recreate with my own children someday.

Nowadays it's a tight squeeze with five to seven adults sitting on the floor around the coffee table, but it doesn't quite feel like Christmas unless we're cross-legged in front of the fire.

What are your Christmas traditions? I'd love to hear in the comments!

2013 Calendar Roundup

I love shopping for a new calendar this time of year. I keep a small one at work like the first one below (my favorite!) so I can have several months on my wall at one time. And I like to have one at home on the wall in the kitchen like my mom always did growing up (I'm thinking this one for 2013). Calendars also make a great Christmas gift, especially unique or handmade ones like those featured below. Hard to believe 2013 is almost here!

1Canoe2 Stump Letterpress Calendar 

The Best is Yet to Come

Dozi designs on Etsy

Jaunty Animals! 

Jedediah Voltz design from Iron Curtain Press

Katherine Watson Letterpress