I Went Sledding Once

I claim to hate sledding because someone always ends up getting hurt, but secretly I love it... maybe it's more of a love vs. hate relationship.  

Well, I was invited down to Salt Lake to go sledding with some of my friends.  I originally didn't want to go because of the whole sledding issue but eventually decided that the trip would be worth it because I would get to see the people I love and I could test out my brand spankin' new Nikon, also referred to as Speedy McPeedy.

Side Note:  Jesika and I decided that cool people name their cameras.

  I was going to be the designated camera woman and therefore would not be able to go down the hill!  I thought my plan was fool proof.

We went to some hill up Parley's canyon and it was beautiful!  There were rolling hills and tons of powder.

 

It was so cold up there, but incredibly beautiful. 

Our lovely group of sledders minus me, because at this point I was still the designated camera woman. 

Andrew being... Andrew. 

 

 The two coldest girls there!  Actually everyone was freezing so we probably weren't the coldest but we certainly looked the most under dressed. 

Me in what I call my chic sledding attire and Spencer pretending that he is all bundled up and toasty.

 Sometime after this picture was taken the camera was removed from my hands, I was picked up against my will and shoved onto a sled and pushed down the hill.  It was wonderful!  After that I was begging to go down, I felt like a little kid again.

We made a couple sledding trains; on one trip down I got pulled out of my sled and went down most of the hill on my butt until I wiggled myself out of the death grip Jesika had on my legs.

All in all it was such a fun sledding adventure!

Can I Get a Drum Roll Please?

It's that time of year again!  If you have been living under a rock and chose today to be the day that you pop out (kind of link the groundhog) today is the first day of 2011!  Can I get a "woot, woot"?

Along with a new year comes those dreaded New Year's Resolutions.  I told myself that I wasn't going to make any resolutions this year but I decided that there we a couple things that I felt I needed to accomplish this year.


I contemplated cutting out red meat for a whole year but then I realized that the only time I really is eat meat is when I'm home for Sunday dinners.  I decided that since I don't even really like meat that cutting it out wouldn't be something that would benefit me in any way, I would just end up being anemic... no fun!


Then...


I thought that I would not drink soda pop during 2011, but just like with red meat I don't really drink pop.


Finally I decided on these:


-By the end of 2011 I am going to be able to run a solid 5K


-This year I won't be making any trips down the candy isle at the grocery store... well, I might walk down the candy isle but I sure won't be buying anything.  *I can still eat candy but i'm not going to be the one to buy it... because then i'll eat it all*


-No more drinking empty calories.  Yes that is very similar to no pop, but I think it will be challenging but doable. 


As you can surely tell i'm trying to be healthy this year.  


Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?  What are they?

Boring Sweater Made Better!

Sometimes it scares me when I realize how crafty I am!  I haven't been able to do some good crafting since the summer and let me just say, it's good to be back.

I've become hooked to the blog Grosgrain recently and have tons of new ideas because of it.  Today I woke up early and decided to get my craft on.  I raided the DI bin to see if there was anything that I could re-purpose... there was!

My favorite salvage was this lack luster sweater of my moms.

It's kind of boxy and really didn't have any redeeming qualities besides the fact that it was grey and had stripes.

After thirty minutes this is what I came up with. 

I removed the waistband sort of thing and turned it into the ruffle that goes down the front and around the bottom.  I tapered the sides to give it a more feminine shape and brought the neckline down just a little bit. 

I just love the ruffled edge!  I got a cute new cardigan for free ninety nine.  Score!

We Pretend We're in Italy

I recently watched the movie Eat, Pray, Love starting Julia Roberts

and hated the movie!  The only thing I enjoyed was the philosophy she had while in Italy.  The main character feels that because she is in Italy that she's going to have fun and eat, eat, eat.  To her calories don't matter and that if she gets a muffin top it only means that it's time to purchase some new pants. 

On Saturday the best friend and I went down to The Gateway in Salt Lake City to do some Christmas shopping.  We're horrible friends and bought each others presents while the other was there.  I've been away at school for too long for her to have picked up on the things that I like and want.

She got me these Snap Photo Frames from Urban Outfitters

I'm totally diggin' on Polaroid snapshots these days. 

After we were all shopped out we went to Decades, my favorite vintage store... or at lease it was my favorite vintage store.  It was a total bust!  We're now looking for new places to shop.

After that disaster we went to Tony Caputo's, my all time favorite place to eat in SLC.

Jesika and I wandered around the market (picture shown above) tasted olive oil and balsamic vinegar, browsed through the cheeses, looked at homemade pasta and then realized we were starving.

We both ordered the Tony Caputo sandwich which they describe as being a taste of Cosenza Italy.  It has prosciutto, mortadella, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It's sooooo good!  Everyone drive to Salt Lake and go get one NOW!  We were sufficiently stuffed after eating our sandwiches but Jesika had never tried a cannoli and had never been to Carlucci's bakery (which is next to Caputo's).  I decided that no matter how full we were that dessert was mandatory because today we were pretending to be in Italy. 


The two of us ordered a cannoli,

a Nutella brownie, and one raspberry butter cream brownie. 

 We shared everything.


The canoli was by far the best!
I wouldn't recommended getting the Nutella brownie, it was a disgrace to Nutella. 


If you ever stop by Carlucci's bakery I would also recommend:
The black and white cookie (my brother's favorite)
or
The pumpkin whoopee pie (only available in the fall) 

How Dare They?!

The people at the New York times on August 4, 2009 crossed the line!  I didn't find out about it until just now, but you can sure bet that I'm not thrilled about it.  They did a whole blog post about my favorite vintage store, my favorite store in the world, the best store in the world.  

Now that I know that everyone knows about it, I suddenly feel like it's lost it's magic appeal.  You know the feeling you get when you think of the first time you went to Disneyland?  You know, the warm fuzzy feeling?  That's the feeling I get when I think about Decades, it's heaven on earth!

Okay, the magical feeling is back.  All is well. 

Now that I know the secret is out of the bag I must advise everyone to stop by when you are in the Salt Lake area.  I know you will not be disappointed. 

 

Decades

627 South State Street

Salt Lake City, Utah 84111

(801) 537-1357

I promise to go make a visit during my winter break and take more pictures!

Do you know of any good vintage or antique stores in your area?

sweet 16 and drives a jellybean

The baby is finally turning sixteen years old!  

I really never though I would see they day when my baby brother started driving, in my mind he's still the chunky little boy who would eat chocolate chips for breakfast.  I forget that others age at the exact same rate I do. 

Well, here's to you Stinky!

Sixteen reasons why I think you're pretty cool:

1. At the family parties you enjoy hiding out in the laundry room with me. 

2. You think I'm the bee's knees, the cats pajamas, the best sister in the world. 

3. You willingly take showers and make it a point to smell good.

4. You can reach the top shelf in the kitchen.

5. You make me laugh... hard. 

6. Even though you once told me I looked fat and ugly in my prom dress I still know you love me. 

7. You secretly want to be just like me. 

8. You constantly stop to look at yourself in the mirror and it makes me smile. 

9. You come to ask me for advice.

10. You were brave enough to ask Ashlyn to Cotillion in person with a single red rose. 

11. You get the funniest look on your face when I jump out from behind corners. 

12. You're better than a box of puppies.  

13. You can't spell, but you sure write good stories.

14. You're super talented! (play the guitar more often)

15. You want a banjo for Christmas... and I think that's AWESOME!

16. You've stopped pooping in my hats.  I sure hope you remember the time you did that because I sure do!

Here's your awesome gift!

The Tortoise

The Jellybean

and MY personal favorite

The Bean

I hope you have a fantastic Birthday! 

El Fin

I finished my last final at noon today!  Yay!  It's now time to put on my pajamas, plop myself on the couch and watch me some Gilmore Girls.  The roommates and I just finished season 2 last night.  We've already seen all the seasons but it never hurts to watch them again... and again. 

A couple nights ago we watched the episode where Rory and Jess kiss for the first time.  I was freaking out just a little, I'm totally a fan of Jess. 

Here are the reasons why the girls of apartment 305 are in love with Jess:
Sara: He looks hot when he wears his tan coat (not shown in the clip)
Lauren: He's a bad boy
Kelsey (Me): He reads good books
and then cute little Angel says: He has money!


Can you guess which one of us is the gold digger?


On a side note, you can now post comments on my blog!  I don't know how that function got disabled, but I was beginning to miss all of you.