Happy New Year from the Roses!

Taylor and I didn't make a Christmas card this year, but we had some time off from work and thought we'd work on a New Years e-card together. It was a pretty big year for us and we're oh so grateful for all of our friends and family! We had fun making this little diddy. Hope you like it!


[Video clip originally from Fox Searchlight's 500 Days of Summer]

can't stop me

Rachel sent me these to hold me over til January 1st, upon which date I will receive all of our photos! Best New Year's present ever? Psshhyeah!

Are you guys sick of wedding photos? Are you sick of my blog? I hope not. I hope not.

Stay tuned. Tay and I are co-working (because we're good at being co-workers) on a New Year's e-card for you, our friends. Get excited! Not too excited. Crap, I've oversold it already...

[Photos by Rachel Thurston]

sisters

Here is one of my favorite pics from wedding week. Wendy threw me an awesome girls' lunch the day before the wedding. We decided to grab a pic with all my sisters and sisters-in-law afterward.

Cutest!

Is everyone sick of wedding pictures yet? Because I'm only gettin' started...

sneak peek

My amazing photographer Rachel was kind enough to send a few family shots of the wedding so my mom can finish up her Christmas cards. 

Almost peed my pants.

I cannot wait to see the rest. I love everything about this photo (except that Matt is in Guatemala.)

How cute are my parents? They look a little bit more in love than T and me. It's like we were all there for their anniversary and I showed up slightly overdressed.

[ photo by Rachel Thurston ]

california + kauai

I thought I'd blog a few photos I took with my phone from our trips to California and Kauai. Cali was great because uh, we got MARRIED. And Kauai is just insane crazy beautiful. Now for some photons.

Crazy pretty Balboa morning on the left and a run to Dad's
Donuts with their favorite aunt and uncle. Fun fact: old ladies love Drue. 

 

 

Tay and I at Disneyland a few days before the wedding.

Left: Mom's florist workshop before the wedding. She did an amazing job! And another
gorgeous shot of Balboa, my favorite place on earth.

 Aloha Kauai! This was our first day just walking around the neighborhood. Twist my arm.

Pretty stuffs.

 Tree shots.

Two of my favorite shots. The rain was so beautiful there. Made for some sweet pics.

A little sunshine!

For some reason, I was craving burgers by the second. So we pretty much tried every burger
joint in Kauai. My fave: Bubba's. 

Breakfast at the St. Regis. Check out that view!
This was my favorite date of the trip/of life.

diet coke, meet pie

For the past six years my friends and I have celebrated Fakesgiving. Fakes is celebrated the Friday and Saturday before real Thanksgiving. But homegirls, make no mistake. There is nothing fake about it.

Every Friday of Fakes is what we refer to as pie night. Pie night usually consists of pounding cokes* and making pies. (*diet coke. I'm from Texas. We call Dr. Pepper 'Coke'.) Back in 09 we started getting more creative with PSM (pie subject matter). Michon had done a lot of extensive research that year and thought we could do better. 2009 was the year we all came up with this bad boy:

 

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

Hand-crafted! In 2010, we continued to go for the gold.

THE CORNUCOPIA

... but wait there's more. We also made

THE MAYFLOWER

Which brings us to 2011. Sooo we may or may not have brought in a ringer. Our friend Rebecca may or may not be a painter and we may or may not have forced let her to spend hours cutting type out of pie dough with very small and weird tools. 

After an hour or so she had nailed Coke but we were like, "Teeechincally we don't drink Coke." Rebecca thought we were nuts and wanted to kill us in our sleep so Kendra, also a wee bit nuts, spent another hour and a half constructing the Diet. And so I present to you the most amazing pecan pie ever created that I had very little to do with:

THE DIET COKE PECAN PIE

Since I'm sure you're all dying to know how to make it, I've written up a recipe for you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diet Coke Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

- 1 homemade pecan pie
- 1 can cold Diet Coke
- The words "Diet" and "Coke" cut out of pie dough

Instructions:

1. Make a pecan pie while your artist-friend cuts out intricate letters whils't staring at a Diet Coke can.
2. Feel free to drink the Diet Coke as she works.
3. When she's done, put her letters in the oven and bake.
4. When the letters are baked, take them out of the oven and carefully place them on your pie.
5. Blog about it and send it to all your friends.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Special thanks to: Michon, Rebecca, Kendra, Kristin, Ali, Maddi and Millie

my little warbler

Taylor got ready for church on Sunday and was really proud of his mix & matched ensemble. When he asked what I thought I told him he looked like a Warbler.

Taylor: "What's a Warbler?"
Jenny: "Look it up, Warbler."

This went on for a few minutes until I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't stand up. I finally looked it up on my phone for him and lo and behold, he had nailed it.

With a little red piping, gold buttons, and finger pointin', we've got ourselves a preeettty sweet Halloween costume for next year.

pooh & fanny packs

I am going to Disneyland in about 10 days. I am pretty excited (mainly because a few days after that, I get to marry a total dreamboat!) As I am starting to compile my packing list, I realized I need something to take to Disneyland that isn't a purse. (Lugging a purse around Disneyland is maybe one of the worst things in life, next to Twilight and eggs.)

Today, whilst looking for photos for Taylor and I's wedding slide show, I came across this gem.  

Mom, where on earth is this fanny pack and why is it not in my possession? I could totally use it next week!

Look how old Pooh looks.  Times have changed.

photo rewind

Back in June I got to spend a week in Midway, Utah with the fam. We rented a great cabin up in the mountains and had a blast eating lots of food, watching the Mavs win their first championship and enjoying the view. My sister just uploaded some of the photos so I thought I'd share. Utah is pretty gorgeous sometimes... So it's a good thing Taylor and I bought a house. Holla!

We threw a little housewarming party there a few weeks ago thanks to Taylor's sweet grandparents. It was deliciously successful (as all things catered by Cafe Rio are).  Taylor is living in the house until the wedding. I hope he doesn't get too used to the freezer full of chimichangas and gatorades... Okay okay... the gatorades can stay. Here are some photos of the event. And oh, Taylor had a beard for a couple of weeks.

glass jars

I am a big fan of glass jars. My new favs being some oversized ball jars I found at Hoblob. (That's short for Hobby Lobby. Kind of like how romcom is short for romantic comedy.) I think I'll incorporate some blue tinted ball jars into the wedding table decor centerpiecery somehow. I think they are beachin'.

Colored jars above were shot by the wonderful Johnny Miller. I got to work with him a few times at Martha. Guy's got serious skills.

[ blue jars from here ]

engagement sneak peek

Get excited, people. This is happening.

[ Photography by Scott Winn ]

oh hey georgina!

Meet Georgina, the inspiration for my wedding dress! I met with my amaaazing dressmaker, Penny last night up at her studio in Salt Lake. We had fun drawing all over the photos I brought in and I think we came up with something really beautiful. I. am. so. excited.

dancing nieces

These are going to be my nieces in 3 months! Aren't they adorable? (Also adorable: boy in the background. And Chloe, who is not pictured but is as equally adorable.)


[ Photo by Meg Heaps ]

tuscany wedding

Sorry for the terrible blogging lately! I will be posting more often since I am planning my wedding! (which will not be in Tuscany). Yes interwebs, I am an engaged blogger blogging about wedding planning. Ground-breaking stuff. You saw it here first.

Anyway, I came across these beautiful photos on Once Wed today shot by Jill Thomas. I have always looved her work. She shot a few of my friend's weddings and I just drool over her photos. Gorge. Tuscany trip? 2014? Who's with me?

[ Photos by Jill Thomas found on Once Wed ]

happy weekend!

Is anyone a little bit wanting to break up with rain lately? Or at least take a long break and spend some time to think about what we've done wrong. (In my case, nothing. In rain's case, everything.) I usually love stormy weather but it is really frostin' my cookies lately.

I don't think it's anything a little bit of stripes and sunshine can't fix. Enter Chance, yet another line of clothing that makes me want to physically paint stripes on the small percentage of my wardrobe that isn't covered in stripes.

Love these photos so much. Why don't I look that good when I nap in public places?

Images from here.

balcony night

So my neighborhood has been under construction for roughly 6  months now. I wake up every morning to shaking walls. It is kind of driving me crazy. The only thing that makes up for it is the pretty views from up here. I'm really excited for another summer of sitting out on the balcony! (assuming there are no mudslides)

flea bags

Anyone familiar with Flea Bags? I am obsessed. You'd think that someone who was obsessed would have some background knowledge on the product in the form of the actual product, but not this moi! I'm the stalkery kind of obsessed. If I had some extra benjamins lyin' around, I would most likely spend them on a lifetime supply of Apple Jacks a Flea Bag to carry my empty wallet with me wherever I go. They. are. beautiful.

Image from here

i want to go to there

Image from here

mamas

Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! Here's a pic of me with some of my very favorite mothers. I love my mom so much! I hope I can be as good of a mom as she is. Seriously, my siblings and I are all SO awesome and relatively normal.

Here are some awesome photos of my mama! Love you mom.

burlap pillows

So my favorite store in Newport Beach sells these awesome graphic printed pillows on burlap. Lots of interiors stores are selling them nowadays. They're kind of IN. They're also a wee bit freaking pricey. Like to the tune of $800 if you're my favorite store in Newport Beach.

At my last visit with my mom, she decided she could make the pillows for much cheaper than aforementioned $800 pricetag. I sent her some designs and she and my sister Brooke made them for me for my birthday. I think it was a lot more work than they anticipated (they cut out each design by hand. Yeah look at the baby on the right.) But the end result is AWESOME. Here are the finished pillows on my bed. I am SO happy with them.

Thanks again Mom and Brooke!