Charms...

If you're interested, I posted a bunch of pictures of my collection on my online photo album...including some charms I've been collecting for my cousins. (The link to my album is on the right. That's for you Mom, on the right, see the column on the right? Ha. And Ben, I know you want your own bracelet. It's okay if you want to admit it!)

Camping in AZ

I decided to take a quick camping trip this weekend to take advantage of this beautiful "not-summer" weather we are blessed with in Arizona. Just outside of Tucson is Mt. Lemmon, covered in camping grounds and vista views of Tucson, clearly the perfect place to go. This is a shot of the little camp site, pretty nice right? Car camping is the best for some nice chill-axing (yes, you read that right). You can throw all your gear in the car and within two hours be sitting around a nice roaring fire with your sweet tent, air mattress, and giant flannel sleeping bag waiting for you under the stars. Yeah, I like to rough it in style. That sweet tent is from REI and might be the coolest thing ever. It's over 6 feet tall, the top is completely mesh (to better view the stars) and it only has four poles so it pops up in about ten minutes. So cool.

Saturday night, Ben and I made some foil dinners that turned out delicious. We wrapped chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic cloves up in some foil, put them on the coals and twenty minutes later everything was cooked perfectly! I think we lucked out actually. For desert we had s'mores Sarah style. I like to toast my mallows and put them between two cookies that already have the chocolate built in. It's a time saver really. They can be chocolate chip cookies or chocolate covered grahams, but this time I got these great little French shortbread cookies that have a milk chocolate piece on top. I probably could've eaten about 20 of those s'mores but we ran out of cookies. Ah yes, it was good.

So, some things I learned about camping in Arizona:
1. Apparently there are bears. At our beautiful little campsite there was a nice pergola and picnic table and there was a food locker to protect your food FROM BEARS. I thought Bears only lived near rivers where they could snatch up some tasty salmon. I guess I was wrong.
2. Just because its 75 degrees during the beautiful day, doesn't mean that you shouldn't pack your winter clothes. Because as soon as the sun goes down the temperature will drop to the low 40's. Nice and chilly. Thank goodness for super warm flannel sleeping bags!
3. Just because it's only 75 degrees and you're hanging out under your nice pergola all day, doesn't mean you won't get a nice lobster red sunburn. Note to self: never leave house without sunscreen EVER.

Where The Wild Things Are!

I just saw this on Ellen today and am sooooo excited to see it. I loved the book as a kid, and this looks amazing. Check it out!



P.S. The music is the AMAZING band The Arcade Fire. Check them out too!

Apple Cake!

The other day I was at the grocery store and wanted an apple, so I bought this great little bag of organic apples at the UN-Safeway for 2 bucks. It's rare to find such affordable organic produce here in Tucson, let alone the UN-Safeway (it's in the ghetto). After I had my one little apple, I had about 12 left, and not wanting to waste my 2 bucks I went on a recipe search. I found this recipe for Apple Cake on a great little blog called Smitten Kitchen. It turned out great and I think I'm going to make this at Thanksgiving time instead of Apple pie. It was very good! Check out the recipe!

Lionel Richie kinda looks like Smokey Robinson!

Alright I guess my little girl memory is not as good as I thought it was. Here is the exact clip that horrified me as a kid. Thanks for finding this Mom!

Good Song?

So I just stumbled across this video and can't decide if I like it. It's a cover of a Lionel Richie song that I have detested my whole life...mainly because of him singing it on Sesame Street and being chased and attacked by a giant letter M. I can still remember cringing every time I saw that giant letter M squishing Lionel Richie's head while he sang, "You really got a hold on me!" I think I'm traumatized. Anyways, Zooey Deschanel is singing and she is gorgeous and has a beautiful voice and I've loved her acting (she was the big sister in Almost Famous among other roles), but I don't know if I can handle this song. Is it a good song?

I'm going to get some more earrings.

I just got back from a three hour laser hair removal session. I had both my legs lasered and it hurt like hell. It's subjects like this one that I want to blog about, and why I have made my blog private. There are girls I know from high school that I really loved and admired for how smart and independent they were, how thrifty their style was and how confident they were-- not ever shaving their legs and wearing shorts. I just don't want them to think less of me because I'm paying a lot of money for torture to remove hair that naturally grows on my body. Is that bad, that I'm a closeted laser-hair-remover?

I also have a couple friends who have started blogs lately who talk about really interesting things they do and think about in their lives. Like my friend Marcella (she married one of my old school buddies Clint). Marcella has started this really great blog and posted some really healthy recipes--even including why the particular recipe is healthy. (Hey Marcella, great blog by the way!) And then there's my old buddy Kevin from school. He's already posted about walking the freedom trail in Boston, and the art of dumpster diving. I would enjoy reading both of those blogs even if I didn't know those two people. I also have a few of my friend's (those of you reading right now) blogs listed on the side here. And you all talk about your husbands, and careers, and travels and kids, and write all kinds of great stories...and I like to post pictures of my charm collection, and my new jewelry "box".

Basically, all I blog about is stuff I would want to talk to you about on a daily basis...not necessarily anything insightful or life changing, just "chit-chatty" subjects, not even anything funny really. Like how, today my laser hair removal really hurt bad and the session lasted so long that I was literally shaking for a good hour afterwards. And how I'm so excited about my new jewelry "box" because it's so functional! (You can get one here if you want!) I just don't know if my buddy Kevin, or some of the previously mentioned girls that never shave their legs, would want to read about the things that I blog about. I mean Ben doesn't even read my blog. But I guess since Kevin shared his blog with me, I'm gonna have to let him read mine. I'm still going to blog about Laser Hair Removal, and earrings though.

My Vintage Sterling Silver Charm Collection

This is a picture of a bunch of the Sterling Silver Charms I have been collecting over the past few months. Most of you know that I have been to 49 states and when I went on my giant road trip years ago, my sister and I collected a bunch of charms. Last summer I started looking on Ebay for charms and came across these sterling and enamel map charms and became obsessed with them. Like totally, totally obsessed (like couldn't study because Ebay auctions were ending obsessed). The other day I finally collected the last few states and am so pleased with my little collection. I haven't bought the bracelet I want to put them on yet, so I've been taping them on this map I printed out. When I get the bracelet I'll probably put up some more pictures because this one doesn't really do the little sparkly charms justice and my Mom is just as obsessed with charm bracelets as I am.