Five for Friday

Previous Fridays

1 - You bought my sparling red wine to celebrate finishing my finals.

2 - You emptied all the trash that was pilling up in the kitchen.

3 - You trimmed the basil plant back so it could grow in better.

4 - You watched Top Chef with me last night, even though you don't really like competitive cooking shows.

5 - You put away your suitcase from last weekend before it did.

Reverb10: Prompt 3 - Moment

I happened to check my email last night before I went to bed and noticed I’d already received today’s Reverb10 prompt. I was excited, thinking I could get a head start writing in my head. However, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I remembered it in the shower this morning and immediately thought of my 30th birthday. For those of you don’t remember, or just started reading my blog, I embraced my 30s with open arms, excited about everything that was going to happen in the next 10 years.

On the night of my 30th birthday my parents threw me a little party and invited a couple of my closest friends.


For dinner my parents flew in Maryland blue crabs covered in Old Bay. My father made his famous Tom-tini (SUPER strong lemon drops) and I drank mine from my special martini glass. We all sat around the table outside and ate crabs on newspaper, just like I had done when I was little visiting my family in Maryland. (Except, this time with booze). My sister made the fluffiest and most delicious cake and decorated it with multi-colored coconut.


I can still hear everyone laughing around the table and smell the Old Bay seasoning and sour lemon. It was chilly out, as this past summer was unseasonally cold her in Southern California.

I will always remember this night. I was so thankful to have everyone there that night to celebrate with me, what I look at as, the being to a very exciting time in my life. I felt very loved and very adult. Is it weird that I didn't feel like a real adult until my 30th birthday? Maybe, but it also has a lot to do with my answer to Prompt 1.

Reverb10: Prompt 2 - Writing... er, Design

Am I allowed to change a prompt? Because, I did.


While I find writing this blog important it isn’t so important that I need to eliminate anything to be a better writer. I don’t consider myself a writer, and perhaps that is why I’ll never be Dooce or Barefoot Foodie. I’m okay with that. My blog is just an outlet.

However, I do need to concentrate more on interior design. There are things I do in my breaks between school and even when I’m in school that I should cut back on and re-focus my free time. TV. I know I can’t eliminate TV from my life because it’s my veg time. It helps me relax from everything else going on and de-stress. I do know that I could watch less. When I completely bored and watch TV I could be improving my Sketch-up skills or finding materials and furniture and saving them in organized files.

P.S. As soon as a wrote that first paragraph I remember the book I want to write and the outline I need to get cracking on now that I have a month off from school. Ooops! Okay, bored time will be split between the two until I get that outline done.

Favorite Things: Baby(ish) Blanket

Two years ago for Christmas I bought my mom this insanely soft and cozy blanket from Restoration Hardware. We’d spent the past year attending 3 baby showers and my Mom kept saying how she wished they’d make those uber soft baby blankets in adult sizes. As luck would have it I found one in Restoration Hardware that Christmas.


After snuggling with her’s a couple times on Christmas I went back the next day and purchased one for myself. It is by far my favorite snuggle blanket in our place. Hubs loves it too! We get under it together when we watch TV.

Due to the power of Twitter I found out that my favorite blanket is currently on sale from $29 (down from $59) at Restoration Hardware! Seriously, if you’ve even wished for a baby blanket in your size, you will love this blanket!

*Restoration Hardware did not give me anything to write this post… although I would totally take a free blanket… in Graphite ;-)

Reverb10: Prompt 1 - One Word

Today’s prompt is from Gwen Bell, who by the way is awesome!


I had to think a bit to find one word to encapsulate this past year. Partially because I’m getting over this head cold and my brain is all foggy. I had to concentrate really hard to remember what’s gone on this past year. Hubs and I celebrated our first anniversary, we’ve gone on a bunch of trips. We’ve witness our friends get married and engaged. Then it hit me, one word that encapsulates the year 2010 for me is proud.

I’m really proud of everything I’ve accomplished this year. I’ve improved greatly at school and I’ve been proud of everything I’ve turned in… okay, almost everything. I finished my recaps on Weddingbee, which most Bees will tell you is quite an accomplishment. I started an exercise routine I like and I’m losing weight in a healthy way. These may not sound like major accomplishments to some people, but for me I’m pretty proud of myself. Since college I’ve always lost steam at the end of a class and I’ve not always had the motivation to kick butt until the end – I did that this year. I’ve never been a very good writer… the fact that I have a blog is insane to me. The fact that I was accepted to blog for Weddingbee is even crazier. I’m proud that I finished the whole process. I’ve always struggled with my weight, for as long as I can remember. I’m happy to be in a place where my clothes fit, I’m eating healthy and exercising regularly.

I’m also proud of Hubs. He’s done amazingly well at his job. He got a promotion and a raise in this economy, beating out someone in his department who’s worked there a lot longer. During the oil leakage he took an interest in saving the sea turtles and has continued that along with other cause effecting our environment and animals.

Together we’ve made an effort to eat and purchase responsibly, when it’s much easier not to. We buy locally and organic whenever possible and try make all major purchases products that are made in the USA.

Next year, I would be happy if I could use the same word :)

What is one word that you would use to encapsulate your 2010?

Are you doing Reverb10?