May 2013
5 posts
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Women Against Scurvy - Defending Jacob
We had another meeting of my book club, Women Against Scurvy, last week and it was down to the wire to finish the book, but I made it! I was reading until a half hour before the book club but I have yet to shame myself for showing up.
This month’s choice was Defending Jacob, and I liked it way more than last month’s pick of The Dinner. Great twist at the end! It had a very similar...
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On My Mind
Colorado on the second day of May. Taken from the awesome Instagram of Drew Frey.
My co-worker hates shopping for clothes, so I recommended that she signup for StitchFix and they send you five items to try each month, and you can send what you don’t like back. It was so much fun to see what they sent her, and she decided to keep all 5 items. The experience was flawless and they even...
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Dyed Doily Garland
For Bridget’s shower, when we decided on a tea party theme, I immediately thought a doily garland would be perfect. I also remembered that my friend Jackie had dyed doilies previously. The bride’s wedding colors are purple, so I decided to dye the edges of the doilies purple
Supplies:
4 packs of Wilton doilies
Food coloring
String
Hot glue gun
Wax paper
Mix up a bowl of food...
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Tea Party Bridal Shower
Guys! Guess what!!! There was finally an opportunity to use my British royal family commemorative teacups. My sweet friend Bridget is getting married in a month, and my friend Cara and I teamed up to throw her a tea party themed shower.
This is Bridget! The first time we met was as the first day of being an account coordinator at a PR agency. She told me she had the same birthday as me. I...
April 2013
15 posts
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Women Against Scurvy: The Dinner
My book club, Women Against Scurvy, met last week. This month’s book was The Dinner by Herman Koch. The night before as I was plotting out whether I had enough time to make a cake after work for our dinner, I realized one small detail. I hadn’t read the book.
You might be able to get away with not reading the book in other book clubs, but the Women Against Scurvy are very...
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Weekend Ruminations & Links
Little Man Ice Cream in Denver. Get the salted oreo if it’s available.
My friend Benjamin is backpacking the world, and he’s taking some incredible photos along the way. Check out his recent trips to Siem Reap and Northern Thailand. Speaking of travel, Sarah Jane is doing a lot of travel for her job (currently in Buenos Aires) and is going to be blogging at SarahJane.co. Rob and...
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Eat Drink Create
At then end of March, I went to a fantastic blogger meetup called “Eat Drink Create” and I have been meaning to blog about it but never got around to it. Then the hosts blogged about it this week and I was like…huzzah…I am not behind yet.
Anyway, the awesome Erin from Art Social and Lexy from the Proper Pinwheel threw a great meetup at West Elm. It was full of...
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I Have Been A Fool for Lesser Things
The tomato bisque with goat cheese profiteroles from Brasserie1010.
After a week of being snowed in and absolute cabin fever, I am very much looking forward to getting outside today. First on the agenda is the Boulder Farmer’s Market and maybe a hike.
Several years ago I met Janette Crawford through my friends Emily and Rob. She is an awesome new mother, blogger and co-founder of...
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Summer of Awesomeness
It snowed in Colorado yesterday. Again. For the third day in the row. In April. We’ve had an incredibly dry winter, and every week I check the drought monitor, so I know we need the moisture. But I am seriously at my breaking point because my least favorite thing in the world is cleaning and after that it is scraping the snow off of the car.
So I thought I would make a list of things I...
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Hydrangeas and Ranunculus
One of the visions I had for Easter was to do a display of blue ombre vases with white flowers. So I began frequenting Boulder’s Goodwill looking for glass vases in multiples and amassed quite a collection. (Related: where do crafters store all of their craft supplies? Because I feel my craft supplies are now my landlord and I am some kind of tenant relegated to the corner.)
So I...
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Rainbow Easter Decorations
As I mentioned in my Peeps Pinatas post, I really wanted to step up this year’s decorations for our annual Easter brunch. We host around 50 people who aren’t with their families on Easter, and I love for people to walk in and feel a sense of awe and specialness.
It helped immensely that I stored last year’s decorations. In January, I started working on decorations for this. I recently stumbled...
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Royal Brunch Punch
My friend Rob made an incredible brunch punch for Beerster. This was wonderful for several reasons.
One: It tasted awesome
Two: It was very boozy
Three: We ended up with 11 extra bottles of champagne. Thanks Rob!
The recipe is as follows:
Royal Brunch Punch 25 oz Earl Grey tea 1 bottle Lillet Blanc 1 bottle Hendrick’s Gin 1 bottle Solerno 18 3/4 oz fresh meyer lemon juice 12 1/2...
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5th Annual Beerster
The crew for the 5th annual Beerster hunt. (The home behind the photo is a house being redone by the Boulder historical society.) You can see pictures of the actual Beerster Hunt in this post.
Remember how I said there wouldn’t be a pony like last year? Well my friend Courtney offered to let me borrow her bunny, Lola, while she was in Palm Springs. Lola was a big hit with the kids that...
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On My Mind
This morning is the first morning of the Boulder Farmer’s Market, but I skipped it and went to Denver for brunch with Cara at Sassafras. This is the truffled mushroom and peas grits and a buttermilk biscuit. I made the perfect choice.
I learned from Mel that the Boulder Farmer’s Market has a CSA for flowers and this sounds a 1000X better than vegetables. Also, I read in 5280...
March 2013
10 posts
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Peeps Pinatas
Every year we host our friends for Beerster, a tradition where we have brunch and then the Beerster bunny hides beer bottles and our friends run around finding them. Being in Colorado, most people aren’t from around here and it is a fun way to spend the holiday with friends.
Last year though we really might have had the Beerster to end all Beersters. Vikas surprised me by renting me a...
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Classes in Boulder, Colorado
(Photo courtesy of The Makerie)
I love taking classes. It is a quick and easy way to try something new. Plus, it’s relatively affordable unless you get all crazy and end up pretending it’ll be your new hobby and buy a bunch of supplies. This is what happens to me every time.
Here are the classes in Boulder, Colorado, that I’ve found and wanted to share!
DIY/Craft/Art
...
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Women Against Scurvy
I have joined a new group - Women Against Scurvy.
Women Against Scurvy is a Boulder, Colorado-based Book and Brunch Club. While mimosas are not always the chief focus of our gatherings, they do tend to be a constant. The six ladies of Women Against Scurvy simply love to read, enjoy one another’s company, and of course, fight scurvy one mimosa at a time.
This is not my first foray into a...
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Uchiko in Austin, TX
In my ongoing attempt to visit as many of Bon Appetit’s 2013 Most Important Restaurants as I can, I was able to hit two in one day in Austin for SXSW. Ending my evening with Uchiko was a pretty amazing way to round up the day. SXSW is exhausting, especially for an introvert, and if you don’t carve out down time, it’ll really wear you out.
My friend Sarah Jane was my SXSW...
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Franklin BBQ in Austin, TX
I don’t actually like BBQ. But I do love lists. Which is how I ended up waiting two hours in line while in Austin for Franklin BBQ. Because I’m working my way through Bon Appetit’s list of 2013 most important restaurants in America. So despite trying Stubbs and Iron Works and even the venerable Salt Lick BBQ, I always thought BBQ was one of the most hyped up aspects of SXSW....
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Three Days in Charleston
Our first full day in Charleston we slept in late. Really late. So much that we missed our free breakfast at the hotel, which made me sad because I hate missing out on free food and I hate missing out on vacation awesomeness. I quickly pulled together a plan that just came together awesomely. We’d go to Glazed Donuts, which I’d seen Elizabeth blog about and looked amazing, then...
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Parties I Have Loved: Walk the Plank!
My nephew had his birthday party recently and it was pirate themed. My aunt did such a great job helping my sister, and it reminded me so much of our birthday parties that we used to have as children. Pizza, cake and games but not over the top. My favorite part was picking out the birthday present with Vikas who went crazy for picking out boy’s toys. I had to keep reminding him that Xander...
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Husk in Charleston
When we went to Charleston in 2011, I did my typical restaurant research but somehow I missed Husk. While we were eating at FIG, the waiter told us that we couldn’t miss Husk but we told him we had plans for Poogan’s Porch. We choose wrong. We choose so, so wrong.
After our trip, I started hearing and seeing about Husk and their chef Sean Brock everywhere. Right after we left,...
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Wentworth Mansion in Charleston, SC
Our hotel in Charleston was seriously fancy pants, which is funny because we are not fancy pants at all. It’s called the Wentworth Mansion and was built by a cotton merchant way back in the day when people spent 10 years building homes for their brides. Travel and Leisure named it one of the 12 best hotels in the country. I kept referring to it as the Wentworth Inn since saying Wentworth...
February 2013
15 posts
4 tags
The Number One Question Since Being Engaged Has...
Are you going to have an elephant at your wedding?
No. We’re not. This is terribly disappointing for many reasons, mainly because who doesn’t enjoy elephants? Also, for many of our friends in Colorado, this will likely be the only Indian wedding they’ll ever attend. But that’s the thing. We live in Colorado. Elephants aren’t exactly plentiful, and I will not have my...
I Said Yes!
During our trip to Charleston, Vikas took me to the top of the cupola in our hotel and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him! And I said yes! Then we drank champagne.
I am really excited to plan a wedding. But I’m a thousand times more excited that this funny, handsome, smart man wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Four years ago we both met because Vikas presented at...
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DIY Terrarium Party
Last fall, my friend Sarah Jane and I took the terrarium class at Factory Made Boulder. While we loved the class, we knew spending $50 per person would buy a whole bunch of terrarium supplies. We decided to have some of our lovely friends over to make them as a group, and I suspect our supplies were barely more than $100. And if you don’t live in apartments and have gardens, it would...
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My List of Dream Hotels
I can peruse Jetsetter for hours. There is something about finding all these amazing hotels that you never knew existed. It’s how the hotel I stayed in during my Alaska trip. In my mind, I always am accumulating dream hotels that I want to stay in (most that I can’t afford). While I love a good luxury hotel, I am always looking for places that change your experience entirely. If...
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Don't Take Away My Sparkle
Three years ago, I started attending a weekly Bachelor watching party held by my friends Joni and Alexis. I actually hate the entire concept of the Bachelor, 25 women fighting over one guy? That’s everything that is wrong with love today. But, oh do I love watching the Bachelor with this crew. Joni is now the sole hostess with the mostess and every single Monday she makes dinner for 10 or so...
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Glitter Heart Valentine Treat Boxes
For our Bachelor Watching Group on Mondays, we decided to kick up the festivities with a Valentine exchange. I decided to make old school treat boxes for the crew.
It was super easy. I ordered the Kraft Handle boxes from Paper Mart, traced hearts on the boxes, painted the glue on and shook glitter over it. Took me 45 minutes to do 10+ boxes. I used paper adhesive glue because I didn’t...
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Raising, Keeping and Lovin' Chickens
I often have visions for how certain activities will turn out in my mind. Right now, raising chickens is high on that list of envisioned activities. I see building a gorgeous chicken coop, getting my eggs for breakfast in the morning and feeding our chickens from my rustic pail. My friend Jackie nailed her vision of what chickens will actually mean for us:
@elaineellis @vikasreddy not gonna...
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Times Like These Call for Bowling
(photo by Ryan Behner - follow him on Tumblr at ghostmanonthird)
This year for Vikas’ birthday we went bowling. His reasoning is as follows:
“Last year Olive Garden, this year bowling, next year Chucky Cheese?”
I do not pick out Vikas’ party venues. In fact, last year we were supposed to do Salt but they couldn’t fit us in, so we went to Olive Garden and it was...
sammichfelge asked: CAN WE JUST BE NEIGHBORS ALREADY? that's my excuse for a question. mostly just saying i'm obsessed with all your recent blogs. the besttttt. smiles and delight abound. keep it up ;) XXO
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Parties I Have Loved: Mobsters and Lobsters
For my 30th birthday, I really wanted to have a Mafia themed party. My friend Ef and I were going to throw it together since his 30th was the day after mine. I was going to tell people that they could dress as a mafia member from the following themes: Godfather, Casino, Sopranos, Scarface or Three Six Mafia. It was pretty much going to be the best day of everyone’s life until Ef decided he...
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Be More Indian! (Snapshots from Divali)
“Be more Indian!” is my favorite movie line, perhaps of all time. It takes place during the “5 Year Engagement” when two characters are dancing to a Bollywood movie, and she gets frustrated and tells him to “Be More Indian!” I probably tell Vikas this like 10 times a week. I also tell Vikas that we should be celebrate more of the Indian holidays. Do you know...
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Gluttony in Seattle
For New Year’s Eve, we spent it in Seattle with Vikas’ cousin Sharat and his girlfriend Caitlin, and Vikas’ sister Chandana and boyfriend Phillip (now fiance!!!) came too. I wanted to do a writeup of Seattle, but when I went over what we did, I was kind of amazed about how much of it involved food.
So we weren’t all Sleepless in Seattle, it was more like the scene in...
January 2013
2 posts
4 tags
2012
I know I’m a little bit late in looking back at my 2012, but since it’s still January, I figure I can still slip this one under the radar. I look back at my 2012 and still feel really ambivalent about it despite two big milestones — getting the best job I’ve ever had and buying a house. The house aspect still doesn’t feel real yet since we can’t move until...
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TaskRabbit Just Made My Boyfriend's Birthday
I try really hard to be a good gift giver. I love that moment when someone unwraps a present and you see their face light up and you know they nailed it. My boyfriend, like most boyfriends, is really hard to shop for. See…Vikas doesn’t like stuff. I don’t know how this is possible but he doesn’t covet or really ever say, “I wish I had…” I am fairly certain...
December 2012
1 post
November 2012
20 posts
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A Colorado Startup Gift Guide
If you’re like me, you’re probably planning on doing some serious shopping today. If you’re not like me, and you have real hobbies and such that don’t involve J. Crew, you might want to skip over this post (and all of my posts).
I thought I would put together a Colorado startup gift guide. With all of the posts about supporting small businesses, what about supporting some...
