Finley's first cupcake

My friend Justyn's baby, Finley, turned one today. They had a sweet birthday brunch celebration.

Brian and I overslept, and recovered from mild hangovers (thanks to copious amounts of delicious sangria last night) as we raced up to Edmonds -- without a gift! -- to celebrate her special day. Just like any lonely, thoughtless, childless couple would.

Our lack of preparation and planning doesn't imply that we don't LOVE FINLEY MORE THAN ANY BABY ON THIS EARTH! She is so so so cute. I'm legitimately thankful that my kids aren't born yet so they don't have to compete.

I loved the progression of her first cupcake. (And it really seemed like she completely knew what was going on--that this celebration was for her.)















All done!

Chairs, a long time coming

One of our recent home improvement projects was finally finished, thanks to Brian who got down to it and started painting a few weeks ago.

I bought these chairs on Craigslist not too long after we bought our house and all of the sudden had a dining room. Actually, I bought a table (which never made it to our dining room and instead sits in the basement, becoming the cat's feeding station away from the crazy food stealing dog) and these chairs came with them. At first I thought we'd trash them but then I looked at them again, and realized that they could probably be pretty cute with some help.







This summer I picked out some glossy white paint with my mom and got to work...





But then, I got really sick of it. And stopped painting entirely. For months. I had no motivation without having a fabric picked out to recover the chairs. And I realized that I was very oddly freaked out of picking out a fabric. So one day, I made my mom come with me and I found a cute green print.

But the chairs still sat there, unpainted.

Then, over Thanksgiving when our neighbors asked to borrow our dining room chairs (they needed extra), I said yes but I was mortified. Our chairs were falling apart, chipping, stained, and totally disgusting. So I almost decided to start painting again, but didn't.

Then, Brian got frustrated and picked up the paint brushes, and painted for about 3 days straight. And we brought the fabric to this wonderful upholstery gal in Bellingham who finished the job -- in one day -- for only $30 a chair.

And voila! Cute chairs!







Now our dining room is getting close to being done. I would eventually like to get an area rug, and we were bummed to find out that our Christmas present to each other, a beautiful dining hutch that was partially paid for through a compilation of saved gift cards to Jayson Home & Garden over the years, is actually a piece of crap. (Thanks again to the honest sales lady who wanted to save us from the frustration of shipping and picking up a heavy pile of poo.) Anyway, we would eventually like to find another hutch that we like. But it's looking pretty good and I have to say, I think it's really a fun challenge to decorate on a budget; it makes you appreciate it all the more.

My grandma's furry friends

I love my grandma. I've known for a long time that she is a smart, interesting and crafty woman (see the amazing beach house she made here).

My grandma is a dog-lover extraordinaire. She has owned dogs for the majority of her 89 years. From boxers to poodles to more poodles, she has owned and loved the pooch. But, I never really realized the depth of her love until recently. Until her hat collection came up in conversation this holiday season.

You see, I have come to find out that each time one of her dogs passes, my grandma actually KNITS A HAT USING THEIR FUR. I asked her to model these for me this past weekend.







Apparently they don't even smell like wet dog in the rain! Amazing!

The missing cutest pics

My "pics of the week" for Bean have pretty much been suspended because...well, over Thanksgiving she became not as cute. She developed cherry eye!

It's pretty gross. Surgery is semi-optional, meaning, it's not hurting her or anything but there's the chance she'd develop long term eye complications (dry eye). So we decided to do the damn thing and take her to a doggie eye specialist.

Anyway, here's a recent iPhone snapshot of her yawning. Gross eye is hidden!



She's really growing up -- definitely starting to look more like a dog and less like a puppy. She continues to be a holy terror and a sweet love bug, all wrapped into one. We love her!

This weather is nuts

Today a man skied by our house!



Last night, as the snow was accumulating, I really began to think that the dinner party that my college girlfriends and I had planned weeks ago wasn't really going to happen, but everyone with the exception of Nicole (who lives way out near Bothell) rallied and managed to get here. We had a nice time catching up, and I'm so glad because Seta, from Chicago, is only here once or twice a year.





They all stayed the night, we freaked Brian out by talking about periods, and then borrowed shovels to dig Seta's car out from a pile of snow.

It's still snowing here, and apparently the weather guys predict another 5 inches tonight. I know most people are stir crazy but I'm actually enjoying this, as it has provided me my first days off during the middle of the week in at least a year.

This week's cutest pic

Bean actually fell asleep like this. Aaahhhh.

I woke up to this.

We're up in Bellingham right now for my friend Joey's wedding reception today. We came up early to spend time with my mom, and have the most AMAZING SOUP EVER -- Chanterelle Mushroom Chowder-- at Nimbus last night.

Anyway, I woke up to a dog jumping on my head, and to this:







It was beautiful watching the fog lift:





Something makes me think that if this was the first thing that saw everyday, life would be just a little bit easier.