for a friend

I made these peridot earrings for a friend who wants to surprise his fiance with a pretty gift. He heard that I made jewelry from another friend, after I made a necklace and earrings for him to give his girlfriend for Valentine's day. So the word is slowly getting out there, it's exciting.
I'm really happy with the way they turned out, he said he wanted chunky and dangly and this is what I came up with. Peridot is a lot more expensive than I had thought so I bought these cute little beads and tried to translate them to chunky by clustering them all together. I think these might be my favorite that I have made so far and I really hope he likes them or they might end up in the shop which is fine to. They could easily go from casual to formal and adapt to any outfit. Their vibrant green color is absolutely gorgeous for spring.

Spring has sprung!

My favorite time of year is SPRING, it's so beautiful with all the flowers popping up everywhere. This year I'm defiantly going to make it to the Carlsbad flower fields. Every year I drive by and am amazed at how gorgeous it is, rows and rows of ranunculus all separated into colors. I just can't believe I have lived here for almost five years and haven't been there yet. This month I'm trying to cram everything I haven't done in the years I've been here into a a short time frame. I don't want to get to Oregon and have any regrets because I never went to Sea World when I had the chance. That doesn't mean I'm not super excited to get outta here. Every Wednesday-Sunday I drive north on I-5 and just when I'm about to turn off on my exit I always think "What if I just kept driving north?" Oh I can't wait for that day that I can just keep driving.Chefography is back on the Food Network. Last time they showcased Ina, Giada, Emeril, and Paula. I love Barefoot Contessa and Everyday Italian, they are probably the shows I watch the most besides anything Alton Brown my fav. because he's so funny, but I have to tell you I was watching Sandra Lees last night and WOW she is awesome. I have to admit Semi-Homemade is not a show I watch that often, and only really when there's nothing on, I have never tried to cook with one of her recipes because it's not really the cooking I like to do . After watching her "chefography" I really wanted to watch Semi-Homemade I feel like I have a better understanding of where she's coming from and it makes sense. A lot of bad things happened to her when so was young and she's just so amazing now. I am now a fan and will be watching her shows for all the wonderful "tablescapes" she always does at the end of the show. I love these shows, it makes the people seem more real somehow, not just the perfect cooks you see on TV. It allows you to see their process and how they think.
I watched Nigella Lawson's next and I have always loved her show and was really excited last year when she got a show on the food Network. She grew up in one of the most important and powerful families in London. It was a funny coincidence going from Sandra to Nigella, they had such different backgrounds and upbringings. Nigella was a journalist who loved to cook and was stricken with the deaths of her mother, sister, and husband from cancer. It was such a tragic story and nothing of what I would have imagined her life to be before the Food Network.
Today hopefully I'll get around to watching Tyler Florence and Mario Batali, I don't really know anything about them and don't often watch their shows but I'm very interested to find out.

G-53 BINGO!!!

So we got back from our Cruise Friday morning and finally no more motion sickness. We had a great time at sea and especially at port in Ensenada where I think Scott and I single handily wiped them out of Sol beer, but we had a blast.
Wednesday was my 28th birthday and we spent a good portion of the day at Papas & Beers. After we decided to head back to the boat and after we had been through all the detectors we saw a little shopping center right outside the ship with a beer stand, so we went back around found a table in the nice sunny courtyard and continued on our mission to drink all Mexico's Sol. This is us doing just that.

We met some really cool people at our dining table, a couple from Phoenix and a couple from Canada. You have dinner with same people the whole week, and it's funny the first night when no one knew each other the conversation was light and not too crazy, but by the last night we were the wild table and were always one of the last tables to leave. All the servers were coming over to sign our place mats that they give you so the people at your table can sign for a souvenir.The first night there was another couple but we never saw them again after that, so it was the six of us. Thursday we almost missed dinner because we were all playing blackout bingo, Scott and I only needed G-53 and we would have won $1000, one freakin number, can you believe it!


So as promised here is my birthday outfit that I went on and on about before I left, isn't it super cute? And so inexpensive.

Lastly here is us the first day doing the life vest drill. This is our "If we hit an iceberg and have to swim for our lives" look. Needless to say we had a great time together and it was the most awesome birthday yet. Now we want to take an Alaskan cruise and someday a European cruise, maybe our honeymoon, who knows.