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Today is my birthday! As of 8:07 pm, I will be twenty-six years old. Twenty-six whole years of living in this crazy world. In some ways, every year feels older. In other ways, every year feels the same. One thing that's changed is I don't get super excited about my birthday anymore. Is that just me, or is that adulthood? This is not to say that I don't enjoy the festivities. I love going out to eat with Michael to celebrate (we're headed to The Cheesecake Factory tonight!) and I totally wouldn't mind if someone threw me an awesome party.

Organization tip: Holiday cards

I am a forgetful person, but for those who know me, a lot of the time I probably seem like I have it all together. The reason is because I set myself up for things so that when I do forget (because I know I will) I have a backup plan. If I need to run an errand or call someone on my way home from work, I put a reminder in my phone for the time I know I'll be leaving. I write myself notes and lists and leave them in conspicuous areas so as not to forget important things. If I have to bring something with me when I'm leaving the house, I'll put it right next to my purse so I won't forget it when I walk out the door. I find when I don't have things prepped, I waste time and money, and I don't like that.

One thing I've started doing recently is having birthday, wedding, and baby cards at the ready.

Surprise!

Well, we pulled it off. We surprised Michael for his birthday, and I think we got him (mostly!). There was lots of planning involved - hiding food and decorations in random places in the house and in other people's houses, and soliciting help from others because let me tell you, it's hard planning a surprise party for someone you live with! Michael turns 27 on Wednesday, so I wanted to surprise him on a birthday that wasn't supposed to be a big one. He was mostly surprised (even if he wasn't totally, he had a great reaction) and he was definitely excited to see so many people at our house to celebrate his birthday with him. He was also really surprised that I asked his parents to come up for it, too. So glad that I could make him feel special! A word to the wise: have your surprise party for someone at a different house than the one they live in. It would make it so much easier to get things set up ahead of time. But I'm so glad I did it and thankful to all the friends who showed up to make it memorable!

Pinterest-inspired Birthday Cheesecake

Pinterest is an amazing thing. When I asked Michael what kind of cake he'd like for his birthday this year, he came up with the idea of some type of peanut butter-y chocolate-y cheesecake. Most normal people don't really have a recipe on hand for something that specific... cue Pinterest. I searched "peanut butter chocolate cheesecake" and dozens of different recipes came up on the page. I simply scrolled through the pictures and showed them to Michael, and he picked out the one he wanted.

pinned here and the recipe can be found at this blog post

Of course he would pick that one. A little intimidating, huh?

Surprisingly enough, I actually pulled it off! Here is my version:

It was a huge success with the birthday boy, and that makes me happy! It was super creamy and the peanut butter baked really well with the cheesecake flavor (I was a little unsure when tasting the batter). We had Michael's sister and husband over to help us eat it, thank goodness. It was so rich though, that none of us were even able to finish a whole slice. We'll be freezing some of this for sure. Michael would never let a good dessert go to waste.

Seriously though, what did we do before Pinterest?

Happy birthday Michael, I love you!

Birthday weekend!

This weekend was one big birthday celebration, and we basically spent it all in Durham. Friday I finally got to enjoy my birthday present of a night out to see Wicked! We ate dinner in the Tobacco District before and then walked over to see the show. It was amazing and the actors were all incredibly talented. I loved it! We don't know Durham too well, so it was really fun to explore. We love that there is so much to do all in the same area! Since tomorrow is Michael's birthday, we started his celebration on Saturday. I made him blueberry pancakes, took him to the driving range to test out his new clubs, and then we went up to Durham again to see a Bulls game. Instead of going into the stadium we went to Tobacco Road on the edge of the stadium and thankfully we got amazing seats! It was a sweet spot to watch the game for sure. Sunday we went to see Avengers to continue the celebrating. Basically I'm trying to spoil him - I sure hope he feels like it!

I'm so thankful for a wonderful weekend with my birthday boy! Of course we'll continue the celebrating through tomorrow, and then we'll be focusing on getting all packed up for our vacation! Seriously. cannot. wait. Five more work days and then we get on a plane! I'm stoked!!

13 Ounces or Less

Have you ever heard of mailing something unwrapped? I certainly haven't. Until the other day. I stumbled across a blog called GiversLog, and AmberLee loves to send unusually shaped mail to her family and friends. And it works! As long as it weighs 13 ounces or less and has enough stamps, the Post Office will gladly mail a package that is not really packaged. I was seriously blown away when I saw all the things she's mailed!

Let's take a look at what I'm talking about.

A bottle of art supplies.



A hilarious clown costume in a clear box



A giant bouncy ball!



A sand bucket and shovel.

Easter eggs.



A ribbon stick. Doesn't every little girl want one of these?

The possibilities are endless! She is so creative - I can't believe all the things that weigh less than 13 ounces. How fun would it be to get a package like this in the mail? I think I'm going to have to try this soon on the kiddies in my family! What would you mail?

My Blog is 1!

Happy Birthday to the blog! Today is exactly 1 year since my first post on this blog. It's gone through a heck of a lot of changes along the way - title, objective, audience - and I don't anticipate that it will stay completely the same throughout this next year either. Changes are so fun and exciting. I have especially loved the changes that have morphed this blog into what I truly want it to be. I honestly knew nothing about blogging when I first started writing. I knew how to create a post and publish it, but that was pretty much it. Embarrassing... I know. I had no idea all the cool things the blogging world has to offer! Let's recap all that I've learned this year:

how to change colors, backgrounds, and fonts

how to edit HTML code so that links open in a new window (before they added the checkmark in the link box)

what Feedburner is

what an RSS feed is

how to create tabs and different pages/sections of my blog

how to label posts to make it easier for viewers to see related posts

how to join up with a link party on another blog

how to view all the blogs I follow in Google Reader, instead of on my dashboard

how to edit pictures to make them look better for posts (I use Picasa - not Photoshop but it really helps, especially since it's free!)

follow other blogs that I like and learn from them

That last one is probably the key to me learning so much. I have found so many blogs to follow that I truly love! (Check out those over on the right margin.) Looking at others' blogs has helped me figure out what I want my blog to be, and what I don't want it to be. Bear with me as I'm still figuring that out...

The cool thing is that in the past year I think I've really gotten direction on where I want this blog to go. It's great to look back and see how it's changed, and I feel like I have so much more direction since I have a history of posts. This sounds silly, but the key to blogging is simply posting! If you aren't sure about posting something, post it. If you don't think it'll be interesting to anyone, post it. If you don't know what to post about, pick something random and just post. The more you post, the more you'll think of what to post, and the more you'll have an idea of your favorite topics and more importantly you'll get writing experience.

Anyway, enough of my rambling! Check out some of my top viewed posts this past year:

the master bedroom post

the living room post

the retro post

the college post

the baby nursery inspiration post

the office project posts

and appropriately, last year's Christmas post

Have you been learning how to blog recently? What are some blogging tips you could give me? What are some ways I could improve my blog? Seriously, this is your opportuntity to criticize my blog - I'd love to hear your opinions!

Happy Birthday Mom!

photo by Bella Pictures

Today's post is dedicated to my mom. She is such an amazing woman and I'm so thankful to have grown up with her as my teacher, my caretaker, my comforter, my confidante, my spiritual leader. Of course she is spending today doing flower arrangements and setting up a wedding for a good friend whose son is getting married this weekend  - that is just an example of how selfless she is. She totally rocks.

I hope you have a wonderful day, Mom! I love you!

photo by Blythe K

photo by Bella Pictures

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

Today my husband is 25. That seems so old to me! But despite his old age, we have had an activity-filled birthday weekend extravaganza. Why limit it to 1 day? :)

Friday night we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D at the IMAX theater. It was neat and we both agreed that 3D is a cool idea but at the same time kind of hurts your brain from all the stimulation. And we also agreed that they are going to have to figure out some way around the glasses thing before we EVER buy a 3D TV for our home. I mean really, will I actually put on these goofy looking goggles when I sit down to watch a movie? Still a fun night though! Movie was entertaining and we had a nice evening walk afterwards.

Saturday we slept in, went out to run errands, and then I set to work building his birthday cake and cooking dinner. We had a yummy dinner called Tilapia Piccata, opened presents, and then went out for drinks at a nearby pub we had never tried before. It was fun to go out just the two of us, since we usually do that with friends or family. Once we came home, we dug into Michael's cake: Devil's Food cake with a cream cheese/cool whip/Oreo filling and chocolate icing. Mmmm!

Today after church Michael's desire was to go find a rope swing down at Haw River... so being the good wife I am, I went with him and our friend Bryce to find it. After braving snakes, cicadas, poison ivy, and swimming across the river, we finally found the rope swing and had our fun jumping in the water. I am wiped out, but it was a fun afternoon!