Tag: weekends

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 127)

March 29th, 2013 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), videos 13 comments - Tags: , ,

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 127)


1.

It’s already the last week of the month which means it’s no topic week on Totes Awesome Channel!



Youtube Link


2.

As I mentioned in the vlog, I’m so excited about making napkins this weekend with my mom. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to complete 10 sewing/learning projects. My mom once gave me her old sewing machine and within the first attempt to use it without her guidance, I mangled the thread while trying to thread the machine! I had to take it back to Houston and both my parents took turns trying to unravel my mess and free the sewing machine. I thought if I make 6 sets of napkins and make myself thread the machine 6 separate times, the redundancy of the tasks will help me really learn how to thread. As you can see, I’m all about baby steps.


3.


I had a really busy couple of weeks at work and worked longer hours this week, so my reading time has dramatically decreased. Nonetheless, here’s what circulating on my nightstand.

Currently reading:
Paris to the Moon
Moveable Feast
Pollyanna


4.


Photo credit: BlueTreesTexas.org

Outside of hanging out with the parents for my dad’s birthday and making napkins with my mom, I have two girl dates scheduled to visit the Blue Trees & art car museum. I love my weekends in Houston!


5.

As I’m getting older, my body is going through the first of the aging changes. It used to be I eat all the junk I want and then go to bed and then the food baby would magically disappear when I wake up. This hasn’t been the case in the past few months. It also used to be I can go on 3-4 hours of sleep a night but lately if I don’t get at least 6 hours of sleep, I’m sleeping through my alarm! It used to be I never got heartburn!

I’ve been warned these things will happen but now that they’re here, it is a bit of a depressing lifestyle shock.


6.


Have you seen this one?


I was making cabbage stir fried with eggs. He was my sous chef.


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ 46 more days to Paris, buying a museum pass for Paris! ♥ making it through my first work presentation ♥ payday ♥ seeing my student debt decrease ♥ Bob making his first canine friend from the internet ♥ trying out the Cool Ranch Doritos taco from Taco Bell ♥ chats with my dad while I sit in traffic ♥ scrumptious sweet potato gnocchi from a food trailer ♥ introducing Selina & Dawn to their first banh mis ♥ celebrating a friend’s birthday and meeting her fun friends ♥ date night at the arcade

Question: How are you going to spend your weekend?

Weekend Recap

March 11th, 2013 · · Creative Endeavors, Girl Eats World, Love, Memories, Misadventures 7 comments - Tags: ,

I had a lovely weekend galavanting around Austin during SXSW. I spent most of the weekend with VEDA alums and it felt like a mini vacation!

Friday night, I had a date with Treavor who was in town from Seattle. We gorged ourselves on fried foods and chatted about our usual topics, life and love.

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Saturday, we met up with Anita and Patrick at the 4th Annual Bacon Takedown. I am very proud of the fact that I haven’t missed out on a Bacon Takedown yet! It was also the first time I met Patrick, yet I kind of felt like we were old friends. That’s the beauty of having Youtube/Twitter friends. They start to blend into your everyday reality so much that when you meet them, it doesn’t feel like it’s for the first time.


Photo Credit: Patrick Pho

Sunday, Anita and I went to Chris Guillebeau’s meetup and book signing. There was a point before the talk where Chris stood beside me and caught me stalking him on my phone. That was slightly embarrassing. I managed to feign having my wits about me enough to meet him before his talk and then once again to get my book signed. I bought his $100 Startup which was kind of a big deal to me. I haven’t purchased a book for myself in a long while and when I do, I use Amazon to get the best deal. I paid 25 dollars for the copy on site! It was worth it though to have him sign and acknowledge my future attendance of World Domination Summit with “See you in July!”.

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We followed the book signing with a lunch date at a vegan restaurant. (We were in the neighborhood and up for adventure.) We were solely disappointed with our food mostly because we had just been spoiled by a full day of bacon. But also, what was I thinking ordering a raw vegan Pad Thai? Don’t ever do that to yourself.

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After our disappointing but healthy lunch, Anita and I went to peruse the sketchbooks at the Austin stop of the Sketchbook Project tour. I was shortly reunited with mine and was able to check out Suki’s before their internet system went down. Below, you’ll find a collage with 3 snaps of my favorite random sketchbook. The artist had a thing for dinosaurs and created a fun and holey book centered around the extinct reptiles. I love that shot with Anita peeking from the other side of the sketchbook.

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Oh, I also high-fived Mario. Winning weekend indeed!

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Question: What are the top four highlights of your weekend?

First Novel & Journal of 2013

January 6th, 2013 · · Books 10 comments - Tags:

novel and journal

This is how I spent my Sunday morning. Not pictured is finally starting on my Sketchbook Project due in a little over a week.


Question: How are you spending your Sunday?

Guest Post: Summer Weekend Dreams

July 3rd, 2012 · · Guest Posts One comment - Tags: , ,

I’m still in Pittsburgh this week visiting my sister. While I’m away my friend, Kristen was kind enough to guest blog for me! She is sharing her summer weekend dreams with us today. Thank you, Kristen!


* * *


While Linda is out enjoying a much needed vacation, I’m guest blogging in her absence. I’m a relative newbie to the interwebs world- until this past September, I was a blog lurker and sometimes commenter, before making the big leap into blogging & Tweeting! You can find me regularly over at Life By Kristen and on Twitter – @KristenCurator.

Now that summer has officially begun, I’m loving how relaxing the nights after work and the weekends have become. My big summer plan is to not make plans- and with the exception of some strategic planning of house projects and a wedding in August, I have succeeded in keeping my summer nights and weekends open to whatever I fancy.

To me, summer is all about being spontaneous and enjoying the long summer days and warm nights. Living in New England our weather is so unpredictable- it can snow in October and then be in short sleeve shirts on Thanksgiving, so I really try to savor the sunny days while I can. Because really is there nothing better than sitting in the sun with a great book and a cold beverage? In my opinion, definitely not.

Someday, after I hit it big in the lottery (if only!), I have dreams of buying a small beach or lake house in a quiet area. I dream about spending weeks there at a time with loved ones, spending the afternoons napping in a hammock. The place won’t have any television, so nights are spent reading, talking, laughing, and playing games.

Until then, my perfect summer weekend begins the moment I get out of work on Friday, with a commute home filled with rolled down windows and great tunes on the radio. My favorite time of night is that hour or two right after I get home from work when the sun is on the back side of my house and I can relax with an adult beverage in my yard reading a book while I eat on native tomatoes with mozzarella ( my staple meal in the summer it seems!) Even if I don’t go out that night to meet friends for drinks on the water, my evening is enjoyed in my sunroom after the bugs come out. Saturday and Sunday may be filled with outside house chores and time with family, a walk to get ice cream or dinner out. Beach days are always a last minute decision and I am so lucky that an awesome spot is only fifteen minutes away.

With all of my intentions to not make plans and just enjoy the opportunities that come up with each weekend, I am hopeful that I can continue this mantra into all the other seasons too!


Question: How are you spending your summer weekends?

Weekend Recap – Stream of Consciousness

May 29th, 2012 · · pursuit of happiness 15 comments - Tags:

I had Lick Ice Cream twice this weekend. Once with Selina and Dawn and the second time with these cuties:

I may have an ice cream addiction. Really, I think it’s a Lick addiction. By the way, their website is ilikelick.com NOT Iliketolick.com. What a difference a preposition can make.

I started my Saturday morning celebrating a close friend’s engagement. I felt so honored to be one of her special guests. I’ve known this girl since when we both had braces and hairier eyebrows.

Time is pasting by so quickly and I feel like I’m just holding onto its coattails.

This morning I woke up feeling really lucky. My boyfriend made me breakfast and I also found that I was sleeping directly on my eyeglasses and they are still in tact. My pup was sitting at the doorway looking in and waiting for me to get out of bed. (He’s not allowed into the bedroom because I’m a dog owner who’s allergic to dogs.) Life is good.

I had pork belly pho yesterday. See? Good life.

I’m trying my hands at something entirely new to me and it’s stupid scary and exciting. I’m hoping I don’t fail and if I do, it’s going to be okay.

I’ve only had half my daily intake of coffee (because I had spilled the other half on me) but yet I’m so WIRED.

Wordless Wednesday: Little Rock & Dallas Adventures

April 25th, 2012 · · Photographs 17 comments - Tags: , , ,

Our weekend in Instagram (curiousnotions) photos:

From Treavor’s Instagram (treavioli) feed:

Weekend Recap: Sucking the Marrow

April 2nd, 2012 · · pursuit of happiness 10 comments - Tags:

“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…”
Henry David Thoreau

I’m still basking in the afterglow of my weekend.

Friday night, I cackled at Kevin James’ stand up comedy with Alan and then enjoyed a few drinks downtown with friends and an out of town visitor. I ended the night eating this with a side of this. Glorious late night eats.

Saturday, I woke up after too little sleep and packed for and drove to Houston. Once there I shared a very quick coffee date with Cindy.

I spent the bulk of my time in Houston with Kim. She had a whole bag of paper cranes we helped her make in November for her Christmas tree. Not wanting to just throw out the cranes, we took inspiration from Cindy, who crochets critters and drops them off in random places around Houston to be adopted by strangers, and dropped off paper cranes throughout Houston’s Historic Heights.

Then we went home to build forts. We kind of failed but what we lacked in sturdy shelter we made up with belly laughs.

We had reservations at Stella Sola to eat bone marrow. Kim tweeted at the restaurant and sweet Stella Sola offered to design us a customized tasting centered around bone marrow. How amazing is that? We have tweets to prove it happened!



Our first course of beef tartar served in marrow bone with pickled eggs, jalapeno crema, and a sprinkling of fairy dust, I mean bone marrow powder

We finished our 5 course dinner at 9 and I picked up my second dinner for my dad’s birthday at 10. My belly hurt so good.

Sunday, I had lunch with my mom and she taught me a few more sewing lessons before I drove back up to Austin. To end on a sweet note, I squeezed in a pistachio and chocolate gelato date with Naz.

Seriously, what a perfect weekend!


Question: How do you suck the marrow out of life?

Weekend Recap

February 20th, 2012 · · pursuit of happiness 23 comments - Tags: ,

It’s hard to come back to work from a weekend like last weekend.

Friday night, I met AshleyD, Ashley, and Nicole for a date with Ryan Gosling and Master Pancake. It was my first Master Pancake since college. Basically, Alamo Drafthouse shows a “bad” movie and then talks over it in the name of comedy. They were making fun of The Notebook. It was an excuse to see Gosling’s face for two hours.

Saturday, we walked in the rain, tried on ugly darling accessories, and watched Channing Tatum blow on Rachel McAdams’s cold fingers in The Vow.


Sunday, we woke up at five in the morning and dropped off Nicole and AshleyD at the Austin Live Strong Half Marathon. We cheered on amazing blogger runners (with the help of cowbells), most of whom will be going to Bloggers in Sin City this May. I had the pleasure of meeting Tara, Nicole (founder of Bloggers in Sin City), and Ameena. After the race, We stuffed our faces silly with delicious and sloppy pulled pork. Finally, I ended an awesome weekend with a romantic stroll along the lake with Treavor, who drove down after a Midwest road trip just to meet a few bloggers before seeing them in Vegas.




It was a great weekend and I miss everyone already. I feel little mournful but I find solace in the fact that there will be a reunion in just three months!

Weekend Recap

November 28th, 2011 · · National Blog Posting Month '11, Photographs, pursuit of happiness 13 comments - Tags: ,

Saturday, I spent the entire day with Kim, Thomas, and company.

I surprised Kim with glitter tattoos.

Then we proceeded to brand all of our friends.


(this photo by Thomas)

And gave our tattoos life by making them dance and drink.


(this photo by Thomas)

We had one of our progressive meals and ate at five places and aspired towards seven. (Two of the places were closed!)

We helped put up Kim’s tree and then made paper cranes to decorate it.

After our dinner, we parted ways and I was going to end the perfect day having a pajama party with Kim and building a fort. On our way to her place, my car started to make this terrifying thumping sound while we were on the freeway. I inadvertently exited into a tollway without having the necessary tag and it took us quite a while driving with this noise before feeling like it was safe enough to pull over (i.e. not on a highway shoulder or into a seedy dark gas station.) Turns out my bumper got loose and was flapping against my tire. We drove at a crawl to Kim’s place and accidentally drove deep into a very dark and wooded area off of the freeway. TERRIFYING. There was another lone car with us that felt sketchy!

I canceled fort night with Kim. It didn’t feel right being out in Houston with a maimed car. I was really disappointed to miss the pajama fort party but it was still an awesome day. We played hard and didn’t get killed. I like Kim’s pithy recap.

Kim 11:11 PM to me

one of the best days, for sure.

and so simple! good food, company of friends (old and new), listening to records, driving in the rain, sparkly tattoos, taking pictures, putting up christmas trees, cracking jokes, almost getting murdered in the secret woods next to the freeway…

I was supposed to drive back to Austin on Sunday (yesterday) but had to stay so I can take my car in today. I was too nervous to drive my car so I canceled what little plans I had and spent the entire day reading. I finished A Beautiful Boy, a memoir of a father navigating his son’s drug addictions. Captivating and depressing. Thus the chocolate milk.

Aside from the car troubles, I really had such a wonderful weekend. There were many great moments I just want to memorize so I can revisit on gloomy days. I hope my car troubles get fixed today. I can’t wait to get back to my bed, dog, and boyfriend.


Question: What is your favorite memory from the weekend?

Weekend Recap

November 14th, 2011 · · Austin, Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America, National Blog Posting Month '11, Uncategorized, videos 11 comments - Tags: ,

On Friday, I cooked dinner for Selina and we had our first one on one time in at least a year. She treated us to cupcakes from my favorite cupcake place in Austin.

Saturday, I woke up super early to drag my little from Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America to a We Are Girls conference. It was a great experience and I learned a lot in just three workshops. I hope to hammer out a recap this week. There was a lot of information I want to help spread out into the world.

Then I did some Christmas wrapping.


And finished the evening doing #WinetoReach with my VEDA (Vlog Every Day in August) friend, Treavor. He was visiting from Dallas! We had our first date not too long ago where I introduced him to bubble tea. This weekend, I asked him if he was down for crepes and when he said he had never had crepes, I knew in my heart that we were about to start a tradition.

On Sunday, I woke up super early again and “ran” the Susan G Komen’s Race for the Cure 5k.


Brittany then suggested we go to Juan in a Million (a local favorite) and when she told me she never been, I couldn’t get us there fast enough.

It was a treat to see most of the people at Juan in the Million were wearing their Race for the Cure t-shirts too. We felt like we were part of a community.

Not pictured from the weekend:

Walking another 3 miles in the afternoon with my friend Brandi and my dog. (Leaves me quite sore this morning!)

Picking up the boyfriend from the airport. Just in time! I was missing him.

A few episodes of Felicity.

Lots and lots of chores.


Question: What are your weekend highlights?