Bucket Bike Giveaway!

Do you like free stuff? Who doesn't? As a girl who bikes her buns around the city on a daily basis, this bike with bucket or storage rack would come in oh so handy.

To that end, MADSEN Cycles be giving away two MADSEN Cargo Bikes on July 15th 2009, and anyone with a web presence (blog, Twitter, Facebook, website, MySpace, etc.) can win!

These bikes were featured in Daily Candy a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't help but fall in love. You get extra points in the giveaway for high blog traffic so please check them out by clicking the Madsen link down on the right-hand side menu bar.

Sporty.

Baby Shower

In addition to driving to Philadelphia on Saturday, my girlfriends and I hosted a baby shower for our dear friend, Sara. It was such a fun day full of baby talk, pink frilly things, champagne and food. Oh my, was there food.

This event was too cute not to share with you all. Sweet Sara is expecting her first little bundle of joy next month. We are all excited for her and her hubby. They will be wonderful parents. You can follow their new adventure in parenting at finlaysister.blogspot.com. Finlay is their Westie and he is looking forward to being a big brother.

Time for the party breakdown: We served some home made mac-n-cheese served individually in cupcake wrappers (thanks, Jodie), Amanda put together a delicious chicken salad and those gorgeous fruit "cocktails" you see on the table. Don't you love the pretty spread?

The flowers were my attempt at being as good as Amanda's award winning florist sister. At least the food and tablecloth saved the day! The quilt was made by my great-great grandmother and the lemons in the flower vase were a stolen idea from The Knot.

But the fun didn't end there, everyone's favorite appetizers were in attendance; hummus, veggies, and gourmet cheeses with crackers. For dessert we provided cupcakes, home made chocolate chip cookies (thanks, Jodie), a beautiful pink candy bar (thanks, Amanda) and the best chocolates in town from Edward Marc. If you have never had their chocolate you have to check them out at http://www.edwardmarc.com/. The event was hosted at their DC office.

We also served a very tasteful cake. First class all the way.

Just kidding! Like we would really serve this. Well, maybe we would just because it is so incredibly hilarious and gross. This cake pic was provided by http://www.cakewrecks.com/. Who would seriously serve something that makes you cut into a pregnant belly of fondant? Ewww.

I have to include the invitation, it was pretty adorable. We got them at http://www.tinyprints.com/.

To keep everyone entertained during gift opening we played Baby Bingo. Each woman in attendance had their name put on a Bingo card. Whenever our little mama opened a gift she would read off the name of the gift giver. Our players would then fill in the square with that woman's name on their bingo card. We gave out prizes to 15 winners! It was a great idea that Amanda shared with us from her wedding shower.

We also put out an empty scrapbook with pens and notecards for the ladies to leave a little wish for the new baby. Once they wrote down a message they could stuck it in the self-adhesive pages that the baby can have to look back on later. So sweet! (Book and cards from Target)

Cute girls, good food and killer dresses. Could you ask for anything more?

Jodie, Amanda and I had so much fun planning and executing this event. What a treat to throw a party for a beloved friend. Love you, ladies!

Now allow me to share some eye candy from the party. Don't think for a second that I was able to stay away from the candy bar Amanda created. I still have plenty of time to fit in my wedding dress, right guys? Guys?

Road Trip

This weekend BF and I hopped in the Endorff and made our way up I-95 to Philadelphia, USA. There are many wonderful things produced in Philly:

1. Cheesesteaks - hold the Whiz

2. South Street

3. Will Smith

4. Liberty Bell (This isn't the Liberty Bell, obviously, but is City Hall)

5. TastyKake

These are all wonderful but nothing compared to what Philly had in store especially for us this weekend. The Old 97s came breezing through the city of Brotherly Love last night. Rhett, Murray, Ken and Phillip put on the best show that I have ever seen. "An Evening with the Old 97s" was beyond words. The night opened with solo acoustic performances from both Murray and Rhett, then it was time for the big show with the full band. So so good.

Check them out if you haven't heard them before, it will change your life. See how happy they made us? http://www.old97s.com/

But there was more to Philadelphia than a great band, we also experienced what is now my favorite museum in the world, the Barnes Foundation. The Barnes has one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings. These are far and away my favorite periods and this museum was home to my all-time favorite artists: Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir, Van Gogh and Modigliani. Swoon.

If you're ever up that way and can only see one museum make it the Barnes. You won't regret it.

Philadelphia was full of cool architecture and nice people. Unfortunately, the BF had to deal with my hyperactivity in the car all weekend. I couldn't help but be a total tourist and snap photos while we drove.

Will Smith and Tastykake photos courtesy of www.scrapetiv.com and www.junkfoodblog.com.

Almost After

My dear friend, Hannah has been sweet enough to provide more pictures of her now in progress condo. You may remember her "before" pictures that we posted a few weeks ago.

Hannah has recently moved in to a super swanky condo in SE Washington. She has a killer view of the Nationals stadium and amenities out the wazoo.

She and her roommate are figuring out their design style and beginning to shape their apartment into a space that reflects both of their charming personalities.

Enough of the chatter, on to the photos!

Foyer

Dining Area

Before

After

Living Room - we're working on window treatments

Cute coffee table styling by Hannah

Before

After

Master bedroom - love the serene paint color

Hannah promises that she will provide more photos as she continues to finish styling her pad. We can't wait, hurry!

So you want to be friends, or what?

Couples Courtship 101

It became clear to the the BF and I that as we get older and enter into a relationship that the people that you surround yourself with change. Now this isn't always the case. Your lifelong friends will always be your lifelong friends. But, you will find yourself searching out other couples to be friends with and that is where this interesting social study begins.

There are steps to couples friendships and they go something like this:

A) You or your significant other meet someone at work, gym, social event, etc. and make friends. You then introduce your significant others and hope everyone gets along.
Or
B) You and your significant other meet another couple at a social event and think they are cool. You just met so you don't ask for their numbers/email addresses yet; it's too soon and you don't want to scare them off. New couples are skitish and wary of others. A few more social events must take place to build a rapport. Then you get the digits - usually the women will exchange first.

I'm telling you, it is like MTV's Singled Out, the Bachelor and the call of the wild all rolled into one. If it is a really cool couple you have to figure out if you are in fact cool enough to be friends. But that's not all, once you exchange the digits there is a small window of opportunity to act. An official double date has to be scheduled before the trail runs cold, otherwise you risk them forgetting you entirely.

Am I freaking anyone out here? Are my two readers that are members of our couples friends going to dump us? You know I speak the truth! It can be very awkward making friends as an adult and even more so when you are a couple when you're thought of as a "package deal."

That is why it is so important to pick a good partner, or else you risk never having any friends...bloop bloop.

My BF

Remember back when you were a little girl and you would dream about the man that you would one day marry? When I was growing up I could never see the groom in my dreams. Dum, dum, da-dum...and down the aisle I went with Daddy to a faceless tux.

That tux now has a face. And it is a good one. See below for proof.

My groom is real and pinch me twice, I can't believe he is going to marry little ole me! He will soon be my husband but he will always be my BF. BF: Best Friend, Boyfriend, Beloved Family, BF. (Look how excited we are!)

Women don't always share this but when you find the one that you can't wait to see every morning, can't tolerate being apart from, the one that will hold you until your delightfully wrinkled and grey (already one for two), you feel like you are the most blessed person on the planet. BF makes me feel so blessed and cherished every day.

It is easy to lose sight of the love and the groom during wedding planning. It is stressful, I don't care who you are. Surely there are married ladies out there who can give me some advice. We have all of our major projects checked off the list except for the band and our wedding bands. It is a band-elima! Finding a band to play the reception has been tricky and oh so expensive. Would anyone mind if BF and I just played the spoons and hamboned the tunes of Journey?

All of this is to say, thank you BF for loving me and wanting to marry me every day.

Hacking Through the Bush (es)

BF moved into a fabulous row house in Logan Circle nearly 4 years ago. It is a charming house broken up into 4 apartments. We believe that it was built sometime around turn of the century. It is old, quirky, needs some love but will soon be our first nest as a married couple.

Logan Circle is the coolest neighborhood in DC (declaration compliments of me). Most of the people on the block own their homes and take care of their postage stamp-size yards. Since we are renters the yard was lacking to say the least.

The weather in DC this past weekend was gorgeous with a capital G, perfect for "yard" work. I use the term "yard" loosely when referring to the patch of overgrown box hedges, trash cans, dead tulips and garbage that sit outside the front door. The sweet next door neighbor was exstatic that we were going to take care of the mess and even provided us all the tools that we needed.

BF put me in charge of the electric trimmer-saw thingy, which was way too much fun. I may or may not have been a little saw happy. As we began to chop the hedges down and reclaim the sidewalk we started to find treasures. Like a pair of Roos, remember those? We also found a disgusting rug, socks, milk jugs, super yucky trash and some of the weirdest bugs that I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.

Roos=cool Bizarro bug =yuck

We didn't realize how much people on our street hated the yard until we started to work. Folks were coming up left and right to shake our hands and jokingly ask us to take care of their bushes. There is a cool B and B across the street and the owner came out and invited us to a neighborhood mixer. In almost four years we have never even seen or met him before this moment! Our sweet neighbor next door said that he had not seen the front yard of the building cleaned up since the early 1950s! He even gave us tickets to the Nat's game Friday night as a neighborhood beautification appreciation prize. Now that is neighborly love.

We now realize that there actually is a yard under all the mess. We have cleared out all the garbage and growth, trimmed the hedges and are looking into doing a little planting.

Does anyone have any shade loving plant suggestions? Pictures of progress to follow.

Images Courtesy of http://www.sneakers.pair.com/, http://www.entomology.tfrec.wsu.edu/, http://www.farm1.static.flickr.com/, http://www.andrewprokos.com/

Swift Kick in the Pants

Remember the days of Dr. Pepper Lipsmackers, curfews, Jeep Wranglers, Prom and group movie date drama? I had the opportunity for a flashback to those sweet days last night.

My adorable friend Jill and I went to the Taylor Swift concert at Merriweather. We were deleriously excited to see this sweet little teenager sing her heart out in front of thousands of girls.

It is a rare thing to attend an outdoor concert and to find zero lines at the adult beverage booths. This happens when the average age of the concert attendee is 12. No biggie, we margaritaed it up and sat in the back with the mommies and ate our gourmet Whole Foods picnic.

What a sweet concert and after the little ones (under the age of 8) cleared out we were able to move to place where we could see. Taylor is a cute girl who writes her own songs and the best part is that all of them are age appropriate. I hate when 16 year olds sing about topics far too mature than what their life experiences could have possibly produced.

If you have been living under a rock and don't know this girl's music - check it out already! Grown women love it, as they should. It will totally take you back to high school.

This a sweet video that she put together for her mom - http://www.cmt.com/videos/taylor-swift/377565/the-best-day.jhtml