Galpals

Did you read that article in the NY Times about the difficulties of making friends in your 30s?  When I moved here the idea of not making friends was one of my biggest fears.  I don't know how I got so lucky to have such great lady friends.  There was also this short article in Jezebel about going on first dates with lady friends.  I totally get nervous for first one-on-one lady dates!

A couple Sundays ago we celebrated Erin's birthday with a potluck brunch with mimosas, of course!

Before the guests arrive

 Potluck brunch

Jeff, Erin and Walter

 Pretty ladies

Me and Jen

Jasmine, taking photos.

Rosemary, Nate and Erin

Kate and Jeff

Post brunch

Kate, Jen, and Rosemary

Henry and Nate making faces

The big event!

A beautiful couple, delicious food and drinks and a packed dance floor made for a super great wedding this weekend.  Congratulations Scott and Becky!

Celebrating with the Four Eyes

V woke up the day of the wedding and thought. "I think we should have a mojito zone." and he made it happen.  On the way to the wedding set-up he realised he'd forgotten the muddler so we stopped at a local restaurant and they offered to let him borrow theirs for the weekend.

Pretty ladies in pretty dresses.

Natalie, the wedding planner.

Out of town friends

Glowy ceremony

Ties removed, beer spilled.

Dancing!

Cutting rugs!

Smart cat, funny shows

This is J's cat, Misora.  Isn't he cute?  Just a lil round fuzzball trying on my glasses and totally loving it.

We watched Girls and Mad Men last night.  I love those shows so much!  Girls is so sassy and dirty.  I don't remember talking like that in my 20s but I also didn't live in New York and date creeps, except for one guy that was such a creep that I kicked him to the curb right away.  He was disgusting and thought he was so suave.  That tall, lanky dude Hannah's seeing on the show is such a pig.  And what about the dude from Lonely Island?  Kind of a jerk but she seemed into it.

I really liked Betty and wasn't sure about Don's new wife but now I love her more than Betty.  Don't you?  I was starting to get a little bored with the show last season but things are really getting good with Megan's character.  I guess this post is a little vague but I don't want to put any spoilers out there for peeps who haven't seen it yet.

Balance

My friend and I went for a 2-hour walk this morning with her sweet pup along the river near old fair oaks .  Then we got treats at Dianda's.  I didn't eat mine yet but I bet it's good.

Sporty

I'm not the sportiest of ladies but I do love a good hike.  E.L. was telling me that she was going on a hike last Sunday and I managed to invite myself along, and then some other people invited themselves along and then we got ourselves organized and all became one with nature.

Dreamy photo from E.L.

We met at Sly Park. I'd never been there and it has beautiful greeny-blue water that you can swim in during the warmer months.  I want to go back!  The trail we took went around the water, through a wooded area, over a tiny bridge, and ended in front of a pretty nice sized waterfall.

Swim.

Lunch spot.

Crossing the bridge.

We made it!

Pals

J made us a fancy mac and cheese dinner last night and took our picture in between cooking.  E said, "we don't look especially chummy here." but I think we're just hangry.

I never think of buying fancy foods from gilt but C bought some lavender coffee cheese, some honey cheese and truffle sausage.  I don't like truffles but you couldn't taste the truffle really.  How's that for a food review?  Terrible, I know.

 Heart meat

J and Misora

I'm taking my car in to get the windshield replaced this morning.  EXCITING.  

Full weekend

Surfing in Bolinas 

Full moon in Bolinas on Friday. So bright!

Sad wetsuit.

Saturday evening, we celebrated Rosemary's belated birthday.

Erin P. brought tasty mini cupcakes!

Henry dressed up in a fancy bowtie.

Our posse.

Erin showed me how to set-up Instagram on my phone! (shannonlori)

For Easter Sunday we went to L & M's for a BBQ, ate delicious foods and sang Def Jam karaoke.

Nut burger and ribs.

The cats chewed on the leftovers.

RAP!

Today I ran some errands - made copies of our immigration paperwork in preparation for next week's interview, went to Target, and came home and folded laundry.  I have two other striped tops and another striped dress in addition to this pile.  It looks pretty.  I love how they look all piled up together.

Antlers and taxidermy

A couple of weeks ago my pal Erin of Bows and Sparrows hosted a craft night with our group of crafty friends.  Whoever hosts the night picks  the craft, which usually takes a few hours to complete and then you get to go home with a completed project.

If you haven't heard, painted antlers are the next big thing.  At least that's what we're hoping.  West Elm should be calling any minute now for the rights to these photos.

My naturally shed antler pre-paint

Antlers and wine!

My sad little paint tray

Oh this?  Yeah, I painted it myself

An example of good antler painting form.

Antler colours inspired by E's shirt

Crafty lineup

D, working hard on her project

Erin has more photos on her blog if you're interested in antler overload.

And if antlers aren't cutting it for you, may I suggest a visit to Foster's Bighorn in Rio Vista.  It's a nice afternoon drive along the river between Sacramento and San Francisco.  The bar and restaurant is covered wall to wall with stunned taxidermied animals put together in the 30s and 40s as well as amazing, can't-look-away photos of vintage hunting expeditions 

One of my favourite sad stories with an accompanying photograph is of the wolf who was shot in the jaw.  The wolf was still living, just unable to attack.  The hunter needed to get back up a hill so he held the wolf by its tail and had the animal drag him to the top.  

Sad and creepy but so interesting.  The day V and I visited in September 2010, I had a massive headache but after seeing the fate of these animals and having a beer I felt pretty lucky to only be suffering from a headache.

Photo by amenfoto

Apparently they have one of the world's largest collections of taxidermied animals with over 300 heads.  They don't just have your usual specimens, they have everything.  Giraffes, lions, elephants, rhinoceros' and wolves.  Or maybe these are usual things to taxidermy.  What do I know?  I just paint antlers pretty colours.

The dining room, photo by thomashawklooklook