This weekend, Merek and I escaped the heat and ventured up to the Davis family cabin. With two frenchies in tow, a box of bagels, and a little mumford & sons, we were prepared for a delightful weekend. We arrived in the crisp weather and met up with the in-laws for a bit of antiquing. The moment Jill (my mother in law) spotted me, she took me by the arm and said “You will not BELIEVE what I just found for you”. Her eyes were full of excitement as she pulled me along to the awaiting surprise. We walked into a dingy little thrift store and lo and behold there was a box of vinyls by none other than my beloved Beatles. I nearly cried. Jill then told me they were only 5 dollars a piece. At that point I thought I would pee my pants. I bought 12. Totally worth it.( –> low quality ipad photos. #firstworldproblems)

I don’t think I’ve found a thrift store treasure that amazing…ever. On top of all of that, Jill found a gorgeous, ornate, oval back chair for $10. It needs re-upholstering, but thankfully Jill is going to teach me how to do it. Merek and I are quite pleased with the finds. Afterwards we went to another thrift store where they were selling books by the bagful. One dollar a bag. We filled up. With the new addition of bookcases in our living room, our seemingly large book collection has somehow diminished into a minuscule amount. Merek collects books from the 1800′s- 1950′s. I collect art, and children’s books from the same eras. We’re addicted. Found a few goodies last weekend in downtown Mesa.

Successful shopping and amazingly enough, the books that we purchased for a dollar a bag were antique. We bought 4 bags.

We packed up the goods, and drove back to the cabin to watch conference. Jill is teaching me the crafting ways. I mean, she is the founder of Scrapbook.com and I am the furthest thing from being crafty at the scrapbooking business. I love Halloween, so a holiday project is what we pursued. A haunted Alice in Wonderland house to be exact.

And finally..

…. now I’m addicted.

On sunday, we curled up in our pajamas to watch conference.  Such an amazing and needed recharge. So grateful for my husband, family and church. During the second session, Jill and I made Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting during a light thunderstorm. The puppies saw a squirrel for the first time and I’m convinced their little minds were blown. Definitely did not want to come home. Sadly, we packed up and left the dreamy cabin.

Looking forward to many more fall and winter getaways here.

-B.

Woke up this morning, and found a bit of happiness on Apartment Therapy. Merek and I were procrastinating leaving the bed, so checking our favorite sites on our ipads was the thing to do (geeky couple). He then leaned over to show me what he discovered: H&M Home is now becoming available in the US. I ooh’d and ahh’d over the pretty details and unbelievably low prices. Here are a few of my favorite looks. Happy Sunday!

-B

Currently sitting in bed and feeling the absence of not having a book to read. I just recently finished of “The Book Thief” (<– beautifully written), and trying to find a way to pass the time in the late hour. Hello, blog. Old friend. Let’s give this another go, shall we?

Today was… just another thursday. I popped into Whole Grain Bread co. and purchased a whopping 6 loaves of Honey Wheat bread. I have a problem. Afterwards, I drove to Antrhopologie to pick up a gift card and walked out with these two lovelies in tow as well. I have no self control when it comes to anything that involves my beloved France.

Bonsoir et Bonjour plates. Happy girl.

Came home with the intention of writing Thank You cards from our wedding (In APRIL!!) <can I just stop for a moment and think about what a terrible person I am?… It’s now September. 5 months afterrrr the marriage. ok> Sadly my dog’s distracted me (still a terrible person) and I have yet to get those things out. Merek came home and tried out a new game for Kinect, called “Gun Slinger” I believe? This is him. Manly gun stance and all.

Restless me decided to go for a run (apparently it’s becoming my new thing). It’s borderline embarrassing how out of shape I am but no matter how much I might have wanted to stop, I kept going. There is no inspirational anecdote to tag along with that statement. I simply kept running because I have a (irrational- so they say) phobia of cockroaches. If I stopped, they would indeed attack me. This is how my crazy mind works. Yes, I stepped on probably 5,942 roaches but hey, they kept me running and feeling healthy. Glass is always half full, right? <side note> any runner friends have an opinion on these shoes? I doubt I know anyone who is brave enough to wear them, including me, but as a night runner it could be my little secret. Yeah, still don’t know if I could go through with it… They are undoubtedly the most off putting footwear I have ever laid eyes on. Why must they have such amazing reviews??

Frightening

Bonne nuit

-B

Spotted this quote on Pinterest today and really loved everything about it. In a world filled with trends, expectations and pure vanity, it seems as if standing out and accepting ones oddities is becoming void in society. We all fall victim to it but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to accept and love who we are.

-B

Just celebrated my birthday this past weekend. My husband of almost 4 months shamelessly spoiled me with breakfast, relaxing and thoughtful gifts (wrapped in maps. I died). When I say thoughtful, I mean the guy surprised me with a ticket to the east coast to enjoy the fall colors in their splendid glory. I squealed like an idiot and cried… just a little. I reminisce about missing my old life in New York and Connecticut (quite often) so maybe this trip will convince the Mr. we’re due for a change of location… we’ll see. I cannot wait.

We lounged through the day, enjoyed time with our pups and watched an embarrassing amount of cooking shows… actually just anything with Gordon Ramsay. Needless to say, it was a perfect day. We ended the evening at the Davis household with a joint family party for myself and Merek’s mother. So fun having our birthday on the same day. We had coconut cream cake paired with fun gifts, goodies and lots of family. It definitely softened the blow of being another year older. This saturday I get to celebrate with my family. Everyone should make their birthdays last a week.

Towards the end of November, my sister and I, along with future cousins and sister in law, participated in a circa 1950′s music video for scrapbook.com. Mer’s family owns the fantastic company and went all out for their christmas video this year. We were decked out in vintage dresses, pearls, wayyy too much makeup and more hairspray than you would like to imagine. I loved every bit of it {“it” being a 14 hour shoot}. I had such a great time with everyone and was so excited that my dream of being a backup on Glee/Broadway came true.. in a roundabout way.

{Jill, my soon-to-be mother in law. Founder of scrapbook.com. Isn’t she absolutely darling??}

{Aubs and I with Jere, the star, <he is Merek’s cousin and our wedding MC, we adore this guy!}

{Scrapbook dancers <I am definitely not the girl who can pull off the red lipstick glam look, so sad>}

{Long day}

Here is the finished product, hope you enjoy! Did I mention that the oh so talented fiancé filmed it? Yeah, the boy can do it all. Sheesh.

-b

Hello Blog. It has been awhile. As busy and picture filled as this month has been, I’ve decided I’m much too lazy to download every picture and write up stories to match.. just yet anyway. Today’s blog is brought on by a less perkier vibe. It’s wednesday and it has already been an insanely long week. I learned on Monday that my blessing of a job is cutting my hours from 40 to 15 hours a week. They’re also stripping my pay down an extra $2 an hour as well. Needless to say, I was a bit devastated… if not on some verge of a mini breakdown. I mean, there are only FIVE months until the wedding. How is one supposed to pay for that kind of ordeal annnnd satisfy the needs of bills as well. {?!} I drove home and thankfullythankfullythankfully my ipod played some tunes to cheer me up. I swear, I have some sort of cosmic connection to my ipod because it always knows when I need to hear certain songs {yes, I’m stretching a bit but who cares… my blog right?}. For instance, my moments of despair songs have been around for 15 years { and yes, I had moments of despair at age 10}, they can seriously chill me out. “Hey Jude” and “Let it be”. I don’t need to tell you the artist, if I do, please leave. I love how music can make a seemingly wretched day turn into something salvageable. One day I will have a little Jude Dexter Davis running around the house to remind me of my past struggles that turned into triumphs.. annnd dexter for.. ya know.. the uh serial killer.. that Mer and I kind of love? Don’t judge :)

Anyway, I also have an amazing fiancé that can take the badhorriblewretchedrubbish I stress about and make me smile. He knows how to get a girl out of a jam. So, I guess what this whiney blog is geared towards is: gratiude. Be thankful for every little detail, {even if it’s a song to cheer you up}. Things will get better they always do.. {fingers crossed}.. speaking of fingers, to add to my bad luck week(s), I smashed my finger in a car door right before our engagement shoot. What?? Yeah.. And I believe that it is fractured. This is what stress, pain and exhaustion looks like on my face. I.need.an.xray.