I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...Or Have I?

This whole wedding planning thing is coming right along. We have a venue that I am absolutely thrilled about, I have a dress that I cannot wait to wear (and think it is a shame that I only get to wear it once), and a date that I think is pretty- 4/14/12-what?! a date can be pretty! My bridesmaids are getting coordinated so we can officially pick a dress for them (although I am pretty sure I know what I would like them to wear already). Things are coming together!

I don't know what it is but everything else I am pretty relaxed about. Which is a good thing, but so unexpected. I always pictured myself being so picky and making any decisions in a painstaking manner. But I'm not. It's yes or no. I guess part of me is worried that I am being too relaxed, like I will look back years from now and be mad at myself for not being more selective. Is this a weird worry? Am I just looking for something to worry about?

Starting To Look Like Home

Whenever I move I am so eager to be out of boxes as soon as I can-well I am sure we all are but I get a little looney if I have to wiggle around cardboard for too long. Thanks to Jon's sister and mom we had the whole place un-packed the day we moved in! What have we been doing since then you ask? Well sure our boxes were unpacked but it took a minute to make it look like home. We're getting closer to the "home" look so I thought I would give you a sneak peak.

First up we have the entry way. You'll notice this painting on the left. Straight ahead you are looking at our "office" and the living room. To the right of the living room door is the bedroom and to the left of the office door is the kitchen-and that door you spy on the left is the bathroom. Gosh I hope that made sense.

One thing Jon was adamant on having in our new place was hardwood floors. I admit they do look nice, but holy goodness they are hard to keep clean. I mean I sweep EVERY day and I still cannot keep Frank's hair off the floor! But luckily I kinda enjoy sweeping so its all good.

The apartment was built in 1929 so it has a whole bunch of cute little touches, like this built in shelf that holds the buzzer to open the downstairs door up to our apartment.

One of the things I love most about our living room is how bright it is. I love those bay windows too. Although I do think that Frank would appreciate it if it wasn't so bright so he could get his nap on.

We don't have a garden/outdoor area which makes me really sad. I really enjoyed that part of our old apartment. But I did try to bring some of the outdoors in with this little plant stand and

some succulents.

We have french doors that lead into our bedroom from the living room. I am standing in the doorway taking this picture of the tv. Oh and look, it is Al Roker. Hi Al!

This next picture was taken standing in front of the windows.

You are looking at the entry way to the closet/office on the right. On the left is a doorway that leads to the kitchen and another entry way to the closet/office. The closet has two entry/exits-ala sex and the city.

Here is a little look see into the office. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have an office. Paperwork, blogging, paying bills and all those sorts of things are made so much easier when I have a designated space to do so. In the bottom right of the corner you can see Frank's bed or tuffet as we like to call it. The tuffet doesn't usually sit there but he likes to sleep on the floor next to me while I work. Gosh, he is the cutest.

This pic is of the bookshelf/storage area of the closet/office. It looks far messier than it is in real life. Really I swear, there is a method to the madness. Just check out the color coded nail polishes above!

Stay tuned and I will give you the tour of the rest of the apartment soon!

Reading, Post HP

You know what has been hard? I'll tell ya. Transitioning back to non-Harry Potter books after reading only Harry Potter books for 6 months straight. I love reading before bed but it was made so much more enjoyable when I was settling down with a book series that I had so much time invested in.

The first book I started reading after HP was Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. This book is really well written but I must admit it is a little dense for before bed reading. So now I am looking for some light reads or as some might say, "chick lit" (not really a fan of that term but I think it helps describe what I am looking for). So now I look you to all for some great recommendations of books that would be perfect beach reads since Jon and I are heading to Tahoe for a week next month.

And just in case you all are looking or some "beachy" book recommendations, here are some books that I really enjoyed.

P.S. Are we friends on GoodReads.com ? Well we should be, I'm Sensibly Sassy

Acne Update: Now I Don't Want To Jinx Myself....

Let's talk about acne shall we?

Ok well when we last left off the doctor suggested that I stay on accutane for one more month and I had decided to take things into my own hands and give up dairy for good. Well it has been quite a month.

Most importantly, I have been dairy free for little over a month now and to be completely honest-it hasn't been that hard. Every time I was faced with a delicious looking dairy filled treat I just remembered how badly I wanted clear skin and how badly those darn zits hurt! Had you asked me a year ago if I could have given up cheese I would have laughed right in your face. But now that I have got the hang of it, it isn't so bad.

The difficult part was that I was desperate for results. After about a week I started to get really nervous that maybe giving up dairy wasn't going to work, especially after a new pimple had sprouted up two weeks into my dairy protest. After having acne for this long you begin to wonder if anything can help or if you are destined to have bad skin for-eh-verrrr. Let me tell you it is a sickening thought. BUT slowly but surely I begin to see an improvement in my skin tone, texture and (hark!) less break outs.

Like I said I am now over a month into my dairy strike and I can't tell you how happy I am with how my skin is responding. For instance, Jon came home today and asked me if I was wearing makeup (I wasn't) and once I told him that I wasn't he said I should go look in the mirror because my skin looked great! I was kind of delaying this post because I was nervous about jinxing myself, and to be honest i am still a little nervous I might do just that. But I have a hunch that this giving up dairy thing is the real deal. However, only time will tell but either way I will keep you all posted.

Oh and P.S. this is officially my last month on accutane-hurray! I am so ready to be off this hardcore pimple pill!

What I Wore: Birthday Celebration

I am a firm believer that birthday celebrations should last at least a week. Well, my birthday was last Tuesday and this past Saturday Jon planned a fun birthday party for me. There was a great turn out and I really enjoyed spending so much time with so many people I love. But you are here for the clothes, after all this is a WIW. So let's get to it:

Jon bought me these earrings from Jewelmint.com (email me: sensiblysassy@gmail.com if you want an invite to jewelmint-its a lot of fun!)

I wore this dress from J.Crew. I bought this dress on the weekend that Jon and I got engaged because he tricked me and told me we were going camping so naturally I didn't have anything worthy of celebrating an engagement. Enter this hot pink dress. The best part about this dress is that it was on the sales rack marked at 50% off. Jon thought it was marked down because it was so bright-in which case I think that is the reason NOT to mark it down.
The finished product! I need to find another mirror to do the WIW. This is a pretty old mirror that makes everything look a little grimy as you can see.

Then and Now

While packing and unpacking for what feels like an eternity I stumbled upon my high school yearbook from my senior year (next year is my 10 year reunion-oh my). I flipped through it, specifically the little "current events" section in the back. Here are some neat things that I noticed.

I thought it was pretty neat to realize how back then the first Harry Potter movie had just been released and already had already broken box office records.

And this last Friday the final movie in the Harry Potter series was released...and broke records again.

Another neat observation was that Prince William made news by heading off to college. (Oye what a cutie!)

This was the same college that he met his college sweetheart and eventual wife/future Queen of England, Kate Middleton.

And lastly, one especially funny little note from my year book-look what Jon and I were voted most likely to be...

well were sure weren't the first to get married from our high school class but all these years later we are making it official. Pretty exciting.

What was going on when you were in high school? Were you voted "most likely"?

27, You Look Good Baby!

I said last year that 26 felt like an old comfy sweater from the word go. I actually felt my age when I turned 26. Well when I woke up Tuesday, on my birthday 27 felt good but not as at ease. I felt like fist pumping instead. BAM, 27 what now?! Let's do this baybeee! I'm getting married this year, just moved to San Francisco and I'm ready to take on the world. It's like the soundtrack to my 27th year is a club mix of old songs that you really like. (I say "old songs you really like" because that way you can sing along but the beat also allows you to dance along). I digress.

My 27th year started out with a yummy french toast breakfast with my mama and Frank.

After breakfast we dropped Franker off at my mom's house and she and I headed to the spa to get massages and manicures and pedicures. HEAVEN.

While I was getting my nails painted my mom walked in with a special delivery from Frank.

yes, my english bulldog "bought" me two dozen orange roses. What a sweetie that guy.

Later on that night, after Jon got off work, he took me to a lovely dinner at a fancy schmancy place called Foreign Cinema. Downright delicious friends. Downright delicious.

Since I am avoiding dairy I made sure to ask if I could get one of the dishes made to be vegan friendly. The waiter didn't even bat an eyelash. You know you are in San Francisco when...

Overall it was a fantastic day.

Let's do this 27!

What I Wore: The Maxi Dress!

Now I don't know why but there is some intense dislike for the maxi dress around these parts. I must say I don't understand it. The maxi dress is essentially daytime pajamas....WHO DISLIKES DAYTIME PAJAMAS?! Sure, sure, I find it unfortunate that the dress shares the name of a feminine napkin...I mean yuck. That being said we all felt the same way about the iPad and we got over that didn't we?

So here I am in the last WIW photo from our old apartment wearing a maxi dress from Target.

"Maxi dress lovers unite!"

I know Raven is with me, who else?

And here I am in maxi dress number two with my friendita Erin. Wow that smile is so not flattering. Just look at the dress.

So do you like/love the maxi dress?

My Last Day as a 26 Year Old

When I woke up on the morning of my 26th birthday it just felt right. Most years i wake up on my birthday and nothing really feels all that different. But last year it did and it kicked off a year in which I feel like I learned a lot about myself. I feel as though I am stepping into my own. Most days it is pretty exciting, some days it is a little overwhelming but nonetheless it is steps in a direction that I am really excited to be going in.

So how did I spend the last day of my 26th birthday? Well my car had to be dropped off at the shop for the week so I had to pick up a rental car. Well I decided to upgrade and get a Prius so I could zoom around in it. I am really enjoying it so far, now if only I didn't have to give it back at the end of the week. Who wants to buy me a Prius..anyone?

I also took Mr. Frank to the beach for a little bit. You know to ponder on this last day of my 26th year.

(Pondering picture)

Oh and there was some fetch involved as well.

So when I wake up tomorrow I wonder if 27 will feel like an old friend or a new acquaintance waiting to be introduced. We'll just have to see now won't we.

Settling In

Hi all, I just wanted to sit down real quick like and write a little note to ya all. And the cable guy finally got his keester here so I wanted to confirm that I still knew how to use the internet after a six day hiatus. But yes, the long and short of it=we packed up some boxes and a bulldog and made the big move to San Francisco!

We woke up nice and early, ready to conquer the moving process!

Some verrrry generous friends and family helped us empty our apartment in no time flat! OH and did I mention it was roughly 90 degrees before noon? Yes, it was. Oye

But the time finally came to say goodbye to the little apartment that we lived in for nearly three years. We had our first Christmas in that apartment, we brought Frank home to that apartment and had neighbors that we actually liked. This was going to a big transition from comfortable to new (and exciting) but VERY new.

But it was time to move on so I buckled up my little co-pilot and found my spot in our moving caravan. It was time to go.

We hit the ground running and were practically unpacked Sunday nigh but we took a little break on Sunday afternoon to take in some sun.

Oooh ooh as we are sitting on the beach this lady walked into the water...with a motorcycle helmet on. I kid you not, see:

She stood there for about 15 minutes and then walked away like it was no big deal. Welcome to San Francisco!

That evening Erin invited us over to her place, which is conveniently located a few blocks away from us!

This week Frank and I have been exploring the neighborhood and happened upon a beautiful park.

I think we are going to like it here....

AHA Moment

I try to set an intention for myself when I do yoga. Ex: My intention with this yoga practice is to...clear my mind, get out of a funk...you get the idea. Lately I have been repeating the intention of "to be good to myself". I haven't really understood what this meant, until today. I was on my yoga mat and I was looking around for my intention and "my intention is to be good to myself" floated up again. So I stuck with it. But then as I got my downward dog on I wondered what exactly "be good to myself" meant. Well I will spare you the navel gazing (literally) but I went down this rabbit hole of (and I am terribly embarrassed to admit this) "gosh, I need to be good to myself because I work so hard and I am waiting for the results". In a sense, I try to put good out "there", I wonder when it will come back...

I'm not sure if I was expecting to win the lottery but there was a weird feeling of "I'm Due". But then all of a sudden it hit me...my good karma is not on the horizon somewhere-its here. I got confused somewhere along the way. I thought karma would come back to me in a check I could cash, or something more tangible. But its been here all along in my loving family and friends and husband to be, sweet little Frank, dream job, good health. It was already here. Yes, I am a bit ashamed that I "expected" something else, something more when it was already in front of my face. But boy oh boy am I glad I realized that karma has already been so very, very good to me.

How has karma come back around to you lately?