Favorite Things Friday (On Sunday) : Halloween Special

Halloween has been a much bigger deal now that I’m “grown up” than when I was little.

Growing up we did costumes for each kid (which Nanny already had) and Fall Festivals. I think we went trick-or-treating once or twice.

This year, Jared and I spent the whole week before Halloween transforming our very trendy, modern, well-decorated home into a vintage haunted house. Cobwebs, candelabras, dark colors, creepy background noises, the whole nine yards.

I had two costumes: For our party, Aphrodite the Greek goddess. For the work costume contest: Princess Leia.

The party went well, although a smaller turnout than anticipated and I won the costume contest at work! That Visa gift card is allll mine…I am not sure how much my CEO and VP showing up as Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper had to do with it by my costume was pretty legit. 

Good Intentions

I always have the best intentions to blog frequently.

Part of this comes from a desire to be taking time to consider life and how I feel about it and determine the direction in which I am, or would like to be heading.

And yet it doesn't happen.

And I need to post my Friday blog on a Sunday evening.

Obviously I am not super stressed out about the blog in and of itself - but it is all of life that has mandated that I not have the time (or sanity) to sit and write a blog about my week and post photos in accompaniment.

And so I end up sitting in my room in my lovely blue chair on a Sunday night with a glass of Beringer Pinot Noir and Florence + The Machine's new album playing melancholy and soul-wrenching music in the background.

And I dread going to work in the morning.

So I question why I work there.

And then I think of the paycheck and all of my expenses, and I remember.

And all I can do is pray that there is a plan, that God has a plan, and that I have the patience to discover what it is.

Wait, Michael Jackson is black…!?

While the title of this blog may seem like some sort of joke, these are actually words that came out of my mouth about four years ago. 

While wandering the isles of the Best Buy in Fullerton my roommate at the time, Elyse Therrien, mentioned Janet Jackson (Michael’s sister) and my response was shock and awe. As was hers when she discovered I didn’t know that Michael was black! Well, that he used to be black. 

What followed was a series of introductions to a variety of cultural classics that I had managed to miss out on. Things like The Beatles, *NSYNC’s Christmas album, and the movie Hook. (All so good!) 

Today I no longer live with Elyse but still have friends who are constantly introducing me to things that, to them, are horrifying for me to have missed! The most recent of which being the heart attack I gave my friend Jimmy because I had never seen The Wonder Years.

I’ve been thinking about these incidents recently and considering how and if I really did “miss out” on the wonderful things of growing up in the 90s.

In conclusion, I haven’t missed anything.

I am, of course, grateful for the fun nights of watching TV shows that remind me of growing up or the wonderful Christmas sounds of *NSYNC but I don’t think it was at any loss to my childhood to discover these things now as opposed to then.

When I think about my childhood I remember camping trips, science experiments with my siblings, wake boarding, hours outside with my cousins, piano lessons, ballet lessons, AWANA, swing dancing, etc.

Now that doesn’t sound too empty, does it? 

I did things like watching Swiss Family Robinson at my 10^th birthday’s slumber party and having Star Wars movie marathon nights. I may have been significantly out of touch with the swing of society in my age group but as a business graduate with a full-time job and a plethora of fabulous friends and hobbies that DO involve the societal swings/trends/fashions of this day…I would say I'm pretty much caught up and wouldn’t trade my camping trips, utter lack of style, and dance lessons for anything! 

Favorite Things Friday : Little Pleasures Edition

Life is full of wonderful things.

Foggy nights. Live music. Wonderful musicians: The Avett Brothers

Pistachios: Grandpa's favorite.

Finding Snoopy and thinking of home. 

Pretty things: My birthstone.

The disco ball in the garage. 

Dirty Chai.  

Gavin DeGraw.

Scarves. And the color purple.

And waking up every morning to the good Lord giving me another day!

Memories, Stuff, and Storage

Today my dad has been sifting through a giant collection of Maudlin STUFF.

The Maudlin family is good at STUFF.

We can even make STUFF out of a rock. And store it for four years. It could potentially be a collector's  item by now.

But as is the case with all of life, some is good and some is bad.

Today I had the pleasure of being included in some of the good (and bad) STUFF that was discovered.

Exhibit A: Maudlin STUFF & forlorn (or perhaps confused) Melody.

Exhibit B: The rock. 

Exhibit C: We have always been cute.

Exhibit D: I used to be famous. Or at least on the cover of a magazine. 

Exhibits E & F: I obviously missed my calling in life as an artist. 

Exhibit G: Evidence of my palm tree obsession.

I wonder what kind of goodies you have stashed away in your storage...?

Favorite Things Friday

This week was full, to say the least, and documented through photographs! Thank you iPhone.

Went out to a bar in Phoenix, I think they must have been prepping for Halloween because we encountered this at the bottom of the stairs...I was surprised I didn't have nightmares! 

Spent all day on Sunday relaxing in Santa Monica on the beach with a good book and catching up on all of the latest gossip with my girlfriend Lauren. 

Girls' night that included wine and...assembling a dresser? Yes, that was a part of girls' night!
Lorena and I have been dear friends for a number of years now after working together at Elephant Bar while I was at Biola. 

My mom has the most wonderful spirit. This was in response to finding out that the trip I am making home for some of my dear friends' wedding would also allow me to attend the family Christmas party!

Ok maybe I'm a little anal but you have no idea how annoying it is to need a fine point Sharpie and get a big bold bad one!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving. So I made pumpkin pie. The only logical solution. 

This is currently my favorite drive-in-your-car-and-blast-it-too-loud song. LOVE.

After losing all confidence in my vocabulary and Scrabble skills thanks to Jimmy...I finally won a game at the last second! Maybe not seem like that big of a deal but, let's be honest, it really is. 

My room is finally coming together! The dresser is moved in and that mess of picture albums is ready to be hung in a collage-style on the wall above it! 

Homemade calzone. Yum.

And waking up every morning to the good Lord giving me another day!

I spent all my money on shoes...

Over the last month I have purchased:

One pair of brown leather boots.

One pair of heeled black boots.

One pair of black heels.

One pair of tan heels.

One pair of gray heels.

One pair of red heels.

One pair of strappy sandals for my Halloween costume.

And I love each and every one of them.

Now hear me out because there really is a valid explanation for why these were NECESSARY expenditures.

I started a job where business professional was required about this time last year. So, I went shopping and got a couple suit pieces and a few pairs of heels to work with just about anything I owned. Well since that time there have been 4 seasons, 3 other jobs, and countless hours on my feet! At BofA it was standing behind a counter, at Enterprise it was climbing in and out of cars and for the conference I was sponsorship director of it was one very very busy weekend and very very tired feet.

I now work in not just a business professional environment but one in which my boss notices almost every detail of my wardrobe. Maybe a little much but I like to dress up and fashionably and he likes that I dress up and fashionably so it all works out. This also meant that coming into work with tan heels that were just about brown and black pumps that were obviously well-worn was just unacceptable.

So with just a few clicks of my laptop mouse-pad and an afternoon spent with an attractive Nordstrom shoe guy, I have a whole new wardrobe of shoes! And a slightly more bare pantry than normal.

#I<3shoes