i got a valentine from EVERY lunchlady.

valentine's day is one of my favorites. i have never been a valentine grinch and never will. it's just such a fun pink red and heart-shaped time, wouldn't you say? i love valentine's day so much that one time in elementary school my mom was going to take me to see the OLYMPICS on valentine's day, but i chose to go to school and pass out valentines and make a valentine box instead. okay. i regret that decision and it was a very stupid and ridiculous thing in hindsight. and i really wish i could see how those athletes survive that freestyle ski jump in real life. but at least i got my freakin valentines alright!! valentine's day is even better when you have mustached valentine as sweet as mine. we kept it simple this year. i loved it.

i made him this craft:

thank you pinterest. (i owe my life to pinterest by now.) i absolutely loved doing it. i could easily have filled out dozens and dozens more cards, i just love that boy so!
here she is.

he loved it.

then we shopped for supplies and made terrariums.

so much fun. i am excited for summer when home depot will be crawling with all of those baby cacti and succulents so we can make more.....like these....there were slim pickins in these cold winter months. chris's terrarium looks exponentially more pretty and professional than mine....but mine were tender young venus fly trap babies so they still have to grow okay!

and then we went to the cheesecake factory as promised. SO GOOD.

such a good time.

we're drawing this way out.

i know it's late, (i opened my last christmas presents today so.....technically christmas is only officially over for me today) but here are my favorite christmas gifts.

last eragon book from my brother, which i can't wait to read.

only the best movie ever from my dear pal rachel (my secret santa) which i forced chris to watch with me and he kept calling me "mrs. darcy" for about two hours straight afterwards in a pompous old british man accent

the funniest, sexiest, cutest, best calendar EVER from my bestie sharon. HELLO, two of my estrogen-powered favorite THINGS! don't worry, you will all be getting monthly updates of the new picture from that month. and don't worry, they are all JUST as tantalizing (and ridiculous) as the front cover.

and prolly my very favorite thing......these steve maddens i had been obsessing over for weeks and weeks which were gifted unto me from the world's best boyfriend, mr. chris busby. i love them so much i want to sleep with them on. carl likes them a lot too.

and my parents brought me to harry potter world for christmas which was my other favorite present. thanks mom & daaad!

also i made chris a pretty rad blanket for christmas. it took many hours to complete but i loved doing it and i wrapped it in a gigantic tube of white butcher paper and he loves loves loves it. it is red orange black white and turquoise and it's real warm.

check out how much of a housewife i am.

merry christmas! for the final time.

DUDE.

my grandparents took us to a dude ranch for christmas. did you know that there are more cattle in florida than in any other state?! that put things into perspective for me because when you think of dude ranch, you think texas or montana....or something. i did. anyways, a grand time was had.

we stayed in a cabin.

we went to a rodeo. i had never been to one before. MAN was it AMERICAN!

we went on an airboat ride on the kissimmee river, which was my favorite thing.

gators EVERYWHERE! baby ones too. and huge turtles on logs. and gigantic white herons.

we went to the petting zoo. goats running amok.

they were all pregnant. an employee told us, "they are like rats".

chuckens.

HAHA.

and we went on a christmas eve hayride, sang christmas carols, then went to a barbecue after.

yeeeeeehawwwwwwwww.

happy all the holidays

boy do i have some catching up to do. this december seemed like the busiest month of my entire life. so now i shall attempt to make up for my absence. oh, and happy dew year!!

firstly, we, the ace gang, had our third annual christmas party complete with deluxe gift exchange on the 19th. once again we had literally mounds of food. my mom and i cooked up some cafe rio for the event and it was sooo good. i look forward to this night all year and it was superb!!

i love my bffs.

thanskivin

i am just happy today because this is the first thanksgiving in like 3-4 years that i haven't been sick so i actually had an appetite. it was miraculous. i hope you all had a great day and that your stomach is uncomfortably packed right now like mine. also, if you are working tomorrow on black friday, just know that my heart goes out to you and that we are united in strength to survive it. we can do it. everyone else, stay home. if you are going shopping, wear a helmet or other protective gear because love (of retail items and discounted shopping) is a battlefield.

spooks & catz.

ladies and gents. today is a very sad day. we gave up the last of the little guys. i had to bid farewell to this little fluffball.

i may have cried my eyes out about it for a good while. such a cute little kitty. gah. i just wanted to keep them all.

:(

on a lighter note. WE ARE KEEPING CARL!!!

i am so joyous about this. carl is my little babe and has been my pal from the beginning. so glad we're keeping her. she's just the best.

so ends the kitten era at my house. 'cept we still have carl. but what a fun time it was. i'm going to miss those little guys.

and...

HAPPY HALLOW-WEEN!!

i am going to be a cheetah. it was inspired by this awesome makeup which i am going to attempt.

now go party your pants off, all you demons!! i am stoked to see pictures of everyone's costumes.

enormous dancing chuckens.

i desperately want to be this for halloween.

a giant dancing chucken???? it's like it was MADE FOR ME.

via

mutti

happy mother's day



I love mine.

Today my mom got back from a week long trip to Australia. She told us that on the airplane she was sitting in the exit row and putting her feet up on a box thing that she wasn't supposed to put her feet on. Then she fell asleep. A flight attendant came and started poking her in the shoulder to wake her up and make her get her feet off. Then, when she woke up, she screamed really loud. I love all of these hilarious crazy things that she does. And doesn't even care what other people think.

in honor of vamlemontimes

Vamlentines is a pretty good excuse to talk about lurve, I'd say. So, my buddy ol' pal Amanda from my work told me about this book called "The Five Love Languages". If you take a quiz, it will tell you what kind of love you express and what makes you love others. The five are quality time, physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, and receiving gifts. They are all self explanatory. Except physical touch doesn't mean you're a PERV. It sounds ultra cheese, but being female, I was intrigued. And took the quiz.
Take it for yerself here.

I got equally quality time and physical touch. Which means that I love undivided constant attention and touching people. Yesssss. Really though. Quite interesting.

So what'd ya get?

to lelele. from lelele.

Oh! Christmas was WONDERFUL. Edward is all decked out now with a GPS and an amazing car kit. Received oodles of German chocolate (KINDER EGGS - Scrumptious chocolate wrapped in an egg shape around a plastic yellow capsule which contains a magical prize! Germans are geniuses) and also a Magic 8 Ball, which has already solved several dilemmas for me.
People, I have the best boyfriend of all. I want to exclaim it on the tip of a mountaintop to the world. He always makes Christmas so good and gives me such neat things. And, I'll have to put up a picture of what I gave him for the 12th day of Christmas. BASICALLY I'm like, the best grlfrnd ever.

From him. My feet are very happy.

And now Christmas is over and I have a Christmas hangover and I'm trying very hard to pretend like it isn't December 26th, for it is the most depressing day of the year. All the fun is over. I've always loathed it. Particularly sad this year. For me, Christmas was the midpoint between awesome and dreadful. Now, 1. School is starting soon and 2. Chris is leaving soon. To avoid symptoms of Christmas hangover I listened to Arcade Fire & cleaned out my closet which actually did bring me cheer. I love organizing + cleaning. And I was nearly breaking my arm pushing all of my clothes to the side every time I tried to get a sweater out of my closet. HA! Not. It was no match for my huge biceps. But it was getting ridiculous, I couldn't fit anything in there.

WELP, I hope Christmas was as awesome for you as it was for me!!!!

ace gang annual christmas party: VER 2.0

Second annual Christmas party. My house. Loooads of food. Trillions of laughs.



Eddy sat on everyone,



Britt played with Gary,



Jade wrapped Alexxx's presents in old men,



and Sharon looked super Asian. We also took several marvelous photobooth pictures that will forever be treasures, but those are for another post.



And the gift exchange was a huge success.

Lindsey had Ham and gave her Sour Patch chillren, headphones and New Pornographers CD (Shmeg: WHAT??? PORNOGRAPHERS??[sidenote: actually a catchy nice band])

Ham got Jade and gave her She & Him and Beirut (!!), argyle socks, Bert's Bees, and very Jade-ish earrings. PS. I think Jade looks rather beautiful in this phoe toe.



Jade had Alexxx and HAND-KNITTED her some hobo gloves and gave her a homemade wallet, and some neat fast drying nail polish stuff. Is there anything Jade can't do.



Alexx had Lindsey and gave her 25 dollars....in cash......wrapped in toilet paper rolls.



Shmeggie had Sharon and gave her headbands and all sorts of peacock things which brought on a round of singing Katy Perry.



Sharon had Shaelee, and as a fellow victim of Beiber Fever, she knew to get her just the thing to cuddle with on cold winter nights. Baby Biebs blanket and Tee.



Shadeee had moi and gave me a super soft leather jackutt, wooly tights and matching earrings to Sharon's!! I lurve it all.



I had Hannah and gifted unto her a wonderful red Downeast sweater (the finest)(cause Hannah looks GOOD in red. Like Homestar Runner.) and a leopard straightener. And chocolate o' course.



Hadduh had Kelp and gave her an adorable hat + handmade barrettes to pin on the hat. SOOOO CUUUTE.



Kelp had Brittany (could it get any more perfect?) and gave her a beautiful white shirt, beautiful pattern tights, a saucy book and yummy gum.



Britt-P had Rachel and gave her pink pom pom'd slippers, nail polish, and smell goods.



And Rachel had Shmeggie and gave her some adorable boots and white nail polish. This is one of my favorite pictures probably ever.



Everyone used Vicky bags....a little weird.



And.....this. What a girl.