my partner in crime is a college graduate

Preschool graduation, circa 1996 maybe?

 Not much has changed.

My sweet not-so-little-anymore brother graduates from San Diego State University this weekend with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am so beyond proud of him.

Although he finished his degree in December and has had his diploma for months, the whole ceremony makes it so much more official, am I right?

Congratulations, Devo; we love you!

little update: curb appeal

I did a simple little "decor project" today and was really surprised at the difference a little accessory made. Take a look!

Before:

After:

Such a little change, but it makes a huge impact on the curb appeal of the house! I just added a little Memorial Day/Fourth of July spirit (salvaged from the cabin) and a vinyl decal from Ally's Attic Crafts (purchased from Groopdealz, but you can get one here)

 

The vinyl "decal" is applied the same way you might stick on a bumper sticker: 1) Determine the best location for the vinyl (above)...

...2) peel paper backing off of vinyl and stick firmly to clean surface...

...3) peel off protective plastic, making sure to press firmly on the newly exposed vinyl. That's it!

The flag heart got a new coat of white paint before making its debut, and as you can see above I swapped out the faded raffia bow for a smaller and neater bow (recognize it from here?)

 Love love love love love it! There's not a whole lot we can do to personalize our front entryway--not only is our place a rental but it's also a townhome, which means an association AND  a landlord determine what our front area will look like before we do. 

how'd i do? 25 before 25 recap!

So, I'm 25. Before I talk about what we did on my birthday, let's take a look at how I did on my 25 before 25 list! 

Accomplished:

Go with Tim on one of his business trips. Our recent trip to New York City fit this goal. While Tim worked during the day, I explored Manhattan alone; in the evening we played in the city together!  While it wasn't as fun as, say, an actual vacation, it was still a good time. 

Go on a spontaneous road trip. Actually, the majority of our road trips are spontaneous, so this was kind of a gimme. BUT! One memorable spontaneous trip though was the weekend we visited my parents after finding out that my little brother was asking his soon-to-be Father-in-Law for his then-girlfriend's hand in marriage. Um, HOP IN THE CAR we're going homeeeeeeeeeee!

Go to a movie by myself. I checked this one off just last week, and I'd highly recommend it if you've never done it! Such a refreshing and freeing experience. I went to go see "The Big Wedding" because the others I really do want to see with Tim; it was funny and the cast was stellar but the message totally ruined it for me. BUT seeing it by myself in a big empty theater was pretty interesting! I did miss sharing the movie with someone, but doing something for just me? Pretty awesome.

Learn how to use our Rebel. I read through the camera's manual on a train to my Aunt's wedding weekend in April and tried to use some of the techniques I learned at the wedding (recaps here!). I'm making more of an effort to bring the camera with me if I know I'm going somewhere pretty or potentially memorable (weddings, road trips, wine tasting, etc); now I need to work on charging the battery more often! The battery died our first day in NYC; you can tell when I stopped using the pretty camera and started using the iphone. SUCH A BUMMER! I still have a LONG way to go and a lot to learn, but my photography "skills" are definitely improving.

Buy a car to replace the Cabrio. Done! Picked up our little Jetta TDI superbowl weekend.

Get back to wedding weight.  Technically, I'm still 5lbs over my wedding weight. HOWEVER, I still count this one as checked off the list becuase I was able to fit back into my wedding dress for our "wedding faux-to shoot" we did back in February. I was super stressed the weeks preceding the wedding and I probably lost too much weight anyway, right?

Spend a day off at the beach. Did this a few times, although the weather never really cooperated and we ended up freezing. Looking forward to sunny and wind-free beach days this summer!

Run a 5k.  I didn't run an official 5k, but I made it a point to get out and run more these past few months. The bike path along the beach is a little over 5k round trip (it's 5.9 actually; go me!), and we ran that a few times. I would still like to do a color run or a mud run so Tim can join--my last mud run would have been so much more fun with him!

 

Take the motorcycle permit test {and pass it}. Done! I passed the test on Good Friday, and hope to soon take the actual license test. I love that little scooter!

Bake French Macarons. YES! On my first attempt I had little feet and very little cracking. Score! The second, third, and fourth attempts failed miserably. I'm taking a little break and will try another technique. I'll of course let you know how that goes.

Read 5 books from my high school “required reading” list. Done and then some! In the last three months I have read (among many many other things): 1) Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 4) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and 5) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. 6) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was so fun revisiting these books from my "childhood", and I'm glad I gave some of them a second shot :) Others, not so much.

Tip 100% of my bill at a restaurant. YES! Did this on date night and it was so great to bless our server that way! I made sure to tip it in cash and slip away before she came to collect it, so it was a surprise. :)

Touch my toes! With a LOT of stretching beforehand, I can make contact. Briefly.

Have a picnic at the mission. A REAL picnic with a basketand wine. Crossed off the list on Feb 24th {Although, to be fair, I did sub beer for wine and a Trader Joes bag for the basket, but it was close enough. There was lunching on a blanket in the grass; that's what really counted}. We have had the chance to do this several times since then, and every time has been fantastic.

Sew with chiffon without screwing it up {Weird? Maybe}. I whipped up this little chiffon skirt (third photo above) in about an hour or two while Tim was out of town this past week, and it was more or less successful.  I count this as half accomplished.

Go on a camping trip. Done at the end of March. We went camping at Lake Cachuma and although we froze our tootsies off, we had a blast. 

Go media-free for a weekend. Accomplished at the end of March when we went camping. 

Cross 5 things off my Pinterest to-do list. BOOM, done. I did six for my Pinterest Challenge. Sure, they were not completed in the six weeks I intended (and some haven't even been blogged!), but I still was able to accomplish them all.

Tried (but did not succeed) to accomplish:

Launch an online store. Still working on this one. Stay tuned!

Go see a play! Nope. We had a few opportunities for this one, but it just never happened. Another time.

Host a party with a signature cocktail! It's been a beast to try and plan a party to which people can actually attend! The party has not yet happened, but I know exactly what I'll be serving as our "signature drink". I'm keeping it a secret, but you know I'll share when I do :)

Write my 250^th blog post. Failed. I've been TERRIBLE about blogging the past few months (as if you didn't know that already). I am just FIVE POSTS SHORT! (four, including this one) So close!

Go rock climbing. This was one we didn't get to, but not for lack of trying! A new indoor rock gym opened up in town a few months ago, and we've been dying to go ever since we first noticed it. HOWEVER. We have tried to go three separate times since it opened and all three times were a bust. It was 2-for-1 night and the walls were all full; someone rented the place out for their birthday party; they were getting work done on one of the walls and we would have to come back another day. We even have all the waivers filled out and turned in! It's happening this summer, for sure. 

Have one job interview. I have a few leads, but haven't had an actual interview.

Bake an apple pie from scratch. Didn't even try this one.

Not bad, eh?

While I was hoping to accomplish more than 72%, I feel pretty good.

Happy Birthday to meeeeee!

i got it from my mama

Today is a huge deal. Yes, it's Mother's Day, but it's a very special Mother's day:

Today is the 25th anniversary of the day my mom first became a mother.

My gorgeous mama. Very 80's ;)
I have the pleasure of spending Mother's Day with my mamma for the first time since graduating college three years ago. My brother and I are re-kindling our childhood tradition of serving our parents breakfast in bed despite some complications {a pretty major kitchen renovation}. Life is entertaining :)

I love you, Mommy. Thank you so much for all that you do. Happy Birthing Day. ;)

my "something old"

I was going through an old family album and found this:

Baby Brittany playing dress-up in my mamma's wedding duds.
More than 22 years later, I got to wear part of that veil again:

Memories.

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As of last night, my final round of grades are officially IN, which means my last semester at Westmont has come to a close.  I  still have a little over a month left on campus, but the majority of the students are gone and I'll be prepping the place for my "successor".

What. A. Trip.

cupcake wrapper flowers // diy

Pretty, right? Let's make one. It takes less than 10 minutes (if you don't have a distracting helper like I did, that is)

Materials:
5+ mini cupcake wrappers, any color
4+ standard cupcake wrappers, any color
Foam Adhesive Dots
Scissors or Pinking Shears
{not pictured} Stapler

 Step 1: 
Fold a cupcake wrapper in half, then in quarters, then in eighths. Round off the corners until you have an even petal shape.

 Repeat for all of your wrappers, large and small.

Step 2:
 Make piles of the larger and the smaller petals. Stagger the layers to fill in gaps between petals, and staple. "X" the staples on your smaller stack of flowers; the larger petals can get away with just one staple. Place an adhesive dot in the center of the larger stack.

Step 3:
 Fluff the petals, then place the smaller stack on top of the foam adhesive dot.

Keep on fluffing until your flower is PERFECT!!!

 That's it! The beauty of this project is that cupcake wrappers are CHEAP (I picked up a hundred of the assorted pastel colored ones at the dollar store) and they come in tons of fun colors. The sky's the limit with this one!

This one got a home on a present for my mamma. I stuck it on with another foam dot, fluffing it up afterwards.

Because, you know, Mother's Day is on Sunday. You're welcome ;)

It's so easy!

my babies

My third {and final} graduating class.

Congratulations, Psychology Class of 2013. I'm so proud of you guys!

opposites attract

Jessica Fairchild Photography

I love to thrift shop; he'd rather wait in the car. 

He's a social butterfly; I'm as awkward as they come.
I like BRIGHT! COLORS!; he gravitates towards black and brown.

Jessica Fairchild Photography

He loves dark chocolate; I rarely crave chocolate at all.

I am a bird person; he likes them because he has to.

He's an extrovert; I'm an introvert.

Jessica Fairchild Photography

I have a sweet tooth; he prefers spicy.
He's a lefty; I'm right (always and handed) ;)
I'm a stickler for etiquitte; he's more laid back.

Jessica Fairchild Photography

He's the yin to my yang; the peanut butter to my jelly. 

We couldn't be more different, but we wouldn't have it any other way.