december flicks & reads

i slacked on all levels this month.  nothing i watched was from my netflix account (which i intend to cancel next month) and no more than one book was read.  oops.  i finished "something blue" with plenty of time to read "something borrowed" in the month... but then the holidays happen.  yeah, i always find an excuse.  i even slacked at instagram-ing movie stubs and such to use..
most of the movies this month were selected by the boy.  4 our of the 7 to be exact. on our trip to chico we watched goldeneye, and he also acquired all the other james bond movies in digital (aka not vhs) format... so now you can see what exactly my future holds.  yep.  probably quite a bit of james bond education.  as far as the rest of his selections went, they were pretty good.  minus eight crazy nights.  i could have lived my whole life without seeing that gem of a cartoon.
as far as les miserables goes, i thought it was pretty well done.  i went in to it not knowing what the story line was, and found myself only confused a little bit here and there.  oh, and i expected a lot more of anne hathaway's charater, since that's basically all you see in the trailer.  so yeah.  i didn't cry like a ton of other people said they did, but i enjoyed it.
basic (2003)
the saint (1997)
goldeneye (1995)
10 things i hate about you (1999)
elf (2003)
les miserables (2012)
eight crazy nights (2002)
so apparently this was the follow up book to "something borrowed"... but i didn't know that and read this one first.  oops.  i still enjoyed the book anyways, despite that fact, and i'm sure i'll enjoy the first one.  i'm finding i really enjoy this author's writing style, so you'll probably see more of her books on my "reads" posts in the coming year.
something blue - emily giffin
in other news, here are some links to follow me on various social-ish sites
instagram
twitter
goodreads
have a fun, fantastic & safe new years eve, and i'll be back in 2013!

2012 - a look back

wow.  so hard to believe that 2012 has already come and gone in such a short feeling amount of time.  i swear this year went by faster than years before.  of course, i'm sure i will be saying the same thing at the end of 2013.  and i guess it is a good thing that the mayans were wrong about the world ending.  at least i would have gone out with a bang!  here is a brief look back at little things here and there in 2012!
january
new logo for freeze frame
bridesmaid dress shopping
february
disney on ice
wppi
march
benny & the jets formation
flash mobbed it up in SF
kasey's visit from germany
april
lunch time meet up with mrs blake
erika's first bridal shower
march of dimes
baby shower for jessi & adam
may
erika's second bridal shower
met wayne brady
jenny turned 24
erika's first dress fitting
june
erika's bachelorette party
watched my best friend get married <3
dance recital
sushi & fro yo for chris's birthday
kicked off the benny & the jet's chevy's birthday celebration with andrea turning 20
july
headed to reno
floated the river, resulting in a ferocious sunburn
state fair shows
lisa left for colorado... boooooo
august
stephanie's "benny & the jets" chevy's birthday
first date: august 10th.
country in the park
napa trip with jenny to see colin mochrie & brad sherwood
granddad's early 90th birthday celebration
september
kelcey's a little bit late birthday celebration
gold county fair
jelly belly factory
half moon bay
super hero bowling night
farewell to stephanie as she leaves for college
the end of late night driving back and forth to grass valley
october
10 years since stephi & kristiana passed away
the boy turned 27
band spectacular
november
first date, revisited
folsom band competition
birthday celebrations
the me turned 24, and had a job interview on my birthday
the boy also took me to chevy's for my birthday
got the job, and proceeded to work from 3am-noon on black friday... yay.
december
erika joined me in the ranks of being 24
had my first chico experience
four varieties of christmases this year.  yep. mom's side, our family, dad's side, and the boy's family
saw snow for the first time in years.  and was promptly hit with a snowball
old fashioned photos with the wilhelm clan
leatherbys, before josh was sent off to the circus

november flicks & reads

my internet has been pretty wonky the past week or so, which makes quite a few things more difficult than the really should be.  surprisingly, this is only a few days late versus the few weeks the past couple months have been.  november was a pretty productive movie going month for me, being at the theaters three times. not too shabby.  especially that they were two matinees and a bargain price tuesday ticket.
i think the weirdest of all the movies i saw this month was numb.  i don't even know where to begin on that one, besides that it's not the normal matthew perry that i'm so used to seeing on tv week after week.  don't knock it till you see it though!
little miss sunshine (2006)
crazy/beautiful (2001)
julie & julia (2009)
wreck-it ralph (2012)
the five-year engagement (2012)
skyfall (2012)
numb (2007)
silver linings playbook (2012)
honestly, i forgot i even read a book this month since i finished it way back at the beginning of the month.  then followed that up by checking out two books from the library and not opening a single one of them.  well, this lovely read was very typical of the jodi picoult books i have read in the past.  random, unexpected things happening at every given moment.  though this one wasn't the easiest read.  i feel like it jumped around quite a bit and was a little confusing at times.  if you decide to pick it up and give it a read, i wish you the best and would love to hear your thoughts on it!
perfect match - jodi picoult

october flicks & reads

let's play the totally slacked at updating again game.  yep, i'm still winning.  the problem with me remembering to post things is getting quite ridiculous.  though, this time october bled right in to november, and november means birthday month.  seriously, the first four days of november were full of a little bit of everything.  date nights, birthday celebrations, job interviews... you name it.  but i did still watch some movies, and read some books... which is why they're both jammed in to this one post.
the movie that was the most difficult to get through?  hunger games.  yes, i read the books first.  which meant i knew what kind of things happened.  and i pretty much had a death grip on the boy's hand the whole time just to be sure.  will i go see the next one in theaters?  probably not.  on a smaller screen was MUCH easier for me to handle.  pitch perfect was HILARIOUS.  like, i'd buy it the day it came out because i liked it so much hilarious.  but i'll wait for people to sell their used copies on amazon, because i like a good steal.  true story.
the hangover (2009)
can't buy me love (1987)
pitch perfect (2012)
the hunger games (2012)
charlie st. cloud (2010)
rain man (1988)
for the record, i did read the book for charlie st. cloud before watching the movie.  both books this month were pretty decent (and i'm glad i can say that i read two).  still didn't get that gym membership so i can have a place to treadmill and read more... maybe next month.  or next year since we're BASICALLY almost to 2013.  yikes.  where has the time gone by?
the death and life of charlie st. cloud - ben sherwood
love the one you're with - emily giffin

september flicks & reads

yeah, i know its almost two weeks in to october and i'm posting this... better late than never right?  september brought a new someone special in to my life, and my late nights of watching movies & reading by myself have taken a hit.  thus combining these in to one post.  no really, i do enjoy blogging still.  don't get me wrong!  i went out to the theaters twice this month, plus a few movies on netflix kept a balance of things being watched.  of course i can't blame everything on the new guy, but also thanks to tv shows coming back on the air and having new things to watch.  haha.  here is my list of movies, and they all were pretty good!
the pirates! band of misfits (2012)
the avengers (2012)
lars and the real girl (2007)
ruby sparks (2012)
the six wives of henry lefay (2009)
the good girl (2002)
crazy on the outside (2010)
yeah, my reading list is pathetic.  one book the entire month.  lame.  good thing is though that hopefully october will change.  i'm planning to get back in to going to the gym this month which will allow for some reading time when it comes to treadmills & such.  in the past, it was all about textbooks, but thanks to being a college grad, i have none of those to lug around and study anymore.
that said, this book was an excellent read, thanks to jenny.  i really don't want to go too in depth because i went in to it with not much knowledge about it beyond the title of the book (jenny told me not to read the back, but just dive in) and i would say the same to you.
room - emma donoghue

august flicks

huh... i'm pretty amazed that i was able to make it to the movie theaters three times this month.  yeah, i know looking at this list is pretty much a weird mix of everything, but i can't say i strongly disliked any of the movies i watched this month.  though, i think jenny & i hated ourselves for a few days after seeing madagascar 3... thanks to the stupid circus afro song.  nothing worse than trying to get things done... or sleep... and have THAT running through your brain.  though, it would be a pretty good form of torture ;)
riding in cars with boys (2001)
wanderlust (2012)
hope springs (2012)
keeping the faith (2000)
the bourne legacy (2012)
rent control (2002)
madagascar 3: europe's most wanted (2012)
chasing liberty (2004)
for richer or poorer (1997)

august reads

finally... i hit the end of the hunger games.  getting a hold of this book was quite the challenge, but it happened.  i can't exactly say it was my favorite of the series, though.  so many bits and pieces left me confused as to what was happening.  same goes for specials... the other trilogy that i finished this month (from the uglies series) totally should have read that series back to back.  the "slang" lingo they use in the book is pretty ridiculous too.  however, i did not end the month on a horrible note as far as book reading goes.  the prince charming list was a cute read, and bossypants was hilarious.  i haven't given many books a 5 star rating on my goodreads account, but those two definitely got 5 stars each.  so in summary.  read hunger games book 3 if you feel the need to finish the series.  skip the uglies trilogy, and totally read bossypants & the prince charming list.  but in the words of reading rainbow... you don't have to take my word for it.
mockingjay - suzanne collins
specials - scott westerfield
the prince charming list - kathryn springer
bossypants - tina fey

erika & matt - orange zig zag quilt

erika got married. of course with all the posts you couldn't forget the awesome-ness, but here's your last reminder... for now.  i've totally slacked, but now it's time to get around to posting the final piece to the crafting expedition.  no really, this thing was a BEAST.  i can trace back to starting this thing back in august 2011, but it might have even been sooner than that.  anyways, once i found out her colors were orange & pink tangerine & fuchsia, i was on my way to starting this intense project.  never in my life had i heard of an olympic queen size bed, but once i found out the dimensions, my little sewing machine had it's work cut out for it.  i decided to go with the orange colors, because i didn't want to totally torture matt with a pink quilt on their bed.  though, it would have been terribly amusing!
the idea for the quilt came from the addiction known as pinterest.  i got hooked on the zig zag patterns, and was so excited to put it in to use.  though, apparently my math skills aren't quite up to what they should be, because i ran out of fabric about three times...  oops.
the hardest part was probably getting the same fabric slices to line up to make that proper connected zig zag, but in the long run, and from a distance, it won't be that big of a deal.  plus, if it was perfect, it wouldn't be as awesome... (and if it was perfect, i would question whether i actually made it myself or not.)
more zig zagging. and finally using one of my super little "made by" tags. just to make things more legit.  my grandma did the quilting for me (and noted this to be the biggest quilt she's done as well) best part?  the quilt actually fits on their bed.  yeah, i think when erika told me that, i was finally able to rest easy about this beast of a thing.  and now, the moment you've all been waiting for...
top to bottom, hung from a rain gutter on my front porch. the beast.  and i still mean beast in the most loving way possible.  now i just have to resist the urge to make zig zag quilts for the remainders of my "to be wed" friends... because i love how it turned out THAT much.  maybe i'll just save this design for smaller repeats when babies start coming around in the coming years :)

july flicks

alright. alright. yes, i did go see magic mike.  and i'll throw out the fact that jenny & erika saw it with me so we are all equally guilty of seeing that "enticing" movie.  problem was, when we saw the movie, there was WAY too much trying to happen all at the same time during the 110 minutes of the movie.  unfortunately, i'm sure that movie COULD have been a whole lot worse than it was... but it also could have been a whole lot better.  so, if you are still desiring to see "magic mike"... wait for dvd.
good movies this month?  because i said so, new year's eve, and the always enjoyable she's the man.  makes me wish amanda bynes was still making movies.
the ugly truth (2009)
love, wedding, marriage (2011)
my girl (1991)
magic mike (2012)
new year's eve (2011)
miss pettigrew lives for a day (2008)
because i said so (2007)
two weeks notice (2002)
the amazing spider-man (2012)
romy and michele's high school reunion (1997)
definitely, maybe (2008)
she's the man (2006)
the wedding date (2005)
mirror mirror (2012)
shall we dance? (2004)

july reads

so this apparently posted yesterday, and i didn't update it as of recently.  so now here is the "official" read list for july.  much better than it originally looked.  i have to say, the books did get progressively better.  the first book was a real drag to read.  i guess after all of the lovey dovey romance of june's nicholas sparks theme, "i don't know how she does it" was just not up to par.  luckily, things picked up with leaps and bounds, and i ended off the month with a simple, short, but really interesting read of "the perks of being a wallflower".  i'm really interested to see how they took that book and adapted it in to a movie.
i don't know how she does it: the life of kate reddy, working mother - allison pearson
sing you home - jodi picoult
a bend in the road - nicholas sparks
the perks of being a wallflower - stephen chbosky

erika's wedding - garters & ring bearer pillows

so in the midst of all the wedding planning for erika, she asked me about making two things for her big day.  her garter set & ring bearer pillow.  yet again, another adventure over to pinterest to start looking for different ideas & styles for everything.  after scrounging the fabric stores together for the right color fabric & ribbon, we were set for everything to get going.


the ribbon we found for her garters was a little bit pinker than the actual shades of fushia of the bridesmaid dresses, but we figured since it would be under her dress, it was good to go. 

as far as the pillow goes, we managed to find a fabric for the fushia that was almost idential to the swatch erika had in her purse.  after three different attempts with the top pieces trying to get them to lay flat, the final product went together super smoothly.  we found these super adorable star fish buttons on etsy that were exactly what we needed to tie in the beach theme in a classy but not overdone way in to her ceremony.  

2012 truckee river float

last summer jenny and i experienced our first time tubing down the river.  this year, with kasey in town we decided to head off to reno again for a float on sunday.  this could also be documented as the trip with the vicious sunburn.  yes, we did put on sunscreen.  it either wore off/washed off from the length of the float, or the factor of the sunscreen being expired (found out later on) could have played a part in the leg burns.  we survived, so that's what matters, right?  here are the highlights from the lovely waterproof camera. kicking us off, jenny's excited face :)
during one of the stops, kasey found a crawfish, and began hunting it down with amy. eventually, it was captured and posed with. jenny had a camera too. she didn't almost lose hers downstream like i did. we survived the float, and it wasn't until getting back to amy's and rinsing off that i noticed my burns. next year, we'll all remember we should use the SPF 80 for all over. i'm just glad my face didn't burn. as bad as my legs burned, face burns are the worst!

over the week

alright, so i finally came up with enough to share about and post... so now you'll get a blog post.  and another reminder of how i still need to show off and flaunt the things i made off for erika & matt's wedding.  why must i show them off?  the real question is, why not?  anyways... here goes!
07.08

after far too long, and after enduring a movie together with jenny that we thought would be better than it really was, erika & i got some excellent hang out time.  well, more like target shopping, chipotle eating, playing dress up hang out time.  three fantastic things, right?  i got these two rockin' newlyweds to play dress up for me for my photography business so i could have some fresh faces for my portfolio.  well, we had to be sneaky so we didn't crash an actual event going on at the location we chose... and were pretty good about not being seen. and that's all i can really say about that, because i would run out of things to blog about when i post their other photos on my other blog :)

07.13

as with tradition, each year dad & i do our recital portraits for our dance studio.  also with that comes having to do our portraits.  benny, the jets, and i all got off work friday and headed over to knock our portraits out of the way.  we met up with the other relations (jacob, aileen & entourage) and got things going.  well, as you can tell, not everything was your traditional ballet portrait.  but hey, we kept things entertaining!

afterwards, kelcey ben & i headed out to chipotle (3rd time i went this week.  not ashamed one bit) to get a late night dinner.  ben got the off menu quesoritto for the first time, and it was massive.  it did recieve a thumbs up in his book though, so that's a plus.
07.14-07.15
saturday, after five hours of portrait sessions, and finishing packing, jenny, kasey & i headed off to nevada to visit amy & luke.  luke's cousin was visiting from illinois, and had apparently never been in a place like this before (as in, has never seen a real mountain before) so there was some things to do.  we had a homemade taco dinner, followed by a trip out to reno's finest casinos for some gambling & circus acts.  and a giant swarm of super hero dressed people.  hey, i totally managed to dress in theme with my sweatshirt.  now if we only knew why...

sunday we had breakfast and then headed off to the river to do some tubing.  the trip down the river was really smooth, and we all had a blast.  until we noticed how sun burnt we are.  either the sunscreen wasn't strong enough, or it wore off and we didn't bring it to reapply.  either way... it was painful!  like, i'm writing up this blog post coated in aloe vera & have blue ice on my legs painful.  we went to dinner at a chinese/sushi place and then once it got to be around 7:15 (and i won go fish by a landslide) we headed homeward.  it was a nice little two day-ish day-cation.  someday it would be nice to head out there and see a live show as well!

june snapshots

i slacked again.  here's a run down of what happened in june after erika's wedding till the end of the month :) dance recital
june birthdays at grandmassushi dinner for cseb's belated birthdaymonthly "benny & the jets" dinner. plus andrea's birthday this time :) of course, this also had to happen since it was andrea's birthday: