Friends in tutus

As far as the lady friend department goes, I've been pretty fortunate all of my life. Wonderful, intelligent, beautiful, hilarious ladies have somehow always entered my life and stayed there.

A special group of ladies has been in my life for an especially long time. We like to call ourselves the Victoria Girls, after our elementary school name. Friends since third grade and on. Pretty special, right?

The reason I think we've all stayed in relatively good contact with one another through elementary school, middle school, high school, college and on is because of one Victoria Girl in particular.

In 7th or 8th grade, our friend Cindy had the opportunity to go to the American School of Ballet in New York City. Not just for a year or two, but for the rest of her middle/high school career. I remember thinking that this was going to change everything. That we wouldn't be friends with Cindy anymore since she would be on the opposite side of the country from us (Southern California to New York City is about as opposite as you can get).

After Cindy moved, we all found ourselves hanging out a little less with each other and a little more with different people. That's how middle and high school goes. You grow up and change, gravitating toward new friends who are more like you. But Cindy- I think- was a huge force in keeping us all together. Whenever she came home to visit, we all wanted to see her, pulling us back together into our core group again.

Having a close friend move so early on in our friendship taught all of us girls the importance of staying in touch with each other. I've tried to keep that lesson close to my heart with all of the friends I've made along the way and am proud to say- if I may toot my own horn- that staying in touch with old friends is a favorite skill of mine.

You may not hear from me for a couple weeks, but I'll always check in with you to see how you're doing.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been seeing ballerina things all over the internet, making me think a lot about Cindy and inspiring me to share out Victoria Girls story with you guys. Check out Cindy's gorgeous photo:

(The talented and beautiful Victoria Girl, Cindy Huang via IE Social Culture)  

 

(First Position via Cup of Jo) 

(Joedero via Etsy)

(Pure Barre classes in Austin, TX)

Humidity & country music

I was dying to go to Stagecoach a couple weekends ago in California. For those of you who don't know what Stagecoach is, it's Coachella, but for country music. It's usually a weekend or two after Coachella on the same polo grounds in Indio, California. Coachella gets all the press hype, but us country fans know that Stagecoach is where it's at. I've only missed one year of it since it started in 2008 and this year was by far the best lineup of country artists EVER. Plus all of my San Luis Obsipo college friends made plans to be there, which made missing Stagecoach this year that much worse.

Boo hoo. 

Yes, I did have a pity party for myself.

Lucky for me Lone Star Jam was on Saturday, allowing me enough time to wallow in my misery for missing the greatest year of Stagecoach and get pumped for an afternoon of Texas country.

Friends, I am a country music lover. As in, I know all the words to every song on country radio.

Except I was completely lost on Saturday. Apparently Texas country is completely different than normal, mainstream country. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as Texas country until I listened to the bands at Lone Star Jam. Everyone was singing along, leaving me wondering how the heck everyone knew the words to these songs when I, queen of country music, knew ZERO words.

Clearly I need to brush up on my Texas country music knowledge.

The bands were fantastic. Mickey & the Motorcars, Stony La Rue- my favorite, Josh Abbott and many, many others were great. 

Here's me and Roberto, trying to keep cool in the humidity:

Note to self for the next country concert I go to: do a better job preparing for sticky, skin-to-skin contact with fellow concert-goers who have been standing next to you in the heat and humidity for the last 7+ hours. Humidity, sweat and sticky skin is just something I'll have to get used to.

Ew.

The One.

Went to Hugo's happy hour last night (I went there a couple of weeks ago with a group of lovely blogger ladies) to meet up with some West Coast girls!

I met some University of Arizona girls who recently relocated to Austin- just like me!- a little while ago and we finally got together for some margaritas. Arizona girls Kate & Jamie brought a new friend that they had met who had gone to school at USC!

Needless to say, we all got along fabulously. It was so nice connecting with some girls who were from the same side of the country as me.

One hilarious thing that we agreed was a "West Coast" thing was saying "the" in front of interstate/freeway numbers.

For example: I can't get into the habit of calling one of the freeways in Austin "MoPac." (For those of you who aren't from Austin, "MoPac" is one of the freeways here that is also called "Loop One.") It's so weird to me. Robbie and I call it "The One" instead of MoPac and get made fun of all the time by locals and other Texans. The girls last night GOT IT, though! They do the same thing!

For those of you who haven't seen "The Californians" SNL skit, please watch it. That's how I feel whenever I call MoPac "The One."

What are your plans for Cinco de Mayo? Sandra from Beat of My Heart left a sweet comment for me suggesting that I go to the Cinco de Mayo Block Party downtown on Saturday. I think I just may do that! Thanks, Sandra! :)

Happy Thursday, y'all!

California and back

My first month in Austin was all about getting into my routine. Finding my way around town. Not getting lost whenever I hopped into a car.

My second month- getting into the groove of working at home. This was a huge challenge for me.

Third month in Austin, I was on a mission to find friends. This meant putting myself in situations that were extremely uncomfortable, such as:

- playing kickball with 10 strangers.

- going out with two strangers to karaoke.

- going out to bars too often and spending way too much money on fancy-schmancy drinks.

And as my fourth month in Austin comes to a close, I find myself settling in and wanting to try new things. I finally feel comfortable to venture outside of the bubble I've created since moving here and want to start doing "local" things, like going to festivals and concerts and finding cool hole-in-the-wall restaurants that tourists don't go to.

I'm ready to stop being a tourist.

Some new things heading my way:

- new job (just started this week!).

- new apartment in a new part of town soon.

A couple of instagram photos from the last two weeks:

(Martha Stewart stationery collection & California palm trees)

(My new job- yay!- and Sunday's lunch at the Austin Terrier)

(Cupcakes from Sugar Mama's for new boss's birthday and peace at Torchy's)

Pink, everywhere!

Have you ever felt a baby kick inside a mom's tummy?

Saturday was my first time and I have to say, it's one of the weirdest thing I've ever felt.

I also went to my first baby shower on Sunday for my cousin, Tiffany. My sister Page planned the shower and did an amazing job with the decorations.


The candy table. At the end of the shower, everyone took a couple of bags of candy home. There was a lot of candy left over, leaving me to snack on it for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday I was feeling the sugar pains.


Chevron candy favor bags. Speaking of chevron, check out the behind-the-scenes action of Ruthie and Job painting a chevron wall in their new home!



All of those onesies were stuffed in the glass jar. Everyone had to guess how many onesies were in there.


I love that cheetah/heart print onesie peeking out from the pile. So adorable!


Tiffany's present pile. My gift is in that pink and black zebra bag!


Diaper cake! Isn't this too adorable! Page made it, that crafty little minx.


Mason jar cups for punch.


Tiffany's crazy cake!

Page wanted to have a photobooth at Tiffany's baby shower, so she and I spent Friday night crafting a diy photobooth. We made an awesome ribbon background and Page made chalkboards to write parent advice for Tiffany and Luke.

Here's my advice:


My Aunt Ces's advice. Ha!


Tiffany checking out her gifts. She got a ton of awesome gifts from her friends and family. Scarlett Rose is going to be one spoiled baby girl!


My sister, Lauren, got this pink bathing suit for Scarlett. So tiny!


More beautiful decorations made by the talented Page Douglas.


My sisters and me.


Check out more baby shower photos at Patrick Ang's website. He was the photographer at Tiffany and Luke's wedding and Page was so sweet to invite him to shoot the baby shower. Here's a picture he took of my sisters, Aunt Ces and mama-to-be Tiffany:

(Patrick Ang Photography)

Hey, baby.

I'm hopping on a plane on Friday that's headed for California. On Saturday, I get to see this beautiful mom-to-be for her baby shower.

My cousin Tiffany is having her first baby girl so soon and we couldn't be more excited for her. This picture was taken at her bridal shower almost two years ago. Her adorable, rockstar husband Luke (lead singer in this music video) is completely over the moon about their baby girl, Scarlett. It'll be the first time that I see their new house and the baby Scarlett's hot pink nursery!

Here are a couple of favorite baby internet finds:

Gorgeous gender reveal party on Hostess with the Mostess.

A REAL gender reveal party from Natalie at Nat, Your Average Girl.

DIY homemade baby uggs!!

Adorable baby shower decoration picks from my sistagirl, Page at Page on Paper.

Pink feet cookies!

How cute is this honey bee themed baby shower?

Baby shower guest book- just sign a balloon!

Blog redesign. Hooray!

In case you didn't notice, my blog got a little makeover by Dana at Wonder Forest. It was badly in need of some design love.

I first found Dana through Jenni at Story of my Life. I loved her blog design and decided to check out Wonder Forest. I'm so glad I did.

Three things about Dana:

1. She's incredibly organized and efficient at delivering service. She kept me in the loop during the entire design process and completed the design super fast.

2. She's so dang nice! I felt 100% comfortable working with her on the design and she takes what you have in mind and makes it 10000000x better.

3. Her prices are incredible for the service she delivers. She's an extremely talented graphic designer who has very, VERY reasonable prices for the quality of design you receive.

I'm so pleased with her services and I look forward to working with her again SOON! Be sure to check out her blog. She has a fantastic hair curling tutorial that I've been wanting to try and she makes these adorable little stuffed pets.

Thank you, Dana!