good friends, good food & the dutch baby

My lovely friends,

Can you believe that Christmas came and went already? New Years Eve will be here in a few days and I haven't found a knock-off gold sequined skirt yet for my party outfit (if anyone finds one in a small/medium, you know who to call).

Christmas at the Schiller household was nice and low-key this year. My dad got me these SWEET earbuds from Adidas. I'm not sure if other people experience this when they run, but my little ears get nasty and sweaty while running so my earbuds always fall out. I've resorted to using these 80s-looking earphones that are completely embarrassing to wear in public. These new Adidas earbuds are AMAZING!!! There's this nifty flap thing that tucks into the fold of your ear so it's nice and secure while you run. I'm in love.

Lauren got Page and me some knitting stuff and taught us the basics on Christmas. She's a pro at knitting.

Lauren trying to teach Page how to knit.

I resorted to using the hoop to make a beanie.

Uncle George drove all the way from the San Francisco area (as did Page and Ryan) to spend the day with us. Even though he was our guest, he entertained us with his amazing cooking skills. Lamb, crab legs, lobster, ham... we had it all.

Another successful Christmas down, MANY more to come in the future.

Today, I spent the day catching up with old friends.

I met Carizza and Devon for breakfast at The Original Pancake House and Carizza ordered the Dutch Baby...

It was a Dutch MONSTER! That thing was huge! For being such a tiny thing, Carizza ate that Dutch Baby/Monster like a champ.

Then tonight, I hosted a lovely little reunion for the Victoria Girls, 8 ladies that have been friends since third grade at Victoria Elementary School. We had a potluck style dinner and everyone brought a little something to share. After gossiping and reminiscing, we headed to Collin's house for an old-school high school partay. The Most, our faaavorite high school band, played and it was fabulous.

Good friends, good food and good times.

What else could I ask for?

xoxo

the secret is sexy

P.p.s. Found my new years eve party outfit:

Thanks, Victoria's Secret, for always having adorable, sexy outfits.

props to brookelyn

p.s. Real quick, I wanted to show you a sweet project that Brookelyn from Brookelyn Photography is doing. To celebrate turning 30, she's going on a trip to India for 30 days to take pictures of 30 women who have created a business from micro-lending. At the end of her trip, she's creating a 8x10 print of her photos.

Pretty awesome.

Check out her 30x30 project. Buy a print. Or just send her good thoughts!

wonderful winterland weekend of woo

My dear friends,

It's official. The quarter is over and Kristin is moving out! I'm so sad. To send her off into the real world in style, we had a girls trip to Lake Tahoe.

Before driving all the way to the lake, we stopped for a night at Kristin's house in Jackson. My goodness, her family has a beautiful house and a GIANT piece of property. When we arrived, it was already dark so I didn't get to see just how gorgeous the view from Kristin's window was until the morning.

Here are her two dogs, Ginger and Dakota. They're adorable.

We hung out with Kristin's parents in the morning for a bit then hit the road.

Kristin stopped once there was a ton of snow so I could play in it for a minute. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow in my life.

The ladies:

We got to Tahoe in about an hour or so and found out that our fancy-schmancy hotel room in Harrah's had TWO BATHROOMS! WITH TVS! High-class living, I'm telling you.

Ashley took us to a little wine bar down the road from Harrah's called Apres. It was adorable and delicious. Yes, I drank all of that Chardonnay by myself.

It was VERY snowy outside, and since there's nothing to do in the snow but gamble and eat, we had midnight snacks at the Hard Rock in Harvey's. I loved the "pray for snow" sign in the Hard Rock.

The next morning, we woke up to a huge snow storm! I've never been outside when it was snowing, so I was loving it. We mostly stayed inside though to keep dry. For those of you who haven't seen Megamind, you should. Fantastic movie.

Here's where we would've gone ice skating if it wasn't so snowy.

Lunch back at the Hard Rock. We hung out in our hotel room and watched Eat, Pray, Love. Wasn't impressed.

Then we took a drive in the snow. This is me excited about how much snow there is. I know- I don't have a coat on. I'm an idiot. It was very cold.

After margaritas and dinner at Chevy's, we came back to the hotel and I made the girls get bundled up so we could play outside in the snow.

Out playing only lasted about 20 minutes, but we had fun throwing snowballs, making snow angels and sliding around.

Here's the view from our window the morning after the snow storm. Beautiful.

We left early the next morning so I had to quickly take a few shots of how gorgeous it was outside. The pictures don't do Lake Tahoe after a snow storm any justice.

I'm ready to go back to the snow.

xoxo!

we're going hot

Dear friends,

Shooting guns is scary.

For Robbie's birthday, I took him to an indoor shooting range. Never having shot a gun before, I didn't know how freaking scary shooting one can be.

Robbie was loving it though!

I learned how to load a gun.

It's hard.

I also learned how to aim.

This is me being scared to shoot. I only shot maybe three times (as in three bullets) because it freaked me out too much.

There were two cops shooting next to us. Our target is the black one and one of the cop's target is the orange one. The cop was practicing shooting one-handed... with his left hand. He hit the target in the head every single time.

Don't mess with that guy.

Funny story: while Robbie was changing guns, the two cops and I took a break from wearing those headphones since no one was shooting. When the cops were ready to shoot again, one of them said to me, "Ma'am... we're going hot!" I had NO clue what that meant at the time, but I loved it. It may be my new catchphrase.

Overall, scary experience. I'm glad we went- Robbie had a blast and wants to go again.

He can go with a friend.

xoxxoxo!

P.s. My roommate, Kristin, GRADUATED yesterday!!!!! Congrats, miss lady!

procrastination help

Dear friends,

This week is finals week.

It is finally:

- the end of the quarter

- Robbie's birthday

- time for Kristin to graduate (sad!)

- feeling like Christmas time

Two finals and one senior project down and one final to go.

For those of you who are still studying for finals, please take a moment or two to procrastinate:

around the web

Hilarious Cake Wrecks that almost make you pee your pants.

Christmas tree cupcakes that help me get into the Christmas spirit.

The secretest of secret posts from PostSecret.

Joanna's wonderful Christmas Gift Guide that makes you wish you had a billion dollars to buy AWESOME gifts.

Lovely deals & ideas from Snapfish for Christmas presents.

Pretty prints from Tush Tush (found through Joanna's blog)... This one's my favorite.

Homemade french fries recipe. Made some this week! Delish.

In LOVE with this beachy photo by Brookelyn

movie trailers

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (On instant play on Netflicks)

The Next Three Days (TOTALLY worth $10 to see in a theater)

Black Swan (Disclaimer: don't watch if you're easily freaked out...)

The Eagle (Looking forward to seeing Channing Tatum branch out from his usual role as gangster heart throb)

Little Fockers (For Becca, whose true love is Ben Stiller)

Happy birthday, Robbie!

(photo from last New Year's in Seal Beach)

xoxoxoxooxoxox