instagrammed: catching up

Judging by the radio silence and/or light posting of a lot of my regular blog reads, I must not be the only one feeling a little blah on the writing front lately. (but I am going to share a cool project next week - so please don't give up on me yet)

Here's a Friday-appropriate, cop out post of instagram pics.

1. rather blah hair day trying to figure out a new style.
2. I was a winner in the 2nd anniversary giveaway at In Pursuit of Pretty Things! (Thanks, Carol & Kathryn)
3. dinner: goat cheese, caramelized onion, roasted garlic pizza. yum
4. what my hair looked like right after walking out of the salon...perfect and unrepeatable
5. picked a bunch of calla lilies from our yard to bring to a friends for lunch. Sadly, they wilted on the way.
6. Indian food on girls night!
7. DIY knit baby booties (I finished them off with a tiny pink polka dot ribbon)
8. a t-shirt necklace made from a shirt I ruined last year.
9. homemade skillet cornbread - elicited audible groans from the boys = huge win
10.  sneak peek of the project I'm sharing next week.

ps. follow me on instagram - I'm lattelove

Happy Friday, friends!

I'm going to make these mint chocolate chip cookies and maybe have a Guinness with E this weekend. Then we're going to start working on our garden!

Losing Picnik

Are you guys avid Picnik user like me? I don't edit my photos much, but Picnik got me started. I've been using the premium version for a couple of years as an alternative to purchasing a photo editing software (partly because of cost and partly because my old home computer couldn't handle another program). So you can imagine my dismay at the announcement that Picnik is shutting down on April 19! Google purchased Picnik in 2010 and has now decided to close down the site. (boo hoo)

Supposedly the alternative is going to be increased features on Google+. While I'm interested to see what changes they make to Google+, it's hard to imagine it being able to replace the features of Picnik! I use it to make collages, fix red-eye and a million other things.

Are you sad about losing Picnik too, or do you all use other photo-editing programs? Any alternatives I should be looking for?

Create: my style

One creative thing I've worked on this year (besides dozens of half-finished crafty projects at home) is my style tumblr blog.  After participating in a few fashion challenges over the last year, I had gotten used to taking pictures of my outfits everyday, so in April I created an outlet for those pictures:

http://lattestyle.tumblr.com

I wasn't really sure it was going to work considering I blog 3-5 times a week already here. But I didn't want to turn this blog into a style blog, so it's been a great place to grow and explore my interest in fashion.

This side project has also allowed me to write in a way that is slightly more sarcastic and stream-of-consciousness than usual (and maybe a little more like my real-life persona?). So it's been a fun outlet for creative writing, as well as creative dressing. My readership has crawled up little by little over there, and now about 90 people follow my every-few-days, daily style tumbls.

Here are a few of my favorite outfits from the past 8 months since I started it. (if you click on the photos, they'll link to the posts).

p.s. If you follow me here or there, thank you! It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you around.

             

----------------

I'm participating in #WEverb11

The 10th prompt is: Create. Share a creative project you undertook this year (art, writing, DIY, cooking, home decoration, crafts, photography … whatever comes to mind). How do you use your creativity to express yourself?

our week, via instagram

(Or, 'I take SO many pictures of food'!)

  
 
  
 
 
 

1. food truck event at a local brewery. E got a NY style pastrami, and I got pierogis
2. frost on the ground (a first!) and puppy chow as Christmas baking kicks off
3. the makings of saffron risotto, and piles of stuff for a (sadly, unsuccessful) garage sale
4. pesto lasagna and pesto minestrone
5. syrup and dough to make my second favorite dutch treat (here's my first!), stroopwafels
6. the finished stroopwafels, and an oreo/heath/kahlua chocolate trifle.(yes, it was as yummy as it looks and sounds)

How was your week/weekend? Are you working this last week before Christmas? We have a work Christmas party tomorrow night, and a work potluck for those who are still in the office on Friday the 23rd. But then it's off for a week, woo hoo!

Thanksgiving at Disneyland

Mickey & Minnie were great company on Thursday.

Disneyland was a lot more packed than we hoped, but as always, we went in with a strategy and didn't have a long wait in more than two lines. We missed Pirates of the Caribbean because they were re-opening it that day so the lines were insane and fast-passes sold out quickly. The new Star Tours update was really good - we had no idea they changed it! Much better graphics and story.

It was my first time going to Disneyland around the holidays so I especially enjoyed seeing all the holiday decor - the castle was beautiful! It was actually E's mom's idea. [She's not a fan of photos of herself so I didn't include any here]. Then, on Friday we went shopping in Old Pasadena and had fun starting our Christmas shopping (surprisingly it wasn't very busy!).  Sunday I made a thanksgiving dinner to make up for the missed holiday. It wasn't terribly creative, but I considered it a success!

Holiday weekends. So much of everything I love.















1. Captain EO (Michael Jackson circa 1986) and our favorite lunchtime show, Billy Hill & the Hillbillies
2. Spotted: The Mad Hatter and Alice, near the Teacups
3. Enormous Christmas tree, and E double-fisting and dominating his favorite game, Buzz Lightyear
4. The Christmas parade
5. Storybook land
6. Main Street USA at twilight
7. Mr. Toad, and the castle
8. I wore a Tshirt I bought four years ago and still fits! Breakfast at the Anaheim Hilton - YUM
9. E in his element at a used/vintage bookstore and coffee at Intelligentsia
10. Our belated Thanksgiving festivities - I did the entire dinner! so happy it turned out.


I hope you all had wonderful weekends with food, family and fellowship!


p.s.I couldn't resist digging up a picture from my very first trip to Disneyland - a few months before E and I started dating - and comparing it to one we took this week. What a different four years makes...