Entries Tagged 'Friends' ↓

Brenda from The A to B of Cooking came over the other night, when I had no idea what to make for dinner. She proposed trading her cooking for my photography… um, yeah, of course I’ll take that trade!

Lucky for her, it’s pretty rare that I feel like making dinner — but I’m always up for taking photos.

I’m looking forward to your next visit, B! Yum!!

last friday, jason hosted a get-together with friends for christmas celebrations and rock band (of course).

he made egg nog cookies. they are magical things.

egg nog (with optional rum) was served in very fancy glasses. we have a lot of fancy glassware, by the way. many options.

the host always spends time in the fridge. (right?)

after dan arrived (in his very festive vest), jason kicked off the christmas celebration with a “yankee” gift exchange.

everyone brought a gift that cost $1 or less.

during round one, after everyone had drawn a number, each player picked a gift from the pile — no unwrapping yet! player #2 could either keep their gift from the center or trade with a previous player (#1, in this case), and so on. i like this round because it is fun to create speculation about what a gift might be!

i actually think it’s fun to do this mystery-gift-trading round once or twice more, but jason decided to skip right to round two.

to kick off round two, player #1 unwraps his or her gift. then player #2 unwraps his or her gift, and can either keep it or force player #1 to exchange. player #3 can keep, or trade with one of the previous players. and this continues through all of the players…

but, in the end, player #1 get final choice! he or she can claim whichever gift, of all of the gifts, that he or she desires.

during our exchange, melissa was player #1. she picked a kazoo out of the gifts and at the very end of the game — she wanted that kazoo back!

i actually traded a yoda-shaped usb flash drive for this giraffe bust. i want the whole collection of miniature busts!

after this, some friends stayed to enjoy santa’s slay with us, then we played rock band until about 2 a.m. — another fun evening!

i’m wishing a very happy holiday season for you and your friends, too.

crystal and jess threw a bachelorette party for bertine the weekend before thanksgiving. i think i avoided uploading the photos for so long because, although it was a super fun night, that was some hangover the next day.

when i finally reviewed these photos, though, i couldn’t stop giggling. we had way too much fun!

jess was giving massages, starting with bertine, of course.

we were tested on how well we knew bertine.

you know that bridal shower game of making a wedding dress out of toilet paper? we made lingerie out of crate paper instead.

i may have helped empty that bottle.

temporary tattoos! note: if you should ever need to remove a visible temporary tattoo because you need to go to work or something, scotch tape does wonders.

claire taught us some naughty sign language.

bertine and i both got kitty tattoos. and now you know why i know that scotch tape is awesome.

bertine’s shirt glowed in the dark, so we both tried to hold really, really still in the bathroom to capture it. or maybe i was the one who needed to hold still.

i wish i could share the whole series of photos in this set with vani, because i think they’re hilarious. but i can’t. just know that there is context to this photo, and it is awesome.

isn’t it amazing when the camera captures exactly how you were feeling?

bertine’s wedding is in one week!

Honestly, I was more freaked out at my 27^th birthday. After entering my late 20s and becoming more confident in who I am (a crazy cat lady who enjoys knitting and wine), 30 didn’t seem so daunting. The only thing I was worried about was how I would celebrate entering a new decade in my life — I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to do (other than knitting, petting kitties, and drinking wine, of course).

Luckily, two of my friends from South Dakota, Bridget and Lindy, decided to take a weekend vacation to the cities. This quelled my fear that I was truly boring. If I decided to stay in and do nothing, at least I’d have friends to talk to about how much I love staying in and doing nothing!

My weekend actually began with an 11/11/11 celebration at work — finger food and Apothic Red. I’ve been with Gage Marketing for about two weeks now, and the worst thing I’ve found is the toilet paper. Seriously, so far this place is rad. I’ve had a couple small projects so far — I’m looking forward to more — but it was pretty nice to end the work week with a glass of wine.

That evening, Jason and I went to a wedding on UMN’s Showboat. Our friends, Joe and Laura, got married. The ceremony was very lovely, her dress was gorgeous, and the karaoke was great!

On Saturday, I joined Bridget and Lindy for a day of adventure. We ate brunch at Fat Nat’s Eggs — a casual joint that I pass everyday going to and from work. I ordered the “Favrito” and it was super spicy and delicious. The atmosphere was similar to that of a VFW. It was a down-to-earth restaurant, and I will definitely go back to try more of the spicy breakfast platters they offer.

After that, we went to view some Ukrainian antiquities at the Museum of Russian Art. I’ve passed the building before, but never actually gone in. We saw a lot of tools, jewelry and vases that were about 4,000–6,000 years old and our minds boggled. I really, really wish I could’ve taken photos to share with you. We also saw art from Oleg Vassiliev. Most of his art was political and a bit over my head, but I enjoyed his storybook illustrations that were on display.

Then? IKEA. Boy, did I get some ideas about things I’d like to have in my house…

So we wore ourselves out pretty well and came up with the best way to recover and ring in my 30^th birthday: we stopped at Target for part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on DVD, the fixin’s for Tater Tot Hot Dish, and some cake mix. Kristi and Jason joined us for the evening as well.

Having friends that will watch parts 1 and 2 of the final Harry Potter installment with me? Priceless. I’m a pretty lucky gal!

Yesterday morning, I made a strata and Vani came over for some chatter before Bridget and Lindy had to head back to South Dakota. I opened various cards I received in the mail and the gift that Jason got for me — remote start for my car! That will be so nice to have this winter! My brother and sister-in-law sent me the most recent A Book Apart books (because I also <3 web) and my sister and brother-in-law sent me a gift card to Amazon.com (what should I get for myself??).

So, I'm feeling pretty spoiled thankful because I have an awesome boyfriend, amazingly generous friends, and a pretty good life in general. So far this decade is off to a fantastic start!

last wednesday, we invited over some friends to play rock band. jason was so excited, i think he downloaded at least 30 new songs that afternoon.

we had six instruments hooked up — guitar, bass, drums, keys, and two microphones. we would’ve had seven, but we would need to get one more microphone. not that it mattered, actually. it seemed like everyone who wasn’t holding an instrument was singing along with most of the songs anyway!

check out laura in this photo — she’s playing some sweet air guitar!

i don’t remember how it came up, but vani remembered every word and every handclap for down down baby.

crystal brought us an adorable halloween plant, too. it didn’t have a nametag, though — any one know what kind of succulent this is?

molly and ryan brought a really dangerous (read: delicious) buffalo/cheese dip.

vani brought a bunch of tiny cupcakes!

the bacon table: bacon/cheese crackers, bacon cheeseball, bacon chocolate, and bacon dip.

jess also made chocolate chip cookies. (jess: you are welcome to bake here anytime!)

as a somewhat informal tradition, we took a group photo. (yay, i got to be in one of my photos!) unfortunately, we missed taking the photo before dave left for another event, so we’ll need to take another photo at another get-together. what a shame.