It's Birthday Season

It's that time of year.  No, not Christmas.  It's birthday season.  I always feel like the beginning of the year to early mid year is when there's the most birthdays.  At least in my group of friends it feels like.  Three weekends ago was the first birthday we celebrated this year.  Last week we celebrated another one and there's two birthdays next month.  Not that I'm complaining or anything.  Birthdays are always fun.  For the birthday three weekends ago, a surprise was planned for my friend at Charlie Palmer where we had an open bar deal for three hours.  You can imagine how crazy that went.  Servers were coming into our private room with drinks after drinks.  I didn't bring my camera to the open bar so I captured some pictures before it got dark out.

This picture would normally belong in the delete pile since I blinked and bangs in my eyes but I like that you can clearly see the ombre hair.  Plus, some candid shots are always good right?

UO blazer | Nordstrom top | Gstage Boutique shorts | Nordstrom tights | H&M booties | F21 cuff

I Like

 New black pumps from Zara

Pomegranate Oil Diffuser from Pottery Barn to make my room smell nice

Lantern from Z Gallerie that the bf bought for his place, but I ended up keeping hehe.  Possible book end?

Second attempt making macarons was successful!

Crab Cakes

Over the holidays my mom asked if I wanted to make something for our Christmas party.  I came upon this crab cake recipe and it looked simple enough so I gave it a try.  I also made an aioli sauce to go with the crab cakes and to my surprise, it was a lot easier than I had expected.  I love aioli sauce and never knew it consisted mainly of mayo, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Had I known it was that simple I would've made this sauce more often.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the sauce, but I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like. 

1/2 cup of red onion, diced
1/2 cup of celery, diced
1/2 cup of red pepper, minced
2 tablespoons of parsley, diced
1/4 teaspoon tabasco
1 teaspoon of crab boil spice (Old Bay)
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 pound of lump crab meat (canned)
1/4 cup of mayo
1 egg
1 tablespoon of dijon
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Two Thousand Twelve

I'm a little late but happy new year!  2011 came and went by so fast!  It feels like the older I get, the faster time goes by.  WHY SO FAST?! Looking back on 2011, I would have to say it was a very eventful year.  It was definitely a memorable one. Here's a recap

- First time going to Miami
- Weekend in Pismo beach and ATVing
- Neyo concert on Valentine's day
- Crazy fun weekends in Vegas.  Best one was when my gfs came too
- Anniversary on May 28, 2011
- Katy Perry Concert
- Lake Mohave house boat trip
- My surprise birthday weekend
- Mini vacay with my dad's side of the family.  First one in about 4 years
- Seeing many DJs spin for the first time
- Completed my first half marathon (and probably last)
- Watch the Throne concert

And many more.  I ended the year in San Diego.  I wasn't looking forward to the event we were going to but it ended up being really fun.  Good company and definitely good music.  I have some new music to add to my itunes now.  Now that it's 2012 (still not use to writing that) I'm hoping that it will be an even better year.  I'm hoping for some good changes to comes around.  These are some of my goals for 2012:

- Find a better fitting job
- Read more (I bought The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo last month and I'm only on page 17)
- Learn to use my new DSLR
- Some other work related and personal goals

Tea Time

While I was back home in San Jose for the holidays, my bff and I went to San Francisco to try out this tea place called Secret Garden Tea House.  It actually wasn't my first choice.  I wanted to try Lovejoy's Tea Room but they weren't open and Crown and Crumpet is so popular that you need to make reservations a few days ahead.  I did enjoy Secret Garden though.  Their tea and sandwiches were delicious.  Tea houses are definitely a good and cute place to gather with friends to chit chat and eat.

 UO blazer, UO top, CoH jeans, Steve Madden boots

Let it Snow

When the holidays start to roll around, I know I'll be doing some baking so I found this gingerbread cookie recipe.  I've never been a huge fan of gingerbread cookies though.  It might be because all the ones I've had are the hard kind and I'm more of a soft chewy cookie person.  I'm also not a fan of any baked goods that are too spicy or gingery tasting.  This recipe however, was just perfect!  The cookies came out soft and chewy and had the perfect amount of spice!  If you decorate it with icing they become delightful goodies that you can package and give away!  

Better Late Than Never

It's been well over a month since I last posted anything on this blog.  Shows how well I keep up with projects that I start.  But, I'm going to try and be better at this.  A few weeks ago I went to the Watch the Throne concert.  I was really excited for the concert and I'm so glad I went to see two of the best artist perform together.  Who knows when they'll have a show like this again.  It was AMAZING!  I sat at the lower level so we actually had a great view.  They played alot of their old songs, which I think is what made the concert so good.  This is definitely on my list of top 3 best concert. We got inside right when it started and there was no intermission so I only took pictures of the show.  Boo.