Cross Country Journey (part 4 + meeting piper).

lots of water towers, but this one was my fave...smiley.

stopped by a mall in iowa

(where trish used to live!)

we cruised over a major waterway

it was HUGE!

I hardly remember this part of our trip because we were racing the clock to try to beat Devon getting discharged from the hospital. She had Piper and Patrick all ready to get home for the first time as a family and I was hoping to catch them at the hospital before they left (to give them private family time at home). It was a super stormy day and Jamie did such a terrific job of keeping our truck on the road....I think we were listening to Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie (hilarious read). 

But all the while, I was thinking of how many life events I've been able to go through with Devs and how lucky I was to be able to meet her first born child within the day. We've been friends since the 7th grade and I was going to meet her baby so soon?? I couldn't stop grinning and kept our rest stops super short this day.

Eleven years ago...

omg, look at my crazzzy acrylics. i must have thought they were so hot.

We finally got to Chicago with a gorgeous rainbow floating over the city. It was a huge arc across the entire sky and I couldn't get a picture because we were busy trying to exchange our moving truck for a rental car! By the way, fun moving tip....when renting from a nationwide trucking company and wanting to safely long-term park, you can leave it with them on their official lots. It worked out great for us to leave it at the O'hare lot (locked at night), rent a car from the airport, and get around Chicago in our own ride (public transportation with a dog can be a little tricky). 

Once we got into town, I abandoned Jamie at Katherine's, and raced over to the Larkins for a quick visit, to hold Piper for the first time, cry, and sit with my friend....a new mom. It kinda blew my mind. Patrick escaped for a quick nap while we girlie-chatted in the living room with the baby. She was so gracious to let me come over that first night.

The next morning:

Me = so proud.

Piper = grinning as best she could. (i think her tongue was out!)

Devon = not looking like she got discharged the night before. pretty.

Dev wanted to take a picture kissing Piper.

I joined in on the fun.

There have been a few times in our lives together that folks have thought us an actual couple. The few that stand out in my mind:

1. Showing up for evening swing dance lessons in northern orange county one summer while we were home from college.
2. Mass pre-summer emails sent out to future camp co-workers were signed off as "devon and leslie". Led to many a confused reaction when we tried to explain our non-couple status upon arrival.
3. We moved into a big, yellow house in Sacramento and sent out "New Address" postcards. Our high school english teachers returned it with a HUGE house plant and a super sweet "congratulations on your new home together" card. We hypothesized the card must have led them to believe we finally pulled the trigger and purchased a home as a couple. 
4. And most recently, the photo above. 

It's like piper is OUR baby, devon!!

Arrrr, Matey.

Piper Alice Larkin

July 21, 2010

And if you're thinking this baby looks a little...uh....pirate-y (?), check out her genetic contributors:

Patrick - the father.

Devon - the mother.

Such good sports these two have been, to have so many guests tromp through their home to meet the little munchkin. Piper's been held by those who have been lovingly waiting for her, taken to several restaurants in her first week (what do you expect from foodie parents?), and is just ridiculously adorable. I obviously got lots of shots (oddly enough, none of dev + her child), can't wait to share them with you!

Gotta get back into that truck tomorrow morning....not sure how I'm feeling about that one. 

Lush Greenery (Woolly Pockets)

Have you noticed the crazy amount of greenery adorning the walls of Marvimon House? We had hoped to get away with homemade & reusable flowers for our wedding so having built-in "different" greenery was a perfect backdrop for our plans!

So much greenery in unexpected places....

 Hmmm....someone is sure taking his sweet time writing something seemingly naughty in our guestbook. Scandalous! Terrific! Hilarious!

I figure it's about time I focus on the "secret" behind the permanent wallscapes, surrounding our wedding guests in all sorts of lush greenery.  Woolly Pockets! Yup, lined or unlined pockets of "wool" to hold all sorts of fun plants! Succulents! Herbs! Happiness! 

Woolly Pockets comes in two styles: ones for horizontal surfaces and others to be hung on walls for vertical gardening. They can be used indoors and outdoors and have built-in moisture barriers to help protect furniture, but are durable enough to holdup outside. They’re perfect adding green to areas that are short on real estate (like bathrooms, garden walls, etc.).

And best of all? They're made of felt made from recycled plastic bottles! Yes!

Add some greenery to your outdoor shed or independent garage.

 Narrow kitchen? No worries, throw a Woolly Pocket up there!

The pockets were created by Miguel Nelson who owns Marvimon House and its sister property, The Smog Shoppe (bit larger than Marv). When we walked in and started talking to Miguel, I asked right away if those were woolly pockets on the wall because I recognized them from my fave SF greenery place, Flora Grubb. And guess what? That was his first installation outside of his own properties!

 I can see this hanging over a railing or even a towel rod in your shower.

Decorate your store front and advertise your coolness.

Miguel was pretty stoked that I recognized his brand spanking new product. And when I found out he went to the same Tucson high school as Jamie, I kinda flipped out. It was a lot of coincidence for me to handle.

Pretty awesome, right? And check it out. If you're at a school that could benefit from a garden of Woolly Pockets, click here for a terrific opportunity (ahem, Christine B., Holly M., Debi G., Brad S., and any other teacher readers!).

A Woolly School Garden is everything a school needs to create an outdoor garden classroom and begin teaching gardening and nutrition.

Beginning Fall 2010, our curriculum supplements will offer standards based K-12 lessons covering History, English, Math, Science and Health, all of which involve the Garden

How does it work?

Fast and simple. If your school has the budget, we send you your Woolly School Garden. If your school doesn't have the budget, we'll sign you up for donations, help raise the money for you and then send you your Woolly School Garden. Our goal is to grow 1000 school gardens by Fall 2010 and an additional 10,000 school gardens by Fall 2011. 

What does a school need to receive a garden?

• At least one teacher or school garden manager.
• A sunny wall or fence.
• $1,000 or a lil' patience while we raise the money.

How cool is that? I love companies that start thinking about giving back to communities and making socially conscious decisions right from the get go. It's something I strive to think about whenever I daydream of my own business and an area I'm really interested in learning more about.  So, if you're still reading and are involved in a school community interested and committed to trying to earn a Woolly School Garden, leave a comment and I'd love to contribute to your school.

Wanna read more? Click here for an interview with Miguel.

p.s. this is a non-sponsored product endorsement.

A post I've held onto.

I'm having fun showcasing some gifts I put together for the holidays.  Are you guys sick of it yet?

Uh...too bad.

:)

So here's a post I had scheduled to throw out to the internet yesterday.  It's a good thing I saw dev's post on cake cookbooks and retracted it as soon as I happened upon it!  Because the post went something like this:

More gifts ideas to pass along!

For: an old co-worker who just found out she's pregnant!

1. a nighttime memory book for all of the crazy preggo dreaming to come.
2. and a cake cookbook to make yummy treats...eating for TWO.

Thank goodness I took a look at devon's blog before it went up.  I would have totally blown her cover and revealed secrety-secret news.  But it's cool, guys.  It's cool.  So, for the big announcement of the year (in case you missed it over here) is that

HOLY SCHIZZAH!!

 my fave pic from their wedding.

My maid of honor and bff from the 7th grade and her awesome hubbie are PREGNANT!!  Or as she so eloquently refers, knocked up...and I couldn't be prouder.  Mazel Tov, Larkins.  We are SO SUPER HAPPY that you guys are going to be parents.  SO SUPER HAPPY.

~more to come on my current state of happiness soon!~

Bestie in SF!

I'm so excited!  And I just can't hide it!

Devon is going to be here tomorrow and I simply am beside myself with excitement.  We have 5 days JAMPACKED with activities all over the bay area and I really can't wait to get it all started.  And Jamie's off to Tucson for the University of Arizona Homecoming Weekend so we'll have the place all to ourselves - bwahahahaha!  I'm sure he realizes all the furniture will be rearranged and nothing will look the same around here by the time he gets home.  You know, that's just what we do.

Two girls...always up to no good. 

We have visits scheduled with Holly (one of devon's bridesdmaids) out in Walnut Creek to see her new home and hopefully convince her chef husband to whip something delish for us.  Then Holly and I have a surprise spot to take Dev to in the city later this week.  Also, Napa's been calling her name all the way in Chicago so we'll take a couple of days up there to soak in the fall weather and stop by some of her fave spots.  Devon's wedding day-of-coordinator extraordinaire will be in town by then to support her sister's tumor removal surgery so we'll get to meet up with her, and baby Declan, to give her some in-person juju and a HUGE EMBRACE (i'm texting you now to iron out details, jo!).

Going to go on a photo tour of the bay area.

Thank goodness for the bridge being back open

(although CalTrans keeps hinting at its "temporary fix" -- ugh).

Then Jen will be back from a week of new job training in Santa Monica and we'll get to hang out with her and baby Jack over the weekend.  Can't wait to show dev all the home remodel stuff the Greens have accomplished this year (ahem...mostly can't wait to point out all the stuff I did).  We have a couple of trips to plan together for next year so it'll be nice to all be sitting together in person to come up with our agendas.

This pretty lady hasn't even met Hudson yet - what??

We have fabric warehouses, student art supply stores, a letterpress factory, breakfast at Dotties, jewelry shopping, crafting, baking, chatting/gossiping, and all sorts of fun stuff planned.  There's a delish Italian restaurant on our street and 87year old Nonni Luisa has promised her recipes to me one of these days so I think this Saturday will have to be the day!  Mmmmmm...

Who knows, maybe we'll make it into another newspaper while she's here.  Never know. :)

I'm so grateful for all the time I've gotten to spend with devon this year (palmsprings, my 2week Chicago extravaganza, and now SF!).  She's the best.

Chicago Days...

While in Chicago, I received many-an-email asking, "What have you been doing while Devon and Patrick are at work? Aren't you getting bored?"

Hmmmm....let me put it this way:

Played with the camera @ Nordstrom.

Spotted a faux-lebrity*.
*that'd be faux + celebrity = faux-lebrity.

Salvage yarded with Katherine.
Thanks, Sheila, for the great recommendations!

Stalked some Valspar baseball fans.
"Do you know Patrick?? He works @ Valspar!"

Made friends with some old guys in Viagra Triangle.

Baked with mini-butter.

Did LOTS of balcony time every morning.

Had built-in entertainment after 5pm.

And duh, OPRAH.

Never got bored. Not for one single second. Nope. Not at all.

Don't know if you've heard, but...

I'm in Chicago...and it rocks.

I mean, really? I got to steal Devon away from work for a little bit to explore this random Russian Tea place she found. How cool is that? They start tea service @ 2:30pm everyday and after our experience, we don't understand why this isn't the norm in every place, office, home, etc. It was scrumptious and delicious and perfect in size! Our server's name was Yogggee (sp?) and genuinely Russian. The tea was so interesting with a hint of floral, clove, and most certainly authenticity. Check out this Russian tea mug!

Down with McCarthyism.
Tea is yummy.

Look at her pinky.
So proper.

Look, it's my grumpy+hungry face.

Although I don't have plans of returning home for a few days, I'm already having difficulty with the fact that stealing devon away for her lunch hour will be near impossible from the west coast. Sadness! I mean, happiness, but then sadness. How lucky do I feel to have this time with Devon and her Patrick? I miss living with that lady and have been borrowing from her closet to make up for lost time. Patrick and I have started to do laundry together (inadvertently); I get to sing "g'morning" to devon before she runs off to work (growing louder with each grimace); and we're watching MadMen every night (they're catching up on netflix). This is an insanely awesome jaunt to the midwest.

Snack break with some of Devon's co-workers.

Connivingly persuaded an not-open-yet business to give us samples...
...of RAINBOW CONE (yum).

It's pretty fortunate that I have a cute guy and punk dog awaiting my return to make going home seem not so sad! For the moment, however, our little family will be celebrating LaborDayWeekend from our respective three different states. Yay!

Chicago Day #74

I am NOT leaving this place. Call it what you will, a sit-in or a starvation protest of sorts...without all the sitting and starving. But basic bottom line is that I absolutely love it here, specifically in the guest bedroom of Devon + Patrick's loft, and I might just never leave. That's right, folks, I have officially protested my return back to SF and rescheduled the flight home so I can spend more time on this gorgeous balcony.

last of the tomatoes.
not to be confused with the mohicans.
photo note: i put the red in the corner like debi taught me.

last of the strawberries.
photo note: again, red in cornerish spot.

this sign said "welcome leslie & debi" when we got here - by dev, duh.
slight adjustment when i woke up tuesday morning
that's totally patrick's writing & it made me cry (don't tell him).

photo note: red in corner again. i'm a quick study.

This was Patrick's face when I told him I'm extending my visit here.
Little does he know for how long.
Bwaahahaha.

Happy Annniversary, Devon and Patrick!

I can't believe it's already been a year since our last St. Patrick's Day weekend in freezing Chicago. Pretty sure it was the best weekend in 2008. How fun has it been to watch you guys grow together even more during the first year of wedded-ness?! Cutest. couple. ever. For those not at the Larkin wedding last year, click here for some posts.

Suh-weet Caroline!

This is the face of a happy, happy guy.
And consequently, a shot of the only other people under the age of 70.Celebrity sighting!! The cop from Medium?
Yah...ok, that's not him, but we were trying to subtly take a photo
when this guy decided he needed to be in the shot with us.

We had a stupendous time with Jamie's dad and stepmom, careening through the hills of LA to make it to our 8pm show. Grabbed a quick bite a the Kodak Theater (where the Academy Awards are held now) and scooted our way into the JAM-PACKED Hollywood Bowl. It was my first time at this historic venue, built in 1919, and I thought it was just so neat! Very natural looking throughout the outer arena, with meandering paths that were seemingly built into the surrounding forest, and very few vendors that seemingly reduced the amount of waste and clutter. Definitely adds to the aesthetic of a lcoation to allow people to bring in their own wine + picnic baskets (vs disgusting beer gardens and overflowing port-a-potties).

the bowl.

I kid you not though, we were amongst the 4 total "young" people in attendance! To put it in perspective, Neil opened with a GOITER joke, you guys. GOITER. Like what people used to suffer from before the started fortifying our salt with iodine...like in 1920 or something. I realize that the only other pictures include strangers that fall outside of this category, but it kinda felt rude to stare at the 45,000 octogenarians rocking out to "I'm a Believer!" in slow motion, let alone take pictures of them! :)

it was v.WARM.

The obligatory blurry shot of the artist.