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Gobble Gobble

We had our 4th annual Gobble, Gobble Drink-a-Long the eve of Thanksgiving. I mean, who doesn’t love being hung over on Turkey Day AND having to ride in a car for 1.5 hours to Grandma’s house? I sure do :-/

We kept it on the Eastside for convenience and hooked up at our old stomping grounds, Danny’s aka the newly remodeled Dub Pub. Rainiers were consumed, friends caught up, games were played….a festive celebration to kick off the holiday season!

And just for kicks, the original Gobble Gobble group circa 2008!

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Plus, a little goodness from 2010! Keepin’ it classy.
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My weekend in review….

It was a jam packed weekend, so jammed in fact that I hardly had time to take any photos. Seems like every time I wanted to snap a shot, I was 1) in a sad looking church, 2) floating in a tank of salt water or 3) balls deep cooking 4 meals at once while simultaneously being a photographer’s assistant…..you know, the usual things people do on the weekends šŸ™‚

Popcorn Friday!
I started off my weekend with a canning class on Saturday. I was all ready to get hands on – I’ve helped my grandma make jam before but she seemed to skip steps, which made me a bit nervous. I wanted to see what an expert had to say and learn a few tips on how to pickle vegetables.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pay close attention to the fine print and on the way to class, I noticed this was more of a lecture class and less of a demo class. Womp womp. Regardless, I was committed and made my way to class in an old church in SLU. Yeah, this class was nothing like I had pictured. Let’s just say it was a bit, um, ghetto hence the lack of photos – it def was not the scene to be busting out my phone. BUT, I did learn a lot and do feel comfortable tackling my first canning project: pickled green beans and/or asparagus. I know, I know….it’s totally out of season but I just want to try it once so I’ll be ready to really can come spring!

After the canning class, we had a late lunch at Brave Horse Tavern, one of Tom Douglas’ newer establishments. Yeah, yeah Tom Douglas blah blah owns too many restaurants in Seattle….but WOW. I loved this place – communal tables, 2 shuffle boards!, endless beers on tap AND the best warm pretzels around. This restaurant makes me want to move to SLU just so I could waste away my Saturday afternoons there. Nuff said.

Brat for days at Brave Horse.
We capped off the afternoon with a complimentary ‘float’ at our friend’s new business venture, Floasis, in Greenlake. Also known as floating, floatation therapy, sensory deprivation and/or isolation tanks, floatation involves lying in a super-saturated Epsom-salt solution about 10ā€³ deep. The salt-water solution is heated to skin temperature (93.5Ā°F). Once you are settled, it’s pretty hard to tell what parts of you are in the water and which aren’t.
The float tank looks like a large, enclosed bathtub. They are specifically designed to block out all external distractions, such as sights, sounds, tactile sensations and gravity. A private shower is provided in each room to clean yourself before entering and remove salt upon exiting the tank, which I did not seem to use properly. I kept finding patches of dried up salt on me the rest of the night. Note: always rinse well.

I must admit, I spent the first 15 minutes of my hour long session giggling. That complete feeling of weightlessness was strange at first, but I did finally settle in and found the latter part of my session to be quite relaxing. I can see how it would be really beneficial for people with chronic pain or high levels of stress.

The float tank, womb-like.
Sunday was spent at my parent’s house where I simultaneously prepped 5 dinners for my crockpot while also helping out my fav pet photographer, Jen Hutter, with her holiday shoot. We had lent her the garage space for the day so she could accommodate all of her clients for holiday card orders and such.
It was pretty freakin’ fun to watch all of the dogs parade through. French bulldogs, poodles, mutts, retrievers…they donned Santa hats and posed their mug shots. You think your dog is well behaved but once you get them in front of the camera, it’s a totally different story! Jen had to kick quite a few owners out of the space since they were too distracting šŸ™‚ Of course, Stella got her camera time and did quite well. Obviously as soon as I get those pics, they will be posted STAT.

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend! Was it as nuts as mine?

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Her majesty, Madonna

Photo courtesy of Danielle Plant, photographer extraordinaire!

The gal pals and I recently hit up the Madonna concert at Key Arena. We had bought tickets back in the spring and decided that it was time for us to “big girl splurge” on seats ie. not be up in the rafters for once. Thankfully, buying tickets 6 months ago slowly took away the pain of the ticket price – sheesh! I had to keep telling myself, “It’s Madonna Leslie, this is a once in a lifetime thing. You can do it – no big deal.”

Although her vocals aren’t anything to write home about, her stage presence and dance moves were totally amazing and made up for it. Seeing her move like that was honestly quite inspiring. If I could only move like that when I’m her age, I’d be set. Man.

She played for about two hours – the notorious cone bra was rocked, pants were dropped, political statements were made and priests were in abundance. At one point during ‘Like a Prayer’ I felt like we were in church, but not in one of those stifling, boring ones but like a totally kick ass, rock out with your ‘ish out type. I seriously considered taking Madonna as my religious at one point during the night. That’s normal, right? šŸ™‚

This show kicks off our week long music venture as we take off to Austin for Austin City Limits early next week. Yee-haw!!!

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A sprinkle.

Ahhhh……the baby shower. Probably the one type of event I’ve planned the most this year and I’m not gonna lie, I’m loving them! It’s the one chance that I get to really get creative and go all out with matchy-matchy decor. All those lovely things I pin on Pinterest most often show up at these showers.

A bit of background on this shower, or as we called it, a sprinkle (the newest trend in baby-related events – who knew!?) My gal pal has been in the process of adopting a little girl from China and they recently found out that they will be able to go and get her after SIX YEARS OF WAITING. This poor thing, who is now two years old, has been sitting in an orphanage her entire life while a perfectly capable, loving couple waits and waits and waits for the final stamp of approval. I could go on and on about how this is so utterly and completely wrong, but I’ll stop right here…..
Anyways, they are extremely excited that they finally get to meet her this fall. I’ve heard the first few months, and probably the first years, are very critical and family and baby need to spend lots of quality time together so instead of bombarding her once they get home, we thought it would be great to “sprinkle” her with gifts and love before they pick her up. Since little one is already two, the traditional baby shower didn’t seem right (OK, and I admit, I hate those baby games!) so a sprinkle it became! For those not in the know, a sprinkle is for a second or third child or an adopted child that doesn’t need all of the diapers, etc. but her friends want to throw a celebration none the less. Many times, gifts are more for mamma vs. the new baby since the assumption is that they already have many of those items.
We went with a pink camo and cupcake theme since my friend always rocks the camo pants when working her tail off as an event planner AND she loves sweets. I thought it would be nod to her tradition (the camo) with a twist (the girlie pink). Lemme tell you, my friend is not a girlie girl so we figured we just needed to go all out and get it over with – bows, cute dresses and tutus are going to be a staple for her from here on out!

With a late afternoon start time, we decided that cupcakes and cookies were the only way to go. Oh, and with a side of fruit – gotta keep it healthy! The weather held out on us too so we served iced tea, lemonade and sparkling wine on the porch. Presents were opened, cupcakes were consumed and the mamma to be loved it all!

As a fellow event planner, I know just how hard it is to “let go” and let someone else plan an event – she did well even though she showed up early and asked if she could help šŸ™‚ Event planners – sheesh, so controlling! I hope she enjoyed her celebratory kick off to their new adventure.

Congrats friend! We can’t wait to spoil that child rotten!

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