for miss lauren...

Look what came in the mail! It's seems like a very large envelope from Boxcar Press!!! Let's open it!
I'll unwrap it carefully...
WHY IT'S MY LETTERPRESS PLATE FOR MY WEDDING INVITATIONS (which you lovingly designed for me)!!!
Here's a close-up! It's absolutely perfect, thank you so much! Now on to building the press...

[For my long neglected blog-o-sphere friends, hello! Unfortunately, the day after my last post I started one of those real grown up job which hardly affords me time to read blogs, much less write my own. However, in that period of time, I did become engaged to sweet Mr. Blog, who surprised me with a trip to Napa and proposed on the balcony of The French Laundry. Us newly engaged:
A blurry picture of the ring:
A much better picture of the ring - I love how the diamond floats in the setting: Now on to more lawyering and wedding planning! Cheers!]

Today is my last day at work

I will miss:

• the anonymous person who brings in Bath & Body Works products
• Tuesday lunches from the LA Mag best noodle places to eat list
• 3:00 pm Coffeebean runs
• teatime
• being able to park near the building
• the gym downstairs (which I never use)
• the amazing legal team
• the amazing staff

Thanks for a good run!

Upcoming plans:
A navy reunion
An Oregon reunion
An early Valentine's Day celebration
THE disco party of the year
... and my new job, starting Tuesday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sucker eating

I hate getting up early in the mornings.
I'm not that fond of waiting in lines.
I don't particularly like Denny's.
I don't like pancakes.
But I am a complete sucker for free food.
So, yesterday, I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to stand in line for my free Grand Slam at Denny's before work.
It was still totally worth it.

Moo

Happy Chinese New Year!

Ringing it in, NYC style

Some of these people we know; a lot of them, we don't. Happy 2009, everyone!

That really cool thing I did...

Last week, I went to a neighborhood tree lighting. There were carolers and cookies and cocoa and local choirs sang and the high school marching band performed... it was very, very sweet.

I know this probably doesn't sound like a super cool thing, but in Los Angeles, it's hard to find a neighborhood with that sense of community and it was really nice being a part of it.

Okay, who am I kidding?! As cool as the community at Atwater Village is, the COOLEST part of that ceremony (and of my whole entire week) was that I got to meet CATHIE & STEVE from CREATIVE JUICE! (I'm using a lot of caps right now because just thinking about it excites me!).

Meeting them was such a great experience! They are just so nice and sweet and friendly; just like they are on the show!

[and in case you don't know what I'm talking about - Creative Juice is a fantastic show on DIY Network featuring crafts, art, recipes and other generally fun lifestyle tips. It's like Martha Stewart, but more hip: it's the Urban Outfitters to her J. Crew. I love, love Creative Juice!!]

Here is Cathie, Santa and myself (Cathie and her sister were Santa's helpers for the evening):

A picture of the three of us (you like how I say that like we're friends? =P):And here's an extra picture of Steve and me (because as cute as he is on TV, he's even cuter in person, lemmetellya!). He's officially dethroned Ty Pennington on my list of favorite TV crafty men (yes, I have a list... don't you?).
Seriously, highlight of my week!

But coming in at a close second: last week, I was also sworn in to the State Bar of California - yay, me!

Me love COOKIE!

My contribution to Scrappy Jessi's 2nd Annual Cookie Swap are delicious, ooey, gooey, chocolatey, minty cookies that are perfect with a tall glass of milk. I unfortunately do not have any pictures of these cookies, but they look just like these cookies from Silvia's Sweet Delights (so I'm borrowing the pictures for drool-inducing purposes)!

Now, without further ado, the recipe for my SUPER EASY chocolate peppermint cookies (I know, I know... they don't even have a real name...):

1 box of Devil's food cake mix (I know, a mix is cheating, but I'm not using it to make cake, so it's not really cheating)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 tsp. of peppermint extract (adjust to taste)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together to form a dough. Roll dough into balls about 1 inch across (you can adjust the size depending on how big you want your cookie). Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly with your thumb. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes (I prefer 10 minutes because the cookies are still soft in the the middle). Cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

[note] This is a modified version of a cookie recipe that my friend Pam taught me ages and ages ago back in my Oregon days (her version wasn't chocolate or pepperminty). You can use any cake mix, any flavoring, and any mix-ins with this recipe. My other favorites are spice cookies (from a spice cake mix), lemon cookies (yellow cake mix + lemon extract) and s'mores (devil's food cake mix with mini marshmallows rolled in the middle; the whiteness of the marshmallow shows through cracks in the chocolate and creates a cool looking effect).