1 tamale, 2 tamales, that's a lot of tamales...

On Christmas eve Melita and Cody hosted a wonderful Tamale party, which was lots of fun! and as I had never even eaten a tamale before this a great learning experience too :)

Basically you get a corn husk that has been soaked in water and spread a layer of masa, which is a dough made from cornmeal, then load it full of goodies like pulled pork, beef, chicken, chillies, and cheese etc. fold it into a wrap style and fold the end up

then into the steamer for a while

we sipped on delicious red and white sangria while we waited

had a quick cuddle with Charlotte

tried on Houston's specs

which I think suit Houston most...

what do you think?

Cody modelled Melita's new sunnies

Taylor was a master at the Tamale making process and I think took the record for making the most tamales

are they ready yet?

YUM!

I'd rather be red, than dead in the head

So...I decided I needed a big change to start the new year and to kick the winter blahs in the groin. It seemed like a good idea to start with the hair. My hair has been growing slowly for years into a long shapeless and dry mess with jet black roots and frizzy blonds ends. I've been thinking about chopping it all off for a long time now, but since all my hair decisions are based on wine and are typically unplanned, I never made an appointment with an actual stylist. Instead, I threw a couple of boxes of Feria into the cart at Safeway and went home to dye my own hair a bright copper color. It came out evenly and I even gave myself a little haircut aka crouching in the bathroom sink hacking away at my bangs.

The inspiration for the color came from the many, many episodes of Mad Men that Cody and I have been watching. My favorite female character is Joan Harris, the office sexpot who is also talented and smart. I love her curves too - I never feel like I'm too fat when I see how she sashays across the office.

Happily, my hair turned out great! It was a beautiful bright red until 11:30PM the night before I had to go back to work after our break when I had a panic attack that it was TOO red and went back to Safeway to get a brown to tone the red down. So I'm only 1/2 a Joan now, but I still like the red.

awww

who else do you know with a perfectly heart shaped bottom :)

I'm in love!

I found this blog today and am about the have a heart explosion! Jennifer Causey takes a picture of her breakfast pretty much every day and includes links to things that inspire her along with little notes to people. I can't stop looking!

ten in twentyten

we wanted to do something new and fun on our blog for the new year, and since we write so much about ourselves we thought you'd like to hear about some of the bloggers that inspire us.

please welcome our first ten in twentyten! ten questions (well actually eleven) we asked Shannon from Happiness Is...

1. How was your holiday break?
My holiday break was lovely. My family's tradition is to cook a huge meal on Christmas featuring different cuisines. In the past, we've done British food, Japanese, African, Filipino, Greek...you name it. This year, we kept it local with American soul / southern food. And this is all vegetarian, by the way...it can be done! ;)

2. Being the New Year, what is your feeling going into 2010?
I'm staying positive and really looking forward to 2010. There are a lot of exciting things happening for my band, Lorelei...to be revealed soon!!

3. What surprises you most about blogging?
My blog is only a few months old and I'm definitely surprised by the loving community I've somehow managed to get involved in. Bloggers in this niche are so sweet and welcoming. I feel so blessed to have "met" and befriended such creative and inspirational people.

6. We love your Lyrimages - wherever did you get this idea from?
Thank you! Being a songwriter, I'm very tuned into lyrics. I especially love visual lyrics that paint a picture in your head. So I came up with a way to incorporate this into blog land by correlating lyrics + images = lyrimages.

7. What was your first job?
My very first job was at Safeway. I was 16. I was a "Courtesy Clerk"...not a "Bagger", people! ;) I loved it. I met my very first boyfriend there. We'd always sneak off into the back to flirt and pass each other love notes.

8. If you found $100 in your pocket tomorrow what would you spend it on?
Oooh, tempting! If I found it right now, I might need to treat myself to the spa. I'm a sucker for massages.

9. When did you realize you could sing?
I'm not sure what age, but I've been singing ever since I was a tiny tot. My parents are both musical (they met and fell in love in their high school band). When I was little, my family would sing carols and I guess I always had natural rhythm and melody. In school, I would be selected for solos in choir. Then in 7th grade, I started taking classical voice lessons, which gave me the confidence to actually pursue singing as a possible career.

10. If you were invisible for a day who would you spy on?
I'd spy on my cat, Bailey. Does she really sleep all day? I bet she gets naughty.

11 What's your latest crafty project you're working on?
That would be my belated holiday cards! I just finished them up today. My boyfriend, Hal, and I made our own ugly Christmas sweaters and took a fake-smile photo of us in front of a cheesy background. I was holding Bailey and she was struggling to get out of my arms when the photo snapped. The end result is pretty ridiculous looking, but it was the only way we would send out holiday cards. Nerds or nothing at all ;)

Be sure to check out Shannon's blog here and her music here!

wedding inspiration/ garland obsession

Bryce and I have been talking more about the wedding over the break and although we can't really decide on a time and place (minor details really...) we have started with things that we like, things we want etc. I really like the idea of garlands of lights and other random bits and pieces hanging from trees in a lovely garden...

I'm not sure if it's just the christmas giddiness still stuck with me, but I have had this total obsession with garlands for a while now, and have been finding pictures of them all over... but being the practical type I wasn't sure how I could use a garland... but now with a wedding to plan for - what better reason?! I was thinking we could use treasured memory pieces to make up these garlands and photos etc to make them really special - what do you think?

here are some garlands I found on flickr

a Christmas story

the week before Christmas (yes, am a little behind on my blogging here...), Melita, Cody (Codita) and Bryce and I headed off to see A Christmas Story at the San Jose Rep Theatre, a play based on the iconic movie. I saw the movie for the first time last christmas and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised - not your usual sappy christmas story...

Before the show we decided to go for Chinese food - as they did in the movie, (Melita's great idea) so we went to Wing's, a seriously cute divey place oozing chinese vintage charm
Bryce and I are both tigers - beware the monkey!
unfortunately I didn't take a shot of the whole restaurant but here is the wallpaper that has lost most of its texture from years of people touching its velvetyness, but the cool part here is the buzzer - which you rang when you wanted service (I think they disconnected ours early on in the meal...)

we ordered way too much food, which we realized after the waiter shook his head at us in disgust at the amount of food we had ordered (shouldn't he have been happy?)

look Dad they have your plates - the exact same ones!

the food was delicious and we ate till we were all stuffed. although I must mention I did wake up the next day covered in hives that looked like welts and they didn't go down for about a week... (consider yourself warned)

then, on with the show

it was hard to get a good shot of the stage (and apparently frowned upon also) but it was just so cute (as were the 2 teenage lovebirds in front of me)
and the kids in the play were quite impressive too

after the show we decided to walk through the christmas in the park carnival (or "christmas puke" as Bryce called it)

and I had some fun with my camera and the long exposure

outdoor skating with palm trees... only in California...

ok, so I might have had a slight obsession with this one...

and then to finish the night off nicely we found some drunken santas who were literally holding each other up! I wish this photo turned out better - but still funny :)

What we did on New Years Eve

Cody and I went to South Lake Tahoe for New Years this year. We ate, slept late, gambled, drank champagne and walked by the lake. On NYE we went on a dinner cruise aboard the Lake Queen and had a fabulous time.

Bloody Marys for Breakfast

Boobs and a party hat on the boat

Moments before dancing on the upper deck
Delicious and photogenic dinner

They gave us two eclairs! I tried to eat both, but ultimately failed.
The "morning after" breakfast :(

hello twentyten!

we're back from a wonderful vacation and flufflefritz will resume to normal programming tomorrow... I have so many things to post about...