Best Birthday Gift Ever?

I realized that I meant to post this last year, and it was somehow still saved in my drafts. I can be pretty scatterbrained at times. In any case, feast your eyes on this!

Jonathan ordered a custom illustration from Nan Lawson for my birthday! That's us, with our dogs and the quilt I made! We're also wearing our favorite pajamas. I will treasure this forever and ever and ever!

Speaking of gift-giving occasions, it's been a long time since I've done a gift guide... I have ideas, let me tell you. Okay, doing it!

Happy today!

November Boxes: Celebrate Crate and Love with Food

Okay, I know. My mission in life is to eliminate clutter and I've subscribed to several surprise-of-the-month boxes. How does that make any sense at all? First, I've chosen the boxes carefully, and have only picked ones with a history of items that would be useful to me, my husband, our dog, and our home. Second, I am ruthless with my decisions as to what remains here. I have given away gifts hours after receiving them. I know it sounds mean. I always genuinely appreciate the gesture, but I'm realistic about what's going to get used and what's going to take up space. I used to be the person with boxes and boxes of items I couldn't use, but felt too guilty to give away. It was unpleasant. Besides, it makes me happy to think that that giant plush cupcake hat has found a better home, well-loved by someone who can really use it. I plan to treat these boxes the way I treat everything that comes through our home: maliciously. Just kidding. But you know what I mean.

I like Love with Food because it's a box of interesting and usually healthy snacks that I can just dump into our snack bin, and with each box purchased, a meal is donated to a person in need. The boxes are $10/month, but through November 30, you can take $5 off a subscription with promo code HOLIDAY12. Here's November's box.

1. Pumpkin Spice Tea (Stash Tea Company) 2. Mango Pear Pineapple (Fruit.0)
3.Mulling Spices (Aspen Mulling Co.) 4. Turkey Bak Kwa Jerky (Little Red Dot Kitchen)
5. Truffle Piglet (Hagensborg Chocolates 6. Strawberry Mini Crunch (Mrs. May's)
7. Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Skeeter Snacks) 8. Inka Corn (Inka Crops)

Also included in the box were a $10 credit to EcoMom and a $5 credit to PicPlum.

November is just the second edition of Celebrate Crate, a festive box with a surprise theme each month, pertaining to celebrating (as you may have guessed). The crates are $20/month. This month's theme was sweets, and contained supplies for making cake pops and a couple of other cute surprises.

1. Three Cake pop molds (My Little Cupcake) 2. Candy Coating, 16oz (CandiQuick)
3. 35 Lollipop Sticks (Wilton) 4. 12 Treat Toppers (Studio OH!)
5. 10 Note Cards with Chocolate Envelopes (Flavorlopes)

Fun box! These items are all adorable, and all things I would buy voluntarily. More info and ideas here.

Wonderfully Preoccupied!

Over the last three days, flowers have bloomed all over our yard! We have songbirds. We have a mythically large lemon tree. We even have poisonous blooms, which Wikipedia tells us are used for murder, seduction, and robbery! It is an absolute fairy tale.

I've also been busy perfecting my strawberry lemonade recipe!

Strawberry Lemonade

1 cup  fresh strawberry juice (about a small carton of berries' worth)

2 cups fresh lemon juice

1.5 cups sugar dissolved in 1.5 cups cold water (on stove)

4 cups cold water (or 5 if you like it a little less punch-y)

1.) Make simple syrup. Combine water and sugar in pan and heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
2.) Mix it all together in a pitcher. Refrigerate or serve over ice. YAY!

Cute Things from Around the Internets

Brightened My Day

Luckily, my mom was driving, so I could take this.

Awesome Jenette Bras News!!

Great news!! 

Okay, okay. This post might seem a little off-topic, but we're talking about making our lives as easy  as possible, right? For big-chested Angelenos (and LA-transplants), Jenette Bras (Hel-Mel, near Scoops) is a godsend. I can't begin to describe the torture I underwent while bra-shopping before this store was in my life.

 Even Intimacy, known for carrying up to cup size K,  offers a lot of pieces that only go up to C or D.  The bigger lingerie chains are worse. In department stores, it's a rarity to find anything over a D that doesn't look like an orthopedic device. 

The bras at Jenette (blessedly) start at D and go up from there, AND they're beautiful. Their largely international stock is insanely well-curated. The service is incredible. The employees are sweet and really know their stuff. They keep a card on file for each customer with sizes, likes, and previous purchases. They offer nursing bras and cup-size swimwear! I could go on for a year about how this place is so great it might be imaginary, but I'll just get to the great news.

They just announced that they're expanding! The second location opens next month in Old Town Pasadena. It's an awesome idea for a business executed by nice people and it's really cool to see it succeed. I'm so happy for everybody involved, and I can't wait to check out the new space! And buy everything in it; nobodytellmyhusband.

New Online Toy Store!

The guy and I order from Soap.com pretty regularly, because the toilet paper, face wash, and over-the-counter drug we most frequently buy ALL sell out regularly at the Target closest to our apartment. Soap's prices are comparable to Target's and 2-day shipping is free at $39. It's easy to hit anyway, but Soap's cart is shared with sister sites Wag.com (pet stuff), Diapers.com (baby stuff), and BeautyBar.com (cosmetic stuff), so you only have to come up with $39 of stuff from all of those sites combined to get free shipping.

So you can't even imagine the pandemonium that ensued in the apartment last week when we got an email that they added a toy store! This is probably horrible news for us because now instead of adding household supplies to our cart to hit free shipping, Jonathan is going to start adding action figures. But it's also great news because we're going to have six nieces and nephews come December! Between six kid birthdays, holidays, and Jonathan's general Jonathan-ness, this place is going to become even more of a toy clearinghouse than it already is.

We checked out the new site (YoYo.com) and were pretty happy with it. My favorite feature by far is YoYo Picks Top Ten, the site's top ten recommendations for each age from 0 to 13+. The toys are seriously cool and off the beaten path. The only way you're buying a duplicate gift off this list is if the other giver is also shopping here. This is very appreciated and sets the site apart, as major toy store sites tend to populate these lists with hundreds of random, seemingly uncurated items.

This may be the first time I'm relieved that a website exists. Not that I'm the type of aunt who lives across the country and occasionally forgets to buy a present until the two days before someone's birthday or anything... 

Oh, thank GOD!

NOW they've arrived. We can all relax.

Best Mail Day EVER!!

I always have this bizarre delusion that wonderful things are going to come in the mail, but today I was proven right! Look, it's the wedding proofs! AND... AND... I also got a baby shower invitation and my Macy's registry reward card! Time to look at pictures, baby shop, and pick out some free goodies from Macy's. Thank you very much, Mr. Postman.