Life Lately (In the Last 6 Months) Part II

Here's what we've been up to from May through July! See Part I and Part I cont.  here!

May - In May, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary. It's crazy how fast the year went by. Actually, it's crazy to think that Dean and I have been together for 9 years total! For our first anniversary, I knew I wanted to go away and I've been meaning to get to Santa Barbara for a long time. I'll do a separate post on this since there will be lots of photos and I want to be able to give details on where we stayed, ate and the places we visited!

For now, here's a sneak peek.

Another major thing we did in May was go to Maui! I'm saving that for another full blog post as well because there's about a week's worth of details I'll need to fit in. 

It was ridiculously hot in May and all we could think of was wanting a swimming pool. Since this is not our forever home, we really don't want to invest in one. Luckily, my cousins live in a community that has a community pool. Actually, it's better than a community pool...it's like a resort!

June - In June, I got the itch to redecorate. I had been wanting to move a few things around at home but just never had the energy or the time to do it. One Saturday, I finally did and convinced Dean to help me. 

I don't have a before picture of the room, but I snapped this photo when we were taking down the bookcases that lived in the front room.

And here's the after!

xx, Shiela

Life Lately but Part I - Continued

While I was putting together Part I, Dean came home from running errands and grocery shopping and I got all distracted with all of the goodies he came home with. We recently replaced our cookware set and he needed to exchange one piece...more on that on a later post.

Anyway, I completely spaced and didn't include so many more things we did in April. So, this post is a continuation of my updates for April.

My sister-in-law is pregnant and they threw together a gender reveal party. They already have one boy and girl and this next baby is going to be their tie-breaker. She asked me to make a salad and although I appreciated being tasked which a very easy task, I still had to make it pretty!

I also attended my cousin's bridal shower. They had it in the foothills near where we live. Great views and lots of narrow roads = super charming.

My Free People dress.

Then, family from the Philippines came to visit so we had some family over and had a BBQ at the house. The chocolate cake you see there is from the Nugget Market. I think it's called their triple chocolate cake. Anyway, it's crazy good. It's definitely a crowd pleaser.

I think that's everything! April was so busy!

xx, Shiela

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Life Lately (In the last 6 Months) Part I

I've been meaning to get back to blogging. Not regularly of course, because I was never regularly blogging ;) I've been thinking about this blog a lot and trying to figure out what I really want out of it. My mind is always full of ideas...mental list of what I want to blog about, things I want to change around the house, places I want to visit, things I want to research and changes I want to make.

When I look at that list, I honestly think that would make for lots and lots and lots of very interesting blog posts. I just still haven't figured out how to fit this all in, how to make the blog "pretty" and how to develop original content. 

I also struggle with both putting too much information out there and would anyone care and too little information and why would it matter? But then again maybe that's the best part about blogs...is that there aren't any rules. It can be about anything, as often or not often at all, as much or very little and it would be more about me than my readers. Is there anyone out there reading this anyway? I guess I should tell people that I actually have a blog :)

Well, enough of that and let's get to some updates. I know it's been since January since I last posted so I'll try to go month by month to share what we've done!

February - Can I even remember this far back? Wasn't the Super Bowl in February? If it was, then we had a Super Bowl party and I made my first ever banana cream pie! I used store bought dough and this recipe.

We also took a day trip to Napa with a couple of our favorite friends, Ravi and Priya. We visited one of our go to's in Napa Elizabeth Spencer Wines and finished the day off at R+D Kitchen in Yountville. 

March - We celebrated a couple birthdays in March. This one is a combined birthday celebration for a couple of cousins. 

And then, of course, Easter! Our first as a married couple and it was special because we attended mass at the church where we got married. Every time we're there, it is just a nice reminder of the big day. 

April - One of our favorite things to do is go to the movies. Dean wanted to see Batman v. Superman and we love going to the Studio Movie Grill!

And then, since it was starting to warm up real fast in northern California, I was itching to to redecorate a bit and change out some of my neutral pillows for some color! I picked up this and this Shibori throw pillow covers from one of my favorite places, Pottery Barn!

I also discovered this Peanut Butter Bread recipe on Pinterest and oh. my. goodness! Try it, just try it. 

Lastly, yet another day trip to Napa with our favorite people! If your haven't noticed yet, we're always in Napa! It is only a couple hours away from us and we love it there! This trip, we have brunch at Archetype, a MUST!

Donut holes and dipping sauce with our coffees!

And I had their lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry sauce. Yum. 

Stay tuned for updates from May through July!

xx, Shiela