quarter century celebration

I celebrated my 25th birthday on Saturday, the 7th. It was better than the past few birthdays I've had, and I think it helped that I tried to put as little expectations into it as I could. Usually I get all excited and end up getting let down... no one wants to hang out, plans fall through, football games get in the way, etc. The Saints play-off game only prevented one friend from attending my birthday dinner this time, although I still would never see any sort of sports engagement more important than celebrating a friend's birthday, but that's just me I guess.










We started the day at TatoNut, a local doughnut shop in Ocean Springs that has amazing doughnuts; totally worth waiting in line 30 (!) minutes for. I opened some presents from Chris, which included the Fashion Cats book, an adorable acrylic anchor necklace, and some super cute vintage shoes I've had my eye on! He did so good! Not to mention, he got me some flowers, some Ben & Jerry's, and he even brought candles with him to dinner! I had no idea! I'm so lucky to have him!




My parents came to town from Mobile to eat lunch, give me some more presents, and shop for frames for my photography for my very first real art show on Friday. They also brought me some cupcakes from Twist, my favorite cupcake place! All-in-all, I'd say it was a pretty good birthday. I even found an excuse to bust out my Grandma's fur stole!








mink fur stole, rings: vintage from my grandma
skirt, necklace, bangles: forever 21
shirt: gap
tights: marshalls
heels: betsey johnson from ruche

delicious

Saturday was my dad's birthday, so Chris and I went to Mobile for the day. I brought along this cake, which I spent alllll Friday night baking. I even got to whip out the Kitchenaid mixer I got for Christmas last year! I hardly ever get to use it, especially in our small apartment. I searched for a recipe that I knew my dad would love, and finding nothing exactly what I wanted, I combined two recipes. I used this one for the cake, and this one for the praline-crusty-goodness. I just used a good ole' store-bought cream cheese frosting... I know, I cheated. Shame. Anyway, the result was what I have so lovingly dubbed, a Brown Sugar Praline Upside-down Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Quite a mouth full, right? Wait until you taste it! Oh my, it's all sorts of sinful. I wish my dad loved pumpkin as much as I do so I could've made the Praline Pumpkin Cake as it was written, but I guess that just means I'll have another excuse to bake something pumpkin! I have a problem, I know, but it's only a few months of the year, so it's okay.

where were you?

That seems to be the most asked question when on the subject of national tragedy. Where were you when you heard? When you saw the footage on TV? I remember where I was. I was 14, in my freshman year of highschool at Cottage Hill Christian Academy. When the first plane hit, I was in gym class. Someone came running into the gym toward a group of girls playing indoor volleyball, where they huddled together in concerned conversation and after a minute or two, one girl backed away with her face in her hands. They made an announcement over the school's intercom system that something terrible had happened; that our country had been attacked. That announcement was the only solid news we heard during the course of the rest of the day. None of the teachers in any class would turn on a TV so we could see what was happening. I'm sure their intentions were in the right place, but sitting through every class, where everyone couldn't stop talking about it, wondering what was going on, and with no one around willing to divulge details, was kind of nerve-racking.

Like everyday, I caught a ride home with a friend and got home before my mom did, who was picking up my little brother from middle school. My mom had talked to me on the phone (I think I called her when I got home? I can't quite remember) and told me not to watch the news by myself... but I did anyway. I sat in our den, downstairs, alone, with only the sunlight that filtered through the heavy curtains and the ambient light from the TV, and watched. They played the footage over, and over again. I cried. I bawled. I didn't even know anyone involved, but just to see the horror unfold and to know that it was something so unexpected... was terrifying.

My mom and brother came home to me still tearing up to it. My memory ends when they arrive.


The photo above is the only one I own of the twin towers. It was taken about 2 years before. I'm the chubby little girl pictured with my cousin and my grandmother. My aunt took the photo.

azaleas

One thing I do miss about Mobile is the azaleas. I've seen a few here and there in Biloxi, but not nearly as beautiful as these in front of my parent's old house (that's them in the photo). There's a reason Mobile is also known as Azalea City, and why we have the Azalea Trail run every year.

it's october, high of 90

So I'm finally updating again! I aim to make posts a more regular thing; I think it'll be therapeutic for me, since graduating left a void that used to be filled with dozens of projects and deadlines and papers and tests and the like. But enough of that, on to my outfit today:







Gatsby made an appearance ^^

Yesterday was my dad's birthday and Chris snapped our photo:

(I told my parents I would photoshop-in my lil' bro, since he was absent due to a bowling tournament)
So we had a tiny celebration last night, with a spill-over into tonight. We had a pork loin, turnip greens, mashed potatoes, and of course, cornbread... amazing, delicious cornbread. All wrapped up by lemon ice box pie, it was truly a southern meal. Hopefully I'll go for that bike ride I'm planning on!

So I know I said I'd update about Memphis, but I actually JUST got around to getting our film developed (lazy!). So the digitals have been up on my flickr for ages, so those will have to do until I can get around to getting a photo cd made, since I'm too lazy to scan everything and the quality is better than what I can do at home. But they're so EXPENSIVE! Especially when you have like... 10? or so rolls of film. At $3 at least per cd at the drugstore, that's at least $30. So, eventually.

The weather was AMAZING this week! Even though the high got back up to 90 today, the humidity was relatively low, which always puts me in a good mood :]