Lemon Drop Love

{Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend. xx Jen}

See original photo here

The long weekend was a true gift. Brian and I were able to do just enough exploring with ample relaxing time scheduled in. Our time off ended up being the perfect way to kick off a new year and exactly what we needed. To start, we spent our time celebrating with family at a perfectly decked-out New Year’s party, Brian gave me a present in the form of a little blue box (a beautiful everyday necklace), we took a short road trip to a wine tasting in Malibu, cooked my favorite breakfast sandwich (twice), slept in everyday, drank a lot of tea, cooked our first Mexican-spiced chicken (a pleasant departure from our usual beer-can chicken) and ended the weekend by going to our first Lakers game (they won, woohoo!).

Hope you had a Happy New Year! Here’s to a fabulous 2012! xx

Life just keeps getting in the way of blogging and I can’t seem to make things slow down. The days, weeks and months have truly been filled with one thing after another, with many ups and downs. I feel this New Year, more than ever, is symbolic to me. This is my/our fresh start to: make friends, cook dinners together, explore our (second) new neighborhood, read, do art projects (be creative), play with Logan and Sophie, sleep in on the weekends, go on dates, exercise, laugh (really hard), throw our first dinner party since being in CA, enjoy our backyard and spend time with family and new friends.

When I think back to when I was in high school, I didn’t envision that my life would be like this at the ripe age of 28. It is actually better. I have experienced a lot of things that I didn’t think I would by now, but I can wholeheartedly say that I don’t have any regrets. I’m so excited to settle in and finally make California home.

Cheers to a fabulous 2012!

I am late. Christmas has past, but I wanted to share all the beautiful Christmas trees that I saw over our whirlwind trip to Chicago this weekend. Some were small, others large, but all perfect and with their own story. Every year, Christmas is special no matter what. I realize that now. It used to be all about Santa, then it was all about the things I HAD to have, even more recent, the cookies and food I was going to eat, and now, this year, it was about family. Though Christmas wasn’t as blissful as it once was for me, all I know is that I am truly grateful to have my family. For those that we recently lost, they were missed more than words can express, but every year, no matter what, they will be in our hearts. Love the family you have and cherish every moment.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t really had the need to be prepared to be cocktail-ready on any given weekend or weekday for that matter. Yes, the occasional holiday party may have called for it, but mostly what I did on the weekends or any special occasion, I didn’t have a dress code. Now that I am in California and starting to feel settled-in at work, the need to be cocktail-ready is much more prevalent with my new position. I am completely embracing it and what girl doesn’t like to have an excuse to get dressed up every now and again? I think I could get used to this! A few weekends back, I had to attend a charity event in San Diego, so naturally Brian and I made a little vacation of it. It was so fun and San Diego was beautiful (I can’t believe it is only a short drive from L.A.), plus I had an excuse to stock up on my cocktail attire. Lucky me.

I’m not going to say my first 3 months here in L.A. have been an easy transition. If anything, I might chalk it up to being one of the most stressful times in my life to-date. Despite the combination of moving across the country, starting a new job, and looking after my grandfather (who has had a less than easy recovery after a quadruple bypass surgery), I have been dealing with an overly difficult living situation. It has gotten to the point where we are packing up our things (again) and moving to, fingers crossed, a more peaceful place that we can feel comfortable calling home. Now, despite that fact that things have been far from perfect, I love it here in California and I get giddy when I think about finally starting our life here. I wanted to share a few photos from my current place. I worked hard to make it homey and I thought I just had to capture some of my favorite setups.

{You will notice a few of our Halloween decorations strewn about.}

Life has been full of to-do lists, errands, dinners with friends and family and making sure all the last minute details are taken care of before our move next week. I have heard the three most stressful things to do in life are to move, start a new job and get married. Turns out I am scratching two of the three off the list at the same time! Side note: I am not sure I totally agree with this list. Wouldn’t you add having a baby to the top? I can only imagine how stressful that is! Anyway, with all this moving stuff happening I was looking through photos reminiscing about our time in Chicago and saw these outfit photos from a month ago! We were enjoying one of the first warm days of summer. Mid photo shoot I realized I forgot my  lipstick. I am still new at wearing lipstick in general, but with just a swipe, the lipstick really made a no-makeup look appear more put together.

Check out more photos from this day on my Facebook Page (Facebook Exclusives).

Yes, we are moving and no, not just down the street to another cute neighborhood in Chicago. We are moving halfway across the country to Los Angeles!! I just recently visited the area and found this very cute Spanish-style apartment for us to call our new home. I couldn’t be more excited to explore our neighborhood and try all the restaurants and bask in the warm California sun. The movers are coming to pack our stuff up and move us in just about a week. After we wave goodbye to our things and wish the movers safe travels we will be packing up the car and the dogs and driving ourselves through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada (Las Vegas) and finally Southern California. We should be officially in our new place by the end of the month (if all goes as planned on our drive).  It is sad to say goodbye to the windy city, but we will be back often to visit family and friends. I think “goodbye” isn’t the right phrase, maybe just “see you soon, Chicago!”

P.S. Sorry for the small photos, these are the only ones I had.

I made this delicious mac and cheese recipe a couple of months ago and realized I never posted it! I like to think of
myself as a sort of mac and cheese connoisseur. I have made many different variations and when I see it on the menu at a restaurant it is always hard for me not to order it! This recipe was by far one of my favorites. There were so many dynamic flavors that when combined worked great together, making it perfectly decadent and unbelievably satisfying.

I picked the recipe out of my Food Porn Daily cookbook because I needed a heartwarming meal to whip up after one of Brian’s business trips. If you haven’t bought this book yet, I am going to highly recommend it again. Check out the other recipe I tried here. I know I picked two not-so-healthy meals so far, it is mostly because it was cold outside, and to be honest I am a sucker for comfort food, but trust me they have a variety of so many delicious recipes. It is actually broken up by season, which makes it perfect to find recipes that hit the spot for every occasion. Love. This. Book.

If you do have the Food Porn Daily cookbook, what recipes have you cooked?

In celebration of the royal wedding and Brian’s brother visiting us last week, I decided it would be fitting to make scones. I don’t know about you, but when I think of scones I think of sweet, thick bread that is far from satisfying, so I was on the hunt for something a little out of the ordinary and possibly savoury instead of sweet. When I stumbled across this recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, I was completely sold. They turned out fantastic and they were a huge hit with everyone. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I make these.

Thanks to the royal wedding for inspiring me to make something British. While I was doing my research I stumbled across this little known fact, scones originated in Scotland not England, like I originally thought, if you want to learn more about scones read here. I think the next time I have a taste for an English breakfast I might try to make a crumpet or similarly, the English muffin. Did you guys stay up and celebrate the royal wedding?