Not Merely Living

Friday Favorites

I'm tired this week friends. Too much running and working (hard) and weddingweddingwedding. 

But my favorite things this week have been:

+This new maxi dress I bought for our honeymoon.

+A guy tried to steal my phone out of my hands, and I fought him AND WON. That's right. BOOYAH.

+These new sparkly toms I got for all of my Friends of Honor (bridesmaids) and myself (of course). :) I think I've finally got mine worn in.

+These three songs that keep popping up on Pandora:

    >Right Round by Flo Rida

    >Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine

    >Hold You In My Arms by Ray LaMontagne

+The excitement I am feeling about going to the Bama tomorrow for my bridal shower. I can't wait to see my family, meet Jori, see old friends, and relax. I've been joking I'm going to bring a bunch of DIY crafts with me and try to get volunteers on the plane to help!

+Finding my rehearsal day/dinner dress! Can't wait for you guys to see it.

+getting back on the rock climbing wall this week (with my new harness!!! best Registry item and wedding gift Evah)

+Loving my job (in spite of how crazy it is). You know those days where you work so long and so hard that you can't see straight afterwards but you still feel soooo awesome because you're being a rockstar? Yep. Having those all the time. Not good timing with this lil' wedding we're planning, but I can handle it. :)

Happy Friday Friends. 

See you on the flip side.

Last Night

I was all by myself because Viet went out to meet up with a friend. 

I had a peaceful evening just to me. A nice white wine, a lovely dinner (mushrooms, finely chopped spinach, and couscous), and catching up on some Private Practice!

After a very long, but productive week kicking ass at my job, and running full speed towards this wedding, it was nice to have a quiet evening.

Happy Friday Friends.

I've got a shower to attend this weekend!!!

XO

Mere

Surprise

My dear friend Lisa's birthday was yesterday, and we surprised her. good.

All I can say about Lisa is that my life is essentially better, richer. fuller because of her.

You know the friends you have like that.

Happy Birthday Lisa. I laaaaaahhhvvvvv you. Sorry for the blurry pics (taken on my phone):

and our show stealer, Ms. Nadia: 

a little bit of toe holding

Pretty girl.

Happy Birthday Lisa. You're the best. 

Yay for surprises.

Flashing before our eyes

Hi friends,

Yesterday, the world paused.

It slowed, and almost stopped.

--

Yesterday, I had an amazing wedding makeup and hair trial. Thank you Ashley & Alexia from Flower & Gold.

I mean. It was really incredible. I started getting all teared up as they were dolling me up.

It was the first moment where I was able to start to imagine what my wedding day would be like.

I teared up. I was overwhelmed. The world stilled.

--

After the trial, my mom and I were driving to meet with our florist, when a woman ran a red light.

She just ran it. And she hit us. Hard. 

So hard it spun her around 360 degrees. 

--

and everything happened so quickly and all of a sudden we were just ok.

we made it. and I felt like angels must have been watching over us. or maybe just Erin.

And oh how all the wedding stress seemed to melt away. and we were just alive.

_

and my car was destroyed. But somehow we were ok. a little sore and bruised. but OK.

--

So that's all I have. Just grateful to be here.

and a little teary. 

My mom told the policeman, You know, with the exception of the accident, this has been a lovely experience. Because she was so impressed by how kind and professional they were. 

Oh the bright side.

---

This has been a lovely experience. 

Happy Tuesday.

Green with Joy

 

I love St. Patrick's Day. I am part Irish, but I have to admit it's not my tight Irish roots that makes me love the holiday. Anyone who knows me knows that I really love St. Patrick's day because of my deep and everlasting love of all things green.

Yesterday I wanted to capture all the amazing green in my day:

rainy morning in my front yard

 

my friend Myla's new kicks

lovely green shadows

Long sleeved green shirts (my favorite shade)

our wedding palette

Cutie Shap and her green coat

Macy's green lighting

my favorite new polish!

 Hope your St. Patrick's Day was filled with lots of green fun!

 

The Many Faces of Annie

Last Friday we had a farewell happy hour to say goodbye to a dear friend who was moving on to a new job.

 

But, this post isn't about my amazing coworker JB who is moving on to the incredible next step in her carrer. It's about another on of my amazing coworkers. Her name is Annie. AKA Bruiser.

And she is very photogenic. Think a pretty female Jim Carrey. I started taking pictures, and the rest.

Well. It's just history.  :

I caught some classic Lisa shots too:

 

and we also got the giggles. who knows about what:

 

 

 

It was epic.

 

Happy Weekend

TGIF friends.

I hope this weekend is filled with Sunshine for you. I plan to buy fabric, go thrifting, spend time with my dear friend of honor Bridget who is visiting, and to take some naps.

In honor of my March goal to take and celebrate more pictures, here are a few of my faves from this week:

I got some awesome secret news this week. The kind of news you don't expect. The kind of news that reaches up and slaps you in the face and says--See! How'd you like that?

I love this light. 

BGV is BACK. Sheesh I missed her face. My friend Bridget moved to Rhode Island last September, and it's good to see her making that look again. Great friendships are so precious. 

Viet left for his bachelor party tonight. He's in Vegas with the boys all weekend. :) But he was at a conference most of the week, and one night he showed up and just handed this to me. And it was one of those nights where I really needed a green stuffed elephant, I just didn't know it. Love that guy I'm going to call H-band soon.

Hope your weekend is magical-

 

Tuesday with Tiffany

 

Do ya'll know my good friend and Birthday Twin Tiffany?

We got to spend most of the weekend together, and as usual, had a blast.  

On saturday I headed over to Teahouse to hang out for a while before we headed to a really cool event at West Elm (my favorite!!!) curated by sfgirlbythebay:

West Elm Emeryville + Etsy: We heart handmade art

I loved all the beautiful items by Good Measure. Perfect for gifts:

 

 

I loved Elizabeth Rosas Jewelry. I wanted Everything:

When I took this picture, I didn't even realize this was one of  Etsy seller STUDIOPATRO's awesome prints:

and check out these beautiful cross stitched necklaces from Gamma Folk:

And then of course, I had my eye on some of the West Elm gems:

 

 

and, I had to get a few Maggie shots. She was being the cutest:

 

 

 

That evening we went to a collaborative art exhibition called the "Round Table [Collaboration] Postal-Collage Project No.1" that Tiffany contributed to:

 

 

There were several teams that participated in the art project, and each team had five or so members.

Each team member started their own piece and then it traveled by mail to each team member who each added their own touch to each piece until it came back to the original artist to be completed.

Here are the pieces in Tiffany's group:

 

 

 

The piece that Tiffany started and finished

 

Fanny and I loved this piece from another group:

 

 

We finished the evening with a beautiful dinner from my new favorite place (I mean-it was Tiffany's new favorite, so of course it would be mine too!), Bowl'd:

 

 

Great Food. Great Fun. Great Art. What could make a Saturday better?

Hope you're still smiling from the weekend-

Mere

A Garden Dinner Party

I have some beautiful pictures to share with you today (all photos taken by me, Viet, or Shap with my camera).

Last weekend, we had the chance to attend the most beautiful event put on by piecemeal and Adelphi productions:

 

                                                                            Anna prepping the meal

My friend Anna is in town visiting from Vermont with several of her friends. They work at a farm for the rest of the year, and they put on these beautiful dinners in Vermont all the time with locally sourced foods. Since they were here for a few months on winter vacation, they decided to throw a dinner here.

The dinner was held in the Potrero Hill Community Garden. I didn't even know this breathtaking spot existed until we arrived:

As a bonus, I was having an epic hair day:

We had some delicious starters:

Braised Endive, early onion, radish & lettuce grapefruit mustarda salad. So tasty:

Next up, grilled trumpet mushroom, cardona, nettles & ricotta: 

and then, salt baked new potatoes with bay laurel. that's right--Salt baked potatoes:

and Viet's favorite, Lamb bacon & turnips:

     

I am not exaggerating when I tell you it was a FEAST.

Shappy and her boyfriend Shane were also there:

cuteness

Viet and I were pretty cute too:

 

 

Dinner started with shortbread and rosemary cookies. I don't even like shortbread, but these were delish:

   

the pistachio brittle rocked my world:

and when we thought we had no room left, they brought out the olive oil cake. Insane:

It was such a lovely afternoon. Thanks for including us Anna!

Happy Birthday NML!

Wow. I can't believe it's been a whole year since I started this little blog. She sure has changed a lot over the past year. I've moved from wordpress to typepad, learned how to do customize my very own blog design, totally redesigned the site, and learned a lot about blogging.

I want to share with you a few brief things to commemorate this special day.

Lessons Learned

-Plan. Srsly. I now have a blog calendar, and I'm working on getting series and ongoing projects together. Having a plan makes the content better and makes stress levels much lower.

-Even if everybody else reads the blog in google reader and never looks at the design, it matters to me that it looks pretty. and even if it isn't perfect bc I'm not a graphic designer, that's ok. :) cuz I like it, and it's worth it to me. 

-Sometimes it's ok not to be perfect. Be great. Be thoughtful. Be present. But I don't have to be perfect. Sometimes if I mispell a little word here or there, you guys will forgive me. right?

-It's hard work. Blogs that look effortless are not effortless.  A lot of time and energy and care was spent creating something to share with the world. Putting the work in makes a difference and really pays off.

-It's worth it. The time/energy it takes to post consistently and thoughtfully is worth it. Looking back at my entries over the past year and all the great memories and inspiration I captured in this blog is amazing.  I'm so grateful for Not Merely Living.

Goals for Year 2:

-Keep it up! I want to continue to post at least once every week day. 

-Focus. Get my series rolling and get in the groove.

-Learn how to take better pictures and how to use photoshop elements so that I can create better graphics.

-Get out there. Make some more blogger friends, and be more vocal on other blogs (I'm one of those folks that never posts on other people's blogs and just reads). It means so much to me when folks comment on Not Merely Living, so it's time for me to return the favor.

-My Golden Birthday is coming up in October (which means I was born on the 29th and I will be turning 29), and I want to really do some big things during my Golden year. So my goal is=make a plan and make them happen. 

Happy Birthday NML! Thank you so much to all of you who have been following along with me on this journey!