my new ride

before the move from san francisco, i sold my cute little red toyota prius (sad!). good news is that because of fuel prices and the economy AND my california HOV sticker (allows solo drivers to drive in the carpool lane during commute hours), my car sold at a premium. i sold it for the same price that i bought it for in 2006. very cool and nice on the pocketbook, especially because i'm now a grad student.

it's been weird not having a car around, but so far so good. today we went to a local bike shop and found this cute little town cruiser so i can get to school a little quicker and to run errands. see how cute it is!! and the shop was having their end of the season sale, so i got 25% off. i love a good deal.

i learned a few fun facts about bike riding in the chicago area - helmets are not required (but I will always wear one!) and riding on the sideway is not allowed. strange but i guess they don't want bikers running into pedestrians. makes total sense.

anyways, here she is! what should I name her? (is it weird to name a bicycle?)

inspiration from bianchi

thoughts on party favors

we have brainstormed a little about whether to have favors and if we did, what we we'd like to give our guests. we love both chocolate and coffee. i think the key to a great favor is to make sure it's personal and meaningful to the couple. so we thought about our favorite things and came up with - chocolate and coffee :)

one idea is the give vosges chocolates. check out their adorable packaging for their truffles and caramel collections. my favorite is the naga chocolate (sweet Indian curry + coconut + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao). we first found vosges in new york, but i see that there are two locations in chicago! they have all these exotic flavors with ginger, wasabi, green tea, and even bacon (i haven't tried that one yet).

inspiration from vosges chocolates

our second idea is to give our guests coffee beans from blue bottle coffee. they are small organic coffee bean roaster that has amazing coffee beans. they have a few locations in san francisco, but we subscribe to their bi-weekly coffee delivery. we could give our guests 1/4 or 1/3 pound of coffee beans in fun packaging such as small brown bags or perhaps a cute tin that is personalized.

inspiration from blue bottle coffee

and the last option is to opt for no favors. we just went to two weddings and both couples opted to give a donation to a charity in lieu of a favor. what a great idea. maybe we can donate money to a local animal shelter since we love dogs. i'd pick a pooch over chocolate or coffee anyday.

just for fun flats

just got these cute naughty monkey brand flats on my way to the gym. i love sparkley shoes! and i think metallic twinkley shoes can go with almost anything - jeans, skirts, shorts, and dresses. maybe anything except running shorts, which is what i was wearing while trying them on :)

inspiration from endless.com

homemade fizzy and eco-friendly

we got one of these yesterday in the mail - the soda club soda maker! you can make sparkling water or soda at home. we drink tons (and I mean tons) of sparkling water at home, but lug home bottles and bottles from the grocery store. not only is it heavy, but we were wasting a lot of packaging with all the plastic bottles. we got the value kit that comes with extra bottles and carbonators. right now they have a special for $129.99 and free shipping. i think the investment will pay off on no time. move over pellegrino :)

inspiration from soda club

more ocean views

here are a few more photos I took of the venue we are considering. the potential bogey is the weather in december but they have a gorgeous back-up fireside room (the very bottom picture). isn't the view breathtaking? i love all the flowers and green surrounding. we are going to visit again this december to scope it out a bit more.

all images are from the author

coastline beauty

Sorry about being MIA. We just moved to Chicago in the past week and things have been busy! Here is a small snippet of a potential venue we found in Carmel. Isn't it breathtaking?