Joseph's Party (Act: Two).

After we got all good and ready, we all jumped on our elevator and started to make our way downtown...

Group Shot: Attempt #1


There we go, now everyone is in...sorta!


Our first stop was The Lift.


Shannon finally met us with us, but she didn't have a party hat... shoot!

Dancing is always a must, so we made our first-ever appearance at Sinners & Saints.

It was actually a lot cooler than I thought it would be. We jumped on the dance floor and starting snapping all sorts of pictures and just having a good time.


We went to the second floor and ran into the Liars Club (we love to hate it and always make our way there at some point in the night)


All the Party Boys.

Another round? Ok!


Our last stop was at Mickey's Irish Pub/Patio. At that point the night was pretty blurry. I think Katie even turned into a Zombie!


By 2:30 a.m. most of us had disappeared and went home, expect Joseph, Elisa, Katie, & Tony. They went to play at a playground and wander through the woods!

The last three to survive the night's shenanigans. They didn't get home until 5:00 a.m. Like I said... never a disappointment ;)

Joseph's 25th.

If you've even been to one of our parties, most of the time you know that you are guaranteed a very eventful, fun-filled night, and Joseph's 25th birthday party definitely did not disappoint.


Joseph designed the invitation himself.... he even made his own party hat days before the party. He bought all of the supplies so that everyone could make their own party hats with explicit phrases (Joseph-esque themed phrases).


Cake? Check!


We tried to order a cake last minute (I should know better, I used to work at a cake shop) and couldn't get one that we wanted. BUT our friend Erin came to rescue and gave us a cake that was made in the Better Homes & Gardens test kitchen for a photo shoot. Wow! Talk about VIP ;)


Let the hat making and drinking begin!


Joseph wrote random, very inappropriate examples on my chalkboard!

Sarah famous quote, "Don't ruin our pictures bitches!"

Group Shot :)

Erin: "Don't Stop the Party"

Joey: "Where's the Bubbly?"

Meredith: "Hot Mess"

Bethany: "20% Lesbian"
Seth: "Unreadable" (But it was literally unreadable)


Katie: "Get Renshaw-ed"
Tony: "Pants?"


Jessica: "Bottoms Up!"


Joseph's ready to blow out his candles and make a wish! (Secretly he's hoping he doesn't get any older... the next day he went out and got anti-wrinkle cream..hehe)

Any this is only the beginning of the night!

Breakfast Bruschetta.

This post is dedicated to my friend Nancy Bodine for giving me delicious recipe to make Breakfast Bruschetta.

Nancy and I worked together at Williams-Sonoma, and like most of us who worked there... we enjoy cooking and trying new recipes! Nancy was super sweet and gave me some of her homemade Pesto. She packaged it up for me, put it in a small cooler and dropped in a couple of her own recipes. So this past weekend I tried one!


I'm not sure if this is how Nancy's Bruschetta turned out, but this was my take on it. I cut and toasted the a fresh baguette, spread a little butter on each slice, topped it with some scrambled eggs, her homemade pesto, and some cream goat cheese from Gateway Market. Joseph was teased the entire time I was making it with all the yummy smells, so by the time it was done, he was ready to eat!


Final Verdict?! Delicious. I don't know that I would have thought this recipe up on my own, but I am so glad Nancy brought it to my attention.
Thanks Nancy!

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.

One of the many perks of working for Williams-Sonoma? Getting to meet amazing cookbook authors and testing their delicious recipes all while on the clock. Who could ask for a better way to spend the work day?!

Actually, Jeni Brinton Bauer was our first cookbook author to come to the West Des Moines Williams-Sonoma ever, and it was such a blast. I personally had to make (5) batches of her to die for Ugandan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (pgs. 148-149 of her book) as well as her Berry Crisp Ice Cream (pgs. 196-198). I spent a big part of the day before her signing preparing. It was actually a lot easier to make than I thought it would be and I got to taste the results first :)


The next day, it was all about setting the store for Jeni's arrival. We were all so excited to meet her and know everything about her.


First look at her Berry Crisp Ice Cream creation. It was divine. The sweetness of the brandied cherries, was set off by the creamy not-so-sweet vanilla ice cream, and the "crisp" was a unexpected joy too!

Is that her?! NO, it's just my good friend Nancy, being silly and getting excited to meet Jeni herself.

There she is! She was so SUPER sweet and pleasant to work with and talk to. She talked to every single person and told us all about what inspires her flavors and what is she working on next. She was so taken aback by Des Moines. She loved the mix of old and new buildings in the downtown area. I told her all about the East Village and told her that she needed to run down to RAYGUN and get their famous "IDAWAHIO" t-shirt which pokes fun at people who confuse Idaho, Iowa, and Ohio, the famous potato-corn-tire "state" (Jeni is from Ohio).


She even took a picture with the team before she jetted off to Meredith's Better Homes & Garden's Ice Cream social, in her honor.


She is featured in August's issue of Better Homes & Gardens. The photo-article layout is beautiful and just makes you want to run and out all the unusual ingredients and combinations that she's come up with in her book.... Beet Ice Cream being one of them... it is truly a sweet treat :)

New Place.

The process of looking for the perfect place to live is quite frustrating.... mostly because the perfect place does not exist unless you are building & designing it yourself. So the closest thing we found was the Gateway Lofts building in downtown Des Moines.

Joseph and I literally looked at every condo and apartment building in the entire Des Moines metro. All the buildings had pro's and con's but we kept going back to the Gateway Lofts... but would you believe me if I told you that there was a waiting list?! Seriously...??

We thought it wouldn't be until late Fall that we would be able to get in but luckily we something opened up the 1st of July and we jumped at the opportunity! No it didn't have a patio or work-out room but they were two things we were willing to give up for 1,300 sq feet and underground parking (for the winter months...ugh!)


The first full day we spent in the apartment, it was a bunch of prepping because we were going to have people over during the 80/35 concert series weekend. We cleaned, unpacked, and organized as much as we could... all the while sipping on some bubb, of course ;)

Above is part of our lofted bedroom. I love the sky-light above the bed!


This is our work-in-progress living room, looking down from our bedroom. We are still deciding on color accents as we speak. We are going to paint the big wall behind the TV and have added some stuff since this picture but it at least gives you an idea.

This is one view of one side of the kitchen. Across from this is the counter area, stove, fridge...etc.

This is the another view of part of the kitchen area. I'm standing in the living room, and the stairs lead up to our bedroom. I am waiting to show you the second bedroom and bathroom(s) because they aren't finsihed yet. I am waiting on rugs and other accents before I can showcase them ;)

Like so far?? Getting this place for its official photo-op is taking a lot more time and money than I expected. We have twice the size place that we did in San Diego, so our old stuff didn't make quite a dent in filling this place up.

Stay tuned, more to come!

80/35.

Obviously I'm still behind in blogging since the epic 80/35 concert weekend was the first weekend in July :)

BUT in all seriousness, 80/35 was truly a lot of fun. If you aren't familiar... Des Moines started this Woodstock-ish concert weekend a few years ago which has slowly attracted some pretty big names... like Edward Sharp & Girl Talk. Why 80/35? It's the two big interstates that cross each other in Des Moines. Cute, eh?


The concert series started on a Saturday morning and features a few different stages, some free and some required a $25 ticket per day. I don't remember the line-up, mostly because I just went to enjoy with friends but Edward Sharp was pretty amazing.


Since it was also the first day we had moved into our new place*, we would walk back to our place in between bands that we really wanted to see. Really it was so we could get "re-hydrated" and out of the heat. These two decided to deck themselves out in glitter.... a lot of which is still in the cracks and crevices of our bathroom!


Bethany and I... most likely enjoying an nice cold adult beverage ;)


Emily Svec, Joseph, and I. Not my photo but I was tagged in it!


Everyone gets a little friendlier when they've been drinking.


Obviously Katie really enjoyed our mannequin ;)

Back to the concert series!


It was so HOT all weekend long, but that didn't stop us!

The nights were cool, and the shows... amazing! It was a really really fun weekend. Can't wait until next years! (This photo was taken by Anna Jones, a Des Moines photographer. Her work is pretty awesome, check it out here)

*more on our new place soon!

Fourth of July.

I don't know if I am ever going to make it past a month behind on blog updates.... but that is okay, right? It helps all myself and everyone else on special times in life.

What does your Fourth of July consist of? Usually for us it means, pool time, relaxing, tons of champagne and an abundance of lobster, crab legs, and overall really good food. This year's Fourth was a little different because all the bubbles had gone to our head and we jumped into our firetruck and this is what it looked like....


We had ton of people over at Joseph's parents house and we all piled in and drove up the driveway and into the neighborhood.

Des Moines is seriously the BEST place to live. Seriously, who drives around the neighborhood with an old firetruck while blasting music and blowing the siren! People either looked at us like we were insane fools or were just as excited as we were :)

Was it dangerous? Of course! But it was also memorable and a ton of fun!

After about (15) minutes of parading around the South Side, we drove back home and parked it right back where it was before we left... it might just be another year until we use it again... or quite possibly Labor Day weekend... hehe!