Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy Fall Friends!  

It is *finally* starting to feel like fall around here!   Jeans and boots, here I come.  Here are a few things making me happy these days ...

The North East Girl ...

My friend, Mrs. S., introduced me to this blog and my bank account hasn't recovered since!  I find it hard to add new pieces into my wardrobe each season since I don't live anywhere near a mall to peruse and I'm not exactly surrounded by a city full of fashionistas.  Thank you, North East Girl, for helping me add some key pieces to my wardrobe this fall!

This puffy vest ...

Excursion Quilted Vest

If you know me in real life, you know I live in a puffy vest all winter long.  I added this slimmer version to my wardrobe last week when J. Crew was having a sale.  I cannot wait until it gets a little bit cooler!

This Japanese antique I found at the Yamato Shrine Sale a few weekends ago ...

It only set me back 5,000 yen ... roughly $50.00!

Arashi ... a restaurant that changed my life.  You order from a vending machine, it costs $5.00 and makes a great dinner.  I've been three times in the past week.

YUM.

Lunch at a restaurant that had been on my bucket list for ages:

We even got to sit outside!

A ride on the rhino bus:

Another check off the Bucket List!

The Machida Shrine Sale:

On the 1st of every month, vendors gather at the Machida Temmangu Shrine for the Machida Shrine Sale.  It resembles a flea market and is full of good finds.  I love picking up treasures that will remind me of my time abroad for years to come.

and ...

An upcoming trip to see my hubs!

I hope your fall is starting as well as mine!

Shin's Sushi

There are a few restaurants around our base which are very popular and well known with the gaijins (foreigners).  We've tried most of them, but had never been to Shin's.  I don't know why we waited so long.  It was SO good and so nice to have sushi rolls instead of just sashimi.  

He has the cutest little restaurant right on the line between Zama and Ebina, reachable by car or train, which is always convenient!  He is pretty popular among the airwing, but he told us that he rarely has customers from Camp Zama which I thought was strange since he is so close to their base!

The name of these beans was lost in translation but they were good!

Shin in action

Salmon Avocado Roll - my favorite by far!

Spicy Tuna Roll - made spicy with wasabi, not mayo!

Grilled oysters and asparagus

Fried whale!

InstaSushi!

If you live in this area, you must go.  I've already been back since our original visit and am looking forward to my next visit!

TOMS

I think I've blogged about my love of TOMS before.  They are cute, comfortable and for a good cause.  How can you go wrong?  

So I was very excited when I learned they would be coming out with a line of flats - does anyone else have trouble finding cute, comfortable flats?  And I was super excited when I got a nice little email from Nordstrom letting me know that I can pre-order TOMS Flats! 

I'm just not sure if I should order a pair or not ... the approximate ship date for the pair I like is February 24th, which is pushing it pretty close to the date we move.  What if they don't come in time?  I can't decide if I should just go ahead and chance it or try to buy them in the store on the 24th?  Or buy them online and pick them up in the store?  Ahh.  What do you think?

And then, of course, I have to decide which pair to get ...

Camila Ballet Flat

Alessandra Ballet Flat

Oh the decisions.

36 Hours

I absolutely love this series by The New York Times and it's the first place I turn when I'm going somewhere new for the weekend.  I was so excited to find that they've made a book out of the articles - have I told you how much I love Pinterest?!  So many great finds.  This would make a great gift for a friend who loves to travel or a great coffee table book/resource for yourself!  

Anthropologie

Bonus ... I found it on Amazon for much cheaper :)

October - December, 2011

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous post :)

So I realize I have sucked at blogging over the past few months.  And I am definitely trying to do better :)  And I hate to drag you all back to October 2011, but the last recap I did was of my trip to Yakima which was the very first weekend of October.  And I am Type A and can't feel good about moving on to 2012 until I finish writing about 2011.  So bear with me.

In October ...

R., M.C. and I watched the UW v. Colorado game at Duchess Tavern.  It was lots of fun, but we felt OLD.  Yikes.  Apparently we can't hang with the college kids anymore.  And we were rooting for Colorado (R.'s alma mater) so we were slightly out of place. 

I had dinner with an old friend from law school at my favorite restaurant, Phoenecia, in West Seattle.  If I lived closer to this place, I would be fat and my bank account would be empty.  It's a must go in my opinion!

I visited my mom and sister in Chicago.

My sister and our friend Joe took me out to one of their favorite restaurants, Sunda.

I met my sister for lunch and got some yummy cupcakes from Crumbs:

We went for dinner at Quartino ... another delicious restaurant!

I had brunch with Face at The Breakfast Club:

Went shopping for an afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery:

And watched my grandfather play the cello in the Evanston Symphony!

Isn't he adorable in his bowtie?

After Chicago, we celebrated Halloween at R.'s:

as the trio from Alice and Wonderland!

In November ... 

I had a spa afternoon at The Chyrsalis in Bellingham, compliments of J.  It was awesome and if I ever strike it rich, I am definitely going to be treating myself to spa afternoons more often!

I got my first speeding ticket in 10 years.  Thank you Island County.

The squadron Wives Club started preparing for the homecoming. 

And I spent a week in Houston for Thanksgiving! 

In December ... 

I saw The Nutcracker at the Pacific Northwest Ballet ...

J. came home from his four month deployment:

Mr. K13 met baby Noah for the first time and the whole hangar was teary eyed.  Meg and Aaron from Evantide Photography captured the moment beautifully.

We got engaged ... which you can read all about here.

And then we went home for two weeks!

It was a great way to end 2011.  

Thanks for sticking with me through my blogging rut ... I hope you all have a wonderful MLK weekend!

Purse Love

It's no secret that I have a slight obsession with Marc by Marc Jacobs.  I've got a few purses, a work bag, a laptop case, an iPhone cover, sunglasses and perfume ... ummm can we say obsessed?

Unfortunately, since we moved out west, my budget no longer includes a Marc fund.  So I hadn't been keeping up with Marc, because I didn't want to tempt myself.  And then along came Pinterest.  And a trip to Chicago.  And now I've got serious purse envy.  Look at these little beauties that I've got my eye on:

Classic Q Karlie

Classic Q Karlie

Classic Q Lil Ukita

And I'm also crushing on this Tory Burch beauty:

Reva Clutch

Now let's just hope Santa reads my blog :)

What's on your Christmas list this year? 

Words on Wednesday

I am *slightly* obsessed with Pinterest.  If I miss a day of Pinterest-ing, I worry about all the cool things I might be missing.  Umm, slightly ridiculous?  Yes.  Do I care?  No.  I think Pinterest is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I love the creator (in a not creepy way, of course).  One of the things I love most about Pinterest, are all the fun quotes I see on there daily.  

  As you may have noticed, I've been a really lazy blogger lately.  So, in the interest of having more structure and routine in my life, I'm going to start doing "Words on Wednesday" and posting some of the great quotes I've found on Pinterest.  The hard part is going to be narrowing them down!

Hopefully, you will enjoy the words as much as I have!  

Happy Wednesday!

Soludos

Have you guys seen these shoes?  

Roso Red/White Stripe

They remind me of TOMS but are espadrilles.  And they come in the cutest patterns for the summer.  I discovered them on my trip to Friday Harbor a couple of weekends ago.  Sadly, the boutique didn't have my size, but but they just came back into stock on their website!  At only $28.00, these are definitely a pair of summer shoes you can afford!  

Barca White and Navy Stripe

Choo Choo Stripe Denim

Summer Colors

Now that summer is officially here, I've got to get my feet in sandal shape.  I like to get a pedicure at the start of summer and then alternate between painting my toes myself (so much easier than trying to paint your own fingernails!) and getting pedicures every now and then.  I thought I'd share some of my favorite polish colors with you ... they are all OPI colors, but I want to try Essie out as well.  I've heard lots of good things about the brand and love their new summer colors.

Ate Berries in the Canaries

Pamplona Purple

Bright Lights Big Color

I love, love, love this shade for the summer.

These two are quite summer colors, but I love them anyways:

Lincoln Park After Dark

You Don't Know Jacques

I love the following two for my fingernails when I want a natural look:

Sweet Heart

Mimosas for the Mr. and Mrs.

What are your favorite colors for the summer?

Portlandia

Have you seen Portlandia?  J. has me hooked.  

... and seriously considering a move to Portland.  I'd be considered retired instead of unemployed.  I could just get a part-time job at the co-op or a coffee shop!  We've been watching clips on Hulu and I did some research and found that you can download the first episode, "Farm," for free on iTunes!  Of course, it's a great marketing tool ... once you watch the free first episode, you'll be inclined to go buy the remaining five.   

These are some of my favorite clips ... let me know what you think!

Weekend Recap

We had such a fun weekend!  We hadn't had a visitor since my sister came in November, so it was long overdue!  Thank you, L.Rae, for spending your weekend with us!

L.Rae got in around 8:00 on Friday night and we took her over to West Seattle to enjoy the view and Phoenecia.  If you have never been to West Seattle ... GO!  The view of the Seattle skyline is amazing.  And, Phoeneica is awesome as well.  They are known for their pizzas, but everything we've tried has been delicious.

Me and L.Rae

J. and I

Seattle!

After our dinner, we met up with some friends in Belltown.  We had to take L.Rae to our favorite bar, Bathtub Gin & Co. and we stopped by Rob Roy as well.  L.Rae was very impressed with the atmosphere at Bathtub, as well as their "aggressive" drinks.

Saturday, we planned to see the tulips at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  We also wanted to stop by our new house (more on that later!) to show L.Rae.  We did not plan for the fact that every other person in the state of Washington was going to the tulip festival as well.  The traffic was INSANE.  We decided to head to the house first, then stop in downtown Mount Vernon for some coffee and paninis and then head back down 5 to get to the tulip fields through Conway.  Luckily, that route was much less traveled.  Saturday was the most beautiful day of 2011 (by far) and we soaked up every ounce of sun that we could:

The red was so bright it was almost blinding ... it was amazing.

The tulips with Mt. Baker in the background.

Red and yellow tulips with Mt. Baker.

J. and I

Field #2 ... there were red tulips scattered in with the red ones, I loved it! 

L.Rae and I

J. and I

Love this little hut ...

A field of daffodils with Mt. Baker in the background.

After we saw the daffodils, we headed to La Conner to meet up with R. and her roommate.  We stumbled upon a great little find, Hellam's Vineyard.  It was a pretty big wine shop with a tasting bar and a great little patio right on the channel.  We got a few glasses of wine and sat outside until the sun went down.  It was such a gorgeous night!

A cool bridge over the Swinomish Channel in La Conner

Sunday morning, we woke up and had Easter baskets!  Yay!  And then headed into Seattle to show L.Rae around.  During her last visit to Seattle, we went up to the San Juan Islands, went on a lame kayaking trip and didn't make it to Pike Place Market, so we had a few things to check off our list.

We started by checking out the first Starbucks ...

And then we wandered into the market ...

Where we saw more beautiful tulips!

And then onto the gum wall ...

L.Rae and J. deciding where to put his gum ...

That spot looks good.

Umm ... gross.

L.Rae and I

Gross ... germs!

Then we headed over to Fremont and saw the troll ...

These are our best troll faces ...

We also strolled through the Fremont Market, sampled chocolates at Theo's and then met some friends at Brouwer's for happy hour.  I LOVE that Seattle does happy hour seven days a week.  We also stopped by Molly Moon's on the way home.  Yum.

Monday, we lounged around the house all morning and then headed to the U-District.  J. wants a record player so we stopped by Hawthorne and saw some very cool old record players and some even cooler looking new ones.  And then we headed to Cedar's for some Indian food.  It was delicious.  We had bottomless chai, two types of naan, Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala and Madras Chile Masala.  I'm getting hungry just writing about it!  

Thanks so much for visiting, L.Rae!  We loved having you!