birthdays, bulls, bangles, boys, and beaches.

it's been a busy month filled with so many celebrations and visits with friends and family. here's a peek at what i've been up to...

:: birthdays ::

i celebrated my 30th birthday in december surrounded by some of my closest and dearest friends...and my andy. below i'm blowing out the candles on the eve of my birthday. i was surprised with this cake and...

did i really turn 30?

these delicious cupcakes from the cupcake truck. the bottom one is a salted caramel cupcake with caramel frosting with gold leaf shavings on top. the top one is a sweet potato pecan cupcake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting with an edible violet on top. yummy!! (thank you ac, cc, and ad for the surprise treats!)

the cupcake truck!

but my birthday celebrations continued beyond indulging in some sweets. i got my groove on a few days later (also a surprise - thank you cl, ac, cc, mv, kd, bh, and ad!) with my boyfriend, sister, and some close friends at shrine, a club at the mgm grand at foxwoods. it was such a fabulous night full of dancing, dancing, and more dancing. oh, and just a little gambling. my boyfriend played 30 on 30 for me at the roulette table. but no luck. all in all, it was a very special night, one that i will remember forever!

a few weeks later, the birthday celebrations started up again for my beau, andy. he celebrated a milestone, too (see candles below).

i wanted to make cupcakes from scratch for him (i was inspired by the cupcake truck cupcakes from my birthday), but time got the best of me. so i turned to betty crocker for some assistance and i whipped up andy some delicious marble cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

happy birthday andy!

:: bulls ::

the pbr bull riding competition is where we celebrated andy's birthday. a few of us got decked out in cowboy apparel and made the trek to the big apple to see the professional bull riders go head to head.

our seats allowed us a fabulous view of the cowboys riding their bulls.

professional bull riding competition, madison square garden, nyc

after the competition, we headed to johnny utah's, a nyc southwestern bar that features a mechanical bull inside that you can ride (no, i did not ride the bull!), to continue the festivities. i somehow finagled my way into the area of the bar where the real bull riders were hanging out and captured this shot with the top four riders. shh...don't tell andy.

hanging with the pbr's!

:: bangles ::

i posted a few months ago about a decoupage project, which i found on a crafty blog i follow, one pearl button, that i really wanted to try. well, i grabbed a few friends and my sister on christmas day night and we made the most amazing decoupage bangles using old magazines and some good 'ol mod podge. my kitchen table turned into craft central. it was a blast!!

decouMESS!!!

and this is was the end result...

decouPosh!

the one in the middle was actually made from a calendar that my friend gave to me last year. the patterns and colors on each month's card were so beautiful that i couldn't bear to throw them out. so i saved them thinking i could reuse them somewhere down the road.

well, after a few hours of tearing and gluing, viola!, i created a birthday bracelet for that same friend who gave me the calendar. what a great way to reuse and recycle, eh? on the inside of the bracelet i used a piece of the calendar from her birthday month - january. i think she liked it...i sure did!

:: boys ::

a dear friend's little son turned one yesterday. happy birthday, noah!

noah turns 1!

unfortunately, i couldn't attend his birthday because i'm getting over a terrible cold and what kind of friend would i be to show up at his birthday party and spread germs to everyone? nice birthday gift, eh? i think not. so i stayed home.

but a few weeks ago i did spend some time with him and his parents when i was asked to take their christmas card photo. boy, was that a challenge! i thought it would be a quick and easy picture to capture. not! little mr. noah was a busy body crawling everywhere. he was not in favor of sitting patiently on his mama's lap under the tree, which would have made for a very sweet card. no, instead he wanted to be everywhere but there. however, sometimes the best pictures can come from those unexpected and candid moments. like this one...

noah

...noah came right up to me and just sat there staring at the camera. so i started snapping away. and captured the fabulous photo above! so, naturally this ended up being their christmas card.

:: beaches ::

new year's eve this year was spent out on martha's vineyard with andy and two of my dear friends.

ac & cc

ok, we never actually made it to the beach because of the wintery weather out on the island, but we still had a blast ringing in the new year! there was actually something so peaceful and so calming about being out there in the off season. there were no tourists, just the local islanders. there was this sense of stillness that you can't find just anywhere. it was exactly what i needed after a busy holiday and finishing up my first semester of graduate school.

Edgartown

Vineyard Haven

so there you have it! my first post of year. it certainly doesn't capture every single thing i've been up to over the past 30+ days because there were so many more special moments (i.e. visiting with my college girlfriends, having christmas dinner with my grandma, aunts, and cousins, decorating my christmas tree with my beau, running the christopher martin's christmas run, etc.) but i've definitely exceeded the appropriate length of a blog post by now. so i'll save those for another time...


:: final thought ::

i feel like jerry springer right now (doesn't he end his crazy shows with "his final thoughts?") but i find it necessary to end this first post of 2009 on café taber with something inspiring (i hope!)

i receive these meditations for women every day and the one below resonated with me for some reason, especially after writing this post.

"why is it that we never notice what has been done, but only what remains to be done?"

i look around my apartment often stressing about when i'm going to "catch up with life." do my laundry, clean my floors, vacuum, buy groceries, return emails and phone calls, and now that i've started school again, do my homework! but i realize most of those things are always going to be on my "to do" list. i've got to stop stressing about what needs to get done in my life and just stop for a moment to reflect on what i have already accomplished. look at the past month for example. so many wonderful memories, celebrations, and accomplishments to look back on.

so here's to a new year...where i will make less time for cleaning and organizing and more time to be with friends and family, more time reflecting on all of life's wonderful moments...