Valentine's Day Freebies

Last year's V-Day post I shared my view on the day and some retro cards. This year it's all about free stuff. Let's say you are 13 and can't afford a legit Valentine's day for that special someone, have I got a date for you! Or even if you are single I say go for it, it's totally doable with a friend...or stranger.

You need to start with dinner. Now here is a win win situation. Head to your local Qdoba. The deal is you kiss your valentine (or in their words "an understanding stranger" so even if single ...win win my freinds) and you get a free entree with the purchase of one. 

After Dinner you need some dessert. What better dessert than a cookie? I don't know how good their cookies are but for free I'm willing to give them a review.

You may also want to have a warm drink, it's pretty chilly out. So head on over to Coffee Bean. If I can get two Chai Latte's I'm all in. You already know I love me some CB!

Finish of the night with a romantic movie in. Or a blooody action packed adventure, what ever floats your boat! You may want to reserve your movie though, Redbox's get empty quickly!

You need a gift right? Well Bath & Body Works has got you covered! Cherry Blossom is pretty awesome. They also have a Facebook freebie.

So there you have it! There are more freebies out there for today so enjoy! Just Google them. I'm liking the Krispy Kreme one too! Speaking of Goggling stuff, how completely, awesome-ly cute is Google's Doodle for today? Pretty darn-tootin awesome! It reminded me of me an The Boyfriend. I may or may not have shed a tear.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!
♥always,

Brace Face

I've slightly mentioned here and there about my braces but have yet to really share the whole story.
Well, at least a short-ish version of the whole story. Ready, here we go...

I got braces at 25. To fix my crooked teeth? Nope. To fix....well this story really really starts when I was 7. One of my upper baby canine (so formal huh?) decided to not fall off, leaving my adult permanent canine floating about in my gums. Fast forward to 20 when I had my wisdom teeth pulled out (all 4 at the same time by the way...ouch) and my top teeth started to kind of open up. Weird stuff. So being without dental insurance and feeling rather vain I decided to join a friend in Tijuana where she got her braces. I would ride down with her and her sister lived right by the border in TJ, plus it would be way less expensive than getting it done here. She sold me on it, I went and next thing I knew, there I was, with braces on, with the promise of just two years and a perfect smile. Here's what the braces look like on me:

This is a very rare photo. I never smile for photos where you can see the braces. Not to mention blue eyeshadow is rare too but that has nothing to do with this story so moving on...the point point is I even forgot how to smile for photos.

All this to say that 5 years later, after moving my teeth around to accommodate for a surgical removal of my baby tooth, the pulling down of my adult version, the moving of my teeth back in place (while never looking quite the same again) the pain, the agony, the metal taste, the food stuck, the food forbidden to eat, the rides to TJ, the rubber bands and the longer than normal flossing time, THEY ARE FINALLY OFF!

Since I forgot how to smile...I present to you my teeth....sans braces...in another awkward photo series of course:. At first I wasn't sure I could do it...

( note the sweater, it's my new fave ;)

But I warmed up to it...

I want to take better shots than with an iPhone camera, weird lighting and fuzzy shots are not the best way to debut the new grill, but that will come with time. Hopefully, I remember I can smile again and if I do, I hope it's not that weird smile. Look out spinach, crest white strips and candy apples oh and regular apples too, I'm coming your way!

 ♥always,

Birthday Challenge

Today is not my birthday. Nope, my birthday is 15 days from today. I've always taken my b-day as a personal holiday. I usually try to plan something to celebrate, but this year I really lacked the motivation to plan something.

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It's not a regular ol' birthday, it's my 30th so I felt like I had to do something spectacular! But spectacular never came to mind. Now to some this means nothing, it's just another day, right? Being one to ALWAYS make a big deal of her birthday, I do not fall anywhere near that category of thinking so I couldn't figure out why I wasn't excited? It's definitely not from some stigma of turning thirty I hope, it is a big deal to me but not in a bad way. I welcome the age, I'm the happiest and most confident I have ever been in my life....so what is it? Not sure if I'll completely figure out what happened but the birthday plans are moving and in the works so I'm starting to feel better. As far as the blog is concerned, I'm celebrating all month. That should get me in my birthday mood right? I will be very selfish this month, making it all about me. Behold, my 30 themed blogging challenge ideas:

Challenge 1. Find a photo of myself at every birthday/age.
Difficulty Level : HIGH. For the first years or so there are hardly any photos of me in existence. Not sure what happened to them but I know I might fail for some years. Plus for some reason i was not a fan of photos during the teen years. 

Challenge 2. Write a letter to 30 people that have in some way shaped the person I turned out to be.
Difficulty Level: Medium/High. Not sure what thirty people I will include. 

Challenge 3. 30 day photo challenge.
Difficulty Level: Easy. I saw this list floating around in the blogging universe and thought it would be fun but I never did it so now is the time.

Challenge 4. Still pondering this one... I'm open to suggestions.


♥always,
Marisol

Tea Party Bridal Shower

July 2 was my best friend's wedding, but before we get to that event there were two other events that came before. The Bridal Shower and the Batchelorette Party. My other 1/2 MOH, Doreen and I talked about what we would do month's ago. We decided to have an Afternoon Tea Party for the Bridal Shower. After months of preparations and tons of thrift store shopping for tea cups, the day finally arrived. Unfortunately we were still chopping cucumbers by the time the guests started to arrive so I didn't get as many shots of the set up as I would have liked...but what is important is we had fun and there were plenty photos taken of that!

Here we are in all out hosting glory, although it looks more like I'm giving lesson on how to do the chicken dance...

You can't have a tea party without tea! Our tea options were English Breakfast, Fruit Tea variety, White Tea and Green Tea.

and tea sandwiches of course...

We opted for your traditional cucumber sandwich, egg salad sandwich and smoked salmon sandwich options.  We also threw in greens salad (not pictured) and a fruit salad. And for dessert, we had yummy scones (not pictured), cupcakes, ginger thins, Madeleines, and some other berry filled cookie.

After we ate.... and ate...it was time to get the inevitable part started, the games. Starting with the What's In Your Purse? game.


We read a list of items you would find in a woman's purse and gave them a point value. The one with the highest points wins. At first it was very normal items like wallet, phone, keys but it got interesting when we started naming things like gun? Condom? One lady in the older crowd asked why would a lady have a condom in her purse. She will question the condom but not the gun!

The Draw The Bride On Your Head game...

This was the most hilarious thing to watch as everyone really tried to concentrate hard to create their masterpiece. If you ever play this game make sure your pens work and the canvas you choose is not flimsy paper. We though these paper doilies would be cute but they were too thin and some ladies were poking their pen through which resulted in poking their heads which resulted in a game that sounded painful.

But the game that ensued the most hilarity was the Toilet Paper Wedding Dress game..

We split the ladies into teams and gave them one roll of toilet paper and 5 pieces of tape to create a wedding dress. Then they had to model the "gown." Some dresses didn't make it one piece down the brick runway.

After the food and games it was time for her presents...I think she really enjoyed this part.

Before it was all over we took turns in front of the camera... you know to take lady like photos.

And not so ladylike photos...

And some more photos..

It was a lot of planning, a lot of thrifting and a lot of cucumber and egg chopping and hours of learning how to make tissue paper poms (Martha Stewart makes it look so easy!) but you are worth it my friend. We love you. I hope you really enjoyed your party!

♥always,
Marisol

Congratulation Baby Sister

Last Thursday was my baby sister's High School graduation. She's not a baby, she's 18 but since I got to change her diapers I have the right to call her my baby sister.

She chose me as her mentor and during the graduation I got to walk with her in the processional and also received a beautiful letter, a medal and a flower. I almost cried. She requested I not so I held it back. It was very surreal to walk the same path I took 11 years prior with her. She's out in the world now. She will have college and a life to start. When I see her I feel almost parent like. Almost. I know maybe I could play the cool older sister part but, 11 years is a long time and a whole generation later. I want to protect her and guide her and make her make the right decisions. But I know that it's up to her now.

So baby sister, I promise to always be here for you . No matter what, when, where or who. I'm so proud of you.

 ♥always,
Marisol

Fortune Cookies Don't Lie

Last week I had a fortune cookie. There may have been an obscene amount of Chinese food before that but now that I type it I realize that it's not relevant to my story.  Inside my fortune cookie was the following fortune:

Yet Friday night came and went and there was nothing exciting about it. I watched King of the Hill. That cartoon?...show?...animated series is hilarious and I don't care what anybody says. But not exciting. Thursday night was exciting though. We went to Zanzibar in Santa Monica. Every Thursday night they have Afro Funke night where you will hear the best music ever. Great night, lots of dancing and laughing. The AC was leaking over us but we didn't care.  We ended the night with eating at Swingers. I think I finally fell asleep at 4am-ish.

Lauren was whipped around by a sweaty, Asian little person...

Girls Night Out and also Date Night :)

But now I realize.... the fortune cookie didn't say Friday NIGHT it just said Friday. After midnight it was Friday and it was a very exciting time for me! Therefore fortune cookies don't lie. Even if you get get a lame non-fortune like "You are wise and courageous." Uh, I already know that, where's my fortune?

♥always,
Marisol

Over The Weekend: Hand Stamps and Headbands Oh My

Guess what? We got matching tattoos! Well, no not really. That would never happen for a number of reasons.

1. Neither one of us is remotely interested in getting tattoos 
2. They look like they hurt...I'm a wimp 
3. We could never be talked into getting matching tattoos.

 Matching hand stamps? Sure! Friday night it was time for Dance Downtown. It was salsa/ cha cha cha night. There is a lesson and then a live band plays. Super fun night and they have a different one every two weeks all summer long, check out the link for the schedule. Oh and it's free! We learned the basic salsa step... correction we re-learned the basic step. Some day we will get this salsa business down, some day! We also enjoyed some delicious tacos. Seriously good. So good I had to ask the "chef" how he makes them. I promised I would make mushroom tacos for a certain someone even though I hate mushrooms.  We also noticed some kind of line being formed for a photo booth so we got in line. We got to take two photos and received a copy right then and there. This is also where we received our matching tattoos stamps.  The Digital Photo Booth, has them uploaded on their site and I also found them on Facebook!

 Saturday was followed by a lovely power walk at the Ballona Lagoon. Yes, there is nature in LA. Pretty cool little trail to take a walk. It's an easy walk, about 2.5 miles, no giant hills or steep hikes here. It's not crowded at all either. I might have been a tad overdressed for the occasion. Seriously, there was even an Goody Secure Fit Headband involved as part of my outfit. But I rocked my outfit proudly all the way over to the 3rd street promenade. Seriously...

  I walked around with this on...

♥always,
Marisol

The Day After Cinco De Mayo

It's May 6th. Or more appropriately Seis De Mayo. Nothing special is celebrated today - Correction - I Just found out that 6th of May it is actually International No Diet Day!! Now I don't feel bad for having a plateful of burrito/quesadilla/nachos for lunch at work. Plus, how appropriate is it that I woke up craving chilaquiles (a Mexican breakfast dish) on both days? But alas, there was no time for me to make some. Nor do I actually know how to make some. Good thing I have plenty of great friends, three whom so kindly have promised to make me some. The competition is on Karla, Veronica and Doreen!! But I will probably love all 3 anyway.


Speaking of food, Mexico and friends... We had a mini Cinco De Mayo dinner last night. Everyone made/bought food and we sat around listening to Veronica tell her horror travel stories. Listened to some Mariachi and ate a lot of food. Specially, a lot of beans! For some reason, Veronica decided that a giant pot of beans was necessary. And some gooooood flan for dessert.

There was some confusion on what I was supposed to bring. They were all under the impression that I would be "making" ceviche. Well, I made the time to go buy some so it counts.

Doreen, drunk of Horchata!

Dont bother us, we're eating!

Yes It is!

laughing at Veronica s comment...You had to be there!

That may or may not have been my third helping of beans...

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Lots of fun and great home cooked/store bought/ restaurant ordered food was had by all :)

And please, please tell me that you know what was celebrated yesterday. Please tell me that you know it was not Mexico's Independence Day. That would be September 16. I will let Wikipedia inform you some more. What? Wikipedia is reliable!

I still don't understand why it's such a big deal in the US, there will even be a parade around my neighborhood this weekend. ut whatever, fun is had, food is eaten and plenty of drinks are had. Que viva Mexico! Hope you had a great Cinco De Mayo and Seis De Mayo aka International No Diet Day! And while I'm at it Siete & Ocho De Mayo.


♥ always,
Marisol