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Posts Tagged ‘collage’

Oh, the Place You’ll Go!

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008



Dawn & Tony’s Nursery, originally uploaded by punquin.

We spent our day with the beautiful Dawn, helping her paint a Dr. Seuss mural in her nursery-to-be. It came out super cute!

She picked a great design. Danny helped pick the colors – he suggested the green letters (they match the green trim in the room, and the walls are a greenish-white). I taped up a ton of newsprint paper and sketched it all out before we went to the art store for paints and graphite paper. Once it was transferred, Dawn and I painted it all in, and I did the outline work.

When we were all finished, we went out for dinner in Old Town Alexandria at Austin Grill. We got ice cream cones for dessert (sorbet for me) and wandered a bit. We had to get home though… The puppies had been home alone too long and had to pee!

Puppy Photo Shoot

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008



07/29/08, originally uploaded by punquin.

1. China, 2. China & Benny, 3. Enjoying the Backyard, 4. Enjoying the Backyard, 5. China, 6. China & Benny

Yesterday evening, the puppies and I braved the swampy heat to have a little mini-photo shoot outside. It was so hot that Benny’s tongue was a mile long in every picture.

I’ve started redoing my braids… Maybe *I* need to think about a photo shoot… More later!

My Birthday Party!

Monday, July 21st, 2008



My Birthday Party!, originally uploaded by punquin.

Yey! The party was fun! There was a good turn-out. I was happily surprised to see a lot of my coworkers, in addition to Dawn & Tony making it after just arriving home from the beach.

The only thing that went wrong was that our Xbox officially took it’s last breath and went into permanent RRoD. So, no Rock Band. Dan got a 2 year warranty from Best Buy when he got the Xbox (the receipt says 8/26/06). It looks like you have to go online and request a cardboard coffin for it. I’m not sure what that means for our content on the HD. They warranty says it doesn’t cover lost data. Hrm. Danny apparently does not care to play Rock Band anymore, so I don’t think he really is motivated to get it fixed. I love singing on the game and just bought a year of Xbox Live which is now useless. :/

Back to the party! So, there wasn’t any Rock Band, which left the boys to mostly hang out and watch Danny’s Lamb of God dvd. Us girls dominated the craft table. I had set up 8 paint-your-own bobble-head dogs and 6 color-your-own fuzzy velvet jewelry boxes. We ran out of everything!

The photo booth was a hit, and it didn’t fall down, so I was happy. I hung paper clips on the outside of the booth so everyone could display their pictures in a “gallery”. We ended up filling all of the paper clips before the last guest left.

A lot of the girls were wearing dresses so they couldn’t play Twister, but we did have one good round (that I won!) I had to excuse myself from the party for a little while around midnight when I got a bad stomach ache. But, it got a lot better so that I was able to go downstairs to clean up and say goodbye to the last of the guests.

I was so, so happy that Mel was able to fly out for the party! She was a huge help setting up and decorating the rainbow cupcakes. She was with us until Sunday night. I miss her already! I wish Johnathan had been able to come too.

Click here for all the party pictures – including the photo booth shots!

Back in the Groove

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Hello! I’ve been so busy since getting home that a week has zoomed by. Where did I leave off..?

So, last Thursday, we flew from Cabo back to Los Angeles. Mel and Johnathan picked us up. They were awesome, as always. I was super excited to have real food choices again. We stopped on the way from the airport and I got a gardenburger and fries, then the Starbucks soy chai I have been craving all week. I’m trying to remember what we did after that… I know that Mel and I went to bed before the boys. I was tired.

On Friday, I was up at the crack of dawn, as usual. I never change from EST. J had to work, but we were able to meet him for breakfast. It was a chilly morning, but at least were weren’t stuck in the 100° weather they were having back home. After breakfast, we went to Venice Beach with Mel. It is tradition for us to go and get new necklaces from Tony, who has a table out there. I got a little jade Buddha that he restrung on the beaded string I picked out. Mel and I both got stone necklaces that you wear for 30 days straight when you first put it on. It is supposed to change color (darkness?) if your energy is good. I had to hold off on putting mine on until after the wedding we were going to. Danny got a new Om necklace since his last one fell off. He had him put it on a more secure necklace.

In the afternoon, it was time for Danny and I to drive to the valley and check in to the hotel where my brother-in-law’s wedding was being held. The temperature was about 20 degrees higher there. The hotel was pretty, though we had little double beds. (I had to sleep in my own bed the second night because we sleep all elbows and knees.) After cleaning up, we went to the wedding rehearsal and dinner. It was great to see everyone. My little baby cousins-in-law are getting so big! Dan received an acoustic guitar as his groomsman gift!

Saturday was wedding day. We kidnapped the groom (Dan’s brother) so he wouldn’t have to worry about running into the bride. We had breakfast and took him for a haircut. When we got back to the hotel in the afternoon, Danny went off with the groomsmen to get ready in the groom’s room. I relaxed in our room then showered and dressed for the wedding. When I headeddown to the lobby, everyone was already gathering outside. The ceremony was beautiful, but it was difficult for anyone see see because of how they positioned the bridal party like a wall in front of the bride and groom. There was a cocktail hour afterwards with a great a capella group. The reception was indoors with a DJ. Danny did so well with his best man toast – he made the ladies tear up at the end with his sweet mention of me. Everything was lovely and they really tried to make the guests feel welcome. There were baskets of slippers by the dance floor so you didn’t have to dance in heels. I danced a few songs with the cousins when Danny was out smoking a cigar from the cigar bar. There was a lounge set up later in the night that had snack foods like pizza and hot dogs. There was this great photo booth with hats and boas. You’d take you pictures then make a scrapbook page for the bride and groom with all the stickers and markers they supplied. There was also a huge table of mini photo frames for your extra photos. It was a really pretty wedding.

Sunday morning we visited with the family some more before driving back to J & M’s place (we had stolen their car for the weekend.) They took me to Hollywood to their favorite piercer. I really wanted to get a forward helix piercing, and I figured I’d get it done out west since they already had a piercer they were happy with. It was so hot that combined with my travel anxiety and we feeling a little yucky when we first got there. A quick trip to a 7-11 for a water bottle and I was good to go. The piercer was great. I think I maybe over-tipped, but I am terrible at figuring out tips on services. I appreciate when I get good tips at work, though, so I gave her $10 on the $45 piercing. I had to pay first, so I told her to take good care of me. It was quick and painless (though I have no problems with needles at all) and I love how it looks.

We flew home that night on the red-eye. We upgraded to first class when we got the the airport since they had 2 left and it was a good price. Thank goodness we did! Turns out nearly our whole flight was a class of 8th graders flying to Washington, D.C. Yikes. I didn’t sleep, but the chair was comfy and I made good use of all the free upgrades by eating dinner, watching a ton of pay tv shows and a movie. There is a chat feature on Virgin America and at one point, seat 19A wanted to chat. Haha, probably an 8th grader tying the wrong row number.

I’ve been busy getting back into my work routine this past week. On Wednesday we had a baby shower for a coworker. I stayed up the night before sewing her a baby blanket and embellished onesie. Laura stayed over backing super cute mini brownies. That night we went to the Iron Maiden concert. It was kick ass!

I have more to say, but I’ll do it in a separate post. Here are some photos:

1. On our private terrace, 2. On our private terrace, 3. Our Suite in Cabo, 4. Sun Bathing, 5. Terrace View, 6. Beach Walk, 7. Beach Walk, 8. Eating at Mi Casa, 9. Necklace, 10. Necklace, 11. Wedding Ceremony, 12. Wedding Ceremony, 13. Wedding Reception, 14. My Dress, 15. Wedding Photo Booth, 16. Healing

January 2008 :: Year of Photos

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008



January 2008 :: Year of Photos, originally uploaded by punquin.

Welcome to February.

I finally set up my Twitter account to send all of my “mini blog” updates to Livejournal at the end of the day, since that is often the only thing I get a chance to update. Does anyone else have a Twitter (or want to start one)? I’d love to add more friends.

Trash is taken out, errands have been run, Spanish lessions have been completed, nap has been taken, Danny has been talked to on the phone. Now I need to do my Sunday night updates for work, make/eat dinner, and braid braid braid.

Welcome to my exciting life.

Happy Birthday, Benny!

Saturday, December 15th, 2007



Birthday Collage, originally uploaded by punquin.

Benny had his first birthday party today, and it was so much fun! (See the pics here.)

The day started with a trip to the grocery store on the way to work, where I got people cupcakes and a bunch of balloons. (I had made Benny’s dog-safe cake the night before.) As soon as Benny and I got to work, I started setting up the room for the party. I wanted to make it look nice since all the employees and a bunch of dogs were invited. One of the dog’s (Bree the sheltie) mommy was even coming with treat bags of cookies for the guests. She is too sweet! Everything looked great, and the employees were circling like vultures when they heard there were cupcakes.

We had the party at 1 pm. I got the huge surprise of a former coworker showing up with Bree’s mommy. She hadn’t seen Benny since he was 8 weeks old. All the doggies enjoyed the cake, and Benny got some great presents.

This was the (canine) guest list:

  • Benny the Golden
  • Luna the Golden
  • Bella the Beagle Mix
  • Charlie the Aussie
  • Jackson the Aussie
  • Stella the Aussie
  • Bruno the Beagle Mix
  • Trevor the Mini Aussie
  • Jack the Aussie Mix
  • Chase the Yorkie

Oh, and Dudley the Lab arrived mid-party for daycare and “crashed” the party for some cake, heh. When I was done cleaning up, Luna came back to the office for an “after party” with Benny and his new toys. Then he napped off all the cake until it was time to go home. He was Snoozie McTiredson by then.

Happy Birthday, Benny! I can’t believe you are already 1-year-old!

I’m Back!

Sunday, November 18th, 2007



With Danny, originally uploaded by punquin.

Helloooo…. I got back from California on Friday and have been using the weekend to catch up on both sleep and chores.

I have a run-down of the trip already started. I’ll try to finish it and post it tomorrow. For now, you can click on the collage below to see my trip photos.