{ My future everything bracelet }

You did it again Jcrew. You've made another piece of completely lust-worthy jewelry. I've been pondering all morning how I can justify this bangle's $125 price tag to get it in my closet. I don't think I'm going to be successful at it, but I'm not giving up yet.

{ Park picnic and Hogle Zoo }

When I was small, I went to the Hogle zoo. I don't remember going, but I have a picture of me there, and I returned again a few weekends ago with Katy and Anna (pictured above fitting her head under the zygomatic arch of an elephant skull). Katy and I made our way up to Sugarhouse for a picnic in the park with Ms. Anna, then we all headed over to the zoo where Anna, a newly-acquired zoo employee, got us in for free. (NOTE: Anna gets people to donate money to help the zoo thrive...that's her awesome job).

Unlike the normal, boring, guests, we got to enter the zoo grounds through a not-so-secret back gate that makes a loud siren noise when it is opening and closing. After opening and closing under our scrutiny to be sure no people or animals entered or exited while it opened, said gate let us onto a Jurassic-park-like back road leading to the zoo.

Highlight of the trip: The baby elephant and the noises her mom made to get her attention.

Weirdest part of the trip: Realizing how much primates resemble humans; I don't think I had ever paid much attention before when I had seen them in person.

Souvenir from the trip: A lovely, quarter-sized rash on my right hand caused by, as the doctor told me, an encounter with a plant that my skin is sensitive to. Awesome. Even more awesome? Anna got one too.


Zuri, the cute baby elephant, acted just like a three-year-old kid. She kept poking her trunk in and out of the holes of the fence, seemingly just for fun.


A molting bactrian camel (two humps), not to be confused with a dromedary camel (one hump).


A molting tree at the zoo. I love it when the trees do this this time of year.


Katy lounging on our picnic adventure.


Anna and Katy staking out our picnic spot for lounging and munching on hummus, pita, cucumbers, pasta salad, watermelon and milanos.

{ Garage Shelf = Happiness }

Sometimes all it takes to make me completely content in life is a newly built, large-scale storage shelf in my garage. Such a shelf appeared after an hour and a half's worth of work by my friend Justin two Saturdays ago, and I'm not sure I could have woken up to anything more exciting.

I went down in my pajamas to survey the work that he estimated would take him 4-5 hours. When I got down to the garage at 9:30, the shelf was almost done.

"What time did you start?" I asked. He replied that he had gotten to my house around 8. My quick math told me that was quite the time-work compression.

After hanging on the shelf frame and yanking on it a bit to be sure it was sturdy ("If it can hold me," Justin said, "It can hold anything."), Justin laid the shelf top and put in the finishing nails. I didn't have anything planned till the evening, so I spent the day filling my new favorite house addition with storage from under the stairs. I also took the opportunity to dejunk the contents of my storage boxes and take pictures of things I want to sell on KSL and Craigslist (I still have yet to actually post them).

I'm not sure I should find so much fulfillment in organization, but man, it was a good Saturday.


Left: The partially filled shelf halfway through the organization process. Right: Katy sitting on an inner tube in effort to deflate it. This was the second one she tackled that day.

{ The unatainable faucet }

And then I fell in love with a $1,400 faucet. Why do people even make things that are this expensive?

Spotted here.

{ My other babely niece }

Jena, my oldest/best-face-making niece pictured above, was driving through Utah a couple weeks ago with her best friend, Alaina, en route from LA to Colorado. We met up for a quick tasty French treat at Gourmandise in SLC before she went on her way, where she got the eclair, I got the cream puff, and we chatted for an hour about family, her friend drama, boys and...I think that was it. Quite a treat of treats of a visit for a Thursday evening.


I got these delectable macaroons to go. They may be trendy, but man are they tasty/packed with this awesome chewy crunchy texture.

{ Cute little singing }

This is my 3-year-old niece Anza. I can't even handle how much of a babe she is.