So Much Love, so Much Baby

What a crazy amazing weekend! One of those that flies by so quickly you don't stop to realize how great it is  until you plop down on your couch at the end of the day feeling content, satisfied, and loved. Especially loved. 

Nick and I spent the weekend apart at different family events and talked each other's ears off for most of the evening about how much fun our weekends were. Summertime is being good to us and I am lovin every minute.

On Friday my dear Mamacita came to Fort Collins for an overnight visit and a night at Taste of Fort Collins! I was so excited to finally dust off my bike seat for the summer, especially since I was so proud of myself for fixing the flat tire on both mine and Nick's bikes...buuut I was left to ride the ride of shame back to my apartment 5 minutes after my mom and I ventured out on the bikes as the tire I had changed previously, was once again flat. whaaa whaaaa :/ I was right to doubt my handy man skills. But thankfully my mom can talk her hysterical sensitive daughter down from any mini melt down (it had been a veeery long day) and 10 minutes later I was in my mom's car and back to pick her up, throw the bike in the car and we were once again - on our way to the Taste! :P The rest of the night was awesome - complete with a sensational waffle from the Waffle Lab food truck (smoked Norwegian salmon over creme cheese on a waffle - aaaahmazing!) and a grass concert listening to Churchill. And I had my mommy all to myself? Yeah that's a pretty great Friday night.

 Today we celebrated the baby shower of my sister and her husband. Baby Luca, my first nephew (!) is due to arrive towards the end of the month. He's kiiind of a big baby and my sister an itty bitty thing, so the due date is going to be pretty much up to him. Making an entrance already, just like his mom :) 

It was the first time I was part of planning an event like this and what a ride! Planning, executing and making sure mommy-to-be is happy takes some awesome ladies (such as ourselves..a few pictures down) and we rocked it. The day was filled with so much love and excitement - dear Luca we cannot wait to meet you! 

Happy Monday!

The Monday After a Summer Weekend

Although my sleeping routines [of tossing and turning in bed once Nick is off to work at 3:30am and waking in a zombie state promptly at 6:00am] is becoming a bit annoying and unavoidable - I'm going to write it off this morning to this weekend's fun filled festivities and sunshine!! 

 Nicholas and I went to Denver to stay the weekend at his mom's to celebrate our technically little brother Adam's hs graduation party! Phew that was a long weekend title! But it was an absolute blast and it was finally Colorado summer warm, the whole Italiano family got together and I was reminded how loving, crazy, and entertaining they are. 

[ After Friday's fancy inspirations I knew I had to wear my new Lucky shorts (thanks Mom!) with a simply black + white combo. I was having too much fun to snap a better outfit picture, but I completed the shorts + tank with simple black two strap sandals (what else do I wear?) Next time I can't forget to ad a belt, like I did this weekend imo. check out these other black + white outfit creations by these fashionable ladies

{ava grace's closet} {bon bon rose girls} {get your pretty on} ]

these guys, having too much fun. including Oliver .. :) happy as a clam!

 

 

Happy Graduation Adam! 

On Sunday morning Nick and I were just a tad groggy and let his Maam cook her delicious eggs for breakfast. Once we got back into town just before noon, a spurt of energy hit us and we decided to take care of a couple more to-do's on our list to jazz up our patio. 

 

We headed into old town and ended up wandering around Ace Hardware and the rest of downtown for a couple of hours. We found a great gift for a special someone coming up and my husband took me out for a sandwich and ice cream. Just like the rest of the weekend, it was a perfect afternoon so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

Tomorrow is my birthday and as hard as I'm trying to be excited about it because I absofreakinglutely love birthdays and cakes and love filled cards, the fact is I am fighting it with my whole body to be here. Not that I can do anything to stop it. I know I'm a little unhappy with "timing" in my life at the moment and a birthday that pushes me just a little past the quarter life mark is not really welcomed. That naive 19yo is nagging "I expected a little more from you by now". But my very content and positive self is reassuring "I don't want my life's timeline to reflect 'everybody else's'. Then it wouldn't be 'my life'." And the fact that I feel literally at a stand still today with minimum productivity I've decided to just close my eyes, let the day come and go and cook myself and Nicholas my favorite dinner. And when I decide what that will be I'm sure I'll let you know. 

For now I'm going to say goodbye to this great weekend, accept the fact that it is somehow June 2013, and  do something about my coffee cup that is still next to my keyboard. Happy Monday. 

As of Late

hello and holy wow it's been a year. not quite but close enough. and shameful all together. it's going to be a bit of a journey reconnecting with this blog. But I have missed it and look forward to sharing with you dearly. 

And as of late, despite life's trivial curve balls, I've found myself having pretty fantastic days. One after the other. Simple, satisfying, productive, beautiful, just wonderful, days. And today was certainly one of those wunderbaren Tage. After I enjoyed a girl's day with my sister in Denver and Nick some good ol' guy time with his dad for the first half of the weekend, I came home and enjoyed Sunday morning breakfast with the boys, took a walk, and did some home improvement on our humble abode with Nicholas. 

I took an okay close up of a budding tree. 

The Pineapple Express came through Foco.

Baby pine cones. 

Simple, yet lovely. But Nick and I were so proud of our plant job we stood in the kitchen all late afternoon staring out the patio door while we cooked pizza + salad for dinner. I was pretty darn content. And as of late, I consider that a pretty amazing day. 

So, it's Monday...

... yet again

The weekend was pretty perfect. Lazy couch time, extreme weather adventures, amazing brunch dates, and afternoon strolls made for some amazing summertime days. All last week, I had a hard time catching up with my day to day rhythm once we got back from our long weekend camping, during which we celebrated my 25th birthdaaay! It was fun reliving our vacation on Saturday, which was lazy for me while N had some work to do in Denver and I was sort of sickly on the couch, browsing through the endless amount of [neglected] pictures that had found themselves onto my camera over the past few weeks. 

What else would find its way onto my memory card but sunshine walk snapshots? 

Fort Collins is moving. 

my very best friend

brunch at Lucille's. greatest buttermilk biscuits on the planet. 

 I'll have more to share with you from the weekend and {the fishing trip i turned 25 became a fishing girl} and some amazing pictures from the very scary Fort Collins High Park fire this week. For now have yourselves a good Monday!

---

xo . jess

birthday weekend - take one.

It has been a pretty fantastic Sunday not to mention yet another great weekend! That's two for April! All in all it has been a perfectly lazy fundaySunday, we got back home late this afternoon, took care of some cleaning and retired very lazily to our ghetto couch for the remainder of the day.
As a little disclaimer, it was a snapshot images kind of a weekend. I forgot my good camera, everywhere we went. That'll teach me to pack it neatly in the trunk of my car.

Nevertheless, Friday started off pretty ridiculously..(is that proper English?) with a 9 hour work training in Denver which served up a very enjoyable total of 4 hours rush hour traffic. For the tweeps among you, you will know this, however this pizza is just too deliciouslooking ( <-- now that's some proper English) not to share twice. N insisted we treat ourselves to Uncle's Pizza, the absolute best pizza in Fort Collins and most likely all of Colorado actually, and that's exactly what we did. YUM! 

I wore my favorite long sleeved light pink blouse, since the weather was a bit crummy with rain and wind, and finally got to wear my electric blue pants! I was very much in love with them.  

This was my friend about 2 hours into the surprise party for mysisterinlawsboyfriendsbirthday Trey..thank you mama-in-law for mixing me this incredible Bloody Mary :) again..too good not to share. 

The only other picture I managed to snap all afternoon and night. After family, friends, and Mary's we split up and N and I went back to his parents' where we of course enjoyed too much wine and a delicious pasta dinner my mama just happened to whip up. 

I loove being married into an Italian family :))

Come fundaySunday...

What a face to wake up to :) 

It's always more fun to lounge away a Sunday in your boyfriend's clothes. 

Ready to head back home. 

Let the first birthday celebration weekend commence! Next week it will be N's turn.

Which means I've got a busy week ahead of me :) It feel so good to be 

able to see family so often :) it's definitely been a treat. 

Wishing you all a great start to the week, 

xo . jess