Signs of Adulthood: New Years Eve as a "Couple"

This blog's subtitle is "Newly Wed, Nearly Mature" -- which I think sums us up really well. In many ways I still feel like an adolescent sorority girl, and in some ways I already feel like an old married lady. So I've started a series of posts called "Signs of Adulthood" (check out my first post about "baby showers") and I plan to blog about all the things that I do that make feel like an actual "grown-up". Today's topic? New Years Eve as a "Couple."

Although I haven't been "single" for a New Years since 2002, this is our first New Years as married couple. And it just so happens that this year we're not spending New Years at a bar, or a club, or house party... but we're doing a fancy pre-fixed dinner with wine at gourmet restaurant in Long Beach, just the two of us. I'm really excited about it, but it does make me feel like an adult ringing in the New Years as a "couple" without wild drunken debauchary like so many years past.

How about the rest of you? How are you spending New Years? Night on the town? Quiet night at home? With friends?

Wherever you are, the Newlyweds Next Door wish you a very Happy New Year and fabulous 2009!

Newlywed Annual Pilgrimage Re-cap: Christmas in San Diego

Christmas in San Diego was a blast! Wanted to share some of the highlights:

Spending time with Family and Friends. I saw some of my High School girlfriends. I spent lots of great time with my Mom and Dad and extended family. It's such a great time of year!

My Mom and me



Poinsettia Bowl! We got BOX seats for the Poinsettia Bowl, which was a great game (TCU vs. Boise St). We definitely took FULL advantage of the all-you-can-eat and drink smorgasbord.

My Uncle, the Mr., and Me in the Box Seats at Qualcomm Stadium



Suprise Baby Shower for Leanne (family friend)

The the sports-themed diaper-cake



Food! My Mom made so many amazing dinners. And I did some baking. I literally gained 3 lbs in 6 days.

Some amazing sugar cookies that I made. The icing recipe can be found here.



Parties! My parents had several dinner parties that included many friends, old and new.

The wine for the Christmas Day dinner party



Hope you all had a great Christmas! What are some of your Christmas highlights? (If you have a Christmas Highlight post -- please post the link!)

Back from San Diego!

The Mr. and I are back home in LA after a week in San Diego. We had a great time but it was good to be home.

While I was gone I recieved two awards! Thank you!!!

The first is from the awesome Sassy Engineer.


The qualifications to receive the award are:
A. Display a cheerful attitude.
B. Love one another.
C. Make mistakes.
D. Learn from others.
E. Be a positive contributor to the blog world.
F. Love life.
G. Love kids.

The other is from the super sweet, Good Gals Inc. I can't wait to get to know her more too!


"This blog invests and believes in proximity - nearness in space, time, and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

Aren't those cool?!

Thanks again girls! A nice belated Christmas present!

Here's a little gift for you all, sunrise from our Condo in Long Beach, CA this morning. Beautiful!

Wedding Memories: Shadow Box Solution

As many of my fellow Newlyweds know, after your wedding you end up with a lot of wedding crap memorabilia left sitting around or stored in your house/apartment. And if you're like me, you may have worked really hard on some Wedding DIY Projects. So you don't want to just toss all of the stuff or shove it in your Mom's attic, BUT you don't want your house to be some odd tribute to your wedding (a la Miss Havisham).

So I came up with what I think is a good middle-ground solution. I created a Wedding shadow box which now hangs in our Guest Bathroom (not too prominent of a place, but still visible). Check it out:


(sorry this picture is a bit crappy, I had to take it without flash since the box is glass. If you look close you can see my ghostly reflection... creepy)

So I've contained the memorabilia to one corner of the house, my newest goal is making sure our house is not overrun with wedding pictures. In a few weeks I promise to give you a house tour like Mrs. Mojito to show how I've displayed photos, etc.

I still have some boxes of wedding memories that I'm going to clean out over my Christmas break (that starts tomorrow)!

What creative solutions do you girls have for storing or displaying memories for your wedding? (Or is it all in the back of your closet?)

Riding on the (LA) Metro

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something. " - Don Cheadle, Opening Line of "Crash."

Car culture is as much a part of LA as Hollywood or Disneyland. We love our cars (as we should considering how much time we spend in them). We are "safe" behind the steel and glass. We can wear uncomforable shoes 24x7 because we never have to walk. We don't have to interact with others unless we choose to.

Well, even though allegedy, "Nobody Walks in LA", there's one young Newlywed braving the streets of Los Angeles and the LA Metro.



This week, I began my "car-less" lifestyle by taking the Metro from Downtown Long Beach to my office in El Segundo via the Blue Line and the Green Line (with about 2/3 of a mile of walking total). It's suprising easy!

It only takes 1 hour, 15 mins door-to-door (which isn't bad considering the freeway takes almost as long and I can read magazines and books on the journey). The walking is a good little workout, the Metro is cheap, and not driving is "green". Overall, I like it.

Here is a picture I took on the Green Line yesterday:


I guess now I'm a counterexample to the Los Angelinos described in "Crash" -- I'm not hidden behind "metal and glass" and on the crowded train (yes, it actually gets crowded.. who knew) you actually end up touching people.

Also, here's something fun -- I found this website called WalkScore.com. You can put in your address it tells you the walkability of your neighborhood. My neighborhood in Downtown Long Beach scored a 92: A Walker's Paradise!

How about your neighborhood? How walkable is it?

These are a few of my "H" favorite things!

The beautiful and talented, Mrs. Stilettos is doing a fun game and invited me to play. She gave me the letter "H" so now I must present to you ten of my favorite things that start with that letter! So, without further ado...

Husband
My Husband. I still love saying that word. I love him more each day. He's the best.


Holy Bible
Sorry to copy Mrs. Stillettos a bit -- But in the end, there is nothing that matters more to me than Faith, Hope, and Love.


Home
I love our home in Long Beach at West Ocean Condos.


Honeymoon
Our honeymoon was such a fun, special, and amazing time!


Hawaii
Releated to the post above (since we honeymooned in Hawaii), but I LOVE Hawaii. I wish I could go back now. (This picture is at our resort in Maui)


H2O
I love water. When I was little, my Dad called me his "water-daughter" and to this day, water is my favorite drink.


Hazelnut Coffee
A close second to water is coffee (followed by wine). I love my morning (and afternoon) coffee. One of my favorite noises is hearing coffee being ground in our kitchen.


Heavenly
I love to ski. And Heavenly Resort in Lake Tahoe is about as picturesque as skiing gets.


Hermona Beach
I love all Southern California Beaches -- but Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach are two of my favorites.


Holding Hands
Holding hands is such a great form of non-verbal communication. I love it when the Mr. takes me by the hand.


That's all! Let Mrs. Stilettos know if you want to play!

Coffee Table He's Coveting

Our condo is almost fully furnished! (I'll give you a house tour in the future) One key thing we're missing is a coffee table...

I'd been hunting for a glass coffee table with clean lines that doesn't look cheap or ornante. Then while we were at Crate & Barrel the Mr. spotted this table and wanted to buy it right then. I balked at the idea of a $600 acrylic coffee table and we left. However, he still wanted it.

A few weeks later I was online on CB2 and found its cheaper, sleaker cousin and it got my wheels turning...

Some pictures:


Description: This transparent new surface floats in the room without taking up permanent visual residency. Thick half-inch molded acrylic adds clean mod edge in one seamless turn.

Our living room is not huge and the furniture is already dark, so we need something clear/glassy. Our style is very clean and modern so this definitely fits that. I'm really temped to buy it!

But I'm still not sure about acrylic... Have any of seen an acrylic coffee or side table in someone's house? What do you think about this table?