There’s a new Avon Lady in town!

Yup, my super cute mother-in-law Julie has started offering AVON!
Be sure to visit her personal site where you can browse Avon’s newest beauty products and classic favorites. Julie is a not only an Avon representative, but a HUGE fan of the products. Which is really who you want helping you find the perfect solution to what you’re looking for.
From Julie:

I started using Avon over a year ago when my cousin Brenda sent me an email stating she had just started selling Avon and would …

We visited our friends in Oakland for a weekend ….. and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of their insanely cute apartment. It makes my heart hurt how much I love their little home ….
Take a look …
(I want a big big resting on the floor mirror like this, please)

And I need a cute little reading corner like this. I love the way the perfectly-placed mirror actually creates more light for this spot. Love!

Also, I love that they only have plain white mugs. Andrew and I love our coffee mugs, so …

Allegedly – according to Wikipedia – Mentryville, CA was an oil boom town.
I’m not sure I believe it.
Right now it consists of a parking lot ($5 for parking??? give me a break), a house, a boarded up school and a couple barns.
Not too sure where the town would have been …..
For those of you who did NOT grow up in Santa Clarita with all kinds of urban legends about Mentryville and the cults that lived out there ….. Mentryville is basically a state part just on the outskirts of Santa …

I know, the title sounds kind of ooh-la-la, but it’s mostly a story about Devo and myself.  Oh, this is Andrew by the way, doing a mid-week post since this is my story and not Amy’s.
After the wedding and reception, Devo had rounded up cabs to take all the guests to their lodgings.  Amy, Angela, Devo and myself were the last ones at the hotel waiting for our cab to arrive and Devo asked if anyone would rather walk back to the B&B.  Maybe make a stop at Piazza di …

Um – in case I didn’t make it clear – the ENTIRE reason we were able to go to Italy last October was because a certain special best-friend-of-mine got MARRIED and wanted me to be there.
Ok, wanted me to photograph. Only a slight difference.
The amazing thing for me about shooting this wedding (you know, besides the fact that the bride was someone I have been friends with for something ridiculous like over a decade) was that we were all staying in the same bed and breakfast.
That means breakfast together, that …

New Year’s Eve with some of our favorite people!
Christian and Avalon.
We love them.
We got to their (cute cute cute) apartment in time for dinner and a movie before the ball dropped at midnight. …

The one thing Andrew and I brought to help liven up the festivities was a magnum of champagne.
It was given to us by Andrew’s boss as a Christmas present … but of course, since I don’t really like alcohol, there was NO WAY Andrew was going to be able to drink the whole thing by himself …
Apparently, …

So  – the weekend after Christmas-proper, Andrew and I headed out to Arizona for Christmas with my family.
As we arrived on Saturday afternoon, we treated Saturday night as ‘Christmas Eve’ and Sunday morning as ‘Christmas morning.’
Does anyone else have Christmas Eve traditions?
In my family, we always open our annual ornament and new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve:

(I got a Big Ben ornament. Andrew got a record player)

‘Christmas morning’ (read: Sunday, 2 days after Christmas), we all stumbled out of bed and took our sweet time opening gifts.
There are only 5 …

Ever since I was little little little my family would travel to Arizona every year around Christmas time. We had to schedule a full week because of all the friends and family who had claims on us for holiday get-togethers.
Now that I’m married and living in California again, we only have time go back to Arizona for a couple days, but still have the claims of a week’s worth of holiday get-togethers.
This year, Andrew and I headed out to Arizona early Saturday morning and I arrived just in time for …

{If you didn’t catch it, part one of the Christmas day post was earlier today}
In addition to all the eating, cooking, playing games and eating that we do when hanging out at the Schuberts’ … one of our favorite things is to tease play with the dogs.
And there were 4 at the house on Christmas day (Hazel, Buddy, Louis and Lucy LuLu).
Needless to say, Andrew’s allergies acted up a lot.

Since Katie and Joe didn’t get to the house until the middle of the afternoon, and Jenae left around 330p to …

Confession: Of my favorite Christmas movies ever, I’d say A Muppet Family Christmas (1987 TV special) is probably #3.
The Muppets show up at Fozzie’s mom’s farmhouse; make food; make a mess; there are fights and new comedy partners; put on a concert, a home-movie AND a play; Miss Piggy has a photo shoot, goes Christmas shopping AND helps push a taxi out of the snowbank; and somehow they squeeze in the whole cast of Sesame Street AND Fraggle Rock all in about half an hour.
Somehow, that reminds me of Christmas …

December is the best excuse for getting together with people you like, I think.
The Sunday before Christmas, we (and our friend Betsy) headed over to the Keegan Gross home for some holiday spirit (tangible and intangible), ‘Love Actually‘ and holiday baking.
Maggie prepped dough for baking before we came over, so Andrew just did the fun part … Andrew also made eggnog (from scratch) … while all I was responsible for was the photo-taking ….

delicious cookies! I can’t wait until we have a real kitchen again because I miss baking …
View …

Thursday: Christmas Eve with NO PLANS!!
It was heavenly.
Neither Andrew nor I had any plans that day (with the exception of stopping by Andrew’s work very very briefly to feed a fish), and I gave myself the day off from at-home work.
Did I mention it was heavenly ….  mmmm …..

‘

Heather and Edmund got a new dog -> Lucy LuLu the Maltipoo
Yes, that is her real name.
And she wears pink sweaters.
oh my goodness …. ridiculously cute with her little ewok face and fluffy whiteness….

There was ALL kinds of cooking and cookie-making and …

Last year I was out of town working, but this year I got to attend Andrew’s work holiday party ….
And I can see why he was raving about it for the last year.
We started about 6p on a Saturday night …. and didn’t get home until 3a the next morning.
Me! Can you believe it?
First, a stop at the studio for some wine, gift-exchanging, wine, and being picked up by the limo service. …

We had a dinner reservation (7:45p) at Capo – this amazing restaurant down in Santa Monica that Andrew …

Andrew has extended family in Gustine, CA.
What? You’ve never heard of Gustine? That is so strange considering it’s a town with less than 5,000 people, only one (1!!) fast-food joint and the shortest ‘Main Street’ I may have ever seen.
The weekend after Thanksgiving I went up there with Julie … to see Sarah sing at their church and just hang out with family….
Cooking – I learned how to make homemade turkey enchiladas, a neighbor gave us a big bowl of homemade vegetable soup, and Aunt Debbie made potato soup.
Knitting and …

One of the reasons I love living in Los Angeles is all the quality theater around. (not that we can afford to go to the theater near as often as I would like, but …. )
But! We have a certain family member who likes to do family things with us that involve the theater …
One more reason you should all be jealous that I have the best mother-in-law …
So, a week or so ago Julie had bought all of us (as in all 8 of us – Andy, Julie, Andrew, …