4 Years Married // 9 Years Together

Back on Dec. 31st, KC and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, and a few days later it was our "dating" anniversary. Wow, 9 years!

We went to IKEA to look at new beds, and spent the evening at home watching movies and hanging out. :) We don't usually splurge on anniversary dates or fancy gifts, and that's ok with us. :)

This year we had the special opportunity to do a photo shoot with the INCREDIBLE Jennie Karges of Jennie Karges Photography while we were in Arizona! We met in a small business group online and we were just crazy about each other's work! I owe her some prints for her home... but this swap ended up being the greatest gift we could have asked for.

We've never done an official photo shoot together, not even for our engagement! So, this was just the very sweetest gesture, and I'm sure she had no idea how much it touched my heart for her to offer it. Thank you so much Jennie!

We were running a little behind, and we'd been up since 2 am.... we were so worried we would lose all of the light as the sun was setting, but it turns out we ended up with the most beautiful light. It just saturated the whole area we were in. It was a really hard year for us, and I am so grateful she was able to capture some light and hopeful moments to bring that into focus. This is us right now. This is where we are. This is how lucky we feel. Even with all of the hard stuff. :)

It should be noted that a lot of "who I am" is a big spaz and KC makes me laugh so much. It's just real life us. :)

If you live in Phoenix, or ever go to Phoenix, I highly recommend her! She's so fun and easy to work with. She's obviously GREAT at what she does, she chose the perfect time and place to take these photos, and she made us feel so comfortable doing the shoot. Thank you so much for your sweet gift to us Jennie! Find her here.

Thanks for Reading & Happy Wednesday!

XO,

Alexandra

Snapshots of Buzz Beach Ball // September 2013

I feel like we've been concert crazy recently!

Some friends asked if we'd like to join them for Buzz Beach Ball this year. We'd never been, but it's usually a huge line up with pretty big names and festival feel. This year Phoenix was headlining, but Alt-j, AWOLnation, MSMR, Daughter, Cage the Elephant, Hanni Al Khatib... etc was there. The show started at 2:30, but we decided to go around 6 after work. We missed a few bands that we would maybe have liked to see but we caught the three headliners. AWOLnation

I knew some of their music, but I am always so confused by their style. They go from screaming and lots of guitar to pop-y dance tunes... It made for a not-so-cohesive show for me. But I'm guessing that big fans were pleased. The lead singer kept saying things like "I had a vision for this next song and everyone was crouching down, and then when the music starts everyone explodes!" A little crazy for me.. :) But I enjoyed the songs that I knew. I don't think I would see them again.

Alt-j

Alt-j was the one band that I wanted to see most, I love their music and they are just SO good! I loved their set! The music was great.. I want to go see them live when they are headlining sometime. A full show from them would be AMAZING!

Phoenix

Phoenix went on at 10:30 and they were really entertaining. They're French, so it was fun to hear him talk. :) The music was great, they played new stuff and some old singles. I like the old stuff better but it was all fun. 

Overall the music was pretty great. I enjoyed it and the venue (Berkley Riverfront Park) very much. I don't however, enjoy the festival atmosphere. So much smoke, so much pot... people popping pills, port-a-potties... not my scene.

We've got a few more shows coming up in December, I'm looking forward to those even more than these last two! :)

Have you ever seen any of these bands? What are your favorite albums or songs?

What's a great concert that you've been to recently?

All for now,

Alexandra

Girls with Glasses Event // Phoenix // March 2013

Soon after we decided on the Southwest for our vacation, I saw a tweet from The Girls with Glasses saying that they were doing an event in Phoenix while we were there.

If you haven't heard of Girls with Glasses, visit their blog through the link above. It is hands down one of my favorite blogs.. ever. It is a compilation of Brooke White (singer/songwriter, former Idol contestant) and Summer Bellessa (Eliza magazine Editor, former model). On the blog they cover many lifestyle topics like fashion, home décor, entertaining, music, movies and shopping. All things I love.

Most of their posts are in the form of videos. Always cute and fun. Recently they have started to talk about glasses because they had received a lot of questions about finding the right glasses for your face shape and coloring. So they added segments in response!

When I saw that they were having an event in Phoenix I was really excited! I have been a fan of Brooke's music ever since her idol days, and I obviously am very inspired by the GWG blog. When we found out that we would be in the area we bought tickets right away.

We drove in to Phoenix the night of the event and grabbed dinner. The event was in Biltmore Fashion Park's new area called Union. It is full of fun and unique shops which is a nice contrast to the rest of the shopping center (think Vera Bradley, Brooks Brothers, Macy's and the like). For all of you KC people the Biltmore area is very Country Club Plaza.

The group of people actually ended up being really small. Maybe 20 people. Sadly, most of the people at the event did not know who GWG were, and didn't give them a courteous amount of attention. I thought that was really too bad, but appreciated that Brooke and Summer were really flexible and went on with their presentation very gracefully.

After the presentation we had the opportunity to talk to Brooke and Summer and have them help us with our face shapes and finding glasses that worked for us. Summer had to run back to check on her kids, so I worked with Brooke. She was super sweet and thought that I had a round/heart shaped face. She showed me a few pairs that would work for me, including her own pair of Rivet and Sway's 'Punchline' in Neapolitan. After talking with her, I told her that I was a big fan and asked if she would take a picture with me. I told her that she was my favorite on idol and that I was so sad when she got voted off. I felt so silly with things just coming out of my mouth, but she was so cool about it and took a picture with me anyway! :)

I was so grateful that we got a chance to see GWG speak, and for the tips that they shared about finding the right glasses for your face. Check out their blog for video tips about finding your own glasses. It was a fun event, and clearly meant to be!

I am so excited to find a pair of frames for myself in the next coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

What do you guys think about my face shape? I usually think it looks more heart shaped, especially in pictures where I am smiling. It's hard to tell! :)

All for now,

Alexandra

Coming Up Next: The last stop of our trip and my glasses recommendations from Rivet and Sway.

Snapshots of the Southwest // Spring Break // March 2013

This year for Spring Break we decided to explore more of our beautiful country. 

Neither of us had been to Arizona before, and my grandma and Bob were "snow birding" there, so we decided to take it farther west than we'd ever been.

It ended up being a wonderful trip filled with gorgeous views, family time, last minute event ticket buying and LOTS of coffee.

Here is an overview of our trip!

I will post about the individual locations soon!

We stopped in:

Amarillo

Santa Fe

Albuquerque

The Painted Desert & Petrified Forest National Park

Sedona, AZ

Snow Bird Country

Phoenix

Garland, Texas

The full location posts are linked into these picture titles! 

What has been your most memorable road trip?

All for now,

Alexandra