Katy Perry Photoshoot - The Reveal

2 weeks ago I had a fabulous photo shoot for my birthday and today is finally the day to reveal the photos! If you missed it, you can read about the balloons here, cupcakes here, and misc. fun here.

Sean Gumm of Sean Gumm Portraiture took the photos, he is a personal friend and genius behind the camera. He makes you feel so comfortable and relaxed. If you're in the Seattle area and looking for a photographer, he's your man. (Thanks Sean!) 

PS There are a lot of photos, so I won't add individual descriptions.
Have fun guessing what was going on. 

 

New Things

For my birthday I bought myself presents. I do it every year. It's sort of one of my things. I feel like I spend a lot of money on other people and making things happen for them so once a year I try to buy items that I want but normally wouldn't purchase.

This year I went big. My first present to myself was a big one. I bought tickets to Coachella. 

Remember my little sneak peak I gave you at the beginning of February? Well these were the beauties I bought for my Katy Perry photo shoot. Bebe Omega Glitter Wedges, they have the most spectacular shine and their color, the color! I couldn't resist this purchase, unfortunately their design was poor for walking in so they ended up being just for the photo shoot. 

And then I bought these treats at Ulta:

1. My splurge was the LIPPY gloss, normally I would never purchase $17 lip gloss but that's what a birthday does to me. I've been wanting the perfect bright pink lip color for ages and LIPPY nailed it. The color, the texture, the shine... magical. Seriously.

2. Katy Perry's new perfume Meow! The scent attracted me from 3 isles away! An employee had just sprayed a tester, when I found out it was Katy's new fragrance, I knew it was fate. 

3&4. I've been wanting purple polish for ages and as I had an Ulta certificate for a free polish... I couldn't help but pick up the blue polish as well. Hello spring! 

Rocking the new lip gloss today, I paired it with Revlon's 720 Fire & Ice. 

I am in love.

Weekend Recap

Continuing the birthday theme: My baby brother's birthday was one week ago today. We are three years and two days apart. Growing up we would always celebrate our birthday together. This year we were planning on going to LA but his travel plans fell through.... hopefully next year! But I still wanted to do something special so this weekend I sent out a care package.

Included were some of his favorite cookies: double chocolate chip using this recipe.

I also decided to try the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar that's been circulating Pinterest for weeks. My brother Daniel and I braved the weather and walked the pups to the store to grab a few ingredients. We literally experienced rain then snow and when slush started falling from the sky decided to take shelter in Petsmart and buy the pups treats. By the time we left the store (15 minutes later) it was sunny. Honestly, this weather!

While waiting for the oven I spent some quality time with the pups.

Megatron enjoying his new toy:

V having separation anxiety this weekend, trying to have me hold her anytime I was in her sight:

After baking and a ridiculous amount of chores I headed out for the night to celebrate my birthday with my Vancouver friends. We were going to go to Harvey's comedy club but the show was sold out so instead we headed to Le Happy, a creperie on the west side of Portland. Their crepes are amazing. The atmosphere is eclectic and it's very small but if you're in the mood for crepes this is a must stop in Portland. Afterward we went to Shiraz Grill a Mediterranean bar for drinks. The drinks were good and their homemade fries are stellar but our waitress was extremely pushy and put a damper on our experience. We ended our night listening to music and grabbing another drink at Jinx. I couldn't have asked for better company or a more relaxed and hilarious night.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend, happy Monday!

Birthday Activities

Kells Irish Pub

It is no secret that Kells is by far my favorite pub in Portland and when I found out a few months ago that they have a sister location in Seattle I insisted to Ryan "I have to go on one of my upcoming trips!" He remembered my request and took me there last Friday night. The Seattle Kells is practically nothing like the Portland Kell's but it's still just as amazing. Have you ever had a Washington Apple? It was our beverage of choice for the night.

Tea Time

On my actual day of birth, we spent the entire morning and early afternoon baking a plethora of cupcakes. Mid afternoon rolled around and being up to my elbows in cupcakes (literally), starving and in need of a hairbrush the boys convinced me to put the spatula down and attend tea time. My friends have shared stories about this illusive tea time for ages and last Saturday I finally was able to experience it for myself. Tea time occurs at The Grill on Broadway, the restaurant its self is gorgeous and their $5 sliders and teas are unbelievably good. 

The birthday kids Brad (on my left) and myself with Brandyn, Ryan and Tiffanie. 

Best Seattle hosts.

There was a pre-event going on at The Grill that night, we had to join in on the fun. Naturally.

After dinner we headed to Red Light Vintage & Costume. That place... ridiculous. I could easily spend way too much money in that store.

Movie Time

After our photo shoot (pictures to come!) we headed out to Purr, a bar on Capital Hill. It is our regular bar of choice, not fully recovered from my week of sickness I  ended up sitting at a table observing for most of the night, secretly excited about going back to the apartment for movie time. We watched a number of movies over the weekend but the birthday night movie choice was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I had never seen the movie before and I loved it. The awkwardness of the main characters and monologues of Flint the main character kept me laughing again and again.