Date Night: Def Leopard

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I am younger than my husband by four and a half years. Those four and a half years are not much except you need to add in the sequestered life I led on an isolated bee farm to understand that essentially my husband and I did not grow up in the same decade. I grew up listening to “The Oldies” on my mother’s radio. My dad had the television at night and so I never saw a single episode of “Beverly Hills 90210” or “Melrose Place.” I would nod my head when other kids my age would talk about “New Kids On The Block,” but the only time I ever heard their songs were at school dances. My sister and I would rewatch “Anne of Green Gables” during the day and read books at night.

When I heard that Def Leopard would be performing near us, I knew my husband would want to go see them. And honestly, it seemed like a good time.

So I purchased the tickets, made reservations at our favorite restaurant in town, and waited for the concert with nervous excitement.

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The day arrived and you will not believe this, but I did not get an outfit picture. We were rushing because my husband got home from work and we immediately had to leave for our dinner reservations. But I did get a picture of my shoes. They are the coolest pink. When I went to Anthropologie and did some reviews, I walked into the sale room and a woman was holding a pair of these shoes in her hand. “What size are those?” I breathlessly asked. Well, they were two sizes too small for both myself and her, and the only ones in the store. I tracked them down during an extra percentage off sale and scooped them up. I love a happy shoe story ending, don’t you?

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Okay. So, I said I really went to the concert for my husband. And that is true, but it is also true that I went for the food. The food. I adore the steakhouse on the premise of where Def Leopard performed. And the only time we splurge and eat there is when we go to a performance (such as when we saw Cyndi Lauper last year). It did not disappoint. I have eaten steak at some of those restaurants that are known for steak in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas. I have never had steak as good as this steak anywhere else. The chef gives you a complimentary amuse-bouche when you are seated. He also sends out his handmade truffles and candy gummies with the bill. It is expensive but worth it.

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We finished our meal and headed to the venue. There was a man sitting next to me on my left that had been going to see Def Leopard every year, by himself, since 1987. Oddly enough he left right before the concert was over. He sang every song. I knew one of them. One. Yep. “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” My husband knew them all. And he recalled listening to them perform when he was in fifth grade on a fence in his backyard as the sound carried from the concert to his house. I loved that he finally got to see them live in concert on this evening.

There was a woman in her early fifties sitting by herself on our right. She confessed that she had been to their concert the night before in a different city. So, of course I said to her, “Wow. You must really like the band.”

She shook her head, “no.” She admitted that she had never listened to Def Leopard before until the day before. Someone had bought her the tickets to the two venues as a gift. I thought that was an interesting gift.

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I am a sitter.

Period.

So, I was stressed that the people in front of me would stand up, and gasp!, dance during the concert. This would give me the task of standing up myself. Well, the people who purchased the seats in front of us never showed up. So, I could have sat but we actually stood and swayed (I would surely hesitate to call clapping your hands to music as dancing) to the music.

But the only thing that kept running through my head during the show was, “I should have studied these songs before the concert.”

Yes, what I was thinking during a rock concert is that I really should have studied.

Poser.

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It ended up being a fun night. I will look back upon it and smile. Have you been to any concerts this year? Do you like the dinner or the event itself better? I think that is why I am so fond of dinner theater. You get the best of both worlds… And you don’t need to stand… Or study.

Antique Shopping With My Mom

My mom wanted to have a girl’s day a few weeks ago. I was in. Since we both love antiquing, we planned on heading down to some local antique stores and picking out a fun restaurant to eat at.

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It was a fun day, but incredibly hot. I wore my Free People Tutti Frutti Slip Skirt that I got for a steal at Nordstrom Rack (similar skirt here) with a white t-shirt, bow belt from Anthropologie and On A Wing Necklace with vintage boots. It seemed like a good outfit for antiquing. Sorry for the blurry pictures. My daughter took them and the camera is big for her tiny hands.

I wanted to share all of the pretty vintage treasures there were to be had. I did not buy anything except for a few post cards to add to my collection. You can see a new feature about them that I started on this blog here.

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Vintage Maracas. The color is beautiful.

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This bracelet that reminded me of peacock feathers (Heather!).

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I can always spot a gnome.

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This guy lurking creepily in the back was tagged as an elf. The horror! But, well, he is creepy enough for the title. He was $150. Now that may seem like a lot of money. And it is. But imagine the possibilities. How scared would your spouse/partner be of this creature?

Oh. Man. What a steal!

If only I weren’t so scared of it myself…

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Here was a cute ceramic gnome candle holder. I don’t buy the kitschy ceramic stuff. I like the small felted gnomes I can hide in other objects or plant sticks or outside gnomes. But he was cute sitting on the shelf.

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If I had one more room in my house, I would have sprung for this amazing ceramic Italian chandelier. It is gorgeous. The colors were perfect. The price was fair for a chandelier. So pretty!

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I love the blue on this ceramic crock.

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And the blue on this old plunger.

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Look at the pretty turquoise jewelry!

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And there was great blue grass music being played throughout town. It was a beautiful day. We even got to see this cute little dressed up fellow.

Thank you Mom for spending it with me. I had so much fun!

Have you been antique shopping lately? Thrift store shopping? I love sifting through old things. You never know what you are going to find!

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

A Day Of Falconry

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Did you know that you can now take a falconry class (it used to not be available to the general public)?

Well, you can.

And I did.

In November, I found a coupon that was half price for a falconry class. I was intrigued. So, I purchased a spot in the class for each person in my family.

I knew I wanted to do it over spring break. The excursion is run by West Coast Sky Falconry out of Alpine, California (near San Diego). We got to do this amazing event two weeks ago.

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When we arrived at the falconry class, they had three birds on low perches. The class of ten people was taught by the nicest falconers, Kirk and Denise.

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They started the hour long class by teaching us some cool facts about hawks. We were going to be working with a Harris Hawk. I thought we would be working with a falcon, but it turns out the term falconry can be applied to any raptor. The Harris Hawk is ideal for falconry training, because it lives in a group. This is very rare for a raptor bird. Because of this, the Harris Hawk is used to anticipating the body language of others. The one we were privileged to meet that day was named, “Steam.” He looked huge, but weighed only two pounds.

We also learned that hawks tend to fly only fifteen to twenty minutes a day, so if you see one circling the sky, it is a rare moment. Now that I know this, it feels more special to me when I see the beautiful creatures in the sky.

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We took turns having Steam fly onto all of our gloves. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. My son was terrified and asked if he had to do it. To which I replied, “yep.” Because that is the kind of mom I am. And because I knew if he always let fear win, he would never know the joy of success.

He loved it.

I mean, he loved it.

We all did.

If you have any classes like this near you, I highly recommend it. The class that we did was for ages seven and up. My friend did this with her family on another day, too. They all could not believe how amazing the experience was.

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If you chose to, you could do tricks with the hawk. That was a bit more than my heart could take. But my husband threw food into the air for the hawk. And both of my children had the hawk walk quickly up to their foot and take food off of it.

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At the end, we were able to pose over the beautiful valley and take pictures of Steam, the hawk, on our arm.

It was such a joyous moment. It was made even better by Kirk and Denise, who answered every question we had for them with passion and love for their birds.

During the summer, they also offer courses at the Torrey Pines location. I imagine that would make for gorgeous pictures.

I would love to do this again. It was educational. It was exhilarating. It was interesting.

I cannot say enough good things about it. What a fun way to spend quality time with a loved one that does not involve sitting or crowds.

Have you ever done this? Had you heard of it before? Aren’t those hawks beautiful?

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I am enamored.

With a bird.

Just don’t tell my husband.

Anthropologie Holiday Workshop: Corona 2013

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I loved this workshop. The girls (Amber and Carly) that ran it were two of the sweetest girls I have ever met. They really liked their job. They liked the customers. They were just awesome!

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I wore my Free People thermal oatmeal sweater dress that I found at Nordstrom Rack and my Anthropologie Heirloom necklace with the bee embelishments. I also snuck in some colorful tights, because I was cold and I thought no one would notice. Unfortunately, I tried some clothes on for reviews (coming Sunday) and they are the most prevalent thing in the pictures. Again, what can you do?

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This workshop was more interactive than the San Diego Workshop I had gone to early that week. At this one, we all sat at a communal table. We introduced ourselves and told a fun fact about ourselves. Mine was I am double jointed. My favorite share fact was from a lovely woman whose mother and grandmother were doctors. They grew up with baby monkeys in their home that were from the research hospital her family worked at. It sounded like a fun childhood.

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We ended up making a rubber band art installation made to look like string art. How cool is that?

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We just took a circle of cardboard that they had precut (they had glued two pieces together to make it sturdy and thick) and wound our rubber band around it.

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We started in the center and then each rubber band placed after that went crossed over the next to the right. It ended up looking like this.

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Some of the girl’s crafts were perfect. With the center being, well, in the center. Mine, not so much. It took a curve at a weird angle. Kind of like their creator. ; ). Both of mine did this. I still think they look okay. Imperfect, like me.

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After we were done they were going to spray paint them gold. Starting at the edges and going towards the middle. They were going to leave the middle bare. They wanted the rubber band center to shine through.

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I cannot wait to make some of these with my kids. I think it is a super fun easy holiday display idea.

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I am so happy I got to go this workshop. It was incredibly fun. The vibe was relaxed and welcoming. I am pictured here with Amber and Carly. They were unbelievably sweet. Just lovely and kind. The ladies attending the workshop were also so nice. I met Karen who has a blog, also. It is called Elderberry Street. She also did a blog post about the event there. Her pictures turned out fantastic!

Have you done one of these workshops? Are you looking forward to doing some crafts this holiday season?