this year, i am thankful for.....

my health & happiness

berkeley

cupcakes, pies, and muffins, oh my!

getting an education

all the fun memories from this year

my dear friends, without whom i would lack those memories

my family, who is all huddled together this thanksgiving, stuffing our faces with turkey and sweets and remembering what's important in life

Happy Thanksgiving!

May your day be warm, reflective, and full.

family time is the best time.

My beloved Grandpa Nick passed away in February, and in May my mom received news that her mother was sick with leukemia. The prognosis wasn't good, but the doctors gave her a few months.

When I left for France, I wasn't sure I would see her again. But with some prayers and determination, my grandma Jane is doing very well! She and her husband George took a spontaneous trip to San Francisco last week, and since we're all so close to the city, we had lunch.

The photo above is a (low quality iPhone) shot of George, my sister Paige, my beautiful grandma, me, and my cousin Tyler (my parents were also there). Isn't my grandma beautiful? I was expecting her to look sick or at least tired, but she looks as gorgeous as I remember. She's so strong, determined, and sure of her self. I admire her tremendously and am so happy to have shared the perfect afternoon with her.

We had lunch at Kuleto's in Union Square, which most definitely deserves a post of its own.

Family time is the best time, don't you think?

Happy Wednesday! The week is almost over

:)

in the land of rain and starbucks

My sister Kendall is a freshman at the University of Washington.

This past weekend her Huskies took on my Golden Bears

at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

Most unfortunately, my Bears were defeated

but I had such a nice weekend with my fam and sorority little sis Katie.

Seattle is so pretty!

I can't wait to visit again and see more of the city.

On Friday, we all arrived, had lunch, and walked around campus.

Kendall in front of her sorority house

Katie and I took a tour of our sorority chapter at UW. so gorg.

We had dinner at the Ram

(I had a crab and shrimp melt sandwich. to die for.)

and enjoyed each other's company.

Saturday was Game Day

(my favorite holiday).

It was especially fantastic because

we got to go on the field before the game started!

My dad's childhood best friend is the UW baseball coach

so we got the royal treatment.

I was literally steps away from my school's football team.

one of the highlights of my life, for sure.

For dinner we had Maggiano's family style.

I probably gained about 30 pounds but it was so much fun.

Good food, good company.

What more can you ask for?

Thanks for showing us around Kendall!

Cannot wait to come visit again.

Kendall's Graduation in Pictures

One of the things that is most endearing to me about my family is that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Seriously, regardless of how good an Archer's karma might be or how hard you've prayed for everything to be in its right place, something bad always happens.

Kendall's high school graduation was no different.

Despite how fab she looks in all these pictures, Kendall got released from the emergency room a mere 11 hours before her graduation ceremony started (meaning only 7 hours before she had to wake up in the morning.) She woke up with horrendous food poisoning and was sick all day Thursday. She went to the ER to get all hydrated and well again, and rallied for the ceremony and her party the next day.

A true champ that one is. And doesn't she look gorg?

A few weeks ago, my mom officially put me in charge of the little family party, so being the cray-cray that I am, I went to town. I literally spent 13 hours baking the day before, and spent the morning of scrambling around decorating. Totally worth it to make my sister happy :) and I think things turned out pretty good, right? I'm considering a career in party planning at the behest of the party guests :)

Husky cupcake recipe can be found here (super easy, I promise!)

On me: Dress Rachel Roy, Ring F21, Watch Michael Kors, Shoes Target

On Kendall: Dress Single, Shoes F21 (hair and make up done by yours truly)

Sunday Gratitude

Sometimes I am just struck by how amazingly blessed I am to have my friends and family in my life.

I spent the weekend surrounded by people I love and who love me, and for that I am tremendously thankful.

Today I just wanna pinch myself. My life is full of love, happiness, and smiles.

Scenes from Easter Weekend

This weekend was wonderful (aside from the still-going-strong sugar coma). Sometimes all I need is a little family time to get myself back on track. It was the perfect time to get some rest, refocus, and remember what's important. And it gave me a little time to work on my 15 page research paper with peace and quiet. This weekend, I...

...ate my favorite breakfast every day. Oatmeal with bananas and whole almonds and almond milk, and a cup of coffee with almond milk instead of cream. Perfection, and healthy too.

...played around with Cujo, aka my dog Riley. Doesn't she look insane in this picture?! I promise she's not! This picture is currently the background on my phone, and it makes me laugh literally every time I see it.

...went out to dinner with my cute parents. (Seriously, isn't my mom a knock out?) We went to Kristina's, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Hollister. I had a cheese enchilada, which I've been ordering there since I was probably about 7 years old. Old habits die hard, my friends.

Used Sally Hansen's awesome nail stickers. I cannot stop raving about them. They're so great that they deserve their own post. Watch for that later this week :)

I just got back to Berkeley about a half hour ago, so that means it's about time to get back to work on my paper (though I'm almost done!!!!). I'm glad I just had this time at home to keep me happy and optimistic through the next two weeks of finals madness.

Hope you all had wonderful Easter Sundays (if you celebrate) and were able to soak up some sun this weekend. :)

be well!

Christmas Wrap-Up

The Archer family Christmas this year was relaxed, chill, low-key, etc. and I could not be more thankful for that. My life in Berkeley is so crazy that it's nice to just hang out when I come home. Here is my Christmas in pictures:

On Christmas Eve Eve, I went on a baking tear and wound up baking about 12 dozen cookies. I baked from 11AM to 6PM straight without taking a break to sit down (and didn't even realize how badly my feet hurt!) Needless to say, I gave out a lot of cookies as gifts and my family will have cookies for weeks!

These were my favorite of all the cookies I made! I found a recipe on a blog (which is actually what really inspired me to write my own) and decided I needed to make them. They were a huge pain to make as they are incredibly labor-intensive (and I heard they kind of taste like play-doh, but I didn't actually try any) but they sure look cute!

My favorite part of any Christmas dinner is my mom's Mulligatawny soup. She's made it for years, and in the years since I stopped eating meat she always makes me my own chicken-free batch! And she uses vegetable broth for all of it. Lucky for me, my mom is infamous for making way too much food for every holiday meal, so she freezes the extra soup and we can eat it months later. My mom's recipe comes from a cookbook she got as a wedding present, but a comparable recipe can be found here.

After we all recovered from our food comas, we played a game of Apples to Apples (family tradition at any holiday celebration). If you have yet to play this game, get on it! It's so simple but so much fun. I mostly like it because I always win (I know how to cater to my audience!) The cards you have at the end are supposed to describe your personality, but I don't know how accurate mine were (I mean, c'mon, smelly?).

Dress: old, I think it's from Nordstrom; Scarf: Urban Outfitters; Belt: Forever 21

And to round out the Christmas pictures, here are my youngest sister Paige and I. She's only 16 but she's as tall as I am and is growing up to be one of the most gorgeous women I've ever known. She's also really funny. Our middle sister Kendall had to work on Christmas Eve. :(

Today I feel like I have a food hangover. But don't worry, I'm eating more. My mom's sister and her family are Jewish (but celebrate Christmas with us), so my aunt always makes potato pancakes when she's here. Delish.

Plans for the rest of the day: I have to answer some emails and finish up some sorority stuff, which I'm working on now. Kendall has to work again this afternoon, so Paige and I might drop her off and shop, then pick her up and we'll all have dinner. Because I clearly need to keep eating. Oh, life. I also have a bunch of arts&crafts projects I wanna try this break, so I might hit up Michael's for supplies.

Upcoming: pictures of my favorite presents! And the (potentially worthless) New Year's Resolutions post. Maybe if they're written down in the blogosphere I can actually stick to them! We'll see.