Ha! Now Thing 1 and Thing 2 Have a Friend

It is such a beautiful day today. I wish every day was 70 degrees with a slight breeze. I especially hope that next week is like this because next week I plan to start lunches at the beach and my plan will just not work if it is gloomy and cold.

I don't have anything particular to blog about today, but I have a few little things I can throw out there, so why not, right?

Thing 1
Last weekend, Tim and I decided to try a new place for dinner. After driving around for ages and me getting cranky because I was starving and every place I suggested got a "meh, I guess we can go there if you want" response, we finally settled on Versailles for Cuban. I did not lighten up until they put butter soaked bread in front of me and then, seriously, I was all smiles.
I am kind of disappointed - not in the restaurant - but in myself for living in and around the Valley for most of my life and never knowing this place existed.
It's relaxed, unpretentious, loud, fast, and delicious. They have strong drinks and heavy food. I didn't really know what I was getting into with Cuban food, so I ordered the beef stew and immediately wished I had not eaten so much bread. Luckily I had enough leftover to save for lunch the next day because my stomach flat refused to eat even one more fried plantain.
I would very much like to go back to this place, but more than that, I want to put more effort into finding new places to eat that are local. I need to expand beyond my sale ol' same ol'.

Thing 2
In case you are unaware. This is my dog. Her name is Panda and she is made of love. She gives real standing-on-her-hind-legs-rests-her-head-on-your-shoulder hugs and she gets angry as sh*t when someone she doesn't know knocks on the front door.  As of April 21st, it will be 1 year since we brought her home. Look at how much she's grown...

65 lbs of power to punch you in the face with

17 lbs of "who the heck are these people?"

She has made my life a whole lot less Alyssa-centric and taken up a good chunk of my time, but we're teaching each other how to be grown-ups, and I would not be in such a rush to drive home every day if I didn't know there was a Dive Bomb of Love waiting for me. 

Thing 3

I'm making cake toppers. I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I was going to try and make cute cartoony versions of us and have a little Alyssa and Tim on top of our cake, but since my preferred medium is ceramic and I am only moderately good at building things out of clay, after much trial and error, I decided to opt for something that did not have to be as much in our likenesses (is that even the right way to say that?)

Anyway, I decided to make little ELEPHANTS!

Sunday afternoon I went over to my parents' house and spent a couple of hours in the studio playing with clay. How lucky are we that we can just go into the studio and make things out of clay?

My original idea was to build up from globs of clay and then hollow them out once almost leather hard, but my mom suggested I build around this stuff called vermiculite (which I had never heard of). It's basically a lightweight sand-like material thats completely flammable and can either be removed prior to firing or burned out in the kiln. 

So, I ended up rolling out some mini slabs of clay and building ears, a tail, trunk, etc on top of them. They are coming out pretty cool. I think I'll be able to fire them soon and then I can decide what to do about color. I will not be posting pictures though. Womp womp. 

Those interested in seeing them will just have to wait and see them on the actual cake, or until I post some wedding pictures. :)

That's all for now. Have a lovely Wednesday!