Day 17 of Birth Month

After I got diamonds yesterday, Steve brought home sushi for lunch:

Onto the night:
I survived!
Today has been mildly rough... not sure if I drank too much or if I didn't get enough sleep.  Both, probably.  Steve and I went to bed at 4am, and woke up at 8am.  I didn't feel that drunk last night, but I didn't feel good when I woke up!

Before I throw in all the photos from the night, I just want to talk about how blessed I feel.  Even though I didn't feel great today, I did have a minor moment of tears with Steve.  Not because I was sad; they were happy tears.  I've never felt so happy in my life - I'm not sure how I got to be so lucky.  Last night was simply amazing - my closest friends and family were with me, Steve was a fabulous help setting up and cleaning up, I had a wonderful (simply wonderful) night.  I just feel so happy.  Not a bad way to enter my 30's, eh?

All the people who said they would come, came.  My brother even showed up after he got off work!

I wanted to do this to my hair - but I couldn't for the life of me make it work.  I cut my finger yesterday on the blade of our food processor, so I'm blaming it on that.

Source: weibo.com via Angela on Pinterest

The photos are a bit blurry, we had pretty dim lighting around the house and flashes get to be obnoxious.  So, just deal with it, blurry photos are an accurate representation of the night after a certain point :)

The little cake my mom got for me - my favorite colors; Orange, Green, Pink

My bestie, Pam and I

me and the boy :)

New parents, Pam and Nick

Abbie and I have been friends as long as Pam and I, since 5th grade

Abbie and Nick 

Erin and I, in our pose - she's my beast

Story time

I really wanted to do it, but I knew someone would smash my face in it!

Pam and I again

I love photos like this - I love real laughs captured

:) my girls

with my cousins

They all sang Happy Birthday to me, and I guess I was embarrassed 

Ang, Amanda, Pam, and Abbie - friends for 18 years

I love this man

Our men in ties <3

Tomorrow we're going up to my dad's to eat prime rib and lobster tails!

Day 14 of Birthday Month

I don't have a lot of time.  Work is crazy.  I didn't blog yesterday.

LONG story short, because I want to tell you all about Steve's party - our evening event was "Viva Las Vegas".  His boss had poker and blackjack tables - plus a couple of others.  Each employee (and their partner if applicable) was given X amount of fake dollars to gamble away - to hopefully turn into more money - in the end, you had a chance to bid on prizes:

Again, short on time, so I just want to tell you what we won:

2 first class tickets to fly anywhere in the US!  WTF?!  How awesome is that?!  Not sure if Alaska and Hawaii are included, but does it really matter?
Some other photos of the night - it was a drunk night for sure, so not many photos were taken:

Ice Bar

Raw bar - complete with osyters, lobster (cooked), and cooked shrimp.

Blackjack

Poker

Texas Hold 'Em

Blackjack

Steve with a chocolate waffle topped with ice cream, and bacon flavored cotton candy

Ice bar at the end of the night

Sorry this is so short - simply no time.

Day 7 of Birthday Month

I'm so not going to be this:

Source: someecards.com via Melissa on Pinterest

I'm turning 30 in just over a week and I'm embracing that shit out of it.  Turning 29 last year I was all ugh, next year I'm going to be 30; I'm not married, my job sucks, I'm not who I thought I'd be by this time.  Now I'm all 30 ain't got shit on me!  Who cares, it's just a number!

This year, I want to be just like this:

Source: google.com via Missy on Pinterest

Glamorous (thanks to Fergie for my knowledge of how to spell that!), spoiled (I've been that way every other year), and simply happy!

I want this too:

Source: someecards.com via Kelli Michelle on Pinterest

A few weeks ago I posted wondering what you'd do if you were turning 30 this year - I got a few great ideas from people.  The main things I wanted: close friends, a super chill atmosphere, and nothing too loud (I like to be able to hear my friends talk).  What I really wanted was a party where I could take B&W photos and have them turn out like all the photos you might find in your grandparents photo albums; all the stories I hear about them sitting around, smoking and drinking, and just being casual.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  Picture a swanky cocktail lounge with over-sized leather couches and people in pretty dresses.

I did a lot of research for stuff around the Twin Cities, nice chill cocktail lounges and I found a few with promise, but on a Friday night, I figured they'd all still be super loud and packed.  Lots of people usually equals lots of noise, I didn't know how to get around that.
The other things I didn't want: making people spend a fortune to come out and have a good time, driving a far distance, nowhere to stay if they did whoop it up, having to worry about parking, amongst other things.  So the last option I had been toying with was having a party at our house.
At lunch with my cousin Shannon one day, it was decided; we'd have a cocktail party for my birthday, on my birthday, at my house!  This also assures Steve being able to drink rather than drive me around :)

It's a fancy party too, well cocktail attire required is what the invite says.  Yep, I mailed out formal invitations.  Don't be offended if you didn't get one, it's a small group, mostly people I've been friends with either a good part of my life or friends that I'm close with.

So... Steve, the whiz he is in Photoshop, whipped this up:

Now that's only the front - the details on the back are not important (and it has our address on it, so I'm not posting).  The biggest thing you need to know is that the house on it is our house!  Steve is amazing.  He took Photoshop and basically drew our home for the front of the invitation, and he did it in record time as I wanted to have the invites out a month in advance, giving people 2 weeks to RSVP and giving myself 2 weeks with a firm number.
It's going to be BYOB and Hors D'oeuvres are welcomed but not necessary.  We have plenty of places for people to sleep, so drinking is encouraged :)
We're going to have some sort of playlist, with some great music - mood setting music - think oldies like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Etta James, and probably lots of Adele!
The lighting will hopefully be mood setting as well - which is why we've been hanging so many damn lights as of late - it's just too hard to open up walls just to add a wall sconce (like Steve would eventually love to have).

Now, if I can just get someone to make me pretty cupcakes (like what I see on Pinterest).

I think I might make this too:

White Sangria with Pomegranate 

Source: whatsheshaving.com via Angela on Pinterest

I figure it wouldn't hurt to offer one thing to drink, even though it says BYOB, right?  It's so pretty!

Tonight I think I'm going to work on Steve's Christmas present - which I can't post here because he stalks my blog.  I'm also hoping to get some gifts wrapped and under the tree, as it's been up for weeks and is still bare underneath!