And there goes summer!

How on earth, is it that when you feel like as a kid that summer goes so fast, but as an adult it goes faster? Well, I lost my cord for my camera, and it was a teeny, tiny cord, so I had to do some fast magic to download these pictures.  Anyway, here is the rest of the summer is summary.
Work was mellow during the summer, now we have two new creative liaisons that started in the portfolio center and thus far, barely two weeks it seem to be working out ok.
However, here is the real reacap on life.

My lovely friend Amanda's birthday party!  She's third from the right and one of the coolest people ever.

John & Kadima's engagement party at the Bristol Renaissance Faire....amazing as you assume.

Bill and I at the Ren Faire, what a great and awesome engagement party!

Our lovely Christian and his girlfriend Jackie moved to Miami, and this was his going away party. He is a crazy talented cinematographer, and just a wonderful guy.  He worked at Sip Coffee House and we have known him for at least 5 years.  Hell of a guy, super sad that they moved.    But they're doing well in Miami, for now!

 Oh how I love Denise and Colleen, our downstairs neighbors.  This is Denise at her birthday party, straight off the trolley.  We are honestly blessed to have instant, awesome and amazing great people right downstairs.  It made the summer even funner, and makes it even harder for us to move!

Mr. Bob Sage was in town, Bill's best dude.  He's awesome, and a lovely man who is crazy smart and a wonderful person.  It was so great to have him around for a few days, Bill was over the moon with him in town!

 Ryan and Harper about to eat their birthday cake!

 How are these girls so grown up?  Sofia and Zoe with little Jimmy.  How in the world is Zoe a freshman?  I'm not ready!  I'm not ready!

 News flash!!!!! This hat is going to be on everyone's Christmas list this year!  I mean, how can you not want an Alevizos hat!!!!!!!

Our little bunny Jimmy.  check out those smudge legs!  I love him!  What a joy he is!
Hmm....anything else?  Lets see.  Work. Summer. Love.  Oh wait, sleeping dogs!

How can you not love those faces????

Chloe "Toast"

So I was interviewed on a Podcast last night called Cinema Jaw.  It should air next week sometime.

I was pretty nervous, but Matt K. is an old film buddy of mine, and his podcast really is great. I talked about Women In Film (although not as much as I wanted to), discussed new films, DVD releases and out top 5 favorite living actresses. I had to put Chloe Sevigny in my list. I have always loved her edginess, coolness, and of course I love her as Nicolette Grant on Big Love. But what I also love is this parody of her by Drew Droege. He is hilarious as Chloe, and I can't get enough.
FYI - my actresses in order were:
5. Michelle Williams
4. Zooey Deschanel
3. Chloe Sevigny
2. Tina Fey
1. Kathleen Turner
Now though, I would change that I'm sure.

Christmastime and Crafting!

Ah, I am a Christmas fan. It's my favorite holiday.  I love Christmas, the ability to decorate your house totally differently for a month and to have it smell like fresh greens.  I love sending cards, reaching out to people and being excited for my own mailbox to see the cards that will come.  I love crafting, making dog cookies as gifts and shopping, shopping, shopping.  I love Christmas! It means being grateful for who you are and who you have in life,  celebrating life and love, and everything that makes us friends and family.  Parties are fun, too!

Attempt #2 at a family photo, this time with Christmas sweaters.

Lenny's first snow - he loves it!

Crafting at Erica's, we made wrapping paper with potato stamps!

Erica being crafty making a cute magnet.

Christine felting wool!

Kristin about to paint her stamps!

Lenny and Bill, not helping me with the Christmas lights!

And tree!  Finished to its glory!

Mary-Frances's Bachelorette Party!

As November 19th approaches us, as the "Matron" of Honor, along with Mackie, the "Maid" of Honor, the time came to have an EPIC bachelorette party for Mary-Frances.  From the moment in December 2009 Jeff + Mary got engaged, we knew what we had to do to throw the party that would be remembered, or at least remembered in bits and pieces.  We rented a trolley, got a gaggle of girls together and hit the town for an Irish themed bar crawl.  We had a BLAST.  Not much more to say, pictures follow after the jump!!!!

Off to Milwaukee!

Mackie, Me and Mary-Frances

Bill and I haven't escaped this concrete city since our lovely time in North Carolina.  Now I'm going without him, because he has to work, to Milwaukee for Mary-Frances's Birthday weekend.
We are going to the elusive Irish Fest.  This is the other reason Bill isn't going - he's not much for fests, drunk people, Irish music, etc. I can barely get him to go to Greek Fest (which is next weekend and we are going).
So - highlights of Milwaukee:
Friday night, got there around 8:00 and I was super dehydrated and feeling terrible, so I went to dinner then resigned to the hotel room.  LAME-O!
Saturday morning I was up and alert so John and I went to Beans and Barley and there was a super cute farmers market in the parking lot, so John and I grabbed coffee and wandered around.
Moving onto lunch, we all regrouped and manage to eat together, too!  My favorite Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee, Cempazuchi.  The best shopping of the trip was Art Smart's Dart Smart and Juggling Emporium!  We were trying to make the brewery tour at Lakefront Brewery but sadly it was sold out.  So we had a couple beers on the river (not lake) and headed to Irish Fest!
After closing down the fest, we went to Bruno's on Brady.  A superior dive, with lots of dart games and an awesome jukebox!

Mary-Frances and Mackie at Lakefront Brewery.

John, Kadima, Me + Todd

John, Mary-Frances, Jeff and Justin post Bruno's!

Todd & Darren

Julie is....I mean Bill is...cooking Part Six

Ahhhh Pork.  The best I have ever had was in North Carolina with the Carmona's.  Bacon, bratwurst, and of course the slow-cooked spicy pork burritos.  Heaven.  We attempted to recreate it.

Cooked for 9 hours and seared with a dry spice rub, cooked in beer, adobo peppers and spices.

And the best part is how it falls apart. 

And of course we had many, many people over for dinner that night!

Fun Times on a Road Trip!

Erica and I LOVE visiting our friends Sara and Charles, and their kids Sean and Scarlet in Pekin, IL.  Sara, Erica, Charles and I all went to ISSA, the Illinois Summer School for the Arts for a couple weeks for two summers when we were Juniors & Seniors in High School.  Long story short, although its an AMAZING long story, Sara & Charles fell in love and have two amazing kids.  Erica and I were roommates when we were 16, and now we are still the best of friends.  There will be references to our beautiful Kristin, too, throughout this blog, and she was also at ISSA. I think for all of us to still be such amazing friends after 16 years is quite remarkable.  Quite possibly amazing.  Two weeks, two summers in High School.  I can't imagine my life without Sara, Charles, Erica and Kristin.  And of course our beautiful Sean McCash, who passed away 10 years ago that really tied us all together.  He is who Sara & Charles's Sean is named after.
It took Erica and I 4.5 hours to get to Pekin (stupid roll over on I-55 @ 294) but it was so well worth it.  We had a blast with our lovely friends.

April is Alright by me!

Thus far, April has been the best month for me in 2010.  I hate to jinx anything, its only being April 7th, but so far for this month, I'm super excited to be nominated for the board chair of the student division for Women In Film Chicago.  Its such an honor and I am so excited to be on the board - I would be encouraging students from all colleges with film programs to be involved, to network, and make their film experience better for them as individuals.  And 1 million more things!

Secondly, it was my 32nd birthday.  Wow - 32.  I can't believe its already happened!  I had Friday off (for Good Friday - April 2 - and I had a wonderful day with Mackie going to JAM for breakfast, off to get our nails done, and of course a tad of Shopping!
Then we went to Resi's Bierstube.  Pictures to follow!

Third - its finally Spring time and we mulched the hell out of our yard.  It looks so awesome!

Lastly, tomorrow we are flying to visit the Mighty Carmona Family!  I can't believe it until I'm there!

Oh St. Patrick's Day. The Saturday before.

I guess Mary-Frances is the recent blog post theme, because she equats St. Patrick's Day up there with her birthday!  I love that we skip the parade, and go on to watch the river be dyed that random neon green, and start with coffee and move on to lunch.  This year we were down in physical numbers, but we had a great time.  Pictures follow after the jump!

Julie is Cooking Part Quatre

So heading back into the kitchen, we decided to do an "International" dinner night with John + Kadima.  They were coming over for Greek, and soon we will be dining at their house for Chinese.
Somehow dinner turned into a party, but above all the food was good. I just wish I remembered to photograph all the food!  DUH! I made Hummus (my recipe is way better) - amazingly delicious -, Chicken + Beef Soulvaki, grilled veggies and Tzatziki.
Yummy photos after the jump!

Superbowl...I mean Booberbowl 2010

For so,so, so, so many years, my best guy John and I have celebrated the Superbowl.  We call it "Booberbowl" becuase of the Janet Jackson incident, and I was FOR SURE that that was going to be the media nickname for it.  

So honestly, we were simply at Goldyburgers.  My fav fav fav burger joint in Forest Park.  Royle Blue bitches!  Yummy burger with crispy bacon and blue cheese, which oozes off the side of the burger that seeps onto the French fries.  Sigh..... Well, we were here last year for the Superbowl, and all the free appitizers were so good and amazing this year, better then before!  So we had quite a few pitchers of beer, and I never got my Royal Blue out of fullness, but basically, the pictures follow after the jump.