i n • p u r s u i t

2010: In The Beginning Where did you bring in the New Year? I don't remember the stroke of midnight. Photos from the 1st tell me that Mary & Kevin were in town. So we probably celebrated at my parents' house. Mike and I spent most of New Year's Day working on our new home with my parents. Who were you with? On New Year's Day, I had lunch w/ Amanda. Afterwards, Mom, Dad, Mike and I worked on the house. Thrilling, I know. Did you make any resolutions? Again, I resolved to touch my toes. Maybe I will be able to this year. 2010: Your Love Life Did you break up with anyone? Nope! Did you get anything for Valentine's day?  We went out for sushi and saw Valentine's Day. It was a great date :) Did you meet anyone special? Not romantically Did you fall in love? With my puppy! 2010: Friends and Enemies Did you meet any new friends this year? Oh, sure! I made a bunch of new photog girlfriends. Did any of your friendships end? Not that I can think of... ...

One of my favorite things about Christmas this year is having our very own full-size Christmas tree! And getting to share it with my parents, brother and sister (we haven't spent Christmas day together in years!) and also my sister-in-law, her boyfriend, and my sister's boyfriend. Mike and I had everyone over on Christmas Eve (though, that was a little impromptu) and Christmas morning. It was a fabulous Christmas and I feel so blessed to have such a great family!

There was another family get together on Christmas Eve. Everyone came over to my house for dinner! We drank wine, ate yummy food, and played xBox Kinect--lots of fun. Oh yeah, and Stargirl and I remembered to snag some photos for the blog. These are a teensy bit better quality than last time since I actually had my camera with me. :) We'll start with Stargirl, looking hot as ever and doing Christmas in a classy way. Deets: Dress and red shirt: Forever 21; Belt, Apt. 9 (Kohl's); Tights, Worthington (JC Penney); Boots, Diba (Off Broadway Shoes) And now me. Like my socks? I mostly cooked & cleaned all day and didn't leave the house much. So I'm not wearing any shoes. This outfit, however, is one I've been wanting to wear for a while. The tops are my two current favorites and they're both super comfy! I'm wearing: purple Threads 4 Thought top (TJ Maxx), Mossimo Supply Co. top (Target) and Refuge jeans (Plato's Closet). My neckla...

So Much Pretty! Stargirl and I started a style blog! Unfortunately, I'm not very stylish. But she is, so that's good. Anyway, there's only one post so far, but you should still check it out! :)

***Note: since this was first written, So Much Pretty has been moved over from an individual blog to a feature on this blog.*** We were talking about my engagement ring . And I said something along the lines of, "Oh, I love my ring. It's so much pretty..." Maybe I meant to say, "It's so much prettier than anyone else's engagement ring in the whole wide world!" Which, by the way, is totally true. But, of course, Stargirl and Leo (our brother) started making fun of me for talking so Asian. You probably had to be there to think it's as funny as it was. I said to Stargirl, "Hey, that can be the name of our style blog!" Even though there had been no talk of us starting a style blog together, she immediately agreed. We're twins, you know. We're on the same wavelength like that. Having a style blog makes total sense because Stargirl is totally fashionable. Unfortunately, there are hardly any photos of her dressed super cute--w...

{one} did you buy a christmas tree this year? Yes! We got an artifical tree from Lowe's on Black Friday. I was so excited, I put it up THAT very day!   {two} what is your favorite holiday tradition? Well, when I was a kid, it was opening Uncle Joe's gifts on Christmas Eve before we went to Mass. My parents host a White Elephant Christmas party every year which is always lots of fun. We got a bride and groom ornament last year as a wedding gift, and this Christmas, I decided I wanted a new ornament every year. Like a scrapbook for your tree! {three} do you open your gifts on christmas eve or christmas day? Christmas day! But one year, we got home from Midnight Mass and my brother was like, "Can we open our presents? Techincally, it's already Christmas!" And Dad, being the awesome dad that he is, said yes! {four} at what age did you stop believing in santa claus? I'm not entirely sure. I think it happened when a kid on the bus said, "You don't...

Kettlebells or Power Yoga. I wanted to do either one of those on Saturday morning. Instead, I opted for the couch. So, after being lazy for a good part of the day, I decided I wanted to make myself some birthday cupcakes. I didn't really feel like going out and buying ingredients, so I was limited with what I had. After scouring my various magazines and online recipe websites, I settled on these Lemon Cream Cupcakes . I should note that it took me a while to find a recipe because a) I've never make cupcakes from scratch, so I wanted something high-rated and simple and b) I was seriously limited on my ingredients. Seriously limited. These cupcakes have more substitutes than a middle school. 1 cup butter or margarine, softened 2 cups sugar 3 eggs  (I only had one egg. I used a little over 2 tsp applesauce as a substitute) 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel  (No lemons, no lemon extract. I didn't even have lemon juice. I used lime juice) 1 teaspoon...

♪♪  Na na na na na na na na ♪♪ You say it's your ♪♪  Na na na na na na na na ♪♪ Well it's my too, yeah ♪♪  Na na na na na na na na ♪♪ You say it's your ♪♪  Na na na na na na na na ♪♪ We're gonna have a good time ♪♪  Na na na na na na na na ♪♪ I'm glad it's your ♪♪  Na na na na na na na na ♪♪ Happy to you.

{one} if you were granted three wishes, what would they be? Oh gosh. I have no idea, not without being really selfish. I suppose world peace. That would take up at least three wishes!   {two} who is your favorite author? Oh, probably J.K. Rowling. I mean, seriously, the Harry Potter is amazing. {three} what crowd were you involved in during high school? My crowd was the motley crew without any particular title. We weren't nerds, jocks, band geeks, rednecks, druggies, or the popular kids. Towards the end, though, I did hang out with the computer geeks and too-cool-for-school kind of kids. {four} what is your favorite thing to do when you have time to yourself? I love love love to get lost in a good book. {five} do you have any hidden talents? Not to my knowledge {six} can you fake any accents? Very poorly, yes.  {seven} have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper? Yep! For making it to Science Fair Regionals in the 9th grade. {eight} have you ever been arrested...

So, you may or may not know that I took a lighting class this past couple months. It was an advanced lighting class and I just loved it! I really should post photos from that class here. We'll after getting my beautiful Votivo gift basket for my birthday (thanks Mike!) I decided to practice a little product photography. I used two 580ex II flashes , one on my camera bouncing off the ceiling and one on it's stand off to the side. I really wanted to practice this off-camera lighting thing on my own. It took me several tries and I took at least a hundred photos. Here are the ones I thought worthy enough to post on my blog: Well, I guess, technically it isn't a gift basket--it's a gift box. Isn't it pretty? It was topped with a big red bow. Click here to see how I reused the bow! There were red and gold Christmas ornaments and pretty gold pears in the box! All the items: a candle, a reed diffuser, fragrance mist, and a Dallian Collection candle. My phot...

"I've got your birthday present," Mike said to me one night. So, then, of course, I pester him trying to figure out what it is. After a few minutes, he responds, "Okay, do your really want to know?" To which I say, "No, of course not!" He does give me a hint: "You'll be a little confused when you get it, but when I explain it to you, you'll be really excited." Which makes me think it's something technical. Something I would look at and be, like, "Huh?" But after he explains what it is and what it does, I'll be super excited. And THEN....a few days later, as we're leaving the Home Depot. He opens the back of his SUV to put our purchases in the trunk space. There's a gift basket all red and gold. He gasps. "You're not supposed to see that!" I get ushered to the passenger seat so I won't get any more peeks. And I'm confused. I thought it was something techy and computery. But a gift ...

This year, I want to send out Christmas cards to my blogger friends! And I have the cutest cards, too :) Please email me fraukuech[at]gmail[dot]com and send me your address if you'd like a card.