Ashley visits OC!

My dear friend Ashley (who I met when we were in dropped out of the Wedding From Hell together) has been one of my most frequent OC visitors. She's awesome and we always have a blast.

We ate guac at El Torito Grill...

...where they have the cutest piggy bowls!

We went to the beach at Crystal Cove State Park...

 ...where I showed off my 25-lb weight loss...

...and I wore shorts for

one of the first times in about 10 years! Go me! :)

We checked out the tidepools...

...and met a crabby friend!

We went to dinner at The White House in Laguna Beach

And Ashley encouraged me to finally get some decorations up (red flower painting from Pier 1)

We bought Milo a bed...and this was the first and only time he slept in it :(

We went shopping.....

Pretty much that's what I do best, especially when Tara's in town.

She visited this past weekend, and we went to local boutique Madison Bleu, where I picked up this amazing summery dress.

Other items

Cardigan: Target

Belt: Shoedazzle

Shoes: Kohl's

An all-around super thrifty outfit, if I do say so!

Mount Palomar with mom

Mom visited me for a week, so we kept ourselves thoroughly occupied! One of the highlights was Mount Palomar Winery, where we tasted a series of yummy wines. It was really pretty there with great views. It's in Temecula, which I guess is SoCal's answer to Napa Valley. There are tons of wineries on one of the main roads there, so it would be easy to do a nice tour if you want to get really liquored up :)

The front gates