"LOVELY"

friday afternoon marked the beginning of the sweetest weekend ever. you may have seen amber's lovely post on it already, and i offer much the same tale... so here we go again! it is just too fun to relive, and my pictures are slightly different. just barely. ;) it was one of those experiences that makes your heart race with pure fun and beauty and love.

i picked up amber and mycie in sacramento and our little entourage headed down to santa rosa to surprise missa for part of a series of 40th birthday surprises masterminded by her amazing husband lucas and helped along by the loving organization of milla and many other friends. milla had arrived by plane just a couple hours before and missa'd had no idea she was coming. little did she know they would soon be joined by two more bloggy buds.

it was a joyous reunion. we had yummy mexican food at las palmas and caught up amidst bright turquoise walls and delicious salsa.

back at missa's house we were smitten by zephyr, her dashing darling white fuzzy cat. 

i handed out gifts for the little girls as well as birthday packages for each of these lovely aquarian ladies. 

giving clothes to clover and mycie is so gratifying: they immediately want to put them on. look how cute they are in their vintage dresses, prancing about, reading their new stories and coloring. 

and needless to say, they get their clothing enthusiasm from their mamas. it really makes it extra-special fun to find treasures for these friends who always so thoughtfully gift to others (and me!).

this red velvet dress was so romantically amber to me. missa pulled out its velvet cousin from her own closet for a photo op.

milla looked so adorable in the patchwork dress i found her in the girls' section.

we stayed up talking all sorts of fun girly subjects, and missa even brought out her wedding dress to show us. 

you can see her wearing it on that magical day here, what a knock out!

soooo cozy the next morning. it was a delight to wake up in missa's light-filled house to the smell of freshly brewing coffee (yes i love the smell again even though i still have no desire to drink it which is still weird to me) and mister zephyr curled up on a family heirloom pink patchwork quilt with pretty milla in her finnish nightie.

more morning cuddlers:

the girls turned into kitties who needed lots of snuggles. which i was happy to provide.

we were all thrilled to meet lucas's mom oosa when she stopped by for a quick hello. and she graciously took turns with our cameras to get us our first group photo. my black dress in all the rest of the photos was included in the most amazing gift package from missa, more of which i'll be showing off later! 

the little girls/kitties went out to collect some morning dew.

and then we all headed off to the farmer's market around the corner.

where we found beautiful colorful produce galore. up in the hills our markets aren't usually year round so it's fun to see fresh bounty in early february.

....including the raddest carrots ever.

we had breakfast burritos. SO GOOD. i am quite the eater these days.

and sour oranges! even these were strangely addictive.

milla, mistress of the bees, explaining the joys of raw honeycomb.

which the girls were pleased to try.

back at missa's a bright sunshine had peeked out and she let us gather some lemons from her tree. that is california bounty right there, like bottled sunshine. i'm a big fan.

we got some kale too. missa and lucas grow all kinds of delights from broccoli to collard greens to beets....all my faves!

you've seen a similar shot of amber's so i figured i'd include the goofy one :) we really do get quite giddy.

i LOVE that amber rocked this outfit for a stroll to the farmers market. long elegant velvet and crocheted lace trim. like amber noted, people were kind of staring at us; we must make a rather eccentric bunch of ladies. i know i'd be interested if i saw us go by ;) 

and guess who showed up next!??! next on the list of surprises that grew and grew....

delight of delights, here we have nicky and anne with baby marianne in tow!

anne came bearing gifts: check out this gorgeous birthday dress for missa, along with the charming hat:

she brought me the sweetest maternity package too. i was going crazy for all the pretty things and cannot wait to show them here. and yes folks, i got rad 80s leggings from both missa and anne, which will be popping up here real soon. it seems i am now the stretch pant queen!

anne even brought some little pots of homemade lip balm she made. i could not resist the delicious hint of coconut and now keep it on my bedside table.

it was around this time that nicky and anne explained how their husbands make fun of the blogworld for being just so lovely. Oh, everything is so lovely, just beautiful, sweet, amazing. LOVELY. yep, it's true. the day was lovely, the girls were lovely, the dresses were lovely.

ha! definitely guilty over here! makes me cringe but i forgive us :)

all us girls headed over to railroad square to hit up the vintage and thrift shops. after all, it's what we do best!

nicky with her cutest take on country.

it is just pure joy to roam the streets with these gals. gladness and sunshine abounded. i could not wipe the smile off my face. there was way too much to talk about, look at, take in, rhapsodize. the time flew by too quickly.

skirt chaser vintage was definitely a favorite. 

amber tried on this amazing little felt-embellished ice skating princess outfit.

pretty lovely huh?!

ugh. my heart.

milla was swept away by a certain hat that was so becoming on her. i am glad she did not resist its charms, it belongs with her.

another budding hat lover!

nicky found some badass steampunk old antique glasses.

and the lovely proprietess herself! she was happy we came in. she had seen us earlier at the farmer's market and just knew we were her kinda gals.

over by the railroad tracks missa spied a friend, lucy, a cyclist extraordinaire, who was willing to go the long haul and take group photos with every single one of our cameras! we tried to make them all a bit different, here's mine. how i love these girls.

and the obliging lucy herself!

i thought about so many of you and how i hope we can all meet up in person like this. and how many more activities i want to do together for those that can make it here in california or wherever we meet up. REAL FRIENDS! such a beautiful thing. it really does hit home how blog friends can be special; how hopefully through sharing each other's writing and photos we have gotten glimpses into each other's hearts and sometimes we just love what we find there.

i am so blessed to have gotten to know these ladies. truly truly truly.

amber and i had to head home that afternoon but i absolutely cannot wait to see the rest of the weekend and the epic party later that night! HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY EVER MISSA!