What I’ve been up to lately

t has been a moment my friends! At least it feels like it to me!

I took Thursday and Friday off last week to spend time with my parents after they visited my younger brother who lives in Maryland. It was a big deal because they had never seen our expansion and it’d been a while since they visited, it’s not that often they come out so I was really happy and tried to make it a pleasant experience for them so they would want to come out again. They stayed through the weekend, I cooked for them (BIG DEAL), they liked the new room, and we took them to church and they really loved Phoenix food – especially the Asian food.

For anyone who is looking for some legit Asian food, there’s an all you can eat Korean BBQ in Tempe called Gen Korean BBQ, and a little hole-in-the-wall spot in Central Phoenix called New Hong Kong (order tomato beef chow mien Hong Kong style, walnut shrimp, Mongolian beef for the winning dinner).

Oh, I made my parents an IG account a while back and just uploaded pics of them they sent me – it’s private but you can follow them if you want. I run it haha. It’s @crazycuteasianz and it’s just sporadic and for fun. I took them to the Arizona Biltmore hotel by us to walk around and it looks like most of the hotel is under construction and there are too many pool areas being added that I wonder how this will change the atmosphere. I photographed this gorgeous Biltmore wedding back in the day when I photographed weddings for a career!

We ate at Frank and Alberts and I’ve decided I need to go there more often. It is after all, so close to us.

I took my mom to a jewelry making class in Gilbert called Evora Jewelry (website here) – it’s an incredibly fun girl’s night outing activity to do in the Phoenix area. I also love Board & Brush which I’ve written about here and they have franchises across the country. I am not a fan of the wine and painting party because I know that I won’t like my painting. I don’t even hang up my own photography, because I am so overly critical of myself. So then I’d just throw away my painting!

But a ring, oh my gosh you get to pick our your own stone, the band, everything about it and they help you too! So you know you’re going to create something amazing! Mine is on the left, my mom’s is on the right (the HUGE one).

So many stones to choose from –

Here are some stories I did so you can see us in action (hop on blog post to see if reading from newsletter) –

The class is a great activity and takes about 3 hours but you get to use a blow torch and make all of it!! So fun!!

Speaking of things to do with your girlfriends, if you want to host a party like a bracelet beading party, check out JewelYa she can set up and come to you – I went to my friend Lory’s home (she’s an amazing hostess blogger) and look at this lovely setup:

Lory makes everything look flawless and also easy – she’s so creative!

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This is a personal post so I don’t really have a focused theme like some bloggers do. This is my word vomit. Kinda like it was back in the day.

House stuff –

• We started on the garage just this week!  The footers and cement is poured! We now wait for it to cure. Our contractor is Hill Farm Design
• Meeting with our landscape designer and the landscaper to go over the plans. Oh the plans! I will show you a better version when the trees are updated.
• Next Wednesday our master bedroom gets painted – WHITE! I ran a poll on IG stories and it didn’t go as far as I wanted with a heavy vote but white it is.
• Next Friday we remove two trees in the front, grind down the palm tree stumps (we removed 5 palms!)

Personal –

• I have Christmas up because of the blog, gotta start early, kinda crazy. Thought it’d be funny if Benjamin answered the door in a Santa costume and gave our candy canes. We can be THOSE neighbors.
• Work is phenomenal, you may have noticed depending how we keep in touch. Most posts are on Instagram at the moment, and it hardly gives me enough time to just create normal content to post on IG and so I don’t. I just rest. But then I’m not sure why I feel so guilty when there are photography accounts and people on IG who just self promote anyway so it’s essentially the same. Some are on it to work, sometimes we connect, sometime we do both! But on weekends I tend to really relax and I’m unplugged unless I feel compelled to hop on for fun!
• I am trying to wrap up some projects before I head to France next month! It’ll be my third time going there and if you’ve been around here for a while you probably know I love the French culture, the food, the place!
• I got a new website for my photography website, not as popular of a site but exists for my photography work. http://www.dianaelizabeth.com
• I highly recommend “Living with Yourself” on Netflix, it’s starring Paul Rudd do I need to say more? I think he’s the guy you’d want to marry, sweet and funny and just overall likable. This series is like the movie Multiplicity, so creative and pretty entertaining!

And, that’s it for now. I just love blogging so much. Now that Instagram is so popular it takes up a lot of my time so it’s nice to post on here 3x a week and it makes me wonder how on earth I posted 5x a week for years. I guess I just had a lot to say back then! Haha! xx

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Diana Elizabeth has a packed weekend entertaining friends and well, she might just finish Christmas in the house. There are some garlands not going up and she’s thinking if she doesn’t use it next year, it’ll be time to donate them. Right?