get festive

hubby charming came home the other night after being gone for a really, really, really long time!  yikes {no bueno}.

well, i’m very excited to have him home for holy week!  to get festive, we dyed easter eggs!  it was a cozy night in, pj’s and messy hair required!  of course, i’m speedy like water and hubby charming is slow as ice dying our easter eggs.  i wish i had made the dye more potent {next time}!  we tried ombre, one color, double color, and added spiffy decorations to our eggs {well, mostly hc…he got a little more creative that me!}.

it was a lovely relaxing night in and i couldn’t have asked for anything more!

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comb yer hair!

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easter egg flair

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i love decorative bowls

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rainbow o fun

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hubby charming at work

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patience

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working so diligently on dyeing my eggs

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pretty watercolor paper towels

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ta da!

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my favorite ceramic ‘carton’ from anthropologie

i hope y’all are doing something fun + festive for this easter!  i’ve got baskets made, eggs dyed, + family time planned.  it’s going to be a good one!

xoxo

save the date

yes, our wedding day has come and gone but that does not mean my love for the loveliest day ever dissipates!  i love all things weddings {really, i do!}.  i only wish everyone could experience such a euphoric day as we had experienced!

the moment you become engaged, your mind races with ideas {yikes!}…what colors will you choose?  who will be your bridesmaids?  what will your dress look like?  when will the date be?  which photographer will you hire {kate headley, of course}?!

once you settle on the big question…the date!  your brain starts to brew a slew of ideas.  what kind of save the dates will you choose?  you definitely want to set the tone of your wedding with your save the dates.  it doesn’t have to be all encompassing or completely idyllic of your wedding theme {your ideas will evolve so much, what you originally thought you were going to do or have will probably change 10x!}.  it just has to represent the both of you in the moment.  no more, no less.  make it fun, make it quirky, make it unique!

here are some fun, lovely save the date ideas…

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[decoder // ruffledblog]

Scratch-Off-Surprise-Wedding-Save-the-Dates3-500x379

[scratch off // ohsobeautifulpaper]

savethedatedishtowels

[tea towel // weddingchicks]

save-the-date-canvas-on-easel-in-box

[canvas on an easel // bklynbride]

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[trinket box // my favorite // michiemay ~ etsy]

il_570xN.310605778

[pencil us in // blueenvelope ~ etsy]

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[viewmaster // melangerie ~ etsy]

ambersavethedate__80172.1346106299.550.530

[hankies // weddingchicks]

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[paperdolls // happinessisblog]

aren’t these ideas just adorbs?!  it makes me want to get married all over again {hee}!  it’s not just for weddings either!  transfer these great concepts to your party invites and voila!  snazzy invitations for your guests!

i love how wedding styles have evolved so much; that it’s more about you and your fiancé’s style than so much about the tradition you should carry.  the old school stuff that might not really suit you or really mean that much to you and your partner.  don’t get me wrong!  i love a clean, classic, all american traditional wedding.  but adding your own twists and quirks can make it really stand out and truly represent the both of you!  that’s what it’s really about, right?!

xoxo

i believe in

marriage equality.

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today is the first day of arguments in the supreme court around equality for all.  sounds strange, doesn’t it?  that we have to debate equality for all.  the subject?  prop 8 and DOMA.

i {and i’m sure many of you} are personally affected by this highly debated, heated topic.  i believe in equality for all.  my friends and family, who are gay, deserve the right to be seen in the eyes of our government as equal people in marriage.  this fight is passionate for me.  this subject holds dear to my heart.  we need to open up our eyes to understand that human rights, human dignity must be given to everyone.  where there is life, there is God, and we must respect every being in our midst.

it baffles me that we still live in a world where something like this is still in debate.  you would think this mindset {equal rights} would be more ubiquitous.  i have seen progress, albeit, slow progress during my life span.  i have seen more and more people opening up their minds and their hearts to this very subject.  i have seen more and more people become comfortable with the gay and lesbian community.  i have witnessed more and more celebrities affirm their sexual orientation to uphold and support this very fight we are in.  i have experienced gay couples in stronger relationships or marriages than my straight friends.  gay or straight, my friends and my family are the most amazing people in my life.  they add joy + love to my life; they are all unique individuals but never less than one another.  never will any upstanding citizen be less than another.

millions of people corroborating on this idea of marriage equality cannot be wrong.  i only hope that the decisions made will only propel our nation’s progress, not impede it.

geronimo!

some things that make me happy.

sunny weather.  cozy pj’s.  hubby charming.  chicago.  flowers.  christmas.  family.  fuzzy socks.  my nephews.  white cake.  color.  our wedding video.  kittens and puppies.  tagalongs.  our wedding photos.  comfy pillows.  warm blankets.  macarons.  sassy shoes.  gelato.  candles.  long hair.  mail.  haribo gummy bears + peaches.  sleep.  sleeping in.  our wedding day.  new york.  pictures.  grace.  my ‘pink’ pillow.  lipstick.  art.  friends.  starbucks.  holidays.  glitter.  delicious food.  reef flip flops.  crafting.  paper.  paris.  love.  pool time.  birthdays.  new years.  clean bathrooms.  st. clement.  decorating.  warmth.  summer afternoon walks.  shopping.  a good read.  toes in sand.  breakfast.  balloons.

speaking of balloons.  i love balloons {who doesn’t?!}.  a fete isn’t complete unless you have balloons.  yes, i know they are not environmentally safe {boo}.  yes, there’s the concern about the helium ‘shortage’ {what?!}.  but yeessss, they are fun and festive!  my favorite, favorite style of balloons are geronimo!  these balloons just scream parrrtaayyyyy.  i love gold balloons, colored balloons, clear balloons {add confetti!}, number balloons, balloons inside balloons, tasseled balloons, big balloons, bunches of balloons…ya get it?!

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[neutrals // bhldn]

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[fun brights // weddings.miham]

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[geronimo + macaron fete]

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[bunches o smiles // geronimo]

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[the photo that inspired my diy first anniversary photo shoot balloon! // bklynbrideonline]

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[festive fall decor // apartmenttherapy]

doesn’t it just put you in a good mood?!

i love tassel-y, ribbon-y, shin-y, sparkle-y, colorfull-y styled balloons!  they make kids smile.  they add pizzaz to any party.  they make me do a little dance {whoop, whoop!}.

who knows, you might just catch me, one day, walking down the street with balloons in my hand!  i’ll just smile and wave to passerby’s on the streets to share my love and happiness with strangers.  it’ll be like giving free hugs without touching anyone {lol}.

it’s quite a farfetched tangent {silly, i know}.  one can only dream of sharing the love, right?

until next time lovies.

xoxo

easter crafts

hello lovies.  easter is just around the corner!  wow…i felt like lent flew by!  well, with one week left, there’s still plenty of time to get crafty!  get crafty with the kids, get crafty for yourself, get crafty for someone else {homemade items are always the best gifts!}.

so, here are some easter craft ideas you can get started with…

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[flower paper wreath // hello lucky]

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[egg terrarium // the house that lars built]

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[paper masks // oh happy day]

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[fabric easter eggs // purl bee]

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[little peep pal // michaelann made]

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[plastic egg cups // creativity in progress]

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[photo print easter eggs // a subtle revelry]

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[easter bunny garland // minie co]

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[bunny finger puppets // purl bee]

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[decoupaged flower pots // christine chitnis]

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[egg flower pots // better homes and garden]

i can’t wait for easter!  i’ve got cute little baskets hiding up my sleeves for my nephews and gracie.  i’m looking forward to some colorful egg dying {how pretty!} with the hubby.  i’m excited to have brunch with les familles {squared}.  i can’t wait to see my cute little nephew’s faces.  i’m contemplating my bright easter ensemble.  i can’t wait to spend time with my hubby {hurry home!}.  i’m thinking about how i will carry on my lent commitment.  i’m wondering how many peeps, cadbury eggs, sour candies, gummy bears, and peanut butter eggs i will consume.  i’m looking forward to celebrating holy week at st. clement.

phew!  so much to look forward to!  i hope you have many blessings to count and that your upcoming easter is full of love and happiness.  the easter bunny may just drop off baskets of goodies for you, too!

i will take some time this week to reflect on this past lent season.  everyday has been filled with prayerful thoughts and internal guidance.  happy palm sunday!

with that, get out your crafting scissors and get crafty cray y’all!

xoxo

style love

miranda kerr.

i just love her.  i just love her style.  she is one of my favorite models.  besides, candice swanepoel…another sassy gal.  i have yet to meet miranda.  i get to meet a majority of the models but not yet miranda!  obviously, they are extremely tall {and tend to wear 5 inch heels, making most of them 6’3″ tall!}, extremely skinny, not busty {hello padding!}, and gorgeous in person {duh!}.

miranda makes my list because she’s got style.  she makes it look so effortless to look so fabulous.  i love following her approach and getting inspired by her choices.  she loves to mix and match.  she makes sneakers look chic.  she makes mixing patterns look easy for the most pulled together outfit for an afternoon stroll.  she’s never over accessorized but is thoughtful in the choices she puts on.  she makes herself standout and fashionable by choosing fabrics and patterns to make her accoutrements pop.

i think the best accessory she carries is that cutie pie son of hers!  those chubby cheeks of his!  so adorbs!

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[photos popsugar.com]

doesn’t she always look marvelous?!

xoxo

last day in d.c.

we slept ‘in’ on our last day in d.c.  although, to my standards, that was not sleeping in!

we had a slow start but then we finally got moving and first on our agenda was the dog park for emma {yay!}!  it’s so adorbs to see little emma play with really big dogs!  unfortunately, there were no little dogs to really get down and dirty with em.  they were all so big, although that didn’t stop emma from playing!  she was a bit skittish at first {which was so cute!}, but then she got comfortable and started to challenge some of the big dogs and it was so funny and entertaining.  we were about to leave when another boston terrier came prancing up to the dog park!  we ended up staying another 10 minutes to watch miss emma wrestle the bajeebies out of this dog.  oh boy, she got tired!  so after a wrestlefest, we finally headed out to grab some brunch.

we went to evening star to have some grub.  it was sooooo splendid!  i had the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich with crispy fried potatoes {delish!  i ate the whole thing!} and we all shared the french toast [marinated brioche, candied pecans, and bananas].  it was a cute, quirky, quaint little place.  i really savored my meal; great conversation + good food = a killer combination!

after brunch, we decided to explore georgetown!  i was so excited.  i’ve heard great things about this area and couldn’t wait to discover it.  claire’s husband dropped us off and the shopping began!  oh, it’s such a beautiful little area!  there were so many shops and i was in shopping heaven!  boutique after boutique of copious unique items, i had a blast perusing everything!

after some power shopping, claire really wanted frozen yogurt {hey, us girls can’t say no when someone suggests a refreshment like that!}.  so we trekked our way over to pinkberry.  i first tried pinkberry years ago in l.a. {fell in love} and still find it soooo delicious!  my flavor choice of the day was grapefruit frozen yogurt with blueberries, graham crackers, and honey oatmeal.  a perfect snack!  we spent quite a few hours there {as in georgetown, not pinkberry silly!} and after spending some moolah, we were ready to go home.

we decided to cook in on our last night there.  we shopped at the grocery store, picked up ingredients, and proceeded to cook a tasty taco dinner!  ground turkey, spices, corn tortillas {warmed with a little oil}, queso blanco, carrots, fresh greens, and salsa.  we also made fresh guac {lime juice + red onions}.  it was so delectable, i could have eaten 10 😉  throw in some tasty beverages and i felt complete!  it was a really fun time, cooking, eating, drinking, talking, and relaxing.

we retired to the living room after dinner and continued to engage in some fun colloquies.  after a bit, we decided to call it a night!  we were getting up super early the next morning to fly out {sad face}.

so there you have it.  my fabulous d.c. trip!  i had the most jovial time.  thank you d.c. for showing me how great you are!

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brunch! claire + liv

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awww!

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the sister shop claire works at

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love the bar sign

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pinkberry…delish

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georgetown

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cooking

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i love how we are both partially closing our eyes!

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dinner by candlelight

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tasty tacos

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cutest packaging

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seriously delicious macarons

baby s

jodi + matt had their baby on monday!  baby s came on march 18, 3:02 am, weighing in at 6lbs 8oz!  almost right on time to his due date.  he is so precious!  so teeny, so tiny, and so adorable.

i am so happy for them!  of course, they are calm and collected as usual and already demonstrating great parenting skills!  little baby s is so sweet and just makes you smile from ear to ear.

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isn’t he so cute?!

i can’t wait to visit some more and watch little baby s grow!  he looks a lot like his daddy {for now!}.  it’s a miracle to see this come into fruition.  it’s amazing what the human body can do and that the outcome is just a bundle of joy {until they grow up, right?! *wink*wink*!}.

congrats jodi + matt on their healthy baby boy.

so, we walked and walked

olivia and i woke up bright and early {meh} on our second day of vacay.  as we were getting ready, we played and replayed our outfits for the day.  the weather wasn’t cooperating!  it was quite chilly {brrrrr} in the morning but the temperature was going to get up to a high of 60 degrees with sun shiny skies…so i was in a pickle on what to wear!

anyhoo, we suffered a bit for fashion and just went with what looked nice {chilly or not, here i come!}.  we discussed our directions with claire {um, we weren’t really listening…oops!} and scooted on our way to explore the delightful d.c.!

we took the bus to the pentagon, right where the metro is located.  once we got off the bus, olivia and i literally wandered back and forth, up and down to find the train!  finally, we asked a gentleman and he pointed us in the right direction.  we took claire’s advice, just follow the crowd!  so, we did and finally found our way down below and the to the right spot to take us to our destination!

the metro is so clean {compared to the el in chitown // ewwww}.  we had a cozy, quick ride straight there.  we found ourselves a starbucks, grabbed some coffee, and a bite to eat before we began our journey through monument/museum land.

we finished up our petit dejeuner and headed towards our first destination, the smithsonian!  we passed quite a few buildings…still figuring out if we had an interest to stop in certain ones to explore.  before we knew it, we walked almost all the way to the capital.  so, i got excited and wanted to keep going towards it!  it was so fun to see such landmarks!  i felt so proud to be an american, funny how it is so novel for us first timers, huh {dorky}?!

after the capitol, we walked through the mall and passed up some more museums.  we decided to go into the nature museum.  let me tell ya…the bus loads of kids {and i mean bus loads by the dozen} were no fun!  olivia and i thought we were going to fight these churlish, bratty 12 year olds!  oh em gee!  no bueno!

i loved the nature museum, we had a great time exploring!  my favorite was the harry winston gallery {hello! diamonds!!!}.  i was mesmerized by the all that glitters and shines!

we moseyed along to the american museum for a nano second and went forth towards our next stop, the white house!  oh, it was hilarious.  every big, white building with pillars in the front, i would scream out loud, “oh!!  there’s the white house!”.  olivia would say, “no, i don’t think that’s the white house”.  then i would see another white building and say, “oh!!  there’s the white house!”.  and olivia would then say, “no, i don’t think that’s the white house”.  this happened just a few more times {snicker}.  we got a bit lost {it happens again later, hold on!} and finally backtracked ourselves to the right sidewalk towards the [real] white house. olivia warned me that it was a surprise to most people on how far away the white house is to the public {understandably} but i did’t realize it was going to be a speck!  {wha wha}

we were on our way to our next destination, the lincoln memorial, when we realized we were hungry.  so our debacle ensues after this.  we were halfway to the lincoln memorial when we noticed that there were no restaurants.  we mapped a few and found out that they were back up north {on 15th st.} where we came from!  ugh.  so we had to trek back up!  we found a restaurant on our map that we wanted to go to, when we got to our ‘destination’ on the map, the restaurant was no where to be found!  arrggh!  so, we mapped another restaurant and it was further up north!  and walked we did to feed ourselves.  we definitely walked off our breakfast and then some.  we finally settle in elephant and castle and ordered some grub {yum yum in the tum}.

we had plans to meet owen, olivia’s brother in law’s brother {who lives in d.c. as well} after our stint at the lincoln memorial.  olivia and i decided to walk to the memorial and then cab it to meet owen.  so, we walked and walked and walked to the lincoln memorial.  we were so confused by our map on where the location was!  we were led towards the direction of the jefferson memorial but my iphone kept saying it was the lincoln memorial!  well, we trusted that darn phone and it led us to the…jefferson memorial!  not that i was disappointed in seeing the jefferson statue {ok, i was a bit disappointed!  i was hoping it was the lincoln and gosh darn it, we have been walking so much!}.

we finally asked some girls for their paper map and realized that the lincoln memorial was all the way around the lake!!!  oy!  determined to see it, we traipsed our way to the next and {hopefully} final destination!  we started walking around the tidal basin, and walking and walking.  we ran into the roosevelt memorial {in all honesty, i love roosevelt too but we were so tired!  we just wanted to find the lincoln memorial!}.  we kept walking and almost gave up.  olivia was tenacious and was much more determined to find it for me [what a friend!].  i felt bad because we had been walking for what felt like forever!

so, here’s the funny part.  we found a cab {yay!} and only had $8 in cash on us.  we asked him if he knew where the lincoln memorial was {duh, of course he did!}.  we asked if it would be under $8 dollars, he was like ‘yeah yeah, it’ll be $8’.  so we hopped in the cab and we were on our way!  he drove a few hundred feet and said, “here’s the lincoln memorial.”  whaaaaaaaaa?!?!  it literally was around the corner!!!  oh my goodness!  we felt so defeated before and we were so tired, we didn’t see that it was sooooo close!!!  lol, so our cab ride was $3…yeah.  at least we finally got to our destination; i excitedly took pictures and soaked it all in!  i love lincoln!

we then went to find a cab so we could meet up with owen…i was searching for one when a rickshaw driver kept calling at us to get a ride from him.  i rebuffed his offer but he zoned in on innocent olivia.  she succumb to his offer and before i knew it, we were on a rickshaw adventure!  he was in motion to place a blanket on us when i halted him with my hand.  i asked him, “ew, is that a blanket you put on everyone?  like other strangers?!”  he just stared at me.  i said, “no, thank you…you can place that germy thing elsewhere!”.  he was very comical about it and asked if he could place it under our feet.  no problem!  and under our shoes went the dirty blanket!  he weaved in and out of traffic {a little concerned for my life} and continued to pedal his way towards our desired location in dupont circle.  i kept chuckling to myself…where we were headed was uphill all the way!  i felt a little bad.  i text olivia {people are walking faster than us!!}.

we finally reached big hunt and met up with owen!  we ordered beers and made plans to meet up with another friend of o’s, patrick.  after we quickly imbibed our drinks, owen led the way to the next bar, a beer garden packed to the gills.  after some time spent there, we finally headed on our way home to have dinner with claire and ben.  owen so graciously hailed a cab for us and we were on our merry way home to fill up our bellies again {feed me some irish grub please!}.

it was a long, fun filled day full, full of walking!  we really had a wonderful time and i am so grateful i was able to see everything that i did.  it was quite a successful day exploring d.c. {if i do say so myself}!  amaze.  thank you olivia for trekking all over d.c. with me.  muwah.

‘thank you for being a friend
traveled down the road and back again
your heart is true you’re a pal and a confidant’
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starting the day off with emma

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metro tunnel

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metro

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more sculptures

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and more

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capitol 

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sculpture garden

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hope diamond

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emeralds

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watch out olivia for the bear!

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pink blooms

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whitey

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me + the speck!

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washington monument

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smokey!

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jefferson

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rickshaw

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lincoln

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me + liv

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owen