missing florence

When I started college I knew that there was one experience I couldn’t miss out on; studying abroad. One day on campus they had a study abroad fair and I spent the afternoon walking around from table to table browsing brochures for adventures all around the world. My imagination went wild thinking about the experiences, sights, sounds and people that I would meet. I was happily day dreaming until I stopped at one of the last booths at the fair. It was for the company Cultural Experiences Abroad and I paused to pick up a booklet on living in Italy. I flipped the pages from Rome, then Venice, then Milan, then Firenze. In that moment my entire life changed. Studying abroad in Florence was to become the single most defining moment of my young adult life.

I remember that my parents drove me to the airport early one August morning and as I stepped out of the car, feeling nervous and anxious, my mother hugged and kissed me, looked me straight in the eyes and told me that “your adventure starts now”. I’ll never forget that moment and the months that followed.

I am having a week where I am deserately missing Florence and when my roomate from living abroad emailed me Jasmine Star’s blog with photos from her recent trip there…well it made my day that much better.

Honestly, could there be a more magnificent city in the world? To me…absolutely not.

{Via}

wish list for fall.

It’s not that I don’t like fall…my problem is that once fall rolls in town, winter is right behind it. If fall were to last just a few months longer (and winter a few months shorter) then I would be a happy girl. Alas, it’s not looking like it’s on the global agenda anytime soon. So, until then I’ll admire my fall wish list and shop my closet for a re-invention of my wardrobe.

wish list #1: gold rings

Really, gold if for just about any time of year, but something about fall makes me feel like wrapping myself in warm colors day and night. This sweet little gold ring is the perfect bit of simplicity and elegance and would be lovely to wear day after day.

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wish list #2: sparkly skirts

Day or night. With thigh high tights and platform heels, boots, silky shirts…oh my the options. I would love, love, love to wear this little gem from j. crew – but alas it seems a bit above my price point. But a gal can dream!

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wish list #3: the classic blazer

I would love blazer with a modern twist on the classic. To wear at any event; day or evening; on a date; girls night out; with jeans or a dress. Love, love it in any scenario.

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ocassional craftiness

I moved into a new apartment this summer and in doing so gained an extra 300 sq ft. I was scrambling to piece together how I would utilize the space; searching Craigslist and Etsy and design blogs for ideas. Ultimately I decided to take the next step into adulthood and add a dining room table to my collection. Hello no more eating on the coffee table (don’t judge now, we’ve all been there).

Being a twenty-something on a budget I started to look at vintage stores around the city in the hopes of finding a glass top table I could refurnish. My grandmother had passed down to me 4 chairs that were once part of an ice cream shoppe set and thought that they would be quite lovely in my new space. So, in an attempt at craftiness (that I think turned out quite well) I have proudly completed my first before and after!

Before

After

For the Love of Fall

I’m not going to lie, the winter season holds only a handful of joyous occasions for me; Thanksgiving, snuggling up on the couch watching a movie, pumpkin spice lattes, and Gossip Girl. I haven’t had cable for years, but believe you me; I dig out my bunny ears for the fall premier of GG. Knowing that the end of a long Monday holds an hour filled with high fashion, beautiful people, absurd drama and general mindlessness…well, I can’t imagine a better motivation to start the week.

So while I mourn the end of summer and the long months of snow and cold ahead, I am ready to embrace the one good thing I can count on to get me through. A friend is coming over, I’m making balsamic roasted cauliflower, honey and soy tilapia, and mixed grain rice, all washed down with a gluten free beer. Here’s to the 90210 of today and the reason some of us ladies are able to make it through a winter in Colorado…Gossip Girl.

Cheers!

ok, back to me now

If you listen to what your elders tell you, you’ve heard that your twenties provide many of life’s most important early journeys.  I just marked year 25 in May and considering what a rollercoaster it’s been so far, I’m quite interested in seeing what the last 5 years will look like. I think that my twenties are most marked by a particular turning point where, after two unpleasant breakups and one broken heart I decided to change the way in which I led my life. It was a moment – a moment that extended to days, and then weeks, and then months – where I took a step on the path leading left instead of right. Moving forward I would set myself up to surpass my ambitions and do myself the honor of experiencing as many things as life felt inclined to offer. I wanted to teach myself over time that until I was happy and fulfilled in my independent life that I would never be able to find happiness that would sustain itself over the course of a relationship.

If you’ve read any earlier entries in the blog you’ve noted that I referenced my boyfriend (bf). I come to you months after my last entry to report that we are no longer together. I write this shortly after our breakup because I know we made the right decision. I knew this as we calmly discussed the areas of our relationship that simply weren’t working – and pondered where we’d gone off course. I feel relief that we’ve talked and that for the first time in my twenties I can proudly say I’ve salvaged the remains of a friendship that built a now fleeting love.

Our relationship was nothing if not honest. I was always upfront that I was independent and ultimately looking out for those things in life that make me most happy. I shared that I had passed the point where I’d change my life to fall in stride with a man. There were no surprises and that speaks volumes over the course of relationship, especially when it comes time to lay things to rest. I’m sad of course to watch him go; the inner soap opera that every woman posses is hard to quiet at those times. But moments later I take a deep breath and know that the days to come hold a life better suited for me.

 

photo {via}

i can smell summer around the corner

Thankfully. This time of year, as corny as it may sound, makes you feel as if your slowly being pulled out of a snowy cold depression. You start to wear flip flops out at the slightest increases in warm weather. Shorts appear from their hiding places. Tank tops get moved from the back of the closet to the front. Everything about it is so refreshing.

I love driving home from work each day and seeing the new trees and plants springing to life. And it is always a welcome and anticipated change each year.

Tonight the BF is going on his first mountain bike ride of the season. He was like a 10 year old this morning being told he gets to go to the amusement park. Hilarious. I kicked off the season with a fresh pedicure last night. Tonight perhaps a walk around the park; reading on the patio; dinner and wine with friends. It all sounds just perfect.

Hello summer.

nursery decorations

Hold on a second, no, I’m not expecting. Let’s just clear that up right away.

But, this past year has been filled with lots of people I know adding to their families. And of course, as women, you discuss such things as the nursery and how it will be decorated for the new kiddo. Every once in awhile I randomly think about how I would decorate a nursery. I’m not really one for themes, and sometimes I think if I see one more jungle decorated room that I might have a nervous breakdown.

Today though, I was thinking that it would be fun to have things relating to travel in a kids bedroom; maps, globes, markers for where the family has traveled. I was looking up rooms to see if there are any good examples of this being done in the past, but alas, I didn’t find any. But, I did find this cute HGTV example of a nursery below. I LOVE the crib and how it says ‘Fragile’ – and the use of orange in the room!

San Diego is amazing and expensive

San Diego was a blast. It is beautiful and inviting which are just a few of many reasons that people live there (or so I imagine). San Diego is also though, very expensive. But that’s ok – the joy of vacation, you pretend that money is just paper and live it up.

I promised a few pictures of San Diego, and although they are weeks late, they are here!

I don’t know when sushi isn’t delicious, but this was extra yummy since we were eating it right by the ocean!

Some of the ships along the Navy pier. The sunsets were amazing.

SD zoo was intense, we hauled through it in 4 hours, but we were exhausted afterward. It was worth it though, cause who doesn’t love oogling at some cute ass animals?

fierce independence

I’ve been there before and I’ve been unhappy. ‘There’ being years of my life that I gave up to someone else. Without regard for my life. Just mine. The years that it took after wards to build myself back up and realize what made me happy. What I wanted to take away from these years that I’ll never get a chance to redo. And now, now that I’ve found myself again and also someone I want to be with, I have to redefine my life…again. It’s really frustrating.

I have this fierce independence. It’s actually a quality I rather like about myself and it’s a part of all my relationships. But there is this ‘happy medium’ of all things. I kind of hate the happy medium. I want someone else to clearly define the happy medium and then let me in on the details. Sometimes when I am making plans and visiting with friends I fail to acknowledge how that might make the BF feel. But on the same token, I don’t feel any need to ask permission for anything I do. And I won’t. (See the stubbornness there)? So where’s the happy medium?

I’m heading out of town this weekend to visit my parents and have been out doing things with friends the last two nights. It’s time I need with my friends. But I also need time with my boyfriend. And he needs time with me as well.

I suppose that I am more apt to put the BF on the back burner, perhaps from fear of loosing myself again in a relationship or partly because I know he’s not going anywhere. Right? The thing I fail to realize is that he will go somewhere if I don’t put in the time it takes to make a relationship work. And I continue to forget that relationships, especially successful ones, are A LOT of work. If I don’t give him the attention and love that he deserves and needs, then I can rest assured that someone else will.

I want to put in the time, but I also want friend time, and career time, and me time and family time. How do you arrange your life and wear all the hats that are required to make you and everyone happy? That’s a lot of hats if you really start to think about it…

men are from mars, women are from….someplace far more logical

It’s the classic scenario – men vs women. Regardless of the relationship, the circumstances, the background there will always be a fundamental difference in how the sexes approach life and situations there in. I know this – I talk to the BF about it all the time but rarely does a difference between the sexes get my attention enough to write a post about it. But this Sunday it did.

I like a clean home. After years of living with roommates and living with left over kegs and a sink full of dishes I have really embraced living by myself and in turn keeping the apartment CLEAN. All the time. CLEAN. Now, I’m not talking about crazy clean where everything must be spotless around the house, but tidy – and a good weekend full blown clean up. Maybe a washing of the refrigerator every once in awhile. Cleaning the windows on occasion…you get the idea.

So, even though I live by myself, the BF is over pretty much all the time and due to this additional person in my space, things can get far messier more often. When he is at work on Saturday I use the free time to deep clean the place so that I can once again reach the happy place that is only a result of waking up and coming home to a CLEAN house.

This Sunday though, we decided to clean together…

Let me start by saying that men and women do not clean things in the same way. I start with one area and entirely finish sanitizing it and then move on to the next place. Cleaning is efficient, you look at what needs to be accomplished, make a plan of attack and do it. In two hours I did 2 loads of laundry, washed dishes, cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed down the bathroom, the bedroom, washed the windows, swept and cleaned the outdoor patio/furniture, washed the floors and dusted the living room. In that same amount of time the BF cleaned the litter box and vacuumed. True story. It took so long because as a man he thought it necessary to disassemble the vacuum and clean the working parts. It’s a fairly new vacuum, so that was not really necessary. But, you can’t scold, or give ‘the look’. No, no, because this is a simple step in the right direction. And two things done well is better than no help at all, right? After we were done cleaning I asked him to write a grocery list (since he eats over all the time and was going shopping the next day). Want to know what he wrote down? 4 things. Then he stopped and sat on the couch and read. 4 things, really? I’m looking forward to seeing how far those 4 things prepare meals this week. Hmmmm…what can I make with eggs, OJ, cereal and cheese for lunch and dinner for 7 days….