Friday, June 29, 2012

life, the iphone version

another edition of "life - as seen through my iPhone"...these are the beautiful, fun things that have been going on in my world lately: sweet breakfast dates at walton's fancy and staple, intense concentration during lonestar bottlecap puzzle solving, reminiscing about december in mexico, pool time on 105 degree days, girl dates, lots of reading...












this is the last photo dump until we get back from our bahamas trip, and i'm sure that one will be a doozy.
happy friday!


 




Wednesday, June 27, 2012

motivated wednesday

since i couldn't seem to catch up last week, i'm attempting to make up for my lack of blogging this time around. 
there's no theme to this motivated wednesday post, just a big photo dump of things that have caught my eye and related back to my 30before30 list somehow. i had fun putting it together, so hope you like it, too!


motivating me to accomplish #14 on my list: start a sunday night supper tradition
fancy ice cubes: 3 ways. perfect for (extremely) hot summer suppers.

&

home-made aguas frescas


motivating me to accomplish #12 on my list: master taking photos the way i picture them in my brain
amazing self portraits taken by an 18 year old. yes, 18.




motivating me to accomplish #13 on my list: decorate our "forever" home to reflect both my husband and i perfectly
this house is absolutely gorgeous and airy...it might fit in better near a lake or beach, but i'll take it in the city!



motivating me to accomplish #9 on my list: plant a thriving vegetable garden
this is perfect for small spaces! i would love to have some basil, mint and cilantro (i put cilantro on everything) a few steps away from my kitchen!


motivating me to accomplish #17 on my list: become crafty
a cute, easy chevron leather cuff. 


motivating me to accomplish #21 on my list: start a regular yoga practice
my bikram yoga classes (that i mentioned here) are going so, so well. my body got used to the heat about 2 classes in, and i can see a huge difference in my flexibility from class to class. although the membership is too expensive (like, $109 a month!), i'm going to figure out a way to keep going to these classes once my Groupons expire.
and these pictures definitely keep the motivation up for me!









Monday, June 25, 2012

evoking the summertime feeling

since last week marked the beginning of summer, i've been seeing and taking a lot of summertime photos lately. it's been in the 90's here in texas for over a month, so we technically started summer a few weeks ago, but now that it's official, i'll share some of the pictures that have been making me forget the miserable heat and reminding me to enjoy summer for what it is. 
here are some of my favorites




beautiful, neutral, flowy skirts and dresses with a tan! it's much too hot to wear pants, so i wouldn't mind wearing this every day of the summer. 



beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. hopefully it's real.




i'm lucky enough to be able to say that it's been a very long time i've gone a whole summer without visiting a beach and/or lake. i just don't feel like it's summertime unless there's an enormous body of water surrounding me at some point. this year, very luckily, will be no different. 
some of the best memories i have are of being at the beach with my brother and dad in mexico, or going to south padre with my mom, stepdad and best friend over the summer. even if at some point we had to grow up and realize that summer vacation would inevitably be lost, i'll forever save up enough vacation time to be able to lose myself in summertime even if it's just for a week!

what summer plans are you looking forward to the most?






Thursday, June 21, 2012

blogosophere round up

in lieu of a belated motivated monday (wednesday) post, i'm just going to throw together a super quick "round up" of things i've seen & liked on the blogosphere lately. i promise that next week i'll post not once, but twice! hopefully. (i was in pain all day yesterday with a ridiculous migraine, so this post didn't happen when it was supposed to. unfortunately the migraine is slowly creeping back in today, so this will be a bit of a random post)

perfect patio re-do!
before:
& after:
i love the colors, love the chalkboard, the brick walls and the comfy pillows.

freeze black coffee as ice cubes and toss in a glass of bailey's. um, best idea ever, no?

a pretty little ombre necklace DIY:


and also from emily, a perfect list of summer eats with recipes:




perfect summer hair. i'm going to try to do this in the bahamas:
source


bourbon cream rootbeer floats?!
source

good tips on packing light with your cosmetics:



again - i promise i'll be back soon and will post a ridiculous amount of posts once work slows down in 5 weeks. promise.
i'm struggling a little bit and feeling more than a tiny bit burned out.
so if you have any motivating words (or alcoholic beverage recipes!) feel free to share.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

#4: own an original art piece

in lieu of an already belated motivated monday (wednesday) post, i thought i'd share some art that i've been looking at.
#4 on my 30before30 list is to own an original art piece. now, we have several photographs hanging in our home that i've taken, but i don't want to own my original art work, i want someone else's.
have you ever tried to shop for art before?
it is hard.

especially when you're ruling out photography, which i am.
but one artist that i've found, michael cina, has kind of stuck out in my mind. it's definitely not something that i would've gone for in the past - i've never considered myself a huge fan of abstract art, i've usually preferred to be able to see clearly what it is that i'm looking at in an art piece. but there are some pieces on his site that i can easily picture hanging above a dove grey couch in a living room with white walls and pops of color here and there.




and this guy's work, gabriel moreno, is absolutely incredible. i think to own one of his pieces would probably cost something pretty ridiculous, so i'll just look and admire from afar.



even though some night not consider this "art" in the traditional sense of the word, sideshow sign co makes large, vistage-looking custom lettering that i think would fit in nicely in a breakfast nook or even in a perfect spot in a bedroom.


what kind of art do you typically go for?
would you spend the (large amount of) money for an original piece?

Friday, June 8, 2012

reading list update


I've finished another book (The Virgin Suicides), so I'm about to start book #7 of the year! 
I've been really, really excited to get started on Blood, Bones & Butter. I just bought it on my Kindle and am crossing my fingers that I can start it on my lunch break today instead of studying modules and working through lunch.
PS. I plan on replacing both the Stieg Larsson books on this list, I'm kind of over them.
So here is my list as it currently stands.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

motivated wednesday: travel edition

i'm a little bit in denial about the fact that today is june 6. i'm not quite sure that i really believe that, because i feel like it should still be april. but that just means i've got to work really hard to accomplish more on my list in the next 6 months. 

since my birthday trip is now officially less than a month away (we leave on july 5!) and one of my most favorite people in the world has decided to join in on the trip last minute (yes!!!!), i'm feeling like i should put together a travel post. so i've split this post in two:
1. romantic vacations that i'd love to take with the husband - you know, waking up late, coffee on the terrace, midnight dinners with lots of wine, etc etc.
& 2. vacations that i'd love to take with the husband + my other favorites - you know, packing your own liquor bottles in your luggage, waking up late for a very different reason, afternoon lunches with lots of wine, etc etc.

i subscribe to daily candy and every now & then i get an email from them that either leaves me super jealous or super motivated. recently, i got an email describing the dream vacations of the daily candy editors, and i gotta say - they're dead on. these editors picked some amazing places that i would certainly put on my dream list, too.
here are a few pictures + places that i'd deem perfect for those romantic, recreating the honeymoon type of trips. as usual click on the source link at the very bottom for the entire article. trust me, you'll want to look at it.


hoshinoya karuizawa, japan


nicaragua



palazzo margherita, italy
 
as far as the vacations with friends, here's what i picture:
 
i have no idea where this picture was taken, but i'd love to do a camping trip to the redwood forest with several friends (also, starting a camping tradition is on my 30before30 list!)
 
 
this crazy hotel has a glass roof in every room to allow you to see the northern lights (also on my 30before30 list!)
 
nyc!
 
 
what's your dream vacation?
solo, romantic or family trips?
 
 
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