1/29/10

heavenly

adventures in skiing


I've gone skiing once in my life before about a year ago at Cascade near Wisconsin Dells. I loved it. I started out with a lesson from a very nice 15 year old boy and was hitting the bunny slopes in no time! I did pretty well too. Only fell once and that was when I was first getting used to walking. I eventually worked my way up to a green slope, but it did make me slightly uneasy.

I was psyched about the idea of skiing in Aspen in late January with my girlfriends.
Today we hit up Highlands. As soon as my boots locked with the skis my nerves set in.
We took the lift for what seemed like a lifetime and it was beautiful. I've never been to the Rockies or an altitude this high. I was in love... Until I got off.

I am embarrassed by what a baby I was about things. I definitely uncovered a big fear of mine. I hate speed and I hate feeling out of contol. Highlands green runs = no good. My body was in pain from working out the day before, I don't think my boots fit right, the people around me freaked me out, and on top of it all, I was scared out of my mind.

I managed to make it to the bottom (Thank God!) and now I'm loving life. My friends are doing one more run and I'm so content sitting by a fire pit at the base of the mountain, beer in hand and sick tunes flowing through my headphones.

Bunny slopes tomorrow...

1/28/10

safety in the clouds out my window


Finally on my way to Aspen! The mountains are so beautiful.

Ps. 'Death' by White Lies is a great flying song...as weird as that sounds!

1/25/10

shopping cart

So my spending cuts haven't been going that well, but I do think I'm making good purchases towards items that will be in my possession for a long time. Here's a look at what I've bought in the past few weeks...

Valentine's Day is all about love and there is nothing better than self love! I celebrated the day by purchasing these two items from Anthropologie...

Champaca Bloom Candle $18.00

Great Expectations $20.00

I love my Great Expectations book so much that I pre-ordered two more of the Penguin Classics books...

Amazon $13.50 each 

This was my Valentine's Day dress...

H&M $34.95

And then I kinda fell in love with this tiger bodysuit...

Forever 21 $14.80

I'm having a love affair with tigers lately.

b is for...

Books!

I've always been somewhat of a book worm. I love reading and I get really drawn into books, I just wish I had more time in the day to enjoy them. Unfortunately, reading (outside of blogs) is usually put on the back burner. Here is a look at my past, present and future of books...

Past
In no particular order, these would be a list of some of my favorites. I know there must be a million others that I am forgetting, but I've lent so many out and brought so many home that it's hard for me to remember. I know that I read some great books in high school.
Present
Here is a look at my bedside table. I've got a really random mix here. 
I've been reading Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy on and off for the past year, but it can be quite rough at times. I've also started The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks and Skinny Bitch - Freedman & Barnoun. These two have short chapters that don't need to be read in a particular order. I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb is my mom's favorite book and I really want to get that started. I've heard good things about The Shining - Stephen King, but I'm afraid it will give me nightmares. Quite the work in process I have here.

Future
Another random set, but these are a few of the books I have on my Amazon wish list. 

1/22/10

a is for...

Aspen!



Today is officially one week until my trip to Aspen and I am ecstatic to say the least! 

One of my best friends has been living out there for the past few months and I finally found an opportunity to go visit her. The weekend that me and my 2 friends are visiting also falls on the same weekend as the 2010 Winter X Games. So exciting! I have never been to Colorado and I've only skied once in my whole life, but I know the weekend will be a blast just based solely off of the people I will be spending my time with.

To celebrate, I thought I would kick things off with some Aspen themed objects and imagery. Enjoy!

Me and Kristina's snow boots via Nordstrom
via Flickr
via Burton
An Aspen post wouldn't be complete without...
Lloyd: What the hell are we doing here, Harry? We gotta get out of this town!  Harry: Oh yeah, and go where? Where are we gonna go?  Lloyd: I'll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen

I can't wait to tell you all about the trip!

abc's

Since I have started this blog, I have been looking for ways to keep it interesting and fresh while still being able to introduce myself on a personal level, so I came up with an idea. It's simple really, and has certainly been done before, but I hope it will help you to get to know me as a blogger.
Starting this evening, I will begin my letter of the day series. Each day I will post a new interest of mine based off of a letter in the alphabet. This series will help me get in the habit of posting daily and hopefully my readers will enjoy it as well.

1/21/10

i love everything about this...


As if I didn't want a dog badly enough before! Now I had to stumble upon this amazing dog bowl on Apartment Therapy. This dog bowl comes from the home of architect and designer Stuart Membery. Stuart secured this beautiful clam shell onto his deck next to a tap all for the pleasure of his super cute pups.

Such a gorgeous idea!

1/15/10

strange + magnificent

I have shamelessly been spending my Friday night browsing the shops at Etsy. In the process, I stumbled upon this true gem of a shop called Freya Art & Design. This shop has some of the most beautiful prints I have ever seen and I adore the phrases found on them.

Take a look:

strange + magnificent

if i could (I'm seriously considering purchasing this one in the near future)

let's plant our dreams

because of you i am complete

new to this world (Kinda makes me wish I had a baby so I could put this in the nursery. Not really, but kinda...)

all that we will ever need

vast + amazing

I want them all!

Freya has a website as well: www.freya-art.com

happy hour


There's no greater way to celebrate the beginning of a 3-day weekend than to pop open a new bottle of wine.

This past November I went to a holiday party at L20 which featured Alpana Singh, a Master Sommelier, as the guest of honor. Singh passed the Court of Master Sommeliers' advanced certification test at age 21 and in 2003, she passed the final exam to become the youngest person ever to achieve the rank of Master Sommelier. The master sommelier exam has about a 3% pass rate. Pretty impressive. Singh is also pretty well known around the Chicago area. She is the Director of Wine and Spirits for Lettuce Entertain You restaurants and is also the host of the Chicago-based restaurant review show, Check Please. Singh is also married to a writer and is a strong believer that you don’t have to spend much a lot in order to drink good wine

At the event, Singh passed out a list of various, affordable wines. I have only tried about 3 of the wines listed above, but so far, I have been impressed with the selection. I can't wait to make it through this list...especially the food pairings!

Cheers!

paint palette

100 Layer Cake is one of my favorite blogs to follow. Yes, I find it a little strange that I follow a wedding blog, but I love the floral arrangements, table setting and other DIY projects. 100 Layer Cake also has a Color Inspiration Board category that I simply adore. I used these posts as the inspiration for my current Posterous color theme.

As I was in my apartment admiring my new color theme, I realized that there was something a little too familiar about my color selection. Funny that it matches my Anthropologie quilt perfectly.
I guess I know what colors I gravitate towards! 
I'm itching to switch it up to some of the other Color Inspirations from 100 Layer Cake. These are the ones I like the best...

I will probably be switching it up periodically.

1/12/10

(art)work in progress

A big thing in the world of design these days seems to be covering a wall with several small frames of artwork. I think this is a really interesting and beautiful look, so I created my own wall of black and white photography in my studio. I think black and white photos have a really sophisticated and classical look and I tried to mostly pull images of things that were somewhat significant in my life. Most of these photographs were purchased from Esty, with the exception of a one that I took myself in Italy. 


Take a look!
Overall look (over my bed)
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via me!

I'm hoping this turns out to be a timeless look. I'd really love to add to this collection for years and years to come. I have the best time browsing Etsy shops for new photographs.

(by the way...this post really made me realize how badly I need a new camera. I can't just rely on my iPhone. Hopefully the quality will improve soon!)