Summer is flying by and i don’t know how it is already mid-August already. I feel like it was just June and I had the whole summer ahead of me. I can't believe that its almost my birthday, which always signifies the end of the summer.
In lieu of writing more cover letters, here are a few of my favorite pictures from my recent travel to Minnesota. It was so nice and peaceful to be out there. Minnesota always signifies family, reflection, and creativity. Also, it allows me to live out my HGTV fantasies. I am always inspired by the beauty of nature, so I took a lot of photos. Here are a couple of my favorites, using the panorama function of my iphone.
Sunset Skies
Cloudy Skies
Maybe its a good thing to have this season come to a close. I am hoping that fall things will fall in place in the Fall. A girl can hope.
I finally joined instagram a month ago (when I got my iphone) and I'm addicted! Yeah, terms of service - no more privacy/fbook is the devil - I get it. But, I love the filters! Damn you, Mark Zuckerberg, for ruining things! Here are some of my fav shots that I have shared and kept private (until now) by doing the filtering and then doing a screenshot then editing out the extras.
Really fun holiday with the family and our littlest new member. So glad that I got to see the snow and play in it with my snow pup before I had to head back to DC.
The last month was a whirlwind. School started on August 27th and ever since, I have felt like I have been treading water. My life has turned into school, school, school with little to no social life. But some major things happened last month, like one of my dearest friends got married. I also got to see some of my best friends in the world, which was amazing! I am so thankful that we got to have this time together and to share this joyous union together. The last exciting thing that occurred in September is that I became an Aunt! Yup, I am now a proud Auntie and I am so excited to watch this tiny tiny tiny person grow up. I can't wait for her to get bigger so I can have conversations. I think we will have lots of fun together.
Also last week, my social enterprise program held a launch event for our program. It was really fun and inspring day. I have some amazing members of my cohort. Here is the summary of the event from the Social Enterprise Association blog that I work on and why I don't write here anymore (sorry!). Seth Goldman of Honest Tea is such a great speaker and even better mentor. I am really thankful for the opportunity to work with him. It was such an awesome event, so check out the slideshow below (which amazing works here, but not on the Wordpress site- oye!!)
Some photos from Minnesota in August. It was so beautiful and peaceful to get away. I was so happy to be reunited with my family and Buxtehude! Although, I had to do some school work during my vacation (so lame) it was nice to spend time with family, eat good food (I baked pie!), and get away from the DC heat. Northern Minnesota is one of my favorite place on earth and I always relish getting out there, esp. being out in the beauty of nature. It was a great 10 days. Can't wait to go back next year!
Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice start to your 2012! I keep writing 2010, which is is problematic since that was two years ago. Haha, maybe I can only remember to write even years? Let's just hope that I can type/write out those numbers correctly in the future.
I thought it would be fun to share some of my holiday adventures with you. Like this cute video of my friend, Buxtehude, with her new ball/squeaking toy that I got her for Christmas (Warning: Puppy is very cute that you may become extremely jealous and try to steal her. Also, the quality of this video is not very good). It's not exactly a ball, but you can throw it like one. It kinda looks like a baton that wobbles. She loves it! Buxie is so smart and I love watching her mind work.
Have you ever travelled 110 miles to go a super market? No? Sounds crazy? Well, the second adventure was a journey to Mitsuwa, the biggest Japanese grocery in our area (I use the term "area" very loosely to mean the Mid Atlantic states region), which happens to be located in NJ. My parents (mostly my mom) thought it would be a great idea to stock up on our New Year food, a couple of days after Christmas. It was a very long trip for delicious food.
Getting to the store was easy, but getting back was rough due to (holiday) traffic and construction. The high point, besides the food, was watching my parents interact, which is always funny. The low point was waiting for the ramen to come out. There is a little ramen shop inside the grocery store that probably serves hundreds of people a day and the wait time was a half an hour, which is a long time to stare at yummy looking food all day. Also, the seating area is like "first-come, first-serve" with a lot of small tables and communal tables. So you have to have an eagle eye to find a spot and this place is ALWAYS busy. It was so funny to watch people try to steal spots and one couple almost came to blows with an older couple over two seats. Don't worry, everyone got a seat at the end. And no, the culprit of this story was the older and sneaker couple, who later found a four person both for themselves. The broth of the ramen was good, but the noodles needed a couple more minutes...oh well. A good time was had by all... except for my sister who had to stay at home with the dog. It's okay, we brought her back a sushi party platter. Yes, a party platter. As always, Mitsuwa is always worth the trip.
The last adventure was to Terrain. Did you know that Anthropologie has a sister store that is focused on plants and home goods? No? Well, I didn't either until my sister told me around it over the Thanksgiving holiday. So, I really wanted to visit the store over the holidays. Anthro (We are on a first name basis) is based in Philadelphia and owns retail brands Urban Outfitters, Free People, and BHLDN. I love all of those stores, esp. Antro. Terrain is a very cool store - full of things i love like plants, books, scarves, cards (which are hilarious) and home goods (like a jacket rack that looks like a rake!). The shop looks like a plant shop/Green house, which it mostly is, but there is also a very cute cafe that makes killer $4 hot chocolate (for that price, it should be killer so I wasn't disappointed).
Recently, I have been interested in creating my own terrarium. I have always been interested in terrariums, mostly the idea of it being its own green house and water itself was always a neat idea. Also, seeing Hipster Home's light bulb terrarium how-to 2 years ago was also enticing to make. But the biggest motivation was my mom, who actually started to make terrariums in our home when we were kids (I think it was those terrariums that we made is the reason why I love plants so much. One year, I gave my sister and brother plants for x-mas. For my brother, a bonsai tree (very Japanese, I know) and a cactus for my sister (it had a pretty flower on the top). I thought it was a great idea, but I think they were less amused. Especially when they killed their plants. Punish me, not the plants!) and now, started making them again. So, I did bought myself a little terrarium and thought I would give it a go!
In true Anthro style, everything was expensive (for me) at Terrain, but it was a beautiful place full of inspirations and dreams...
