It's time we had a chat

Dear Mother Nature,

I've always been a fan of yours - the way you create seasons blows me away. (No pun intended). While I'm not that into spring or summer (allergies, sunburns, etc), I understand there needs to be a little bit of something for everyone. Besides, I love fall, and winter isn't far behind. There's something about the cool air that's rejuvenating. You can be truly amazing.

But you're also pissing me off.

I live in Northern Virginia. Vir-gin-ia. Not California, or Florida, or any other state that is periodically warm throughout the typical "winter" months. So could you please tell me why we've been experiencing temperatures close to 60 degrees lately? Sixty degrees. It's January! I'm not requesting blizzards or sub-zero temperatures, but an average around 30 wouldn't kill you, would it?

So here's my request, woman-to-woman. Get your act together.

Everyone has been tiptoeing around you, but I think it's time you hear some tough love. I'm telling you this for your own good because right now you're acting like a stereotypical woman who constantly changes her mind. You're better than that.

Or are you? You've been doing this for awhile now. I can understand growing tired, but maybe you just don't have it anymore.

That's right. The gauntlet has been thrown. You gonna show me what you've got or are you going to keep hiding behind random "chilly" days?

And don't think you can keep it cold through April and skip right to summer, either.

Sincerely,
Someone who'd like to use her winter coat

P.S. Global warming? You're next. Consider yourself warned.

Cleaning the Closet Clutter

Happy hump day! I've been inspired by Ashley's Cleaning The Closet Clutter posts, so today I'm linking up. I took on the linen closet and the cabinet under the bathroom sink and showing you the good, the bad, and definitely the ugly!

When we moved into this apartment I was overjoyed that we had a linen closet! We didn't have one in our first apartment together, and it was one of those things that made all the difference - it even allowed us to get rid of a bulky piece of furniture. However, it's a bit of an odd shape (more long than deep), so over the months we've ended up shoving things in there haphazardly.

I'm not sure you're ready for that before photo yet though, so I'm going to ease you in with our under the sink bathroom cabinet first.

Again - kind of a place where things just get shoved.

Before.

And after. (Look at all that space! And the basket actually closes now!)

Next up was the linen closet. Again, because of the shape (tall and long) I couldn't fit it all in one picture, so just imagine this all the way down.

Before.

(All the contents from the linen closet. You can't really see it in this picture, but the towels pretty much take up the whole couch).

This is all we're keeping. Looks better, right?

After. (I even folded the towels so they actually fit on the shelves. Genius, I know).

Speaking of shelves...do you see the empty one? Yeah. It's awesome.

This whole process took me less than half an hour, and it was amazing the amount of things I was able to throw away. (I'm looking at you expired Tylenol from 2007). Also, we had a ridiculous amount of towels. We are only two people! We kept enough in case some start to wear down and so we'll always have something on hand for guests, but really, I don't know where they all came from. (Maybe they multiplied in the linen closet?)

A friend of mine stopped by last night, saw all the towels I was going to donate and offered to take them by our local humane society. Purged and out of the house in one evening? Please and thank you.

I've been slowly purging through things this year (I have a whole post brewing about books - stay tuned), and knowing I wanted to link up with Ashley today was the small kick in the pants I needed to make sure it got done.

Have you gotten rid of or donated things lately? What does your linen closet look like?

(Banner: Our Little Apartment)

The best for last

The best part of this trip were the women I was with.

You'd think blogging friends are different than "real life" friends. You get to know someone through their words, and you don't get to see facial expressions, or know when they laugh at something. But this also means by the time you meet them you've literally known them for years, and it's not awkward or difficult - it's just like you haven't seen them in awhile. (And as Lisa pointed out, we don't have the luxury of grabbing a cup of coffee. It's either make weekends like this work, or unfortunately we don't get to see each other at all).

So without further ado, some shots of the incredible women I spent the weekend with!

(Amber is nothing if not helpful).

I'm not so good at the mirror shots...

Chicago was a fabulous weekend trip - I find myself daydreaming about being back there all the time. Thanks for putting up with all my excessive picture-taking!

Have you had online or blogging friends become simply friends?

Taking in the sights

Ready for more Chicago? (I told you I took a lot of photos!) I've shown you details, food, signage, and even a quick video from the trip. Today I thought I'd talk a little bit about some of the activities we did while visiting.

Saturday afternoon we trekked to Oak Park, where we toured the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW). My book club took a tour of a home in this area of a house Frank Lloyd Wright created that I really enjoyed, but it was even more amazing to see the house and studio he designed for himself. Our tour guide was wonderful - I learned a lot and while I think FLW was kind of an ass, he absolutely knew what he was doing when it came to design.

I would recommend doing this tour after reading Loving Frank, only because I think you'll have a lot more to talk about! I wish we could have taken pictures inside, but even if we could I'm not sure I would have been able to capture the beauty of it. There was just so much space - or if there wasn't, there was the allusion of it.

Sunday morning found us strolling toward the bean. It was cold and windy, but so fun to visit! I have a picture of me in it during the summer time, so I of course needed one in the winter!

I love how you can see the reflection in the back too!

Do you try to see the well-known sights when you're visiting a city? Have you been to the same city in different seasons?

I've got one more post of Chicago pictures - tomorrow will be the last. (I can't believe it's already been a week since I've been back!)

Happy Monday!

Saturday Signage

Details, food...how about some signs? I'm a sucker for big attractions.

This makes my former English-major heart so happy! 

This tour was awesome - definitely a must-do if you find yourself in Oak Park!

We didn't go in, but how could I not get a picture of this?

Do you like fun signs? I'll admit it does expose you as a tourist - someone started to ask us where something was our first night and then said, "oh nevermind, you're not from around here." (What, like I had a huge camera around my neck or something?)

Happy weekend!

Good Eats

Yesterday was about details from Chicago, today it's all about the food. We had some amazing food last weekend. I could tell you about it...or I could just show you.

Two words: veggie skillet.

I'm not a fan of cheesecakes, but these minis looked so good I almost wanted to try one!

I can however, attest to the delicious-ness of these cupcakes!

We wrapped it up by ordering Pad Thai Sunday night, but we inhaled ate it too quickly to be able to take pictures!

Are you a fan of finding good food on trips, or is it more important for you to see the sights? What are you up to this weekend? (It's crazy to think a week ago I was leaving for Chicago!)

Happy Friday!

Delight in the details

I thought about doing a video picture montage of my Chicago trip, but there were just too many pictures! I wasn't kidding when I told you I took a lot of photos...I managed to whittle it down from 200 to 126. (Don't worry, I won't be putting them all on here!)

While I'm still sorting through them, I thought I'd do a quick post with a few of my favorites...and they all happen to be detail pictures. (Surprise, surprise, right? I mean, it's not like I live for details or the small stuff, in any way - what's the name of this blog called again?) Everything from theater lights to nail polish, to coffee creamer, and tweeting.

Yes, this was actually a tree - there were several like it - and no, we weren't the ones that did it!

I think one of the reasons I love blogging so much is detail pictures like this suit it so well. Don't worry, more substantial Chicago pictures coming soon!

Do you tend to take detail pictures or are you more of a landmark type of person? Happy almost Friday!

(Psst - did you see the video I took at the bean? We witnessed a proposal!)

A quick hi

Happy Tuesday! I got back from Chicago yesterday, and while I'm still trying to decide which pictures to share (I think I took over 200!), I thought I'd show a quick video from the trip.



And here's a picture of the proposal I mentioned - so sweet. (The girl was so surprised, she started crying!)

The weekend was amazing - a perfect mix of activity and down time. It was full of good friends, fabulous food, and lots of laughter.

How was your weekend? Have you ever witnessed a proposal?

Metro chic

Ohhh, this color. I've posted about it before, so I think it says something that more than a year later I'm still absolutely, positively, head over heels in love with it.

Meet Metro Chic.

It's the perfect gray. Light, not too shiny, and with a little purple undertone. It's elegant and pretty, but still professional (I never hesitate to put it on my fingers for work).

I really like it for January's color because it's soft - a great winter neutral, but not boring. This also is the color I forced Lisa to wear I painted Lisa's nails last night. (Pictures coming soon!)

Have you ever worn this color? Are you a fan of gray nail polish? What's your color of the month?

Fabulous Friday

Happy Friday! I hope today finds you rested, and eager for the weekend! I'd planned a whole post in my head for today, but I thought blurbs and maybe a few fun facts would be  a more fun way to end the week.

*I mentioned this yesterday, but I'm a little obsessed with my kindle. I read so fast on it, and it's light and easy to use. Plus one-handed reading? Please and thank you. I don't want it to ever replace real books for me, so for every few books I read on my kindle, I read that many actual books as well. (This is not a hard thing to do - I have a lot of books I own that I haven't read).

*I'm also a little obsessed with the site Revolutionize Her. It's a group of self-employed women blogging about each of their respective journeys and the writing that's coming out of there is nothing short of incredible. This week alone I was blown away by two posts: Don't Be a Female Lobster and The Fair Price of Handmade. Don't Be Rude. It's okay. I'll wait while you go read them.

Back? Okay.

*Have I mentioned on here how much I hate sand? (Sometimes I forget that I haven't known all of you my whole life so there are things you may not know about me). If I could have the beach without the sand, I'd be fine. The ocean and I are cool. Waves, seagulls, salty water, the boardwalk - all of it good. But sand? Ugh. It's the devil.

*Amy wrote a brilliant post about being kind online, and encouraged her readers to not be so negative on twitter - and maybe to peruse their tweets to see if they could change any negative thinking they might be having, before tweeting in the future. I took Amy's suggestion yesterday and looked back over my tweets for the past week. I was pretty proud to see that I only had one in the last seven days I could really see as negative, and even then it was more sad, not angry. I'm actually pretty hilarious. (And humble, of course). It was cool to see what I'd written - so often a tweet is a quick, fleeting thought, that I didn't even remember half of what I'd said! (Which obviously speaks to the caliber of my thinking, hmm?)

*I'm going to Chicago! I have been obnoxiously tweeting about it, (what's that - this isn't making you want to follow me?) but I can't help it - I'm so excited! I think I associate independence with travel.

My freshman year of college I bought a plane ticket to surprise the guy I was dating at the time for Valentine's Day. He was in Texas and I made the plans, bought the ticket, managed to keep it a surprise from him, and then told my parents - not exactly as an after thought, but definitely an "oh I did this, FYI," instead of an asking permission kind of thing. I was 18. I remember feeling grown up and responsible, and slightly terrified. (It was my first time flying alone and it was the February after 9/11. I got through security and the first thing I saw was a soldier with an M-16. I almost peed my pants).

Now I'm 28 and am still as giddy and excited as I was ten years ago. Ben and I love to take trips, but this one is for me, and we're established and comfortable enough in our relationship where that's more than okay. We normally wouldn't spend money like this, but things just kind of fell into place financially (hello discount airline code), and it worked out perfectly. I'm flying to a different city, where I'll meet up with friends, have a great time, and then come home and go back to work, no big deal. I can't help but feel fancy! (If I drink tea while I'm there I might not know what to do with myself!)

How are you this Friday? What are your weekend plans? Do you associate something tangible with independence? And seriously - go read those posts I mentioned!

P.S. I've been seeing a few new readers pop up - so hiii! Welcome! I'd love to hear from you!