pretty messy

This photo is so lovely!

I like the Bohemian 60's French apartment my mind wanders into, the scent of fresh market flowers and the chime of jars filled with cheap champagne. The garden courtyard rings with laughter and the sound of a bicycle bell as the nerdy teacher in his tweed suit (with elbow patches and one shoe untied...) rolls in from his afternoon classes.

That's about it. I could add in details for the pretty print on the table cloth, and the fresh strawberries from the window box. There are the pretty cloth flats near the front door (with its brass handle and the A-line jacket hanging on its hook), the tea kettle with it's bright blue lacquer and the pretty white dishcloth hanging from the oven.

If I can't live in France and sip wine with my pretty French friend, at least I can twist my hair into this messy Chignon and add a little extra eyeliner. It's almost the same thing.

photo courtesy of This is Glamorous, courtesy of hiphipgingin

after the road

Two years, one month, and twenty days ago we left San Diego, California on a motorcycle and rode to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I've been reading through our old 'Two for the Road' blog posts, flashing on so many memories and reliving our adventures. What an experience!

For a couple of only 2 1/2 years at the time, I'm pretty impressed that we risked the 24 hours a day together for six months! It turned out to be amazing, and I wistfully dream of heading out on the road again.

Recently, we realized that we can remember each individual day of the trip, but last Tuesday is a blur.

We took 13,000 photos over 6 months and are working on a book of photos and stories that is slowly but surely starting to come together. So, since I'm feeling a little nostalgic, I thought I'd share our "Two for the Road" blog today, and some of the photos we posted along the way.

Album 1

Album 2

snow wishes

The temperature here is a brisk 26F. The sky is blue. There is no snow to speak of, but the promise of snow has had me waking up in the wee hours of the night and peeking out of windows to see if it has snowed yet. The answer is no. Well, not really. We got about half an inch, which makes the little Snow Wisher in me very sad and pouty. To make matters worse, there are people I work with who actually got snowed in. Granted they have a 45 minute commute in the morning and I have about a 7 1/2 minute commute. But still!

So to perk up a little, I poured myself a cup of hot tea and poked around on Google Images looking at scenes of "winter." Here are a few of the most wonderful winter wonderlands I came across.

I feel much better now, and have changed my desktop to the photo of pretty iron lawn chairs stacked with white, fluffy, wonderful snow.