happiness list

Cheers to the long weekend readers -  I love that in the US summer feels like it has a definite kick off with a long weekend and an ending with another long weekend.  Hoping those of you state side enjoy your extra day away from work, and those of you aboard maybe enjoy some quiet on Monday.

I’ve really liked putting together the list of recent things that have made me happy so maybe this will become a semi regular musing of mine. If you are regularly here, you’ve probably notice I’ve decided to drop my posts to three times a week, which is a bit more manageable for me these days.

Meeting up a with a dear friend a few weekends ago for a beautiful brunch and afternoon at a New England winery. She and I have been on the winery trail ever since we ended up in Napa during Hurricane Sandy, it was a great use of an extended vacation. If you ever make your way to Bolton, Massachusetts, definitely head to Nashoba Valley Winery – so beautiful, and some delightfully tasty wine.

Rediscovering the soundtrack from Dawson’s Creek. I am pretty sure I spent half of my freshman year in college listening to this CD.

This feel good story about a voice teacher surprising Kristen Chenoweth with an amazing duet. Even if you slightly enjoy musicals this is incredible- imagine just being asked to sing and pretty much nailing it in front of a huge crowd. I also really find Kristen’s random exclamations really heartwarming.

Finally reading “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg. I really hesitated reading this book for a long time, I downloaded it ages ago to the Kindle and then just sat on it for months, until prompted by another friend to read it. It was fairly short, but made some truly valid points. Though you might be thinking how feminist of you, it really leads to good advice for everyone.  The book itself feels like a casual conversation you might have with a colleague over a working lunch.

Happy Weekend Readers – Enjoy!

jonesing hard for fall

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons, summer gets a lot of glory, but fall is the best. Fresh apples, pumpkin flavored everything, the start of sweater season are all things that make me super psyched up for fall. I’ve done a tiny bit of fall shopping in the past few days – found a couple of dresses I really liked from Loft and Garnett Hill. I’ve been really not into the shopping as much as I normally would be at the change of a season, but I think that’s because I am desperate to clean out my closets during the upcoming weekend. I’ve already found a home for a dress that I never wear, but knew someone who liked the dress (yay for finding something a new home). I looking forward to organizing and really parting ways with a few things, since I fall into the same category as most, I wear my favorites and then nothing else. Hopefully, I am successful at the closet clean out 2013.

ode to the weekend

Oh weekend, you are never quite long enough for me. I really think most of us would say weekends should be a little longer- like start at noon on Fridays, or end at noon on Monday. I’ll never get enough weekend in. This one was pretty packed which was nice for a first weekend back on my home turf after four weekends out of town. I like escaping to other places, but I really don’t like being gone from my home that long, or away from my real life all the time. Alas, though I think I am local bound for the next few months which makes me smile.

I started my weekend with a lunchtime treat on Friday, going to the Drybar for a blowout. I had purchased a Gilt certificate for this, that I never had a special occasion to use it on – so with a week to go before expiration, I was like well summer and Fridays are a good enough reason to have a great hair day.  If you’ve never experienced the Drybar, it is one of my favorite little treats- you get your hair washed, and blown into perfection while sipping a drink (the mimosa was skipped this time due to it being in the middle of the work day) and watching some awesomely girlie movie. I followed this up by having my photo taken for the company email system- hey if the whole company has to see my smiling face they might as well get to enjoy my good hair day all the time.

Friday night kicked off with a quick office happy hour, followed by dinner and drinks with a few friends. Saturday was a bit of cleaning, and taking a long walk – which feels so good after so many weeks of being idle. I am not quite up for running yet so getting in some mileage the old fashioned way. Saturday evening was more of the same of Friday, but included a thirtieth birthday outing for one of my friends (the third birthday, of last week’s birthday trifecta). Definitely was great to see a lot of my friends after being gone for so many weeks.  Sunday, I wrapped up the weekend with a gym class, another long walk, a trip to the cinema to see “The World’s End” (super funny), and dinner. 

Now that it’s Monday, I could use another couple hours away, and a masseuse for my quads – my legs are tired!

Hope you had a great weekend.

One Day in London

 I went to London. I know, if you are one of my regulars you are like ok, you’ve mentioned this a few times, so now what? Well I thought how do you write about a business trip and make it exciting, the answer is don’t write about the business trip part of the trip. I was lucky enough to be able to get in a day before work started (highly recommended if you can pull it off, me and jetlag sometimes means I am an insomniac), and was able to stay for one full day of tourist activities.  What do you do when you get about 16 hours of touring time in London? Well here’s what I did when I was free from work on the weekends.

Buckingham Palace – I walked around this area which happened to be closed to automobiles – which I am not sure if that’s a common occurrence or a Sunday afternoon practice. It was beautifully sunny and mild out, and even though I wanted to sleep super early, I was able to power through until it was a reasonable hour to go to bed.

The Tower of London – History is truly alive here. As an American, whenever I stand near a building over 300 years old I am impressed (I mean America isn’t the new world for no reason). I was in structures over 1100 years old, which is just amazing. I did see the crown jewels (Hello, Prince Harry – if you need a princess who’s up for being the fun aunt let’s chat), which are incredibly detailed and fancy. Definitely worth the walk over the London Bridge to take in this relic site.

River Tour – I did the river boat tour as part of my London Eye adventure. Definitely neat to see different things from the river view. Bonus was that the Tower Bridge actually was used as a draw bridge during this journey. I honestly feel about five when I see things like that, I am like oh that’s sooooo cool.

London Eye – I am shocked I actually got on this, as heights are something I do not love and Ferris wheels are not my cup of tea either.  Once I got over my height fear, and then the reoccurrence of that fear once we hit the top (I am pretty sure the Italian family with the scared little girl loved watching me panic), I thoroughly enjoyed the views from the top.

I am sure I missed some of the “must dos”, so if I ever get back across the pond do you have any recommendations for me?

2 years, 10,000+ views ever…

I follow a lot of blogs, any many people are casual bloggers like me - I really do this because I think I have something to say, no matter how trivial, and some are professional. I am a bit jealous of the professionals as their blogs look amazing, and 100% times better then mine. I probably should treat my blog to a two year anniversary update by someone who specializes in design. I still love my little project for me, I get excited when more then 20 views happen in a day, even if I've been doing a little checking on my cell phone to see how things are looking. Anyway, last week (while on vacation) my blog celebrated being two years old and finally broke into 10,000+ total page views! I cannot believe I've stuck with this that long. Thank you for anyone who has been reading this and maybe enjoying it a bit. I appreciate all my readers.

Sisterland

I am a big fan of Curtis Sittenfield. I’ve read Prep and American Wife, both which I loved. It was no surprise to me when I picked up her latest novel, Sisterland, that I would be hooked on the one as well.  I spent a week in London for work, which anyone know the time changes alone are hard, even when you try to go to bed your internal clock never quiet feels right, add it a novel that makes you keep turning pages, means for a few less than perfect nights of sleep.  A story of identical twins (ok those of you who know me in real life, know grown up identical twins scare me a bit, if you are curious, I can explain why), who have psychic abilities – who are predicting a massive earthquake in St. Louis. A story of family with interesting twists, I couldn’t put this down. I am hoping for a new novel soon Curtis!