Big changes. Big Apple.

Well, I've got some news. Pretty big news, in fact.

"Out with it," you say! Fine. At the end of December, I'm moving to New York City.

I know. It's crazy.

I guess for a little while I've been feeling like my life is a bit like the movie Groundhog Day. Just me living the same day over and over. Don't get me wrong, for the most part it is a good day (and sometimes it's an awesome day). But I have this feeling that it's time to take another big leap into an adventure.

So my last trip to NYC I came back with a big souvenir: a job offer. I'm really excited about it. It is going to let me do what I do in a great office with great people in a super great city.

There are many, many reasons that this move is bittersweet. I can't even talk about how much I'm going to miss my family. Too many feels. (I'm not gonna cry...I'm not gonna cry...too late.) And how much am I going to miss my friends? Like ridonculous amounts. And my flat too. My darling, darling flat. But sometimes, you need to go when it gets too comfortable to stay.

I have to admit, I'm usually not an inspirational quote kinda gal, but this really resonated with me at this moment.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sale away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain (or maybe H. Jackson Brown)

So I am going to have to ask for your patience with this blog for the next month or so, I have some bowlines to throw off.

Source: etsy.com via Kara on Pinterest

Five reasons why I have not blogged

Hello to all y'all in Blogland. Sorry for the lack of posts as well as the lack of comments on your own blogs. I've been a bad blogger and there's no real good excuse for it. But I'm back now and expect to be posting with more frequency.

To get everyone up to speed here are 5 things I have been up to instead of blogging:

1. Being the favorite aunt.

Aunt and niece got the same fashion memo: navy and prints.

At Auntie Kara's house, umbrellas are inside toys. 

Baby push-ups. Lydia definitely shows me up.

2. Getting my Fall Foliage on. (Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, yo!)

Killington, VT

Maine Lighthouses.

3. Painting my nails.

Homespun dots. Smudges and all. 

4. Showing up to parties wearing the same sweater as my lil' sis.

Sister twins!

5. Enjoying my new view at the office.

Notice the lack of crafting and biking in this post. More to come on that later.

The T-shirt bag

Paper or Plastic? How about a t-shirt?

I don't know about you, but I've got a lot of t-shirts. Piles of them. But what to do when you just don't wear them anymore or have outgrown them? Many hold sentimental value so I can't bring myself to get rid of them. But then I came across this tutorial on transforming a t-shirt into a grocery bag. Perfect! 

First, I picked a tee.

Then I cut off the sleeves and the collar.

And sewed up the bottom.

Voila! A kickin' new grocery bag and "green" to boot! They were so easy, I made a gaggle of them. Yes, a gaggle of baggles.  

Now comes the easy part, shopping to fill them up. 

Got my jewelry pegged

So over the years, I've amassed a lot of jewelry. Like, I-could-give-the-Queen-of-England-a-run-for-her-money a lot. But when one has so many baubles and trinkets there's seems to be a problem of where to put them all, so they ended up being stuffed in several different jewelry boxes and even a dresser drawer. And as the saying goes, "out of sight, out of mind", which means I did not get around to wearing a lot of them. 


So it was time to organized. With the help of my awesome brother-in-law, Adam, we installed a peg board in my bedroom to hang and display a lot of my jewels. 

So why a peg board? I just really love the idea of having something typically masculine displaying something pretty feminine. Instead of bolts, I have bangles. Instead of hammers, necklaces. Instead of screwdrivers, beads. On top of that, it's super functional and holds a lot.

One of my favorite features are these little baskets that hold my big bangle bracelets. How cute is that?

So there you have it, my weekend project. I am super pleased about it. The only hard part now is choosing what to wear first.

Biking Golden Gate Style

I feel like since biking has officially become an obsession in my life (oh, haven't younoticed?), I've been developing a "Bike Bucket List: or Things I want to do on a bike before I kick the bucket." I have started collecting bike experiences to do in my lifetime like a bike tour of the British Isles, completing a century ride, biking famous landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, and many others.

A couple weekends ago, on a girls' trip to San Francisco, my friends and I were able to check one of those off the list: Biking the Golden Gate Bridge.

There are a lot of bike companies that want tourists to have the "Bike the Bridge" experience. So we just went with the first one we came across.

With our bikes rented, we set off for the bridge. I'll tell you what, I can definitely appreciate my bicycles after riding on the rickety-dickety bike rental. Throughout the whole ride I kept thinking, I wish I was on Betty, she would rock this. Oh well, when on vacation, you make do with what you have.

To get to the bridge, you can take a bike path along the shore. The ocean and the sky were both clear and blue. We could't have picked a better day to be on bikes with your girlfriends.

Scenic is just an understatement.

And what is biking in San Francisco without fighting your way up some killer hills. But we survived and eventually got to the bridge. The one interesting thing is that on the bridge, bikes and pedestrians cross on the same piece of pavement.  Even with clear markings that state bikes on the left, pedestrians on the right, you spend a lot of your time dodging wandering and unaware pedestrians instead of just relaxing and enjoying your surroundings.

Regardless, I still managed a little awe and wonder while on the bridge. 

After crossing, we coasted downhill into Sausalito, a charming seaside town in which we rewarded ourselves with ice cream. 

But as things tend to do, it was time for our bike ride to come to an end. So it was back to San Francisco on the ferry. But even as we were heading back, I already knew it would be a day to remember for a long time.

Oh, and amusing side note: Maybe during our ride we came upon a group of about 100 cyclists. And maybe, just maybe, they were all BUCK NAKED. While their invitation to join them was very warm and thoughtful, I don't think biking naked in public will ever quite make my Bike Bucket List.