to sum up the trip, i spent most of my time doing the following things:

1. surviving an actual, legit snowstorm. (it had a name–Alexander–and it knocked out our power. that makes it legit.)

2. drinking mulled cider. (sarah, i want/need that recipe! i’ve been dreaming about it!!)

3. watching the snow fall in total awe. (i’m a florida girl. i’d only seen snow three times before and NEVER quite like that.)

4. cuddling baby adi. (dude. babies are cute. extra cute when you get to hand them back to their momma when the general screaming/pooping/drooling starts.)

5. wearing a ridiculous amount of clothes. (partly functional, as in i-must-wear-three-layers-at-all-times-or-i-will-freeze-to-death, and partly fun, as in yay-for-winter-clothes!)

6. chatting with sarah and jared just like old times. (about anything and everything and nothing in between. perfect.)

7. running through airports like a crazy person. (only to miss my flight. woop woop.)

8. pretending like i was rory gilmore. (you know, because i enrolled at visited yale and all. if you don’t get that reference–or judge me for that reference–we might not be friends.)

9. taking pictures. (duh.)

10. reading the thirteenth tale. (fantastic, btw)

11. getting excited all over again every time i peeked outside and saw ALL.THE.SNOW. (dude. SNOW!!) 

enjoy all the pictures…(of SNOW!)

we had grand plans to do a full photo shoot of adi in her nursery, as well as a fun family shoot outside, but the weather had different ideas.

instead, while we had a few minutes between packing up the car to drive to a house with power and emptying their frig contents into a cooler, i grabbed just a few shots of adi all bundled up as we tried to stay warm in the living room.

ideal setting? nope.

warm and cozy room to keep the baby sleepy-happy? pretty much the opposite.

cute headbands and planned outfits? no ma’am, those wouldn’t keep baby warm.

but none of that is important. none of that “makes” a photo happen.

 it’s just the little adi things.

her bright eyes. her tiny fingers. her big, sleepy yawns. her itty bitty lips.

it’s just the little things.

i was in connecticut over the weekend, and i’ve got lots of photos and fun “florida-girl-in-a-snowstorm” stories to share…

but those will have to wait, as i brought home a souvenir head cold that is making me feel pretty meh.

(and i haven’t even downloaded all my pictures yet.)

i know. blogger fail.

so i figured i’d give you a quick little teaser for now…

do you see all that snow???

yeah, get excited.

i survived a snowstorm, and i’ve got the pictures to prove it.

yeah, me neither. :)

dakotah winery is in chiefland, which is just down highway 19. not too far at all.

you get to drive pass fruit stands, empty pastures, and old houses…an idyllic old florida drive that is pure relaxation on a hot, lazy afternoon.

and then, once you get there, you get to taste wine! and wander the grounds. and look at all the kitschy, wonderful winery trinkets.

did i mention you get to taste wine?

oh, and if you are me, jimena, lisa, and kevin, you get to gorge yourself on cajun boiled peanuts on the way home.

pretty much a perfect day.

There is a guest list from a part on the right side photo…

See if you can spot the words on the right…”The house was briefly alive.” Umm…eerie!

1909!!

 I could spend HOURS meandering about downtown Micanopy, but we had left our amazingly delicious juice in the car and didn’t want it to go bad. Hopefully we’ll go back soon and I’ll get more photos!

Ha. Riiightttt… 

Let’s get real. 

Ok, so I wore a dress. But it wasn’t floral, just a little bit floaty. And it was black. And there were no brogues involved. My hair might have been in a bun, but that was just laziness, not a hipster fashion statement. Laziness because I was already late to meet my friends at 10am and I had to grab organic Barnie’s coffee on the way. And my bag was a free one I snagged from a trade show (probably made in China), because it had a mouse on it and it looks like I could have paid $25 for it at Urban Outfitters. I never actually got around to cooking the veggies I bought. They went bad in my frig while I ate Lean Cuisines on the run. 

That’s the real deal. I am most certainly less cool than the average non-hipster. Because even non-hipsters manage to actually EAT the things they buy at a farmer’s market. (Really, what good hipster EVER eats a Lean Cuisine for goodness sake? I should be flogged.) 

However. 

Farmer’s markets still rock my socks off. It’s such a pleasant, peaceful way to spend a Saturday morning. Just wandering the stalls, chatting with the farmers, and tasting yummy goodness. And you don’t have to be a good hipster to enjoy some yummy goodness. 

The goods: 

• Zucchini and squash: about $2 (can’t remember exactly)
• Soy Sandalwood Candle: $6
• Juice made from things like star fruit, dragon fruit, and other such fruity goodness: $7.50 (ouch. But so worth it.)
• Salted, cardamom-flavored caramel: $.50

What party is this, you ask?

Why, the pinning party of course!

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest…well, then you probably just don’t spend as much time trolling the internet as I do. (read: you are infinitely cooler than me) I’ve been hearing about it for some time, but it was just last week that I jumped on the band wagon and started to get my “pin” on.

In a nutshell, some genius came up with the idea of “pinning” images you find online that you want to save. Previously I was just going the old school right-click-save-image route, collecting tons of images in folders on my desktop. They were somewhat arranged according to what category they fell under (in my case–style inspiration, interior design, shoot styling, special projects, etc…), but it was a royal pain in my rear to rename each image to something that would remind me which site I found it on in the first place. Just not the easiest way to access inspiration when needed. Plus, I could only get to my inspiration files when I was on whatever computer I saved the image to…mega lame.

Then, along came Pinterest.

Now, I’ll be reading a blog, window-shopping online, or just looking for some inspiration, and if I see something I want to save/remember/share, I merely click the handy-dandy “Pin It!” button on my favorites toolbar. 

Voila! I can pick which “board” I want to save it to (mine range in title from “photography” to “cool stuff +things” to “fashion + style” and so on), and it does all the work of remembering the image’s original link for me.

And, even cooler, people can follow my boards to see what’s inspiring me, and I can follow other people to see what they’ve been digging on lately.

See…all my boards in one place! So! much! inspiration! Click here to follow my boards.

Good. Gracious. Does it get much better than that??

No, no it doesn’t. This is the epitome of excitement for an inspiration-web-troll like me.

Here’s a little snapshot of one of my Pinterest boards…it’s for a little project (hence the title “Special Project”) that I’ve got in the works, so hopefully sooner than later you’ll see this inspiration actually turn into reality. :)

Happy pinning, ya’ll! :)

I’m actually kind of considering taking a trip by myself. And by considering, I mean trying to convince myself that a) I am brave enough to travel by myself, b) I would still enjoy visiting a place even if I didn’t have someone to share the experience with, and c) that I am brave enough to travel by myself.

Have any of you ever taken a trip alone? In the States OR abroad? I am kind of torn by that decision as well. Considering I am a scaredy cat, I’m not sure I could do the abroad thing alone. When I think about my trip to Europe a few years ago, I know I would have been so lost and scared by myself…but I was only 20 at the time. 25 is WAY more mature and capable of handling stressful international situations, right? Right??

Eh, not so sure about that. So maybe I should just try somewhere in the States. (Mind you, this still all relies on me working up the courage to actually follow through on any of these ramblings. Unfortunately not likely.)

Bleh. Funky funk funk funk. Oh well…these days just happen sometimes, right?

Image via Kelli Murray

What are you doing this weekend? Want to go to St. Augustine for a night?

My response?

Yes, let’s do it!!

It’s not often I have an open weekend, much less a long one…so it’s rare that I get to be as spontaneous as I’d like. This type of random adventure makes my world go ‘round. Gets me high on life, excited, refreshed.

So what started with a simple text, a mere whim, turned into a group of new and old friends taking time for an excursion, a meet-up in the oldest city in America to celebrate our country’s birthday…and just have some good ole’ fashioned FUN. We only had Sunday afternoon through midday on Monday to experience the city, so we packed in as much as possible–including a wine tasting, swimming in the hotel pool, jumping on the bed, a walk through the historic district, gourmet popsicles at the Hyppo, dinner at A1A Ale House, drinks and shooting pool at Meehan’s Irish Pub, late (late!) night laughter and reminiscing in our hotel room, and a trip to the beach.

Less than 24 hours, ridiculous amounts of fun, and I came home refreshed, renewed, and in love with St. Augustine.

Let me introduce my lovely friends who were so kind to let me stick a camera in their faces the entire time…Hannah (one of my best friends since like, forever) and her boyfriend Dom (who is hella cool and gets FULL approval as Hannah’s boyfriend), Dom’s roommate Steve (who I didn’t meet til this weekend and now think he’s super cool), Tom (a friend Hannah and I basically grew up with AND went to college with), and Abby and her daughter Zoey (long story how I know Abby…Melbourne is a small world, so Hannah knew her through ballet and I knew her a little from a summer job at Atlanta Bread).

Whew…so that’s the peeps! Enjoy the photos, and Happy Birthday, America. :)