A look back at the blogging beginning

When I first heard the term "blog," I thought it must be some trendy, nerdy thing. I swore that I would never do it. But, a few years later, blogging has expanded so much and become so focused that many even consider bloggers as citizen journalists {depending on their focus}. It's especially interesting to watch the evolution of technology today. It is almost impossible to immediately detect the impact and influence, especially that of social media. 


I recently read an interesting article in New Yorker article 'You've Got Blog' from 2000 near the beginning of the blogging phenomenon. 

{image via}

Future projects

I admit it, I'm somewhat of a Christmas fool. I love the music, the cards, the decorations, the present-wrapping, the food- all of it. I usually get pretty excited sometime around September {or earlier} for Christmas and start shopping. But this year I'm going to try something a bit different: for every person that I give a gift to, I'm going to try to also make him or her something. I consider myself a somewhat creative person, but as I can't sew, knit or crochet, this is going to be a bit of a challenge. Thanks to several blogs and Pinterest, I do have plenty of ideas. I really like the idea of personalized gifts. Sometimes buying off of a list or registry is just too boring and impersonal. I was at a baby shower last weekend where the host and baby received quite a few homemade itens: knit hats, sewn crib sheets and homemade toys. I loved it. {Actually, I was a bit jealous too. I hope when I have a baby, I have friends that will make cute personalized gifts like that too.} 


Here are a few of the crafts that I think I will actually try to make for friends and family members. 

Now I have to figure out how to make them each even more personalized. If this all works out well, maybe I'll even decide to make my own Christmas cards! {But I highly doubt I'll have that kind of time for this Christmas. I'd have to start earlier. 

{via 1, 2, 3, 4}

this weekend i took time for myself... no work, no studying, no cleaning, just enjoying the days. i ended up grabbing a latte and lunch with a grad school friend, starting and finishing a new book, watching a few episodes of missed tv, shopping on michigan ave and just generally enjoying myself.


i wish i could do this more often, but, unfortunately, avoiding the stressful reality is not always an option. especially considering how tough monday was when i had to make up for all of my lost time. anyway, i'm glad that i spent time on me. 

Water for Elephants

Typically, my kind of a book is one that involves factual, upsetting accounts of history. They're serious, dense and hard to read. Not you're average page-turners. So when I read and completely fell in love with Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants, I was pleasantly surprised. I think more than the painful love story, what got me was the incredible details of circus life in prohibition-era America. {I guess I don't stray too far from the typical reads.} I stayed away from this movie for quite a while because, honestly, I didn't want it to ruin my impression or opinion of the book {as if they are actually one in the same}. This week I broke down and watched it. Well, started to watch the movie, I didn't actually make it half way through. The visuals were incredible, but in a way, that is what ruined it for me. The thing I loved most about the book was her descriptive writing that stimulated my imagination. I realized that I didn't like the love story nearly as much as her writing. 


Also, Robert Pattinson {while better than Edward Cullen} is no Jacob. And Reese Witherspoon as Marlena? Not so much. I severely disagree with the casting choices. I do think I should give it another try though- one day- when I get over the shock. Or maybe I should just stay away from all book to movies. I don't think I'm ever completely satisfied, except for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

Also, I know I'm basically alone in this opinion. 

60 years and still going strong

My grandparents met as seniors in high school. On their first date he accompanied her home from school. Less than a year later, they were married. That was on October 27, 1951. 


Today, my grandparents, Edward and Marion, celebrate 60 years of wedded bliss, as my grandpa called it. I have heard the old say "You don't marry someone you can live with. You marry the person you cannot live without," many times. My grandparents say this is absolutely true. After 60 years together, they would know...


My family all gathered together to celebrate this extraordinary milestone a week ago with family and friends. It was a very large group since during their years together Eddie and Marion has nine children, 26 grandchildren and collected many, many friends. It was so nice to all get together, especially for such a happy occasion. 

Minimalist story posters

When it comes to home decor and design, I tend to be drawn more to the minimalist approach. I like things to be simple, uncluttered. All media now-a-days tends to be a bit overwhelming and over stimulating. I appreciate movie posters and advertisements from the 1950s and 1960s more because they are simple. 


I found these children's story posters on the Square Inch Design Blog and love the simplicity of them. Check out the rest too. 

little letters

dear brewers, 
you had a great run this year. sorry you didn't make it all the way to the world series. but don't fret, we partied like it was 1982. 


dear hailey,
i'm so glad that you and your mom were able to visit from california. your giggle, forehead crawl and scrunched nose are the cutest thing ever. visit again soon. 


dear pumpkin, 
how is it that you make every single thing taste a million times better? your cheesecake is irresistible. and i am madly in love. 


dear grandma and grandpa, 
congratulations on 60 years together. you make fairy tales and true love seem possible. 

{image via}

my weekend

photos from this weekend... activities included celebrating a little boy's third birthday, hanging out with my baby cousin from california, doing massive amounts of research for a project and eating lots and lots of candy. what a fun, childish weekend.  everyone needs those. 

Pumpkins, apple cider and goats

I was lucky enough to take my friend's beautiful one year old daughter to the pumpkin farm for her first time ever. We had a lot of fun looking at all of the different and weird pumpkins. But we had to find a "baby" one for her to carry around for the rest of the day. The entire time we were looking around at the pumpkins, Karina kept asking for the horses. The petting zoo area had pigs, sheep, goats of all sizes and two llamas that Karina was convinced were horses. She was soooooo cute with all of the animals. She would walk up to each one individually, say hello, introduce herself and then show them her Minnie Mouse shirt. I couldn't stop smiling. I tried to get it on video but my phone wouldn't work fast enough. I forgot how great the pumpkin farm is, but Karina reminded me. 

Milwaukee River shenanigans

I had the most ridiculous, crazy night last night. I met a few friends to enjoy a beer and a relaxing sunset boating down the Milwaukee River. It was beautiful-- the sun setting over the downtown Milwaukee skyline. As we turned to float down the river, we were stopped by cops in a boat for being too cautious. Seriously! We had too many lights on that they were "drowning out our other lights." Really?! So after idling for about  15 minutes while talking to the cops {who gave us a warning for the incident}, we put the boat in gear to continue our journey... and it died! We ended up floating "dead in the water" according to the cops until they literally shoved us into a restaurant/bar's dock. The entire incident was extremely comical, honestly, the scene from a movie. We ended up going inside for dinner and left the boat for our friend's dad to figure out. {Oops.} 

I don't think the night could have been any better if we actually made it down the river. It was a blast!