It has been awhile

Hi lovelies.  I am sorry it has been forever.

I have kind of had a major life shift recently, and I guess you could say I am still getting acquainted with it.

Working in the real world can be exhausting.  Getting used to it can be even more exhausting.

It is a new year, and I am trying to be more productive in my artistic side of life.  I have some goals that I want to accomplish during the fabulous year of 2014!

[I know it may be a little late for this, but better late than NEVER]

1. run a half marathon
2. take more professional pictures
3. set a career goal
4. go on a bike tour
5. further my pursuit of being a yoga teacher

[1] I hope to run the Geist Half Marathon this year with my best friend, Claire!  She has been such a huge encouragement for me, and I hope I can be successful in this.

[2] Photography has always been a huge passion of mine.  I hope to take a photography class sometime this year, save up for a nice new camera, and start doing some photography on the side.

[3] Right now I am currently working at an awesome bank.  I hope to further my career there and save up financially to start pursuing my passions in life.

[4] Trent and I decided to make plans on our second bicycle tour.  We are going to cycle around the Wisconsin area and even bring little Meeka along.  This will be such a great accomplishment for us, and I think Meeka will truly enjoy it.

[5] I love yoga.  Practicing yoga has been apart of my life for quite sometime now.  I don't know if being a yoga teacher is for me, but I am hoping to look further into it and try it out.

"Be gentle with yourself,  You're doing the best you can."

bike extravaganza: the end

Kalamazoo - South Haven - St. Joe

The end of our bike tour.  What a bittersweet moment.  I knew that I wanted to get back home and see my family and friends, but I also did not want to leave this simple lifestyle.

Getting our bikes boxed up was the hardest adventure we had to go through during our tour.  We came to realize that America does not value public transportation.  The only place that would break down our bikes and place them in a box was on Mackinac Island.  Mackinac Wheels helped us pack up our bikes and were so very nice!

 Taking a bus through Michigan was quite an experience.  We met all sorts of people and It definitely was something out of my comfort zone.  Arriving to Kalamazoo was also a very interesting experience.  A cop almost arrested us for leaving our boxes unattended [which is a very long story].  Needless to say...the only thing I really enjoyed in Kalamazoo was Bell's Brewery!

 We dropped our bikes [that were still boxed up] off at a very expensive road bike shop to have them put our bikes back together.  They didn't really understand how our bikes were originally set-up and put our bikes back together the wrong way.  It made for a very uncomfortable ride.

But!  We did it anyways.  We rode 40+ very long miles on the Kal-Haven trail.  It was a hard pack trail and it was raining.  Rain + dirt = some very nasty bikes/legs/feet/everything.

After that very long trail we finally got back to South Haven.  South Haven is such a cute little town in Michigan.  We decided to just rest up and prepare for our last ride to St. Joe.  A whole 25 miles and we were done.  Even though we had a headwind on the way to St. Joe, we definitely rode pretty fast.  I just couldn't wait to see my good friend, Claire!

Claire [our good friend who we stayed with in South Bend, IN] agreed to drive up to St. Joe and join us for a beach day.  It was a great way to end our trip and I am so glad Claire was able to help us out!

This trip was a great way to spend a vacation away from the real world.  Living off of your bike is such a liberating experience.  I hope to do trips like these in the future.  

My partner, Trent, on this trip was such an encouragement to me.  Some days were more stressful than others and he was always there cheering me on.  

Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of somebody else.

building a bike

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trent is amazing.  He can build bikes.  He has learned so much, so fast.  I am envious of his ability to have a vision and complete it perfectly.

why do I give up things?

See this dessert...


Oh!  This one too...

Well, as of today (July 13, 2012) I am no longer able to eat these delicious desserts.  That is right!  I am giving them up.  Guess who talked me into doing this?  Trent!  How awful, right?  For some reason he thinks it will help us stay healthy.  We will see.  I have decided that I am only going to give this up for forty days.  Kind of like a late lent gig.  Whenever I have given something up for an extended period of time, my body has become uninterested in that food. 

I don't think that will happen to me with my delicious desserts, but it will be nice to eat less sweets.  I hope all goes well and I do not have a sugar withdrawal.  I decided that I was NOT going to give up my chocolate milk because, come on, there is only like one teaspoon of chocolate syrup in that cup of milk!  Oh, and not giving up my chai teas.  I would not be able to function.  That is my coffee!

So goodbye delicious chocolate that always was there for me when I was feeling down.  Goodbye cookie dough.  I will miss you the most. 

Wish us luck!

growing indoor plants can be a pain

Well, for the past two months I have been trying to grow an indoor herb garden.  It hasn't gone according to plan.  The plants are still alive, but they aren't looking so great.  I have been trying to keep them alive and to not overwater them, but it all comes down to...I don't know anything about growing plants!  I need someone, a professional or something, to teach me how to do this. 

Since I can't really get a professional to help me, I have just been reading blogs and books about growing plants indoors.  I have decided that I need to build an indoor greenhouse.  I guess that will be my new project?  We will see how this one goes!

 Oh, and I just made some delicious cupcakes.

Kindle Case

Yes, I have finally completed a Pinterest project that I have wanted to do ever since I got my Kindle!  It was super easy to make and only cost me $4.01...talk about a deal.  I am so happy that I won't have to carry my Kindle around in it's ugly cardboard box that it came in.   You can find the tutorial here.  I had to make some slight modifications since I have the original Kindle and the blogger was making it for a Kindle Fire.  If you have any questions, feel free to comment!  Even Snickers seems to enjoy it as much as I do.

I look forward to completing many more DIY projects this summer, so I hope you will keep following my progress.

Side Note:  I am currently reading Mockingjay, which is the last book in The Hunger Games series.  I hope to finish it by the end of this week.

Home Sweet Home

As you may know, I just recently moved into a one bedroom apartment in Columbus, IN.  It is a nice apartment located by a lot of shops.  I usually bike/walk everywhere I go which is awesome!  Below are pictures of my apartment!  One of my mom's friends gave me some of her furniture.  It helps to make my apartment feel more like home.

Enjoy!

Entrance to my bedroom.

Two closets!  The one of the left is Snicker's closet.

Just some decor!

Kitchen area.  Even though the kitchen is small, there is still plenty of room for me!

Where I watch all my movies and listen to my records!

Hope you like the look!

The Little Things

This weekend I was finally able to try out a cafe that I have been looking forward to going to, Soho Cafe.  It was such a quaint cafe with local art surrounding the walls.  Their Chai Latte was fabulous and definitely on the sweet end.  Soho was such a great experience because they give you your latte in a unique mug and top it off with an interesting design using their cinnamon/nutmeg.  I loved visiting that place and look forward to the next time I will be there.

Also, this weekend I went home to visit my brother and sister and kind of be their "mom" for the day.  It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed spending time with them.  My mom went to Chicago for the night and my dad was called in for a trip.  I always love seeing my family and I am sure they like seeing me too!

This weeks new project is going to be changing up my keyboard on my mac.  I bought these cute hand rolled tapes from etsy and I plan to cover my keyboard with them.  I found the idea on pinterest and am looking forward to finally getting the project done!  With the leftover tape I will have, I am going to use it for my card making!  I think it will add a nice touch to the cards I make.