Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Makeup Work

Sooooooo, after another long absence, I have returned to sporadically post a few life updates before vanishing into the ether once more!  Things like, we finally finished our kitchen renovation, and gave ourselves no time to enjoy a break before moving on to working on the nursery and the girls' "big kid" room.  We have one month left to go before this new baby plonks herself into the middle of our lives, and I would REALLY like to get the basement playroom ready to go so the girls have a fun place to escape and play.

But before I post about all of that, I owe a super fun mascara post for my sweet and exceptionally patient friend, Kendra, who is a Beautycounter consultant and was kind enough to send me a free tube of their new (well, it was new at the time, but I've procrastinated and run into technical difficulties for long enough now that I think it's more new"ish") lengthening mascara for review.

If you haven't heard of Beautycounter, here's a little info straight from their site: 

OUR MISSION

To get safer products into the hands of everyone... 

The United States has not passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of ingredients used in personal care products since 1938.

The European Union has spent the past two decades banning or restricting more than 1,300 ingredients, the US has only banned 11 to date.

WE DESERVE BETTER, AND WE'RE DOING
SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

At Beautycounter, we've banned more than 1,500 ingredients setting a new health and safety standard—all while ensuring our products perform, and that they're as indulgent as any luxe shampoo, lipstick or oil in the market.

So, now that we know a little bit about the company, how about some info about mascara?  Many mascaras currently on the market use propylparaben, butylparaben, and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) as a preservative, all of which can disrupt hormones and are on Beautycounter's "Never List".  I'm a serial mascara cheater--it's my favorite product, and I can never stay faithful to one brand.  So, I looked up the Environmental Working Group's safety scale grade for one of my favorites.  Tarte's Lights Camera Lashes is rated as a 4 (a 0 is the best result--all of Beautycounter's products fall between 0-2).  Not a completely terrible score, but still rated as a Moderate Hazard--right by my eyes.  Lovely!

Beautycounter's Lengthening Mascara sells for $29, so very comparable in price to the mascaras I regularly buy.  The description from the website states that the mascara "delivers dramatic length and definition, plus the confidence of safer beauty provided by our unparalleled Ingredient Selection Process. Conditions lashes while you wear it, with organic oils and shea butter. The easy-control precision brush ensures clean application without smudging, clumping, or flaking."

And without further ado, how were my results?  Well, let's let the photos do the talking (and please forgive the terrible quality--I am hardly a beauty blogger and have no natural light in my bathroom, soooooo, we just have to work with what we have!).

My eyeballs sans mascara:

 

My eyeballs avec Beautycounter Lengthening Mascara:

 

Overall thoughts--do I love this as much as my current mascara, no, not quite.  I like a very dramatic, black lash and Beautycounter's did a lot for lenghthening, but I would have liked to see more volume.  It also went on a bit thin, so I felt like I had to do more applications than normal to achieve this look.  Those slight negatives aside, it does a lovely job darkening, and it stays on incredibly well (you will definitely need to use an oil based remover to take off the mascara), so it would be awesome for the pool or beach, or if you just tend to lose your mascara throughout the day.  And as we've already learned, it's one of the safest products available on the market which is certainly an important consideration for many people.

So, if you're in the market for a more natural approach to your lashes, I can highly recommend Beautycounter's mascara, and of course I ALWAYS recommend supporting my friends, so buy it from Kendra!  You can find her site at www.beautycounter.com/kendraspaulding and she is also on Instagram at Klam143 or you can email her with questions at [email protected].  She is also offering free shipping on orders of more than $150--if you're looking for more items to add to your cart, I've heard awesome things about the charcoal bar!  There are lines for babies, kids as well as everyday skin  and cleansing products and an anti-aging line, and a teens line, mens line and deodorant coming soon--so you can feel good about slathering your whole family in safe, high quality products!  There is also a 60 day 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Thanks again, Kendra for the opportunity to try out one of your products! 

(Disclosure: I received the item for free and for review, but all opinions are my own.)

She's All That

I feel like this house is our own personal makeover project and we can totally get it elected Prom Queen if we just work hard enough.  It's got such great bones, an awesome layout, a charming personality and if we can just get it to take off its glasses and blowout its hair, we'll have a super "wow" moment on the stairs when all is said and done.  The unfortunate thing is that making over a house is about a frillion times more expensive (but probably less judgmental and condescending) than making over a human, so we're having to do it bits at a time.  

We've spent this last month ripping out carpets, painting rooms and scrubbing bathrooms in an attempt to save money where we can.  We hired out things like tearing down the wallpaper and the downstairs painting because we decided it was a priority to get that done as soon as possible for livability purposes, and a generous loan from our parents made it possible to not have to do everything ourselves.  We have engineered wood flooring scattered all around the house just waiting for Colby's dad to arrive to help get that installed this weekend.  And last week we made our last big purchase for this round of renovations, ordering new kitchen cabinets, quartz countertops and a refrigerator.

From here on out, we'll have to start taking a bit more time with the projects we have in mind.  The master bathroom has a leak that may have damaged the structure of the floor, so that will probably require more immediate attention.  The guest bathroom needs updating still and we have big dreams for turning the unfinished basement into a 5th bedroom with 3rd full bath, playroom, storage area, and less creepy laundry room.  But that will probably have to wait until the next tax refund comes through--bought a new house?  Had a new baby? Lost money on a rental property?  Check, check, check!  Give us our money back, thanks!

But we do have a fair amount of progress to show for our work over the last month.  So, without further ado, let's go to the photos!

Foyer Before:

Foyer Progress:

Stripped the wallpaper and painted in Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter with white trim (we stayed with this consistent color throughout the downstairs since it is all so open), pulled up the linoleum, and replaced the old wood and brass light fixture (not pictured in the before) with a brushed nickel fixture.  Just needs the floor and the baseboard and we'll call it done!

Powder Room Before:

Powder Room Progress:

Ha!  Not much to see here yet!  It's been gutted, and is currently awaiting installation of the wood floors, then the contractors will come back to do another coat of paint, install the new ceramic tile, vanity and toilet.

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen Progress:

We had the contractors remove the desk, patch the wall and paint.  We'll be moving the fridge to the center of this wall and surrounding it with floor to ceiling pantry cabinets.  Colby pulled up all the carpet, linoleum, and thousands upon thousands of nails from the subfloor.  You can also catch a glimpse of the fireplace in the background which is in the midst of a little makeover as well.  It got a coat of white paint on the dark wood surround, we're going to put a glass tile over the brick, a grey ceramic tile on the hearth and pull out the brass insert.  It's not currently functional, so at least for the summer, we'll just stick some candles in there for pretty factor.

Living Room/Dining Room Before:

Living Room/Dining Room Progress:

The contractors also stripped the wallpaper in here and painted the Revere Pewter on top and white on the bottom, as well as extending the chair rail into the second room through the doorway.  Still needs floor and baseboards, and we plan to add a faux wainscoting effect on the white part of the wall, switch out the light fixture and possible add crown molding.  We are taking down the small wall that separates this room from the kitchen and extending cabinets in here.  We will likely use it as a sort of transitional room between kitchen and dining room, with a bar and possibly an island, then use the longer room at the front of the house as the dining room.  This is the part of our plan we're least sure about and are waiting to get all of our furniture in the house to make a final decision.

Master Bedroom Before: 

Master Bedroom Progress:

It was with huge regret that I realized I never took a good before photo of the master bedroom, showcasing the white laminate vanity taking up a huge amount of space in the alcove where my suitcase currently resides.  However, the above photo (which is actually the future nursery) does at least show off the same dingy, yellow, beige color we covered up.  We had our contractor remove the vanity and patch up the wall, then did the painting ourselves (Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue).  I've done a fair amount of painting in my life, but never had to paint ceiling, trim AND walls, and if I ever have to paint another window, it will be too soon (spoiler alert: I will have to).  But whatever color the previous owners had chosen to paint a room, they stuck with it for walls, trim and ceiling.  So unless you want pink trim or a yellow ceiling, you just have to suck it up and repaint the whole thing.  And I am thrilled with how it turned out.  All it needs now is furniture and it's ready for showtime!  We would like to have an overhead fixture installed (none of the bedrooms have them), but we'll get to that down the road.

Master Closet Before:

Master Closet After:

All that happened here was a coat of white paint, but man, what a difference.  It looks so much cleaner, and my clothes are very happy to have such a bright, cheery backdrop.  I would eventually love to add some built-ins around the bottom so that it's not wasted space.

Guest Bathroom Before:

Guest Bathroom Progress:

I'm calling this one "For Now" done.  Ideally, I would like to get the bathtub reglazed, change out the toilet (that part will probably happen pretty soon since it's a water hog) and vanity, and retile the floor with the same tile we're using in the downstairs powder room.  I'd also like to do a DIY frame on the mirror to make it look more custom and less builder's grade.  But in the meantime, it's amazing what a fresh coat of paint (Benjamin Moore Antiguan Sky), a camouflaging shower curtain (that desperately needs to be ironed) and bath mat can do.  I also discovered these miraculous pumice sticks at Home Depot that shined up the bathtub so it looks almost new.  Still yellow, but at least not yellow buried beneath 40 years of grime.

So, that's where we are for now!  Last night Colby started pulling down cabinets and demo'ing the wall between the kitchen and dining room to prep for floor and cabinet installation.  Next week we will likely have a floor and maybe some baseboards, and all of our belongings finally arrived from Germany, so we'll be able to start unpacking and really moving in and making this a home.  It hasn't all moved along as quickly as I'd have liked in an idea world (like, one day would be better?), but it is really rewarding looking at how far we've come.  Fingers crossed my next update will have us that much closer to DONE!

Baby Bumping Round Two

So, suffice it to say, getting pregnant was a bit of a shocker.  If you've followed along here for any length of time, you probably already know that we got pregnant with the girls through a pretty intensive IVF protocol which included a special process in which the sperm was injected directly into the eggs, because we couldn't even trust our own genetic material to know what to do when placed in a 3 inch across petrie dish.  Special.  I have fertility problems.  Colby has fertility problems.  We definitely would have been the first ones voted off of caveman survival of the fittest island.

Still, we decided in the late summer to go ahead and stop preventing a pregnancy, but it was more of a lark than anything.  Neither one of us really thought that anything would come of it.  We thought we would try for a few months, then when we moved back to the States, either decide two was enough or talk about pursuing further fertility treatments.  Then, just about three months later, after a week of feeling totally run down, I decided to just go ahead and test.  Just to prove to myself that all those weird pains and twinges I'd been feeling were nothing.  And it was positive.  One dark line and one very, very faint, but definitely present, line.

The only complicating factor was that it was 11 PM on a Thursday night.  And we were leaving before the sun was up on Monday morning for the States, where I would be staying with family for the next five weeks.  The clinic on base was helpful for once, and let me do a walk-in blood test just to confirm the pregnancy then get me into the system so that we could temporarily switch our insurance over to the Stateside branch and I could see doctors in Louisiana.

I went in for my first appointment at what I thought was probably around 6 weeks, and while they couldn't see much yet, there was definitely a sac and they scheduled me to come back two weeks later to make sure their dating estimate was correct.  We'd been so busy, and I'd been paying so little attention to my cycles that I truly had no idea when we could have conceived.  It couldn't be a more opposite experience than our first pregnancy.

Two weeks later, we spotted this little bean, and I started feeling like I could actually celebrate.  We'd been awkwardly keeping things a secret from family up to the point that things were starting to resemble a British farce, with us sneaking around having secret phone calls while random family members popped out of the walls to ask us questions.  My sister actually thought that we were setting up a surprise puppy adoption for my mom's Christmas present, bahaha!

Everything had been so planned and clinical with our pregnancy for Charlotte and Annabelle, we never really had the exciting surprise announcement for our family.  This time we printed out a photo of the girls, and put it in a double-sided picture frame with a little note on the other side breaking the news, "Hey Annabelle, have you heard the news?  You're going to be a big sister too!"  It was really fun watching the jaws drop and seeing the shocked reactions from our families.  Not that there hadn't been a great deal of suspicion each evening I'd said no thank you to the offer of a glass of wine.

This pregnancy has been different in a few ways.  Morning sickness was a little worse, though fortunately still not terrible.  I've been much more tired throughout, probably more a function of having two 3-year-olds than gestating.  And my back has started hurting much earlier than last time.  It's crazy to me that I'm actually in more pain with one baby than I was with two.  I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that I'm four years older and also have the aforementioned toddlers who want me to cart them around 48% of the time.  Also, it was free.  That's a very good difference.

It's also been different in that we know exactly what we are getting into this time, and are having a little more anxiety about the introduction of a baby into our lives.  I wouldn't change anything, but I'd be lying if I said I never stressed about how we're all going to handle this huge upheaval in our lives.  I think back on that first year of motherhood and how unlike myself I felt.  It took me so long to feel like I had a handle on things, and like I could successfully leave the house without disaster befalling all of us.  I wonder how this third little one will throw off our center of gravity.  I wonder how the girls will handle it and how they'll all get along as they grow older.  

I worry about dealing with post partum depression again and how I'll handle the exhaustion if I can't just nap throughout the day because I have other kids now who need me.  I worry SO much that we'll have to deal with colic again and I'll have another 4-5 months of incessant screaming ahead of me.  And probably the most vain worry of all, what if all my hair falls out again???  Oh lord, that was so awful.

But perhaps most different is how little I actually find myself thinking about this pregnancy at all.  I guess things have been pretty busy, but in fairness we were moving to a brand new country, traveling the world, and keeping pretty busy the first time too, and I surely was obsessing over registries and diapering options and the perfect nursery theme (okay, maybe I've been obsessing over the nursery a little).  It's just this thing that I realize all of a sudden from time to time.  Oh yeah!  I'm pregnant!  There's an actual baby in there!  Which sends me into my panic spiral.

So... overall, things are good!  I'm hoping to get into a new doctor here soon, and find out whether this wee little fetus of ours is of the male or female persuasion.  I am hitting the halfway point, 20 weeks, tomorrow, and am a little bit in shock at how quickly this is flying by.  I'm so scared to meet this little human, and also so, so ready.  I've said before that I'm not really an infant person, my favorite age with the girls was 6-18 months (Two was also pretty great, three can die in a fire--can't we all just skip three??  Send them away to a Swiss boarding school that year or something.), but I've also really missed tiny baby cuddles.  Watching all of those incredible firsts.  Knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you somehow managed to score the cutest baby on the planet.  I think it will be okay.  I know we'll get through it.

I'd feel a lot better about things though if I had a floor.  And a couch.  And a bed.  But that's another story...

Boy, Girl and Old Lady Meet

Our house hunting experience in NoVa was harrowing to say the least. The amount the Air Force allots us per month for housing (if you don't live on base, you receive a Basic Allowance for Housing to cover the cost of a home off base) in this area is more than we ever thought we'd be spending on a house, and yet, in this area, for Colby's rank, it gets us just barely above crack den living.  

We left the girls with my parents, and went to stay with my aunt and uncle in the area for a few days of hard core hunting and were beyond discouraged after the first couple of days.  It very quickly became clear that we were going to have to make a decision between updated finishes and appliances and square footage with a, um, charming (??) vintage 70s or 80s design scheme.  With two toddlers, two large dogs, a baby on the way and frequent visitors, we started trying to look beyond the immediate horror of many of the houses we were looking at to find the potential buried under layers of carpet, linoleum and wallpaper.

On our 3rd day, we decided to make an offer on a split level house in a great neighborhood.  It had most of what we were looking for--enough space, though still on the smaller side, had been updated here and there by the young family selling it, and a decently sized backyard.  We felt the price was a little high for the work that was still needed to bring the house up to date, so we offered lower than asking and received a counter that barely budged from the listing price.  This was a little discouraging, but it was the end of the day and we decided to sleep on it.  The next day, we continued looking at houses while we stewed over what our counter should be and found one bust after another.  Then, at the very end of the day, we decided to drive by just one more that had gone on the market that day.

At first glance, we were ready to turn around and run back out the door.  It had very clearly been a long, loooooong time since the house had seen any updating.  After talking to the owner who was present doing some clearing out, and sleuthing through documents down the road, we discovered that the house still belonged to the original owners who bought it in 1971 for $43,000.  Let's just all let that sink in.  $43,000.  Sigh.  Anyway, the husband and wife had died in the last decade and it seems that the son had continued to live there until evidently deciding the time had come to sell.

I could continue to describe the house, or I could let the photos do the talking...

   

So, you can probably understand our reservations.  Pink carpet.  Blue carpet.  Linoleum.  Cheap parquet.  Dated wallpaper and fixtures.  Poorly utilized kitchen space.  Tiny master bathroom. But then we looked out at the backyard.

 

Gorgeous well-maintained deck.  Plenty of grassy space for kids and dogs to roam.  A shed.  Trees for privacy and shade.  It was by far the nicest backyard we had seen.  And then the realtor reminded us of the price.  And the square footage.  A huge two car garage.  And the opportunity to increase it by a huge percent by finishing the basement.  And we began mulling over the possibilities that were currently hidden beneath all of the wallpaper and carpet.  And we decided to say goodbye to the split level and give this one a shot.

After an absolutely agonizing weekend during which we endured a back and forth bidding war, and waited on tenterhooks, terrified we were going to lose both houses and be back at square one when we moved.  Finally, we got the call for our realtor--thanks to the escalation clause we had included in our offer, we had won the war and gotten the house... by a mere $1000.  Had we set our escalation limit just $500 less, we would have lost it.  It was hard not to feel like it was meant to be.

We flew over from Germany on March 15 and closed on March 16.  Just a few days later, we had our painters in tearing down wallpaper, Colby was pulling up carpet, and my mom and I were coated in white paint giving the closets a makeover.  We've come a long way in the last few weeks, but we still have a long road ahead of us.  I'll save the progress shots for my next post, and for now leave you with this little glimpse into the "rustic" lifestyle we are currently living!

 

Life Updates

So, how do you like my every five months posting schedule?  I'm thinking about writing a tutorial on the worst possible ways to operate a personal weblog.  I've finally found my calling!  Anyway, insert empty promises about updating more often, blah blah blah... moving on.

Actually, life has been rather exciting over the past few months.  I mean, exciting in a way that only a suburban, married mother of two would find to be a thrill, but busy nonetheless.  Since October...

We had a spooktacular Halloween with two of the cutest rag dolls I've ever seen.

I met up with these beauties in Paris for a girls' weekend that included a boat ride down the Seine, the best steak and frites I've ever tasted, a mentally unbalanced young man sketching us in a bar, shopping on the Champs Elysees, and did not include children.  I insisted that there be candles and sharp knives on every table we dined at!

We celebrated the 3rd birthday of those aforementioned rag dolls, also known as Charlotte and Annabelle,  Three has been a bit of an awakening in terms of how difficult parenting can be (and I don't kid myself that it gets any easier), but they really are the sweetest girls, and so freaking smart and hilarious it blows my mind on the daily.  We're pretty convinced we should keep them.

 

We hit a few Christmas markets for our last holiday season in Germany and time marched inexorably on as I turned yet another year older.

   

We visited Louisiana for Christmas and New Year's enjoying a flurry of family time, and finally getting to experience the magical Christmas Tea at the Roosevelt in New Orleans.  We left the kids with my inlaws for a weekend to spend a few days in the Big Easy with our dear friends, Tim and Nicole.  And Annabelle also survived the trauma of her first haircut, finally ridding herself of the dreaded mullet she'd been rocking for far too long.  Now when I go get my hair done, the girls ask me if I get to sit in a pink car and watch Frozen--I wish!

I stayed in Louisiana for a full five weeks, while Colby had to return to work, but he joined me for a week in the Northern Virginia area so we could find a house at our new assignment.  We landed on this diamond in the rough that we got for a great price and will spend the rest of our born days renovating. 

 

My mom accompanied me and the girls on our flight back to Germany, and as well as being a huge help to me while we prepped for the move, we snuck in another pottery shopping trip, this time to Nove in Italy with a side excursion to fair Verona.

 

Colby and I took a Valentine's Day kid-free weekend trip to bid farewell to our favorite city, Paris.  We stood in the rain for an hour so we could finally visit the catacombs, accidentally spend the equivalent of a new hot water heater at a fancy dinner, sipped on decadent hot chocolate, and visited the gorgeous palace of Fontainebleu.  It was a delightful way to end our time in Europe.

We had all of our belongings packed up, then spent the next month living at a friend's house and two different temporary apartments, had going away lunches, coffees and dinners, and finally made it to a couple of Easter markets where my obsession with hand painted Easter eggs was fully ignited.

 

We made the flight back across the pond, and have spent the last week closing on our house and working furiously to make it at least habitable, if not beautiful before we move in tomorrow.  More on this later, hopefully with at least a couple of afters to show for all of our work!

A whole host of family including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins big and small celebrated Colby's birthday with a chocolate cake from The Swiss Bakery, because we found ourselves in need of a little taste of... home???

 

And oh yeah, found out we're having another one of these little things!  Coming August 2016.  Eek!

A Return to the Blog... and Venezia!

Five months.  Is five months my new record for longest gap between blog posts?  I legit feel like I just wrote that running post.  This year has gone by in the blink of an eye.  I can't believe I am sitting here drinking eggnog and planning Christmas market weekends.  (Okay, in fairness, I'm probably doing both of those things unseasonably early.)

Anyway, highlights of the past few months include wine festing, countless toddler birthday parties, vacations that I'll slowly get around to recapping over the next seventeen months, and upgrading my Hulu account to enjoy commercial-free viewing.

So!  Venice!  It might be sinking, but it seemed fine when we were there.

We drove down from Germany, so we bookended our trip with a couple of nights in Milan and a couple of nights in Lake Como.  Unfortunately, the weather for our two days in Lake Como was pretty terrible, but we got lucky with gorgeous weather that made Venice the sparkling jewel of our trip.

   

We stayed in a gorgeous apartment in Lido, and really enjoyed our leisurely morning and evening walks to the vaporetto station.  As you are probably already well aware, Venice is traversed almost entirely by boat and foot.  The canals are just watery roads that you have to be careful not to back up into as you're framing the perfect photo.  Lido was gorgeous and peaceful, and made for a very restful recovery from the tourist crush that you can encounter elsewhere on the Venetian Lagoon.  It's also particularly convenient if you are driving as you can drive from the ferry straight to your apartment or hotel and park there.  In Venice you have the perk of being in the middle of the action, but you're going to be schlepping your bags over a lot of cobblestones and stairs.

Speaking of the stairs, almost all of the bridges over the canals are elevated by anywhere from 10-20 steps up one side and down another so that boats can more easily pass underneath.  Though when the water is high, you'll still see many a gondolier crouching down so as not to lose their heads!  Still, we managed just fine with our two umbrella strollers.  They were light enough for one or two people to lift over the stairs, and the girls were contained so I didn't have to worry about them taking a less than hygienic bath in a canal.

   

It's downright impossible to take an ugly photo in Venice.  You could trip over a cobblestone, land in a garbage boat, under a pile of left over spaghetti and calamari, and as your camera slipped out of your hand and you accidentally pressed the shutter button, you would still end up with a perfectly lit, artistically composed photo of the Doge's Palace.  It's one of the most stunningly photogenic places I've ever seen.  It helped that we booked an early morning photography tour with Getty Images photographer Marco Secchi, who brought us to some of the most picturesque settings.  Being up at 5 am to beat the tourists was also fully worth it just to have a rare moment of peace and tranquility in Piazza San Marco.

 

My favorite stop that Marco brought us to was the famed and quirky book shop, Alta Acqua book shop.  I honestly cannot think of a possible way for anyone to go into the shop with a plan and come out with the intended book, but if you are just in search of charm and zaniness, this is the place for you.  Books are stacked haphazardly to the ceiling on every surface--including in bathtubs, gondolas and rowboats.  There is a wall of books with book steps to the top where all smitten booknerds are invited to pose for a photo.  It was crazy and delightful.  And we bought a map.

  

After our photo tour we returned to Lido to pick up my dad who was babysitting the girls, then we had a lovely lunch before heading back into Venice for another round of sightseeing with Uncle Rick and wrapping up the evening with the inevitable gondola ride through the canals.  As cheesy as these are, it really is a remarkable perspective of Venice.  I loved seeing all of the algae covered walls and crumbling doors and ground floors up close.

 

The next day we headed in a different direction to visit the brightly colored island of Burano, famous for its intricate lacemaking.  We had planned to possibly visit a couple of the other islands, but due to a wormhole or a collapse of the time space continuum, we ended up with time for only one stop.  And I was actually very glad it was Burano.  After the more muted grandiosity of Venice, the bold, searing colors of the buildings on Burano were a welcome shock to the senses.

   

For our last morning in Venice, my mom, Colby and I took a cooking class conveniently located a 10 minute walk from our apartment on Lido.  The class was held in a gorgeous villa, and the kitchen was definitely the most stunning one I've ever had the pleasure of cooking in.  With our classmates we made osso bucco, saffron risotto, artichokes, and of course tiramisu.  Then we got to enjoy it at a gorgeously appointed table with bottles and bottles of wine.

 

Once we were well and truly full, we strolled back to our apartment to collect the rest of our team and headed back across the lagoon to Venice to squeeze in a little more sightseeing, and more importantly, buy our souvenirs!   For our final event of the Venetian experience, we got on Waterbus #2 and did a selfguided tour of the Grand Canal.  This had been thwarted initially by a massive crush of people with the same idea piling on to the #1.  But super smart Colby determined the #2 also travelled along the Grand Canal and came with much fewer tourists and way more window seats!

I was really taken by surprise with how much I loved Venice.  I think it helped that we were there in shoulder season, just before the hordes arrived and the weather, while pleasant, wasn't quite hot, so we didn't have to smell the garbage that is piled along many of the back alleys.  It was just so astoundingly gorgeous.  There were times I didn't even know where to look or point my camera, because it was all so overwhelmingly beautiful.  Admittedly, the food was not the best we've ever had, but I had heard that Venice was known for that downfall, and it's just harder to search out the best places when you're traveling with two exhausted 2-year-olds.  I'm certainly not breaking any news here by saying that Venice is a must-see in Italy, but really, it tends to get a bad rap that I'm not sure is entirely deserved.  Especially if you're able to visit outside of May-August and just go a couple of streets over from Piazza San Marco.  It's like stepping back in time to another world.

I Run Because.

I can still vividly remember the first time I ever went "for a run".

Of course I had run before--on the playground playing chase, when I was late for the school bus, when I was forced to participate in a sportsball game--but I had never run just for the sake of running.  I remember going to a sleepover in middle school and my friend's father came in early in the morning to wake her up so she could go run with him.  This was just mind blowingly crazy to me.

So then I get to high school, join Army JROTC and become laser focused on earning every uniform ribbon I could possibly get my greedy, over-achieving little fingers on.  I was determined that my ribbon rack would rival that of any South American military dictator.  One of those ribbons could be earned by running a mile in something like 10 minutes or less.  Ten minutes.  One mile.  This seemed achievable  and I figured I could devote ten minutes of my day to running around the block if it meant I could add another feather to my cap.  Or ribbon to my rack.  It's sort of embarrassing the things that excited me when I was sixteen.

My best friend and I decided to run together every day after school and would reward ourselves with a Backstreet Boys listening party following each run.  I earned my ribbon and there ended any relationship with my running shoes.  I may even have been running in Keds.  This is how seriously I took it.

Then I ended up stumbling onto a path that led me to Air Force ROTC in college and running became the stumbling block that threatened my full scholarship for four solid years.  I hated it with a passion.  I had no idea how to train.  I would just try to run for as long as I could and as fast as I could for a month prior to my physical fitness test and then hope I would pass it by the skin of my teeth.  I was always one of the slowest runners and I never seemed to get any faster.  It was embarrassing and exhausting and defeating.

What followed was another two years of military service where I just did the best I could to pass my fitness tests and my relationship with running became more and more soured.

Then one day, I heard about this program that was created to train a non runner for a 5K in two months.  Starting from walking and going to running 3 miles in just two months when I felt like I had spent my entire adult life just battling to finish 2 measly miles seemed like a long shot, but it was one I decided to take when I embarked on my first Couch to 5K run.  And after a couple of months, I was indeed able to run 3 miles.  Not fast.  But nobody was counting.  My running was finally my own.

When we moved to Charleston, we kept hearing about this Bridge Run that it seemed like all of the locals participated in.  It was a 10K which seemed pretty daunting, but I found another training program similar to the C25K and decided to give it another long shot.  And I did it.  Six miles.  And that's when it occurred to me that maybe a half marathon would be another crazy, ridiculous long shot that I could take.  And so I did it.  Then I did it again.

There is nothing like spending your whole life thinking one thing about yourself and discovering something entirely different.  Realizing that the limits you've felt were entirely self-imposed.  That you've spent your life viewing yourself through the wrong lens.  Like you've been looking in a fun house mirror and are finally seeing the truth.

I always demurred and insisted that I wasn't a runner.  If anything, I was a jogger.  A turtle.  Just barely managing to put one foot in front of another.

But do you know how I know that I am a runner?

Because I run.

I'm still not fast.  I don't run to win races.  I don't run to be faster than anyone else.  I don't run to pass a test or earn a ribbon or maintain a scholarship.  I run for me.  If I'm being completely honest, I don't even run to keep myself healthy, or in shape, or to get out of the house.

I RUN BECAUSE I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD.

And I can.

Harry Potter & The Chamber of Charlemagne on Parade

Over the Columbus Day holiday, the family and I packed up and headed out for a low key weekend away in the Netherlands.  We decided to stay in the relatively below the radar city of Maastricht and found ourselves incredibly charmed by the city.  

We thought it would be a standard day of walking around the city, window shopping and checking out the local church, but as we were eating lunch on the main street, what to our wondering eyes should appear but a marching band in full regalia gathering a crowd as it paraded down the street.  We hurriedly cleared our table and ran out into the street to give chase.  We followed them across a bridge and around some corners and they eventually led us to the gathering grounds of a full on Mardi Gras style parade.

We never were able to nail down exactly what the name of this celebration was, but it was definitely Carnivale-like in spirit and costuming, and we cheered excitedly for each colorfully dressed crewe who passed by us as the parade rolled by.  What we particularly loved about it was that it seemed to be a family affair.  Small children banged drums or tooted horns in the marching bands, tossed candy in the crewes, and babies and toddlers were pushed down the streets in strollers by their mothers and fathers.

Once all of the parade had made its way by us at the start of the route, we tagged along to the end where a big stage was set up in front of the town hall.  Our airbnb hosts didn't speak the best English, but what we gathered from them was that there was some sort of king or prince revealed at the end of the parade once all of the floats and crewes had arrived.  By this point the girls were hungry and cranky and we didn't understand all of the Dutch announcements and speeches taking place on-stage, so we decided to call it a day and head back to our apartment.

The day before had been a gloomier day, so we made the short drive to the German city of Aachen, to visit the Aachen Cathedral, or Kaiserdom.  This is the oldest cathedral in Northern Europe, begun in 796 and restored and added on to over the years with a final restoration done in 1881, and is the final resting place of Charlemagne.  From 936 to 1531 the cathedral was the location for the coronations of 30 German kings and 12 queens.  My favorite part of the cathedral was the glittering golden mosaics that covered the ceilings--they gave the whole place a mystical, ethereal glow.  The Kaiserdom holds many notable historical items including the throne of Charlemagne and the imposing Barbarossa chandelier (1165/1170) which was lit for High Feasts.

And finally, on our way home, the event which spurred the trip to begin with, a stop at the Odysseum musem in Koln to visit the Harry Potter Exhibition, displaying a treasure trove of sets, costumes and props from the eight movies.  I had the pleasure of being sorted into Ravenclaw, seeing the golden snitch up close and personal, plucking a mandrake root from its pot, reading Harry's pledge to Umbridge to no longer tell lies and the Half-Blood Prince's notes in Advanced Potion-Making, getting within clutching distance of Dumbledore's robes, visiting Hagrid's hut and so, so much more.  It was such an awesome exhibit and well-worth a visit if you're a fan of the movies and it comes to a town near you!

Marrakech By Air & Land

Our second full day in Marrakech brought with it some of the most stunningly beautiful travel experiences of my life.  Waaaaay back in my younger years, (I thought this would be funnier because I was joking about how long ago it was, but... it actually was a pretty long time ago, so it's mostly just sad...) I made a 30 Before 30 list that comprised an assortment of goals of varying degrees of achievability.  (I should probably change the name of that list now that I am, um, more than 30.)  One of the items on that list was to overcome my gut-level terror of heights and ride in a hot air balloon.  When I started researching activities in Marrakech, a hot air balloon company listing immediately leapt out at me.  Upon reading the reviews I was able to ascertain that there have been no horrible Hindenberg level catastrophes, and many people who also possessed a fear of heights described an incredibly transcendent experience.

So, we woke up at oh dark thirty and trudged outside to meet the driver arranged by Marrakech by Air, the ballooning company we booked through.  We picked up another couple from their hotel and then began our drive out into the desert to our launch location.  The drive actually ended up being the most terrifying part of our journey as our driver was BATSHIT INSANE, but in a weirdly lovable way.  When we arrived at the launch point, we joined up with another ballooning company Ciel d'Afrique.  I don't know if maybe in the high season they do separate balloons, but if you're agonizing over which company to use don't worry too much since they seem to use the same balloons and pilots.  We stood outside waiting for the balloon to be ready, and it was MUCH colder than we had anticipated and packed for.  One of the drivers took pity on our shivering souls and invited us to sit in his car with the heater running until launch time.

  

We had just enough time to thaw out, and snap a few pictures of the sun beginning to spill over the mountains before it was time to climb into the basket and take off.  There was one moment of shuddering fear as the balloonists untied the ropes and let go of the basket, then suddenly we were drifting gracefully into the air and it felt completely natural and perfect.  We went up high enough to get a stunning view over the Atlas mountains and Berber villages for our glorious, magical hour-long ride.

When we landed, there was a traditional Moroccan breakfast set up under the tents and we enjoyed some time chatting with our fellow passengers, one of whom was a gentleman who runs a bucket list themed travel company out of California and was researching packages to offer his clients.  What a life!  From there, it was back into the cars for a somewhat less terrifying ride back into Marrakech where we met up with some delightful dromedaries.

The most alarming part of our dromedary (not camel--they have two humps!) ride was the mount and dismount.  The handlers would have the animals kneel down then help you onto the saddle, but it's a rollicking ride as they stand back up.  We did a 15-20 minute dromedary ride through a palm grove near one of the Morrocan princes' houses, then were driven back to our pick up point.  

Since we had such an early start, it was still just barely lunch time.  Brittany was feeling a little bit of Africa belly, so we decided to slow things down and go hang out in a Starbucks in the newer part of town for a couple of hours and the people watching was absolutely delightful.  After our break, we went to the Jardin Majorelle where we enjoyed the peace and quite outside the craziness of the medina.

Then it was back into the fray as we battled the taxi drivers for something incrementally cheaper than an astronomical tourist rate, and rode back to the Djema el Fnaa (I honestly cannot figure out how to properly spell this, there are about fourteen different options according to Professor Google) the bustling square in the center of town.  We wandered around taking in all of the vendors, the storytellers, the snake charmers, the monkey handlers, the acrobats, and searching for a good spot to park ourselves for the evening.  We found a cafe overlooking the square and after a little bit of patience got a table at the edge where we could watch all of the activity from the relative quietness of our retreat.

After we'd had enough of that show, we went back to our riad to drop off all that we'd acquired throughout the day, then went in search of the highly recommended Le Salama, which did not disappoint.  We had a mouthwateringly delicious dinner, my favorite part of which were these delightful meatballs in a tomato sauce with an egg cooked in the center.  Then finished up with this sweet little chocolate mousse fez.

The next morning we did a farewell tour of the city, wandering around the medina in search of last minute souvenirs and breakfast, then it was time to say goodbye to Marrakech.  We were definitely ready to go, and I felt like two days was plenty of time for us to experience the city and get a feel for the culture, the people and the cuisine.  That said, it was an incredible two days, and we made memories on that trip that will be emblazoned in my mind forever.  Traveling as two women, we ran into our fair share of misogyny and aggression, but we also met so many people who were so incredibly kind and helpful and I can honestly say that I never felt unsafe.  It was beautiful in such an unexpected way, and yet it still managed to meet all of my expectations.

May we meet again someday, Morocco, In šāʾ Allāh.

March Stitch Fix Review & Manifesto

When I first heard about Stitch Fix, I knew it was something I had to be a part of.  I immediately ran my little self over to the internet and did a quick search only to discover... they wouldn't ship to my US mail address in Germany.  I pouted for a minute, then moved on to various and sundry other online shopping platforms that were less restrictive in their shipping policies.  When, just a few months later, what to my wondering ears should appear but a local friend raving about this new shopping service she had signed up for, yep, you guessed it, Stitch Fix!  They were finally shipping to us overseas, and I got myself signed up faster than you can say "credit card debt".

After I scheduled my first fix, I started doing some searching to find out more about what others thought and turned up about seventeen thousand million reviews, so obviously I thought, you know what the world needs?  One more Stitch Fix review!  But I still hear lots of questions about the company and what they provide, so I thought I'd do my part and share some of my thoughts on my experience after my fourth fix.

First, a little directly from the company themselves:

"The Stitch Fix experience is not merely curated, it’s truly personalized to your taste, budget and lifestyle. Personal stylists handpick a selection of five items just for you. In fact, no two clients have ever received the same selection of items!

Stitch Fix makes shopping not just convenient, but effortless. Like other online retailers, Stitch Fix saves you a trip to the store by shipping items directly to you. But our personal stylists also save you the time and trouble of selecting clothing and accessories. Many of our clients enjoy the ease and convenience of automatically scheduled shipments that arrive at a frequency of their choosing."

To begin the process, you fill out a style profile giving all pertinent information about your sizing and rating various looks on a scale from "love it" to "hate it".  You can also specify how often you need clothes for work, special occasions, date nights, or casual day to day wear.  Another concern I hear often is that the clothes will be too expensive, but lucky for you, you can also set your preferences for price per item type from "the cheaper the better" up to "$200+".  I have been very impressed with how my stylist has mostly stuck to my price requests and the company claims that their average price point is $55--not bad considering that many of those items are sweaters, pants and dresses, all of which regularly run well over $100 from many popular retailers.  If you choose to keep all five items, you get a 25% discount, which I haven't been able to take advantage of, but seems like a nice perk.  There is a $20 styling fee which is then applied to any items you decide to keep, but if you ship everything back, the fee is non-refundable.

You can also set how often your fix arrives, I get mine once a month and it comes packaged with a style card giving options for how to wear the enclosed item and a pre-paid shipping bag to return unwanted items.  It's easy as pie to toss the items in the bag and drop it at the post office, then you just log into your account and give specific feedback on what you loved, hated or just sorta liked and can communicate with your stylist about your hopes for your next fix.

If you want more general information about Stitch Fix, this link will help you out with lots of FAQs. 

So, onto my Stitch Fix experience specifically.  As I mentioned, I've been getting a monthly box since December, so the March box was my fourth.  I am EXTREMELY picky about my clothes.  I am very aware of what I consider my particular bodily flaws and attributes and I think over the years I've gotten pretty good at knowing what will work and what won't.  I have also had to crack down on myself about only buying and keeping clothes that I absolutely love and shedding the ballast that drags my closet down.

Thus far, I have been quite impressed with the selections in my fixes.  I've never had a homerun fix--one that I've kept every item--but the amount of items I've kept has been steadily increasing which leads me to believe that my stylist is really listening to me and that my feedback has been helpful in communicating my style desires.  In my first box, I only kept one shirt, and in this most recent box, I kept three items--a dress, a jacket and a pair of leggings.  Along the way, I've also acquired a couple of other shirts, a necklace and a scarf.  (You can also tell your stylist about any item categories you don't want to receive--for example, I'm very choosy about my purses and like to select my own, so I asked that they not send me any bags.  I also don't wear bracelets often, so I said yes to earrings and necklaces, but no to bracelets.  I love how specific you can be.)

 The first thing I do when I open my box is check out the style guide.  This has a little note from your stylist that explains why she chose the pieces in your fix, and gives some pointers about what pieces might work well together.  Then, there are five photos of different outfit ideas that incorporate the pieces you received.  It's a nice overview of what you're getting ready to try on.  Then it's onto the really fun stuff--seeing your new clothes or accessories up close and personal!

The first piece I tried was this Randy Stripe Pocket Detail Knit Top.  I knew pretty much out of the gate that it was going to be a no.  I've already got more stripes in my closet than a chain gang and I'm just looking for something a little more special out of my fix acquisitions than a striped tee.  The AWESOME thing about Stitch Fix is that when you send your item back, you aren't just shipping it off into an empty void, you get to detail exactly what it is that made you decide to return the piece and your stylist can take that into consideration when curating your next box.
Verdict: NO

Next up was the Colibri Bird Print Tab-Sleeve Blouse.  I hate starting this review out so negatively, but this is another one I wasn't wild about.  I absolutely adored the print and the colors, but the cut of the blouse was just not right for me.  A teensy bit blousier (imagine that, in a blouse) than I prefer, and the pintucking and sort of mandarin collar did weird things to my top half.  It was almost like wearing a smock.
Verdict: NO

Things started looking rosier with the Kalie Denim Jacket.  This is one of those staple items that I've been meaning to buy for ages and just haven't gotten around to.  I loved the dark wash, the fit was perfect and it'll be a great layer to get me through spring and summer.
Verdict: YES

And the Kelsey Stripe Hem Fit & Flare Dress was yet another winner.  This dress is so adorable on--it has the perfect silhouette with the flared skirt and the somewhat nautical detail of the white stripes gives it that little special sparkle I'm looking for.  I paired it with the Kalie denim jacket, leggings and boots for a baby shower and it will also look fantastic with ballet flats and a cardigan when the weather finally (please, please, please) warms up.
Verdict: YES

I also kept a pair of black leggings, but that's not so terribly exciting, so they aren't pictured, but they are awesome  and proved to me that my stylist is listening because I mentioned on my Stitch Fix Pinterest board that I was on the hunt for a great pair of black leggings.  Which brings me to my Stitch Fix tips!

Tip #1 Get To Know YOU: Communicate, communicate, communicate.  Update your style profile as you hone in on exactly what your style preferences are.  I've made changes to mine over the last few months and I feel like it's evolved into a more accurate reflection of what I like and want to wear versus what I WANT to like and WISH I could wear.  These are two very different things!  Send your stylist detailed notes and tell her if you want something specific.  If you're repeatedly receiving things you hate, take a good hard look at your style profile.  There's a very good chance you've fallen into the wishing and wanting category.

Tip #2 Get Your Pinterest On: On that same note, create a Pinterest board with looks you love, be very specific about why you love them and send the link to your stylist.  You can also follow Stitch Fix on Pinterest and pin things that you're loving from their boards.  Again, be careful to only pin things that you would love to WEAR on your board.  As amazing as I think a girl with boho chic braids, a fedora and a crochet romper might look in her perfectly filtered selfie, this is not a look that I personally aspire to!

Tip #3 Sneak A Peek: This one is pretty awesome.  If you're anything like me and just can't wait until your box to arrive to see what your stylist chose for you, here's a little hack.  Once your fix ships, log into your account, and click the checkout button.  Obviously, don't check out then, but you will see the list of everything that has been included in your box.  From there, you can google to your heart's desire to find images online and get a little sneak preview of what will be arriving on your doorstep.

Believe it or not, I actually do have more thoughts on Stich Fix (so many FEELINGS), but I'll mull them over for a bit longer and we can chat more when I post my April review.  I'll also try to take photos of the actual items instead of using the style guide photos next time.  

I should point out that I have not been asked to write this review and I am not receiving a gol-durned thing from Stitch Fix for writing it, but if you do sign up for the service, it would be fantastic if you wanted to use my referral: Press here for referral link