Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

22 July 2012

bramasole...or 2 oxen 2 days...

"i have bought a house in a foreign country. a house it takes two oxen two days to plow.
since i don't have any oxen, i'll have to take their word for that..."

via


i am missing italy today. missing adventure. missing the journey. because of all that nostalgia, i'm watching under the tuscan sun...to soothe my italian itch.

so won't you join me in enjoying some photos from bramasole (which means 'to yearn for the sun'), the villa frances buys just outside of cortona?? (and if you're really nice, maybe i'll post some pictures from when i was last there!)









(all these photos of the property came from the bramasole for rent page on italian villas...check it out! you could stay there!!!)


these are a couple of pics i took last time i was in cortona -- 2007.

03 January 2010

guns???

3 january 2010

inspiration: guns
location: Avery Farms, outside Caldwell, TX
thing I love: gun safety

ok. so i am a pacifist. i have always been ok with that. i am the first one to try to solve a problem rather than engage in a fight. (don't get me wrong, i like a good bickering match, but not so much with the fighting)

but when i was little, the dead deer would make me cry; in high school, i tried to convince a teacher that he was morally wrong for promoting hunting by having a deer calendar in his classroom; in college, however, i made my first strides towards making my peace with hunters...i went to my first ducks unlimited function. i then became friends with some people at tcu that had ranches, and we would go up with friends, hunt birds, and just chill. i fell in love with just being in the country. i still love it. i understand why people have country houses, living their lives in the city, and escaping to the country to relax.

we made a trip to the country for new years, having a great time just being together and being outside. it was wonderful! this is when i partook of something i had never done before...i shot a shotgun!!!!



believe it or not, i was always a little afraid of guns. i'll say that i've always given them their proper fear, kept my distance, you know, whatever. but i had a lot of fun on this trip, watching the guys practice their target shooting, and watching all the girls learning to shoot. it was so fun! genie and i went up on new years day, then stayed until sunday, helping chris clean up the house and get it ready to shut down, and lauren and daniel came up and hung out with us on saturday night/sunday...sunday we went out to the lake again, and shot some more. the girls had so much fun!!!



lauren and i learned to shoot shotguns, and how to stay safe with the guns (chris was such a great teacher!!!)....so today's inspiration is the fun of guns!!!





29 July 2007

who loves california?? i do!! i do!!


So, I'm going to try to keep up with some blogging now that life is settling down a little more. I think this will help people to keep up with me a little more too, since I've become a bit of a closed book lately.

Living in Los Angeles has been a whole new experience. I have learned a lot about myself and a lot about me. I list those things seperately because I have changed while living here. I can't describe it exactly, but I came into this city one way, and I am leaving a different way. Here's a little bit about what my life has been like though since I moved here....

1. work. I am working in a small office with about 15 other people...I am starting to finish up an internship in the Wine Department of Christie's. It has been a hard/fun process of learning about the auction industry. It's funny, but I have learned more about the client service department than the wine department. I have spent my time working in a freezing cold warehouse, eating mysterious food with Walker at that Thai food place in the Valley, creating endless spreadsheets, laughing endlessly about I Love Lucy and SNL with Naveen, fearing failure, and sending silly emails while sitting next to the recepient at the front desk. I hope that I will leave the office at the end of the summer with some great friends. I have certainly enjoyed my time there, and I can't imagine having spent my summer working anywhere else.

2. my apartment. Finding a place to live in Los Angeles was a bit of a struggle. The girl that hired me at Christie's told me that Craigslist was the best place to look for an apartment, and I didn't know how that was going to work out. Who knows what kind of crazys I was going to find while looking for an apartment?! I was a little nervous. I started looking at ads on Craigslist, and was a bit discouraged at what I had found...or not found rather....but I was hopeful!! So, I kept looking, even after finding several people that discouraged substance abuse problems, but supported occasional use, as long as it was shared! haha...But, nonetheless, I finally found an apartment. I wanted to live in Santa Monica, because I simply love the beach, and it was tricky to find a place, but I hit the jackpot! I love where I live. I can see the pier and the ocean from my living room and my bedroom, and I am high enough off the ground that I get a great breeze all the time. It's just too good! There are a few drawbacks, like the constant sirens on Ocean Avenue, and the overwhelming incense/weed smell coming from neighbor's apartments....but it just adds character I guess...haha. In the end, it is such a fun place to live...I can walk everywhere in the neighborhood (the promenade, the pier, the beach, the library, the movie theater, anthropologie, etc...). And there is always more awaiting me to explore! Who couldn't love that?!!!



3. weather. It doesn't rain here!!! I don't understand that. I know that LA is part of a desert, but this is just silly! I miss the RAIN!!! It's one of my favorite things, and there is none of that here! oh my! But the cooler weather is such a nice change from Texas!!

4. traffic. There is some serious traffic in this city. And when I say that there is traffic, there is TRAFFIC!!! Oh my goodness. While I love the city, it is a real trying thing to get to work in the mornings...it's tough. People are just crazy on the road. And what's worse is that they all drive really nice cars too, which makes it a little tougher, because I don't want to hit a pretty, fancy car with my older clunkier suv! It's a delicate balance to get there everyday! However, I do get to work in one of the prettiest areas in Los Angeles. Every tourist in LA tries to make it to Beverly Hills and walk down Rodeo Drive, and I do it every day. I think I might be starting to take that for granted....uh oh!

5. things that make me laugh. I love seeing things here that are outrageous! It just makes me smile. Sometimes, I'll be at the front desk at work, and some paparazzi will run full speed past the doors and be shooting pictures at the same time. Other times, I'll walk by that big shiny torso on Rodeo and just laugh at the fact that tons of people drive by a big shiny butt everyday....haha! I watched some man take a picture of me and my friend Lindsey the other day from one of those Beverly Hills trolley things...I guess he thought we were famous? Who knows....but it made me laugh. The Bubble Man on the beach here in Santa Monica...he always makes me laugh....but I haven't seen him lately....that doesn't make me laugh. The moon...it moves do quickly at night here...that makes me smile with a bit of confusion.

That's all I have for now, but you just enjoy that for now...it's been a long time coming!