Monday, May 24

Pillow Talk

I think every long-distance couple should have this:



"Pillow Talk is a project aiming to connect long distance lovers. Each person has a pillow for their bed and a chest sensor which they wear to sleep at night. The chest sensor wirelessly communicates with the other person’s pillow; when one person goes to bed, their lover’s pillow begins to glow softly to indicate their presence. Placing your head on the pillow allows you to hear the real-time heartbeat of your loved one.


The result is an intimate interaction between two lovers, regardless of the distance between them."
-Joanna Montgomery


source

Wednesday, May 19

Land meets Sea

With the clouds still lurking above, I caught a little nautical fever!


Shirt: TJ Maxx
Jeans: Charlotte Russe
Shoes: Thrifted
Belt: Thrifted
Hat: Thrifted
Rings: H&M


It's funny how creative and resourceful I have to be when taking my pictures.  Since I'm saving for an apartment, I kind of have to wait to buy a really nice digital camera.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little pocket camera!  It's just a little small, and the pictures aren't such high quality.  It's one of those things where I get really disappointed after spending a weekend playing with Dan's camera to come back to my own little guy who doesn't do much.  Anyways, back to resourcefulness and creativity.  So the camera I use for my pictures is a small Casio, and I attach a little mini tripod to help it stand up.  I've come to realize that, around my parent's house, there aren't a whole lot of ledges to stand the tripod on.  I've stood it on my car in the driveway, on top of trash cans, on steps and birdfeeders, but today, I have to say I impressed myself with what I found to hold my camera upright...

When I got to this spot in the yard, I thought the row of pines would look pretty cool, but looking around I couldn't find anything to sit my camera on besides the ground.  I noticed some of the pines had lost a few limbs in some recent storms, so I got the thought that maybe I could make a little structure to sit against the tree.  Turns out, my idea worked and I was able to manage a few pictures under the pines after all!

Maybe if Dan had been here I would have convinced him to take my pictures on his camera!  And maybe I would have chosen a more nautical setting...

Green Thumbs

My money-spending addiction came into action today...


In addition to lots of pretty new spring and summer clothes, I spent $35 on new nail polish!





I generally stick with the typical pinks and reds when I do my nails, and therefore have about 10 bottles of pink that all are just slightly different.  When my nieces got their nails done last week, I noticed one got a cool gold color, so I figured, if she's daring enough to go out on a limb and get a different color, so will I!  And now, I have a whole rainbow of colors to choose from!  I even let myself go so far out on the limb as to buy a dark blue (while it's officially called Dark & Stormy, I prefer to call it Mermaid Blue since it looks like the color I'd imagine a mermaids tail would be), which I tried out on my toes already.  So far I'm not impressed with it, but perhaps a little sunshine on my toes will change my mind!

A little side note:  I talked to my sister a little about nail polish last week, and apparently it's the trend in high school for the students to be painting their fingers all pretty colors and leaving the ring finger black, or having only the ring finger painted (again, in black) and every other finger left bare.  I find this trend a little wierd...

Camp Out

Last week, Dan and I took a trip to Bear Creek Lake State Park, a small park in central Virginia.  It was nice to get away from everyone else and just enjoy each other's company (for the first time in 6 or 7 months!) without expectations from anyone else to be here or there.  The first day of our trip, though, was spent almost entirely in our tent, since it rained the whole day!  Although, we both did kind of enjoy spending a day reading and napping and talking with each other (without the use of a cell phone!).  I took charge of the cooking and actually prepared lots of delicious meals before I left for the campsite on Monday.  I went for a completely vegetarian menu for the reason that meats are a little more worrisome when keeping everything in a cooler (is it going to stay cold enough?  will the meat contaminate other things while sitting in there? and so on...).  Some of the main events of the menu included Blueberry Pancakes (cooked on a camp stove), Teriyaki Tofu with Veggies and Soba Noodles (cooked in foil over the fire), Black Bean Enchiladas (cooked in a dutch oven), and one super delicious Apple Pie (also using the dutch oven).  I was really proud of how everything turned out, I can't wait to do it again!
eating my apples and oatmeal concoction for breakfast on the last day

On our second day, the day we had to pack up and leave, the sun came out and the air warmed up enough to put on some shorts!  Luckily, we didn't have to be out of the site until 3pm, so there was plenty of time to relax and make some breakfast, and go walk on some of the parks trails.


turns out the best picture of the two of us was one where Dan didn't smile

I love stumbling upon colorful wildflowers!

The park wasn't all that big, but I guess I'm comparing to places near Blacksburg, which have long, secluded trails, leading to magnificent clearings.  I think if it had been sunny and warm on our first day, we would have rented out one of their little canoes and spent a little time on the water.




Where shall we go on our next camping trip?


*Note: The first and last pictures (the ones of me) are courtesy of DSF

Tuesday, May 4

A Romp in the Park

I have a confession to make...

...I bought a romper.


I have another confession to make...

...I bought it from Wal-Mart!

I'm not quite sure what's going on lately, but I've been doing a lot of clothes shopping at Wal-Mart since I moved back to Chesapeake.  Is it the lack of good, local clothing boutiques?  Or am I just being extra tight with my money now?  In any case, I've made quite a few purchases from the big box and don't really know how I feel about it.  On the one hand, I'm spending $4 on a super-cute chirt, and $7 on shorts that actually look good on me!  On the other hand, I'm supporting the big box and all the perils that go along with it.  Is it so bad to get a few things here and there from Wally World once in a while, though?  I mean, I'm not doing my bulk shopping there...


Romper: Op for Walmart
Belt: souvenier from El Salvador
Necklace: Homebody
Shoes: souvenier from an Outer Banks vaca

All in all, I don't think the romper thing is too bad (so far).  I really liked the bright blue color and the little tiny eyelet detail in the shorts.  I have to tell you though, this is not the thing to wear when you're going to be gone all day long.  It's strangely awkward when you have to pee... the whole thing has to come down, leaving your top exposed, which might be little unnerving when having to use a public restroom! Plus, if you wear a belt over it (like I did), you have to figure out what to do with the belt since there aren't any loops to hold it up!  Luckily, my day in the romper was spent hanging around at home.  I got started on my latest sewing adventure: a swimsuit!  It's actually coming along really well, shouldn't be too long before I can take it for a test swim in the pool! 

In case you're one of my few loyal readers, you might recall from last week's post talk of a camping trip this week.  Turns out, there was a change in plans, and we're going next week!  I have all kinds of wonderful things planned, I haven't been camping like this since I was in elementary school!  My dad even said he'd show me how to make a cobbler in the dutch oven so Dan and I can have a delicious dessert on our little excursion!  Leave me a comment if you've got a good suggestion or idea for camp food!

Another something you might recall from that post is that we're supposed to have found out about the apartment by now!  Unfortunately, we haven't.  I'm expecting to hear from her in the next few days, and if not, I guess it's back to the apartment search I go!  It's too bad, too.  I've been dreaming of all the fun things I can put in my new apartment...

It's going to be another busy week.  I've got a swimsuit to finish, a camping trip menu to plan, a plant sale to work (well, technically that's on work time, but it's still a big deal!), a trial pie to bake, and a mother to celebrate!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Monday, May 3

A Trip to Gloucester

The Horticulture Staff at my work were invited to go on a field trip to Gloucester, VA and tour some beautiful home gardens.  Of the three properties we visited, I enjoyed the third the most.  The owner amazed me with her whimsical and imaginitive gardens and garden decorations, not to mention over 150 birdhouses!  Take a look at some of my favorite images captured from this home:

an arrow on a tree shows you the way into a "secret" garden




a birdhouse on springs... I love it!

what a clever way to hide the electric box!


...around to the front of the house

...and to the side


...the back patio

the truest blue I've ever seen, and no, those purple flecks in these delphinium flowers are not a result of camera or photoshop issues... totally amazing, right?!

if you look carefully, in the background on the right you can see a small screen house...
...what I wouldn't give to have this!!


I have so many more pictures to share, if you guys want to see more, please let me know!  I have many close-ups with the flowers and lots more garden statues and birdhouses!  I'm incredibly glad I got to go on this trip.  It really gives me something to strive for, although, a garden like this would take at least 20 years to get going... guess I better start working now!  If I'm lucky, I'll have the garden of my dreams (like this one) before I get a hip replacement and false teeth!

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