There goes the sun

Even though I live in upstate New York, I love my sun. Need it kind of. 

In less than two months I'll be heading into a darker "climate" with half of the sunlight I get now. 

I am going to need to fight the SAD!

I plan to get outside as often as possible but maybe on days that I can't find the sun 

(perpetual 50% chance of rain) I'll use one of these:

(I personally like the one that looks like a robot from Star Wars)

I found them here, here and here...good-bye present to myself?

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Laugh a little

Our leave-day for Belgium got moved up a bit. And by "a bit" I mean a whole month. So I had to put the blogging on the back burner as I (more) frantically finish things at work and at home.

But every once in awhile I'll be posting and here are a few places I've been turning to when I need a laugh, which face it, we all need at least once a day. Enjoy:

I love this list to get you through a Monday. Yes, I know it's Tuesday, but these are useful on any day:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/13-simple-steps-to-get-you-through-a-rough-day

You know you've all done it. Given your dog, or your friend's cat or another animal along the course of your life, their own voice. In your voice. And most likely the dogs sound "happy" and "dumb" and the cats are "calculating" and "evil" Oh, they weren't like that in your head? Guess that was just me. Aaanyway, these can get a little inappropriate. With the language and all. But they're pretty hilarious:
http://animalstalkinginallcaps.tumblr.com/

And honestly, there is wayyyy too much funny stuff all around the interwebs. When I find it, I pin it:
http://pinterest.com/hanlonrunner/f-u-n-n-y/

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"You'd have made a great town crier"

I thought nosy neighbors like Gladys only existed in Bewitched

...until Chris shared this story with me today: 

Scene: Chris is walking from the car to our apartment entrance and from the house next to ours comes the neighbor...

Nosy Neighbor: Hey, I gotta ask you a question!

Chris: Yeah?

NN: What do you do for work?
C: ...huh?
NN: I see you walking to your car every morning with a briefcase and gym shorts...
C: Ohhhh, I'm a student, I work out in the mornings at school...


And so on. The scene ended about a half hour later in which "Gladys" (who is a man in our case) went on to reminisce about all the daily goings on of our apartment building's tenants.

We just got home from daily laundry night at the Maloney's and as we beep the horn to lock the doors I see him peek out his library window (someone else can notice things too!) and I know he's viewed the last event of the day. From now on I'll always imagine the "ABNER!!" coming from the house next door every time something happens to occur between their windows and mine.

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Heading to LA

Leaving for LA tomorrow morning to see some family, get some sun 

and then fly to Spokane, Washington to fly home with this chick:

Suuuuper excited! Get ready for pictures and stories upon my return!

Up, up and away

fly.

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Get away to a small space

Ever since I was little I dreamed of living in a tiny space. Polly Pocket's spaces were the envy of my giant-size 8-year-old life. Harry Potter's cupboard lifestyle could really suit me. I drooled over the elaborately detailed sheds in Chase-Pitkin before Lowe's took over and made them look plain and sterile.

It may stem from my constant state of being cold, but the thought of a cozy space to inhabit emotes thoughts of warmth, books and homemade oatmeal cookies (cookies? I don't know, they make me happy too I guess).

So when I stumbled onto the idea of the tiny house I fell in love. I know Chris definitely wouldn't go for it, ever, but if I could, I would hitch one of these to my dream car and take off for a month or two. Just like this chick, but with Chris, so he (read: I) wouldn't get lonely.

Last year on a family vacation, Chris and I decided to take the ferry and explore Martha's Vineyard for a day. While attempting to bike around the whole island we found ourselves lost and in the middle of a tiny-house village! It. Was. Awesome.

Every once in awhile I check in with the tiny house blog to see what new ideas people have come up with to live small. Maybe I'll never have my dream nook, but I can attempt to live simply with these inspirations.

Would you ever want to downsize this much?



1, 2, 3, 4, the rest are my own photos

Places to go

When I was little I used to sit upside down on my couch so that I could 

pretend that I was living on the ceiling. We had this one fancy chandelier 

in the living room and I would imagine drinking tea with cake around it.

I think that this house  is a must-visit next year in Europe. 

Austria, here I come