Monthly Archives: July 2014

Freedom on the Lake

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Obviously, the 4th of July was a few weekends back, but the further along we move into summer, the faster the time is slipping away from me. Honestly, what the hell is going on??

Bare with me while I catch you up on a super fun weekend spent laughing with friends, family, and my love at Lake Martin in Alabama. It was pretty much a perfect weekend. We flew into Atlanta Friday night and spent a few wonderful hours catching up with my parents. We then drove 2 hours to the lake the next morning, and parked our asses there until it was time to head back home. The wonderful Crosswy family welcomed us to their amazing lake house, and treated us to some boat time, amazing food, and the most relaxing time.

views of the boathouse
what an amazing house
imagine sitting outside here
upward we go
sunset views

They are also the family that won the BOTE stand up paddleboard grand prize at our birthday party, so they also invited us to take that beauty out on the lake for a spin. That did not suck and only made my craving to have my own paddleboard increase exponentially.

the whole gang with the paddleboard
Michael, Timmy and Mathew posing
evening paddle
that’s my man

We spent an amazing day with family, including Timmy’s mom and stepdad, whom we hadn’t seen in MONTHS, so that was a biiiig treat! Abigail’s stepdad made the most incredible potato salad that I kept sneaking bites of through the weekend and I don’t feel shame about that at all. When a potato salad is good, it’s the freaking best.

Let’s not forget our group’s attempt at a redneck-themed Fourth of July weekend. It’s quite clear that Timmy won the game there, but I feel like I got the best shopping experience when I was complimented by a Floridian woman who clearly didn’t realize that my purchases were a joke. Go FL.

yes this is America (Lucie & Mathew)
boat time
god I love the water
some sort of rock formation with graffiti and lots of boats. interesting
lounging like pros
floating lily pad-lounging is the best
Barbs and Trey, love them!
the whole big family. America!
sunsets
Timmy and Lucie trying to stay warm
sky on fire
I love this man
shut your face
family photo – lovely!
Timmy spotted in the background 🙂

Finally, after 100 attempts to take that lovely family photo above as the sun set and not being able to get the flash working, I decided to try a bunch of different settings in the game room on our last night. They aren’t fantastic, but god damn I love this camera!

pinhole shot of shufflepuck
Timmy and Michael in a pop art setting
grainy black and white of these dudes
light option of Abigail and Timmy acting a fool

I love little weekends like that, a quick getaway, filled with love, laughter, and delicious food. Thank you to the Crosswy family again for the hospitality, we adore y’all. And in case you were wondering, I’m keeping all my America gear. As Timmy’s life partner, I’ll probably need it again in the near future thanks to his hijinks.

♥, VB

Concrete Jungle

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Three weekends ago, Timmy and I took a weekend trip up to NYC to visit my bestie, Denise, and her husband Vinnie before they bring forth their love child around August. They are amazing friends and came to visit us last year and we took them to Universal Studios for their wedding present. It was as good of a time as one can have in Lakeland. The original plan for this year was to have them visit us again, but in a way better town than Lakeland, eating way better food, and generally just being a better time than last year. But alas Denise was too preggers and her doctor wouldn’t allow any more flights until baby comes.

Not that going to NYC is such a bad thing. Obviously I love it there, it was my home for 4 years during college. But now that I live in St. Pete, my life here is just so amazing. I feel like I’m on vacation a large portion of the time, and I’m always super relaxed. NYC is just SOOOOOOOOO much, sometimes too much, so trips there generally leave me more exhausted than when I left. Last time we went, we packed so much in that weekend because Timmy had never been, jeez, it was nuts. So although I knew we were going to be more chill than our last time to the city, it’s still a lot to psych yourself up for.

It was an under-the-radar kind of trip because our main objective was to hang with Denise and Vinnie before baby comes. I didn’t get in contact with a lot of people because I knew I wouldn’t be able to see them. It is so stressful to try to make plans to see so many lovely faces in such a short amount of time, and I was NOT trying to stress out this weekend in particular.

Luckily, we hit the weather jackpot AGAIN (we went in August 2012, and the weather didn’t get above 80, which is UNHEARD of during city summers), and had an amazing time. They live now in Hastings-on-Hudson, which Timmy excitedly pointed out is where they’ve shot a few scenes of HBO’s The Leftovers (he clearly has never accidentally (or on purpose) walked on set on the way to class many many many times, as nearly all NYU students can attest to). Their town is freaking ADORABLE. We couldn’t get over how quaint it was, and just a 45 minute train ride from the city. It’s amazing how you forget all that’s close to the city yet so completely different.

Hastings-on-Hudson, complete with hash marks

loved this little theatre

We arrived Friday morning, which was key to getting all we could out of this trip. We spent Friday afternoon wandering around the city after grabbing lunch with Alex, one of my dearest friends from college. Man I love that guy. We stayed with him in his AMAZING condo in Tribeca last time we visited, and I only get prouder and prouder of all that he’s accomplished since we graduated. Once you own your own condo where the elevator opens up into your place, you know you’ve arrived like a BOSS.

He chose a super tiny Mediterranean place in the West Village (man, my friends know me so well. Both him and Denise know how obsessed I am with Med food, and both planned equally delicious meals for me to come home to) called Moustache Pitza and it was legit. The two things I miss most about NY are the transit and the food. You always hit it out of the park with food there, and it’s always the smallest, most unfamous places.

art at Moustache Pitza
legit homemade pita
lamb and rice is always a good idea
love my Alex!

Later, we wandered around the West Side Highway up to The High Line, east to the Chelsea Market, which remains one of my favorite places on earth where Timmy’s head almost exploded, and then back north to Denise and Vinnie’s. What an amazingly chill and super fun day.

West side views
a shot of Freedom Tower
love this quote
sunflowers next to the garbage trucks: NYC in a nutshell
amazing architecture
random art in NYC
yessssssssss
High Line views
love this place
OMG the seafood at the Chelsea Market
I wish I could’ve taken it all home
this color…
STOP IT
wall o knives
views of Grand Central

The next day, we went back into the city while Denise and Vinnie took a parenting class and OF COURSE WE WENT TO THE MUSEUM OF SEX. I hadn’t been there since 2005, but knew we HAD to go as soon as I saw what their new exhibit contained: a boobie bounce house. SHUT YOUR FACE. The entire exhibit was set up like a sex carnival, with a “Find the G Spot” mirror maze that gave me immediate motion sickness and I had to sit it out, a galloping dick skeeball race (which I intelligently re-named SKEETball, to which the museum employee laughed and thought was the most amazing thing ever), the bounce house, and Grope Mountain — an orifice climbing wall. Needless to say, we had a freaking amazing time.

Grope Mountain
climbing the orifices
scaling orifices in a skirt = BOSS LADY
gripping tight
hello hand grips
yes, that’s the end
Museum of Sex and deer threesomes
Timmy and the Flatiron

Later that night, we took Vinnie and Denise out to Harvest on Hudson, which was where they actually had their rehearsal dinner. It’s absolutely one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to, and since it was summer, we could actually see outside and watch the sun go down over the river (we couldn’t in March, it was dark at like 5 PM). Leah and Mike joined us (which is incredible to see college friends so many times in one year. That hasn’t happened since actual college!), and we laughed our asses off while Mike and Timmy inappropriately discussed prolapses and other medical conditions.

Yum to this restaurant
my meal was spectacular
Leah and Mike
love these two (nearly three!)
the entire group
sunsets are pretty
even prettier over the Hudson

Sunday arrived WAY too quickly, and we went to have a late brunch in Astoria with our other close friend Nikki, yoga goddess extraordinaire, and her close friend from CA. We ate at Locale where I continued to stuff myself with homemade pasta and love on my friends until our flight. We watched the Netherlands vs. Mexico World Cup game and it was all good.

Locale brunch time
stuffed and happy
Hello Mrs. Iglesias!

This trip was crazy fun. Denise and Vinnie are going to be such amazing parents, and for us to see their new place, their new town, it was so amazing. I’m so proud of them and I can’t wait to meet the newest addition to our crazy little circle. Until next time NYC.

♥, VB

Making It Yourself: Maps on Canvas

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I’m not a DIY-er. I’m impatient, not creative, nor do I want to look up 15,000 steps to create something I can easily buy on sale at TJ Maxx. Some people have the craft bug in them; I’m not one of those people.

But every so often (and by often I mean maaaaayyyyybe once every 12 years), I’ll find something that I know I can accomplish with few ingredients and steps. I’ll think to myself, “Now this is a craft someone like myself can do and not f*^k up too badly.” Bonus points for crafts that look like you were trying to slightly f*^k it up anyway.

I can paint the hell out of things, and I like to think I’m pretty handy around the house. Like my desk-turned-into-tv-stand-and-storage, I can definitely do things that don’t require much other than paint, brush, and stapler (I mean desk stapler, not a fancy schmancy one). So why not try to do a craft that involves a painting-like approach?

I bought this map probably 6 years ago with the intention to get it framed so that it looked like an antique. Little did I know at the time that having to custom order a frame for 50″ x 32″ was somewhere in the million dollar range (I exaggerate, but yes, that’s what it feels like when you’re a grad student). And so it just sat. And sat. And sat some more.

world map

We almost threw it out a bunch of times, but I held onto the idea that something could be done with it. Pinterest definitely served as an inspiration because I know I would’ve NEVER heard of Mod Podge anywhere else. So while I had the idea in my head of what I could do with it, I never quite had the motivation until a few weeks ago.

I decided to just say screw it, and let’s make this project a reality. The plan was to split the map into three sections, Mod Podge them onto the canvases, and make interesting yet super easy art. So off I went to Michael’s, armed with a 20% digital coupon, and bought 3 15″x 30″ canvases. Since I’m lazy as hell, I eyeballed the sections and cut, hoping for the best. Don’t do this if you really want perfection.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI took one section at a time because, duh, and Mod Podged the canvases first.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I’m sure there’s a WAY more precise method of doing this, but I’ve already established that this isn’t the perfect way to DIY a canvas map. I used foam brushes to distribute the glue all over the canvas and down the sides since the map was overhanging (which is what I wanted).

I laid the map down on the canvas and did my best to get out the air. You can see that I sucked at this step. In my defense, this map had been rolled in its container for YEARS, so getting it to lie flat at all was a huge success.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI repeated this process for the other two canvases, sucking equally at getting the air out of each. You can also see that I accidentally tore the Hawaiian Islands, but hey, they’re islands. At least I didn’t tear an entire country in half.

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Once all 3 canvases were done, I waited the required time as directed on the Mod Podge bottle (I think it was 2 hours). Then I Mod Podged the top of each canvas with two coats, waiting 20 minutes in between each coat. I took down the entire bottle of Mod Podge with this project (and I’ve used the words Mod Podge more times in this post than I’ve ever said in my whole life).

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI let them cure for two days on my dining room table. Warning: be ready with a wet paper towel in case anything drips on the surface of whatever you’re using. Since I’m also not super precise, I kept brushing Mod Podge onto my table when trying to brush the canvas sides, and luckily was able to wipe it up immediately.

After curing, I hung them and was surprisingly impressed at my ability to not destroy the map. They kinda look vintage, look kinda artsy, and definitely look better than just framing the original map. I also eyeballed hanging them with spaces in between each canvas because I can’t be bothered with a ruler and level.

With the coupon, I spent around $65 on 3 canvases, the brushes, and the Mod Podge. Not bad for a non-DIY-er. Not bad.

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♥, VB