an autumn weekend doing all the things

Hello Monday! 

I can't believe it, but I'm actually glad to have the week started, mostly because my week is so structured. Meanwhile this past weekend was a hectic one doing all the things to get our new place in shape. 

We made 3 separate trips to Home Depot. We also went to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's. We got our storage unit cleaned out and organized, re-planted our wedding succulents, shampooed the rugs & sofa, put up new storage shelving in our closet, organized our place, and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. It was kind of a lot and exhausting and we are still not quite done with our place yet. Even with so many errands and chores, there was some fun mixed into the weekend. We got pup to the dog park, managed to get into a little hocus pocus, enjoyed coffee breaks on our rooftop, went out to eat a few times, and did a little shopping at Anthropologie during their 25% off weekend where I fell in love and went home with this adorableness. Here's a few snaps of our weekend.

the tooth fairy works on weekends

 Happy Monday All! 

Though personally, it's getting harder and harder for me to distinguish the days from each other. It's all one big blur. Probably because I've been spending every single day drilling on all the teeth at dental school.

 Yesterday I spent 9 hours at the dental school practicing. And can you guess what I did with my Friday and Saturday night? Yep, this is how I've been spending my weekends lately. I sit for the first portion of my licensing exam at the end of the month and it's kind of a big deal if I ever want to be a dentist. So every spare moment has been dedicated to drilling on plastic teeth. It's why I've been a bit MIA around this space lately. Anything can happen the day of the exam. Nerves can get to you. You could make a mistake you've never made before. The odds may simply not be in your favor. That's the nature of taking a practical exam compared to a regular test. 

But for now, I'm practicing around the clock to develop speed, precision, and muscle memory because I want to pass this exam more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. And if I don't pass, it certainly won't be from lack of effort because this particular tooth fairy works on weekends.  

boating boston: kayaking the charles river

Don't you just love long weekends? Especially with being in a long distance relationship, having a little extra time to visit over the weekend makes a big difference. We had a relaxing labor day weekend and spent our time catching up on work, napping, shopping, brunching, and museum hopping. But my favorite thing we did was kayak the Charles River in Boston.

3rd anniversary weekend

this weekend husband and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary…well sort of

We've got a big trip planned soon to help us mark the occasion, but for now we took it easy and had a relaxed weekend together.

weekend snapshots [03.04.16]

Looking back, it's hard to believe that all these photos came from the same weekend. Early on, we were blessed with stunning 70 degree days, which quickly evolved into rain, then snow. Spring Anyone? Regardless, it was an amazingly relaxed weekend. Time was spent on morning runs along the Charles River and evening walks on the hiking trails. We squeezed in lots of work + brunch at our favorite spot. I can't pinpoint doing anything out of the ordinary this weekend, but that's what made it perfect.  

[OOTD details here]

I was being totally lazy this weekend, so hopefully you didn't mind all the iPhone photos. Looking forward to productive week.

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weekend things

I haven't been blogging a whole lot as of late, mostly because I've been a little overwhelmed. I'm feeling stressed with having to make more than a few life changing decisions. But this weekend was a nice change of pace, with a chance to relax.

 Here are a few weekend things.  

apartment cleaned + laundry done = a miracle! 

Grocery shopping included buying a new tulip plant. Hopefully, it blooms fully in time for Easter. 

♥♥♥

Popped into Anthropologie because I've been stalking this gorgeous lace blouse since December and it finally went on sale. It was half off, marked down from $118 to $60. Still a little pricey for me, but I had already resolved to buy it when this pleasant surprise showed up in my inbox...

I dropped everything and sprinted over to Anthro to scoop up the blouse for a mere $39! And I'm not even kidding about the sprinting part because Anthro is totally within walking distance...perks of living in the city. Since I'm pretty materialistic, this totally made my weekend.

 Heck, it made my month!  

Also, picked up this jade green planter at Anthro because our window sill garden was out of control. With Sunday being the first day of spring, we used it as an opportunity to tame the overgrown jungle and replant all the succulents, cacti, and flowers. 

the rest of the weekend was spent eating all the bad things like gourmet pizza followed by ice cream

and New England style Mac n Cheese…with lobster on top

hope you all enjoyed the weekend things 

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valentine's day 2016

After having to spend last Valentine's Day apart, we were grateful for the chance to celebrate together this year. Even so, we wanted to keep things low-key. We decided not to exchange gifts. Instead we agreed to simply focus on spending time together. Here's how we celebrated Valentine's Day 2016.

all you need is love…and art

We have been staying in a lot lately to help fend off this winter weather. But Valentine's Day really pushed us to get out of the house {even if it was -9 degrees outside}. We decided that it was a perfect opportunity to cross another item off our Boston Bucket List by visiting the Museum of Fine Arts. 

We spent a night at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art a few months ago and adored every minute of it. Since we prefer classical art to modern, we knew that we would love the museum of fine arts even more. And it did not disappoint! There were so many pieces from our favorites…Monet, De Gule, Picasso. We were actually a bit overwhelmed.  

We decided to start with one of the museum's many free tours. Our tour guide was a nice elderly gentleman with a Harvard PhD. He was so knowledgeable and showed us some exhibits that we might have otherwise skipped. It was a perfect way to get our bearings {because this museum is massive} and determine which exhibits were worth revisiting once the tour ended. 

These flowers were definitely one of the pieces we revisited…I could stare at these gorgeous beauties all day

 I'm a fan of all things impressionist 

  Me + Monet

A few other favorites included the music exhibit 

and the pieces from the ancient worlds of Egypt and Greece

Plus we were able to see the visiting Picasso exhibit 

But without a doubt, our absolute favorite was this red room that housed some of the Art of Europe. Husband wants the red damask wallpaper in our future home 

while I wanted to take this tea service 

The Boston MFA has been open for over 100 years, which has given them plenty of time to collect thousands of pieces to the art. We loved that we spent Valentine's Day here because now we have something extra special to remember it by. 

The Details 

Time: 3-4 hours 

Cost: Adult $25 (free to Boston students)

Featured Collections: European Art, Egyptian Art, Greek Art, Contemporary, Japanese Art, Art of the Americas 

winter weekending

This past weekend, a massive blizzard to hit the East Coast…

it was the kind of blizzard that shuts entire cities down

but here in Boston, it was simply an ordinary winter weekend 

{FRIDAY} 
Lots of people were snowed in, but Boston got just the right amount of snow….more than usual, but not enough to become a nuisance. It doesn't hurt that the snow plows were going around the clock. 

 Most of our time this weekend was spent XC-skiing. We go most weekday nights and weekend days to make the most of this winter weather. Speaking of winter weather…here's to getting caught in the snow 

After our night time ski session, I treated myself to a hot bath with my snow angel bath melt. My sore muscles were loving the hot water and my dried out skin {winter cold} was loving the moisturizing bath melt. Also, my baths are always accompanied by wine!  

{SATURDAY} 
A winter Saturday freshly blanketed in snow, it was all too easy to decide what to do with the day. 

After spending the morning XC skiing, we ran a few errands. The roads weren't horrible, but they weren't great either. I would have thought that less people would be out and about, but I was wrong. Costco was an absolute zoo. We only needed a few things, but it took us almost 2 hours to get out of there. We definitely earned the lunch at Chipotle that we had after. 

We had been missing our Chipotle since this fiasco started shutting down all the Boston locations. As you can see, we're glad they are open again. After Chipotle, Tom and PJ took a nap and I had to snap a few photos because they are the cutest cuddled up together. This is literally how they sleep together every time.  

Meanwhile I did a Target run and made dinner…baked chicken & roasted red potatoes

After dinner, we had a little time to kill. It had been snowing pretty heavily all day at this point so we were doing our happy dance. We strapped on our skis and grabbed PJ and XC-skied down the sidewalk to a clearing we know in front a building. I don't think PJ liked our skis, but he did enjoy running in the snow. 

Then we went to see Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. Glad we finally got to see it and even better, we had the best theater all to ourselves. You would think that we had never been to the movies before, the way were in there snapping so many selfies. 

But they had the best leather chairs with a button to recline your head and feet. Plus, we had the theater to ourselves. When does that happen? It was like watching a movie at home, except better because the chairs were nicer than the ones in our living room! This is probably what it's like to have a home theater? 

{SUNDAY} 
Can you guess what we did? Yep, more XC skiing! 
We are working on becoming more technical, so we decided to take a lesson. With XC skiing being one of the best full-body workouts you can get, we were exhausted after our two hour lesson. My thighs are still burning, but we learned so much and had a ton of fun! 

We also spent a good chunk or our morning replanting the succulents from our wedding. 

Then, the rest of the day was spent doing more chores around the apartment, like finally taking down our Christmas tree {I still cannot believe that it lived this long}, doing laundry, and baking muffins to have for breakfasts during the week. 

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Even with a Blizzard happening outside our door, we made sure to get out and get moving. This is pretty much what every winter weekend looks like for us…

What is your typical weekend include? 

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succulents & sundays

If you are following along, then you already know the significance of this photo. Tom and I are just a few days shy of of celebrating 8 amazing years together. Having met just out of high school, I feel like we have literally grown up together. With a long term relationship, it can be all too easy to take things for granted. Leave it to simplest sunday task to help put things into perspective.  

These succulents were guests at our wedding. They made up my bouquet, husband's boutonnière, and the flowers at the alter. After the I do's were said and the celebrations were over, these were planted. We spent the last two years fostering their growth as we have fostered our relationship and they are thriving. With these lovelies bursting out of their clay pot, we were happy to spend a good part of our sunday replanting those succulents so that they may continue to prosper. Sundays like today are the best for their simplicity. I wouldn't have expected such a simple task to lead to such reflection, but I'm thankful for our renewed appreciation for each other. 

Here's to Sundays filled with Succulent blooms  

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