Where I've Been

August has been a rough, rough month. At every turn, something happened that upended my routine, making it impossible to blog and nearly impossible just to catch my breath.

My best friend, who gave birth to my godson in July, unexpectedly lost her father. Then this happened, which sent my entire hometown and the surrounding area into a tailspin of heartbreak. The boys were students of both my best friend and my cousin. That same day, there were two other accidents in the same area: a car crash and a plane crash. Eight people died within a few miles of each other and within hours of one another.

Last week at the airport, we experienced an earthquake (though everyone, myself included, thought it was a bomb). Being evacuated from an airport in an emergency is NOT fun. We spent time in Maine with Jesse's family and our stay was unexpectedly extended when hurricane Irene decided to make an appearance.

August has certainly been a lesson in letting go, experiencing strong emotions without judgement, being grateful for those around me and learning that no matter how carefully you plan, life will always take you places you did not intend to be.

September, I welcome you with open arms.

{Image credit: Jeremiah Blatz}

Art Journaling Workshop

On Saturday I attended an art journaling workshop at Tranquil Space yoga studio in DC. Carolyn was in town and Valerie was going, so it was the perfect time to give it a try! I was a little bit apprehensive about cutting my magazines up and making a mess (thank you, neat freak tendencies!) but that soon went out the window. Kimberly encouraged us to start in the middle of our journals and to tear out images rather than cut them out. She also provided some prompts and lots of ephemera for us to play with. I spent most of the time finding images that spoke to me and getting them on the page instead of writing. However, when I got home on Saturday night, I immediately found more images, got to pasting and added in some writing. I'm afraid this workshop has created a monster! Here are some of my pages:

My ideal weekly calendar. I blocked out work time in pretty colors so all the time dedicated to that was less jarring. Essentially, an ideal weekday would be working out in the morning, followed by a healthy breakfast or a green smoothie, shower and work. After work time would be dedicated to cooking healthy meals and eating dinner with Jesse, yoga, journaling, blogging, reading and catching up with friends and family. Instead of nailing down a weekend schedule, I made a list of things I'd love to spend my weekends doing, which includes sleeping in, going to the farmers' market, reading, road trips, exercise, cooking and baking, etc.

I got on a muted colors kick for quite some time.

I'm not sure what I will do with this page, but I like the layers and love that, thanks to the Oprah magazine issue on poetry, I was able to title it "One Wild and Precious Life".

I loved the soft colors and dreamy quality of these ones. I filled in the spaces between the images with quotes that I like.

One of the prompts Kimberly gave was to find a large image and write over it with a Sharpie marker, responding to this: "Lately, I've been feeling...." I LOVED this! I even went through last night and found a few more large images to get into my journal for later writing. Something about writing over an image feels bold, creative and powerful. It also helped me overcome the writer's block I've been feeling lately.

After the workshop, I headed to Cafe Green with Valerie and Carolyn to catch up (and Carol met up with us too!) and have a late lunch, which you can read more about on Valerie's blog. A perfect Saturday indeed!

This past weekend...

I went to New Jersey to meet my new godson, Jayden. He's tiny and perfect in every way.

Right after eating.

Hanging out with Uncle Jesse

So little.

Sleeping on his Momma. This is his old man face.

Eating lunch with Aunt Lauren.

I can't wait to watch this little guy grow up and watch as my best friend grows into her new role as Mom. I'm so lucky to have them both in my life!

Weekend!

We had such a fantastic weekend! One of my friends from college came to visit from Texas. It was full of laughs, memory making and new adventures. I love the friends that you can see after much time has passed and it feels like you just saw them yesterday. In the very best way possible, I felt like a tourist in my own city this weekend. I need to get out and explore more often!

We started with a visit to the new Nationals baseball stadium to see them take on the Giants.

We got to see Strasburg pitch and purchased tickets for when the Nationals play the Phillies in a few weeks (I can't wait--the Phillies are my team!!)

On Saturday we headed to the Tim McGraw concert!

You can see why this weekend was affectionately dubbed "Big Beer Weekend 2010".

Jesse preferred a giant plastic guitar that was half margarita and half strawberry daiquiri.

On Sunday we went over to the National Harbor for lunch at Rosa Mexicano and some wandering.

This is where they moved The Awakening sculpture.

Much to my very excited surprise, they opened an entire store dedicated to peeps here! It's a shrine to the ooey-gooey sugar-coated marshmallow goodness.

Love me some peeps!

When we got home, Jesse and I watched my beloved Spanish team beat the Netherlands in the World Cup Finals (Viva la Furia Roja!), made some dinner and watched Burma VJ. So many good times were had this weekend! Hope you enjoyed your weekend too!

New Jersey

I spent the long 4th of July weekend in NJ with my family, friends and Jesse. For the first few days I couldn't stop checking out the sunsets in my Mom's backyard. City living can make you forget how beautiful nature can be.

My Mom and I did a little cooking, a little eating, a little wine drinking and a lot of catching up. I took this picture after saying, "Hey, Mom...pose for my blog!" and she responded, "How do I get to a blog?" Ha. Also? Please ignore the fact that she is already in her pajamas and has crazy lady hair.

This is the Ocean City beach. So, so pretty but so, so full of tourists. I miss this place a lot when I am not there.

Hanging out on the boardwalk for a bit. We spent our July 4th seeing two movies at the only drive-in movie theater left in NJ! I had never been to one but it was SO much fun! Hope you all had a great holiday too!