Happy Valentine’s Day!

Since it’s a day for love I wanted to share one of my favorite love poems, dedicated to my Valentine, Nick.

Pausing by Lady Lee Andrews. Illustration by Nicolas Thomassin

Lady Lee Andrews is a Puerto Rican poet and her husband is a French artist named Nicolas Thomassin. They own a few little shops in Old San Juan; one is the cutest little coffee and art shop called The Poet’s Passage and the other is  Mi Pequeño San Juan, where they mold and hand paint replicas of historical buildings and doors in Puerto Rico. (I bought a door for myself as a souvenir; it’s adorable)

Nick and I visited the coffee shop every day when we were on our honeymoon. It was just one of the many reasons I fell in love with Puerto Rico. I bought this illustration and a book of poems by Ms. Andrews at the coffee shop before we left.

When I think of love, I think of sitting on the white, sandy beach in Puerto Rico with my brand new husband, eating mofongo and drinking Don Q (the real Puerto Rican rum). This poem takes me back there and makes me fall in love all over again.

Sunday, oh Sunday.

Today’s serenade is more Fitz and the Tantrums. The “More Than Just A Dream” album has been playing on repeat in my car, and we’re going to see them in May so I’ve been loading up. Anyway, this song, Last Raindrop, is beautifully poignant, but has a good beat. “Now that winter’s fallen / all of the color’s gone”. I mean, who hasn’t felt that way at one point or another during the somber winter season?

This Week’s Top 5:

1. Skype:  Commuting 1.5 hours for grad school is tough because I miss out on a lot of study groups. But, thanks to Skype, I’m able to do homework and study with my school partner (who affectionately calls me his MPH mama because I try to keep him organized) and learn the material much easier than if I was studying on my own.

2. New Phones: New things are always exciting. This week I said good bye to my iPhone and said hello to the new Moto X. It syncs with all of my google accounts, which is way more useful for me since I’m NOT an Apple/Mac person (and I loathe iTunes). I’ve only had it a few days but, so far, I’m loving it! “Okay, Google Now… find me a latte!”

3.  Being Organized. It has taken me several weeks to get back into the swing of school after my month-long winter break. But I finally sat down this week and filled in my planner, wrote out to-do lists, and organized my files and folders. I’m still working on the time management aspect of online courses but I think being better organized about the rest of my studies will help!

4. Good Habits: For a while, I turned into the stereotypical student, staying up all night and sleeing in until late morning/afternoon. It was fun for a while but then I started feeling guilty because Nick was up in the mornings being productive while I struggled to stay motivated to get dressed for class. This week I started going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, going to the gym (kind of… baby steps!) and being more productive. And it feels great 🙂

5. Parking Spaces. I don’t know why, but parking causes me so much anxiety. The other night, Nick and I went out to dinner at a restaurant that is usually packed but has terrible parking. After circling the area several times and debating whether we should risk parking acrossthe street (where there are signs literally every few feet about getting towed if you park there and go to one of the restaurants across the street) we were resigned to just going somewhere to else to eat. We drove past one last time and, boom, a parking spot opened up! We snagged it and had a yummy, anxiety-free dinner.

Photo of the Week:

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve already seen this but it’s probably the best photo I’ve ever taken so I wanted to share it again! We were out for brunch again when I snapped it. I’m planning to print and frame this (all of the coffee photos I’ve taken, which is at least 3 at this point) and hang them in the kitchen. How fun is that?

I’ve been listening to Shakira on repeat again this week, first in English and then in Spanish, but I figured I would give you all a break! This week’s song is ‘Hurricane’ by MS MR. I first heard it on Spotify radio but now I’m hearing it on mainstream radio, which is exciting. Every time I hear it, I’m reminded of my freshman year of college and I can’t figure out why, but there’s something about the way it sounds that takes me back.

This Week’s Top 5:

1. Snow. Snow, snow, snowy snow! This week it snowed while I was at home and classes were cancelled so I didn’t have to worry about driving back and forth for class like I did the week before. I got to stay home and snuggle up with my furbabies and drink coffee and be warm. I also got to wear and photograph a casual snow outfit.

2. Dinner Parties.  A few weeks ago we attended a dinner party. This week we hosted a small dinner party for our neighbors. It’s almost creepy how similar we are to our neighbors. We live on the same street (duh!), we have two dogs that we love and spoil very much, we even have the same wedding anniversary, among many other things. So dinner was a blast!

3. Tiramisu. I don’t normally like tiramisu because I don’t like soggy bread and that’s what it is to me. But Nick decided to make some for our dinner party and, of course, it was delicious. His layering was perfect because the soggiest cookies were on the bottom and easy to eat around. I’ll only eat his tiramisu from now on!

4. Yoga. It always makes me feel better. I don’t go nearly as often as I should. I’m shooting for three times a week and usually only make it once, if I make it at all. I attend the Body Flow class at my gym and it’s never before 9 AM so I really have no excuse. I’m gonna have to get on that.

5. Good News. Good news is always exciting. This week Nick got good news about his job, my friend got good news about her law school applications, and I got good news when class was cancelled because of the snow (see what I did there?!).

Photo (s) of the Week:

This week you get two photos! And to all of you out there that are stuck in a snowy wonderland every winter, I apologize for all of the snowiness you’re about to see. We southerners don’t get snow very often so some of us get really excited when it comes (or, at least, this one does!)

Snowy Sunrise

The morning after the snow, I took this photo in our back yard. I love how you can see the peak of sun coming through the trees, so blissful. These are my favorite types of photos to take and see – the sun shining through trees. It was cold and bright, snowy and quiet. It was just perfect. I’m glad I get to share this moment with you!

Snowy Country Lane

My parents took this photo at their house this week, which is in a more moutainous region than mine, so they get a little more snow. I think this is a beautiful photo, with the falling snow and the pop of red from the poinsettia decorations. I bet my dad didn’t realize how artistic he was being when we took it!

Oh yeah, you knew it was coming… Shakira’s new single in Spanish! You’re welcome.

I mentioned in last week’s Serenade that I absolutely adore Shakira. I’ve followed her ever since I first heard ‘Whenever, Wherever’ in 20o1 and even though I love her English music, I love her Spanish  songs even more. Which makes sense because it’s her native language where she can express herself best. One of the things I’ve always loved about her music is the way she uses metaphors to describe everything! Listen to more Shakira. You won’t regret it.

This Week’s Top 5:

1. Days Off.  We didn’t have class on Monday in observance of MLK, but I had a lot of school work to do so I didn’t really get the day off. However, on Thursday, I didn’t do any school work and instead slept in, drank coffee, and did a little shopping – which is good for new outfits but bad for my 30 for 30 Challenge. Oops. It was nice, though, but I had to make up for it by staying up late Friday night to finish a project before the deadline. It was definitely worth it.

2. Brownies. Probably my favorite dessert of all time, we made a fresh batch this week and they really hit the spot. Nick is going to learn how to make them from scratch and then I’ll make him bake homemade brownies all the time.

3. The Perfect Hair Bun. I love when it only takes me one try to put my hair up into the perfect bun. And by perfect, I mean there aren’t too many hairs falling loose so I only have to use, maybe, 2 bobby pins instead of 12.  There are days when I stand in front of the mirror and redo my hair so many times that my arms begin to hurt. It’s silly really, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

4. Reading Journal Articles that You Actually Find Interesting. In graduate school you read a lot. A LOT. Mostly book chapters, but also journal articles that are chosen by the professor to really drive home a topic you’re learning. Those articles aren’t always the most fun reading you do but you also get to do some research on your own and read articles that you find really interesting and you think maybe you’re one step closer to choosing a topic for your thesis. This week I read an article that discussed the fact that our society does not generally support promoting body satisfaction and body acceptance among overweight and obese individuals, yet body dissatisfaction does not motivate overweight and obese youth to adopt healthier behaviors or gain less weight. But enhancing body satisfaction among overweight and obese girls could actually promote healthier weight-related behaviors and essentially lessen weight gain. It seems to be the best of both worlds. See, interesting!

5. Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. It’s a perfect lunch for a chilly day. Especially when it’s made with Vermont white cheddar, fontina, chive & onion cream cheese, and then you add bacon. Yum! I think that’s all I need to say about that 🙂

Photo of the Week:

It’s been very cold this week, even the furbabies need some extra warmth when they go out for their walks. Maybe we’re overdoing it a little, but Chico is wearing his sweater AND coat! Mia has more fur than Chico so she’s only wearing a coat. We do what we have to in order to keep our babies safe and warm.

After reading an article from Women’s Health Magazines about how to bliss out your bedroom, I decided my newest household endeavor would be to turn my bedroom and master bathroom into a spa-like retreat. It’ll take some work, which requires time, but I’m starting with taking baby steps.

First thing’s first, I decided to make some DIY storage boxes from old shoe boxes to remove the clutter from our dressers. I have a really bad habit of throwing everything onto the dresser: clothes, papers, pens, jewelry, books, you name it. I’ve tried so many times to make a habit of tidying up on a regular basis but I decided it’s much easier to hide the mess. Hey, like I said, baby steps! These boxes are really easy to make and only require some fabric and spray glue.

Step 1: Iron the Fabric. This may seem tedious (it did to me because I’m impatient and wanted to jump right in) but you don’t want your finished product to be all wrinkled. It won’t look as nice. If your fabric is already nice and smooth, you can probably skip this step.

Step 2: Trace the Box on the Fabric.

Sit the box on the fabric and trace around the bottom. THEN, without moving the bottom/base from its position, FLIP it onto its side and trace that side onto the fabric. Place the box back on its bottom in the original rectangle/square you traced and flip it on the other side and trace. Do this for all four sides.

I didn’t get a good photo using the pretty patterned fabric so here it is in the orange!

Now comes the tricky part.  I used a rectangular-shaped box so I extended the long sides by an inch on each side, meaning, once I traced out all the sides, I used the ruler and added an inch to tops and sides of the two longer sides. To the two shorter sides (on a shoebox, this is where the list the name and size of the shoe, if that helps), I added an extra inch only to the end, and not on the sides. If you’re using a square-shaped box, just do this to two of the opposite sides (as if they were the “longer” sides)

The reason is because of this: when you’re gluing your fabric to the box, you want each side of fabric to be long enough to cover the side of the box AND fold over to the inside of the box so that the entire box is covered and none is exposed. By adding an inch to the top and sides of each longer side of the fabric, you have enough fabric to wrap over the edge of the box, as well as about an inch to wrap along the sides, which will smooth out the seams when you fold up short sides in the end. You’ll see what I mean in Step 4.

So, after adding your extra inches described above, this is what your fabric should look like:

Maybe this will help:

Step 3: Prep and Glue the Fabric. Lay down your newspaper/old magazine pages so that you cover all surfaces you don’t want to get sprayed with adhesive. Place the fabric on the newspaper and give it a generous spray with the glue. Make sure to cover every inch of fabric with a good amount of glue.

Step 4. Press the Glued Fabric onto Each Side. Now, work quickly but carefully. Start with the long sides and press the fabric smoothly onto the side like so:

Then fold the sides over like so (this is why you want the extra inch of fabric on each side, without it, you wouldn’t be able to fold the sides over and then it will be harder to smooth out the edges and some of the box might even be left exposed):

Then fold the tops over the edge of the box, like so:

Repeat on the opposite side. Then, fold the shorter sides up and smooth out the seams, like so:

Make sure as you go, you smooth out each side as best as you can.

Step 5: Repeat all of the procedures for the lid:

Step 6: Let Dry. Let the box for an hour or so and it’ll be ready to use!