see ya later summer...hello fall!

As we head into labor day weekend, most people get a bit sad & want summer to stick around for as long as possible. The long warm days, beach trips, the short-shorts and sun dresses, they want that careless feeling to last forever. I for one, am not one of those people. I am welcoming fall & September for that matter, with open arms. Hello crisp, cool days, pumpkin spice lattes, cozy scarves, lazy Sunday's, a good crock-pot stew, leather jackets, skinny jeans, colorful leaves, apple picking...the list goes on & on.

Unfortunately in DC, and I'm sure many other parts of the country the heat & humidity tends to stick around a bit longer than I would like, therefore I've compiled some fall inspiration (read: fall fashion) that make me extra happy that my favorite season is right around the corner:

Is anyone else as excited for fall as me?!

*much love to Rue La La's pinterest boards.

let me upgrade you

I want to preface this by saying this is a total #firstworldpains post, but yesterday I got a major upgrade in my life, I went from this:

a 2007 Lenovo thinkpad, that I kid you not, took a half hour to load before you could do anything with it, to this:

a MacBook Air. I mean, just look at the difference in thickness! I've wanted a Mac for probably about forever now so this was a big day in my life. I was up far too late messing around with it, and I'm sure I will continue to do that into the long weekend. God bless you and your products, Apple.

tuesday tunes

so I said I was going to start doing posts like these every tuesday, or at least every other and then of course, I did not keep up with it, but I'm bringing it back people! below is my choice for this week: 

The group is called Mansions on the Moon and the song is Athens. A previous colleague of mine has a friend (or cousin?) who is friends with someone in the band, kinda cool right? Anyways, they aren't super well-known but when my colleague introduced them to me I was hooked, especially on this song, it has almost a haunting vibe to it, but my ears love it.

Let me know what you think of it!

life lately...

...according to instagram.

1. a little detour through NYC

2. new shoes

3. a smug pug

4. some weekend reading

happy monday - here's to a productive week!

camping getaway

This weekend I went camping for this first time ever. For those who know me well, I'm not a huge 'outdoorsy' person, mainly I really just don't like bugs (but who really likes them anyways?) But this time around I decided to put my fears aside and told myself to go outside of my comfort zone and do this. We packed up my car (way too much stuff for one night, but we needed it all!) and headed to Shenandoah National Park.

As my one colleague put it, this was considered "glamping" because we weren't truly in the wilderness as my car was about 2 feet away from our tents, so if something went really wrong such as a bear showing up or a sudden downpour we could have hopped in my car at a moment's notice. However, the weather was gorgeous & after a four hour hiking trip that day, I slept surprisingly well in the tent we had. Despite some small snafu's such as a curious raccoon trying to get into our trash & my car battery dying; I had a great first camping experience and it's definitely something I would do again in the future!

*Also the absolutely gorgeous views from Skyline Drive made it totally worth it too.

I like books.

...and I mean actual books, tangible ones. The reason this has been on my brain so much lately is because I have been going back and forth for weeks now trying to decide if I should buy a Kindle or not. I know this seems like a silly thing to debate (hello, first world pains) but I'm very old school in the sense that I like the feel of a book, I like being able to flip back and forth between the pages, admire the cover, highlight a passage that inspires me, there's just something special about it. Something that  you can't get from an iPad, Kindle or Nook or whatever e-reader is out there. I'll admit, a friend of mine recently got a Kindle & once I was holding it, feeling how lightweight it was, I realized how convenient it would be for my commute, traveling, etc. it may even speed up my process of getting through books. The more I thought about it, the more I felt I should just take the plunge, especially as someone who embraces technology & is usually one of the first to test something 'new-fangled' out. However, I still felt like I was cheating on books, I know I must sound like I'm over thinking this, but how else will I decorate my future apartment/home one day like the one above via Pinterest? I want my future children to be able to pull books off of a shelf, not just reach for a piece of machinery. I think for now, I'm going to stick with the 'old-fashioned' way; this is one part of technology that it will take awhile for me to convert to.