look a little closer blog

I have had the most amazing past few days. I was in Kansas City with some of the coolest people in the world – AND some of my best girls from college – for Brittanie’s wedding. I haven’t seen some of the girls in 2-3 years, but we picked up exactly where we left off. It was absolutely incredible!

Before Ms. Bagby could become Mrs. Baker, we had many fun things to do!
Starting with her underwear tree bachlorette party!

…and a fun cocktail hour…

…where Britt was able to give Jesse a quick squish…

…before we took her out for the rest of the night!

We went to an interesting part of KC and had our own private party!

After dancing, we drank special cocktails. I think this was “the blushing bride..”

After a day of rest, it was time for the practice round!

The church had pretty windows!

We went to the rehearsal dinner which had awesome southern food!
And pretty swans by the lake. The little ring bearer and I admired them together!

After the dinner, it was time to mingle with Brittanie’s Atlanta crew back at the house.
…but not before we revisited a college tradition of each bringing a bottle of vino!

Atlanta and Iowa crews hanging out!
One of the coolest things was meeting all of Brittanie’s other friends and family since our days at Iowa.

We all got along “swimmingly!”
This pool was awesome!
(this whole “space” thing seriously makes me consider moving back to the midwest!)

We woke up to the big day and had a catch up time with Brittanie.

We finally got ready and we all looked beautiful!

Brittanie kept her dress a secret the whole time. The only things we knew were that it was lace, that it was vintage, and she said it looked like it came from a sepia tone photo.

We waited and all cried when we saw her!
She was so beautiful.

The flower girl said she looked like a princess, I agree.

Some quick photos while waiting for the trolly!

Off to the wedding!

We make a pit-stop downtown to take some photos with the couple!

I don’t have photos of the wedding itself, but it was amazing. I lit the candles and read the petitions. Kristin, Brittanie’s friend from Atlanta, sang the Lords Prayer and gave everyone chills. Brittanie and Jesse were surrounded by their friends and it was an absolutely perfect wedding.

The night ended with all of us dancing on a rooftop in downtown Kansas City.

BFFs!!

We all threw popcorn while they skipped off to their honeymoon.

I was thrilled to be part of their wedding as the candle lighter and petition reader!
THANK YOU so much and CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

High school sweethearts, best friends, and an awesome couple — they have reminded me that fairy tales do exist!

Sometimes life is crazy, but with all the upcoming weddings (Brittanie!) and engagements (AJ!), I’m finding that love is in the air. And it’s made it’s way to the city! Last night I went walking and thought about how lucky I am to have so many awesome people in my life!

These photos are for all of you and how you remind me that all you need is love.

Thank you.

I <3 you all!

**
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if traffic looked like this?

Stop! In the name of love…

or…walk to it!

I am in a city connected by bridges
I wish they all had lights of hearts…

Where will this path of hearts take me?

Maybe people would like Shell more if they were filled with hearts…

For those that love getting their nails done…

I wish the subway always greeted me with hearts!

Even Times Square felt the love…

So did the theatre!

Have a lovely day.

For the 4th, Afton and I took a midnight train to Montauk.

We got there around 4:00 am.

Montauk is literally at the end.

We rushed to the beach to watch the prettiest sunrise.

Some seagulls joined us.

And we played in the sand.

And sent lots of messages to our loved ones!

Shortly after this photo, we both passed out on the beach!
And woke up to a sparkly sea!

And an amazing sky blue sky.

Eventually, we decided to explore the town by bike and saw many things!

We went back to the beach, but this time we weren’t alone.

After 12 hours of blasting sun, exploring, and lots of laughing later we finally made it back to the train.

Where I caught the sunset on the train.

What a perfect day.

….flock together…

like all of my awesome, colorful friends; I like eclectic, colorful birds!

did i mention swamp birds are my favorite? ~ especially the snowy egret.

I’m pretty sure in another life, I was a bird.

i love all animals and nature.
this weekend i saw lots of both!

**
saturday morning i was greeted by a pigeon and squirrel..

a really curious one.

i think he strayed from his friends.
there were so many squirrels – they must have been having a nut gathering.

i saw some fun shadows on my walk to meet amy.

we met up and went to the park…
where she told me the names of the different types of birds.

hello mr. bluejay!

and ms. chickadee! (there were lots of people out resting!)

ms. chickadee decided to say hello to the red wing blackbird…
or maybe she was saying bye bye blackbird…;)

this little birdy said hello while i rested on the bench.
(we didn’t know what kind he was…)

maybe he wanted to say hello to the bird on my bag.

after we watched the birds, we decided to walk around.
but not before i pointed some love to the trees…

we walked in the Shakespeare garden…

…and by the castle..

where we saw mother goose protecting her eggs.

**
it was a beautiful day!
it was so colorful and bright..
almost like the Columbus circle station.

hope you had a lovely, beautiful, bright, colorful holiday weekend!!

I can’t believe how fast this year is going!
Here’s how I spent my first weekend in June.

Amy and I took a walk along the Riverside park.
We had to walk under a big bridge to get there.

And I found some pretty rust.

Along the river, I noticed lots of trash…

…styrofoam that kind of looked like a fossil…

…abandoned stick forts…

…trunks of spilling amber…

…and the cutest family in the world!

This little guy wanted to spread his wings~

…while these guys wanted to rest…

…mommy and daddy supervised!
‘

I’m also pretty sure that we found the lochness monster.

But there were much prettier things to look at…
…like sparkly rocks and clovers..

…trees full of berries.

…and lots of flowers!

Actually, this city is full of flowers.
From the Upper West Side…

To Queens..

And on 23 Street.

**
On Sunday, Julian and I went to the Brooklyn Flea at this old bank.

We watched one of my favorite bands, Camera Obscura in a vault…

…with pretty light!

The show was awesome!!!
After the show, we walked around the flea, looked at jewelry, and had ice cream.

When I got home, I played around with a new watercolor.

It was a great weekend!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

I’m not that tech-savvy.
I barely know how to add photos to this blog.
I just used Skype for the first time…

the internet is soooo cool! haha

My super-awesome-adorable-couple-change-the-world-friends are in Georgia for the Peace Corp and told me I had to get Skype so we could stay in touch. I finally did and noticed that McKinze was online!

We chatted and I took her pic!

And she showed me to make Georgian bread in a what looks like a well!

YUM!

Miss you two lovelies, but I’m soooo happy and excited for you! And I love reading your blog!!!

xoxo

p.s. my desktop background is some awesome paper art by Katie Soloker!

I feel silly blogging about this, but Calee gave me a “sunshine award“! (thank you!)

This means you share five things about yourself and give the award to others.

about me:

1. I have multiple layers of self-expression. This is my “wearing-my-heart-on-my-sleeve” spot, but this had months of password protected posts. After that I created a “super secret blog”, and I keep a journal for doodles.

2. I collect scraps of paper and I organize them into pretty boxes.

3. I love finding random things from the street. (I used to love it more until I had bed bugs)
I found this yellow thing on the sidewalk and used it to organize and color code my other paper.

4. I used to be a butterfly doctor. Well, not really. But when I was a kid, I thought I was one. I used to make hospitals out of kleenex boxes and crushed sugar cubes into sugar water. My name was “Dr. Victoria Gardens” and I gave butterflies flowers with sugar water.

I have 50 year old butterflies. I was mortified when my grandmother gave this to me.

p.s. I can still identify types of butterflies.

5. One time I drove around Chicago with Lavi’s poop in my hand and I sent an email to a few friends about it. Yup, true story, here’s what I wrote in 2006. (I love letter writing and sending updates to friends. This was part of a winter break update.)

oh. one funny story. the other day i was leaving chicago, with the kitty’s. well one of them s*** on me. seriously. in my hand. i had let them out and i had put up a litter box in the car because we were going to be in the car for 8 hours and i didn’t want them to go in their pink palace. so i let them out too early (but they were freaking out) and then i reached behind my seat to feel were lavi was, and put my hand directly under her a** where she was crapping. so then i had to drive with s*** hands to the gas station. and i was freaking out the whole time. it was pretty damn funny and messy. but i still let the cats run around once we were on the highway. and they didn’t do it again. thank goodness….

but look how cute and helpful she is? how could i not forgive her?

**

That’s a little bit about me.

So, my favorite blogs. Here they are.

1. Color Me Katie- Katie Soloker is a local artist who just makes me happy! She does all sorts of awesome street art, paper art, and just exudes creativity and happiness.
2. Off We Go-My friends, McKinze and Sean, are a lovely couple who blog about their adventures and life together. Their biggest adventure yet is going to Georgia to serve in the Peace Corp!
3. [Insert Clever Title Here]- Calee’s friend is an open book. She’s not afraid to spill open. At all.
4. TV Therapy- Lisa Palmer + recap of House episodes = Awesome. I don’t watch the other shows she writes about, but check it. She’s great.

I don’t know who my fifth is. I’ve come across so many awesome blogs. It’s everyone! And I need to do some work!

I had the best birthday week and it ended with a bang!

Last Friday, Kristen and Anthony took me out to dinner. We went to Tangra in Queens. It was a fusion of Indian and Asian. The ambiance was a little strange, but definitely unforgettable. I couldn’t tell if I was in a museum, a palace, or a grandmother’s house.

Kristen also surprised me with a strawberry cake!
It was beautiful and personalized!

It even had three-layers!

It was also amazingly tasty!
The cake was a sweet ending to my birthday week, but the way the cake was presented to me was really the icing of the whole week!

**Imagine being in conversation–slightly tired from a long work week–and all of a sudden hearing the background noise stop and switch to a loud-techno-Indian-beat. The waiter brought me my three-layered cake with an enormous candle and an entourage of people singing behind him. That was only the beginning! Once he lit the candle; the flame burst up like a firework, opened up into a flower, and started spinning and playing “happy birthday.”**

Kristen took some amazing photos and they really captured the moment (and my surprise!)

It was really hilarious and I couldn’t stop laughing–we also couldn’t get the flower to stop singing–until the waiter disconnected the wire.

Thank you both very much for an unforgettable birthday!

Hooray for Wednesday sunshine!

Lately, I’ve been learning about self-love, and have been finding ways to brighten my own spirits for the days the sun isn’t shining!

Like putting hearts on my nails…

Which definitely brighten my keyboard..

Giving myself big hug in the middle of the day! (and thinking of giving Lavi a squish–she literally squeaks like a squeak toy when you squish her)

And encouraging my friends to do the same!

Have you hugged yourself lately?

If not, give yourself a big hug, squish, and feel the love!

xo

p.s. Squishing someone you love is equally as important! So for all my far away friends, I’m sending you a big squish today!

I found another wall to add some color to!

My friend’s, Kristen and Anthony, recently moved to a new apartment in Queens. They do a lot of energy work and healing arts, and have been working on the feng shui of their apartment.

Anthony helped me add tape to the back of the pieces, and then added them as a color pallete to my arm.

I learned a little about elements, color, energy, and baguas!

Hopefully these bright colors will bring positive energy!

And remind them to love and dream.

Enjoy friends!