This post is four days late. I'm sorry.
I dropped the ball big time this month and was only able to get one post up for the entire month of May! How does that happen? Well, like December, May is the other month that goes crazy with graduations, birthdays, parties, summer soirees, dance recitals, you name it! It was so jam packed and fun, it makes me sad that I didn't get those memories recorded in here earlier. Hopefully that means that they will all be in here by the end of June!
I started posting these "view through my lens posts" to help recap each month through my iPhone shots to keep random snapshots saved and easy to find. They are, by far, my favorite posts to write, as I am able to relive each and every memory from the month.  

We started May off by traveling up to a small lake town in NH to celebrate Mother's Day with our mommy. All four of us pitched in to hook her up with a fitbit Charge so she can fit in with the kewl kats now! I printed off the fun "mom" wrapping paper from Almost Makes Perfect.

Had to share this pretty shot I grabbed the other day looking over Battery Street in Boston's North End/Waterfront. Goodness, it's beautiful here! Old North always seems to find its way into my pictures.

My friend surprised me earlier in May by gifting me an impromptu trip to Vegas to celebrate being done with my undergrad career! It was TRULY a one of a kind trip. We flew out at 6am, stayed for 14 hours, and then took a red-eye back to Boston! Fortunately, we were able to get a taste of Vegas, and enjoyed our day of exploring sin city! I am in the process of editing a vlog from the trip, so stay tuned!

Love this picture that L's brother snapped of us walking through Christopher Columbus Park, on our way to nosh on some Sail Loft food.

 L and I both celebrated our undergrad graduations a few weeks ago and couldn't be happier. We are thrilled to have completed this chapter of our lives! L finished with a degree in finance, and mine in Biology! I'm working on a vlog for graduation as well... should be up later this month!

I felt inspired to decorate my cap last minute! 

 From Boston, we took a road trip to Ohio to celebrate my sister's birthday and her med school graduation. Don't worry.... there's a vlog in the works for the road trip/her graduation/lake/her move as well!

 While in Ohio, L and I attended our 5 year class reunion, and were fortunate enough to see two of oldest and dearest friends. Remember, the baby shower gift we put together last month? That was for this little peanut. He has yet to arrive and is now past his due date!

 We made our way up to Crooked Lake in Indiana to spend some time with L's family and get our burns on. My first time up there!

 ...and I liked it! A LOT! I'm now trying to talk L into getting a boat and some jet skis.

 I wrapped the month up by helping my sister and her fiance move cross country to their new home in Maine where she will be doing her residency. What a fun move that was! I think the truck alone is bigger than the apartment that I currently live in.

Looking forward to what June has in store for us!
January // February // March // April

How to glue a puzzle (great housewarming gift!)

We love decorating our walls with fun and meaningful custom made pieces that tell a story or are interesting to look at. A majority of these pieces being trail maps from our favorite ski mountains. I'm always on the lookout for fun items to frame which is why I bought this awesome hometown puzzle from L.L. Bean (shocker!) a couple months ago with intentions of glueing it together and having it framed.

Our home, which is represented by a house shaped puzzle piece, was extremely accurate, honing right in on the street that we currently live on. The rest of the puzzle features miles of surrounding terrain using detailed topographic map data. I'm really glad that I ordered this puzzle with our Boston address, as it encapsulates the "heart shape" that Boston looks like from a map, and the many rivers, wharfs and the Boston harbor that surrounds the mainland. It took maybe two days to complete thanks to the details of the water making it easy to sort and put together. Along with the North End, Beacon Hill and Waterfront, I'm really glad that the puzzle also includes the airport and Charlestown as well, two places that we frequent... often! 

I've never glued and sent a puzzle off to be framed before, so I decided to document the process and make a short little "how to" film out of it to help anyone who is looking to do the same thing!

Products Used in the video:

• Hometown Map Puzzle
• Mod Podge Puzzle Saver
• Scraper
• Foam Brush
• I used Framebridge to frame this puzzle. 
• Frame Name: Sonoma
• Mat Color: White

I've attached pictures and directions below for you to reference to as well.

Transfer your puzzle onto parchment or wax paper to protect your work surface. 

Use a puzzle glue to affix all of the pieces together. I used Modge Podge Puzzle Saver.

Start in the middle and work your way out.

 Use a "scraper" to spread the glue out over the entire puzzle. I used a scraper similar to this one.

Use a foam brush to smooth out the glue and fill in the cracks between the pieces (try to keep all of the brush strokes going in the same direction).

Let the front half of the puzzle dry for 30 minutes before starting on the back.

Once both sides are dry it should be sturdy enough to hold without breaking.

Package the puzzle up to get framed.

Your puzzle should arrive 7 to 10 days later and ready to be hung!

This is such a great custom made gift to give as a housewarming gift or to keep for yourself. 

We will certainly be making more for any future moves!

View Through My Lens: April

I started posting these "view through my lens post" to help recap each month through my iPhone shots to keep random snapshots saved and easy to find. They have quickly become my FAVORITE post to write, as I am able to relive each and every little memory from the month.

We started out the month with a bang! L asked me to marry him while we were hiking Cathedral Ledge in North Conway! I was truly shocked and am still on Cloud 9! I can't believe we've been engaged for over a month now - time flies!

Two of our nearest and dearest friends from high school are expecting their first little one this summer, so we put together a little something something for him. We cannot WAIT for his arrival!

We wanted little Levi to have the book, "Make Way for Ducklings", so we ran down to the Public Garden to get this fun photo with Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings. Make way for Spring!

I'm pretty excited about the wedding planning, which I have yet to begin! I designed a wedding planner checklist for my wedding binder and put it up in my Etsy shop. There's nothing like a five page checklist to keep you on track!

Couldn't resist sharing this calendar worthy shot of Macy Cat. She looks tiny compared to this door.

I've become recently hooked on the harvest bowl from sweetgreen, so I took matters into my own hands and put together an easy vegetarian dupe of the delicious salad. Scrumptious!

As I mentioned on here before, I am putting my green thumb to work by attempting to grow a tiny hop garden. A friend kindly gifted me with Columbus hop rhizomes and they have made tremendous growth progress, aside from the cat incident. Oh well!

I'm going to miss these stairs - there is a move in our near future!

I get these random desires to try something new... this month it was needlepoint. Stars and stripes are coming soon!

L's family is visiting this week/end which gave us the perfect opportunity to be tourists in our own city. The following pictures are a few of the adventures that we found ourselves on!

 I always run around the monument in Charlestown, but have never been this close to it. We look like teensy, tiny ants!

 We made it out to a Red Sox game and ended up with AMAZING seats. We could touch the dugout and could practically see the sweat on the players. Not too shabby!

 ...and then it got really cold. Really, really cold.

I attended Taste of the North End for the first time and got to spend the evening with great company! This gets me one step closer to eating my way through the North End!

Boston harbor. Beautiful!

 We had good intentions of going on the Harpoon Brewery Tour, however the wait was 3+ hours! We ordered a flight, noshed on a pretzel, and then walked home.

 After walking past this house everyday for the past year, I finally went inside to tour it. So much fun history here!

 This picture makes me truly appreciate where we live and all of the incredible history that surrounds us. There is no other city that will ever compare. I'm glad that we have been able to spend a little slice of our lives in Boston and encourage anyone and everyone to do so as well!

Looking forward to what May has in store for us!
January // February // March 

Mother's Day Gift Guide

With Mother's Day less than two weeks away, it seemed appropriate to build a list of gift ideas that can be used to help pick out a gift for your mom! I wanted to share my top picks that I think mom's would appreciate and get a lot of use out of!

1  /  2  /  3  /  4  /  5  /  6  /  7  /  8  /  9
What are you thinking about picking out or making for your mom for Mother's Day?

sweetgreen dupe: Vegetarian Harvest Bowl

I'm sure I've mentioned on here before that I tend to stay away from food that starts with "s" and end in "alad", however to my surprise, I may have turned a new leaf. A friend recently introduced me to the world of sweetgreen, and I have been growing more and more interested ever since, one of my favorites being the harvest bowl.
I wanted to share a sweetgreen dupe that I put together at home. It's very similar to the harvest bowl, however it is vegetarian friendly and a few of the ingredients were adjusted to better satisfy my tastebuds.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup wild Rice
• 1/2 cup chick peas
• 1/2 cup sweet corn
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup apples
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 4 cups chopped kale
• 1 to 2 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette

Combine all of the ingredients into either a large mixing bowl or sealable container and mix until the dressing has been evenly distributed. 

I truly believe that the chopped apples are what do it for me in this salad. Kale is such a boring veggie to eat, however the apples sweeten it up like none other, and the almonds give it a fun crunch! The chick peas and corn also add some fun flavor to it as well!

RANDOM STORY: Unfortunately, there is not a location within convenient walking distance to the North End (yet), however my sister and I made it our mission to have a salad from there this past Monday so we laced up our walking shoes and trekked it out to the Pru to indulge. Our attempt to get sweetgreen turned into a two + hour adventure similiar to Harold and Kumar go to white castle minus all of the smoking. You would think that being a resident of Boston I would have some idea as to the events that go on in this city!? I do... I just don't apply this knowledge when I need to. Of course this past Monday was marathon Monday so the usual route out there had obviously been rerouted since the finish line is very close to the Prudential Center. Boy am I glad we made it out there though! We made it just in the knick of time as the first men and women's finalist were turning onto Boylston Street! The cheering and support from the thousands of spectators that lined the street was so inspirational and the look of triumph on the runners faces as they turned onto Boylston street was amazing! Everyone is so supportive of ALL of the runners and it carries on even after the race when the runners walk around the city wearing their marathon jackets. So much support! I had goosebumps the entire time!
And in case you're sitting on the edge of your seat wondering, yes we did end up finding our way over to the Prudential Center to eat our salads after taking a different route.

 What's YOUR favorite sweetgreen salad?