The Last Year of My 30’s
turning 39 is certainly weird. I don’t feel 39. My 39 doesn’t look at all like what my parents looked like at 39. I didn’t think I was going to live past 30, so having cleared almost another decade seems even more surreal. I’ve certainly been plagued more with the questions of what am I…
What is Home?
As someone who grew up in the same house, in the same town for the first 21 years of my life, home seemed really well defined. Life changes though and people spread apart. The reasons vary, careers, education, cost of living, or just dreams of living somewhere else. For myself, New England was always home…and…
Arts & Crafts Woodland Home
In love with this beautiful Arts & Crafts house showcased in Nora’s Winter Issue. This reminds me so much of the houses we stay at in Maine. Absolutely love the outdoor fireplace.
2016 In Retrospective
A little collage of 2016 for me. Some absolutely wonderful memories, some incredibly stressful memories and some very sad memories. This past year I lost my grandmother due to medical complications, and my fur buddy of 17 years fought for her last breaths by my side. My stress peaked to cause complete havoc in my…
Family Christmas
Craig and I hosted Christmas this year, since we’re not sure if this will be our last year at this home or not. We love being able to share the place with everyone and throw a fun party. This year we had planned on family trickling through but everyone actually came all together and stayed…
Feeling Broken
I’ve kept relatively quiet pre and post-election regarding politics. A few posts here and there, and everyone has confirmed for me why I don’t venture down that road. No argument will be won here. No amount of truth, science or rational logic will sway someone who is dead set on believing their opinion is the…
Reflections on Progress
Anyone who truly knows me, knows I am one of the last people to ever trump (pun intended) out the gender card or give any preference to one side or the other. To be clear, I’m not doing that now, just making an observation on progress. I actually got a little teary eyed tonight during…
Slowing Down
As I’m working through how to come out of burn out and not repeat this cycle again; the thought occurred to me that I need to slow down…way down. The statement, “you’re burning the candle at both ends” has been quite true for me for several years now. Today though, while driving around and enjoying the scenery,…
Fall Back, Regroup
I’ve been coming to the White Mountains region of New Hampshire, specifically Franconia Notch since I was 5 years old. Every summer my parents would make the trip up here for two weeks in August. It became my home away from home. I shared my love of this area with Craig (my boyfriend at the…
Retreating to Disconnect
This is trip is a vacation for all intent-and-purposes, but it’s got a second role, a company retreat. The company being the two person venture of CRIANA. In May I was elated, events were finally aligning where I could truly go solo and focus my energy, skills and time on our business idea. Increased work…
Clear Blue
My camera and my photography has taken a back seat over the past few years while I worked very hard at staying current in the web design & development field and lay a lot of groundwork for a business. Finally on vacation and I was determined to relax away from the computer and take photos.…
Prelude to Change
It has been quite a while since I consistently wrote for my site. To say a lot has happened since December when I wrote about the ornaments, or let alone early 2012, is an understatement. My 30’s have been an interesting time. Depressing, surreal and confident; not exactly three words one would normally put together. There is a lot…
9,949 Views
I guess I would have hoped one of my photos from Maine would have had a highest view on Flickr. Instead the photo that gets that accolade is my “What’s in Your Bag?” photo from 2006. It’s certainly funny looking back at what I carried then. I still have most of the items. Sold the…
2014: A Year of Hard Work
2013 could be easily defined with chaos that led to change. It could also have been defined as taking great leaps of faith, settling into hard work, which we then continued in 2014. 2014 was right up until the very last day, the slow payoffs for the hard work we’ve been doing. Craig took his health by the…
Day 6 of 16: Down East
Starting in 1995, we began vacationing in Maine. This I can thank my wonderful in-laws for. They told my Mom, she booked a house rental way up on the down east coast. This was a big deal for my parents, as every year of my childhood, summer vacation was in the White Mountains of New…
Day 5 of 16: The Carrot
A small and unique ornament. We were given this ornament as a wedding present by friends Craig and I grew up with. There was a story behind it, that placing this ornament every year on your tree would bring a good luck in the kitchen. Carrots have long held a special place in German legend.…
Day 4 of 16: Québec
When we were planning our wedding, our goal for our honeymoon was to go to Paris. Craig and had wanted to go back ever since he went in high school. As the year unfolded, this became less and less likely as our expenses mounted and our schedules got even busier than we thought they’d be.…
Day 3 of 16: The Millennium
2000 was a big year for a lot of reasons. The world had a mass panic that bank accounts were going to seize all because of a programming short-sight. Alas, all continued forward and the world did not end. For us personally 2000 was a big year, lots of change, lots of happenings. Craig and I decided…
Day 2 of 16: Unicorns
The story of unicorns interweaving in my life. As a girl who loved horses growing up, the mystical unicorn was something I used to draw often. Being a child of the 80’s who loved horses also meant I loved My Little Ponies (hey they’re back!). Skip forward to being a teenager taking AP Art History and…
Day 1 of 16: Dad’s Ornament
This ornament is one of the most important to me. As a kid I could not have cared less. My Dad fussed about this, always making sure it had a safe place on the tree. As a teenager I finally asked, what’s the story with those beads? My Dad being the locked vault he usually…
16 Days of Ornaments
As we decorated our Christmas tree this year, I realized we don’t have a theme. While we both like design and could do one in a certain style, our ornaments are not about that, each one has a story. When I pull them out of the boxes they are stored in and hang them on…
The Bold Coast
Getting away from everything for a week and it’s wonderful. Our first night we were greeted with an amazing sunset from our private beach. It’s becoming a vacation of reading books, taking photos, trying new drinks and cooking delicious food.
2013: A Belated Year In Review
2013 can be summed up for us in one word: Change. I intended to write a summary of what was possibly one of our craziest years to date back in December. I had the silly notion that 2014 would be a slightly slower pace than it’s predecessor. As I write this now at the end…