the art of calligraphy

Everyone, I have had serious calligraphy envy for years. We all know the Pinterest photos of the perfectly addressed envelopes and crazy creative chalk board art. For years I thought I would never be able to master the art, and would forever be stuck with lopsided bubble letters that look like a four year-old drew. 

And then, I moved to D.C. and they have all of these classes you can take on basically everything (seriously they have a trapeze class...I am so doing that sometime this winter). 

Just when I thought I had somehow missed out on the sought after calligraphy classes, I came across an article on Style Me Pretty featuring the amazing work of Laura Hooper. By some miracle, there just happened to be a class with a few openings left and I jumped on it. And I am so glad I did.  

The great part of going to a class at an amazing event planning studio is that it wasn't set up like a class at all. Instead, I walked into this great Halloween inspired party with wine and champagne and mini pies. Ummm, hello? Best Saturday ever? I think so. 

Then there was the whole, I got a calligraphed glitter pumpkin. Family, be prepared. Thanksgiving...this is happening. Maybe not the glitter part, but we're going fancy-fance this year and doing calligraphy pumpkin place settings. 

Oh, and I'm going to need a minute to fawn over this design. Amber and Emily at Karson Butler Events knows how to do a total envy worthy chalkboard backdrop. This has just reaffirmed my dream of becoming an event planner....one day...one day. 

*all photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone

a preemptive christmas list

Is it seriously almost November? Where has the time gone?! October flew by with friends visiting and my mom visiting and then two solid weekends packed with fun things since I had them O-F-F which is a rare occurrence! It happens so seldom that I have been taking full advantage of it.

But now here I am with a broken down car and nowhere to go for a few days, so I guess it's probably time to come out of my blogger hiding spot.

Now that it's getting colder outside, I've been obsessively online page shopping for a few things. Don't worry family - I haven't broken the bank buying anything, but if I didn't have the self-restraint that I had, these are the things that would be filling my closet. Hint hint to any type of Christmas list you were developing for me...take note of below.

ONE/TWO/THREE/FOUR/FIVE/SIX

I'm sure my family is actually laughing and rolling their eyes at numbers 1 and 4. First, I'm not an outdoorsy type of girl at all so why I would pick the ultimate work boot would be surprising. But seeing pictures of Reese Witherspoon in the Wild movie with these on - it's really changed my mind on boots like this. It's also apparently not me since these babies have a 4-5 week waiting list. 

As for the Sperry duck boots - oh gosh, the years and years of eye rolling I did over boots like this. However, they used to be super ugly looking and now they have hot pink ones, so there's that. As much as I love my sheep boots, they don't really mix well with snow shoveling and walking in slush. 

Ponchos. Ponchos, ponchos, ponchos. It's like...the top of my list this Christmas. Seriously, I took a picture of one and sent it to my mother and basically begged her to figure out a way to crochet the exact same one because I loved it so much and refused to pay $88 for it. The more ponchos the better, I say! 

In the tune of Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a Million Dollars" song, I would totally buy that Lindsey Thornburg poncho coat. Let's be honest, I wish I looked like Blake Lively every day, but if I ever have kids, I definitely want to look like her pregnant. But that's beside the point. Seeing that poncho coat a few weeks ago all over the web after her seriously cute pregnancy announcement...yeah I would TOTALLY spend $1,300 on that if I didn't have student loans and an upcoming car payment to pay every month. And I wouldn't even bat an eye. I want this coat. I want it. I practically need this coat. That's all I have to say about that. 

Did you know every day has a specific color coordinated with it? Well, I read a coffee table book about it, and apparently my birthday color is holly green. And so maybe emerald isn't holly, but my birthstone is emerald and I just really love that color and these boots. There will never be enough sheep boots. Never. 

Lastly, quilted vests. They're super popular here in Virginia...to the point that I'm not sure these people wear coats. No, I'm not joining the crowd because everyone else does it, but I actually really like vests. 

So, just in case you were wondering what I have on my most watched online list heading into the Christmas season, family, here ya go. Remind me of this when you ask me to write a few things down at Thanksgiving for our swap, okay? Because, let's be honest, I'll forget by then. 

friends weekend in the city

Hi! Are you out there? I guess I haven't been the best at actually staying on top of this space, but it was a long 14 days straight of working. Thankfully, it all ended with a fantastic weekend with two of my best friends. Now, I'm laid up in bed sick today, catching up on television wishing it was still the weekend!

Since we're from Ohio, it was basically mandatory that we don our scarlet and gray and cheer on the Buckeyes this weekend in Maryland. Let me just say, it was a great day to welcome the Terps to the Big Ten. Well, great for us anyway.

The picture that actually made it to the OSU Athletic's official Facebook page

We had great seats to watch Ohio State easily win 52-24 and met some great Buckeye fans in the process. 

Among the highlights of the day those has to be  of our third string quarterback straight up hurdling a Maryland player on a 17 yard run. It happened right in front of us and my only regret is that I don't have the power to rewind real-time and video tape it. It was that awesome. Thankfully though there's Vine and other people who got it on television. Let's just say that Cardale Jones found some flubber for his shoes for this move. 

Maryland was a beautiful campus...and that's about where I'll leave it when speaking about Terp town because my mom always taught me if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it at all. Okay well I will say this - for any Maryland fans that plan on going to Ohio next year for the game, I probably wouldn't shout "special ed" when we do an O-H-I-O chant around the stadium. It's rude, insensitive, and just down right moronic. Just because we beat you doesn't mean you have to devolve to that form of human when we rightfully claim our spot on your stadium. Or then mockingly ask a parking attendant if it's okay to run us over as you leave the parking garage. Let's just say it felt pretty good to beat you after all of that. 

Anyway, after a great win on a beautiful day, we headed off to my favorite town, Annapolis for the night. 

My favorite boutique, Brown Eyed Girl, quoting one of my favorite shows as a teen - One Tree Hill

 I will never, ever, EVER tire of this view

After a quick change in the car (Ohio State beat Navy in the first game of the season) we walked around town and ended up at my favorite tea salon, the Reynolds Tavern - a place I will fully detail soon...ish, and then at Acme Bar - apparently the place a lot of Navy kids hang out at to watch football. I think it perfectly summed us up, a spot of ladylike tea and then beers at a rowdy bar surrounded by TVs with football. 

The downside was about ten minutes after being in the car on the way to Annapolis, my throat started to hurt and I got a raging headache with no medicine to take. Then it just spiraled down into a full blown sinus infection. My body was apparently not on the same page my social life was on. 

Even though I felt terrible Sunday, there was no time to rest! Everyone was leaving that night so we squeezed in some time in the city. 

 Friends who selfie with presidents together, stay friends forever

First we spent some time in my favorite museum, the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum. They have a great new mini series of portraits of famous people during the 60s - if only you could take pictures! I've found my new favorite portrait. It's of Julie Andrews by John Koch and it really is practically perfect in every way. 

 Then we went over to the National Gallery of Art to catch the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in America - the Ginevra de' Benci. I still don't know how I've been there twice and missed this, but that's why you bring an art major with you to museums. You learn all kinds of things! 

With me fading quickly and my throat aching, we made a pit stop to Pitango's gelato shop. Amanda wanted ice cream all weekend, Anne found it on Urban Spoon, and I savored it as all meds failed. It was a great team effort! By the way, the black tea paired with milk and honey gelato is heaven. 

We had time for one last place and headed off to Ford's Theater and the house where Lincoln died, something I haven't done yet and then it was sadly time to drop Anne off at Union Station so she could get back to Philly. 

It was a great weekend full of laughs and great times and I only wish it had been longer and that my other Ohio friends could have made it! Even though we may be in different places now, I know I'll always have amazing friends, whether we be together or apart. 

*All photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone - except the Vine video