Currently: August 2024
Fall is here, hear the yell
Back to school, ring the bell
Brand new shoes, walking blues
Climb the fence, books and pens
I can tell that we are gonna be friends
Thanks to my friend Kristin, I always hear We’re Gonna Be Friends from The White Stripes when I send my team back to school. We just trapped up two weeks of staff training, and I sent my team back to campuses last week. It gave me the chance to get my feet under me… which actually meant getting caught up on emails and meetings. I did PD for a university, had two university board meetings, a meeting with ED, and a couple of district meetings in a single day… and it just felt good to be in my element. The second week proved to be challenging with a lot of headaches, which impacted our Labor Day / anniversary plans. I’m trying to recenter myself this weekend and see if we can pull something together for late next week.
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Eating & Drinking:
We pretended like we were in Italy this weekend by having our dinners in courses. I made my favorite arrabiata recipe and penna alla vodka as first courses and Tom made steak for our second courses. Have you ever heard the phrase what grows together goes together? That was kind of what I used when I chose our wines. We had a 2017 and 2020 Bocale rosso di Sagrantino as our wines. Arribiata is from Lazio, which is adjacent to Umbria. The rosso paired beautifully with the arrabiata pasta.
Earlier this month, I made an savory mini tart recipe from our favorite restaurant in Avignon. I’m excited to share that on the blog, but I had no idea what to call it. I love recreating some of my favorite recipes at home, and I hope I can do that a bit more in the upcoming months.
Wearing:
I can’t remember if I’ve talked about Sara Roka on here yet! Sara Roka is an Italian-based designer that I’m now obsessed with. Her designs are classic, timeless, and meant to withstand time. I first found Sara Roka when I was shopping for clothes for our summer trip. She has cotton dresses that are lightweight, natural materials and perfect for summer. I wanted this striped shirt dress so badly, but I couldn’t find it in my size. At the end of our trip, I noticed that the seahorse linen midi dress that had originally caught my attention was on sale, and I bought it. I wore it for the first time in Houston last weekend, and as my friend Elizabeth said, “our grandmothers had it right with wearing natural fibers.” (Linen in the summer and cashmere in the winter!) While I do not love the way I look right now, I do love this dress AND it has pockets.
I still love (and live in) my Sarah Flint block sandals. I also bought this Lafayette 148 high low cotton shirt when I realized that we were going to be in warm spaces for staff training, and it’s one of my favorite summer purchases. Basically my entire summer wardrobe is linked below, lol.
Travel Planning:
Due some unforeseen circumstances, we had to cancel our anniversary trip for September. We are trying to figure out something to do in lieu of what we had planned. I’m just taking it all day by day right now. I will on the road for 13 days for work in September, including time on both coasts. I am hoping to sneak in a little bit of family time over the weekend, though I’m slightly concerned that I just might need to catch up on sleep. Spending time with my aunt and cousin a few weeks ago was sobering and lovely. On one hand, it was so lovely to be with them. On the other hand, it made me sad that we were only together because of a funeral. I’m trying to convince them to join our family Thanksgiving trip though.
We have fall break in October, and Tom has a couple places he’s interested in visiting. Some new, some old. We’ll see how it all shakes out. Previously, we’ve gone to Cortona for a long weekend in October, and I already feel a little sad to be missing that this year! Isn’t it funny how quickly things become “tradition” once you do them more than once? One of the trips we are considering would be exclusively on points and Hyatt category 1-4 free night certificates, so that might be the best and most economical option.
Photo Editing:
I finally finished my post on our trip to Annecy!! I definitely found it a little difficult to write about because it wasn’t my favorite destination, but I also enjoyed remembering the positives – like how beautiful it was in the rain and how much we enjoyed Bar 2020. If I continue chronologically about our France itinerary, I should write about our 4 nights in Beaune next. From there, I will still have our short trip to Reims, spending Bastille Day in the Alsace (and my favorite hotel in Barr), and a few updates from Paris (including the hotel that was 110 euros/night)!!
I also blogged about the underrated Four Seasons hotel in Houston. Yes, my Dallas bias is showing because I just underrate Houston in general. (It’s the weather for me, though I feel like humidity in Dallas is starting to resemble Houston humidity!) I had such a fantastic massage there recently and the service was truly exceptional. I’m hoping to catch up on my blogging now that things are more “normal” (whatever that means, lol), but I definitely can’t make any promises!
