GIVEAWAY!! - CLOSED-

Here is a new giveaway for the month of December. You have a chance to win some gorgeous photography from Anna Delores Photography. If you win, you get to choose one print from her Etsy shop and let me tell you, there are some wonderful choices! First I want to share about this beautiful shop and the person behind it.

Anna Delores Photography is based out of sunny Los Angeles, California, although these photos look much more like a wonderful travel journal. The eye behind these photos comes from Emily, who has a great eye for landscapes and architecture with a vintage view. The name to her shop is paying tribute to her ancestry, the name "Anna Delores Photography" comes from her maternal great-grandmother (Anna) and her paternal grandmother (Delores).

In order to enter, first you must subscribe to both this blog and Emily's blog here. For extra entries, you can add her twitter, facebook or my twitter or facebook. So, if you do it right you can have up to 5 entries. The giveaway will run for 10 days - so it will end at 11:59 pm CST on December 22nd.

Please leave comments below when you add any of the mentioned above so we can have an accurate count for the giveaway! Good Luck everyone!

What I've Been Up To

So as you can probably see, I've taken quite the break from blogging and selling on Etsy. Between Shawn graduating from Michigan State, helping my dad with his new business, going on a 35 day European backpacking trip, moving back to Nashville and being in a lovely Texas wedding, I have had a lot on my plate.


On to the exciting stuff: Euro trip.

     Shawn and I backpacked around through a chunk of western Europe. We started in Ireland then flew into Barcelona, Spain and took the magical Euro-rail trains through the rest of France, The Netherlands, Germany and Italy. 

There were many crazy, wonderful times, like sharing hostels with those whom were all too comfortable with their intimate life, driving over 1000 miles of Ireland's coast in three days, learning to give up the comfort of make-up and sometime showering everyday (yuck!), biking up mountainsides, meeting new friends and seeing ones I hadn't seen in over 4 years. It was an amazing experience that I wouldn't trade.

Every time I've visited the European continent I leave inspired by what I've seen and the people that I have met.

Ireland

Ponte Vecchio, Firenze, Italy

Italian model in Venizia

Breaking the law at the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

Biking in Lucca, Italy

Roman Forum

Louvre, Paris, France

Pubs in Kilkenny, Ireland

If I Could Only Dream My Way There

So on this return to cold, spring evening, I'm sitting alone listening to a neat little mix of Mumford and Sons and Edith Piaf and my imagination just starts running wild.

I wish it were easy to just pack up and move to Paris. Live a troubadour life. Live in music, live in art and just exist in romantic evenings filled with wondrous music and wine. I know that in my head I'm picturing Jazz age Paris which I'm sure is nothing like the modern. But I know the bright city has its own wonders to offer someone like myself in this day and age.

I would love to say this was possible, I've done it before in Ireland but I took the responsible route, got a college degree that makes me pay ridiculous amounts every month that make it mostly impossible to live like a true gypsy anymore.

Lottery anyone? Just enough to pay off the loans and live on the road. You in, babe?