Must see

Short Term 12.

Reading

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”

Nora Ephron's thoughts on reading, from her wonderful book, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Here are some books that I have enjoyed reading lately. 

What about you? Any suggestions? I'm always up for a good book : )

Scenes From the Weekend

I spent this weekend with my Mom, Dad and Erol in Maine. It was a relatively quiet, relaxing and surprisingly productive weekend. Erol made significant progress on my mom's company's website. It should be launching soon-- I will share when it is live. I spent some time working on my own project as well as making plans for my new room! Saturday evening, we watched Jim Gaffigan's stand up special, Mr. Universe and laughed until our bellies hurt. 

Double rainbow after a rainy day

Beach cruisers

Ollie, our new garden octopus

Trying a new pancake recipe 

Prepping a nautical craft

Now I am going to watch Drinking Buddies, which is one of the movies I have been wanting to see. I saw that it is available to rent on iTunes for $9.99. Originally, I thought this was a terrible idea, but as I thought about it, I decided I'd rather pay $9.99 to watch it on my television at home, in my PJs rather than wait and pay the ridiculous $10+ to see it in theaters.

Cheers.

The Scoop on the Stoop

Since Erol has moved to Somerville, I have found myself admiring people's stoops. Each stoop has a different story and their own, distinct personality. I enjoy passing by stoops and thinking about the people who live in the house, based solely on the state of their stoop. Sometimes when I pass by, a resident is on his or her stoop, reading the paper or tending to the flowers and I smile at them, silently praising myself for being pretty spot on. 

Below is a picture of E, on his stoop. I like to call it, "Just a man and his stoop."

Note the plastic chair and unclaimed newspaper-- clearly guys live in this house! Love the context clues!

And with that, I am done saying stoop today.

Stoop.

Now I'm done.

16 Year Old Inspiration

Malala Yousafzai is my hero. Please watch below and see why this 16 year old girl is such an inspiration. I strive to possess even one ounce of her strength, determination and poise.

 

Two Point List Tuesday

MOVIES I WANT TO SEE

1. Frances Ha
2. Drinking Buddies

4th Tribute

You know those friends that you call your cousins because you've been friends with them before you were born? Well, Megh and John are my "cousins." They're actually a step beyond cousins. I consider them my siblings (as do my brothers), except for the fact that we look nothing alike. My family spends Christmas Day and the 4th of July with them every year.  And boy, do they know how to make the 4th extremely special.

Megh and John

Megh has a love affair with the 4th of July. I'm talking, prepare all year long for this one day to celebrate America's independence. She stocks up on red, white and blue supplies to share with anyone and everyone and prepares her playlist throughout the year. She came up to Maine with bags upon bags of supplies, along with nothing but red, white and blue clothing for the weekend-- including her bathing suits and cover ups. I was happy to contribute to her 4th of July look by braiding a flag bandana into a crown braid. I was pretty happy with the results.

I've always been so jealous of her gorgeous hair color

We had a fun filled day on the beach, with nothing on our agenda other than the short voyage between our chairs and the ocean to cool off. John and Erol played Polish Horse Shoes, Megh and I dipped our toes in the water and read our books and occasionally we searched for crabs. In the evening, Megh introduced us to my favorite new game, Wits and Wagers and we tried multiple times to create our perfect USA picture out of sparklers (even though it's not perfect, I'm proud of our end results). 

Thanks for the accessories, Megh!

She is so excited for the day.

Please note the patriot drink, compliments of Megh of course.

Boys in action

Found some!

I love these sparkler pictures, so bear with me here...

Megh, thanks for always making the 4th so special! Love you!!!

Brothers, wish you were there : (

Can't wait for you to come home : )

For The Inner Child in All of Us

DTLA

I recently visited my brothers in Los Angeles. LA is so different from Boston in so many ways, I sometimes feel foreign when I visit. 

All in all, it was a great trip. It was so nice to spend time with my brothers, and it was the first time I visited when we actually were able to walk places! It was amazing! Walking in LA... what a concept!! Here are a few highlights from my trip:

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Botegga Louie

Groundwork coffee

Seeing my first polo match

Hiking in Santa Monica

Sprinkles

Manhattan Beach

Lemonade (Cucumber mint was AMAZING)

And of course, hanging with my brothers : ) Thanks for having me, boys! Now come home!

Click here to watch DTLA by A.J. Serrano.

The Boonies

I live in what some would refer to as, "The Boonies." Deer, snakes, ducks, beavers, muskrats, turtles, wild turkey, fisher cats (wish I were joking)... you name it, I've seen it and chances are they probably live in back yard. Sometimes these wild animals deter me from exercising outside, but there are also times when I do venture out for a run and find the animal noises motivate me to run just a little bit faster.

I'm exaggerating a bit here--  it's not that bad (the fisher cat was the worst I've experienced but luckily I was in my car when I saw it). We've had a Blue Heron colony start up right down the street that has brought an influx of bird watchers to "The Boonies." I have to admit, their nests are pretty amazing and I even stopped to snap a few photos on a walk a few weeks ago. Below are just a few images I have taken recently here in The Boonies.

Blue Heron-- First time I saw one I thought I was in Jurassic Park. 

Blue Heron nests

And here's the scariest animal of them all, my grandmother's pug-- Molly.

Two Point List Tuesday

I would like to formally introduce a new series, called "Two Point List Tuesday." 

For my first installment, I will cover...

THING I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

1. How do fashion bloggers have such nice clothes and accessories? Where do they get the money?!
2. Miley Cyrus. 

That's all. 

Hope you all have a Terrific Tuesday.

4 Month Hiatus

Hi friends! It has been a while since I have posted to my blog. I have found myself missing this outlet, so I am back. Hopefully I’ll post more consistently than every 4 months. My last post was from February 22^nd and I didn’t even write it! Oops. Between then and now, a number of things have happened:

1. Erol moved to Boston.
2. I finished my Masters and started working full time.
3. I broke my camera and bought myself a new one.
4. It’s summer again!
5. I’m moving to Cambridge in September. 

These are all good things. I may even be so bold as to exclaim these are great things! I feel like I am growing up and moving into a new phase of my life, and it is exciting. It seems like every day I am learning something new about myself. I have been keeping a daily journal, something I was inspired to do after reading “The Happiness Project,” by Gretchen Ruben. I like writing a few sentences at the end of every day—I write about a specific event, something that inspired me, or a lesson that I learned. I have surprised myself a few times when I actually go to write my thoughts. I find even when I am thinking about one thing in particular, I may actually write about the overall message or lesson learned rather than the specific details surrounding the event. It just goes to show that you learn something new every single day. Human beings are not perfect and we are constantly evolving and shaping who we are. 

It feels great to be back, and to be writing again.

And because everyone loves photographs, here a few I took this past weekend. Enjoy!

Until next time...

Actually, It's Ashleigh