Best. Weekend. Ever.

I know I say I have great weekends, and they usually are great, but this one definitely takes the cake. Sev and I were back in Georgia visiting his family at their place in the North Georgia Mountains. Such a beautiful time of year to be up there and we filled it to the brim with loads of fun activities. 

Private Yacht Rock Concert in Atlanta

Farmer's Market Shopping

A new baby alpaca boy, Sinchi Roca. Sixteen pounds of adorable-ness

Bottle-feeding a two-day-old baby. So cute.  

Fishing with Sev

Time with my nieces

AND an amazing helicopter ride above the property.....

Sev+Libbie...awww 

Where Sev proposed!

Anniversary

I'd like to wish a very happy 4th to my amazing BF today. Thanks for making my life so rad. 

Uni's. 'Cause that's how we roll. 

AND, on this day of love, I'd like to give a huge shoutout to our President for making a very brave statement in favor of gay marriage yesterday. While I'm saddened it is even an issue in society today, I am proud we have a leader who has the courage to do the right thing, no matter what the cost. 

Home

I had a great weekend at home with my family. The 27th marked the first anniversary of the fire, so it was good to be back and enjoying the new house with friends and family. 

 I know, I know! More flowers. But I just can't help myself!

New artwork from a friend

My loverboy Fred

This April, my boyfriend's cousin, Graves, and his girlfriend, Ivey, will be running a half marathon in San Francisco to commemorate what would be the 30th birthday of Grave's brother Max, who suffered from Spinal Muscular Atrophy as a child. They hope to raise awareness of the disease, celebrate the medical progress that has been made since his passing, and honor the all too short life Max lived.  Friends and family will join them by running, donating and cheering them on during the journey.
To chronicle their training and build a community of supporters, they have created a blog called Miles 4 Max. They asked me to submit some tips and tricks to help them, and other runners, train for the race. You can check out my guest post here, and below you will find my first of three segments on training for and racing a half-marathon. Happy running!

Basic Running Tips

Upper body: Try to keep your upper body as relaxed as possible. I go through a mental checklist when I feel like I’m tensing up and I repeat this in my head: “relax your hands, relax your elbows, relax your shoulders, relax your jaw”. The last one is important. Its impossible to be tense when your jaw is relaxed. Everything else will fall into place.

Take small, consistent strides and keep a rhythm. This is when listening to music helps. Use upbeat music as a tool to motivate (ok, distract) you and a help you find and keep a rhythm to your stride.

  Focus on exhaling rather than inhaling. This will help relax your diaphragm and make it easier to breathe. 

Lean forward from the ankles. Your momentum will take you. This is especially true when you’re going downhill and momentum instantly becomes your BFF. Lean forward and take longer strides. On the uphills, do the opposite. Shorten your stride and stay upright.

After a long hill or a sharp corner, take about 10 really quick, short strides. Hills and sharp turns disrupt your rhythm and these steps will help get you back in your groove.

Last, but probably most important, forget all of this and just run. You’ve been doing it since you were a kid. Relax, don’t need think about the fact that you’re running (sometimes easier said than done). Your body knows what to do, so instead of agonizing over each mile and how much it may or may not hurt, think about what you’re going to have for dinner, talk to your training partner, or just use this time to clear your head. 

November Book Review: Born to Run

I once considered myself to be fairly knowledgable in the sport of running. I come from a family of runners, run almost every day and have participated in a full marathon and too many half marathons to try to count. People often come to me for advice on training, injuries, races and gear, and until a few weeks ago, I thought I had sufficient answers. Few books have challenged me, to change my preconceived ideas about something I once considered an area of "expertise", but my ideas about running immediately changed when I was given a copy of Born to Run by my father. An avid runner himself, he told me this book would change my life, and indeed it has.


Written by journalist and oft-injured runner Christopher McDougal, the book narrates his journey as he follows a tribe of mysterious, almost reclusive runners known as the Tarahumara. Living in some of the harshest conditions in the mountains of central Mexico, the Tarahumara practice running techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury, making them arguably the best ultra-runners in the world. During the course of the book, you are introduced to numerous characters, both in the crazy world of ultra-marathons and also within this unknown tribe, that keep you turning the pages. You honestly can't make these people up and it is this human element that really makes the soul of this book.  


Using a mix of medicine, evolutionary and genetic science and common sense observations, the book explains that humans are in fact built to run. It is how we have existed for thousands of years and contrary to popular belief, it will not hurt your knees, give you arthritis, or plague you with injuries. In all actuality, it is the opposite of running (or a sedentary lifestyle) that will cause these things. Everything we have come to know about modern-day running, mainly the footwear we choose, is completely inaccurate, and I argue anyone to disagree with these findings after having finished Born to Run.


This book was one of the most entertaining and informative books I've read in a long time and it took me back to my childhood, and reminded me of why I enjoy running. Like being 6 years old on the playground were all of the activities we played involved going from one place to the other at the highest speed possible. It sounds crazy to most people, but I've always looked at a good, long run as a form of mediation. I don't have to think about what I'm doing and my mind can fall asleep while my body does the rest.  Now, even more than ever, I look forward to every mile, and I am beyond inspired to make running even more a part of my daily routine. Though I may leave the 50 milers to the Tarahumara. For now. 

Amazing Music Video

This is probably the coolest video I've seen in a long, long while. The background for Kina Grannis' music video for her single, In Your Arms is made entirely out of jelly beans. It took 2 years and 288,000 Jelly Belly's to produce. So cool.

September Book Review: Banksy Wall and Piece

Graffiti gets a bad rap. And for the most part, I agree. The majority of the street "art" we see around us everyday is being done by amateurs without a purpose or message who simply want to put their ridiculous, illegible tag up for the world to see, with the hopes that they can become local graffiti celebrities. That, my friends, is not art.
Then you get the true street artists. The ones who can change the side of a building into a piece of art. Who can put up the most amazing mural you've ever seen using spray paint. The ones who actually make you stop and think about what you're seeing before you. That, I do believe, is art.

When it comes to street artists, no one is more respected or well known than Banksy. Although no one knows his real identity (street art is, after all, illegal) he has grown in popularity, first in the UK and Europe, and now here in the US. Using life-size stencils and paint, he is known for his controversial statements on political and social norms. He is truly one of my artistic heroes. He uses humor to take risks and force people to question authority and society; something I hope my photography will one day do as well. Most of his work has a message, some of it is just clever. A lot of people consider him to be a menace or a prankster, but his goal is simply to create art for the people. There's no admission fee, no lines, no hype. You either like it or you don't, but either way its democratic in that anyone, at any time can view it just by walking down the street.

My boyfriend received the coffee table book Banksy: Wall and Piece as a gift about a year ago and it wasn't until recently that I picked it up to see what was inside. I was familiar with Banksy before this, but after reading his book and gaining a better understanding of his point of view and the background behind some of his work (including how long some of the pieces stayed up...very interesting) I fell in love. Even if you don't have an interest in street art, or consider it to be more vandalism than art, I urge you to flip through it if you get the chance. At the very least I promise you will be entertained and amused by what you see. Most of his work is stencils, some of it are build-outs. Its pretty impressive the lengths he goes for some of his installations. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pictures from Banksy Unmasked 

St. Agatha

As some of you know, my parents suffered a house fire in the home I grew up in last March. They are in the midst of the rebuilding process now, and are still sorting through what that remains of our belongings.

A few nights ago, they were cleaning out a portion of our backyard garden where there was quite of bit of debris when my dad noticed a small silver medallion amongst the ashes, almost completely untouched by fire. When they picked it up and cleaned the face of it, they were amazed to find that it was a St. Agatha medallion, the Patron Saint of fires. One side showed a picture of St. Agatha and the inscription, "Pray for Us", on the other, "Protect Us From Fire".

Its almost chilling to think that this tiny medallion not only survived the fire, but was relocated to a place where my parents would find it. Its also very strange that my mother, who had lots of these Patron Saint medallions, doesn't know when or where she got this one. Agatha is also the Patron Saint of nurses, so she is assuming she received it sometime during her career as a nurse, but to have her also be the saint for fires is such a weird coincidence.

My mom now wears the medallion around her neck as a reminder of how lucky they are to have survived.