Holiday Season Wrap Up

Our 2012 holiday season was jam-packed with activities so and I'm a little sad it's already over!  Today was my first day back to the grind in terms of work and working out.  I'm ready for some aspects of normal life like getting a full night's sleep and stabalizing my eating habits which have been totally out of whack the past month!  Despite the pounds gained, the fun was worth it!  Here's a recap of some holiday highlights...

We got a roommate- my brother!

Zebra Rug DIY

I picked up quite a few souvenirs on our trip to South Africa, which is not the norm for me.  I was excited about having a place to decorate (my boyfriend and I signed the lease on our house the week before we left) and I genuinely loved the style of the items we bought.  You can see some of them in this post (wooden masks, original artwork).  One thing I was lusting for but wasn't able to purchase was a zebra hide rug.  I saw quite a few for sale but there was no extra room in my luggage and I didn't want to spend extra money to ship it home.  (I was also unsure how to declare it and didn't want to deal with any trouble from customs.)  When we got back I started shopping on eBay and Craigslist for zebra rugs.  I found some reasonably priced options but decided to save some money and try a DIY version.

South Africa

A few months ago my boyfriend's employer sent him to South Africa for an assignment.  Obvi, that's a pretty big deal so of course I invited myself he invited me to join.  We love tagging on a vacation to the heels of a work trip, and it makes financial sense when you get to expense your flight and/or hotel.  We were thrilled to go to Africa, as neither of us had been before.  My first reaction to Johannesburg was, "Awesome!  Isn't it really dangerous?"  We did some Googling and discovered it used to have a high crime rate but it's decreased as their economy has strengthened in the past decade. 

Home

Three months ago I moved from my tiny apartment room into a proper house with my boyfriend.  My name is now on a lease, something I've been free from for nearly two years (the same time I started this blog).  Since I sold all of my belongings in my epic garage sale, it's taken some time to curate our place. We have a few mementos from our trip to South Africa this summer and we've scored some neat second-hand furniture that accentuates the character of the house.  It was built in the 1940s so there are some upgrades that need to be done but (most days) I find its quirkiness quite charming! Here are some shots from in and around our house.

Finally Fall

Now that our highs this week are in the sevenies, I can confidently say fall has arrived in Texas and I'm ready to bask in all it's golden glory!  For the most part, our seasons are warm, hot, really effing hot, not as hot, chilly, and cold.  Some years it's felt like summer turned into winter without warning.  Since Thanksgiving is nearly two weeks away, I'm reminding myself to slow down my pace and appreciate the little things in life, like going for a run on a beautiful day.  Here are some scenes from my neck of the woods taken from my lunchtime jaunt.

DARTing Around

For a Southern city, Dallas has decent public transportation.  It's not nearly as expansive as the systems of Chicago, San Francisco, or New York City, but it's slowly growing (since its most recent expansion, we have seventy-two miles of light rail service) and it's better than nothing!  As a resident who would like to see more of it, I should do more to support our Dallas Area Rapid Transit, aka "The DART".

This weekend I stepped up my game and participated in my friend's second annual DART Rail Pub Crawl.  Atendees purchased a $4 day pass and could join the fun at any one of the nine stops along the way.  I posted our agenda below in case any of my DFW-are friends want to recreate this epic pub crawl while supporting our public transportation infastructure.  (I like to consider it "crawling for a cause"!)  DARTing is a nice break from driving and the hassles that come with it (I'm talking about you, parallel parking!).



My posse and I joined the group downtown at City Tavern.

Mallorca, Spain

When I visited Barcelona, I squeezed in a quick trip to Mallorca, which is the largest of the Balearic Islands just south of continental Spain.



My friend and I flew into Palma and rented a car to tour the island.  Mallorca is famous for its beaches.  I was there too late in the season to enjoy them, but fortunately the mountain areas proved equally beautiful.