One.Year.Ago

I'm not quite sure what exactly i want to say in this post...

All i want to do is curl up in a ball under a big blanket,

close my eyes and pretend i'm walking through the streets of Paris...

I'm hungry so obviously i stop at a boulangerie for a baguette,

I'm now walking down a familiar street that dead ends with the Eiffel Tower...

I lay a blanket down in the grass and spread some buerre on my baguette and 

I have a picnic, underneath the shadow of the Tower...

Can you tell i miss Paris???

Well i do...i miss it every single day...

Most people don't understand why I love Paris so much...
and that's mostly because they've never been..
I think we have a duty as humans to explore what we have here on this planet.
To discover new cultures new foods new ideas.
That's why I love Paris...it has helped me bloom into a traveler...

A year ago today i hopped on a plane and flew to Georgia..

Then we hopped on a bigger plane and flew to CDG airport in Paris...

THEN we hopped on another plane and flew to the South of France...

After spending a week galavanting all over the south we 

took the train back to Paris where we stayed for 2 months. 

The rest of our three month stay was spent in London and on free travels 

in Italy, Switzerland and the UK.

I now have a greater sense of the world around me.
I am making plans to go to {new} places, to go to {more} places.
I now know what it feels like to be completely in love with a city!!! 
I now know i want to Travel for the rest of my life!!

I grew friendships with a group of about 16 people in all..including some lovely bloggers

Lauren

Sam

Jess

sigghhh

I was so blessed to have this opportunity to go to Paris.

I've grown SO MUCH in the last year!!

I can't wait to go back!!!

{revoir à la meilleure année de ma vie}

Here is the video of our entire trip stripped down into a ten minute presentation ;)
It's pretty amazing and the phenomenal Aspiring Kennedy aka Lauren Knight created it!!!

-Emily

Be Daring!

This is one of those quotes i'm going to memorize...

Just so i can say it to my children one day!!

It's beautiful!!

I'm over here today blogging with the friends :)

see you tomorrow for a sad one year since leaving for Paris post...

-Emily

Road Trip

For like my whole life i've always wanted to go on a road trip!!

Like a real road trip, one where your not back home by day 2...

I mean i want this to last like 2 weeks!!

I have a few places in mind...

maybe go West, drive through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and end up in California.

Spend a little time in Each place, seeing the sights like caves in New Mexico

and The Grand Canyon in Arizona...Maybe hit up four corners...

Then in California go to San Francisco...drive down the coast through Big Sur...

Obviously i wouldn't want to come home the same way so i'd probably go back through nevada

to get to Yellowstone in Wyoming..Then head on over to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore...

THEN head south back down to Texas...
This is quite possibly the nerdiest road trip plan out there..
I mean my main goal is to drive through as many national parks as possible...

Does it sound like i have this planned out???
Because i do...

I'll be 23 this year, i've traveled all over europe on my own i think i can handle a little road trip ;)

I have wanted to do this for so long, i mean i'm graduating in December...

This is my LAST summer to get to do anything crazy like this...

So am i going to do it???

Probably..

Have you ever been on a road trip??? Do you want to go on a Road trip??

I'd love to hear your thoughts!! :)

-Emily

My {BOX} to Tom

So last friday i showed you what Tom sent me in the mail.

Today I wanted to show you what i sent him! :)

Tom likes coffee which is why i sent him a coffee mug...but not just any coffee mug..

I bought a white mug from Target...

I already had the sharpies...

I found a quote that i felt was acceptable....

and i went to work..

Now Texas is EASY to draw compared to England,

I probably drew England 1,000 times on scratch Paper

before i got it to look like i wanted it to look...

It just kept looking like a pregnant seahorse and i wasn't about to

permanently trace a pregnant seahorse on the mug...

So i finally got it just right and i taped my paper with the

drawing onto the mug and traced over it with my sharpie

until i felt it was adequately transferred.

Once i removed the paper it was pretty faint so i re-traced it and Voila!!!

I also sent him that little "Howdy from Texas" fridge magnet, and funny enough he sent me a Liverpool fridge magnet without even knowing i was sending him one...

AND we both included letters in the boxes as well :)

{Great minds think alike}



 I free-handed the quote which was quite difficult and terrifying because

i really didnt want to mess it up now that i finally got

England looking like England ;)

but i'm happy to say it turned out pretty perfect!!!

Here's the final product in England on Tom's desk!!

For fear the ink would wash off he's decided to use it as his pencil/pen holder :)



ALSO I keep all of Tom's Letters and trinkets in a box...

I actually had to sort through it today becuase there's so much in there ;)

It's all very exciting!!!!



Soooo what do you think about what i sent him???

I'd love to hear your opinions!!!

{If you're new here and have no idea who Tom is you can find posts about him}

here

here

here

here

here

-Emily

My Box from Tom!!

I've been checking my mail every day this week...in hopes that i'd open my mail box and find a little yellow slip of paper that tells me i have a package waiting for me...

monday came and went...tuesday and wednesday...still no yellow slip

Hello Thursday and Hello YELLOW SLIP!!!!!!!

Tom sent me a BOX :-)

I also sent Tom a box

He got my box a week ago

and i finally got his yesterday :-)

The contents of this box are as follows

One wonderfully written Letter, really...so so sweet!!!!

multiple pamphlets from Liverpool, I appreciate the shopping mall guide the most...

now when i go to visit i'll know the shopping mall inside out and upside down...

Then there's the actual BOX :) Which is amazing, it's from CUBA haha

inside the box is a ticket from his first basketball game...very American of him ;)

a Liverpool Magnet, with the Liverpool Bird and British flag on it.

Last but not least a little Eiffel Tower key chain he bought in Paris from the sketchy people under the Eiffel Tower...He knows how to woo me ;) 

This might sound cheeeeeesy but i feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now!!! :)

-Emily

I had no idea..

There's this boy...
his name is Tom
and he makes me smile
he makes me laugh
he give me butterflies
he says sweet things to me
he's coming to see me
he's british
he's AMAZING
 and he calls me LOVE..swoon ;)

y'all he's freaking perfect!!!!!
I can't even handle it...
{I.CANT.HANDLE.IT!!!!}

phew now that THATS out of my system...
Ever since i can remember i've always had a thing for british boys...
I actually remember one time while traveling in London,
my mentor, and friend Mrs. Lauren Knight told me she could totally see
me getting with someone from England!!!
I wanted to believe her so badly but i just assumed
i'd be like every other girl in America and find a nice
southern gentleman to call my man!!
That's not happening, and well....i couldn't be happier.

I had no idea this was a direction i'd be going in!!
I had no idea that i'd be skyping with a british boy
about plane tickets and pricing and dates that
he'll be spending here in America with me...
I had no idea any of this was about to happen.

It's crazy, some might say {insane} to get involved with someone who's so far away.
But i've gotten to know Tom SO WELL over the last couple of months and well
i can't really remember a time before him.

We had a Skype date yesterday and it was amazing..
we're trying to figure out when exactly he needs to book his flight.
It's definitely going to be in late June an he'll stay through early July.
We actually found out he has Family in California,
so we're also seeing what we can do there.
It's all very exciting :)

Skype was giving me clarity issues and i could never sneak a
 picture when he was cracking a big smile...
still, just look at that scruffalicious face...
he.is.the.cutest :)

and i'm just a dork ;)

until next time...
-Emily

Pinesday = Wednesday + Pinterest

Happy Wednesday everyone :) 

It's going to be a busy busy day, so because of that i'm posting a few

of my favorite pins that i've recently discovered via Pinterest...

and i don't have anything interesting to talk about today ;)

I do have some serious homework to do today and more 

importantly a Skype date with the British hunk 

which i'll tell you more about tomorrow ;)

A lot of these pictures just made me happy, which is why i'm sharing!!

I love old timey beach pictures,

I love sweet life quotes,

I love lovey dovey romantical quotes,

I think when boys text you things like this they are a keeper!!

I want my summer road trip to look like the last two pictures!

-Emily

A few days in Paris

Living in a city for more than a week is going to give you
great insight as to what that city has to offer. 

Lucky for us we got to live in Paris for 3 months so i feel
like i have the experience to write a blog post about where
you should visit and what you should see!! 

First of all You should probably get the Eiffel Tower out of your system pretty early on.
It really is one of the most magical landmarks of all time and you will
enjoy basking in it's history for a good hour or so.
*Hint take the metro stop to Trocadero for the best view possible of
La Tour Eiffel OR just go hang out on the lawn and have a nice picnic!!! 

If you happen to be hungry, and have about 25 Euros to spare, you HAVE to stop in at 

le relays de l'entrecote. You get a salad as a starter, followed by 2 separate portions of steak and Frites...yes 2....you finish one portion and they bring you out another!!! 

It's MAGICAL!!!! AND it will be the best food decision you ever make...

trust me, the green sauce may look scary but it's heavenly..

OH and don't forget the mustard...You have to use the mustard!!!

here's what you do...take your fork and get some steak, then fork a fry then dip in mustard.

You're Welcome!!!

 If you have a free day you really should take the train out to visit the Palace of Versailles.

You know the one where Marie Antoinette lived...

It also houses the very famous Hall of Mirrors!!!

It is a must see, and don't stop at the palace itself but walk the 

grounds until you come across Marie's personal 

home on the estate, it come's with her own little peasant village!!

Now Normandy is obviously not in Paris, 

but you can get here using any and all of the train stations. 

I'm assuming we left from Gare de lyon station. 

Normandy is full of rich history, 

such as where D-Day occurred in June 1944. 

It's also home to Mont-Saint-Michel which is an amazing 

fortress on a hill surrounded by water in Normandy!

We stayed in a cute little countryside cottage with our hosts Patrick and Dennis, 

Who made us a 4 course meal when we arrived at 10:00 P.M. 

They ALSO made us an amazing home made from scratch breakfast the next morning!!

Patrick and Dennis...If you're out there....THANK YOU!!!

Another Must see town is Montmartre France, as you see this is one of the best overlook spots in Paris, because it's the highest point in Paris!! This Town is full of artists and hippies, which adds to it's character and makes it such a fun place to visit!! It is also home to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, which is an amazing amazing place to go see, if you can survive all of the stairs to the top!!!

There are more spots that i'll have to tell you about in a future post but for now i'll leave you with this one. Tour Montparnasse, or Montparnasse Tower, A lot of people go up the Eiffel Tower for an equally breathtaking view of Paris but i really like Montparnasse better. It give you a chance to actually see the Eiffel Tower in the skyline, which is what going to Paris is all about!! 

Plus it makes the tower good for something since people hate it so much ;)

That's all for now, i hope to do more Travel Tuesday Posts like this one so you can have a better idea of all of the hits and misses Paris has to offer!!

-Emily 

Be my Valentine!!

We have a chalkboard in our kitchen and it's become 

somewhat of a center piece for the room!!

My dad made it using a board+chalkboard paint then 

added the wooden border which is our old fence 

that we took down to make way for a newer/nicer fence!!

The wood is seriously gorgeous, couldn't have worked out better!

So i first decorated the chalkboard for Christmas as you can clearly see here :)

When we got back from school it was clearly not christmas anymore

so it was time to redo the board.

It took me 3 seconds to think of the perfect thing to write on the board,
mostly because i was listening to Mumford and Sons when i decided to re-do the board.

"Where you invest your love you invest your life"

Probably one of my favorite Mumford Lyrics of all time!!

It's incredibly true, that whatever you put your love into

you're going to have to put your life into it also, if it's that important to you!!

I'm enjoying the new festive chalkboard 

and i'm enjoying the thought of Valentines day even more than usual!!

This might be sad but the best valentines i've had was probably in the third grade when my little boyfriends mom bought me a teddy bear and a huge heart shaped box of chocolates....

Valentines has been pretty slow ever since...

you can blame that on the fact that i'm the pickiest girl in the world!!!

I'm happy to say that I do have plans for this valentines day :-) 

{British boy plans}

We're sending each other ValBox's...aka valentines boxes!!!

with sweet little treats inside and sweet letters :)

It's all pretty exciting...i really can't wait.....i'm actually SO EXCITED...

Valentines day is 25 days away and walmart and target 

have been prepping for it since December 26th!!

I like to call them holiday Preppers!!!

Have a good monday

Emily

Take me back to Europe!!!

Last time i was home i visited Central Market with my mom and sister.

We were preparing to make Raclette which is SO TASTY...
if you've never had it find it and make it and thank me later!!

One of my FAVORITE things in the entire world is Raspberry Jam on a baguette.

I mean that was my breakfast every morning in Paris, and this Jam or {la conficture} is my favorite brand because it's from France! We found the Raspberry at Central market and the next morning i pretty much ate half a baguette with this jam...i could have eaten the whole thing but....

I like to practice self control

Central Market offers LOTS of amazing food choices from all over the world, if you look towards the bottom of this picture you'll see Tyrrell's Chips....i ate these like a crazy person when we were in England so when i find them in America i have to buy them, 

even though there like $5.00 for a small bag...kind of ridiculous but worth it in the end!!!

Then we came across this section of the store, Mom asked if i wanted anything and i think my facial expression was shock that she even thought i might pass up the opportunity for a french croissant...

I got a plain buttery croissant and mom got Pain au Chocolate and Megan got a carrot cake cupcake haha which has nothing to do with frenchiness...

After this little trip i was feeling the blues because i miss europe so much!!
I miss the people, the food, the culture, the architecture.....i miss it ALL!!!
I can't wait to go back, my stomach can't wait either...it's like a separate entity ;)

OH P.S. Yesterday when i was chatting to Thomas we were talking about how his birthday day and month equaled the year....6+7=13 AKA June 7th, 2013...i thought this was so cool i wanted to see what my birthday looked like...well 9+4=13 TOO......HOLY FREAKING MOLY
Is this a sign???? not that we need a sign because we're already very compatible but i mean i feel like this is a sign....then Tom took it to the next level with this impressive math...
Month+Day+year we were born = ?
6+7+1+9+9+0=32
9+4+1+9+9+0=32
and 32 backwards is 23 which is how old we will be this year...
Ok it's a stretch but it's cute that he tried to figure that out ;)

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL friday and a fabulous weekend!!!
-Emily

lucky #7

I kind of feel like this photo perfectly describes our relationship hahaha

silly/sophisticated....or something like that...

Tom can do some crazy cool eyebrow moves...things i can only wish for but will never have the actual talent to make happen...sometimes i'm so jealous of him ;)

We had Skype Date number 7 yesterday and it was PERFECT :) 

They keep getting better and better every time :)

a few things we've recently realized...

we're still trying to impress each other and the way we accomplish that is by making our beds before we Skype even though neither one of us believes in making a bed...

We have learned that we are really ready to hang out for an extended period of time on the same continent in the same country, state, town, building etc............

countdown will begin shortly...we're thinking June :-)

How exciting is THAT??! :-)

and of course i learned a few new words....

He taught me that Doff means to tip your hat, and bobble means ponytail holder....

He's like teaching me a new language here haha

Well that is all for now, short post because i'm also posting over here: today :)

Happy Thursday Everyone :)

The Liebster Award

Holy cow, is this real life????

The wonderful Abby Lee from Not so simply, Abby nominated me for the Liebster Award!!!

This is kind of how i feel right now...

So excited about this..

SO i'll explain it for those of you wondering what this little blog award means...

The Liebster award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. What is a Liebster? The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute and endearing!!

These are the rules: 

1. You must post 11 facts about yourself.
2. You must answer the 11 questions from the person that nominated you.
3. Choose 11 bloggers to tag & award with the Liebster award with less than 200 followers.
4. Create 11 questions to ask your nominees.
5. Let them know they are nominated.
6. No Tag Backs!

{11 facts about Emily}

{My answers to Abby's Questions}

{My Questions to you}

Here are my nominations 

A and B C the World

Al’s Narratives

Life: a true story

shopgirls journey

blue eyed finch

Faith, Love and Marriage 

when harry met mo

Stamp in my Passport 

the attigs

 little gems 

every shade of green

I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with :-)