February Rewind

It occurred to me that as much as I'm documenting for Project Life, not many (any?) of those stories and photos are making their way onto the blog. I think I assumed that posting these photos would be redundant since they already appear in spreads in my Project Life updates, but I honestly doubt that any of you are going through the trouble of examining my pages that closely. And if you are, I want to spare your eyesight :)

I do plan to start posting more heartfelt and personal stories on the blog, but until I get my writing act together, I'll put together this monthly rewind post (based off of similar posts by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner).

February in Photos:

5 Things that Happened in February:

1. We attended the wedding of my step-brother-in-law (pulling into the church parking lot with exactly one minute to spare before the ceremony), and had a nice time celebrating right on the shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.

2. Mark and I found someone's wallet on the sidewalk while taking a walk on one of the few nice days in February. It belonged to what looked to be a college student with an out-of-state home address, and had quite a bit of cash inside. I've been in that position before, and it was nothing but stressful, so I wanted to see if we could get the wallet back to him. We did our best to track him down without a phone number-- a Facebook message, calling the land line associated with his home address-- but no luck. Before going totally amateur detective and calling his school for contact info (or to contact him on our behalf), I dropped the wallet off at the police station in hopes that they have some way to access his cell phone number or find him locally.

3. My DSLR camera fell off my tripod and busted my favorite prime lens, booo hooo. And then I discovered that the 1-year warranty on the lens had expired exactly 10 days before.  I'm currently waiting on a price quote for repairs and I'm afraid :( Nothing is cracked or cosmetically wrong with the lens, but I currently can't adjust the focal distance at all.

4. We had a very sexy Valentine's day with House of Cards Season 2 and takeout lobster rolls (which are basically my new delicious obsession). Did you see the article where Kevin Spacey said that political insiders have told him that House of Cards is "basically 99% true"? That makes me want to CRY.

5. We finally got our local friends together for dinner. Ages ago, 5 or 6 of us used to meet for dinner weekly and try an new restaurant downtown each time, but life happened and we stopped getting together regularly. It had been six months since we last met up, and it was great to see everyone, despite the frigid temperatures. Unfortunately, the restaurant we picked had a decidedly young vibe and became too loud to hear each other by the time it hit 7pm. You know you're old when you will only go to restaurants and bars where you can hear each other talk from across the table without shouting.

Read in February:

• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - It was fun, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seems to. Read my thoughts here.

• Still Writing by Dani Shapiro - I loved this book! It felt like it was written for me personally, and yet it was comforting to know she was addressing a wider audience of writers. It made me think quite a bit about how lonely writing can be and yet all writers (and creators) seem to have a shared experience when it comes to the process.

• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon (in progress)

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tarte (in progress) - So far, it's so good!

Favorite Song from February:

5 Things I Loved About February:

1.  Oscar Season. Mark is a big movie buff and tries to see all the Best Picture nominees before the awards show each year. This year he managed to see 8 out of 9, and I saw 5. I'm not as into movies as he is, but I love that his interest exposes me to some great films I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Our mutual favorite was "Her." We also have an annual tradition of filling out Oscar ballots together and seeing who guesses the most winners-- I guessed all the major categories correctly and beat Mark by 1 point on the full ballot.

2. Healthy eating. While my gym attendance record was pitiful this month thanks to the cold weather and snow, I did get back on the healthy eating train. Smoothies and vitamins almost every morning, meal planning, and including lots of veggie-heavy meals with clean and lean proteins. I made this Power Green Salad from Sprouted Kitchen twice in one week.

3. One Love Organics. I placed FOUR orders for natural skincare and beauty products this month (I kept coming across really great sales! As a result, I have instated a shopping ban for the next month). I'm still testing the products out, but my first impressions of my OLO Essentials Kit is pretty positive-- the packaging is totally adorable, and it all smells really good. I'll keep using the products for a while longer before giving my official review.

4. Fresh petite pink roses on my coffee table.

5. How warm 32°F felt after weeks of below freezing and below zero temperatures. We took walks each time the temps reached 32 or higher, and it felt good to get outside and get moving.

What I'm looking Forward to in March:

SPRING. Disappearing snow, daylight savings, asparagus season, getting back to the gym, more fresh flowers in my living room, brighter lipstick colors, taking walks, 50-60 degree days (PLEASE?!).