UK Vacation Finds

So now that we've been back from vacation for two weeks, we're finally finally finally settling down and things are getting back to normal. May and June have been insane with work-cations and (hallelujah!) real vacations... tacked on to work-cations. I feel like calling them "work-cations" makes me feel slightly less depressed about how many consecutive nights I spent in a hotel, thoughts?

One of my favorite things about traveling is picking out cool, unique, memorable souvenirs. Related /unrelated, Kevin says my personal style is that of an old lady.  So here's what I got and you can be the judge. (I'll also mention I've been formulating a follow-up personal style post and I think most of these fall somewhere in my spectrum. Stay tuned!)

On our day in York, home to York Minster the largest cathedral in Northern Europe, we ran across a local artist fair. I saw this print of a cow and immediately thought NEEEED. The artist also had similar... we'll call them "up-the-nose-shots" of various farm animals. Kevin said I'd be sorry I didn't buy a sheep as well and I have to admit now... he was kind of right. Does anyone have a farm I can borrow? Love those sheeepies.

We spent several days in Harrogate, Yorkshire which is an old "spa" town and what I mean by "spa" is that there was sulfur water and old ladies came and sat in it. Hm. Anyways, there's pretty good shopping and I ran across a designer shop from London, called Cath Kidston. I loved the fun florals (cough, old lady-ish I knooow). After much deliberation, I chose this fun green zip wallet.

Lastly, we went to Edinburgh, Scotland where I learned that Scotland's main exports are wool, more wool and whisky. So Kevin bought whisky and I bought... wool. Since I'm not Scottish and therefor not beholden to any particular plaid, I chose this blue, yellow and white scarf. It's super soft so... thank you sheep!

Overall it was a great trip and I love my purchases. We did also expand our candy collection and when we finally dig out from under the ENTIRE SUITCASE OF CANDY BARS I'll write some more blog posts.

Portlandia Work-cation

It's been a bit of a crazy week. I'm smack dab in the middle of a two-week work trip along the West Coast. Every work trip has its stressful moments and fun highlights, but we'll skip the part that had me stressing out.

We are spending our weekend in lovely Portland, Oregon. I was here last year with my boyfriend for a wedding and it's pretty much exactly as I remember it... weirdness and all. The best parts: an afternoon in Oregon wine country, delicious dinner at Peruvian restaurant Andina and a lucky pass to the Nike Employee Store (everything is fifty percent off OMG unessecary running clothes).

I also re-visited the Portland Saturday Artist's Market and picked a cool print for my office (or somewhere). I stopped by Peet's Coffee to get a latte and the barista made a heart in my foam. I'm so glad that my coffee (and Portland) loves me as much as I love it. We'll be hitting San Francisco and Orange County this coming week, though there won't be as much time for fun activities since we'll actually be working. Gotta love a fun work-cation.

Inspired by the tile in my hotel bathroom...

Needless to say, it was looking a little dingy.