I wrote a ridiculously long and detailed post about what my new year’s resolution was over the past week, complete with references to motivational posters with people holding their hands outstretched in front of sunsets, and decided today that just the act of writing it, not sharing it, was all I needed. It helped me flush out what I wanted to achieve, and why on earth I’d come to the decision in the first place. It got way too personal, so I decided to re-write this to be a little simpler.

Due to such a significant change in my life, there is no better time than the present to break bad habits and start new routines. William and I have starting getting up earlier, with the goal to seize the mothereffing day (and stop watching so much damn TV before bed). We’re eating better. Soon we will start running again. Baby steps.

My own personal goals for the year (which are all directly related) are to handle criticism, critique, and lessons better. Be less sensitive. Take action more.

Last year I resolved to be less negative, and I actually took it really seriously and feel like I was pretty successful. So, now I’m a believer in these types of mindset goals. Heather mentioned that her yoga teacher told her to “figure out what you need to do to nourish yourself” this year. While some may interpret that as being a little hippie dippy, I think it’s a simple, wonderful thing to keep in mind in the new year.

Let’s charge ahead into the new year, friends, arms outstretched. Or soaring on a hang glider, whichever you prefer.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Tomorrow marks two weeks of living here. It’s starting to sink in that I’m living here and not on vacation!

click for possibly more info on flickr!

Two weeks of exploring, eating, getting used to driving all the time, going back to work and adjusting to a totally different office, checking out museums, eating from food trucks (donut flavored ice cream!), and a fun visit from Lisa! Will started his intense hunt for a job, so if any of you fine Angelenos know of anything, email me. He has an MFA, and boy has a plethora of talents and experience.

Last night I had my first homesick feeling for NYC watching that Sartorialist video that’s floating around the web. I think one thing I miss the most about NYC is the style, and I feel a little out of place lately. We’re going to hit some art openings and events this weekend, and I’m hoping to scope out that California style I know I’ve seen on the blogosphere that I love. I need some people watching, bad!

Last Saturday, while most people were sleeping in with hangovers from new year party celebrations, we got up with the sun and set out early to walk on the beach down to the Santa Monica Pier, and then back through the neighborhood to take photos. I collected shells and took photos of all the buildings and plants in the neighborhood I love. There are some really amazing, modern homes in Venice, right alongside very modest, unassuming homes. I love the cacti and trees with giant leaves, and the every-other pedestrian walkway streets. It’s clear to us that we need to get bikes stat! And, start running again in the morning. There’s no excuse not to here, I’m afraid.
I know most of this is everyday for people who live here, but plants and homes like this are things I’ve never lived around before, so they’re constantly wowing me, fueling my excitement to be in this wonderful city. And the sunsets? Be still my heart. My office is on the 8th floor of a building in Century City and some of my coworkers have floor-to-ceiling windows, so I’ve seen a few heart-stopping sunsets this week alone.

I still have some random photos of bits from the past two weeks that didn’t fit into this post, so I’ll share more tomorrow!

I feel a bit funny posting these photos because we’re subletting this apartment (for seven months) from a blog reader, and her furniture is here for those months! But all the decor, and character I suppose, is us. We got SO fortunate to have found this place (well, technically it found me) because it’s the perfect sublet length, and there’s furniture so we didn’t have to get here and immediately blow most of our savings getting out own. There’s a downside to that too, because it means we can’t decorate too much or buy any of our own furniture, but seven months will fly by, and we have the option to stay. The location – one block from Venice beach – is amazing, too, albeit a bit nuts on the weekends and supposedly most of the summer. Luckily everything shuts down by sunset, as sleeping in silence is all I care about in the end.

While it’s technically a studio, we measured it and it’s actually the same square footage as our 2 bedroom in Queens. Yeah. It doesn’t look big in these photos, and when we got here we both couldn’t believe how much bigger it was in person than in the photos. It’s probably still incredibly small to you non-city people though, ha! I’ve never had such a large bathroom or kitchen, which is exciting. And those bay windows? Dreamy.

Tomorrow I’ll take you on a little tour of the cool apartments and houses around us, and what we’ve been up to in the past week! But because she feels left out, I thought I’d show you what Wendy’s been up to lately, like climbing up the ladder to the loft and getting stuck up there, and watching the birds endlessly out the big windows. When she climbed the ladder, we were laughing so hard we couldn’t stand up. She hopped up there like a bunny! I’ve never seen a cat adapt as well as her, something I didn’t expect from her at all.

The shopping ban was easy when I had a solid reason not to buy things, and now that we’re here I gotta admit, I’m feeling wanty. This was the first Christmas I didn’t get any physical Christmas gifts due to the move, so that along with getting rid of most of the things I own to make the move easier, and my new office requiring me to take it up a slight notch, leads to inevitable bookmarking of lovely things. I bought the glasses and the shoes, but the rest I need to hold myself back on. For now. Having less possessions is wonderful, but we got rid of a serious chunk of stuff! Plus, it’s been so long since I got all materialistic on you guys:)

Turkish towels (favorite Etsy find lately)
Capybara belt (via miss moss)
Vintage glasses
Dean Davidson ring (via Carol Park‘s gift picks on Fielguided)
Dieppa Restrepo heels
Jo Everything handbag (via refinery29)
Canadian Wool Blanket (it’s been freezing here at night and our place is badly insulated)

ps. Happy Birthday, Andrea Jean!! I’m so lucky to have such an amazing bff in my life and to be a bit closer to you now.

Click on the photos to see possibly more info on flickr! All photos were taken with my Canon A-1 film camera using Fuji Pro 400H.

And the trip continues! Arizona was such a beautiful state, plus we stayed an extra day there at Will’s grandparent’s house in Mesa, that it gets almost an entire post to itself. I mean, just minutes into the state the scary looming clouds started to break and the sun started to peek through, making me finally feel like the trip and all the fast food (the only option on the road, I swear), highway hypnosis, and endless stretches of nothing in the winter’s silence was worth it just for those hours of beauty. I’m not a well traveled person, but I grew up in what I consider to be the most beautiful part of America (the Pacific Northwest), and driving through the back highways instead of the main freeway through Arizona was mind blowing (though slower). I drove through most of it, otherwise there would have been an entire roll of film dedicated to just that part of the drive. First it was flat and the sky was so gigantic and full of clouds it almost felt suffocating, then we drove through snowy and foggy mountains, then the lower we got the more desert-like the landscape turned and when the first saguaros started popping up, the sun gave us one hell of a sunset view. I highly recommend the drive. (FYI: From the 40 in Holbrook we took the 377 to the 277 to the 260 to the 87 -phew!) On Christmas morning (the 7th day of our journey) we set off for the last leg of our journey to LA, where California didn’t disappoint either with its own beauty, and we made record time – hitting zero traffic and pulling into Venice to our sublet while the sun was still shining. And the apartment? Well, more on that tomorrow, friends.

Click on the photos to see possibly more info on flickr! All photos were taken with my Canon A-1 film camera using Fuji Pro 400H.

* I would like to preface this post, and this coming year in fact, by letting you know that we are phasing out the nickname Billy. From here on out he’s Will or William, as he’s turning 30 this year and couldn’t hate the name Billy more. Just letting you know to avoid confusion! No, I did not pick up a different boyfriend along the road:) *

Well friends, where do I start? First of all, a HUGE thank you to Andrea for guest blogging. It was so wonderful to stop on the trip and read her wonderful posts. Do you see why she’s my besty? Secondly, we made it to LA, problem free. Wendy was a dream – not a peep out of her the whole time, and a serious champ in hotel rooms, just hung out and enjoyed the adventure. We basically missed every scary snow storm and rain storm by a hair – only one scary moment driving through the mountains in Arizona where it was so foggy we couldn’t see in front of us – but besides that, smooth sailing. In fact, such smooth sailing that it was the most boring week EVER. Ten hours of driving a day, and not a single moment to stop and see anything cool. Not that we really could have, it was freezing and dreary all the way to Arizona and it wouldn’t have been much fun to stop and see much beyond what was at rest stops. So the best part was just seeing the change in landscape, to enter states we’d never been to, and get to know the states on the atlas (we became obsessed with the atlas). Once we got to Tennessee Will decided that we needed to document the change in landscape that started to happen, so a good portion of these photos were actually taken by him! It was fun teaching him how to use my A-1 and seeing him excited about taking photos.

Our route:

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio (stop in Columbus), a blip of West Virginia, Kentucky (stop in Bowling Green – only drove half a day), Tennessee, Arkansas (stop in Van Buren – dry county, wha?), Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico (stop in Tucumcari), Arizona (stop in Mesa with Will’s family), California (done! Venice).

The rest of the photos coming tomorrow!