Hello summer!

Seen on the streets of San Francisco... 

Well hello friends! and hello summer vacation! The semester has finished. My paperwork is all turned in. And I'm happy to (mostly) have a break until the end of the month. Since the semester has ended, we've been traveling like crazy. Just to give you an idea of the craziness, we've been to four different churches in four different cities in four weeks (none of them our home church). I'm really looking forward to being home for at least two weekends in a row. And am looking forward to some sewing now that I've finished up a relatively big work-related project that was causing me more stress than it should've!  I'm *also* looking forward to blogging more. Hopefully I can make that a reality now that things are settled down for the moment.

 This is the skirt I finished today. Took longer than anticipated because I realized the fabric was completely see-through and I needed to line it. But it's done :) I swear the next place we live will have a better selfie mirror... 

So, here's what I've been up to since I last posted. First, we went to California! The main purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of our good friends in Berkeley. Their wedding was super awesome (in a science museum! with ice cream!) and it was so, so good to see so many of our friends there.  It was also our first wedding anniversary that week and was very special to get to spend it with so many of our friends who made our wedding day special last year. (And a gorgeous pair of earrings from J was the icing on the anniversary cake :) )

Obligatory wedding outfit shot

We enjoyed lots of good food and good beer while we were in the Bay Area and did some of the touristy stuff, like visiting Alcatraz. After a few days there, we rented a bright yellow Mustang convertible and drove down Highway 1.  Definitely worth doing once in your lifetime! Along the way, we stopped in Monterrey to visit the aquarium and to have lunch with my aunts, who happened to also be in California at the same time. It was great to see them :)

Our final destination was Santa Barbara, where J's brother, sister-in-law and our two nephews live. My cousin also attends school there.  I sound like a broken record, but it was so much fun spending time with all of them!  We also went to a couple of wineries, rented bikes and rode along the trail by the beach, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.  Very hard to come back to reality after that trip. More pictures hopefully coming soon to my personal Facebook page, but here are  a few in the meantime :)

At the aquarium :)

Us, our convertible, and scenic Highway 1 :)

The feast my brother-in-law grilled for us!

The week we returned from California was my birthday. And it was a big one :) We celebrated with a low-key happy hour with some good friends and that was just perfect. My mother-in-law bought me the prettiest cupcake I've ever seen! And it tasted amazing, too.  And I enjoyed redeeming all of my free birthday gifts from various stores. Thanks to Ulta for eyeliner in a color I actually wear, and Sephora for some pretty amazing red lipstick. That may make an appearance at future big events ;)

Birthday outfit. Trying to determine if I can actually wear a statement necklace without looking ridiculous ;)

My new fabulous NARS lipstick. The color is called Cruella. 

My birthday was also the first day of a church retreat on meditation and mindfulness. I really, really learned a lot and am very excited to start integrating some of this new knowledge into my daily life.  I've been experimenting with two different guided meditation apps (Calm and Headspace) and think they're both pretty great. I'm hoping to keep up this practice.

This past weekend was another wedding. This time in State College, PA. One of J's college friends got married and it was a great time! Fun people, great live music, a beautiful cake, and just a lot of personality in the whole affair. I love going to weddings that really feel like they're unique to that couple. And this one most definitely was. (As was the one in Berkeley last month!)

Obligatory stop at Berkey Creamery at Penn State. Yum!

In non-travelling news, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things with running.  I went to my run club's monthly happy hour last week and had a great time. I'm signed up for a 5-mile race this Sunday and a Virtual Half Marathon later this summer.  I'm planning on running a "real" half in October and should probably sign up for that one soon. Starting training this week!

I'm currently teaching a for a local program that does professor-led seminars at different companies in the area. We meet once a week at the participants workplace. The participants are mostly people who do not have college degrees and this gives them a chance to further develop a love of reading and an interest in literature in general. We're reading The Winter Queen: A Novel (An Erast Fandorin Mystery) by Boris Akunin and it's been going well so far.  This program, along with my friend Amanda at Amanda Loves Words, are inspiring me to try to do a little more reading for myself this summer!

And that it's from me at the moment. Sorry for the novel and I hope to do shorter more frequent updates for a little while here :) Hope everyone is having a nice summer so far!