life curation

July & August Activity Planning – DONE!

Hi friends! I hope you all are enjoying your Sunday, and staying COOL! Personally, I’m enjoying the fact that I don’t have to go outside into the Virginia heat! I love summers in the South but I also love being able to retreat from the heat when I want to.

I just finished writing out my plans for July and August. It’s important that I am crystal clear about what I want to do and when I want to do it: if I’m not focused, I lose track of my time and find that nothing (or almost nothing) gets accomplished.

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Here’s the short list of my July and August plans. These plans are in support of my goals (short term and long term)  as well as give me interesting things to talk about on this blog.

July:

August

  • Celebrate my birthday in grand style
  • Attend an embassy event
  • Visit a museum I’ve never gone to before
  • Select courses to take in the fall
  • Have some amazing giveaways on this blog (in honor of the blog’s 1 year anniversary)

I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun this summer, and I’m especially looking forward to sharing those experiences with you all! Well, it’s time for me to go ahead and finish my meal prepping for the week, so I’ll talk to you all soon!

life curation

Tomorrow Isn’t Promised

Hello beloveds! I have had a busy week, and I am glad to see it come to a close.

Sadly, I will be attending two funerals this weekend. One of my dear friends lost her mother to cancer, and I lost one of my uncles to kidney disease.  My uncle’s death, in particular, had quite the impact on me, as I lost my beloved stepfather to kidney disease several years ago.

I’m keeping this brief, because I don’t want to weaken the message with too many words. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you – hug them, spend time with them, laugh with them, create as many memories as you can. Tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us.

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Rest in peace, Uncle Richard and Mama Shirley. I’m sending love to everyone one of you reading this, on behalf of my dear departed ones. May you have lots of love and cherish every moment with the ones that you love.

life curation

2018 Goals – Next Round of Updates

Happy Monday, friends! I was due for another 2018 goal update, so I figured that I’d do it now, before the end of the month.

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My last goal update post reiterated my three overall goals to accomplish during this year, as well as steps I intended to take to bring me closer to those goals.

For those that don’t remember, my goals are as follows:

  • Publish some of my writing
  • Travel more
  • Dabble in an art career

Here are the updates as promised! I’ll also share my next round of tasks for each goal.

Goal 1: Publish some of my writing

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I intended to take 3 different actions before the end of the month of April. Those actions were:

  • Start on the 2nd round of edits for my novel
  • Complete 1st round of edits for my how-to book
  • Purchase a MasterClass membership to get additional writing assistance

So, I’m happy to say that I finished my 2nd round of novel edits (go me!) and did my first round of edits for the how-to book (yay!). I opted out of purchasing the MasterClass membership in April because I determined that I would be taking several online classes during the next few months. However, I’ll revisit the MasterClass purchase in September.

My new writing goals are as follows:

  • Finish writing out supplemental/resource material for the how-to book
  • Allow my friends to read a draft of my novel for feedback
  • Resume work on novel # 2

Goal 2: More travel

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My travel goals were simple: mostly decisions and research. Those goals were:

  • Make a decision on my London travel: whether I will do one or two trips this year
  • Start pricing my London and New York airfare and hotel stays
  • Reserve rooms for weekend trips in May

 

Due to some changing priorities at work, I had to reassess my travel plans for later this year. However, I did the weekend trip that I planned to do in May (my embassy weekend). Now that I’m halfway through the year, I’ve got another set of goals. These are:

  • Finalize details for birthday trip in August
  • Finish paying off October cruise balance
  • Start budgeting for international trip in December

Goal 3: Dabble in an art career

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As you all recall from previous posts, my art career goals involve working in the art world as opposed to creating art. My last round of goals were a bit more ambiguous, but funny enough, I made progress just the same. Those goals were:

  • Reserve my space in the Christie’s course(s) I plan to take in New York this summer
  • Begin another online art course
  • Narrow down the opportunities I’ve listed to those most advantageous for the path

I opted out of taking a Christie’s course this summer due to those previously mentioned changes at work. I’ve had my hands full with the Cultures and Identities in Europe and Inside Opera courses, so I put a hold on my ALISON art course (Color Theory for Artists and Designers). Once those two FutureLearn courses wrap up, I’ll see if there are any more suitable art courses that I want to take: if not, I’ll resume my ALISON course. I also got a great idea for dabbling in an art career on my terms, and I’m really excited about that (I’ll share more as I finish ironing out the details).

Now, my goals for my art related career is as follows:

  • Complete an art course
  • Create a website for art career “secret project”
  • Read “Institutional Time – A Critique of Studio Art Education” by Judy Chicago

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My timeframe for completing these tasks is August 15th. So, look out for updates to my new incremental goals in the next few weeks.

Thanks everyone, for stopping through and for keeping me accountable. I truly appreciate it. Talk to you all soon!

fitness · life curation

A July Fitness Challenge? Let’s Do It!

I’m a little more than a month away from my birthday (August baby checking in!) and I realized that I wanted a major change. I used to be slimmer some years back, but now I’m a little “cuddlier” than I’d prefer. I would love to be more toned and healthier. So I figured I’d try to get back into some sort of fitness routine by trying a fitness challenge.

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Ab goals!

Almost two years ago, I purchased one of Brittne Babe’s 21 Day online fitness packages and, while I tried my hand at the meal planning and exercising, I hadn’t committed fully. So I figured that now would be a good time to kick my fitness goals into gear. I will start my training on July 1st, and I’ll post a final pic on August 1st. Keep your  fingers crossed for me: I love cake LOL! It’s going to take some discipline to remain committed to getting toned and feeling healthy and strong. But I’m eager to see some great results, so I’ll do the challenge! If you want to know more about Brittne Babe’s 21 Day challenge, click here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkGyjPfhYpH/?taken-by=brittnebabe

Brittne, looking perfect

Look out for fitness updates over the next few weeks!

life curation · music

Dads Matter

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Happy Sunday, everyone! Today is Father’s Day in the United States, and I’m fortunate to have experienced the love of two fathers: my biological dad and my stepdad. Instead of saying to you, ‘Go love on your dad”, I want to share what both of the fathers in my life meant to me.

My biological dad and I haven’t always been close, though there’s always been a lot of love between us. He is a better parent of adults than young children, and I can respect and enjoy that: after all, I’ll spend more of my life as an adult than I did as a child! He and my mom had a tense relationship for many years, and now I’m glad to say that they have grown to the point of having a friendship. It took a lot of years, but I love that there is no animosity between them. They married in the 1970s, so I often associate them with Earth, Wind and Fire. Here’s a song that I imagine that they may have danced to while they were dating.

My stepdad passed in 2012, and I’ll cherish the last conversation I had with him. He was very ill – in hospice care – and when I asked how he was feeling, he simply said, “I’m not doing too well, but I’m okay. How are you?” It still breaks my heart to think that he wanted to know how I was doing while he was slowly slipping away from us. I’ll also think fondly of how we would occasionally sneak out and get milkshakes from McDonald’s and chili cheese hot dogs from 7 Eleven (this was before I started eating healthier!) One of the last times we hung out, he said he was craving a milkshake, so we made a special stop just to soothe his craving. I miss him every day, but I’m happy that he left me some awesome memories. Here’s a song that he absolutely loved: I still can’t listen to it all the way through without breaking down into tears.

Those are a couple of my Father’s Day memories. Do you all have any memories of your father/father figures that you want to share? Please post them in comments below: I’d love to read them.

international · life curation

Learning a New Language

Hey friends! I’m excited to share my latest learning adventure. Of course, I’m still studying Inside Opera and Cultures and Identities in Europe (I wrote about the courses here and here). But I also took on another learning experience because, well, it felt like a good idea!

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I’m studying Portuguese after visiting the Embassy of Portugal a few weeks ago. I love the language and I’m looking forward to becoming proficient over time. As it turns out, I have a few Portuguese speaking friends that are eager to help me practice, not to mention I have a lot more resources at my disposal than I did when I studied French and Spanish years ago.

For starters, I’m using YouTube, podcasts, digital textbooks, and media to learn Portuguese. Also, there are some excellent groups online (specifically Facebook) that can connect language learners with native speakers to practice or even to ask technical questions. I’m still assessing which resources are the best in my opinion, but as soon as I have a good list of resources, I’ll definitely share them here!

Are you all currently studying any languages? Let me know in the comments below!

hollywood glamour · life curation

Wonder Woman Overload!

A good friend – who has officially earned sainthood by sharing the link I’m going to discuss in a moment – is even more Wonder Woman obsessed than I am.

We’re always sharing links to WW gear because, well, we’re a bit obsessed. But when he shared this link, it was official: he is the ultimate WW fan!

Behold: Wonder Woman items galore! BoxLunch has so many Wonder Woman-themed items for your home. Looky, it’s a Wonder Woman coffeemaker:

Screenshot 2018-06-03 at 8.59.42 PM - Edited

Ooh, it’s Wonder Woman dishes:

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Wonder. Woman. FLATWARE!

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And if you really want to be fancy, you can have Wonder Woman ice cubes (these are available on Amazon):

And finally, I fully intend to sip wine from a Wonder Woman glass! (this is also from Amazon)

So, don’t be surprised when you see photos of my spoils in the future. I plan on stocking up!

life curation

This Month’s Plans

Can you all believe that June is here already?! My mind is blown by how quickly this year is moving along! I’m really pleased at how I’ve been progressing with my goals and I’m excited about what I’m envisioning for the rest of this year.

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This month will have a lot of activity, both on this blog as well as on my social media accounts (Twitter and Instagram – feel free to follow me if you haven’t already!) Over here, I’ll be bringing more information about visual arts, self-improvement, and creating/curating a quality lifestyle. On Twitter, you can see all of the latest art and culture happenings for Washington, DC and Richmond, VA (two of my stomping grounds). Check out Instagram for daily photos recapping some of my daily shenanigans, as well as a special series highlighting incredible artists that are showcasing their work on Insta.

I’ll also be posting a goal update at the end of this month. Yes, I’ve been working on those goals! And I finally updated this website to show my goals on the righthand column of the page. Yes, overdue, but better late than never, right?

 

culture · life curation

New Course: Cultures and Identities in Europe

As part of listening to my intuition and stepping into my best life, I have stayed “light and loose” when it comes to my plans. I had been taking the ALISON Color Theory course for a bit, but I found it difficult to stay engaged in the content. Sure enough, a better online course came along that completely lit me up! When my gut told me “This is the course for you!” I didn’t hesitate to sign up and put the ALISON course on hold, so I can focus on the new class.

“Cultures and Identities in Europe” is a course available through FutureLearn, an educational website based in Europe. The course aims to give some background information and perspective into how European cultures and identities have been shaped over time. This is especially useful information for me, as I plan to travel to Europe several times over the next years.

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I’m looking forward to learning more about European history, culture, creativity, and the future of Europe’s cultural heritage. The course should be fascinating!

If you’re interested in the course, you should check it out. It’s free and available in an online format, so it’s easy to complete lectures and assignments on your schedule. Don’t delay: the course starts on June 4, 2018! You’ll want to make sure that you’re already enrolled once the materials are made available to class attendees.

I hope you join me in this class! Take care, and talk to you all tomorrow.

life curation · luxury

Time for an Aston Martin

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My favorite James Bond, Sean Connery (Lot 91, this photo is expected to sell upwards of $470)

You all know that I love a vintage car. So I squealed with delight when I saw that Bonhams is having an Aston Martin auction. Its in the UK, but at least I can view the lots online!

Aston Martins are sporty, luxurious and exclusive – it’s no wonder that I love them! The auction will feature nearly 200 lots. There are all sorts of auto memorabilia, vintage car parts, autographed photos of celebrities posed with Aston Martins, and, of course, a little more than 30 automobiles available.

Here are my favorite offerings from the auction:

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Lot 222 – 1979 Aston Martin V8 Volante, expected to sell between $190,000 and $240,000

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Lot 226 – 1979 Aston Martin V8 Volante, that’s expected to fetch anywhere between between $200,000 and $240,000

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This chic model of a 1963 Aston Martin is valued as being worth $4,000 (Lot 141)

The Aston Martin sale will occur on June 2, 2018, starting at 10:30 BST in Reading, Englefield House. You can always contact Bonhams if you want more information on this auction. It should be a thrilling one!