Author: Lauren

Then there was that time I lived in Dublin for 5 weeks…

I’ve been distant, I know. It’s not you, it’s me.

The seaside market at Dun Laoghaire has been a favorite spot.
The seaside market at Dun Laoghaire has been a favorite spot.

You see, I’ve been hanging out with another blog whilst in Dublin for a five week study abroad program. I’m now four weeks in, and if I’m being honest here, I don’t have really have time for this. I just really needed a study break.

But I feel it’s important to communicate something: even though I’m up to my ass in school work, I’ve been trying to do a good amount of “experiencin,'” too, and I have to say, Dublin is kind of amazing. It’s got all the beauty and charm of other European cities I’ve visited, with the added bonuses of a language I can understand and really unpretentious citizens. In fact, I can easily say that Dublin is one of the most pleasant cities I’ve visited, at least, once I got my bearings. Continue reading Then there was that time I lived in Dublin for 5 weeks…

The Decisive Moment: June 20, 2015

Exploring Dublin

About this series:

The Decisive Moment is a photo selected from my day that epitomizes life’s experiences in a singular moment of time.

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

The Decisive Moment: June 16, 2015

Four generations, one self portrait.

About this series:

The Decisive Moment is a photo selected from my day that epitomizes life’s experiences in a singular moment of time.

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

I did a Pinterest thing that didn’t totally suck.

I’ve had my fair share of epic domestic fails, particularly when trying to recreate things that I find from Pinterest. I think I can be pretty capable in the DIY department, but, you know, Pinterest forces us (or at least me) to set unrealistic expectations about what is actually DIY-possible.

We moved into a slightly bigger apartment a few months ago, and it’s been fun to get to settle in and figure out where things go. Our kitchen is bigger, with a huge butler’s pantry. It’s the Ritz Carlton of kitchens, as far as I’m concerned, and I’ll tell you more about that later. We’ve also now got a nice big deck, and I managed to plant some flowers out there this summer. The only problem is, the deck is shaded 90% of the time, so, not ideal for growing herbs and veggies. I’ll tell you more about that later, too.

I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of community gardening, not because I don’t believe in it, but because I’ve spent the last two summers paying $75 to watch a bunch of vegetables die. Even though our garden was only a mile a way, getting there was hard, because, life. When I was able to go, there was this walk of shame past all the beautiful, bountiful beds to our pathetic little patch filled with green beans, three strawberries, dead tomato plants and a bunch of weeds.

Anyway… where was I? Right. DIY. Continue reading I did a Pinterest thing that didn’t totally suck.

Open Hearts and Pocketbooks at Hubbard Street’s $800K Evening

Those folks at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago sure know how to throw a party. I didn’t really think they could top last year’s Spotlight Ball featuring THE Mikhail Baryshnikov, but all the fancies came out of the woodwork for a beautiful, inspiring, and incredibly lucrative night for Hubbard Street. Between gala tickets, silent auction and an exciting live auction netting $200K, Monday’s Spotlight Ball brought in more than $800,000 to benefit artistic and educational programming, so it was a pretty good day in the office for them.

I managed to rock my $10 dress from Marshalls and didn’t get embarassingly drunk. So I call it a big win for me, too. Continue reading Open Hearts and Pocketbooks at Hubbard Street’s $800K Evening

We did a really embarrassing photo shoot.

Two things:

1) Hiring somebody to help plan your wedding is a really good idea. It wasn’t too difficult to convince our entertainment savvy neighbor Phillip to help us. Otherwise we probably would be ordering pizza and putting Instagram selfies on the invitation.

2) We are extremely serious people. Not really. Which makes an engagement photo shoot really awkward. Fortunately we had a lot of help not looking like dweebs from my friend Ashley at A. Deran Photography. Well, ok, sometimes we still looked like dweebs, but that’s not Ashley’s fault. Continue reading We did a really embarrassing photo shoot.