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Top 10 Tuesday

Weekly fun favorites from around the web!

1. I wish so badly that I had this DIY when I was in Portland! Preserve your colored leaves forever (or at least for awhile).

2. The other day Nick and I watched this amazing documentary called Life In A Day. Compiled from over 80,000 hours worth of video submitted from over 120 countries all over the world from a single day.

3. Salvador Dali's illustrations of Down The Rabbit Hole.

4. Rules to be happy.

5. Beyoncé Songs Re-Imagined as Undergraduate Theses in Women’s and Gender Studies. Smart humor! Yay!

6. Speaking of smart and funny - Ugly Renaissance babies.

7. Julie Ann Art shows you the worlds cutest way to make your own snow globe!

8. Home made Olive Garden chicken gnocchi soup. Mmmmmmmmm...

9. Personal daily reminders to be happy. That I decided to share!

10. The US needs more ads like this.

Home & Handmade Christmas Shopping Guide!

This year, I have decided to do something a little different with my Christmas shopping. All of my gifts will be either home made out of materials from locally owned Orlando stores or they will be handmade by  other talented individual store owners!

What does this mean for you guys?

Etsy finds galore!

So many yummy recipes!

So many fun and simple DIY's you won't know what to do with yourself!

So to start the handmade off right, here's an idea that was a huge hit for me last Christmas: Canvas tote bags! These typically inexpensive presents are perfect for anyone. They can either be given alone as a new school bag or reusable shopping bag or You can stuff them with more presents and use it as fun, reusable and eco friendly wrapping!

1. Camera Tote via lastearth $10
2. Screw This wine tote bag via PamelaFugateDesigns $16.95 FREE SHIPPING
3. Foxy Lady Tote via squarepaisleydesign $15
4. Dandelion Tote via Westmama $28

And my absolute favorite, that I already bought 2 of as presents...

Pamela Fugate Designs is also having a Cyber Monday sale so snatch these babies up while you can get them for only $12.95 a piece plus free shipping!

If you are a handmade shop owner and are interested in being featured free of charge in one of these December shopping posts, shoot me an e-mail! I would love to help you spread the word about your art!

More thankful than ever..

I'm back from a lovely road trip across Florida with Nick! We visited friends, family, took lots of pictures and ate lots of turkey! We also got an extra exciting turkey day gift in the form of a new picture of Penny! This is our little princess at 5 weeks old!!

Her big sister, our Greyhound Brinkley, went with us on the trip across Florida and she was so excited! There were new dogs to meet at every rest stop, all of my friends and family have pets that she got to play with and everyone under the sun was asking to take her for a run haha. I'm pretty sure she's now going to sleep for the next week. 7 hours in the car with her was a nice trial run for whenever I get into grad school and we have to pack up and move across the country.

Our first stop was Tallahassee to visit my dad, step mom and step sisters (they're adopted, if you couldn't tell). We only got to stay for a few hours because of time constraints but at least we were able to squeeze in Christmas card picture time!

Onto Panama City I got to visit with one of my best friends, Sam and relax (kind of). My Grandmother has a reputation of being one of the feistiest 80 year olds ever for a reason! We cooked, we baked, and we drank our weight in sangria! At one point, Nick and I ran up to Walmart to take a break at the only place open on Thanksgiving. We went to pick up water and sugar and ended up buying a board game and playing in the parking lot for awhile.

After Thanksgiving day had passed, while everyone else was shopping, my family was taking tons and tons of family pictures!

My Grandmother is spending the next 2 months in Germany so Nick and I are having a custom frame made for this last picture and shipping it to her for Christmas! I know she'll love it!

On the drive back, Nick and I kept ourselves entertained by searching for fun new music!

All-in-all our Thanksgiving was amazing! How was yours?

Sponsor A Sweet Release for December!!

One of the few things in life that actually is, as simple as it sounds! I am now offering completely free sponsorship in the form of a button swap!

• Just grab anyone of the buttons found here
• Place it in an easily seen spot on your own blog 
• E-mail me your button and I will gladly do the same!
• When you send me your button I would love for it to be 200 px width or in a photoshop friendly format so I can edit it to fit my layout :)

Due to the sudden influx of e-mails I got for this trade last month, I will only be accepting December sponsors until November 31st! 

I am also completely open to any sort of giveaway or discount your store might want to offer my viewers in exchange for a month of free advertising! 

This free offer maybe subject to change as A Sweet Release grows in followers so grab this opportunity while it lasts!

Turkey Time: Holiday Sangria!!

Thanksgiving.. the time for food, giving thanks and family. Lots of family. And as much as we love them, everyone has those few specific family members that... well... there's a reason you only see them once or twice a year, if you get my drift.

So who doesn't love a good sangria while cooking, eating and after dinner to take the edge off??

Via

Ingredients

1 bottle Merlot

1 bottle Cabernet
1 bottle ginger ale

1 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 oranges

2 red apples

1/2 bag cranberries

Combine one bottle of wine, sugar, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg and let simmer on medium high heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Peel oranges, slice fruit and combine in a gallon jug with both wines.

Refrigerate and let set for at least 6 hours, the longer, the better but it tastes fine after only 6 hours if you're in a time crunch!

Add ice and ginger ale to serve.

Garnish with a cinnamon stick and any other holiday fruit of your choice!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Turkey Time: Dark Chocolate and Coke Brownies

I know I promised this recipe last night but... well.... Nap time won against recipe writing.

I'm sorry... But, better late then never, right!?

These are hands down my go to recipe for any sort of pot luck, birthday party, work event... Anything. Who doesn't like amazing brownies??

What's even better is that these are Half-Ass-Martha-Stewart at it's best and they're completely sugar free!

Ingredients

1 box of Pillsbury Sugar Free Brownie Mix
Eggs
1 can of Coke Zero
1 1/2 cups Dark Chocolate Chips

Follow the instructions on the back of the brownie mix and replace both the water and the vegetable oil that the instructions call for with equal parts room temperature Coke Zero
After all the wet ingredients are well blended in, temper in the dark chocolate chips
Bake according to the rest of the box instructions

And that's it! If you're feeling frisky, this recipe can also use Guinness in place of the Coke Zero for a less sweet, and more Irish version!

Check back tomorrow for a killer Holiday Themed Sangria recipe that will really take the edge off some of your more obnoxious family members ;-) And swing by Gentri Lee for her awesome giveaway!

Turkey Time: Mini Caprese Salad

Via

Nick's Mini Caprese Salad if probably the definition of Martha Stewart made easy.

If you can slice things without slicing off any limbs in the process, you can make this fabulous and simple little salad!

Prep Time - 15 minutes

Dressing Ingredients

1 ½ cups fresh basil

4-5 sprigs thyme 

1/2 a lemon worth of juice

2-3 cloves garlic

3-4 tbsp Olive oil

Combine all ingredients into  food processor and chop until liquified

Salad Ingredients

2 cups fresh mozzarella pearls

1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes

1 cup sliced menagerie tomatoes

2 tbsp balsamic glaze

Slice the tomatoes and combine with mozzarella pearls

Toss tomato and mozzarella mixture with basil dressing

Chill for 1 - 2 hours to marinate

Top with balsamic glaze and serve!

Check back later tonight for my favorite... Dark Chocolate Coca-Cola Brownies!

Turkey Time with Annika & Nick

One thing I have always wanted is my own cooking show. I love teaching people things (I'm studying to be a professor, duh.) and I looooooooooove to cook! So for the rest of this week, I have something special planned for you guys!

Everyday this week, Nick and I will be sharing some of our favorite recipes to use for your holiday! So to kick off the week, lets pretend it's Wednesday November 23rd. When you have a ton of family in your house and little to no desire to cook a huge meal, the day before you cook another huge meal. Solution?

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Modified Recipe from Everyday with Rachel Ray

Preparation Time - 10 minutes

Cooking Time - 10-12 minutes

Simple, extremely tasty and ridiculously fast!

• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregeno
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tilapia fillets (a little more than 1 lb)
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl

Lightly drizzle the fillets with olive oil and cover both sides of the fillet with the dry mixture

Place coated tilapia onto a pan coated with tin foil and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the thickest part of the fish is white and opaque.

Serve to your guests and prepare for them to be wowed!!

For the perfect side dish to this delicious meal, check back tomorrow for Nick's signature Mini Caprese Salad!

Ok, so maybe you shouldn't say no.

STOP!! 

Have you read part one yet? Click here!!

So the next night I threw on a cute little cocktail dress and headed to a little indie bar downtown to meet up with the guy I was sure had the potential to be my new gay bestie! Not gonna lie, I was pretty excited. He bought me a drink and we chatted about what had been going on in our lives since we had last interacted in Daytona. Turns out I was wrong about one thing, not only did he remember me from school but he had also been in classes with guess who!? Yup, Senior Toxic himself. We had some ice breaking laughs at the expenses of our ex loves, paid our tab and went for a walk down Orange Avenue. He pointed out some art galleries that looked creepy in the moonlight but he promised I would love during the day. I tried my first vegan hotdog (don't knock it till you try it) and Nick bought me a rose from a street vendor. Oh, and I know what you're thinking but no, I still had not realized this was a first date. 

We went to a quiet little outside bar and continued to chat. I'll be honest, thinking he was gay was probably the best thing that ever happened to our first date. I wasn't nervous, I was completely myself and I didn't over analyze everything he and I did like I normally would on a first date! I was just out with a new friend, so why would I?! Then it happened.

He put his hand on my knee. And left it there.

This was no friendly pet. This was a first date, I'm probably going to lean in to kiss you, omg-annika-you're-an-idiot kind of caress. I instantly wished I had worn jeans. I started making excuses about having to wake up early the next day. Anything to get me out of that bar! But he was still so sweet. And so cute. I was now terrified and had so many doubts, but he was still somehow winning me over. 

At the end of the night he walked me back to my car even though he was parked blocks in the opposite direction (good sign #1) and as I nervously awaited the awkward first kiss, all I got was a hug. He opened my car door for me and complimented me on being one of the few people from Daytona Beach that didn't suck. He walked away and I sat in shock, now completely smitten. Smart? Cute? And respectful? I was sold. But was he?

Insert that awkward moment when you wait to see if he asks for a second "date" here. 

We chatted over text and e-mail for the next few days, but the subject of another date never seemed to come up. I was still kind of seeing the guy that stood me up the night Nick and I met so I just opted to not get my hopes up about either. I reverted back to me-myself-and-I mode and decided to stop talking to them both and went out for drinks and hookah with my roommates. 

Boy #1 officially fell off the planet around this time but Boy #2 (Nick) kept up the conversation. That evening he sent me a message inviting me to another bar, I'm not a big drinker, one of my roommates wasn't 21 and my pride was still injured from the lack of a 2nd date, so I declined the invite. Ironically, I again told him where we were going and I shit you not people, the bar he was at? Across the street. So, repeat the 1st night we "met" but this time with less alcohol, more hookah and me not thinking he was batting for the wrong team. My roommate and our friend wanted to continue the night else where but I was exhausted by this point. Nick offered to drive me home so that they could go off on their own and by the time we got back to my apartment our conversation was in full swing. We sat out in front of my house for nearly an hour talking about how he might join the military, why I stopped my obsession with photography and of course me calling him out on not asking me out again. He laughed and promised he was getting to that, but he had been just as confused about my interest in him as I was about his interest in me. 

He walked me to my door and we talked some more. We went inside and talked even more until I was exhausted beyond belief. I stood up and went to walk him back to the front door to leave when it happened…

The first kiss.

And being the true romantic I am, the one thought racing through my mind was stressing out. This boy was in my house, kissing me, on the 1st and a half date (I refuse to this day to call this night a real date). I knew many a boy who would try to push this further and let me tell you, I'm NOT that kind of girl. I was getting uppity before even being prompted. Like I said, true romantic. But after that, he left. No pushing for more, no awkward situation, just a hug and a goodbye.

I was sold.

Of course, that didn't stop me from being difficult. A few weeks and a dozen dates later, he very sweetly and old fashioned, asked me to be his girlfriend. And I said no. My theory at the time was why change a good thing and potentially ruin it? I of course realized my mistake very quickly and ended up texting him at around 3 am the next morning asking if I could change my answer. Our awkward relationship start needed one more awkward beginning I guess, because he said yes!

And I've been sold ever since. Over two years later and he still makes my heart skip beats and occasionally helps restore my faith in humanity. It's not all puppies and rainbows, it's compromise and communication that keep this little family together with lots of love and sometimes more than a little work. We have culminated the perfect balance of freedom and togetherness through patience and the realizations that jealousy is a fool's emotion.

Bad luck in romance turned into a blessing in disguise for both of us. Through embracing life's hardships we became better people and learned to love ourselves without the help of another person. He's not my other half. We are 2 whole life companions that lift each other up, push each other along and hand out the occasional reality check when necessary. Wildly independent? Yes. But, still of so much better when together? Heck yes.

It's a love story baby just say... no?

Just in case you missed my guest post day over at Danfredo Rivera,

I may wear dresses and like to curl my hair, but as far as inward emotions are concerned, I'm so not a girly girl that it might be safe for you to just think of me as a guy. I like football and fast cars and when it comes to girl drama I wish I could take the route of a man: Throw a few punches, take out your aggression and be done with it. None of that catty crap, please and thank you. But, the one thing that always brings my girly side out, is love stories.

I love hearing how people met. I love when someone marries their High School sweetie (though thank God I didn't marry mine). I just love, love. Nick and I's love story is not your typical one. Maybe not even a romantic one. Actually, it's much like our interaction on a daily basis, goofy with a ting of awkward.

After calling it quits with my ex for about the 50th time (don't look back ladies. It's a vicious cycle.) I completely swore off men. Love had not been kind to me. It told me mean things, it lied to me, broke my heart into a thousand pieces and then made me out to be a horrible human being when I finally stove up for myself and left. And then at the tender but well seasoned age of 22, my mom told me my parents were separating after 20 some odd years of marriage. But that's another story. My theory on life became to love myself and have my own dreams before incorporating anyone else. Sure, I went on dates, heck, I even liked a few guys! But for the most part, if things got even slightly committed, I bolted. In a final attempt to get away from the toxic ex and into the arms of my grand dreams of being a museum director, I began the move away from Daytona and onto the bright lights in the big city of Orlando.

Now let's backtrack a little bit. At the same time I was with Senior Toxic, Nick was dating a guitar strumming lady with the heart of a gypsy. She wrote him love songs, stole his heart, then got uncomfortable with being comfortable and left. I can't say how this made him feel. That's not my love story to tell. But, at the risk of sounding incredibly selfish: I'm glad it happened. Because, about 6 months after this happened, the little heart broken boy joined an online dating website around the same time as the recently embittered girl. Yup. Bet you never thought we were THAT couple, did you!? 

Online dating success story tip: a lot of online dating services work on a rating system of how compatible you and your matches are. While I'm sure these are worth a second thought sometimes, don't make a high compatibility percentage your final deciding factor. Nick and I were only 67%. One of the worst first dates I have ever been on was with a 94%. You do the math.

One evening I received a message on said website that simple said:

_____________________________________________________

PhotogNick

Too familiar for me not to message you.

Jul 7, 2009 – 3:47am

I of course was offended because I knew exactly where he knew me from. He was a year ahead of me in the same photography program while we both lived in Daytona. I thought he was dreamy, he had now made it PAINFULLY obvious he had never even noticed me. I toyed with the delete key and the thought of just ignoring him completely before deciding on what I thought was a snide response.

MeetMeInTokyo

Jul 7, 2009 – 12:59pm

I do believe we went to school together. I graduated the DSC photo program last year

_____________________________________________________

I'm obviously either not very good at snide or he wasn't very good at taking a hint and messaged me back… again. And I did the same. 

Finally, one night the inevitable happened... I got drunk and gave him my phone number. 

What were you thinking, Annika!?

This boys reputation greatly preceded him in his time in the tiny beach side city with nothing better to do than gossip and I wasn't sure if he was a complete playboy or gay. Either way, I just wasn't having it. I had enough gay bff's to last me a lifetime and had no interest in wasting my time on a male trollop. So he texted and I ignored. He invited me out and I made up excuses not to go. This cycle continued and lucky for me the broken hearted boy persisted in trying to woo the love bitterer girl. One evening however, my excuses became a bit too specific. 

The conversation started out normal enough,

"Hey! What are you up to tonight? You should come downtown with some friends and I! ;-)"

Stupid winky faces. Who did this boy think I was?! 

"Sorry, I have a friends in town and we are out at Cantina! Another night maybe?"

Note giving the name of the bar we were at. 

"Oh really? Well we are at i-bar so I'll see you in 10 minutes! :-)"

Wait. Did he say i-bar? As in… the bar across the street from the one we're at? Shit. I panicked. As luck (or fate) would have it, I was dressed to the nines on the night I met the love of my life and it was actually the first time I had ever been stood up. Yup. I should have had another boy on my arm that night and I was NOT in the mood to play unenthusiastic footsie with a guy I wasn't even interested in. I tried to get my friends to leave and go to another bar with me and failed. Enter, three totally hipstered out boys moving through the crowd of drunks as if on a mission from god. They bought my girlfriends and I drinks, they charmed, they took cheesy bar pictures with us and we danced the night away. And when they left, I received endless crap from my friends for being so hesitant of these super fun guys that had graced us with their presence. 

I still wasn't convinced though. He was too cute and too nice and in my experience, what seemed too good to be true, probably was. But, by this time I had officially moved into my tiny apartment in Orlando and the girls I had planned to move with had yet to join me. So after spending too many nights alone in a barren 3 bedroom apartment in what had seemed to be an ok neighborhood (mental note, when moving do a drive by of how the neighborhood is at night next time) I was desperate for any sort of human interaction. One evening Nick messaged me yet again to see if I was interested in being shown around my new city and for once, he didn't get turned down. The way he presented this didn't seem like a date at all. It seemed like he was just being nice and based on how he carried himself and dressed the one night we had hung out before, I was leaning more towards gay than true playboy.

_________________________________________________

Check back tomorrow for Part 2!!

Happy Friday!!

Today mine and Nick's love story is making a guest appearance over at Danfredo Rivera while the beautiful Danielle is on her honeymoon!! Go visit and be on the look out for a part 2 to that love story right here, on Saturday!

For all my visitors from Danfredo Rivera, welcome! Here's a little get to know us list of A Sweet Release's favorite past posts!

On Naming Our New Family Member

A Reflection on 25 Years

Inappropriately Hilarious Children's Books

Fall in Oregon

How I Learned to Love My Body

The ABC's of She and He

How to have the perfect fall frolic

How to have the perfect fall frolic


Hello A Sweet Release readers!  My name is Sarah and I blog over at Desirous of Everything.  I'm in the process of organizing a little dinner party with friends that I'm affectionately calling a "Fall Frolic" and thought I'd tell you all about it.


Setting the scene-  I decided to use Paperless Post to send out invitations.   It's way cuter than sending out a mass email or facebook invite but cheaper and faster than snail mail. Plus it does this little animation thingy that makes it look like an invitation is coming out of an envelope! This is the invitation I used to help get my juices flowing for my party's over all theme:

Next the playlist.  I thought about creating an "autumn themed" song playlist but then realized that if I could find songs that talk about autumn, they're all going to sound different and might not flow together.  Instead I thought of some great albums that make nice background music but aren't super boring.  Here are some of my faves:

• The Beach Boys Smile Sessions just came out and is available for streaming here.  
• Baxter Dury's new album Happy Soup
• Journey In Satchidananda by Alice Coltrane
• Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon
• The Harder They Come Soundtrack
• Anything by Yo La Tango

Now let's talk food!  I say keep the menu simple and seasonal.  Here's what I plan on serving:

1/2/3/4

And don't forget dessert!

click for recipe!

While we're eating the soup, I'll throw the fish in the oven!

And finally, I don't know about you guys, but I always find a gathering much more festive when games are involved.  One of my favorite party games is Salad Bowl which is a mixture of charades, taboo and craziness!  Here is how you play:

1. Break into teams of 2
2. Choose a letter.  Everyone must write down 5-10 (depending on how many people you have) words or phrases beginning with that letter on slips of paper.  You can write ANYTHING you want as long as it starts with the letter.  And I mean anything- people WILL guess it eventually and the weirder it is the more hilarious.
3. Put the little slips of paper into a big salad bowl.
4. Round 1: Time a minute for each team.  Get you team mates to guess the word by describing it without saying what it is.  Do this until all of the papers are gone through. Keep track of how many your team gets each time.
5. Round 2: Same as round one but this time you can only use ONE WORD to describe what is on the paper.  I know this sounds impossible but it isn't!  You've gone through all the words already so this round relies on your memory of what is in that salad bowl.  You can only say one word but you can say it over and over with a different inflection etc.
6. Round 3: Act out what's on the paper doing charades!  This one is also very funny because a lot of the words might not be normal charade type words but at this point you really know what is in that bowl.

And that is how you have a successful fall frolic (I think). I'm going to post about my actual frolic on my blog after it happens, so please stop by and say hello, I'd love to meet you!

___________________________________________________

Thanks for popping in Sarah! I can't wait to make my whole family play Salad Bowl while I'm home for Thanksgiving!

On naming our new family member.

Guess what!?

We have a new family member on the way! A furry family member that is. She's a 2 week old show quality Welsh Corgi! Her parents owners have fallen on hard times and decided to give this litter of pups away fro free rather than getting papers for all of them. I have always wanted a Corgi. Always. And Nick's amazing co-workers not only told him about this little darling but then convinced him that she would make the perfect Christmas present.

I say Christmas because she is too young to actually come live with us at this point. But that will not stop me from picking out names, buying toys and cute collars and essentially spoil her before she even knows my face.

So excited!

So the first order of business was of course a name. Now I don't know if you ever tried to name something but everyone and their mother has an opinion on what it should be.

My friend Dana wanted to name her Dana.

Nick wanted to name her Guinni supposedly for Guinness but I'm pretty sure it's due to her strong resemblance to a guinea pig in the only picture we have of her so far.

Don't worry, by the time we get her she will look more like this:

Her name was Pippa, Cuppy and Agnes. She was named after food, drink and English Queens. I thought about waiting to see what her personality was like. Then I got too excited and started making up names again. We thought about going with what the owners of the parents had named her…

I took pointers from Jenna Marbles.

Something that can be shortened into an EEEEEE sound. Got it.

And then my friend Katelyn suggested Penelope. Penny for short. 

And it stuck.

So check back next month for the first of many adorable picture posts of baby Penny experiencing so much for the first time! A new house and a big sister and cats! Oh my!!

Top 10 Tuesday

First of all, sorry for dropping off the blog-o-sphere. This week and last weekend were rough to say the least and school felt the need to hand my ass to me on a silver platter. But! 4 days of little to no sleep and 27 research paper pages later, I'm back! And exhausted.

1. Vintch's gorgeous post on remembrance in our daily lives.
2. Fictional places you can visit in real life!
3. An amazing and beautifully written article about what real love is like. Because, sometimes the romances worthy of poetry, aren't the loves that last a lifetime.
4. The Perfect Bucket List. A community based project of all the things people want to do before they die! Really cool and very inspiring!
5. My beloved Portland, Or made the list of the top 7 cities young adults are flocking to in lieu of the recession and I can definitely see why!
6. One of my favorite bloggers, Molly, tells the world why they should say "yes" as often as possible.
7. How blogging became my boyfriend. But don't tell Nick.
8. A really cool one for all my fellow history nerds: The art of healing the minds and spirits of WW1 soldiers.
9. Interpol releases a monthly poster of stolen works of art from around the world. 
10. You asked for pictures of Florence, so I dug a few up! I'll do a full post on the experience when school slows down a bit, so be on the look out and for now, enjoy these!

Little things you might not know about me!

My mom is a photographer and graphic artist. And yes, that picture is of me made into a mermaid.

Besides being a blogger, I am also a waitress, a Production Assistant and an Art History student. Busy bee doesn't even begin to describe my day to day life!

I make a wish every time I catch the clock on 11:11.

I am very involved in my local political affiliations and a strong supporter of the human rights campaign. I'm not trying to be fake on my blog, I just like using it as a positive place for happy things! If you want to see me on my political soap box, e-mail me and we can talk about exchanging Facebooks or Tumblrs ;-)

I have the most crap-tastic racing dog on the planet and I love her to pieces. When you adopt a retired Greyhound, you get their racing history! Brinkley... was in one race, broke her leg in said race and immediately got retired and placed up for adoption.

My close friends nicknamed me The Unicorn. If that isn't a perfect description of my personality, I dont know what is!

All my life I have wanted siblings but remained an only child until the age of 21 when my dad re-married. I now have a 13 and a 10 year old stepsister and I couldn't be more excited!

I spent almost this entire past summer in Florence, Italy. Yes, it was amazing.