shared spaces.

So let's make this all official;

It's official that I am moved in with Eric. Finally. After spending 8 months worth of weekends here, I no longer need to live out of a suitcase shoved in the corner. I now have things here that make it mine as well as his. We have things here that we picked out together and have made our own. Soon enough this house will be beaming with personality and decor more so than it already is. In a few weeks our biggest projects will come to a close. We have crossed so much off of our list in the past 3-4 weeks;

.. Knocked out a closet and made the master room bigger

.. Painted our "lounge/closet" room an awesome shade of royal blue

.. Painted our bedroom a fantastic shade of grey

.. In the process of painting the walls & ceiling in the bathroom

.. Sanded the ceiling in the bedroom/master bathroom

.. Set up numerous things from Ikea (we have a love/hate relationship)

.. Brought in all my shit from home (clothes, dresser, desk, & all my random crap) i threw out a ton!

There is way more than this that we have accomplished over these few weeks. We have a lot of determination to get things done and organized and we are so close to being there. I just want all of this to be over with so I can keep things consistently clean. Things get dirtied up so easily because of all the work that is being done all over the house, heh. It has been so worth it though. The moving in process has gone quite smoothly. Of course, there have been some near murder/suicides, but all gets resolved so quickly! ha ha. We compromise so well but most of the time we don't even need to. There have been quite a few things where the decision is made right away in agreeing, like our kickass curtains and carpet. Along with our huge Ikea closet organizer. Once its all done it will be fantastic. I cannot wait.

One unfortunate thing we have learned in this process is that city recycling does not come often enough. We have so much recycling it is absolutely ridiculous--probably enough to fill one truck. Clearly this place does not take Ikea into account because anything you but from there takes 2 hours to take out of the package and about 2-3x that time setting it up. Not a fan. But once it is all done it is wonderful.

So what do you do when your government refund check is a hell of a lot less than you thought it would be? Eh, take $100 out anyway and head out to shop.

I stumbled across a really great site last night & of course there is an intro story:

So people have asked me many times of I do any sort of art. I decorate cookies so people naturally think that transcends to paper. Now, I have never been a great artist. I am right brained, so my brain whips out cool ideas, but sometimes it's easier to conceptualize than to produce. Sharpies, pens, and frosting are my best friends when it comes to producing anything artistic. So I came across this site last night and was inspired up again. My sharpies are one of the things I still have at home that weren't as important to bring as other things. But last night they became important. Of course this meant a trip to the store to muster a few sharpies and poster board. In the midst of trying to find art for the place, I decided to try and conjure something up. Something is in the works. Hopefully this turns out well.

I have been LOVING this rainy/severe weather that has been passing through. Unfortunately it is pretty much moved passed by now, but rainy days just make me feel better about doing the slightest thing that day. Or it is a great excuse to be lazy or extremely productive.

It was one week ago today that we saw Spoon, one of our favourite bands. This show was phenomenal. We were front row, like usual for this particular venue. There have been so many good shows that I have seen in the past year and there are so many good shows coming up to look forward to!

For now, cleaning and super Target are calling my name. I want to enjoy this day off.

-Tessa

Listening to:

All For The Best by Thom Yorke

the weekend of weather and adoration.

Oh, I love you, Autumn!

-A picture from my walk today-

What a fantastic weekend! My weekend started Thursday morning.

I had my severe weather symposium. It was great!

So many big names in meteorology were there.

Josh Wurman was there which I was quite excited about.

He on the show Stormchasers on Discovery Channel.

Let it be noted he is the scientific brains of that show & an MIT genius.

I feel like I learned a lot.

Meteorology is such a difficult and conceptual science.

It's so mathematical and scientific and it has so many different aspects to grasp.

I should more so say that I was exposed to a lot.

Only taking one meteorology course doesn't get you far. AT ALL.

Which is all I've done in a classroom with it.

I shall love it from a distance.

Although, there IS that little spark that makes me want to go for it & push myself.

Yes--through the dreaded math & science. If only it were a more job dependent field.

What's up broadcast?!

I want to teach myself what I can though books & really dig into it all when I'm done with school.

for now I have decided that I cannot be graded on my passions.

I take it too personally.

Josh Wurman presenting on tornado structure and tornadogenesis.

Besides the weather symposium, I spent time with Eric Thursday-Sunday. I love our long weekends. I love any time we spend together in fact. I could never get sick of him. We crashed at Hotels this weekend. Embassy Suites on Thursday and Friday (my symposium was being held about a mile away from there). We headed down to Wheeling, IL to stay at the new Westin on Saturday afternoon after my symposium had ended. We wanted to see a movie that had very limited release. We had to travel to Highland Park for the small scale showing.

We made it happen and it was REALLY good. An Education was the name of the movie.

I loved so many things about it. After the movie we decided to go out for a bite.

We ended up going to Abigail's located in Highland Park as well.

It was phenomenal! Really unique dishes with great flavours and ingredients. Everything was pretty much locally brought in and it all had great quality.

It was more quaint and romantic like with a trendy feel. We both really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it!

*I have learned that if I really like something--I become a natural promoter for whatever it may be.

While staying at these hotels, Eric and I talked about our trip to Hilton Head Island coming up for Thanksgiving where we will be staying in a slew of hotels once again. I'm excited because I've never been there, but also because Eric is so revved for it. It's adorable. I love seeing him happy and him get excited about something. It will be my first Thanksgiving away and I'm looking forward to it! Especially when I'm escaping to a more beautiful location! (: We are road trippin' down there because flight fares are ridiculous. I'd prefer to drive though. It will be a great time!

So aside from our excitement banter, we went to Lake Forest and spent the day outside because it was absolutely gorgeous out (southerly flow and ridges!) We strolled around downtown and went to the lake front. Ah. I love large bodies of water. Even though it was just lake Michigan, I'm telling you, you feel like you are looking out to sea. After spending time around the beautiful scape, we headed back home and had dinner with my parents. I hate coming back to reality after such wonderful weekend getaways!

Picture from Sunday!

I hope everyone got off to a good start to the week! Tomorrow starts back skating again! I have been off for a few weeks (what seems like forever) because I punctured the top of my foot a few weekends ago. It was dreadful. But it's healing and I cannot withstand figure skating any longer. I must go tomorrow. I need to release emotions on the ice! Normally I am my best when I have a long break because I think about it more. My body is able to fully rest and I can apply what I've thought about over the break. We shall see!

-Tessabee