TGIF!

Well my friends, I could not be more glad that this week has come to an end! While it did have some high points (surprise date night with my husband!), it was mostly a stressful blur.

I decided to treat myself today for making it through with a purchase from my favorite store, J.Crew. I have been really good about not shopping much (at all) so far this year and I had a little extra money left over after paying bills so I decided to cross some of my 2014 Want Items off my list. Extra plus, they were all 40% off sale!

Clearly trying to stock up on staples!

I got this shirt in black, white and navy (realized I already have a grey v-neck...oops!).

And these white jeans, so cute!

I also found out today that I made it in to an online marketing class at my local community college which I am very excited about!

Anyone else make yearly shopping lists? Or get excited about going back to school?

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Still Plugging Along

Well, not much has changed as of yet. Work has still been insanely busy and probably will continue to be more or less until mid-April (tax day).I am still not quite ready to share my big news but I promise, it is coming!

So far this year I have really been struggling to keep organized, I haven't even had time to make my daily to-do lists! Things should be calming down a bit starting next week and I really want to use the brief calm to get a handle on things, both at work and at home. I have laundry that needs to be put away, clothes to get rid of, etc. One thing I have been feeling really about is my finances, well about my organization of them at least. The end of the year left me with a lot of big bills from travel, medical expenses, and vet bills and I am working diligently to get them all paid off. One of my resolutions was to be more in charge of my finances though and I feel like I have been doing well. I signed up for the free version of LearnVest and it has a wonderful budget tracking system that I am loving.

A big change for me budget-wise, is that I am trying to keep shopping to a minimal, at least for now. This hasn't been too difficult so far, especially since I have gotten some great new-to-me dresses from a friend! I do enjoy following along with many style blogs though so it is interesting to try to use ideas and remix what I already have.

Do you have any organizational tips to share?

Busy Bee

Well, 2014 seems to be off to a crazy start! Some busy-ness I am enjoying, some is a bit overwhelming. In a few weeks I will elaborate:)

Getting a good handle on my goals/resolutions though! I have already finished one book, Ender's Game. I think my goal of 36,500 pages this year might be a BIG stretch but at least it is getting me going!

Fantastic book, I highly recommend.

I also purchased this really awesome "journal" to get me started in daily writing.  I think it will be really interesting to see how my answers vary over the course of 5 years, assuming I can keep it up that long!

Work has been very busy also which has been a source of stress for me. Hoping that passes sooner rather than later and trying to come up with some projects to work on it my spare time to keep me relaxed and organized!

2014 Resolutions!

Well, it looks like I've made it back here once again...trying to revive a blog that never quite got on it's feet. Hopefully third time's a charm with this one. It seems my life/career/goals/etc may be ready for another big change so it seemed like with that and the New Year, now would be a perfect time to get back to blogging, starting with 2014 Resolutions. Or goals, I like goals better I think.

2014

1. Continue to read more. Gonna steal one from Kate here and shoot for 36,500 pages read this year.

2. Put together a realistic savings plan and stick to it. I'm not in a bad place financially at the moment but I would like to be in a better one this time next year.

3. Take some bigs steps towards achieving a graduate degree.

4. Do more projects, knitting, crafting, etc. Anything that gets me out of my head and focused on the task at hand really.

5. Blog more and start journal writing as well.

6. Most importantly, stay happy and healthy and enjoy any adventures that life throws at me!

That's all for now! Hopefully I will check in again next week with some progress!!

xo, Elena

Summer so far

So, just when I got on a role and made it a goal to continue writing I happened to lose all motivation.

So far this summer has been fairly bland. George has been gone for 3 weeks, I read one of the books on my list (The Secret History, I highly recommend it), started organizing my closet (made it through the dresses!), and worked my butt off in the office. Luckily work has been really busy and crazy interesting so that has kept me distracted from missing my hubby.



Unfortunately, I have not made much progress with HP in Arabic...took me about 30 minutes to get through one sentence...may have to cut that goal back. I also have apparently developed a little shopping problem which is not helping my goal of saving to take an online course through Oxford University.

Speaking of Oxford, that is a little bit of a sore topic for me lately. I recently saw on facebook that two acquaintances of mine will be heading there in the fall for graduate school and immediately felt a strong twinge of jealousy/disappointment that I am not on the road there myself anytime soon. I am at a strange point in my life where I happen to have an amazing job that I love that has tremendous opportunity for growth and could very well be my ultimate career but I also have strong desires to go back to school for a graduate degree. I really regret that I didn't get a degree during the last three years since I graduated from UCSB but, alas, what's done is done. Hopefully at one point there will be an opportunity for me that makes sense but for now I am actually thrilled with my current job and need to focus on what I have rather than what I could have had.

Speaking of what I have...check out this amazing drawing I received in the mail yesterday from George's brother's girlfriend!

She got the image from this picture, one of my favorites from the big day.

Summer Bucket List

Considering George is leaving to travel/teach for most of the summer I figured I should come up with some sort of bucket list of things to occupy my time so I don't get too lonely. I will still have my wonderful job, friends and horse to keep me company but I thought that having a few goals might make me feel a little more productive as well as make the time apart go by quicker. I'm sure I will end up editing this list as the summer goes on but here is my start:

Summer 2013 Bucket List

• Read at least 5 books from BuzzFeed's 65 Books You Need To Read In Your 20's.
• Get through at least 3 chapters of Harry Potter & The Sorceror's Stone...in Arabic.
• Save up to take this course through Oxford University in September.
• Reread The Great Gatsby.
• Do a MAJOR closet clean out and get rid of a lot of clothing.
• Work out at least 3 days/week.
• Beat George in our Who Can Read All 7 HP Books First race.
• Keep writing.
• Start & finish my online accounting course.
• Learn some new line dances.
• Catch up on some TV shows (Grey's Anatomy, Revenge, The Lying Game).

And that's all I got for now. As you can see, I plan on doing quite a bit of reading. I used to read all the time when I was younger and then once I started high school and college I sort of ran out of time and never got back into it. Last summer I spent two weeks in Portugal with George's family and spent many days lying on the beach reading and sort of fell back in love with books so I'm hoping to continue that this year.

xo, Elena

Let's try this again

Two years ago I started this blog because I panicked when I realized I had been out of college for a year and had little to nothing to show for my degree. At the time I was living in Berkeley with my then-boyfriend, working an administrative job in Oakland and studying vigorously for the LSAT. I imagined writing a blog would not only be a fun way to chronicle my journey to law school, etc. but also a motivator for me to try new things, push myself harder, and ultimately, figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Judging from my one entry, that clearly didn't pan out. Since then, I have  successfully conquered the LSAT, decided against law school, broke up with my then-boyfriend, moved back to my home in Santa Barbara, met the man of my dreams, traveled the world with him and my family, got married and started a career. Looking back, the past year and a half probably would have been the most exciting time to blog about but, alas, I was too busy living it to think about writing it.

Throughout this time, I have kept up with reading many other blogs and have recently found myself re-inspired to start up writing again. While I may have missed out on some of the bigger events in my life, I know there are still many more amazing and exciting times to come. Honestly, I still don't know what I want to do with my life and that's okay. I think many 20-somethings go through a similar period in life of exploration, adventure and choices as they try to pin down who they are and what they want out of life. Hopefully I can use this blog to chronicle my journey and help me along the way.

xElena