san pharmcisco dreamin'

The countdown is on.

In a little less than a week, the husband and I will be heading off on a much needed {for me anyway} summer vacation!

We are starting off in San Francisco. Alex has a conference and I am just tagging along for the ride. Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in dinner with his Nana and auntie! While Alex spends his day learning about computer stuff {over generalized because it's way over my head - sorry babe!} I plan on running, reading, and exploring the city. I've only been once before -- have any suggestions for things I shouldn't miss?

After the conference is over, we are flying to Minneapolis where we will pick up our rental car and make the drive to the pharm {aka my grandparent's house}.

The pharm consists of 80 acres of pure magic {for our family anyways} in the UP of Michigan. A large chunk of my family is going to be there this summer at the same time as us so I am really excited!



Of course, I have a list of things that I want to do while we are up there. Here are some of the highlights:

...have a bonfire, visit fortune lake, make bread with grandpa, shoot off fireworks, go to ishpeming for the fourth of july, walk around the property, tip the canoe in the pond, hang laundry on grandpa's clothes line, go to copper harbor, eat dinner at the drive in, help grandma make pasties, listen to grandpa's stories, go into the attic and look for treasures, go to the strawberry festival...

the list could pretty much go on forever. I'm so excited!

Where are you headed to this summer?

organize

Office supplies are my weakness. Send me to the store and I will drool more over the notebooks and calendars than the designer shoes and handbags.

I bought a new calendar about a month ago that starts in July and have been dying to start using it -- I'm almost there!

While I am excited to start using my new one, I cant help but wish that I was about to crack open an Erin Condren life planner. I have never owned one but based on reviews and website browsing I am convinced it is the holy grail of planners.

More times that I would like to admit I've found myself on the website, designing my dream planner and imagining the lists that I would fill each section with. It makes me happy.

Someday, this will be mine!

{via}

father's day

Happy Father's Day to the daddy who gives the best tickles :)

preview

If you haven't already heard, a big expansion is coming to Disney's California Adventure park. Tomorrow, Cars Land and a newly remodeled Buena Vista Street will be open to the public. This is a MUCH needed expansion and something that I have been looking forward to for a long time!

On Monday, I was lucky enough to attend a special preview for annual passholders. Both parts of the expansion blew me away. In true Disney fashion, the attention to detail was remarkable. I could gush about it for hours but instead I will just show you some of my pictures from the day {so happy they let me take in my camera!}

doesn't that look awesome?

this ride was absolutely hilarious.

mater and lightning mcqueen drove around cars land and then stopped to take pictures...adorable!

my new favorite outfit for mickey.

buena vista street

jesse, caitlin and myself - we had a great time!

thankful

that is all. 

xoxo,

natasha

because I can

So there is this really cool online platform for holding conferences called Function that I was recently turned onto by Joelle from A CharmingOccasion. She had recommended their Alt. Summit classes in one of her posts so I decided to check it out.

There were a few different course offerings that sounded pretty interesting so in the name of self-improvement, I took the plunge and signed up for one focused on branding your blog. The class was really interesting and I enjoyed the interactive format. The biggest idea that I took away from the class was that I needed to figure out what the purpose of my blog is and then come up with a brand statement centered around that purpose.

I've been spending some time thinking {and re-thinking} just what that purpose is. And as of tonight, I'm still not exactly sure but I am ok with that! Until I have it figured out, I might be trying different things out to see what fits. It may be a little all-over the place for a while and feel a little bit random or lost, but we all have to go through that phase right?

Not having a defined purpose just yet gives me complete freedom to post whatever I want tonight. So, I will leave you with a video of two little girls with an awesome talent that I have on repeat. Because I can ;)

xoxo,

Natasha

hello summer

Summertime is here!

Well, maybe not officially but here in Southern California it has felt like it as of late. Even though my years of three-month summer vacations are long gone {wah!}, I still look forward to welcoming summer back into my life each year. 

My summer is already off to a great start. A few weeks ago I went on a horseback ride up to the Hollywood Sign {thanks to Sunset Ranch}

and took a quick vacation with my cousin Addie to visit my brother at Disney World!

Since it will be my last summer in California for a while, my summer activity wish-list is pretty long already {and growing daily} and filled with California specifics. Here is a little preview:

1. Go to a night Dodger game. Preferably one with a firework show afterwards :)

2. Make good use of my Disneyland annual pass (am I the only one who wishes the sign still looked like this?!)

3. Eat lots and lots of mexican food! And definitely make a trip to Tito's Tacos at least once

4. Visit the Getty Villa in Malibu

What's number one on your summer wishlist?

{1/2/3/4}