Records

For Christmas my mom & dad got me a new (portable!) record player since the one I normally use is an antique record cabinet from my late grandparents. It's really big and old so I try to be gentle with it & use it infrequently. I'm really terrified of breaking it. Eventually I want to get it tuned up & replace the speakers since I don't think it's been serviced for a long long time.

But back to my new LP player-- it is SO beautiful. The floral pattern is so bright and happy & definitely brightens any room it's sitting in. The speakers aren't amazing but I'm planning on getting a sound system for our tv anyways so I just need to find a small table for it to rest on nearby so I can plug the record player in as well. You can take the top off easily if you don't have something to lean it against & there's a locking mechanism & handle so you can take your player where-ever you may want. It also comes with a program that enables you to record your favorites LPs & convert them into mp3, which is amazing. I haven't tried that yet but I'm really excited about it!




top to bottom: Disney's 'Cinderella' Soundtrack // 'Purple Rain' by Prince & the Revolution // 'Rank' by The Smiths // 'Milk Eyed Mender' by Joanna Newsom
I bought a few new records in celebration of being able to listen to records regularly again. I was having a really awful day when I bought 'Rank' but after listening to it, I definitely feel like experiencing such a shit day was definitely worth it since I now have such a great live recording of my favorite band in my possession. I feel like I've fallen back in love with listening to music. I was without speakers for my computer for over 6 months & I hate using headphones so I basically only listened to music in my car or on my phone & let me tell you, it was sucking the life out of me.

I'm not only falling back in love with listening to music-- but also shopping for records, talking about music & listening to full albums instead of single songs. I haven't felt this excited about a piece of technology since I got my electronic diary in fourth grade haha.



You can buy this record player here.



-Becca

California Part 2: The Vineyard/ The Redwoods

So here's part 2 of my trip to California! We had dinner at Francis Ford Coppola's Winery one night while in CA & the food was really good but the land was beautiful and his giftshop/mini museum was the best part! This is where I bought most of the gifts for my family.






The grounds were so beautiful & there was even a baby bunny! It was quite the hit since there was a group of women taking photos together while I was checking out the back patio & my ears perked up when I heard one of them gasp and aww "baby bunnnyy!!!". And that's how I spent 10 minutes taking photos of a baby bunny.






desk & chair from 'The Godfather' // costumes from 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' // Coppola's awards etc // close-up shot of awards // how the t-shirts were packaged (cute!!)


A few days later Ryan, Ryan's brother and I went to a redwood forest with Ryan's uncle since he lives in northern CA & knows the area fairly well.













I'm really missing the views in California. It was really beautiful. Part 3 will be up next week.

-Becca

California Part 1 : The House

I just returned from a week spent in beautiful Santa Rosa, California. Ryan's family invited me along for a family vacation at a house they rented in the mountains. It was so beautiful and scenic and I imagine anyone who lives there is so bored of the views but in flat and dry Texas, it was a welcome change of scenery.

I'm breaking my California posts into 3 parts because I took A LOT of photos. And while I love overwhelming myself with too many photos, I don't imagine the average person wants to be bombarded with a gazillion random photos of stuff. Here we go!





We landed in San Francisco and drove for an hour and a half to Santa Rosa in a rental car. I snapped a few shots but mostly I was tasked with being the navigator. It was SO FOGGY! Poor Ryan was driving a car he's never driven & we were on foggy windy roads for the beginning of the drive until we hit the main highway we rode along.



This was a shot I took hanging out of the window a bit on our way up the hills to the house we were staying at. It was so beautiful! There were deer & wild turkeys all over most of the time.




This is the front & side of the driveway of the house we stayed in for the week. It was so beautiful & big. We had 9 people staying there part of the week & Ryan and I got to have our own room & bathroom which was so nice! The kitchen (which I managed to get absolutely no good photos of) had a huge AGA stove in it which was really neat to use but made the house so HOT during the day since it's on 24/7. Seems more advantageous for a colder climate. The house was really really nice.



This is part of the backyard area. There was a huge multi-level garden leading up to the pool & pool house and off the right of the stairs there was an outside kitchen & a botchi-ball court & more land with a small hiking trail. The second photo is the view from the botchi-ball court. This photo honestly doesn't do the view justice at all but I tried my best. Down below there was this tree with purple flowers covering it that was always swarming with hummingbirds during the day. It was awesome but impossible to photograph.



The trail led to this little area where the owners had kept chickens & goats when they lived in the house but apparently a mountain lion kept getting in and eating everything :o I avoided this area after the word 'mountain lion' came up. Close up of the wheat (I thought it was so pretty!) that my mom was really baffled by -- "What is this?? Why did you take a photo of it??". I really like taking detail shots of things because it helps me remember things better. Maybe it's weird but I don't care!



Hope you enjoyed this! I'll have more photos in a few more days after I finish editing and organizing all of my photos. I feel like I took a million photos over the course of that week!

-Becca

Dallas World Aquarium

Now that Ryan and I spend the majority of our time apart since we aren't living together, finding activities to do and trying to make the most of our limited time together has been challenging. Don't even get me started on living alone. Most days I feel like I'm moments away from a nervous breakdown. But I digress...

Today we spent the majority of our day at the Dallas World Aquarium & while it was a bit expensive (20 bucks per person), it was completely worth it. I've been to a handful of aquariums before and they are almost always a let-down. But oh my goodness, this aquarium is multi-level & FULL of so many different things. My favorite part was that so many of the birds and animals had free range of the building & there was SO MUCH plant-life. Whoever designed the building did an amazing job integrating what felt like a rainforest-environment & ecosystem for all sorts of different birds and animals and fish into a building in downtown Dallas.

The trashcans even had really beautiful plant arrangements on top of each of them! The whole place was really beautiful.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday & I spent the beginning of the day in a pretty cruddy mood but as the day wore on I felt myself feeling less bleak about turning 25.

Ryan & I went to our local Bath & Body Works so I could pick up some hand soap and candles & had half-priced frappuccinos at Starbucks since they were having Happy Hour from 3-5. Then we came home & watched The Mindy Project on Hulu while we ate cake.

Oh! And my sister sent me these really funny videos of my family's dogs sending their birthday regards. She used a helium balloon app to make her voice sound so high.




And these are the presents I got this year from Ry-Ry & Taylor. They'll indulge my sad & intense obsession with NARS products. I luv them:

Taylor got me the 'Boys Don't Cry' limited edition Pierre Hardy NARS blush, some cute strawberry soft foam hair rollers, & a Jonathan Adler box of matches.



close up of 'Boys Don't Cry'

Ryan got me 'Gina' & 'Sin' from the NARS website so I used a coupon code for a free 'Super Orgasm' mini. I haven't tried it yet since the glitter is a bit scary in the pan but I've seen Taylor wear it and it looked beautiful on her.



from left to right: NARS 'Gina' // NARS 'Super Orgasm' mini // NARS 'Sin'

And finally, this is what I bought myself... a 1oz bottle of Chloé.

I bought this from Sephora with a gift card & used the voucher inside for a full size bottle. It's a great deal since you're getting a bunch of samples & a voucher for a free full-size bottle of any of the 6 or 7 perfumes you sample inside. The 1oz bottle of Chloé is normally $65 but since I used the voucher it was only $50 for the sample box + voucher &&& I used a 10% off coupon along with my giftcard so I spent maybe $20 of my own money.



I felt really spoiled this year & my NARS blushes make up what seems like half of my makeup collection now (I have a problem). I'm so thankful to have such sweet best friends that will buy me ridiculously priced little boxes of sparkly pigmented powder and put up with my neurosis on a regular basis. They're the best.

Anyways, here's to being 25!



-Becca

Patricia (Patsy) Taylor Carnes

Today marks my late Grandmother's (aka Grand-ma-ma's ) birthday. She's been gone for nearly 8 years now & it's still hard to remember that she isn't a phone call away. I can't call her and chat about my love-life (always the first thing she asked about) or listen to her upbeat reflections on life. She was one of my best friends & I miss her so so much. My childhood was full of trips to Mississippi to visit my mother's parents. Their house was truthfully one of the few places I think I will ever consider "home" and I know that I would have been a completely different person without their guidance and support.



My grandma was incredibly sweet and generous but had a definite spunk & spitfire that I believe runs rampant in Taylor/Carnes women. She was only 18 when she married my grandpa & spent the first months of their marriage feeding him the only things she knew how to cook: mayonnaise, boiled eggs, & lemon icebox pie. At some point I guess he protested that he was tired of eating the same things and that it would be nice if she "changed it up" so she did.. She dyed everything with food coloring (mostly green) and called it a day.

She also once tried to pluck my grandpa's beard with tweezers to help him avoid shaving every morning.



She was a gifted cook & baker, an avid reader & a super talented seamstress. This blurb honestly doesn't do her justice since she was such a wonderful & kind & strong woman.

I love & miss her so very much!



-Becca

**p.s. all photos of my grandmother were taken by my grandpa. He was an amazing photographer & artist.

New Obsession: Early Grey Green Tea

I know this isn't terribly exciting, but I obviously don't care seeing as how I'm still posting about it.


left to right: anthro monogrammed mug // bigelow earl grey green tea // anthro grapefruit sugar bowl

I LOVE this tea. It has the health benefits of green tea with the taste of earl grey. Perfect for anyone trying to add green tea to their diet without giving up drinking earl grey.

I like mine with a bit of non dairy creamer & raw sugar or honey.

Now go try it. Or don't. Whatever floats your boat.

-Becca