I got myself a bike.a little blue cruiser with a basket.

the lingering daylight, the outrageously, weirdly gorgeous weather (the earth did not get the memo that it’s summer and Florida and it’s suppose to be stupid hot here right now), and the way I feel energized after work instead of drained like at the old place all contributed to purchasing a bike and making my mama put it together for me.

biking is a lot harder than I remember. I am attributing this to two things: 1. I haven’t had a bike in over 15 years and 2. I am woefully out of shape. I’m working on it.

the first eleven years of my childhood were spent on a bike, going all over town with my friends. which explains why I am tanned and skinny in every photograph from childhood summers. I’m certain 10 year old me would laugh at 26 year old me who wears a yellow helmet. 

Beyond the beautiful weather and energizing new job, I’ve been trying to get healthier + lose some weight. this seemed like an excellent way to get me into action in the evenings, after dinner. 

I keep telling myself “you’ve got to work for the life you want to have. what does that look like - the life you want?” and that life, it includes a blue bicycle with a basket.

How to reupholster a sofa when you have no idea what you’re doing and don’t know how to sew: a step by step guide.

Step 1: find a sofa on the side of the street. bring it home.

Step 2: Enlist your mother to help (even if she doesn’t know what she’s doing or how to sew either, odds are she’s a perfectionist and will do 99% of the work)

Step 3: invest in a good staple gun and a sharp knife.

Step 4: take a thousand photos of the couch to remember how it was put together.

Step 5: carefully remove the existing fabric from the sofa, keeping them in full pieces like they are on the sofa (this could potentially come in handy if you need to use the old pieces for patterns - we did not)

Step 6: drape the fabric (I used two drop clothes from Home Depot that cost $16 a piece as my fabric) over the sofa (totally scientific way to do this) and start stapling. go along the existing seams with the staples. 

Step 7: repeat this on every section of the sofa. it took about 4 hours. remember to keep pulling the fabric tight. also remember that curves are a bitch.

Step 8: cover up all the staples with some trim by using a hot glue gun. 

Step 9: this step involves some sewing, but you can contract out like I did and ask a friend who knows how to sew to sew you a cover for the cushion.

Step 10: buy cute accessories to hide the imperfections.

This sofa cost me about $50 including the sofa itself, the “fabric” to cover it, the staple gun, staples, knife and trim. While it’s not perfect, you can’t beat it for $50 and I’m happy for it to live in my dining room.

Totally Pinterest-worthy stuff right here, guys.

Washington, DC | Part Two

here are some more photographs from my time in Washington. monuments and Smithsonian’s and other remarkable places.

you’ve seen all these things before. in person, on television, in your history books. I can’t capture them any differently than they’ve already been captured a million times before I saw them through the lens of my camera.

but I want to say something about Arlington National Cemetery. maybe it hits a little closer to home because the fear from my brother serving his country in the desert is still fresh and raw or because I know how honorably my grandfather served his country, but this place got right down to my soul.

as we were leaving, I could see the cemetery from the air. tiny specks of white dotting the landscape. it’s quite a sight. but to see it from the ground - to experience the quietness, the overwhelming number of white tombstones that stretch for as far as you can see, it is something else altogether. it is sad and grave and above all else it is beautiful.

that’s what struck me the most about this place: it is beautiful. it’s an odd sentiment about a cemetery, but that’s the most accurate word I could use to describe it. it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been able to photograph and I’m grateful to have had the honor.

Washington, DC | Part One

I am not an overly Patriotic person nor am I a history buff, but let me tell you this: being in the Nation’s Capitol had me all weepy and sentimental and awed.

to stand in the same spots as presidents and first ladies and countless others who made history stood. to look over the mall, in both directions, and see what President Obama saw on the day he was inaugurated or what Martin Luther King Jr. saw when he declared he had a dream, it was moving. you spend your whole life seeing these places in text books and movies and on the news and then you’re  there. it was an incredible experience.

but beyond all that emotional stuff, I loved DC. the weather was beautiful and the people friendly and the metro easy to navigate. I arrived on my birthday and took off to Georgetown to feast on cupcakes (Georgetown Cupcakes was delicious and lived up to its reputation - even rivaled my favorite hometown cupcake shop). I could easily see myself living along the narrow cobblestone streets in one of those sweet brick houses if I had a few million dollars to spare.

The Capitol was quiet in the evenings. we laid in the grass out front and took it all in. the National Cathedral was worth the trek. the stain glass windows were breathtaking. and the White House was booming with tourists pressed against the gates and no signs of the first family.