Fancy Favorites: #19

Awesome rubber boots.

This print.

This wallpaper sweater.

And a necklace.

And finally, this video. 

30 Before 30: #11-20

 To find the ultimate, best, can't be beat, Macaroni and Cheese recipe EVER

Learn, even if just the basics, how to play Banjo

Start the Process of Buying my very own cabin/house

Get my boating License

Have a business plan written

Finish traveling to all 50 states! (New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Idaho... I am coming....)

Go in Vacation to Washington DC

Fit into a size 10 across the board comfortably

Have done a 'spa' weekend. Just to see what they are all about!

Have Completed a week cleanse.

..And  I was going to do an update on how well I've done on my first 10 items, but looking at those I haven't done very well AT ALL.... we for now, no update....sigh.

Ambition is a Funny Thing...

Earlier this week I was directed towards this Article in The Atlantic, all about ambition and how it effects relationships.  Now, I'm not just talking about romantic relationships, but family, friends, community. It was one of the articles that really hit home with a lot of what is going on in my mind and I have been struggling with lately.

As I have now here and there detailed, earlier this spring, very much on a whim, I packed up and moved out of Alaska, where I had been living for the last 4 years (with a 7 month stint in Minneapolis snuggled in there briefly). This move was made for a myriad of reasons, but one of the key reasons had to deal with ambition. I had a good paying job, working as a waitress and bartender at a restaurant where I enjoyed (most) the people I worked with...but I was getting antsy. I wasn't 'fulfilled'. I had statements of 'not wanting to be a bartender' the rest of my life buzzing around my head. In this same vain, I thought the town had grown stale. Fairbanks, always has, and always will be a town that is made so amazing by the people who live there. These people I love and admire are all still there, but my mind was getting overwhelmed by the merging families, babies, home buying, etc that was happening. Once again, I wasn't 'there' yet, so it all seemed like one big sign to get the hell out while I could.

Now, the tone may seem like I have already (so quickly!) changed my mind on all these statements, that I have regret. I do not have regret, but they do talk about distance making the heart grow fonder. As I embark on my summer of living back at home with my parents for the first time in 10 years, working as a server and maybe a bartender at a few local restaurants (oh what a change Katie! look at you stirring it up!) I realize that though ambition is a WONDERFUL thing, and something I am full of, that a sense of community is also something that is wonderful, but I am learning, even harder to come by.

Moving home is a shift for me, and one that will ideally last 3-4 months. After this, the ball is up in the air. The ambition in me wants all the great things...a career I love! Money to let me travel! Family! A home! But there is the softer side of me (who I am hoping settles in and makes herself more known this summer) that looks at that list and sees: A Career I love! Money to let me travel! FAMILY! A HOME!  and that emphasis makes a heck of a lot of difference.

I think the hardest part of letting myself transition is knowing that whereas I can work hard at getting the career I want, and I can save money (both of these things are acts I can accomplish) finding the person who I want to start a family and settle into a home with are things (at least initially) I cannot control. And Oh man, this ambition girl LOVES her control.

Summer Goals

*No Alcohol until September: I like a good beer. Or a good dirty gin martini. I have been a bartender. I appreciate fun mixed drinks. And all this is well and good, but Sometimes I (honestly) don't know what moderation is, and it has been weighing on me a lot lately. Just something on my mind. There are a lot of things personally I want to accomplish this summer, and I think removing alcohol from the picture would be a good way to clear my mind and give me a fresh perspective  Also, I really just like proving to myself that I can stick to goals, and have will power. It gives me a great sense of self, and I thrive on that.

* Financial goals. (and I just now because of spell check realized I spelled financial wrong on the image, and am wayyy to lazy to go back and edit it. whatever.) So, as I stated in a past post, my plans for this summer include work, and lots of it. I start today training at a breakfast diner (I have to do stints as a busser, hostess, and cashier), and by June will be serving there regularly  And its a fast paced place, with good tips to be made, so there is that. Otherwise,  I am searching still for a night serving position, but have applied man places. These two avenues combined all summer, I hope to be able to pay off both my credit cards ($4500+), Pay back my mother ($2000+), save money for a plane ticket for myself and Nigel to the west coast in the fall ($350+) and stock away savings for a few months rent and deposit wherever I plan to move to ($2750+). I have four months to get this accomplished, and I do think it is feasible. Added bonus if I save enough to have a little pocket for a new car once back out west...I think also, as a last little footnote, that this will be the summer to get my tattoo. Or maybe it will be an end of summer reward. carry on now...

*Books! So, this is a smaller goal, which I think is important in the midst of loftier goals...but, I brought home  five books with  me that were in my collection, but I had not had the chance to read yet. I would simply over the course of the summer, read and enjoy these books. They are: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, What is the What and A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, and Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins.

*Tech cut back. Now, this may seem silly, as I am getting this blog going again, but it cutting out certain areas, to let other areas flourish  I recently erased my facebook app, my facebook messenger app, and my gchat app. You can obviously still text me or call me. This is just eliminating checking all those stupid things, as well as making it so yes, I am still available, but no not by every means possible. removing the clutter. In the same vain, I will be updating this blog a good bit, but don't plan to otherwise be on facebook really at all. of course there will be times, and I will still check it, but I don't plan on doing big status updates, etc. On the other hand, I will be writing letters and emails all summer long. So there is a use for facebook y'all, send me your mailing address and we can become pen pals! and since I wont be on facebook a lot, the updates you tell me in letters will actually be updates! Isn't that grand? As for other technologies... instagram, vine, and twitter. I'm keeping them...for now.

*Focus on me. What do I mean by this? I just mean that in between all the work, and reading, and such that I take the time and just... clean out my head. I don't know a whole lot of people here in Pawleys, and while at first I was looking at this as a negative, I think I am going to use the chance to just...get to know me again. I am over analytic, stressed, and have a bit of Monica Geller syndrome in my current life. These are all things that have popped up or grown as I have gotten older. I just want to take this summer to both sort these things out (and calm them down a notch) as well as make peace with them. Easier said than done, when you are a judgmental cynic. (hey everyone, you know all that critique I throw around in life? Just know that I throw it at myself 10x worse. Yeah, sucks, right?)

Just two months later, NBD

So, We last left off in that I was heading to Mexico and SXSW for three week in March. Both trips were glorious, and (hopefully) I will have a recap of the whole trip posted up here within the next week. But, right before I left for those trips I had decided that it was time to move out of Alaska after four years, and see what other locales in the USA had to offer me.

Upon returning from SXSW I had exactly 11 days to finish packing up my cabin, giving away most of my random shit that you so easily acquire living in Fairbanks, pack my car up, and hit the road with my sister, who had flown up from South Carolina to travel with me over the next month.

Here was the plan: we were going to drive out of Alaska through Canada, and down the west coast, stopping in major cities, staying with friends and family, and then crossing the USA along the south until we were back to our parents home in coastal South Carolina. I figured this would give me a chance to see all the west coast had to offer (briefly) and then I could stay with my parents for a month (rent free!) regroup, and head out to wherever was next...('next' in my head meant most likely back to the west coast to settle down and start working on all those aspirations I had started to have while living in Fairbanks; it also meant maybe keeping my stuff in storage and going and doing something like being a camp counselor for an entire summer, even if I am most likely too old to be a counselor anymore...)



(Canadian traveling. Mount Vernon Tulip Festival. Point Reyes Lighthouse. Santa Cruz Beach Times. Park sunshine in Seattle. Portland Foliage.)

Well, what you plan to happen, and what actually happens is always quiet different I find, So here the scoop on how my trip and summer have actually played out. I drove down the west coast as far as Santa Cruz, where after much thinking/logistics/speaking with friends and my mother,  I decided the best plan of action would be to not drive across country but BACK up the west coast to Seattle, where I would store all the items from my car (in a trailer at my aunts), try and sell my car (success!) and buy one way plane tickets for me and my sister back to South Carolina, where I currently sit. As for this summer, I shall live in SC all summer long, work my ass off (one morning serving job acquired, night serving job still elusive) live rent/car insurance payment free, and save save save all the money I can (while paying off credit cards from travel and my mother) and then come September head back out (most likely west) and settle into the great unknown.


(Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach. Pacific Coast along highway 1)

...But then again, like I stated earlier, what you plan on happening, and what actually does are totally different. A lot can change in four months, so I'll keep you updated.

Fancy Favorites: #18

Oh hey there. Thought I ran out of favorites? NEVER. Here, Folks are things that have caught my eye recently....

I love the shape of these flats, and the basic classic feel to them. They could be a staple in your wardrobe for a while, I'd say. 

I am always a sucker for a new David Sedaris, and this has been officially added to my reading list. (Though I will say, 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is still by and far my favorite, with 'Holidays on Ice' Coming up a close second.)

Can you imagine this being your 'office' you had to go into each day. What dreams are made of.

Abandoned Barn

Large Offset Lithography Print

Isn't this print great?

I'm not one to wear necklaces, though I secretly wish I was. 'Cause I would totally rock this piece. HARD.

Spring Goals {Recap}

*Finish the book 'Boss of You' and do outlined steps towards a business plan/etc. This book has been by far the easiest to understand in the whole business jargon aspect of creating something from nothing. I am only still on the 4^th chapter, simply b.c I wont let myself read on/ahead without actually implementing the tactics they speak of in collecting data/writing a business plan for an upstart business.

*NOT COMPLETE. At all. This was a library book that I returned, and then bought the digital version for kindle so I could read it on my phone. And haven't looked at it since. I still very much want to accomplish this, but since making these goals, my life kinda took a few twists and turns and some things (THIS) got put on the back burner.

*Keep up with THIS blog. I had just recently not posting in two months. I cant let that happen. Even if it is just two posts a week, I need to make sure the content of this blog stays current, find a voice for this blog, talk about Alaskan adventures/tie it into my work ventures, etc.

*HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, sooo..... Let's once again give this a go. I keep trying, that has to count for SOMETHING.
*I have at least 4 big DIY before and afters to do, that deal with my future shop. I want to make sure I get these tackled. These wont be until later in the spring, simply b/c a lot of t hem deal with spray paint, and I live in a one room cabin where it is too cold to open the windows and ventilate...haha

*NOT COMPLETED. Man, spring was not my time, goal wise. This once inevitably didn't happen b/c I gave away/sold all my shit and traveled then moved back home for the summer. More on that in my next post though...

*and more on a personal goal level, I want to make sure I am keeping myself healthy/preparing myself for adventure club this summer. SO, I want to make sure I am going to the gym taking a yoga class at least 4 times a week. I have started this habit, but I want to write to you all at the end of the spring and be able to say that minus the 3 weeks in march when I was on vacation, that I kept to this schedule.

*YAY! I did this one! I was really good about gym.working out this spring. Not like 'Now look at my body, 15 pounds lighter!' good, but, I didn't feel like a slug, and I am still going to the gym regularly ( minus all my travel time). So, 1 outta 4 goals, that is..... something, right?