Smoke Bombs

For over a year now I've seen photos on Instagram with these whimsical, very 'alice in wonderland' type colored smoke. I always wondered if it was just edited in with photoshop or what. But this week, I discovered it's real........

The secret?
Smoke bombs.
How cool are these!? They come in all colors too...

If you're into photography, these are a must for cool photoshoots. They would make an awesome slow-mo video too. You can find them at any firework store, just walk in and ask where the smoke bombs are. They should have sticks like the ones I'm holding but also little gumball size 'bombs' that only last a few seconds. Highly suggest the sticks for photoshoots.

A few tips and tricks:

The package says DO NOT hold in hand, but if you're smart with it you won't get burnt. When you initially light the stick it will spark like a sparkler but in a couple of seconds turns into a quiet rush of colored smoke. It's so cool. And strangely beautiful...

DO NOT GET IT IN YOUR EYES. It stings so effing bad.

Do not breathe while the smoke is coming out. Before you light it, take a deep breath then hold it until it's over. No one said photoshoots were easy ;)

These will not go out. If halfway through you decide you've had enough, DO NOT throw it on the ground or try to pour water on it. The smoke will continue to gush out. Each stick lasts about 15-30 seconds.

Do it in a well ventilated area. As you can see we had this photoshoot in the woods covered by trees. The smoke did not GO ANYWHERE. I was honestly worried that the park rangers were going to call HAZMAT seeing all this red, purple, and green smoke slowly creeping through the woods... Yikes.


While the color is the best part, you can add some serious theatrics to black & white photos...

Shout out to Mitch for being the dopest photographer East of the Mississippi.
He's amazing with the camera.
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Hope you're all having a nice, lazy Summer Sunday. I'm actually heading to the airport tonight to fly back to one of my beloved 'homes.' Is it New Hampshire? Indiana? Las Vegas?

Time shall tell ;)

Or my instagram tomorrow.
@freespiritfun1

Our New Place.

Greetings from our new apartment!!

Ahh look at that morning light.
Our new place is absolutely beautiful. Between the giant granite island in the kitchen and the hardwood floors, I feel so so lucky. It takes away all the sadness of leaving our 'first place' !

Our voices echo in here. I can't wait to invest in some wireless speakers and blast CoCo music while making dinner. Both me and Mitch also came to the realization that neither of us have ever lived somewhere with TWO full bathrooms. The concept of having 2 showers going at once is so foreign and quite frankly bizarre... I don't think we'll ever be able to take 2 showers at once...it's just weird. Seems too luxury for us lol

But speaking of luck, we weren't so lucky with the weather this weekend during our big move. Let me tell you something, moving out of a 3rd floor apartment and into a new 3rd floor apartment in 103 degree heat is NOT A GAME. YOU GUYS. I almost died a couple of times. My thighs have never been SO sore that I legitimately couldn't walk down a staircase for 24 hours. Maybe I'm a wimp? I don't know. All I know is I carried a couch up 2 flights of stairs in extreme humidity. And it sucked. But we did it. And it is so nice to lay on that pretty white couch and eat chocolate.


And check out my favorite space -- the 'Dream Room'

This is where I'll be coming at you live from the blog. It's actually the master bedroom of the apartment (attached to a ginormous closet that could easily pass as a 3rd bedroom) but I loved the 3 giant windows and spend most of my time working from home so, here it is!
This room will be filled with daydreams & photo editing--I can't wait.


Moving out of our old place was emotional. We've been watching the entire series of The Office for months now, and low and behold, our last night there was the series finale. How ironic. It was so sad and just magnified all the nostalgic emotions! While I feel a lot better now and ready to take on this new chapter of life, Saturday was rough.

As much as I love our new place, it's hard to remain optimistic when we went from living pretty much in a forest to now living right next to a main road, right over the community pool, and construction going on all around us. Check out our new view:

Such is life.


While I love the upscale feel of this apartment, I would trade it in for a quiet, rundown, 1 bathroom cottage deep in the woods ANY DAY; That's my dream. To own a small white cottage with giant windows, nestled in the forest, near a pond or a lake. I don't care if it's old & worn or new & modern. I want enough land to grow my own food and raise my own chickens. I want my cats to touch grass again. I want to see nothing but flowers & trees and hear nothing but birds & bugs.

 So there's that. My wishes in life --- written down and sent into the blogiverse ;-)
#Manifest


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So there it is!
Our second place.
I'll post more photos later on once we're all settled and unpacked.
I don't know about you, but I need a nap.



Happy Hump Day
:)

We're Moving.

.....down the road.


And I don't know why, but this move is so emotional for me!
I moved so many times growing up. Across states, cities, towns. Hell I even transferred colleges like ohh I don't know...5 times?

Each time I handled it like a champ. No sweat off my back.
But this time just feels so... different. It doesn't feel like a 'chapter' in my life is about to close, but an entire series is about to wrap. You'd think we were buying a house.

Maybe these emotions stem from the fact that this tiny apartment, once filled with cheap IKEA furniture, is now empty with a few boxes. Or maybe it's all because no matter where Mitch and I end up in life, this small space will forever be what we both think of when we look back and remember our 'first place.'

 It's been our safe haven in a part of the country we knew nothing about and no one in town. It's where we cooked our first Thanksgiving meal and decorated for our first Christmas as a new little family...

It's the floor we fell to when we laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. It's the walls we held ourselves up against after the inevitable mental breakdown from tough times in life. These walls have heard deep conversations about life, love, and the purpose of it all. Under this roof we've felt immense pain but also comfortably healed. And I'll sure never forget the nightly sunset views...

I work from home so this place has been my office. It's been my gym, my meditation studio, my movie theater, my dance hall; It's been my everything.

Whoever the next tenants are, they sure are lucky; coming into a space that's created and held so many wonderful memories. So many firsts. They will be welcomed by a heavy draft of good energy, that's for sure.
;-)

Today is our last day here and as I sit in an empty room where the sound of my typing echoes, I feel.....free. We sold all of our furniture - even Mitch's truck. And we won't be buying a lot of new stuff to replace it. For some odd reason, not having a lot of material possessions feels really, really good to me.


My intuition tells me this is a great change. I feel like I've been stalling with where I want to go in life, and now I'm about to enter the fast track...if that makes any sense.

I'm so glad I've kept up with blogging, because I can't wait to be sitting in that new place in front of the new big windows and read back on how my life used to be...

My old life in my first place.

These sure are the days.

I'll be back with the story of our moving day.
Wish us luck!

Marriage: Year 2

We got back from our Anniversary trip Tuesday evening and I can't believe the last few days were real....

A couple of years ago, when we were exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway for our first time, I really had to pee. #WhatsNew


As we were twisting and turning on a mountain's edge road, I kept thinking to myself: We're on top of a mountain. There's not going to be any bathrooms for miles... I'm going to have to pull a Chipotle napkin out of the glovebox and do my thing on the side of the road.
But we turned the corner and it was like it was meant to be. We were greeted by a random, old country store. We immediately pulled in, I relieved myself, and we thought...wait -- where are we?
We just had to walk around and explore.

We discovered that this camping store was actually part of a beautiful place called
Pisgah Inn.

Blown away by the fact that this was actually a stunning motel property, in the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain, we promised ourselves we have to one day stay here.
So, our second wedding anniversary rolled around and we did this:

Ahhh....I'm almost at a loss for words on how to describe this place. So quiet that you can hear a bird walking in the grass. I tip toed around our room and whispered all day. You should've seen the look on my face when I discovered how enchanting the sound of rain is on top of a mountain.

Prices for the motel are incredibly reasonable. Every room has a view of the mountains, and breakfast at their restaurant is complimentary! Did I mention the entire restaurant overlooks the mountains too?
Enjoying a cup of coffee here every morning was like straight out of a movie.

Our server Jerry - a very kind older man - came over to our table at one point and said...you know, I don't usually say things like this, but it's so nice to see two people so in love.
He didn't even know it was our anniversary.


I didn't know how to respond to such a nice compliment! I don't think Mitch and I have any secrets...honestly, sometimes I forget we're even married. We've both grown and changed, physically and mentally, yet some things haven't changed at all. He's still my best friend. In this beautiful, nasty, fun yet unfair game of life... he's my right hand man. My teammate.

3 days alone with him lost in a mountain forest was a dream come true.
We laughed, we overate, we got up early to watch foggy sunrises from our rockers on the porch...

We stayed up late and sat on our porch under full moon light, eating homemade popcorn, wrapped in fuzzy blankets. We watched countless thunderstorms roll by for hours, high-fiving each other when we finally captured a shot of lightening.

We took casual drives on the parkway, grabbed iced coffee downtown Asheville, and went swimming under waterfalls...

While downtown Asheville, one of the best places to visit I might add, we made a trip to the infamous 'Before I Die' wall and wrote down our wishes...

Me: "Change the world & Save animals"

Mitch: "Live more sustainably"

What would you write?

While at this wall, I made a new friend.
His name is Happy.
He has the most beautiful, deep blue eyes and while he's been to Vietnam twice, he'll never get over the fact that he lost his leg to a nasty brown recluse spider bite.

I love meeting kind souls. He is keeper of the chalkboard so you must go to him to get chalk!
And you just might find yourself lost in great conversation...


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This trip changed me.
I feel renewed, like a new chapter in my book of life is about to begin.
I see Mitch in a different light. My gratitude for him is overflowing.

I can't comprehend how lucky I got with a partnership like this.
I come from a broken family, I've never witnessed a happy marriage.
It's a very foreign concept to me.... this husband and wife stuff.
and Mitch is in the same exact boat.

We just take it day by day.

My only goal every day is to make him laugh - at least once. I love our Taco Salad Tuesdays and sitting on the couch, eating pizza, watching The Office on Wednesday nights.
I live for those mundane moments.

"People feel like they lose something when they get married, but it doesn't have to be that way. There's nothing more exciting about having a witness to your life"

Or in our case, having a solid best friend.
"When you're in lust your heart beats,
When you're in love your soul eats."





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Happy 2 years, Mitch.
  I can't believe I get to do this life with you.
Thank you, so damn much, for being the best thing that's ever happened to me.
I love you.