Welcome to Steinhatchee

I am sure at some point you're going to get sick of me posting photos of the woods and the swamp, but my dear sweet friends, that's just about all there is to look at out here, and it sure is prettier than looking at freeways and buildings. I haven't had a chance until now to share a little about the place we are currently living. We ARE still moving to Tennessee, but made a last minute decision to stay in Steinhatchee, Florida for a few months to be closer to our families and get a lot of work done.

Steinhatchee is pretty small, and for comparison, it is a quarter of the size of the high school I went to in Phoenix, a whooping 1200 people. There is an ace hardware, a jiffy gas station, Maddys grocery store, a post office (with quite erratic hours) and a handful of bar/cafes. Oh and there is a Hungry Howie's Pizza with wifi. We're talking big city! Steinhatchee is a fishing town, and hunting mecca. There are more hunting dogs than people (more on that later) and it is just about as beautiful as you can ask for out here. I spend most of my time wearing rain boots and when we're not working on sunglasses, we're tromping around the woods.

Our road isn't paved, we don't have trash pick-up, or mail delivery. There is a closed down fish market across the street, and lots of stray animals. It's been really neat so far experiencing an entirely new place, so opposite from San Diego and Tucson, and I love it. I can't wait to share more of our adventures in Steinhatchee, and then Chattanooga!

xo,

Beca

Our Day in Pensacola

+ B R E A K F A S T +

This morning, Doug and I woke up super early and took the boys for a good walk to the docks. They love Florida already and I do too. I've never been to Pensacola before, I am kind of in love. It was so heavy with fog this morning and it felt so nice to just hang out with the pups. Doug's Mom is severely allergic to dogs, so they can't stay in the house, and lord only knows those boys of ours are spoiled rotten, so you can imagine how sad they are to have to stay in the back room. They have been extra excited to go for walks.

Doug's stepdad wanted Krispy Kreme, so we took the car down to the corner store and got donuts for breakfast. Normally I would have eaten a few, but I only had one. I'm trying, friends, I am trying so damn hard. But I had my cup of coffee and one lemon donut and I felt good. I have been really good about entering in my meals into weight watchers, it helps there is an app. Please excuse my broken phone screen, I dropped it, AGAIN, and Doug hasn't had time to fix it yet.

+ J U N K I N G +

I never thought I would say this, but I am all junked out. I cant go thrifting again, even if somebody paid me. Doug's mom and cousin took us out, and boy, oh boy, they thrift like it's a sport, and I think we went to about 15 stores today. I left every single one of them with a bag of stuff. I am going to dedicate a post to it next week once we have internet set up in our house. I miss thrifting in the south, it's a whole new ball game. YAWL have no idea.

+L U N C H +

We ate lunch at The Oar House, which you can imagine made Doug and I giggle. Regardless of the name, it was really good. I had a crab cake burger and fries, which were perfect. After lunch we did a lot more thrifting, laughing and driving around Pensacola. Doug and I leave tomorrow morning for Steinhatchee and will finally be home, at least for a month or so. I can't wait to get settled and back to work. It has been so very nice spending time with Dougie's mom and family.

What does your weekend look like? If you blog about it, leave me a link, I would love to read about your adventures!

xo,

Beca

Gypsy Blood

This cross country moving adventure has been nothing short of amazing. Despite leaving San Diego with a slightly bad taste in my mouth, I have really good memories from the time we lived there, and no matter, when people move on and do other things, it can only be for the best. I am so thankful that Doug decided to move us south and so far, my goal to be more positive has been successful. I am really trying to avoid all of the negativity that can seep into our everyday lives and stay as positive and thankful every moment of everyday.

After we visited Tucson, we headed east and didn't really stop for more than an hour until Houston. Once there, we made the big decision to grab a hotel room and spoil ourselves for a night. This has been kind of a vacation, anyways. We worked up until the 24th, and I am itching to get back in the workshop. We have SO MUCH to do! Looks like Saturday morning we'll be able to get back to work and I am thankful for all of our customers being so understanding. WE LOVE YOU!

Alright, Back to Houston. I didn't really like Houston the first 10 minutes we were there, it reminded me of Phoenix, but as soon as we got away from all the concrete, I liked it a lot more. It's pretty and old. We stayed at the La Quinta, on the suggestion of my pal Danielle, since they are 100% pet friendly with no deposit or crazy contract. They didn't blink an eye when we came in with three dogs, and the rates were pretty affordable. We ordered a pizza and watched cable TV, and it felt so good to do nothing at all. Speaking of pizza, I joined Weight Watchers the day we left Arizona, which was kind of stupid to try to start WW on the third day of our road trip, but at least it was able to show me how horrible I ate on our trip. BUT, since we got into Pensacola, I have been doing really good!! I may keep up with the progress on here, if you're interested. We'll see.

After a very comfortable night in Houston, we woke up early and met up with Brandi and Kelly of Bueno Bueno for breakfast at a little cafe called Brasil. It was really good, and Kelly and Brandi just may be the sweetest, genuine girls ever! I'm glad we may the time to get the best waffles in the world with them!

{I can't for the life of me take a good goddamn photo, so just pretend I am as photogenic as those girls!}

The rest of the day was pretty monotonous. We drove through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida in one day, and it was kind of a blur. Most of the photos I shot were of the dogs being super cute. I have to say, not to brag or anything, but our animals have been exceptionally good during this trip and mostly sleep during the car ride. They get really excited when they get out of the van, and run like crazy, but besides that, no car sickness, no craziness. The only problem is that the cat peed on a few pieces of vintage clothes, but whatever, we'll just double wash them. Life with the cat, right?

We stopped in this little tiny town on the border of Texas and Louisiana at a crazy flea market. One of the sellers was sitting next to a big ol' box marked "CD;s" and he told Doug to take a peek in the box and see the CD's he had for sale. When Doug opened the box a big, giant fake snake jumped out at him. I have never seen Doug jump so high before.

We had a waffle for breakfast, and then at 10pm, found ourselves at a waffle house in Pascagoula, Mississippi where the employees smoked cigarettes at the back booth and gossiped about work related drama in deep southern drawls. It was wonderful. Can you tell how tired we were? Seriously exhausted.

We're now in Pensacola at Doug's Mom's house for the next day. Dougie is fast asleep and I am on my way. It has been a long, exhausting journey, but really friends, it has been the beginning of the most exciting adventure of my whole life. I couldn't be happier, and am looking forward to the rest of 2012. The last 5 days have taken the cake.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me and sticking around for 2012.

xo,

Beca

Guest Post // Danielle from Dinosaur Toes

Hi guys! Beca had asked me to do a guest post on how i get motivated to run, and really, my motivation is these three simple things: shoes, health, vanity.

Shoes. I know it may seem weird to find motivation in something as boring as running shoes, but there's a reason! for months and months i ran in a pair of new balance running shoes that i'd had since the dawn of time. or, more precisely, since about 9 years ago. i know that running shoes should be replaced a minimum of once every 5 years depending on usage, but staying true to my cheapskate nature, i couldn't bring myself to get a new pair of shoes until the soles fell off of those. i noticed after i'd run that the tops of my feet would hurt, especially when i'd take a step, and it felt as if someone was dropping a bowling ball on my feet. a few weeks later, when the pain had gotten even worse, i started to see this bruise appear from my toes almost up to my ankle, spanning the entire width of my foot. my sister the nurse swore to me that i had metatarsal stress fractures, and that i HAD to stop running for a while. i did, and i didn't like it. enter The Shoes.

i decided that if i wanted to run at all without ruining my feet, i'd need a new pair of shoes. if you've ever looked for running shoes you'll know that there are about 1,592,308 different pairs to choose from, so i really didn't know where to start. just as i was starting to feel deflated because everything was either too expensive or not stocked in my size, i saw them. The Shoes. i tried them on, jumped around, jogged on the treadmill in the store and knew that those babies would be MINE! when i say that i feel like i'm running on a cloud, i'm not exaggerating. my running shoes are so comfortable and such a good fit for my foot and neutral pronation that i really want to run! and i feel like i can go further!

health. beca and i have a shared love for deep fried food and coca-cola (i think it's because of our southern nature) which we discuss at length, and i'm not afraid to admit it. i know it isn't the healthiest guilty pleasure, but i also know that i include physical activity into my life to burn it off. in addition to sweating off my french fries, i also like to work on sweating off excess body fat. i'm in close contact with a couple of people who've remained stagnant for so long that even something as simple as walking across a room leaves them breathless and gasping for air, and i refuse to let that be me. whether i jog a half of a mile or three and a half miles, i feel a great sense of accomplishment because i know i'm doing something beneficial for my heart, my lungs, and my vitality in general.

vanity. i'd be lying if i said that i didn't want to look hot - for my husband, as well as for me and my self-esteem. while i know i'll never have a smokin' hot and toned supermodel body, as long as i can stay in shape enough to continue wearing my favorite bikini, then i'm happy.

i was on the track team for several years when i was in school, so i learned a few things between sprained ankles and screaming coaches. if you're thinking about starting to run, here's some info that may help you:

1. when you start, don't try to set records. it's more about building your endurance that winning races. start off running at a comfortable pace for just a couple minutes and then follow that with a brisk walk. each time you run, try to add on 30 seconds or a minute to your running to build your endurance.

2. figure out your foot type, and whether you're an underpronator, neutral pronator, or overpronator and find a pair of shoes that will work with you instead of against you. seriously, this will make all the difference in the world.

3. don't just start running! be sure to stretch for a few minutes before you start as well as after you finish. also, there's nothing wrong with walking for a few minutes to get warmed up a little before you start running.

4. don't run everyday. if you run more than 3 or 4 times a week it can be harmful to your body, so on your days off, either relax and recuperate or try crunches, jumping jacks or other bodyweight exercises.

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Thanks Danielle! We all need a little inspiration in the new year! You can visit Danielle's blog here!

xo,

Beca

PS, I wanted to share my favorite running commercial. It makes me laugh every time!

Guest Post // Danielle from Just About Anywhere Pt. 1

Hey everyone! This is Danielle/Dizzle from just about anywhere and I'm stoked that Beca asked me to guest post while she's travelling across the country (to move closer to meee!). The first thing I thought of was my own road trip with my mansy and our two cats in our 1985 Chevy Cavalier wagon from San Francisco to Washington D.C. It was my first but hopefully not last drive across the country and sooo much fun. I'm really excited to see the pictures Beca and Doug will have from their trip and wanted to share some of mine with y'all. This is the first half of our trip from S.F. to San Antonio. Hope you enjoy it!

We stopped in LA first to visit some family but have no pictures. I would like to say you should totally go play the old pinball machines at Choke moped shop if you're ever there.

From there we drove and ended up stopping in Needles, CA on the edge of California and Arizona. It was a super tiny town with abandoned motels and amusement parks.

Then headed to AZ because my mansy wanted me (and the cats) to see the Grand Canyon before we left the west coast.



It was the prettiest hole in the ground I've ever seen.



We stayed in Phoenix across the street from a jail and a strip club in a seedy motel where I had to prop the chair up against the door cos it didn't lock. Oh the life!



Uhh no offense to Phoenix but this "we buy gold" sign was the highlight of our trip.



I slept through New Mexico and have no pictures unfortunately. My mansy says it was really pretty :(

Went down to El Paso where we found nice people, decent coffee and pretty architecture. Plus we got to see some SF painters up on freights!



Our cat, Shekwafae taking a peek at the scenery.



I think we plan on living here some day.



I kind of really loved driving through west Texas, totally different landscape from what I grew up on in D.C.! I want to drive through Texas again but next time in an El Camino blasting metal with a ciggarrette dangling from my mouth. Maybe a big hat too...



You may be asking why we went through Texas instead of straight across. We had to stop in San Antonio to visit my mansy's momma!! We stayed for four days, relaxing, doing touristy things like the River Walk and driving around a lot just looking at neighborhoods. We found great coffee i+ nice people in Elmos Park at a shop called Elmos Perk.



We went to the Alamo but the inside wasn't open when we were there. Note the iced americano on the windowsill. Yeah, just so you know that is NOT okay!



The dude in the middle is the one who informed us of that.



Here's another place we want to live one day. I really love old abandoned buildings.



And cute victorian houses.



Driving across the US you see a lot of this



But only in Texas have I seen this!




Come back to see the second part!

Guest Post // Chelsea from Walk With me Darling

Hi there, we made it to Doug's Dad's house in eastern Arizona and are posting up for the night. We spent the last few days in Tucson in our old house, which is empty now, and had a pretty wonderful visit. I hope yall are loving the guest posts. I had this scheduled up to post yesterday, but for some reason it didn't, BUT it's too great of a guest post to pass on so here it is, a little guest post from my great pal Chelsea.

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Hello, friends! I know there will be a lot of New Year’s Eve parties this weekend. If you’re anything like me, you want to do everything you see on Pinterest and throw the best party New Year’s Eve has ever seen. Well, let’s face it. That’s most likely not going to happen on my non-existent party budget and all of that free time I already don’t have. So I’ve rounded up some simple party ideas:

1. 2. 3.

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1. 2. 3.

I think the best ideas when throwing any sort of party is to just pick a few ideas that you love. Be realistic- know your budget and time limitations. From there, just remember to enjoy it! I hope everyone has a safe and fun New Years!

-Chelsea