2011 December » britta//unfiltered

2011–It’s Been Real

Dec 302011

Posted by Britta on December 30, 2011 at 6:18 pm in Life 2 Responses »

*Hi foolios – can you believe it’s almost New Years Eve? The holidays absolutely flew. Some pics of my family’s amazing décor – my mom and both sets of grandparents all have such cool stuff -

(One of my Gma’s trees – slices of citrus fruit – so cool, I know.)

We had a great time relaxing at home, being with the fams, and of course indulged in way too much delicious food and drink.. and way too many presents! We are so lucky.

As the year comes to an end, here’s a look back on some of my favorite memories:

January 2011: This time last year, B and I were on vacation with friends in Jackson Hole. I learned how to *really* ski and Wyoming is actually so beautiful. It was an awesome trip and one of my most favorite memories of all time Smile

My last semester of college was both bittersweet and so much fun. I was so lucky to share it with an amazing set of roommates (who I miss pretty much every day), and it was such a moment of fulfillment to finally

graduate from school!

My last semester of school also included the *second* snow day of my college career – they are SO rare at UW so they are always so much fun. The campus is filled with college students acting like little kids.

So many super fun visits with all of my lady friends. What would I do without you all in my life? (I really tried to put pictures of everyone I love in this section and it got ridiculous Smile I love every single one of you – you know who you are! <3)

Celebrating weddings with so many of our good friends.

Enjoying runs around Lake Calhoun (MN) AND the Lakeshore Path (Madison) during the spring.

Moving away from Madison for the last time was really, really sad.

But moving to Minneapolis has been so, so exciting! and I love it here.

I started a new job – which has been a huge learning experience and really fun… (fireworks at Navy Pier in Chicago my first week Smile )

and at times, is a lesson in airport navigation, hotel room survival, and packing for 12 days in one carry-on.

Most importantly – lots of time with friends and family.

Oh yeah.. and I started a blog Winking smile

Happy 2012 everyone! Here’s to an amazing year! I’ll be back with a New Year post soon! xoxo

Lazy Town

Dec 212011

Posted by Britta on December 21, 2011 at 12:36 am in Life 2 Responses »

Hey everyone. Welcome to lazy town, population one – me. Since I last dropped in, I finished up my 12 day work trip of ~~death~~learning and career growth,

(this is an old pic – I wish I had one of my actual bag from this trip. It was soooo heavy and soooooo full – but quite expertly packed )

unwound with some weekend fun, drinks and eats,

and survived another week of travel this past week. This last weekend was filled with more maxin’ and relaxin’, cleaning and laundry catch-up, finishing up holiday to-dos… and some sushi Now I am currently on my *last* week of travel to Ohio! I have to say… I’m so looking forward to a nice, long holiday week and hopefully a little break from travel in January. *phew*!

What had you all been up to?! Let’s do some catch-up:

Goals
I last posted about goals in October and on my birthday. October was kinda fail – I have totally fallen of the Turbo wagon and didn’t carve a pumpkin :( I’m planning a big goals post in the spirit of the upcoming New Year. Until then, I’m honestly just trying to get back on the workout train. I’m going to try to work in yoga videos (from yogadownload.com :)), a little Turbo Fire cardio, and some running when I can over the holidays. Sadly, this is an ambitious goal for me lately, now just gotta follow through!

I also posted goals for my 24th birthday a couple months ago. Some of them are going well, some of them have already changed, an I’m sure there are a few to add, too. I will include an update on all that in my New Year post, too!

Recipe Suggestions

Green Curry Fish – B & I had some seriously bonkers-good green curry walleye when we went out for Thai food on Sunday and I can’t *wait* to try to recreate it at home.

8 “Skinny” Holiday Cocktails

Not a recipe – but how gorgeous is this wreath from Williams Sonoma?! You can actually cook with the herbs – bay leaves, rosemary, oregano and sage! In love.

Interesting Reads
Via the Fitnessista – Anonymous Donors Pay Off Kmart Layaways: I can be a little bit of a grinch, but I actually shed a few tears reading this one. Very touching and a reminder of the reason for the season

How to Use Facebook’s Timeline (and hide old posts!): I actually mega-cleaned my facebook profile quite awhile ago, but the new features make it necessary to review. Take a look!

On a related note… Facebook is Making Us Miserable. B loved this one – he doesn’t have a FB

Hope you are all having a festive, fun and stress-free holiday season. I will stop by again soon! xoxo

Can I Get Excited Yet?

Dec 062011

Posted by Britta on December 6, 2011 at 12:28 pm in Travel 2 Responses »

So…. I have rules when I’m on the road. I have been traveling out of Minneapolis on the earliest flight Monday, spending 4 work days at the client, and flying back on a flight around 7pm on Thursday since I started working in July (with a few Tue – Fri and weekend trip exceptions to the schedule). You all know that the travel gets tedious for me, but is a necessary evil in an otherwise great job with lots of great perks.

To help deal on the road, I’ve come up with a few rules, which my coworkers think are weird/hilarious and I find totally necessary:
1) We don’t talk about weekend plans until Wednesday. We typically eat all our meals together as a team – that’s lots of dinner table discussion. I like to save the good stuff about the weekend to come until it feels within reach
2) We don’t talk about the trip home or get excited for it until after lunch the day we are leaving. We usually leave around 3pm, and on our site now have a 2 hour drive after that before the airport, so I save the enthusiasm since the actual build-up (leaving, driving, flying home, driving home) is so long.
3) My newly instituted rule is that I’m going to have dinner alone at least once a week to preserve a little bit of normalcy in my weeknights.

On my work trip these past few weeks, I don’t know how to use my rules! I’ve been gone since last Monday and don’t get to fly home until late on Friday – when do I allow myself to start talking about the weekend?!

I think the Wednesday rule holds – I just can’t wait any longer . I’ll try to check back in tomorrow or Thursday and share some weekend planning for spirit-boosting purposes. How is your week going? So you have any “rules” to make the workweek fly by? Or do you think I’m a huge weirdo?

Some fun links for Tuesday –
Buzzfeeds’s Most Powerful Images of 2011: some sad, some inspiring, all great photos and an interesting look back on the year.

Meditation Oasis’s deep rest meditation: Sometimes I have trouble sleeping in the hotel. This podcast has been putting me to sleep like a baby when I’ve been feeling restless the past week or so. Try it out the next time your mind just won’t stop racing!

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