Last day in Florida...

I woke up this morning around 7am to the sounds of Luca and Luke talking and moving about in the kitchen. For some reason I decided I needed to join them, even though I'm the farthest thing from what you'd call a morning person. I've adjusted to the morning life quite well here in Florida...Luca gave me a run for my money. Funny as it sounds, School starting will give me a chance to sleep in a little. Luke offered to make me eggs before he left. Usually I would decline the offer because eggs just never sound that good to me. But this morning I liked the idea quite well. I thought it was awfully sweet of Luke to make them for me.

At 8:30am I met with Lauren to walk the 3mi Haile trail. Lauren and I were first introduced to each other at the pool. The day I met her she invited me to her apartment(which was so cute) to watch a movie with her and her mom. I am seriously always so surprised by how friendly people are here! Our walk was fun and a great way to start the day.

Jenny, Luca, and I headed to Urban Thread around 10:00am with Aimee and her cute kids. It was so much fun! Jenny and Aimee left the little shop to sit at the Starbucks next door because too many little kids in one place for too long is just...too much. All of a sudden I see Jen's head poke in the window. And then I kinda feel panicky because I'm thinking she's going to tell me I'm taking too long and then I'll feel bad because I should be hurrying and helping with the kids! She runs in the store and with a big smile on her face grabs the skirt I had planned to buy and proceeds to buy it for me. It was so sweet. She said it was a gift from her and Aimee. :) Oh but it doesn't end there...When I joined them at Starbucks a few seconds later Jenny had bought a little muffin with a candle on top. I felt the love. Did I mention it was raining at this point? Rain is my favorite thing ever.

There's the muffin and a happy me holding it.

This is Aimee. I absolutely love this girl.

The kids...how cute.


You probably thought this post was about over, huh? Think again! This was a crazy & long day. Pretty much I'm explaining it in extreme detail too...probably because...it's my last day in Florida. I'm savoring every little bit of it. :)

(Picking up where I left off)--
We then moved our party to Chick-fil-A so the kids could play. And guess what they had there? An annoying, huge, stuffed cow that walked around scaring young children. I think those stuffed costume things are weird & creepy, but I guess some kids really do like them.
Oh and, we shared a tasty peach milk-shake together...that we got for free from a coupon Aimee had. :)

Here's a picture...




I ran my last circle around Village Haile this afternoon. Running in the FL humidity for a summer has been a good experience. It's tough...and I think I'm actually going to appreciate Indiana exercising after all I've had to endure! Jenny and I watched our last show together on her tiny mac screen. I've got some good memories of Luke, Jenny, and I huddled together on the couch watching something ridiculous like, "I survived a Japanese Game Show!" :)

At around 8:00pm I met with two of my close friends for dessert at the Melting Pot. It was wonderful. We dipped Pound cake, fruit, and cheesecake into a steamy pot of dark chocolate while chatting. so good.
Now that I'm thinking about it, ending my last day in Florida with chocolate is just about perfect. :)

And there we are.



Before this post comes to a close, I have to mention: There's no way I would have finished my packing in time for our flight tomorrow if it hadn't been for Rachel(she's the girl on the left in the above pic.). I pretty much just handed her items in a dazed state while she some-how fit them all in my bag. There's no way all of that stuff should have fit! It was incredible. She's a one of a kind girl.




And here's another picture in honor of her. :)


Now that it's 1:30am I'll go to bed...and wake up in a couple of hours to head to Orlando for a way early flight. Wowsers. No sleep for me.
NIGHT!

Little spheres of delight!

I just ordered these online. I feel they'll be the perfect touch in my quest to create a magical desk space at Purdue. It's little things like this that make all the difference. :)




And-- Here is the first of my Florida art projects. Sadly, I'm not sure how I'm going to get it home with me! Distressing situation to be in.

ART invasion!

This past week I've had an endless surge of art inspiration. It's very strange. I'm once again realizing the tendancy I can have to get a little extreme about things. I literally can't sleep at night lately because I'm thinking about all of the art projects and things I want to do (while I still have time and it's summer). Maybe that's it...I feel frantic because I know I won't have time or mental energy to invest in these art projects once school starts.

The other night I found myself suddenly wide awake and it was still dark out. As soon as I woke up I had all of these verses of a poem running through my head. I jumped out of bed and in the dim light of morning, I wrote them down...then I went back to bed. That would be verbal art I guess. :) WELL OK, if you really want to hear the poem I might share it with you later...Ha.

Friday I ran to a craft store and purchased oil pastels and a huge 20x30 art board. Four hours later I had finished a vogue painting of a 1920's lass with scarf blowing in the wind. I'm planning to have it framed and put up in my apartment, which I'm really excited about. Taking it on the plane with me should be interesting. I'm going to have some good memories attached to this painting, because Jenny and I spent the evening at Kathy Gratto's(Lady that hosts sewing weekly) house while I painted it. Kathy has a really cool daughter named Audrey that's friends with Jen, and they were so fun to hang out with. Jenny studied Biology, Audrey worked on a fun sewing project with Kathy, the kids watched Jungle Book, and I oil-pasteled. It was super relaxing.

I bought a pretty curtain for my apartment bedroom and am going to order some beautiful flower-fairy lights too. I've spent so much time looking at inspiration filled pictures of decorating on the Internet- I love it. This is another area that's consumed me. I'm going to make my apartment desk space magical. :)

This afternoon, I want to work with watercolor pencils. I've never used them and am so excited about it! I found a picture of an earthy, unique girl that I'm going to re-create.

-------......-------......------- Three Cheers for art!

Florida Update...

Wow. I only have 8 days left here...I'm gonna miss it bad! I've had some amazing, quality time with the girls I've met here in Florida. I'll call them my Florida girls. :)

I'm going to create a list of some social highlights from my Florida summer:

-Driving range to work on (or should I say develope) my golfing skills. I went with Klaus and Charley who are our condo neibhors...and Charley's sister & 2 brothers were visiting for the weekend too. I felt very priviledged to be included in their family outing of golf. :)

-Anastasia/St. Augustine beach. This was a great day, and I'm so glad to say I finally traversed the sands of a Florida beach while here. I was getting worried that it might not happen...how embarassing would that be to tell people. :)This day I also had my first experience surfing. It's tough and you gotta be tough. Kristen (Jenny's friend) was brave enough to surf with me and we both brought home some impressive bruises.

-Dance party wit my FL girls(the "wit" is a typo, but I'm leaving it because I think it's funny). we danced for three hours...hardcore.

-Jewelry making with Charley. This was a lot of fun and now I have a pretty hip bracelet out of the deal too. Maybe I'll put it on my keychain.

-Fun dinners, again, w/FL girls. They have been amazing all summer about calling me and inviting me to random stuff. I love it.

-Late night talk with Holli(one of my FL girls)...I'm getting sick of using that phrase! We had a REAL heart-to-heart last night. Seriously, I've been able to connect with people on a deeper level than I expected...I'm so thankful God has blessed these relationships. :)

-Lunch with Miriam at Sister's. She's the best co-worker a girl could ask for. We've been hostessing together at sister's this summer. she pretty much was the perfect teacher too. It as so great connecting over lunch...and seeing the other Sister's staff that I love.

-Pool time with Aimee. Aimee is great. She's one of Jenny's closest friends here in Gainesville and we hit it off too. She has a little boy Luca's age so they keep each other happy playing.

-Sewing Nights. This happens once a week with ladies from Jen and Luke's church. It's such a special little group. You're always guaranteed some delightful baked goods and fresh coffee to enjoy while sewing. I sewed a ruffle scarf a couple weeks ago. So fun.

I think I'll have to do a post about some of my favorite memories with Luke, Jenny, and Luca before the summer comes to a complete end. That would be nice.